Chapter 87 — The Road to the West (4)
Chapter 87 — The Road to the West (4)
'Use Warming Magic.'
Otherwise, I'd end up a snot-nosed Demon King.
'And if you layer Blessing of the Stars on it.'
...the warming effect doubled.
Ever since we returned from the ruins, Helen had recommended I practice using mana and divine power simultaneously.
By the original Legend of the Holy Hero game setting, mana and holy power couldn't coexist in one person.
A mage couldn't learn divine magic, and a priest like Helen couldn't learn magic. The sole exception was the Hero.
And now I'd been added to that list.
Since the Hero never met Helen, it was probably safe to say I was the only one who could use waypoints so far.
So-called double casting—using two types of magic at once—was impossible in this world. In the game, casting a different spell always required finishing or canceling the previous one.
But strangely enough,
using magic while simultaneously using divine magic wasn't difficult.
My Knowledge stat was still too low to cast high-tier magic. But in this world, even minor spells were a huge help.
I'd even discovered that casting a blessing amplified the magic. It worked by heightening the target's focus, so casting a blessing before studying was pretty effective too.
Thanks to that, training magic while traveling on a demon beast was quite productive. Practicing steadily had actually raised my Knowledge stat, which was surprising.
Helen and Grünent speculated that it wasn't just casting magic mindlessly—because I used it after a blessing boosted my concentration, the process registered as a kind of training.
And so.
Since starting this practice, my Knowledge stat had gone up by a whole 1!!
Considering we'd only begun simultaneous-casting practice three days ago, that was an incredible pace.
"...Have you thought of something pleasant?"
The sound of hooves echoed along the highway.
It was the Lord of the West Blood Territory.
We were currently en route to Zeno in the West Blood Territory.
A fortified border city that touched the Merde frontier, located not far from the Dark Forest, and the place where the ceasefire negotiations would be held.
Merde had refused to end the war, but they'd accepted an armistice. They might have gotten angry and said, "Didn't you break the last ceasefire?", but the damage they'd suffered the previous year was too severe for them to posture like that.
Even so, the fact that they wouldn't agree to a peace treaty—was it because they still couldn't give up on the Dark Forest Seed or some other agenda?
"Mm. Just had various things on my mind."
"It has been a very long time since I last saw Your Majesty smile."
"Hm."
The carriages and demon beasts were moving at a fairly brisk pace. Yet the centaur lord had kept pace on foot for hours without falling behind.
Because a centaur couldn't ride in a carriage.
On top of that, his long spear was too unwieldy to stow easily in the cargo compartment. In the end, he strode toward Zeno with his own weapon strapped to his back, like a mercenary.
He didn't look like a Grand Duke at all.
"When you smile, you also resemble the late Emperor. Do you know that?"
"Do I?"
At the indifferent answer, the Red Rampart Grand Duke looked at Roan with faint surprise.
"...You really have changed a great deal."
"Hm?"
"You used to become irritated whenever anyone brought up the late Emperor."
Wait, this man....
He brought it up knowing it would annoy me?
But thinking about it, he was like a friend of my father's. He didn't look like a person who'd quietly offer his neck even if the Demon King tried to cut it off.
For reasons different from the Lord of the South Black Territory, the previous Demon King must have avoided this Lord of the West Blood Territory.
But the current me felt no need to avoid talk of the previous Demon King.
If anything, this was a good opportunity to ask about the Former Emperor's cultivation plan, which had come up during my last discussion with the Lord of the East Yellow Territory.
"Grand Duke."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I'm told you had deep ties with the Former Emperor."
The Red Rampart Grand Duke's eyes widened in genuine surprise, then his expression grew wistful.
"I recall when I was at Hazak thirty years ago."
...Uh-oh. An opening like that....
This doesn't bode well....
Roan cast a foreboding look at the Lord of the West Blood Territory, but the man's engine was already running.
Several of the West Blood Territory knights escorting the carriage sent back glances mixed with amusement and pity. It seemed they regularly fell victim to his TMT.
Roan forced a smile and began listening attentively to his story. This was service to one's elders.
"It was just after I'd first joined the Central Knight Order. At the time, the order was divided into two factions..."
And for the next thirty minutes, Roan was treated to a lecture on the history of the Central Knight Order.
The main point only emerged after that.
"It was an enormous wyvern, the likes of which I'd never seen. Everyone—myself included—underestimated it, but looking back, that must be what it felt like to encounter a dragon, before they vanished."
The Central Knight Order had accompanied the Former Emperor to capture a wyvern that appeared near Hazak. But due to insufficient preparation, they suffered a crushing defeat at the wyvern's hands.
Capturing a massive creature, as opposed to killing it, was never an easy task.
"That was when the late Emperor appeared and began to fight the wyvern."
"Oh-ho."
"It was superb wrestling."
"...Huh?"
Startled by Roan's voice, the Lord of the West Blood Territory stared at him—and Roan, startled by the Lord of the West Blood Territory's words, stared right back.
"A wyvern.... Is a wyvern a valid target for wrestling?"
"Hahaha. I understand. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it either, Your Majesty."
The Grand Duke laughed heartily.
"The late Emperor could perform spirit invocation. I could not tell what he called into himself, but he swelled to a frame even larger than the current Central Knight Commander's and hurled himself at the wyvern."
"Ah...."
As if it all made sense now, Roan nodded.
With spirit invocation, it was possible. In this world, magic was akin to a miracle.
"I can still vividly see the wyvern's aghast expression when it saw the late Emperor. After trading blows several times over, he suddenly hooked an arm around the wyvern's flank, and as if throwing a friendly arm over its shoulder, he heaved that enormous bulk clean off the ground."
...Don't tell me....
"And then His Majesty and the wyvern toppled backward together. I remember the forest being half-obliterated by the incredible blast and roaring noise. Some of our own men lost consciousness from the shock alone."
...A backdrop suplex on a wyvern....
I feel dizzy.
"While pinning the wyvern down like that, he choked it with his arm. The wyvern thrashed its wings, but resistance was meaningless. In the end, the wyvern submitted to His Majesty, and the Central Knight Order made it back alive."
A simple, innocent question occurred to me.
"That wyvern... where is it now?"
A shadow flickered across the Lord of the West Blood Territory's face.
"The Former Lord of the North White Territory killed it before the duel."
Ah.
So it had to do with the duel over the imperial throne.
The Grand Duke added,
"His Majesty at that time was very young, and I heard he suddenly underwent awakening right afterward. You likely have difficulty recalling it clearly."
"Hm."
So that was why the memories were hazy.
Demons underwent a power awakening around the time they reached adulthood.
For common demonkind, awakening just made them somewhat stronger. But among the nobility, the difference in power before and after was so vast that people said it changed who they were.
And in proportion to that power, memories from before and after awakening supposedly grew vague.
Around the time of the previous Demon King's awakening, the Former Emperor was challenged by the Former Lord of the North White Territory and died. Immediately afterward, the Former Empress killed the Lord of the North White Territory before dying herself. Her reason: to protect the crown prince who had just come of age.
The cause of death for the Former Emperor and Empress was something I could look up in the annals, but why I'd been able to succeed the throne after that remained a mystery.
It seemed that young crown prince had awakened as the mightiest power at a far earlier age than expected.
A bleak family history.
So that was why Aranya had evaded the subject when I asked, and why the annals hadn't detailed that period. The previous Demon King might even have issued a silencing decree.
When Roan fell silent, the Grand Duke deliberately changed the subject, as if to console him.
"At any rate, he was a tremendous man. That day, His Majesty was truly like a demon. In the end, the captured wyvern lost control of its bladder for some time and couldn't flap its wings, so we all had to walk it back to Basel together. Haha."
...Could it be the wyvern had suffered a brief brain injury from being caught in a headlock...?
"Harsh as he could be, he was a warm person. To think of an emperor who would throw himself into danger to save a knight's life."
Demonic knights were expendable tools for the emperor.
Yet the Former Emperor had thrown himself into the fray for the weak. Reflecting on it felt oddly wondrous.
When I sifted through those dim memories, I could recall someone huge holding me or stroking my head.
I also remembered someone playing with me.
Those moments always ended painfully, and I'd wail loudly....
"I think I remember the Former Emperor being scolded once."
The Lord of the West Blood Territory gave a start, then laughed sheepishly.
"Haha. Yes. The Empress was always scolding him. The Crown Prince—that is, you, Your Majesty—he played with you so roughly that you invariably got hurt somewhere every time the play ended."
"Yeah. Arm broken. Leg broken too."
Unbidden, a smile rose to Roan's face. Even in reality, his memories of his parents were faint.
But even if they belonged to the previous Demon King, recalling those warm scenes left in his head made him ache with longing and happiness.
And if something like that had been destroyed overnight... a person could easily break beyond repair.
"I heard the Former Emperor attempted cultivation."
At Roan's question, the Lord of the West Blood Territory's eyes flew wide open.
"How do you know of this?"
"The Lord of the East Yellow Territory told me."
"The Duke did...."
The Grand Duke nodded.
"Yes. He vigorously encouraged land reclamation and labored to pursue agriculture."
"But he failed, I take it."
"Yes. It was not easy."
A bitter smile touched the Grand Duke's lips.
"We once abducted a priest from Merde and questioned him about the matter."
"...Hmm."
Since demonkind had no priests, the only way to ask about anything related to blessings really was to kidnap someone.... I had no choice but to accept that.
"What did he say?"
"He said the soil's vitality had been completely exhausted."
Roan's face creased into a frown.
I didn't know much about farming, but I understood what those words meant.
The nutrients in the ground had a limit.
When crops absorbed nutrients to grow, unreplenished nourishment would be depleted completely.
"He said there was no method of restoration?"
"At the time—yes. We tried employing various remedies, but he said the vitality drained away too quickly. A blessing cast with divine magic could prevent it, but..."
"You couldn't bless every plot of farmland."
"That is correct."
For a while, the only sounds along the highway were the clatter of hooves and the steady tread of the demon beasts.
A still winter day without wind.
The plains stretching on both sides of the road to Zeno were desolate.
Gazing at them, Roan's heart lay heavy.
The Former Emperor had continued his efforts after that.
Though it had not been a publicized policy, traces of his labors remained in the records.
In the end, his vision had not been realized.
"Your Majesty."
Roan turned his head.
His lips, which he'd unconsciously been biting down on hard, throbbed.
"Mm."
"The late Emperor was not a person who fit the mold of a demon."
A statement that would enrage anyone if uttered before another demon. Yet not a trace of mockery could be glimpsed on the Lord of the West Blood Territory's face.
"He took pleasure in looking after the weak, and he wished to feed his people."
"Hm?"
...So that was why he was saying the Former Emperor and my current self seemed alike.
"Yes. In hindsight, the late Emperor may have held thoughts similar to Your Majesty's now."
"...."
"That is why I respected the late Emperor."
Abruptly, Roan halted his demon beast.
The Lord of the West Blood Territory, who had taken several more steps before realizing Roan had stopped, turned to look back at him.
A Grand Duke who stood above all through power greater than anyone else. Yet even he had once been weak, and he had missed the one who had cared for him.
"Back then, I was merely one weak knight, a provincial lord. Your Majesty."
The centaur turned fully around and faced his emperor.
"But now I am the Lord of the West Blood Territory. I govern one-fourth of Evirgio."
The carriage halted, and all the knights came to a stop.
"So please, do not hesitate over the path you wish to walk, Your Majesty. Use me freely, as your shield. In the end, the late Emperor was hobbled by his own lords. Do not follow in the footsteps of the late Emperor."
Old remorse saturated his voice;
his words quavered low.
"I have lived with regret. That I could not support the late Emperor. That I could not remain at the Crown Prince's—at Your Majesty's—side, as he wished. That I could not properly feed the people entrusted to me."
Solid as a rampart caked in the blood of enemies,
a veteran commander who had guarded the border through long years.
And so it was
the title attached with honor before his peerage:
Red Rampart.
"Walk the path Your Majesty desires. I will guard that road with my life."
"Neither you nor I. Will have cause for regret."
Across the wilderness steeped in silence,
the emperor's voice bore his resolve.
In the distance, knights raising crimson banners were approaching to greet their emperor.