Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 487

Even when I tried to help with the work, I didn’t know how to handle or tan leather, so I could only manage tasks that required simple labor. Therefore, I couldn’t help out all day even if I wanted to. So helping out with chores around the village did not require men to completely abandon my personal training.

I didn’t know what an immovable heart was, but unlike how I performed Mana Reinforcement previously, I tried to approach it with the feeling of trying to control the flow of my mana rather than releasing it.

However, it couldn’t exactly be called personal training. Lena and Arta always came to watch what I was doing.

“Are you going through puberty or something?”

“...”

I had almost forgotten about it lately, but hearing such words from Arta released a surge of forgotten emotions within me.

‘Do you even know how old I really am, you little brats?’

Those words almost slipped out, but I swallowed them back down.

Still, puberty? Even just looking at my current state, puberty was long past!

My annoyance must have shown in my expression because Arta chuckled.

“Why are you so angry all the time? Maybe that’s why things aren’t working out for you.”

“Don’t I have reasons to be angry right now?”

I initially thought Arta was the sort of person who had a calm demeanor, but he was nothing like that. He was the type who would throw in a few words here and there to get under your skin.

Of course, if I really got angry, I could easily overpower him, but this wasn’t the Temple, and he was actually observing and giving me advice on what I should do, so it wasn’t entirely infuriating.

In reality, now that I knew that the wildly raging flames of my Mana Reinforcement were reacting to my emotions, I couldn’t really argue against being called out for acting like a teenager.

“Don’t try to control your mana while releasing all of it at once. You’re not at that level yet. Start with small, manageable amounts of mana and get used to controlling that completely before increasing the total amount.”

“Screw you, I know that much already.”

“Then why aren’t you doing it?”

“Because at this rate, when will I ever...!”

In the end, I almost cried out in frustration, but stopped myself. I knew that, for the moment, growing little by little was the best I could do.

But at this rate, when would I ever be able to perfectly control all the immense mana I possessed? It seemed like a monumental task that would take years, and I didn’t have that kind of time.

I couldn’t let go of my anxiety.

Just as I was about to burst, Arta nudged Lena and said, “See? I told you he’s always angry.”

Smack!

“Stop provoking Reinhart!”

“Ouch!”

In the end, Lena got angry on my behalf.

***

“I am calm.”

.

.

“I find peace of mind.”

.

.

“I am tranquil.”

.

.

“I find peace of mind...”

.

.

“I am calm.”

.

.

As I sat quietly in the clearing, muttering those words absentmindedly, Arta’s face turned pale.

“... Hey, um, I’m sorry. Uh, I went too far.”

It seemed Arta thought I had gone mad from his teasing and was spouting nonsense, so he kept apologizing. In reality, I hadn’t actually gone crazy. I was just trying to see if I could force myself to achieve peace of mind by using Self-Deception and Incantation.

“Maybe... you should take a break...?” Lena suggested, her face equally pale. She, too, seemed to think my actions were a product of madness.

To be honest, I couldn’t deny that repeatedly telling myself I was calm felt like it could lead to a mental breakdown.

***

I did in fact take a break, and Lena and Arta took me to a valley located on the outskirts of Rijaiera.

Roar...

I stared blankly at the water pouring down from above. hadn’t expected there to be such a large waterfall in this place.

Villagers were doing laundry downstream, and children were swimming in the deep valley at the base of the waterfall.

Come to think of it, it was summer. I had a vague sense of it, but I realized anew that I hadn’t been paying much attention to the seasons.

“Want to go in?” Arta asked.

“No, not really,” I declined.

“Don’t like swimming?”

“No, I don’t like kids.”

“Ah...”

At my answer, Lena nodded, slightly taken aback.

—Take this!

—Hey! Stop it!

I thought it would be a hassle trying to swim among the kids splashing away in the valley, especially if they clung to me.

I remembered going to the orphanage with Olivia. Even then, the kids had clung to me, and I recalled Olivia laughing as if she found it amusing.

‘Those kids... I wonder what happened to them?’

“...”

Thinking about everything that happened in the capital, which had now become a hellish place, only filled me with despair.

Arta clicked his tongue. “This guy is like the complete opposite of Ellen, yet similar in some ways,” he remarked.

“Hmm... maybe you have a point,” Lena replied.

“Did Ellen dislike kids too?” I asked.

Lena brought her hand to her lips and tilted her head. “Instead of disliking them, she found them difficult to handle, I’d say.”

I never thought she would be the lively type in her hometown, but it seemed Ellen maintained that calm demeanor of hers even in Rijaiera.

Arta looked at the kids splashing away. “She wasn’t always like that. She used to play with the kids, and even though she didn’t talk much, she’d hang out with us and play with the other kids. But she changed after Ragan left,” he said. free𝑤ebnovel.com

“I see...”

Ragan Artorius’s departure had changed Ellen. I tried to imagine what Ellen could have been like before, but I couldn’t quite picture it.

An Ellen who laughed and played around all the time didn’t seem like the Ellen I knew. Still, if that were the case, it wouldn’t be a bad image.

When she was young, Ellen probably played in this valley with the other kids, splashing around in the water.

The water looked quite deep. Come to think of it, Ellen was an excellent swimmer.

If she had been diving and playing around in such a deep valley from a young age, it was no wonder she had developed such good swimming skills.

I had unexpectedly learned where Ellen’s swimming prowess came from.

“You think too much,” Arta said out of the blue.

“Do I?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

Both Lena and Arta nodded simultaneously in response to my question.

“I don’t know what you want or what you’re actually doing,” Arta said.

“... I suppose.”

“If things aren’t working out, then just think of it as taking a break.”

“A break?”

Arta looked at me quietly. “Yeah, if you can’t do anything else, at least take a break. Not being able to rest is a pretty pathetic thing.”

“That’s right, Reinhart. You seem like you need to rest. You don’t look relaxed.”

Neither of them knew I was the Demon King or the ruler of a nation called Edina, but they could sense my anxiety and restlessness. They could see from my actions that I was not ever at ease.

Resting... Doing nothing and just resting... Was that something I could do?

Spending my days in Rijaiera without gaining anything felt meaningless. And my heart turned that meaninglessness into guilt. However, I couldn’t deny Arta’s words that not being able to rest was rather pathetic. I had been running nonstop for two years. I had witnessed more cruelty than necessary, made harsh decisions, and constantly stood at the crossroads of difficult choices.

Would anything change if I rested? How long would I have to rest for peace to return to this chaotic heart? I didn’t know.

Splash!

—Take this! Haha!

—Stop it! Stop!

I watched the children playing in the water, without a care in the world.

Roaaar...

And then, I looked at the massive waterfall pouring down from above.

Resting... There was something else I wasn’t sure about, something unusual, but I wanted to try it—something I’d never normally do. Something that felt possible only there, in that place, at that moment.

“Going for a swim?”

“No.”

I stepped under the waterfall, letting the water cascade over me. No Mana Reinforcement, just my bare body exposed to the force of the falling water. Lena and Arta stared at me as if I’d lost my mind when I suddenly took my place beneath the rushing water.

Roaaaaaar!

—What’s that guy doing?

—Hey! What are you doing?

Even the kids started looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo.

I did it because I remembered the cliché of monks gaining enlightenment by doing something like this. Of course, I did not find any enlightenment. It just hurt like hell, as if my scalp was being peeled off.

Standing under the waterfall without Mana Reinforcement was painful, and it felt like my body was going to break apart. Strangely, though, the physical pain helped me forget at least a part of the mental anguish that was tearing apart my heart.

After that, whenever I had time, I sat under the waterfall and meditated.

***

I knew that sitting in meditation under a waterfall wouldn’t make me a sage.

In fact, becoming a sage would be a problem. I still hoped to accomplish things in the world, so suddenly gaining enlightenment and ascending would be a big issue.

I didn’t know anything about asceticism or what it meant. I just felt that the physical pain helped to dilute my mental anguish somewhat. I was not partaking in any religious or belief-driven asceticism, just physical hardship.

Without the benefit of Mana Reinforcement, subjecting myself to the full force of the massive waterfall all day left my body aching so much that I could barely move.

When I returned in such a state and collapsed, I fell asleep instantly, as if I had passed out, my mind empty of all thoughts.

“... What have you been doing that makes you come back soaking wet all the time?” Luna asked.

“I’m cultivating ‘The Way.’”

“Huh...?”

Luna’s bewildered expression was quite amusing.

Enduring such pain without protecting my body with mana was quite a tormenting experience. However, my physical abilities had already surpassed those of an ordinary person.

No matter how hard it was, even if I fell asleep in excruciating pain, my body would be back to normal the next day, aside from some dull aches.

Given the state I was in, it was impossible not to think about anything. Therefore, I treated my body harshly so that my mind would become incapable of caring about external matters. It was a simple and crude method, but it was effective.

While it didn’t completely stop all my thoughts, being constantly pounded by the water gave me a sense of what a state of no-self might be.

Honestly, it was much more straightforward than that. It was just so excruciatingly painful that it was impossible to think of anything else.

There were some amusing moments too.

“I teased you about going through puberty, and now you’re acting like some ascetic?” Arta said.

At first, Arta mocked me for doing something so strange, but after seeing me do it for almost a week, he sat next to me under the waterfall, asking if there was something to it.

“Hmm... Should I try it too?”

Seeing that Arta was doing it, even Lena decided to try and slowly stepped under the waterfall.

“Ahhh!”

“Hey! Why are you here?”

Lena screamed and ran out, not just because it hurt, but because the force of the water had torn her clothes half-off. With her face flushed, she adjusted her clothes and returned to the village.

Arta continued to sit next to me, shivering, his lips trembling.

It was obvious, but I couldn’t help but notice that Arta liked Lena.

I sat under the waterfall with Arta.

“Even though I was born and raised here, you’re the first outsider I’ve seen to do something like this!”

“I mean, who would do such a ridiculous thing?”

“So you do think it’s ridiculous!”

Arta chuckled as he sat quietly under the waterfall.

Since it was summer, the kids were always in the valley, and seeing the older boys doing something strange under the waterfall, some kids approached curiously, wanting to try it themselves.

Most of them ran away in panic when the water hit their heads, but some gritted their teeth and endured.

“Hey! Is this fun?!” A village boy whose name I didn’t know shouted at me.

“Does it look fun?!”

“Then why are you doing it?”

“I don’t know, kid!”

Why do something that’s not fun and only painful? That was what the kids wanted to know, but I didn’t know the answer either. However, each time the waterfall pounded away at my head and body, I could feel the old grime in my heart being washed away.

Roaaaaaar!

The sound of the waterfall was deafening, but my heart was gradually becoming calm. I could distinctly sense a tranquility within the noise, as if there was nothing in the world but me and the sound of the water pouring down.

Mana Reinforcement was a power for battle. I had awakened Mana Reinforcement in my fight with Oscar de Gradias.

The supernatural power of Self-Deception.

The power of Mana Reinforcement.

The power of Incantation.

I had awakened all of them in the midst of battle as well.

In hindsight, acquiring power that way was far removed from the norm. I couldn’t deny that such powers had been given to me because I had been subjected to the inevitable.

Whenever I had been placed in situations where I should have been severely injured or killed under normal circumstances, I had constantly transcended to the next stage. It was, in the end, something akin to cheating.

The yoga master teacher, whose status at that moment didn’t know, was probably quite skilled, and likely had his own role to play in facing the Gate Incident.

The yoga master’s classes had been fundamentally similar to hypnosis.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Before we knew it, we would all fall asleep. And when we woke up, we would rise feeling refreshed, not knowing where it had come from. After that, once Ellen and I had awakened Mana Reinforcement, we had attended special classes with him.

The yoga master did not teach Mana Reinforcement as a means for fighting. The teacher spoke about controlling the mind and the flow of mana through Mana Manipulation.

Mana Reinforcement was a power that greatly enhanced physical output, specialized for combat. But was it really only for combat?

The yoga master seemed to approach the circulation of energy, including Mana Reinforcement, as if it were a way to cultivate the mind. Luna, Ronan, and Arta were the same. They did not discuss the output or precision of Mana Reinforcement, but seemed to consider it a matter of the heart. They focused more on intention (義) than on power (力).

Was Mana Reinforcement a power that was not just used to enhance combat ability, but rather the manifestation of a psychological effect, where the strength and precision of the heart manifested as physical strength?

I wasn’t strong of heart. I merely endured, endured, and endured again.

But a broken heart could affect the body. It could manifest as tears, or more severely, as hyperventilation, or even numbness in the limbs. The collapse of the mind disrupted one’s control over the body.

Of course, the opposite was also possible. The mind and body could have a reciprocal relationship, just as physical pain helped me to forget some of my mental anguish.

If the opposite was true, if that was really the case, could someone with a wounded heart also feel physical pain as if it were real? If the steadfastness of mind in those who were mentally strong could influence their body, could someone with a strong mind convert that mental strength into actual physical strength?

Roaaar!

The sound of the pouring waterfall engulfed my entire body as intensely as a thunderstorm. Up to this point, I had resolved everything by fighting. Because of that, I thought that by constantly clashing and using Mana Reinforcement intensely, constantly emptying myself and filling myself up, emptying and filling, something might work out. Strictly speaking, though, I was walking a deviated path.

Awakening power in battle was not something that typically happened. It just happened so often for me that I thought it was natural that such power would awaken through such fortuitous battles.

It was the same for Ellen, who was my goal and guide.

On top of that, I couldn’t escape the thought that Mana Reinforcement was just a tool for fighting.

Mana Reinforcement... A means to enhance physical abilities by channeling internal mana through the body. However, I did not need to approach it in such a manner. While Mana Reinforcement could be seen as a mere tool, it didn’t have to be.

Just as the yoga master did, as Luna and Ronan said, and as Arta mentioned, it was ultimately a path, a principle where the mind and spirit influenced the body through the medium of mana.

Therefore, it must be approached as a matter of the mind and spirit.

At some point, instead of expressing myself, I had suppressed my heart and kept moving forward, squashing down countless worries and agonies. I always pushed my thoughts aside, saving it for after everything was over.

Having postponed so much and letting all of it pile up, my mind had grown muddled and confused, and these suppressed emotions, without an outlet to be expressed, were festering away.

A confused mind could only give birth to a chaotic flame of mana that was fiercely released. The only reason my body could withstand it was because I was abnormally strong. In reality, I was just cramming a violent and unrefined power into an excessively strong frame. It was actually a miracle that I could endure it.

I could not properly control my mind. That’s why my immense mana pool was pouring into my body like a flood. As a result, I couldn’t use my body properly either.

The core of the problem originated from the mind, and it resulted in issues with Mana Manipulation, which ultimately led to problems trying to operate the body.

I had to abandon this deviated path.

I was a rotten tree. At a glance, the tree may look huge, but inside, it had rotted away terribly, and was unable to grow any further. I was nothing but a large monster.

I did not know how to discard the pain and despair. No—I didn’t even know if discarding it was right. But I knew the problem lay in the fact that I had only been enduring it thus far.

In fact, what I was doing couldn’t be considered enduring; I was just ignoring it.

Instead of properly enduring and processing the unresolved problems, I was ignoring them and not thinking about them. I still didn’t have the confidence to face those issues head-on, but knowing what the problem was gave me hope that I could improve a little.

The pain disappeared. No blue light emanated from my body. But because mana enveloped my entire body and strengthened it, I did not feel the pain of the water hitting me.

A pure heart, and pure Mana Reinforcement...

I was finally able to take that first step. It was just the first step, and it was not the end.

I had to move on.

I had to go to the next stage.