Chapter 14
"I'm coming in."
Before I could grant permission, Karin slipped inside, glancing up at me with a slightly surprised, blank expression.
It was the look of someone facing an unexpected situation, tinged with a hint of fear.
As if she had mistaken me for someone else, I stepped back, puzzled by her expression.
"What's wrong?"
"...No, for a moment you looked like someone else."
What did she mean by that?
Honestly, I wasn't particularly curious, and whatever she meant, it didn't matter to me.
I didn't welcome this encounter with Karin, as I had more unpleasant memories with her than pleasant ones.
In fact, even the good memories were mostly one-sided, with me chasing after her.
Looking back, political marriages are generally loveless, business-like relationships.
She probably didn't dislike me, but she didn't love me either.
Our relationship might have been one-sided from the start.
Thinking about it that way, I felt a belated sense of shame for making such a fuss on my own.
"The maid outfit. Aren't you going to ask why I'm wearing it?"
Lost in thought, I hadn't noticed Karin plop down on the bed and ask this question.
I hadn't asked because I could pretty much guess the reason, but it seems she wanted me to inquire.
"You probably just put it on without thinking."
"Oh? How did you know?"
Usually, people would think it's for disguising oneself to escape, but in Karin's case, she's just pretending—she has no real intention of doing so.
She just likes toying with people.
Besides, the castle security isn't so lax that they'd overlook a person of interest just because they're wearing a maid outfit.
"There's someone working in the castle management who's under our family's influence. I asked them to get me an outfit. How do I look? Does it suit me?"
"Telling a noblewoman that a maid outfit suits her isn't a compliment. And I doubt you came all this way just to hear my personal opinion?"
"What's with the cold attitude... It's okay to enjoy a little conversation. It's been three years since we've talked at length, so I thought we could do a bit of ice breaking—"
"If you don't state your business within a minute, I'll report this to His Majesty. You wouldn't want your quarters to change from a private room to an underground cell, would you?"
"......"
Karin's expression turned serious as she closed her mouth.
In the past, when Karin made that face, I used to feel uneasy for no reason, but now I feel nothing at all.
My past anxiety came from the fear of what I'd do if she left me.
Now that I no longer had such worries or fears, I felt not just a lack of anxiety, but a complete absence of any emotion.
"Hah..."
Seeing my reaction differ from before, Karin sighed and blatantly changed her attitude.
"...Fine, I'll get straight to the point. Elang, won't you marry me again?"
"What?"
"Did you not hear? About the Hero Coins. That's about to blow up."
I wonder if that official under her family's influence tipped her off about what the Hero Coins were.
It seems the day when the Hero's return reaches the public's ears isn't far off.
"The royal family will soon fall. Many nobles will go bankrupt too. Father seems to have bought a few coins, but that can be dealt with by selling them quickly."
"......"
"There's no reason to stay on a sinking ship, right? We'll take the lead in forming a noble alliance and then report this incident to other countries."
After that, they'd stage a rebellion, swiftly take control of the capital, establish a new dynasty, and become the new rulers.
Karin confidently stated that it would surely succeed because the troops at the front lines couldn't be easily recalled.
Those troops that supposedly couldn't be easily recalled managed to return to the capital in just a few weeks to subjugate me.
Judging from King Germis's character, he's the type who would choose the kingdom's destruction over seeing the dynasty change hands.
I let Karin's vague and unrealistic plan go in one ear and out the other as I thought to myself.
From the start, this plan lacked any consideration of how to persuade the generals currently defending the front lines.
Or how to deal with other countries if they blame the new dynasty for the Hero Coin incident.
Even if a new dynasty were established, I could only see a future where the kingdom would be divided and then swallowed up by the demon race, rather than being unified.
"Even you can't face the kingdom alone, right? There might have been various factors before, but now even that Hero is gone. Wouldn't it be wise to join hands again in this situation?"
I can face them alone.
Although it resulted in the loss of nearly eight million lives, the fact remains that I won.
Whether she knew this fact or not, Karin reached out her hand as if we were on equal footing.
"Hah..."
I snorted and turned my back.
I'm going into seclusion because I don't want to fight. If I had to choose between taking Karin's hand here or destroying the kingdom and establishing a new dynasty myself, I'd prefer the latter.
"Karin."
"What?"
"You're probably the most foolish among the Hero's lovers."
"What did you say?"
"I said, out of all that bastard's women, you're the biggest blockhead."
How else could she come to me, of all people, with such a request?
Recalling our time in the Hero's party, even an idiot could see that I've lost all affection for her.
Even if that weren't the case, if she knew anything about me as a person, she should have realized with just a little thought that I would reject this proposal.
If she had at least framed it as us taking over the country to minimize damage, there might have been some room for consideration, but it wasn't even that.
"Leave. I don't want to hear anything else you have to say."
"Y-You...!!"
Karin clenched her fists in anger.
Those dainty fists probably wouldn't hurt no matter how many times she hit me.
Still, being a noble lady, she couldn't bring herself to actually strike me and just stood there with clenched fists. At that moment—
"Excuse me."
With a unilateral announcement, the door opened, and Lord Leius, whom I had seen in front of the bedchamber earlier, entered.
His silver armor, spattered with ominous blood, foretold that something had happened in the royal palace.
Seeing his appearance devoid of any playfulness, Karin shut her mouth, intimidated. Lord Leius smirked and said:
"Did you learn how to bring maids into bedrooms in the demon realm? You never came when I called, but you let her in easily enough."
"Why are you suddenly barging into someone else's room and spouting nonsense?"
"Why is this your room? It's His Majesty's room."
Ah, is that so?
"Anyway, what's the matter? Your appearance doesn't suit the royal palace."
"I've dealt with a traitor who tried to leak royal secrets. And this is unrelated, but regarding the Hero's party—"
"You mean Karin has disappeared and you're searching for her, right?"
It was obvious to anyone that this wasn't unrelated to the blood, but Leius kept feigning ignorance.
As if he wanted someone here to hear it, or as if he was testing to see how I would react after hearing all this.
Sensing the strange atmosphere in the room, Karin's eyes began to tremble, and her gaze gradually shifted towards me.
The person she had just been talking to was dead.
Fear that she might be next gnawed at her heart.
"......"
Strangely, I didn't feel any pity seeing her eyes that seemed to be pleading for help.
It's not just because I've changed my mind.
King Germis isn't foolish enough to kill her or do anything to her here.
There's no need for that in the first place.
"Are you going to kill her when you find her?"
"Of course not. I'm a gentleman. I'll just escort her to a place with slightly tighter security this time."
A place with tight security in the royal palace probably means either a remote tower or an underground prison.
Neither is a particularly comfortable place, but compared to death, it's practically heaven.
Karin will never go to heaven after death, so prison might be better for her.
"If you find the culprit, you won't bother me anymore, right?"
"I promise on my honor."
I pushed Karin, who was trying to hide behind me, forward and handed her over to Lord Leius.
Perhaps she hadn't thought I would hand her over here, as Karin's body felt incredibly light as she was pushed.
"Y-You!! You're handing me over after hearing that?!"
"What do you mean by 'that'?"
"He said they're going to lock me up in a place like prison!!"
"So what?"
"What?"
"I endured for three years in a place I wished was a prison. That campsite where I had to pretend not to see your and the Hero's displays of affection felt more like a torture chamber than a prison to me."
"......"
The two years I spent apart from Karin were long and painful for me.
During that time, I vowed to forget everything that had happened until now, to not be shaken no matter what I saw.
However, the sight of the Hero and Karin emerging from the same tent, smelling of the same scent, made such vows seem trivial.
If I were to make a comparison, it was like a tumor.
A tumor that, if not removed at its source, would recur repeatedly, eating away at the flesh and leading the host to death.
Until now, I couldn't remove that tumor and kept dragging it along, but it seems the Hero's death and today's resolution have finally excised it.
Now, looking at Karin, I feel nothing.
No pity, no love, nothing at all—I was surprised at myself.
"Go. It won't be for long anyway."
"...You'll regret this. Someday, you'll definitely remember this day."
Hah.
I snorted inwardly, thinking:
That day will never come.
Looking at the unchanged scenery after waiting for a long time, I was convinced that I was right.