Chapter 16
To catch a tiger, you have to enter the tiger's den...
By tonight, many things in this Moncrito Kingdom would already have changed.
A rebellion no different from those found in any other kingdom...
The tale of a younger brother seizing his elder brother's throne to become king himself...
Or of an uncle snatching his nephew's place and taking the crown in his stead...
Stories as common as dirt—whether in the history of the world I originally came from, or in any of the other worlds where I had struck down the Demon King.
That was how terrifying human greed could be.
Even if a man became king, there was no guarantee he would live any happier than he did now...
And yet Duke Eranty was ready to stake his life, slaughter his own blood, and take it all the same.
Clack.
Whether Duke Eranty himself would return, or the rebels under his command would storm in instead—there was no way of knowing. Either way, the door to the reception room opened, and men with swords began filing in one after another.
"Huuu..."
I rose from my seat with the resolve that what had to come had finally come, and drew the sword at my waist.
Even if Sophia and the king forgave this, from my position there was nothing to forgive.
What stung my pride most of all was that they had looked at me and decided I was someone who could be casually cut down by humans leaning on magic swords like these.
I was a former Hero who had killed three Demon Kings wielding real Demonic Swords—not these knockoff magic blades with a trickle of mana running through them—and more than a dozen of the Four Heavenly Kings who served under them.
And now I was the strongest elf in this other world, far stronger than any Hero who couldn't even properly hunt dungeon monsters...
Watching them close in on me with swords drawn was more than a little unpleasant.
"Hand Princess Sophia over. Do that, and we'll spare your life."
Whoosh! Slash! Swish!
I killed the one who stepped to the front of the rebels and spouted that nonsense without a word.
To them it might have looked like teleportation. All I had done was close the distance at high speed, sever the tendons in his arm, and open his throat.
Whoosh! Slash!
I cut down the man standing blankly behind him and swept my gaze for the next target at the same blistering pace.
As with every race in combat, if you picked out only the strongest few and killed them, the rest began to tremble with fear.
When even those stronger than themselves died so emptily... the thought How am I supposed to survive? took hold, and battles often ended cleanly once only the strong ones had been cut down.
These were the lessons I had soaked into my body with blood across all those countless hours of real combat.
Not even the goddess who had begged me to save her world...
had ever taught me this.
Whoosh! Slash!
Swish! Slash!
One step, one strike, one life claimed...
Before long the reception room was stacking high with their corpses, and I gradually shifted the fight, heading out into the corridor beyond.
Enemies packed the corridor wall to wall...
"Anyone who puts down their sword will not be attacked. But if you keep holding them to the end, you'll end up just like these corpses."
I issued a final warning laced with killing intent, hoping to spare needless sacrifice.
With numbers still on their side, none moved rashly—but the tips of the swords they held trembled faintly. They were shaking with fear.
"There's only one of them!! We number in the hundreds!! Don't fall back!!"
Then...
A man who seemed to be their leader bellowed, sensing the hesitation among them, and those whose sword tips had been shaking tightened their grips and steeled themselves again.
In a way it was a shame no one surrendered—
but from my perspective, after I had bothered to warn them and they still came at me like this...
I was rather relieved I could kill them without guilt.
"Thunder Lightning Sword Technique... Chapter Three..."
Thunder Lightning Sword Technique — Chapter Three
Heavenly Thunder Shadow Specter
It was probably from this day on.
That people began calling me Blood Elf as well as Roel of the Hero's party...
After that day...
Everything in the Moncrito Kingdom moved at a frantic pace.
Duke Eranty's rebellion came to nothing, and the nobles who had followed him as rebels were rounded up en masse and thrown into the underground dungeons.
The rebels who died at Duke Eranty's mansion that day numbered some five hundred in all... The remaining four hundred or so fled in terror or fainted on the spot and barely escaped with their lives.
Meanwhile, Princess Sophia had been so shaken she wouldn't leave her private palace for some time...
She had fainted after I finished off a few in the reception room and headed out into the corridor, so she hadn't seen the worst of it—
but the mere fact that her uncle, Duke Eranty, had staged a rebellion was shock enough.
Thanks to that I was able to spend quiet days in the private palace, which was fortunate...
"What's this? You didn't go to the temple today?"
Cali, back from her walk, spoke up when she saw me lying on the bed.
"Yeah. I figured I'd rest today."
"Honestly... You're incredible. You slaughter humans at the mansion more cruelly than a demon... and then you go to the temple every single day without fail..."
Cali clicked her tongue and sat at the table to eat the desserts the maids had brought.
Even after that incident I had kept visiting the temple chapel, spending entire days and nights there in every effort to hear the goddess's answer—
but her reply never quite reached my ears.
Instead, word that I visited the temple often had spread, and nobles and commoners alike started coming through just to meet me, making it impossible to pray properly—so I hadn't gone today.
Honestly, I was starting to feel disillusioned...
Until now I had fought exactly as the goddess asked, exactly as she ordered—
and now it felt like she had discarded me as a spent piece, and the first thing I felt was resentment.
And...
there was also the problem of Cali, stuffing cake into her mouth with both hands until her cheeks bulged, as if someone might snatch it away...
"Cali, why did you run away from home?"
"I didn't run away! I just left!"
"That's the same thing..."
"Ugh, you really are a lowly elf—can't even understand plain speech."
Whack!!
True to being a dragon, maybe...
Was that arrogance genetic, or had she simply been born with a knack for saying things that made people want to hit her...
No amount of talking nicely or scolding fixed it, so for the past few days I had started using force on Cali.
"Why did you hit me!! I told you not to hit my head!"
"Sorry, Cali. I'm just a lowly elf who didn't understand 'don't hit me.'"
"You little...!"
Still stuffing her mouth full of cake, Cali glared at me with eyes like hatchets and rubbed the spot where she'd been hit.
Even so, after what she'd done for me this time, she felt a little more reliable.
Until now the only comrades I'd ever had were the Hero's party members...
I had always thought systematic, well-balanced party members were the most important thing in combat—
but it turned out I had been able to fight the rebels at Duke Eranty's mansion without worry because Cali had been protecting Sophia.
As a dragon she was nothing more than a Hatchling, but from a human perspective she was practically a boss-class monster...
The rebels hadn't been able to touch a single hair on her head.
Looking at Cali's blazing red hair and eyes, I was reminded of Red Dragons said to create the flames of hell themselves—
and I wondered if, once she grew into an adult dragon, I would still be able to give her knuckle-raps like this.
Knock knock.
While I was enjoying the sight of Cali in pain, a knock came with a maid's voice.
"Lady Lowell, a carriage from the Empire has just arrived."
At last, the imperial envoy.
I didn't know why Emperor Roberto IV—my childhood friend—had something to discuss with me and had gone so far as to detain me here and send an envoy,
but I didn't think he had sent them with any ill intent.
He hadn't put a bounty on me like the other kingdoms, and he had issued a protection order in the Emperor's name forbidding anyone to harm me.
Leaving Cali still lost in her desserts behind, I left the room and followed the maid's guidance toward the reception room where the imperial envoys had arrived.
Crossing the vast gardens of the private palace and walking the palace corridors for several minutes, the maid's steps stopped before a door.
"Lady Lowell has arrived."
A moment later...
The door opened, revealing those inside the reception room...
A man far too young to be called an imperial envoy sat on the sofa drinking tea,
and beside him a somewhat older man who appeared to be his aide sprang to his feet and bowed to me in greeting.
"It is an honor to meet you, Lady Lowell."
Receiving his greeting, I stepped inside and bowed in return.
And...
the young man who had been drinking tea also rose from his seat...
"It has been a long time, Godmother. Have you been well?"
Godmother?
A young man greeting me as if we had met long ago.
"Hello. But... who might you be?"
"I am Alex, son of His Majesty Emperor Roberto IV."
Alex... Alex...
I stood in the doorway without sitting, searching my memory for who Alex was.
In my memories, Alex was...
a very long time ago, when at Emperor Roberto's invitation I had gone to the imperial palace and performed the ceremony of bestowing an elf's blessing on his newborn son...
The face of that infant and the man called Alex now overlapped, and I realized they were the same person.
"Ah...."
"Do you remember now?"
"Yes. I think I do. But you were such a tiny baby back then..."
"Thanks to the elf's blessing you bestowed that day, I was able to grow up healthy like this. Once again, thank you."
Well... even if...
I hadn't bestowed the blessing myself, seeing my friend's son grown into such a fine young man filled me with a quiet pride from somewhere deep in my chest I hadn't known was there.
Alex seemed to have something important to say; he signaled the man who had come with him as envoy to step outside, and the moment the door closed he carefully opened his mouth.
"Godmother, the reason I came all this way is..."