漫画大王

Chapter 122

“I just can’t believe it...” Charlotte muttered, shaking her head in disbelief as she sipped her tea.

She felt nothing but incredulity towards Monthly Royal Class, the tabloid notorious for gobbling up any rumor and turning it into an article.

“It doesn’t seem like they even have a supervisor either. There’s no way a teacher would approve of such articles being published,” she continued.

“That’s true.”

Charlotte seemed convinced that a responsible teacher-in-charge would never allow such absurd publications to be circulated.

It was, indeed, unbelievable to see the extent to which they had turned all sorts of baseless rumors into serious articles.

“We have to do something about it, whether it means shutting them down or whatever.”

Charlotte seemed determined to disband those lunatics. However, my thoughts went in a different direction.

“Um... is that really necessary?”

A rumor that they publicized remained just a rumor, but each one of them also turned into a new event. And just verifying whether the rumor was true or not allowed me to earn achievement points.

Hence, I saw no downside to having those guys around, since it was up to me to decide what to do with the rumors they collected. The fact that I was the target this time made things slightly awkward, but in the long run, their presence was not detrimental to me.

Charlotte seemed puzzled by my suggestion to leave things as they were.

“... Reinhart, you’re the one who’s been affected.”

“No one reads this newsletter anyway. Fortunately, it’s an internal publication meant for the Royal Class only, so its readership remains small. Maybe all we need to do is warn them to think a little more carefully about sensitive issues and be careful about what they write about from now on?”

Honestly, they were only raising suspicions without knowing much about the truth, and now that they’d been thoroughly scolded by Charlotte, they would probably start putting some thought into their articles from this point forward. Their expressions earlier on showed that they had never really thought things through, at least up to this point.

“Hmm.”

“Think about it. If those three lunatics remain together in that club, the worst thing they can do is write more stupid articles. But if we shut them down and scatter the three of them, we might just be creating more trouble,” I said.

It might be better to keep the crazies together. And since they’d been thoroughly warned, they would probably refrain from baseless slander or wild conspiracy theories about massive organizations in the future. They had been properly chastised by Charlotte this time.

Charlotte seemed to ponder this for a while before sighing deeply, her brows furrowing.

“Alright, if this is your suggestion as the victim in this matter, it’d be ridiculous for me to insist otherwise.”

“No, I’m grateful you stepped in. Without you, things probably wouldn’t have ended well for me.”

It was a relief that Charlotte had intervened. If I had gone in alone, I might have begun arguing with the seniors, and things could have grown messy.

“Well, we can make a decision after reading the next issue. It’s not like anyone reads that newspaper anyway,” Charlotte said.

Charlotte seemed ready to bring them to an end once and for all, if the situation remained unchanged the next month.

Ultimately, I had accumulated four new events, and all of them were based on rumors.

The Demon God Cult, revolutionary forces, ghosts, and a magical society...

All of these could be real, or they might all be just rumors. And if they were rumors, that was perfectly fine as well.

Achievement points were more valuable than money. Hence, the more, the better.

Discovering a consistent source for them was already a great gain for me.

Charlotte hummed as she sipped her tea, and rested her chin on her hand.

“Still, some of them might be worth looking into.”

“Looking into?”

“Don’t take this as me saying we should be swayed by those absurd, speculative articles. Remember that,” Charlotte said, looking directly at me. “But it might be worth looking into the Demon God Cult or revolutionary forces.”

The rumors about the cult weren’t exclusive to the Monthly Royal Class; the Grace Club had also come across information regarding the matter. According to the student council president, though, it had been confirmed to be a non-issue.

“There have been consistent rumors regarding this Demon God Cult appearing here and there after the last incident. The Temple attracts people from all across the empire, so it’s totally possible that the cult is gathering here.”

Despite some uncertainty, Charlotte seemed to think it quite likely that the Demon God Cult could have some sort of presence within the Temple.

“And as for the revolutionary forces... It’s natural for people to start having strange thoughts once their heads grow bigger, and this place is literally meant for people to expand their horizons, isn’t it?” she continued.

Looking back, Charlotte had initially been very cold towards me. Now, though, she didn’t hesitate to use coarse language such as “heads growing bigger” around me.

It seemed like both she and Vertus dropped their masks around me. Both of them showed their true selves in front of me, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.

Anyway, the Temple was a place of learning, and ultimately, it was meant for people to further their thinking.

And when that happened, they would begin to have deviant thoughts.

“It would be strange if there weren’t some of these so-called Republicans in the Temple.”

The presence of the Demon God Cult within the Temple was uncertain, but the presence of revolutionary forces was practically a given.

That was Charlotte’s thinking.

She looked at me and grinned broadly. “How about it, Reinhart? Want to look into it with me?”

“... You want me to do this with you?”

“Yes. From what I’ve heard, you like the empire, don’t you? Both the Demon God Cult and the Republicans are enemies of the empire.”

I had told Vertus that I liked the empire. And that wasn’t a lie—I really did.

However, if we followed the typical development of otherworldly tales, wouldn’t this be the part where I embraced democracy, saying something like, “Ah, so this is what democracy is,” and then side with the revolutionary forces? Wasn’t delivering democracy supposed to be my role?

Also, when did I suddenly become an imperial loyalist?

“You won’t need to worry about Vertus’s opinion when it comes to this matter, so there’s no need to worry about him either.”

To think that I would end up leading the charge against democracy and the republic as an agent of the empire was ridiculous.

Even though I was pretty sure that there was no need to worry about the Demon God Cult, if we tracked down these republicans, wouldn’t that lead to their certain execution?

Wasn’t I supposed to be the enemy of humanity, a Demon King, in the first place?

“The enemy of my enemy is my ally.” Was that it?

In that case, was I supposed to be supporting the republicans to sow discord within the empire? ‘That’s what an evil intelligence would do, isn’t it?’

For a moment, I was close to a mental breakdown.

***

It was the weekend. Charlotte had mentioned that she wanted my help to look into the Demon God Cult and the republicans, but that was for later.

She handed me a letter, before saying that she had business with the royal family. It was a letter for Baalier.

“I wish I could send these more often, but I know you have your own matters to attend to. I’m sorry, Reinhart, and always grateful.”

“Don’t mind it.”

Charlotte seemed to be in a rush to settle her own business because she’d spent a lot of time reprimanding the journalism club after reading their article about me.

‘Have we become close enough for me to take up the princess’s precious time? Then again, she might just be using me as a mailman, of course...’

There wasn’t really a reason for me to deliver it anywhere. Since I was Baalier, it was effectively a letter addressed to me. However, I couldn’t just sit around idly in the Temple and write a reply on my own, so I too left the Temple.

I didn’t go around in disguise. Since I had already made contact with Eleris in my guise as Reinhart, Charlotte’s forces would not interfere. In fact, it would be more risky to disguise myself and approach Eleris as someone else. It might look suspicious if the letter I was supposed to deliver as Reinhart ended up in foreign hands.

There might still be a chance that Vertus was trailing me, but he seemed to have lost interest in the child that Charlotte had been searching for, and so I could visit Eleris’s shop with a little more ease than before.

Eleris greeted me with her usual smile.

“Your Highness, you’ve arrived.”

***

It had been quite a while since my last visit, so I shared my recent experiences with Eleris. The shop had been closed when I’d arrived, but it wouldn’t make much of a difference whether it was open or not, given the meager foot traffic outside.

“... A deserted island?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that too harsh? I mean, how can they just leave seventeen-year-old children on a deserted island to survive on their own, even if they are incredibly talented?”

Eleris seemed unable to comprehend the absurdity of the group mission.

“The mental state of the Temple official who planned this group mission is questionable. This is utterly nonsensical.”

‘I-I’m sorry for lying... I was actually the one who planned it. It’s my fault for watching the show “Survivor” so much back then...’

Eleris seemed worried about the harsh ordeal I’d endured, and continued to denounce whichever Temple official had been involved in planning such a ridiculous mission.

Ultimately, though, it only made me feel more embarrassed, since it had been my own idea in the first place.

“And on top of that, orcs? And two of them? Aren’t they underestimating the power of an orc? Orcs in full armor can easily take on ten well-trained human soldiers. Even if they were summoned beings, what were they thinking, making children face something like that?

“Despite the outcome of the mission, the more faint-hearted kids might end up with trauma that could last a lifetime... I’m certain the person who planned that mission has no idea what real combat is!”

‘... It’s all true. Yeah, it’s all my fault! I know! I realized all this too late. How was I supposed to know it would come to this?!’

“Anyway, it’s remarkable that you all managed to take them down in the end.”

“I wasn’t the one who did so, though.”

“Even so, Your Highness, surviving under those conditions is impressive.”

Eleris was smiling proudly, clearly believing that making it through that harsh and absurd mission was a highly commendable achievement.

Receiving both criticism and praise at the same time was a strange and bittersweet feeling.

“Did you come here because of the letter?”

“Yes. But I also came to see you, since it’s been a while. Anything new around here?”

“Yes, it seems that the fellows who were snooping around this area have all vanished. It seems safe for Your Highness to lower your guard a little when you come around.”

Charlotte had achieved her aim, and Vertus had seemingly given up on his pursuit. Thus, Eleris’s shop was now considerably safer.

It was time to read the letter and write a response.

“How are things going with Airi?”

Airi, the Succubus Queen, harbored ambitions of amassing wealth in the southern island nations, and from there, seizing control over the empire’s finances. From what I’d last heard, she had started her business endeavors.

“Saying that things are going smoothly would be an understatement; her business has grown into an almost unstoppable force now.”

“... How could it be an unstoppable force already?”

I had been preoccupied by various matters, but even so, it had only been a few months.

Eleris scratched her cheek and flashed an ambiguous smile.

“Um... Well... it seems she’s focusing more on people, rather than money.”

“... What do you mean?”

Eleris cleared her throat. “She’s... she’s focused on gaining the support of influential individuals.”

Gaining support?

‘She was running a bar. How is she gaining support? Is that just a synonym for “seduction”? Are we just softening the expression?’

“For example, gaining support from the captains of trade ships, loan sharks, and key officials... She makes them regularly embark on various... business ventures with her.”

Airi had settled into Rajak, the capital of the Edina Archipelago and its largest trading port. From what Eleris was saying, she had made regulars out of the ship captains, loan sharks, and key officials there.

Clearly, Airi had judged that gaining the cooperation of such wealthy people would be more beneficial to rapid growth, rather than making a few pennies from a business.

‘Wait...’

I had initially sent her off with the intention that she would start something casual, but it felt like the scale of her operations was constantly growing.

‘Isn’t there a saying, “All roads lead to Rome?”’

No matter how bizarre the methods, she was becoming quite formidable.

“... So, she’s basically pulling in all these influential people by borrowing money from loan sharks at low rates, getting various permits from key officials, and, though I’m not sure what she’s doing with the ship captains... Anyhow, she’s hooking in all these big shots, right?”

“Yes... It seems so.”

A leopard truly never changes its spots.

Even a group of succubi who had lost all their powers would still excel in seduction. “Who needs magic when we can just seduce people?” they seemed to say.

Anyway, things seemed to be going smoothly for Airi.

“Still, tell them to be careful. Things can turn sour in the blink of an eye.”

“Yes, I’ll make sure to pass that on.”

The idea that a pink-haired Succubus Queen was diligently nurturing her dream to become a businesswoman was quite something. The ways of the world were truly unpredictable, and in this world, even more so.

I opened Charlotte’s letter. Charlotte seemed rather calm in her letter. There had been words of longing and lengthy apologies in the first letter, but none in this second one.

Overall, the letter seemed rather generic. She inquired about how ‘I’ was doing, offered updates on what had been happening in her own life, as well as her own thoughts on several current affairs.

—Reinhart, a friend of mine, will be delivering this letter. He might be a bit unusual, but he’s a gentleman, so he probably wouldn’t open this letter in secret before delivering it. At least I hope so... I think I’m worrying over nothing. He’s not that kind of person.

... Reading that made me feel so guilty, and it drove me crazy. However, if I didn’t read the letter, there couldn’t be any reply, so it was unavoidable.

—The Temple sent us on something called a “group mission”. All the members of the class came together to do various tasks. It would have been nice if you’d been there too. It was a tough but interesting experience. There were moments when I was surprised by someone else’s capabilities, and others who I thought would do well ended up crumbling under the pressure of the situation. It was tough, but I could see why we are being sent on these missions. Honestly, I thought I’d handle it well since I’d been through such things before, but that wasn’t always the case.

.

.

—I really regret relying on that power in the end. I never wanted to depend on that power. In the face of such a false crisis, I’d ended up relying on it, and felt a bit disappointed in myself.

The letter concluded with a small mention of her supernatural power. Charlotte seemed to dislike relying on her own powers.

—I hope you’re doing well. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to see you again, but I hope that day comes soon.

Once again, I wrote a reply laden with lies in response to Charlotte’s letter. I was curious if she’d tell me about her supernatural power if I asked about it, but I refrained from digging. I didn’t want to force Charlotte to reveal something that she might want to keep hidden. Given the way I would act when knowing something I wasn’t supposed to know, it seemed better not to know.

I gave my own opinion on what was going on with Charlotte’s daily life, as well as information on the fabricated everyday life that I was living.

One lie bred another.

One mistake led to another.

I didn’t believe I could keep up with these lies forever.

‘How long must I continue with this deceit?’

It wasn’t just about Charlotte either.

I knew that the moment my secret was revealed, everything would fall apart. All the relationships I’d built at the Temple will crumble the moment my secret was exposed. It was all inevitable.

I let out a deep sigh.

After writing for a while, I put down the pen and massaged the corners of my eyes. Eleris hugged my shoulder quietly.

“Your Highness...”

She quietly held me in her embrace as if she understood the torment I was going through.

It was wrong of me to do this to both Charlotte and myself.