Love Is Forgotten Through Another Love
In the Empire's slums, an elf wandered.
Step. Step.
But her footsteps had no destination.
Elf Princess Emilia. Ever since Kyle died, she had been drifting without purpose.
"…It's all Kyle's fault. Yes, all of it. Kyle. Kyle was the one who did wrong. Kyle…"
Resentment toward the dead Kyle. Rage. And longing.
She muttered without rest, pouring every one of those feelings into the words.
But no one found her.
The imperial capital alone held more than ten slums, places most people never set foot in—vagrants aside. The dark sky hid even her shadow, and she had cloaked her appearance with magic. No matter how desperately the other elves searched, they never found her.
No—perhaps no one ever would have, for the rest of her life.
If not for Hero Damian.
"Um, hello?"
Someone stepped into her path.
Emilia lifted her head and looked at him.
Damian—who had seen straight through her magic and spoken to her without hesitation. Emilia's head tilted at a crooked angle as she regarded him.
"Heh. And what are you supposed to be?"
She laughed as she said it, but her mouth wasn't smiling. A killing intent rolled off her instead, as if she might tear him apart the moment he misspoke.
Even so, Damian greeted her with perfect calm.
"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Damian, the 182nd Hero."
"He…ro…?"
Emilia flinched at a word she hadn't heard in a long time.
Damian smiled gently at her reaction.
"I've come to escort you, Lady Emilia."
"…"
They say you forget one love with another.
After that meeting, living alongside Damian, Emilia changed the way Jain had. Spending her days with the young man who came to see her every day, she gradually forgot Kyle—her love for him, her resentment, even her longing.
She no longer had any reason to wander the slums. She returned, reported herself alive to the elves who had been searching for her, and resumed her activities.
As a Hero's companion.
No—more precisely, as Hero Damian's companion.
Like the rest of the Empire, she no longer remembered Kyle.
Even now, a full month after his death, she was out enjoying a date with Damian disguised as shopping.
"Heh. How about this? Does it suit me?"
Emilia stepped out of the fitting room in a change of clothes. The outfit was so revealing it stole the eyes of every man in the shop—so short that the slightest movement would bare her bare skin.
"W-wait—Lady Emilia!? Th-that looks far too small…"
"Hmm? Does it? Heh. You're welcome to look closer, you know."
"I—uh—I—I'll just wait outside!"
"Ah, wait—!"
Emilia called after him in a hurry, but he was already gone from the shop.
Watching Damian flee, she let out a sigh.
"Haa. This isn't easy."
For the past week, no matter how much she pressed her chest against him or tried to seduce him, he wouldn't give in. If she had her way, she would pin him down and have sex with him on the spot, making their relationship a settled fact. In reality, she hadn't even managed to hold his hand.
Leaving the shop with that lingering frustration, the two of them stopped at a café. They sipped their drinks and talked for a while.
"I'm sorry I was late for our appointment today, Lady Emilia."
"Heh. It's fine."
I know exactly whose fault that was.
She ground her teeth inwardly, thinking of Jain.
"Ah—by the way, did you hear? I'm joining the Demon King Subjugation Force next week."
"Yes. I heard."
Not seeing him for a while will be lonely, but it can't be helped.
She was thinking that as she sipped her drink when—
"Lady Jain will be going as well."
"What? Her too!?"
That was something she could not simply let slide.
So that bitch Jain is pulling a move like that.
As if it weren't enough that Jain had already made her miss a date with Damian not long ago.
"Kh…"
The moment she heard it, Emilia plunged into agonized calculation.
Frankly, she had no desire to join something like a Demon King Subjugation Force. Camping, field rations, adventures where you couldn't even wash properly—she had long since grown thoroughly sick of all of it. The Demon King was already half-dead anyway; her original plan had been to wait for Damian to cut off its head and come home…
But if she's going to play it that way…
Leading a large force all the way to the Demon King's hiding place would take at least a month or two, no matter how smoothly it went. In that time, Jain and Damian would only grow closer. She could not sit by sucking her thumb and watching it happen.
Emilia made her decision at once.
"Then I'm going too."
"Pardon? You as well, Lady Emilia?"
"Yes. More people is better, isn't it?"
"Haha, well, that's true! Thank you so much. Knowing you'll be with us is a real relief!"
Damian offered pure, sincere gratitude. Emilia's true motives were something else entirely.
Nothing but the impure resolve to make Damian's seed her own somehow during the journey.
And that bitch Jain would be thinking the exact same thing. Emilia answered with that thought in mind.
"Heh. Right. I'm looking forward to it myself."
Smiling, she drained the last of her drink through the straw.
And so she, too, joined the Demon King Subjugation Force.
The expedition against the Demon King was nearly upon them.
Even as the Empire scrambled with preparations for war, a feast was being held once again in the banquet hall of the imperial palace.
"Hahahaha! This wine is damn good! I drink it every day and I still never get tired of it."
"Heheh. Ain't that the truth."
Beneath a golden chandelier, the Emperor's and Yuli's laughter rang out.
Ever since Kyle had been framed, the two of them had thrown a party without missing a single day. The long table was strewn with enough food and drink to feed dozens and still have leftovers.
In truth, even the provisions and supplies for the expedition were far from abundant—but that was none of their concern. That sort of thing was for the underlings to worry about. All they had to do was eat and enjoy themselves.
They would win the war either way.
"Man, even the meat's starting to get old, Your Majesty."
Yuli's speech, once carefully formal, had grown considerably casual—the natural result of coming and going from the palace every single day without fail. The Emperor, for his part, was spending more and more of his time nowhere but the banquet hall. He had at least pretended to handle his duties before; now he didn't even bother with the pretense. Even with war at the door, he was foisting state affairs onto other ministers.
There was only one reason. Once he returned victorious from this war, no one would be able to touch him. Humanity's great work, unfinished for centuries, completed in his reign—who would dare say a word against him?
Glug, glug, glug, glug.
The Emperor filled his cup with that certainty.
"Ahh! The wine tastes damn fine again today."
This, surely, was the toast of victory.
And Yuli felt the same.
Heh heh heh. Finally made it this far.
Under the Emperor's patronage, he had become a hero of the Empire in a mere month. Leveraging the image of an unlucky companion oppressed under the previous Hero, Kyle, he had claimed authorship of the memorial that exposed Kyle's crimes—casting himself as a courageous whistleblower. Thanks to that, it was no exaggeration to call him the most popular celebrity in the Empire.
True, he had not been chosen by the Holy Sword and so had not become the Hero himself—but that hardly mattered. He rather preferred the title he held now: the Hero's teacher. The more Damian distinguished himself, the higher Yuli's own standing would rise in turn.
And Yuli's greed did not stop there.
Since I've climbed this high already, I might as well sit in that seat once before I die.
With that thought, he shot a sidelong glance at the chair the Emperor occupied.
The golden throne. A seat only one person among the entire imperial bloodline could claim.
That was Yuli's ultimate goal.
Of course, a man of common birth sitting there was impossible no matter what—Yuli himself knew that perfectly well.
But once I kill the Demon King, the story changes.
When he returned from ending this war, he intended to announce it before the entire nation.
That he would marry the Imperial Princess.
Didn't fairy tales and novels pull this all the time? The Hero who slays the Demon King, saves the world, marries the princess, and becomes king. A common, obvious cliché—which meant the public would eat it up.
After all, I'll be the one who kills the Demon King no one managed to kill for hundreds of years!
Even if the princess still carried feelings for Kyle, that didn't matter. What mattered was the war of public opinion. He had learned that clearly enough when he framed Kyle. Stir the crowds again, force a situation where the princess had no choice but to marry him, and the problem was solved. Then, someday, when the Emperor passed, he would take that seat.
Heh heh. I'm good.
Yuli marveled at his own airtight, perfect plan.
And so the two of them enjoyed the party right there until they passed out cold.