From a Broken Engagement to the Northern Grand Duke's Son-in-Law

Once the battle ended, a heavy silence descended upon the prison.

“Whew... I thought I was a goner.” Lancelot collapsed to the floor, breathing raggedly.

His tone was playful, but the fine tremor in his hands betrayed how taxing the fight had been. The demon’s tongue he’d blocked at the end must have carried devastating force.

Still, his insistence on smiling showed just how desperately he wanted to hide his exhaustion.

“Hey, Captain, are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“Really?” Lancelot’s gaze carried suspicion.

I had a good idea why. Probably because of what he’d seen when I used my demonic energy.

He actually caught that? All in a single heartbeat...

With a small scowl, I shoved my still-trembling hand into the pocket of my trousers.

“Louis, are you okay?”

“...Young Master.”

As if Lancelot’s question had been a signal, the others began approaching me one by one, their faces etched with concern.

Ugh. This is exactly why I tried to hide it.

His needless remark had everyone worried.

“I’m perfectly fine, so save your concern. In fact, I’m in better shape than any of you.”

I did my best to appear unfazed as I rose to my feet. I could have rested longer if I’d wanted to, but I had no desire to linger here.

Take a break in a prison littered with corpses? If we were going to rest, it might as well be in a warm inn.

Though there’s probably nothing like that in Lovan.

The best we could hope for was a room that wasn’t caked in filth. Even so, that would be a vast improvement over this place.

I nodded, certain of my decision.

Just then, Mihaila crouched down beside me. “You know, there’s something I haven’t heard yet.”

“And what’s that?”

“Who you people are.”

Ah, right. I hadn’t explained that.

“I’m Louis Berg, third son of House Berg. Currently working hard to become the son-in-law of House Praha.”

“Praha? Ah, the North? You’ve come a long way,” Mihaila murmured, nodding to herself. “But aren’t the Bergs a family of spearmen? Why are you using a bow?”

“Because I have supreme talent for it.”

“Oh, how obnoxious.” A faint smirk played on her lips. Mihaila let out a soft chuckle and added under her breath, “I’ll admit, you’re a damn good shot.”

“One last question,” she said.

“You certainly have a lot of them. Go on.”

“If I join you, where are we headed next?” Her eyes held a little sparkle to them. 

I met her gaze, paused for a moment, then answered, “The Demonic Realm.”

“Wow!”

A brilliant smile spread across Mihaila’s face, her eyes curving into joyful crescents. It was, without a doubt, the most radiant smile I had seen from her yet.

“Are we going hunting?” she asked.

“It’s a hunt,” I replied.

Of course, our main objective was to rescue the Grand Duke. But to draw her in, I had to use the promise of hunting Demonkin.

And just as I expected...

“Hah... This is fantastic.” She squirmed with pure ecstasy.

I shook my head, a sense of revulsion washing over me. To get excited at the thought of killing Demonkin... She was a type of person I would never understand, not even if I lived a thousand years.

I’ll have to warn Kai not to get too close to her.

Perverts are a bad influence on children, after all.

* * *

I had imagined us peacefully sipping fruit juice in an inn.

The reality that greeted us after we emerged from Lovan Tree Prison via the submarine was a contingent of knights standing in perfect formation, waiting for us.

Judging by the crests on their armor, they belonged to the Royal Knights of Lovan.

“Halt! Stop where you are!” shouted the knight at the very front of the formation.

From his tense expression, it was clear he believed we were the perpetrators of whatever had happened inside the prison. They probably thought it was nothing more than a riot staged for a prison break.

God. This is going to be a pain.

My eyes flickered to the person trailing behind me: Mihaila Trominia.

Regardless of anything else, her presence alone made us criminals who had aided a jailbreak. Of course, if we explained the full circumstances and an investigation was conducted, we would eventually be exonerated...

But we don’t have time for that.

Even if the Grand Duke had met with my master, his life could be in danger at any moment.

The Demonic Realm was a labyrinth where anything could happen. We had to move as quickly as possible and couldn’t afford to waste time on trivial matters.

“We are an order of knights dispatched from House Praha. These are my soldiers, and this is Lady Lea, the treasured daughter of Praha.”

I tried to leverage the prestige of House Praha and Lea’s name to get the knights to stand down.

“Even if you are from the Duchy of Praha, it makes no difference. We must ask that all of you accompany us.”

But the man who appeared to be the knight commander spoke with firm resolution.

“We are not responsible for what happened here,” I said.

“Detainment is unavoidable until our investigation is complete.”

“Do you dare suggest you will detain a noble of the Empire? I suppose you don’t care if the Kingdom of Lovan is wiped off the map.”

“Even if it comes to that, we have no choice. We are simply doing our duty.”

A tense standoff followed.

Hah, so it’s no use after all?

I let out a faint sigh and stared at the knight commander. This was exactly why I’d wanted to move quickly. It looked like we were well and truly caught.

He doesn’t seem like a corrupt official, either, so money won’t solve this.

I sighed again and ran a hand over my face. This stalemate would get us nowhere. It seemed better to resolve this quickly and be on our way.

“Hah... everyone, remain calm. I don’t believe they intend to harm us.”

After instructing my companions to stand down, I walked toward the knights with Mihaila.

It looked like I would have to meet their king.

* * *

“...What is this?” a knight from the royal order murmured, his expression vacant as he stepped inside Lovan Tree Prison.

The scene was beyond belief. Could it even be called a scene?

The floor was littered with the corpses of monsters—hundreds of them at the very least. And these weren’t low-level creatures, either.

Every single one was a beast that would require an Aura Expert to even stand a chance against.

To see such powerful monsters strewn about like this... It was a sight he had never witnessed in his life.

“...How many Aura Masters would it take to do this?” one of the knights whispered.

Just then.

“S-Squad Leader! Over here!”

A subordinate’s urgent cry echoed from a distance. The squad leader rushed toward the voice only to be met with a scene straight from hell.

Guards, prisoners—their bodies were scattered everywhere, arranged like a macabre exhibit of the dead.

“Urk!” The squad leader retched, grabbing the ground for support.

He spent a long moment spitting out yellow bile. Then...

“A-a demon! It’s a demon!” one of the knights screamed, stumbling back and falling on his backside.

“...Hnngh.”

The squad leader forced himself to his feet and approached the panicked knight. There, just as the knight had said, was a Demonkin. It had the face of a frog.

The bizarre, froglike creature lay sprawled on the ground, dead.

“...What in the world.”

The squad leader let out a hollow laugh and staggered backward. He knew what this was. He knew who this was.

Gluttony... Ram, the Count of Gluttony...!

It was from the fairy tale his grandmother used to read to him every night. The Demon Lord in that story—Ram, the Count of Gluttony—had been a legion commander of the ancient Demon Legion.

The tales spoke of a Demonkin with the form of a man and the face of a frog.

That could only be him.

“They... killed this thing...?”

The Count of Gluttony was dead. It was unbelievable enough that demons had appeared here, but the idea that one of their leaders had been slain was even more unfathomable.

And by those people he had just met.

...They seemed so ordinary.

Yes, they looked normal enough. They were handsome and beautiful, certainly, but they hadn’t exuded an overwhelming sense of power.

And yet…

We were almost killed.

The squad leader swallowed hard in fear.

If that group had decided to slaughter them all, the entire knight order would have been annihilated on the spot. Their story would have been relegated to a line in a news bulletin, spread across the continent as “mysterious deaths.”

“...I think we can all withdraw,” the squad leader said to his men.

While he didn’t know the full story, he was certain of one thing: those people hadn’t been the ones to kill the prison guards.

Still, Demonkin...

The squad leader silently surveyed his surroundings and took a deep breath.

It seemed chaos was about to descend upon the continent.

* * *

Meanwhile, at that very moment.

CRACK—!

A loud explosion echoed through the Artezia Duchy as a stone shard shattered, its fragments scattering across the floor.

“It seems they failed.”

Duke Artezia stared at the exploded stone and murmured softly.

He had handed over the catalysts because the Twelve Nobles had said they needed them. It appeared their attempt to establish a foothold had been a failure.

The only silver lining was that only one of the two catalysts had shattered.

“Pepia must have survived. He wouldn’t have died there. Does that mean Ram is the one who was killed?”

Watching that repulsive frog, the Duke had always thought he would die someday. But he hadn’t expected it to be now.

“Utterly pathetic.”

With a cold glint in his eyes, the Duke lifted his polished shoe. He brought it down with force on the stone fragments rolling across the floor.

CRUNCH!

The shards pulverized into dust and scattered on the wind.

“Does this mean two of them are dead already?”

To think that those creatures, with their grand ambitions of devouring the continent, were this incompetent. He felt a surge of shame just for being the same race as them.

“Shall I call for the attendants, Your Grace?”

“No need. Forget the attendants. Just prepare a hot bath for me today.”

The Duke waved a hand at the approaching maid and shrugged off his robe.

Splash.

The bathtub was filled with blood. As the Duke submerged himself, the crimson liquid began to diminish as if it were being absorbed directly into his skin.

“Huuuh.”

He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. The wrinkles on his face smoothed out, and black hair began to grow where gray strands had been. Rejuvenation.

Now, no one would ever guess the Duke was a man of fifty.

He watched the drops of blood trickle down his hair. The metallic scent reminded him of the day he first became Demonkin. The unfamiliar ruins and the artifact.

And the strange voice that had whispered from it.

He had trembled in fear at the time, thinking it was a cursed object. But now he knew.

It was the voice of the Demon God.

“It was an honor to receive His blessing,” the Duke murmured, his eyes flashing.

Becoming emperor, becoming Demonkin—it was all for the sake of the Demon God. 

Though two of the Twelve Nobles had died in the process, nothing had changed.

“All unfolds according to the Demon God’s will,” the Duke murmured, sinking deeper into the tub.

The hour of the Red Moon approached.

Soon… all too soon.