For Me, It's Child's Play
Clop-clop-clop-clop, hee-hee-heeeigh~
The horse galloping through the imperial capital came to a halt before the palace's inner walls. A queue stretched out, waiting its turn for admission, while guards screened everyone seeking to enter.
"Lord Demesis. I must ask for verification of your identity."
Wreckar presented the guard with the invitation sent over by the imperial household. The guard read it through, then let his eyes wander over the crest of the Draikna royal family engraved upon the carriage I rode in. Then, to confirm that I was truly Demesis himself, he stepped up to the carriage.
"......"
Sensing something strange before the carriage, he lifted the curtain only a crack and peered cautiously at me sitting within.
Gahk!
He collapsed flat on the spot.
"What's the matter with you? What happened?"
The guards nearby came hurrying over.
"H-he... ugh, hkk—"
The guard, wheezing as though he could not draw breath, finally fainted outright.
It was nothing more than a minor mishap. He had looked at me from far too close a distance — of course he would pass out. Wreckar explained to the other guards that this was simply what happened when one attempted to verify Lord Demesis's face at close range. Only then grasping what had occurred, the guards recalled the rumors surrounding me and put on expressions of grim shock. A man had crumpled from nothing more than meeting me up close — surely, then, I had to be Demesis. They concluded the identity check and cleared the way.
And so I entered the inner walls. Today was the promised day of my audience with the Emperor. The time and place had been set, and right now, somewhere in the palace, the Emperor would be waiting for me.
The screening went quickly. Every soldier who drew near me fainted where he stood. Arriving before the main gate, I stepped down from the carriage, and while the coachman and servant led the horse off toward the stables, I proceeded on with my escort knight, Wreckar, at my side.
"L-Lord D-Demesis. Weapons are forbidden within the imperial palace. Might you be carrying any at present?"
The knight charged with searching visitors asked from a respectful distance away. Wrapped in my grey hooded cloak, I looked more suspicious than any soul in the queue, yet he could not bring himself to come anywhere near.
He was frightened, you see.
"I carry no weapons. Still — will you not inspect me and see?"
Shrugging my shoulders at the knight, I graciously consented to a search. But the knight could advance no closer than a certain distance, his face already preemptively pale with fear.
"Is it not your duty to inspect me? What will you do if I happen to be lying?"
"U-uh. I-I would never dream of doubting you, Lord Demesis. P-please, go on through."
The knight, who could barely manage conversation at a distance — let alone lay a hand on me — meekly stepped aside. I had rather wanted to experience a proper search, so I walked on into the palace corridor feeling mildly disappointed.
So the Empire's imperial palace was really no different from our own Draikna royal palace. Everyone flinched and hunched over the moment I passed. If I drew near, they panted for breath and keeled over; if I so much as seemed inclined to speak, they fled in terror from a safe distance. This place was far more splendid and imposing than the palace I had lived in, yet the way people behaved toward me was exactly the same. These were people seeing me for the very first time — how could every single reaction be so identical?
With a faintly downcast face, I crossed the corridor. I hoped the Emperor of the Empire, hailed as a sage ruler, might prove something different. I had read a great deal about him in books. In the volumes published mostly by humans, the Emperor was praised in exhaustive detail and judged greater than any man alive. Would even such an Emperor come to fear me? That was the thing I most wanted to know.
"He is approaching."
The imperial audience chamber, magnificent in its scale. The Emperor sat upon his towering throne, waiting for Demesis. Having received word that Demesis had passed through the palace's main gate, an imperial guard knight announced his arrival.
"How goes it, Duke Hailon? Do you sense him?"
The Emperor addressed the duke standing beside the throne. The duke was the Swordmaster sworn to protect the imperial family, and he could perceive every person who set foot within the palace grounds. Casting his presence wide, he read the flow of mana and the responses of everything around him. In this fashion, Duke Hailon identified every opponent without ever laying eyes upon them. By now, he had surely been aware of Demesis's presence for some time.
"What's the matter? Your expression looks rather poor."
Duke Hailon was profoundly shaken. Ever since attaining the supreme realm of Swordmaster, he had kept his own flow and presence perfectly steady at all times. To see him now, face rigid and visibly tense, the Emperor asked with puzzled eyes.
"This is... unreasonable."
"Unreasonable?"
At the words popping out of nowhere, the Emperor's eyes went wide. The duke's expression was dark.
"Your Majesty. Did you not say it before? That you could not tell whether he stood above us or below."
"I did."
At the duke's words, the Emperor recalled a conversation from some days past. He had spoken them to mean that they could not so much as gauge whether Demesis — the one men called the Dragon God — was stronger or weaker than the imperial family's full might.
"I understand now. He is above us."
"What did you say?"
Duke Hailon declared it in a tone of absolute certainty. At this testimony from the Swordmaster, the Emperor, finding it absurd, demanded he repeat himself at once.
"Above us? You mean the strength of the imperial household — that even yourself and every knight of the palace combined could not stand against him?"
The Emperor pressed the question urgently.
"That much I cannot judge with precision. It is only my instinct speaking. He conceals a great deal more power than what shows."
Bewilderment and a sliver of fear flickered through Duke Hailon's eyes. What in the world had he seen? The Emperor exhaled a thin breath. Even the sturdiest knight in all the world was showing fear.
"Then is inviting him here not sheer madness? You say we cannot win — does that not mean that even should he harbor designs against me, there would be nothing we could do to stop him?"
"That will be needless worry, Your Majesty. Did not the King of Draikna already send his letter? And the Dragonian prince has no reason whatsoever to do such a thing."
Having blurted the words out in his own fluster, the duke lowered his head. There would be no battle with Demesis. The King of Draikna had fortunately vouched for his gentle temperament, and Demesis was merely arriving at the appointed hour, having formally accepted an invitation.
"Foolish of me to say. And yet your words are far beyond anything I anticipated."
"I confess I am beside myself at this very moment, now that I have sensed his existence."
The two men took a moment to settle their rattled nerves.
"Then what would you have us do? You prepared something to measure Demesis's strength — do you intend to proceed with it?"
Planning to ascertain the extent of Demesis's power, Duke Hailon had deployed a small ruse and laid a trap. The Emperor was asking whether he meant to spring it.
"In an ideal world we would not touch him at all, but we must have some measure of intelligence on him regardless. I will conduct a simple test to gauge his capabilities."
He spoke with his expression set firm. Testing Demesis was a dangerous business. But it was a step they could not forgo if they were to judge both his strength and his character.
"Then I shall place my trust in you."
The Emperor settled onto his throne and waited. With the appearance of an impossible being, an unseasonal sense of crisis hung over the imperial family.
"You may proceed through here."
The knight who had been guiding me through the palace gestured toward the doors of the audience chamber. I stopped before them and stood quietly still, then turned to look back at the knight still indicating the way.
"Urk."
As though his heart had seized in his chest, he bent double at once, clutching at his breast.
"Through here, is that correct?"
"Y-yes. Q-quite correct."
He answered with visible effort, as though something were pressing against him. He stood a good five meters off, yet the moment I fixed my gaze upon him, he no longer knew where to put himself.
"There is a magic circle laid here. Defensive magic, by the look of it — if I pass through this door, it will break without question. Is it truly all right for me to simply walk through?"
I had never studied magic in my life. I could not say with certainty what spell was in use, but I could read the pattern of its mana all the same. And by that pattern, the door to this audience chamber was cleverly barring whoever approached. To pass beyond it, one would have to shatter the defensive formation.
"Y-yes, th-that is how it must be done. It is a required procedure for an audience with the Emperor."
"Is that so?"
Then it would be no trouble at all if the defensive circle broke. I had no intention of destroying anything, mind you — but it was unmistakably the guiding knight who had instructed me to pass through here. If the painstakingly installed formation came to ruin, no one could lay the blame at my feet.
"Wreckar. You will wait for me here."
I spoke before crossing the threshold. Unable to detect the hidden formation, he wore a thoroughly baffled expression at the exchange between the knight and myself. There was no reason for Wreckar to be caught up in the circle, strolling along at my side. Leaving him where he stood, I passed through the doors of the audience chamber without so much as a pause.
WHOOM.
Just as expected — the trap triggered. Formless energy surged up, moving to bind me where I stood. It seemed designed to halt whoever passed through, and its power was considerable. But to me, it was child's play.
I did not slow my step. However fiercely the invisible mana swelled, my pace never wavered.
Tap. Tap.
Psshhzzz.
The formless mana climbed higher and higher. Was it truly serious about stopping me? An ordinary human would have been rooted to the spot, unable to move an inch. This was a formation built not to kill but to repel — I could not fathom the point of it. Pass through here, they said? Why?
I lifted my head to look closer. At the far end of the red-carpeted avenue, an Emperor sat upon a high throne — and beside him stood a man. The mana of the circle ran in a thread straight to that man. So he was the one barring my way.
"Hah."
A laugh slipped out of me. This was the first time a human had ever tried to stand in my path. It reminded me of sweeping away the troublesome monsters back in the Western Demonic Realm. A circle that would crumble at the merest touch of strength. I toyed with the formation's mana as I studied the man.
Did he know? Mana control was my specialty. To imagine that mana alone, of all things, could hold me back — that was the single most foolish notion in all the world.
And yet here he was, playing such a prank on me?