191
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 191
Caesar, Yan, Mitchell, and Raven sat huddled together around a small table. The scene felt nostalgic, reminiscent of old times when the four of them would gather like this to drink after failed missions. The only difference now was that Caesar occupied Barre's former seat. Despite the somewhat heavy atmosphere, having the four of them together helped lighten the mood a bit. After all, even fools find joy in each other's company.
Yan habitually started to pour some alcohol into his tea but stopped when he caught Raven's sharp glare.
"Didn't you agree to stop drinking?" Raven asked.
"Ah, right, I did," Yan replied.
The thought of Yan quitting alcohol seemed unbelievable. Looking at him more closely, something seemed different, the sword Nameless that usually hung at his side was missing, replaced by four longswords strapped to both sides of his waist.
"By the way, where did you leave your sword?" Caesar asked.
"Oh, you mean Nameless?"
Yan scratched his cheek while glancing nervously at Raven.
"I decided not to use it for a while. Instead, I'm carrying several longswords at once," he explained.
What kind of nonsense was this? Why would he abandon such a fine sword? Caesar used psychometry.
-Raven said I might become a devil because of Nameless.
-Honestly, I felt the danger myself this time.
So this bastard almost became a devil? Due to his seven-fold Berserker state, Caesar hadn't been able to assess Yan's condition properly, but it seemed he had been on the verge of devilization.
'This is an unexpected future.'
To think there would be a future where Yan would set aside Nameless. In the original game, Yan never let go of Nameless until he became a devil. Perhaps this change meant there was a possibility that Yan's devil transformation could be prevented.
"First, I should say this, thank you for saving my life," Yan said.
"Well, now you owe me one," Caesar replied casually.
Yan let out a hollow laugh at Caesar's nonchalant response.
"Right, of course. Tell me anything, and I'll do what I can."
Oh, that's the most dangerous promise one could make. Who knows what I might ask of you?
Mitchell crossed his arms and spoke.
"Then shouldn't we discuss what we're going to do from here on out?"
That was typical of Mitchell. Whenever they were drinking miserably like this, he would always be the one to ask for feedback and future plans.
"Do you have something in mind?" Caesar asked.
"It's simple. We gather the scattered Allied Forces and strike at Elijah. Elijah's forces only number around 40,000, while there are nearly 200,000 Allied troops remaining in the demon realm. Simple arithmetic shows we have more than enough forces to crush him," Mitchell explained.
"That's quite the orthodox approach," Caesar commented.
"It's also the most powerful method."
"But it's equally unlikely to succeed."
Yan tilted his head at Caesar's words.
"What do you mean by that, brother?"
"The generals currently deployed here are soldiers who received orders from His Majesty the Emperor to maintain the demon realm front. What authority do we have to unite them and attack Elijah?"
One shouldn't underestimate command authority. Why else would Mitchell and Elijah have tried so desperately to obtain Caesar's authority over the mages? Was it because overstepping one's authority could be seen as challenging the various emperors and be considered treason? No, people simply don't follow orders without convincing reasons.
If Elijah had taken away Caesar's command authority, the mages might have rebelled against him, questioning why they should follow his orders.
"Then isn't it just a matter of getting His Majesty's order to attack Elijah?" Yan suggested.
Raven heaved a deep sigh.
"You think that's easy? How would we even get such orders?"
"By ship?"
"And where would we get this ship? Even if we found one, it would take nearly a month just to travel to and from the Empire, and several more days for the national assembly to convene. Can you guarantee Elijah won't do anything during all that time?"
Mitchell took a sip of tea before speaking: "We can use Yan as a rallying point. Elijah has committed treason, and the next Allied Commander is missing. All that remains in this land is the Hero blessed by the four goddesses and recognized by the Emperor."
Yan seemed embarrassed by Mitchell's suggestion and turned his gaze away.
"That won't be easy either. If anything, Elijah will claim that we're the ones who committed treason," Caesar countered.
"What do you mean by that?"
"If you heard the artillery fire at Loran Plains, the 5th Division led by Commander Baker launched a preemptive strike against Elijah's 11th Division."
"What? Why would General Baker attack Elijah first?"
Caesar and Raven exchanged glances. After brief consideration, Raven spoke up.
"To explain things as they happened, the 5th Division fired after receiving false information about Orcs forces appearing near the 11th Division's position. The 11th Division responded with their own artillery fire."
"They did something that stupid? Why?"
"It wasn't stupidity, it was all Elijah's plan. The observation officer from the 5th Division who requested the artillery strike was a doppelganger."
Mitchell and Yan's spines chilled at the mention of a doppelganger.
"Wait, a doppelganger? How do you know?"
Raven glanced at Caesar, considering for a moment.
It would be simple to explain that Caesar was actually a doppelganger, but would these two be able to accept that truth? Even Raven had found it difficult to accept, could they handle it? In such a confusing situation, an inappropriate truth might hinder their ability to unite.
"I happened to see it transform," Raven lied.
Perhaps because Raven rarely told lies, Mitchell and Yan accepted the explanation without much suspicion.
"Then do you have evidence linking that doppelganger to Elijah?"
"A demon who participated in the Geotech cleanup operation explained it. Apparently, Elijah is actually a doppelganger who can control other doppelgangers. So that doppelganger must have been acting under Elijah's orders."
Mitchell's teacup shattered.
"...Finally, the puzzle pieces fit together. There was a reason why a doppelganger with my appearance appeared at that precise moment."
They were accepting this faster than expected. Then again, from Mitchell's perspective, this level of plot twist probably made the most sense.
"In any case, Elijah will definitely claim that we staged a rebellion and that he's the victim. We're actually in a situation where we should hope that other allied forces don't get absorbed by Elijah."
"If we tell them Elijah is a doppelganger... Damn, there's no way to prove it."
Mitchell could tell that Elijah had been preparing this plan for a very long time. The easiest method would be to capture a demon and bring them before Elijah to expose him as a doppelganger, but it's uncertain if that's even possible, and whether the other allied generals would believe a demon's word is another issue.
"When did things get so twisted? No, since when has Elijah been a doppelganger?"
In this confusing situation where it had become difficult to distinguish truth from lies, even Mitchell's mental state began to deteriorate. Caesar emptied his tea cup before speaking.
"If we try to gain too much, we will die. Now we need to reduce our ambitions and lay low."
"Is there a way, little brother?"
"Now we have only one goal to aim for. That's to return alive to the Empire."
"So you're saying we should completely abandon the demon realm?"
Mitchell's expression rapidly soured. Had they endured that hell for the past five years only to lose everything so meaninglessly? Others might accept it, but Mitchell absolutely could not.
"That's absolutely not acceptable."
"Mitchell, as Caesar says, excessive greed is dangerous. The current situation is difficult enough just trying to hold on."
"Raven, you can say that because you have nothing to lose. But I'm different. I've bet my entire life on the demon realm."
Mitchell had built his support base on the foundation of demon realm conquest. The Miles family was a prime example, and he had also made all the branch families of the Redfield family support him by involving them in demon realm business. Now they're saying to abandon the demon realm? If that happens, Mitchell's support base would completely collapse, and he would lose his position as the head of the Redfield family. It wouldn't end there, his siblings who feared him would pounce on him and tear him to pieces, that was certain.
"The demon realm mining operation and pioneering projects must be realized no matter what. I can't back down now."
"But..."
"No buts, just know that I have no intention of giving up the demon realm."
Mitchell finally couldn't hold back anymore and stormed out of his seat. Yan, seeing that, followed after him.
"I'll go after him. See you later."
They hadn't even properly started the discussion, yet things had already turned out like this. This really wasn't going to be easy.
"Mitchell would rather die than give up the demon realm."
"That's because Nathaniel won't leave Mitchell alone if he returns having lost the demon realm."
"What are you going to do? If we give up the demon realm, the mining operation falls through and we can't keep our promise to Arch Duke."
"Why give up the mining operation? That we must definitely do."
"What are you talking about? If we lose the demon realm, the mining operation ends right there."
"Aren't you looking at this too much from a human-centric perspective, Raven?"
Caesar waved Arch Duke's letter that Gloria had left on the table.
"I have Agatha as a new option."
Raven frowned with instinctive rejection.
"Don't tell me you're planning to set up mines in Agatha's autonomous region?"
"Is there any other way?"
"Do you think that's possible? It's questionable whether Agatha would accept that proposal, and we... No, Yan will definitely refuse."
Yan's hatred for demons was beyond imagination. It was only because Yan had personally killed the Demon King and the demons were now in an irreparable state that his desire for revenge had somewhat subsided. Just two years ago, Yan wouldn't stop swinging his sword at any demon he saw. That's why Raven couldn't immediately tell him that Caesar was a doppelganger.
"But didn't he cooperate with the demons during this recent Geotech incident?"
"To be precise, I cooperated with the beast people, not Yan. And he accepted it easily because the condition was that I would obtain the beast people's secret techniques."
"You mean it will be helpful when we eventually need to deal with the beast people?"
"Well, yes. The moment we bring up forming a complete alliance with demons, he might leave you."
"What about you? If I say I'm going to form a complete alliance with Agatha and proceed with the mining operation?"
Raven thought for a moment before speaking.
"I belong to the Gale Magic Tower. I have no reason to refuse something that benefits both the Arch family and Gale Magic Tower."
Caesar felt somewhat relieved at Raven's words. If even Raven had said he would leave, things would have become quite difficult.
"More importantly, think of a way to convince Yan and Mitchell. We can't leave those two as they are."
"Yeah, what should we do about this."
Even during the truly desperate demon realm war, although the four of them had fights, they never thought about splitting up... These days, it seems to be getting harder to unite their hearts as one.
***
Mitchell took out a cigar from his pocket. However, he had no matches to light it.
"Damn it."
At that moment, a lit match appeared beside him. It was Yan.
"You never carry matches around, so you can't light it."
"There were quite a few people who would watch carefully just to light my cigar once."
Mitchell took Yan's match and lit his cigar.
"But now I guess I'll have to carry them."
Mitchell's cigar smoke stretched out long, carried by his sigh.
"Out of the 200 Red Wing knights dispatched here, 106 are dead and 82 are bedridden. The remaining 12 can't even function properly with their broken swords and armor."
The Red Wing knights were in a state of annihilation. Moreover, even the Rose Shield Knights Order, which had been ordered to protect Luxhope, had lost contact, making their survival unknown. Mitchell watched the endless rain falling.
"I gained everything in this cursed place. And I lost everything here too."
"Mitchell..."
"I can't give up the demon realm. The moment I let go of it, my life is over too. You know that well."
Mitchell handed the cigar to Yan.
"So Yan, I need your help. Will you help me?"