Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 609

Deep underground, a labyrinth of tunnels twisted and turned like a rabbit’s warren.

In a space that felt more like a burrow, a dim light flickered weakly.

The air was thick with the stench of decaying bodies and bizarre idols.

At the heart of this underground maze, a woman sat in the center of a chamber. Around her, people lay prostrate, hanging onto her every word.

“Do you remember the day the sky opened?” she asked.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Do you know what my first words were then? ‘Wow.’ It might be hard to believe, but it’s true. Even though it felt inappropriate to say it at the time, witnessing that scene was truly overwhelming.

“When you see rain made of light falling from the sky, even if it seems like it’s going to crash down on you, you can’t help but be amazed. It was a sight that was both awe-inspiring and despairing.

“A judgment, perhaps. Yes, it was a judgment. A judgment of light, cast upon those who failed to recognize the prophet. Those who tortured, threatened, and tried to kill him. The flashes struck the earth, and the warp gates that once served humanity became something that needed to be eradicated.

“That day, I saw the Demon King for the first time. He looked so sad. So sad that it seemed he had given up on everything.”

After a short pause, she went on, “His eyes told the story of a man who had faced failure time and again, simply because no one ever believed in him.

“Yet, the Demon King spoke. With urgency, he laid out a plan to navigate the impending chaos, striving to minimize the bloodshed. He poured his heart into his words, regardless of whether anyone believed him.”

“‘That demon spawn is just trying to survive,’ people said. ‘He’s making empty threats about what will happen if we don’t let him go.’ Everyone thought that way. I did too, back then. But the Demon King spoke the truth. We paid dearly for the sin of not recognizing the prophet among us. And I am one of those sinners.”

Her eyes blazed. “It’s inevitable that so many people died. But how many survived because of what the Demon King said? Just as we can’t count the dead, we can’t count the survivors either.

“People don’t understand the Demon King’s goodness. They don’t even try to. Those who do know of it keep it to themselves. They have no intention of sharing that knowledge. Isn’t it strange?

“Good children should be rewarded, and bad children should be punished. Why does the kindest child in the world have to be remembered for the worst deeds? It’s strange. It’s wrong.”

She took a breath before continuing, “There’s a saying that in this world, good people often go unrewarded while the bad ones take everything. Even though that’s not entirely true, let’s pretend it is.

“Depsite that, it’s said that we should live righteously, hoping the gods might take pity on us and offer some reward. Even if we don’t find glory in life, perhaps we’ll find it in death. That’s why we’re told to live righteously. But it’s all a damned lie.”

Her tone grew agitated. “You all know it too. If the good deeds we do in life go unrewarded, then they simply go unrewarded. But if the good intentions we have result in harmful actions, then something is truly amiss in the world.

“Perhaps the Demon King made a mistake. After all, the Gate Incident was the work of the Demon King’s subordinates, so maybe the Demon King is to blame. But is it really all the Demon King’s fault? What if people had believed in the Demon King? What if those in power had taken the time to listen to the Demon King, even just a little? None of this would have happened. But no one realizes that.

“This isn’t right. It’s unfair to place all the blame and punishment on one person while others commit sins and hide their wrongdoings.”

She scanned the crowd around her. “Someone is hailed as a hero. Someone is revered as an emperor. Someone leads the Order of the Holy Knights. Even the popes. They claim their actions are for humanity. For the people. But they shouldn’t parade around like that. After all, they’re sinners too.

“They say that all the wrongs are his, so all hatred should be placed upon him. But it’s absurd how they expect the Demon King to shoulder everything by himself just because they don’t want any blame. It’s just not fair.

“It’s infuriating. Heartbreaking. Sickening. The reason I’ve spared you all until now is because you, the Demon God Cult, shared at least one belief with me. That the Demon King wasn’t in the wrong. That the Demon King was right. And it’s the world that’s wrong. And moreover, that we are all in the wrong as well.

Her voice rang out clearly. “Those of you who follow the Demon God Cult are mistaken. I, too, was wrong for not recognizing the Demon King as the prophet sooner and for delaying my belief in him. But in a flawed world, are people born misguided, or do they become misguided because of the world they live in?

“I don’t have the answer to that. However, I do know one thing. If something is wrong, it should be set right. Those who believe in the false Demon Gods should turn to the true Great Gods. And if not that, if they’re going to put their faith in a deceiver like the so-called hero, they might as well believe in the Demon King. That’s why I’ve guided you so carefully up to this point.

Her voice softened. “I’m sorry for laying hands on you initially, but once you started listening, I didn’t hit or torment you, nor did I put needles under your nails, did I? I’ve put up with you believing in the Demon God Cult, masquerading as the Hero Cult, until now. Honestly, it’s because the Demon God Cult seemed better than the Hero Cult.

“Anyway, the truth has been hidden for too long under a false guise that others want you to believe is reality. For too long, sinners have walked the world with confidence, pretending they’re not sinners.

“There’s a saying that truth is worthless when faced with reality. That some things are better left buried. That certain sins should be overlooked. That reality is so harsh that certain truths should remain hidden, certain people should be sacrificed, and certain individuals and groups are allowed to evade responsibility. I’ve heard it so often that my ears ache.”

Anger blossomed in her voice. “I refuse to listen to those painful words any longer. The Empire and the Great Gods Order, which lost their legitimacy ages ago, no longer hold any meaning for humanity.

“Everything else is just an excuse; they’re simply monsters existing for their own sake. They say we should just sit tight, endure a little longer, and think about it once it’s all over.

“I won’t believe that anymore. The world will stay the same. The calls to endure, to bear it, will go on endlessly. If that’s the case, I will be the one to herald the change.”

She looked down at those she was addressing.

“Stand up,” she commanded, and they rose to their feet.

“It’s time to reveal the true reality,” she continued, “to those who, under the guise of truth, have allowed countless sins, lied, and deceived others. We must show those who shaped this reality, those who told us to stay silent and endure, just how sick this world has become.

“When chaos of an uncontrollable scale erupts, when they finally face the consequences of their actions, I want to see their reactions. It’s time to nurture this seed of division that was buried under the pretense of unity, under the false guise that this is the time for humanity to come together.”

Rowen understood that if hunting heretics only made them multiply like weeds, it was better to cultivate a tree. She understood that nurturing a tree would prevent weeds from thriving in its shade.

Rowen had not been hunting heretics at all.

From the beginning, she knew the heretics in the refugee camp weren’t responsible for the theft of the saints’ remains. They would not have acted without her command.

This allowed her to easily uncover the route to the Empire’s hidden secrets.

Rowen had been cultivating the heretics into a mighty tree, with its masters firmly under her control. Those masters were broken souls, reduced to obedience through relentless torture and suffering.

“You no longer need to live as heretics,” she told them. “This, too, must be the will of the gods. I believe it to be so.”

Thus, she became the master of all the heretics, despite not believing in heresy herself.

***

I knew where Rowen was hiding, but the area was too vast to pinpoint her exact location.

Soon, though, I would discover who she had recruited.

Most people in the refugee camp lacked proper identification, making it difficult to track them.

The popes issued orders, and Rowen executed them. However, they were unaware of just how extensive the heretics had spread within the camp, or the specifics of each leader. They trusted Rowen to manage it all.

Now that this information had become crucial, it needed to be uncovered.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t take long. Just two days, maybe three at most. That should be enough to find Rowen.

But time is never as generous as we need it to be.

Destruction came swiftly, just as the sky had unexpectedly torn open, the warp gates had burst open wide, and the world had changed forever.

The cause of destruction is often insignificant.

A small chain of minor misunderstandings can lead to ruin.

The spark is rarely grand.

—Kill them! Kill them now!

I stood there mutely, watching as a building in the refugee camp went up in flames.

People were frantically trampling over the fallen, tossing their bodies into the fire.

It was a scene I’d seen too often. Violence was a regular occurrence in the camp. But this time, something was different.

The refugees had turned on the guards.

They seized the guards’ spears and used them against their oppressors.

It wasn’t the makeshift shelters of the camp that were burning. It was the guards’ headquarters that was engulfed in flames.

In the falling snow, I watched as refugees, driven by vengeance and madness, set the guards’ headquarters ablaze.

Whether they were simple heretics or followers of the Demon God Cult, everyone in this camp shared a common enemy: the guards. This was their revenge for the oppression and persecution they had suffered.

It only takes a small act of violence to unleash a torrent of hatred.

The guards were human too. Once the refugees realized that the guards’ power wasn’t absolute, the tide began to turn.

A large-scale riot erupted in the refugee camp outside the imperial capital.

They were killing the guards and burning down their headquarters.

It had been all too easy to ignite.

And once it all began, even the instigator could not rein in the overwhelming tide of vengeance.

***

“Your Majesty, we must quell this uprising.”

The emperor sat on his throne, his face set in a stern mask as he listened to the ministers gathered before him.

A large-scale riot had erupted in the refugee camp, resulting in the deaths of guards and the burning of the guards’ headquarters.

What began as a minor disturbance quickly escalated.

The instigator understood that once the resentment against the guards ignited, it would continue to spread, even without their involvement.

The guards were vastly outnumbered by the refugees. They had managed to maintain control for a time, but once that control slipped, the refugees would no longer tolerate their oppression.

It did not matter who had started it. In the refugee camp, everyone despised the guards. They had abandoned any trust in them long ago. All they needed was an opportunity.

Rejecting the guards meant they had already rejected the Empire itself.

If this continued, the camp would descend into complete chaos.

The simmering hatred would not be satisfied just by attacking and killing the guards or burning down their headquarters.

If that fury ever turned toward the imperial family, what then?

The imperial capital had long been a sandcastle on the brink of collapse.

The gunpowder was set, waiting for the spark that would ignite it and lead to an explosion.

As long as they couldn’t feed the refugees. As long as they couldn’t ease their cold and hunger. As long as they couldn’t offer even the barest safety and comfort.

It was only a matter of time before it all went up in flames. No matter the trigger, the real issue was always the gunpowder, not the fuse.

But the Empire couldn’t fall.

Not yet.

It absolutely could not fall.

“Yes...”

The people had been living under the oppressive weight of fear imposed by the guards.

The riot erupted because their hatred had finally outweighed their fear.

They couldn’t provide bread to the people because there was no bread.

They couldn’t give the starving, furious crowd everything they needed.

The Empire had only one thing to offer: Fear.

“Deploy the army and the Order of the Holy Knights. Execute everyone involved in this disturbance immediately.”

Fear was the only force that could quell their hatred and anger.

Fear, and the violence that fueled that fear...

Sadly, the Empire wasn’t rich, but it was powerful.

More powerful than ever.

***

Can a state that harms its own people, instead of safeguarding them, truly be called a state? Of course, it can still exist. As long as a state wields enough force to sustain itself, it can persist, legitimacy aside.

A massive riot erupted in the refugee camp outside the imperial capital.

Guards were killed, and the guards’ headquarters were set ablaze.

As the guards retreated into the imperial capital, the refugee camp descended into chaos, temporarily becoming a lawless zone.

Yet, violence alone couldn’t solve everything.

The furious crowd needed an outlet for their rage and quickly sought a scapegoat.

However, all this was short-lived.

A brutal force swept through the camp.

The Empire dispatched a massive army and the Order of the Holy Knights to crush any hint of rebellion.

These holy knights, with their superhuman abilities, could ruthlessly slaughter hundreds on their own.

Moreover, once the monster-hunting subjugation force joined the effort to suppress the uprising, it was swiftly crushed.

Weapons that had slain beasts proved even more effective against humans.

Anger-fueled violence stood no chance against the overwhelming, relentless force that followed.

The riot was short-lived.

Thousands of guards perished. Yet, in just a few days, hundreds of thousands of refugees were massacred. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The Empire swiftly crushed the surge of resentment, as if pinning it down, declaring that violence was its sole prerogative.

Fear smothered everything.

In the end, though, this action cost the Empire all its legitimacy.

Everyone saw through the lie that the Empire existed for humanity’s sake.

It would ruthlessly destroy monsters, the Demon King, or its own people to ensure its survival.

The brief riot had turned into a massive massacre, leaving the frenzied crowd no choice but to succumb to fear and silence.

The Empire couldn’t support the refugees, but it could annihilate them in mere days.

Overthrowing the Empire through a simple riot seemed impossible.

The truth did not make a difference. People still despised the Demon King.

But one thing had shifted.

Now, they also resented the Empire.

They started to murmur among themselves, questioning what truly set the Demon King apart from the Empire.