CH 9

Chapter 9

This was called teleportation.

It was really unbelievable, experiencing this first-hand.

As the flash of light subsided, the scenery was completely different. Unlike the Demon Realm, which was covered by a gray sky, a blue sky and a bustling city spread out before my eyes.

The very place where the main story of my novel [The Demon King is Dead] unfolded.

The Imperial Capital Gardium.

It gave me a strange feeling seeing the place I had only described with words before…Like shit.

Where are we?

I don’t know this place.

No, well, to be fair, I didn’t describe every single corner of the Capital. I mean, if I did I would have been cussed out for making the chapters longer by adding useless descriptions.

Perhaps we were in a plaza somewhere in the in the capital. People were looking at me and the princess who suddenly appeared out of nowhere through teleportation with puzzled expressions. Teleportation was a super high-level spell, so it was definitely not commonly seen.

So, in the end, I arrived in the Capital Gardium, a city I wrote about, but had no clue about.

“Haah…. Wha, what happened? Thi, this is…The Capital?”

And next to me, Princess Charlotte de Gardias, who had teleported with me, held a puzzled expression on her face as well.

I was supposed to bring her an escort, but I ended up kidnapping her using teleportation magic, so it was natural that she was surprised.

“Sir Francis has already been killed. So I went back into the Demon King’s Castle to find some teleportation scrolls. I thought that the Imperial Capital would be the safest place for the princess.”

After hearing my explanation, the princess widened her eyes. She was shocked to hear that Sir Francis had already been killed and seemed surprised that I was able to come up with an alternative method so quickly and saved her from a situation like that.

Yeah, it’s not like a normal 17-year-old would have that wit.

But even considering my original age, this was hard to come by!

I almost died again a few times

Later.

“Yes, well done…. You did a really, really good job.”

Charlotte plopped down on a nearby bench, apparently because she felt relieved.

She had almost breathed her last.

It was pretty scary thinking like that.

– Flash!

Dyrus arrived in front of me with a flash of light.

“Gasp…. Gasp….”

Dyrus, who seemed to have been escaping from a rather desperate situation, arrived in front of us while breathing heavily.

“You’re safe, Lieutenant!”

“Yeah…. A little later and they would have blown away an arm or a leg.”

Dyrus took a deep breath and fell straight to his knees. Not before me, but before Charlotte.

“Lieutenant Dyrus, commander of the 3rd Platoon, 11th Company, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Imperial Corps. I give my sincerest greetings, Your Imperial Highness the First Princess.”

Charlotte didn’t seem to understand what was going on.

* * *

We had two teleportation scrolls.

Plan A was rather simple. Just approach the princess and use the Mass Teleport Scroll if the guards let us through the entrance.

Plan B was for Dyrus to open up a path for me and take the aggro off of me. Dyrus would escape with a single person Teleport Scroll, while I brought away the princess using the Mass Teleportation Scroll.

Dyrus had confirmed that we got away and escaped himself.

Of course, Charlotte was astonished seeing a stranger appear out of the blue, so I explained the whole story first. I explained that if it weren’t for Lieutenant Dyrus, I wouldn’t have been able to perform my mission properly.

Charlotte nodded her head, still wearing a puzzled expression.

“Thank you. Lieutenant Dyrus.”

Charlotte expressed her gratitude, saying that he greatly helped her.

“As a soldier of the Imperial Family, I shall always put the safety of the Imperial Family first.”

Dyrus had made a difficult decision. No matter how much a soldier should say these words, putting them actually into practice was a completely different matter. He risked his life throwing himself into the forces who were trying to kill the princess as if it was natural. He had no hesitation or thoughts that he might die.

I just did what I did because my life was intertwined with hers, but this dude was the real deal.

Charlotte nodded as if she thought so as well.

“Wouldn’t our enemies be able to come after us using teleportation magic?”

That was our most pressing concern now. There definitely were wizards among our enemies, and I pretty much shouted out that we were teleporting to Gardium. They obviously knew where we were.

Dyrus’ expression hardened at my words.

“We must move quickly.”

“No, we don’t have to.”

Charlotte, however, was calm.

“There should be no wizards among the Coalition Forces who could successfully teleport from the Demon Realm to Gardium. We have moved an unbelievably far distance. This was originally impossible. Obviously, there were no Warp Gates near the Demon King’s Castle either, so no one would be able to pursue us.”

Informing us that the Demon’s Scrolls had unbelievably great performances, Charlotte denied the possibility of pursuers coming after us using teleportation.

“However, They can report this matter using communication magic. Well, it will take a while, so that should be enough for us to reach the Imperial Palace.”

Communication magic wasn’t instantaneous. There would be delays. To be exact, the distance between these two locations was so great that there would be just as great a delay  until the magic spell reached the right person.

First he heard that the princess was alive, so he gave orders to kill her, this time it had to be reported that the princess had already teleported to Gardium.

“Could you explain what happened, Lieutenant Dyrus?”

“Yes, I shall explain.”

So we didn’t have that much time to spare, but we still took the time to explain what happened to the princess as we walked down the streets of the Capital. When we reached the part about me nearly dying to the Knights of the Duke, the princess seemed sorry while looking at me. I did this to survive, so she didn’t have to feel sorry for me.

Of course, I could have used the teleport scroll as soon as I left the Demon King’s Castle if I just wanted to live, but that’s not how I wanted it to be.

I don’t know why, but I couldn’t just leave Charlotte behind even when my life was at stake. I knew one didn’t need a reason to save someone, but this was the first time I risked my life for another. I could only say that it was something wholly unfamiliar to me.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. But I’m pretty goddamn sure that I wouldn’t be able to pull something like this off more than once.

Anywho, while Dyrus was recounting the incident, I felt a chill running down my spine..

Looking back at the story, there were just too many unnatural parts.

A Gargoyle suddenly activated and blocked the knights.

The demons suddenly rioted and for some reason the captured demons acted as if they were trying to protect us.

The first one could be chalked up as a coincidence, but the second situation was just too suspicious. It was just too convenient.

Dyrus just seemed to feel lucky to be alive, but I was watching the princess’ expression harden.

She was Charlotte, who had lived in the Imperial Castle, that could be said to be the main stage for political battles. She’s been through some things, but she was extraordinarily smart. As soon as she was released from a situation where she was pushed to her limits both physically and mentally, she immediately foresaw her own death.

Those strange incidents.

A boy who lost his memory.

A teleport scroll I found as if I knew exactly where it was.

There were ample of reasons to be suspicious of me. I didn’t know what conclusion they’d draw from this, but as far as I could see it wouldn’t be a good one for me.

It was clear what conclusion the princess would reach. I didn’t know what choice she’d make, but I couldn’t wait for her to decide on one.

I slowed down a bit and walked behind them. Fortunately, Dyrus was close to the princess and was prepared for any unexpected events.

That’s good.

It would be good if the princess owed me, but I wouldn’t be able to stay close to her as I’d risk my identity being discovered someday.

It was a relationship that couldn’t have lasted long anyway.

This was the only time I could pull out.

I walked slowly and silently, then I quickly entered an alleyway I passed by.

Even if she was willing to give me a thousand gold, I could no longer be associated with the princess.

The princess would be safe, but I, on the other hand, had entered another tiger’s den.

It was impossible for me to go to a place full of powerful and aristocratic people with my camouflage magic, that could get dissolved just by using weak dispel magic.

How come I’ve only ever been able to make short-term goals ever since I entered this world?

And why did I alway have to risk my life to reach these short-term goals?

Passing the alleyway, I hid so that the princess and Dyrus couldn’t find me.

They wouldn’t be looking for me now. Going back to the Imperial Palace held priority.

I first left that collapsing cave called the Demon King’s Castle only to end up in the tiger’s den, the garrison of the Coalition Forces, but that was just a stepping stone to enter the dragon’s lair called the Imperial Palace.

After walking around for a while, I finally stopped at a quiet spot and sat down on a bench.

“Phew….”

Leaving everything aside, I had to take a rest.

“Fuck….”

Using some common saying, my mind was exploding.

It seemed that I had faced so many bloody trials, witnessed so many people getting slaughtered and I even caused some people’s death with my own hands.

While coming this far, my mind had already crossed its limits several times.

Let’s rest for now. Let’s take a break and sort out all these horrible memories somehow.

And think about what to do next.

* * *

This was the first time I could take a break after having met so many desperate situations and being driven into a corner so many times in this unfamiliar world. I felt a subtle sense of relief that I wasn’t forced to go anywhere.

I was currently somewhere in the Imperial Capital.

As I saw it, the Imperial Capital was somewhat similar to Seoul in Korea. It went without saying that it was an incredibly large city, the largest on the entire continent. In this day and age, a city of that size wasn’t all that common.

I was now sitting on a bench on a promenade of some sort, it wasn’t too deserted or too crowded. The Imperial Capital was already a bustling and flourishing city, but the Empire will prosper even more with the victory of the Demon World War.

In any case, if I want to survive, I can’t force myself to think about certain things.

While trying to put my splintered heart back together, I somehow had to suppress these terrible memories and rationalize my guilt.

From this point on I had to think about what I had to and was able to do.

I had a few problems.

I didn’t have any money.

I had no place to live or food to eat. It was even more nonsensical to go back to the princess for that.

Working and somehow making money would also be rather difficult. What if my camouflage magic suddenly wore off while I was washing dishes in some restaurant? They also wouldn’t give me any advanced payment and I had an unclear identity.

I was now slowly realizing in real time why vagrants fell into crime.

Except through criminal ways, I had no other way to make ends meet. Couldn’t I somehow get into some sort of public childcare facility or something? Did places like this even exist here? No matter how crazy one was about creating settings, who’d be so crazy as to set up a public childcare system in their novel……?

Oh.

Now that I think of it.

I indeed did such a crazy thing.

A project to manage the large numbers of orphans caused by the casualties of the Demon World War would be carried out as a post-war measure.

I knew this because there were some children from said public childcare facilities in Temple, the main stage of my school drama. I wrote that there were quite a few children of people who were killed in the Demon World War in Temple, among them were also major characters.

However, the news of the victory against the demons had just been delivered. Such a large-scale policy wouldn’t have been implemented so quickly.

That was highly unlikely.

I could try to go to some place similar to an orphanage and ask them to take me in, but regardless of whether they accepted me or not, this was still the Imperial Capital.

Even if she didn’t do so right now, there was a high possibility that the princess would try to find me.

Whether she wanted to reward me or take action to find out who I was, it was very likely that the princess would try to find me for some kind of reason.

And she should be able to infer that I’d eventually go to some public childcare facility. She was smart after all.

So, if I went to an orphanage, I’d be able to survive for some days, but I’d alway feel anxious about the princess coming to find me one day.

She might not be able to find me if I went to a different city, but I didn’t have the money to travel around. I didn’t have much confidence about surviving in the wilderness either.

And although I was a demon, seeing as I was carrying around biscuits, I was sure that I had to eat.

Actually, I was hungry right now. I should have put in some convenient setting like “Demons could survive solely through mana’ or something!

[Used the function ‘Add Settings’.]

“……Huh?”

[A total of 100000 achievement points are required to add the setting ‘Race Arcdemon can supplement nutrition by consuming magical power’.]

A message suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.

…What’s with this?

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