Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 644

Ludwig’s anxiety was, in truth, futile.

His worry came from the fear that the Demon King or other forces might approach Scarlett, but when Ludwig finally found her, the Demon King was already with her.

When Scarlett asked for some time alone, Ludwig agreed, but said he could only wait a few hours, not even half a day. He expressed his hope that she would have her thoughts sorted out by the time he returned before heading off somewhere.

Scarlett didn’t know that Ludwig had gone off to the magic department of the Temple university.

At some point, Ludwig had changed in a strange way. The Demon King knew the truth, yet no one knew where he had been or what he had been doing up to this point. To Scarlett, both Ludwig and the Demon King were intimidating figures. She trusted them both, yet at the moment, she couldn’t help but fear them.

Scarlett returned to her dorm room.

“So what... What happened?” Scarlett asked, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and confusion.

The cat had transformed back into the Demon King, leaving Scarlett bewildered and desperate for answers. Despite her fear, she needed to understand what was going on.

The Demon King cast a cautious glance out the window, wary that Ludwig might be lurking nearby, keeping an eye on Scarlett.

Once he was sure they were alone, he spoke.

“Do you remember the strange army during the last battle at Wallon?”

“If you mean those guys... yes, I do,” Scarlett replied, her mind flashing back to that particular battlefield.

Everyone in the army had witnessed the might of that peculiar army, and they all had some inkling that it was the true power the Empire had been concealing all along.

“It’s rather gruesome, but to offer a brief explanation... That army is actually similar to a golem army.”

“Golems... you say?”

“Yes,” Reinhart nodded quietly. “They are golems made from corpses.”

Scarlett couldn’t help but gasp.

***

Just as Ludwig had not much time to give Scarlett, the Demon King also couldn’t afford to linger on explanations. The Empire had meddled with dark powers, and she had many questions about the identities of those resurrected corpses and the masterminds behind such experiments.

Scarlett was left in a daze after learning about everything in such a short span of time. Even just one of those shocking revelations would have been overwhelming on its own. Now she knew that the ones responsible for these experiments were Cristina, Louis, and Anna, who had been chatting with her so casually all along.

“Recently, Ludwig received a transplant of one of those arms,” he said.

“Ludwig... underwent a chimera procedure?” Scarlett asked, her voice tinged with disbelief.

“That’s right. What else could it be?”

The Demon King’s rhetorical question left Scarlett at a loss for words. Indeed, only a chimera procedure could produce such a result.

‘War has made too many things possible,’ she thought.

Ludwig had undergone a chimera procedure, transplanting an arm from a corpse onto his own body. That’s why it seemed so out of place.

The Empire had also brought back to life the heroes and fallen warriors of past wars.

Scarlett understood that the original owner of Ludwig’s transplanted right arm must have been someone extraordinary.

Setting aside the possibility of such magic to exist, the idea that Ludwig had been so desperate to return to the battlefield made Scarlett’s heart ache.

Still, after hearing the Demon King’s story, Scarlett couldn’t help but have questions.

Even though this army was a cruel and horrific creation, it was ultimately necessary. It was a force designed to end the war against the monsters, and at the moment, it was sorely needed.

“But... what’s so important if I can neutralize that army...”

Before she could finish her thought, Scarlett suddenly understood.

The Demon King was considering the future after the Gate Incident concluded.

Ludwig had warned her that someone might try to exploit her abilities, whether it would be the Demon King or someone else. And now, the Demon King stood before her.

“Do you want me to dismantle that army after the Gate Incident is resolved...?”

The army was the most formidable force in history, surpassing even the mightiest human armies.

But with her powers, Scarlett could neutralize it in an instant.

Just as she had reduced the two golems to scrap metal, she could render the army of corpses powerless in the blink of an eye.

“Yes,” the Demon King affirmed with a nod. “Ludwig was right.”

The Demon King spoke without hesitation, as if he had no intention of denying the truth.

“Ludwig truly returned to protect you, and I completely intend to use you.”

Excuses and self-justifications were pointless.

Despite any doubts about Ludwig’s intentions, his desire to protect Scarlett was genuine.

And no matter how the Demon King tried to sugarcoat it, the fact remained that he needed Scarlett for his own purposes.

Ludwig had rushed back to the Temple to save Scarlett from the Demon King’s clutches, but the Demon King had simply gotten there first.

Scarlett couldn’t help but tremble at the Demon King’s blunt admission.

“Do we really... have to fight?”

“...”

“It’s not necessary, is it? You... you didn’t want this. You’re not someone who wants this,” she said.

The Demon King made no reply.

“Too many people have already died or been injured over this Gate Incident. Do we really have to think about the next fight before this one even ends?”

In response to Scarlett’s desperate plea, the Demon King leaned silently against the wall.

“Yes, perhaps we don’t have to fight. Who knows what might happen?”

“Then, after everything is settled, can’t we live on, keeping to our own territories? That army... it serves no purpose if there’s no battle.”

“That’s certainly true.”

No matter how mighty an army is, it meant nothing away from the battlefield.

‘So many have perished, leaving this vast continent utterly desolate. Can’t we just find our own spaces and coexist peacefully? Even that seems daunting. Why are we gearing up for the next conflict as soon as this one concludes?’

Scarlett could not understand why.

“The situation is very different from before,” the Demon King said.

“Different... How?”

“You really don’t know what’s going on in the capital, do you? And I bet you know even less about the Allied Forces.”

Scarlett had been away from the capital for so long that she was out of touch with the developments there, and she was also unaware of the political dynamics within the Allied Forces, since she wasn’t in a position of influence.

“I’ve come too far to turn back now. Scarlett, if I stop here, if I just pretend we can live peacefully in our own corners as if nothing ever happened, it would all be for nothing. I’ve done too much to just walk away.”

This wasn’t some game that could be reset once you’d had enough fun and decided playtime was over. The world was too vast to be taken lightly. Once set in motion, things continued to move. Everything could not just be undone.

“I don’t know. Maybe what I’ve done will just make things worse. It’s possible.”

Just like how every attempt to stop the Gate Incident had only ended up causing it, the same might happen again.

In the end, though, Scarlett understood one thing: the chaos in the world wasn’t part of the Demon King’s plan. This wasn’t his scheme; it was his failure. Yet despite such a crushing defeat, the Demon King had managed to build something once more.

“It might be selfish,” he admitted. “Trying again after failing might seem disgusting to some and unforgivable to others. And there are indeed such people who think that way.”

“...”

“But I’ve come too far to stop now. I don’t know what the outcome will be, but pretending like nothing happened would be the biggest mistake I could make.”

If he hadn’t intended to act, he shouldn’t have started at all. It would have been different if he hadn’t set anything into motion, but once he did, he had to see it through to the end. Giving up midway would mean everything he had built would crumble.

The Demon King did not have the perfectly correct answer. However, he knew what the perfectly wrong answer was. Having already swallowed half of the capital and half of the Allied Forces, pretending that nothing happened and running away would be the perfectly wrong answer.

“I won’t deny that helping me is a dangerous choice,” the Demon King admitted. “And I can’t say it’s the right choice either. I might actually be wrong.”

Silence hung in the air.

“I don’t know the answer,” he continued. “I understand that those who want to kill me have their reasons, and I can’t blame them for their anger. After all, everything happened because of me.”

Those who sought the Demon King’s life had their justifications, and no one could argue against them. Yet, the Demon King was determined to follow the path he had laid. He had come too far to turn back.

He had to move forward cautiously, but with certainty. There were no other options left.

“Scarlett.”

“...”

“Help me.”

The Demon King turned his gaze to the red-haired girl.

“I need you.”

Scarlett had never heard such a simple yet heartfelt plea before.

She stood there, stunned, staring at the Demon King.

No, she was looking at Reinhart.

Memories from long ago flickered through her mind—memories she thought were lost amidst the chaos of war and countless deaths. Yet, they were stirring again, hidden deep within her heart.

The Demon King... 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Reinhart was an odd character. Though he ranked at the bottom of Class A and was considered less capable than those in Class B, he still managed to stir up all sorts of trouble. Rumors spread through both Class A and Class B, warning others to steer clear of him. Reinhart had certainly earned that reputation.

But to Scarlett, Reinhart was peculiar in a different way.

One day, out of nowhere, he had said, “What’s wrong with the color red?” when he saw her being bullied by Erhi de Raffaeli.

And after his unexpected victory in a duel against a senior, Reinhart had declared that strength alone decided who won. It had been a reckless fight, and yet, through some strange miracle, Reinhart had emerged victorious and made that bold statement.

At that moment, Scarlett found herself more afraid of Reinhart than of Erhi.

They did not interact much, but Scarlett always observed Reinhart from a distance.

‘If only I could be like that,’ she often thought. ‘If only I had that kind of courage.’

To Scarlett, who lived in constant fear of being expelled from the Temple, Reinhart was a profoundly influential figure.

Before she realized it, she was always watching him. She longed to be like him.

Scarlett had always held Reinhart as her idol in her heart. And as she reflected on her past, other memories naturally came flooding back. As she reminisced about those times, Scarlett couldn’t help but smile, even given the present situation she was in.

It was absurd to her, thinking about such things at such a time.

She let out a hollow laugh. “Do you remember the tournament?” she asked.

“Huh...? Why bring that up all of a sudden?” The Demon King replied, looking puzzled by Scarlett’s question. “Of course I remember.”

It had been a defining moment for Reinhart, when Scarlett, who had no particular ties to him, suddenly declared him her idol. That was not something he could ever forget.

Those days and memories were buried beneath layers of death and sorrow, yet they became precious precisely because they were fleeting. The days when everything was peaceful, when problems seemed nonexistent—those days would never return.

“I told you back then, didn’t I? Some people dislike you, but there are also those who like you.”

“You did... Yes, you did say that.”

Many disliked Reinhart due to his peculiar temperament. But even then, there were those who, strangely enough, didn’t dislike him.

Beyond Ellen and Harriet, there were quite a few who were close to Reinhart.

While many people disliked him, there were still those who genuinely liked him.

People often gossiped, questioning why anyone would want to spend time with someone like him.

By observing it, Scarlett had an epiphany.

“Just as you can’t make everyone like you, you can’t make everyone hate you either,” she said. “I learned that by watching you.”

“Yes...” he replied, “you did say that as well.”

Scarlett understood that if it was impossible to be loved by everyone, it was equally impossible to be universally hated.

“It’s strange,” she mused, “how much has changed... So much has changed...”

She glanced over at Reinhart, reflecting on the transformation.

The being now known as the Demon King...

“But you’re still in that situation.”

Just as some people had hated Reinhart while others had liked him, the same was true for the Demon King. There were those who despised the Demon King enough to wish for his death, yet others who couldn’t bring themselves to hate him.

Some, perhaps, even still loved him.

The scale of those who had such feelings had simply expanded from the Temple to encompass the entire world.

The Demon King smiled bitterly, as if he understood what she meant. “I guess that’s how it is.”

Back at the Temple, Scarlett had been someone who liked Reinhart. Not in a romantic way, but with a sense of respect that set her apart from the others.

Reinhart, who had once been her idol, had now become the Demon King—a being so cursed that the title was barely uttered. Yet, in truth, he had been the Demon King all along.

This powerful being had traversed vast distances to find her, and with utmost sincerity, he had asked for her help.

He needed her. But what was she to do?

The Demon King had his reasons. He claimed he never wanted this fate. Who could truly judge the Demon King, knowing the weight of his circumstances?

But what about the other side of the coin? How could those clamoring for the Demon King’s death be unjust?

There was a case for the Demon King’s righteousness, but there was also a case for his death.

The Demon King was a paradox.

Just as the Demon King had his reasons, so did those who wished for his demise.

If everyone had their justifications and reasons, then what was the right path to take?

Scarlett, standing at the crossroads of choice, quietly spoke.

“I...”