The Demon Prince goes to the Academy Chapter 623

Chapter 623

On my way to persuade Ileion Bolton, I listened to the Duchess’ soft but firm scolding without speaking to Ileion Bolton.

It is not only fools who become cancer soldiers or tyrants.

No, there are just too many kinds of foolish things that a person sitting in the king’s seat can do.

There may be a tyrant who kills people without proper principles, and a tyrant who continues a war of conquest without any justification.

But trying to be overly sensitive to the circumstances of outsiders and not killing enemies who haven’t bared their teeth against me can already be tyranny in itself.

The Duchess pointed out that the need to kill that I was talking about, and the scope of that need, was too narrow.

may be a threat

It was pointed out that in this dangerous era, where even that possibility alone would not be enough to make a choice to annihilate an opponent, the first thing to do was to think not to kill someone who may be an enemy or an ally.

Wasn’t it enough to just kill the enemy?

Was that too human a way of thinking?

The moment it turns out to be the enemy, the opponent will have already bared their teeth, so a fight is scheduled.

There are also ways to kill them before they become enemies.

I am not a king

But until when do I have to make excuses for that? Saying that since I have already become a king, I do not have the qualifications to be a king, cannot be justified or excused.

I had nothing to say to the duchess, who felt insecure about my way.

I agree with that.

I lived thinking that the flock of animals roaming outside the enclosure might be a flock of sheep, even if I put all my energy into guarding the flock inside the enclosure.

The king is a being who must guard the inside of the fence and regard everything outside the fence as an enemy.

I wasn’t doing that.

If the land where I and my children live is ruled by a monarch with such a temper, even I will hate it.

I’m not asking you to kill Ileion Bolton.

I asked if he would continue to do so in the future, and if he knew how dangerous that would be.

No one has built a nation out of love, understanding and mercy.

Only on what is taken can the throne rest.

And that throne must be maintained with blood.

If you ask me if I didn’t know that truth, I didn’t.

It’s just that it’s hard to accept.

The Duchess did not tell me something only she knew.

Everyone around me knows, but he told me something that he didn’t bother to tell me.

It could be because I’m sorry, it could be because I know that I can’t stand it, or it can be because I don’t want to put a bigger burden on you.

The Duchess said something everyone knows but nobody tells me.

That, after all, will be courage.

The walk was neither too long nor too short.

But in the heavy atmosphere, I walked without speaking.

Back at the mansion, Ileion Bolton and Charlotte were outside.

Is the conversation over?

“Reinhardt, wait a minute, Lord Boelten said he wanted to tell a story.”

“… … okay?”

I don’t know how the story turned out.

But judging by the look on Charlotte’s face, it didn’t seem that bad.

* * *

Alone with Ileion Boelton.

Not inside the mansion, but outside. The footprints on the beach where we had just walked were still there.

I don’t know what we talked about, but rather my heart was heavier.

“I don’t think I ever had a choice.”

“… … is it.”

In the original story, the original commander of the Knights Templar was Leverier Ranche. And it didn’t change.

Olivia Ranze exits from the margins of the story.

Ileion Bolton was also one of the figures in the blanks.

I don’t know the personal history of Lebarrier Ranze, but of course I don’t know the personal history of Ileion Boelton.

I only know the situation in his public part.

Due to the downfall of the radical Leverier Ranze, the moderate Ileion Boelton became the next Commander of the Knights Templar.

It wouldn’t have been his will. The Empire wanted Ileion Bolton to become the Commander of the Templars. And I don’t know whether or not the popes received that breath, but the popes would have wanted to keep in check Leberier Ranche, one of the protagonists of the Pandemonium War and a war hero. The Popes probably didn’t want the Templar Commander’s influence to grow too much.

Ileion Bolton became the commander of the Knights Templar due to various circumstances. It didn’t matter whether he had hoped to become the commander of the Templars or not.

Even in the situation right before the gate incident, he was only swayed by the opinions of the Pope, Ellen, and Olivia.

And as time passed, the popes arbitrarily chose to make the church the devil’s.

After only a few days, I was forced to leave.

And now, because of the possibility of returning to the position of the commander of the Knights Templar, he was offered to become a Holy Knight of the Holy Church.

Looking at it this way, he was a man who was terribly swayed.

As if to show that a man can be swayed at will by a greater power and a greater will, even though his own authority, strength, and power are not weak.

“But now, even the gods I believed in were all lies.”

is it.

From the beginning, the teachings about the five gods and demons were all in vain.

Nothing is true, even faith has been arbitrarily reinterpreted.

“Even, Tiamata has two forms.”

“… … yes.”

“Can you show me?”

Is it not enough just to hear?

Or should I check it with my own eyes and see that the power of the gods is really arbitrary, as the Holy Church says?

I don’t know which one, but I summoned Tiamata in my right hand.

Tiamata, the sword of purity with a milky white blade.

But this probably isn’t what you want.

– Kurleung!

I don’t even need a commandment anymore.

Responding to my will, Tiamata’s blade is dyed black and begins to flow through the darkness.

“… … The energy of corruption.”

Ileion Bolton sees the demonic sword Tiamata and stares at it in silence.

“Is it okay?”

“Suffice.”

When the demonic sword Tiamata was reverse summoned, Ileion Boelton smiled bitterly.

“Are the gods malicious, or have we just not understood them until now?”

It is the same here that the gods are regarded as beings beyond human comprehension.

However, it lends strength even when it is misunderstood.

I thought I believed it properly because I was lending my strength, but in fact, I was lending my strength even though I misunderstood it.

what are the gods

Ileion Bolton seemed to be mired in such a fundamental question.

“Just because it’s a new church doesn’t mean it fully understands the gods.”

The demon and the god are the same existence.

That being said, it is also questionable whether the five main gods are really five main gods.

“I can’t tell you the source, but let me tell you an interesting fact.”

“Is there anything more surprising to me here?”

“I heard that vampires originated from the sun god and the moon god.”

The truth I heard from Luna Artorius.

Vampires actually originated from God.

Those who wished for eternal life prayed to the moon, and at the same time they were blessed by the moon and cursed by the sun.

That’s the beginning of vampires, that’s what I heard.

Those who sought forgiveness from the gods for a long time received it.

Instead, they became beings who had to be separated from the world forever.

“I don’t think it’s a joke.”

Ileion Bolton laughed bitterly, as if he knew that what he said was not even a trivial joke.

“To say there was no choice is, in fact, a lie.”

“… … ?”

“I just didn’t have an opinion.”

If you say so, does it happen that way?

“If you didn’t want to be the commander of the Knights Templar, you could refuse. But I didn’t.”

“If you judged that you had to kill the demon king or save him, that was the way to go. But I didn’t choose anything.”

“If you were going to disobey the decision of the popes to side with you, you had to say so. It didn’t do that either.”

“When you asked for retirement, if you didn’t like it, you could draw a knife. But I didn’t do that either.”

“It went with the trend. It always has been.”

“Looking back, there was no life like this for a coward.”

It’s not that I didn’t have a choice.

I didn’t choose an option with a low possibility, but it always flowed along with the trend.

He had power and power, but he always lived an in-between life following the trend. He wasn’t judging what was right or wrong.

who is the majority

where is the trend

He has gone with the flow.

Neither an absolute supporter nor an absolute opponent.

Is it a life swept away or a life on the bandwagon?

Illion Bolton seemed to have come to regard his earlier words about not having a choice as a pitiful excuse.

“So, now you’re going to make a choice of your own will?”

“That can’t be the case.

There is no such thing as resistance.

“If you were once a coward, isn’t it better to live as a coward to the end? You can keep at least one principle of consistency.”

A life without faith or pride.

There may have been a time when he thought there was such a thing, but Ileion Boelton now admits that he is too lame to talk about it.

So, if you live as a coward for the rest of your life, you will keep at least the consistency of being a coward for the rest of your life.

Not the consistency of being good all my life, but the consistency of being cowardly all my life.

Elaion Boelton’s attitude that he would rather be cowardly for the rest of his life than to give up his choice and find his own direction, even that would be cowardly, was somehow hopeless.

“Considering that the rare choice of killing a subordinate became the worst choice, I guess I am the kind of person who shouldn’t make a choice. No, is this also just an excuse?”

Ileion Bolton laughs.

laugh long

As always.

An old man’s self-reckoning is bound to be mixed with sadness.

The realization of Ileion Boelton, who looked back on the things he had accumulated in his life and found that in the end, nothing but cowardice remained.

The sadness mixed with that self-mockery.

It felt so sad to the point of clutter.

* * *

I spoke briefly with Ileion Boelton after that.

“For several months, I toured the country.”

“It must have been a strange sight to you.”

The coexistence of humans and demons sometimes feels grotesque even to me.

“It did.”

It’s a deserted place, but he seemed to have wandered here and there while staying in Razak.

Perhaps it was with the Duchess.

I don’t know if the Duchess guided me first or if Ileion Boelton asked first.

“I can only think of it as a strange country.”

“It must be strange.”

He must have thought a lot after seeing the scenery created in the Edina Islands.

“Ogres plow the fields, trolls build buildings, orcs stand guard, succubuses care for orphaned children and sleep together, mermaids appear on the beach and joke with people… … .”

“wonderland.”

“Was this possible?”

“If this was possible, why the hell was it until now?”

“Why do we?”

“Fear each other, hate each other.”

“Did I have to die and die?”

“Why were you able to say so emphatically that there were no other options?”

“Where did that word come from, and everyone came to believe it?”

“I was curious.”

Ileion Bolton looks up at the blue sky of spring.

“Devil… … . no. Reinhardt.”

“uh.”

“This country, in a sense, will be a disaster.”

It’s a disaster.

Still, I think it’s much better to live than the emperor.

But I didn’t know what that word meant.

“Do you know how many people will despair just to learn that the long and long history of mutual hatred that has been built up so far is actually meaningless, that this could have happened?”

“You can think of it from that point of view.”

All wars so far have been meaningless.

The history of hatred and hatred, I believed that it was right, but the result of denying that vain belief is in front of my eyes.

could coexist and coexist.

The Pandemonium War was not a glorious war.

Because it completely overturns the values ​​and historical perspectives of mankind, many people may feel despair rather than hope.

“Did you despair?”

“okay.”

More than anything else, it must have been Ileion Bolton himself who felt despair in this peaceful and bizarre sight.

Killed beings, dead beings.

that everyone didn’t have to. because you would feel it

“If only I knew that this was possible. No, if the world had been like this in the first place, there wouldn’t have been a gate incident.”

The result of distrust of each other is the current reality.

Had it been a society of coexistence and coexistence, there would have been no hatred, distrust, or fear of the demon king in the first place, and there would have been no demonic war, the cause of all of this.

And, humans invaded the demons.

All problems arose because of a lack of faith and trust.

In fact, it was the source of everything in the world.

It was funny.

The Duchess said to hate everyone on the other side of the fence.

Ileion Bolton realized that all the blood and tears had been pointless.

Those who do not know war talk about slaughter, and those who know war talk about peace.

It speaks of the meaninglessness of slaughter.

“It’s not just humans who were afraid of demons.”

It was the same with the demons.

During a very long history, demons were also afraid of mankind.

Elerith, an ancient Archdemon, once dreamed of the extinction of mankind.

Even the former demon king Vali was afraid of humans. That’s why he wanted to go to a world without humans.

It’s the same as being afraid of each other.

“I hate this country.”

Ileion Bolton said that with a firm expression.

Because the moment I realized that peace was possible, I realized that everything in the past could not be justified.

It wasn’t that we won a victory over the absolute enemy of mankind, but that it was nothing more and nothing less than a slaughter driven by fear.

Having to face the devastating truth, Ileion Boelton can’t help but hate the sight.

“However, it is a landscape that must be protected because I hate it.”

In the end, all of this shows a possibility that was not considered possible.

You can’t help but feel hopeless, but it’s not a sight that should go away.

Because the truth doesn’t disappear just because it’s denied.

Just because you know the truth you don’t want to know doesn’t mean you can erase it from your head.

The truth stuck in my brain cannot be erased.

He seemed to think he had no choice but to keep this truth.

* * *

After talking with Ileion Bolton, Charlotte and I set out on our way back to Razzak.

“I was supposed to cooperate, but what did you talk about?”

Perhaps even when talking to Charlotte, Ileion Bolton had already agreed to cooperate.

It is the life of a coward, so I will live cowardly for the rest of my life.

It would have been difficult to admit that.

“There was nothing special.”

I don’t know if Ileion Boelton spoke of cowardice to me or to Charlotte, but I was reluctant to talk more about his personal part.

“They say it’s a strange country.”

Ileion Bolton was shocked.

wonderland.

Well, it was a spectacle that would spark a match for the demon subjugation proponents.

“Certainly, it is a strange country.”

Charlotte giggled in agreement. In fact, I also came from a world where my essence was no different from that of a human being, and there was no such thing as demons.

Actually, I am the one who finds this scene the strangest.

Like most wars, the Pandemonium War was nothing special.

There was no such thing as something that deserved to die.

“It worked out as I thought, but the expression is really bad.”

“Uh, no. It’s good. good.”

“Then have a little laugh.”

At Charlotte’s words, I laughed awkwardly.

Thoughts keep running through my head.

The Duchess said that in order to keep the peace, there must be no hesitation in killing.

The words of Ileion Boelton, who said that after the war, which he regarded as a legitimate slaughter, he was in despair knowing that it was meaningless.

The Duchess would not have been wrong.

But if I live by the Duchess’ words, I will be Ileion Bolton.

You must fear your neighbour.

While knowing that the end of that fear is now, they are forced to repeat the same history.