Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 685

Even if the Emperor had wanted to endure endless nagging, he simply didn’t have the time for it. After delivering his entrance speech, he returned to the imperial palace, settling into the throne while Charlotte stood by his side.

The ministers gathered before him, each ready to present their reports.

“Your Majesty, we’ve received word that the warp gate in the Human Autonomous Region has been destroyed.”

“... Again?”

The Emperor massaged his temples with both hands in a gesture of utter frustration.

“I don’t want them to starve, but if they keep destroying the warp gate, which is our main channel of providing aid, what do they expect us to do? Transport supplies by carriage? Are they trying to bring about their own downfall?”

“Well... The ones who destroyed the gate were not agents of the government of the Autonomous Region, as usual...”

“It was the citizens, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty...”

The Gate Incident had come to an end, but the fear of warp gates lingered across the continent. People viewed them as ticking time bombs, reminders of past artifacts that had nearly led humanity to extinction.

Given recent history, their fear and anxiety were understandable. These terrified citizens often took it upon themselves to destroy warp gates, not just in the Autonomous Region but everywhere else. It was a widespread issue, and not confined to a single region.

Despite this fear, the benefits of having warp gates were too significant to simply abandon. Consequently, warp gates were now under tighter military protection than they had been in the past.

“Even though we keep insisting that the new designs have nothing to do with the gates from the previous era, people just don’t buy it. Especially in the Autonomous Region, where citizens see the warp gate as a potential invasion point. They’re consistently on edge.”

In the Human Autonomous Region, a hub for anti-Demon King sentiment, the fear of warp gates was even more intense.

“Did we cover the cost of rebuilding the warp gate the last time it was destroyed?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Really? They must think they can treat it carelessly since we rebuilt it for free. We need to change that mindset.”

The Emperor’s tone grew chilly as he declared, “From now on, the government of the Autonomous Region will cover all costs for rebuilding the warp gate, and they will protect it with their lives. Make sure the government of the Autonomous Region understands this.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” came the reply.

The Autonomous Region was home to many humans—those who rejected the Demon King’s rule and remained loyal to the Hero Cult. Instead of exterminating them, the Demon King had chosen to corral them together in one place. Though uprisings occasionally flared up, they were always swiftly crushed.

In truth, the Autonomous Region couldn’t survive without the support of the new Holy Empire. Despite their disdain for the Demon King, they were dependent on him for their survival.

This was all part of Charlotte’s plan.

The Emperor listened to various reports and issued orders, occasionally taking Charlotte’s advice. Though it wasn’t much different from his duties in Edina, the range of topics he had to address was far broader, and the number of lives affected by his decisions was on a completely different scale.

Despite his bored expression, the Emperor continued to make decisions and issue judgments one by one with unwavering focus. Some matters were crucial, while others seemed so trivial that he questioned why they even reached his ears. Still, even some minor issues inevitably required the Emperor’s attention.

“Your Majesty, we have apprehended the individual who vandalized your statue in the Aligar district last Monday. He is a 67-year-old man from the district, and the guards currently have him in custody.”

“Why did he do it?” the Emperor asked.

“The reason is not important, Your Majesty,” declared the minister in a firm voice. “Vandalizing a statue of Your Majesty is a direct affront to imperial authority. Such acts must be met with severe punishment.”

“And you said it was last Monday?” the Emperor inquired, his brow furrowed in thought. “I can’t quite recall—how was it vandalized?”

The minister’s face turned ashen at the Emperor’s question. The Emperor dealt with so many matters daily that some details inevitably slipped his mind.

“Well, he... urinated on it,” the minister stammered.

“Urinated on it?” the Emperor repeated, a hint of disbelief in his voice. “Ah... Right. I think I remember that.”

“Yes...”

The Emperor crossed his arms with an indifferent expression. His demeanor suggested he didn’t understand why he should be upset about it, just as he hadn’t been the first time he was informed of it. But though he had forgotten the incident, it was, to his ministers, a shocking event that had been seared into their memories.

“I never ordered that statue to be installed in the first place,” the Emperor said calmly.

“Who was it?” he wondered, trying to recall something. “Some sculptor said he wanted to dedicate it to me...”

“It was Ernac,” Charlotte whispered, and the Demon King nodded as the mention of the name jogged his memory.

“Ah, yes. That Ernac fellow sculpted it, claiming it was a tribute to me,” the Emperor mused. “Isn’t that the case with all statues and sculptures of me?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I never ordered them to be erected, so why is it considered a challenge to imperial authority if a citizen vandalizes something sculpted by another citizen?”

Indeed, such creations—statues and sculptures in various forms—were scattered throughout the Empire, crafted by artists or groups who idolized the Demon King. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“That’s because anything in Your Majesty’s likeness symbolizes the Emperor’s authority,” Charlotte explained.

“Then shouldn’t we prevent people from freely creating and depicting the image of the great and dignified Emperor? That could also be seen as a challenge to imperial authority...” The Emperor’s voice trailed off as Charlotte interrupted his train of thought.

“If you start censoring culture like that, it will eventually lead to banning minstrels from singing about Your Majesty’s achievements in taverns, leading to an unnecessary atmosphere of fear. You’ll surely find that situation tiresome in the end.”

“Is... is that so?”

“Prohibiting idolization out of fear of being idolized is, in its own way, a very strong reaction, Your Majesty. If you issue such a ban but later find it burdensome and decide to rescind it, the citizens of the Empire will only feel needless confusion. The citizenry will negatively view the imperial family as being inconsistent.”

“... I-I see... let’s forget about it then...”

If left alone, people would idolize the Emperor as they pleased and argue among themselves about it. But if he started banning things, it would be a slippery slope that led to an atmosphere of fear and growing resentment. If he later found this consequence tiresome and lifted the ban, it would only emphasize the Emperor’s pointless actions. Thus, it was best to leave things as they were.

“Anyway, let the old man go with a warning. Maybe he just had a bit too much to drink. When nature calls, sometimes you end up relieving yourself in places you shouldn’t.”

The minister, knowing the Emperor rarely punished such offenses, sighed and nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“But give him a stern warning. Tell him if it happens again, he’ll have to relieve himself right here in the Emperor’s presence. I wonder if he can handle that,” the Emperor mused.

The old man would be released with the Emperor’s cryptic warning.

The stream of reports continued.

As usual, there were unwanted tributes and bureaucratic updates from government offices. Whenever the Emperor’s judgment seemed on the brink of error, Charlotte would quietly confer with him and help steer the decisions.

Everyone knew that Charlotte was the true force behind the new imperial family. Despite being a remnant of the Gradias imperial lineage, she was respected because it was clear she never acted against the Emperor’s wishes or did anything without his command.

Finally, the topic that always surfaced was brought up once more.

“Your Majesty, there have been sightings of the Hero in the Oland region of western Kernstadt.”

The atmosphere in the audience chamber, already hushed, immediately grew even more tense.

In the audience chamber and throughout the Empire, two topics were particularly sensitive.

One was the Hero, Ellen Artorius.

“There was another report of the former emperor Vertus being seen about two months ago in the Oland region.”

The other, of course, was the former emperor, Vertus de Gradias.

“Given these two reports, it seems the former emperor and the Hero might be working together...”

“Are you willing to stand by that claim?”

The Emperor’s question was met by an uncomfortable silence.

“Can you take responsibility for that statement?”

The minister who brought the news lowered his head even further under the Emperor’s icy stare.

“We’ve sent people to investigate every sighting of the Hero and the former emperor, but none of those reports have ever been confirmed.”

Since they were the most wanted individuals in the realm, most sightings turned out to be false, and whether any of the information they received was genuine remained a mystery. All efforts to locate the pair had failed.

The Emperor continued to stare at the minister who had provided the report in silence.

“Your Majesty... I’m simply relaying the information we’ve received.”

“Isn’t the assumption that the former emperor and the Hero are acting together based on just two sightings more of an opinion than actual information?”

“W-well...”

“How much longer must we squander the Empire’s resources on these mostly false sightings?” The Emperor demanded. “Some of those who provided information did not even know what the Hero or the former emperor looked like. There were even reports of them being seen simultaneously at the southern and northern ends of the continent, weren’t there?”

“Your Majesty, the former emperor and the Hero pose the greatest threats to our Empire,” another minister responded. “If they reach the Autonomous Region, humanity will rally around them, and even the dissidents within our borders will be swayed. We must scrutinize every piece of information about these two individuals.”

The other ministers nodded in agreement, wearing grave expressions.

Though the Autonomous Region was for all intents and purposes a region of slaves, the people within had not been destroyed, and their resentment simmered beneath the surface. If past conflicts were merely outbursts of uncontrolled anger, the return of the former emperor or the Hero could ignite a true war, rallying those within the Empire who despised the Demon King to their cause.

The former emperor and the Hero were genuine threats to the Empire. Some still believed that the Hero and the former emperor were secretly working to liberate humanity from the Demon King’s tyranny, and the followers of the Hero Cult in the Autonomous Region clung to this hope.

Those loyal to the Emperor were convinced that finding and eliminating the Hero and the former emperor was the only way to eradicate the Empire’s underlying troubles. They spoke from a genuine desire for the new Empire’s lasting peace and prosperity. Though some of the information they received might have been flawed, there was no reason to question their loyalty.

Ellen and the former emperor continued to have significant bounties on their heads, and even the Emperor couldn’t deny the reasoning behind it. To legitimize the Demon King’s rule, the Hero and the former emperor had to be vilified, and so that propaganda persisted. More and more people now saw the Demon King as the world’s savior, and hated the Hero and the former emperor.

Civilization was slowly being rebuilt; the issue of widespread hunger was nearly solved, and humanity was expanding its territories by restoring previously ruined cities and settlements.

While it wasn’t quite a golden age, the world was inching closer to one.

Most people placed their faith in what was tangible and real, and many lives had improved under the Demon King’s rule. Therefore, most people now placed their faith in the Demon King.

Ironically, once the Gate Incident ended, things could only get better, no matter who was in charge. It just so happened that the Demon King was the one holding the reins.

The improvements in living conditions could not solely be attributed to his rule. However, things were indeed getting better, and the Demon King hadn’t committed any unnecessary atrocities against those who accepted his authority.

While not all of his policies were successful, there were no senseless acts of tyranny or mass killings. The terrifying scenes that humanity had imagined—masses of humans being gathered and burned alive—never came to pass under his rule. In fact, the Demon King was actually surprised by how many feared such horrors.

He had even established the Autonomous Region for those who rejected his rule, and claimed to be its protector. Of course, everyone knew that “protector” was just a label; it was more about keeping watch over them.

As time went on, and unlike the early days of his reign, many humans, grateful for the improvement in their lives, began to support the Demon King. As a result, the people grew to despise both the Hero and the fugitive former emperor. Even though the Demon King himself wasn’t actively hunting them, the entire continent was.

Despite understanding this, the Emperor still felt uneasy.

“Yes, that’s true,” he admitted. “But it’s not just about false information. How much longer do I have to hear about these so-called ‘well-meaning murderers’ or ‘accidental murderers’ who come forward demanding a reward after claiming to have killed the former emperor or the Hero?”

There were not just reports of sightings, but even those who claimed they had killed either of the two. None of them were true. These individuals had all mistakenly killed innocent people. In these cases, they were treated as murderers and were not forgiven.

It wasn’t uncommon for someone to mistakenly claim they’d killed the Hero, only to have slain an innocent instead. Such reports were frequent, and each one left the Emperor feeling suffocated.

“Your Majesty, just because accidents happen doesn’t mean we should stop searching for the former emperor and the Hero. We must keep the bounty policy in place; they might have already infiltrated the Autonomous Region,” suggested one minister. “You should increase surveillance over the Autonomous Region, enforce curfews, ban gatherings, and tighten security.”

“Your Majesty, the deceitful humans of the Autonomous Region are taking advantage of your mercy, despite having been forgiven for their transgressions multiple times,” said another.

“We must root out the ungrateful and unruly,” declared a third. “The fact that former rebel leaders are part of the Autonomous Region’s leadership is deeply concerning.”

“The Autonomous Region is not the only issue. We need to significantly boost the intelligence agency’s efforts to uncover dissidents within the Empire.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty. There are countless dissidents who have chosen not to move to the Autonomous Region, preferring instead to work within the Empire.”

.

.

.

A single statement was enough to break the dam, and a torrent of angry words poured in from all sides, while the Emperor quietly observed his ministers from his elevated position.

He then turned his gaze to Charlotte, who stood calmly by his side.

‘Help me,’ his eyes seemed to plead.

Charlotte met his gaze with a gentle smile and gave a slight nod.

“From this point forward, I will handle the administrative reports,” she announced.

Worn out, the Emperor relinquished his duties to the regent.

“Please exclude any unnecessary details and streamline the reports from each department,” she instructed.

This was how things always unfolded.

The ministers were all fiercely loyal to the Demon King. There was no question about their allegiance. However, their expressions of loyalty were often intense. Their devotion was so profound that they could openly discuss hunting down and killing the former emperor right in front of Charlotte, his half-sister.

Some of these individuals had even served as officials in the Gradias Empire. They remained in their positions either because they were indispensable, surviving the purges over the past five years, or because they had demonstrated their loyalty beyond doubt.

While Charlotte might sometimes question their judgment, she never doubted their loyalty.