After the Queen told me Miko was alive, I didn't believe it at first — but I had no choice but to trust her words.
Still, there was something strange in what she'd said. I told her so.
"There's something strange about what you just said."
"What's strange about it?"
"You knew you were going to be attacked, didn't you?"
"Why would you think that?"
"Your technology is powerful in every field. How could you not have known they were coming? And you came out of it without a single casualty. Did you know about the attack beforehand?"
Confusion started showing on her face.
"It's true our technology is strong — our army, our capabilities. But that doesn't mean we have some radar that tells us who the attacker is."
I doubted her — especially that line, that doesn't mean we have a radar that tells us who the attacker is.
Did that mean she'd made some kind of deal with them?
That's right — Miko had said it herself: "A prophecy came to us that you would save us from the Demon King."
Did that mean she'd sacrificed her own daughter just to delay the invasion?
I gathered my breath and said:
"Miko told me, 'The Shield Hero will come and save us' — but I don't see any Shield Hero. Was it because you never found the Shield Hero… that you sacrificed your daughter to the Demon King instead?"
The Queen went silent. She hadn't expected that question. She didn't answer, not even with a single letter.
I started to seethe with rage, stepping toward her.
"Why did you do it?"
I repeated the question, but she gave me no answer. The rain kept pouring, and my steps began to slow. Thunder and lightning mirrored the fury I was holding back. My murderous stare forced the Queen to confess everything she'd done.
Fear filled her voice.
"Listen to me carefully, and don't do anything until I've finished speaking."
"I can't promise you that. I'll try."
The Queen began to hesitate, but I pressed her. I decided to be bold — she wouldn't tell me anything if she stayed like this. I released a little of my aura and started using it to unsettle her, and said:
"Go on… is there something you're afraid of?"
"N-n-no… but I don't know what to say."
I took her hand, gently, tenderly, and said:
"It's alright. I'm here with you. Talk."
She started crying.
"I… I… I sacrificed my daughter. Is that what you wanted to know?"
The veins in my head bulged, but I wanted to know more.
"There's more. Keep going — so that I don't kill you."
She looked at me, and for a moment our eyes met. The Queen lowered her gaze back to the ground and said:
"Do your eyes reflect what you've lived through?"
"Why?"
"You… you died a long time ago. Your eyes aren't a human's eyes. Your eyes are a killer's. Are you even human?"
I grew angry, raised my voice a little, tightened my grip on her hand, and said:
"That's not what we're talking about. Keep going… finish your words before I finish it myself."
"The Demon King came, and behind him hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The Jewel had been telling us, warning us, that a great power was heading toward us. I didn't understand at first, because I was still young."
I cut in and said:
"How old are you?"
"A hundred and ninety-three. Why?"
I looked at her, astonished — how could she be this young and this beautiful. She was that old, yet she still called herself young. Compared to her, I was practically a child. I pulled my hand away from her so as not to raise suspicion, and said:
"Keep talking. The trees are telling me of a certain place I'll train in."
I was lying, just to keep her going — and the plan actually worked. She grabbed my hand and said:
"Please don't pull your hand away. It keeps me from feeling afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"I still remember that feeling — his arrival, which shook the entire forest and nearly overturned the balance of the world."
I was amazed, eager to fight him myself — but the weak point of any man is the one he loves.
"It's alright. Tell me, and I'll put an end to that feeling of yours."
"When the King arrived, his presence and his aura overwhelmed everyone who defied him. He raised a single finger and released the smallest trickle of power from it — enough to strip the forest of its own strength. We were all stunned, my brother the King before any of us.
Our general stepped forward and raised his sword against the Demon King. He leapt at him to cut him down — but the opposite happened. He was torn to pieces and vanished. Not one drop of his blood touched the ground.
My brother stepped forward and said:
"What do you want from us?"
He said to him:
"I've come to take the Mana Jewel. I hear it stores mana, and regulates the unstable mana in children. I want it to increase my power."
My brother told him:
"We cannot give you the Jewel. If you want it, you'll have to face me."
The Demon King laughed, and the echo of that laughter still frightens us to this day. My brother drew his sword and demanded a duel from the Demon King.
The King agreed to my brother's duel and said to him:
"If I kill you here, or defeat you, you give me the Jewel. And if I lose, I leave."
My brother agreed to his terms, and the battle began.
Our mages and the Demon King's mages built the battlefield together. The arena had no stands, and around it stood roughly ten barriers.
Then… the battle began.
After the bell rang, neither King advanced — whoever moved first would fall first. It went on like that for a few minutes, but the Demon King grew bored and restless.
My brother blinked, and found the Demon King had appeared in front of him. The Demon King raised his sword and delivered the first strike. My brother raised his sword quickly but without force — he managed to withstand the blow, and fell back.
The Demon King said:
'What a bore you are. Attack me. Return the strike.'
They used to call my brother 'The Just' — but there was another title, one that vanished after he took the throne: 'The Gentle Butcher.' He was called that because nothing in his conduct suggested he was a butcher, or a killer.
After the Demon King demanded he fight back, the barrier count rose — to twenty. My brother smiled and said:
'Do you want this fight to be thrilling for both of us? Or do you want one side to simply hold the stronger hand in this battle?'
The Demon King laughed and said:
"Yes… that's right… that's how battles should be. I want this fight to be thrilling."
(End of Chapter 51)