Chaptere 632

The White Palace of Arnaria, once a quiet sanctuary, had grown even more silent. Yet, there was nothing eerie about this silence. While silence often stirred a sense of unease, the quiet that blanketed Arnaria was more like a gentle tranquility.

Yet, as the grand duke had once remarked, it was a lonely place, and that loneliness remained unchanged.

The grand duke ascended the stairs, and soon reached a vantage point from which Arnaria could be seen in its entirety.

He said nothing. He simply walked a little ahead of me while I followed him quietly, curious about what he might say.

There was an unspoken tension that made it awkward for me to start a conversation; it felt as though the grand duke should be the one to break the silence.

In a way, it felt like I was being punished. No matter how I looked at it, I had to tread carefully.

Despite having no right to speak, I had come to ask the grand duke to take my side. My audacity truly knew no bounds. Wasn’t it right to expect the grand duke to consider beheading me?

After all, the grand duke had suffered immense personal loss because of my existence. His reputation had plummeted after his daughter had disappeared with the Demon King. The people of his duchy were reviled, and he was treated coldly by the Allied Forces. The honor of the Saint-Ouen family, painstakingly built over generations by following the righteous path, had been shattered in an instant.

What was honor? To most, it might mean little, but to someone like the grand duke of Saint-Ouen, it had to mean everything.

All of that had vanished because of me.

The grand duke remained silent for a long time, and I could not help these thoughts from consuming me as I gazed at the palace.

I wondered if everyone was doing well.

Harriet’s mother and her three brothers were always on my mind. I knew her brothers, being mages, were serving in the Allied Forces and were safe. But being safe and thriving were two entirely different things.

I didn’t even have the right to ask if they were doing well, so I kept my concerns to myself.

For over an hour, the grand duke remained silent, and I felt like I was a mute who couldn’t say a word. It wasn’t just silence; it felt like a punishment.

After what seemed like an eternity, the grand duke finally broke the silence.

“It’s strange,” he said.

‘Strange?’

I wondered, as the grand duke fixed his gaze on me.

“No matter how I look at it, you seem restless...”

He was right. I

was

restless.

Wouldn’t it be odd if I felt confident? Was he suggesting that I should instead be standing tall and be proud? Was he saying my lack of confidence was the issue?

“W-well, you see... I...”

“...”

I wanted to say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come, especially in front of the grand duke.

The grand duke surely knew that Harriet had chosen to follow me of her own accord, not because I had taken her against her will. But what did that knowledge really mean? The mere fact that I had concealed the truth while growing close to his daughter was already a significant offense.

The grand duke fixed his gaze on me. “Do you believe you’ve wronged me somehow?”

‘Of course... What else had I done, if not that?’

“Well... Yes.”

I couldn’t fathom what was going through the grand duke’s mind.

“Hmm...”

The grand duke pondered for a moment before slowly nodding.

“Alright then, tell me.”

Was he asking me to confess?

“If you believe you’ve done something wrong, what do you think it is?”

The grand duke, leaning on his staff, stood before me like a judge, speaking with a calm authority.

“Whether it’s something you’ve done to me,” he continued, “or something you’ve done to my daughter. Or, perhaps... to the world. To humanity.

“If you have something that you wish to confess, then what is it?”

He was a man who had never once dabbled in dark power or evil schemes. Someone who always walked the righteous path, with the right intentions, living for noble and just causes. A person who had done nothing wrong, yet had lost so much because of me.

Even so, he continued to do what needed to be done, without ever showing a hint of resentment or grievance.

This was Grand Duke Saint-Ouen.

“Tell me about it.”

He was probably the only one who had the right to judge me.

***

It was a long story.

But ultimately, it was a tale of me trying to save everyone, which ultimately led us to this very moment.

What was Akasha? Who was Cantus Magna? Why had the labyrinth around the lich’s tomb created, and how was Akasha originally meant to be used?

By the time I understood everything, it was already too late.

I had maintained the lie for so long that no one could trust me anymore, and those who felt the deepest sense of betrayal couldn’t help but hate me.

It was a story of trying to change the future, only to realize the futility of it all. A story where, if I had done nothing, nothing would have happened.

In the end, that was the kind of story it was.

After hearing the entire tale, the grand duke spoke plainly.

“This wasn’t the choice of the gods, but the curse of the gods.”

Was he suggesting that possessing two holy relics of the gods was not a blessing but a curse?

As if reading my thoughts, the grand duke corrected himself.

“It is not you that has been cursed, but humanity.”

A curse on humanity?

“If the Demon King had no intention of harming humanity and simply wanted to use Akasha to create another world for demonkind, then there was no reason to fight.”

Baalier had sought escape, not war.

Yet humanity, gripped by fear of the demons, had invaded the Dark Land and slaughtered the Demon King, along with most of his kind.

They had not sought to understand; they had been driven by fear.

It was a tragedy born from misunderstanding.

“In the end, humanity annihilated their neighbor because they mistakenly believed they were out to kill them. Now, because of that misunderstanding, humanity faces extinction.”

The Gate Incident was ultimately a result of fear and ignorance.

“Whether he intended to take revenge or not, the fact remains that the Demon King has exacted the most decisive revenge on humanity.”

My intentions aside, what had transpired was both revenge and not.

Still, one truth never changed. I had played the most significant role in the near-extinction of humanity.

“How can this not be the curse of the gods?” the grand duke wondered aloud.

Humanity’s neighbor had been killed due to a misunderstanding, and in turn, humanity’s one blood had been shed for the same reason.

This, the grand duke believed, was the judgment of the gods, a curse that they inflicted on humanity.

***

Was this truly the curse of the gods? Or was it not?

The grand duke gazed up at the overcast sky.

“Of course, whether these events are truly a curse from the gods or just a twisted coincidence, we cannot know,” he mused.

Still, the odds that these events were merely a series of unfortunate coincidences were infinitely low.

“But even if this is the curse of the gods, it doesn’t erase your sins, nor does it absolve you of them. The fact remains that all these events began with you.”

I could not claim that I had done nothing wrong. Neither the sin nor the responsibility could be erased. The Gate Incident had been triggered out of the desire to save me. Antirianus had instigated it, Sarkegar had fervently supported it, and Eleris had activated Akasha. That was the undeniable truth.

“However, isn’t it too harsh to say you should have died instead?”

“...”

“After losing all your memories, you woke up to find your country destroyed, your father, once a king and absolute ruler, perished alongside the hero, leaving you with nothing but the empty title of the last heir of a fallen nation, and the knowledge of only one thing: that the world was about to end...”

“...”

“And yet, you’ve made it this far. Isn’t it almost miraculous?”

As the last Archdemon of a fallen Demon Realm, my chances of survival would have been slim. It might have been easier to be an ordinary human, just another face in the crowd. Yet, here I was, having teetered on the edge of destroying the world, only to end up rebuilding a Dark Land in which humans and demons coexisted.

Countless coincidences had occurred to both save and doom me, leading to this very moment. But somehow, against all odds, I had restored the Demon Realm and become king.

How had I managed that?

The grand duke seemed to find the situation peculiar, and even I, reflecting on the journey from the beginning, was baffled by how I had managed to accomplish it all. If someone had whispered to me at the outset that I would become who I was at that moment, just a few years later, I wouldn’t have believed them.

“You may not be the most powerful Demon King in history, but you will be the greatest.”

Was that really true?

I had rebuilt a fallen nation. I had restored the Dark Land. Because of that, I could stand before the grand duke as someone worthy of the title Demon King, not just as Reinhart.

And then there was the destruction. I had succeeded in exacting revenge on humanity. Not everything had unfolded according to my plans, but I had done everything a Demon King would have been expected to do.

“Now, with humanity teetering on the edge of extinction and the chance to rule the entire world within your grasp, you stand as the greatest and most perfect Demon King in history.”

And I was on the verge of becoming the world’s master.

“You, who never wished to live as a Demon King, have come closest to fulfilling the Archdemons’ long-held dream. Isn’t it ironic?”

I never wanted to be a Demon King. I never wanted to be a king at all.

“It seems Archdemons are destined to never live the life they truly desire.”

If Archdemons were indeed a race cursed in such a way, then it made sense that I ended up rebuilding the Dark Land I never wanted and witnessing the downfall of humanity I never wished for.

In the long line of Archdemons, I might have been the only one who neither aspired to become a Demon King nor harbored hatred for humans. Yet, somehow, I had ended up destroying all of humanity, rebuilding a fallen nation, and finding myself with the chance to claim the entire world.

Could there really be such a curse? Was that why all previous Demon Kings had met with failure?

“If that’s truly the case, then it’s a major issue.”

“A major issue?”

If such a curse existed, wasn’t it a significant problem?

“The Gate Incident will never conclude.”

If Archdemons were truly cursed, then a resolution to the Gate Incident, a resolution which I desired, would remain elusive. And that would only lead to further chaos.

It was enough to send a shiver down my spine.

“Haha... That’s true.”

The grand duke chuckled softly. I wasn’t sure if such a curse truly existed, but what mattered was that he had seen my sincere wish for the Gate Incident to end.

“So, in the end, do you believe this is your fault?” he asked. He wanted to know the extent of my guilt.

I took a deep breath and began recounting everything that had happened.

“Well... Taking Harriet with me was my mistake.”

Even though she had come with me willingly, it was still wrong in the eyes of the grand duke.

“She left without a word, without contacting you beforehand. You must have been worried... Anyway, it’s all my fault. The world turning out this way, it’s all on me.”

“The world turning out this way?” the grand duke asked, his gaze fixed on me.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Why do you think that’s on you?” he questioned, his eyes searching mine.

“Didn’t you say it yourself? That the world ended up like this because of me, no matter how much I try to explain or justify it? If that’s the case, then I did something wrong—”

“Yes, all of that might be your sin, but why deem it a wrongdoing?”

Was he suggesting that sin and wrongdoing were different? I couldn’t grasp what the grand duke was trying to convey.

“Let’s assume you truly caused the Gate Incident with the intent to destroy humanity. Let’s say you did.”

The grand duke gently tapped his staff on the marble steps, his voice calm and measured.

“Aren’t you allowed to do that?”

I blinked. “Sorry?”

What was he implying?

“The Dark Land never even considered waging war against humanity. Yet humans invaded the Demon Realm, destroyed your homeland, killed your father, executed those who were like family to you, and even enslaved some.

“If you, who endured such horrors, sought to destroy humanity, who could claim that harboring such thoughts and taking such actions would be unjust or wrong?”

Many people had died. If it were something I had truly desired, it would have been a sin, but it would not have been considered unjust.

The grand duke was speaking of revenge.

Killing and slaughtering could not be justified, and so it would be a sin. But revenge could be justified.

I had committed a sin, but the grand duke was insisting that I had the right to it. He was trying to make a point. He wanted to say that I was someone who was allowed to do that.

Therefore, while there might be sin in my actions, there was no wrongdoing.

From the start, the grand duke had asked me if I believed I had done anything wrong, yet he had never accused me of wrongdoing himself.

“It was I who have wronged you from the start,” he confessed.

“Pardon?” I asked, taken aback.

“Since the reason for the Great War was flawed from the beginning, wasn’t I the first one who committed wrong towards you?”

The grand duke had been a participant in the Great War.

The Great War had been a misguided conflict, which led to the ruin of the Dark Land. The true bearer of an unforgivable sin wasn’t me, but the grand duke.

“Even if it had been a just war, wouldn’t it be natural for the heir of a fallen nation to seek vengeance against all who took part in the Great War?”

“...”

Once he realized that I was the Demon King, the grand duke believed that my actions against humanity, though sinful, were inevitably justified. He accepted everything I had done, acknowledging my right to seek revenge on all humans.

In truth, the grand duke was one of my mortal enemies. He was a powerful mage, and had to have achieved impressive feats during the Great War, feats built on the deaths of demons.

If I were truly Baalier, the grand duke’s name would be on the top of my list of those to eliminate. And yet, there I was, timid with guilt for having taken his daughter without permission.

“So why do you come to your enemy’s home with the look of a sinner, trying to apologize to me?”

Even though the mask of humanity I once wore had long since been stripped away, I still hadn’t changed much at all.

“That’s what I don’t understand.”

The grand duke seemed puzzled by my presence, unable to grasp my presence and my demeanor.

He glanced up at the sky, lost in thought.

I felt no urge for revenge, nor did I harbor any hatred. Instead, I was consumed by thoughts of what wrong I might have done to the grand duke.

“Yes... my daughter was right,” he said, his voice heavy with guilt.

“You have sinned, but you have not done wrong,” he murmured, almost to himself. “I am the one who has sinned and done wrong.”

Now that he understood the truth about the Great War and the former Demon King Baalier, he realized it had been nothing more than a massacre.

Humanity had not been saved by the extermination of demonkind. Instead, they were facing the Gate Incident as a consequence of it.

I wasn’t the only one who should not have acted. Humanity should have stayed its hand from the start.

“So I must atone for my sins.”

I was not Baalier. Therefore, I simply couldn’t generate any desire for revenge against the grand duke. The grand duke misunderstood the very nature of my heart, mistaking it for goodness.

All of this had ultimately begun with me, especially since I was responsible for the Gate Incident.

All this chaos was my own creation from the beginning. As a result, there was no place for revenge or resentment—only an ever-growing sense of guilt.

Just as the grand duke harbored guilt towards me, I couldn’t escape my own feelings of guilt and remorse.