Chapter 35 — I Can Hear Your Voice (3)
Chapter 35 — I Can Hear Your Voice (3)
Kneeling behind the emperor, Aranya struggled desperately to contain the trembling in her body.
The emperor had come to inspect the incident in person.
Any kind of catastrophe would not have been surprising.
No matter how high one ranked, the prime minister was no exception.
The city officials who realized the emperor, prime minister, and correction officer were in the city hall naturally fell into a panic.
Minoreus, who had been receiving the initial report on the case and speaking with the mayor, came downstairs with the mayor and knelt in one corner of the hall.
The officials they revered like the sky were flustered.
The shock on the ordinary people was even more intense.
Roan was focusing on the troll who had screamed. Perhaps because she was female, she was smaller than the average troll.
[...Roan. Take your hand off.]
Fiora called his name calmly.
Roan had apparently felt disconcerted as well.
Only then did he realize he had unknowingly been gripping the hilt of his sword.
It was an instinctive action the swordsman's body performed to seek mental stability.
[It will look like a threat. Tell me later.]
Roan gave a solitary nod.
For the first time, he was meeting his subjects face to face.
Roan opened his mouth after taking a deep breath.
He let out a subtle 'Overwhelm'.
Through his 'Detection', he sensed everyone inhale sharply.
"Correction Officer."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Deeply prostrated, Shwikviena replied.
In front of the silent city hall, her voice rang out clearly.
Roan looked at the troll.
The soldiers had at some point gagged her and forced her to her knees.
"What is the fate of one who lays hands on my property?"
"His arm was crushed."
A relief.
He'd heard the bystanders had rushed in and pulled the man out just before he died.
If it wasn't an amputation, an injury of that degree could be healed with an apothecary's skill and magic in this world.
It would be painful,
"but it was reversible."
Roan's voice was low but clear.
The correction officer answered coldly.
"The culprit and their entire family are torn limb from limb."
A brief silence followed Shwikviena's answer.
Then Roan's lips parted again.
"Remove that woman's gag."
The soldiers feared the troll would commit another discourtesy, that the stray sparks would fly back onto them.
But they could not disobey the emperor's command.
The moment she regained her freedom, the troll screamed again.
"Your Majesty! A human killed my family!
How could you let them live!
My son came back as only a head, and my husband burned to death!"
Her desperate denouncement stirred a wave of sympathy among the crowd.
Those who had lost family to humans, and those who had sent family to the battlefield, were countless here too.
Grünent and Rauka trembled.
They hid their bodies behind Diobe and the correction officer and shrouded their heads with hoods.
They were hoods Diobe had hurriedly procured before arriving at the city hall.
They were relieved to have a single layer of cloth to protect them from the demonkind's rage.
Without them, they would have been unable to hide their expressions twisted by their own mortification.
The Demon King asked in a subdued voice.
"Was that man the one who harmed your family?"
The troll gaped in disbelief.
"What does that matter! Humans are the sworn enemies of demonkind!"
"So you laid hands on my property even though he was not your enemy?"
Is he saying you are forgiven if they are your enemy?
Having found a clue of understanding in one corner of the Demon King's words, the troll shouted.
"Aren't they all human bastards captured from Merde anyway! They're the ones who are desperate to kill us. Besides, it's only natural for the weak to be consumed. What's wrong with that!"
Once more, those who sympathized with the troll's cry began to look around restlessly.
"When we demonkind are weak, we get eaten too, so why protect mere humans?!"
The crowd, still prostrated, now began to murmur.
Everyone's suppressed anger, suspicion, and curiosity burst forth in sound.
Grünent's body was now openly trembling like an aspen leaf.
Noticing her trembling, Rauka wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
Grünent had her remaining hand clenched into a tight fist. She was bottling up some strong, unknown emotion.
Roan's icy baritone, having 'detected' this commotion, reclaimed the silence.
"By your logic, I could kill and devour your remaining family or neighbors at any time. Would that be acceptable to you? Among those gathered here, there is none stronger than I."
The troll's body flinched.
"I could slaughter every single one of you here. I have both the right and the strength to do so. However."
Roan's violet eyes glowed fiercely, laden with 'Will'.
"Is that truly how you wish to live?"
Several jaws dropped.
It was the rule the demonkind had lived by, believing it was natural, that it couldn't be helped.
The strong do whatever they please to the weak.
Yet now, the Demon King who stood at that very apex was offering them a choice.
"My subject. How could I dare to casually judge the grief of losing your family? And so it is lamentable. Your hatred and your sorrow are both rightful."
Roan consoled the woman gently.
The emperor's unexpected comfort touched the troll's heart. Bead-like tears began to fall uncontrollably from her eyes.
"But woman. Do you not know this as well? The one who harmed your family was not that human."
Lowering his eyes, Roan looked sorrowful.
"That man is one who was captured because his nation decided on war, and in the midst of battle, he failed to flee in time.
Even after coming to our Evirgio, he hungered for life. That is why he was one of those who humbly wished to work in our world and earn his keep."
War ruins countless lives.
"In his desire to survive after being swept up in war, he is the same as you. He is merely a person."
No longer able to contain the sobs that had broken free, the troll was wailing, prostrated before the Demon King.
Looking down at her back, Roan swallowed his bitterness.
"I have remained inside the castle, not once listening to your voice, nor that human's voice.
But now, I will listen."
Startled by the hem of a cloak approaching right before her, the troll wiped her tears and unsteadily raised her head.
The Demon King held out a handkerchief to her.
It was an item Fiora had insisted he always keep in his breast pocket, saying, 'It is a gentleman's essential.'
To think he'd use it like this.
"My command to keep alive the humans, the most powerless beings in this nation, is my will to listen to the voices of you who are also powerless and most precious to me, and to protect you."
A strange sensation came over the crowd.
It was different from the pressure they felt when first facing the Demon King.
They could feel the power in his voice, and his will felt closer.
The Small Council was shuddering.
The strange power felt in their lord's words frightened them, yet also brought relief.
It was a power they had never sensed from the emperor before.
Roan spoke with a distinct voice.
"I will change the world.
I will no longer leave the weak among you to fend for yourselves.
Therefore, leave the powerless who wish to live be."
Everyone trembled once more at the force of will in their ruler's words and bowed their heads deeply.
At that moment, a message appeared only before Roan's eyes.
[Message: You have discovered a new skill.]
[Message: Attentive Hearing]
[Message: The skill 'Attentive Hearing' and the skill 'Will' are acting in concert to generate a derived skill.]
[Message: You have discovered a new skill.]
[Message: Appeal Lv1]
Roan's eyes flew open wide.
But fortunately, no one in the audience was in a position to notice the change in his expression.
Relieved, Roan concluded his words.
"However, woman."
"...Your Majesty."
"Separate from my heart that pities you, you have broken the law."
As if prepared, the troll hung her head.
The assembly held its breath.
Sniffling could be heard here and there. It was the tears of those who had sympathized with the troll's anger, shed in premonition of her death.
Rauka was also quietly stroking the back of Grünent, who was weeping silently.
"I shall take your life."
At the Demon King's declaration laden with power, someone shut their eyes tight.
Roan did not draw his sword.
Instead, he called the name of the knight commander.
"Knight Commander."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Take her into the castle."
"Understood."
In the strange silence, the knight commander rose to his feet alone.
The soldiers who had momentarily zoned out from the situation snapped to their senses, eyes widening at the overwhelming presence of Minoreus as he appeared.
Soon, following his orders, the soldiers led the troll woman into the castle and vanished.
Everyone who witnessed it thought of the Demon King's underground dungeon and trembled in terror.
A place from which one does not return alive.
And then, Roan silently surveyed the front of the city hall where the people were prostrated once more before turning and disappearing into the castle.
The three women who were not of demonkind, and the nobles of the Small Council, followed behind him.
Throughout the long walk back through the corridor into the imperial palace, none of them spoke.
It was Roan who broke the prolonged silence.
"Prime Minister."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Whose jurisdiction is the punishment?"
It was no longer surprising that the Demon King would ask about internal affairs. Aranya answered his complex-toned voice quietly.
"The knight commander's."
"Knight Commander."
"Yes. This servant awaits Your Majesty's command."
"Confine the woman in the underground dungeon for a while, then hand her over to the correction officer to be taught work."
"...Pardon?"
The knight commander had questioned him again today.
But the emperor did not get angry at him.
As long as someone was ready to listen, he could make them understand as much as needed.
As long as they truly intended to hear him.
"For the rest of her life, that woman shall not leave this castle.
That is my punishment. Assign her the duty of caring for the humans."
Everyone following behind Roan harbored questions at his unexpected judgment.
Roan spoke quietly.
"Hatred. Fear. Rage. A great portion of these emotions is born from ignorance."
Roan recalled the world he had lived in.
For not having money, for being a different gender, for living in a different place, for having been to prison, for being bad at studying.
People discriminated against, disliked, and hated each other.
But when you looked inside, in the end, it was all just the world people lived in.
They were just struggling desperately to hold their ground, living their lives as hard as they could. Just as I did.
"I believe that only when someone becomes an existence you know, not a faceless 'someone', can you finally begin to understand each other.
Whether that becomes hatred or affection, I cannot say.... But at the very least, only then will you properly realize whether to ask for forgiveness, or to hold your own actions with a clear conscience."
It was a long while before the prime minister opened her mouth.
"This servant marvels at Your Majesty's insight. I shall follow Your Majesty's command."
This world Aranya had lived in was a world of power.
Understanding or forgiving someone is an action that springs from having leeway. It is not a common occurrence in the world of demonkind.
If someone displeases you, you charge at them with force first.
The nobles with such leeway might mimic the actions of understanding or forgiveness, but that was a political act calculated for some benefit. Something close to a transaction.
But what her monarch spoke of was different from that.
'A new perspective.... Is His Majesty truly... intending to integrate us and the humans.'
The Small Council fell deeply into thought for a long while over the astonishing topic their emperor had presented.
Roan and the three women, having returned to his office, were also silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
Only then could Roan directly see the changed affection values of Rauka and Diobe.
Rauka's affection had changed to -60, and Diobe's to +5.
Grünent's eyes were swollen heavily. It was the result of all the tears she had shed, born from the complex mixture of guilt, sorrow, and realization.
"Are you all right, Grünent?"
At Roan's worried inquiry, Grünent spoke, unable to hide her grief.
"Your Majesty. The rage and sorrow of the demonkind... of Your Majesty's subjects... is something we humans have created....
From the deeds committed by our Merde... far too many people are suffering....
Moreover, when winter comes and food becomes scarce, collisions between these subjects and humans may continue to occur. That is what this lowly one fears."
Though her words could not fully contain her violent emotions, they were grounded more than anything in rational inference. This was also why Roan was examining concrete plans for after next autumn.
They could not keep buying food. Only by becoming self-sufficient could they achieve a fundamental solution.
He knew a hint, but he needed confirmation.
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock. The sound of something tapping the office window came from outside.
"...What is that sound?"
What floor was this?
Wasn't it at least ten stories high?
Momentarily reminded of an old ghost story, Roan strangely realized that Grünent's tear-streaked face had brightened.
Roan turned toward the window she was looking at. A large bird was perched on the windowsill, peering into the office.