Chapter 9 — In the Land of the Blind (3)
Chapter 9 — In the Land of the Blind (3)
Just then, Diobe appeared holding a robe. At the sight of the Demon King's outer garment covering the princess's front, her expression became much the same as the princess's.
After helping the princess into the robe, Diobe vacated the office at the Demon King's order. Only now, having recovered a measure of calm, did life return to the princess's eyes.
"I have shown you a shameful sight. Grünent Re Merde of the Kingdom of Merde offers her thanks to Your Majesty."
Roan looked her over. Her beauty had not vanished, but anyone could see she had not fared comfortably.
Her sunken cheeks, dirtied nails, and long-uncared-for hair hinted at the hardships she had endured.
Still, it was a relief that she had at least kept her wits.
"And what of your meals and sleeping arrangements?"
"...Surprising."
Princess Grünent answered in a clear voice that was quiet but carried weight.
"For months you did not ask. I assumed you did not care how things turned out."
...Thank goodness. If anything, it was because he hadn't done anything.
At the princess's words, Roan felt relieved.
"Fundamentally, they are abysmal. They say humans are not seen as human here."
But the bar for relief seemed to have been far too low.
Generally, humans could not be satisfied simply by clinging to life. Even more so a princess.
"Nevertheless, I seem to receive better treatment than livestock. Thanks to my rank, my life has not been threatened. But the other attendants who came with me, of course..."
'Huh?'
Roan's eyes narrowed. Were there maidservants? In what situation would a captive be accompanied by her attendants?
The royal palace had never been sacked by the Demon King.
Even in a game, NPCs would have talked about an incident of that magnitude. Had the princess gone to some border city and been captured wholesale?
Not seeing the look of dissonance on Roan's face, Grünent swallowed hard, as if choked by emotion.
"Just how absolute Your Majesty's commands are—they fell upon my attendants like beasts, yet left me alone. Yes, I could at least count myself fortunate that my life and chastity were preserved. Though when I first heard I was to come as Your Majesty's concubine, I did, of course,
expect a life more comfortable than this." "Shall I then thank you for sparing my life alone?"
Concubine?
Cooooncubine?!
Roan nearly leaped to his feet. She wasn't a prisoner?
He barely managed to hide his shock. But it was the shell of the Demon King, adept at masking expression. Outwardly, he looked like a seasoned Demon King lounging with his chin propped at an angle, listening lazily to the princess's words.
"Something... it appears there has clearly been some misunderstanding."
The words Roan managed to force out were close to an excuse, but he felt he could not endure without saying at least that much.
So this Demon King bastard had stashed away a princess sent as his concubine in a prison cell. Surely because she was a nuisance. He wouldn't have cared whether she lived or died.
But he couldn't put it to her that way.
"A misunderstanding... a misunderstanding, you say?"
Grünent's blue eyes sharpened until they were piercing.
"If a master does not know that his will is being distorted, that is the master's moral failing. And if such an intention was conveyed in the first place, subordinates will simply carry it out as delivered. That, too, is the master's moral failing."
"...."
The Demon King with a Knowledge of 40 had no choice but to keep his silence.
To make her understand with words, he had to understand her logic.
So Roan decided to hear her out to the end.
Back in his original world, that had been his secret to earning the respect of the other shoulders: knowing what someone needed and responding accordingly.
"Even in a prison, word leaks in. How fearsome a being Your Majesty is, how mighty an absolute ruler. Yet it seems even that power does not reach in full beneath the prison."
"...Princess."
The Demon King spoke quietly to check Grünent, whose voice was gradually gaining force with anger, but she paid no heed.
"The loyalty Your Majesty wrings out through fear goes only that far. If even the jailers within the same castle, once they forget the immediate terror, hide from their master's eyes and act so, would Your Majesty's forces in some far-off place properly obey your commands?"
Regardless of the princess's emotions, what she was saying was likely close to the truth. There were parts that connected to the worries Roan had been entertaining while seated in the library earlier, so he resolved to listen to the end of her words in silence.
"I came here for an armistice. But that accord, in the end, turned out to be nothing but a pretense. Nothing changed. Your Majesty's ragtag army continues to invade the kingdom, ignoring your words. Because while Your Majesty is terrifying, there seems to be something they fear even more."
The Demon King was overwhelming, but he could not be everywhere at once. Thus there were limits to the reign of fear he could project.
And the princess knew what became of such an army—as Roan could guess as well.
In the end, that is how you will fall.
The princess wore a bitter smile. They said the Demon King showed no mercy to those who spoke words he disliked.
It didn't matter. From the moment she was discarded to this country as a pretext, her life had been as good as forfeit anyway.
Watching the suffering and death of her fellow maidservants in the prison had only concentrated her venom.
She had expected, at least, a sovereign who could bind the powerful demons together. But his soldiers harbored only fear of the Demon King, possessing no will to understand the intent of his commands and follow them, nor any loyalty. Such a nation could not last. How was it any different from a band of brigands?
Having uncharacteristically revealed a raw piece of her heart, Grünent studied the Demon King's expression, feeling a degree of catharsis. Yet that sharp and cold face betrayed no change. The Demon King, who had briefly closed his eyes, looked at Grünent.
Feeling as if those amethyst eyes were prying into her heart, Grünent swallowed her breath.
"And so you wish to tell me that I will fail? Princess Grünent."
The Demon King's lips curled slowly upward. Knowing how perilous he was even while smiling so beautifully, the princess's heart turned chill.
"But do you not also know that the world does not run on reason alone? Were it so, the First Princess would not be here, would she? Grünent Re Merde. Jewel of Merde."
"Ngh..."
Struck to the bone by the fact, the princess let out a groan.
"Where else under heaven is there a king who flings away a First Princess renowned for her wisdom and beauty like a discard? Any observer would call him a foolish king. And yet Merde's ruin does not appear imminent either."
The razor truth seemed to bore into her body, and the princess hunched her shoulders. Seeing this, Roan spoke gently.
"I understand the princess's anger. That I dare use the word 'understand' may strike you as strange. And so I feel indebted to you. If venting your spleen would ease your mood, that would be a welcome thing. But it would end there."
Grünent's elegant brows twisted slightly.
She would not know how much Roan abhorred what the Demon King had done.
But regardless of her expression, Roan continued in an unhurried manner.
"It seems we both know reality well."
"...That I am useless, you mean."
"From Merde's perspective, you wouldn't have been. But they made you so."
The princess stared at the Demon King, her pretty lips pressed firmly together. That was the sort of character Princess Grünent was. Fury, sorrow, worry—all suppressed—she listened to another's words when she judged them worth hearing.
And then she considered what she stood to gain.
She had aspired to become a fine queen. But she liked honest people and kept them close. That was how she ultimately fell into a trap. A failed politician, in conclusion. Yet her political acumen and knowledge were superb.
Seeing that details already verified in the game held true, Roan felt reassured on the inside.
Even when harsh, honest words raised her Affection far more easily than sweet lies. Moreover, once she joined the Hero's side, the Hero began to gain the strength to oppose the Demon King far more smoothly. Her political power—persuading party members, devising efficient strategies, extracting necessary support from city leaders—was an overwhelming force.
The skill the Hero acquired from her was something else, of course. But that was a story for another time.
[Message: Ding-dong-dang! You have successfully guessed the skill you wish to obtain. An additional buff will be applied to skills directed at the Capture Target.]
...I'd like to turn off that sound effect.
[Message: First Quest — Duplicate the skill 'Politics' from the Kingdom's First Princess!]
A quest message fixed itself to the upper right. After glancing toward it for a moment, Roan looked back at the princess.
"The Royal House of Merde was displeased with its ambitious princess and cast away its bag of wisdom. Whether you were of help to the armistice or not had no meaning to them. And in fact, you were of no help. You know it. I know it."
"...."
"Demons, by nature, care nothing for pretexts. They can simply seize things by force. The human king gave you a pretext, but unless your presence produces something to be gained, you are of no use to me."
"...So, I was placed in prison..."
At the princess's murmur with narrowed eyes, Roan felt a little awkward.
...Well, it wasn't exactly me who did it... The previous owner of this body probably didn't think that deeply either...
"The chaos in the borderlands is an old one. Long before I became sovereign. No king has ever succeeded in quelling it completely. Not on the human side, nor on the Demon King's."
That was how it was in the game.
"If there are places beyond my reach, is my rule therefore a failure? Then are all the kings of demonkind and humankind throughout history failures? I think not."
Even if it were a failure, it wouldn't matter. The Demon King possessed the martial power to twist it.
"If the king does not fall, the nation does not fall. Nor is that true only of the demon nation I rule by force. Does the Kingdom of Merde not also put forward that very logic to draw the loyalty of its people and nobles? I am a king who does not fall."
Until the Hero came, at least. But there was no reason for the princess to know the words Roan swallowed. She regarded the Demon King with a look of curious admiration.
It was the confidence only a supreme ruler could possess.
And at his next words, the princess's eyes flew wide.
"Nevertheless, I too sympathize deeply with what you said. You spoke of loyalty wrung out through fear. Yes. That is shallow. Fear will have blinded them and stopped their ears."
To the point where he'd be ganged up on by the Hero's party in a one-versus-many battle.
To the point where he wouldn't even know the Hero was coming and going in the city right under his nose.
That was how limited a rule driven by fear was.
Buried elegantly deep in his chair, the Demon King lightly clenched one hand that had been resting on the table. It was a small gesture that looked like resolve.
Once again, Roan felt the pleasing force of a skill enveloping his entire body.
"The princess's criticism is just. But I will not fall. I intend to change. Myself, and my capital."
"...What... what words... It is not so simple a thing."
Perhaps she had spoken intending scorn, but sincerity filled the princess's voice. In the end, those words sounded like concern over the Demon King's resolution.
Gazing at the shabby, black-robed princess, the Demon King added, as if pitying.
"Concerning your attendants, I must convey my regret. I will speak to my subordinates to have your quarters and those of your party moved. See that the people you brought are looked after."
And after a silence that was not long, the princess bowed her head deeply. At the unexpected words, her voice trembled.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Within her heart, Roan's value shifted sharply.
The Iron-Blooded Emperor was a notoriously infamous Demon King, the one who had imprisoned her and her maidservants.
But today, he had appeared to her as at least honest enough to acknowledge his own follies, powerful, and an opponent capable of refuting Grünent's arguments.
In a sense, he seemed more open to conversation than the stubborn father-king or the ministers of her homeland.
In an instant, with a sound effect that shattered the atmosphere, the altered Affection value appeared beside Grünent. Roan's body jolted.
-60.
It had risen by a full 30 points.