Chapter 17
We chose this place as our meeting spot for a good reason.
Count Pontius’s place was too risky since he had servants who didn’t know he was a demon, and as a noble, many prominent figures bustled around him. And Eleris’s shop and apartment were too small for all four of us to gather.
These homeless people’s base was generally avoided by people due to the presence of the beggars. I was also told that there were a few hidden spaces in this place as well.
Eleris cast a disguise spell, and we walked through the chaos of beggars. We passed right by them, but they didn’t seem to notice our presence at all.
Beneath the bridge was a dimly lit tunnel. This was the real beggars’ hideout.
It originally served as a drainage channel during heavy rains, allowing the rainwater that built up in the city to flow out. Since it was an isolated area where few people walked, it also became a place to hide when the Hound of Irine transformed into a lycanthrope.
Inside, beggars lay scattered about, with blankets, rags, and roughly built huts. It was a real beggar’s village.
As we ventured deeper inside, even the huts disappeared. As we pressed further on into the endless sewage, we saw a faint glimmer of light. A single campfire was burning, and someone was sitting in front of it. Although he was called the leader of the beggars, he didn’t seem to possess much.
He looked just like a stray dog basking in the warmth of a campfire.
Clad in a torn shirt and faded pants, with unruly white hair haphazardly tied up.
The Hound of Irine.
“You have come, Your Highness.”
Come to think of it, I never explicitly heard that the Hound of Irine was a man.
***
Beggar King, the Hound of Irine. The king of beggars.
She knelt upon seeing me.
“I, Loyar, greet the prince, Your Highness.”
Loyar was the real name of the Hound of Irine. As I heard, she was a wolf-type lycanthrope.
“...Yeah, it’s good to see you. I did not expect to meet you down here in Gradium.”
I never expected to see her in Gradium, but running into her down in the sewers was even more unexpected.
“Is Sarkegar still not here?” Eleris asked, and Loyar nodded. “Well, the nobles are probably all busy with the victory celebration and all. But Sarkegar should be here soon. After all, this is more important to us.”
Eleris was an anti-war demon and was quite surprised when she first found out that I was still alive, but Loyar’s reaction was, well, rather nonchalant. It seemed like she was indifferent to me.
“Loyar, I should tell you in advance that Your Highness has lost all his memories. Except for knowing who he is... he doesn’t remember anything.”
Upon hearing this, Loyar stared at me intently.
“...Is that true, Your Highness?”
“Um, well... Yes, it is.”
“Hmm...”
Her gaze almost made me uncomfortable.
“Well, then, that’s fortunate.”
“...Fortunate?”
“Yes. You won’t be treating me like a dog anymore, asking me to sit and lie down like you used to, right?”
“...Me, me? I did that...?”
“Yes, sometimes you even put a leash on me,” Loyar said.
“Haha...”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought, and Loyar appeared to be getting annoyed as she recalled that time.
Oh, no, did I really treat a lycanthrope like some kind of animal?
Eleris twisted her lips, trying to suppress a laugh.
“Hmm... Loyar... Didn’t you say you liked it when Your Highness did th—”
Loyar’s face turned beet red.
“When?! I never liked it one bit!”
No but what did she mean? Was she seriously saying that I treated a lycanthrope, who transformed once a month into a monster during the full moon, as a dog? Was this creature my pet or something?
“Well, although I don’t remember exactly, I apologize for my past actions...”
“No, it’s fine.”
She was saying she was fine, but her expression suggested otherwise. Even I would probably hate being treated like that.
Come to think of it, Loyar volunteered for this spy mission, even though she was a lycanthrope.
Could it be that she volunteered to escape from my bullying? It seemed like a fairly plausible idea for her to make such a great effort to escape, yet she had now somehow ended up in this situation.
Could I really trust her?
“Um... I know it’s hard for you to forget the past, but I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done. From now on... I’ll do my best to treat you well.”
I extended my hand as I apologized for something that wasn’t even my fault.
Pat.
“...”
“...”
I was offering a handshake, but instead, the girl placed her hand on top of mine, patting my hand rather than meeting it with a proper handshake.
“...!”
Loyar looked equally surprised by her own behavior and quickly shook my hand.
‘Did you just... ‘paw’ at me?’
“Paw.”
Pat.
This time, I extended my palm to her, and Loyar again placed her hand on top of mine.
It seemed like she’d done it instinctively, and she quickly withdrew her hand.
“Why... why are you doing this, Your Highness?” Loyar said, sweat running down her face.
“It seems like her body is responding to your actions, and not her head,” Eleris added in disbelief.
“No! You’re wrong!” Loyar exclaimed.
“Your Highness, why don’t you try saying ‘roll over’?”
“Hey! Stop it!”
“She’ll probably roll over in an instant. Try it.”
“No! Why would I roll over? That’s ridiculous!”
I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to roll over, because it actually felt like she was going to do it.
Why was she so well-trained? How much did I torment her in the past?
The fact that her body was instinctively responding to my commands left me in shock, and I was incapable of saying anything more to her.
I was afraid she was going to sit if I told her “sit.”
“Oh... um... My apologies. I’ll be careful from now on.”
“...Y-yes... Your Highness...”
She clearly didn’t like me on the inside, but her body was obedient to me whether she liked it or not. At least this meant she was not going to harm me so I could put aside my worries about Loyar for now and focus on Sarkegar.
Then all of a sudden, from a distance, I sensed something approaching, heralded by the echoing sounds in the sewer.
“Your Highhhhhnesssss!”
I was already convinced that it was someone with an unbearable personality even before I saw their face.
And, as if on cue, Sarkegar arrived and embraced me, then began to wail out loudly.
“Your Highness! The great and mighty Demon King, I cannot believe you fell into the hands of those treacherous humans! There’s no doubt that they used some kind of cowardly tricks! What should I do? How am I supposed to endure this? Nevertheless, I still see a glimmer of hope as I see that you are unharmed. What a blessing it is! Your Highness! Please rise again and rebuild our mighty Demon Realm, and cleanse this filthy human race from existence!”
Sarkegar’s lamentations filled the air.
.
.
Sarkegar continued to sob and wail while muttering incoherently for over ten minutes.
When I added the fact that I had lost my memories as well, his lamentations escalated even further.
Wasn’t I supposed to be in the mangnani genre? Why was he so sad, unlike the others?
Well, seeing him acting like this, it was possible that even the douchebag that I was probably did everything to avoid him.
His voice was so loud that it echoed throughout the sewer, and I even noticed Eleris casting a web of noise-suppression magic around us.
“Sniff... Ugh... Aahhh...”
He cried so intensely that even I, without thinking, felt my eyes welling up. I didn’t know I was the type to cry out of sympathy when someone else beside me cried. No, that wasn’t it. This guy was just crying so profoundly that anyone who laid eyes on him would tear up.
What was this nonsense?
Anyway, Sarkegar turned out to be a more loyal companion than I had ever imagined.
Sarkegar continued to sob uncontrollably, occasionally taking deep breaths as if he were about to pass out. I had to console him for a long time to calm him down.
“Hey, come on now, it’s hard to see a grown-up demon like you crying like that. You’re crying as if the world was going to end today.”
No, come to think of it, his world did end, didn’t it? I didn’t think this figure of speech would ever be reflective of reality.
Sarkegar perked up at my words.
“That’s right! Your Highness, you’re correct! Since Your Highness, who embodies the entire Demon Realm, is still alive, the Demon Realm has not disappeared! The Demon Realm is still thriving! We beseech the gods!”
He’d interpreted my words in an odd way, and as a result, his determination flared up even more. Loyar and Eleris gazed at me with eyes full of helplessness.
It seemed like they were just as exhausted as I was with Sarkegar.
After taking great effort to calm him down, we gathered around the campfire.
What a suitable location for a discussion between a prince of a ruined kingdom and his followers.
Sarkegar stared at me with a determined expression.
“Your Highness, you must rebuild the Demon Realm.”
Eleris locked eyes with me as if to remind me of what we had agreed that I should say.
“Uh, well... yeah, that’s the plan.”
“And to seek the vengeance of the great former Demon Lord and build an even stronger, more powerful nation than before...!”
“Alright, enough! If you keep breaking out into pointless, long-winded speeches, I’ll smack you right on the forehead!” Loyar burst out.
Yeah. In novels, when characters start talking too much like Sarkegar was, it is basically to fill pages, and their authors get criticized for it. Sarkegar seemed to sense that he was dragging it out as well, and cleared his throat.
“Ahem, well. I apologize, Your Highness. When I heard the news of the passing of the Demon Lord, it felt like the end of the world. I refrained from eating for days, and lay prostrate, thinking all was lost. But when I heard that Your Highness was safe, I became greatly excited...”
“Alright, alright. Enough of that for now.”
A guy who kept on dragging on and on even though he said he’d stop.
It seemed like hearing about the defeat made him feel like the sky had fallen. But since I was the last hope and was alive, his determination had been reignited.
“Rebuilding the Demon Realm is fine with me. However, there are only four of us, and I’m just an inexperienced teenage kid with no apparent skills.”
“Saying you have no skills is an understatement! Your Highness, you have noble blood! You’re the last remaining Archdemon in the wor—!”
I cut off Sarkegar’s babbling. “Yeah, yeah, about that. What exactly is an Archdemon, anyway?”
What was it about this Archdemon race, that all the demons of the Demon Realm didn’t even bother finding a new candidate for king and kept asking me to become the king myself?
I still didn’t know that fact.
However, as soon as I asked the question, they all looked at me as if I had asked something absolutely ridiculous.
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