I had tried to send Layla back to the castle to get help, but the dragons that Emergias had brought with him had other ideas. He had told them they were free to do whatever they liked with her, so she couldn’t escape. In the end, Layla had fought them off and killed them. I was quite insistent that I hadn’t wanted to fight, but Emergias had left me with no choice.
The whole time I was talking, Nefradia’s glare was fixated on me, like a snake ready to lunge forward and bite me at any moment. But that was no skin off my back. You would think I’d have been a bit more bothered to have the mother of the man I had just killed listening in, but not really. Like mother, like son, I supposed. I couldn’t muster even the most measly ounce of sympathy for her. If you asked me, Nefradia was at fault for this whole mess. Why? Because of how she had gone about raising her son.
“That is about it.”
“I see...” The king listened to my entire story without interrupting. “And...this high-speed communication technology? It was just that? A simple misunderstanding?”
“Yes. Entirely untrue,” I answered clearly. I wouldn’t be revealing the Daily Evaloti News to anyone. The last thing I needed was for the demons to get their hands on a weapon that powerful. And besides, I wasn’t really lying. Almost all my research was on countermeasures against Enma. I hadn’t touched the communication stuff! Technically!
“I see...” The king flashed the night elf maid a look, causing her to flinch. His gaze was calm and composed. Nefradia turned to look at her also, her eyes terrifyingly cold. Including myself, three high-level demons were now staring at the maid, prompting her to squeak as she cringed back.
“Wh-When that incident happened in the autonomous zone... His Highness Zilbagias received a message from the undead, stopped what he was doing, and immediately traveled back to Evaloti! This was despite it occurring so soon after he left the autonomous zone! We have witnesses!”
Ohhh. So that’s what happened? It was you who set this whole thing off, huh?
“Is that what you think? That the message came from the autonomous zone?” I gave a faint smile as I nodded.
The maid was trembling, sweating profusely. To be honest, her conjecture was entirely correct. But without the proof to back it up, she was now seen as the cause of this whole state of affairs. Poor little maid. It broke my heart, really.
“Of course, this is false, yes?” the king asked.
“It is.” I nodded immediately.
Please, Enma. I’m begging you. You’d better not have gone behind my back and spilled everything to the king! I’m trusting you on this one!
The king grunted. “So, how did you respond to the incident in the autonomous zone so quickly?”
“Actually, I wasn’t responding to it at all. As embarrassing as it is to admit, the truth is I simply forgot something important there and hurried back to retrieve it,” I explained, scratching my head bashfully.
“And the timing of it all was purely a coincidence?” the king asked.
“Yes. Though even then, by the time I arrived, the incident had already been resolved.”
“What on earth had you forgotten to be in such a rush?”
“Uh...some of my research notes. Quite a number of people have permission to enter my private room in Evaloti. Of course that includes servants and autonomous zone officials, but also in some cases vampires and undead.”
The Demon King was fully aware of my position as the head of the Royal Necromancy Research Laboratory, and what I was researching there. No doubt he could piece together what the contents of those notes might be. And if he knew undead might come across it, surely he could connect the dots himself.
“Come on...” The king sighed. Luckily for me, he was a pretty smart guy, so there was no need to spell things out. “You need to be more careful... No, I doubt you even need to hear it from me.” He cut himself off just before going into a lecture. I nodded meekly.
“Your Majesty, what on earth have you tasked His Highness the Seventh Prince with researching?” Nefradia spoke for the first time. The dark and malicious tone in her voice matched her looks. Imagining her as a wife sent a shudder through me. This was one area where I just might have sympathy for the Demon King.
“Not something we can discuss here,” the king answered curtly. “Certainly not in front of someone with such loose lips.”
His gaze, deep and quiet as an ocean at rest, nailed the night elf maid to the spot where she stood. Oh boy. Despite how he carried himself, this guy was absolutely furious, wasn’t he? He was probably a hair away from exploding. The maid started to hyperventilate.
“Well, no matter. In any event, what was the message you received from the undead?”
“It was a love letter,” I responded without a moment’s hesitation.
Both the king and Nefradia looked at me with utter confusion, struggling to comprehend what had just come out of my mouth. The maid, however, was so focused on trying to avoid passing out from fear that she hadn’t heard a word I said.
“A love letter...? From who?”
“Enma, of course. She sends me one just about every day now. Reading it reminded me that I had forgotten something in Evaloti.”
“I see...” The king sighed, evidently throwing in the towel on trying to wrap his mind around this. “So to summarize, Emergias received false information”—his eyes flicked back to the maid briefly—“that stated you were researching something that would threaten the Izanis family. In turn, he reacted by going on a rampage.” For those weak in magic, simply the displeasure of those so powerful was overwhelming. Case in point, the poor maid finally fainted with a spasm, collapsing to the floor. “He attacked Fort Aurora, and was killed in the battle.”
“Yes. Though he arrived with a spear in hand, I treated him as calmly and courteously as possible. But once he attacked me, I had no choice but to defend myself,” I said, emphasizing that I had done no wrong.
“Still, you killed him,” the king rumbled.
“Yes, you killed him! You killed all of them!” Nefradia interjected.
“My apologies, but actually Emergias himself killed a fair number of them,” I added, sensing the tides turning against me. Why do I have to deal with this? I’m the victim here! But my instincts were telling me to watch myself. “It wasn’t like I got carried away and killed them all on my own.”
“Zilbagias...” The king hung his head for a moment, then raised it back up to look at me. And I was in for quite the shock. Never in my life had I seen him wear such a forlorn look before. “Why? Why didn’t you let him live? Look at your power. Look at your magic. If nothing else, surely you could have at least spared him, yes?”
Huh? Excuse me??? What are you going on about?! He was the one trying to kill me! Don’t be stupid!
But as much as I wanted to say all that out loud, I held my tongue.
“My apologies once again. But see, I didn’t have that kind of advantage over him. On top of the concern of him stealing my magic, he had taken the magic and Bloodline Magics of his subordinates. Truthfully, he posed a far greater threat than Aiogias or Rubifya would have.”
“It is clear you speak nothing but lies, Your Highness,” Nefradia spat. “Yes, Emergias took my magic and grew to the level of an archduke. But he was still not as powerful as you are...” There was a muddled look in her eyes I couldn’t quite get a read on. “Him being a threat to you? I cannot imagine such a thing. You should have at least been able to leave him merely on the brink of death without issue.”
This bitch...!
She was willing to dump everything on her own son just to take shots at me?!
“Are you sure you are not selling your son short?” I joked. But why the hell was I having to side with that bastard?! “How can he rest in peace if you talk about him like that? After taking both the magic and Bloodline Magics of his subordinates, he even took my dragon’s ability to fly. He was almost untouchable.”
“So Emergias attacked you out of the blue. You tried to resolve things peacefully, but he refused to listen to reason. And you couldn’t afford to go easy on him.” The king crossed his arms, shaking his head. “With everything I’ve heard so far, it’s hard to fault your response to this matter.”