Chapter 141
Ellen was definitely more than capable on her own, and I too had reached a level where I was beyond ordinary in terms of physical stamina and fighting ability, especially since I had supernatural powers. However, there was an undeniably huge difference between Ellen and me. It was only natural that she believed I would be in danger if I followed her to the Dark Land to gain real combat experience.
It wasn’t about me being a hindrance; she was worried I might be in danger, and that led to her insistence that I should not follow her.
“If you don’t take me along, I’ll go by myself.”
“...?”
In the end, I resorted to stubbornness to convince her to take me along.
“You’re the one who told me not to go.”
Ellen seemed confused. I had told her that it was pointless for her to go, but now I was suddenly making a fuss about going with her.
“Ugh, I don’t know, okay?! Just take me with you! I can fight well too! Maybe not as well as you, but I can handle myself now, alright?”
I had suddenly started throwing a tantrum, and Ellen let out a sigh.
Ellen, perhaps feeling overwhelmed, stared at me and then reluctantly said, “Why this, all of a sudden?”
She seemed to have been considering giving up on the idea herself, and my sudden insistence to accompany her puzzled her.
“You said there’s treasure there.”
“... Yeah.”
“It could be worth a lot of money.”
In the end, the only excuse I could come up with was the prospect of money.
Then again, in all honesty, finding some significant treasure could help with financing our operations, not to mention how great it would be if we could give a portion to Airi.
Ellen must have guessed why I needed money.
Eventually, she seemed to resign herself to the situation.
“... Then let’s stick to safer places. It’s not like this is the only break we’re going to get,” she said with a sigh.
***
Ellen begrudgingly accepted my insistence on tagging along, and turned her attention to planning. Even though I thought it was pretty low of me to insist on going after telling her not to, hearing her reasons for wanting to go to the Dark Land made me think it might be worth it.
I couldn’t just let her go alone. I was sticking with her because I knew I could make things just a tad safer. She might not realize it, but her being with me was undoubtedly safer.
I wasn’t too concerned with final exams, so nothing really changed even though it was exam season. My grades were the least of my worries.
I found myself at Eleris’s shop after finishing the day’s classes in the Temple, under the pretext of picking up a letter, something I did regularly. I had just finished writing a reply to another letter from Charlotte.
This area was no longer under surveillance, which meant I could come and go freely.
“Eleris.”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I’ve heard that adventurers frequent the Dark Land. Is that true?”
Ellen seemed quite troubled about taking me along, but if she didn’t, there was a high chance we’d miss out on something substantial.
I was surrounded by individuals familiar with the Dark Land—three, in fact.
“Ah. There has indeed been a recent increase in adventurers. They say they’re exploring the Dark Land.”
Eleris’s shop was located in the Aligar Marketplace, which was a gathering spot for adventurers. Even if Eleris didn’t know the specifics of what was going on in the Dark Land, she had to have information about the hotspots where adventurers converged.
“Are there that many treasures in the Dark Land?”
“Hmm... The Demon King’s castle would have been looted entirely by the allied forces, but the Dark Land is vast. There must be treasures somewhere that would appeal to adventurers. At least, there would be more treasure than in these human lands, which have been thoroughly scoured by humans.”
Adventurers did not originally venture into dangerous territories like the Dark Land. However, with humanity’s victory in the Great War, adventurers slowly started to turn their attention towards the Dark Land.
However, something about her wording was odd. She did not say “there are many”, but “there must be many”.
“So, you don’t really know if there are treasures in the Dark Land?”
Eleris smiled at my question.
“The land is too vast for me to know everything. However, considering the numerous demon clans that exist in the Dark Land, it’s not inconceivable that they possess treasures. Not to mention the hidden dungeons scattered around.”
Eleris’s admission that she couldn’t know everything about the Dark Land seemed reasonable.
But then, what was that about demon clans?
“Weren’t all the demon clans destroyed during the Great War?”
“Ah, I see what you mean.”
It seemed Eleris had only just realized that, because of my supposed amnesia, I lacked almost all knowledge regarding the Great War and the Dark Land.
“The previous Demon King had summoned the powerful demon clans to him even before the Great War started. However, not all of the demon clans were called upon, so countless demon forces, the remnants, still exist in the Dark Land. Even the clans who participated in the war likely left successors behind, or kept some last bit of their strength in reserve.”
It was true that a general mobilization order had been issued, but not all demon clans had been summoned. Therefore, while the Demon Realm had fallen apart with the death of the Demon King, demons were not yet completely exterminated.
“Moreover, there were forces that refused the summons. They are still likely robust.”
“Refused the summons?”
“Yes. Those were mostly clans on the outskirts of the Dark Land, far from the influence of the previous Demon King.”
This was new information to me.
Those who had no dealings with the Demon King had refused the summons because they were out of his sphere of control. These forces likely remained relatively unscathed even with the Demon Realm’s collapse.
“Hm... So, the allied forces focused all their efforts on a singular attack to bring down the Demon King’s castle, and since occupation was impossible, they withdrew after achieving their objective?”
“Yes.”
Maintaining control over occupied territories would require tremendous resources and manpower, and the allied forces, the human powers, did not have the capacity to occupy the entirety of the Dark Land.
While it was true that the high-ranking demon clans and a vast number of demon forces had suffered catastrophic losses, and the demons lost the power to counter the humans, humans were ultimately unable to loot much of the Dark Land aside from the Demon King’s castle.
In the aftermath of it all, the adventurers began creeping in to snatch up the treasures left behind by the weakened demon clans. So it was true that such treasures existed.
“Your Highness, why are you suddenly curious about the Dark Land?”
I shrugged in response.
“We’re short on money.”
“Ah... I see.”
Honestly, it wasn’t that we were exactly short on funds. Rather, there was a huge need for resources.
“I thought we might try treasure hunting during this vacation.”
“... Excuse me?”
Eleris was horrified by my idea of plundering my own homeland to raise money.
Indeed, upon serious reflection, it did seem like a truly villainous thought.
From the adventurers’ perspective, it was about defeating evil demons and taking their treasures, but it was a completely different story if I were to do the same thing. It was an absurd scenario, where a successor of demonkind went about looting the Dark Land.
“Of course, if it’s treasures you need, Your Highness doesn’t need to go personally. I can go alone... Although, I don’t exactly know where to find them...”
Ellen, despite being unparalleled in some aspects, was incomparable to Eleris when it came to treasure hunting. If the goal was treasure hunting, there was no need for Ellen to go. We could just send Eleris.
“I’m not just going to go alone.”
Of course, while the treasure was important, there was something else that mattered more.
“Not alone...? Then... Are you referring to the child that Loyar mentioned?”
“Yeah. She apparently wants to gain ‘real’ combat experience.”
Ensuring that Ellen gained practical experience safely was more important. While it was crucial for me to become stronger, given the future events that might unfold, it was much better for Ellen, who possessed a different level of potential, to grow stronger.
Strictly speaking, turning Ellen into an absolute monster was a better choice than nurturing my own puny body.
Eleris, who was unaware of such reasoning, seemed unable to understand my intention to help Ellen gain real combat experience. If it were about reconstructing the Demon Realm or something along those lines, Eleris might still have understood, although she might dislike it. But helping a classmate seemed incomprehensible.
“In any case, it seems dangerous to let her go alone, so I plan to follow along.”
“That... I understand what you’re saying, but... Your Highness, it could also be dangerous for you as well.”
“... I know that. I can’t even control any demons in this state.”
My ability to control demons was sealed away as long as I maintained my current form, disguised by Sarkegar’s ring. To utilize it properly, I had to return to my true demon form, which included horns.
The ability to control demons was inherent to the Archdemon race, so it was unavoidable. However, Eleris shook her head at my words.
“Even if you return to your true form, it would still be just as dangerous.”
“... Why is that?”
‘The Dark Land is still dangerous even if I can use my Control Demon ability? Why? Am I not immune to damage from demons? Even if my Control Demon ability is rather low-tier, it’s definitely functional, right?’
“Your power is still weak, Your Highness. If you encounter someone who does not succumb to your ability, they might attack you.”
“But that wasn’t the case in the Demon King’s castle.”
‘I mean, ogres and such were rushing to protect me back then!’
“... Those were the military forces within the Demon King’s castle, who were already trained. It’s entirely possible that the borderland demons or other wild beasts that are nearly devoid of intelligence may fail to recognize you, or your dominance might not affect them.”
‘What!? I thought I was invincible in the Dark Land! That’s why I was planning to go with my Control Demon ability sealed, in a way!’
“For example, Your Highness, you wouldn’t be able to control demons like Sarkegar or Loyar, would you?”
‘... That’s true.’
Those two followed me out of loyalty, not because I was exercising any dominion over them.
At my current level, I could easily be backstabbed by demons, and those who don’t know me wouldn’t even recognize me.
Even if they did recognize me, they might still respond nonchalantly and cause a fuss.
It seemed I would be in danger either way, whether in my true form or as Reinhart.
“Eleris.”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“Is there really even one good thing about being an Archdemon?”
My talents were bought with achievement points, and the single Control Demon ability I possessed was still too weak to use effectively. Considering all the inconvenience that comes with being a demon, what exactly was the benefit?
The previous generation’s Baalier, Baalier Sr., was a crazy munchkin, so why was I like this?
Was it because I was originally meant to die, so there was no such thing as a correction factor for me?
“Hmm... Archdemons have a very long lifespan, Your Highness.”
“... Right.”
‘Great. What a fantastic advantage! Yay...!’
In theory, that was actually an incredible advantage. However, it was such a long-term advantage that it felt utterly meaningless in my current situation.
If the previous Demon King had started off like me and only grew stronger over time through countless years of training, that would be a disaster in itself!
Anyway, I was worried about Ellen and planned to follow her to the Dark Land in case I needed to intervene, but it seemed, according to Eleris, that I might be the one who would end up in danger.
Especially since the borderland demons had not even followed the previous Demon King’s orders. This meant that there were definitely forces in the Dark Land that did not care for or were even hostile toward the Demon King.
Regardless...
I wasn’t planning to undertake the journey with just Ellen and myself. It would be dangerous for just the two of us to go.
“Eleris, if we go to the Dark Land, come along with us as well. We can easily come up with an excuse as to why you’re coming along.”
Originally, my plan was to disguise Eleris as a mage adventurer and sneak her into our party.
My protection wasn’t going to be my Control Demon ability.
“Just act like a bit of a clumsy mage, and when things really get dangerous, you can protect us.”
“... Ah.”
Eleris was our backup.
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