MTLNOVEL Ch. 9
Tia’s office.
The room was in complete disarray after Yuru had left.
The wallpaper had been ripped apart in multiple places from failed attempts to cast spells, and shattered decorations lay strewn across the floor.
Tia sat motionless in her chair, her long hair draped loosely around her shoulders.
The work assistant, who had been cowering in fear after witnessing Yuru’s fury, finally managed to stagger to his feet.
He slowly approached Tia.
“Y-Your Majesty…”
“……”
“Are you… all right?”
Tia slowly lifted her head in response.
Her eyes had lost their light. The aide saw that and swallowed dryly, unable to say anything more.
After a long, suffocating silence—
“...Send a carrier bird to the Holy Krata.”
“Pardon?”
“Tell them Yuru is targeting the crown prince.”
“Y-Your Majesty!”
The aide cried out in shock.
“If we do that, the entire Holy Nations Alliance will brand Lady Yuru as an enemy!”
“Lady?”
Tia’s icy glare froze him in place. He faltered, barely able to speak.
“I-I didn’t mean—”
“If Yuru causes an incident and we’ve done nothing to stop it, things will only get more complicated.”
It hadn’t been long since the Hero was executed. If Yuru now attacked Krata, the head of the Holy Nations Alliance, the entire Hero’s Party could be seen as accomplices.
“We need to draw a line.”
Tia made her position clear.
“If we don’t want to go down with her, that is.”
“……”
The aide stood frozen, unable to respond. Tia repeated her order firmly.
“Send the bird.”
He could no longer disobey her. After all, if Yuru truly did attack Krata, the consequences would spiral out of control.
Warning Holy Krata in advance was the prudent choice. The aide closed his eyes tightly, suppressing a groan.
Damn it…
Logically, Tia was right.
But Yuru had once been part of the party that defeated the Demon King.
Even if the political climate was volatile, handing her over to the Holy Nations Alliance felt utterly wrong.
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
Still, he had no choice but to obey.
The Hero’s Party, once hailed as the saviors of humanity, was no more. The Hero himself had been condemned as evil and erased from the world.
All that remained were the shattered remnants of their honor.
The aide still found it hard to believe the Hero had been a pawn of the Demon King, but that no longer mattered.
He bowed to Tia, then quietly exited the room.
As he left, he heard her order a dazed maid to clean up the chaos.
She’s changed so much…
Tia was no longer the woman she used to be. This sharp-edged version of her had emerged when the Hero was first accused of being the Demon King’s puppet.
Maybe it’s only natural.
To remain completely sane under such circumstances would have been stranger. The aide decided to focus on his task.
He wrote the message to Holy Krata and headed far beyond the palace walls to release the carrier bird.
Thunk!
Suddenly, something struck the bird mid-flight, and it plummeted to the ground.
“What the…?”
The aide ran over in alarm.
“This is—!”
A shard of ice—clearly formed by magic—had pierced the bird’s body.
Gulp.
He slowly turned his head.
Rustle…
Someone was stepping through the grass near where the bird had fallen.
The aide squinted, trying to make out the figure hidden in the shadows of the trees.
“It’s me.”
But he didn’t need to try very hard.
The figure stepped into view and revealed herself.
“Lady Yuru…?”
“Looks like Tia ordered you to send the bird.”
The aide’s face turned pale.
“Th-that is…”
“It’s fine. I expected this.”
Unlike him, she was perfectly composed.
“Considering what Tia did, this is honestly a mild response.”
“L-Lady Yuru?”
“Sorry, but I can’t let you send that message to Krata.”
Crunch!
A sudden, sharp sound made the aide turn his head in horror.
“Aaaaagh!”
His legs were beginning to freeze.
“L-Lady Yuru!”
“I won’t kill you. I know you’re just following that woman’s orders.”
Crack…!
His upper body had already frozen solid. He screamed in terror.
“L-Lady Yuru! Please, don’t do this! I—”
“I already said I know.”
Yuru stared at him with a flat expression.
“But still… trying to hand me over to Krata? That stings a little.”
“……”
He couldn’t respond. Only his right eye remained unfrozen, trembling as it looked at her pleadingly.
“Swift Step.”
Zzzzzm…
A burst of force surged through her legs, cracking the earth beneath her.
“Acceleration.”
And she pushed the spell even further.
“High-Speed.”
One more time.
“…Supersonic.”
Screeeeech!
Just standing still, the ground beneath her feet began to crack.
She lightened her body for maximum speed and hardened her bones stronger than steel to break through anything in her path.
【Physical Compound Reinforcement.】
Casting multiple enhancement spells on one’s own body was immensely taxing. But she didn’t care.
BOOM!
Even if her body shattered, she had to atone for this unbearable regret, this mistake.
That resolve exploded through her feet.
CRAAASH!
She was gone in an instant. A deafening aftershock ripped through the air long after she’d vanished.
The Archmage of the Blue Tower was now headed for the imperial palace of Krata.
“…Hhk.”
Left behind, paralyzed and encased in ice, the aide could only tremble in horror at the scene he had just witnessed.
♧
Barungenia.
Having left the office inside the Fourth Demon King’s Castle, Clay walked silently down the vast, desolate corridors.
—If you want, you may use the legacy the Dark One left behind.
Beatrice had offered him something outrageous.
—If you want to live regret, then you have to do the most regretful thing like it’s nothing.
She’d brought up the position of Demon King.
—The choice is yours, Clay.
That was all she said.
She didn’t force it on him. The decision was entirely his.
The Demon King…
Murmuring the title, Clay let out a bitter laugh.
“So I’m walking the same path as you now.”
Everything he knew about the Demon King came secondhand. He had no way of knowing what kind of emotions the man had lived with.
And yet… it didn’t seem all that different from his own.
“……”
Would that mean he would repeat the same mistakes?
Hero Clay.
That former title still clung to him like chains.
Squish.
He stopped.
Something had squished beneath his foot. Looking down, he saw a green, gelatinous blob squirming and flailing.
He quickly lifted his foot.
Boing, boing.
It bounced back instantly, its surface springing to full tension again. The thing hopping up and down before him was a Slime—a low-grade monster.
“A Slime?”
Slimes were so weak they posed no real threat to humans.
What’s something like this doing in the Demon King’s Castle…?
Maybe it had been left to clean up garbage, since they ate anything—but it seemed to be moving around a little too freely.
After bouncing a few more times, the Slime suddenly began hopping down the corridor like it had somewhere to be.
Before he realized it, Clay found himself following.
There were many doors in the corridor, all identical and unmarked, making it impossible to guess what lay inside.
Clack.
Eventually, the Slime stopped at a door and stretched its body to grab the handle.
Clay blinked at the strange sight.
The Slime slipped into the now-open room without hesitation.
Curious, Clay approached and peeked inside.
“…Ah.”
It was a laboratory.
Glass bottles of every shape, mysterious liquids, and—
A young woman in a white coat, demonic in appearance, sat before them. Clay let out a breath without meaning to.
“Bit rude for a first greeting, don’t you think?”
The woman, staring fixedly at a nearby vial, somehow noticed his presence.
“You probably haven’t heard anything about me, have you?”
She stood and slowly turned toward him.
“Nice to meet you… battle-hardened Hero, now pitifully bound by endless restrictions.”
Without lifting a finger, she levitated a strange, swirling vial into the air. And to Clay, who was clearly unprepared, she said without warning:
“Listen carefully. From this point forward, you’d best remember my name—because I’m the one who can turn you into the next Demon King.”
A most outrageous introduction, indeed.
(End of Chapter)