Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 424

Luna Artorius, who had seemed somewhat inhuman and like an impenetrable wall, was so shocked that she let go of my neck.

Thud.

“Ugh... damn...”

I gasped for breath, feeling the intense pain from my shattered wrist.

Eleris, still unable to escape the shock, lay sprawled in the distance, struggling to look my way.

It wasn’t the right time to be flustered, but Eleris was just as dumbfounded by the situation.

Luna Artorius looked down at me as she sat down.

“Are you telling a pathetic lie just so that you can cling to life?”

“If you want to believe it’s a lie, then believe it.”

Swish.

I summoned Tiamata and channeled Divine Power.

The key to unlocking Tiamata’s power was anger. Naturally, there was no reason not to be angry since I was about to lose my head to Ellen’s mother in such an absurd place.

The Divine Power healed my wrist as I staggered to my feet and put some distance between myself and Luna.

“If you want to kill me and live the rest of your life being hated by your daughter, then go ahead.”

“...”

Luna Artorius looked at me quietly, finding my words too absurd to be a threat.

“Ellen probably doesn’t know you’re the Demon King,” she said.

“Yeah, she doesn’t know. I don’t want her to find out, and she probably wouldn’t be able to accept it even if she did find out.”

“... Even if you truly like my daughter, you two shouldn’t be together—”

“It’s not good to meddle too much in your child’s affairs,” I interjected.

It didn’t seem like we were in a position to have such a conversation, but I was doing it anyway, perhaps because my life was hanging by a thread and had quite literally given up since I was facing someone I would never be a match for.

‘Whatever. Even if I die, I’m going to get everything off of my chest!’

“We’ll handle our matters ourselves,” I said as I pointed Tiamata at Luna Artorius. “So, you stay out of it, Mother.”

“M-Mother?”

What would it feel like for the parent of a hero to be called Mother by the Demon King?

I wasn’t sure, but it was clearly bewildering. Luna’s expression was strange, neither a smile nor a frown.

But that too, was only for a brief moment, before Luna Artorius’s expression turned cold.

“Who are you calling Mother? I’ve never acknowledged you as—”

“Hey, I’m a generous and kind person. Isn’t it a bit rude to call the mother of someone I like ‘ahjumma’? You never know what might happen in the future. And I can’t call you mother-in-law. We haven’t gotten that far yet. So what else should I call you but Mother?”

“...”

Once again, Luna Artorius’s expression turned complicated.

I couldn’t do anything to her with my strength or my sword, but I could sense that she was taking mental damage in real-time. ‘What is this guy saying? Why do I have to hear this from the Demon King?’

‘Is this actually working?’ I thought. ‘Can I somehow muddle through and make her back down?’

“And, uh, today was the first time I heard that Eleris over there is some ancient Archdemon or whatever. So, if you think about it, Eleris is kind of like my distant ancestor,” I said.

I didn’t really know what that meant, but assuming it was true, Eleris would be my ancestor.

“Mother, what are you doing beating up your in-law like that?”

“Why on earth do I have to listen to all this, coming from you?!” Luna Artorius exclaimed.

“I’m just answering honestly because you asked why!” I replied.

“T-this... this is ridiculous...!”

It seemed that Luna Artorius, like Ellen, was the type to explode when she couldn’t hold her emotions in any longer.

“Mother, you said you weren’t interested in matters of good and evil. You said you didn’t care what I was trying to do or what I wanted. You said you were going to violate the rules of the house of Sunday and Monday or whatever and kill me just because of your daughter’s feelings.

“I like her. It might be hard to believe, but that’s the truth. So make a choice, Mother. Are you going to kill me here and be hated by your daughter for the rest of your life? Or are you going to back down quietly for now?”

Luna Artorius was at a loss, unable to comprehend the situation in which I was threatening her despite the clear power imbalance.

If she decided to kill me, I couldn’t stop her.

The sounds of the distant battle were getting closer, but could anyone there kill her if they tried? I didn’t know.

Finally, Luna Artorius regained her composure and quietly looked at me. She was probably seriously considering my claim that I liked Ellen.

On top of whether it was true or false, she would be pondering what to do if it were true.

Eventually, she let her sword hand drop. Once again, a vivid emotion glimmered in her eyes.

“Wouldn’t it be better... if your feelings were a lie?”

“...”

“If what you say is true, then because of that... my daughter would only face a future of greater unhappiness... Why do you... love my daughter when there’s no reason for it?”

There was a deep sadness in her eyes.

“Wouldn’t it be my duty as a mother to end everything here, leaving you dead, while everything is still incomplete? Shouldn't I stop this, before a small misfortune becomes a greater one, before my daughter is broken...?

“If I can’t accept you, then my daughter, who has been deceived by you all this time, won’t be able to accept you.”

Both a hero and a Demon King...

The fact that I liked Ellen was, in itself, bound to become a calamity for both Ellen and me later on.

If Ellen and I were ever forced to fight each other, it would inevitably end in tragedy.

Luna Artorius was saying that if it was true that I liked Ellen—precisely because of that—everything should be brought to an end, right there.

She hadn’t made that decision, but was seeking my opinion.

I could already feel that her intent to kill me had waned.

‘Alright. Now that Ellen’s mother knows, let’s not postpone the tragedy any longer.’

“I’ll tell her, then,” I said.

“... What?”

“Now that even you know, what’s the point of hiding it any longer? Though I don’t think Ellen will easily understand...”

I was afraid.

I had been deceiving her all this time, postponing the consequences, which only grew the longer I delayed. Ellen would naturally feel betrayed and might not be able to accept me.

“Are you saying you’d rather risk being killed by my daughter than be killed by me?”

“Yes.”

At my words, her expression stiffened.

“That would at least bring some relief,” I said.

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“... You are a strange one,” she said.

Hearing her say that somehow made me laugh.

“Ellen has said that to me a lot too,” I replied.

A strange one...

It was something I had always heard.

She observed me quietly, as if trying to read my mind through my eyes.

“I don’t understand why I should spare someone who loves my daughter but is bound to lead her into utter misfortune.”

However, the moonlit sword in her hand disappeared.

It seemed she had not read my emotions, but seen a foreboding fate.

“But... if killing you would make my daughter unhappy... Rather than receiving an indelible wound at the hands of her own parent, it’s better if it’s her own choice...”

She gently placed her hand on my cheek.

It was the hand of someone who had just tried to kill me, yet it was heartbreakingly warm.

After a long moment, she withdrew her hand from my cheek and took a few steps back.

When she reached out to the sky, the enlarged moon returned to its original size.

‘What kind of power is that?’

I didn’t know, and I probably never would.

“Archdemon... no, Reinhart.”

She called me by my name.

“... Yes?”

“I know it’s a meaningless thing to say, but...” She gazed at me. “Don’t make my daughter sad.”

Luna Artorius, who had tried to kill me not because I was the Demon King but because I was a threat to her daughter, ultimately couldn’t kill me because my life was tied to her daughter’s unhappiness.

“I will try.”

“... You seem to know that’s impossible too.”

I didn’t know if Ellen would accept my confession.

But I had decided to do it.

Luna didn’t say any more, but took a slow step, the same way she did when she had been fighting.

Swish.

And just as before, she vanished into the moonlight as if she had never been there. As if she had never been there at all from the start.

It felt like I had been dealing with a mirage all along.

Luna Artorius was gone.

Only then could I turn my attention to what truly mattered.

“Eleris!” I shouted.

“... Your Highness...”

Eleris, somewhat recovered, struggled to her feet and leaned against me.

“It’s a relief that you’re safe, but... what exactly happened...?” she asked.

“Yeah...”

It wasn’t as if I had won by fighting; I had driven away my would-be mother-in-law who had been trying to kill me by telling her that I liked her daughter.

It was such an absurd situation that both Eleris and I couldn’t help but feel a bit dazed.

BOOM!

The sounds of battle were raging in the distance. The battle was so intense that it seemed natural that none of the combatants had noticed the anomaly that had occurred where we were.

And then...

“Reinhart!”

Harriet, who had returned because I hadn’t followed them, called out to me as she ran over to me, accompanied by the grand duke.

“The moon suddenly got huge, and... Uh... Who’s that person beside you...?”

Neither Harriet nor her father could hide their confusion as they looked back and forth between me and Eleris, whom I was supporting.

They had come back to find me, only to see me supporting someone completely unexpected.

They didn’t know who Eleris was.

I was contemplating whether to explain that she was an injured person I had found nearby when suddenly...

Rumble...

The night sky, which was already dark, was enveloped in an even deeper darkness, forcefully drawing our eyes to it.

“What... is this?” Harriet muttered with a bewildered expression.

Just a moment ago, the moon had grown dozens of times larger and cast a chilling light everywhere. At that moment, though, something different was happening.

It was as if someone had intentionally distorted the middle of the night sky. No, rather than being distorted, it was as if someone had forcibly torn apart the middle of the night sky.

A massive, pitch-black fissure had appeared in the middle of the night sky. It was a bizarre sight, as though the night sky was a glass window that had been shattered, revealing an abyss behind it.

The grand duke, Eleris, Harriet, and I could only stare blankly at this second atmospheric anomaly that had suddenly appeared. All thoughts of our own situation were driven away.

The massive fissure in the night sky was just the beginning. From that abyss emerged dozens—no, hundreds—of beams of light, streaking down towards the earth below.

We all knew that they weren’t burning beams or flashes of light.

Those were objects, tumbling out from that abyss, burning as they flew through the air.

They were the light of meteors.

“A meteor shower...?”

Not just one, but hundreds of meteors began to rain down towards the ground.

“How...? This sort of magic exists only in myths...” the grand duke muttered blankly.

There was no time to ponder whether such magic existed in reality.

There was only one person capable of using such a level of magic.

Rother Dwin.

He must have cast that magic.