241
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake
Chapter 241
The path to Luxhope wasn't as difficult as expected. The road from Luxhope to the Eagle valley had been well-paved long ago, so one simply needed to follow it straight through. The weather was also quite helpful. Being at the tail end of the rainy season, it no longer rained in the mornings and only briefly in the afternoons before stopping, following this pattern repeatedly. By the time the regular ship arrives, this tedious rainy season should come to an end. The problem was the devils.
A well-paved road meant open terrain, and open terrain was vulnerable to devil attacks. There was a 99% chance they would ambush us the moment they spotted us, whether hiding in forests or between rocks, or from high ground. Therefore, Caesar explained all the information about devils extracted from the doppelganger, without missing any details, to prepare for devil invasions.
"There's a devil called Mahmut who has four horns. Just as his alias is 'Prison Devil,' he has the ability to imprison his designated targets."
Gloria enthusiastically took notes with her pencil, while Jerry and other wizards beside her nodded as they listened to the story.
"His prison is very special, it can't be destroyed even with the most powerful magic. It's impossible to dismantle it. Physical attacks can't break it either."
"Ooh..."
"There's another devil who throws fireballs like a cannon, and his name is 'Alt.' Alt has four huge gun barrels on his back, and his specialty is shooting lava-filled shells from a distance. When you get close, he transforms his gun barrels into sharp blades and attacks by rolling his body like an armadillo, spinning around."
Caesar explained their characteristics and strategies for dealing with them in great detail. As devils serving Belial, the devil of Ash, there were quite a few famous and powerful devils, and their abilities were as tricky and unique as Raum's.
To put it in perspective, even powerful individuals like Yan or Mitchell would struggle without proper knowledge of how to deal with them. However, being famous also meant their weaknesses were well-known.
"The one you wizards need to be most careful of is called Spell Eater. This devil eats magic."
"What do you mean by eating magic?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. It eats magic to recover, strengthen itself, and increase its reaction speed. It's nothing short of a nightmare for you all."
This is why Spell Eater is called the wizards' nightmare. Currently, it only has two horns since it hasn't gained fame yet, but it becomes terrible once its horns increase to four. By then, it goes beyond just eating magic, it becomes capable of returning the eaten magic right back.
"How do we eliminate such a creature?"
"It's simple. Just call a powerful knight to kill it. Additionally, the devil can't yet eat buff and debuff magic, so you can cast debuff magic on it while buffing the knights fighting it."
Caesar glanced at Raven, who was sitting distantly on horseback with a blank expression. While Raven was listening to Caesar's words, she wasn't looking at him. She ate separately and slept alone.
-Tell me if I'm someone who shouldn't get hurt for your sake. If I'm a human who doesn't even deserve that right.
Caesar couldn't properly answer Raven's feelings. All he could say was sorry. Raven's feelings were closer to romantic affection than friendship.
For Caesar, who had Agatha, it wasn't easy to fully accept Raven's feelings, and he could only apologize. Raven was hurt by that answer, and simultaneously felt ashamed of her own weakness for forcing such a difficult choice on Caesar.
'...Will time resolve this?'
He really couldn't tell. Could Caesar have ever imagined he would face such concerns after coming to this world? It had been fortunate enough just to barely survive, not knowing whether death would come today or tomorrow.
"But how do you know all of this? It's amazing that you know how to deal with devils we didn't even know about, including Spell Eater..."
From their perspective, it must be very puzzling. It's unusual for someone who isn't even a Holy Knight to know such detailed information about devils.
'I can't explain that it's because of the Valent Saga...'
"Why do you think I'm called the devil Slayer?"
"Ah."
"Anyway, I've explained everything, right? Now go and explain these devil-fighting strategies well to the others."
The staff, wizards, and knights all dispersed. Now that this issue was somewhat resolved, it was time to consider other matters. Caesar pulled out two pieces of paper from his chest. They were propaganda leaflets sent by the devils yesterday evening.
[The Baker Alliance Commander is a doppelganger.]
[Elijah Friedrich is a doppelganger.]
"At least it's clear that the devils and Elijah have parted ways."
The issue was Belial's exact reason for sending these propaganda leaflets.
Caesar used psychometry on the leaflets.
-...
'As expected.'
These leaflets weren't written directly by Belial. They were written one by one with charcoal by 'thieves' captured by Belial. Because of this, it was impossible to know why Belial had released such propaganda leaflets. It was difficult to predict how the flow of the demon realm would change now that the relationship between the devils and Elijah had soured. Perhaps there wasn't even any point in trying to predict it.
"I don't know."
For now, let's focus only on safely reaching Luxhope.
***
Caesar stopped Whitey. As they crossed over the gentle hill, Luxhope came into full view. After marching non-stop for five days, the scene before them wasn't particularly pleasant.
"It's rare to see this city in a decent state."
Even when Caesar first entered Luxhope, it had become chaotic due to a rebel ambush, but now it was so damaged that it was difficult to find a single building intact. He wondered if Caesar would ever see the day this city returned to normal. It seemed like even if it were in good condition, it would become damaged as soon as Caesar arrived.
"It's strange that there hasn't been a single trace of devils until now. I thought we would definitely be attacked at least once on the way to Luxhope."
Gloria was right.
If it were him, Caesar would have positioned devils along the way to attack the troops. That's why he had scattered reconnaissance teams everywhere and explained about the devils until his mouth went dry.
However, during their journey to Luxhope, they hadn't encountered any devil attacks, let alone traces of devils. At that moment, Charlie approached Caesar.
"Report from the advance party."
Caesar received the crystal ball from Charlie.
Originally, Caesar had planned to lead from the front and scout Luxhope first, but due to fierce opposition from other staff members, including Jerry, he had no choice but to join the main force. What wind had blown to make Caesar, who had been doing fine until now, suddenly start listening to his staff's advice?
Just then, a bat landed on top of Whitey's head. It looked straight at Caesar and spoke.
"What did the advance party say?"
It was Borden
"Haven't received the report yet. I'm about to check now."
This was the reason Caesar had agreed to join the main force. Caesar's enemies weren't just devils; there were also Elijah's doppelgangers. Since Elijah's doppelgangers could infiltrate Caesar's troops, he had requested vampires and succubi to regularly check for any infiltrators in the unit.
Of course, due to other soldiers' instinctive aversion, they were only assigned reconnaissance duties rather than direct combat, but this operation would be recorded as the first joint operation between demon races and humans.
And he planned to spread these operation records throughout the empire to make people widely aware that the demon race also despised devils.
In other words, it was an operation with some political calculations. Of course, it was also safer this way. Caesar touched the crystal ball.
"Where are you now?"
Gideon's voice came from the crystal ball.
-We've almost reached the entrance to Luxhope.
Gideon and the other Red Wing Knights had safely reached the front of Luxhope through Raven's ‘Stealth’ magic.
"Good. Anything unusual?"
-I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is correct, but there's a devil with six horns on its head looking toward Lord Caesar's direction from atop a collapsed spire.
Spire?
Caesar heightened his vision to look down at Luxhope. Finding the collapsed spire wasn't difficult. After all, the only thing that could be called a spire was the church spire in the center of Luxhope. Therefore, finding the devil Gideon mentioned wasn't difficult either.
"Retreat immediately. I'll go."
-Good to see you, Caesar El Lindger.
The crystal ball suddenly turned red, and an unfamiliar man's voice was heard. However, Caesar could immediately recognize whose voice it was.
It was Belial.
Raven used blink magic to instantly appear beside Caesar. Raven was carefully examining the magic cast on the crystal ball with a serious expression. Caesar glanced at Raven's profile.
He felt uncomfortable as he suddenly remembered how Raven had cried in his arms recently. But Raven was a professional. Knowing how many lives were at stake in this operation, Raven was approaching it with utmost seriousness. In that case, Caesar shouldn't feel uncomfortable about Raven either. Caesar looked directly at Raven and spoke.
"May I answer?"
"There's no particular magic involved. I don't think it's a devil's ability either. It's just hijacking the communication network."
Caesar gathered his thoughts for a moment before speaking.
"I cannot say I'm pleased to meet you, Belial."
-Did you read the letter I sent?
"Are you referring to that paper with nonsense written about me being a doppelganger?"
-Unlike you, I am not an impostor who habitually lies, Barre.
The staff members listening together snickered at the word ‘Barre.’ It seemed they thought it was absurd, beyond Caesar being a doppelganger, to call him Barre. However, Caesar and Raven, who knew the truth, couldn't laugh.
"Then do you have clear evidence that I am a doppelganger?"
-Doppelgangers are quite fascinating creatures. Without being a demon, there's no way to identify a doppelganger. I suppose you are a species that cannot be interpreted physically or magically.
"It seems you just wanted to incite unrest. Are you making claims without clear evidence? However, my soldiers are not so weak. They are not the kind to be swayed by such instigation."
-That may be true for now.
When Belial snapped his fingers, a devil wearing a black hood appeared beside him.
"Mahmut, what happened to that fellow?"
"He's enduring well. Not yet."
"Well, it doesn't matter. Show him."
Mahmut extended his hand backward and pulled strongly. Then, something like a large rectangular box burst through the debris. The box's edges were deep purple, but the interior was transparent enough to see through clearly. More precisely, rather than being transparent, it seemed there was nothing blocking it at all. And inside it, surprisingly...
"...Yan?"
Yan was there.
Yan was glaring at Belial with a haggard appearance.
Yan's hair had been disheveled for a long time, dark circles had settled under his eyes, and three of the four swords he had been carrying were broken with only their scabbards remaining.
Caesar looked at Yan with bewilderment.
'...Why is he coming out of there?'
-Let's play a game from now on.
Belial shot an ash arrow toward Ian. The ash arrow passed through the box and flew toward Yan. Yan instinctively moved his sword to scatter the ash arrow. The powerful wind pressure scattered the ash, but that powerful wind passed through one side of the box and emerged from the opposite side, aiming for Yan's back. Yan had experienced this dozens of times, so he swung his sword backward to scatter the wind he had created.
-From now on, if you don't reveal that you're a doppelganger, I will kill the hero.
Yan dies. It was something Caesar had never dared to imagine. He was someone who killed the Demon King and single-handedly faced those formidable Moon Knights. How could such a person be toyed with and killed by mere devils?
"You're talking nonsense. How could the hero die so easily?"
-Of course, that's also true. For almost two days, we tried every method to drain his stamina, but surprisingly, he overcame everything with iron will and a single sword. Even after being submerged in seawater dozens of times. I suppose this is what it takes to kill a Demon King.
Mahmut moved his hand.
Then the box containing Yan moved steeply toward the shore.
-However, from my experiments, I found that the hero loses consciousness if he can't breathe for more than 30 minutes.
Mahmut submerged Yan in the sea just like that.
Although Yan tried his hardest to escape, he was powerless before this strange prison where passing through one side meant emerging from the opposite side.
-So I'll give you exactly 30 minutes. If you want to save the hero, reveal yourself as a doppelganger.