Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Perhaps it was due to the trust inspired by my attire, or my desperate expression, but the officer hesitated for a moment before he put me on his horse.

After all, this camp was meant to be located far from the castle, and we had a fair distance to cover.

Wow... I had done everything to escape the damn castle, and now I was on a horse going back toward it.

It was my first time riding a horse, but with the officer holding me firmly in place, I managed to endure the uneasiness.

“Can’t you explain the situation in more detail? The castle is under siege now, so why would his life be in danger?”

I couldn’t be sure if this person was one of Vertus’s associates or not. However, I quickly realized that he was young.

Had Vertus recruited junior officers to his side as well? I pondered for a moment, but for now, this person was helping me.

“I’ll tell you after we find Sir William!”

“Fine!”

I didn’t need to convince him further since I’d already secured the help I needed from him. Although my buttocks were sore from riding for the first time and it felt like I might suffer a grievous injury at any time, it wasn’t the time to worry about such discomfort.

When we arrived, the Demon King’s castle was a mess, bearing the marks of the battle. And all across the nearby plains, captured demons were chained together like fish caught in a giant net. Not all demons had perished; there were demons who had surrendered and become prisoners as well.

I felt a strange sense of relief that not everyone in the Demon Realm had died. However, the fact that I, their Prince, was running away made me feel guilty, as I was basically betraying them.

“What will happen to those demons over there?” I asked, despite the urgency of the situation.

“If it were a war between humans, they might have been ransomed or something. But they’re demons,” he responded as if wondering why I had asked such a stupid question. “We’ve taken them prisoner for now, but what else can we do but kill them?”

There was no point sparing the lives of someone from a different race. This war was a genocide, and the ultimate aim of each side was to annihilate the other race.

The thought of this weighed on my mind. Even if I convinced myself that I was just a regular person who happened to end up in the body of a Demon Prince, the awful feeling within me was not about to be washed away that easily. The officer and I continued to ride past the endless line of prisoners.

***

The exposed castle walls were damaged in various places and littered with countless corpses. The sight of human and demon bodies strewn about was horrific just to look at.

“It’s a sight not suitable for kids,” the officer said as if he were considerate of my youth. He covered my eyes as he spoke to shield me from the gruesome scenes.

It was impossible to count how many humans and demons had died. We passed through the destroyed castle gate and came upon a massive line of wagons.

Supplies from the Demon King’s castle were being transported out.

The Demon Realm was conquered, and its riches were to be split among the victors; after countless years of war, the humans had prevailed, marking the end of an era. And it was not just the territory; more important were the resources captured.

The nations that participated in the Great War divided the resources of the Demon Realm among themselves, acquiring immense wealth. The novel's setting was therefore the golden age of humanity, an era of unprecedented prosperity—obtained, of course, by spilling the blood of demons.

Yet, I had never imagined that I would witness this spectacle from a demon’s perspective. In the end, it seemed the war was nothing but a looting spree as numerous military forces swept through the Demon King’s castle in a storm of blood.

Wagons filled with resources continuously departed, while empty ones kept arriving. The officer escorted me to the command post within the castle, which was overseeing material transport and search operations.

The officer saluted to someone who appeared to be the Commanding General.

“Second Lieutenant Dyrus of the 11th Company’s 3rd Platoon within the 4th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Imperial Corps reporting!”

He declared his rank and title with a stern and formal expression. Second Lieutenant Dyrus—I’d unintentionally found out who he was. It made sense that he belonged to the cavalry division, given his ability to ride well even with me in the saddle with him.

The Commanding General did not seem to recognize Second Lieutenant Dyrus. His ignorance of Dyrus made sense since a Second Lieutenant was far lower in rank than a Commanding General.

“What’s going on?” the Commanding General asked.

The grim-looking, highly-ranked officer who appeared to be in charge of the situation alternated his gaze between me and the junior officer who had brought me. His expression was clearly one of irritation, and it was evident that he was expecting a proper explanation from Dyrus for bringing someone who wasn’t a soldier there.

“This boy has been brought here to deliver an urgent message from the Supreme Commander to Sir William. It seems to be confidential information, so I haven’t been informed of what exactly it is,” Dyrus explained.

“Huh?” The Commanding General’s frown deepened as my little white lie grew larger and larger.

But, to my surprise, he did not ask why the Supreme Commander would give such information to someone like me.

“Ah...” His expression stiffened slightly.

What he was about to say was easily predictable.

“I just received a report that Sir William has fallen in battle during the search for the remnants of the demon forces within the castle,” the Commanding General said.

Vertus’s men had acted before me.

My expression stiffened, as did Dyrus’s.

“Is this message something that I should be made aware of as well?” the Commanding General inquired.

“No sir! The message was intended for Sir William personally,” I replied.

“It’s unfortunate. Those damned demon bastards,” the Commanding General’s expression was filled with anger as he thought about the loss of such an excellent knight.

No, it was not the demons who had caused Sir William’s death, but the humans.

“Lieutenant, this boy shouldn’t be here. Hurry back,” the Commanding General said.

“Yes sir!!” the junior officer acknowledged.

Fortunately, the Commanding General didn’t probe further about the contents of the message or my identity. He seemed too busy to even consider such things, given his current focus was on overseeing the search operations within the castle.

“... Well, it doesn’t look untouched; it looks like someone made a mess digging through all the scrolls,” The Lieutenant commented.

Oops, my bad.

“Oh, that... Y-yeah, but at least the scrolls are still here!”

“Good. Let’s find it quickly.”

I quickly picked up the teleportation scroll that was lying on the floor.

“Found it!”

“Already?”

“Yes, here it is.”

The scroll contained an incantation that was written in a language common to both humans and demons, so there was no need to explain how I’d found it right away. If the incantations had been written in the demon language, however, it might have raised unnecessary suspicion. In fact, as the author, I knew both the languages of this world, which was like having a cheat code.

I sealed the unused scroll back up. This teleportation scroll only worked for a single person. There might have been some other variation of the scroll where mass teleportation was possible, but I didn’t know if they existed, so we needed to find more scrolls.

It wasn’t just Charlotte that needed to be rescued, but me as well, and I was just as desperate to get out.

“We need a few more teleportation scrolls since we don’t know what might happen. Let’s also grab some other useful scrolls as well while we’re at it,” I said.

“Hey kid, use this.”

“This is...?”

“It’s a scroll book. You’ve never seen one before? There was one here.”

The book he handed me was empty.

“No, I know what it is.”

“Good. Let’s grab them quickly.”

I knew what a scroll book was. It didn’t contain any magical abilities on its own, but it was a tool that allowed one to insert individual scrolls on each page. Whenever the situation requires it, the user could use a scroll by tearing the required page. It was often used by those who needed to use magic in combat situations but weren’t necessarily mages themselves.

It was an object I had thought of, so I had to know what it was. However, seeing something I had only imagined actually in my hands felt very surreal.

Since I couldn’t stuff every scroll into my pocket, the scroll book actually came in handy. I started to fill the scroll book with useful scrolls. Dyrus had also found an extra scroll book, and was filling it with spells as well.

“Wow, even the low-level scrolls are worth more than my monthly salary. The Demon King's castle sure is something else.”

Dyrus seemed genuinely amazed by the staggering quantity of scrolls the castle had.

“We used up nearly all of the scrolls during this recent war. If we take all this with us, we’ll have enough to replenish all the scrolls we’ve used,” said Dyrus as he continuously dug through the pile of scrolls.

We didn’t find any large-scale offensive scrolls to take, but we gathered all the scrolls that could be of help. When I’d first come across this room, I’d been in a situation where I had to throw all my belongings away and could only take the minimum with me, but now, I was collecting everything I could.

While collecting the scrolls, my eyes suddenly lit up.

“I found it!” I shouted.

“What is it?”

[Mass Teleport]

A multi-person teleportation spell.

This was it. We didn’t need to look for more teleportation scrolls.

“Let’s go, Lieutenant!”

“Yes, let’s hurry!”

As soon as we stepped outside, though, we couldn’t help but freeze.

“Huh?”

“Huh.”

I locked eyes with a group of soldiers, heavily weighed down with bags.

Well, if you thought about it, we were nothing more than two guys recklessly grabbing loot that technically belonged to the army. And it was obvious that such looting would be considered a serious crime.

If these people didn’t let us pass, what were we to do?

Dyrus, myself, and the soldiers were all silently watching each other.

Dyrus seemed to be preparing himself for the worst.

He had a face of true loyalty and appeared ready to go to any lengths to protect the princess, even if it meant overpowering our fellow soldiers in this very spot.

“Um, Lieutenant...?” I uttered.

A soldier among the group, perhaps recognizing Dyrus’s rank, hesitantly spoke up.

“How about we pretend that we didn’t see each other and none of this happened?”

‘... You guys were looting as well?’