<CHAPTER 25>
Buy a Duke
Boom!
The ground shook.
The floor cracked open, and sharp fragments flew everywhere.
But Redemberg Lu Edeltein was completely unharmed.
That was thanks to the powerful magical energy surrounding his body.
“Oh my, Redy!”
Bella called out to him in a high pitched voice, completely different from before.
However, Redemberg Lu Edeltein did not even spare her a glance.
He grabbed Herond by the back of the neck and instantly teleported inside the castle.
Left alone, Bella stood there blankly and muttered to herself.
“What?
Did I just get ignored?”
* * *
“Your Majesty…!”
Herond cried out, his eyes welling with tears.
“To think you would throw yourself in harm’s way to save me!
This Herond felt so deeply how precious I am to you that my beak almost went numb!”
“What?”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein could not understand what Herond was talking about.
He had only grabbed him because there was something urgent he needed him to do.
“Bella?
And who might that be?”
“Pardon?
Did you not just encounter her in front of the castle gate?”
Unfortunately, Redemberg Lu Edeltein had seen absolutely nothing.
His target had been Herond and Herond alone.
There was no reason for him to pay attention to anything else nearby.
Bella?
It was a name he was hearing for the first time.
Judging by the situation, she was probably either some lunatic causing a scene without knowing her place, or a demon Herond happened to know.
Either way, it was not particularly important to him.
There was something far more important than such trivial matters.
“I want to know what Rek’s position is.”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein recalled the conversation that had followed that troublesome question.
* * *
What he chose was a straightforward approach.
“I was originally a prince.”
“Wow, a prince?”
“Yes.
I apologize, Ehilie.
I did not tell you until now because I thought revealing my status would make you feel burdened.”
“I already guessed you were a noble.
But a prince…”
Ehilie’s eyes blinked rapidly.
Her bright blue eyes sparkled like a lake under the midday sun.
No jewel in existence could possibly shine more beautifully than those eyes.
Her utterly shocked expression was so adorable that he could not take his eyes off her.
This was not the time to be indulging in such thoughts.
But it could not be helped.
It was all because she was too cute.
“But Rek, if you don’t mind me asking, which kingdom are you from?
I don’t recall seeing the name Rek Edmund in any royal genealogy.”
“Yes.
I’m familiar with the royal bloodlines that have diplomatic relations with the Empire.
I was once a count’s daughter, after all, so I did receive a basic education.”
Ehilie added an apology for not having spoken about it earlier and began to tell him about her past.
“I was abandoned in front of a temple when I was a baby.
Count Terbaon found me and adopted me.
Since I had white hair and blue eyes, I think he believed I might be a Saintess.”
A Saintess was a being chosen by the gods.
Because of that, even the imperial family could not treat the family of a Saintess lightly.
The count had adopted Ehilie solely for the sake of his family’s prestige and authority.
“But I didn’t have any holy power.
Normally, Saintesses awaken their powers between the ages of five and seven, but even after I turned ten, I couldn’t awaken anything.
Then one day, the temple announced the birth of a new Saintess.”
In this world, there could only be one Saintess.
The announcement of a Saintess’s birth was practically the same as declaring that Ehilie was not a child of the gods.
“From that moment on, I became the family’s disgrace.
No one accepted me as family anymore.
So… I decided to leave.”
From beginning to end, Ehilie had never been part of their family.
She added that because she was simply “Ehilie,” and not “Ehilie Terbaon,” she had not felt the need to reveal her past status.
As he listened to her story, Redemberg Lu Edeltein was exerting an extraordinary amount of restraint.
How dare they do that?
He nodded calmly and listened attentively, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably with rage.
He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh, drawing blood.
If anyone from the Terbaon Count’s family had been here, he would have torn them to pieces.
“Don’t you wish to take revenge on them?”
“Revenge… No, not really.
Even if I did, it wouldn’t erase the wounds I suffered.”
Her bitter smile drove Redemberg Lu Edeltein even closer to madness.
“You’re right, Ehilie.
But…”
He gently tried to persuade her.
“Well, I suppose.
I don’t want to personally harm them.
But I do want them to be punished.
Like being cursed, or struck by disaster…
Ah, was that too much?”
“No, Ehilie.
Not at all.”
He smiled, his blood red eyes gleaming.
Disaster.
It was a word far too familiar to Redemberg Lu Edeltein.
To humans, demonkind were disasters.
And among them, the Demon King was the greatest disaster of all.
Ehilie did not know.
That an enormous disaster, filled with immeasurable rage, was already on its way to the Terbaon Count’s family.
“…More importantly, Rek.
Could you answer the question I asked earlier?”
At her follow up question, Redemberg Lu Edeltein inwardly flinched.
He had been so focused on her painful past that he forgot to come up with a convenient excuse.
But as a Demon King born with cunning, he quickly devised an excellent answer.
“I am the sixth prince of a kingdom located very far away, beyond the reach of the Ludmekian Empire’s rule.”
Every word of it was true.
The Demon Realm lay far beyond the Empire’s influence, and before ascending the throne, he had indeed been the sixth prince.
“Even if you searched the kingdom’s genealogy, my name probably wouldn’t appear.
I was a prince who lost the right of succession from birth.”
That was also true.
His name was not listed in the Demon Realm’s royal lineage.
“…May I ask why?”
Ehilie asked carefully.
“Because I was born out of wedlock.”
Ehilie drew in a short breath.
The suspicion in her eyes was replaced with sympathy and pity.
Redemberg Lu Edeltein did not miss that subtle change in her expression.
He slightly furrowed his brows, adopting a face full of hidden sorrow as he continued.
“My mother was not a noble.
That is why I was not acknowledged as royalty.”
Ehilie’s eyes shimmered with tears, as if she felt a sense of kinship with him.
That was fortunate.
Redemberg Lu Edeltein did not particularly care about his own birth.
After all, he was the strongest demon in the Demon Realm.
He had never yearned for something as pointless as familial love.
But Ehilie’s affection was something he did desire.
For that sweet prize, he could play the role of a lonely and pitiful man as much as necessary.
“Then… how have you been living all this time?”
“I was managing a small estate in the northern duchy.”
Since the Demon Realm lay to the north, it was half true.
* * *
Fortunately, Ehilie did not press further.
Though he had overcome the crisis, he could not relax.
He decided to prepare thoroughly to prevent anything like this from happening again.
“Herond.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
“I have a task for you.”
“Please give the order!
This Herond will accomplish anything you command, offering up my body and soul!”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein spoke with his usual indifferent expression.
“Buy a duke.”
“…Pardon?”
Herond blinked with a vacant expression.
“A duke?
Ah, ah.
You mean that kind of duke.
Yes, of course.”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein ignored Herond’s muttering entirely.
After a brief moment of confusion, Herond nodded firmly.
“Yes!
I will acquire a splendid and dignified one worthy of Your Majesty!”
“That won’t be necessary.
It just needs to look the part.”
“U-Understood.
Then what gender should it be?”
Male or female.
All he needed was the title of “duke,” so it did not matter.
“And the color?”
“Color?”
Redemberg Lu Edeltein raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Yes.
Green is the most common, but some have a bluish tint, or even purple.
In rare cases, there are white ones as well.”
He assumed Herond was referring to hair color.
“Black would be preferable.
But it doesn’t really matter.”
Hair color was not necessarily inherited, so it was not important.
“Understood.
I will procure one with black fur.”
“Good.
And the surname must be Edmund.”
“Edmund?
Yes, understood!”
“Bring it back as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.
Please leave it to me!”
The conversation wrapped up roughly.
Now I should return home.
Just as Redemberg Lu Edeltein was about to leave…
“Um…”
Lucy, who no one knew had been there, spoke up in a small voice.
“I think the Demon King and Herond might be thinking of different things.”
Before she even finished speaking, Herond bristled.
“What?
What are you talking about?
Are you saying I failed to understand His Majesty’s words?”
“Yes.”
Herond’s eyes flew wide open as he glared at Lucy, seething.
Lucy, as calm as if this were nothing new, asked gently.
“What did the Demon King ask you to buy, Herond?”
Herond and Redemberg Lu Edeltein answered at the same time.
“A duke.”
“A duke!”
