The Emperor's Demise
“From the imperial physician’s examination: ‘There is no damage to the body. This must be a problem of the mind.’
Darius had sent a remarkably skilled doctor from the imperial direct line.
There were no errors in the diagnosis.
‘Mind problem...’
X touched his neck, sinking into worry.
Indeed, there were no wounds on his body.
Nothing had done anything to X’s body.
‘Name... I still can’t remember it...’
That memory, lost to soul damage, was one he could never afford to forget.
It had been the driving force that moved everything in X’s life until now.
“X!”
“W-we’re alive!”
X snapped back to his senses and rushed over when he heard the news. Kirke and Lola were shocked to learn he had been in a coma.
“It’s all my fault...”
Lola, looking haggard, covered her face and wiped away her tears.
X was bewildered and wrote down what he wanted to say in the notebook.
Fortunately, writing was still possible.
「It is not the young lady’s fault.」
“No, you were trying to protect me...”
「The demon is the bad one. No one is at fault.」
“Ugh...!”
Overwhelmed with emotion, Lola threw herself into X’s arms and sobbed for a long time.
Only after soothing her for a while did she finally pull away.
Only Kirke could speak to him.
「How did I end up here?」
“Five days ago, Professor Lung brought you to the academy. You collapsed at the main gate. That’s all he said.”
It was strange.
Losing consciousness in the ancient ruins, yet being found at the academy’s main gate—there was clear meaning to it.
‘Did someone move me there?’
From the circumstances, only Gremory or Elia could have done it.
But neither of them would do such a thing.
‘Gremory’s goal is to kill me, and Elia...’
Elia had not moved of her own will at the end.
Elysia must have manipulated her.
‘Elysia must have hidden something. She said she would control her for a bit. Elia was pleading in similar words.’
Then, no one could have moved X’s body.
「Perhaps the Leon party?」
“They were all unconscious until the end.”
Kirke was blunt when Leon’s name came up.
“Ah, sorry, but now we’re completely cut off from them. They moved to Class F on Monday. So, don’t ask about them. I know nothing about them now.”
“?!”
Confused, X wrote in the notebook, but Kirke snatched it away.
Soon she glared at X with a sharp, piercing look.
“I told you not to ask.”
X nodded carefully.
Unable to speak and having his notebook taken, he felt sorry.
Kirke returned the notebook and declared boldly.
“Let’s discuss what will happen slowly.”
「That...」
“That topic, it’s time to tell the count’s daughter too.”
Kirke realized what she meant.
It was to tell Lola about the future.
It seemed she could no longer hide it.
Lola’s eyes showed she had guessed something, but she waited patiently for X’s answer.
When X hesitated, Lola forced a bright smile. It was out of consideration for X rather than curiosity.
“If you’re ready, you can tell me. I’m a noble who knows how to wait!”
With that answer, X felt relieved and guilty.
It was terrifying to admit he had been deceiving them now.
“Then it seems everything is sorted out.”
Kirke’s expression turned serious.
“X, I know you have a lot to explain. Before that, there’s something I want to say...”
Kirke hesitated briefly, then spoke again.
“Are you really a demon?”
It was a question X had expected.
Since he was going to explain anyway, he was about to answer immediately.
“No matter how much I check, you’re human now.”
That had a slightly different meaning.
It wasn’t asking if he had become a demon,
but asking if he was a demon.
Kirke continued explaining.
“Do you know how many people checked and confirmed you after Professor Lung brought you? To see if you’re related to demons.”
「Did they do a thorough examination?」
“Yes. And the result was that you were human.”
This was strange.
X was confused, checking his information.
「Basic Info
Name: X
Race: Human (Temporary)
Special: System Holder」
‘Temporary? What’s that.’
More things to check kept piling up.
***
Currently, X’s situation had become somewhat complex.
But X was solving it one by one.
First, he explained his situation to Kirke and Lola.
X started from being human originally, then in the demon mansion, pouring demonification accelerator, becoming a demon race.
「Of course, I don’t know my current state completely. I don’t know why I’m suddenly human.」
Kirke showed surprise at that.
“I’m not a demon expert, but I don’t think there’s a case where a human becomes a demon. The opposite is the same.”
Kirke’s point was accurate.
In this world, demons can only possess humans or descend directly.
Demons cannot reproduce or die.
If born as a demon, they must remain a demon forever.
New demons can be born in hell,
but humans becoming demons is impossible.
If possible, it’s an ‘error’.
Many things were uncertain, but some certain things remained.
Lola pointed that out exactly.
“The soul is still the same as a commoner’s? Then no problem. If the demon that attacked us didn’t lie, then the human soul remains, only the body became a demon.”
Of course, it wasn’t all good.
Kirke, thinking deeply, subtly asked something.
“When you became a demon, did bad thoughts come?”
「No.」
“Wanting to kill someone, violent impulses?”
“None at all.”
“Then what changed when you became a demon?”
“Well, I could use demon abilities, I guess?”
X checked his abilities and status.
When the race changed to Human (Temporary), some changes occurred.
The biggest change was that all demon-related abilities became unusable.
Demonification, Ten Thousand Lies, One Truth—all were sealed.
As if only the demon part had been removed.
‘Some talents I was using well...’
But he was not completely human.
Human (Temporary) was not just a simple notation.
‘Price increase due to race penalty. This remains.’
The changes in stats from becoming a demon were still maintained.
Overall, for some reason, only the demon part had been removed.
‘Anyway, back to human... Is that good?’
Being human, the fear of possibly dying was worrying, but it was a problem he couldn’t solve immediately.
“...Well, there are things in the world I don’t know.”
Kirke, listening to the explanation, let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
Putting aside preconceptions, X’s actions were not evil.
Even if X had been a demon from the beginning, if good, there was no reason not to cooperate.
If all this was a demon’s scheme, humanity should have been extinct long ago.
“I believe you. Well, you’re human now anyway.”
「I was human from the beginning.」
Kirke extended her hand, and X shook it.
He could not predict what would happen next, but he felt no bad mood.
「Young lady, do you have something to say?」
X whispered to Lola, and she puffed her chest and raised her head proudly.
“It doesn’t matter what you were originally. Anyone with ability and no betrayal is fine. Our family is a thorough meritocracy. There are even half-humans or demons among servants and officers. Adding one more demon is no big deal.”
Imagining what the Lemercier family was like with that.
An extreme military society ruled by soldiers.
Suddenly thinking of the army, his mood became gloomy.
“Why? Your expression is bad after hearing about our family?”
“I think it’s a very great family.”
“Seeing your brazenness, you’re a commoner.”
After the situation was sorted, the atmosphere relaxed.
Kirke and Lola told X what happened while he was away.
Lola’s haggard look was because she was learning magic needed for battle from Kirke.
Kirke was interested in Lola’s family and saw great potential in Lola.
And there was surprising news.
「The dual use of mana and internal energy curriculum?」
The education X had sent to the chairman finally started.
Kirke blew her nose, mocking the students obsessed with the education.
“It was a mess. Even digging one well was too much. The magic department trained internal energy, the martial department tried to sense mana, and the holy department students were wandering around.”
Kirke’s eyes, displeased with students deviating from their studies, glared at X fiercely.
“Thanks to that, the demon-related rumors disappeared...”
‘The culprit is you?’ gaze.
Enduring the gaze to confess, X asked Lola.
「I have something to ask.」
“Eh?”
Even if asking this was okay, but he asked.
「What happened to Elia?」
At that, Kirke flinched, avoided his eyes, and closed her mouth, and from Lola came a dark, heavy silence.
“X.”
Lola called her name, suppressing emotion unlike herself. She smiled with a chill.
“Let’s forget about that kind of person?”
“...”
“If you want revenge on her, leave it to me. Our family is already searching the empire.”
That was enough.
No more questions about Elia.
X buried the sigh he wanted to let out deep inside.
Even if telling the truth to Lola, she wouldn’t believe.
Lola’s Elia was as good as dead.
No, perhaps better if dead.
‘Elysia, was this what you wanted?’
The author who loved her work too much, the design was too cruel to doubt if she was the real one.
Understood manipulating to remove her, but hard to understand removing in-story characters.
Even if not in the original story.
‘...Do I have the right to think such things?’
The person who advised to treat X as disposable and kill easily was himself.
Thinking of the draft Elysia brought, her anger might not be towards the world.
This story was not the story she wanted to write.
Then, what was Elysia’s true goal.
World extinction? X’s death? Original story restoration?
‘Then what remains at the end? If not wanting extinction, I must not disturb me. Rather, help me.’
Recall more fundamental question.
‘Why did Elysia, who has power to create the world, come to the publisher to get editor’s help? Why intervene when she didn’t like the story changing?’
Approach with more core question.
‘Was the reason she killed me in past life just simple grudge?’
Nothing known.
Questions only birthed answers unknown.
But for now, that question was enough.
“Excuse me.”
At that time, the treatment room door burst open, and someone entered.
Darius and Milia, who always stood by him.
Darius, upon entering, gestured to stop the three from trying to be polite and took out his business.
“Want to talk alone with the two of you.”
Not a request from the prince, Kirke and Lola quietly left outside.
Now Darius looked very urgent, unlike usual.
When Kirke and Lola left, Darius immediately said.
“Did you bring the item to relieve the Emperor’s curse?”
As expected, that business.
“I heard the diagnosis from the doctor. No need to force politeness. Just quickly confirm the business.”
Fortunately, Kirke and Lola had brought the bag with the artifact.
The items inside were intact and delivered to X.
「I brought them.」
X, knowing Darius would come, took out the prepared items.
The Chalice of Purification, a holy relic broken into two clean pieces.
「It was damaged during the attack.」
“Is this the holy relic?”
Darius took the two broken chalice with trembling hands and carefully examined.
“Milia, that.”
Then, sending a glance to Milia, she brought something wrapped in a handkerchief.
When revealing the handkerchief, a coin with an extremely strong curse inside appeared, frowning brows.
“This coin killed my master three times. It carries an unusual curse.”
Darius calmly explained the item, fitted the two pieces of chalice to original shape, dropped the cursed coin inside. To test if it was the relief.
All three watched with curiosity.
Inside the chalice, the coin was still, then suddenly trembled a bit.
Guaaaah-!
A rough voice’s evil scream from the coin, all things in the room trembled in fear.
After crying and trembling for a while, the coin’s movement suddenly stopped.
Looking at the coin again, no curse or grudge felt.
Surprisingly, the chalice still had the relief ability.
“...It seems it has relief ability.”
The promise X thought failed was successful.
But the following words were not as expected.
“But this is not enough. I need something stronger right now. We don’t have much time, only a week.”
Darius let out a weak sigh.
“The curse has become stronger. No priest can relieve it... They told me to prepare my mind.”
Milia, behind, frowned, unwilling to accept the coming words, turned her gaze.
“Very soon, His Majesty the Emperor will pass away.”
The empire’s extinction scenario started in earnest.