Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 384 [Illustration]

The Demon King was a looming threat, and he could strike anyone suddenly. Not long ago, Riana had lost her father to the Demon King, and that had made the threat of the Demon King much more present to these kids.

They had invented great things, but it was too much of a threat to the Demon King. If it became publicly known that such a great invention had been discovered, the Demon King might target its creators. That was what I was saying.

“The Demon King might target us, or perhaps kidnap us to use us for his own purposes,” I said, reminding them of how Charlotte de Gradias herself had been kidnapped.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” I spoke calmly, seriously, without any hint of jest. “You’ve created something so amazing that it might actually put you in danger.”

Though I presented it as a threat posed by the Demon King, it was Cantus Magna that was the real threat.

“I see...”

They had been celebrating their achievements, but I had poured cold water on their excitement. Yet, from their expressions, it looked as if the cold water had brought them back to their senses.

They had only thought about creating and succeeding, without considering the repercussions of their creations. I, who knew nothing about magic, was the only one thinking about and making judgments on the current continental situation.

It was a lie, but ultimately, I had decided on it in order to protect these kids.

“But if the Demon King attacks later on, wouldn’t these two items make the army and mages stronger?” Adelia said timidly.

Others agreed with her as well. These two items were powerful ones that could significantly enhance humanity’s capability to wage war. Instead of hiding because of fear of the Demon King, wasn’t it the right path for humanity to grow stronger with these? It was a fair point. One could always think about it from the perspective of humanity itself. These items could be used to ensure that humanity could find peace. Wouldn’t it be worth the personal risk?

“The opposite is true as well. The Demon King’s forces could also become stronger because of it,” I replied.

“...”

Adelia lowered her head, looking devastated. It was possible that the Demon King could kidnap them, or use the items they had created to enhance his own armies.

“There’s nothing more precious than your own lives,” I said, looking around. “Don’t say things like ‘I’ll do anything to defeat the Demon King.’ None of you need to die for something.”

Even if it was a cliché, being able to live life was still the best, even if one is rolling in the dirt. What’s the point if you’re not alive? Death would serve no purpose but death.

I cherished Harriet, and I cherished all the members of the Magic Research Club. I didn’t hold everyone in the same regard or at the same level, but they were the ones who had followed my unreasonable demands and applied themselves with excessive diligence. I couldn’t let them get hurt.

This was a time when it was easy to get intoxicated with a misguided sense of duty. The great threat of the Demon King was looming, and they held in their hands something that might save everyone.

“But... Reinhart, if we reveal this, even if another war breaks out, fewer people might get hurt,” Louis Ankton said cautiously.

Telling them to seal all this away and hide it could be seen as a selfish act. They might feel guilt, since it wasn’t certain that the Demon King might try to kill or kidnap us.

“And if we request protection from the Temple or the imperial family... wouldn’t they protect us?” he continued.

Revealing these items to the world might not even necessarily be dangerous. Perhaps hiding such items out of concern for their own safety was the wrong thing to do.

Louis Ankton, though talented in academics, had originally been a selfish guy. Frustrated by his inability to use magic, he’d joined the Magic Research Club hoping that he might be able to do something, and he had ultimately achieved results that could go down in human history.

Louis wasn’t upset about not being able to announce their discoveries to the world. Recent events had made him believe that these discoveries could help humanity. He did not want to boast about his achievements, but believed that this was necessary for the people. Perhaps it would be dangerous, but he seemed to believe that it was a danger we could endure.

Something had changed in Louis Ankton after this series of events, and he seemed to be a commendable guy. But just because he thought that way did not mean that I could support him. I was the Demon King, and the threat facing them wasn’t the Demon King.

The kids were cautiously watching me, unsure if I might suddenly lash out in anger.

‘Should I just tell them to do as they’re told, like usual? What would happen if I just let things be?’

This time, though, I didn't want to do that. It would make their efforts meaningless.

“Let’s not do it.” I pleaded with everyone. “Please.”

I wasn’t sure how much of my desperation they cound sense.

“...”

In the end, Louis didn’t insist that we go through with it.

***

It was an unreasonable request, but in the end, everyone agreed to hide the results of their efforts. Ostensibly, it was because of the threat of the Demon King, but my real intention was to hide these achievements from Cantus Magna.

This was also a betrayal to the sponsors who had provided us with substantial funding, but what could we do? Even if we produced successful results, none of the money would be returned to them. The money had been given purely as sponsorship.

Cristina agreed to the idea of hiding the results for now.

“Still,” she argued, “if there are no side effects, shouldn’t we at least give Moonshine to our own people?”

Everyone nodded at that suggestion. We could share it with the close-combat majors, disguising it as something similar to a tonic, without revealing what it really was.

From my perspective, this was both pleasing and concerning. If we couldn’t prevent the Gate Incident, it would be good that those called to respond to it would be stronger. But was it right to give Moonshine to them? They might not end up fighting against the monsters from the Gate, but against me.

“Yeah, we can do that much.”

However, I saw no good reason for me to stop this course of action. In the end, we decided to hide the Power Cartridge. Since I was the first to consume Moonshine, I would monitor its effects and share it with our peers if there seemed to be no side effects.

Cristina was confident there wouldn’t be any side effects, and I believed so too, but it was only right to monitor its aftereffects carefully.

Two days later, we moved from the first-year dormitory to the second-year dormitory on the second floor.

***

It wasn’t really enough to be called ‘moving’. Our things were packed and brought upstairs, and even that was done by the Temple staff, so we didn’t have to do it ourselves. I didn’t have much luggage, but the magic majors had so much that the staff had to make several trips.

“Wow, it looks like we just moved up a floor.”

“Yeah.”

Even though it was just one floor up, it finally hit me that we were second-year students. The dormitory structure was almost the same for each grade, so there wasn’t much difference except for the floor number.

The room numbers remained the same. I was still in room A-11, and Ellen was in room A-2.

On the second-year floor, Room A-2 had been Adriana’s room, so it must have been vacant for quite some time.

—Oh, this goes here. No, not there. Here, here.

Harriet’s door was wide open, and I could hear her directing the placement of her belongings. It seemed like Harriet had the most stuff among our peers.

Ellen and I leaned against the railing of the second-floor corridor overlooking the main lobby.

We rarely had the chance to look down at the main lobby from above since we had always been on the first floor, but we’d have more opportunities to do so from this moment on.

“It doesn’t seem like anything’s changed, but it feels different somehow.”

Both Ellen and I felt a bit restless. Ceres van Owenne was standing in the main lobby below us.

Fifth-year student, Ceres van Owenne... She and Olivia were now in their sixth year. I heard she had been forced to continue as student council president because there were no volunteers. With so few students in the Royal Class, there was rarely more than one candidate for student council president.

The student council president was originally supposed to change in the second year, but given how drastically the story had diverged from the original, Ceres had ended up serving another term. It seemed like another change caused by the butterfly effect, but I didn’t know the specifics.

Ellen seemed to be reminiscing as she watched the student council president in the lobby. After all, the first person to greet her when she’d first entered the Temple was the student council president, and she had been standing there as well.

Which meant...

“The first-years are probably arriving today.”

“Seems like it.”

Now that the seniors had vacated their rooms, the first-years would move into the dormitory before the end of winter break. Ceres was in the lobby, speaking to the young boys and girls who seemed to have just arrived. Not all of them would arrive today.

As Ellen and I leaned against the railing, watching the scene, a voice came from behind us.

“What’s this, the new freshmen?”

It was Riana de Granz.

“Seems like it,” Cliffman responded.

“Hmm.”

Riana glanced down at the lobby below and then turned away, seemingly uninterested.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

Riana and Cliffman were in their workout clothes. Normally, they might have shown some interest, but it seemed they were more focused on their own activities than on the new students this time.

Riana, who now saw nothing beyond her own tasks, left the dormitory through the first-floor lobby with Cliffman.

“...”

Ellen quietly watched Riana’s disappearing figure. I gave Ellen’s shoulder a gentle nudge.

“We should get going too.”

Moving our belongings was one thing, but we had to head to Sabioleen Tana’s training. Our scheduled training time was approaching, and we had to gather at the training grounds reserved for second-year students of Class B.

We had never been late before, and I had no desire to find out what would happen if we disobeyed the Grandmaster’s instructions.

Just as I was about to drag Ellen along, she spoke.

“There seems to be someone among the juniors who’s skipped a grade.”

At Ellen’s words, my gaze naturally shifted to the first-floor lobby... and my eyes widened involuntarily.

“That hair color is unusual.”

A little kid with silver hair...

Lucinil was casually walking towards the Royal Class dormitory.

‘Wait, why is the head of a vampire house here?’

I had no idea what was going on. The head of the house of Wednesday, the Vampire Lord Lucinil, had somehow become a first-year Royal Class student within the Temple.

***

I couldn’t even ask about how Lucinil had suddenly become my junior. I wasn’t supposed to be at all acquainted with a newly arrived first-year student, so there was no way I could approach her.

I was restless, not knowing how the situation had unfolded. I never imagined Lucinil would make such a sudden move.

‘How did she pass through the Temple’s gate, get admission, and sort out her identity?’

“The explanation is that we’ve suddenly discovered a talented individual,” said Mr. Effenhauser, who came to me instead of Lucinil. “I’m sorry I couldn’t inform you earlier; it was a matter agreed upon hastily.”

I was already baffled by Lucinil becoming my junior, and now I had to hear the explanation from Mr. Effenhauser. From what he’d said, it seemed like he had arranged for Lucinil to enter the Royal Class as a newly-discovered talent.

‘Was he acting as some sort of guardian?’

“When discussing the dungeon, it was suggested that your personal security needed to be strengthened.”

“Was it our side that made the decision?”

“It was a consensus from both sides.”

The Black Order and the Vampire Council had come together to discuss the dungeon situation, and both factions had agreed that my personal protection needed to be enhanced.

It was understandable that my faction would suggest this, but I felt somehow touched that Black Order had also suggested that something needed to be done because I might be in danger.

‘Should I even feel touched?’

“It’s not just Cantus Magna. There could be dangers arising from many different situations. Everyone agreed that there should be someone nearby who could urgently extract or evacuate you in a crisis, and there’s hardly any force comparable to a Vampire Lord. They said it wouldn’t interfere with daily life, so there shouldn’t be any issues with disguising her as a Temple student.”

To the Black Order, I was an important piece, but at the moment, I was just a promising prospect, not someone with outstanding skills. Cantus Magna was a problem, and if my identity was discovered, the Temple itself would become my enemy. The Black Order believed it was necessary that someone who knew my truth was stationed at the Temple.

“How exactly did she get admitted?”

“Passing through the Temple’s security gate isn’t that difficult.”

Mr. Effenhauser had vouched for her identity, and barriers were no issue for Lucinil. I knew the Temple’s barrier systems and checkpoints weren’t absolutely fool-proof, but for a mage of Lucinil’s caliber to come and go so easily was surprising. Of course, it wasn’t that the Temple’s defenses were lax; Vampire Lords were just such exceptionally powerful mages.

Eleris had already left the capital, and Lucinil, who had been chosen to help me in place of Eleris, had made the decision to enrol in the Temple since the potential dangers around me had increased.

The Black Order, the Council, and Lucinil must have all decided that I wasn’t supposed to die, at least for the time being. Mr. Effenhauser was also taking a significant risk. If Lucinil’s identity was revealed, Mr. Effenhauser would be implicated as well.

Moreover, Mr. Effenhauser, an imperial loyalist, had knowingly brought a Vampire Lord, who was considered an undesirable element, into the Temple. This meant that my existence was considered crucial enough by the Order that Mr. Effenhauser was willing to compromise his values.

There was nothing inherently wrong with that. It was just shocking that Mr. Effenhauser not only knew about Lucinil’s admission but also actively facilitated it.

“Normally, it would have been easier to dispatch a mage from the Order, but since you wouldn’t trust someone from our side, we had no choice but to have someone from your side enroll. Remember that.”

They had made it possible for Lucinil to enroll because they figured I wouldn’t trust someone from their side.

‘The Black Order... Maybe they’re actually good guys?’

But then again, I couldn’t forget the mess Aaron Mede, a low-ranking member, had caused. Of course, that had all been a result of his own personal deviations, and unrelated to the Order’s directives.

***

Lucinil had been admitted for my personal safety. Still, considering I was supposed to be the boss, it was a bit off that they hadn’t consulted me at all. Well, perhaps it was fortunate that they even recognized me as the boss. And technically, they were trying to protect me, not oppose me.

Although Mr. Effenhuaser had given me the explanation, I still couldn’t have a conversation with Lucinil.

On the night all the new students moved into the dormitory, Ceres gathered them to relay announcements and precautions. Just like when we had been first-year students, the seniors crowded the railings that overlooked the main lobby to watch the first-year students, and the second-year students did so as well.

There were some key characters from the original story among the newcomers, but I wasn’t interested in them. Among the new students, one stood out conspicuously.

Silver hair and unusually short stature...

“Alright, A-11, introduce yourself.”

“I’m Lucinil!”

Seeing someone who might be hundreds or even over a thousand years old acting like the youngest and cheerfully introducing herself was...

—Wow, she’s so cute!

—Let’s go see her later!

—Yeah, yeah!

The way she was confidently puffing out her chest, as if she knew people would find her cute, made me feel... What should I say? It was infuriating.

***

‘What happened to the talent detector? Maybe it wasn’t such a sophisticated magical item, and they hacked it or something? What talent did she use to get admitted?’

Anyway, I needed to have a conversation with Lucinil. Since Lucinil had entered the Temple with the purpose of guarding me, it would be best to establish some level of acquaintance with her so that it wouldn’t seem strange for us to be seen together. I hadn’t intended to pay attention to the juniors, but a junior I couldn’t ignore had enrolled. Though technically, she wasn’t really a junior.

After the announcements were over, I stopped a first-year Class A junior who was about to leave.

“... Uh, an assembly...?”

“Yeah. Get all the first-year students to assemble at the training grounds,” I said.

It wasn’t like I was trying to give them a hard time, but this was the only excuse I had to meet with Lucinil.

***

Right after moving up, I was back in the first-floor training grounds of the Class A dormitory, watching the eleven first-year newcomers gather in the training grounds. I hadn’t told them to, but they were all lined up in order from number one.

Lucinil, Number 11, stood at the far left, staring at me with an expression of keen interest.

Lucinil seemed to be an additional student. The original ten first-year Class A students had become eleven, and it seemed that, somehow, because of me, there was now one more student than in the original story.

I wasn’t planning on giving them a hard time; I just intended to have them introduce themselves and move on.

“Let’s begin with introductions. I’m Reinhart, Number 11 in second-year Class A...”

“Number 11?”

Just as I was introducing myself, the student standing first on the right interrupted me.

“Did you call us to assemble when you’re just Number 11?”

“... What?”

‘What did I just hear?’

I stood there, dumbfounded, as the student at the far right tilted his head and glared at me.

Right. Just like in the original story, the new Class A students were composed of particularly arrogant individuals. In the original story, they didn’t even treat the Class B seniors as seniors, leading to an episode where they clashed with Ludwig.

Among them was first-year A-1, Liberto de Gardenia. The heir to the Gardenia Kingdom and notorious for his arrogance. His talents included Divine Power, mana-related abilities, and weapons skills, or at least that’s what I remembered. Since he was number one, it was only natural that he would be a talent vending machine.

“Even if you’re in Class A, you’re still just at the bottom.”

Liberto continued to glare at me, standing crookedly with his arms crossed.

‘How could someone be so absurdly rude? Well, I wrote him that way, so it’s my fault. But still.’

“Even if you’re a senior, you should know your place.”

“Uh... hmm,” I pondered.

I hadn’t called them to assemble to give them a hard time.

“Do you want to get your ass beaten up?”

But this punk was getting on my nerves.