The Demon Prince goes to the Academy - Chapter 270

The fact that I didn’t scream was purely due to the amount of force I put into my jaw that made my molars clench.

If it weren’t for the divine spirit sustaining me, I would have passed out or bitten my tongue long ago.

And.

Comes.

Something.

In the dark, scared for it to reach for me, I rolled to the side.

-Snarl!

You don’t know what went by.

I just felt intensely threatened and instinctively rolled away.

Something brushed past where I was. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I knew it would have been dangerous.

One thing is clear.

Charlotte attacks me.

“Your Majesty!”

In response to the laughter, Tana, the viola, had already arrived at the instrument storage room.

“……Why are you here?”

As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, I could gradually make out the figure of Saviolin Tana, and then the figure of a being staring at me from the darkness. After a moment of being surprised by my presence, Saviolin Tana’s expression turned to one of confusion as she looked at what was in front of her.

“Uh, how did……. I ended up like this…….”

It was still staring at me with an eerie smile on its face. Was Charlotte’s condition worse than before?

“Step back. I’ll ask you questions later.”

As if to say that questioning the situation was for later, Savior Tana waved me off.

“Don’t move away from me. You will die.”

I could finally see what it was that had been creeping up on me.

The darkness, refined to a blade, as if animated, shoots out.

-Quack! Quack!

She drew her sword in a flash, activating her Auror Blade to meet the onrushing darkness.

With a roar, the shadows scattered into the air and shattered.

“Your Majesty, you must come to your senses!”

“……hhhh. Hmph.”

It didn’t respond to Tana’s words.

-Kurrrrrr

The darkness rose, and once again the stagnant blades rushed toward her.

Saviolin Tana stood in front of me, parrying Shadow’s blade with her auror blade.

In the blink of an eye, she was parrying blades from four or five directions with ghostly speed. The wind pressure on my skin as sword and shadow collided was a testament to the power involved.

Deals with darkness, or shadows.

That was Charlotte’s power.

Charlotte’s powers were as powerful as they were creepy.

But Tana had the upper hand. Every attack was blocked, and she even had time to spare.

However, she couldn’t hurt Charlotte.

You can’t attack, so you’re forced to play defense.

But it must be subdued.

Step by step, through the rain of shadows, she approached Charlotte.

Reach.

Savior Tana defies the odds and grabs Charlotte by the scruff of the neck.

-Flash!

Charlotte’s figure was nowhere to be seen as the lightning bolt illuminated the window.

“……damn.”

She gritted her teeth and stared at the spot where Charlotte had disappeared.

It was a short fight, but one that would have killed a normal man a hundred times over. I wouldn’t have lasted three rounds in that attack.

She turned around and looked at me.

Anger burned in her eyes, as palpable as depression.

-Pak!

“Boom!”

She grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and shoved me against the wall.

“You fool! Why didn’t you go back? Did you think you could be of any use to the king here? You fool! If I hadn’t come, you would have been dead! Don’t you realize how precious life is?”

She was spewing honest anger, as if she would blow my head off at any moment. She raised her sword and pointed it at my throat.

“There are things in the world you shouldn’t know, things you shouldn’t see. You have disregarded the King’s considerations, and you have disregarded mine. For that, you will pay with your life.”

She was ready to thrust her sword in and kill me at a moment’s notice.

Charlotte was a demon to behold.

It would be a huge scandal for the world to know that an imperial family, or the heir to the throne, is like that.

There will be tales of being kidnapped and cursed by a demon castle.

And, in reality, it’s probably not much different.

That can’t be a superpower.

It’s clear that the Devil has done something to Charlotte. Whether she knows it or not, that much is certain.

That’s why the imperial family kept it a secret. There was no reason to spare me, who had seen it with my own eyes.

Death was at hand, but strangely enough, I wasn’t afraid.

than Saviolin Tana’s surging momentum right now. Charlotte’s appearance just now was more terrifying.

“Of course I’m not worthy of my life.”

“……what?”

My life is not insignificant.

I don’t want to die.

However, I was more afraid that Charlotte wouldn’t be able to come back after looking like that.

“I’m just here because I care about Charlotte’s life as much as I care about my own, and I want to do something about it.”

“Arrogant bastard. You’re overconfident in your abilities.”

Her cold, searing eyes bore into me.

“I’m not being arrogant.”

“Then what is this presumptuous behavior of yours, if not arrogance!”

“It’s desperation.”

Charlotte’s life.

That was already a reason in itself for me.

Therefore, I entered the palace with only a strange sense of insecurity, defying the orders of the Empress and the Knights of Shanapelle to infiltrate the Palace of Spring.

For the first time, I risked my life to do something.

I can’t stand to see Charlotte’s life wasted.

She looks into my eyes. As if to see if there’s any suspicion, arrogance, or manipulation in my eyes.

Her sword trembled as she held it to my throat.

How long has it been.

Her sword was carefully lowered.

She cleared her throat, still glaring at me.

“Your disposition will be decided by His Majesty at daybreak tomorrow.”

But she had a look in her eyes that assured me no harsh punishment would be meted out.

“May I ask what’s going on?”

“No one knows.”

“What do you mean you don’t know ……?”

“No one knows what’s going on, no one knows. No one knows why you have this power, or why you are being consumed by it. Why does it take over your body at night?”

Tana’s despairing expression mirrored the state of mind of the imperial family at the moment.

“We know nothing. We can only speculate that something happened to your Majesty in Demon City.”

She gripped my shoulders, squinting into the darkness.

“Clearly, things are worse than before. Do not fall away from me. You, or rather, the ‘it’ that has taken over your body, moves through the darkness, sometimes in front of you, sometimes behind you, sometimes from the ceiling.”

As if she couldn’t hide more from what I’d already seen, she began to spill the beans about what she knew.

In fact, it appeared out of nowhere in front of me.

Because it moves on darkness.

So there’s no point in tying her up, and she’ll disappear even if you’re watching her.

So she lit up the entire palace. Because if there was no darkness, there would be no darkness to ride in.

Saviolin Tana saw that it worked and continued to bathe the palace in light at night.

But as of today, that method is broken.

It now also turns off the magic light on its own.

Night is its time.

“Does this happen every night?”

“Not every day. But it’s getting more frequent. And this is the first time I’ve ever had to extinguish all the lanterns. Also, your Majesty’s eyes……. Last time I looked, it was definitely only one of them…….”

Her eyes were shaking with frustration at the situation.

“His aggression is also getting stronger. At first, he wandered around the palace at night like he was sleepwalking……. For some time now…….”

She stammered.

She didn’t seem to be able to talk about the murders.

“Regardless, you must leave the palace. It’s dangerous here, and the punishment I’m about to inflict on you is only possible if you’re still alive. If you misbehave again, this time I will truly blow your head off.”

“Okay.”

Saviolin Tana took one cautious step after another, straining to maximize her senses.

In the dark, I can see through the darkness with enhanced eyesight. I can see in the dark more accurately than most humans. I’m also less prone to distracting brain light.

-shoot

Tana moved cautiously through the corridors of the palace in the spring, the sound of rain echoing in the air. I need to get down to the hall on the first floor and leave the palace. She’ll try to send me away first.

“What are you going to do?”

“We’ll have to subdue them, because that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Inevitably, violent means have been used to subdue them.

You’ve probably heard of blending into the darkness and stunning them before they can get away.

So far, so good.

Judging by her reaction, my gut reaction to the warning was one.

Today is a starting point.

Where only one pupil was covered, both eyes were now covered.

The force that’s been eating away at Charlotte has gotten even stronger today.

Tana ultimately fails to subdue Charlotte and ends up killing her.

So how the hell am I supposed to stop it?

The Devil is involved. Charlotte’s power is a byproduct of that.

That’s all we know.

Any shenanigans involving the devil.

But now wasn’t the time to think about it.

Tana didn’t move hastily. She looked forward, left, right, up, and down.

This was despite the fact that we weren’t far from the palace entrance.

-Quack! Quack!

The shadowy blades flying out of the darkness were the reason Tana couldn’t let her guard down. Those unearthly black blades were aimed at me, and they were aimed at Tana.

She fended off all of that single-handedly.

“Damn…….”

In the darkness, I saw her clench her right hand through clenched teeth.

Before the stairs to the first floor, Tana gritted her teeth as she saw the entrance beyond the great hall.

The entrance to the great palace was blocked by a black barrier.

It was shrouded in darkness, to be precise.

And in that darkness, Charlotte, still wearing her creepy smile, watched the two of us.

“I don’t think they’re going to let me out, let alone you.”

“……I think so.”

It stood in the doorway, unmoving, as if inviting me to come closer.

A being that can move on darkness, and use that darkness to attack us.

In this dark place, the two of us may be nothing more than toys.

They may be far away, but they may also be right in front of you, riding the darkness.

“Obviously, I was able to take him down without too much trouble. I just got caught off guard and got a little injured.”

If it was just a minor injury, I wouldn’t even mention it.

So, it’s not going to be a shallow injury.

“…….”

“But I don’t know what that thing is, so I’m not sure I can take it down safely this time.”

The continent’s strongest player was calmly looking at the possibility of defeat.

The mysterious opponent has the best battlefield and environment. And as of today, its power has only grown stronger.

But then there’s Saviolin Tana, who hasn’t had a day’s rest in over a year, and whose injuries have not been properly treated.

Tana was in the worst shape.

But even a loss due to poor conditioning is still a loss.

When you die, it’s all over. You can’t even say that if you were at your best, you could have taken him down without a fight.

No way. It’s not Charlotte who dies today, it’s Saviolin Tana.

Was my intuition warning me that Tana’s life was in danger, not Charlotte’s?

Saviolin Tana is one of the main players in the second half.

If she dies, that too will be an inflection point in history. In a very negative way.

But just because Saviolin Tana dies today doesn’t mean Charlotte will live.

If Charlotte doesn’t die today and you kill Savior Tana, Charlotte will die tomorrow.

If it’s a dangerous enough power to kill Tana, and I can’t control it, I’m going to have to deal with it immediately, even if it’s a princess.

Savior Tana dies, and so does Charlotte.

If so, I die today.

There is only one variable, me.

I have to do something about this situation.

But in both of these fights, I was too small a variable.

“Reinhardt, you said you did the enchantment yourself.”

“It’s …….”

I can’t say that it’s anything close to practical.

“I will fight to protect you, but there is no guarantee that I will be able to protect you. Remember, my priorities are first to deliver, second to me, and last to you.”

She handed me her sword.

“That shadow can’t be countered except with enchanted power. You can’t enchant a sword, but this one should be able to parry it.”

She could summon an Auror Sword, so she seemed to want to fight with it.

Sword of Saviolin Tana.

Not a holy object, but one of the Empire’s national treasures.

Tempesta, a windblade.

There before me was Ludwig with the Alsbringer, the sword that Ludwig had claimed as a relic of Tana and made his second sword.

“Okay.”

Summoning an Auror Sword will take a lot of stamina.

Don’t do anything that will make Tana’s condition worse.

“said. It can be difficult to protect…….”

-Snarl

I, summoned it.

“I have a black one.”

“Soul Binding……?”

Her eyes widened when she saw the milky white sword in my hand.

“This……. This……! Yeah, how could you do this!”

She stared in horror at the Tuan’s holy relic, Tiamata, in my hand.

“We’ll talk about that later.”

I never thought I’d use it in a place like this.

I now have to take my first real test with Tiamata.

It’s not a robber, it’s not a monster, it’s not a villain who deserves to die.

My first friend.

They have to play a real game against Charlotte.

She crumpled all her questions inside for now.

“……Yes.”

She and I both knew what we were doing, after all.