The Demon Prince goes to the Academy - Chapter 273

I woke up sometime in the afternoon.

The temple is glowing today anyway.

Two consecutive days of absence.

Charlotte told me not to worry, she had an excuse for that.

So is deleting my access history.

Instead of rejoicing that she was safe and that the power that threatened to consume her had been quelled. She thought about what she needed to do right now and went about it.

You give up on everything. When things change, you do what you need to do immediately.

It was a pretty bizarre experience.

The people of the Palace of Spring are very tight-lipped, and I was told that my presence here would not be known to the outside world, so I didn’t wander around inside.

I was only in Charlotte’s bedroom.

I shake my head as Charlotte tells me that I can go back, that I’ll be back at the Temple starting tomorrow.

“We’ll give it another day, though.”

“…….”

Charlotte glared at me.

“You mean, you’re going to stay in my bedroom for another day?”

“Uh.”

“…… Reinhardt. I appreciate you so much, and I’ll admit that you mean a lot to me, but are you sure you’re not being too shameless?”

Just because you slept in it one night doesn’t mean it’s yours!

Charlotte looked incredulous.

“Uh-huh, for your own safety.”

“Why would you say that!”

I boldly declared that I was going to sleep in your room.

I know it’s important, but it’s a bit of an asshole.

But I have to go back to the temple today, and all my classes are over. I wanted to keep an eye on Charlotte for another day.

If nothing happened today, I would be able to assume that I was really okay for the time being.

Charlotte didn’t kick me out because she knew I had a point. It’s just that up until now, I’ve only put her in my bedroom because she’s injured, which is ridiculous because she has the nerve.

“……Okay, I’ll go to bed in the guest room then.”

“What are you talking about?”

I shook my head at Charlotte’s words.

What is he talking about?

“I’m going to stay here for another day to see how you’re doing, but what’s the point of that if you’re sleeping outside, you should be sleeping here.”

Charlotte’s lips quivered at my words. Her face was getting whiter and whiter.

“Gee, gee……. now. Are you going to sleep with me?”

No!

I don’t understand!

“You don’t have to say that, I’m just saying that I need to make sure everything is okay when you sleep!”

“That, that……. That is……. I know that, but…….”

Charlotte shuddered, never thinking she would dare to make such a request.

“What am I doing, just watching?”

“Why, why are you not sleeping and watching people sleep!”

“No, if you sleep, it’s your problem, if you don’t sleep, it’s your problem, what do you want me to do, is this guy funny?”

“Ooh, funny guy……?”

Charlotte seemed to be shaken by my ramblings.

What to say.

Why am I listening to this?

The response is that Harriet is a luxury item, but so is Charlotte. In fact, Charlotte probably grew up being treated with more respect.

Most importantly, Harriet has gotten used to it, so she’ll do it to some extent, while Charlotte is still immune and will react.

“Hey, that’s the one……. Give me that. You’re scaring me.”

Charlotte wanted her brooch back.

He’s afraid I’ll do something weird like sneak in while he’s sleeping to make sure he’s okay and then go back out.

“Giving and taking away is the worst thing, and you think I’m going to take away?”

“Oh, no, I want it back, I want it back, I want it back, I didn’t give it to you!”

Charlotte and I fooled around in the spacious bedroom for a while.

Eventually, Charlotte got tired and walked away.

“@Huck……. 허억……. ……. This, that. What a waste……. Just to exercise……. I’m only getting fitter…….”

An exhausted Charlotte sank to the floor of her bedroom and glared at me.

“Maybe you should work out too.”

“This is the worst!”

Charlotte squealed like she was really annoyed.

He’s the one who can raise the Empress.

Except for Bertus, I’m the only one in the world.

* * *

Eventually deciding to stay another day, I remained in Charlotte’s bedroom.

Charlotte seemed to fidget.

No, I’m going to sleep on the couch, so why be so nervous?

After all, this is probably the first time you’ve ever been in this situation.

Sure, it was worse in the Demon Castle, but that’s not the same as this.

Meals were brought in by the users, and of course I hid. Charlotte said she didn’t need the market, and instructed me to bring more.

I thought I’d be able to eat a lot because I’d been starving all day, but I ended up eating less because I was starving.

Charlotte looked at me over the leftover food.

“Can I not eat anymore?”

“If you starve yourself too much, you won’t eat as much.”

“……Yes.”

I’m sure Charlotte knows that.

A sumptuous meal eaten in the Allied command barracks after a long period of starvation.

Charlotte’s face became a little wistful and sad as she remembered.

* * *

After dinner.

I was in my bedroom, so I didn’t have much to do, and the night fell.

Charlotte was whimpering like a puppy that needed to poop. She seemed to be trying to do something, then she’d get up, then she’d hesitate, then she’d get up, then she’d hesitate again.

What’s wrong with him?

Eventually, Charlotte grunted, then stood up, seemingly determined.

“Uh, that……. I’m going to step out for a minute.”

“……where?”

“In another room, please…….”

“You grow up here, what do you expect me to be around all the time, just checking in today?”

At my words, Charlotte’s axe eyes widened.

“No, I mean, I’m going to wash it!”

a.

I’m trying to wash up in the bedroom, but I can see through you.

“……If you wash it, you wash it, why would you need to wash it in another room?”

“Yeah, you’re not going to hear me…….”

Charlotte’s face fell.

What is.

What should I call this sensitivity?

I don’t like the idea of someone hearing me wash my face. Shouldn’t I?

Is that what you mean by girlie sensibilities at this age, I’m not sure?

Doesn’t that have anything to do with the fact that there’s someone taking a bath in the first place?

Why bother in the first place?

Me……. I don’t know…….

I have no idea what’s right and what’s wrong with this stuff!

“I don’t think I’m going to tell you what to do with ……. You’re on your own.”

“Me, you can’t tell me what to do, I’m supposed to do it, ugh!”

Charlotte stormed out of the bedroom, looking exasperated.

While Charlotte went to wash up, I washed up in the bathroom in my bedroom.

It was big, but it didn’t go in the tub.

It was only after I washed up.

A change of clothes.

No…….

The school uniform I was wearing was bloodied and torn in places, and I was wearing a pair of pajamas that I had found somewhere.

I didn’t know what to do with myself, but Charlotte came back a few minutes later.

Over the sound of the water, Charlotte’s voice came from beyond the bathroom.

-You, are you washing in my bathroom?

“Then you don’t wash?”

-u, ugh……. ugh…….

Charlotte seemed to stomp her foot, not sure if she hated it or not.

No, I could use it. Come on, I can’t even get out of your bedroom.

“Forget it. I don’t have a change of clothes.”

-……?

“Get me some clothes.”

-……Eh?

Charlotte was silent for a moment, as if she never thought she’d hear that in her life.

No matter how you slice it, I saved Charlotte’s life, aren’t we going too far now?

Bring her clothes.

Something like this.

I mean, it’s not that she’s important in the first place, it’s just that it’s kind of trashy to say something like that while borrowing someone else’s bathroom.

I was thinking about that.

-…… before the door.

Charlotte said it in a voice that, even when Charlotte pretended to listen, was full of mixed emotions.

* * *

The Imperial Palace wasn’t all about women’s clothes.

When I collapsed in the first place, Savior Tana must have grabbed some clothes from somewhere to put on me.

After a bit of a fuss.

Charlotte and I were both in our pajamas.

……, which is already a huge scandal in itself if anyone finds out. Regardless of the details, it’s not a prince and a beggar, it’s an empress and a beggar.

But we’re doing this because of our circumstances.

I was sitting in the rocking chair in Charlotte’s bedroom, and she was lying in bed.

“……Are you going to sleep with that?”

“No?”

“Well, then……. Chi, are you going to sleep in the bed?”

Charlotte says in a clearly panicked voice.

I have a feeling that if I blindly ask to sleep in their bed, they’ll be forced to give it up.

“Oh, come on, you’re acting like it’s okay that we’re going to sleep in the same bed and never touch.”

“Well, that’s what you said, and you didn’t really mean to do that!”

Charlotte exclaims in panic.

By the way, that screaming thing, that’s okay, right?

I’m pretty sure it’s soundproof. If it weren’t for my superpower, I wouldn’t be able to overhear conversations in the room.

The Charlotte of yesterday seemed to have let go of everything.

He would tell me things, reveal very important secrets, and say random things.

But now that she’s out of harm’s way, Charlotte begins to feel embarrassed.

I’ll be able to rethink my life.

That made me smile.

“What the……. You gave me a weird look…….”

Charlotte blushed and pulled the covers up to half her face.

“Oh, whatever, are you really going to sleep in the bed!”

Is it because I was raised with a precious body that I care so much about this?

“I’m not going to sleep.”

“……?”

“I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay, and if you want me to sleep with you, don’t worry. I’m not going to do that to your face.”

Sitting in the rocking chair, arms crossed, I stare blankly at the ceiling of Charlotte’s room.

What ulterior motive could I have for doing this?

I just need to make sure you’re okay.

I just need to know that it’s going to be okay, and that’s all I need to know.

“…… aren’t you tired?”

“It would be weirder if I ate one of the treasures of the Elixir and it wasn’t okay. Never mind. I don’t mind leaking for a day or so.”

I said that because I thought it would make him feel less sorry for me.

“Well, just……. over there at……. on the other end.”

“If I’m going to sleep, I’m going to sleep on the couch, so don’t bother.”

“…….”

Charlotte was silent for a moment.

However, to make room for me, I lay in the center of the bed and then crawled to the edge. so I could sleep on the other end.

Being on the edge also means that it’s a little closer to me, sitting in the rocking chair, quite a distance from the bed.

The chairs were facing away from Charlotte, not toward her.

Me sitting, Charlotte lying down.

We were side by side.

I was sitting next to Charlotte.

“Reinhardt.”

“Uh.”

“……I’m not sure why you’re doing this to me.”

“Your body deserves to be treated with respect, doesn’t it?”

“I’m not doing this because I’m a princess.”

“…….”

Because Charlotte is a princess, there are plenty of people who would give their lives for her.

But no matter how I look at it, I don’t feel like that kind of person.

You’re not risking your life to save them because of who you are.

Why.

Why.

Charlotte seemed curious about that.

“Well, I guess so.”

I had to say that because you can’t explain the unexplainable.

I wasn’t looking at Charlotte’s face.

Charlotte seems to be watching me.

As if deciding something, Charlotte cautiously opens her mouth.

“The devil, what have you done to me?”

“…… is it?”

It’s been a longtime secret.

He’d kept it a secret because if it came out, everything about him would be gone. You wouldn’t be able to tell anyone.

Charlotte tells me in her own words what I’ve been guessing.

“I don’t know what it was, but……. I felt so sick, so scared, and I felt like I was sick in my soul, not my body.”

“…….”

I couldn’t help but empathize with Charlotte, so I listened.

“I can’t figure out what it is. I’m still……. I don’t know what happened to me. But……. I’ve been locked up in some kind of prison in the Demon Castle ever since. I was kidnapped……. along with everyone else.”

“…….”

Charlotte’s voice was becoming increasingly shaky. It sounded like she was about to say something she was afraid to say.

“Reinhardt.”

“Uh.”

“Hand……. for me?”

I held out my hand, and Charlotte took it.

Charlotte’s palms broke out in a cold sweat.

It pains me to say it. Because of what happened.

Still holding my hand, Charlotte catches her breath.

“I’ve been starving for too long.”

“…….”

“Everyone there had been surviving, for too long, on too little to eat and drink, and. By the time the war intensified, they gave us nothing.”

“…….”

“People, too……. for a long time……. haven’t had anything to eat.”

“Charlotte.”

I stand still and look at Charlotte.

Tears were already welling up in Charlotte’s eyes.

“If you can’t say it, you don’t have to say it.”

“…….”

“No, don’t tell me.”

“…….”

“You’re tired, stop talking.”

That’s enough to tell you what happened.

Just the sound of Charlotte’s voice, full of fear, dread, and guilt, tells us something.

Formless, shattered by something.

Because I remember the sight.

We know that Charlotte is not talking about cannibalism, but about what happens afterward.

When told not to speak, Charlotte instead burst into tears.

“Only me……. If it weren’t for me. If it wasn’t for me……. I could have bought it all. If only I. If only I. If it weren’t for me…… I could have……. I’m everything. If only I…… Uh, Mom……. Uh, mom……. Mom is…….”

I say.

Charlotte couldn’t have done it for anyone else.

Even if everyone knows the devil has done something to you.

I realize that this is a new story for me right now.

Otherwise, you wouldn’t be telling the story with all this sobbing, like you’re confessing your sins.

I had no words of comfort, no words of sympathy, no words to rationalize it.

I just squeezed Charlotte’s hand.

“Hmph! Hmph! Hmph! Hmph! Hmph…….”

Charlotte cried too, squeezing my hand hard.

For a very long time.

* * *

After calming down, Charlotte told me what had happened so far.

Those who know about Charlotte’s abilities are of two minds.

The first are those known for their superpower of manipulating shadows.

The second is those who know they have these abilities because they’ve been tortured by a demon.

There are only four of the latter: Dyrus, Sabiolin Tana, the Handmaid of the Palace of Spring, and the Emperor.

“And Bertus?”

“I hope you don’t know, but……. but I think you do. Or if they do, it’s probably recent.”

The power to manipulate shadows is already a sinister and grotesque force in and of itself, so you can weave in as much negativity as you want.

Charlotte was looking for a way to control or eliminate the ability, which is why she sought out the Sealer.

But it was all for naught, as Charlotte’s power grew and grew, consuming her.

Sleepwalking.

At some point, Charlotte would suddenly wake up in the middle of the night in strange places.

“No way……. you then.”

I remembered Charlotte, barefoot in the middle of the night in the hallway of the mansion on a group mission.

“That was the first time.”

For some reason, Charlotte’s appearance was a little strange.

After that, he said, it didn’t happen for a while.

But, once again, it happened to Charlotte in Temple’s dormitory.

After the incident in Temple Dormitory, Charlotte realized that something was seriously wrong and moved out of the dorm and began living in the Palace of Spring.

The sleepwalking continued, and became more frequent.

Later, he was said to have wandered the palace, consumed by his powers, tinged with darkness. Until then, he was fine.

He was unconscious and couldn’t remember, but he didn’t attack anyone, and he didn’t resist when Darius and the handmaids guarding the bedroom door took him back into the bedroom.

At some point, though, I started seeing visits appear and disappear all over the palace, even though they were never open.

Then, one of the maids attacked and killed him.

Charlotte didn’t remember anything.

But Charlotte realized it was too late, it was all over.

He told the emperor to just kill him.

The emperor would not allow it.

Instead, I sent Saviolin Tana to the Palace of Spring and reduced the population of all the palaces to a minimum.

Until you find a way to cope.

The imperial family couldn’t figure it out.

I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that if I hadn’t been there, Charlotte wouldn’t have come back. That day was the last time.

After that day, Saviolin Tana would have been dead, and Charlotte would eventually have had to die on the Emperor’s orders.

After all, if it wasn’t for me, Charlotte would have died.

“I was afraid to fall asleep.”

“…… would have been.”

“But if I don’t sleep, I’ll still be unconscious. I knew sleep wasn’t the problem, but……. I was just, like, scared.”

Charlotte’s hands no longer felt the fear that came with a cold sweat.

Only warm body heat is transmitted.

“Reinhardt.”

“I’m listening.”

“I think I’m going to get a good night’s sleep for the first time in a long time.”

Charlotte closed her eyes as she said that.

“Good.”

I, for one, could only say.

“Reinhardt.”

“Uh.”

“Tell me nothing will happen. Tell me.”

I stare at Charlotte.

By the power of words.

I, eagerly declare.

“Nothing will happen.”

“Yes.”

Charlotte nods, eyes still closed.

“I’ll believe it.”

With a faint smile, Charlotte gradually drifted off to sleep.

I listened as Charlotte’s breathing evened out.

I stare at Charlotte’s peaceful face as she falls asleep.

And.

[Special Achievement – Turning Point in History].

[A major character (Charlotte de Gradias) who wasn’t supposed to be in the original worldline survived].

[The future has changed dramatically].

[Earned 1,000 achievement points].

The exact same message came to mind as in the prologue.

I know it’s a bit late, but why am I getting this message now?

Shouldn’t this message have come from last night’s battle?

I stare at Charlotte’s sleeping face. Charlotte’s hand is clasped tightly in mine, and her face is peaceful.

Tonight.

I guess it meant something that I stayed until Charlotte was safely asleep.

I don’t know what this means, but.

As long as nothing happened, I decided not to wonder what was trying to happen.

Nothing should happen.

You’ll be fine.

I’ll make it so.

By the power of self-implication.

By the power of words.

I said in my mind. Continue.

I believed it, and I declared it countless times.