The Princess of the Fallen Kingdom (2)
One nation. One united humanity.
That was the reason the Kleinrapis Kingdom had to fall.
When the demonkin appeared without warning and began pressing a blade of pure malice against humanity’s throat, the human race was driven into a corner with terrifying speed. The nations closest to the demons’ stronghold had already been annihilated. If things continued this way, humanity itself would be extinguished. The first to grasp that truth was the Church—more precisely, the First Saintess.
The First Saintess would not tolerate humanity’s division. She judged that a race fractured into countless kingdoms could never stand against the demonkin. An alliance of nations? She rejected such a half-measure out of hand. And so she joined hands with the first emperor of the Empire, choosing that Empire as the appointed guardian of mankind.
The Empire gained its cause. With that cause it invaded its neighbors without hesitation. Backed by the Church’s full support, humanity slowly became one. And the only kingdom that still opposed the Church’s choice and stood hostile to the Empire was ours.
The balance of power had already collapsed. The Empire crossed our borders and began its invasion at once. Fortresses fell one after another. Soldiers who had swallowed the Church’s righteous rhetoric surrendered before a single blow was struck.
“Am I going to become the last princess of a fallen kingdom?”
I do not want history to remember me by that name, I thought, and laughed at myself.
But my father refused to give up.
“Is there truly a way?”
“There is, Your Highness.”
If only he had surrendered then… would anything have changed? I could not stop him. The emotion burning in his eyes was too terrifying. I had no confidence I could restrain a feeling that bordered on madness. In the end I failed to prevent my father from taking the hand of a black magician.
An hour had passed since we entered the capital of the fallen kingdom. In that single hour the holy knights and I had cut down so many undead that counting them had become meaningless.
Honestly, I never imagined it would turn out like this. The original plan had been a swift, decisive strike—not a full-scale extermination. The only reason I did not rein in the rampaging holy knights was simple: clearing the undead was far easier than I had expected.
And why was it so easy? Because of me, of course.
“Bombardment really is effective against large numbers,” I remarked, and pulled the trigger. Light gathered at the muzzle of the Holy Relic and swept the undead away. I scanned the surroundings, swung the barrel toward the densest cluster, and fired again. Almost no delay between shots. With every blast the undead were erased like dust. I had already fired a considerable number of times in the past hour, yet my holy power still had plenty left.
A high-firepower area-of-effect skill I could spam without restraint—the ultimate trash-mob clearing cheat key. That was me right now.
If only I could wipe out the demonkin this easily… Unfortunately they were far stronger and far smarter than undead. With my current strength, slaughtering them the way I was slaughtering these corpses was still impossible.
“Ah, their numbers are finally thinning out.”
At my words the holy knights’ expressions darkened slightly.
“A shame. I was just starting to loosen up.”
“I know the feeling. Like the fire never quite caught, right?”
I had vaporized the bulk of the undead with bombardment, so the knights had barely gotten to swing their swords. Maybe I should have held back a little… but this was the first time since becoming Maria that I had experienced the pure joy of farming trash mobs, and I simply could not stop myself.
No—think of it this way. I had been carrying the holy knights the entire time. I had become the perfect group-project leader who single-handedly finishes every assignment. Does anyone complain when the leader does all the work? No—they worship her.
Yes. Without even realizing it, I had acted exactly like a proper Saintess…!!!
I ignored the Fairy’s constant needling and tilted my head slightly.
“Then shall we take out the rest of our frustration on the master of that palace over there?”
The palace of the fallen kingdom radiated a sinister aura. Inside, the princess of the ruined nation was waiting for the intruders. It was time to pay her a visit.
Ruin. Those two syllables suited the interior of the palace better than any other word. Even allowing for the fact that no one had maintained the place and time had struck it head-on, this was excessive. Cracks in the walls were only natural; in places the walls had simply collapsed. Cobwebs? Their absence would have been stranger. You could have called the whole palace a spider sanctuary and I would have believed you. Ornaments lay smashed and scattered across the floor. Intact windows were rarer than broken ones.
In the game you were supposed to wander around searching every corner, piecing together the backstory of the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom. Undead would jump out, the progression felt like a horror game, and the castle’s design itself dripped with horror-game atmosphere. At first I had even wondered whether the whole arc was meant to be a horror concept. The fond memories of first playing Grand Fantasy came flooding back.
“Doesn’t this place feel like a ghost could pop out any second?”
I said it just to recapture that old mood. A holy knight answered instantly.
“Have no fear! Even if a ghost appears, we will capture it for Your Holiness’s safety!”
“““Exactly!!!”””
Uh… I had meant it lightly, but they took it dead seriously, leaving me with nothing clever to say.
“Th-thank you. That really is reassuring.”
Several knights clamped hands over their mouths, unable to hide their moved expressions. …I had known this would happen, yet experiencing it firsthand made me terrified of ever joking in front of holy knights again.
Anyway, while I was trying to recall exactly where the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom waited, the Bombardment Fairy spoke up.
I answered in a whisper soft enough that the knights would not hear.
“The space is distorted.”
It is. Because the true identity of the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom is a Lich. In Grand Fantasy, Liches are called Kings of the Dead. Only black magicians use that title, of course; if a cleric said it they would be called insane. How dare anyone bestow the title of king upon a sinner whose very existence is a blasphemy against the divine?
Still, a being grand enough to be called King of the Dead is never weak. If I had to name the greatest hurdles before entering the Demon Realm, I would pick the battlefield and the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom without a second thought. The castle’s interior was so vast and labyrinthine that even with a guide you wasted enormous amounts of time—pure malice on the developers’ part.
But that was the game. Reality is different. For example…
“I can just blast every wall that stands in my way with bombardment.”
I raised the Holy Relic and aimed. The barrel pointed toward the direction where the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom should be. Recalling the castle’s layout took a moment, but thankfully the memory was still faintly there. Holy power gathered rapidly in front of the muzzle—the prelude to bombardment.
“Too late.”
With those words the light lanced forward, advancing in a perfectly straight line without the slightest hesitation. Walls rose to block the thick beam of bombardment, yet they were pierced with pathetic ease. One, two, three, four… the beam continued demolishing walls until it finally reached the limit of its range and stopped.
Silence fell. The holy knights stood with their mouths hanging open, unable to speak. I did not particularly mind the silence. The result—that bombardment could smash walls—was deeply satisfying. From now on, whenever a path looked blocked, simply blasting through first might not be a bad idea.
“Let’s go.”
I took the lead; only then did the knights snap out of their daze and follow. After roughly five more bombardments we advanced at high speed and emerged into a wide-open space.
“…In all my years I never expected to meet a Saintess this crude.”
A woman’s voice, thick with sheer disbelief, drifted down. I turned toward the sound. On the dilapidated throne at the top of the stairs sat a girl. She wore a tattered dress and a blackened tiara—an appearance I knew well. A character I had seen countless times while playing Grand Fantasy.
The Princess of the Fallen Kingdom, Isabella Kleinrapis.
I answered at once, before any holy knight could take offense at the insult directed at me and open his mouth first.
“That is hardly something a host who fails to come out and greet her guests should say.”
“And that is hardly something a guest who rampages through someone else’s house should say.”
“Then you should have built a better house. Why make it so complicated? I actually improved the place so people can come and go easily. Shouldn’t I receive thanks?”
Isabella’s lips twitched. In return I offered the brightest smile I could manage, then continued.
“For the future of humanity I require ‘that’ which you possess. I have come to take it.”
At those words Isabella slowly covered her face with both hands. Then, as if weeping, yet as if laughing, she spoke.
“…Ha. Hahaha. Right. You people were always like that. Just what was I expecting?”
My expression hardened. This was different. These were not the lines Isabella was supposed to say. Because this was reality instead of the game? Or had the DLC changed something?
I did not lower my guard. There was no telling how she would act. The strategy I knew could turn into worthless scrap paper in an instant. I had prepared myself for that possibility, yet I still wished it had not come to this.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and watched her in silence.
And then—
“Just die already. Enemy of the kingdom.”
The King of the Dead began to wield her power.