The Ancestor's Revelation
Yeah. Nice to meet you. My name is Evelyn Darkwood. The betrayer of humanity, the right hand of the Demon King’s army, the greatest obstacle to the Hero Party, the greatest dark mage in the field of mind magic, and…
You are my distant descendant.
I stared at the grimoire in stunned silence as its voice began its self-introduction. A distant ancestor? What in the world did that mean? No, more importantly, what was this Darkwood name? Serina had always been just an extra commoner student, hadn’t she? A traitor to humanity? A lackey of the Demon King’s army? Damn it, why were all those descriptors so over the top?
Hearing the voice of the book introduce itself as Evelyn, I couldn’t help but wear a dumbfounded expression. And the moment it saw my face, laughter echoed from the grimoire.
AHAHAHA! What an interesting expression? How do you like my self-introduction? I put some thought into picking just the right ones. If you have any questions, feel free to ask~ Since I’ve been stuck here alone for so long, I got bored, you know?
While looking at the grimoire giggling like it was having the time of its life, I felt a strange mix of excitement and nerves. Intuitively, I sensed that meeting this book would be the salvation I’d been praying for in my hellish academy life. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but I decided to start with the most important one.
“T-Then… you said I’m your distant descendant, but I don’t have any parents, and as far as I know, I’m just a commoner, not even nobility… Could you have gotten something mixed up?”
As I asked the question, I hoped deep down that she really was my ancestor. I’d figured that if she was simply my descendant, she might be kind to me. And luckily, her response was exactly what I’d wanted.
“Hmm… How should I explain this? Let me put it in a way you can understand easily. First, can you hear my voice clearly right now? The fact that this voice is coming through without any interference is proof of my blood mixing with yours. After all, unless you’re my blood relative, I probably wouldn’t even be able to properly recognize the existence of this grimoire.”
The book paused for a moment before continuing. “And… you can’t feel it, but I can completely sense you, right? That means I can see your appearance too. If you look at my form, you’ll probably realize just how similar we are.”
The book’s claim wasn’t something I could immediately dismiss. Unlike other people, I didn’t feel anything strange about having a backstory like this for the sake of the game’s plot. It was the protagonist after all. “Then what about this Darkwood name? I don’t know much about nobility, but I’ve never heard of the Darkwood surname…”
The book hesitated briefly before asking me a question. “Can you tell me who the current king is? I’ve been trapped here for so long that I don’t know the current date. Before I explain, I think it would be best to know how much time has passed.”
“Uh… So the king Richard ascended to the throne eight years ago.”
This world counted years by the king’s coronation, so I quickly calculated the timeline for her. But even after hearing my answer, Evelyn still looked unconvinced. “Hmm… I’m sorry, but when I was out there, there was no Richard in the royal bloodline.”
Ah, then how about this—how long ago did the Demon King die? The moment I heard her question, I couldn’t hide my shock. The ending of the game I’d forgotten flashed before my eyes. ‘Now that I think about it, the main story of this game was about defeating the Demon King.’ The game had downloaded so quickly that that was all I knew, so I’d forgotten the rest. The protagonist would defeat the revived Demon King. It was a simple, typical story. ‘But how long has the Demon King been dead? How long has this book actually been here?’
“Th-Then… I guess there is such a being as the Demon King, but as far as I know, it died roughly five hundred years ago…”
“What? Five hundred years?!” Evelyn seemed equally shocked by my answer and stayed silent for a moment before muttering to herself. “Five hundred years, huh… That Sylvia girl—how precisely she cast that magic? Five hundred years is long enough to be over revenge, and everyone else should be dead… Wait, maybe that elf girl is still alive?”
Tsk… Hah. This wasn’t in the schedule. Listening to Evelyn’s self-talk, I started to wonder if her earlier words about her self-introduction were exaggerated. As I recalled, the sorceress named Sylvia had been the archmage of the Hero Party five hundred years ago. The story of the Hero Party defeating the Demon King was legendary, and storybook versions had already been made. There were so many related tales that I’d read about the world lore back when I was researching. ‘So Evelyn has been trapped in here for five hundred years?’
“U-Um, Lady Evelyn? Could I ask how you ended up in this book?”
Evelyn, who had been venting her complaints alone, went quiet for a moment after hearing my question, as if thinking it over. “Hmph… Fine, I suppose. Since I’m going to have to explain this story to get out of here anyway, just don’t laugh at me, okay?”
So Evelyn began her short and dramatic backstory. The Darkwood family had produced some talented individuals, apparently. However, they weren’t on the level of royal swordmasters or archmages, and only occasionally had someone with exceptional talent join the royal knight squad. That’s how Evelyn was born into the family. She had many older siblings, wasn’t particularly talented with magic, and only had average skill at best. Moreover, the family head at the time was a fanatical meritocrat who neglected his children. As a result, unlike her siblings, Evelyn was left in the background and became something of a problem child—a transparent existence with no power or influence. At the age of fourteen, she left the family to become an adventurer. Of course, she didn’t have any grand ambitions; she just wanted to escape the suffocating family and pursue her research. The field she focused on was “mind” magic.*** “Mind? What about that?”
“Yeah. Ever heard of the term ‘hypnosis’?”
I was slightly startled by her question. What the hell? Some game-like plot twist out of nowhere? But thinking about it, the foundation of this world was already a game, so nothing weird about it. “Yeah. If you’re asking about the meaning, I know.”
“At the time, I was interested in controlling others for reasons no one else knew. So I researched mind-related magic, which was considered the black sheep of the field. And I made some pretty meaningful discoveries.”
Her story grew more and more intriguing, and I listened intently. “But why was hypnosis considered the black sheep? It seemed so effective.”
“At the time, the Demon King’s army was rampaging across the continent, waging war against humans, beastkin, elves, and every other race. Most magic research was focused on raw power. Dropping a city-sized fireball or lightning bolt was far more efficient than controlling a single living being.”
“And that was actually the case. But my goal wasn’t war. After some time, I managed to successfully hypnotize a girl I was adventuring with.”
“Wow. So you could really control someone by ordering them to do whatever you wanted?”
“It felt a little unstable back then, but once it reached a level that could be called true hypnosis, anyone could use it without issue. But there was a problem.”
“What was the problem?”
“I don’t know how they figured it out, but the Demon King’s secretary raided my secret laboratory.”
“What?”
“Literally. I still don’t know where the rumors came from, but the Demon King’s side came to recruit me.”
“And they even brought artifacts related to mental barriers, claiming they could resist hypnosis.”
“So what happened after that?”
“Nothing much changed. Honestly, if I’d fought properly, I could have held my own, but if the Demon King’s army kept invading after that, it would have been the perfect time to die.”
“So I decided to become a traitor. Honestly, I didn’t care much about the family or the country.”
After rolling around under the Demon King for a few years… um… Evelyn seemed lost in thought for a moment before trailing off. This was probably the part she’d warned me not to laugh at. So I gave her a determined look and said, “No matter the reason, I won’t laugh. Honestly, I don’t feel any connection to being a traitor to humanity or anything like that. I haven’t gained or lost anything from it.”
“Eh… I’m not worried about that kind of reason. Anyway, continuing—there was a daughter of the Demon King back then. That’s an interesting story too. A daughter of the Demon King. I thought maybe it would become a plot point later, related to the revived Demon King in the story.”
So I listened to the rest of her words with renewed attention.