Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 495

I was afraid of the final battle. The thought of possibly having to face Ellen someday filled me with dread. In my current state, there was no way I could stand against Ellen or a dragon. If things continued as they were, I would have to sacrifice my life and draw out Alsbringer’s true power, which was why I had come to Rijaiera, seeking the next step.

However, regardless of what I achieved in my time in the village, I knew I would participate in the final battle. What I possessed wasn’t courage, but rather recklessness or stubbornness.

Because I had Alsbringer, all my actions inevitably leaned towards recklessness. I had resolved that if everything went wrong, I would ultimately use Alsbringer, which meant I couldn’t truly possess genuine courage.

“Fear and terror... It’s not about abandoning them, but facing them despite holding onto them. That’s what courage is,” Luna said, and I nodded slowly.

It wasn’t about discarding fear and forgetting terror, but embracing them and confronting head on the suffocating fear and dread emanating from an opponent. That was the condition necessary to be chosen by Alixion.

In the end, Alixion was a holy relic similar to Alsbringer. Just as Alsbringer chose a master who would willingly die for the world, Alixion would appear in response to the desire of someone who demonstrated true courage.

If I understood what true courage was and showed that courage while facing the dragon from the other world, would Alixion appear before me, according to my wish? But then, what would change?

“What is the true power of Alixion?” I asked.

“The holy spear Alixion is a relic that seeks out those who feel true terror against an unbeatable enemy, and yet stand against it. So, what should be given to such a person? What would they need?” Luna replied.

It was a divine gift bestowed upon those who showed true courage. The condition would already be met: true courage drawn out through genuine fear. There was only one thing it could and had to give.

“Power to stand against whatever the opponent may be,” Luna said plainly. “That’s all.”

For someone who overcame fear and terror in the face of an impossible opponent, the only thing needed was strength. Alixion lent the power to stand against whatever opponent its master might be facing. No matter how strong the dragon of the other world was, if chosen by the holy spear Alixion, one could gain the power to stand against it. In a way, Alixion was indeed the strongest holy relic.

***

If Alixion were to choose me, all this hard work might be meaningless. But it was funny how knowing about Alixion made the possibility of obtaining it even more remote. Just as relying on Alsbringer in the final battle was much closer to recklessness and stubbornness than courage, hoping Alixion would find me as I stood before the enemy in the final battle was also far from true courage.

In fact, knowing that Alixion responded to and chose based on true courage meant that even if I tried to display true courage, it wouldn’t be pure. Ignorance is bliss, they say. It was exactly like that.

It would have been better not to know, but Luna and Ronan had not told me what I hadn’t wanted to know—I was the one who had asked them about it directly.

It was foolish to expect Alixion to necessarily become mine.

Deliberately fearing the enemy and being overwhelmed by terror while pondering what true courage was seemed ridiculous.

If Alixion chose me, it would be perfect, but if not, I had to stand before it regardless. Alixion was a powerful relic and hadn’t appeared often. Expecting it to appear was a luxury.

No matter how strong my need for it might work in my favor, I couldn’t expect Alixion to conveniently appear and tilt the situation in my favor.

Therefore, I did what I had to do.

The snow hadn’t stopped. Before heading into the forest, I helped the villagers clear the snow that had piled up overnight around the village and on rooftops. I did not just clear snow from the roof of Ellen’s house, but the roofs of other villagers’ homes as well.

In Rijaiera, there were places where a young person’s hands were needed.

“Reinhart! Come down and have some ginger tea!” a grandmother called out.

“Yes, Grandma!” I replied.

Having been a guest for so long, some villagers began to treat me as one of their own. It was quite amusing.

Now that my identity as the Demon King had been revealed, no one would ever treat me like before. But what would anyone think if I, during my days as the Temple’s delinquent, Reinhart, went around gaining favor with the elderly in the countryside?

No, it was even funnier that it was the Demon King who was doing such things. If someone broadcasted images of my current self across the continent, would people realize I wasn’t such a dangerous person?

The Demon King chopping wood, uprooting trees, plowing fields, clearing snow...

As my time in Rijaiera grew longer, all sorts of thoughts began to cross my mind. After finishing the snow-clearing work, I grabbed a shovel and pickaxe and headed over the snow-covered mountain to the field I was clearing.

It was ridiculous to insist on plowing a field on a day when the snow was piled so high it was hard to even walk, but honestly, I liked it.

The harder the task, the more focus it required. These harsh conditions were good for me; there was no reason to consider them as bad. After all, while plowing the field was my goal, it wasn’t my purpose.

“Damn it,” I muttered.

Of course, that was nothing more than just talk. Seeing the path to the distant clearing covered in white snow, with my feet sinking deep into the snow and the path slowly disappearing, was indeed frustrating.

If I used the Flame of Tuesday, I could have melted not only the path before me, but also all the snow in the village.

I considered just using it, but in the end, I began to push through the snow without it.

What I could do, Luna could surely do as well. I still didn’t know what the family of Sunday and Monday was or what they wanted, but no one in Rijaiera used mystical powers to aid in daily life. They were just living as they naturally should, I supposed.

Since I respected Rijaiera and Luna’s way of life, I decided not to use powers that didn’t belong in this place. Using the Flame of Tuesday would have made many things easier. I could have melted the freezing ground and completed the clearing work long ago. But I didn’t do that.

By not doing so, I had learned the ability to maintain a calm mental state where I could sustain extremely efficient Mana Reinforcement all day long, even while sleeping. Now that I knew the value of discomfort, I couldn’t just use the Flame of Tuesday for convenience.

“Ugh,” I grumbled.

Still, it was indeed uncomfortable. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

***

If left as it was, the snow that had fallen and piled up would slowly melt and turn into ice. Reinhart continued the tedious and time-consuming work of clearing the ground, shoveling the snow aside and breaking the frozen layer of earth beneath with a pickaxe.

The snow that fell in the mountains during winter did not melt easily. Such snow usually lingered until the next season arrived, slowly melting away until it suddenly disappeared on a warm day.

Therefore, even though Rijaiera enjoyed a few days without any heavy snowfall, snow could still be seen throughout the winter.

During those days, even after the villagers had cleared all the snow and the children no longer had snowball fights in the streets, Reinhart still took the mountain path, returning only at sunset. And so, another day, then two days, a week, and a month passed, while his work slowly progressed.

No matter how strong the body was, there were limits to the durability of the equipment, so Reinhart had to control his strength.

Even with his control, shovels bent, and pickaxe blades broke. Reinhart, in a near-trance state, repeatedly drove the shovel and pickaxe into the ground, turning over stones.

On yet a day when he had been mechanically performing such tasks, forgetting even what he was doing...

As winter passed and the snow in the forest and mountains froze and began to sublimate, signaling the onset of spring...

On a day when the weather was warming, and all that was left was to wait for the snow to melt...

Luna was watching Reinhart. She was standing just a step behind him, but Reinhart didn’t even realize Luna was there.

Thud!

The shovel blade sank easily into the frozen ground. Too easily.

Thunk!

The pickaxe blade pierced the ground as if it were tofu, while Luna watched quietly.

“Congratulations, Reinhart,” she said.

“...?”

Reinhart turned around in surprise, startled by the sudden voice from behind.

“Congratulations?” he asked.

“Yes,” Luna pointed to the shovel Reinhart was holding. “Haven’t you reached the next level?”

The shovel blade Reinhart held was enveloped in a blue mana glow.

“... What is this...?”

“...”

Reinhart had been so focused that he hadn’t even realized he had, at some point, crossed a threshold. Luna smiled as she watched Reinhart, who was staring blankly at the shovel he was holding.

“Stop plowing the ground; it’s meaningless to you now,” Luna said.

“...”

Reinhart looked around in a daze. The vast forest had almost been completely cleared. After staring blankly at the great yet humble achievement he had taken a long time to accomplish, Reinhart turned his gaze back to Luna.

“There’s not much left to do; can’t I just finish it?” he asked.

“...”

Reinhart’s joy at reaching Master class seemed to be overshadowed by his regret over not completing the task he had taken on.

“If you really want to...” Luna replied.

Reinhart had an odd determination about him, perhaps as a result of the strange stubbornness that had developed from performing such bizarre tasks for so long.

“Okay. Then could you hurry up and leave? You’re in the way,” he said.

“...”

Thud! Thud!

With that, Reinhart began to dig into the ground again without even glancing at Luna.

***

Now that I had reached Master class, I gained tremendous momentum, and the pace of work quickened. It was as if I was wielding the strongest shovel and pickaxe in the world, which allowed me to use my full strength.

All day, I broke through the frozen ground. In the end, I was able to finish all the remaining bits of the work I had been doing throughout the winter in just one day.

With that, the task Luna had given me when I first asked her what I had to do to focus my mind—plow the field—was now completely fulfilled.

The feeling of having reached Master class... Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I felt. I didn’t even know when I had reached it. If there had been a barrier, perhaps I had already crossed it long ago.

I was staring blankly at the fork I was holding, wrapped in blue mana. I couldn’t quite feel any significant change, but I could now infuse mana into the objects I held.

Somehow, I had reached Master class by shoveling and swinging a pickaxe instead of a sword.

It felt like some kind of weird moment of clarity.

If I were to put it in martial arts terms, couldn’t this be called something like “returning to the origin”?

“Congratulations, Reinhart,” Ronan said.

“Ah, yes... It’s all thanks to you guys...” I replied blankly, nodding my head.

“Thanks to us? We didn’t teach you anything. You came to it all on your own,” Luna said, eating her bread quietly, and Ronan nodded in agreement.

‘So, there’s no need to be grateful, huh?’

Luna hadn’t exactly taught me anything directly. She had fed me, sheltered me, and occasionally spoke to me in vague terms, but that couldn’t strictly be called teaching. If anything, Arta had taught me more.

But even so, could I really say I hadn’t learned anything from these two? Ronan had only spoken about the flame of the heart, and Luna had only said a few words about my emotions. Those were more descriptions about a mindset than teachings.

Had I forgotten my struggles? No, I hadn’t. Had I reached a conclusion around my complex emotions? That wasn’t it either. Luna and Ronan said they hadn’t taught me anything, but I couldn’t say I hadn’t learned anything from them.

The time spent with them, the days in Rijaiera... It wasn’t just them feeding and sheltering me while I did my personal training. I couldn’t see it like that.

“I’ll gather the villagers,” Luna said as she took a bite of bread.

“...”

“You have to leave tonight.”

Even though it was already night, I couldn’t say “Can’t I stay for just one more day?” or anything like that. Saying such a thing would mean admitting my fear of returning to the world.

I couldn’t delay the moment I had to face the changes that had occurred in my absence. I had to return as soon as possible, not linger for another day.

Luna was trying to send me off quickly now that I had achieved my goal, before I had a weak moment. She was doing it not for her sake, but mine. That had to be what she was thinking.

Yet, those calm words of hers felt... somewhat sad.

Very, very sad.