Chapter 125 – Chapter 125 ― Please Protect This Land (2)
Episode 125 ― Protect this land (2)
Since her grandmother, who took care of me instead of her parents, passed away and lived her world alone.
Survival was a familiar task.
I thought so.
I used my body rough while living a rough life,
There were frequent injuries from blunt instruments or blades.
However, the task I faced after becoming the Demon King was, in a sense, a difficult homework that surpassed the life I had lived.
It seems like you enjoy everything
In fact, I didn’t have anything meaningful.
Depending on the body and environment handed down by parents
The demon king who barely survived.
At last, the hero’s hatred is lessened,
I thought I was getting out of the hero’s counterpart…
Can’t the problem of survival be easily overcome by just being strong or being compassionate?
“… Your majesty.”
“…”
“… Your majesty?”
“Uh, um.”
Roan, who had been staring blankly at the opposite wall holding a fork and knife, managed to regain his composure and looked at Grunent.
Grunent and Aina, who were having breakfast together, were looking worried.
Grünent put aside his concerns and smiled slightly.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Grünent. Aina.”
“Yes. Your majesty.”
Sensing that Roan’s story would become serious, Grunent stopped eating and put his hands on his knees.
“On what basis did you trust me?”
“… Mmm.”
Suddenly, Aina blushed.
Why… ?
I hope it didn’t happen because I was bullied… ?
“It is difficult to point out one point. You take responsibility for what Your Majesty said, and I can trust you because I’ve seen how hard you work.”
Aina nodded her head without saying a word, confirming Grunent’s words.
“How did that trust come about… ?”
Roan changed the direction of the question and asked again.
Grünent, who seemed to be thinking deeply, looked at Roan with a smile again.
“It wasn’t like I came to trust Your Majesty, who I didn’t trust, all at once. There was just something that triggered it.”
“What was it?”
“The day Your Majesty first called me, Your Majesty apologized to me.”
Grünent lowered his eyes as if recalling that time.
The story of the past, well over half a year ago.
Aina blinks her eyes and waits in silence for her words.
She said, “She said she was sorry that she put her in prison, and that her handmaids had to suffer. And she said she would change Her Majesty and this castle too.”
“It did.”
Grunent and her ladies-in-waiting were brought in like a tribute to the armistice agreement and then sent straight to prison by the (former) demon king.
Eventually one of her maids lost her life in it,
Belatedly, as I became Roan, Grunent and her maids became safer than in the game.
“At first, I had no intention of listening to Your Majesty. There were no good rumors about what the king of demons was doing. It was the same with what I saw and experienced in prison.”
But Grünent’s blue eyes were kind.
“But at least I could see that His Majesty didn’t say those words to deceive or seduce me.”
Looking back now, it makes sense.
Because she has a high-level ‘Politics’ skill.
The power to find out what intentions the other person is behaving.
“She may have made mistakes in the past, but she said she would change and she’s making it. It’s never easy. It’s like handing an apology to the princess of an enemy country. So I decided to trust him.”
Grünent got up and came closer to Roan. As she sat, Grunent wrapped her warm arms around Roan’s shoulders as she looked up at her.
“Your majesty.”
Grünent buried her face in her Roan’s shoulder and spoke softly.
Roan silently squeezed her hand.
“If there is someone who shows pain and shows will, wouldn’t it be nice to give that person a chance?”
It was as if he had read Roan’s mind.
Roan in her words
Because she was remembering the count’s words.
Who would want to hold her bloody hand
The weary count’s words.
“You want to believe it?”
Roan’s body trembled.
What she said
It was something that even Roan didn’t understand.
In fact, if I conclude that the Count is hard to trust based on the current evidence, it is enough to support the research so that he can find a way other than my blessing.
You just have to pretend you don’t know.
Don’t keep it close.
But it can’t be.
In fact, I believe in the count,
He, me, and the people of this land.
I want to see a happy ending where everyone is happy together.
“But are you worried that the price of your faith won’t be good?”
“Ah…”
Aina finally let out a small exclamation as if she had followed and understood Grunent’s conversation.
Like confessing a mistake to someone kind,
Roan just shook his head in silence.
Grünent smiled a little sadly as if he understood.
“At that time, I didn’t have much to lose, but Your Majesty has a lot to lose.”
Roan turned his head slightly,
She rubbed her cheek at Grunent, who buried her head on her own shoulder.
The warm body temperature allowed his heart and her heart to calm down a little.
And it was Aina who broke the silence.
“The maids here told me. His Majesty in the past was quite different from now. But the majesty I saw is a different person than before, and a person who is still trying to be better than before.”
Aina, who spoke as if encouraging Roan, added a word to her and looked at her a little shyly.
“… That’s why I like you… It is also the reason…”
“Oh my goodness.”
Grunent looked at me with round eyes and laughed, suppressing her voice.
But Aina, who directed her gaze elsewhere, was not finished yet.
“Don’t think that the things you gained from His Majesty’s change will become a burden. As many things have been lost, many people will believe in you and help you.”
Even her Grünent was startled by her Aina’s words and looked at her with her face erasing her laughter.
Because the Aina we used to know is the kind of forest fairy who is usually bumpy and doesn’t want to give advice to others.
As if she had made up her mind, Aina erased her embarrassing expression and stared straight at Roan.
“Don’t be afraid of betrayal. If there’s something you want to believe in, believe it. We who believe in you will handle Your Majesty’s decision together.”
It was an unexpected word.
Roan’s fist, which was lightly clenched on the table, gained strength.
It was a complicated mind when I first came to this world and learned that I had become a demon king.
You never know when your life will be taken away
The (former) demon king was alone like me in reality.
That’s why I wanted to change.
Stop the war,
Care for and feed the weak,
Listening to someone,
It wasn’t just for survival that he wanted to give up the life of the demon king, who would become the prey of the hero.
Not just save lives
It was for the proper life ‘I dreamed of’.
To breathe every day with life attached.
Accepting reality with the words that it can’t be helped
Silent to escape
I’ve already done it to my heart’s content in reality.
“Thanks. Aina.”
So even if you’re a little tired
Even if it’s a tough road.
Let’s choose the direction I want to live, even if it’s only here.
I put my hand on Grunent’s hand on my chest.
“Thanks. Grünent.”
Didn’t you already tell the Count that you were proud?
Because the emperor
Hold his bloody hand,
I promise to believe in him and help him do what he really wants to do.
Didn’t even tell him.
Force is not the only means to solve problems,
I am also moving my steps with the help of many people.
Roan looked at Aina and Grunent.
His women are not simply characters in the game that give him trophies or skills for his strategy.
Give him a will,
In the moment of emergency, he would be happy to play an active role as a bookkeeper, knight, or magician.
They are lovers who trust Roan.
Warm energy of ‘will’ flowed from Roan’s hand on top of Grünent’s.
Grünent smiled at the force of kindness and kissed the emperor once more on the cheek.
“Okay. Once again, this time we can prove it together.”
Let’s show the Count that I didn’t trust him with words alone.
Bad vibes can be noticed.
At least my skills are developed enough to detect the signs of lies and strange behavior.
(Former) It’s different from the demon king!
The next plan could be considered together with Grünent, Aina, and Helen.
If it goes well, of course it’s good!
“Now I can handle any decision.”
My strength now
It doesn’t just come from stats.
There are skills and divine magic,
There are people who believe in me.
I’ve definitely gotten stronger.
So,
Let’s trust him.
As I want.
**
The Count is now busy experimenting with Helen.
Not only ‘blessing’, but the more you know how crystals respond to general divine magic, the better it is, so I decided not to interrupt the research schedule right away from the morning and convey new facts.
Through Helen, tell me to come find me after today’s experiment…
In order to find as many clues as possible in the library, Grunent and I, who can speak ancient languages, came to search for information on behalf of the Count.
Before she knew it, she seemed to be getting closer to the librarian, Kaa, and she seemed used to using the search service using him.
How much time has passed
Around the time Roan stuttered while reading an old story related to the Dark Forest.
Grünent hurriedly approached Roan.
“Your majesty. Would you like to see this?”
An old book with a tattered cover, similar to the one Roan borrowed in the morning, that seemed like it would fall apart with a little effort.
Grünent, who had brought a book titled 「A Study on the Magical Meaning of the Creation of the Dark Forest and Related Myths」, Which made you feel sleepy just by looking at the title, pointed to one part.
— The public thinks that ‘seed’ is a symbol of life, but the author has a different opinion about it.
Looking at the mythology of the time, it is known that the goddess Laurecia created the dark forest to protect the land of the forest fairies who fought together while sealing the devil, and furthermore to protect the world.
In other words, the purpose of the dark forest is ‘protection’, and accordingly, the author thinks that the symbolism of the ‘seed’ lies in protection, not the growth of life. As for past research on this, Archmage Cornell’s…
“Protect… ?”
“Yes. The ‘seed’ and the ‘crystal’ containing that power. Maybe it’s not a function to grow plants, but a function to ‘protect’ plants. Your majesty.”
“From what…”
Roan, who was about to ask Grünent a question, suddenly realized the answer and shut his mouth in amazement.
The power to devastate the land and kill plants.
The source of the ever-widening desert,
The place where the goddess sealed the demon.
From the fallen land.
