Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 353

The question was whether or not to go to the labyrinth. And surprisingly, the answer came easily.

The next day...

“Let’s go,” Charlotte decided quickly after hearing about the labyrinth.

Naturally, Tana shook her head, trying to dissuade Charlotte. “Your Highness, it’s too dangerous.”

“If I was going to send someone else in my place, there would have been no reason to come here,” replied Charlotte. “I’m fully prepared to take the risk.”

Charlotte was right. If she’d intended to delegate the task to others, she could have given the orders from the Spring Palace without making the journey herself. She had come to do things herself, and if she were just going to stay inside the garrison and give orders, then there would have been no reason to come.

“Even so, we can take time to uncover the labyrinth’s secrets to make sure we can enter safely.”

“Dame Tana, I’m not sure how much time I have left.”

Tana bit her lip in response to Charlotte’s heavy statement.

“How long will it take to uncover the magic of that labyrinth? It could take months, maybe years, and there’s no guarantee I’ll be safe during that time.”

Charlotte glanced at me briefly. “We don’t know how long Reinhart’s Incantation can keep my condition stable. We can’t just wait blindly until this power completely consumes me.”

“Your Highness... Even so, there’s no reason for you to go personally. And there’s no guarantee that the labyrinth holds a solution to your condition. There might be something down there, but no one can say for sure if it’s what you need,” said Sabioleen Tana, her tone almost pleading.

Charlotte looked at Sabioleen Tana quietly. “Dame Tana.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“If I can’t fully recover from this state, I’d rather die.”

“... Pardon?” Sabioleen Tana murmured blankly, as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

‘She’d rather die?’

Knowing what Charlotte was thinking, I clenched my fists unconsciously.

“The child, no, the current Demon King, tried so hard to keep me alive to protect the soul of the former Demon King. If I die, the Demon King’s soul within me will disappear as well. If I die in the labyrinth, it’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Charlotte said calmly.

“Your Highness, what are you saying!?”

“For the empire’s, it might be better if I die...”

“Hey,” I piped up, unable to hold back my anger any longer. She looked at me, realizing only then what she had said and in front of whom.

“If you say that,” I ground out in frustration, “then what about me?”

‘I risked my life to save you, and now you’re saying it doesn’t matter if you die, that it might be better if you did?’

“... I’m sorry... I’m sorry, Reinhart.”

Charlotte trembled as she lowered her eyes. With her newfound certainty about Baalier’s truth had come a conviction that what resided within her was indeed the Demon King’s soul. She thought that if it weren’t, then the child of the Demon King wouldn’t have saved her.

This led to the conclusion that it might be too late, and the Demon King might fully resurrect and take over her body. She believed it was better to die before that happened.

Even so, it was not right to make such a callous statement in front of me and Sabioleen Tana, who had risked our lives to save her, regardless of whether it was true or not. Realizing the bitterness and lack of empathy in her statement, Charlotte apologized to both me and Tana repeatedly.

“Still... I think it’s right for me to go personally.”

She would not change her mind. If the Demon King were trying to use her body as a vessel to resurrect himself, she still believed it was better for her to die for the empire, and that she had to face the risks in front of her on her own terms.

Charlotte’s thoughts stemmed from prioritizing the safety of the imperial family and the empire. That in itself couldn’t be criticized.

I would not be able to change Charlotte’s mind, nor did I have a reason to. Although it was painful to hear such words from Charlotte, I had to enter the labyrinth. Tana observed Charlotte quietly, then let out a deep sigh.

“Not everyone who enters gets lost and injured. Many people actually wander about a while and then find their way back,” Tana said.

While people did end up missing, injured or dead, it seemed they weren’t the majority.

“We can go in for just a short while and head back out if it seems dangerous.”

Tana seemed resigned to Charlotte’s stubbornness. While Charlotte’s condition might grow dangerous in the future, nothing drastic was going to happen in the next few days. There was time to explore the labyrinth slowly while preparing for any possible dangers ahead.

***

Naturally, when we mentioned that we were heading to the underground labyrinth, Count Alfreid, the garrison commander, turned pale and tried to dissuade us.

“You must not go, Your Highness! You don’t understand how dangerous it is—”

“Enough,” Charlotte said coldly, cutting off the commander’s plea. “It seems you’re worried about what might happen if something happens to me there. Of course, even if I go in on my own accord, you’ll be punished just for allowing me to enter.”

If he failed to stop the princess from heading to such a dangerous place and she found herself in danger or, heaven forbid, died, Count Alfreid, the commander of the garrison, would lose his head. He had no choice but to try to prevent the princess from entering the labyrinth.

“But if you try to stop me,” Charlotte continued, “I’ll make sure you pay for omitting the information about the underground labyrinth beneath the Demon King’s Castle in your reports.”

He had withheld very important information about the Demon King’s Castle from the imperial family. That alone was enough reason for him to lose his head. If he prevented the princess from entering the labyrinth, he would die, but if the princess entered and died, he would still lose his life.

Charlotte looked at the commander and said curtly, “Don’t do anything unnecessary and pray for my safe return.”

There was nothing else the commander could do. He could only watch with a vacant expression as we headed towards the underground labyrinth. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

***

It was the morning of the second day after our arrival at the Demon King’s Castle. After having breakfast at the garrison, we headed back to the Demon King’s Castle. We could have requested the assistance of a mage, but Charlotte was against it.

Aside from the commander, no one at the garrison knew the princess was there. On top of that, we were going to the labyrinth to find a solution to a very important secret of Charlotte’s. It would not be of any benefit for more people to know of this information, so we decided that the three of us would proceed on our own.

To reach the entrance of the underground labyrinth, we had to descend to the fifth floor of the underground area via the spiral staircase.

“It’s overwhelming in scale,” Sabioleen Tana murmured in awe.

Just like the rest of the Demon King’s Castle, where the corridors and passageways were much larger than usual, the spiral staircase itself was much larger in scale, and the underground space was vast.

The underground areas did not seem typical of the basements of other buildings. Each floor was so far down that it took a long time to descend from the first underground floor to the second one.

Since the search of the labyrinth had already been halted, the soldiers stationed on these lower floors looked as though they were waiting for time to pass by rather than involved in any serious activity. While it didn’t quite feel like an underground city, it was presumed that the Demon King’s forces had actually lived in this underground complex rather than in external barracks. That was how massive it was.

After a long descent, we finally reached the fifth basement floor, where the spiral staircase ended.

“Climbing back up this is going to be a chore,” Charlotte said with a deep sigh, as if exhausted just from the descent. Of course, Tana and I were unaffected.

There was sparse lighting around the fifth basement floor, and there were sections that were blocked off by iron bars.

Charlotte tilted her head as she considered the iron bars and the spaces beyond them. “Is this... a prison?”

Sabioleen Tana shook her head while looking at the map. “It seems it was a breeding area for beasts, not a prison.”

A space for breeding beasts... Charlotte nodded quietly at that explanation.

“So that’s why the sizes of these cells are all different.”

“That would be the case.”

“Then the beasts that were here...”

“They were mostly deployed during the siege, and the remaining beasts were all safely disposed of.”

“I see.”

Naturally, they would have been culled. I recalled the procession of prisoners I saw when leaving the Demon King’s Castle.

I remembered the sight of numerous demon prisoners, including the ogre that charged to help my escape by breaking its chains. It wasn’t a pleasant memory. Those countless demon prisoners had lost their will to fight after the Demon King’s death and died after placing all their remaining hope on me, the last Demon King.

My plans were completely different from what those demon prisoners desired, but I still believed it was the right thing to do. I had betrayed Charlotte, and on a larger scale, I would eventually betray Sarkegar and even the Dark Land.

I walked silently behind Sabioleen Tana. We passed through the bestial breeding grounds on the fifth floor, and Sabioleen Tana led us to a small iron gate at the edge of the breeding grounds. It felt more like a small prison than a beast breeding ground.

“This is...”

“Yes. It’s the entrance to the labyrinth.”

This secret door was a recent discovery. Through the open stone wall, we could see another spiral staircase leading down. Unlike the grand scale of the other parts of the Demon King’s Castle, this descending staircase passage was just over three meters high and only wide enough for about four people to pass through.

The spiral staircase that we had descended so far had railings and was open on all sides, allowing us to see the floors below us. However, the spiral staircase before us was enclosed by stone walls on all sides. It was a staircase leading to an unknown destination, with no end in sight.

There were mana lamps on the walls of the spiral staircase which illuminated the steps with a pale white light.

“Your Highness, I can go down first—”

“You might get lost.”

Sabioleen Tana wanted to make sure the descent was safe before the rest of us went down, but Charlotte didn’t allow it.

“Even if we get lost, it will be less scary if we’re lost together,” Charlotte said, trembling. Though she thought it might be better to die, she wasn’t unafraid of it.

The three of us took our first steps onto the spiral staircase leading down into the labyrinth. If this place wasn’t what I hoped it was and was nothing but an endless labyrinth, we would just be throwing ourselves into danger.

How many steps had we descended?

“... The entrance is already...” Sabioleen Tana murmured.

The spiral staircase continued downward, but a passageway had already appeared on the right. We had just left the fifth underground floor, so this had to be the sixth underground floor.

The corridor wasn’t very wide, but it was still lit, thanks to the mana lamps placed at regular intervals along the corridor. At the end of the corridor stood a solitary door.

However, we hesitated setting foot into the long, straight corridor. The staircase hadn’t ended. We could continue descending further, or we could enter this corridor and begin exploring the labyrinth in earnest.

We could descend for hours, but once we started ascending, we would quickly return to the breeding ground on the fifth floor we had just left. We couldn’t be sure if there was something further on, or behind the door at the end of the corridor. Once we entered the labyrinth, we might not be able to return.

The magic that fueled the labyrinth was unknown even to the garrison’s mages, so bringing a mage along wouldn’t have changed anything.

“Is this the right way to go...?” murmured Sabioleen Tana. She was also hesitant to make a decision. If we chose wrongly, it was possible we would not be able to return.

Charlotte looked at the door at the end of the straight corridor and murmured, “That door seems to be begging to be opened, which makes it all the more unsettling.”

“... I feel the same way.”

The door at the end of the corridor... it felt as though walking towards it would trigger some trap. It was so conspicuously placed that it was hard not to think that way.

Charlotte pondered for a moment then said, “We’ve come this far, so we can’t just go back and not check it out.”

Even though it seemed like an obvious trap, we couldn’t just ignore it. Charlotte stepped into the corridor first, and Sabioleen Tana and I followed.

***

Inside the labyrinth, nothing seemed drastically different. I had expected the terrain to suddenly change or the exit to disappear.

“... It’s even creepier because nothing’s happening,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah,” I responded.

I looked back and saw that the entrance we had passed through was still there. There was no sudden change to the surroundings, nor were we suddenly separated.

“Let’s proceed cautiously,” Tana suggested.

Sabioleen Tana took out a scroll book from her belongings. It seemed she hadn’t asked for a mage because she already had something to substitute for a mage’s role.

“It’s a trap detection spell.”

Flash!

Light burst from the scroll.

Sabioleen Tana waited a moment then said, “It seems there are no detectable magical traps, but let’s be cautious just in case.”

While no magical traps had been detected, there could still be physical traps. If detection magic could identify every single type of trap, no mages would have fallen victim to them.

Sabioleen Tana’s body was enveloped in blue mana. “Please keep your distance and follow me,” she said.

“Yes.”

She heightened her senses to their maximum, her eyes darting about as she cautiously led the way. She would likely be able to react before any physical trap could activate.

She advanced while focusing intently on her steps, the walls, the floor, and the sounds around us.

The corridor was straight and not very long, but we were taking our time to walk down it, being as cautious as we could.

“... I can’t tell if there are no traps, or if we’ve already triggered one. It’s impossible to know.”

We reached the end of the corridor without incident. The door stood before us. Behind us, the entrance we came through was still visible. It looked like we could leave anytime.

Charlotte stared at the wooden door in front of her with a determined expression.

“The true labyrinth may lie beyond this door,” she said.

It seemed like just an ordinary door, the kind you might find anywhere. Was Charlotte right to say that this was the true entrance to the labyrinth?

Charlotte placed her hand on the doorknob.

“Your Highness. Let me...”

“No. I’ll do it.”

Charlotte shook her head, not knowing what might happen. It was as if she felt she needed to take responsibility for this herself.

Click.

Charlotte turned the doorknob and opened the door. Her expectation that the labyrinth would lie beyond the door was proven false.

“... Huh?”

“Hmm?”

“... What is this?”

A vast cavern lay beyond the open door. No matter how you looked at it, it couldn’t be called a maze.

***

The vast space on the other side of the door could hardly be called a labyrinth. A massive mana lamp hung from the ceiling of the enormous cavern, providing illumination. We kept our guard up as we cautiously advanced. This was in no way a labyrinth.

“What is this place...?” Charlotte murmured in a daze as she looked around.

The cavern wasn’t empty. In one corner of the vast space a half-drawn magic circle was spread out across the floor.

In another corner, there was a weapon rack with spears, swords, sabers, and maces hanging on it, with several straw men beside it.

“There have been no reports of anyone stumbling across a place like this,” Tana said.

It wasn’t just one single cavern. Along the edges of the circular cavern were passages that led to other places. These passages weren’t sealed by doors and we could see what lay beyond them.

I had an inkling of what had happened. We hadn’t entered the labyrinth. We had bypassed the labyrinth and entered the secret place directly. I didn’t know how the labyrinth worked, but it had certainly reacted to either me or Charlotte.

There was likely no exit to the labyrinth, and only an Archdemon would be allowed to enter this place. The passages in the cavern led to rooms that fulfilled various purposes. We moved slowly, checking each room.

There was what looked like a bedroom, a kitchen, a library, an armory, a room filled with countless unknown potions, a cultivation area that seemed to be for growing plants, a storage room with reagents, and a massive room for storing food.

“What is this place...?”

Charlotte and Sabioleen Tana seemed unsure of what this place meant, but I had an idea of what this place was.

It was a bunker.

Finally, the mystery was solved. Before I’d possessed Baalier, he had to have been hurrying to this place. In the original story, no one from the imperial family would have known about this labyrinth because of the commander’s unilateral decision to withhold the information.

No—even if it had been known to the imperial family, it wouldn’t have mattered.

This wasn’t a labyrinth at all. It was likely that no one could get to this place unless accompanied by an Archdemon, and we had only managed to because it had reacted to either Charlotte or me. This was a secure bunker.

All the assumptions I had made up to that point were shattered.

In the original story, if Baalier Junior had made it down to this bunker during the Great War, he wouldn’t have died.