Chapter 99 — Two — Faced (1)
Chapter 99 — Two — Faced (1)
The gentle answer of the Demon King echoed.
"Helen. Before me, see to Rauka."
Steam was rising faintly from the emperor's bare torso.
And there was Rauka, collapsed beneath the Demon King's cloak and fur.
Bodily fluids scattered here and there, visible only to strong knights like Helen if they sharpened their sight.
Having swiftly grasped the situation, Helen felt relieved instead and extended healing toward Rauka.
In the meantime, a knight who had pushed aside the stone wall and brought a blanket knelt on one knee before Roan.
It was the commander of the West Blood Territory Knight Order, whose face Roan had seen several times on the way to Zeno.
"Your Majesty. Please preserve your noble body."
"Mm."
The emperor's upper garment had fallen to the ground, but there was no one bold enough to advise the emperor to put on again clothes that had fallen onto the dirt floor and become soiled.
The soldiers carefully retrieved the emperor's clothing, and the knight spoke with his head still deeply bowed.
"We surmised you were trapped inside the cave, but we could not find Your Majesty quickly. We are mortified."
"Explain."
The emperor's words demanding details carried little anger.
Yet the knight trembled.
For whatever reason, they had been late,
and the emperor had been trapped in a cold place for just that long.
No matter how powerful he was.
It was not easy to admit fault to a person so far above oneself.
The knight had heard much about the merciful deeds the emperor was performing lately,
had also received the generous winter supplies,
and had had the opportunity to glimpse his temperament while escorting the emperor back to Zeno alongside his liege lord.
Even so, the commander of the West Blood Territory Knight Order needed time to steady his heart before making an excuse.
That was how infamous Roan's fearsome name was.
"Approximately one hour after Your Majesty followed the forest elf into the forest immediately after your conversation with the Grand Duke, there was a great physical and mana tremor."
Roan's brows furrowed as he listened to the report.
A Cave Worm monster was admittedly vicious... but not to this degree.
The place where he had parted from the Lord of the West Blood Territory was quite a distance from the waypoint as well.
He had judged there was no need to reveal the waypoint ruin to the knights and soldiers guarding him, even if the lord himself were a different matter.
How far would it be in terms of distance?
He had sprinted at full speed for over ten minutes while pursuing Rauka. He must have run at least several kilometers, by a rough estimate.
It was incomparable to running speeds in reality.
The Demon King's body, and the forest elf's body, had both already transcended human limits.
And this cave was a leisurely thirty-minute walk, about two kilometers, from that ruin.
Put together, it was around ten kilometers away.
But a Cave Worm that does little more than eat bears set off a tremor felt ten kilometers away?
Even a subway tremor doesn't reach ten kilometers to the point ordinary people feel it.
The idea was absurd.
That tremor,
he felt it made more sense to conclude it had emanated from this crystal.
'But there was no sign of force being released in the manner of someone splitting crystal by hand...'
Seeing Roan silently lost in thought, the knight carefully offered a comment.
"Your Majesty, at least a blanket about your shoulders—"
"Ah."
Roan realized he was still wearing nothing on his upper body.
Seeing the knight's worried expression, Roan unfolded the blanket and draped it over his shoulders.
Though with a Constitution of 99, he would never catch a cold, Roan, wearing a faint smile, requested that the knight continue his explanation.
"Hm. The tremor, you said. Tell the rest."
"Yes, Your Majesty. At first, I thought it might be an earthquake, but a powerful mana wavelength was felt at the same time. However, following the matters Your Majesty had instructed the Grand Duke on in advance, the search only began ten hours after Your Majesty entered the forest."
"It must have been grueling because it was night."
It was an unanticipated consolation from the emperor.
The knight's eyes flew wide open while his head remained bowed.
"...It is nothing compared to the hardship Your Majesty endured."
"I gave the lord specific information on where to search. Was there an obstruction that prevented you from arriving quickly?"
"There was."
The knight swallowed quietly.
"We encountered forest elves."
Roan's face hardened.
"I heard that forest elves... do not come this far out."
"That is correct. The actual range of forest elves' activity is much deeper inside the forest. However, they also felt the tremor and came out to grasp the situation."
"...Hm."
Did he mean the tremor and wavelength were transmitted as far as where the forest elves lived?
Was it that the forest elves were highly sensitive and thus able to feel it, or that the tremor had been that powerful?
It was difficult to determine from the viewpoint of someone who had been trapped.
"The initial team searching this area was ambushed. The fact they held torches in the middle of the night in a zone where magic cannot be used was the root cause. The search team first withdrew to minimize damage."
Roan cut off the knight's words.
"...Cannot use magic?"
"Yes. That is correct. Thus, detection magic could not be used, and the forest elves attacked with bows as well..."
"Why can magic not be used?"
"When magic is used here, the consumption of mana becomes far more severe. If it is serious, mana rampage can also occur. Your Majesty. Hence, using magic in this area is taboo for both the forest elves and ourselves."
At this new fact, Roan's face twisted.
"Mana dissipation... and rampage were not exclusive to forest elves?"
"Yes. In this forest... in this area that absorbs mana, if magic is used excessively, demonkind and humans both suffer mana dissipation. Ordinarily, possessing less mana than forest elves, if one severely consumes mana at once, they suffer rampage even more quickly."
"...Hm."
A chill ran down Roan's spine.
Local information that only someone from near this region would know in detail.
Roan realized anew the fact that being in-game dialogue did not mean it would tell him everything.
If I hadn't known only minor spells like Warming Magic or Light,
or if I hadn't possessed holy power.
Forget sex—I might have been collapsed and unconscious.
If Rauka had thrown magic around lavishly without sparing it until the very end, she too might have suffered mana dissipation and lost her life.
'...I was bold because I was ignorant.'
Roan swallowed a sigh of relief internally.
The knight's explanation continued.
"We reorganized the search party with those capable of nighttime search and commenced a second search.
However, because even the engineers were protected with shield soldiers assigned to them, more time was required than anticipated. We are mortified we could not hurry further, Your Majesty."
Apology for the delayed rescue seeped from the knight's words.
He seemed unable to readily grasp the idea of even assigning shield soldiers to non-combatants to escort them from forest elf attacks, but the Lord of the West Blood Territory appeared to have had a similar thought to Roan.
He would protect weak soldiers too.
If only the forest elves had witnessed that sight, I wish they had noticed that the demonkind's behavior was different from usual.
"It is fine. Did you clash further with the forest elves?"
"They seemed to be concerned with what we were searching for here."
"For a long while, neither side has touched this place, you said."
"That is correct, Your Majesty."
Roan's expression darkened a little.
"I intended to explore quietly, yet the matter has become a little troublesome."
At the dragon eyes that had darkened, the knight could only be flustered, unable to raise his head.
"We have set up a barracks near here as a precaution so the inside cannot be seen, but..."
"In any case, if the forest elves investigate the traces themselves, it will not be difficult for them to learn what happened."
Rauka cut into the conversation with a voice drained of strength.
"...You've woken."
"Yeah..."
Rauka, with a flushed face, raised her body from where she lay, supported by Helen.
Still naked, she was wrapped round and round in the Demon King's cloak, and over that, the blanket Helen had draped wrapped her once more, making Rauka look just like a plump, bundled-up caterpillar.
Roan unwittingly chuckled.
"...?"
Rauka, who had spotted the laugh, glared at Roan with resentful eyes and spoke.
"...So I recommend either blocking them from inspecting this place, or quickly giving them a suitable reason."
"A suitable reason, you say?"
"That is for Your Majesty to devise."
"Rauka."
"Hmph."
Helen quietly called her name as though reproaching Rauka, but Rauka gave Roan a snort with her lips pushed out in a pout.
She looked to be in a decided sulk.
It was felt through Detection that Roan's semen, left copiously inside her, was trickling and flowing thickly down Rauka's trembling legs as she stood up.
"Very well. I will bear the worry."
In the end, Roan laughed and exited the cave following the knight's guidance together with Rauka.
Everywhere Rauka moved, small droplets of bodily fluid left traces, but only Helen appeared to have noticed it.
Only when they emerged through the cave passage the soldiers had secured could Roan at last see the sight of the cave entrance ceiling he had come through, which had sagged and collapsed deeply.
The soldiers seemed to have stepped over that collapsed ceiling to come inside, placed support pillars inside the passage, and entered the place where Roan had been.
"Come to think of it, I had continuously kept 'Light' floating inside. Was the light not visible?"
"Did you, sir? Yes. We did not see it."
The knight commander, who had answered in the negative, added an explanation.
"We confirmed from inside that there was a hole in the ceiling where you were just now, but the ground surface connected to it has not yet been discovered.
We speculate it is a spot that has been covered over by a further layer of rocks, trees, or the like."
"...Mm."
Roan looked back at the approximate distance he estimated he had traveled. The broad boulders and dense trees filling the space above were visible.
With bad luck, I could have been completely crushed beneath that. A chill ran through him once more.
Roan realized anew along with Rauka how tremendously lucky it had been that they survived the collapse.
Waiting at the end of the screen that hid the ground surface was, unexpectedly, a horse-drawn carriage.
"...It is not a demon beast?"
"That is correct. Even demon beasts do not enter this area. Even tamed ones lose their strength if brought in."
"Is that, as expected, related to what you mentioned earlier... the phenomenon of mana being drained."
"That is what we speculate, Your Majesty."
Thick padded garments had been put on the horses, which were weaker against the cold than demon beasts. They happened to be olive-colored.
At the horses' appearance, which looked as though they were wearing quilted military jackets, Roan laughed once again.
But the Demon King's outward appearance masked the small laugh. As a result, Roan boarded the carriage with a solemn demeanor.
Once Rauka and Helen had also boarded the carriage, it began to move.
Roan discreetly looked out the window.
The tent that concealed the cave entrance was quite extensive. Traces of the Grand Duke's effort to hide Roan's identity were glimpsed.
The knights surrounding the carriage protected the horses and carriage with shields raised, and on top of that, even Helen had activated a protective spell.
The reason Helen the human had been able to be included in this rescue party was probably because she was the sole caster of divine magic.
"Helen. Do you have any problems with spellcasting or holy power?"
"No, Master. I am all right."
"Hmm..."
Certainly, this forest—more precisely, this ore—
seemed to grant special treatment where holy power was concerned.
It had shown no reaction to any magic whatsoever, yet revealed its form to 'Starlight',
and while it greedily absorbed all of Rauka's mana, it did not touch my holy power.
Perhaps this ore might even react to magic like Helen's 'Sunlight'.
Roan quietly fingered one piece of the ore in his hand.
"But Master, why did you bring that stone out with you?"
"...Hm?"
Roan's eyes narrowed.
"Why do you think it is a stone? Helen."
Helen's eyes trembled slightly.
Seeing her slightly frightened expression, Roan gently soothed her.
"I do not mean to fault you. Tell me the reason."
"To my deficient knowledge..."
Helen's eyebrows knotted slightly.
"It is merely a black lump, so..."
"...Black, you say?"
Rauka answered in Roan's stead.
"...Pardon?"
The two bewildered women faced each other.