The Paladin of the Sacred Kingdom Part I

by Kugane Maruyama

  “As strong as him?” Remedios yelped.

  “…What sort of condition is it? We may not be able to comply immediately,” continued Gustav, and the King of Darkness smiled at him.

  “Yes, I figured. I have a pretty good idea of the situation you’re in… It sounds good when you call yourselves a resistance force, but actually you’re a small group of armed individuals living in a cave, right?”

  Everyone in the room seemed to gasp at the same time.

  Neia included.

  How was he able to guess their true condition? How had he seen through their story? It was especially impressive that he got the detail about the cave right.

  The commander and Gustav looked at Neia. They had to be wondering if she had told him about their situation. So she shook her head slightly to say, I didn’t.

  The King of Darkness ignored their surprise and continued.

  “Even if the southern forces are still around, they aren’t cooperating with you due to the deep-rooted issues that exist with the nobles. Since you weren’t able to protect the holy lady, it will be difficult for you to serve in the same positions under the new Holy King. So of course you can’t offer me privileges such as land, title, or trade. If you did that, depending on what the new holy king thought, a war could break out with the Nation of Darkness.”

  He recited the future of their situation so accurately it was as if he had learned it by heart.

  “And of course, national treasures are also impossible to part with. Like your sword, Lady Custodio. One possible option would be to say that Jaldabaoth stole everything and turn over the country’s assets to me, but that’s dangerous. If I told the new holy king you did that, no one would trust paladins anymore. So your only choice was to do as you did and appeal to my emotions… Hmm, it seems like I guessed right. I can see from your faces that I scored a bull’s-eye.”

  Having said that much, the King of Darkness leaned back in his chair.

  Silence reigned in the room.

  It was perfect, just so perfect.

  Neia was astounded by his accurate reading of their circumstances.

  So this is the King of Darkness, she thought.

  She had seen royalty alongside the Holy Lady but only ever received a perfunctory greeting from them; she never really got the chance to interact. This was her first time meeting a perfect being with superior discernment, the appropriate dignity, and even more power. The impact was so great she would never forget it.

  “That said, anyone can figure out that much. I’m a bit embarrassed that I sounded like I’m boasting… I’m sure you guys didn’t think I wouldn’t see it, right?”

  “O-of course not, Your Majesty!” Gustav replied, forcing a twitching smile.

  “Good. If people thought I was an idiot who couldn’t read a situation so simple, I don’t know how I could face my hardworking subordinates… Now then, I’ll explain what I’m after: maids. I want maids.”

  The completely unexpected word that burst out of the king’s mouth stunned them all, including Neia.

  “…Oh, sorry. I should explain better. Uhhh, so during our audience, I told you how Jaldabaoth has strong maids, right? I want those. How much do you guys know about magic?”

  “Nothing at all,” Remedios admitted openly, and the king’s eyes swam.

  “I—I see. Then I’m not sure where to start this explanation but, hmm, I guess… Uhhh, Jaldabaoth’s maids must be bound to him by some sort of contract. So if I defeat him and make his method my own, I can take control of those maids. Thus, my country will gain some powerful servants.”

  “B-but we haven’t seen Jaldabaoth’s maids in our country…”

  The King of Darkness snickered at Gustav’s reply. “They were seen in the Re-Estize Kingdom. It’s hard to imagine they’re not around somewhere. Maybe they’ll show themselves if we corner Jaldabaoth.”

  “Just to reemphasize…we don’t know for sure if the maids are there or not. What will you do if there are no maids?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it, but I won’t make additional demands. I’ll have worked for nothing. But they may not look like typical maids, so let’s call them Jaldabaoth’s subordinates. Oh, right. Since he might be controlling them with a specific item, I’d like anything in his possession that doesn’t clearly belong to the Sacred Kingdom to be turned over to me. If things turn out badly and the maids rampage through your kingdom before I seize control, I’d like you to forget your hatred of them once they’re mine.”

  “You’re saying we should forgive people who’ve torn apart our country?” Remedios said, sounding somewhat offended, and the King of Darkness shrugged.

  “It’s not like I’d be getting anything else from the Sacred Kingdom. Unless you have something to offer?”

  Unable to say anything, Remedios bit her lip.

  “Your Majesty, I think what she wanted to say is that it would be difficult for us, who aren’t currently there, to get the people who are suffering to forget their ill will.”

  “Well, you’ll just have to work hard to convince them,” the King of Darkness said in an icy tone. “…Er, you can explain that I put them under magic control and took them away. That might make them feel a little better.”

  I wonder, thought Neia as she listened. Still, refusing after he had made this much of a compromise would likely cause everything to fall apart. Frankly, this offer was an extraordinarily valuable one for the Sacred Kingdom. Wasting it would be foolish.

  “That’s a problem. If they rampaged—”

  “Your Majesty!” Gustav cut Remedios off. “We’d like to discuss this among ourselves. May we have some time?”

  I’ve compromised this much, and you still need to talk about it? Neia was worried he might reproach them like that, but…

  “Sure. I can’t imagine it would take too long, and it’s troublesome to go somewhere else, so I’d like to wait here if that’s okay.”

  The king’s generosity surprised Neia.

  “Thank you. Then we’ll go discuss things and come right back. Excuse us for just a moment, please.”

  “That’s fine. Talk as much as you need.”

  The two of them left and came back awfully fast. Well, the answer had been decided from the beginning, surely.

  “We apologize for keeping you waiting, Your Majesty.”

  “Not at all. You could have talked a little longer. So what do you think?”

  “We’ve decided that we’ll do whatever you say, Your Majesty.”

  “It’s not as if I was trying to get you to submit to me; I just wanted to strike a deal, but that’s fine. Now then, we should really get this in writing, but I don’t have any stationery or my seal on me. We’ll do that later… Does the Re-Estize language work for you?”

  “There are people who can read it, so that’s no problem. Then, Your Majesty, who is this person as strong as Sir Momon?”

  “You’re looking at him. It’s me.”

  Silence reigned again, and everyone’s eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

  After blinking a few times, their brains started to work again.

  “Your Majesty is as strong as Sir Momon?” Neia froze solid when she heard Remedios say that, but one man had already leaped into action.

  “H-hold on, please. Commander, there’s something else we need to ask him first.” Gustav turned to the King of Darkness. “Is it really all right for you to leave the Nation of Darkness and come to Roebel? We don’t know how long this will take.”

  “That’s a nonissue. Unlike Momon, I can use teleportation magic. Once we reach your base, I’ll be able to go back and forth.”

  “B-but still, a king coming personally to help us seems—”

  “Did you listen to what I said and think I wouldn’t come? I’m going to defeat Jaldabaoth and take possession of his maids! I highly doubt I could manage that from all the way over here. And to answer your question, Commander Custodio, I’m more powerful than Momon.”

&nb
sp; “Then there’s no issue, right, Gustav?”

  “There’s nothing but issues! Your Majesty, we can’t handle jokes right now!” the deputy barked, holding his stomach.

  “I’m not joking. There’s no one else who can fight Jaldabaoth and win. And I will go alone. I have no intention of bringing an army. That’s why I came to talk to you in secret.”

  “If you were to sustain an injury that couldn’t be healed, the relationship between our two countries would be ruined!”

  “—is what Gustav thinks, but do you foresee any problems like that, Your Majesty?”

  “Not at all.”

  “B—”

  “Gustav! I’m talking. Stay out of my way!” Reeling back in the hand she had thrust out at him, Remedios bowed. “Then please do assist us, Your Majesty.”

  •

  In the room with an atmosphere like a storm had passed—well, in a sense, one certainly had—Gustav exploded.

  “What are you thinking?! He’s a king! How could you ask him to come fight Jaldabaoth?!”

  Neia agreed.

  This went so far against common sense.

  But Remedios murmured, “Hey, do you actually care what happens to an undead?”

  Everyone fell silent.

  “…It’s a demon versus an undead. No matter which one is destroyed, we don’t lose anything. Am I wrong?”

  Gustav’s eyes widened. Not because he accepted her position, but because he was shocked.

  “They’re both enemies of humanity. The best would be if they were both annihilated…not that I’d actively aim for that. Just, if the King of Darkness happens to sustain a life-threatening injury in the fight, we won’t help him. Simple as that.”

  Remedios’s words sound strangely loud in the quiet room.

  “…Commander. Don’t you think that if the King of Darkness were to perish, all the undead he commands would go free and create an unholy uproar?”

  “When that time comes, it’ll be the Kingdom, the Empire, and the Theocracy that will bear the brunt of it. We would support them, I’m sure, but the damage we’ve sustained from fighting Jaldabaoth is too much. I’d like our neighbors to tough it out until we recover some of our strength… When you think of it that way, we stand to gain a lot if they kill each oth—”

  “Commander!” Gustav shouted with a stern look. “Is there any justice in that?”

  “There is. For our country. It’s to save the people who are suffering the most. It’s not as if I want to sow misfortune in foreign lands. I do actually want this king who supports us to win.”

  Watching Remedios say that softly, Neia thought, Who are you?

  Was this really Remedios Custodio, commander of the paladins of the Sacred Kingdom?

  Neia didn’t know her that well. Mostly she had only seen her from a distance. But from what she had heard of the commander, she felt this was someone different.

  “Gustav. Are you done objecting? If you’re on board, then we need to move on.”

  “To?”

  “…We need to think about how to milk the King of Darkness for all he’s worth.”

  A chill ran up Neia’s spine.

  Why am I hearing this conversation? she wondered. No, she couldn’t have been the only one. Glancing around, she saw all the paladins wearing the same expression. Neia probably had the same look on her face.

  “Any ideas, Gustav?”

  “N-no, ma’am. First, though, what should we do once we’ve brought the King of Darkness back?”

  “If he’s not all talk and really is as powerful as Jaldabaoth, how about retaking the capital? Then we can have him take out the demon right then.”

  “…No, that’s the worst idea. The King of Darkness said he would defeat Jaldabaoth, take his maids, and return to his nation, so in order to gain the most out of this, we should save killing Jaldabaoth for the very end… If we do what you propose, we have no way of defeating the subhuman army that will be left over.”

  “Then what should our strategy be?”

  Gustav thought for a moment and then made a suggestion. “First, let’s gather lots of allies. We should free the people imprisoned in the camps.”

  “Aha! That’s a good idea. There are some people I want to rescue.”

  “The royal family?”

  “That’s right,” replied Remedios.

  The Holy Lady had been killed, but there were no reports that the rest of the royal family had died. If they could save even one of them, that person could be raised as a symbol to gain the full support of the southern nobles.

  “And I’d likes to save whatever nobles we can, too.”

  Most of the nobles hadn’t been very friendly to the Holy Lady, so Remedios didn’t care for them. But there had to be some northern noble with family ties to the south. If they put those families in their debt, they could openly request more active assistance from southern nobles.

  Remedios gave Neia a piercing look. “Squire Neia Baraja, I appoint you as His Majesty’s aide. Influence him so he works to our benefit.”

  “Huh? What?? P-please wait a minute! I’m just a squire—I can’t serve a king!”

  “Work hard enough that you can.”

  “It’s not an issue of working hard!”

  Normally she would just give in, but this time she desperately resisted. This wasn’t the kind of thing she could accept so simply. Has Remedios gone insane?

  “Sh-she’s right, Commander!” Gustav backed her up. “If we don’t assign him a lady-in-waiting of some standing, His Majesty might be insulted.”

  “…Are there any other women in the liberation army?”

  Most of the women without combat skills had been evacuated to the south. But it wasn’t as if there were no women at all. The liberation army had a handful. Gustav was opening his mouth to suggest one of them, but Remedios spoke sooner.

  “A woman in the Paladin Order. If I gave orders to a woman of the shrines, what would they think? My sister is gone! And besides, this sort of role should probably go to someone who was here to hear my thoughts. You would have me shove the job off on some third party?”

  You’re already shoving it off on me, thought Neia, but she didn’t say anything.

  “In that case…” Gustav looked at Remedios.

  “I’m going to be fighting on the front line! You want me to keep the King of Darkness company on top of that?! Or you think we should leave everything to him?”

  “Even if you intend to use him, we can’t do it so blatantly. And there are issues of trust involved. Plus, if it looks like the Sacred Kingdom can’t put up a fight, he may decide to conquer it outright…”

  When Gustav trailed off, Neia realized her reinforcements had been defeated.

  “Understood. I may be powerless, but I’ll do my utmost.”

  “Yes, and just to reiterate. Your job is to make the King of Darkness easy for us to take advantage of. Say whatever will put him in a good mood.”

  This was more than a challenge; it was absurd. Neia hardly thought she could pull it off. But she gave up and bowed her head. Nothing I say will change her mind.

  “Yes, ma’am! I’ll do everything I can, so I hope you’ll all support me.”

  “Sure. If you need anything, ask this guy.” She indicated Gustav.

  Though rather deep in despair, Neia was surprised to find herself feeling somewhat excited as well.

  His Majesty the King of Darkness, huh…?

  Chapter 3 | Initiating the Counterattack

  1

  The carriage swayed along.

  It belonged to the King of Darkness. Contrary to its plain exterior, the inside was luxurious and sophisticated, as well as superbly functional. Neia was especially impressed by the cushions that prevented sore bottoms even during long journeys.

  She stole a glance at the King of Darkness as he sat across from her, his eyes gazing out the window.

  He was a terrifying undead, but his presence wasn’t as overwhelming as when she had first met him
during the audience.

  Perhaps that was because they had more time to talk together during this journey.

  One thing she had learned was that he was very generous.

  The King of Darkness had the dignity of a king. Even the slightest movements he made exuded a royal gravitas.

  But sometimes in this carriage, he acted like any normal person. And especially of late, those moments had grown more frequent.

  How generous of him to assume a folksier attitude out of consideration for Neia, who was so nervous to be riding with him. Surely the reason those moments had increased was that he had gotten used to the act.

  The reason he didn’t operate in that mode with anyone else had to be because the others were paladins, people of rank.

  It’s so kind of him to go to such trouble for a foreign commoner…

  What was he looking at? He probably wasn’t watching the paladins riding alongside them. He must have been looking at something else—something that had nothing to do with Neia—

  “Hmm? Did something that fascinating land on my face?”

  “What?! No, Your Majesty, excuse me. There’s nothing on your face…”

  Apparently, she had spaced out and ended up staring at him. He seemed puzzled and rubbed his cheek with a bony hand.

  “It certainly is awkward to ride together like this with no conversation. Hmm. Shall we talk?”

  She had gotten used to it somewhat, but the idea of being his conversation partner still made her stomach hurt.

  “We don’t know each other very well, so I’ve been avoiding topics that might be private, but now we’ve been riding together for a few days. Maybe we can open up a bit. Will you tell me your story, Neia Baraja?”

  “My story?”

  Her “story” was such a vague topic; she had no idea what the King of Darkness would find entertaining.

  “Right. Well, for example, why did you become a squire? What does your job entail? Would you tell me about that?”

  “If that’s what you’d like to hear, Your Majesty.”

  She bowed her head and began talking as requested. That said, it wasn’t a very exciting story. There wasn’t anything interesting about her family or her work as a squire.