Chapter 13
Magic existed in this world.
I’d established that much, but naturally, the “how” was something I didn’t know. Deciding how magic worked and manifested was not my responsibility.
How magic manifested, the systematic schema for magic, and what mana was; I didn’t know any of that.
Even if I bothered to write in such details, I don’t think anyone would care to read a fantasy novel filled with that kind of filler information.
Explaining how magic worked in detail would be just like the guys writing novels that babbled on and on about the Black Flame Dragon that possessed the main character’s right hand—no one really cared about that. All that did was make the novel over-adhere to the setting.
Magic was something you were supposed to just accept, and move on. In martial arts novels, readers naturally figured out the principles of various martial styles even without anyone explaining it to them. It was practically the same with every other novel, and mine was no different.
In conclusion, the system that I glossed over while writing the novel had its own principles and methods.
The magic system of demons and humans was fundamentally different. They both implemented the same magic, but in a different way. It was like having two different methods of transportation on the same railroad track; one utilizing steam locomotives and the other electric trains, if you will.
That was why teleportation scrolls imbued with demon magic could perform long-distance teleports, but the same feat was impossible with scrolls that contained human magic.
Distinguishing between human and demon magical systems just by looking at the magic an object contained was beyond my capabilities. It was a mistake to have made assumptions about it.
Other merchants either didn’t know about demon magic or weren’t magic-users themselves, so they had no idea what my scrolls were and had thought them worthless.
But this woman, who appeared to be both a scroll merchant and a mage, had seen through it. She somehow knew that my scroll was perfectly functional.
“Speak up, boy,” she said.
I couldn’t predict what this woman was going to do to me.
Couldn’t I use my achievement points to get out of this situation?
‘Make this woman indifferent to my scroll book.’
[To trigger this event, you need 3,000 achievement points.]
As expected, it required more points than I had, which made sense. Making someone think that a demon scroll book that was found in the heart of Gradium wasn’t an important item was unreasonable, and went strongly against the natural flow of the novel.
In the end, I had no choice but to speak up.
“I found it... at th-the... D-Dem... at the Demon King’s... castle...”
“What?”
I had to tell her the truth.
“I found it at the Demon King’s castle...”
The woman’s brow furrowed at my words.
“What on earth are you talking about? You brought a scroll book out from the Demon King’s castle?”
She narrowed her gaze as if questioning the nonsensical statement I had just made, but at the same time, it seemed like she couldn’t completely dismiss the idea, as the scroll was indeed in front of her.
I explained the whole situation to her, everything from being imprisoned in the Demon King’s castle with the princess to my escape, and the use of the teleport scroll to get here. I told her I arrived in Gradium alone with nothing else on me, and needed to sell the scroll book to earn money for a place to stay.
I went as far as to claim that I had lost my memory and didn’t even know who I was.
“What in the world... that is unbelievable... You expect me to believe that? The princess was rescued?”
The woman seemed utterly puzzled, her forehead wrinkling as if she couldn’t believe my story. She looked into my eyes and let out a sigh.
“You must be lying. If you really rescued the princess, you would have received some form of recognition—nobility, or something. So why are you alone?”
Her question was very reasonable. The reward for saving the princess would have been beyond imagination, so refusing it and wandering around alone made no sense.
Of course, I wasn’t the one who’d “rescued” her in the first place.
Nonetheless, I was a master of “additional settings,” in other words, the art of making excuses. I could turn things around and play word games to avoid setting errors like this if I had to.
That’s right, I was a specialist in making excuses in this world!
“Well... when I escaped, many of Duke Salerion’s knights died. I might receive a reward for saving the princess, but Prince Vertus’s faction may seek revenge, so...”
“Oh, I see... retaliation... yes... that makes sense... even the princess might find it difficult to protect you in that situation, I see...”
I’d prepared this excuse just in case the princess found me and I got caught, but I had just used it in a completely unexpected place instead. While the reward from the princess would have been nice, it was certainly not more precious than my life.
Even though it was just an excuse, it wasn’t completely fabricated, and was something that could actually happen to Dyrus. I hoped that Dyrus was safe and did not face retaliation.
The woman stared at me, seemingly satisfied that all her questions had been answered.
“The details are too intricate to be made up...”
She had to believe my incredible story because there was no other way to explain the incredible item I possessed.
She let out a sigh.
“So, the Demon King... he’s dead?”
“Yes.”
A strange glint passed through her eyes as soon as I responded. It was an inexplicable expression, a mixture of joy and sorrow, bordering on relief.
She remained silent for a while, then offered me a sympathetic expression.
“I’m glad that it all turned out well. I can’t imagine how much the young princess suffered... and you as well.”
She patted my back as if to comfort me.
Well, I was never actually tortured or anything.
“Actually, I don’t remember anything... so it’s okay.”
I decided to keep it vague.
“You’re right. In fact, it’s better that you don’t remember those painful events,” she continued to console me.
‘Wow, why is this person so kind? Regardless, I’m getting hungry and a bit uncomfortable. Can I leave now?’
“Wait a moment, kid.”
“Yes?”
“Many people experience memory issues after undergoing severe torture. But you, you were trapped in the terrifying place known as the Demon King’s castle, right?”
Well, technically, the Demon King’s castle was my home and safe haven. Unfortunately, the humans had barged in and killed everyone.
“You might be suffering from a curse, so let me...”
She looked at me, her eyes filled with warmth.
“Let me perform a simple dispelling. If your memory loss is due to a curse, your memories might return. However, it’s not a powerful curse-removing spell, so we’ll have to see...”
We made eye contact.
“Wait, wait! Please!”
“Dispel.”
The spell was cast.
“...Huh?”
Her expression was one of complete bewilderment, as if she couldn’t fathom what was happening. She probably understood what my horns and my skin tone, which was slightly different from a human’s, meant, but she just couldn’t accept it.
“Ah—”
The Scribe’s Advice. From now on, I’d probably call it “The Asshole’s Advice.”
However, what came out of her mouth completely turned my thoughts upside down.
“Y-your Highness... My Prince... Is that you?”
***
Your Highness.
I was well aware that it was a title commonly used to address a prince. But why was I getting recognized by someone in such an unexpected place?
Of course, I understood what she meant, it was just hard to believe.
The shopkeeper immediately knelt in front of me.
“I, Eleris from the Infiltration Unit under the Demon King’s command, greet Your Highness.”
“Uh, uh...”
Was this a good thing? Well, it had to be, right? My head was spinning with thoughts as my mind tried to interpret this situation and figure out what I was supposed to do with the woman in front of me, who certainly seemed to be a demon.
At least it didn’t seem like a dangerous situation, so that was good.
“For now, I think you should come with me instead of staying out here in the open like this,” she said.
Her gaze flickered between me and the shop’s entrance as she led me to the back of the store and into a storage room. This way, I wouldn’t immediately get caught if a customer came in.
She then cast another spell, this time on herself, and her appearance changed subtly as well.
“Your Highness, can’t you recognize me?”
Sharp fangs peeked out between her crimson lips. Crimson eyes, pale skin.
I had a rough idea of what this might be.
“A vampire...?”
“Yes, I am Eleris of the Flames, from the Seven Nights Clan.”
Seven Nights Clan? What was with these cringy settings that sounded like something out of a middle school fiction novel? I never wrote about any of these!
Anyway, she seemed genuinely concerned about me. I looked at her, silent and bewildered, and she cautiously placed her hand on my cheek.
“So, could it be... you’ve truly lost your memories?”
“Uh, well... I, I don’t remember a single thing and can’t recall anything except for the fact that I was a prince in the Demon Realm.”
I had no choice but to speak the truth. It seemed a hundred times better than trying to act as if I remembered clearly what had happened to me.
My confession elicited an inexplicable flicker of emotion.
“You escaped from the castle alone in such a situation and came all the way here?”
She gently took my hand, her expression full of sorrow.
“This is a fortune given by heaven. I don’t know how this unlikely turn of events came about, but I’m sincerely grateful to the gods that helped you survive.”
This situation seemed bizarre, a vampire thanking the gods, but considering this interaction technically stemmed from The Scribe’s Advice, it seemed the advice had turned out to be rather reliable.
While it might have been a stroke of luck for Eleris that she found me, but for me, it was more of a destined interaction.
Go to a magical items store.
Eleris recognition of the demon scroll might have been due to her being a mage, but it was more likely because she was a demon herself.
So, ultimately, the advice to visit a magical items store to sell the scrolls had merely been a pretext; there was an underlying intention hidden within.
It had been a message to find and seek help from a hidden demon spy who had infiltrated Gradium.
If I had been recognized by a human, and not a demon shopkeeper who could identify my scrolls, I might have ended up in a much more dangerous situation. But in the end, I was able to find a demon spy acting as a shopkeeper.
Wait a minute.
Come to think of it, the ambiguous advice essentially conveyed the same message.
[The Scribe’s Ambiguous Advice]
[How were so many humans kidnapped and held captive at the Demon King’s Castle?]
The question wasn’t “why,” but “how.”
In my novel, I wrote that humans had been kidnapped by demon spies who had infiltrated the human world. The ambiguous advice had been a subtle message, suggesting that those spies might still be in the human world, but I’d been so perplexed that I hadn’t even considered that option.
If I had understood the ambiguous advice, I would have come to the conclusion that I had to find the demon spies within Gradium, and could have acted more cautiously, ensuring my safety.
The Scribe’s Clear Advice recommended a risky but straightforward approach, while the ambiguous advice had tried to make me figure out what to do on my own. The Ambiguous Advice was relatively safe, whereas the clear advice was relatively risky.
“Hey... was there a possibility that a human magician could identify demon scrolls?”
I naturally started talking to Eleris in a more casual tone than before, and it seemed like she took it as a matter of course.
“There are scholars among humans who research demon magic as well, so it’s a relief that you came to me before encountering them,” Eleris said.
I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of what might have happened if someone had identified my scroll book before I’d met Eleris. It was a risky move that could have gotten me killed.
She went back into the shop, locked the door, and led me upstairs.
“From now on, I will do my best to assist you,” she said as she led me to a small sofa.
With that, she started tidying up the room, which seemed to lack a sense of life.
‘Wait, aren’t you a vampire? Why is the lighting so good in here? I mean, it’s not a huge house, but the sunlight is coming straight through the windows.’
“Isn’t it dangerous for a vampire to be exposed to so much sunlight?” I asked.
She looked at me and nodded in response.
“I am a Vampire Lord, so I can endure this level of sunlight. Of course, it’s still not good for my body,” she replied.
‘You know that I can see you flinch slightly every time the sunlight touches you while you’re taking out the table napkins. Are you sure you’re okay?’
“This house is attached to the shop, so I don’t have to pay separate rent. I would love to live in an underground basement with no sunlight, but...the budget is tight for undercover missions.”
‘...That’s so sad.’
I didn’t know what a Vampire Lord was, but she was living a bit too frugally for such a highly-ranked vampire. Talking about the basement and no sunlight like it was a dream home. I understood, but it was still quite pitiful to hear. A vampire who had to worry about rent... damn.
“Couldn’t you just become a building owner or something like that?”
Come to think of it, getting rich should be pretty easy for vampires, right? At least that’s common vampire knowledge taught me.
“I have thought about that, but getting my own property comes with too many risks. Pretending to be a regular human and trying to obtain a property is not an easy task.”
Eleris was a fairly strong vampire, but she wasn’t risking her life to become a rich one. If a seemingly well-off person suddenly began to avoid sunlight and refused to eat food, it would definitely raise suspicions.
No. Actually, whether you were a rich vampire or not, living in the human world while pretending you weren’t a vampire was in itself an incredibly challenging task.
When she was done cleaning, Eleris looked at me.
“You must be starving. I will prepare some food.”
“Huh? Oh...”
Didn’t vampires drink blood? Did they even have anything to eat here?
As if understanding my concerns, Eleris wore her hood.
“I’ll be back in a moment.”
“Oh. Uh, can you just go out like that?”
“It’s fine.”
A vampire was casually going grocery shopping in broad daylight because of me. My mind swirled just thinking about it.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude, but also felt sorry.
She was back in a heartbeat, but even that short period of time seemed to have exhausted her, which left me on the verge of tears.
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