Eleris, who was shocked by me not even knowing what an Arcdemon was, started to explain briefly. Sarkegaar was about to open his mouth, but she told him to be silent because he surely would have just continued with his useless rethorics.
“Arcdemons are essential existences in order to create a society consisting of most of the tribes, often referred to as demons.”
“Society?”
“Yes.”
The Arcdemons’ unique ability. I confirmed that I had this ability to rule over demons. I remember it saying that it was at Rank D.
“Originally, demons couldn’t exist as a large society. You know that Loyar is a Lyanthrope, I’m a Vampire and Sarkegaar is a Dreadfiend, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Before the emergence of the Arcdemon race, many tribes of demons were at odds with each other as well as humans. On the western side of the continent there were large human nations, but on the eastern there was the Demon Realm called Darklands. In other words, there were various demons living in small groups in that place.”
Even if there were no humans around them, the demons would just live by fighting each other.
“The Darklands were a land drenched in eternal war, so humans had no reason to care about us.”
The humans were prospering, while the demons just kept on fighting and would self-destruct before long. Numerous races lived in that place, but with these ongoing battles, reaching any kind of prosperity was impossible and the population of each race was just too different.
“However, there was someone who showed up to mediate all the conflicts and battles between the tribes and showed them how to live together and integrated them into a society. They had a strange power to interfere with the demons’ spirit.”
“Was that the Demon King?”
“Yes, he was the first Demon King Arcdemon.”
It wasn’t known where he came from or what he was exactly. However, he was able to control the demons’ spirit, allowing them to live together, which was impossible before.
Out of respect, the demons called him Arcdemon. Eventually, this term got used to describe the Demon King’s race.
Sarkegaar added.
“Under the influence of the Arcdemon, the demons were able to unite as one society under one leader. Its influence is still intact, but if several generations without an Arcdemon pass, the demons would be divided again and return to the era of eternal war. Back into the dark ages.”
The Demon Realm would completely collapse if Arcdemons were to disappear.
If so, that meant that there were still many remaining Demons that were able to get along with each other, however if this continued over generations, the Demons would go back to the time where they fought and killed each other over and over.
I understood now why no one had the ambition to become the next Demon King.
Unless they were an Arcdemon, there was no other race capable of performing the job of Demon King in the first place.
I was now able to understand that Sarkegaar’s loyalty was no longer just loyalty.
Sarkegaar believed that the existence of the Demon King was essential in order to maintain the foundation of the Demon Realm’s society. This was completely different from just simple loyalty to one’s country.
The Demon King acted as an emulsifier between water and oil.
A being that made things that weren’t able to mix together, mix together.
“…Then there’s one more question I have.”
“Yes. go ahead.”
“Why did the Demon World War happen?”
I just wrote down that there was a war, but not why the Demon World War happened. Humans tried to vanquish the demons. that’s what I wrote. So this was supposed to be the first invasion from the human’s side.
Eleris looked into the bonfire, saying:
“The humans have always been afraid of the unification of the Demon Realm.”
The probability of the event that I hadn’t properly set had been fixed. It was quite bizarre to experience my messed up probabilities getting fixed like that.
Humans had invaded the Demon Realm.
Since I didn’t state the reason for it, the world supplemented the possibility that humans feared the Demon Realm’s unification and the setting of the Arcdemons. I had that strange feeling of guilt creep up inside of me, as this felt like someone else filled the holes I created while messing around.
The demons of the Darkland began to form a society. Even the humans, who had been fighting among themselves had no choice but to be alert of that situation.
“The previous Demon Kings were aware of the fact that the humans would one day start to invade the Demon Realm. That’s why the Demon Realm was continuously preparing for war.”
I nodded at Eleris words. Even if they don’t intend to invade each other, if they see the other side increase their arms the other side would do the same.
‘Don’t get us wrong, we were just increasing our military to defend against a possible attack from you.’
Of course, no one would believe that bullshit.
It was common for fights to happen because they feared each other.
So, even though the Demon Realm and the Human Realm didn’t have any intentions of attacking each other, they were preparing to attack each other, just because the other side existed.
It didn’t matter who started it. A war would eventually break out no matter what.
The Demon Realm had the Demon King, but the Human Realm also had mighty forces, the Warriors. The warriors succeeded in taking down the Demon King with them.
The death of the Demon King was on a completely different level than the death of a human king. So, the mere fact that the Demon King was dead would have completely destroyed the morale of many of the King’s soldiers.
In fact, the Demon King was comparable to a God in the Demon Realm.
This explanation alone was enough for me to understand the importance of Arcdemons.
“Yes…. I can see now why Arcdemons are important.”
Now I knew why it had to be me.
“Then what should I do from now on? Have you thought about that yet?”
“You have to build your strength. Also, Gardium is much too dangerous. We have to return to the Demon Realm, gather the scattered demons and reestablish your power, while you must continue your training.”
Of course, if I returned to the Demon Realm, I would be welcomed by the demons who still remembered the Demon King, and it wouldn’t be so difficult to gather some forces.
The Darklands were vast, and even if the Demon King died, it was impossible for the humans to devour everything. I shook my head at Sarkegaar’s words.
“Too dangerous. The humans can’t occupy all of the Darklands, but they wouldn’t neglect their surveillance. If a new demonic force were to emerge, they would immediately launch another attack.”
They wouldn’t just calmly sit by as we reconstruct the Demon Realm they just destroyed. If they noticed any sign of suspicious behavior, they would make a game of killing us all off.
And above all, I just said that to go along with their words, because I had no intentions of rebuilding the Demon Realm and going to war again, you know? I was told that the demons would split up again without me, but, to be honest, that would happen in the distant future. It wasn’t like it was happening now.
And… There was another point that wasn’t as important.
“I think going back to the Demon Realm would be a bad idea.”
Sarkegaar’s eyes lit up at my words, as if he just got an idea. I didn’t want to go back to the Demon Realm in the first place. I sure didn’t like it there.
I wanted to stay in Gardium for now. The city was pretty nice.
I didn’t want to live in a place without trains!
“This is the heart of the enemy territory. To defeat the enemy, one must know the enemy. Rather, we need to learn the ways of humans here.”
It wasn’t hard for me to come up with some reason, as I was the master of finding excuses.
“Ooh, you’re definitely the ideal prince. That boldness and courage to strike right at the enemy’s heart! A King’s virtue worthy of imitatiooooon!”
No, I just wanted to live close to the station, you know?
There was also Eleris, so there shouldn’t be chance of being discovered by humans while living here. The probability of getting caught should have been significantly lowered.
There was no reason for me to leave Gardium. This was the best city to live in on the entire continent, and I didn’t want to leave even if I were to die, unless there was a chance that I would be discovered to be a demon.
I just wanted to while away my time here until the ending. It wasn’t good for me to mess with the story any more, and the ending would come closer and closer as the years passed by while being cared for by Eleris.
There weren’t any specific conditions that I had to be active, right? Right?
Did my excuses work too well? He almost cried at my kind of plausible excuse, believing that I would really be able to defeat our enemy by learning their ways.
He seemed to admire my boldness and courage.
“Your Highness. If that’s what you’ve been thinking, then I have an even better idea.”
“.…A better idea?”
No, I don’t know what it is, but I’m 100% sure it wouldn’t be any good for me.
“Only by knowing the humans’ way would we be able to bring them down! I admire your wisdom!”
No.
What are you going to say?
“By entering ‘Temple’ you would be able to thoroughly learn the humans’ ways! Defeating them with their own weapons would only be true revenge!””
Oh.
What’s that nonsense?
Loyar nodded her head at Sarkegaar’s words.
“I don’t think that’s such a bad idea.”
“Hu, huh?”
“The Temple is the cradle of not only the Empire’s, but also almost all of the human race’s children. When you grow up, you’d know all the people who hold important positions in human society. If you were to fight the Empire, you’d know better than anyone else who your enemies are and their way of thinking. Or you might be able to subdue them. You would destroy the Empire from within.”
No, wait.
What?
I had no intentions of interfering with the main story. However, Loyar looked at Sarkegaar seemingly agreeing with him as if what he said was something good for once.
Sarkegaar added.
“Additionally, Temple is currently nurturing young talents with great power. They aim to nurture talents like the Warrior Artorius. I’m certain it would be of great help to us, knowing what sprouts they are raising and we might be able to remove the too dangerous talents at their roots before they grow.”
Yes. Temple was also an institution that nurtured talented people who would eventually become powerful forces. Even in that kind of place, there was a type of special calss that nurtured talented people who could succeed the Hero Artorius and his party, and yes, that was where the main characters were.
However, there was no reason for me to go there. What the hell was I supposed to do there?
I was going crazy.
I started to get shoved into the story just because I said the wrong words.
Eleris!
Help me!
You don’t want me to turn into a war weapon, right?!
Eleris just smiled at me when she noticed me looking at her with pleading eyes.
“I also think that that’s a good idea, Your Highness.”
What was she on about? Wouldn’t she normally disagree? It was hard to understand why Eleris, who should be opposed to Sarkegaar’s ideas, agreed.
“Now, just wait a second….”
I tried hard to come up with an excuse to avoid this strange development all three agreed to.
“No matter how much we can hide our appearances with magic, there will probably be wizards at Temple, don’t you know what would happen then? It would definitely be dangerous if my identity got revealed.”
Did these idiots want to kill me?
“Don’t worry, Your Highness.”
With a smile Sarkegaar took off a ring from his finger.
“This is a ring that gets passed down from generation to generation in my clan.”
“Well, what about it?”
“Just by wearing this ring, you’d be able to use my clan’s power.”
What?
Why would you have such a thing? Why would such a thing appear so conveniently at a time like this? Huh? This was so unbelievable, honestly. Why the hell would these polymorphic bastards pass down a ring capable of granting the ability to polymorph from generation to generation?
That would be completely useless to them!
Wasn’t this just some random setup for this moment?!
[Do you find it weird to find such an improbable development happening in this novel suddenly?]
[Idiot.]
I felt like something just went by my vision. I didn’t see it properly.
What was that?
“That, that, how could I accept such an important ring that got passed down for such a long time? It, uh, must be very precious to you. Like a memento of your parents. Isn’t that right?”
I gradually ran out of excuses.
“Just what are mementos in the face of your great mission of rebuilding the Demon Realm! Please take it, Your Highness!”
Sarkegaar pushed the ring towards me while shouting out his determination.
Only
“A strong and prosperous nation is almost in our graaaaasp!”
I fell victim to my own excuses.
Anyway, it was pretty obvious.
That person who sent me here didn’t seem to want me to calmly get to the end.
