Chapter 48 — Where People Gather, There Is Always… (3)
Chapter 48 — Where People Gather, There Is Always… (3)
No matter how messed up a character the Saintess was, that was about her having peculiar sexual tastes.
She knew how to read a situation properly.
There was no way Grünent would keep someone close who lacked that sense.
But causing a scene in the middle of enemy territory?
Roan hurriedly headed to the floor below.
Only then did he understand what the head steward had meant.
"That demon king bastard! Setting a trap!"
The one causing a ruckus was not the Saintess.
It was the holy knight with her.
The pure white garment embroidered with the order's crest in gold thread stood out starkly within this dark castle.
"You climb over another man's walls and call it a trap."
He had intended to quietly observe, but the disturbance grew worse.
In the end, Roan tossed out a single remark.
At his deep, commanding voice, the knight and the woman turned their heads to look at Roan.
'Ah.'
Roan swallowed his admiration.
Graphics could never fully capture the presence of a real person. It was a realization he had come to while seeing Erenier, Grünent, or Diobe, and he learned it anew now.
Even the knight who had been spluttering with that grating voice did not register in his eyes for that moment.
Deep-blue hair like an autumn sky.
He had thought it would look strange in reality, but it did not at all. If anything, it created a mysteriously unearthly atmosphere, like a fairy.
Glittering within her sharp eyes were dark-blue pupils like the dusky evening sky.
The beauty, whose overall impression was cool and pointed, stared at him with lips firmly shut, revealing no expression.
The more he looked, the more uncanny it was that her expression bore no resemblance to the flushed cheeks and lolling tongue he had seen in the in-game H-Scenes.
The Saintess had been stripped of both armor and sword.
Because of that, the outline of her large breasts, which would have been pressed down beneath armor, was clearly visible within the form-fitting vestments of the Church of Laurecia.
And her affection was—
"You cowardly lecherous brat! You truly can't take your eyes off a woman! Helen, fall back!"
...Hey, seriously. Read the damn room.
"Understood. Commander."
The moment he heard her voice, chills ran down his spine.
The sensation of ice rubbing against his backbone.
A voice cold, precise, and powerful.
It felt entirely different from Grünent's voice, which had been lovable even when angry at their first meeting.
As Helen withdrew behind the knight and averted her gaze from him, her affection stood at -83.
'Huh?'
...That's higher than I expected?
Why?
It was a welcome thing, but the reason puzzled him.
"Demon king bastard, you think we'll just give up because of this...!"
"Escort them."
The moment Roan opened his mouth, the agitated human knight shut his own mouth without realizing it.
The human knight belatedly understood that he had fallen under some unknown skill Roan had deployed.
The Demon King's power was far greater than anticipated.
"To the reception room."
And at the emperor's words, Helen's eyes widened.
A reception room, he said.
The instant she realized they were surrounded by demons, the entire knight order had been subdued by magic.
Just as she thought they were dead, the demons had disarmed the order and taken them alive.
As if they had been watching for a long time, they had even counted heads to check for any who had escaped, then confined them in prepared wagons.
Days of maddening speed in wagons pulled by demon beasts. The moment they arrived at the capital with their tailbones about to shatter, only the vice-commander and the commander had been singled out and guided into the castle.
It had not been an arrest.
The tone and conduct of the demons had been courteous.
As if treating guests, not prisoners.
The knight commander had raged the entire time, but armed demon knights had kept watch, making escape or seizing a weapon impossible.
'So that is the Demon King.'
His presence was certainly unlike that of the demons.
He was different from the demon soldiers and knights whose overflowing power seemed ready to burst forth.
A sharp aura like a finely tempered sword.
No madness could be glimpsed in his jewel-like eyes.
'Are the rumors truly unreliable?'
A mad dog, a bloodless, tearless, man-eating Demon King.
Would such a man personally escort us to a reception room?
Helen hoped from the bottom of her heart that the rumors were wrong.
So that her precious Grünent would not be suffering because of them.
"Sit."
Just as the knight commander was about to open his mouth again, Roan concentrated 'Overwhelm' and unleashed it on him. Unable to voice the words from his open mouth, the man gasped a few times, then sank wordlessly onto the sofa.
Helen seemed not to have noticed.
"...Thank you, Ma—... Your Majesty."
When her superior, who should have responded to the Demon King's mercy, remained silent, Saintess Helen read the mood and gave thanks in his stead.
The demon knights and the head steward standing behind Helen and the knight shot fierce glares at Helen's slip of the tongue, but Roan nodded magnanimously.
'That guy who can't manage his own mouth is the knight commander of the Church of Laurecia?'
I had clearly ordered them to bring the rescue team's leader and Helen. So that guy was probably the leader and knight commander, but what was wrong with his personality?
Had he ended up that way because he was strong, or was he someone with that kind of nature who was strong because he was lucky?
Did causing a scene in the middle of enemy territory stem from overconfidence in his own skill?
Even in the game, he was the knight commander who harassed Helen every time. Whenever anything happened, he would rebuke her and send her to the 'reflection room' to 'reflect.'
Helen was his subordinate, so that might be possible, but where on earth did he get the nerve to act like that before a hostile nation's king?
"One question."
Roan addressed Helen.
He had expected interference, but having tasted fire, the knight commander merely glared at Roan.
"Was it truly all of you?"
"...What do you gain by knowing that, you—"
"I did not ask you."
In an instant, Roan's eyes filled with killing intent.
Facing that directly, the knights and head steward held their breath and trembled.
That was the emperor they had originally remembered.
And yet, the human knight withstood that killing intent!
Glaring fiercely, he ground his teeth.
'Ho-oh.'
Had he braced himself after taking that 'Overwhelm' earlier?
But no matter how much the commander prepared himself, merely enduring it was the best he could do.
The knight also seemed to realize this.
He shut his mouth and instead began to glare at Helen.
Helen, who had been taking note of that gaze, answered quietly.
"Yes. That is correct."
The reply was short, but it sufficed for a scan with 'Attentive Hearing.' There was no sign of an attempt to deceive in her words.
With this, he became certain.
Definitely, it had changed.
'The Hero really did not come.'
Since the game had you enter the player's name, he could not even search for him because he did not know the name.
It would have been better if he could have captured him at this opportunity. To think he did not come at all.
Helen's meeting the Hero was also a chance event.
Since she had not hired the Hero, she did not know his name.
It felt as if the god of death was no longer visible before his eyes.
A sensation in which relief and fear coexisted.
Was it a good thing that the Hero had not come?
'Still... it's better than him having come, right?'
It meant that Helen had not hoped desperately for success as she had in the original story. Perhaps she even knew that Grünent had left the prison.
She had possessed a map of Basel, after all.
The human meat on the streets was the catalyst to awaken the Hero. Hiding among the bustling crowds of the Harvest Festival, the Hero would rage at the Demon King's atrocities.
But at this Harvest Festival, there had been no human-meat stalls. Because food that could only be tasted at a festival sold far better than tasteless, tough, cheap food.
Since he had not come here in the first place, the reasons for the Hero to resent him had drastically decreased!
It was premature to declare 'I've survived,' but he could not stop the corners of his mouth from rising in relief.
The Demon King's heart eased slightly.
"?!"
Seeing Roan's smile, Helen doubted herself.
The impact she had felt from his beautiful appearance felt unfamiliar.
More than that, the familiar power she had felt from him left her with no choice but to doubt herself.
Very faint.
It had felt like a speck of holy power.
'Was it... my imagination?'
Flustered, Helen looked back at Knight Commander Matthias. But after hearing the Demon King's roar, he had only sunk deep into the sofa with a sullen expression.
Like starlight, the holy power had felt as though it glinted for an instant.
Now a power of which not a trace could be felt.
Helen shut her mouth and stared at Roan.
'He is definitely different from what I imagined.'
She had heard he was a powerful being.
But the Demon King was a notorious brute.
She had heard he slaughtered anyone who displeased him without exception. That was why the order had tried so desperately to somehow plead for Grünent's life before she was killed.
Yet the man before her eyes was composed.
Quiet, courteous, a man of deep thought.
It did not seem as though he was a brute, at any rate....
"I apologize. I was lost in thought for a moment."
"...It is fine. Your Majesty."
"Helen."
Now it seemed the knight commander had resolved to shut Helen's mouth rather than Roan's.
"Yes. Commander."
"Stay silent."
"Yes. Commander."
Helen straightened her upper body again and adjusted her posture on the sofa. She sat rigidly, like a new recruit.
Sitting like that on something soft would ruin your back.
What an infuriating organization.
Roan let out a light sigh.
"I have no particular intention of extracting information."
"Then why have you kept us alive? You sly demon king bastard."
For a moment, the sound of metal clattering was heard.
It was the sound of one of the knights trying to draw his sword and being stopped by someone next to him.
"That is because you are Grünent's..."
"Helen!"
At that single cry, Roan could not finish his words.
At the end of everyone's turned gazes stood Grünent, wearing an expression of disbelief.
She had rushed to the reception room, casting all other matters aside, upon hearing the unexpected news delivered by Roan's messenger.
A single horned demon, catching its breath, peered inside from behind Grünent.
Grünent stood like a stone statue in the doorway of the reception room.
Her clenched fist trembled.
She had unconsciously cried out her friend's name, but the rescue team were intruders here. Thus, she hesitated, unable to step closer than that.
Roan readily nodded at her.
At that, Grünent rushed toward Helen with such force it seemed she might trip and fall.
"Helen. Ahh."
"...Lady Grünent."
Helen's expression, which had likewise been full of shock, shifted into relief. Helen's throat tightened.
There had been a moment when she thought she might never see Grünent's face again.
"Huuuhng. Hel— Helen. How... Huuueeeng."
Suddenly, Grünent began to wail.
"It's all right, Lady Grünent."
"Ahh, dear heavens. That you are here."
At the emotional reunion, even the knight commander, dense as he was, hesitated and could not bring himself to intrude.
Helen quietly embraced Grünent and slowly stroked her back.
Her expression as she smiled softly was,
truly that of the Saintess. The agent of the Goddess.
Her sharp look melted away like snow.
"Yes. I am right here. Lady Grünent."
"H-heuk. Your, Your Majesty."
When Grünent suddenly called for Roan in a slightly calmer voice, Helen wore a puzzled look.
"Thank... you."
"Hm."
"So, alive... You knew the rescue team was coming, and yet... you ordered their live capture."
Grünent's words dropped like a bomb.
The knight commander and Helen froze.
With expressions as if they had taken an uppercut square on the jaw, the two were stiff, eyes wide open.
Helen felt a chill as she looked at Roan, who wore a faint smile.
It truly was a trap?!
"B-but... prisoners of an enemy nation, treated so... allowing this humble consort to meet them. Thank you. Truly, thank you. Your Majesty."
Over and over, Grünent bowed her head to Roan, expressing her gratitude.
Before they were Grünent's friends, they were figures of Merde. What's more, they were warriors counted among the best.
Prime candidates for the torture chambers of the underground prison.
Grünent had only vaguely worried, thinking that if the rescue team were caught, they would be locked away in that underground prison and steeped in all manner of drugs and torture.
Yet the ever-kindly emperor.
Had allowed her to meet Helen.
Hearing Grünent's words, Helen looked back at Roan. Unlike before, her gaze was gentle.
"Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty."
"Indeed."
"Both of you."
An irritating voice resounded once more.
"That is quite enough."
Though it used honorifics, this line, which carried no trace of respect, belonged to the knight commander.
His voice, laden with annoyance, trampled the mellow atmosphere of the reunion scene with muddy feet.
"Giving thanks... to the Demon King."
"Commander!"
There was no need for anyone else to step up.
At the insolent knight commander's remark, Grünent answered sharply.
Her voice, bearing her power, held an oppressive weight.
Though not to Roan's extent, she too possessed a skill to infuse her voice with power.
Her anger was clearly visible in her eyes.
Her blue eyes blazed fiercely.
"Watch your words and actions."
However, the knight commander's martial strength was considerable. He dismissed Grünent's pressure as if it were laughable.
"At this point, it seems His Holiness's concern was correct. It appears you truly have been beguiled and subdued by the Demon King."
"Comman—!"
"You court death."
Abruptly, everyone in the room staggered.
It felt as if a fierce blast of wind pressure had swept over them.
A chill as though the room's temperature had dropped.
Goosebumps rose on everyone's skin.
The groan, as if coughing up blood, came right after.
"Ghk..."
"Because you are an acquaintance of Grünent's, I intended to treat you as guests even though you entered my nation without permission."
Crushed by 'Overwhelm,' the knight commander barely managed to bring his trembling hand to his throat.
As if trying to tear away something choking him.
But the gesture was futile.
For it was not a hand constricting his breath.
The formless aura possessed by any swordsman.
It had been tempered and refined, until it could stir the air itself.
Power compressed to its utmost limit was drawn up to the point of near-visibility, and it 'Overwhelmed' the foe.
"Keh... hek...!"
"That insolent tongue of yours knows no bounds."
Roan's violet eyes blazed with fury, flashing to a deep purple.
How dare he, to Grünent!
Roan's hand moved toward Fiora's hilt.
Fine, even without one bastard like him, the route would be clearable! In fifty-six days, I'd make it work somehow!
It was then.
'...Huh?'
A familiar beeping sound.
Roan found himself turning to look at Helen without thinking.
Helen's affection status was...!