Chapter 30 - In Search of the Runaway Blacksmith

“Is your name Seniel, by any chance?”

“... What are you talking about?”

“It isn't, then. I was just curious.”

Berge ignored Ernyan's sharp look.

“This is a princess of Jespine. She'll be living with you on the fourth floor from now on.”

“... I...look forward to staying with you.”

Was that really the right thing to say?

Throughout the climb, Kaede had felt everything she thought she knew being overturned. Why had she been kidnapped? Why were they climbing the mountain, and why was the tower hidden in a basin?

It had been one question after another. Before she knew it, she was inside the tower.

“... Have you kidnapped another hero?”

“A princess.”

The first thing she had seen was a “dwarven hero” hammering away as he repaired a mana cannon. And now spirits were flitting about while a “human” spirit summoner welcomed her.

Was this really a Demon King's tower? Was that man really a Demon King?

'But that terrifying demonic energy...'

Her senses as a hero screamed that nothing else could explain it.

The Demon King left without another word. Kaede couldn't understand his carelessness, either.

The fourth floor, rather than a prison? She had heard that some Demon Kings treated princes and princesses lavishly, of course. But she wasn't a princess worth that kind of treatment.

'Perhaps this is an opportunity.'

Kaede surveyed the fourth floor. Ernyan, who had been watching quietly, asked,

“What are you doing?”

“I'm trying to escape. Please help me. If you're human, surely you aren't here willingly?”

No human sincerely served a Demon King. At least, that was what Kaede believed. They were invaders, after all.

“If you want to leave, you can simply go. No one will stop you.”

“What do you...?”

“Did you see any demonic creatures or demons on your way up? There are no troops to stop you. Whether you can survive outside is another matter, though.”

“Oh.”

Kaede understood. They were in the Erjest Mountains, and she wasn't strong enough to withstand their cold and monsters.

A Demon King indeed. Even his apparent laxity concealed meticulous planning.

“He really is a Demon King...”

Kaede bit her lip. She had come to help Hillen Cargill slay the Demon King, only to become his prisoner instead. The futility was crushing.

“You needn't think so badly of him. The master of this tower is quite a gentleman, at least.”

“Once someone kidnaps you, 'gentleman' hardly seems appropriate.”

“Well, you could see it that way. But he doesn't lock princesses in a dungeon. He lets us live as we please on the fourth floor.”

Ernyan waved a hand lightly. Responding to her will, an earth spirit raised a wall.

“You can stay over there. There are no fixed mealtimes, so if you're hungry, help yourself to something from that storeroom.”

“All right.”

For now, Kaede decided to follow her instructions. There was a saying that even if an ogre dragged you into its den, you could survive if you kept your wits about you.

A Demon King was nothing like an ogre, but if she waited, an opening would eventually present itself.

'In a way, perhaps this is better...'

She smiled bitterly, recalling why she had tried to follow Hillen and defeat the Demon King.

“But what exactly is that dwarven hero on the first floor?”

For some reason, this Demon King's tower, which should have been crawling with demonic creatures, contained other things instead.

“A dwarven hero.”

“No, I mean...”

“I don't know much about him. I'm a prisoner, too.”

“... A prisoner?”

Kaede had assumed she was a human who had sided with the Demon King—a guard assigned to watch her. She had the whole fourth floor at her command, after all.

“Oh, haven't I told you about myself? Allow me to introduce myself properly.”

Ernyan bowed gracefully.

“I'm Ernyan Hilderan, Crown Princess of Hilderan. Like you... I was kidnapped.”

“...”

Kaede seriously began to suspect that a succubus was deceiving her on the Demon King's secret orders.

* * *

“I never thought I'd be standing here again.”

Hillen straightened his clothes. His reflection in the mirror looked immaculate.

“Are you ready?”

“I am, but I'm still nervous.”

“Haha, surely you've had more experience with this than any other hero?”

“This isn't a happy occasion, though.”

“How could that be your fault? It's because this new Demon King is so strange. If anything, you've made us more alert to the threat he poses. Surely that's a good thing?”

Well, was it really a good thing?

Then again, no one would dream that a hero had become a Demon King's dog. That was why so many people were simply delighted that he had returned alive.

That was the outcome he and the Demon King had envisioned: preserve his reputation by laying the blame for the failure on the strange Demon King, rather than the hero. Then go on to become the greatest hero of all.

“Shall we?”

He smoothed out the last few wrinkles with his hands, then set off with his secretary.

'What does the Demon King want?'

How did he intend to use him as a hero?

'Surely he doesn't mean for me to kill other heroes?'

He didn't seem that simple-minded. Saying it himself might sound rather unimpressive, but Hillen Cargill knew his own standing well. He was certainly not a piece to be used once and discarded.

'Let's think positively.'

The Demon King named Berge did seem different from the others, but every Demon King who had descended over the past several centuries had been different.

Even so, Arain had never once faced the threat of destruction. Now, people actually viewed Demon Kings as a source of income.

'The continent will never fall.'

The world was vast, with many heroes and many nations. If one hero's betrayal were enough to bring the continent down, it would have fallen long ago.

'And I've gained ninety thousand gold.'

The generous Demon King had handed over the money outright, and a full hundred thousand gold now rested in his storage dimension. Even after he paid off all his debts with ten thousand, ninety thousand would remain.

Most of that would be invested in the Golden Moon Trading Company as soon as Aman Katrash became its heir. The enormous influx of funds would give the declining company room to breathe.

With Hillen Cargill committed to supporting it, expanding the company itself was hardly a pipe dream. Once it grew, it would serve as the Demon King's agent and Hillen's dependable backer.

That was the future Hillen Cargill envisioned. Whatever he thought of the Demon King, money never let him down. And Hillen knew very well how to spend it.

He flung open the doors to the great hall.

“He's here!”

“It really is Hillen Cargill!”

Every waiting reporter turned to him at once. Savoring their attention, Hillen slowly ascended the platform.

CLICK!

CLICK!

The dazzling flashes of magical cameras stung his eyes.

“Hello, everyone. I'm Hillen Cargill. I'm not sure whether meeting you here again is a cause for joy or sorrow. First, I'll tell you what happened after I began climbing the mountain. I'll take questions once I've finished.”

The hall fell silent. Hillen calmly recounted his experiences—with a few judicious embellishments.

“I tried to find the tower. I wanted to rescue the princess, whatever it took. But the Demon King was cunning and wicked.”

“The tower was nowhere to be found. All that greeted us was bitter cold, heavy snow, and even stronger monsters.”

“My companions screamed. They fell, bleeding. I tried to save as many of them as I could. For weeks, I wandered that forbidden land so their sacrifices would not be in vain.”

Sometimes cool and composed, sometimes appealing to their emotions, he held his audience spellbound. A single tear rolling down his cheek supplied the perfect finishing touch.

By the time his story ended, the reporters, swept up in the mood, expressed their sympathy. Hillen was a battle-hardened hero turned tragic victim of a wicked scheme.

“I'll take questions now.”

It happened then.

The hall doors eased open. People peeked inside, then hurried over to the reporters. The murmuring suddenly grew louder.

'What's going on?'

Was there some new development?

'From their expressions, it doesn't look trivial...'

An unsettling foreboding stirred in Hillen's chest. Someone raised a hand.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“The Demon King you failed to defeat has now kidnapped a princess of Jespine. What do you think of that? Don't you feel guilty, knowing she wouldn't have been kidnapped if you had succeeded?”

“...?”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

* * *

The kidnapping of Kaede Jespine, Jespine's Ninth Princess, came to light through sheer bad luck.

The Demon King had openly unleashed his demonic energy, and its power had shaken Hortonwork itself.

“That's an incredible amount of demonic energy!”

“If we're sensing demonic energy around here...”

“It's the new Demon King of Erjest. The hero's journey must have enraged him.”

The city went on alert. The guards who arrived belatedly found mercenaries lying unconscious.

Concluding that demons had attacked them, they began treating the wounded. In the process, one mercenary woke up, shouting,

“Your Highness!”

“...”

“...”

It was only a minor incident. But because a Demon King was involved, it grew into an enormous rumor.

“Demonic energy was detected in Hortonwork.”

“The area was wrecked, and mercenaries were lying unconscious. There must have been a battle.”

“The Demon King appeared to kidnap someone.”

“The mercenaries were actually knights.”

“The Demon King kidnapped an imperial princess!”

All the pieces fell neatly into place. The mercenaries denied the claims and disappeared.

“The Demon King kidnapped another princess so soon after a hero's journey ended? He'd have to be mad...”

Some denied the rumors, and their arguments were reasonably sound. But the timing was poor.

The hero Hillen Cargill's expedition had failed, revealing that this new Demon King was unlike his predecessors.

“That new Demon King bastard must have been mad from the start!”

“He definitely kidnapped a princess of the Jespine Empire!”

Yet the Jespine Empire itself, the party directly involved, had made no response.

* * *

SLAP!

SLAP!

Blood spattered. Pearly white teeth fell to the floor. Even so, the knight kept his head bowed in silence.

“Enough.”

The knight stopped slapping his subordinate. He knelt facing the throne and pressed his head to the floor.

“Do you know?”

The man spoke with weary indifference. But the chill beneath his words made the knights swallow hard and lower their heads still further.

“They say even the dogs in the streets know that a princess of Jespine has been kidnapped by a Demon King.”

All because of a certain knight's habit of talking in his sleep.

A dry chuckle sounded.

“I wonder whether I ought to let you remain knights.”

“Please put me to death!”

“If that is truly what you wish, I shall oblige.”

“...”

“I despise vermin who make a mess and then try to evade responsibility.”

“I swear I will rescue Her Highness.”

“Must I tear that mouth of yours apart to keep it from fouling my ears?”

He clicked his tongue.

“How could the likes of you succeed where Hillen Cargill, supposedly one of the Ten Stars, failed? Think before you speak.”

The knights could say nothing. They could only tremble and hope for their lord's mercy.

“Hector.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“What should I do about your incompetence as escort knights who let the princess escape, your helplessness when the Demon King took her, and your carelessness in wagging your tongues?”

“... If you entrust the task to me, I swear I will bring Her Highness back.”

“How?”

“...”

He rose, slowly descended from the throne, and struck Hector across the head.

“Did I not tell you to think before you speak?”

“I'm sorry.”

“Then don't do things you must apologize for. Do not test my patience.”

The emperor's rebuke was icy. He returned to his throne and closed his eyes.

“Go to the Kingdom of Ormus.”

After a moment, he opened his eyes.

“Tell that greedy old fool his bride has disappeared. Cooperate with him to the fullest in finding Kaede.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“And send an envoy to the Heroes' Guild. Tell them they've gobbled up enough damn money, and it's time they earned it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Go. Remember, this is your last chance.”

“We obey your command!”

“We will engrave it in our bones!”

The knights departed.

“There is no need to act ourselves.”

Even Hillen Cargill had failed to find the tower. There was no reason to bear those losses first.

He could gauge the situation while watching Hilderan, which had lost its crown princess, and Ormus, which had lost a prospective concubine, run themselves mad. It also helped that Kaede was not a particularly important princess.

“What a nuisance. She should simply have gone quietly to Ormus.”

He clicked his tongue.

* * *

Berge left the tower again and discovered that the repercussions of his actions were growing larger than he had expected.

'Jespine, after all.'

He had anticipated as much, more or less. His past experiences had made him hate conventional methods, but he was still a Demon King. How could he leave an imperial princess alone when she was right under his nose?

'There's no serious problem.'

The tower's location had not been discovered. That was an enormous advantage.

'Even if it is discovered, I can use the Mana Ghost if things go wrong.'

It would cost a tremendous number of demonic energy points, but nothing mattered more than staying alive.

'I'll have to keep setting some points aside.'

With rumors spreading this widely after he had kidnapped an imperial princess as well, he would earn more demonic energy points.

'Anyway, it's been a while since I was here.'

Huge buildings soared into the sky. Artificially manipulated currents of mana were established throughout the city. Airships flew overhead, and magical devices abounded.

This was Amur, capital of the magical kingdom of Akan.

It wasn't his first visit. He had come once before to kidnap Akan's princess. And while trying to kidnap the princess, he had kidnapped a prince instead.

'... That brings back an unpleasant memory.'

It...hadn't...been a mistake.

He had simply made that decision after seeing her gaze, her presence, and the state of her room. Just as one avoided shit because it was filthy, he had simply steered clear.

'What a pointless thought.'

It was in the past, and it would never happen again. There were plenty of kingdoms and even more princesses. He had neither reason nor desire to insist on the Kingdom of Akan.

'A mage tower would be best, but...'

Mage towers not only trained mages but also sold reagents and magical ingredients. That made them the easiest places to obtain Seniel powder.

The problem was that mage towers almost invariably had heroes in them.

By concealing his demonic energy as thoroughly as possible, he could fool heroes of middling ability. But these were mage towers in a kingdom renowned for magic. Avoiding detection would be impossible.

'I'll have to look around the nearby magic market.'

Its wares would be inferior to those of a mage tower, but that was better than nothing.

Just then—

“Are you sure he's here?”

“Absolutely. What else can he do after fleeing the kingdom?”

“He's not one to change his habits. He'll pick up a hammer again.”

“Yes, without a doubt. The easiest places to obtain all kinds of materials are the Kingdom of Akan and the Traparta Union. But I believe he would prefer Akan to Traparta.”

“Because Traparta is right next to our homeland?”

“Yes. Since they cooperate more closely with us than anyone, he would have chosen somewhere the kingdom has less reach.”

“That sounds plausible.”

The voices rang out loudly. Passersby glanced at them, but they paid no heed.

It was...

'Oh?'

Louise Berft, Second Princess of the dwarven kingdom of Berft.