Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 610

In just a few days, everything had changed.

A sudden uprising.

A brutal massacre.

“The Empire’s fate is sealed,” Louise murmured, sitting quietly on the terrace with Heinrich.

“What do you mean, sealed?” he asked, puzzled.

“Do you think an empire can endure when its own people turn away from it?”

“Well... the Empire is strong. Isn’t it possible?”

“It might endure, but only as long as it can justify its existence,” Louise replied, her gaze fixed on the snow piling up around them.

“Justify?” Heinrich asked, raising an eyebrow.

Louise nodded in response. “Even you, right now, believe the Empire’s actions were unavoidable, don’t you?”

Heinrich’s eyes widened. If the Empire were to fall, everything would be lost. He feared that if the Empire’s harsh measures, including the uprising in the refugee camps, led to its downfall, humanity might face extinction. Despite the cruelty and horror of it all, he couldn’t help but see it as necessary.

“That’s what justification is,” Louise continued. “It’s making others accept certain actions as inevitable. Whether it’s war, resurrecting the dead, or committing such atrocities.”

The Gate Incident...

“Right now, the Empire has the perfect excuse for its actions: the Gate Incident. It’s their ticket to do whatever it takes to survive. Even the horrific act of raising the dead to build an army is justified by the need to end the Gate Incident. You and I had no choice but to accept it. One absolute justification makes even the most brutal acts seem reasonable.

“This situation is no different. In this chaos, fueled by people’s justified fear and anxiety, the Empire can strike against its own because it claims to be preventing the Gate Incident.”

Louise looked into the distance. “But imagine if it were peacetime. Raising an army from the fallen? The entire continent would turn against the Empire. It would be torn apart in an instant. Even in peacetime, I wouldn’t have accepted the imperial family as the continent’s rulers. In fact, I would have seized the chance to dismantle the Empire.

“Massacaring the people without mercy because of an uprising? It could have been done, but there would have been consequences, whether in the form of a backlash from the general public, or discontentment shown by vassal states and ministers.

“The Empire is betting everything on the absolute justification of the Gate Incident, pushing all the costs into the future. One day, though, it will have to face the consequences. When the Gate Incident is resolved, all justification would vanish. The people will remain powerless, but their hatred and resentment towards the Empire will only grow.”

Heinrich nodded along, though he seemed not to fully understand.

“Even if people despise the Empire... Can it really fall?”

“The people alone won’t bring it down, little one. The powerless have no need for justification.”

“If not them, then who...?”

“Justification belongs to those with power, those who wield strength.”

Justification was not a tool for the insignificant.

“When the Gate Incident concludes, a new justification will emerge.”

“What do you mean by ‘a new justification’?”

“The justification that the Empire must vanish.”

Heinrich’s eyes widened in surprise.

“The Empire raised an army from the dead, massacred countless civilians, and failed to support its own people,” Louise said. “And now, the Empire is regarded with hatred and resentment. In time, the people will seek someone to replace the Gradias Imperial Family. No matter who takes that throne, the Empire will no longer be yearned for. The weight of accumulated hatred and anger is too great.”

This deep-seated resentment would become a justification. Yet, the masses alone would not be enough to topple the Empire. It would take someone with power and strength.

The people would rally behind whoever wielded that justification as a weapon to overthrow the Empire to establish a new regime. Justification would be both reason and foundation.

If a new power emerged, the masses would not resist. As long as the Empire remained despised, its successor would face little opposition.

Louise gazed quietly out into the landscape.

“I’ve often imagined the fall of the Empire...”

For the Schwartz royal family, overcoming the Empire and ruling it had been a long-cherished dream. Yet now that the Empire seemed to be truly crumbling, Louise von Schwartz felt no joy.

The Empire had been accumulating its own karma. Eventually, it would have to face the consequences.

“Interesting,” Louise murmured, her breath misting in the cold air. “If someone has to be hated, does it really matter who holds that position?”

“What do you mean?”

“Take the Gradias Imperial Family, for instance. People already despise and resent them.”

“Yes...”

“Would it really be any different if the Demon King took their place?”

“Huh?”

Heinrich looked stunned, and Louise couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“Perhaps the people would even consider the Demon King could be an improvement over the Empire, since they haven’t seen what he’s like yet...”

The Empire was showing them nothing but the worst side of them. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The people despised both the Empire and the Demon King, yet they hadn’t encountered the Demon King firsthand.

They could possibly think that he might be different from the Empire, that whatever he brought couldn’t possibly be worse than what they had suffered under the Empire. In the end, it might just be wishful thinking.

“There’s no reason to refuse change, after all, whether the new leader is someone who has everyone’s support, or if it’s just another nightmare taking charge.”

When faced with a choice between the best and the worst, people would naturally reject the worst while yearning for the best.

But when it was the worst versus the second worst, they would settle for the second-worst.

The Empire was the worst option, and it was spiraling towards a greater disaster.

Whoever came next would only be second-worst.

Therefore, it didn’t matter who occupied that seat. It didn’t matter who claimed it, as long as they had the power to do so.

“Now I understand why I was allowed to enter the Temple...” Louise murmured, taking a sip of her cold tea.

‘The emperor is digging his own grave...’ she thought.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know it.

He was digging it deliberately, with full awareness.

***

“Is it not time yet?”

“No, Commander, we still need more time...”

Illeion Volten couldn’t hide his impatience as he watched the priests in front of him wrestling with documents inside the headquarters of the Order of the Holy Knights. Despite having put all the priests capable of deciphering the code to work on the task, progress was painfully slow.

Frustrated, Illeion stepped out onto the terrace.

Snow continued to fall outside the grand temple of the Order of the Holy Knights, a relentless cascade that had long since become a dire issue for the refugee camps.

The snowfall was overwhelming, yet now, the snow seemed less troubling than the turmoil brewing among the masses.

The situation in the camps had reached a breaking point, and the Empire’s response had been equally severe.

Deep down, Illeion sensed that this chaos was somehow connected to Rowen. He knew this was just the beginning.

In a matter of days, over a hundred thousand lives had been lost.

The Empire had chosen to wound itself rather than face collapse, but there was no telling what they’d cut next. It might not even be flesh. They might have to cut deeper, into bone, or sacrifice something else entirely.

Rowen had to be found.

With Rowen controlling the cultists scattered throughout the refugee camps, those camps were essentially hers.

If only evil and hatred remained in the hearts of the desperate and despairing, even more extreme events might be waiting to unfold.

The Empire’s violence had temporarily quelled this uprising, but the next one would be even larger.

The situation was so dire that a huge massacre that wiped out the entire refugee camp could not be ruled out, and if Rowen decided that it would happen, it could indeed happen.

‘What difference does it make if we find her?’

What was done was done.

Just like the Gate Incident, the uprising and the massacre in the refugee camps couldn’t be reversed.

Even if they tracked down Rowen and dismantled her cult, the seeds of chaos, division, and fragmentation had already been sown.

Even if they could catch the arsonist, the fire had grown too large to be easily contained.

The arsonist and the fire had become two separate issues.

Even if they stopped Rowen from igniting more chaos, the flames she had already lighted would continue to spread on their own.

The only silver lining was that the Demon King, who was desperately needed now, had stepped forward.

The popes had offered the Order of the Holy Knights and the Church of the Five Great Gods Order to him without hesitation. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but for the moment, the Demon King was what they needed most.

Rowen was a follower of the Demon King. She would unquestionably obey the Demon King’s every command.

Just one word from the Demon King... If just a single word could reach Rowen to make her halt her self-destructive path, this madness might be tempered.

But first, Rowen had to be found.

Announcing the Demon King’s presence in the capital would be like causing an avalanche to extinguish a flame—far too reckless.

This had to be done discreetly.

It had to be done quietly.

If the Demon King managed to approach Rowen and reveal that the Order of the Holy Knights and the Church of the Five Great Gods were already allied with him, they might manage to rein in this chaos.

They had once tried to eliminate Rowen.

Illeion Volten felt overwhelmed by the consequences of his decision. He wasn’t sure what the Empire was up to, but it was undoubtedly something dangerous and foreboding.

He feared that if Rowen, who despised the Empire, discovered their plans, it would lead to disaster. However, In trying to prevent one threat, he had inadvertently created an even more perilous situation.

The Demon King was eagerly awaiting information from the Order of the Holy Knights and was likely going to track down Rowen personally.

The key information lay with the Order of the Holy Knights. If they could decode the encrypted documents, they might uncover the cultists’ organizational hierarchy. By targeting their leaders, they could potentially find Rowen.

However, the task was daunting. The documents Rowen had gathered over the years were so extensive that progress was slow.

How many days had passed already?

Still, one uproar was already behind them. Wouldn’t there usually be a moment of calm before the next storm?

Even if the coded documents were deciphered and their secrets revealed, Rowen would surely be aware of the papers she left behind. She could easily find ways to make that information useless.If they attempted to reach out to a leader among the cultists, Rowen could simply relocate that person.

All it would take was one message: “The Demon King you so passionately follow has already joined us.” If that single message could be delivered, everything would be resolved. But that seemed impossible.

The Demon King’s appearancel... Only the commander of the Order of the Holy Knights and the popes of the Five Great Orders were privy to this knowledge.

Just as the Gate Incident erupted from unresolved misunderstandings and lies, Rowen might be on the brink of setting the capital ablaze, unaware that his deepest desire had already been fulfilled.

Illeion Volten felt a creeping sense of futility as he waited for the coded documents to be deciphered. He needed them to reveal something meaningful, but he had no idea when that might happen.

For the moment, he had nothing else to depend on.

He watched the priests in the analysis room, their fingers flipping through pages with a mix of urgency and frustration.

Some of the inquisitors who had been present at the scene—those who weren’t under Rowen’s influence—should have been spared. If they had been, this process would not have dragged on this long. But dwelling on regrets was pointless.

If only the popes had given him a clue about Rowen’s control over the cultists. If only they hadn’t deliberately withheld crucial information to curb his authority as the commander of the Order of the Holy Knights.

If they hadn’t done these unnecessary things, none of this would be happening.

The Pope’s oversight and Illeion Volten’s obsessive vigilance towards a potential crisis had derailed everything.

Illeion Volten glanced around at the documents filled with coded messages.

He had never served as an inquisitor, so he couldn’t decipher the codes, nor did he need to.

All the priests in the analysis room had either been inquisitors themselves or were involved in similar work.

Technically, Rowen had been overseeing all the inquisitors, making all of them her subordinates as well.

However, most of Rowen’s direct subordinates, who would have known the crucial details of this incident, were dead, and so the delay was inevitable.

But was that truly the case?

Illeion Volten suddenly focused on the priests in the analysis room.

They were flipping through pages, jotting down notes, and busy with their tasks.

Illeion Volten watched them intently. They were busy with something—writing, their eyes darting across the page, fingers flipping through sheets. Yet, from each action, he sensed an odd dissonance.

It seemed like they were engaged in activity, but it also felt as though they were striving to achieve nothing at all.

Illeion Volten was overwhelmed by a sense of incongruity.

He buried his face in his hands and let out a deep sigh.

‘Damn it...’

He realized how foolish he’d been.

‘Rowen’s whereabouts aren’t even mentioned in those damn papers...’

He had been incredibly naive.

Once they had become involved, there was no way they could be completely disconnected from Rowen.

And yet... Why... Why had he trusted them to follow his orders correctly?

Why had he assumed the Order of the Holy Knights would follow only the commander’s orders?

***

Could one really find a needle in a haystack?

Without an endless amount of time, it would be nearly impossible.

And with no idea how much time I had, I was experiencing the chilling sensation of fear creeping through my veins.

The chaos in the capital, undoubtedly tied to Rowen, felt like it was spiraling into an abyss.

I wrestled with the decision dozens of times a day: was it right to take the drastic step of revealing that the Demon King was in the capital?

An incident had occurred, setting events into motion. There was no stopping it now.

However, shouting and demanding that Rowen reveal herself on the street wouldn’t help find her. I had no choice but to wait for information from the Order of the Holy Knights.

The same held true for Vertus. He had been briefed on Rowen’s actions and her potential next steps, but in the end, all Vertus had been able to do was to attempt to contain the catastrophe through brutality.

If things spiraled further out of control, Vertus might decide to obliterate the entire refugee camp.

Already, hundreds of thousands had perished in an instant.

The Empire, with its ability to deploy a security force consisting of Master-class individuals, could carry out such an act.

If the situation grew even more chaotic, not just hundreds of thousands, but tens of millions could be slaughtered.

This wouldn’t be a disaster created by famine, but by a massacre. Such an event was unthinkable, yet my options were limited. All I could do was gather more information and reach Rowen a little sooner.

It felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. I needed to find it quickly.

To the one who admired the Demon King so much, I had to at least tell her, “I’m here now, so shut up and watch,” to put an end to this madness.

The Great Temple of Alse was far too conspicuous.

Meeting the popes directly was also risky.

Therefore, I arranged to meet a contact at a designated spot.

The location was the sewer beneath the Bronze Gate Bridge, the same place where the Rotary Club had once been.

As I approached the meeting point, I spotted someone who seemed to be the contact, standing in a corner of the sewer, waiting for me.

A woman in a tattered robe looked at me and smiled brightly.

Her smile was a little unsettling. It seemed like she was almost too happy to see me.

Her smile didn’t quite fit the moment.

“Demon King,” she said.

The way she said that title felt a little too personal...

I couldn’t quite grasp what was happening.

“It seems...” I replied.

But then it clicked.

Finding a needle in a haystack was impossible.

But sometimes, the needle found you.

“You must be Rowen.”