Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: The Black Prince's Promise
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* * *
“Lord Edward of House Dulles.”
High-ranking assassins from the Shadow Court surrounded him from all sides. But it was not to guard against Edward. Quite the opposite.
“Th-the 'Black Prince' of Sachsen...!”
Edward managed to speak, his voice trembling uncontrollably. Even the act of saying Dale's name seemed beyond his control, utterly precarious.
“Y-y-you... this wasn't the p-promise!”
“A promise, you say?”
“D-drive out the church bastards and m-my fortune...!”
Before Dale, the murderous demon who had just been rampaging madly and slaughtering the cathedral's priests was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a 'puppet,' struggling desperately as if against invisible strings.
“Lord Edward's fortune, you say?”
Dale sneered coldly.
“You colluded with certain merchants in the guild district and spearheaded the 'magic stone and artifact laundering business' within the city to skim commissions. Not only that, but as the head of the adventurer faction, you controlled the hunting grounds within the labyrinth, did you not? Pondering day and night how you could swallow this city whole?”
At Dale's words, Edward's lips quivered. Watching him, Dale smiled coldly.
“Ah, please keep your mouth shut. I'm not finished speaking.”
There were invisible strings in Dale's hands, and the being before him was nothing more than a puppet controlled by those very strings.
After all, the artifact had never run rampant in the first place.
The Puppet's Sword. From the very beginning, the one who had infused the artifact with mana was 'Dale of Sachsen,' and the one who had greedily snatched the bait was Edward of Dulles.
“Did you feel that the noble blood flowing in your veins was a shield that would protect your life, even after breaking the 'Rules of Sachsen'?”
Dale said. Edward struggled again, trying to say something. But before he could, the floor of the grand hall was submerged in a lake of darkness.
“No shield in this world can protect one who has broken the Rules of Sachsen.”
From within the waves of shadow swallowing the area like a flood, predators finally revealed themselves.
《Shadow Lurkers》.
“Ah, ahhh...!”
Edward's face, still clutching the Puppet's Sword, turned deathly pale. He gasped for air like a goldfish, desperately trying to form words. But the 'Black Prince' paid him no mind.
Until the very end, Edward was given no chance to speak, much less to raise his sword against Dale.
“You shouldn't have been so greedy.”
Dale muttered as if it were someone else's affair and snapped his fingers.
「Kieeeek!」
From the darkness, fully grown 《Shadow Lurkers》 shot out their thorny tentacles in unison. Edward's body was torn to shreds, spraying blood. The scattered blood and viscera were swallowed by the darkness, and the lake of shadows receded back into Dale's cloak.
As if nothing had ever happened.
* * *
With the turmoil in the Labyrinth City of Labyrinthus quelled, the Demon Lord's Domain officially fell back into the hands of the 'Viscount of Sachsen.'
The diocesan cathedral, which just moments before had been a testament to the church's glory, was now repurposed as Dale's castle, serving as the seat of his power.
And so, the Viscount of Sachsen, the 'Black Prince,' sat upon the throne in the grand hall of that very castle.
Alongside him, the black-clad female knight who guarded her master from the shadows, Lady Shadow 'Orelia,' appeared at his side. Nothing had changed. She simply stood guard by Dale as always, heedless of the absence of another female knight who should have been there, Charlotte.
Leaving behind those who departed, the Black Prince nevertheless continued his reign.
As the ruler of Sachsen's frozen lands, the Demon Lord's Domain, filled with chilling frost and darkness.
* * *
At dawn that day.
After the city's riots were suppressed, a meeting was held in the castle claimed in the Viscount of Sachsen's name to reconsider the future of the Grand Demonic Alliance.
The swift campaign and battle proposed by Prince Modred had ultimately been rejected by the Martyr's Duel, and their return was the will of the goddess. Therefore, the one who should have borne the responsibility for the retreat was Prince Modred, yet no one dared to hold him 'accountable.'
Above all, it was an undeniable fact that this turn of events had been an unexpected boon for Dale.
*'Thanks to that, the process of reclaiming the Demon Lord's Domain has become several times faster.'*
As a bonus, the wealth accumulated by Edward and his cronies had also fallen into Dale's hands.
Although the physical toll had been immense, there were virtually no casualties among the soldiers or key forces. Except, of course, for the 'Master Templar' who had offered himself as a sacrificial lamb in the Martyr's Duel.
Moreover, it wasn't as if there were no gains. In fact, one could call it an unexpected achievement.
The horde of demons, which appeared to be plundering indiscriminately within the Demon Lord's Domain, operated under a single command structure.
And it wasn't difficult to guess who was commanding them. A high-ranking demon, a shadowmancer.
*'A shadowmancer.'*
For Dale, who claimed dominion over gold and shadow, and even called himself the Shadow Lord, how was he to perceive their existence?
The Dale of today was no longer the Empire's hound. Therefore, distinguishing friend from foe was a matter for his will alone.
“Regarding the threat in the Demon Lord's Domain...”
As the representative of the Grand Demonic Alliance, Dale began to speak.
“I believe it is time we accept that it is a greater threat than we imagined.”
“You bastard, what are you scheming now...!”
“Shall I tell you what people will whisper about the church if the Grand Demonic Alliance disbands now?”
Dale said to Priest Borenus, who made no effort to hide his fury.
“They'll say you marched into the Demon Lord's Domain proclaiming the goddess's holy will, only for the 'church's representative' to misread her will in the Martyr's Duel and lose. They'll say you became dogs who turned tail and fled, abandoning the goddess's command. And as a bonus, the diocesan cathedral in the domain I offered was burned down, and the tithes meant for the goddess were all stolen.”
It was as clear as day that the church's prestige would be dragged through the muck.
“This is a battle we can no longer back down from.”
Dale said, no longer being swayed by the will of the powerful, but taking the lead for the entire Grand Demonic Alliance.
“And I'm sure Your Highness Prince Modred has no intention of returning to the Imperial Palace empty-handed either.”
Dale then turned his head.
“This goddamn bastard...!”
Prince Modred's veins bulged as if he would draw his sword at any moment, but his hand never reached the hilt.
For he clearly remembered what he had seen of Dale during the Martyr's Duel.
The black armor of death. What dwelled within it was, quite literally, the 'end of life and history.'
“That's enough, Modred.”
“S-sister!”
“Lord Dale is right.”
Princess Kiara stepped in to restrain him and spoke.
“The church, House Sachsen, and indeed all of us, including the Imperial Family... we have come too far to turn back.”
She said with a profoundly meaningful smile, positioning herself as Dale's trustworthy ally.
“The Grand Demonic Alliance, the holy war of the crusade, has only just begun.”
The crusade. The name given to the imperial army that had gathered to subjugate the Demon Lord Valore when Dale had been the 'Hero from Another World.'
“Even if the first crusade ended in failure, that doesn't mean this holy war is over.”
Kiara finished, and Lady Scarlet chimed in gleefully.
“That's right. Above all, we cannot back down for the sake of the Master Templar, Brother Lusignan, who sacrificed himself to learn the goddess's will. Isn't that so, Brother Borenus?”
Said the very person who had drained every last drop of Lusignan's blood.
“...”
At Lady Scarlet's taunt, Borenus quietly bit his lip. But they were right. The church had nowhere left to retreat. Unless this holy battle ended in victory, the church's rapidly declining authority would have no ground left to stand on.
“I shall honor the will of my brothers and sisters.”
After coming to a decision, the 7th-circle white mage Borenus spoke.
“I will immediately inform His Holiness and begin preparations to declare a 'holy war' in the name of the Imperial Family and the church.”
“Ah, the goddess wishes for it! Our goddess wishes for so many things. War, for instance, or the wealth accumulated through the blood and sweat of serfs.”
Lady Scarlet scoffed once more. In the face of her mockery, all Borenus could do was bite his lip until it bled.
* * *
It is an inescapable part of human psychology to invest even more to recover a loss once it has been incurred.
Thus, accepting Borenus's request, the Master of the White Magic Tower and head of the Papal States, the Lord of Heaven, obtained the Imperial Family's consent and announced the start of a 'holy war.'
What existed in Dale's Demon Lord's Domain was no longer a mere 'Grand Demonic Alliance.' It was, quite literally, a war desired by the goddess, and new powerhouses began to join one after another to carry it out.
* * *
War does not break out overnight.
Above all, Dale needed time to restore the Labyrinth City and reorganize the development of the Demon Lord's Domain. There was also the large-scale task of expanding supplies and lodgings to accommodate the newly assembling crusaders.
Among these, the most important thing was the business to be conducted with the crusaders.
War profiteering. The increase in demand that occurs as the use of essentials like military supplies grows during wartime, the subsequent increase in trade volume to meet that demand, and the profits reaped from various taxes derived from it.
Through Dale's open-door policy, the Demon Lord's Domain had already become a trade hub that the Empire could not ignore. The war boom brought on by the crusade would only serve to cement that status.
As Dale, in his capacity as Viscount of Sachsen, coldly weighed the scales of profit, his fifteenth birthday finally arrived.
And a few months after that, his younger sister, 'Lije,' celebrated her seventh birthday.
* * *
“Brother! I missed you!”
It was when Dale had left his domain behind and, for the first time in a while, visited the Sachsen Ducal Castle.
The first to run out and greet Dale was his younger sister, Lije, who had just turned seven.
“Lije!”
A girl with the jet-black hair characteristic of House Sachsen and eyes that shone like crystals. Seeing her, Dale couldn't hide his fond satisfaction as her older brother.
“Happy birthday.”
Dale smiled, lightly kissing Lije's cheek.
After the kiss, Lije beamed and said.
“By the way, brother, you haven't forgotten your promise, have you?”
“Of course, I remember.”
“Yay!”
Lije smiled brightly like a child her age, and watching her, Dale reached out his hands toward her.
He recalled the memory of the day a young, six-year-old Lije had burst into tears, whining that she wanted to become a mage just like Dale.
“You said you wanted to learn magic, right?”
“Yes, brother!”
“It won't happen overnight.”
At the same time, blue mana swirled around Dale's hand, and crystals of frost began to shimmer.
He thought back to his old master, Sephia, who had once taught him his 'first magic.'