Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 583

It was the day after Louise von Schwartz arrived at the Temple.

There weren’t many people in the Royal Class dormitory.

Although Louise was the commander of the Kernstadt army, her presence didn’t cause a stir. A few recognized her and looked somewhat tense, but that was all. Louise herself seemed more fascinated by simply being at the Temple than by how others reacted to her.

Over breakfast, Louise spoke.

“I heard you were patrolling the area?”

“Uh... yes, sister,” Heinrich replied.

Her expression hardened slightly. “I told you to rest, didn’t I?”

She had sent Heinrich back to rest, only to hear he’d been out on patrol.

“I’m sorry...”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

Just watching the two of them was enough to make one feel uneasy.

As someone who knew them, the awkwardness between them was almost unbearable.

Heinrich noticed Louise’s slightly disapproving expression at the news of him taking on difficult tasks instead of resting, and he quickly raised his voice, trying to reassure her.

“Still, I didn’t run into anything serious. The area around the capital seems pretty safe. We didn’t see a single monster. Right, Ellen?”

At his request for backup, Ellen, who was quietly tearing her bread into pieces, gave a small nod.

“Yes. There doesn’t seem to be any monster activity. I don’t think patrolling the area is necessary anymore,” Ellen said.

After returning to the Temple, they had gone out on frequent patrols, but in the end, they hadn’t encountered any threats, and it seemed they felt comfortable enough to finally get some rest.

Outside the dining hall window, snow continued to fall, and both Heinrich’s and Ellen’s expressions dimmed as they looked out.

Hunger and cold were already major issues, and now, the ever-accumulating snow had become another.

Everything had begun with the triggering of the Gate Incident and the monsters it brought with it, but now, the monsters felt like a secondary concern.

As they continued talking over breakfast, Louise glanced toward Ludwig, who was quietly eating.

“By the way, Ludwig, thank you for yesterday.”

“Huh? Oh... No, Commander. It was nothing, really.”

‘What’s this about? What does Louise have to thank Ludwig for?’ I thought.

Louise sensed Heinrich’s gaze and seemed startled, as if she had said something unnecessary.

“Uh, he... Guided me yesterday.”

“Guided you?”

“When I arrived yesterday, there was so much snow... and, you know...”

Louise’s face turned slightly red.

“Did you... get lost?”

Louise nodded, looking slightly embarrassed. “Well... Yes...”

‘What’s this?’

Why did this woman seem so endearing?

She didn’t even look like a middle-aged woman, probably because she was a Master-class superhuman.

Thinking back, Louise von Schwartz had arrived at the Temple very late the previous night.

Both Ellen and Heinrich had been in the lobby. It was past the time when they usually went to bed but neither had been able to sleep because of their worry over the accumulating snow.

She hadn’t traveled late. She had, in fact, been wandering around the capital for a long time.

Given the excessive snowfall, it seemed inevitable.

A princess lost in the snow... It was a sad, funny, and pitiful image.

“So, if I hadn’t met your friend Ludwig here... I would have wandered about even more.”

She had gotten lost and somehow met Ludwig by chance, who then guided her to the Temple.

Even if Louise had somehow managed to find the Temple on her own, it still would’ve been a problem. The Temple grounds were vast, and judging by her demeanor, she would’ve just gotten lost again trying to locate the Royal Class dormitory.

If she hadn’t happened to run into Ludwig, she might have been forced to spend the night outside.

“Ludwig, were you busy with work yesterday? You came back pretty late,” Heinrich asked, echoing the curiosity I felt.

“Oh... it’s not that I was busy with work,” Ludwig replied.

He paused, then continued, “I finished on time, but on the way back... Someone needed help, so I was a bit late.”

“Well... that sounds like you.”

“Haha...”

Old habits die hard. Ludwig had probably ended up getting back late because he couldn’t ignore someone in need—even after a full day’s work. Ironically, that detour then led him to the lost princess.

More importantly, his expression seemed lighter than before. It looked like working alongside that priestess—supposedly an archbishop—was helping Ludwig realize that he could still do meaningful work.

Although they couldn’t fix the root of the problem, they could offer temporary relief to the people. And it seemed Ludwig had clearly found a role only he could fill in the ongoing purification work.

Though some wounds couldn’t be completely healed, they could be overcome, and Ludwig seemed to be in the process of overcoming his.

Thanks to Ellen bringing me to the Temple against my will, I was able to gather information and see Ludwig gradually improving, which was a relief.

“Hmm?”

Meow.

“Yes, yes.”

As I sat on her lap, Ellen gently stroked my back.

‘This is so... comfortable... If not for this Gate Incident, I might just want to live as a cat forever...

‘Of course, one would have to choose their owners as wisely as I have, though. Even Thick-Skull back in Edina seemed to like my cat form...’

“Are you going out for purification work with that priest today?” Heinrich asked Ludwig.

“Yes. She asked me to be there thirty minutes earlier today, so I’m planning to leave a bit earlier, especially with all the snow.”

Louise tilted her head.

“Purification work...?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, well... there’s an epidemic spreading through the refugee camps,” Ludwig explained. “I’ve been tasked with guarding the priestess who’s in charge of purifying the infected areas.”

Louise’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s meaningful work,” she said.

“Oh, no... I don’t actually do much. I just accompany her while she works...”

“But still, it’s something worth doing, isn’t it?”

“Ah... thank you.”

Louise seemed genuinely moved, quietly nodding with a faint expression of pity. To her, Ludwig’s efforts—despite his condition—had to have seemed all the more admirable. And considering he’d rescued her just the day before, her affection for him had likely already peaked.

Well... if someone can’t bring themselves to like a person who’s just kind, maybe the problem lies with them.

And honestly, I used to find Ludwig annoying for no reason.

‘Yeah, it seems I’m the problem. Come to think of it, maybe everything wrong with this world is my fault. Maybe I really am the problem...’

Suddenly, I felt a little depressed.

Ludwig, who was heading out thirty minutes earlier that day, stood up and quietly excused himself from the table.

Louise watched him as he left the banquet hall.

“He’s a good kid,” she said softly, a faint smile on her face.

She seemed relieved to know that among Heinrich’s friends, there was someone with a heart like Ludwig’s.

But that relief was tinged with sadness—because someone like him had still ended up losing an arm.

“Yes, he is...” Heinrich replied, matching her smile with a bitter one of his own.

***

Since both Ellen and Heinrich had confirmed that the outskirts of the capital were safe, neither of them had any reason to go out for patrols anymore.

Moreover, now that Louise had suddenly appeared at the Temple, Heinrich wouldn’t be able to leave even if he wanted to.

After breakfast, Louise and Heinrich stepped outside the Royal Class dormitory.

They had no intention of patrolling the outskirts anymore as they had already confirmed over several days that the defenses were well in place. Instead, Heinrich was going to show Louise around the Temple.

Even someone who wasn’t particularly perceptive could tell that his usually emotionless mother was quite excited.

However, there was a problem.

“The snow has really piled up...”

“Indeed...”

The snow that had started falling the day before had now blanketed the entire world in white.

Fortunately, the Temple’s guards seemed to have worked to remove some of the snow, so although the snow continued to fall, it wasn’t difficult to walk around.

“It must be in chaos outside the Temple.”

“Indeed.”

Like everyone else, both Heinrich and Louise did not welcome the snow. The snow which fell from the sky felt like a dreadful curse.

Heinrich, looking at the snow falling from the sky, seemed to have an idea.

“Shall I try melting the snow?” he asked, looking at Louise.

“With your ability?”

“Yes, I’ve never used it this way, but... it shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Hmm... would you like to give it a try then?”

“Yes.”

Heinrich began to focus his power.

“If it works well, I might not need to go on patrol, but go around melting the snow in the capital instead.”

Heinrich seemed pleased with the thought of using his ability to clear the snow around the capital.

“Well... Go ahead and try.”

Louise watched Heinrich without saying whether it was a good or bad idea.

Once mocked for having pyrokinetic powers no stronger than a campfire, Heinrich was now far beyond such ridicule.

Though Ellen’s fame overshadowed most, Heinrich had become a formidable superhuman in his own right—a hero of the Allied Forces.

Rumble!

Louise looked up to see a blazing sphere of fire boiling in the sky.

“Trying to summon the sun, little one...?” she asked.

“Well... if that were actually possible, we’d have a much bigger problem,” Heinrich replied sheepishly. “But for now...”

The sphere didn’t just glow—it roared, radiating heat so intense Louise could feel it on her skin.

The brilliant fireball cast a searing light in every direction, and the snow on the ground began to melt at a visible speed.

Naturally...

Whooosh...

“...”

“...”

The snowflakes falling from the sky turned into rain, which came down in sheets as the air around them rapidly warmed.

In the middle of winter, the two of them suddenly found themselves getting drenched—not by snow, but by unexpected rainfall.

Their clothes were soaked through almost instantly.

“Oh, dear...” Heinrich muttered, looking stunned, and hurriedly dispelled the fireball in the sky.

Louise sighed deeply. “I figured this might happen.”

“Oh? D-did you now?” Heinrich replied, his expression somewhere between apologetic and embarrassed.

“You might be able to clear out the snow if the heat is strong enough to sublimate it instantly. But exposing people to that level of heat would cause serious problems. No, even before that, it would be a huge fire hazard. If you melt the snow clumsily like this, it’ll just freeze again once you leave, turning the streets into ice.”

He could summon a fireball that emitted more than enough heat to sublimate the snow, but spreading that much heat across a wide area would create other problems. People could be burned, and fires might break out. But if the snow wasn’t cleared away properly, the water left behind would just freeze over again, creating its own hazard.

Louise had known that Heinrich’s grand plan was pointless, but instead of explaining it, she had let him try it out for himself.

“I’m sorry,” Heinrich said, his face turning red. “All I did was get our clothes wet...”

He was rather embarrassed that he hadn’t thought things through.

“I hope you learn to think things through a bit more,” Louise said.

“Yes...”

“But still...” Louise gave Heinrich a small smile. “You have a good heart.”

“Huh...?”

Even if it failed— even if it was pointless— he had done it because he wanted to help people.

“Isn’t that enough?” she added with a smile, as if to say that alone made it worthwhile.

Caught off guard by her sudden words, Heinrich stood there blankly.

“Th-thank you, sister...”

After meeting Ludwig, Louise’s heart had already begun to change in some subtle way.

Seeing Heinrich acting in a similar way made her feel happy.

Of course, she had just said something she normally wouldn’t, and so she looked just as flustered as Heinrich.

That wasn’t the only problem.

The winter air was frigid, and the intense chill hit them hard.

For someone like Louise, it wasn’t an issue, but for Heinrich, it was a big problem.

Seeing Heinrich’s lips turning blue, Louise sighed.

“Let’s go back and change our clothes first.”

“Yes, sister.”

In the end, both of them had to return immediately after leaving for their walk.

***

After changing into a different set of clothes, Heinrich and Louise went out for a walk around the Temple.

Though snow was still falling, the snowfall around the Temple grounds had been mostly cleared, and they could see people hard at work clearing away the snow.

“Little one, there aren’t as many people at the Temple as there used to be, are there?”

“Yes, I think so. Since the school isn’t operating, I’d say maybe only a tenth of the usual number of people are here, if not fewer.”

“If the snow in the Temple can be cleared away like this, then maybe the situation outside isn’t too bad either.”

Louise was suggesting that perhaps such work was being done not just within the Temple, but outside as well, which could mean that the accumulated snowfall around the capital wouldn’t cause too much trouble.

“That would be good.”

Louise and Heinrich continued walking quietly through the Temple grounds.

“Do you know about the education system within the Temple?” asked Heinrich.

“Of course I do.”

Kernstadt had its own academy, and in fact, the Kernstadt Academy had closely modeled its system on that of the Temple—the separation of general and specialized education, starting education at a very early age, and providing learning opportunities without restrictions based on social status, allowing students of all classes to mingle.

In truth, Louise knew more about the Temple’s educational curriculum than Heinrich did.

“That’s the building where the general education classes were held,” Heinrich pointed out.

“Oh... I see.”

Louise quietly observed the white classroom building standing amidst the snow.

While the Royal Class dormitory was grand, the classroom building was also an impressive piece of architecture, even under the blanket of snow.

“That was the swimming pool—it’s not in use now... and over there is where physical training used to take place...”

“I see.”

Heinrich gave Louise a tour around the Temple, pointing out various locations to her.

The classroom building where Royal Class lessons were held, the building where those with supernatural powers trained, the places used for mana attunement practice, and more.

He even took Louise to the elementary and middle school facilities where he had studied as a child, not just those related to the Royal Class.

“This is Main Street. All the shops are closed now, but Temple students used to gather here to eat at restaurants or cafes. Most students came here, unless they went out to the capital to spend their weekends.”

“The street is quite large.”

“Yes. This was the main gathering place for over a hundred thousand students. And since students came from all over the continent, you could find local foods from all kinds of regions here. Well... I didn’t really like it much, though.”

“I see.”

Aside from the guards busy clearing snow, the area was nearly empty—but once, it had been a lively street full of students.

People from all over the continent were gathered in this place, and brought their cultures with them.

Main Street wasn’t an educational facility, but it symbolized the Temple’s success and prosperity.

At the moment, however, not a single shop along the snow-covered street was open.

Louise knew of all this in her head.

The student population, Main Street, the schools Heinrich had attended... She knew the facts, but this was her first time seeing them in person.

“So you spent your whole life in a place like this,” Louise said quietly.

“Yes,” Heinrich said, nodding. “If I may say... This might sound rude to you, sister, but the Temple is a good place.”

“You don’t have to be cautious. I know the Kernstadt Academy doesn’t measure up to the Temple.”

Louise quietly took in the snowy landscape of the Temple.

“The Kernstadt Academy isn’t as large as the Temple—and it can’t be. Seeing this with my own eyes, I realize that such a thing is only possible because this is the Empire,” she said.

While the Kernstadt Academy had modeled itself after the Temple, it couldn’t match the Temple’s scale.

As the top educational institution on the continent, the Temple naturally drew the wealthiest and most capable students. There was no real reason for them to choose a second-tier academy.

The Kernstadt Academy did offer financial support, but if it were to provide the kind of comprehensive support needed to operate something on the Temple’s scale, it would threaten the nation’s finances.

As a result, the number of schools in the Kernstadt Academy was limited, and they were smaller in scale.

Louise understood all this, so she didn’t take Heinrich’s words as an insult to the Academy in her homeland.

“No, sister. That’s not what I meant,” Heinrich said quietly, standing on the snow-covered Main Street. “I meant to tell you that I spent my life in a very good place.”

“Oh...”

Louise felt like her breath had been knocked out of her.

“I wasn’t especially happy here,” he continued, “but I wasn’t unhappy either. I was in a good place, with good people.”

“...”

“So there’s no need to make that face.”

Only then did Louise realize what sort of expression she’d been wearing all along.

As they had walked past the places where Heinrich had lived—his schools, dormitories, the streets of his youth—her face had been clouded with guilt.

Guilt that she hadn’t been there to watch over him.

That she hadn’t known the truth about her son.

That she had lived her life far away from all of this.

That was why she hadn’t been able to express her feelings as they passed each place.

She had not overcome her guilt. In fact, seeing all this had only deepened it, leaving her expression stiff and pained.

She was happy to be at the Temple—but only for a moment. Very quickly, regret set in for not having witnessed all those moments of his life herself. Regret led to sadness, and ultimately, guilt, causing her mood to sink even further.

But Heinrich had just assured her that the Temple was a good place, and that there was no need to feel sorry for him, since he’d spent his time in such a good place.

Louise didn’t know if she deserved to hear those words.

She had never watched over him. Never cared for him. Not even held a proper conversation with him.

Even now, after learning everything, they still hadn’t truly talked.

Out of fear that someone might overhear them, she still called him “little one”, while he called her “sister”—a ridiculous charade.

“Thank you... for growing up well.”

“Oh, uh... thank you for thinking that way...”

The only person Louise could blame for the hollowness of those words was herself.

Even if Kernstadt had remained a strong nation, she could see clearly with her own eyes that they would never be able to match the Temple.

And that was fortunate.

If the Temple was a good place—if her son had grown up like this because of it—then it was fortunate that Kernstadt had nothing to compare.

He’d spent his time in a good place, among good people.

How fortunate that was.

But even as she thought that, Louise couldn’t help smile bitterly.

He had spent that time with the Demon King.

And yet, he’d said he’d grown up among good people.

How could that be anything but a terrible lie?

Louise smiled bitterly.

“To say you spent your time with good people, when you were around the Demon King... How can you tell such a lie just to comfort me? Still... Thank you for saying it.”

“Huh? Oh... Ah...”

Her son—if one had to point out some of the unluckiest people in the world, he would surely be in the top ten. Yet, he had been willing to say what he’d said to comfort her.

Louise could only interpret it as a lie meant to ease her heart.

However, his reply seemed to shock Heinrich deeply, leaving him speechless.

Had she struck a nerve?

Louise looked at her son, who was staring at her silently, and cursed her own careless tongue.

Perhaps she had spoken too lightly of the Demon King.

There are things one could say and things one shouldn’t, and she had undoubtedly crossed that line.

Perhaps he harbored his own guilt—guilt for having been by the Demon King’s side without knowing the truth, guilt for being unable to stop everything that happened.

“Th-that was just a passing comment, little one. I was just—”

“Sister.”

Louise, flustered by the sudden chill in his voice, quickly nodded. “Yes, I’m listening.”

In the terrifying darkness that clouded Heinrich’s face, Louise felt a kind of fear she had never experienced before.

His expression was grim. He was contemplating something.

She didn’t know what he was contemplating, but he stared at her silently for a long while, choosing his words carefully.

As he continued to say nothing, Louise’s fear grew.

If he were to say something like, “Why did you bring that up?” or express some deep resentment, could she bear it?

Louise waited for Heinrich to speak, weighed down by that suffocating pressure.

After a long silence, long enough for snow to pile up on their shoulders and fall off, Heinrich finally spoke.

“I’ve been constantly... constantly debating whether to tell you or not, sister, but... There’s something I think you need to know.”

“Something I need to know...?”

“Yes.”

What came out of her son’s mouth wasn’t an expression of resentment, a lament, or some delicate confession.

With a firm expression, Heinrich slowly began to speak.

“Before my brothers tried to kill me... the Demon King came to see me.”

Louise could not hide her shock. Her complexion turned pale—beyond pale. Her face took on a sickly shade of blue.