236
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake
Chapter 236
Elijah looked down at Roland's group passing through the steel fortress gate. The procession gave a strong impression of being rigid rather than orderly. From the perspective of those who had served the gods all their lives, the demon realm was essentially unknown territory, so they had likely armed themselves with strict discipline.
As soon as Elijah heard that Roland had arrived, he assessed what would happen if these newcomers, armed with fanatical discipline, entered the demon realm. After careful consideration, he reached one conclusion. The demon realm would become more chaotic. Since increased chaos in the demon realm would surely harm Yan, Mitchell, and Agatha who were baring their teeth at Elijah, he permitted Roland's group to enter the demon realm.
Now one issue remained.
"Who exactly is the Holy Maiden?"
Elijah evaluated the potential candidates for the Holy Maiden. The demon realm is a land where even ordinary men struggle to survive. Marauders composed of deserters roam freely, and demons wander about. Believing that a fragile woman could survive in such a place was implausible, so Elijah thought he could narrow down the candidates for the Holy Maiden.
"She must be a knight."
Formal knights from established orders left the demon realm with the nobility as soon as the ceasefire was declared. The knights who remained in the demon realm were mostly wandering knights who had direct contracts with the Empire.
These individuals had no choice but to remain due to their contractual obligations with the Empire, which specified that the contract would only end when the war was over. Female knights are very rare among wandering knights, and those who remained in the demon realm were even rarer.
Although they are knights, the environment is filled with men starved for female company in every direction. Surviving as a wandering knight in such a place is nearly impossible. Therefore, it was highly unlikely she was a wandering knight. At that moment, a particular individual crossed Elijah's mind.
"Caesar..."
Caesar's knights. Aren't they in the demon realm? Among them, if there was a woman, only one.
"...Gloria."
Of course, it could also be one of the wizards who came with Caesar. Elijah has quite good intuition. This intuition was formed based on experiences accumulated over the long period of 250 years. In Elijah's memory, a wizard had never become a Holy Maiden even once. Elijah's eyes deepened.
"Caesar, you are always at the center of commotion."
At that moment, a Steel Lion knight approached Elijah and bowed his head.
"Your Excellency, the Steel Lion knights have been assembled."
Elijah looked at the Steel Lion knights lined up on the castle wall. Having suffered so much at Caesar's hands, only 17 remained now.
"If you order a rescue operation, we will proceed immediately."
Twelve hours ago, they received information that Titius, who had been monitoring Caesar, was captured by Caesar. Surely, in true form as one of Elijah's knights, he must have been captured while trying to leave no trace. Elijah found this situation more tedious than irritating.
"Caesar has undoubtedly used psychometry on Titius to obtain all the information. That we have been in contact with devils, and what plans the devils are hatching."
"Are you considering abandoning the rescue?"
"No, it means the plan to use devils to kill Caesar will certainly fail."
Elijah turned his gaze toward Luxhope.
"What I worry about is that the devils might be more rational than expected and simply let Caesar go."
"What would you like us to do?"
"Tell Belial that Caesar is not targeting them but Luxhope, so they should eliminate Luxhope to prevent supply lines from reaching the demon realm. An army without supplies typically collapses easily, making it simpler to find vulnerabilities."
"Yes. Understood."
One Steel Lion knight transformed into a black eagle and immediately tore through the sky. The other Steel Lion knights gathered their armor and greatswords.
"The rest of you should rescue Titius by taking advantage of Caesar's confusion. I forbid even attempting to kill Caesar. Understood?"
"Yes. Understood."
"Lastly..."
After deep contemplation, Elijah spoke while watching Roland's group.
"Have one of you infiltrate their ranks. I believe it could prove quite useful."
"Yes. Understood."
As the Steel Lion knights gathered their belongings and descended, Elijah closed his eyes and felt the wind. Though the sun had been up for quite some time, it had not rained. It seems the rainy season is coming to an end.
***
Caesar stood at the front and crossed the bridge. Behind Caesar, the Red Wings knights followed. It was to receive the custody of the doppelganger that Agatha had been detaining. Although Jerry and other knights asked Raven to come along, Raven declined, saying it would be better to remain with the unit.
Though Raven's reasoning made sense and they left her behind, according to Caesar's intuition from observing Raven for a long time, he felt there was more to it than just that reason.
It seemed like she was hiding something, but there was no time for a deep conversation, and Caesar thought Raven would reveal her reasons when the time came, so he went to meet Agatha. On the other side of the bridge, Agatha and twelve demon race were approaching with a carriage.
Caesar thought as he watched Agatha's stern expression drawing near.
'...She's upset.'
He had promised to come alone next time, but he wasn't alone and brought twelve people with him, which probably displeased her. But it was alright. Agatha was an adult too. She was a rational person who knew how to separate public and private matters. She would understand that this situation was unavoidable and would let it pass without issue. When they got close enough, both sides stopped as if they had been waiting for each other.
Caesar was the first to speak.
"Thank you for your help previously, Demon King Agatha."
Instead of answering, Agatha walked toward Caesar. The knights tensed at Agatha's sudden action. Gloria also watched Agatha with slightly anxious eyes. Gloria knew Agatha was a good person and wouldn't harm Caesar, but she was still uneasy.
'...Please don't, Agatha.'
Caesar retracted his thought that Agatha was a rational person.
Right now, Agatha wanted to be Caesar's ‘lover’ rather than the ‘Demon King.’
So, as a small expression of dissatisfaction with breaking the promise to visit her alone, she was trying to make Caesar uncomfortable. The problem was that Caesar had no idea how far Agatha's dissatisfaction would go, making him very anxious. Finally, Gideon stepped forward.
"Demon King, I think you're getting too cl..."
Agatha ignored Gideon's words and stood almost pressed against Caesar. Caesar turned his eyes away from Agatha's burdensome gaze.
"Look at me, Caesar."
At Agatha's words, Caesar looked into her eyes. Agatha's eyes were full of mischief. Not only was Caesar's sweating face amusing, but it was also very funny to see his hands behind his back, busy signaling the knights to stay calm. At the same time, the sight of this strong man who could humble himself for her sake was so lovable that the dissatisfaction in her heart melted away.
"You would have been in big trouble without me. Right?"
"...I am grateful for that, Demon King."
At Agatha's gesture, the cloth covering the carriage was removed, revealing iron bars. Inside the bars was the doppelganger, kneeling and staring blankly at the sky.
"Our agreement was just to capture the doppelganger and hand it over so you could interrogate it and extract information, right? But I personally got involved... So I should receive something extra."
"...May I know what you desire?"
Agatha whispered in Caesar's ear.
"You know, Caesar."
"..."
Caesar squeezed his eyes shut, then finally sighed.
"I'll briefly discuss the matter with Agatha and return, so take the doppelganger."
"Sir Caesar!"
"There won't be any problems. I'll just have a quick conversation and return, so wait."
At that moment, Gloria stepped forward.
"Sir Caesar! As your deputy, please allow me to accompany you."
Agatha glared at Gloria.
"Especially not you. Everyone else might be allowed, but not you."
"W-what?"
"No exceptions. I'm going to talk with Caesar for a bit, so no one will follow us."
Agatha smiled brightly with her hands behind her back and looked at Caesar.
"Then follow me. We have so much to talk about, don't we?"
Agatha seductively waved her hand like a tail instead of the actual tail hidden beneath her dress. Caesar lost to Agatha, both rationally and instinctively.
***
When people disappeared, Agatha grabbed Caesar's hand.
"Secret romance is really hard."
Caesar sighed and said.
"I find this side of you difficult."
"Should I make it even harder for you?"
"...I'm sorry."
Agatha chuckled and walked lightly through the garden. Caesar had secretly been hoping to walk like this with Agatha, so he decided to enjoy it since it had already happened.
"It's nice that it doesn't rain in the mornings anymore. It's good for garden walks like this."
"It seems the rainy season is gradually ending."
Agatha smiled broadly and picked a flower to put in her hair.
"How do I look? Am I pretty?"
Caesar felt embarrassed, but knowing that even this feeling was love, he stroked Agatha's hair and said.
"You have always been beautiful."
Agatha's eyes widened like large droplets. She wouldn't have expected Caesar to say such cheesy things.
"This is nice. Hearing you say that I'm beautiful with your own mouth."
Agatha stopped walking.
"But it's also sad that we don't have much time left."
As always, long-distance relationships are not easy. Especially a relationship that spans across continents.
"I'm sorry."
"No more saying sorry from now on. It feels like you're trying to dismiss everything with that word."
Agatha stroked Caesar's cheek and said.
"So I've had a rather good idea, would you like to hear it?"
"What kind of idea?"
"Well. Do you remember when I cast the shared dream spell on you before?"
"Yes. I remember. Isn't that still ongoing?"
"Actually, it completely disappeared when you obtained Flawless. It seems Flawless judged it dangerous for you to be invited into my dreams."
So that's why Agatha hadn't called me at night. If it were Agatha, she would certainly have invited me to the shared dream world every night.
"So I'll cast a new spell for you now."
"Are you doing the shared dream magic again?"
"Yes. But this time it's the opposite. I'll be invited into your dream. Since I won't be manipulating your dream, Flawless might allow it to some extent. Like how we were able to approach Gloria."
"Are you saying I'll use magic? Is that possible?"
"It doesn't mean you'll be using magic, but that you'll have control. You just need to manipulate the dream world instinctively. Just manipulate it naturally like when you created Thunder in my shared dream."
"If that's possible, it doesn't sound bad."
"Shall we try it then? Sit here."
Caesar and Agatha sat among the flowers. Agatha closed her eyes and concentrated on the magic. As the pink magical energy gathering in her hand gently entered Caesar's forehead, his forehead glowed white. It was Flawless's protective function.
Agatha whispered softly.
"Flawless, please. This isn't dangerous..."
Caesar wanted to stroke her cheek seeing Agatha's cute desperate voice and furrowed brow, but he restrained himself. How much time had passed? Agatha removed her hand from Caesar's forehead.
"Whew..."
"Did it fail?"
"No. It succeeded. It was really hard convincing that Flawless."
Caesar wiped the sweat from Agatha's forehead and said.
"Thank you, Agatha."
"This is nothing. Let's try it this evening."
"Yes. I'll see you this evening."
Agatha lay down among the cool flowers. Caesar also lay down next to Agatha and looked at the sky.
Agatha murmured. "It would have been nice if the sky were a little clearer."
"Indeed."
"Do you know what I first learned when I left the demon realm?"
"What was it?"
"That the sky is blue."
The demon realm is endlessly cloudy during both rainy and dry seasons. Moreover, in the demon realm, there is so much magic in the air that even the clouds appear somewhat reddish. From Agatha's perspective, having lived her entire life in the demon realm, she wouldn't have known what color the sky truly was.
"When fairy tales written by humans mentioned 'blue skies,' I found it difficult to understand. Why on earth would the sky be blue? Isn't it gray or red? That's what I used to think."
"But when I looked up at the sky from Shipwreck Island on a clear day, the whole world was filled with a blue sky so bright it hurt my eyes. The sky was so much more beautiful than I had imagined, and I think I just stared at it blankly."
Agatha squeezed Caesar's hand and said.
"Will there ever come a day when I can see the blue sky with you?"
Caesar looked into Agatha's eyes. The more he looked at them, the more beautiful Agatha's eyes became.
"I'll make sure you see it soon."
A world where demons and humans don't fight. When that day Caesar wishes for comes, Agatha will be able to see the clear sky. Caesar and Agatha stared at the sky for quite a long time. Imagining the blue sky that must surely exist beyond those distant clouds.