The Dark Palace
I'd left the unconscious Pone in Lunan's care.
'I had no idea it would get this bad... I'm sorry, Tae-hyun. I'll apologize as your captain. I'll discipline them properly so this never happens again, so don't you worry!'
Honestly, I couldn't have cared less what happened to those guys.
Even if a whole crowd of them had jumped me at once, I was more than confident I could put them down without breaking a sweat.
Still, it felt wrong to argue with someone offering to take responsibility, so I simply let her be.
Immediately after, I made my way to the center of the Shadow Garden.
A magnificent fortress crowned with black spires.
The Dark Palace.
Requests rated S-rank or higher in difficulty, I was told, required reporting directly at the Dark Palace upon completion.
Supposedly because S-rank requests were almost always deeply entangled with the affairs of continents and kingdoms.
"Halt. Beyond this point lies the residence of His Highness Leo — supreme blood of the kingdom and master of the Black Moon."
As I reached the Dark Palace's entrance, two gatekeepers moved to block my path.
"What is the purpose of your visit?"
"I've come to report the completion of a request."
"We will verify the contents of the request."
I handed over the prepared request document.
One bearing the authentic, hand-written signature of the head of the Slott family, no less.
Proof that the request had been successfully fulfilled.
"...Verified. Please wait until His Highness is ready to receive your report."
"Understood."
While they checked whether Prince Leo was prepared to hear me out, I organized the thoughts I'd been turning over in the carriage on the way here.
'One of the two princes will become a Monarch.'
Dantalion's words, like a dying testament.
Unless he'd suddenly started spouting nonsense at the very end, those words were almost certainly true.
'It's not like the thought never crossed my mind.'
There weren't many beings capable of dragging an entire world into ruin within mere months, after all.
'One of the two princes will become a Monarch.'
And the other would become Grempel.
'But which one?'
Theo, or Leo.
Which was the Monarch, and which was the Nameless King?
I racked my brain over it again and again, but the answer refused to narrow down.
The reason was simple.
'There's far too little information about the two princes.'
Rumors half-heard through the grapevine would never yield an answer.
Which meant I had to make the most of the opportunity now in front of me.
"Member of the 2nd Division, Lee Tae-hyun. Entry granted."
Clang!
The massive iron gates swung open, revealing the Dark Palace grounds.
Despite its name, the palace interior was brimming with surprising vitality.
The grass carpeting the ground was lusher than anything outside, and flowers bloomed in vivid, beautiful arrays of color.
And yet, the moment I lifted my gaze forward, a black castle soaring as if to pierce the heavens pressed down on me with an overwhelming, crushing presence.
"This way, please."
A man who appeared to be a servant of the Dark Palace escorted me into the castle's depths.
Only after passing through one more set of doors was I finally able to face the man I'd been waiting for.
"Your Highness, I have brought the knight."
"Ah, good work."
Hair black as obsidian, set against skin of starkly contrasting pallor.
Features so sharply defined they might have been drawn by a painter's hand, and an imposing frame.
"So you're the one. The man the 2nd Division captain went out of her way to bring here."
"A member of the 2nd Division. My name is Lee Tae-hyun."
I bowed with proper formality at once.
One careless word out of place here, and my neck would genuinely be gone on the spot.
"A pleasure. I am the master of this knightly order — Leo."
The prince smiled graciously — a man who might be the Monarch, and at the same time, might be the king.
It was a warm smile, strikingly at odds with his appearance.
"This must be your first time seeing me. My apologies. Things have grown terribly busy as of late."
"Not at all."
"Still, duties are duties."
He examined the documents the servant handed him.
"An immeasurable-difficulty request, was it... My, you've made quite the achievement, barely any time after joining the order."
"Nothing worth boasting about."
"And your humility pleases me as well. Now then, let's hear it."
Leo's eyes left the papers and settled on me.
"What happened out there?"
"Yes. Though, before I give my report, there is one favor I must ask."
"And that is?"
"I must ask that you dismiss the ears around us."
I'd said it half off the cuff, but the meaning came across well enough.
'Clear the servants.'
Layering groundwork like this had a way of making even a modest tale sound far more significant than it was.
"Hmm... well, very well."
At a single wave of Leo's hand, the servants who had crowded the room filed out at once.
All that remained now were Leo and me.
"Willing to speak now?"
"Thank you, Your Highness."
At last, I opened my mouth.
"In this request, I sealed the dungeon that formed beneath the Slott family's domain."
"A dungeon beneath their territory... that is a rare occurrence indeed."
"And there, I encountered... it."
"It, you say?"
I deliberately let the pause stretch before forcing the words out with labored difficulty.
"A Demon Archduke."
"A Demon Archduke...!"
Leo visibly wavered.
This was the man who commanded a knightly order with demon-hunting at its very roots.
Naturally, I'd counted on his interest being piqued by such a story — and it seemed I'd judged right.
"The highest-ranked demon ever discovered and subjugated was a Marquis... To think a being beyond even that still remained...!"
"It startled me as well."
"Was the demon strong?"
"...Strong."
I deliberately let my body shudder.
As if merely recalling that moment filled me with dread.
"Demons are powerful. And those who style themselves nobility are stronger still."
As expected, Leo's knowledge of demons seemed extensive.
"A mere Baron ranks among the upper-tier monsters. The might of an Archduke hardly bears imagining."
"Fortunately, that particular demon seemed to have little interest in slaughtering humans."
"So that's how you made it back alive. Fortunate, indeed."
"In exchange, though, it was a rather loose-lipped demon. Thanks to that, I learned a few of the world's secrets."
"The world's secrets?"
Reeling in Leo's interest — that part was a success.
Now came the straight pitch.
"Your Highness — do you happen to know anything about the Monarchs?"
I didn't drag it out any further.
The moment Leo's interest flagged, he'd throw me straight out of the Dark Palace.
Better to get to the point quickly than risk that.
"......"
The instant the word Monarch left my lips, Leo's expression shifted in a curious way.
"...So you've heard of it too. Demons and their love of talking — they've become a real headache."
"You knew?"
"Of course. Or — no, I suppose 'of course' isn't quite right? It is classified among the highest-level secrets, after all."
Leo rose from his seat.
Then, from within his robes, he produced a single small book.
A shabby, ancient thing, its cover nearly falling apart.
"Do you know what this is? A record-book from three hundred years past, written during the age of the demon flood. It contains the kinds and numbers of demons subjugated, and even the conversations exchanged with them."
He began his tale.
"If you look here, you'll find one word recurring again and again."
"That would be... Monarch."
"The origin of demons, and other dimensions... everything the world knows only as mystery was written within these pages. Among them, information on the beings called Monarchs."
A realm reached only by those who transcended their kind. Monarch.
The demons of this world had fled from their own Monarchs to seek refuge here.
"A truly fascinating tale. Granting the most outstanding among them the power to rule over all the rest."
"Hardly a believable story."
I pushed forward with the pretense of denying the Monarchs' existence.
Since this was classified information, reacting with too keen an interest could land me in serious trouble.
"At the end of the day, it's nothing but demons running their mouths."
"Is that what you believe?"
Leo stroked his chin, looking amused.
Across that pale face, faint flickers of emotion surfaced and vanished, over and over.
"And yet demons are not the lovers of falsehood you might expect. They merely cherry-pick which truths they wish to share."
"......"
"And that they are not beings of myth — merely fugitives and invaders from another world."
Balrok the Baron, and Dantalion, one of only three Archdukes —
All of them, so Leo claimed, were nothing more than refugees who had fled from the Demon Monarch to another world.
"The great power of the Monarch pushes such evils out by its very existence — and at the same time, shoves that evil onto somewhere else."
"So then... do you wish to become such a Monarch, Your Highness?"
"Me? I have no such qualification."
Leo shook his head.
"A Monarch is a ruler, is he not? I do not yet possess the power to govern all these people. Such a seat is beyond me."
"......"
"But that Demon Archduke troubles me. Left as it is, harm may yet come to others."
"Forgive my forwardness."
I cast my final question.
"Your Highness — how do you regard demons?"
"How do I regard them? You ask the obvious."
He said:
My conversation with Leo had only plunged me deeper into the maze.
He knew of the Monarchs, yes — but from him, I could find no trace of a Monarch's omen, nor anything of Grempel.
'If things stay like this, the Great Heavenly Command will arrive, and the Monarch will be born before I know it.'
My goal for now was to stop the Monarch's birth.
I had no way of knowing what ripple effects this 'world within the fragment' might send into the outside — but knowing the destruction a Monarch would bring, I could hardly stand by and let it happen.
'I need somewhere to gather more information.'
And that opportunity arrived sooner than I expected.
Because an event of all things occurred: none other than First Prince Theo came marching to the Shadow Garden.
With no advance notice whatsoever. Just like that.
"Emergency! Everyone, to positions!"
Thanks to him, red alerts blazed across the garden.
"Not the slightest mistake will be tolerated!"
"The White Sun bastards are coming with their honor guard! Stay sharp!"
Rivals they may have been, but this was also the hour when the Great Heavenly Command loomed right on their doorstep.
In other words, the struggle for the throne was at its most fevered.
One wrong move, and an outright clash between the two knightly orders was possible — a powder keg waiting for a spark.
Swish!
Within five minutes of the procession being spotted, every soul in the Black Moon had assembled in flawless ranks.
Clang!
The garden gates swung open, and at last the First Prince set foot upon the grass.
He bore a resemblance to Leo, but his hair was bone-white and his expression far fiercer.
'So alike, and yet so utterly different.'
If Leo evoked the image of a pale wolf, Theo brought to mind a lion bristling with killing intent.
"We greet His Highness Theo, First Prince and master of the White Sun Knights."
The man who stepped forward to receive him appeared to be the captain of the 1st Division.
Theo brushed off the man's greeting as beneath his notice and asked bluntly:
"...Where is Leo?"
"His Highness the Second Prince is currently at the Dark Pal—"
"Still cooped up in that place? His elder brother comes to call, and he doesn't even come out to greet me. What a lack of manners."
He moved at once.
"I will proceed directly to the Dark Palace."
"W-wait a moment... this is all so sudden...!"
Showing up unannounced with a force of soldiers was unquestionably Theo's own doing.
"Sudden?"
He was the very picture of confidence.
As if he wore the aura of a conquering king like a mantle.
"Are you saying I need your permission?"
"N-no, Your Highness..."
"Then see that the Dark Palace's doors are opened at once. It would displease me greatly if my feet were made to stop along the way."
Theo, First Prince.
He made for the Dark Palace.
To meet the one brother he had.