There was magic.
That’s as far as my set up went, so of course I didn’t know ‘How’ it worked. It wasn’t my role to know how magic worked or how it manifested.
How did magic work, what were the magic formula and what was mana…?
Who the hell would want to read up on that bullshit in a fantasy novel?
To begin with, what’s even the difference between explaining how magic worked or how there was a black flame dragon sleeping in ones right arm? It was just a setup.
If one got that, than one could also just move on. Even if you don’t mention all the details of some old, dusty martial technique vault in martial arts novels, the reader would understand what was going on just by reading the line. In other words, that was what one called shared common sense.
However, there was a principle and way that overthrew said common sense.
The magic system of demons and humans were different. They used the same kind of magic, but in different ways. They were like how steam locomotives and modern trains ran on the same kind of track.
Therefore, a scroll inscribed with demonic magic was capable of ultra-long distance teleportation, while a scroll containing human magic wasn’t.
It was impossible for me to distinguish between human and demonic magic just by looking at the formula. It was a mistake that stemmed from my ignorance and lack of understanding of just what I was trying to do here.
The other merchants couldn’t recognize the magic formulas of demons, probably because they weren’t wizards, so they thought the scrolls were fake. However, this woman who was both the magic tool shop owner and probably a wizard recognized that my scrolls were working with a different systems.
“Won’t you tell me? Please?”
I didn’t know what that woman would do to me.
Could I somehow get through this situation using my achievement points?
I had to make this woman think that my scrolls were insignificant.
[To trigger this event 3000 achievement points are required.]
Again, I needed more points than I actually had. I mean, it was highly unlikely to find demonic scrolls in the middle of the Imperial Capital after all, so that would seriously undermine probability.
In the end, I had no other choice but to open my mouth.
“Tha, that…. Erm…. A, at the… At the Demon King’s… Castle….”
“……What?”
I had no other choice but to tell her the truth.
“I bought them from the Demon King’s Castle…….”
The woman frowned after hearing my words.
“What do you mean? You brought these scrolls from the Demon King’s Castle?”
The woman furrowed her eyebrows as if she couldn’t make sense of my words. However, these demonic scrolls made what I said believable apparently.
I recounted the whole story to her. The long story of how I ended up being imprisoned together with the princess in the Demon King’s Castle and how we used teleportation scrolls to escape from there. Then I told her that, after arriving at the Capital, I found myself all alone with no money and somehow had to find a place to live, so I tired selling these scrolls.
I even added that I didn’t know who I was because I lost my memory.
“Oh, my god…. This is so absurd…… Do you want me to believe that? The princess has been rescued?”
Dumbfounded she furrowed her brows even more. She looked into my eyes and sighed.
“You’re lying. If you actually rescued the princess, you’d be given a noble title or whatever. Why are you alone, huh?”
That was natural. The price for saving the princess’ life was beyond imagination. To the extent that it would seem absurd to just reject it and wander around alone.
The only logical explanation would be that I didn’t save her, of course.
However, I was a master of ‘additional settings’, that is, finding excuses.
These settings were actually like that so as to avoid a setting error I’d just rearrange some words.
That’s what it meant to be a specialist in making excuses!
“That…. When we escaped, a lot of Duke Salerian’s Knights died. I might get rewarded, but I thought Prince Bertus was going to try and kill me……”
“Ah, I see…… Retaliation…… Yes…… I guess, that makes sense…… It would probably be difficult for the princess to protect you…… Obviously……”
I was able to make use of the excuse I planned on giving the princess if she happened to stumble upon me in a completely different place by any chance. A reward would be good, but it was, of course, not as precious as my own life.
Of course, this was just an excuse, albeit an understandable one. I also hoped for Dyrus’ safety. I was sure they’d plan to retaliate against him as well.
She stared at me.
“Your story is too elaborate to be made up on the spot.”
It seemed like her last doubts had been solved.
She seemed to believe my story. With such a ridiculous thing in her hands it seemed like she had no other choice but to believe my exciting story.
She sighed again.
“So, that means, the Demon King…… is dead…?”
“Yes.”
A strange light flashed in her eyes at my words. She seemed relieved, but I couldn’t determine if it was sorrow or joy she actually felt. She had been silent for a long time. Eventually, she looked at me with sad eyes.
“Yeah, that’s a relief. How hard it must have been for the young princess… How hard it must have been for you.”
She wrapped her arms around me and patted me on the back as if pitying me.
No, well, I wasn’t actually tortured.
“Well, I don’t actually remember any of that…. So it’s okay.”
Let’s moderately circumvent this situation.
“Yes, I’m glad that you don’t have to suffer from such a bad memory. Thank God.”
She kept patting me on the back, telling me that it would be better to live without these memories and that it would be too painful to remember them. What, why was she being so kind to me? By the way, I was pretty hungry and had some things to sort out mentally, so I kind of wanted to leave, you know?
“Let me look at you for a second, kid. Still….”
“What?”
“There were definitely a lot of people who had memory problems after suffering sever torture, but you were trapped in a terrifying place such as the Demon King’s Castle. Right?”
No, it was originally my home sweet home, but the problem was that the hero’s party just decided to pay us a visit.
“Maybe there’s a curse on your body. So I….”
She looked at me with warm eyes.
“I’ll try to cast a simple spell on you. If you lost your memory because of a curse, your memory might return, but this spell can’t remove curses that are too strong….”
She formed a sign.
“Uh, hey, wait a minute!”
“Dispel.”
The spell had already been cast.
“…….?”
She looked at me as if she had no idea what’s going on. Horns, and a skin color that was slightly different from a humans.
It’s not like she didn’t know what that meant. She just couldn’t accept it.
“Oh.”
A Writer’s Advice.
From now on I shall call it a son of a bitch.
“Yo…. Your Highness…?”
However, the words that came out of her mouth completely changed my mind.
* * *
Your Highness.
Naturally I knew that’s what one usually calls a prince.
But why was there someone who recognized me in such a random place?
Of course, I knew what that meant. It was just hard to accept. The shop owner immediately knelt down in front of me.
“I, I…. I, Eleris of the Demon Army’s Gardium Invasion team, greets His Highness the Prince.”
“U, uh….”
Was this good? This was a good thing, right? My mind was working on overdrive trying to interpret this situation and how I should treat this woman in front of me, who definitely was a Demon.
At least this wasn’t a dangerous situation, right?
“I believe, it would be better if you came this way first.”
She alternated looking at me and the store’s entrance, then led me into the warehouse behind her. If a customer came in while we stood in front of the entrance like that, they’d immediately discover that this store housed demons.
She cast a spell and soon there was a subtle change to her appearance.
“Hey, don’t you recognize me?”
Two fangs slightly peeked out from between her red lips.
Red eyes and pale skin.
I seemed to know what she was.
“A, a vampire…?”
“Yes, I’m Eleris Tuesday from the House of Seven Nights.”
What the hell kind of chuuni setting is the House of Seven Nights? I never wrote anything about those kind of things. Anyway, the other party seemed concerned about me. She carefully put a hand to my face, while I was still dumbfounded.
“Wait, don’t tell me…… Have you really lost your memory…?”
“Ah, uhm… Oh, I guess… I don’t remember much. Except for the fact that I was the Prince of the Demon Realm….”
I had no other choice but to be honest, as I thought it would be a hundred times better to just be honest than fake having memories I don’t have.
There was a strange light in her eyes again. I had no idea what kinds of emotions she felt.
“To leave the castle and come all the way here all on your own in such a situation….”
She held my hand carefully, looking like she was about to cry.
“What a stroke of luck. I don’t know how this came to be, but I feel like I have to give my thanks to the Gods.”
The vampire seemed to think that this was just an absurd coincidence, to the extent that she felt grateful towards God.
However, when I thought that this situation came to be because of the Writer’s Advice, it would probably be more fitting to thank the devil. It was a ridiculous coincidence for Eleris, however to me it was an inevitability.
Go to the magic tool shop.
Eleris might have recognized the demonic scroll because she was a wizard, but it was highly likely that she did because she was a Demon herself.
So, going to the magic tool shop to sell scrolls was just a disguise, there were actually hidden intentions behind this advice.
The message hidden in it was to find a demon spy who infiltrated Gardium and ask for help.
However, if I had been caught by a human wizard who happened to recognized that the scrolls were made by demons, I might have been in a tougher position. The outcome could have been rather dangerous, but in the end I really did meet a Demon spy.
After a moment.
Come to think of it, the Vague Advice hinted to something similar in the end.
[A Writer’s Vague Advice]
[How could so many people have gotten kidnapped to the Demon King’s Castle?]
Not ‘Why’ but ‘How’.
I wrote that those people were kidnapped by spies from the Demon Realm who had infiltrated the Human Realm. The vague advice was a subtle message for me to find the spies, since they would still be in the Human Realm. However, I didn’t even think of that, because I was completely lost and hungry.
If I had understood the vague advice, I would have gotten a clue that I had to entrust myself to a demon spy in Gardium. If I had moved carefully, it would have been absolutely safe.
The Writer’s Clear Advice was quite risky but intuitive and the Writer’s Vague Advice tried to hint at what I should be doing.
Vague Advice was relatively safe and Clear Advice presented some risks.
“Erm…. Could there have been a human wizard capable of recognizing scrolls of the Demon Realm?”
I spoke informally, however Eleris didn’t seem to mind it.
“There are some weridos who study even the magic of demons. I’m glad you came to me before you met any of them.”
A chill ran down my spine at the thought what a disaster it would have been if anyone actually recognized these scrolls before I met Eleris. I could have seriously gotten myself killed.
She went back outside into her shop again, locked its door and took me upstairs.
“I shall do my best to serve you from now on.”
Saying so, she sat me down on a sofa.
Soon, she began to tidy up her messy room.
Wait, she was a vampire.
So, why was this room so well lit? It wasn’t a huge apartment, but wasn’t there a lot of sunlight getting in?
“Hey, isn’t this kind of dangerous for Vampires?”
She looked at me and nodded.
“I’m a Vampire Lord. I can handle this level of light. Of course, it isn’t good for my body though.”
No, I could see you flinch a little every time light hit you while you were straightening out the table cloth. Were you really okay?
“This was an annex to the store, so I don’t have to pay rent. I also would have wanted to live in a dream like residential area like a semi-basement where the sun doesn’t shine all year round, but the budget for my actions are rather tight….”
…How sad.
I didn’t exactly know what a Vampire Lord was, but wasn’t this just too sad for a high-ranking vampire?
I did understand that such an environment would be dreamlike for a vampire, but just hearing her say that she desired to live in a semi-basement was just too sad. A Vampire was worried about rent….
“Uh, wouldn’t it be fine if you just made the landlord your kin?”
Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be very easy for a vampire to get rich? Wasn’t that common sense?
“I had a similar idea, but to create a kin, I would have to take on too many risks. It’s not easy to create a kin while disguised as an ordinary person.”
Eleris certainly was a strong vampire, but that didn’t mean the ones she created would be just as strong. It was obvious that a normal man who suddenly avoided the sun and stopped eating would be considered suspicious.
No.
Wasn’t it actually quite difficult for Vampires, who were the Nobles of the Night, to blend in with human society?
After cleaning up moderately, Eleris looked at me.
“You must be hungry. Let me prepare some food.”
“Huh? Uh….”
Don’t Vampires drink blood? Do you even have any normal ingredients here?
As if aware of my concerns, Eleris put on a hooded robe.
“I’ll be out for little while.”
“N, no. Will you be fine?”
Only
“I’ll be alright.”
Just because of me, this vampire went grocery shopping in broad daylight. I was dumbfounded at how easily she just said that.
Thank you so much and I’m sorry that I’m so ignorant and helpless!
After she quickly bought something to eat for me she looked so exhausted. I was close to tears.
