The Princess's Blessing

A day had passed since the trial ended. Even as word spread that Princess Beatrice was a demon, the Grand Feast Day went on without interruption. Darius had ordered the festival to proceed as planned.

If anything, the festive mood was already fading. By now, everyone's attention had locked onto the tournament.

"This crowd is no joke — and it's still just the preliminaries."

X arrived at the Indoor Training Arena where the tournament was being held. This wasn't even the official main event, ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and yet a considerable number of people had come to watch the students duel. There were hardly any commoners among them, though. Judging by their dress, the crowd was mostly nobles, high-ranking merchants, mercenary companies, and knight orders.

"So they're here to size up the students' skills starting from the preliminaries."

Lola had approached without him noticing.

"Lady Lola. You're here."

She looked faintly sullen as she called out to him.

"So you can talk again now?"

"Ah. That."

The aphasia had cleared up by a stroke of chance. His throat had loosened while he was drinking with Roxwell, half-conscious and rambling — and that was also when he'd figured out why he'd gone mute in the first place.

I can't keep lying to myself anymore.

He'd hit his limit. Treating his previous life as if it had never existed was no longer possible. Forgetting his wife's and daughter's names had only been the beginning. If he didn't face it, he might forget everything someday.

When that happens, Il-yong dies — and only X remains.

He'd seen firsthand what became of someone who'd lost their past. If he ended up like Elia, that would be the end of him. Of that, he was certain.

"Well, as long as it's better, that's what matters."

"So you've been faking it this whole time?"

"More or less."

Lola let out a long sigh. His deadpan nonchalance left her at a complete loss for words. Then her expression turned serious.

"What did you talk about with my father yesterday?"

So that was what she'd been curious about. She was fidgeting, a little uneasy.

"It's nothing I can't tell you. He wants me to join the Blue Moon Magic Corps and serve as your watchdog."

"...What? And you said yes?!"

"I'm going to refuse. I'm not insane."

Joining the Magic Corps would close off every path to stopping the Doom Scenario. Refusal was already a given. That said, he agreed with the part about keeping ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lola out of danger. The question was how to strike that compromise.

Then, all of a sudden, X noticed something odd.

"My lady."

"Hm?"

"You've gotten taller."

He looked again, wondering if he'd imagined it, but she'd definitely grown. He was still processing it — a growth spurt, maybe? — when Lola's eyes lit up with childlike anticipation.

"Oh? How much taller do you think I got?"

"About half a centimeter?"

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding. You've grown about five centimeters."

X found himself thinking back to the day he'd first met Lola. He'd taken her for just another arrogant noble, only to discover she was a count's daughter scrambling to hide a fragile heart — and for all that, she had no shortage of affection to give. One look at her father, Count Lemercier, was enough to tell she was a good kid who'd grown up well-loved.

Putting her through any more danger than this would just be my own selfishness.

The fact that no one had died so far was nothing short of a miracle. X had no intention of leaning on miracles forever.

"X. There you are. His Highness is calling for you."

The voice he'd been waiting for arrived right on cue. It was the Imperial Royal Guard. X dipped his head to the guards, then turned to Lola.

"It's probably about the trial. I'll be back."

"Oh. Um. Yeah. If the prince is calling, then..."

There was a note of reluctance in her voice. Watching X's receding back, Lola felt a distance she couldn't quite name.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Several people were already gathered in the prince's office. Darius, Milia, and the Academy Chairman.

"Student X!!!"

The Chairman bellowed the moment he laid eyes on him, looking like he'd seen a ghost.

"Divine power!"

"Pardon?"

"I heard you used divine power as well!!!"

"Yes."

"Don't just 'yes' me!!! How — how did you do it?!"

The Chairman seized X by the shoulders and shook him, looking ready to pass out.

"Do you have any idea how immensely valuable the power you displayed is?! People are only quiet because they don't know you can wield all three forces yet — do you have any idea what will happen the moment they find out?!"

"It'll be a disaster, I imagine."

"And knowing that, you just — casually —! Ugh, my blood pressure..."

Just as the Chairman said, people still hadn't reacted much to the fact that X had used divine power. Only the academy students were stirring, buzzing with rumors about him.

"Chairman. Save the chatter for later."

"M-my apologies, Your Highness."

Only after Darius cut in did the Chairman settle down.

"Everyone's here. We'll begin."

Darius, who had been seated, opened the meeting with a preamble.

"The Empire currently faces an unprecedented crisis. I have summoned you here to overcome it. Everything discussed in this room is to be treated as strictly confidential. You will take every precaution to ensure that none of it leaks."

After that round of the obvious, he distributed several documents to X and the Chairman.

"First, the current situation. We are tracking the escaped princess with everything we have, but it isn't going well. Whether that's because she's a mage or because she's a demon, I don't know. What is certain is that she's preparing something."

X agreed. He could no longer check via the Synopsis Function. The viewpoint was locked to Beatrice, so there was no way to track Andras — who no longer had the ring.

"The most likely scenario is a rebellion with the revolutionary army at the vanguard. Whether the revolutionaries will still follow a princess who's been exposed as a demon remains to be seen, but..."

"It would make sense if the revolutionary army is a den of demons itself."

"...As it happens, we've been finding connections between the revolutionary army and demon worshippers. Those traces have been multiplying of late."

IMPERIAL INTELLIGENCE
CLASSIFIED
LOCATION:Slums of Capital Valon
STATUS:Ongoing
FINDINGS:
Multiple demon-worship sites discovered in the capital slums. The red flag — emblem of the revolutionary army — found at the same locations. Frequency of traces increasing.

Darius regarded the contents with a frown.

"The puzzle is that this is a rebellion that can never succeed. They haven't co-opted the ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nobility, and they don't have the military strength for it. Preparing something that's essentially a suicide mission doesn't add up. If they have a reliable force backing ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them, there's only one candidate."

"The Deus Theocracy..."

The Chairman clicked his tongue, as if the words tasted bitter even coming from his own mouth.

"Did the Theocracy not know the princess was a demon? Priest Andersen, who's currently in custody, certainly didn't seem to."

Andersen had been so shocked to learn the princess was a demon that he'd lost the ability to speak. Given the orders he'd received from the Theocracy, it was a truth too outrageous to believe — going mute was only natural.

"X. What's your take?"

"The Theocracy will send troops. That's certain."

Combat demons, no less.

"If they want to cause a real spectacle, they'll strike during the tournament proper."

"On that note, I have a question. Do you have any idea why the Theocracy would attack the Empire?"

Darius murmured, chin in hand, lost in thought.

"The Theocracy isn't a formal ally, but we maintain close cooperation. And yet this incident — and the ones still to come — don't make sense. I also don't understand why they collaborated with the princess. If this was simply about expanding their influence, they took an excessively dangerous gamble."

After turning it over, Darius narrowed his eyes and arrived at a possibility.

"There's a demon in the Theocracy as well...? A fairly high-ranking one, at that?"

X was rather impressed. He hadn't bothered to tell Darius about the Theocracy's current state — it would only have added to the chaos. Reaching that conclusion from fragmentary information alone was proof of how formidable Darius was.

At this point, X decided there was no reason to keep hiding it.

"Your Highness is correct. The demon Andras has been plotting an attack on the Empire in close cooperation with the demons of the Theocracy. The tournament is when the most people will be gathered, so that's when they intend to strike."

"What could demons possibly gain from attacking the Empire...? Do you know why they're doing this?"

"The demons are trying to resurrect an entity called the Evil God."

Darius and the Chairman stared at him in shock. X continued through their stunned silence.

"Resurrecting the Evil God requires a vast number of human souls. They intend to throw the Empire into chaos to harvest the souls they're short on. If the Evil God is resurrected, the world ends. It's an entity on par with the Demon King."

"...So that's what you meant by the world ending."

X nodded. Of the two, only the Chairman still couldn't process it, sitting there with his mouth hanging open as he listened to them talk.

"Demons in the Theocracy, the resurrection of an Evil God — what is all this..."

"Chairman. Save your questions for later. What matters is that we need a plan to stop the attack."

"Ah — yes. Understood."

Darius recapped the situation.

"In other words, the Theocracy's demons are going to attack during the tournament — and we need to draw as many eyes as possible at that same tournament. These conditions are absurd."

But if the tournament itself became a trap, they could catch the princess, the revolutionary army, and the Theocracy's demons all at once.

"A lot of people will be packed into this tournament, after all."

"That plan of yours."

Darius recalled the proposal X had given him the day before and sighed.

"Spread rumors that you're a new Hero, then face Leon in the finals..."

It was certainly a fire that could set the entire Empire ablaze. Display the three powers, pose as a new Hero, and meet the existing Hero, Leon, in the championship match.

"It's a plan with a mountain of problems, but there's one that's completely unsolvable."

Darius pointed at X.

"You don't have the skill to reach the finals."

"Ugh."

Bullseye.

"I know you beat a 5-Star warrior. But that was a victory by scheme, not by your own ability. You'll be lucky to crack the top ten. And this is my personal opinion, but."

Darius's eyes sharpened, as if his pride had been pricked.

"If you and Leon both reach the finals, does that mean you're assuming I'll be eliminated along the way?"

"..."

"Rejected. How dare you."

Figures. X sighed inwardly. It was true — he wasn't strong enough to reach the finals as he was now. Even with 4-Star internal energy and 4th-Circle magic, he was still thoroughly mediocre. Every victory so far had come from laying traps and exploiting weaknesses. In a straight fight, his odds were slim. That much was fact.

On top of that, the tournament was an unrestricted format. Artifacts, magic tools — as long as they were approved, you could bring as many as you wanted. Against nobles with deep pockets and ample backing, he'd be at a severe disadvantage.

"Hm? What is it. Mm, mm... I see."

Darius exchanged a few words with the ring on his hand, then held it out to X.

"My sister wants to speak with you."

"The princess?"

Bewildered, X slipped the ring on. A bright, cheerful girl's voice filled his mind.