Chapter 136
“Move them?”
Princess Lavinia Acan, who controlled the monsters of the 2nd floor, tilted her head.
“Why?”
“Humans are coming.”
“Heroes?”
“Yes.”
“Acan too?”
“No, not Acan—Hilderan.”
“Then what about me?”
“Of course I don’t intend to send you.”
“Good.”
Lavinia Acan let out a sigh of relief.
“You like the Tower?”
“Yes. Monsters.”
“Well, even in the Kingdom of Acan, it’s rare to encounter so many different monsters.”
“Yes.”
Some were high-ranking monsters from the Snowfields—creatures humans rarely met.
To Lavinia, it must have felt like a treasure vault.
“You haven’t even started chimera creation yet, right?”
“Yes. Golems.”
Even with a golem artisan and a dwarf craftsman, the designs had to be remade from the foundation, since they had to use demonic mana instead of normal mana.
Thanks only to Lavinia, who was familiar with demonic mana, progress was possible—but much more time was still needed.
“Pick some weak monsters and place them sparsely on the 1st and 2nd floors. No need for many—just enough for appearances.”
“A show?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
Lavinia Acan nodded obediently and disappeared.
‘This much is settled, then.’
Preparations to receive Hilderan were progressing smoothly.
Now the only issue was how to position Ernan Hilderan on the lower floors.
Fortunately, she had already solved that problem herself.
“Please make a small prison and put it in a corner of the 1st or 2nd floor. I’ll be inside.”
“It’d be nice if the iron bars had some magic inscriptions.”
“That way it’ll look more convincing, right?”
“What after that?”
“I’ll have to be unconscious. With Lady Arein’s help, I can enter a suspended state.”
She explained that by lowering her body temperature she could enter a kind of hibernation.
“That noisy spirit is more useful than I thought.”
— This is where you say I’m versatile.
Arein popped out and glared.
“If I stay pale and ragged, the heroes won’t dare move on to the next floor, right?
They came to save me—my life takes priority.”
“Give them a bit of atmosphere and Hillen will handle the rest.”
He excelled at such things.
“Yes.”
“When you return, are there nobles who support you?”
“Why… are you really planning to make me queen?”
“I do not lie.”
“Hmm… actually, yes. A lot.”
Too many, in fact—that was the problem.
Because Ernan was an overwhelmingly indisputable crown princess.
Compared to the other so-called ‘alternatives,’ she was simply too dominant.
“Of course, most support me not out of kindness but for their own ambition.”
“What human isn’t like that.”
“True.”
Ernan nodded.
“But that doesn’t mean there are no issues.”
“The owner of the vault you raided last time?”
“Yes. Duke Heinz.”
The Heinz ducal house, descended from the royal family, was considered the foremost noble house of Hilderan.
Not merely because of size or influence.
Duke Heinz was the son of the previous king—and younger brother to the current king.
A royal who lost the succession battle.
But he had supported his elder brother, the current king, helping eliminate rivals and placing him on the throne.
Thus the king’s trust in him was still quite firm.
“Duke Heinz constantly implied he had no interest in the throne, reassuring Father.”
“From what you’re saying, that’s clearly not true.”
“It isn’t. Inside, he’s completely twisted.”
Ernan possessed an uncanny ability to sense people’s thoughts and feelings—something beyond simple intuition.
She felt Duke Heinz’s malice clearly.
“So he’s the one who will interfere?”
“Most likely.”
“Then the first task is to eliminate him.”
“When I went to rescue Elena, I investigated a few things—you know that, right?”
“I do. You were the one who told Kaede that the 8th imperial prince had died. Is there more?”
“Back then, I learned something—
a small obstacle had appeared.”
In truth, Ernan Hilderan’s succession should have been easy.
The king had already laid the entire path for her.
The nobles were dancing atop it.
If she didn’t become queen, that would be strange.
Given enough time, she would naturally ascend to the throne of Hilderan.
“An obstacle?”
“Yes. I was kidnapped.”
A tiny crack had formed.
A decade could change a country—
but even a single year could change a person.
Especially when the person was human.
“In Arein, kidnapping isn’t considered a big deal.”
It was a big deal—just something so common that if the victim returned safely, it was simply accepted.
“But Your Majesty survived well this past year. And more importantly…”
“You hid the Tower well, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
They never found the Tower.
They had no hope of finding it.
That led people to wonder whether Ernan Hilderan would ever return.
“So it was Heinz?”
“Not directly. Oberest Hilderan—the 2nd prince.
Aside from me, he’s Father’s most successful creation.
He’s still my older brother, after all.”
“Heinz and Oberest joined hands?”
“Yes.”
“You discovered that in such a short time?”
“Luck.
I released spirits around the capital—and found the two of them meeting in secret.”
“I was lucky. I spread spirits throughout the capital and found the two of them meeting in secret.”
“You released spirits in the royal capital and didn’t get caught?”
“I know every place that has detection magic circles.”
“They wouldn’t have been careless enough to meet in an open area during a secret rendezvous.”
“They weren’t. A spirit saw the two of them enter a sealed chamber, then saw the activation of a magic circle that blocked sight and outside magic. I was curious, so I sent Lady Arein in directly. Even that barrier couldn’t stop a high-rank spirit.”
“······.”
She released spirits openly in the capital and wasn’t detected?
Should he believe this or not?
After a moment of thought, Berze decided to believe her. She had no reason to lie about something like this.
‘But if that’s true… she’s gone far beyond a simple high-rank spirit summoner…’
Her progress was absurd—almost monstrous.
“What will happen when you return, then…?”
“They’ll be shocked, obviously. I’m quite curious to see their faces.”
“That’s all?”
Most nobles—and the king himself—considered Ernan Hilderan the rightful successor.
But Hilderan was not ruled solely by the king.
And in the time she’d been gone, the nobles had surely drifted toward Duke Heinz and the 2nd prince’s political maneuvers.
The longer that time stretched, the greater their anxiety grew—and the more voices would rise.
However—
“Of course.”
Ernan did not lack confidence.
“That position was mine from the beginning.”
She had never doubted that.
“I was exhausted from Father’s pressure and the nobles’ expectations. I wanted to escape, but until you kidnapped me, I couldn’t. I had the strength—but not the reason or courage.”
In other words—
“For more than ten years, I endured it all. I became Father’s puppet. I endured what no other royal could.”
Taking on not only her own expectations, but also the expectations meant for others.
She learned spirit arts.
She studied the imperial sciences, military strategy, diplomacy, and politics.
She entered high society and built connections.
She walked the path toward the crown.
Thus Ernan believed she had every right to the throne.
“And I…”
Her eyes curved like a crescent moon.
“I really hate having what’s mine taken from me. I’m quite greedy.”
Even if it was something she herself had briefly abandoned and run from—
It didn’t mean it stopped being hers.
***
Reina Sordein.
The Demon King called the Frost Queen by humans looked down over the snowy plains outside her Tower.
The endless white landscape was unchanged, as always.
She rolled a bright red candy in her mouth, but even its sweetness couldn’t ease her worries.
“Berze Deias.”
She spoke the name of the first Demon King she had joined hands with after descending into Arein.
She liked Berze, and for a smoother conquest of Arein she had allied with him, even granting him hundreds of monsters as a gift.
But before she could receive anything in return, Berze fell into great danger.
He had attempted to use necromancers in the Hapstline Gorge, exposing himself, and the enraged Empire uncovered the Tower’s hidden location.
True—he had managed to defeat the Celestial Hero, Daphner Philian—but that was the limit.
The imperial royals had been threatened, and the Tower revealed.
The Empire would now launch a Heroic Expedition without fail.
And many heroes were directly or indirectly linked to the Empire.
The scale and strength of such an expedition would be more than enough to kill Berze.
‘It’s been only a little over a year since Berze descended.’
Due to an incident at the graduation ceremony, he descended with nothing but his lieutenant—no prepared forces, no resources.
How many monsters could he have summoned in that time?
How many bindings on his power could he have undone?
The hundreds of monsters she had granted him as a token of alliance would be slaughtered by the heroes’ blades.
This bothered Reina.
Should she abandon Berze?
Or help him?
“Helping him would be unwise.”
Her lieutenant, Nina, who shared access to her thoughts, opposed the idea.
“An alliance is mutual benefit. But Demon King Berze can offer no benefit to you—only risk.”
“He simply has not yet had time to prove his worth. Who can say he won’t in the future?”
“There is no future.”
Nina spoke without hesitation.
“The Empire is strong. Berze cannot endure.”
“That is why I would help him.”
“Please remember—the Snowfields are officially under imperial territory.”
If it were discovered that Reina Sordein had helped Berze Deias—
“The Empire will march an army to your Tower.”
This was not the same as a Heroic Expedition.
The Empire could field an army of hundreds of thousands.
Of course, not all would march—the borders must still be guarded—but even a fraction would be nearly impossible to withstand.
“Most of the Snowfields have already become my domain.
Most monsters here have become my subordinates.”
Their number was close to ten thousand.
It was power she had spent over eighty years cultivating.
Bought with time stolen by lowering her pride and hiding her presence—knowing the nature of Arein.
“···Even so, it’s impossible, isn’t it.”
Reina’s voice grew small at the end.
If it were a mere kingdom instead of the Empire, she could have crushed it.
But the Empire was the strongest nation on the continent.
“Maybe in another hundred years, but not now.”
That was how strong the Empire was.
Five Demon Kings combined might be able to match it—barely.
‘Arein is different from other dimensions.’
Using necromancers or demons to sow internal collapse was the most basic and most effective Demon King tactic.
But in Arein, the thousands of heroes made that impossible—widening the power gap even further.
“Then I simply must leave no evidence that I’m helping him.”
“The only help you can give is to send your demons. Monsters can increase the numbers, but they won’t greatly affect the battle.”
“That is true.”
“And your demons are all Frost Demons.”
“···They are.”
“Anyone would know they belong to you.”
“They might assume they belong to Berze.”
“What nickname did humans give Demon King Berze?”
“···The Infernal One.”
High-rank Frost Demons in the Infernal Tower?
Anyone would be suspicious.
Even if Berze had summoned them himself, humans were ruled by strong prejudices.
In the end, Reina had no choice but to give up.
Regretful as it was, she could only hope Berze survived with his own strength.
“And there is one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“Demon King Jayson has been waiting to see you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“And why are you telling me this only now?”
“I did say it earlier, but you seemed too deep in thought to hear.”
“···Is that so.”
Reina gave an awkward cough and rose from her seat.
“Let us go.”
***
“Why are you asking that?”
Reina’s expression hardened.
Frost gathered around her feet, the cold dripping into the air around her.
『I ask only that you not take offense. I am asking out of concern and wish only to offer counsel.』
“I asked why you are questioning the relationship between myself and Berze.”
『Because I fear Reina-sama may aid Berze-sama.』
“Whether I help Berze or do not help Berze—what concern is that of yours?”
『As I said, I am worried. For all he has done well, Berze-sama has committed the foolish act of touching the Empire’s reverse scale.』
『It has been barely a year since his descent, and even if he has gathered more demonic mana than ordinary Demon Kings, stopping a determined Empire is not easy.』
『And that will not change even if Reina-sama lends him aid.』
“I do not like your roundabout way of speaking.”
『If Reina-sama helps Berze-sama out of sentiment, you too will be endangered. That is all I mean.』
『The opponent is the Empire. You know their strength better than anyone.』
“Jayson Cockmoondo. You are troubled over me? The first time since about ten years after your descent into Arein?”
『Because Reina-sama has handled everything well on your own since then.』
“I owe you a debt for that time, so I will answer plainly.
As you say, I know the Empire well. Therefore, I do not plan to help Berze.”
『That is a relief.』
“So you wish for Berze to die, do you?”
『That is a misunderstanding. The crisis Berze-sama faces now is one he brought upon himself. I offered him advice—just as I did long ago for Reina-sama and Ugar-sama—but this is the result.』
“So what I’m hearing is that you are displeased.”
『I still wish for Berze-sama’s safety. It is rare to find someone whose temperament aligns with mine as well as his does. But I do not wish for others to be harmed by his mistakes.』
『Between someone I have known little more than a year and Reina-sama and Ugar-sama whom I have known for decades, is it not obvious who takes precedence?』
Reina laughed.
His words were polished, but she knew very well they were far from pure.
Still, she didn’t bother pointing it out, and the conversation afterward was trivial.
The connection ended, and on the other side of the communication orb—in the Tower of Lies—Jayson Cockmoondo stared into the empty sphere.
“···So that means their relationship…”
Hasn’t progressed that far yet.
Jayson’s lips curled upward.
Given Reina’s nature—once she trusts, she trusts absolutely—if things between her and Berze had advanced rapidly, she would have helped him no matter the cost.
“Berze-sama. Please don’t hold too much resentment toward me.”
After all, this is a mess you brought upon yourself.