New chapter of Demon King is out! (1/1 chapter)

The Office

(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)

The royal capital of Sibyaku stood there unchanged from its former appearance.

I rode astride a Galloping Bird, proceeding along the main avenue. Not a single trace of blood stained the streets, nor did a corpse lie scattered anywhere. In other words, there were no signs of battle whatsoever. Along the sides of the avenue, citizens gathered in throngs, overflowing as though in a triumphant parade, celebrating the return of their lord.

It appeared that Liao had no intention of engaging in combat within Sibyaku. It had already been confirmed that the main forces of the Rube Household had fled north.

Under ordinary circumstances, Liao should have destroyed the bridges leading into Sibyaku and raised the drawbridge of the Royal Castle Isle to hold out in defense. Had he done so, we would have required some time to capture the castle island, thereby granting Liao the chance to buy precious hours. The Rube Household possessed no shortage of retainers devoted to their liege. Even though their authority had diminished due to defeat, they would not have lacked followers willing to become expendable pawns.

Yet, Liao had chosen not to do so. The bridges remained intact, and even the drawbridge of the Royal Castle Isle had not been raised. It was as though he had deliberately yielded the royal capital, declaring, “Pass through and come after me if you wish.”

What that signified was, in other words…

“Your Excellency Yuri!” (Messenger)

From the direction of our advance, a messenger dressed in white rode forth upon a Galloping Bird, halting abruptly beside me with a sharp turn of its beak. He guided his bird to walk alongside mine.

“An urgent message from the Royal Castle Isle.” (Messenger)

“Very well, speak.” (Yuri)

The words that left the messenger’s mouth were precisely what I had already anticipated.

 

—

 

“This way.” (Escort Knight)

We walked down a corridor lined with the Hou Household’s knights, their weapons in hand, as they guided us to a certain chamber. Although they themselves would not have known, for this was not their place of service, that chamber was none other than my long-abandoned office, which I was now returning to after a long absence.

“He is inside, is he not?” (Yuri)

“Yes. His weapons have been removed.” (Escort Knight)

The man who appeared to be the officer in charge displayed an ornate short dagger. I accepted the dagger and opened the door to the room.

“You all, wait outside.” (Yuri)

I addressed the knights stationed within.

“But…” (Knight)

“That is an order. Leave me with him, alone.” (Yuri)

“Ha!” (Knight)

The knights departed. After shutting the door myself, I turned the inner lock.

“Well, it has been some time, has it not? I heard you wished to see me.” (Yuri)

I sat down upon the sofa opposite Liao as I spoke.

 

—

 

“What does it feel like? To rebel, to be suppressed, to go down in history branded as a traitor of the highest order, and to sully your house’s name with an eternal stain?” (Yuri)

When I goaded him, Liao, as though resigned, maintained a composed expression.

“I do not regret it. I had no place within the nation under your rule. I had no other choice.” (Liao)

His tone sounded almost as though he were laying the blame upon me. It is your fault, he seemed to imply. It was you who cornered me so severely. Naturally, such reasoning is a fallacy. Liao had been granted fortune beyond measure, living a life free from want, with security assured.

Yet, favorable circumstances do not extinguish dissatisfaction. No doubt, Liao harbored an irrepressible grievance, an unyielding discontent that he could never cast away. “I had no choice” was likely the phrase he had repeated to himself hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, words he required in order to steel his resolve.

“Well, no matter. All has ended now. You do not expect your life to be spared, do you?” (Yuri)

The very fact that Liao was here, alone, meant he sought to bring the war to a close.

With the tide of war already decided, if he continued to resist, it would only devolve into desperate resistance that dragged both the royal capital and the Rube Household’s territory into ruinous war. Even should he attempt such defiance, in the end there was not even a one-in-ten-thousand chance of victory. No matter how valiantly he might resist, the moment Gino in Kilghina reorganized the army and commenced an invasion from the north, all of Liao’s strategies would collapse in futility.

Liao possessed the foresight to understand this much. He had likely resolved to die here and to force the Rube territory into unconditional surrender, thereby preserving his homeland intact.

“Hmph… and yet why have you come here yourself? You could simply have ordered your men to kill me without deigning to meet me face to face.” (Liao)

“The reason is obvious. I came to hear about Myaro’s end.” (Yuri)

Why had this man slain Myaro? Before killing him, I need to know. He was Myaro’s murderer, but perhaps the only one who knew the truth. Why had Myaro needed to die? Was he not in love with her?

“…Very well. I shall tell you.” (Liao)

Liao assented readily.

“The Papal States, in return for dispatching their forces, demanded Myaro’s death of me. They wished for undeniable results. When I refused, they then commanded that I take her as wife and hold a grand wedding ceremony.” (Liao)

As wife? What could that possibly mean? Did they believe that even if I triumphed, such a spectacle would erode my trust in her? How absurd. Fools, the lot of them. Yet… if that were true, why had Myaro been slain? Her life could have been spared by enduring a single farcical ceremony. There was no reason to refuse.

“I told her that a nominal marriage would suffice. I asked for nothing beyond appearances. Yet, she refused even that.” (Liao)

Refused. Myaro had been slain because she rejected the charade.

“At such a time as that, do not speak falsehoods!” (Yuri)

I could not help but roar in fury.

“What possible reason had she to refuse? She could have gone through with it a hundred, a thousand, even ten thousand times if need be!” (Yuri)

In that situation, if she did not comply, Liao faced only two options, either to kill her, or to resist the Papal States with his own forces. Myaro must have understood that perfectly well. If Liao’s words were true, then she had not so much been murdered as chosen death for herself.

Such folly… could it truly be?

“Just before she died… she declared that she lived for herself. She said that if she could not remain by your side in the form she wished for, then she would rather perish. And she added that no matter how much you might lament or grieve, so long as those cries of anguish were directed toward her, it would not matter.” (Liao)

Then, did Myaro choose not to hold a mere ceremonial marriage with Liao and afterward return to me as though nothing had changed, but instead to die and be engraved forever within my memory?

“She was rejected. She refused to live a life of being used by you as she had until now.” (Liao)

…Not a single word from this man could be trusted. Yet I could not bring myself to believe that Liao had killed Myaro simply out of desire to kill her. He had been in love with her. Then, at the very least, it must have been a decision made in bitter anguish.

Were his words true? Did Myaro truly choose her own death? The one who could answer that question, Myaro herself, was gone.

What remained were only the two men present here.

“As a reward for your words, I shall return this to you.” (Yuri)

With that, I tossed Liao’s dagger onto the low table between us.Sliding across the carefully varnished surface, the dagger came to a halt before Liao.

“What is the meaning of this? Do you wish for me to seize it and attempt to flee this castle? Surely you cannot be so foolish as to fail to understand why I remained here.” (Liao)

“That is why you are hopeless.” (Yuri)

To carve out his own path, this man was far too weak. Perhaps people who only move when incited by others are always like that. Yet this man was confident enough to believe in the realization of a scheme, inexperienced enough to commit grave mistakes, and never once granted the opportunity to learn the measure of his own strength.

“You bore grievances against me and longed to test yourself in battle with me, did you not? Then, in this situation, there is only one course of action left to take.” (Yuri)

“…That is precisely the sort of thought one would expect from a man who revels in war.” (Liao)

When I reached into my breast and rose from my seat, Liao finally began to move. Seizing the dagger in his right hand, he met my lunge across the low table with the still-sheathed blade. Then, taking advantage of the blade biting through the scabbard, he drew it in a single flash. As he swung the dagger, the scabbard flew across the room and struck the wall.

“Not bad.” (Yuri)

“I cannot comprehend this. Why do you insist upon such a meaningless fight?” (Liao)

“Who knows, perhaps I am simply acting out of desperation.” (Yuri)

The instant I spoke, the low table upon which I had placed my weight was kicked toward me. Anticipating the strike, I bent my supporting leg, releasing the weight that pressed down upon the table. My hips lowered, and I landed upon the floor as though sliding over the shifting surface.

Liao, so close at hand, must have instinctively sensed the disadvantage of remaining seated upon the sofa. Before I could recover my stance from the landing, he forced me to defend against a wide slash of the dagger, turned his body, and rose from the sofa.

“Perhaps we should have had such a brawl back when we were still students.” (Liao)

Liao spoke while crouching with the dagger at the ready. Indeed, had such a reckoning been settled back then, our relationship might have unfolded differently thereafter. But ours had never been such a bond.

“Perhaps with Dolla, but with you–…” (Yuri)

Before I could finish speaking, Liao sprang forward. I thrust to meet him, but he blocked with his unarmed left arm.

Is there iron concealed there?

The thought flashed through my mind, yet my blade pierced through his forearm with ease. Driven in to the very hilt, I immediately released the dagger. To deal with his dagger, I needed both hands free.

I seized the hand gripping his dagger and with the other grasped his elbow, halting the thrust. By brute force I bent his elbow, beginning a struggle to turn the dagger’s point against Liao himself.
Seeing our strength deadlocked, I released his elbow and moved to grasp the spine of the blade, intending to use leverage to redirect it with ease.

Yet before I could, Liao’s strength gave out. The dagger, its direction reversed, sank without resistance into his chest. Liao collapsed heavily onto the nearby sofa.

It was anticlimactic. He had given in of his own accord.

“…Fool. If that was the case, you should never have started a rebellion in the first place.” (Yuri)

When I spoke those words, Liao, for some reason, allowed a faint smile of satisfaction to cross his lips, and like a man who had grown weary of life itself, he closed his eyes.

 

—

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