Ranok could read it plain as day — but if this had been the original prince, he probably wouldn’t have caught the intent beneath the surface, and would have scolded Zak a few times for only showing up now before taking him back anyway.
Just how badly did you have to be treated for a servant who abandoned his master to come crawling back this shamelessly, Your Highness?
Ranok quietly sighed to himself.
“I’m hungry.”
“You’re hungry? I’ll go fetch you something to eat right away!”
At the sign that Ranok was accepting him, Zak’s face — which had been slightly tense — broke into a wide, relieved smile.
Watching that face, Ranok smiled gently.
He didn’t particularly like this sycophant, but right now Ranok needed someone he could work like a slave at a moment’s notice. Zak was perfectly suited for that.
Even a dull, rusted blade is worth using if you have one.
Of course, it’ll need a bit of sharpening first.
Unfortunately for Zak, his original master was already dead and gone — and the member of the Demon Clan now occupying that body was not the pushover his previous master had been. He was someone with a very, very clear sense of reward and punishment.
Running far, far away would have served you much better, you fool.
Ranok was someone who, without a moment’s hesitation, knew exactly how to dole out appropriate punishment to a man who had abandoned his master and fled.
“Zak.”
“Yes, yes, Your Highness. What would you like to eat? Just say the word, anything at all!”
Watching the attendant rub his hands together as if he’d pluck the stars and the moon from the sky, Ranok let out a short, quiet laugh.
“Fish.”
“Pardon?”
“I want freshly caught fish.”
There it is.
Ranok raised a hand and pointed to the lake. The lake was genuinely clear and beautiful, but not a single fish was visible.
Zak began to sweat.
“Your Highness?”
“What are you waiting for?”
Ranok kept a perfectly straight face as Zak stared back at him, eyes still holding a small, desperate hope — surely not, it can’t be, right?
“I said I want fish.”
Zak glanced back. The knights were still grilling meat.
There was no way the knights had brought fish on a journey in near-midsummer heat — fish that would spoil quickly and reek of its smell. Besides, they were clearly grilling meat right now for anyone to see. There wasn’t a fish in sight.
And hadn’t his prince just said it — he wanted freshly caught fish.
Not a single fish was visible in the crystal-clear lake — but if he tried rea~lly hard, maybe he could catch one or two small ones.
Zak kept sweating.
Under normal circumstances, Zak might not have followed such an unreasonable order.
But the problem was — he had abandoned his prince who’d barely survived near-death, and then had the nerve to come back hoping to scrape up whatever scraps he could. That was what made it difficult.
“Zak.”
“Yes?”
“Last warning.”
Get in and catch one.
In the end, Zak had no choice but to bite the bullet and jump into the lake.
Not long after Zak leapt into the water, a knight returned — carrying bread and meat in far better condition than before.
The knight stared blankly at Zak thrashing and struggling inside the lake.
“That man…… what is he doing?”
“Who knows.”
Ranok smirked. What is he doing — settling his debts, wasn’t he.
Just like I am.
“Looks like he wanted to go for a swim.”
Of course, Ranok felt no need to explain, and wasn’t foolish enough to wait for fish that would never be caught — so he began slowly chewing and savoring the meal the knight had brought.
The Faerie muttered.
— Demon Clan members really are wicked.
The dull journey resumed once more.
Since the punishment wasn’t over yet, Ranok gave Zak no permission whatsoever to board the carriage.
Having become a drowned rat and whining that he didn’t know how to ride a horse, Zak was dumped onto some poor low-ranking knight, and Ranok climbed into the carriage alone.
Zak was probably feeling like his backside was being split into four pieces right about now. Not that Ranok felt particularly sorry about that.
The Mortiel Royal Family had sent off their first prince to the Serion Empire under the name of hostage.
The attendant had abandoned the prince and come back hoping to leech off whatever crumbs might fall his way. When you thought about it, wasn’t this one even more pitiful.
He’d thought — no matter what, what kind of king abandons his own flesh and blood — but honestly, when he dug through Milano Mortiel’s memories, this delinquent was such a thorough piece of human garbage that being thrown out by his parents at this point almost seemed like an act of parental affection.
— Trash, he certainly is.
The Faerie agreed. Not that it sat particularly well with Ranok — even if he still couldn’t quite identify with this prince as himself.
— Squawk.
Having shut the Faerie up, Ranok returned to his thoughts.
The whole thing had started as a minor diplomatic incident. But the situation had grown strangely large, and the Mortiel Royal Family had sent a prince as a solution…… that was the reason he’d been headed to the Empire. On the surface, at least.
In the process, the first prince — who had no foothold whatsoever to show for his age — had his position as legitimate heir laughably stripped away with ease. Supplanted by an illegitimate younger brother.
The Empire, too, had understood that this first prince held very little value as a hostage.
Even so, royal bloodlines had many political uses, so they’d accepted him…… that was the surface reason. But in truth, the prince’s worth as a hostage hovered infinitely close to zero.
The Empire is powerful. Of the three nations that survived after the Demon King took out half the continent, it was the one that declared itself overlord. A nation where a single Sword Saint alone serves as a deterrent to war. A nation that possesses the Mage Tower and holds the most temples to the Goddess across the continent.
Such an Empire had no reason to go out of its way to detain a member of the Mortiel Royal Family and keep them as a hostage. The Emperor could demand something for no reason at all and Mortiel would simply have to hand it over.
Whether the Empire had directly participated in the assassination attempt on Milano Mortiel — that was unknown. But from the circumstantial evidence, the fact that they had looked the other way and feigned ignorance seemed to be true.
In the end, the Empire was now stuck having to receive a hostage who should have been dead — a hostage of no value whatsoever. All because the assassination had failed.
The position of a prince whom everyone wished dead, practically overnight — it was as pitiable a situation as could be. Even a candle in the wind wasn’t this precarious. Ranok couldn’t help but sigh.
Ranok’s plan was simple. First: go meet Casioth. He had no way of meeting Gerard, the Demon King, at the moment — and regardless, Milano Mortiel was a hostage of the Empire, so meeting Casioth first, who was within the Empire, seemed the quicker option.
But even if he met Casioth, he had no grand plan. He had no way of knowing what kind of person Casioth was now, and even if he revealed outright that he was Ranok, he had no idea whether Casioth would believe him. Above all, Ranok was skeptical about exposing the fact that he was the traitor who had died at Casioth’s own hands in the past.
The Faerie, who had been squirming its way out of Ranok’s clenched fist, grumbled.
— Why all the sighing? Are you worried about meeting the Hero?
“I wouldn’t say not.”
— What are you most worried about?
Everything. Ranok swallowed the words that had risen to the tip of his tongue. He didn’t know what to say when they met, didn’t know what expression to wear.
But Ranok was not the type to worry in advance about things that hadn’t happened yet. Deciding once he saw the situation wouldn’t be too late. He turned the question back on the Faerie, who was looking at him as if asking what the problem was.
“Why Casioth, of all people? Gerard is one thing — but if you looked hard enough, there should be at least some humans out there with talent comparable to his.”
— That’s because you never got to see the Hero fully bloom. That child had to keep growing stronger. Until the day he died of old age — endlessly growing stronger, surpassing the limits of humanity. A human like that isn’t born twice in a single era. That’s why the Goddess chose him.
In short, a once-in-a-generation genius who had surpassed the limits of humanity — and who had the misfortune of catching the Goddess’s eye because of it.
“Hm.”
— Originally, that child should have accomplished something far greater by now.
Saying that, the Faerie kept shooting sideways glances at Ranok. Ranok realized the Faerie was blaming him. Ah — so because I disappeared, the Hero was unable to fulfill his role? Ranok smiled, crooked and wry.
“What is it that the Goddess wants from Casioth?”
— To protect the balance of the world.
As the Faerie said that, its mood darkened considerably.
— There’s a wicked dragon living in that great mountain range that needs to be defeated. There are corrupted elves in the underground who have been kidnapping people — they need to be defeated too. My kin who have fallen to Corruption need to be saved.
“And now on top of all that, the Corruption itself needs to be eliminated? That’s quite a lot to ask of a Hero.”
— That’s what the power was bestowed for! But that fool is just drinking himself into ruin!
The Faerie vented its frustrations about Casioth at full force. He was said to have been born under the star of a Hero — and it seemed that simply meant he was a human the Goddess had marked. A human born to carry out the will of the Goddess and protect the balance of the world.
“And what does she want from the Demon King?”
— In the Demon King’s case — honestly, I couldn’t care less what happens to him personally, but the Goddess wishes for the balance of the world to be maintained.
The Faerie spun a little loop in midair.
— In his case, it’s more a matter of holding him back.
“……Holding him back?”
— The truth is, even now, the Demon King is in an incredibly precarious state.
Without thinking, Ranok bit down on his lip.
Precarious? In what kind of state? The part about him destroying half the world didn’t match at all with the Gerard he knew, and had felt surreal to him — but hearing the word precarious did make him worry a little.
