Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 614

Ludwig was furious at Olivia’s sudden arrival, and the knowledge of the Demon King’s plot.

However, Olivia met Ludwig’s accusations with indifference.

“And who are you, exactly?” she asked.

Her words left Ludwig stunned. It seemed the only people Olivia considered worth talking to were Ellen and Louise.

Ludwig was at a loss, realizing she didn’t even know who he was.

“I can’t waste my time convincing every insignificant person like you,” Olivia said, brushing him off.

Ludwig felt as if his tongue had turned to ice. The harsh reality made him want to bite his tongue in frustration.

“Step aside, Ellen. I don’t want to fight you.”

Ellen remained silent.

Olivia Lanche, who once harbored a strong dislike for Ellen, now held a grudging respect for her, since she understood the weight Ellen carried.

In that tense moment, Olivia was focused solely on Ellen Artorius, disregarding everyone else, even Louise. It was as if she knew that if Ellen backed down, the others would follow suit.

Ludwig watched intently, noticing how Ellen neither drew her sword nor moved away. He could see it clearly in her eyes—her hesitation, her fear.

The Hero’s image was just a facade.

Could Ellen truly confront the Demon King? Was she still holding onto her past feelings?

His doubt lingered.

If Ellen faced the Demon King, she might find herself unable to fight, just as she had demonstrated a sensitivity to Cristina’s harsh words.

Regardless of the truth, Ludwig feared Ellen might not be able to lift her sword against the Demon King.

There and then, Ludwig had to face the reality. Ellen was unable to even show hostility towards someone who had vanished with the Demon King. She wasn’t someone capable of fighting the Demon King.

Boom!

At that moment, blue mana surged around Ludwig, wrapping him in its glow. He could see the despair in Ellen’s eyes, and he understood her struggle.

He didn’t blame her for feeling overwhelmed. But if Ellen couldn’t bring herself to fight, someone else had to rise to the occasion.

Fear and terror couldn’t be allowed to win. These demons needed to be stopped.

“Ludwig! No!” Ellen cried out, grabbing his shoulder in desperation as he tried to step forward. “No... No. Don’t... You... You don’t understand anything. Don’t fight... No.”

Ludwig clenched his jaw, frustrated by her insistence that he didn’t understand why she couldn’t fight or draw her sword.

“What is it that I don’t know?”

Silence.

“What can’t you tell me?” he demanded.

Ellen clenched her teeth hard, her expression mirroring his frustration.

Ellen despised the position she found herself in, forced to say things she wished she didn’t have to. Yet, she understood she had no other option.

“Sometimes... Sometimes, ignorance is a blessing...” she murmured.

Ellen, who had once demanded the truth despite the Emperor and Tana’s warnings, now echoed those sentiments to Ludwig.

“This is all on me,” she confessed, her voice heavy with regret. “That’s all you need to understand.”

She continued to insist that he didn’t know anything and that sometimes, not knowing was truly better.

A small piece of the truth could often be more painful than ignorance, as it often left one feeling unworthy of knowing the whole story.

“She’s right,” Olivia said, echoing Ellen’s warning, her tone a strange mix of kindness and threat. “Don’t get involved where you shouldn’t, and don’t be stubborn about it.”

Ludwig turned to face her, taking in her words.

“Ellen, the princess over there, and the one with supernatural powers—they might be crucial. But you? You don’t seem like you play a big role in the grand scheme of things. If you cause trouble, I might have to kill you.”

Her words were brutally honest.

“There are things in this world you don’t need to know, and some truths only bring headaches. So just live on without knowing. Don’t throw your life away over some misguided stubbornness.”

It was a harsh truth, but it was meant to keep Ludwig from rushing headlong into a pointless death.

There was no point in confronting a truth that only brought sadness and served no purpose. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He wasn’t even a worthy opponent for her, and if he charged in recklessly, it would only lead to a meaningless death.

She didn’t even know who he was.

To her, he was insignificant, and his death wouldn’t even matter.

Olivia's assertion that she could kill him without hesitation was a harsh statement of reality.

Confronted with that truth, Ludwig found himself unable to move.

If he died there, would it change anything? Probably not. But if Ellen died, it would be a catastrophe as the Hero would have fallen.

Louise von Schwartz was the commander of the Schwartz army. If she died, the Allied Forces would descend into chaos.

Heinrich was a formidable presence within the Allied Forces, and his prowess rivaled Ellen’s.

They were people who seemed untouchable, immune to injury or death.

In contrast, Ludwig, who had lost an arm and was unable to fight, felt like the most insignificant person among the group. His death wouldn’t change anything.

Ellen gripped Ludwig’s shoulder firmly, preventing him from recklessly moving forward.

“You’re... right...”

If someone like him stepped up, he might truly die. Olivia Lanche might actually make it a reality.

Ludwig couldn’t ignore how desperately Ellen was trying to hold him back.

The situation itself was bizarre, and it was even more puzzling that Olivia Lanche was somehow involved in it.

Why hadn’t Ellen confronted Olivia? And why was Olivia avoiding a confrontation with Ellen? If Olivia Lanche truly supported the Demon King, she wouldn’t be bothered by such considerations.

Ellen, Louise, and Heinrich... If Olivia and Rowen were truly the Demon King’s minions, they would have tried to eliminate them by now. After all, they posed a significant threat to the Demon King. Yet Olivia couldn’t bring herself to harm those three, and seemed only willing to target the less significant Ludwig.

Ellen seemed to understand this and had stepped in to protect Ludwig.

Neither Olivia nor Ellen wanted to fight each other.

Even after hearing the shocking reality that the Demon King was devouring the Church of the Five Great Gods, she kept her sword sheathed.

This could only mean one thing.

The way they seemed to consider each other revealed an undeniable truth.

Though the Hero and the Demon King were expected to be adversaries, if they stood face to face, neither could bring themselves to strike.

This was the one truth that emerged from the encounter: neither of them harbored hatred for the other.

They didn’t see each other as enemies.

Ellen hadn’t foreseen this moment, but despite her surprise, she chose not to fight.

No, she couldn’t fight.

“From the start... everything... everything the people believe is just...” Ludwig murmured, his voice heavy with despair. “It was all a lie... wasn’t it?”

His eyes grew dark and hollow.

***

In the end, no fight erupted.

Heinrich and Louise stayed silent, fully aware of the disaster that could unfold if they acted rashly.

Some never drew their swords, while for others, doing so was pointless.

Ultimately, they had no choice but to retreat, helplessly watching as the Order of the Holy Knights fell into the Demon King’s grasp.

The Empire was raising an army of undead from the bodies of the fallen.

Rowen, who had been presumed dead, was somehow alive and had seized control of the Church of the Five Great Gods as a servant of the Demon King.

All they could do was witness the outcome.

All they could do was look on as the events unfolded.

Louise and Heinrich were shocked, as equally stunned by the events as Ludwig. And the blow Ellen received had to have been even more devastating.

Those who knew Reinhart’s truth felt a deep fear and terror, whether they understood it fully or not.

Ellen hesitated. “Ludwig, I—”

“I don’t know much,” he said, cutting her off. “Maybe I don’t even have the right to know. Would it really change anything if I did?”

The right to know.

The need not to know.

Did such things truly exist?

“But even if I’m clueless, I understand this.”

Ellen remained silent.

“If the Great Gods Order is already under the Demon King’s control, then it wasn’t the right place to fight.”

Ludwig nodded slowly, grasping why Ellen couldn’t bring herself to fight.

“It’s not about whether you can fight the Demon King or not,” Ludwig said, his voice steady but filled with realization. “It’s about understanding that you shouldn’t have fought just now... I see that clearly now.”

He finally grasped the gravity of the situation, how a single misstep could lead to the destruction of the imperial capital.

“The fact that the Church of the Five Great Gods has fallen to the Demon King... that’s something that no one else should know, right? Because if that gets out, it could lead to something even worse.”

Ludwig turned to Ellen, as though asking for her thoughts on whether they should keep this a secret. But Ellen remained silent, unable to provide an answer.

With Ellen’s silence hanging in the air, Ludwig shifted his gaze to Louise.

“Because innocent people might die,” he said softly, the weight of the truth settling heavily between them. “They might end up in a battle that has nothing to do with them and lose their lives. To minimize sacrifices, that’s what we have to do, right?”

He was again met with silence.

Ludwig didn’t blame Ellen. In that moment, it was right for her to have kept her sword sheathed. In the end, choosing not to fight was the right decision.

However, Ludwig also realized it wasn’t that she had chosen not to fight; she simply couldn’t.

He had seen it with his own eyes—Ellen couldn’t fight the Demon King.

It was an unavoidable truth.

Ludwig tried to understand it from his own perspective.

If either of his cherished friends, like Lanian Sesor and Delphine, had turned out to be the Demon King (or Queen), he wouldn’t have been able to draw his sword either.

It would feel unfair, frustrating, and deeply saddening, and he couldn’t envision himself fighting without hesitation in such a situation.

That’s why Ludwig understood that Ellen would falter, and he knew it was true.

He didn’t blame her; there was no reason to. Not being able to fight simply meant she couldn’t.

The expectation that Ellen had to kill the Demon King was a demand from the rest of humanity, and disconnected from her own will.

So what if Ellen, who had already saved countless lives, couldn’t bring herself to strike against the Demon King? Blaming her would be both absurdly unfair and heartbreakingly sad.

If the refrain of “this won’t do” and “that won’t do” persisted, what else was left but the notion that nothing should be done at all? That nothing should be done to change what might happen?

There was another matter as well. As Cristina mentioned, the Gate Incident wasn’t entirely the Demon King’s doing. There was a hidden truth behind it all.

Ludwig couldn’t fathom why Ellen had insisted that all he needed to understand was that it was her fault.

But the crucial point was that he didn’t have the right to uncover that truth.

The reason for that was simple.

Because he was insignificant.

Because he wasn’t someone of significance.

He was worthless, and so it didn’t matter if he lived or died. He didn’t deserve to know the truth.

But where had such an idea come from?

Who decides who has the right to know the truth?

The truth had lost its importance.

Whatever it was, Ludwig understood it held no value for him.

So, he stopped wondering.

Ludwig’s face took on an expression of calm serenity, having moved beyond helplessness and emptiness.

“It’s difficult,” he murmured softly. “It’s too difficult.”

Ludwig hurried through the Temple’s gate, even though they were all headed in the same direction.

“I’ll go on ahead,” he said.

No one argued.

Someone had to have messed up. But if no one wanted to fight, what could be done?

Despite saying it was difficult, Ludwig’s gloomy expression and resolute steps suggested he had made up his mind. As if he finally understood.

Ellen bit her lip as she watched him walk away.

Small and insignificant...

Ludwig had felt the weight of that realization, knowing that in the end, nothing was truly his. His presence was overshadowed by a dark and dreary aura.

Olivia Lanche’s harsh words were probably echoing in his mind: that his death would not affect the grand scheme of things.

That was the painful truth.

Even if her intent had been to stop Ludwig from acting impulsively, the truth of her words had cut through him like a dagger.

Louise sighed.

“The Demon King doesn’t want the world to end, and the Empire is bound to be shaken. That’s why things have unfolded this way.”

Though she didn’t know all the details, Louise could sense the ebb and flow of past, present, and future. She felt it deeply, even without the need for Ellen’s explanations.

The rampaging heretics.

The massacre.

The Demon King’s grip on the Order of the Holy Knights.

The Hero who couldn’t fight.

The Demon King’s minion, who did not seek confrontation with the Hero.

On top of all that, the Empire’s silence.

“I didn’t learn what I wanted to know, but I learned what I needed to know,” Louise said.

Rowen’s situation did not need to be untangled or understood.

Yet, unexpectedly, Louise had discovered exactly what she needed to know.

The future of the royal family depended on adapting to the changing tides of the era.

Louise understood the direction in which history was moving.

As an individual, she felt she had failed and achieved nothing. Yet, as a princess of Kernstadt, she had never been more successful.

Louise glanced at Ellen, who was staring blankly at the snow-covered field, her expression resolute.

Ellen was on the brink of breaking down. But she couldn’t afford to crumble, so her determined expression remained unyielding.

It was like a fragile piece of glass, ready to shatter at any moment.

Louise continued to observe that pale, hardened expression.