The Temple.
"..."
Ellen lay in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"It seems Reinhardt has... returned."
"..."
Charlotte, who had gone out for a brief chat, came back and told Ellen as much.
Ellen had faced death several times in the battle against Loyar.
Even as a Swordmaster, Lycansloth's power, amplified by the full moon, was difficult to handle.
Lament and Lapelt.
Without the two relics, she might have been defeated.
Battered and bruised, Ellen managed to subdue Lycansloth and dragged her unconscious body to the sewer entrance before passing out.
The remaining tasks were taken care of by the soldiers and knights who had followed Ellen.
The priests' healing had improved her condition, but the exhaustion felt as if her body would break had not yet subsided.
Adriana had been captured.
Charlotte was told that she was not involved, but the outcome of the incident remained uncertain.
The two pursued the truth and arrived at it in just two days.
Collecting the scattered clues was not difficult.
However, coping with the easily discovered truth was another matter.
"Ellen."
"Yes?"
Unable to look Ellen in the eye, Charlotte asked hesitantly.
"Is Reinhardt... the Demon King?"
Ellen continued to stare at the ceiling.
He might not be the Demon King, but Reinhardt could be the Demon King's servant.
Yet that once playful confession had now become the final puzzle piece.
All the arrows of doubt and suspicion pointed at Reinhardt.
"Yes."
With her gaze unfocused, Ellen quietly replied.
"That's likely. I'm certain."
Reinhardt was the Demon King.
The Temple was silent.
The news of the hero Reinhardt being suspected of being the Demon King and arrested was kept top secret.
Those who knew even a little about the situation were tight-lipped.
Moreover, the empire's elite forces, including Saviolin Turner, who had gone to Darkland, returned after being called by the empire without finding the missing Reinhardt.
Naturally, this included the Duke of Saint Owan and Harriet.
Harriet, who had been pacing anxiously due to their failure to find the missing Reinhardt, turned pale beyond belief upon hearing the Duke of Saint Owan's account after his audience with the Emperor.
"W-What do you mean, Father...?"
The Duke of Saint Owan was just as perplexed by the situation.
"His Majesty said that the possibility of Reinhardt being the Demon King is very high..."
"Wh...? What does that mean?"
Harriet, who had never even considered such a thing, doubted her ears even though she had heard the words clearly.
The Duke of Saint Owan briefly conveyed the investigation process of Charlotte and Ellen and Bertus' final instructions that he had heard from the Emperor.
Harriet was not so slow-witted as to be unable to understand the whole story.
But she couldn't believe it.
"There must be some misunderstanding... There has to be. It can't be true, Father. Reinhardt... Reinhardt is human. He's a person... How could Reinhardt be...?"
Shivering, Harriet was carefully embraced by the Grand Duke.
"That's right. If there's a misunderstanding, it will be cleared up."
"Yes, there must be some misunderstanding. Surely..."
In her faint consciousness, Reinhardt's last words echoed in Harriet's head.
'I wanted to save everyone...'
There was no way that Reinhardt, who said such a thing, could be the Demon King.
There was no way.
But Harriet clearly remembered the presence beside Reinhardt at that moment, an entity with an unknown identity but possessing immense magical power.
Harriet blankly watched as someone walked out from the central palace of Tetra.
Saviolin Turner.
Harriet saw Shanafel's pale-faced commander exiting Tetra, staggering, and then collapsing on the spot.
“Commander!”
“Commander!”
Numerous knights rushed to the Shanafel commander, who had collapsed with her legs giving out.
It couldn't be helped.
It was an event that brought immense doubt, suspicion, and shock to everyone's hearts.
—---
I was gagged.
My mouth was covered to prevent any mischief using the Word Magic.
But because of that, I couldn't make any excuses or say anything in my defense.
Why I had done what I had done so far.
What the reasons for my actions were.
I wasn't given even the slightest opportunity for defense or argument.
I had done all this to prevent a potentially world-ending Gate incident, and now that I had found Akasha, I had achieved my goal.
I wasn't given the chance to say any of that.
That I possessed the power of Word Magic.
The greatest superpower had now become the worst curse for me.
It was as if the Word Magic had been given to me just to make me unable to say anything in this situation.
I couldn't say anything for myself or for those who felt betrayed by me.
Trapped in the dark underground, I couldn't sense time, but I knew when day broke.
Loyar returned in human form.
Loyar was locked up in the iron bars opposite me.
With the gag in his mouth, Loyar looked at me.
"Ugh... W-... Wh... Why...?"
Tears streamed down Loyar's bulging eyes.
Did she think it was her fault that I was caught?
I don't know.
I don't think so.
The accumulation of incidents was bound to reach a critical point and explode, and it just so happened at this unfortunate timing.
I didn't know what I had to face, but once it had come to this, I just accepted it. It was bound to happen, so it happened.
It felt like giving up.
So, although I couldn't speak, I shook my head at Loyar, who stared at me with wide eyes and cried. I had the freedom to move my head, at least.
Was it your fault?
I don't think so.
Did my feelings get through?
Loyar didn't stop crying but sobbed even louder with a more animal-like sound.
Where was this place in the temple?
I didn't know.
The Empire seemed to think it was better to keep me locked up in the temple rather than transporting me to the palace now that I had been captured in the temple.
-Squeak, squeak
Soon, the guards were replaced.
They must have been knights from Shanafel and mages from the Royal Magic Corps.
Just yesterday, they had been on a mission with me, and now they were here to monitor me, accused of being the Demon King.
In just a day, it was as if the world had turned upside down, and everything had changed.
Two sets of iron bars.
Soon, I found out who was watching me and Loyar from the closest distance.
Saviolin Turner.
She stared down at me, bound and slumped within the iron bars.
She seemed unable to comprehend the situation yet.
"Reinhardt."
"..."
She called my name from beyond the iron bars.
"Are you the Demon King?"
I was gagged, so I couldn't say anything.
Perhaps it was better this way.
Yes, I am the Demon King.
Or deny it, even in this situation.
I didn't want to say anything with my own mouth.
Saviolin Turner stared at me with wide eyes from beyond the iron bars.
"Could it be... Even saving the princess..."
"..."
That's right.
It couldn't be helped that she would come to such a conclusion.
In the chain of events, even my act of saving Charlotte...
It must have seemed like an action to maintain the existence of the soul of the previous Demon King.
All the actions I took to protect someone under the pretense of saving everyone eventually turned into arrows aimed at me.
Although I could understand that thought process intellectually.
There was nothing I could do about the despair and misery that engulfed me.
Of course, I wasn't just confined and monitored.
"The dispel isn't working."
"Indeed, otherwise, it should have been lifted the moment he crossed the Temple Gate."
He must have deduced that I was transforming. Saviolin Turner, having heard the mage's report, stared at me intently.
"Did you use some sort of polymorph magic...?"
The ring of Sarkegaar, specialized in disguise, remained undetected even by the mages' magic.
Saviolin Turner continued to watch me, as if wanting to believe that I was merely human.
However, she knew that my guardian was the unmistakable Lycansloth, the Demon Lord's minion.
And with two relics in my possession, I couldn't be treated as merely a servant of the Demon Lord.
If not at the level of the Demon Lord, the perception that one couldn't possess two relics must have existed.
How much time had passed?
Did the Council and the Black Order know about my current state?
What would happen if they found out?
In a state where I couldn't sense time properly, I soon faced the inevitable.
"Your Highness..."
I heard Saviolin Turner speak to someone with a worried voice.
Soon, someone's silhouette appeared in front of the iron bars.
It was Charlotte.
She stared at me intently.
"Open it."
"Your Highness, I can't."
"Open it."
Charlotte said it only twice. Unable to resist her strong will, Saviolin Turner opened the iron gate with a grimace.
Charlotte, still bound, kneeled down in front of me, who was also sitting hesitantly.
She looked at me.
I couldn't gauge the depth of the swirling emotions or the depth of the betrayal in her eyes.
Charlotte asked me as she stared.
"You've lied to me so much up until now."
"..."
"So at least this time, just this once... Be honest. Just once. Just this once... Tell me the truth."
Charlotte looked at me.
Even in this situation, she kneeled before me, begging for the truth.
"Is it...true?"
She didn't ask what was true, but I knew what she meant.
Was it true that I was the child who escaped the Demon Lord's castle with her?
Was I the Demon Lord?
That's what she was asking.
Should I deny it?
Should I continue to lie even now when everything has come to light?
There's no way to escape, and the truth that I am the Demon Lord is bound to be revealed.
There's no way to return to how things were before, without suspicion.
I have deceived Charlotte up until now.
I have lied to her more than anyone else.
And now that everything has ended, should I continue with another threadbare lie?
No.
I'm tired now.
I'm worn out from piling up lies.
I looked at Charlotte.
If I lied even now, an even greater sense of betrayal would return.
Denying it here and now, it seemed like something irreversible would happen.
It was too late.
I couldn't keep piling up misunderstandings.
I nodded, my mouth still gagged.
"I... Why... What did I do wrong to you?"
There was nothing like that.
"Why me? Why only me? Why did you have to torment me like this? Did you hate me that much? I understand that the Empire destroyed the Demon Realm and you wanted revenge... But why... Why did I have to go through all this? You know how much I've thought about you and cared for you. But was it all just part of your plan for me to forget you and rely on you again?"
I wanted to save you.
"Using the soul of the Demon King within me, what did you want to do? Yes, it was strange. Somehow. I felt like something was going on, so I asked to be taken to the palace of spring, you appeared just in time to prevent my rampage, and all of that... It was possible because you were the son of the Demon King, right? From the beginning, you knew everything that was happening to me..."
I couldn't say a word about the puzzle I was trying to piece together alone.
If my lips were unsealed, could I have said something?
Did I have anything to say to the question of why I hadn't spoken sooner?
If I suddenly can speak, they would probably think I'm telling another lie since I've already been exposed.
"Did you plan on marrying me... If we had gotten married... would you have thought you could swallow the empire...?"
Yes.
I could have thought that far.
The engagement to protect you back then could be seen as a conspiracy of the Demon King trying to swallow the empire through marriage with the eliminated princess of the imperial competition.
It was Bertus who proposed the engagement with the princess, but I accepted it.
A Demon King who swallows the empire, not rebuilding the demon world, but making the enemy his own.
It seemed like a plausible plan, even in my own thoughts.
Of course, there was no such intention at all.
So, by becoming the guardian knight of the princess and preventing that situation, Ellen would become the hero of the empire?
"Did I... do so much... so much... wrong to you?"
She had been used by me from beginning to end.
From the escape of the Demon King's castle, meeting her at the temple, becoming friends with her, taking on the role of a messenger, and countless lies built up while dealing with Charlotte. All of this could only be understood as part of my ambition to swallow the empire.
So, Charlotte stood before me, trembling with the tremors of betrayal, unable to cry properly.
"You should have killed me... You should have just killed me..."
"..."
"If you were going to make me more miserable than death... You should have just killed me..."
The person who saved her was, in fact, the Demon King.
And now, knowing that it was the Demon King, she had come to rely on someone else, who was also the Demon King.
She couldn't help but think she had been deceived all along.
"Did you enjoy it... playing with me like that... when I smiled at you, unknowingly... crying in front of you... all those moments... were they fun...?"
Charlotte looked at me.
Her empty gaze stared at me.
"Did you find it unbearable to laugh at all those moments when I tried to rely on you, not knowing that I was being used and not knowing that my enemy was right in front of me?"
No.
Right now, I find my own situation more ridiculous than anything.
I have brought about all of this, stirring up what should have been left alone, and now the catastrophe of everything is right before my eyes.
My current state is ridiculous.
"I wish you... in the world... would die in the most miserable way possible..."
Charlotte muttered blankly.
"I wish you couldn't find peace even in death, and were stuck in a place like the bottom of hell, suffering eternally... I wish that would happen..."
Charlotte cursed me.
What did I do so wrong?
Charlotte kept saying that in front of me.
That was what I wanted to say.
What did I do so wrong...?
