Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 646

Night had fallen.

“That’s a relief,” Cristina murmured, closing the book after listening to Ludwig’s account.

Most of the camp had settled into sleep after a long day’s march. Cristina sat with Ludwig and two others inside a small portable tent, engaged in a hushed conversation.

Everyone wore somber expressions, except for Cristina, who seemed the most composed. Ludwig, in particular, couldn’t shake his guilt over the decision they’d made. His head hung low.

They had agreed to essentially imprison a friend until the situation was resolved. Even though it was for her safety, Scarlett still had to endure confinement in an unknown place, without explanation, for an indefinite time.

Louis, Anna, and Ludwig appeared deeply troubled, but Cristina seemed slightly different.

“Hmm...” Cristina murmured, a hint of doubt flickering in her eyes.

“Is there still a problem, even though Scarlett agreed to do as we said?” Louis Ankton asked, his voice edged with irritation.

Cristina had been the one to insist on imprisoning Scarlett, and everything had unfolded according to her plan.

“Don’t be so sensitive,” she replied in a dismissive tone. “This had to be done.”

Louis clenched his teeth, frustrated by the implication that they had all agreed to this course of action. Someone had to make the tough decisions, and Cristina had taken on that responsibility.

“Did Scarlett act strangely at all?” she asked, her question laced with suspicion.

“What do you mean by ‘strangely’?” Ludwig asked.

Ludwig felt a tension arising between them. He couldn’t hide his discomfort at her probing.

“You know, just anything.”

“There was nothing,” Ludwig answered curtly, dismissing Cristina’s question as unworthy of further consideration. He already carried enough guilt for confining Scarlett and couldn’t bear to add more to his burden.

Cristina let out a small sigh. “I know I’m difficult, but why does it seem like you all are more emotional than I am?”

Her eyes turned cold. “Do you think this is just a trivial argument or some emotional spat? The Immortals are the most powerful army in the world, and right now, Scarlett is the only one who can immediately and completely neutralize them.”

Cristina’s words were a blunt truth. The Immortals could neutralize any group or horde of monsters, but the army couldn’t harm Scarlett.

If Scarlett wanted, she could wipe the Immortals away as easily as erasing pencil markings with an eraser.

“Are you saying we should remain suspicious of Scarlett?” Louis asked, gritting his teeth.

“I’m grateful Scarlett agreed to follow our lead, but is it that strange to say we need to be thorough?”

“...”

“We’re not the only ones who know about Scarlett’s power. In fact, Adelia knew even before we did.”

“Don’t tell me... You’re suspecting Adelia, too, now?”

“Have you forgotten who Adelia is with right now?! Have you all already forgotten who Grand Duke Saint-Ouen’s daughter is?”

Cristina’s outburst made them realize she was right.

It wasn’t about Adelia. Cristina wasn’t the one being emotional; it was the rest of them. They were so overwhelmed by the guilt of imprisoning a friend that they were not focused on what truly mattered.

“The Church of the Five Great Gods has already fallen to the Demon King, and the Allied Forces are slowly being swayed to his side. Do you really think Grand Duke Saint-Ouen wouldn’t be a target? Of course he would. And it’s also obvious that he’d side with the Demon King. He might have even joined up with the Demon King before the Church did!”

Now that the Demon King was starting to make his move, it was inevitable that he would reach out to the Duke. It was clear as day, even without having to witness it firsthand. In fact, arguing for the possibility of the Duke not siding with the Demon King would be nothing but laughable.

“Without a doubt, the Demon King must be searching harder than anyone for a way to neutralize the Immortals. Even if he knew how to, he wouldn’t use it right away—but he’d make sure to have the means within his grasp. And if he somehow learned of it before we did, do you really think he would have waited to make his move?”

There were those who needed to harness Scarlett’s power, and those who needed to stop it from being used. They both would have sprung into action the moment the information was confirmed.

It would have been odd if Grand Duke Saint-Ouen hadn’t yet sided with the Demon King. If that was true, then naturally, the Demon King would have made his move.

Somehow, though, Ludwig had been quicker.

“The fact that we managed to move more quickly is in itself strange.”

The other side could have moved sooner, yet the ones who had received the information later ended up acting first.

“It doesn’t matter how quickly Scarlett returned to the Temple. If they’re in cahoots with Vertus, getting inside the Temple wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Cristina’s explanation made the others realize that they had reacted more emotionally than her, and had thus overlooked the obvious conclusion.

“But in the end... we’ve still managed to protect Scarlett, right?” Anna said, her expression twisting as she used the word “protected.”

Was it really protection? Wasn’t it more proper to call it imprisonment and surveillance instead?

Still, Anna’s point that there was no need to remain suspicious of Scarlett since she was under their watch was valid.

“Yes, that’s definitely a relief. It’s a good thing. But... that’s why I’m asking. We need to get rid of even the tiniest possibility, just in case.”

Cristina looked at Ludwig intently. “Did you really not notice anything odd about Scarlett?” she asked again.

In the end, Ludwig was the only one who had seen Scarlett face-to-face. If there had been anything unusual about her, Ludwig was the only one who could confirm it.

Ludwig paused, lost in thought.

Had there truly been nothing strange?

Scarlett had clearly been terrified after finding herself caught in an unexpected situation. She had asked for some time to think, and then after considering it for a while, Scarlett had decided to follow Ludwig.

In the end, they ended up confining Scarlett.

For a fleeting moment during all that, Ludwig had been worried that Scarlett might have vanished. But in the end, she had simply gone to the library to fetch some books and hadn’t disappeared, returning with a large suitcase.

He felt his mind spinning.

Was that odd? Did he need to be suspicious of even such mundane actions?

It wasn’t exactly strange. But then again, Ludwig hadn’t seen for himself what had been inside that suitcase.

Should he have opened it and searched it, even though it probably held nothing more than clothes and books?

Scarlett had accepted the explanation that she needed to be confined for her own good, even though no one had offered her any details.

Was it fair to doubt someone like Scarlett?

“No, there was nothing,” Ludwig replied, his answer unwavering.

“Are you certain?” Cristina pressed him once more.

If they were to doubt Scarlett any further, it would be better to face betrayal head-on.

“I’m sure,” Ludwig affirmed.

Yet, doubts lingered.

“That statement better be true,” Cristina warned, her eyes fixed on Ludwig, leaving him speechless.

***

In the heart of the Imperial Capital, Gradium, stood the Imperial Palace, Emperatos. Within its walls lay the Central Palace, Tetra.

“It feels like everything is slipping out of my hands,” the Emperor confessed, a hint of vulnerability in his voice.

“Your Majesty...”

“I can manage the Immortals for now, and I can keep the Allied Forces in check for the time being, but...” His voice trailed off, the weight of the distance between the Empire’s core forces and the Allied Forces pressing heavily on his mind.

That physical distance could be closed at any moment.

The Allied Forces had always been within the Emperor’s grasp, ready to be moved at his command. However, ever since the Demon King had revealed his true nature, the rapidly-shifting situation had pushed the Allied Forces beyond the Emperor’s control.

It was inevitable, as it was Vertus, not the Demon King, who had set these events in motion. He was the one who had signaled that it was time to act, and they had moved accordingly.

From the moment he initiated this, though, the situation was destined to slip from Vertus’s control.

The Allied Forces were now drifting both physically and politically beyond the Emperor’s grasp. The leadership was in disarray, gradually falling under the Demon King’s influence.

For the moment, the Immortals followed the Emperor’s orders, but once everything reached its conclusion, they would no longer be his to command.

The Empire was slowly crumbling, losing its power.

Sabioleen Tana watched the Emperor, who seemed to be deliberately orchestrating his own downfall with his own hand.

The Emperor was constantly losing pieces of his realm.

No—It was more accurate to say that he was choosing to release them, one by one, not in order to gain anything in return, but to relinquish. He was meticulously crafting the entire scenario for that.

But the Emperor hadn’t lost everything yet.

“Your Majesty still controls Shanapell and the Imperial Mage Corps. You haven’t lost everything,” Tana reminded him.

The Emperor had too much to lose to let go of it all at once.

While the Immortals were indeed a formidable army, the Empire still boasted Shanapell and the Imperial Mage Corps—forces that commanded respect and couldn’t be dismissed lightly.

Vertus turned to her. “That’s the problem,” he said. It was hardly a reassurance.

The Emperor’s admission that it was a problem made Tana bite her lip.

“There are so many that I don’t want to drag down with me, but must,” he added with a bitter smile.

The Emperor was burdened with too much, and there was no easy way to relinquish any of it.

The Emperor had too much on his shoulders, and some burdens couldn’t be shed, no matter how much he wished to.

And so, even if the Emperor desired solitude in death, it was beyond his reach.

“Dame Tana,” he called.

“...”

“If I asked you to take the Imperial Mage Corps and Shanapell and vanish, would you comply?”

Sabioleen Tana shut her eyes tightly at his words.

“Your Majesty... I don’t know. I just... I don’t understand why... Why does it have to be this way? Why do you have to do this...?”

Sabioleen Tana had been a loyal knight of the Empire her entire life. She couldn’t imagine living any other way.

The Emperor’s final order to her was not to die for the Empire, but to abandon it. Tears streamed from her tightly closed eyes.

“Your Majesty is so young. I just don’t understand why you have to endure this...”

But what did age have to do with being Emperor? An Emperor simply had to be an Emperor.

Sabioleen Tana, who had served the Empire faithfully for many years, knew how foolish her words sounded.

Her heart was simply aching.

The prince who had once dreamed of becoming an emperor had not ascended the throne as he had hoped. He had suddenly found himself Emperor, without any coronation, in the midst of a chaotic war.

The prince’s wish to become an emperor had been granted, but not in the way he had imagined. He had become the emperor of an empire teetering on the edge of collapse.

The Emperor’s final wish was simple: to be the last emperor of humanity.

“Why remain on a sinking ship until the very end?” he wondered.

Everyone else was abandoning the ship, so why should they stay?

He was the last emperor of a vanishing nation.

Why should his loyal retainers be buried alongside him?

The last ruler of the Gradias dynasty... He would be remembered in history as an unmatched tyrant.