漫画大王

Chapter 9

Where was I? I had no idea.

It’s true that I’d written the novel, but it wasn’t as if I’d written out how every brick in the story looked like. If I’d had, I’d have received hate for writing about such trivial details from my readers.

We’d apparently transported ourselves to a courtyard in Gradium, and throngs of people were staring at me and the princess with bewildered expressions. It made sense since we had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and teleportation was considered a high-level magic, so it was definitely not a common sight to see.

In the end, I had arrived in Gradium, a city I had described but never truly knew.

“Huh... What’s going on? I-Is this... Gradium?” Princess Charlotte de Gradias looked around with a confused expression.

Her surprise was only natural, since I had abducted her using teleportation instead of bringing her an escort.

“I returned with the teleportation scroll from the Demon King’s castle because Sir William has already been assassinated. I thought that Gradium would be the safest place for you.”

The princess’s eyes widened as she listened to my explanation. She seemed startled by the news of Sir William’s assassination and at the same time, amazed at how quickly I had thought of an alternative solution to save her in such a situation.

Which was fair, since that wasn’t something a seventeen-year-old would normally be able to think of. It had still been a challenging task even considering my real age! I’d almost bitten the dust several times.

Phew.

“You did great... really, really great.”

A flood of relief made Charlotte\'s legs give out, and she plopped down on a nearby bench.

Anyway, it was about time he arrived, but before I could finish my thought...

Flash!

Dyrus arrived with a burst of light. Clearly, he’d managed to escape the dire situation.

“Huff... huff...”

He gasped for breath, having made a daring escape from the brink of death.

“You made it unharmed, Lieutenant!”

“Yeah... If I had stayed just a bit longer, I would have surely lost an arm or a leg.”

Dyrus, still catching his breath, immediately got to his knees. But he wasn’t bowing to me; he was facing Charlotte.

“Lieutenant Dyrus, 3rd Platoon Leader of the 11th Company within the 4th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Imperial Corps. I humbly greet Her Highness.”

Charlotte seemed to have trouble grasping what was going on.

***

We had two teleportation scrolls and two plans.

Plan A was simple. If the guards opened the door and allowed us to meet Charlotte, we’d use the mass teleport scroll to get out. Pretty straightforward.

Plan B was a bit more complex. Dyrus would use force to create a path to the tent and cause a distraction while I infiltrated the tent. Then, Dyrus would escape with the second teleport scroll while I used the mass teleport spell to whisk Charlotte away.

We went with Plan B, and Dyrus joined us after he had verified our escape.

Charlotte was clearly surprised by a stranger appearing out of nowhere, so I explained to her what had happened. I stressed that without Dyrus, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish our mission. Charlotte, still in awe, nodded.

“Thank you, Lieutenant Dyrus,” she said, expressing her gratitude and acknowledging the importance of his assistance.

“As a soldier serving the royal family, my top priority is the safety of the royal family,” Dyrus humbly replied.

Dyrus had made a tough decision. Knowing one’s soldierly duty to protect the royal family and putting it into action was a completely different story. Dyrus was a man of his word and had risked his life as if it were only natural to confront the faction attempting to harm Charlotte. He displayed no hesitation and no thoughts about the possibility of dying.

It made sense for me to act this way since my life was intricately connected to this situation, but Dyrus, he was truly something else.

Charlotte seemed to share my thoughts as she nodded again.

“Isn’t it possible that they could follow us using teleportation magic as well?” I asked.

That was my biggest concern. Among our foes, there could be mages who could use magic to chase us, and I had also explicitly mentioned teleporting to Gradium, so they undoubtedly knew where we were.

My question made Dyrus stiffen, and his expression grew more serious.

“We should move quickly.”

“No, there’s no need,” Charlotte said nonchalantly. “There are no mages within the allied forces who are capable of successfully teleporting from the Demon King’s castle to Gradium. We traveled an unfathomable distance. There’s no way they could follow us with teleportation. There are no warp gates near the Demon King’s castle either, so they won’t be able to send any forces from that area in pursuit.”

Charlotte emphasized that the demon’s scrolls possessed incredible capabilities and that the possibility of the pursuing force using teleportation to come after us was little to none.

“But I guess they could use communication magic to report the current situation. But that’s going to take a bit of time, so we should be fine until we reach the Royal Palace,” she added.

Communication magic had a delay and wasn’t instantaneous. It was pretty straightforward: the further the distance, the longer the communication spell took to reach its destination.

The time it took to receive the news that the princess was alive, then to relay the order to kill her, and then again to receive news that she had teleported to Gradium—all that would have added up to a significant delay.

“Could you please explain what happened, Lieutenant Dyrus?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes, I’ll explain, Your Highness,” Dyrus replied.

As we walked through the city, we told Charlotte about the events that had occurred. When we mentioned that Duke Salerion and his knights had almost killed us, Charlotte looked at me apologetically. I mean, I’d done it to save myself, so there was no need to be sorry for that.

Of course, when I made it out of the Demon King’s castle, I could have just used the teleport scroll to run away by myself, but I hadn’t wanted to do that. I don’t know why, but even in that life-and-death situation, I couldn’t leave Charlotte behind. Saving someone by putting my life on the line was a first for me and I didn’t really have an explanation; I had just done it without thinking.

Ultimately, the mission was a success and the results were rewarding, but if you asked me to do it again, I wouldn’t be able to.

As Dyrus recounted the events one by one, I felt a shiver down my spine.

As I reviewed the events that had transpired, I realized too many of them were unnatural. The gargoyle statue that had suddenly moved to help us, the commotion caused by the demons, and the demon prisoners protecting us. While the first coincidence was understandable, the second one felt excessively suspicious. Too many excessively fortuitous situations had occurred in succession, and it could not simply be considered a coincidence.

Dyrus seemed to consider himself lucky to be alive, but the princess’s expression grew increasingly stiff as she listened to Dyrus speak. Charlotte was a girl who had survived in the cutthroat world of the royal palace and therefore was naturally clever and had good instincts. She had been able to sense the impending danger of her death even in a state of extreme mental and physical fatigue.

The mystery behind these strange occurrences was bound to be revealed.

The boy with amnesia. The way the teleportation scroll had been found, almost as if I’d known for a fact that it was there. There was plenty of evidence for the circumstances to look suspicious. I didn’t know what conclusion Charlotte was going to reach, but I knew that whatever decision she made would not favor me.

It was clear that the princess would reach some conclusion soon. I didn’t know what decision she would make, but I couldn’t afford to wait for it.

I slowed my pace slightly and walked behind Charlotte and Dyrus. Fortunately, Dyrus was walking close to the princess, ready to handle any unforeseen events. That was in my favor.

Owing the princess a favor and paying off my debt was probably the right thing to do, but that was not possible, as staying close to her for too long would eventually expose my real identity. It was bound to be a short-lived relationship from the start. If I wanted to get out of this situation, now was the only time to act.

I walked slowly, quieting my footsteps, and as soon as we passed by an alleyway, I swiftly slipped into it. I couldn’t entangle myself further with the princess, even if someone offered me gold to do so. The princess might have been safe, but I had just stepped into another lion’s den.

I couldn’t risk going to a place filled with powerful figures and dignitaries, especially when the spell I was wearing to conceal my identity could be easily undone with a simple dispel.

It was strange how every decision I had to make in this world was short-term and survival-focused and how my life was constantly hanging by a thread.

I passed through the alley and hid somewhere the princess and Dyrus wouldn’t be able to find easily. Besides, they were not going to come and look for me right away, as their immediate concern was to return to the palace.

If this was a game, surviving the Demon King’s castle and then entering the alliance army’s camp was already considered the maximum difficulty I could handle. The Royal Palace was the final boss stage, and I wasn’t going to go through that.

After walking for a while, I finally found a quiet place and sat down on a bench.

“Phew...”

Setting aside everything else, I needed to stop and take a rest.

“Fuck...”

“Mental breakdown” was the only expression that could describe exactly how I felt. How many times had I confronted near-death experiences, and even seemingly caused deaths with my own hands? My sanity had already been pushed to its limits multiple times during my journey.

I needed a break; a moment to rest and try to process these dreadful experiences.

And then, also figure out what to do next.

*

This was the first real break I had after being pushed into life-and-death situations multiple times in this unfamiliar world. Simply not being chased by anyone provided a sense of relief.

I was somewhere in the imperial capital city. When I was creating this world, I had designed the imperial capital to be like Seoul in South Korea. As expected, it was unbelievably vast, and was the largest city on the entire continent. A city of this size was not common in the era of this story, so it made sense that it was the biggest.

I was sitting on a bench along what appeared to be a quiet walkway. While the city was already well-developed, it was going to thrive even more due to the humans’ victory in the Great War.

Regardless, I had to force myself to not think about every detail if I wanted to survive in this world. I had to suppress my fear, rationalize the sense of guilt in me, and move forward.

I had to think about what I had to do, and what I could do now.

The problem was that I was broke, and didn’t have a single penny on me. I was in a dire state with no money for food and nowhere to stay. But even so, going back to the princess was not an option.

Finding a job somewhere to earn money was also risky. What if my camouflage spell got dispelled while I worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant or something? It was highly unlikely they would pay me in advance, and my identity was probably not clear enough for them to hire me anyway.

I could understand now why some people resorted to crime. How else would they survive in such situations besides turning to crime? There was literally no lawful way to make a living. Were there any orphanages or public childcare facilities around here? Did this place even have such a thing?

What kind of crazy maniac would even write about a public childcare facility in their fictional novel? Anyone who would think of doing that was out of their mind.

‘Wait... I know I’m crazy, but I actually did write about it!’

The Empire would initiate a nationwide program to manage the orphaned children that had resulted from the casualties of the Great War. I had mentioned in my story that even in the setting of The Temple, which was the main location for my school-themed narrative, there were quite a few children who had been raised in these public childcare facilities. This was because many in The Temple were the children of those who had perished in the Great War, and among them were key characters.

However, at the moment, the news of the victory had just been announced, and such a large-scale campaign hadn’t been implemented yet. Even if it were to be implemented, my age meant there was a high chance that I might not qualify for the project.

I could randomly go to an orphanage or childcare facility to request assistance, but neither being accepted nor rejected would alter the fact that this was the city of Gradium. It was likely the princess would eventually come searching for me, whether for the purpose of rewarding me for saving her or to take action after discovering my true identity.

And because she was smart, she would soon come to the conclusion that I would eventually head toward public childcare facilities.

So it was possible that I would be able to hold out for a few days if I went to a childcare facility, but the princess would soon come looking for me. I might have stood a chance if I were to leave Gradium and go to another city, but I had neither the money nor the courage to do that.

From the fact that I carried biscuits with me even though I was a demon, it was clear that my body wouldn’t function if I didn’t eat. Besides, I was getting hungry.

I wished I had added a convenient feature in my character settings, like, “Demons can replenish their nutrition by consuming mana.” or something like that!

[ ‘Add Feature’ enabled.]

“...Huh?”

[To add the feature ‘Archdemon species can replenish nutrition by consuming mana,’ it will cost 100,000 achievement points.]

A message had suddenly appeared in front of me.

‘... What is this?’