Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 651

Cliffman had sent us a message—more of a request or demand really—asking to meet with Riana.

This wasn’t a decision for Charlotte or me to make. Sure, as king, I could have ordered her to go, but that wasn’t something I wanted to do.

Did Cliffman even have the right to ask to see Riana? He hadn’t promised that he would support us if we allowed the meeting. And even if he did, would securing Cliffman’s support really matter to us?

He had certainly grown stronger and achieved much. But in our current situation, where Master-class individuals and Archmages were plentiful, Cliffman’s power didn’t hold much weight. He wasn’t a game-changer like Connor Lint.

These were the things a person in my position had to consider. But I chose not to. I didn’t even want to think about it.

Relationships were important. In fact, they might have been the most important thing in the world. At least, that was what I believed. The world had turned out like this precisely because of relationships and emotional entanglements.

If I hadn’t been the Demon King Baalier.

If Ellen hadn’t been Ragan Artorius’s sister.

If Charlotte hadn’t been the emperor’s daughter.

The core of all our problems stemmed from the fact that we had grown close without addressing those issues properly.

Such matters were not to be taken lightly.

Ultimately, this wasn’t my decision to make. It was up to the person involved.

On the outskirts of Rajak stood the duchess’s mansion.

“Me...?”

Riana’s face twisted strangely when she heard Cliffman’s message, and her wide eyes betrayed the shock she felt at his words.

Back in our days at the Temple, Cliffman had been timid. No, that was putting it mildly. He struggled with social interactions, especially with women. Despite our countless mutual training sessions at the training grounds, it had taken months before we finally spoke. He was even more awkward around girls, often stammering and falling silent when Ellen or Harriet tried to talk to him.

In short, his capacity for social interaction was limited, as small as a soy sauce dish. When forced into social interactions, he would become mentally overwhelmed and sometimes even faint.

Riana, on the other hand, was anything but shy. Though she seemed prickly at first, she was actually easygoing and never held grudges. She was always proactive, and once she became friends with someone, she was the one suggesting outings.

One was always shy, while the other was never shy.

They were opposites, but I believed that people with completely different personalities often got along better than those who were similar.

In truth, it was always Riana who pulled the introverted Cliffman along, and she was the one who had offered eager assistance when I decided to enter Cliffman into the Mr. Temple contest. Over time, they grew close.

When Duke Granz died, they both swore vengeance against me. Yet, on the day of the Gate Incident, Riana appeared at my trial to save me without a word to Cliffman. She never revealed the true cause of her father’s death, or the reason behind her decision to rescue me.

Was that a betrayal? It was difficult to say.

Though those events had only happened a few years ago, they felt like they belonged to another era.

Everyone had changed. Riana had changed, and Cliffman must have changed as well.

“...”

Cliffman, who had always been passive and struggled with social interactions, now found himself demanding to meet Riana, despite the circumstances. And here was Riana, who had always been proactive and bold, as if the word “shy” was foreign to her, standing in front of me, trembling and looking pale.

***

Was Riana’s decision a betrayal or not?

She likely hadn’t wanted to drag Cliffman into a perilous situation with her.

After all, I had nothing that could be considered a strength back then. Following me, even attempting to rescue me from the Empire’s clutches, was sheer madness.

The only person who had agreed to join Riana in that reckless endeavor was Harriet. Riana had no idea that the Vampire Lords had also planned to save me.

It had been a perilous act of insanity, and Riana had to have been ready to face death that day.

Because of that, she could not have told Cliffman about it. She couldn’t have dragged him along on what was essentially a suicide mission.

Even if it wasn’t a betrayal, it could still feel like one.

I did not have a clue how Cliffman felt about Riana’s actions, and naturally, neither did Riana. Cliffman only mentioned that he wanted to meet Riana; he had not shared his thoughts about her.

I had no idea what Cliffman thought of me either. Like Cristina or Ludwig, he might want to hold me accountable. Too much had happened to expect things to be the same as they were during our days at the Temple.

Neither Riana nor I knew what Cliffman’s intentions were or how he felt about meeting us. That was why Riana was pale-faced and trembling. She was anxious about what he might say, and was perhaps even worried about the possibility of being attacked.

So much had changed; Riana was no longer the person she used to be, and neither was Cliffman. Because they had both changed, she couldn’t predict what he might say or do to her, and that uncertainty was naturally frightening.

It wasn’t meeting him that was dangerous. Her real fear lay in witnessing the changes firsthand, in hearing and seeing how things had shifted. That confirmation could be terrifying.

Neither Charlotte nor I could make a decision on our own. At the very least, Riana needed to be informed.

“You don’t have to meet him if you don’t want to,” I said gently.

“...”

From a practical standpoint, it was safer not to meet. Cliffman’s support or lack of it would not drastically alter the situation. Moreover, Riana was one of the most crucial allies we had, and there stood a slim chance that Cliffman might pose a threat to her.

If that were the case, it was better not to meet. The potential gain was minimal, while the potential loss was significant. Anyone who did the math would conclude that this meeting should not have even been on the table.

But I didn’t plan to let those calculations dictate this decision.

Only one thing truly mattered: whether Riana wanted to meet or not.

Even without my input, Riana could easily figure this out. If she didn’t want to meet, she didn’t have to, whatever her reasons. The choice was hers.

Just as the outcomes and realities of this world were not determined by profit and loss calculations, what truly mattered was not potential gain or loss.

I could see that Riana was terrified.

It was strange. Back in her days at the Temple, Riana had been a supernatural power user with immense potential, but her power hadn’t been that strong then. Despite that, she had always been confident and assertive.

The Riana in front of me was arguably the world’s strongest supernatural power user. Since gaining the ability to control the weather, her power had become unmatched, and not just among other supernatural power users. No mage could come close to her power.

Although Riana had grown so strong that no one could rival her, her personality had shifted in the opposite direction. She found herself easily depressed, constantly struggling and suffering. She had become passive.

Even as her strength had increased, she had grown more vulnerable. And now that Cliffman had expressed his desire to meet her, his request filled her with dread. She was unsure of what he might say.

“Hey...” she finally said.

“Yeah?”

Riana trembled, her eyes brimming with tears.

“I’m so scared...”

They hadn’t even met yet, and she couldn’t quite grasp what was going through Cliffman’s mind, but she was already about to cry.

“I’m so scared... I feel like I’m going to die...”

Her overwhelming fear stemmed from a single reason.

When someone important changes how they treat you, it can be terrifying. And Riana held Cliffman dear to her heart. Her fear was so intense, it made her feel like she was on the brink of collapse.

It was the same feeling I had when I faced the transformed Ellen. A sensation of impending doom fueled by fear and dread.

Riana stood there trembling for a long time with her head bowed.

There had been many moments when she had shown signs of anxiety, but this was the first time she appeared so utterly defeated. It was even more heartbreaking than when she had begged to be killed.

Ultimately, there was only one reason she was struggling so much over this single decision.

“But... I have to meet him, don’t I?”

Cliffman had asked to meet. Setting aside her persona as the Thunder Queen, she was just Riana de Granz, and she felt as though she couldn’t refuse.

“You don’t have to meet him,” I said.

Did she really need to meet him? Meeting him could lead to her getting hurt, either physically or emotionally. Or perhaps it wouldn’t.

“But let’s think about what would happen later,” I suggested.

“Later?” she echoed.

“Yeah. I don’t know what will happen, but let’s just consider the future for the moment.”

Although the future felt uncertain, the decision of whether or not to meet Cliffman still loomed.

“If you choose not to meet him now, do you think you’ll regret it later?”

She might not get another chance to meet Cliffman again. If she decided not to meet him this time, or simply ignored him, what would happen?

What would Cliffman think? And would Riana regret it later?

‘Forget the reasons for meeting or not meeting. Focus on regret.’

Would she regret not meeting him, or wouldn’t she?

“Right now, I’m so scared... But...” Riana lifted her head, her voice trembling. “If I choose not to meet him now...”

Tears spilled from her reddened eyes.

“I feel like I’ll carry this feeling with me forever...”

She couldn’t tell if this was a chance, a challenge, or a crisis.

But she was certain that if she didn’t go through with it, she’d regret it for the rest of her life.

***

Is there any fear that is so daunting, yet has to be confronted? Couldn’t one just run away, avoid it, and pretend ignorance?

Unfortunately, some things in life are unavoidable. If one chose to avoid it out of fear, they would have to live with regret for the rest of their lives.

There are things that have to be faced in life, even though they’re frightening, in order to avoid future regret.

For Riana de Granz, this was one of those things.

“I can go with you,” Reinhart offered.

Riana shook her head. “No... Meeting him alone... feels like the right thing to do.”

She didn’t want to give even the slightest impression that she was preparing for any eventuality, which was why Riana chose to face it alone.

While she needed assistance to get to and depart from the meeting point, the meeting itself had to be between just the two of them.

Even if it would not make up for leaving without a word back then, she believed it was the least she could do, as a gesture of respect.

There was no reason for her to agree to Cliffman’s request.

The message had been given to Heinrich, who relayed it to Louise. Louise had listened to the seemingly absurd request, and relayed it to Rowen, who then passed on the message.

Charlotte, Reinhart, Riana, and even Cliffman, who had made the request himself, couldn’t have imagined that it would be accepted. But the message had been passed on from person to person, and based on Riana’s own judgment, the meeting was arranged.

The world had changed, the era had shifted, and people had changed along with it.

Once, they could simply knock on a dormitory door to meet, but now that so much has changed, even a simple message had to pass through many hands.

“Let’s meet.”

That single sentence had been made to go on such a long and winding journey, and the acceptance of that request had to make its way back through the same chain.

From Riana to Reinhart, from Reinhart to Harriet, from Harriet to Rowen, from Rowen to Louise, from Louise to Heinrich, and finally, from Heinrich back to Cliffman.

Expressing even a single sentiment had become incredibly challenging, even though it had never been easy to begin with.

The meeting was finally arranged.

The area around the Allied base had been cleared, which forced them to venture far beyond the field strewn with the remains of fallen monsters, all the way to one particular forest.

How much time had truly passed? In an era where time felt stretched, as if decades had slipped by in the blink of an eye, it was hard to tell.

At a certain designated stump in that forest, Cliffman finally got the meeting he longed for.

...”

There was the face Cliffman had been eager to see.

Always confident, sometimes to the point of being overbearing.

She was the one who had always led Cliffman, urging him to trust her and follow, her confidence unwavering.

She stood there with her hands clasped, eyes downcast, as if she didn’t deserve to meet his gaze, as if she had committed a grave sin that made it impossible to look him in the eye.

“Hello,” she managed to whisper, her voice barely audible. “It’s been a while...”

Cliffman looked at Riana de Granz, who seemed to have shrunk into herself as much as she possibly could.