Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 358

Ellen was confidently claiming that she had received the Sun God’s relic from her mom as if it were a packed lunch. My mind was reeling from the absurdity of the situation.

“What, wasn’t Alixion there too?”

When I asked about the relic of the God of Courage, Riter, Ellen put her finger to her lips and tilted her head.

‘What is this? Normally, I’d find her cute for acting like this, but today isn’t the day for that.’

“I don’t know whether they didn’t give it to me, or if it wasn’t there.”

‘What on earth is she saying right now?’

“Didn’t you say your home is in some rural village?”

“Yeah.”

‘Why would a relic be in some rural village in Kernstadt?’

“Why would a relic be in some rural village in Kernstadt?” I blurted out, since it wasn’t exactly an inappropriate question.

“I don’t know. Mom and Dad just gave me this without any explanation.”

A hero and the hero’s sister... I thought there might be some backstory to them, but what I was learning was highly unusual.

‘Come to think of it, she once said that those in her family were naturally strong when I commented that she shouldn’t have such strength given her physique. Was that some kind of foreshadowing?’

As I stood there speechless, Ellen continued, “I’m just as curious, if not more. It’s not that I can’t tell you anything; I really don’t know.”

Unlike me, who didn’t tell her stuff, Ellen was making it clear she had nothing to tell me, and she seemed quite upset about it. It made me feel guilty.

“Oh, n-no... I’m not angry... It’s just that I don’t understand... Would you believe it if you were me...?”

A rural village that produced two heroes... Well, I hadn’t really set it up coherently in the original story, so now that it had been made more concrete, I wasn’t surprised that it seemed rather unbelievable. Perhaps this was the world’s way of adding more coherence.

Anyway, on the fiery cloak Ellen was wearing, the Cloak of the Sun God, were inscribed words that only I could recognize, as was the case with the other relics.

[Burn with hatred.]

Hatred. It was such a chilling word that it made me freeze for a moment. I now understood what the inscriptions on relics meant.

The phrase engraved on Tiamata:

[Purify the world with rage.]

While angered, I could draw out Tiamata’s true power. I could use Divine Power even though I wasn’t a holy priest.

In this case, hatred.

‘Does the Cloak of the Sun God react to hatred?’

And there was another thing I wanted to confirm with my eyes again.

“... Can you show me Lament?”

“Okay.”

At my request, Ellen summoned Lament into her right hand. The Sword of the Moon, Lament.

[To be forged with tears.]

Tears... In other words, sorrow.

The Cloak of the Sun God, Lapelt...

[Burn with hatred.]

And hatred.

“... Why do you want to see Lament?”

‘Sorrow and hatred... Can the two coexist?’

“I was just curious to find out how cool it would look if you wielded both relics.”

“...?”

They could coexist. I could draw both emotions from Ellen simultaneously.

Now that I had learned something of Ellen’s hometown, my imagination was running wild with ominous thoughts.

During the Great War, Ragan Artorius had left Lament with Ellen. I hadn’t explained why he’d done so when setting up the story, so I didn’t know why Ragan Artorius left Lament with Ellen. Now, though, I had just found out that the relic of the Sun God was also in Ellen’s hometown.

The battle against the Demon King had been intense, and one relic alone was almost insufficient. Despite this, two relics had been left behind in the Great War.

‘What exactly is Ellen’s hometown?’

It was most likely some sort of secret society. Ellen’s parents probably hadn’t told her the truth about the village, assuming she was too young to keep such a secret. After all, she had just told me that she’d gotten this relic from home. Of course, I didn’t know if she would tell anyone else.

I had a foreboding feeling.

‘Cantus Magna... There’s no rule that they only collect magic. In some sense, they might need relics, and relics, while not magic, do contain powerful forces.

‘Ellen’s hometown might be... Cantus Magna’s base. If that’s the case, what should I do?’

“Did you miss me?” Ellen said quietly as she looked at me.

“... Huh?”

It was such an unexpected question that I was momentarily stunned. As I stood there, more words spilled out of Ellen.

“I missed you,” she said.

Ellen looked at me as if waiting for a quick response. She seemed to be asking me something while expecting something else.

I didn’t know why she was asking me this.

“Of course I missed you.”

At my words, Ellen smiled bashfully. It was a smile that, even for a moment, made all my worries disappear.

***

Ellen had acquired a new relic—the Sun God’s relic, Lapelt. With this, she became the only person on the continent to possess two relics since Ragan Artorius.

“It’s better to keep this a secret. It would just be more troublesome if people found out you have it,” I suggested.

Ellen seemed to ponder for a moment before dismissing Lapelt. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Based on my setting of the story, the empire had located Ragan Artorius’s place of origin and enrolled Ellen into the Temple. I was inclined to believe that the empire did not know how unusual Ellen’s hometown was.

If it became known that Ellen had retrieved the Cloak of the Sun God from her hometown, the imperial family might start paying unnecessary attention to that area. If they were Cantus Magna, it would be best not to meddle, and even if they weren’t, it was still a place better left undisturbed.

Ultimately, Ellen’s parents hadn’t told her much. Ragan Artorius hadn’t set out on to be an adventurer, but was searching for something. According to Ellen, he’d learned too much about the world in the process and couldn’t leave it as it was.

Clearly, those in Ellen’s hometown didn’t interfere much in worldly affairs, which was likely why her parents hadn’t offered their son any special help when he went off to fight the Demon King.

Ellen’s hometown, the base of a mysterious secret society. Despite the ominous feeling this information gave me, I had to keep it in the back of my head for now.

***

Ellen had returned with the Cloak of the Sun God, and Charlotte had begun researching a way to restore herself using the soul-binding magic found in the bunker within the Demon King’s Castle.

The next day, Harriet shared what she had learned with me.

“An imaginary dimension?” I said.

“Yeah. It’s a theory about a dimension that doesn’t actually exist. It’s like an imaginary map set up to maintain the warp gate system.”

Listening to Harriet’s explanation, I couldn’t help but tilt my head in confusion.

“... I don’t really get it.”

“Ugh, you thick skull,” Harriet said in exasperation.

“... Whoa, what’s this all of a sudden?”

I was momentarily stunned by the unexpected roast, and Harriet smiled slyly, seemingly pleased with herself for catching me off guard.

“Wait a minute. Is this fair? When it comes to magic, I can’t help but be a blockhead, right?”

At my words, Harriet’s eyes flared as she shouted back, “Did you call me a thick skull because you really thought I was one?”

“No, I didn’t mean you were stupid... Um. Yeah. Sorry.”

I had teased her without any real reason, so I didn’t have much to say.

“I’ll explain it properly, so listen carefully.”

Feeling triumphant, Harriet began her explanation.

Knowing that I wouldn’t understand technical jargon, Harriet explained it step by step in simple terms, at a level I could grasp. As I listened, I found it surprisingly easy to understand.

It was essentially like a subway map. A subway map is drawn without regard to the actual distance or the terrain between stations. It’s created for the convenience of the viewer, and not meant to be an accurate representation of the real geography. The imaginary dimension was different in that it was meant for the designer rather than the user, but it was similar to a subway map in that it was a map designed for ease of understanding, independent of reality.

“Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

“...”

Harriet looked at me skeptically, as if she didn’t really believe me.

‘No, really, I understood it, even if I can’t explain to you what a subway map is!’

“Anyway, there are a lot of formulas and magical equations created under the assumption that this imaginary dimension exists, even though it doesn’t. So, mages involved in the maintenance of the warp gate system need to understand this imaginary dimension first.”

This imaginary dimension was a new concept.

“Wait, so whoever gets familiar with this imaginary dimension stuff can just interfere with the warp gate system?”

“Technically...” Harriet murmured quietly. She seemed to share the same uneasy feeling as me.

“Still,” she continued, “there’s little to worry about because even if you understand the imaginary dimension, interfering with the warp gate system isn’t that easy. While constructing a warp gate itself isn’t that difficult, only a handful of select mages across the entire empire can manipulate the core operation of the warp gate.”

She seemed to be saying that making or controlling a machine wasn’t hard, but tampering with the system itself was.

“I’ve heard that only specially selected imperial mages, the elite of the elite, have the authority to interfere with the warp gate network itself.”

Since everyone recognized how dangerous this convenient warp gate magic was, the empire had no choice but to be thorough with security. This meant that Harriet’s access to the concept of the imaginary dimension was highly unusual. In the end, it hadn’t been due to Harriet’s request but mine.

With the imperial crest, I could access even the empire’s top secrets. Perhaps saving the princess’s life meant no one doubted my credibility.

“But it seems like there’s some division of opinion even among the professional researchers.”

“Division?”

“It seems there are people who think the imaginary dimension might actually exist.”

“What?”

That statement sent chills down my spine.

“It’s not based on any professional research, just speculation...”

Harriet furrowed her brow as she recounted what she had heard. “It seems to stem from the question of where the gate actually exists.”

“Where it exists? Isn’t it right in front of us?”

“The gate is both an entrance and an exit, it doesn’t actually exist in the space corresponding to the entrance or the exit. It’s said to be somewhere in between, but where exactly is that middle?”

The entrance and the exit existed simultaneously in two spaces. A gate inherently existed in two states in one space.

“So the question is, what dimension does the gate we see actually belong to? And when we cross the gate, we experience a slight delay. You know that, right?” n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“... Yeah.”

There was definitely a brief sensation of passing through something when using a gate.

“The space we pass through, which researchers call the ‘interstitial space,’ is something even professional researchers don’t know the location of.”

Even though the use of warp gates was prevalent, it seemed researchers didn’t fully understand the magic itself.

“So they created the warp gate system while assuming an imaginary dimension, but now there’s talk that it might actually exist. Whether it emerged because of the proliferation of warp gates or if it was always there, no one knows.”

Harriet crossed her arms and looked at me. “So, in the end, it’s all just baseless speculation and more guesswork than actual research. But if there is another world and it’s the imaginary dimension, then, as you hope, there wouldn’t be people or anything living there.”

The interstitial space... If such a thing truly existed, it would just be a concept of nothingness, an imaginary dimension. Even if it were a whole other world, there couldn’t be beings in that world. At least that was Harriet’s conclusion.

“Anyway, since nothing is certain, I’ll keep looking into it. But it seems like I’ll just end up learning more about the warp gate network. Not that I want to become a warp gate technician.”

Harriet explained the uses and methodologies of the warp gate that she had learned, but the things she needed to understand required a high level of intelligence. It was clear she was learning it all at a rapid pace.

“Is it boring?” I asked.

“No! Who said it’s boring?”

Harriet seemed to be enjoying being able to access the empire’s top secrets as easily as taking out a snack. She had no reason to dislike it. Although she didn’t want to become a warp gate technician, Harriet, ever the model student, believed that the more magical knowledge she had, the better.

“Anyway, I don’t think the warp gate system is closely related to the other world you’re curious about.”

I felt like I was finally getting a handle on things. However, there were too many clues leading in different directions, and following each one carried its own risks, making it hard to pinpoint the real issue.

Warp gates, imaginary dimensions, Cantus Magna, Akasha, Black Order, Baalier Junior, and Ellen’s hometown...

There were so many trails leading everywhere that it felt like my head was going to explode. Harriet, having explained everything she needed to, stood up.

“Anyway, I’ve heard that the Magic Research Club has made some progress, so I’m going to check it out. Want to come?”

“Sure.”

If either the Power Cartridge or Moonshine was completed during this winter break, it would be a significant achievement. I stood up to follow Harriet out.

***

As we left the dormitory to head towards the Magic Research Club, a familiar face was standing at the entrance.

“... Mr. Effenhauser?”

Harriet, surprised to see Mr. Effenhauser at the dormitory, greeted him. I wasn’t too surprised, since I knew that the Royal Class teachers didn’t just take it easy during the break.

As always, Mr. Effenhauser, with his cold and stern demeanor, gestured with his chin for me to follow him outside the dormitory.

“Reinhart, come with me for a moment.”

Harriet looked at me with a hint of disappointment and whispered softly, “I’ll update you on the research club later.”

“Uh... okay.”

‘It’s winter break, and there are no classes, so what could this be about?’

‘Is it about Sabioleen Tana, or Charlotte’s issue? The two of them just returned to the Palace of Spring to begin the research into soul-binding magic. If Charlotte’s power acts up, they might need me, but for now, the soul-binding research is the priority.’

I left the Royal Class dormitory while Mr. Effenhauser walked silently beside me. The instinct of a troublemaker kicked in.

“Did I... get into trouble or something?”

It always made me nervous when a homeroom teacher called me out, but I hadn’t caused any trouble recently. The last incident was with Oscar de Gradias, and that hadn’t really been trouble. Did attending the cross-dressing contest count as trouble?

While I pondered this, he suddenly asked, “Why did you cross-dress?”

The unexpected question made my brain freeze up.

‘Wait, is that really what this is about? Did Vertus tell him about it? Or did he know because he’s a teacher? Maybe those student council bastards?’

Mr. Effenhauser didn’t seem to be scolding or interrogating me. He merely seemed curious.

“Uh, well, that... it was... you see...”

As I stammered to find an acceptable answer, Mr. Effenhauser, who was watching me quietly, shook his head.

“Never mind. If that’s your fetish, it’s none of my business.”

“No, no! F-Fetish? It’s not like that!”

I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

‘Fine! I admit that entering the cross-dress contest was ridiculous! How long will this haunt me? Do I deserve more punishment just because I gained the talent for Mana Domination out of it?’

“If it’s not that, then what is it?” Mr. Effenhauser asked.

“Uh, well, there’s a reason, but... it’s...”

In the end, I could only offer a lame excuse about money.

“Never mind. That’s not what I really wanted to ask you.”

“... Oh? Then what is it?”

“Is the information on Cantus Magna ready?”

That single sentence made all the blood in my body turn cold.