The Demon Prince goes to the Academy - Chapter 266

Charlotte’s bedroom wasn’t big enough to play soccer in.

There was a huge canopy bed with elegant silk curtains, a table for meetings, armchairs and a sofa. The furniture, including a bookcase, was arranged in an orderly fashion.

The walk-in closet was also in the bedroom, and there appeared to be a large bathroom.

The royal class dormitories were quite nice, but of course they couldn’t compare to the empress’s bedroom.

I had to wonder.

Does Charlotte want to dress herself or have her maids dress her? In the dormitory, she’ll be on her own.

Well, there are some things that you can’t put on and take off by yourself, so in that case, you’re going to have to hire someone.

Of course, I didn’t ask.

I looked around the bedroom and let out a finished thought.

“Is the bed……. too big?”

“……Truly, I commend you for your perspective.”

As if Charlotte knew that, she pointed to the massive bed, which was well over twice the size of a king.

It’s even as long vertically as it is horizontally.

“Well, to my horror, you’re right, that bed is too wide, and I didn’t realize that until I tried my dorm bed that it was uncomfortable.”

Dorm beds are big, but not that big.

I’ve seen some of these guys living in high rise apartments that are smaller than your bed, and this is a little smaller than a studio apartment?

“I thought I had to crawl all over the place to get out of bed, but apparently dorm beds only require one sideways roll?”

Charlotte’s comment about how she realized she’d been sleeping in an uncomfortable bed her whole life until she tried a smaller bed was hilarious.

The wording is cute.

I love that I can roll sideways for a lap and get out of bed.

Imagining Charlotte in that situation made me laugh, regardless of the seriousness of the situation.

“Do you want to lie down?”

“……I know you think I’m an asshole, but you know what, I’m not that bad.”

I know there’s such a thing as good! It’s just that other people don’t agree with it, but there is! I’m not one of those people who rolls around in the empress’s bed and says, “Hmph!

At my reaction, Charlotte covered her mouth and laughed.

“Why, that bed is honestly so big that if I slept on both ends, I wouldn’t be able to touch it all night, even if I was a terrible sleeper.”

“Oh, why would he do that?”

I’m casting bullshit on Charlotte to see if she’s lost her mind. Charlotte didn’t give me a tour of her vast bedroom.

There were a few portraits, but I didn’t ask about the people in them.

An adult female who resembles Charlotte.

I didn’t have to ask. It would have been a painful name for Charlotte.

Then.

Hard to see in human form.

What it is.

I stopped thinking.

“Want to see something fun?”

“What is it?”

Charlotte gave me a meaningful smile and grabbed my arm, leading me somewhere. Charlotte pointed to the wall where the bookshelves were.

“You know how in novels and stuff, royalty and royalty who live in places like this……. and when things get crazy, they go through a secret passageway or something.”

“……No?”

“Yes.”

Charlotte slipped her necklace into a groove in the wall between the bookshelves, a section of the wall embossed with columns.

-Dalcock

With a sound like that.

The wall rotated, sending me and Charlotte over to the other side.

Before the rotation was over, I panicked.

“……what is this.”

“Interesting, huh?”

In front of me was a staircase leading down.

Your bedroom is on the second floor.

However, this staircase seems to be designed to go all the way down to the basement, not the first floor.

“This is the secret passage to the Palace of Spring.”

“This……. Isn’t that a big secret?”

Charlotte nodded nonchalantly.

“Yes. I think the Emperor is the only one who knows about this besides me, and Dyrus doesn’t, and of course Lord Tana doesn’t.”

Charlotte shook her necklace.

“This is the key.”

It would have been handed down from generation to generation by the owners of the Palace of Spring.

“…… Aren’t you sure I’m not supposed to see this?”

“Why?”

Charlotte shakes her head.

“We’re friends.”

Still, it’s a bit…….

This is starting to get scary…….

“So, where does this lead to?”

“This is the heart of an empire, and secret passageways are not for the faint of heart.”

Charlotte led me down a long flight of stairs and into a room at the end.

That was the end of the secret passage.

It was just one big room. But there was definitely a path.

Rather than length.

Question.

“This is…….”

“If it’s a place to get away, it should be able to go anywhere.”

This one had a warp gate.

* * *

A tiny warp gate. Of course, it is currently disabled.

I don’t know how far this could go, but if it led to another warp gate within range, it would be a great way to get away.

“You can use spatial travel magic inside the palace?”

“If we can do it without, why can’t we do it in certain areas?”

Charlotte said, as if it were no big deal.

Why bother telling me all this?

Charlotte tells a very important secret just for fun. She doesn’t seem to have any other intention.

It’s not the kind of space you can brag about like a kid saying, “I have one of these in my house.

I’ll have to take this into consideration when the gates open. It’s inactive, so I don’t know if there will be any monsters here, but it was definitely a place to check.

Once we were out of the bedroom, Charlotte showed me around.

There were tons of spaces, but no or very few people in them.

As a result, the whole thing felt empty.

“It’s a big place, and there’s not a lot of space, and there are fewer people these days.”

The Palace of Spring also seemed deserted, though not as much as the White Palace in Arnaka, which I visited last time.

This is a different kind of emptiness.

The White Palace looked like it was meant to be.

The Palace of Spring doesn’t seem like the place to be.

It feels like a place that was never deserted, but is becoming deserted.

Somehow.

Like dying.

It felt like that.

After exploring every inch of the palace. By now it was getting late and the sunset light was pouring in.

“Everything okay?”

I smirked at Charlotte’s comment.

I’d say a palace with a tiny warp gate in the basement isn’t much, but…….

“I’d say, ‘What are you talking about……. To be honest, it is.”

In the end, so what.

This is what I was thinking.

“That’s honest.”

Charlotte seemed to like my answer.

The palace is nothing more than a huge building. It’s just a bunch of empty rooms, and Charlotte isn’t the owner of this palace, she’s just someone who lives in a room in this palace.

The warm glow of the sunset bathed the corridors in red, but the lack of people basking in the light made it all the more lonely.

In such a lonely sunset. Charlotte, who has finished her tour of the palace, looks at me.

“That’s weird.”

“……what?”

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to do that for a while.”

He had a wistful smile on his face.

“I wanted to bring a friend over and say, ‘Hey, I live in a place like this. I wanted to show them around and tell them that it’s actually not that great to live in a place like this. Just once.”

Charlotte looked like she’d just gotten her wish out of nowhere.

It was a bit of a push, but Charlotte was actually hoping for this.

So I pretended to fit in, but I didn’t like it, so he brought me along, even though he knew Charnafel would disapprove.

“You seem to know my mind, Reinhardt. It’s strange, really……. I wonder why you know me so well. Why……. to be there for me when I need you.”

I felt like I knew what Charlotte needed right now.

Someone who will just be there.

That seemed to be what was needed.

“Actually, I’m leaving Temple soon.”

The words seemed to stop me in my tracks.

I don’t know what the warning was, but I’m guessing it was trying to get me to realize this.

At this rate, if I spent my time worrying about other things, Charlotte would suddenly disappear.

You’ll have a frustrating time, not knowing why she’s gone. You won’t be able to ask Bertus if Charlotte is okay.

Bertus.

Charlotte said.

Did Bertus lose in the end?

What about the murder in the Palace of Spring? Was Bertus trying to kill Charlotte and failing? If so, that would mean trouble on Bertus’ part, but why?

Is the Spring Palace so deserted because of an imperial dispute, and has Saviolin Tana been assigned Charlotte’s bodyguard in case something goes wrong?

“Is this about Bertus?”

Charlotte’s reaction to my question was odd.

“So, what are you going to do about it?”

“……what?”

“If I lost the throne contest after all, and that’s why I look like this, and that’s why I’m quitting the Temple……. If that’s what it is.”

Charlotte looks at me.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“So, what happens?”

You already know the answer.

“It’s the end of an imperial family that has lost an imperial succession battle: die now or die a little later.”

Charlotte stares out at the palace.

“He could die right away, or he could be banished far away and then die quietly in exile, like he’s forced to do because he can’t resist the pleas of his subjects to get rid of him, or he could be robbed or attacked on the way to exile……. He won’t make it out alive.”

Charlotte explains it and then looks at me.

“If I ever get to that point, what are you going to do?”

I didn’t have to think long.

No, it wasn’t a struggle.

“Let’s save him.”

“How?”

“Somehow.”

“Anyone with a horse can do that.”

“No.”

I took a step toward Charlotte, ignoring her comment.

“My superpower, did you forget?”

“…….”

“If I believe it, it happens.”

Charlotte stood still, watching me.

“I’m going to save you, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Suppress.

“Yeah, I can’t.”

I looked at Charlotte.

Okay, that’s just a stretch.

“But I forced myself to become a psychic, and I succeeded in enhancing my powers, and I forced myself to be a beggar on the street, and I forced myself to enter this palace of spring.”

In my forced life, I am only forced once again. My forcing has always been real.

It’s only going to happen again.

I believe so.

“I will save you no matter what, and if I fail to save you, I will kill Bertus.”

“!”

Anyone can say they’re going to try to save it somehow.

But not just anyone can say they’ll kill the next emperor if they don’t save you.

Charlotte’s jaw dropped in shock as she realized the insanity of what I was saying.

I’m going to do that.

Bertus may be my friend right now, but if he kills Charlotte, he’s no longer my friend.

Charlotte tried to understand the meaning of my words, and then let out a hysterical laugh at her own failure.

“You……. What the hell did I do to you to deserve this? No matter how much you think……. why you have to do this to me, say those things. I really don’t know…….”

“We’re friends.”

“!”

A phrase I’ve thought about a few times today.

At the last echo of the words, Charlotte forgot them.

After a long moment of silence, Charlotte swallows hard and looks at me with a weak smile.

“Too bad.”

What’s missing.

“I know you’ve been doing this all day, and I know you’re worried about me, but this is enough.”

The reason for my strange behavior today was, of course, Charlotte.

“It’s not because of Bertus, so…….”

Charlotte pinched me lightly on the cheek.

“There’s no chance of you messing up this time.”

I can’t change it for anything. I can’t make it work for me…….

He looked like he’d been given a death sentence.

“Thanks. Reinhard.”

Tears formed in the corners of Charlotte’s eyes.

“But I wanted to hear you say you’d buy it for me.”

Not my chance.

As if the words weren’t enough, Charlotte was crying and laughing.