Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 581

Rowen knew that these heretics believed in the Hero Cult, yet she took no action against them.

In truth, Rowen had no authority to punish or judge them, so there was no reason for her to do anything in the first place.

However, Rowen’s demeanor just a few moments ago struck a chilling fear in Ludwig. It seemed as if, had she decided to act, she would have mercilessly killed them all.

Although he had been accompanying Rowen for about five days, it was the first time he had seen such a change.

In his time with Rowen, Ludwig had not yet encountered heretics.

The Hero Cult... Rowen, a priestess and a believer in the Five Great Gods, had to have many thoughts about the Hero Cult.

Her gaze had clearly changed as she stared at the idol representing the Hero.

Ludwig couldn’t pinpoint the exact emotion, but the storm of emotions in her eyes were anything but positive.

“The Hero Cult...”

“...”

“Ludwig, do you really think those people we saw earlier are Hero Cultists?”

“Sorry? Well, they said they were...”

“The Hero Cult can also be used as an excuse for other forms of heresy.”

Rowen looked at Ludwig.

“There are quite a few heretics who disguise themselves as Hero cultists to hide their true faith. When they claim to be part of the Hero Cult, people tend to overlook it. It’s like wearing a mask,” she said.

Ludwig could only nod slowly.

Both the guards and the Church of the Five Great Gods treated this matter with caution—something even ordinary civilians were aware of.

As a result, in times of danger, people would sometimes claim to be part of the Hero Cult, hoping it would make others back off.

“Do you think those people earlier weren’t part of the Hero Cult?” Ludwig asked.

“Who knows? The Hero Cult itself is divided in its beliefs. There’s no set definition of what a true Hero cultist is, is there?”

The Hero Cult wasn’t a specific organization. It was a folk belief that had sprung up here and there, and did not have a standardized system of faith. At its core, it was merely the belief that Ellen Artorius would save everyone, but countless other variations and beliefs had grown up around it.

The Hero Cult wasn’t banned by law. However, it was certainly heretical, as Ellen wasn’t one of the Five Great Gods. Of course, she wasn’t exactly unrelated to them if anyone cared to delve deeper into her background, but very few knew about that side of her.

As things were, there were more people who believed in the Hero than continued to hold faith with the Church of the Five Great Gods. Since these so-called heretics were now the majority, they could no longer be considered heretics. It was impossible to root them out either, since there was no organization at its core.

Many heretics had been killed by the guards, and some of them were members of this Hero Cult. But if everyone who was part of this Hero Cult were killed, there would be no one left in the refugee camps.

“Strictly speaking, the roots of many other heresies scattered about these refugee camps might be based on the Hero Cult.”

Since the Hero Cult did not have any clear tenets or system of beliefs, any heretical belief could don the mask of the Hero Cult.

“But it’s funny, isn’t it? The Hero Cult is in itself heretical, so does it change anything if a heretic wears the mask of another heresy?”

The Hero Cult was just a heresy that had grown too large to be condemned as heretical.

From the perspective of the Church of the Five Great Gods, the Hero Cult was likely more troublesome than the Demon God Cult.

Rowen exhaled as she looked up at the sky, her breath misting in the cold air.

“The Hero will save us all...”

She smiled at Ludwig.

“Ludwig, you lived at the Temple with the Hero, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes.”

The Demon King and the Hero... Ludwig thought it was a strange and grotesque fate that he had witnessed that peculiar and fateful entanglement up close.

The Demon King, hated by all.

The Hero, the hope of all.

Ludwig was one of the very few who had seen their ordinary appearances up close.

He had watched the false peace between the Demon King and the Hero for quite some time.

Ellen was at the Temple. If he wanted to, Ludwig could probably have dinner with her—the very person whose mere presence countless people longed for, even if it was just to catch a glimpse of her toes. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He wasn’t sure if he could call it a privilege.

It felt almost unreal that someone as small and insignificant as himself could share something so simple with her.

While people carved crude wooden figures in her likeness and prayed to them, Ludwig could sit at the same table with Ellen and talk about their day.

He had even asked her what an archbishop was, and she had calmly explained it to him.

The Hero people imagined and the real Ellen he saw with his own eyes... The gap between those two things felt impossibly wide.

“You said you didn’t know much about the Demon King, but what kind of person is the Hero?” Rowen asked curiously.

Ludwig was silent for a while.

It was clear to him that Rowen had a significant dislike toward the Hero Cult.

But wasn’t the Hero Cult different from the Hero?

Ludwig knew that people were projecting their expectations onto Ellen without her consent.

The Hero Cult had nothing to do with the real Ellen Artorius.

What kind of person was she?

During the days when the Temple was still functioning properly, Ludwig did not have many opportunities to talk with her.

Even after the Gate Incident, Ellen was mostly assigned missions that took her to extremely dangerous battlefields, so they rarely crossed paths. Thus, he only occasionally ran into her at the Royal Class garrison during the Allied advance or had the chance to talk with her.

Ellen was strong.

Ellen was great.

Ellen was self-sacrificing.

Many words swirled in his mind, but Ludwig felt that none of them could truly encapsulate what kind of person Ellen was.

Those were things everyone knew.

But the Ellen Ludwig had seen...

Ellen had been closest to Reinhart.

“Ellen... I think she might be the biggest victim of all this.”

A victim.

That was all Ludwig could conclude.

Ellen had spent time with Reinhart, completely unaware of the truth.

In fact, Ludwig believed she had loved him—perhaps she still did.

But it wasn’t just Ellen. The Demon King had drawn close to others as well.

And after everything fell apart, some had chosen to follow him.

But not Ellen.

Ellen had been betrayed by Reinhart.

That was why, in Ludwig’s eyes, she was a victim.

She always seemed composed on the outside, but there was a quiet sorrow that never left her eyes.

To Ludwig, there was no other way to describe her.

“A victim...?”

Ludwig nodded. “Yes.”

He didn’t intend to delve into painful details. It was Ellen’s personal story, and it might shatter people’s trust in the Hero.

He had no intention of telling Rowen that the Hero might have loved the Demon King.

To him, she was simply a victim.

That was the only conclusion he could reach.

That was his truth.

“Ah...”

Ludwig saw Rowen’s lips curl into a smile.

“So, that’s what you know...” Rowen’s peculiar smile somehow sent a chill down Ludwig’s spine.

“Is there a problem?” Ludwig asked, and Rowen shook her head.

“No, it’s... nothing.”

Rowen walked on and resumed her prayer, while Ludwig silently followed beside her.

***

By the time the purification work was done, the snow had piled up to their ankles.

“Let’s head back. We’ll have to come back tomorrow to check—”

Rowen stopped mid-sentence.

They were in an alley of the refugee camp. A group of people, not particularly robust but clearly hostile, were blocking their path.

When Ludwig turned around, he saw another group of refugees cutting off their retreat.

Ludwig couldn’t tell who they were or why they were blocking the way, but the hostility coming off them was evident, and among them were faces he had seen at the heretical gathering earlier.

Ludwig could sense that they were intending to do what they hadn’t been able to in front of the guards, now that the guards were absent.

“Ludwig,” Rowen said.

Ludwig immediately understood what Rowen was trying to say. “Yes.”

He quickly grabbed Rowen by the waist, pulling her to his side.

“Eek!” Rowen cried at the force of Ludwig’s grip.

Thud!

Ignoring it, Ludwig leaped several meters into the air, his body enveloped in blue mana. He easily cleared the refugees blocking their path.

The two of them vanished like the wind. Whatever intentions the mob had towards Rowen and Ludwig, it was impossible for them to chase after them.

***

“Do you think this far enough?” Ludwig asked.

“Yes, probably...”

Ludwig, who had sprinted through the refugee camp and quickly exited the controlled area, carefully set Rowen down. He had been carrying her over his shoulder like a sack.

“Ouch...” Rowen groaned as she stretched her back, having been jostled by the rough ride.

“Uh... I’m sorry. I was going too fast—”

“No, it’s fine. It couldn’t be helped.”

They had managed to slip away from the clumsy ambush. Still, there had been at least ten people surrounding them. It was hard to believe they were just ordinary robbers.

Rowen scratched her cheek awkwardly, a hint of unease in her expression.

“There were some faces from earlier, right?”

“Yes... definitely.”

It wasn’t all of them, but Ludwig and Rowen had recognized a few faces from the group that had claimed to be part of the Hero Cult.

Their attack couldn’t have been considered reckless. At a glance, Rowen appeared frail, and Ludwig—her supposed guard—was one-armed and unarmed. Compared to the guards with spears, they didn’t seem like a threat.

It was exactly the kind of “what if” scenario Rowen had always warned him about—and now, they had lived through it.

The refugees had attempted to harm a priestess. Not just any priestess, but an archbishop.

Even heretics had reached the point of trying to kill her directly.

“There are cases where heretics grow to dangerous levels of power, but it didn’t seem like that this time.”

“W-what happens if they manage to gather that sort of power...?”

“Who knows? Anyway, the important thing is that it didn’t happen this time, right?” Rowen said, deliberately changing the subject.

“Let’s head back. It’s fortunate no one got hurt,” Rowen said. She led the way, and Ludwig followed her absentmindedly.

When they had first encountered the heretics, she seemed ready to do something drastic, but now, after nearly being attacked, she acted as if everything was fine.

Ludwig couldn’t figure Rowen out. But in the end, no one was hurt, and that was a relief for Ludwig.

“But Ludwig, you run really well. I felt dizzy just now.”

“Ah... that’s one of my few skills.”

Rowen smiled gently at Ludwig’s embarrassment.

“Really? What other skills do you have?”

“Well... I’m not sure. Other than having a bit more stamina than others...”

“It doesn’t seem like just a bit, though? Being able to use Mana Reinforcement is already an incredible skill, isn’t it?”

“Uh? Ah... well...”

“There are many people who despair because they can’t even do that, right?”

Rowen’s words rang true. Even if Ludwig had lost an arm and could no longer fight, ordinary people couldn’t even dream of catching up to him with just one leap.

Ludwig had reached the realm of superhumans, and was far beyond the category of ordinary.

“Ludwig, I thought you were a humble person, but after spending a few days with you, it doesn’t seem that way.”

“...”

“Pride without humility is just self-deprecation.”

Humility was about lowering oneself, not thinking of oneself as worthless.

Ludwig thought of himself as insignificant. That wasn’t humility.

He had no response to Rowen’s accusation, because deep down, he knew she was right—no one understood it better than he did.

“Is there really a need for that? Why do you torment yourself and think of yourself as a useless person?” she asked.

“I... lost people dear to me,” Ludwig replied.

“I see.”

“If I had been a little stronger, a little wiser... if I had just done a little better...” Ludwig said quietly.

He stared emptily into space. “I lost people I didn’t have to lose. Just because I wasn’t strong enough... That’s why I have these thoughts."

In the end, all he could do was blame his own incompetence.

He had even wanted to die on the battlefield—but that desire, too, had become a burden to others, and eventually, he was cast out.

Still, the self-loathing that once consumed him wasn’t as severe as before.

“Even though it’s not okay, I think... I think it’s fortunate that I can still do something,” Ludwig said.

He had found something akin to hope amidst his resignation, or so he thought. It wasn’t quite hope, but it was something close.

The work he was doing would eventually end, but it mattered. It was needed.

Helping Rowen was, perhaps, the only truly wise choice left to him.

“So, thank you, Priestess.”

Rowen quietly looked at him, then inclined her head.

“Hmm... You know that priests and priestesses of Ouen can’t date others or marry, right?”

“That’s not what I meant...!”

Rowen laughed heartily at Ludwig’s flustered outburst.

“Oh my, why are you so startled?”

She was truly a strange person.

Ludwig found it difficult to figure out exactly what kind of person Rowen was, and therefore, in Ludwig’s eyes, Rowen was strange.

At first, he had thought she was almost saint-like, but her beliefs about the gods were twisted, almost fanatical.

Even so, she seemed to be doing the best she could while wrapped up in that near-blind faith. That was why, despite everything, she didn’t seem like a bad person.

When they had encountered the heretics, he feared she might do something extreme, but she did nothing to harm them and simply walked away. Yet she sometimes said things that were hard to understand. Ludwig couldn’t figure out what kind of person this archbishop in front of him was.

She seemed kind, yet mad. Or perhaps she was sane because she was mad.

A priestess from a cold northern country... Ludwig didn’t think of himself as particularly clever, but he did not easily forget what he heard.

He remembered what Ellen had once told him. “A bishop is like a lord.” An archbishop, then, was a great lord. Not always, but usually.

Heinrich had said that those who fled to the capital did so regardless of rank. That meant there could be other archbishops in the capital—archbishops who had lost their temples and were only nominally archbishops.

Perhaps it wasn’t so strange for a priestess who had risen to the rank of archbishop to be wandering the streets.

Rowen had said she had only been a bishop before the Gate Incident.

She had only stepped into a role far beyond her capacity afterwards, simply because someone needed to fill the vacancy.

Now, with so few safe places remaining, there were likely no archbishops serving as great lords anymore. That meant Rowen wasn’t an archbishop with the duties of a great lord. It meant she had been promoted to archbishop to take on some other duty, not ruling a territory or overseeing an archbishopric.

Had she been given the role of archbishop because of this work of purifying diseases?

“Rowen?”

“Yes, Ludwig?”

“Is this work... all you do as an archbishop?”

“Ah...” Rowen nodded slowly, as if she understood what Ludwig was asking.

“Well, it’s part of it,” she answered.

“Part of it?”

“Yes.” Rowen walked calmly, white mist coming from her mouth as she breathed. “After all, people keep dying in the capital.”

“Yes.”

“There are many heretics here as well.”

“That’s true.”

“In places where ominous and foreboding things keep happening, strange things tend to occur.”

Rowen’s expression darkened further as she spoke. “You haven’t seen it yet, but sometimes the dead rise as undead without any consciousness. The monsters outside are not the problem, but the strange phenomena that occur.”

The mention of undead sent shivers down Ludwig’s spine.

“Is it that bad?” he asked.

“When those unholy energies are misused, even stranger things happen. Like a heretic’s misguided ritual, or a prayer to an unholy power.”

“Ah...”

“When I seemed a bit strange earlier, it was because I’ve seen too many bizarre things happen due to misguided prayers or rituals performed by the wrong people while wandering around this refugee camp.”

When Ludwig thought back, though Rowen had been smiling, she hadn’t been able to hide the coldness beneath her mask. To hear her explain it, she was worried about the negative impact any misguided rituals might bring.

“Sometimes the undead rise, sometimes ghosts appear, and sometimes plagues break out. And sometimes, truly unexpected and horrific things happen. Of course, some positive things might happen too, but in times like these, when we should be relying on the right powers, praying to unknown or nonexistent ones is either pointless or downright dangerous, don’t you think?”

Ludwig nodded. “That’s true...”

“Checking to see if such things are happening is also part of my job. If it’s something I can handle, I deal with it.”

In essence, it was much like the purification work—Rowen wandered the refugee camp, searching for any situations that required a priestess’s aid. If she could solve it, she did.

“And... Something very strange happened recently. That’s what I’m focusing on now.”

“Something strange?”

“Ah! We’re here.”

They had arrived at the Temple of Ouen, where Rowen was staying. As always, the gatekeepers greeted them, and Rowen smiled at Ludwig.

“Ludwig, be careful on your way back. You know about tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. Nine o’clock, you mean?”

“Um... Could you come thirty minutes earlier tomorrow?”

“Thirty minutes earlier...? Is there something special...?”

“Well, no,” Rowen said, smiling at Ludwig.

“Let’s have a cup of tea inside the temple before we leave tomorrow. Just the two of us,” she said with a wink before scurrying inside the temple.

‘She is truly a strange person...’

Ludwig couldn’t shake that thought.

After Rowen left, Ludwig stood quietly, looking up at the Temple of Ouen where she was staying.

He had a strong feeling that she had been about to say something, but stopped herself. It felt strange. It felt like she cut off the conversation just as he was about to probe further.

‘She said she moves from temple to temple...’’ Ludwig thought.

Though it had only been five days, Rowen hadn’t stayed at any other temple besides this shabby one.

Ludwig began his journey back to the Temple.

No one had been hurt that day. That alone left Ludwig feeling satisfied and grateful.

‘Thirty minutes earlier tomorrow...’

Ludwig walked quietly through the snowy streets, the memory of Rowen’s request lingering in his mind.

***

Flash!

At the teleportation point in the capital, a group of people and supplies appeared with a brilliant flash—a large-scale transport of personnel and goods using mass teleportation.

“This is...”

It was late at night when Louise von Schwartz arrived in the snowy capital of Gradium. She was alone, without a single attendant. Since she was the only one who had been granted access to the Temple, she couldn’t bring anyone with her.

She looked around the dark, snow-covered city, feeling a wave of uncertainty wash over her.

Without an attendant, Louise had no idea where she was. She needed to reach the Temple, but there was no one to guide her.

“Why is it snowing so much...?”

The heavy snowfall limited her visibility, and in a spectacular blunder, she ended up at the imperial palace—exactly opposite from where she had been trying to get to.