Chapter 243: Qualification Part 2

“Understood? You shouldn’t tell anyone about this incident.”

“Not even Your Highness’s guards?”

“They’re the most dangerous of all, actually. Their loyalty lies with the Empire, not with me. If even one of them starts doubting my qualifications, they’d report it straight to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Then what about Yuna?”

“Yuna… should be fine, but the fewer people who know about this kind of thing, the better. You don’t want to drag Yuna into this unnecessarily either, do you?”

“I see.”

The fewer people who know, the better.

Lobelia must want to minimize the risks as much as possible.

That’s understandable. Losing her power overnight would make anyone anxious.

“Then what about your other abilities?”

“Other abilities?”

“Things like your physical abilities or magic. Are those unusable too?”

“Those haven’t changed. But all the abilities I possess are organically connected. It feels like I’ve lost a part of my body….no matter what I do, my balance feels off.”

“Then once you get used to it, daily life should be manageable.”

“Which also means that for a while, even daily life might be difficult.”

That must be why she needs my support even now.

Still, what should we do about this? Should we investigate it separately?

“For now, let’s say I’m injured. They don’t know what happened in the Veldani Mountains anyway, so just talk things over smoothly like you always do.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Right. Deliberate deception is your specialty, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a specialty. If anyone’s a true professional, it’s Yuna. I’m just good at improvising.”

***

“So that’s what happened, Yuna. We’ll have to go see Her Highness in a bit.”

“I see. But Johan. Aren’t you not supposed to tell me this? She told you not to, didn’t she?”

“That’s exactly why I told you. To drag you in. It’d be a hassle to deal with this alone.”

“……”

“Put it on my tab.”

Not that I plan on paying it back….just so you know..

“Once we get married, my assets are your assets, and my debts are your debts anyway.”

“……How did I ever end up liking someone like you?”

“Try to look at it positively, Yuna. Thanks to me, you’re learning how the world works. From now on, when someone says they have good news, the first thing you should do is doubt it.”

“Johan, you’re not ‘someone else’.”

“Wow, well done. You’ve learned another lesson. Just because someone’s close to you doesn’t mean you should trust them unconditionally.”

“Johan, you don’t seriously think I can’t hit you, do you?”

“So? Go ahead and hit me.”

“……”

See? You can’t.

***

“……So that’s how it is, huh. Johan, you really do always exceed my expectations. Truly impressive.”

“Perhaps you could lower your fist for now, Your Highness?”

Unlike Yuna, Lobelia actually hits people. And right now, with her powers gone, she can’t even regulate her strength properly.

One punch from her could cost me my life.

“Hah, enough. Fine… honestly, this might be for the best. This is much better.”

“Right?”

“You….keep your mouth shut.”

“……”

“Answer me.”

“Yes.”

Honestly, I have no idea which tune she wants me to dance to…

As expected of an imperial member. She has the perfect personality to be the worst possible boss.

“Johan, go and inform them that I’ll be leaving soon. And Yuna, I’d like you to stay behind and help me.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Okay.”

And just like that, I was kicked out by Lobelia and headed toward the knights at the barracks.

I’ll be honest.

I saw this coming.

For Lobelia, it’s probably more comfortable being alone with another woman.

Naturally, I succeeded in handing over my responsibilities to Yuna and was given a simple errand instead.

“Alright, then…….”

After following Lobelia’s orders and informing the barracks knights about the existence of the barbarian shaman and her intention to depart soon—

I didn’t return to Lobelia. I went straight back to my room.

I need some rest too.

Unlike Lobelia or Yuna, I’m not made of iron. When it’s time to rest, I rest.

“I’m really sick of this.”

Too much has happened lately.

It’s not like there was ever a time when nothing was happening… but at least back then, there were gaps here and there where I could rest.

From the moment we set out for the Veldani Mountains until now, I haven’t had a single proper moment of rest.

It’s been an intense forced march.

Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to rest as soon as we got back, but being dragged around by Lobelia made even that difficult.

If she had even a shred of conscience, she wouldn’t wake up someone who’s half-dead from exhaustion and drag them along.

Even if Yuna came looking for me, she’s on my side, so I figured she’d make up an excuse for me on her own.

If there’s one thing that worries me, though…

“Why are you opening your eyes like that?”

“What’s wrong with my eyes?”

It’s Mephistopheles.

“You….your gaze is really suspicious.”

“This is the height of baseless suspicion. Have you finally lost your mind?”

“Open your eyes properly, you bastard.”

That grin, like she’s about to pull something at any moment. Those strangely upturned eyes.

There’s no doubt about it. She’s scheming something. Otherwise, there’s no way she’d look that pleased.

“Get a grip, Johan. That’s just paranoia. Why are you harassing me when I’m well-behaved?”

“The fact that you’re calling yourself ‘well-behaved’ is suspicious in itself.”

“This is driving me insane. Stop spouting nonsense and just go to sleep. You’re only suspicious of everything because you’re exhausted.”

“Nope.”

My intuition is crystal clear.

“Whatever you’re planning, do it later.”

“So I can do it later?”

“As if! I knew it. You bastard. I knew you were plotting something!”

“Oops!”

“Caught you red-handed, you asshole.”

Smack!

I smacked Mephistopheles who fell for my leading question on the head.

“Kraaagh!”

Mephistopheles clutched her head and started rolling around on the floor.

For a split second, I almost felt bad, but then I realized she was just playing me.

“I didn’t even hit you with divine power. Why are you pretending it hurts?”

“N-No, that’s not it!”

“What do you mean, ‘not it’?”

You’re dead for real now.

I rummaged through my bag, looking for Helena’s stick.

I was already on edge from exhaustion, and I’d been annoyed ever since she started scattering snack crumbs everywhere.

Thinking I’d found a perfect excuse, I dug through the bag.

“……?”

It’s not there.

I’d put it somewhere easy to find since it’s not very noticeable. But it was nowhere to be seen.

I turned my head to look at Mephistopheles. She was backing away, clutching her head.

“Was it you?”

“……I know nothing about that.”

“Oh, really? Then I should ask them to put you in with a club instead of a stick next time.”

“It’s right here.”

“So it was you, you bastard.”

This one’s been trying to one-up me all along, hasn’t she?

“Now, calm down and sit, Johan. There’s something more important than that right now.”

“More important?”

Mephistopheles looked unusually serious.

It’s not like my heart softened because of the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

Tch… this bastard really knows how to put on an act. I never realized how important appearances were, but even with a schemer like her, I hesitate sometimes.

“A moment ago, you struck my true body. Not this avatar, but my main body that exists outside the world. That’s why I felt pain.”

“Go on.”

“Not even divine power can strike my true body. At best, it can sever the connection between worlds. It may destroy my avatar, but it can never completely kill me.”

I quietly perched myself on a chair.

“But you hit me. You went past this avatar and struck my true body.”

“So?”

“It hurt. Apologize.”

“Not that, you idiot.”

Whether you’re in pain isn’t what matters.

There’s something far more important than that!

“What could possibly be more important than that? Aren’t you the type who values your own safety above everything else?”

“…….”

I admit it.

Lobelia’s words about proper upbringing suddenly came back to me.

Did I mess this demon up? I swear, back when she still looked like a puppy, she had some kind of charisma…

Maybe expecting anything from this demon in the first place was a mistake.

“Haaah…”

I’m tired.

Tired and annoyed that I’ve stumbled onto an unexpected fact in the strangest of places.

I can’t just ignore this. Compared to Mephistopheles whining about it, this is actually a very serious issue.

It means I did something that even divine power can’t do.

Of course, divine power isn’t omnipotent.

Still, the fact that something no one has ever been able to do is now possible…

That can’t be brushed aside.

“Do demons die?”

“As far as I know, there’s only one case. And even that was an extremely special circumstance.”

“I see……”

Let’s get one thing straight first.

Since when, exactly, have I been able to strike Mephistopheles?

Up until now, whenever I hit her, I always made sure to swing the stick properly.

Then had there ever been a time when I struck her directly like this? I had thrown the demon book plenty of times, but……

I’d never seen her react as if she were in pain. At most, she said it was just noisy.

If that’s the case, then at least back then, I didn’t have this kind of ability.

“…….”

The most recent time I threw the book was probably after killing Tillis.

When I slipped out of the hospital and went to throw it into the incinerator.

What’s different between then and now?

“……The spell?”

The spell Vidar carved into me.

I hadn’t even been able to guess what kind of power it held until now.

I’d even wondered whether it was activating at all, but what if that power had been active from the very beginning?

“That can’t be. I don’t know the principles behind sorcery spells, but if it were that powerful, it wouldn’t have faded away so easily.”

“Or maybe it’s the opposite. Because it was that powerful, it was erased from history?”

“That’s possible. But I think differently. The fact that you struck me does involve the spell, but it can’t be attributed to the spell alone.”

“Then what do you think?”

“The spell was merely a trigger. What struck me was another ability.”

“A trigger, huh…….”

Then what exactly is this ‘other ability’ Mephistopheles is talking about?

If the spell merely opened the door……

Where did the ability that bloomed through that trigger come from?

I couldn’t help but think about the thing living inside my body.

“So there’s really not a single moment of rest.”

This is the power of the Demon King.

***

Theseus returned to Creta carrying Deus’s machinery, now reduced to scrap metal. Considering that Johan and Lobelia had only just reached the northern front, it was an impressively fast pace.

But……

“Damn it.”

He was already too late.

Deus had been completely reduced to a pile of scrap, now nothing but cold metal.

It could no longer even be called a machine.

And even if it could somehow be repaired, it would be meaningless.

Theseus didn’t know anyone capable of fixing Deus.

Deus had been an object of admiration, and as such, his personal connections were few.

And after running such a long distance, Theseus could understand it all too well.

“What an idiot.”

The way he had acted was truly pathetic. Like a child throwing a tantrum…no, even worse than that.

Theseus was a weak man.

He was not the flawless hero people praised him to be.

Of course, he was a just man, but that didn’t stem from any special conviction.

“Loki…….”

Theseus recalled the name.

The face of the younger brother who had once come here and attacked him surfaced in his mind.

– I lost my mother before I was even born. So Her Majesty the Empress, your mother Aethra, became my parent. Of course, it was a wet nurse who raised me, but I still remember Lady Aethra’s love.

– ……

– She treated me without discrimination, and you, Brother, regarded me as your own younger sibling. Do you remember?

Loki’s words had been sincere.

When they were young, Theseus and he had been brothers with a bond of their own.

What drove them apart was the death of Theseus’s birth mother, Aethra.

On the day of Aethra’s funeral,

Loki vented his grief and rage.

– Brother, you don’t even shed a tear. I’m so furious I could lose my mind! Our family has been murdered….how can you remain so composed?

The moment he saw that, Theseus thought that Loki would never pass the Emperor’s trial.

That he was far too soft. But Loki grew more ruthless than anyone else, filling his shortcomings with sheer spite.

Confronted with that reality, Theseus couldn’t help but think again.

“Loki, I’m sorry for disappointing you.”

He wasn’t kind.

Nor had he truly been composed in the face of his family’s death.

He hadn’t left the imperial family out of firm conviction or chivalrous ideals.

He had used those as excuses and simply run away.

“I was just a coward.”

He was afraid of death.

Afraid of the monster that embodied death itself, standing before Aethra’s body as it grew cold.

Was he not enraged as well? Did he not want to find the culprit just the same?

But it was all futile.

Only later, after gaining even greater power along with that day’s fury, did Theseus finally understand.

“I was just afraid of death.”

The true nature of the one he had thought of as family.

The moment he saw it with his own eyes, Theseus could think of nothing.

A monster lives in the imperial family.

A monster born of death lives there.

“I only ran away.”

From every death in this world.

From that day on, Theseus upheld the principle of never killing.