The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

"What? Did you say Gunst?!"

The person most shocked by Canlat's answer was naturally Lilith. Alice was an outsider, so she didn't have any close ties to the Rhine Kingdom's important figures. However, Lilith was the Rhine Kingdom's princess. When she learned that the mastermind was someone she was actually acquainted with, she would naturally be shocked.

This would be akin to how Alice would feel if she learned that Catherine was a traitor to the Gryffin Kingdom. Actually, the shock and sense of betrayal Lilith experienced might be even more severe. After all, Alice had only known Catherine for a few months. However, Catherine, who had lived her entire life as the Rhine Kingdom's princess, should have known Gunst, the Rhine Kingdom's royal guard captain, for a very long time. She might have even known him since childhood.

Lilith wasn't the only one shocked by this revelation, Sylvia, who stood beside Lilith, also revealed a look of disbelief. Judging by the two's reactions, it would seem that neither had ever thought of the possibility that the person behind the Demon King's Shadow's theft could be the person named Gunst Brianken.

"Why would Gunst do such a thing? His main focus is on magic swordsmanship, so he shouldn't be able to practice a spell like Demon King's Shadow... Most of the royal guards are also melee combatants who practice magic swordsmanship. So, even if he wants to give it to his subordinates to learn, he can't find any suitable candidates," Sylvia said with a frown. Then, she looked to Lilith and continued, "Or maybe his goal in stealing the book isn't to learn the taboo but as a token of sincerity instead? After all, a taboo that can be used to summon a Demon King should be of great interest to the demons."

"The demons... That is indeed possible. If Gunst is the mastermind behind the book's theft as well as the person trying to contact the demons and trying to usurp the throne, it makes sense he would try to use Demon King's Shadow as a token of sincerity," Lilith said with her head lowered, looking like she experiencing a headache. "Moreover, Gunst also has the qualifications to usurp the throne. That guy is trusted by my father and wields considerable authority in the kingdom's army. He might have even secretly taken control over the army and has long since prepared to start a rebellion."

According to Sylvia's and Lilith's statements, Alice gathered that they believed the royal guard captain named Gunst Brianken was mostly preparing to start a rebellion. Hence, he had stolen the Demon King's Shadow book to give to the demons as a sign to show his sincerity in partnering with them.

However, after pondering over the two's theory for a moment, even though the theory sounded reasonable. Alice couldn't help but feel that something was amiss.

Using the Demon King's Shadow book as a sign of sincerity? From the perspective of humans, this would indeed look reasonable. But what if they looked at things from the demon's perspective?

Alice had spent some time in the demon realm as a "Demon King" and conversed with the Four Heavenly Kings. Hence, she was somewhat knowledgeable about the demon realm's situation. Would the demons be interested in the Demon King's Shadow book? Alice felt that the possibility was very low.

After all, since the taboo's creation until now, nobody had ever managed to cast it successfully. From what Alice had heard, Demon King's Shadow's principles were far more complex than even Dragon's Shadow. Moreover, she had also seen an interesting topic relating to the taboo's thesis in Mador's report.

According to the thesis, the taboo Demon King's Shadow might be a kind of summoning magic that was designed to summon the shadow of the Tenth Demon King Fogallo Fold, but it could also be deconstructed and modified into a kind of possession magic.

Using a large amount of demon mana as a medium, one could convert this taboo meant to "summon the Tenth Demon King's shadow" into a taboo that "attaches the power of the Tenth Demon King to the caster." However, this modification was only mentioned as a possibility. No in-depth research was ever conducted on this matter.

Anyway, Demon King's Shadow might be a taboo that could summon a Demon King, but the summoned Demon King would only be a shell that didn't actually possess the combat capabilities of a real Demon King. At most, it would have the physical parameters of a real Demon King. It was just like Dragon's Shadow. Even though Dragon's Shadow could be used to create a dragon, the dragon created would only possess the physical qualities of a real dragon. It couldn't use draconic magic. Meanwhile, what use would the demons have for the shell of a Demon King?

In a fight with the Hero, such a shell would probably be rendered useless after eating one or two taboos from the Hero. So, how much could the demons possibly yearn for such a taboo? Wouldn't it be much better to learn the less-complex Dragon's Shadow?

Then, does that mean this Gunst fellow has researched a way to modify Demon King's Shadow into a possession-type taboo? Alice thought with a frown. If Gunst Brianken wasn't trying to use Demon King's Shadow to summon a Demon King but to use it as a possession spell to gain the Demon King's Shadow's strength instead, things would become a little troublesome.

Between a Demon King's Shadow that was incapable of using magic and could only fight with its physical body and a royal guard captain who could use magic and had gained all of a Demon King's Shadow's strength and mana, the latter obviously posed a greater threat. In fact, it wouldn't even be an exaggeration to say that the latter was a true Demon King. Meanwhile, this was a scenario Alice absolutely could not allow to happen.

"But speaking of which, I don't think Gunst has any authority to intervene in the banking system." While Alice wondered if Gunst had truly found a way to modify Demon King's Shadow into a possession-type spell, Sylvia suddenly brought up a new problem. "Only the finance minister should have the authority to do such a thing… Could Gunst have already won over the finance minister?"

"That shouldn't be the case… There haven't been any interactions between the finance minister and Gunst recently. I have always kept a close eye on the various nobles. If Gunst has had any close interactions with the finance ministers, I would have definitely been informed," Lilith said, shaking her head.

Ever since she discovered that someone was trying to involve the demons in the Rhine Kingdom's royal affairs, she had started surveilling the various important individuals in the kingdom. Although she couldn't say that her surveillance was perfect, her subordinates were at least competent enough to notice if their marks were showing suspicious activity, such as suddenly interacting closely with one another.

"Hey, why did several transaction records from your bank account get erased?" After hearing that Gunst and the finance minister hadn't been in close contact, Sylvia threw a question to the pitiful Canlat. "Did Gunst tell you what he did?"

"I really don't know anything about that," Canlat said, shaking his head with a dejected look on his face. Alice's command not to lie remained in his mind, so he truly didn't know how his bank records were erased.

Although Gunst wielded considerable authority in the military, he couldn't interfere with the country's financial aspects. Not to mention, Canlat's bank records were erased so cleanly that not even Lilith's hackers and thieves could find any clues. This showed that someone of great authority had directly deleted the records from the source.

The finance minister naturally had the authority to do such a thing. However, if the finance minister hadn't had any close contact with Gunst, the likelihood of the two working together was very small. In that case, aside from Gunst, who else could get the finance minister to do such a thing? Or, who else had authority equal to or greater than the finance minister?

Thinking up to this point, Alice suddenly realized a problem. She had seemingly gotten trapped in her previous misconception and subconsciously assumed that the mastermind's goal was the Rhine Kingdom's throne.

However, based on her recent suspicions, the mastermind's goal might not be the throne in reality. Instead, it looked more like the mastermind was targeting the demons. If she considered the condition needed to modify Demon King's Shadow into possession magic…

In that case, the mastermind's true goal was to acquire the Demon King's strength through the Demon King's Shadow taboo. Meanwhile, to achieve this goal, the mastermind would first need a large amount of demon mana.

In the human realm, it was obviously impossible to find the large number of demons needed to modify the Demon King's Shadow taboo. So, to rectify this problem…the mastermind had chosen to use the throne as bait to trick the demon spy. Then, under the guise of "partnering with the demons," the mastermind would be able to trick a large number of demons into the human realm. To make the partnership believable and ensure that his plan succeeded, the mastermind had even gone as far as to provide a safe route for the demons to enter the human realm…

If Alice thought about things this way, the Rhine Kingdom's throne would no longer be the mastermind's goal but bait instead. In that case, she could further expand her list of suspects and include people unlikely to try to usurp the throne. Then, after taking into account factors such as the suspect having authority equal to or greater than the finance minister and having the authority to command Gunst, the kingdom's royal guard captain, to do his bidding… There was only one person Alice could think of who matched these requirements.

Search bit.ly/3Tfs4P4 for the original.

King Haydn…

Alice's expression sank a little.