Chapter 632
Originally a tranquil palace, the White Palace of Arunaria was now even more silent.
A stillness far from gloom.
Silence often invoked a certain degree of fear, but the stillness in Arunaria was closer to solemnity.
As the Archduke had said, it was a lonely place, and that loneliness persisted.
The Archduke had accompanied me as I climbed the stairs, reaching a spot where Arunaria was visible in the distance.
The Archduke said nothing.
He merely walked a little ahead, and I followed quietly, wondering if he had anything to say.
I somehow felt like I was being punished.
To be honest, I was in a position where I had to be cautious.
Having no words to say, I had come here to ask the Archduke to take my side.
If my insolence had gone this far, wouldn't I have to understand if the Archduke wanted to strike me down?
The Archduke had suffered tremendous damage because of my existence.
His reputation had hit rock bottom because his daughter had disappeared with the Demon King. The people of the duchy were hated, and they were treated coldly by the allied forces.
The long-established and honorable Saint Owan family's reputation had been thrown into a gutter in an instant.
What is honor?
For most people, it might not mean much, but for someone like the Archduke of Saint Owan, it must have been very important.
And it had all evaporated because of my existence.
The Archduke remained silent for a long time, and I couldn't help but think about such things as I continued to gaze at the palace.
Were they all doing well?
Harriet's mother and her brothers.
I knew that all of her brothers were mages and were serving in the allied forces. And I knew they were safe.
But being safe and doing well were worlds apart.
I didn't even have the right to ask if they were all well, so I couldn't say a word.
For over an hour.
The Archduke said nothing, and I was as mute as if I'd eaten honey.
It wasn't just the feeling of being punished; it was clear that I was actually being punished.
At the end of that long, drawn-out silence.
"How strange."
The Archduke suddenly said that.
Strange?
The Archduke stared at me intently.
"You seem to be quite restless."
In fact, I was.
Wouldn't it be even stranger to be confident in this situation?
Am I supposed to stand tall and be forthright?
"Well, I... I..."
"..."
I wanted to say something, but my lips wouldn't part.
I had nothing to say to the Archduke, of all people.
He must know that I didn't kidnap Harriet and that she followed me of her own accord. But what would that mean? Hiding secrets and becoming close with his daughter was already a despicable act.
The Archduke looked at me.
"Do you think you've wronged me?"
No.
If this isn't wrong, then what is it?
"...Yes."
I had no idea what the Archduke was thinking.
"Hmm..."
After some contemplation, the Archduke slowly nodded.
"Well then, tell me."
Was he asking me to be honest?
"What do you think you've done wrong so far?"
Leaning on his cane,
The Archduke stood before me like a judge and calmly spoke.
"Whether it's what you've done to me."
"Or what you've done to my daughter."
"Or, for example..."
"To the world."
"To humanity."
"If you think you've done wrong, then what is it?"
The person who had never once dabbled in evil power or cunning.
The one who had pursued the righteous path with righteous power, living for noble and just causes.
The person who had done nothing wrong, but because of me, lost far too much.
Yet, without ever expressing a hint of sorrow or resentment, he carried out his duties and continued to do so.
Archduke Saint Owan.
"Speak about that."
He was perhaps the only person with the right to judge me.
It was a long story.
But ultimately, it was a story that culminated in an attempt to save everyone, leading to the current situation.
What was Akasha, who was Cantus Magna, why the Tomb of the Lich was created, and what was the original purpose for using Akasha.
By the time everything was revealed, it was already too late.
For too long, I had lied, and no one could trust me. The ones who felt the greatest betrayal couldn't help but hate me.
The story of trying to change the future but instead fulfilling it.
The story that if nothing had been done, nothing would have happened.
"It seems you've received a curse from the gods, not their blessing."
The Duke, having heard the entire story, spoke simply.
Were the two divine relics I possessed not a blessing, but a curse?
"Rather, it's humanity that has received the curse."
But, as if reading my thoughts, the Duke corrected himself.
A curse on humanity?
"If the Demon King had no intention of harming humanity and intended to use Akasha to escape to another world, there would have been no reason to fight."
Valier wanted not war but escape.
Humanity, fearing the threat of demons, invaded Darkland, slaughtering not only the Demon King but most of the demons as well.
They did not try to understand; they were afraid.
It all happened because of a misunderstanding.
"Isn't it that humanity is on the brink of destruction because of the misunderstanding that led to the annihilation of its neighbors?"
The Gate Incident, too, occurred ultimately due to misunderstanding and miscommunication.
"Whether or not you wanted revenge, the truth that the Demon King has taken the most decisive and certain revenge on humanity does not change."
In the end, it was both revenge and not revenge, and I couldn't deny that.
I played the biggest role in the extinction of humanity.
That truth would never change.
"How can this be anything other than the curse of the gods?"
Receiving back what was given, through misunderstanding.
The Duke seemed to think that this was the judgment and curse of the gods upon humanity.
Was this disaster a curse of the gods?
The Duke looked up at the gloomy sky.
"Of course, whether this is truly the curse of the gods or a horrible coincidence, we cannot know."
How could one possibly calculate the probability if it were just a terrible coincidence?
"But even if this is the curse of the gods, your guilt does not disappear, and it doesn't mean you're guiltless. In the end, the fact that all of this originated from you remains unchanged."
Yes.
I don't even want to say that I did nothing wrong.
Guilt and responsibility do not disappear.
The Gate Incident happened in order to save me.
Antirianus had impulsively charged, Sarkegaar had argued fiercely, and Eleris had activated Akasha.
That, too, was an undeniable truth.
"However, isn't it too cruel to say that you should have rather died?"
"..."
"When I regained consciousness, having lost all my memories, I found that my kingdom had been destroyed, my father, who was once the absolute ruler and king of a world, had perished alongside the hero, and I was left with nothing but an empty title, unable to be anything more than a mark of shame. The only thing I knew was that the world would soon be destroyed…"
"..."
"You've come so far, haven't you? No, how you even managed to come this far… isn't it miraculous?"
The fact that I was the last Archdemon of the destroyed Demon Realm was an extremely unfavorable condition for my survival.
It would have been better if I were just some random human, a nobody.
Yet, in the end, I managed to reach the brink of destroying the world, I reconstructed Darkland, and now humans live there alongside us.
Countless coincidences saved me, and countless coincidences led me to this point.
But in the end, I became the king of the rebuilt Demon Realm.
How did I do it?
The Duke found it strange, and as I traced back my steps from the beginning, I couldn't help but wonder how any of it was possible.
If someone had hinted at the beginning that I would end up like this in a few years, I wouldn't have believed them either.
"You may not be the most powerful Demon King in history, but you will be the most extraordinary."
So that's how it would be.
The reconstruction of a destroyed kingdom.
I had accomplished the reconstruction of Darkland.
That's why I could call myself a Demon King, not just Reinhardt, and face the Duke.
And then, destruction.
I succeeded in taking revenge on humanity.
I didn't achieve everything I set out to do.
But, the things that a Demon King should do were all successfully completed.
"Now you stand on the brink of annihilating humanity and ruling the entire world. You'll be the most extraordinary and perfect Demon King in history."
And then, becoming the ruler of the world.
"Isn't it ironic that you, who never wanted to be a Demon King, have become the closest being to fulfilling the demons' long-held wish that no one has ever achieved?"
I never wanted to be a Demon King.
I didn't want to be anything like a king.
"It seems that Archdemons are cursed to never live the lives they want."
Yes.
If Archdemons are a race cursed like that.
I didn't want to rebuild Darkland, but I did.
I didn't wish for humanity's destruction, but humanity was destroyed.
Perhaps, in the lineage of Archdemons, I was the only Demon King who didn't want to become one and didn't harbor hatred for humans.
That's why I destroyed all of humanity, rebuilt the ruined kingdom, and now have the opportunity to own the entire world.
Is there really such a curse?
Is that why Demon Kings have been failing?
"Then, we're in big trouble."
"Big trouble, you say?"
If there is such a curse, it's a big problem.
"The Gate Incident won't end."
If Archdemons have such a curse, the Gate Incident won't end.
Then this, too, would become yet another farce.
I shuddered at the thought.
"Ha-ha... I suppose so."
The archduke laughed weakly at my words.
Whether such a curse existed or not was unknown.
What mattered was that the archduke seemed to understand how desperately I wanted to put an end to the Gate incident.
"So in the end, you're saying it's all your fault?"
The archduke asked me to point out any wrongdoings.
So I told him about everything that had happened up until now.
"That... Hurting Harriet... that was my fault as well..."
Even though she had chosen to follow me, it was ultimately a wrong I had committed against the archduke.
"I didn't contact you all this time... You must have been worried. Anyway... it's all my fault. The state of the world, everything..."
"The state of the world?"
"Yes."
"Why would that be your fault?"
The archduke looked at me.
"You said it yourself. The state of the world resulted from my actions. So it's my fault..."
"It could be your sin, but why would it be a mistake?"
Is there a difference between sin and mistake?
I couldn't quite grasp what the archduke was trying to say.
"Let's say you really caused the Gate incident with the intention of destroying humanity. Let's assume that."
The archduke spoke softly, tapping his staff on the marble steps.
"Even so, wouldn't that be acceptable?"
"…What?"
What was he talking about?
"Darkland never considered waging war against humanity, but humans invaded the demon realm, destroyed your kingdom, killed your father, and even turned people you considered family into slaves."
Ah.
"If, after suffering all that, you sought to destroy humanity, who could say that your feelings and actions were unjust or mistaken?"
Many people had died.
If I had truly wanted it and caused it to happen, it would be a sin.
But it wouldn't be unjust.
The archduke was talking about revenge.
Killings and massacres driven by vengeance can't be justified, and thus are sins.
However, the feelings of revenge can be justified.
There might be sin.
But it could be permissible.
You had the right to do so.
That was what the archduke was saying.
I was allowed to do so.
Therefore, although there might be sin, there was no mistake, according to the archduke.
From the beginning, the archduke had asked me to point out any mistakes I thought I had made.
The archduke had never said I had made a mistake.
"The mistake was what I did to you."
"…What?"
"If the war in the demon realm was fundamentally wrong from the start, then the mistake lies with me, who wronged you first."
The archduke had participated in the war in the demon realm.
So if the war was fundamentally flawed from the start, and the result was the destruction of Darkland,
the one who committed the unforgivable sin was not me, but the archduke.
"Even if it were a just war, for the heir of a ruined country to seek revenge against all who participated in the war in the demon realm would be, in a way, a natural course of action."
"…."
From the moment I found out I was a demon king.
The archduke had believed that everything I did to humanity, while sinful, was justifiable.
Since I had the right to take revenge on all humans, he had accepted everything I did.
In a strict sense, the archduke was one of my enemies.
As the archmage, the archduke had undoubtedly achieved tremendous accomplishments in the war against the demon realm, which inevitably meant that he had killed numerous demons.
If I were truly Valier, the archduke would have been one of the people with the highest positions on my list of those responsible for the massacre.
"Why have you come to your enemy's dwelling with the expression of a sinner, seeking to apologize?"
Although he had worn the mask of a human in the past, there had been no change in his demeanor even in situations where it was only natural to remove the mask, now that it was known I was the demon king.
"I... I don't understand."
The archduke seemed unable to comprehend my arrival at his place with the attitude of a sinner, watching his every move.
"I see..."
The archduke looked up at the sky.
Beyond not possessing the vengeful feelings I should have had, I was only thinking about what I had done wrong to the archduke, without even a single grain of hatred.
"My daughter was right."
The archduke spoke in a voice laden with deep guilt.
"You may be sinful, but you did nothing wrong."
The archduke muttered blankly.
"I have both sinned and made mistakes."
Once he learned the truth about the war in the demon realm and the truth about the previous demon king Valier, the war had been nothing more than a massacre.
Humanity hadn't achieved salvation through the extermination of the demons.
Instead, they had brought about the Gate incident as a consequence.
It wasn't just me who should have remained still.
From the beginning, it was an issue where humanity should have remained still.
I wasn't Valier.
Therefore, I couldn't have any feelings of revenge towards the archduke.
The archduke was simply misunderstanding.
The fact that everything ultimately stemmed from me wasn't solely because I was the cause of the Gate incident.
This injustice had been created by my hand from the very beginning.
Thus, there was no room for feelings of vengeance or resentment, only deepening guilt.
Just as the archduke felt guilty towards me,
I, too, could only feel guilt.
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