漫画大王

Chapter 335

Eleris had left the capital.

According to the Rotary Club, a meeting of the Vampire Council was scheduled to be held in a week. Eleris would return before that, so if I went to the Rotary Club around that date, I would be able to attend the Vampire Council meeting.

If I could gain the cooperation of the five vampire families, it would be like gaining a thousand troops.

I needed to obtain their power, whether through threats or persuasion, but I wasn’t sure if that was possible.

I didn’t know what I could do to persuade them or what I could threaten them with, since they hadn’t cooperated with the demon forces during the Great War either.

The Black Order would be in contact with me soon as well, and I needed to obtain information about Cantus Magna in order to proceed with negotiations.

If I couldn’t get that information from the Vampire Council, I might have to resort to the crazy idea of using a forbidden spell myself to lure out Cantus Magna.

Additionally, I was gradually learning something about the Gate Incident through information about the warp gates themselves.

The brooch given to me by Charlotte was already a clue.

If I activated the brooch artifact and passed through the warp gate of the capital, I would be directed to the warp gate in the basement of the Spring Palace.

I didn’t know the exact mechanism of it, but the important thing was that magical technology already existed that could affect the warp gate system.

Of course, this was an authorized artifact, but importantly, this told me that magical technology capable of adjusting one’s path through the warp gate system already existed.

Charlotte’s artifact was a glimpse of what could be possible.

I had begun to seriously dive into the matter of saving the world.

My head felt like it was going to explode. I had no time to sit down to think, and depending on how all this turned out, my life was at stake, as was the possibility that my identity would be exposed.

Of course, amidst all this, there were still plenty of trivial matters to handle.

Clang! Clang!

“Phew.”

“Not bad.”

After exchanging blows with Olivia, I hung the training sword back on the rack, feeling the tingling sensation in my hands.

With Ellen absent, I had no sparring partner for sword practice. As a result, I was practicing swordsmanship with Olivia in the training grounds.

I could practice with Cliffman, but he hadn’t yet mastered Mana Reinforcement, so he wasn’t a match for me if I went all out.

Of course, I could go to Sabioleen Tana for swordsmanship lessons, but I judged it was better for her to focus on teaching Ludwig.

Thus, I was practicing swordsmanship with Olivia instead.

Olivia, who had been twirling her training sword, rested it on her shoulder.

I had come to truly understand Olivia’s skill after the recent tournament. Until then, Olivia hadn’t said anything about teaching me swordsmanship.

Of course, when I asked her, she agreed and came to the training grounds.

Olivia’s skill was undeniably incredible.

The output and stability of her Mana Reinforcement, as well as her swordsmanship itself, were incomparable to mine.

Even with all my strength in Qi Sense, Self-Deception, and Mana Reinforcement, I couldn’t even keep up with her.

I couldn’t help but realize that the only reason I was able to kill Leverier Lanche was because of my use of Achievement Points, Incantation, and sheer luck.

“Shall we try again?”

“Sure.”

Olivia, holding her sword, looked at me with calm eyes.

I retrieved my training sword and activated Mana Reinforcement.

Kwabang! Clang!

In an instant, Olivia charged at me, forcefully pushing my training sword.

“An opening!”

Smooch!

As she pushed my sword away and exposed my chest, Olivia wrapped an arm around my neck and kissed me on the cheek.

“Seriously, stop doing that kind of stuff, will you?”

“If you don’t like it, then get stronger than me.”

Everything was fine, except for an occasional bizarre moment.

***

After sparring for a while, I collapsed onto the training ground floor, stopping just short of sprawling out.

Although my stamina had improved significantly compared to before, sparring while using Mana Reinforcement brought with it a different kind of exhaustion.

It was a kind of fatigue different from just a loss in physical strength.

The fortunate thing was that I did not feel any lasting damage to my mana circuits just from using Mana Reinforcement.

My pure mana capacity had increased, and I originally had talents in both Mana Manipulation and Attunement.

It would be strange if I didn’t get used to it quickly.

“You’re a weakling, Reinhart.”

“... You’re just abnormal, senior.”

“Isn’t it good to be especially abnormal in the Royal Class, where only extraordinary people gather?”

“That’s true.”

Olivia, who was squatting next to me as I lay spread out on the training ground floor, poked my cheek.

“She went back to her hometown, right?”

“Yes.”

“Darn. You’re really treating me too harshly, you know.”

I had nothing to say to that. She was right. I had only sought her out because Ellen wasn’t around.

“Nothing to say? You must really be feeling a little guilty.”

Although Olivia said that, she didn’t seem extremely angry, nor did she want to argue.

I felt a lot of guilt towards Olivia.

Still, neither Olivia nor Adriana knew that I had risked a lot to save them, and I didn’t expect them to know it either.

However, I also couldn’t be a gentleman about it. I wanted to act cool and forget about it, but I couldn’t.

‘It’s frustrating that I can’t boast about it! I don’t plan to talk about it, but the fact that I can’t even do so if I wanted to is just infuriating! I took risks far beyond the level of being caught in a cross-dressing contest, all for the sake of my noona! Isn’t it a bit unfair that she feels resentful towards me now?!’

“Reinhart?”

“... Yes?”

“Was it you?”

“... Sorry?”

‘What is she talking about? Has she figured something out? What clue could she have possibly found? There’s no way Olivia could have any evidence leading her to discover that I’m the Demon King.’

My brain froze, for a moment, and it showed on my face. Olivia gave a sad smile.

“The orphanage I was sponsoring... the directors and teachers... they’ve all been taken away.”

“... Ah.”

I was acting like a thief caught red-handed because I had so many things to hide, and had misunderstood her completely unrelated statement.

‘Yes, that was my doing.’

I hadn’t been able to speak about this matter with the emperor, but I had hinted it to Charlotte while informing her that Eleris had been safely hidden away and asked her if she could step in to resolve a few issues regarding these orphanages.

I had already identified the orphanages that Olivia was personally sponsoring. It seemed strange that they were poor when they shouldn’t have been.

I had spoken to her just a few days ago, but it seemed Charlotte had taken immediate action, and Olivia had found out as well.

Olivia looked at me with a sad expression.

“You... you did this, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“...”

I had hoped Olivia wouldn’t find out, but it was inevitable. Once the perpetrators of the scheme were arrested and punished, and various facts about their schemes came to light, Olivia would eventually learn how the directors and teachers from the orphanages had disappeared and why.

“The capital already has programs in place to support war orphans. It just didn’t make sense that any orphanage would be in financial trouble,” I explained.

Olivia didn’t seem happy. She couldn’t be happy.

The children would now live in better conditions under stricter management, but Olivia had been betrayed by the people she had trusted.

Olivia sat down on the training ground floor.

“I never thought they would do such things. Never. I never even suspected it. I thought no one would ever embezzle money like that... if they were human.”

She had trusted in humanity. She had trusted in the goodness of people.

Olivia had such a humanitarian spirit. After having been disappointed by religion and faith, was Olivia now disappointed in humanity itself?

After a long silence, Olivia said, “The funeral starts today.”

“... The funeral of...”

“Yes, my foster father.”

Leverier Lanche’s death was a significant event, not only for the religious community, but also for the empire itself.

Despite his fall from grace, he was a war hero. He had died fighting demons.

Therefore, regardless of the underlying issues behind his death, it was still a tragedy for the general public. Now that the commotion had settled, a public funeral was being held to mourn Leverier Lanche’s death.

“Reinhart, can you come with me somewhere for a bit?” she asked.

I couldn’t refuse Olivia’s request.

***

It wasn’t so apparent inside the Temple, but once we went out, it was clear that Leverier Lanche was being mourned throughout the empire. Every house on the street had black flags as a sign of mourning, and people were selling flowers to be offered as tribute.

The funeral procession was going to begin from the abandoned monastery where the bodies had been recovered, to the headquarters of the Order of the Holy Knights.

At the southern edge of the capital, the path for the funeral procession was lined by guards.

—I can’t believe it...

—Damn those demons...

A significant number of people who had gathered to observe the funeral procession were likely followers of the Five Great Gods, and even those who weren’t had shown up to mourn the death of a war hero.

Hatred for the demons and fear of the Demon King had surged among the people.

It didn’t matter why Leverier Lanche had been at that place on that date.

People believed that Leverier Lanche had died in a fierce battle against the remnants of the demons, and that was ultimately true.

They just didn’t know the full story.

No one knew that Leverier Lanche had tried to reclaim his lost power by threatening his adoptive daughter and, in the end, had offered to ally himself with the Demon King to bring about the fall of the empire in order to save his own life.

Olivia had to have found this situation absurd.

Thanks to the demon attack, she was safe.

It must have been hard for her to accept that Leverier Lanche, who had threatened Adriana in order to gain her compliance, was being hailed as a hero in death.

The grand funeral procession appeared at the southern entrance to the capital, escorted by holy knights and priests. They were leading a carriage, which was followed by dozens of ornately decorated coffins. Those likely contained the bodies of Leverier Lanche, other holy knights, and other members of the Nameless Monastery.

I didn’t know how they managed to recover Leverier Lanche’s body which had been decapitated by me, or the other bodies which had been torn apart by Loyar, or blown up and burned to a crisp by magic.

I didn’t know the overall opinion of the Order of the Holy Knights, but Illeion Volten was leading the procession on a white horse.

Both the representatives of the empire and Illeion Volten must have found this situation favorable.

Nevertheless, they feigned sorrow for the ignorant citizens, leading the procession with solemn expressions.

As the funeral procession appeared, people began to cry as if overwhelmed by sadness.

—Oh no!!!

The tears that started with a few quickly spread, and soon, the mourners were crying a sea of tears.

They probably didn’t know Leverier Lanche.

They were just mourning his death, not knowing why they were so sad or even shedding tears. Perhaps they were true believers, they had some other reason. I couldn’t tell. But I had no right to question their tears.

I was the most inhuman person here.

Regardless of whether those people deserved to die or not, I was the madman who had come to watch the funeral of the people I had killed.

Amidst the sea of crying mourners, there were quite a few who weren’t crying.

However, those who weren’t crying seemed to be filled with a sense of discomfort, as if not crying made them feel guilty.

They were restless.

Tears are usually an involuntary action. One can’t cry on demand unless it has been practiced. Tears well up on their own, and cannot be commanded by the mind.

Olivia observed the approaching funeral procession calmly.

“Reinhart.”

“Yes?”

“Is it bad of me to think all of this is so disgusting?” Olivia said quietly as she watched the coffin containing her foster father’s body approach.

All of this was ultimately just a show.

All these people were ignorant. They were simply making Leverier Lanche a hero in death because they had been shown a perfect image of him.

Olivia must have hated Leverier Lanche, but she also hated the fact that his death was being exploited.

Olivia felt disgusted by all of this.

“I think it’s understandable,” I said.

Olivia nodded.

As the funeral procession gradually approached and began to move along the main road of the southern district of the capital, the crying of the mourners grew ever louder. They were heading to the headquarters of the Order of the Holy Knights, with Illeion Volten at the head.

People who had gathered to see the long procession were crying and throwing flowers as the two of us watched.

—There, over there...

—Isn’t that the Saintess...?

—The Saintess...?

—She’s the Commander’s daughter!

We had been watching for too long.

Olivia was a well-known figure, and there were plenty of people who could recognize Olivia.

Someone gestured towards Olivia amidst the sea of tears, and all the attention quickly focused on her.

The Saintess of Eredian.

Although she was the reason for Leverier Lanche’s fall, no one cared about that.

The former Commander of the Holy Knights and war hero who had honorably died fighting the demons.

The fact that his daughter was here was what mattered.

—Oh, Saintess!

“...”

Olivia’s expression hardened, and in an instant, the crowd began to swarm around us.

“Oh, Saintess! What are we to do?! What should we do?!”

“You must take revenge for us against those vile, filthy demons!”

“You must carry on your father’s will and lead the fight against the demons, Saintess!”

“Oh, Saintess! We can’t live in fear any longer!”

“Saintess!”

“Saintess, you must save us!”

“With the Hero gone, what are we to do?!”

.

.

.

We were quickly surrounded in chaos.

Countless people knelt before Olivia and cried out to her as though she were some sort of deity.

They did not see her as the reason for Leverier Lanche’s fall from grace, or that Olivia had abandoned her faith.

The Demon King had returned, but now, there was no Hero.

Someone had to stand against the Demon King.

Someone other than them. Someone great, brave, kind, and powerful.

They wished for someone else to defeat the Demon King in their place.

—Please, Saintess, you must defeat the Demon King!

—You’re our only hope, Saintess!

—Oh, Saintess! Save us!

They didn’t know the real Olivia.

They only knew that she possessed very powerful Divine Power and was a person of such excellent character that she was called a saint.

She watched on as countless people knelt down and begged her, as if she were some kind of queen, to die in their place.

She watched on as so many people boldly asked her to sacrifice herself for them.

I saw her eyes slowly become unfocused.

Olivia was being crushed by the overwhelming pressure.

She was tormented by countless people urging her to restore her faith.

She had seen the disgusting behavior of those who would recklessly use others’ lives to exploit her, and now she was witnessing someone who had done exactly that being praised in their death.

The sponsorship funds she had painstakingly gathered had been embezzled by the teachers she’d trusted.

It had moved beyond faith and religion. Now, people who had nothing to do with faith or religion were crying and boldly demanding that she die in their place.

These people were using their tears as a shield to push someone else into death without hesitation...

Something important, which had barely remained alive in Olivia’s heart, had finally shattered.

A cold, emotionless voice flowed out of Olivia’s lips. “Why should I? Why on earth should I do that?”

Olivia had broken.