143
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 143
Caesar turned off the psychometry.
"...How did you figure it out?"
"Just a guess. Most gargoyles can't help but use psychometry when they hear a shocking truth."
Damn, he overreacted to his bluffing.
It seems his experience isn't going anywhere.
After all, if he hadn't developed some intuition after living as a doppelganger for over 250 years, that would be strange.
"It seems you can read someone's thoughts from quite a distance. Those who can use psychometry usually try to touch my body or look for something I've touched. But you show no such intention."
He even instantly discovered the secret of Caesar's psychometry.
Caesar drank his alcohol to calm his mind.
'Don't let him read any further.'
This guy is a monster.
A monster who knows more secrets about the demon realm and the continent than Caesar knows.
Until he precisely figures out what this guy wants, Caesar needs to hide some of his ambitions, goals, and abilities to a certain extent.
"Then it's strange. Why did you come to see me directly? Knowing that your mind could be read? Normally, a person would hope their true feelings aren't revealed. Especially someone who has lived as a doppelganger for over 250 years would have many secrets they want to hide."
"You've hit the nail on the head."
The expression of someone who says they've been hit right on the mark is incredibly calm.
He probably calculated all of this from the beginning.
"Do you happen to have a way to block my psychometry?"
Caesar used psychometry.
"No. There isn't such a thing."
-I can't block the psychometry that directly reads me. Because it's a record of the soul.
'Record of the soul?'
What does that mean?
He wants to understand precisely, but Caesar knows too little about Elijah.
‘Star's' psychometry Caesar uses can easily read the other person's thoughts and past the more deeply he understands them, but the less he knows about them, the harder it becomes to read.
The reason Caesar can somewhat read Elijah’s mind from a distance is because he's looking directly at Elijah and is intensely focused on hearing the answer he wants.
"So you came to have your mind exposed. What exactly do you want?"
"It would be more accurate to say I came to share our desired goals and information."
Elijah took a sip of alcohol.
"Shall we exchange the information we want lightly?"
"I know you're not lying. But how can you know whether I lied or not?"
"The method to find out if you're lying is simple."
Elijah smiled faintly.
"I know more about you than you think."
-I will only ask questions I already know about.
What does that mean?
So he means he'll only ask questions he already knows about Caesar?
Then why ask questions at all?
But Elijah didn't give Caesar time to think deeply.
"I'll start with you. Caesar."
Elijah put down his alcohol on the table.
"You're Barre, right?"
Caesar felt like his heart had dropped.
Until now, except for Agatha, he had never leaked information that he was Barre to anyone.
Could Agatha have told him?
Or does Elijah have his own way of finding out?
How exactly did he discover this?
-Caesar is indeed Barre.
-He doesn't know the exact reason for killing the Demon King and running away, but all circumstantial evidence suggests Caesar is Barre.
-After rescuing Agatha trapped in the vampire's castle, he would have stolen Caesar's body.
-The reason for running away is obvious.
-To escape from Barre and live a new life.
"The reason Mitchell still doesn't think Caesar and Barre are the same person is because he can't conceive of Caesar as a doppelganger.
However, Elijah knows that Caesar is a doppelganger.
Naturally, he would have been able to somewhat deduce that Barre has taken over Caesar's body and is living a new life.
Of course, it's only circumstantial evidence, so he can't be certain, but he was almost half convinced.
Caesar took a sip of alcohol and thought.
Should he lie here?
Or should he say it's true?
After thinking for a moment, Caesar opened his mouth.
"Yes. It's true."
"How frank."
"There's no reason to lie when I'm already caught."
Caesar had thought that dealing with Hilos was the most difficult, but now it was twice as hard as before.
Hilos at least didn't know that Caesar was a doppelganger, but Elijah knows everything, doesn't he?
Caesar took another sip of alcohol and opened his mouth.
"Then it's my turn."
"Yes. What do you want to know?"
He needs to turn the atmosphere around here.
He must ask a sharp question that would make Elijah take a breath to take control.
What question should he ask?
Caesar observed Elijah's demeanor.
Elijah was drinking alcohol with a very calm expression.
That self-confident expression that seemed ready to counter any question completely irritated him.
Caesar decided to just blurt it out.
"Where are the graves of the sons you killed?"
Elijah's fingertips trembled for the first time.
His expression also changed dramatically.
His mouth corners dropped, his eyes cast down on the table, and his wrinkles deepened.
His eyes were close, but seemed to be looking at something far away.
"Yes. Now I somewhat know what kind of person you are."
- Caesar is someone who doesn't want to lose the initiative in his hand.
- He's also someone who always retaliates when attacked.
- Just as I've heard, he's more of a politician than a knight.
Elijah picked up the alcohol bottle on the table and filled his glass to the brim.
"I collected the corpses of the heirs of the family I killed when I started my fifth life as the Margrave. So, strictly speaking, there are only three graves and one tomb."
"Are the three graves in the Friedrich border family cemetery?"
"Yes, that's correct. The other one is temporarily buried near Smauernman."
"How is that possible? Right after replacing the heir, you killed the sons and took over their bodies."
Elijah drank all his alcohol and put down the glass on the table with a bang.
"Aren't we supposed to ask questions one at a time?"
Elijah revealed his emotions for the first time.
Caesar took this as a good sign.
Elijah's weak point is the sons he killed.
And Caesar didn't need to ask the same question again.
He had already read what was in the man's head.
The funeral customs in the Friedrich border region traditionally involve cremation.
This was due to a superstition that vampires would dig up graves and turn the dead into corpse ghosts.
After killing the heir, Elijah would collect the body, burn it, grind the bones, put them in a ceramic container known only to him, and bury it in a temporary cemetery.
Then, when it was time to 'die' again, he would take out the bone jar buried in the temporary cemetery and rebury it in the family cemetery.
So what were the cremated bodies?
Surprisingly, these were decoy bodies he killed after creating a doppelganger in his own image.
In other words, he simply created an additional doppelganger like 'Pepe' or 'Sith' to kill and bury with the dead son's body.
Caesar couldn't understand how to deal with this utterly twisted person.
"Does the current Arch Duke know that you are a doppelganger?"
"……!"
Only a breath came out at the unbelievable information.
Until now, he had never disclosed to anyone that the Arch Duke knew he was a doppelganger.
Not to Agatha, nor even to Pepe.
This means that this person also knows the secret of the Great Ark Library.
'Now I finally understand what this guy wants.'
"Elijah wants to control Caesar.
At least, he wants to domesticate him so that he doesn't interfere with the 'goal' he's aiming for.
In other words, this is not a time for mutual questioning, but a show to demonstrate that Elijah is above Caesar's head.
In fact, his purpose was being carried out perfectly.
Caesar had never been this intimidated in his entire life.
Elijah leisurely took a sip of alcohol and opened his mouth.
"I don't need to hear your answer. Because I already know your answer."
"Do you know the secret of the Great Ark Library?"
"Is this your second question?"
"No, give me a moment to think."
"Take all the time you want."
Caesar calmed himself down.
He realized what Elijah was truly aiming for.
What approach should Caesar take?
First, to escape Elijah's control, reveal that he is an extraordinary being.
The success probability of this method is extremely low.
Even if successful, he has no idea how Elijah would treat him, so it's best to pass.
Second, continue to touch Elijah's weak point to agitate him.
This method is not good either.
The only one who will suffer from worsening the relationship is Caesar.
Right now, Caesar is just a battalion commander commanding 300 wizards and around 100 knights.
In terms of rank or power, everything is advantageous to Elijah.
Third, accept Elijah's control.
It's somewhat rational but short-sighted.
If he blindly accepts Elijah's control without knowing his true goal, he might be used and killed.
'I shouldn't have met this guy from the start.'
The naivety of thinking they were like brothers among doppelgangers created this situation.
Of course, the problem was that he only realized Elijah was a 250-year-old monster after arriving in the demon realm.
It's a perfect dead end.
There's only one thing Caesar should hope for in this situation.
Caesar drank all the alcohol in his glass and handed it to Elijah.
"What do you want from me?"
"Your situational awareness is quick."
Elijah smiled satisfactorily and began to pour alcohol into Caesar's empty glass.
"What I want is..."
In that brief moment when he let his guard down, Caesar successfully grabbed Elijah's wrist with a lightning-fast hand.
Caesar's fourth decision was to dig deeper and discover a bigger weakness.
Caesar used psychometry to scrape through his memories.
Sucking in the life of a doppelganger who had lived over 250 years was horrifically like a vacuum cleaner.
Elijah's raw emotions and memories ruthlessly trampled and ran over Caesar's neurons.
-To save our children, we need humans, Elijah.
-Don't worry. I'll bring the humans.
-I love you.
-I love you too.
-Why are you building a steel fortress near the demon realm? It's too close to the bat territory and it is also vulnerable to attack.
-Can we hand over civilians to vampires and succubi? We are soldiers prepared to die. If we die, we should die, not children and women.
-For Friedrich!
-For Friedrich!
-For Friedrich...
-How long will this continue...
-Diana...
-Diana...
-Why did you leave me...?
Whoosh!"
Caesar was thrown to the floor.
Lifting his head, he saw Elijah looking down at him with a severely distorted face.
"What are you spying on?"
Elijah's voice growled like a ferocious lion.
"Tell me exactly what you saw!"
As Elijah shouted, a yellowish-brown aura emerged from both of his fists. He was emitting a heavy anger as if he were about to crush Caesar's head at any moment.
However, Caesar could not yet react. This was because he was having difficulty understanding the current situation due to the memories of Elijah ruthlessly trampling him like a herd of buffalo.
'Why was I here just now?'
Caesar carefully traced his thoughts, separating Elijah's memories from his own.
The time did not take very long.
Caesar shook himself off and stood up.
"Diana."
"...What?"
"Yes. Diana. The reason you became the Margrave of Friedrich was because of the Demon Queen Diana."
"You bastard...!"
Elijah grabbed Caesar by the collar.
Passionate emotions clearly target a specific goal.
His real weakness was not his sons.
His true weakness was Queen Diana.
In this situation where he had properly grasped his weakness, Caesar had absolutely no reason to cower.
"What a merciless love. How did it feel to keep humans stationed at the demon realm’s entrance for the 'vampires' and 'succubi' created by Diana for over 250 years? Those horrific acts?"
Elijah's eyes were bloodshot.
"You...! You don't understand! What feelings I have maintained this position with. What I've lived as the Margrave of Friedrich for!"
"I neither wanted to know nor understand. But now I understand."
Caesar began organizing Elijah's memories as he spoke.
"The Iron Fortress and the Friedrich Border were not a breakwater to protect humans from the demon realm. They were more like a food warehouse to stably supply humans for the Demon Queen Diana's vampires to feed on."
"Unlike Diana, the vampires were too weak in sunlight to move except at night, and the areas where humans lived were 50 km away from the demon realm, not a distance they could easily travel."
They couldn't let the vampires feed on the blood of other demon races.
The succubi, incubi, and other creatures were also Diana's children and creations.
The Orcs... He had an inexplicable aversion.
If only he had more time, he would have figured it out. What a pity.
"So you decided to transport the food for the vampires. Luring them with the noble pretext of protecting humanity from the demon races."
"That was an unavoidable choice!"
"What was unavoidable?"
"If I hadn't made that decision, war would have broken out between the demon realm and the continent! Diana couldn't bear the vampires becoming devils from lack of blood supply!"
Vampires must suck blood to survive.
Succubi must drain spiritual energy to survive.
Just like herbivores eat grass and carnivores eat meat, to fulfill this physiological instinct, Elijah had decided to kill millions of humans like livestock.
"So your decision was an unavoidable choice for coexistence between humanity and demon races?"
"Yes! That was why I lived as the Margrave of Friedrich."
It was so absurd that no words came out.
If this were sincere, he might have even been angry, but the man was lying.
He had not maintained the position of Margrave to protect a fragile justice and peace.
Of course, having lived for over 250 years, there would be complex reasons he couldn't let go of the Margrave position.
But if there was the biggest reason why Elijah could never let go of the Margrave position, it was because of...
Diana's love.