CH 125

Chapter 125 – It’s practically my fault

Side: Yuki

Calm down, calm down.

…I need to calm down.

(Liliana)「You needn’t be so worried you know. Though I claim to be the Demon King, it’s not as if I can prove it though… 」

No, since I have the Appraisal skill I can say for certain that she is the real Demon King.

That’s not the problem though… I mean, is this some kind of huge mistake or ridiculous joke? Either way, I need to get a grip ASAP.

(Yuki)「Delille. Call Zergis and Raia for me immediately.」

(Delille)「Yes, understood.」

Delille was also pretty surprised but managed to keep a cooler head than the rest of us so she was still able to calmly listen to me and carry out my instructions.

(Liliana)「Raia!? Zergis!? Are the two of them really here!? Are they safe?!」

When she heard their names, Liliana couldn’t help but let out such a surprised voice.

(Ellis)「Yes, Liliana Reston. They’re here. The two of them are… restrained and working for us right now, I guess?」

(Yuki)「What was it again? They were helping with overseeing our agricultural resources and aiding our research and development efforts, right?」

(Liliana)「Eh? They aren’t locked up and being tortured?」

(Yuki)「Of course not. Look, I don’t want to stir up any unnecessary trouble with the Demons, and Weed still needs to stay under the radar. Torturing them was out of the question.」

(Liliana)「What do you mean?」

Right, how much do I explain here…

Well, let’s just start with how those two got here and how things ended up like this.

・Zergis attacked the fairies’ village.

・I was asked to save their village, we ended up defeating and capturing him.

・Raia then came and tried to dispose of Zergis but was captured instead too.

・Rather than inefficiently killing them off or carelessly releasing them, I decided to put them to better use working for me instead.

….Etc, etc.

It was hard to recall all the things that happened so far back in detail, so explanations took a while, though I think I still managed to relay all the key points.

More importantly, why is someone like the Demon King here all by herself in the first place?

Did the hardliners change the situation or… But just when I was about to ask her about it…

(Raia)「Liliana-sama!!」

(Zergis)「I heard that Demon King-sama had come. 」

The two of them barged in at the same time.

(Liliana)「Zergis, Raia!! …You’re really safe!!」

Liliana carefully looked the two over with concern and tears in her eyes, which only made them both feel even more self-conscious about the whole thing. They couldn’t help having very apologetic looks on their faces the whole time either.

(Zergis)「It is a little hard to believe, but there is no doubt in my mind that she is the real Demon King. 」

(Raia)「Of course she is! There’s no way she isn’t our generation’s current Demon King!!」

(Zergis)「Indeed.」

(Liliana)「I’m sorry to the both of you, but I’ve been replaced…」

(Raia)「What do you mean by that!? What happened!?」

Raia flared up in almost hysteric surprise.

(Zergis)「Calm down, Raia. This is only my guess, but it is very likely that the opposition got the upper hand on her and seized power. Is that about right?」

(Liliana)「It’s just as you’ve guessed, Zergis. I was able to hold them back until recently, but the two of you went missing… And then, rumors of ‘the Demon King had assassinated a Princess of Rochelle’ started circulating.」

Oi, wait a minute.

I have a really bad feeling about this….1)

(Raia)「…What!? Liliana-sama would NEVER do anything like that! You want peace more than anyone—so what the heck!?!?」

(Zergis)「I see, Demon King-sama. They abused our absence then?」

(Liliana)「Yes, the rumor goes that I ordered the assassination and had you two go and carry it out…」

(Zergis)「…So that’s how it is. They used the story about the Princess’ assassination to call your talk of wanting peace a lie and manipulation, coupled with the fact that two of the Big Four went missing—the hardliners then used all that as justification to remove you from the throne…」

(Liliana)「Exactly. And even though they didn’t have any proof whatsoever, the fact remains that two of the Big Four did go missing. The rest was just a matter of conveniently using the circumstances to their advantage.」

This is seriously bad… and it’s practically my fault too…

Neither Zergis or Raia have heard the truth about Herge either.

Damn. This isn’t the time to be worrying about keeping state secrets or international incidents!

Well, to sum up what was said.

Having been removed from the throne, Liliana was forced to flee and take shelter. After hiding for a while she heard about these two being here and came to seek asylum in Weed. It seems she’s still being hunted even now due to still being a major political thorn for the hardliners who had usurped her throne.

Well, we’ll need to hear the details from her, but…

There’s why she felt compelled to come and see her friends when her life was clearly on the line during her travels to here but…

The real question was why did the hardliners’ act when they did and what they plan to do.

The trigger to all this was that they used the supposed fact that Liliana ordered an assassination in the first place. And not just anyone, but the 3rd Princess of Rochelle.

Add to that the matter of two of the Big four going missing, and the later result of the humans forming a larger alliance against the Demons… you’d have the perfect ingredients for a terrible mess.

For now, we have to discuss each of these issues carefully and get to the facts behind them.

First was the issue concerning the truth surrounding Herge’s assassination plot.

There was no mistake that there was an attempt on her life, but the ones behind it were Ritea.

The hardliners’ made many claims denouncing the legitimacy of Liliana’s policies as Demon King and cast doubt on her, but without any solid evidence they couldn’t do more than talk..

That was a natural outcome though.

And the real reason why two of the Big Four went missing… was because we’d captured them.

Well, they were in the wrong for attacking the fairies like they did with the revised pill bugs, but the fact that something happened at all was plenty convenient for the hardliners.

That became the perfect excuse to move against and remove the Demon King.

About the alliance against the Demons.

This was what I suggested in order to help Weed’s development and avoid a major conflict between 3 of the 4 major powers.

The Demon King made the perfect scapegoat at the time and was enough to rally the other countries together with the focus on subjugating the Demons and not each other. Since the blame for Herge’s assassination was dumped onto the Demon King instead, backed the Demons further into an already desperate corner.

Worst of all, because of this, the Demon King’s credibility and efforts in seeking a peaceful solution to the whole conflict were all but dashed to pieces..

In short—

Almost all of the blame falls back upon me as the trigger.

Ritea may have been the root cause, but there was no denying that my decisions helped lead things to this point..

Things were looking bad, and in a lot of very serious and dangerous ways too…

(Liliana)「After the hardliners moved against and removed me from the throne, I was nearly assassinated. Though I was heavily injured, I managed to make it into hiding. After that I somehow made it here to Weed since I’d heard the rumors of it being connected with the Demons.」

I see… then in a sense, Rankus’ Princess and her ridiculous declarations actually ended up helping us out this time. Without her yapping, Liliana may not have had anywhere else to turn to for safety and finding her in that situation was only a matter of time. She really might’ve died…

While I was caught up in those thoughts, Liliana sat up and fixed her posture.

(Liliana)「I’ve heard that Weed is being governed by Rochelle’s 2nd Princess. While this isn’t exactly the best place for it, the fact remains that Rochelle’s 3rd Princess and national symbol of hope, Herge, died due in part to my inability to properly manage this situation. For that I can only offer my deepest apologies—From the bottom of my heart, I am truly sorry.」

Like that, the Demon King Liliana deeply bowed her head as she earnestly apologized.

……..I could barely hold it together as I was being crushed by my insanely heavy sense of guilt for all this.

Ellis and Delille also had complicated looks on their faces too….

(Liliana)「But, I can’t give you my life just yet, now isn’t the time. There’s still something I must tell you. 」

Crap! She totally came here prepared thinking we’d want her executed too!!!.

(Liliana)「The reason I came here was because of the Anti-Demon Alliance and because of all the Human countries I figured Weed would be the most likely to hear me out. I’ve heard that the hardliners, who left the pro-peace faction, have decided to march against the Humans and reduce whatever numbers they can and in any way they can. They’ve already started campaigning against Rumel! What I came here to request was both for reinforcements to be sent to Rumel as well as to get in touch with the other nations in the Alliance and inform them about this situation!!」

(Everyone present)「「「What did you say!?」」」

Dammit! So that’s what happened!!!

I thought it was strange… Since they should’ve learned of Weed’s value in helping them grow, I’d wondered why they didn’t attend—They couldn’t! Rather than refusing to answer any of the messengers we’d dispatched to Rumel… in all likelihood, the messengers had been killed instead.

(Liliana)「The hardliners were already afraid of this alliance happening in the first place, so when they stopped going at each other and joined forces, they’d gotten impatient and moved to attack the lone Rumel with a surprise invasion. I did my best to stop them, but by that point, my authority as Demon King had all but disappeared… Either way, the war with Rumel is already underway. Regardless, they know that I have escaped and must have guessed that I will move to interfere, so their attacks are only going to become more intense from here on out 」

Naturally, if there was even the slightest possibility to act, they couldn’t very well not take it.

They were Demons yes, but the problem was that they couldn’t afford to not act and turtle up either—since things were desperate on their end as well.

(Liliana)「Please, please I humbly beg of you. Even if only a little, help keep the bloodshed to a minimum! If my one life can be used to save countless more, than I will gladly offer you my head! So, please!!!」

Not just demons’ lives, but as many lives as possible, regardless of race, country or anything else…. In a way, Liliana may be the very essence of what Herge sought to become.

…How ironic, the Demon King looks like the spitting image of a true Holy Woman.

(Yuki)「I understand. The leaders of the 3 nations are connected to Weed through our trade agreements, so we will contact them quickly and set up an emergency conference to discuss countermeasures. You have my word that we will do everything in our power to persuade them and that Weed will move into action personally! 」

(Liliana)「Th-thank you… so very much!!」

(Yuki)「Then Liliana-sama, please rest. Your journey here has been a taxing one after all. There is still a lot more we need to hear from Liliana-sama so please, try and recover your strength, even if only a little.」

(Liliana)「Bu-But…!」

(Yuki)「For now we have to meet with the leaders of each country and I don’t know what will happen in the future as a result of that. Liliana-sama, there’s the possibility you’d be executed if you casually go out now. And we can’t afford to lose Liliana, especially now. That’s why you should just focus on getting some rest and preparing for the future.」

(Liliana)「…… Yes. Then.. I’ll be counting on you.」

I was able to keep my cool and managed to convince her to stay somehow…If she tried to leave on her own in her present condition, then she’d probably die..

It was also a fact that if Weed did get involved, then there was no way that the other countries wouldn’t, so with that in mind, I really needed her to focus on resting… I was sure she understood that much at least… No, I’m sure she did. Even so, why was she still trying to push herself so hard?

(Yuki)「Delille, take Liliana to a room in the Government Building. Raia, I want you to escort them」

(Delille)「Understood. 」

(Raia)「Leave it to me. 」

The two left while supporting Liliana.

(Yuki)「Ellis, send an emergency call to all the Representatives right away. Make them leave whatever they’re doing now to their subordinates and come straight here. And place a gag order on the subordinates too. 」

(Ellis)「Roger」

(Yuki)「I plan to explain everything we’ve learned. 」

It would be a major problem if I didn’t properly explain things to my wives and Naruja.

(Yuki)「Zergis, you’ll stay with the Representatives and help with the explanations. After that, we’ll have to meet with the leaders of each country. 」

(Zergis)「Very well. Everything has gotten rather complicated, hasn’t it?」

Hm, was I forgetting something?

Everything concerning the Demon King has calmed down but…

……. Hm? Did it have anything to do with the Demon King though?

(Yuki)「Ah, Leia!」

It was the Hero of Love.

This is bad! With the Demon King right here, Leia might really lose it and go on a serious rampage, just like Millie that one time! Her hometown was destroyed in the war between Galtz and Rochelle, and she’d heard that everything was because of the Demon King’s schemes!

I rushed over to the next room in a panic.

(Yuki)「Leia, are you okay?」

When I looked at Leia, she was staring at the other room through the magic mirror.

(Yuki)「Is there anything wrong with Leia? Were there any sort of problems?」

(Guard)「No, nothing so far. She just silently stood there staring and listening in on the Demon King. 」

While asking the guard about Leia’s condition I heard something very strange…

…What did he mean by that just now?

(Leia)「That woman, was she really the Demon King?」

Leia finally looked back to me and asked.

(Leia)「…She gave off the same warmth as you.」

Wait, what?

(Guard)「Ah, that’s true. There were some similarities with the joint chief, like that radiating kindness and naivety. 」

No, but I’m a guy though. 2)

(Guard)「That has nothing to do with gender though… 」

(Yuki)「….But I didn’t say anything! 」

(Guard)「It’s written all over your face… try looking at yourself in a mirror, you’ll see what I mean.」

..The heck?

But enough about that! That isn’t the issue here!

Would all of this negatively affect Leia somehow? Then, should I have her return to the Inn then?

Honestly, this was all getting to be too much for me to handle…

Whichever path Leia chose, the time I have to spend with her grows ever shorter…

Personally, I wanted Leia to return to the Inn and give her a chance to sort out her mind and heart about all of this…

(Yuki)「What do you want to do Leia? Stay together, or….. 」

(Leia)「I’ll stay together with you. Because I’m your escort and your attendant after all. 」

Leia interrupted me before I could finish.

(Guard)「Hahahahaha. This girl here actually interrupted the joint chief. Please stay with her forever. She’s a really suitable attendant for you. 」

The man said as he laughed.

Oh well, talking with him is a waste of time anyway.

(Yuki)「I understand, you can come with me. But don’t overdo it. 」

(Leia)「Yes. We’ll stay together forever. 」

……Wait, was that her problem here?

With that on my mind, as well a how to explain everything to my wives, we quickly made our way to the Government Building.

==========

Afterword of the author

According to the title. Lol.

If you have read the story until now, you know it’s a flag. Ahah.

Besides being involved in a conspiracy, he’s caught up from the side. Lol.