Return
[Return]
"Then, members of the delegation, please return safely. This meeting was complicated by several unfortunate circumstances, but I hope we’ll have a better one next time."
Queen Katarina of Ventorino Kingdom said as she saw the delegation from Ulsro Kingdom off in the reception room.
Just as she had said, the meeting had been plagued by one major incident after another, and in the end neither side had achieved much of anything. At best, they had only managed to deepen their acquaintance over the long stay. For Ventorino Kingdom, it had been especially costly, though Ulsro Kingdom had at least come away with a result that was not too bad thanks to Valdes’s efforts.
Of course, all of that was only what showed on the surface.
In truth, the royal family had gotten everything it wanted, if not the kingdom itself. The three women of the royal household wanted what Valdes wanted, after all. In Ventorino Kingdom, Valdes had taken hold of everything he had come for.
The present situation alone proved it.
Katarina’s gaze swept over the delegation and came to rest on Valdes.
"Heh."
"……"
The queen wore a smile heavy with meaning, and Valdes met it with a blank expression.
But no one found anything strange about it. Valdes was the benefactor who had saved her family, the hero of the kingdom. That alone was enough to explain his place within the delegation. A commoner who was not even a knight should naturally have been standing far to the back, but he occupied a seat near the front.
And so, in that warm and relaxed atmosphere, just before they parted ways, Mercedes asked,
"By the way, how is His Majesty King Marc holding up?"
Her voice was full of concern.
Yet the one asking the question and the one receiving it both knew the answer very well.
Katarina shook her head slowly, her face darkening.
"He still hasn’t regained consciousness."
"I see.... Still, please don’t worry too much, Lady Katarina. I’m sure His Majesty will recover before long."
"Yes, I’m sure he will. Thank you for your concern, Princess Mercedes."
The moment Mercedes lifted her head slightly, their eyes met.
Neither of them was worried. Neither of them was sad. The expressions they showed to the outside world were all lies. They knew perfectly well why Marc had ended up like this, and they also knew they would never hear his voice in full again.
Turning her gaze back to Valdes, Katarina thought back to the night two days ago.
After a heated night together with mother and daughter, when the two of them had finally come back to their senses, Valdes had told them,
"I’ll tell you the thing I kept to the very end."
"The thing you kept from us...?"
"Uhn, haa... You mean... the truth of your identity?" Clara asked, catching her breath with a tense look on her face.
Valdes told them how Marc had managed to survive. In the process, Katarina and Clara learned about Valdes’s past. But they still did not know how the Hero Pedro had become Valdes.
"That too, but... there’s something else I deliberately didn’t tell you."
"...You mean Marc’s treatment."
"!!"
Clara stared at her mother in shock when Katarina calmly said something so startling.
But her guess had been correct.
"Yes."
"Ah...."
Compared to Katarina, who did not seem all that surprised, Clara was far more shaken and had no idea what to do. The queen had already made up her mind, but the princess had never once thought about something like this. Especially after seeing the atmosphere between the two of them, she had already guessed it would be nothing like what had happened with Lloyd.
Lloyd looked normal enough on the surface, but the fear of Valdes and Clara had been carved deep into his mind. Thanks to that, he was unable to resist them in the slightest and ended up obeying their words to the letter.
"A-Are you... going to kill Father...?"
Valdes answered the trembling Clara.
"I’m not killing him."
"……"
"I never planned to kill him in the first place. I was thinking of making him suffer more than death. But I’ve given up on that too. Honestly, I’m not interested in him anymore. Still..."
"If he stays alive, he’ll be a nuisance."
"Exactly."
"A nuisance..."
Clara lowered her head with a complicated expression.
But not long after, she steadied herself and lifted her face again.
"...Haa, all right. ...I’m fine. Honestly, I can take something like this... since I’ve already become Master’s bitch."
"...Good."
Valdes’s explanation continued after that.
He had no intention of killing Marc, but unlike Lloyd, the man did not seem likely to break completely in mind. For now he was still too shocked to think straight, but rotten fish were still fish; as a veteran who had charged through countless battlefields as part of the Hero’s party, he was no lightweight.
That was why Valdes had planned to put him into a coma, and that was exactly what he had done.
Subduing Marc after draining his consciousness and strength had been child’s play. Valdes drew on the full power of the magic he could wield and forced Marc into a sleep so deep he would never wake again. With his exceptional talent and the preparations he had made in advance, it had not been difficult to carry it out.
Only one thing remained.
He had to make sure the chief court mage would not be able to examine Marc’s body in detail. A casual check would never expose the truth, but if the mage suspected the condition had been caused by magic and studied him closely, he could very well be found out.
That was why Valdes had Katarina testify that Marc had collapsed while she was touching the back of his neck during sex.
Of course, since it could be a source of disgrace, only a very small number of people were told the real reason, while the public was informed that it had been caused by overwork. And because Alfonso, the heir, was still too young, the empty seat beside the king would be filled by the queen in his place.
The three members of the royal family, excluding the king, along with the dark elf sisters who had been falsely turned.
Even if Valdes left Ventorino Kingdom, those five would make sure the kingdom was set up in a way that would make it easy for him to conquer later. In a form suited to his taste, and with as little damage as possible.
Ah, right—Rachel.
As Valdes walked out of the royal castle with the delegation, he remembered the last bloodline of the former dynasty.
Rachel Ventorino.
Depending on the situation, she was to be adopted as Marc and Katarina’s daughter. Of course, that too had been part of Valdes’s plan. After he left, Irena and Yueli, who had been caring for her, would also head to the Dezac Empire.
Rachel would be far more useful in the kingdom than there. On top of that, if possible, he wanted her to grow a little closer to the three people of the Ventorino royal family. Unfortunately, the first night they had spent together had ended with her waking up much later, leaving them no time to get acquainted.
It’s a little worrying, but it’ll work out somehow.
With a faintly uneasy feeling, Valdes turned his head toward the Ventorino nobles who had come to see them off.
There, Alfonso was waving at him with a face full of visible reluctance.
Seeing the prince, now one of his faithful followers, Valdes let out a snort of laughter.
It was because of what had happened the day before.
That kid really is something else...
Rachel’s adoption had already been decided, and since she needed to become friendly with the others in the royal castle first, he had formally introduced her the previous day. Alfonso had been there too, and absurdly enough, the prince had fallen in love at first sight with his half-sister.
Even after learning the truth, Alfonso had not been crushed by despair. Instead, he had made a request of Valdes.
"U-Um, Sir Valdes."
"What is it?"
"Rachel too... she’s one of Sir Valdes’s women, right?"
"Well, that..."
While Valdes was still thinking over how to answer, Alfonso said with glittering eyes,
"Then later, could you show me the two of you doing it?"
"...What?"
The boy’s words were so absurd that Valdes blurted out the reply without thinking. But Alfonso did not care. Instead, he muttered with a face full of excitement,
"Haa, I’m really looking forward to it!"
"……"
"And if possible, my sister too... heh heh."
"Ah... well, uh, sure..."
Not only had Alfonso developed masochistic tastes, he had also gained a taste for netorare—the excitement of having someone precious taken from him. Valdes regretted having created such a grotesque existence, but at the same time, he felt relieved.
At least the boy seemed to be enjoying himself in his own way.
In any case, Rachel had been accepted into the family without incident, aside from the fact that her feelings toward them had not yet been resolved. Valdes hoped they would sort those emotions out among themselves if possible. If it came to it, he would come back for a short while and help later, but even so, he thought that would be better for them.
Then a woman standing a little distance away approached Valdes.
"Sir Valdes seems to be quite close with the prince as well."
"Ah, Sir Jurina."
That woman was Jurina.
She was the Ma-in knight whom Valdes had kindly revealed himself to, before punching a hole in her belly.
A man who had stabbed a woman through the stomach, and a woman who had been stabbed in the stomach. Yet neither of them showed their true feelings; both were smiling on the outside. The two had already met again yesterday, so Valdes was not surprised. No—he had not been surprised even when they faced each other again, because he already knew who she was.
In the first place, he was the one who had brought Jurina into Ulsro Kingdom through Mari.
He had done it because he would not have enough time to deal with Jurina after spending the next two days wrapping up matters here. There was also a little bit of boredom mixed in. It would take two or three months in Ulsro Kingdom before he could carry out his next revenge.
Valdes had planned to toy with her during that time.
"I’ll definitely... expose your true identity."
"Sure. Give it a shot."
Jurina leaned close to him and whispered in his ear.
Her goal was to find concrete proof, together with Princess Mari, that would reveal his true identity. Valdes hid his identity too thoroughly and had the trust of far too many people, so the testimony of the two of them alone would never be enough.
That was why Jurina accepted Mari’s offer and decided to follow her to Ulsro Kingdom as a knight personally hired by Mari.
"You two only met yesterday, and yet you look rather close."
Mercedes looked at them with curiosity, and Jurina flinched awkwardly.
"A-Ah, w-well..."
"We’re not all that close. It’s just that Sir Jurina came from Ventorino’s royal guard, so we were talking about the commander I fought alongside."
"Oh, I see. So there was a connection like that."
At Valdes’s shameless mention of Heik, the royal guard commander he himself had killed, Jurina clenched her teeth, lowering her head slightly. She wanted nothing more than to kill that repulsive man on the spot, but she lacked both the strength and the justification.
Even if Princess Mari stood behind her, that alone was not enough to support a claim that Valdes was the Demon Prince. Just look at Princess Mercedes—her eyes were full of love for Valdes. Even now, had she not spoken to him out of jealousy simply because Jurina had drawn close to him?
For now, she simply had to bow her head as low as possible and wait for an opening. She also had to keep herself safe. Valdes had already tried to kill her once, so there was no guarantee he would not do it again.
That Demon Prince did not know that Princess Mari was aware of his identity, so if Jurina disappeared, his true nature would remain buried in darkness. That alone gave him more than enough reason to try and take her life again.
I have to protect my life while finding proof to expose his identity... The difficulty is way too high. But...
Jurina thought of Princess Mari, who had saved her, and of Heik, whom she loved.
Then many other faces surfaced in her mind.
Princess Clara, pitifully turned into that trashy man’s slave; Queen Katarina, whose eyes somehow seemed strange; Prince Alfonso, who still knew nothing and probably thought of him as a hero; King Marc, whose timing was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.
And the countless comrades and subordinates who had died in the demon attack.
Thinking of all that, she could not afford to fail again.
Just you wait, Demon Prince. I’ll make sure the world sees your true face with no lies left to hide it!
The Ma-in knight made that vow, never once realizing that she was the one being deceived.
With many complicated circumstances still hanging over them, the delegation eventually left the capital behind and hurried back toward their homeland, Ulsro Kingdom.