With no proper job any longer, he had been thoroughly enjoying the prime of his life with his cushy new position. Even his nephew Nichar—whom Sidar had managed to squeeze into the autonomous zone using his connections—would soon be of higher status.
“This... This is terrible...!”
He had swung around his authority to force others to do as he wanted on more than one occasion. And that had earned him plenty of enemies. What could he do now?! What was he supposed to do?! As intelligent and cunning as he was, the answer came to him immediately. There was nothing he could do.
He clutched his head in his hands, moaning wordlessly. All those he had wronged on his way to the top would seek out revenge. Even his subordinates...no, his former subordinates were looking at him with pity. Picturing the dark future that awaited him, all he could do was crumple to the floor while staring blindly off into space.
“His Highness was killed?!”
Elsewhere in the night elf quarters, the night elves loyal to the Izanis family reacted to the news with similar horror.
“All of them? Not a single survivor?! There’s no way...” The maid who had informed Emergias of the possibility of a high-speed communication technology dropped to the floor.
There was no doubt her report had spurred Emergias to action. They had assumed that if they informed him that the Izanis family’s position was threatened by this new technology, it would give Emergias the nudge he needed to make a move. That part had all gone exactly as they had hoped.
They’d figured that, having just returned from the Abyss and still growing in power, he had to be capable of potentially subduing Zilbagias. Even if not, acquiring any information regarding the seventh prince’s new method of communication would vastly improve the strength of their information network throughout the Alliance. Plus, it would bolster the position of the night elves loyal to the Izanis family.
That had been their hope. But instead, Emergias had lost. Not only lost, but he and all of his men had been killed.
“Also, the dog has gone missing. Sidar’s faction is in a panic,” her companion added, voice trembling.
“No way...” The maid started to feel dizzy. While Sidar’s rise in power and Zilbagias’s expansion of influence were threats to them, there was no questioning the fact that the healing the prince offered to the night elves had saved countless lives. Anger as a result of that loss would certainly be turned on the Izanis faction for the part they had played in it.
Of course, the other factions weren’t privy to their involvement at present. But it would only be a matter of time until the investigation started. And the most terrifying part of it all...
“Hey.” Another one of her friends stepped into the room, face grim as he put a hand on her shoulder. “Lady Nefradia is calling for you.”
The maid let out a strangled shriek.
Someone had to bear the brunt of the Izanis family’s vented frustrations.
†††
The moment I returned to the castle, the place was like a hornet’s nest that had just been kicked around. Apparently, no one had any idea what was going on until I came back.
Guess no one really cared about Emergias...aside from the Izanis family, of course.
“If we knew things would turn out like this, we could have taken Liliana farther.” Ante sighed.
Yeah... Why had we gone to such lengths to be all stealthy when seemingly no one had a clue something had happened? Anyway, the news of Emergias’s death sent a shock wave through the castle. But what truly rocked the castle was word of Liliana’s escape.
The Demon King immediately sounded the alarm across the kingdom, and troops were on high alert all around the castle. But I supposed if a high elf were to hide in the woods and launch a guerrilla campaign against the kingdom, farms and livestock would end up being razed left and right. The beastfolk and night elves that manned them stood no chance against Liliana, so it made sense that the king would pull out all the stops to have her dealt with.
If the kingdom found itself heavily damaged as a result of Liliana’s escape, my qualifications as the governor of Evaloti would probably be called into question. But in actuality, she was headed back to the Alliance. Messengers had been sent by dragon to inform those on the front lines so they could lock down the border, but by the time those messengers arrived, Liliana would be long gone. The extra distance we had carried her and the hours we had waited to report her escape turned out to be huge. So please, make it back home, Liliana...
“Oh...Liliana is...”
“I-I am glad you returned safely. Oh, the dog is gone, isn’t she...?”
The responses to my return were quite varied. Garunya was pretty sad...or rather, downright in shock. Meanwhile, Veene seemed torn between rejoicing in my safe return and having her soul slip free from her body.
Garunya had been one of Liliana’s primary caretakers. Even if Liliana was now clearly her enemy, it was no surprise she would have difficulty letting her go. As for Veene, she knew full well how frightening a high elf could be. And on top of the threat Liliana could have posed out in the wild, she clearly recognized that her disappearance meant an end to the special healing quota I had been giving the night elves. That pretty much sounded the death knell for Sidar’s faction.
For the record, I had yet to see Prati since arriving. She had been working at the infirmary when the alarm was sounded, so she hadn’t been able to leave her post. And before I even had enough time to sit down and catch my breath, I had been summoned by the Demon King.
“Zilbagias, reporting.”
As I stepped into the king’s office, his eyes widened as he directed his gaze at me. Most of the demons I had passed on the walk here had reacted the same way.
“Zilbagias...what is that magic?”
Now that I had accepted everything Ante had held back for me, my magic was clearly on the level of an archduke. And not “just barely” an archduke. I was without a doubt standing shoulder to shoulder with Aiogias and Rubifya.
“It was...an intense battle.”
My reluctant answer caused a grave expression to encroach upon the king’s face as he lifted a hand to his forehead.
Only then I noticed that we weren’t alone. We were also in the company of two others. One was...huh? Had she been attacked on the way here or something? It was a night elf maid, her clothes in total disarray, her body covered in bruises, and her eyes dead.
The other was a demon, a woman with green hair wearing a rather revealing green dress. Palpable intensity leaked from her deep black eyes as her sharp glare was fixed on me. I had never seen the maid before, but the woman seemed vaguely familiar.
“This is Archduchess Nefradia. Emergias’s mother,” the king squeezed out.
Ah, that’s right.
Though, something still had me quite confused. I hadn’t recognized her because her magic was so weak. She really was an archduchess, right? Sure, she might have been granted the title out of pity for the “accomplishment” of giving birth to Emergias, but surely she should have at least been on the level of a duke. But no matter how much leeway you gave her, her magic couldn’t be much greater than that of a viscount.
“Archduchess...?” I aired my doubts, earning a visible spasm in Nefradia’s cheek as she clenched her hands into fists.
“Emergias stole her power, apparently,” the king explained.
Ah... That explains it.
“And not all of it returned to her? Perhaps it had been exhausted before he died...”
Right. When he had transformed into a devil, Emergias’s magic had been constantly dissipating into the air. Guess what he stole from his mother was the first to go.
“Now then, Zilbagias. Please explain what happened. In detail.”
“Understood.”
And so I explained everything, starting from the top. I told him about how much more powerful Emergias had become, about how he had demanded I tell him about the high-speed communication thing I was oblivious to, and about how when I had tried to explain the misunderstanding to him and talk things out, he attacked me from behind. Though I had managed to avoid the first attack, I’d started fighting out of self-defense. From there, it had become abundantly clear he was intent on stealing my magic, so things had escalated to a fight to the death.