“That’s what you meant when you said he was awful...?”
It was true. The first king was much more awful than I’d expected, but...I hadn’t expected him to be awful in that sort of sense. Patrick, who’d been reading the advisor’s diary beside me, was also at a loss for words.
Ronald had obviously misled us, and he flashed a smile that was awful in a completely different sense. “What do you think? He’s terrible, isn’t he?”
“He’s not a person with a terrible personality who likes to mislead people and have fun watching them be shocked.”
“Come on,” Ronald said, grinning with that plastered smile of his. I’d expected the first king to be awful in the same way that Ronald was.
The first king used his political power to demote the Demon Lord, who had helped found the kingdom... That doesn’t match up with the stupid king with a bad attitude who doesn’t know how to carry himself that appears in these records.
I wasn’t going to argue that the first king wasn’t similar to a selfish tyrant, but the advisor’s diary didn’t make him seem like an oppressive dictator. Though the advisor complained, they undoubtedly revered their king.
Oh, that’s right! Patrick’s ancestors were mentioned too. Looking back on the history, I’m pretty sure their negotiations went well and Lord Ashbatten became a margrave.
“Your family’s a tribe of warriors,” I said to him.
“You’re getting off topic.”
Patrick had a look on his face that said, “It’s about my family, and also about the past, so it has nothing to do with me personally,” but when it came to one-on-one battles, it was totally possible that my Pat-Pat was the strongest of all the Ashbattens.
While we were going on a tangent, Ronald had prepared other documents for us.
“You should read these if you want to learn more about the falling out between the first king and the Demon Lord.” Ronald brought over a piece of paper that was probably a letter. He handed it to me, and I began to read, but...
“What kingdom’s language is this?”
“This is the same language that we use every day. This is a letter that the king wrote to his younger brother. The time period is around when Valschein grew to its current size.”
“Does that mean this is an older writing system?”
“There have been some slight changes over time, but the writing system hasn’t changed that much. You were able to read that diary without any issues, right?”
That’s right. This letter would’ve been written a few years after those diary entries. I was able to read the advisor’s diary with no problems, but the letter written by the first king himself was completely illegible. Does that mean it’s in a code? No, Ronald said it’s the same language we use every day... So it’s not a code, nor an unfamiliar language...
“Did he just have terrible handwriting?”
“He just had a unique way of writing...”
It seemed that on top of his other flaws, the first king also had terrible penmanship. Was his brother even able to read this? Oh, the first king’s younger brother is the guy who founded the Hillrose family duchy—in other words, he’s Ronald and Eleanora’s ancestor.
I’d forgotten that these people that I interacted with on a regular basis were from a historically famous family. I’m pretty sure that back then the Dolknesses weren’t even nobles—the head of the family was a yeoman to someone, or something like that.
A letter between the first king and the first duke sounded like it could contain some valuable information, but it was useless if I couldn’t read it. The letters were a complete mess, like if someone had written in an unstable notepad while standing, so I had to just start with the parts I could make out and infer the rest.
“I think I can make this part out,” I said. “‘Cull back’...?”
“Oh, that part says ‘call back.’”
“Call? Doesn’t it look like ‘cull’? No matter how you mess up an ‘a,’ it wouldn’t look like a ‘u.’”
“You’re correct! Technically, it says, ‘cull back.’”
Could it be that on top of horrible penmanship, the text in this is also just a mess? Can I just tear up this letter?
We’d finally gotten far enough in the letter to make out the important information. According to Ronald, there had been members of the royal family and intellectuals of the kingdom who had deciphered the contents of this letter, but because of its contents, no one created a legible transcription.
Even though we had the original text before us, Ronald began sharing with us the transcription of the text, which had only been passed down orally.
At the time of the founding of the kingdom, the Demon Lord was in charge of purging Valschein of traitors. The leader, who was brash, wild, and had plenty of heart, and his right-hand man, who was feared for being heartless—the hero and the Demon Lord were functioning well as the duo leading the new kingdom.
“I’ve heard that the first king was quite feared as well,” I said, interrupting Ronald.
“The Demon Lord was much more feared, because he was expressionless as he somberly did his work,” Patrick said, clarifying immediately.
“That’s exactly it,” Ronald said. “I’m going to continue, then.” Ronald’s explanation of the ancient text continued.
The Demon Lord had been working successfully as the cruel vice-commander of the new kingdom, but around the time that Valschein had grown to its current size, things started to change. He didn’t fit into the peaceful period.
The people of the kingdom were overly fearful of the Demon Lord, who had a sensitive, human heart that was in pain when he realized the situation he was in. He was able to endure the citizens’ fear when the kingdom was still warring because he thought it would help maintain moral order, but it was terrible to be treated the same way in a time of peace. He’d taken down enemies for the sake of his allies, but for some reason, he was hated by those very allies.
“I understand that the Demon Lord was struggling back then, but this letter is one that the first king sent to the duke, right? What does it have to do with the Demon Lord?”
“All of that was just the preamble to set things up. As the Demon Lord was facing the situation I’ve explained, the first king wrote down his thoughts and how he handled things.”
The explanation continued.
The first king had come up with a solution for the Demon Lord’s situation. The Demon Lord was to temporarily disappear from the public eye. The king would move him to an old, isolated castle far from the Royal Capital and wait until his terrible reputation had faded.
The king had figured that it would be a good opportunity for the Demon Lord to rest, since he was both physically and emotionally exhausted. He had also thought that being in a remote area wouldn’t be a struggle for the Demon Lord, since he wasn’t much of a people person.
The king had wanted the Demon Lord to eventually return to the Royal Capital at which time the king would give him an important position in his court.
“That’s the general gist of it, though his phrasing and word choice are a lot rougher around the edges.” With that, Ronald concluded his explanation of the letter’s contents.
I hadn’t known that the first king had had such intentions. I’d been told by the Demon Lord himself that he was sent away because the king felt that he was in his way. Maybe the Demon Lord just misunderstood what was going on.
Oh, right, the saintess! The Demon Lord said he resented the first king for stealing the woman he loved. What Ronald just told us makes it sound like there was just a misunderstanding in an otherwise positive relationship, but there were probably some romantic troubles as well.
“Is everything in that letter true?”
“If the contents are manufactured, then there’s no way to tell, but I don’t think it’s all exactly the truth because there’s probably some bias in the writer’s perspective.” Ronald easily admitted to the uncertainty towards the truthfulness of the letter’s contents. I was surprised, and Ronald admitted to yet another thing. “I’m not trying to cover for the first king or anything like that.”
“I know. We’re the ones who came to you to learn about him in the first place.”
“This letter probably doesn’t perfectly reflect the truth, but I do think it’s pretty accurate, which is why I showed it to you. I hope you’ll have a little faith in my choices.”
There was no way to tell if the king was actually going to call the Demon Lord back to the Royal Capital, but if we were to believe this, he had clearly stated to his younger brother, who founded the Hillrose duchy, that he was going to eventually have him return. Perhaps that was enough to make it more reliable information than any diary or history book.