Salas Lilium’s POV
For a moment I feared former Prince Rod had noticed me, but it seemed my worries were unwarranted.
I was in a forest a short distance away from the imperial castle watching over the Demon Queen’s battle with a farsight magical tool. This farsight tool had originally been one of the empire’s inventions, a product of their attempts in bringing teleportation magic to the common man. The hope had been to connect two distant locations through something known as a gateway, but the project had been largely abandoned due to its infeasibility. In theory, it was doable, but a high-quality magic stone and a large amount of magic energy—on par with a demon’s—was necessary to open a meaningfully large enough portal. What was worse, the strain from the gateway’s creation would destroy the magic stone, leading to unsustainable costs.
Previously, I had used this magical tool to assist in the former Queen Riche’s conspiracy to assassinate Rae Taylor. I had been able to create a large-enough gateway then thanks to the magic stone the Demon Queen had granted me, as well as Socrat’s tremendous power, but for my own devices, a gateway an inch wide was enough to spy through.
Due to its cost, I had to carefully choose the opportunity to use it, but now was certainly the time, if ever there were any. That loathsome pair, Rae Taylor and Claire François, were distracted by the Demon Queen, giving me the perfect chance to rob them of what they considered most precious: their daughters. Why they had gone so far as to take in two orphans not of their own blood to satisfy their maternal urges was beyond me, but the fact remained that the girls were important to them.
Just as those women had taken all that was dear from me, I would now take all that was dear to them.
After that devilish revolution, I had been thrown into prison. I escaped the death penalty by offering up my diplomatic knowledge, but I had lost the backing of the empire and lived a life far worse than before. It was as though I were back in my old family home.
I had been born to the lowest of low-ranking nobility and had lived almost as destitute as the Aurousseau house. We were nobility in name only. Father was a drunkard, and Mother only complained without ever making an effort to change our reality.
I realized from a young age that I would waste away if I stayed in that household and did my best to escape it through the only way I knew: studying. The Royal Academy was still largely a place for noble children to socialize then, but those who truly wanted to learn could still do so. I toiled away at my books, withstood the cold glares of the higher-ranking nobles, and graduated at the top of my class.
After graduating, I was scouted to become a government official. The government was already thoroughly corrupt by then, and the number of competent nobles could be counted on one hand. I was treated coldly by the higher-ranking nobility, but I was never given trouble on account of my ability. I was useful to them, so to say.
As those high-ranking nobles wasted their time with amusements, I worked from dawn until late in the night. I had long since abandoned my family home, and I ignored my parents’ request for money at every turn. Why should I have given anything to them when they’d never given anything to me beyond the ability to call myself the son of a disgraced nobility?
Before long, my parents stopped trying to contact me, and later, I learned of their suicides. Without any particular feelings on the matter, I inherited the family title, as well as the colossal debt they left behind. I worked even harder than ever before to pay it off, living without any greater aspirations before me.
My turning point came when the late King l’Ausseil took the throne. He was young and championed a meritocracy, passing policies that allowed those with talent to rise regardless of our background. I believed his ideals were unrealistic, mere fanciful dreams, but he did see potential in me and promoted me above the nobles who had once looked down on me.
It was around that time that I met Lulu and Riche, who would both later become queen consorts. They both hailed from some of the highest-ranking family lines, so all the men around them were of lower peerage. Perhaps because of that, neither of them scorned me, and they even properly acknowledged me for my ability. As much as I’d like to forget this shameful past now, I’ll admit I felt love for them then.
Eventually, Lulu became queen, but our secret trysts continued. I gained her political support and flew through the ranks. But our relationship came to an abrupt end when she bore my child. Thane, as he would be named, was distinctly different in appearance from his older brother Rod, so I prepared for my ruin. I believed this would be the end of the line for l’Ausseil, even with all his meritocratic beliefs. Hoping to hold on to at least some status, I recorded a conversation with Lulu as blackmail. I knew it would amount to nothing if it came to it, but I had to at least try; anything to prevent myself from ending up like my parents.
Strangely, l’Ausseil never spoke anything of it. He accepted Thane as his second prince and eventually made me chancellor of Bauer. There was a chance he never realized, but I have a feeling he knew—I’d occasionally catch him looking sorrowfully at Thane. He was simply too much of a coward to bring up the issue.
I began to doubt whether a coward like him was truly fit to be our king. I was chancellor already, so why shouldn’t I aim even higher? Secretly, I contacted Nur, our enemy. The empress promised me I’d be made king if I helped make Bauer a vassal state of Nur, and I agreed. Things were going perfectly.
But then Rae Taylor and Claire François came along and undid all of my hard work. The two of them exposed my deal with the empire and demolished the system of aristocracy that governed our country. My plan to become the ruler of the next government failed, and I was imprisoned—all of which was their fault. They took everything from me, and so I devoted myself to revenge.
With Riche’s help, I escaped prison, but the empire had already forsaken me. That was when the Demon Queen offered her aid. She said she would help me kill Rae Taylor and Claire François. The Demon Queen was terrifying, but our interests aligned. I would have done anything for revenge, even bear looking at the Demon Queen’s face, a mirror image of Rae Taylor’s.
But they proved resilient. They overcame the assassination attempt for which I used Riche, as well as their children’s kidnapping, putting Lana, a pawn I had prepared before my imprisonment, to waste. My hatred boiled with no place to vent, instead building to a terrible pressure within me.
But now I had my greatest opportunity yet. Through my small gateway, I subtly roused the one called May with my magic.
“Nngh?”
Her eyes opened sleepily. I stared into them through my gateway and said, “From now on, you will be my puppet.”
Her eyes lost their brilliance, proof that my hypnosis had taken hold. Or so I had thought.
“That’s far enough, Salas,” she said in a voice not her own.
“What…?” I recognized that voice before from somewhere. “Dole François?!”
“My daughters and granddaughters are fighting against fate itself. They have no time to waste on bit players like you.”
“How is this possible?!” My mind raced, desperately trying to understand the situation.
The voice continued, “Starting now and until your death, you will wander an endless dream. You’re free to curse your fate in that dream, and you’re free to even repent for your past; but no matter what you do, you will never wake.”
“No, Dole, wait!”
“I’m sure you have much to say, but this message is only a recording. There is nothing I can do to change your fate.”
“Wait, Dole! Wait!”
“Farewell, Salas. I’ll see you in hell.”
The instant the voice cut off, my surroundings changed. I was in a rundown mansion I recognized—my old family home.
“What is this?” I looked around and saw faces I knew. “Mother? Father? Baron Thompson and Count Yale? Even Lilly and Lana? What are you all doing here?”
Everyone I had ever abandoned peered at me from behind the shadows of pillars and through the windows.
“No, don’t look at me! I said don’t look at me! I’m different from you all! I’m destined for more than this!” I fled from their hateful gazes. I ran and ran, then ran some more until I felt safe.
But before I realized it, I was before my family home again.
“S-somebody! Help me!” I begged for help like a coward and ran, but no matter which direction I went, I returned to that old mansion, with their eyes following me everywhere.
That process continued over and over for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, I begged, “Please, just let it all end!”
The mansion vanished, and nothingness took its place. I was surrounded by a complete absence of light, pure darkness.
“What? Where am I?”
In desperation, I called for help. No voice replied. There wasn’t even an echo. Just what was this place? Dole had said this would continue until I died… Was I really going to meet my end here?
“No, no, no! Not like this! Somebody, somebody save meeee! Aaaaaaagh!”
I yelled endlessly into the darkness, but no salvation came.