Episode 153
"Huu."
Frey, who had been letting out a short sigh with his head lowered, slowly raises his head.
".........."
Countless demon king army soldiers, too vast in number to count, are watching him.
"Everyone, attention."
Frey, slowly surveying the demon king army, begins to speak in a cold voice deeply stained with chill.
"What I'm about to say is important enough that it cannot be emphasized too many times, so engrave it in your minds. If anyone dares to slack off, you'd best be prepared."
Though Frey spoke thus, appearing so frail and exhausted that he seemed like he would collapse from a single flick of a finger.
"Understand?"
".....Yes."
The demon king army covering heaven and earth like a swarm of ants merely replied to Frey in mechanical voices.
"From now on, I will attack the Imperial Palace."
To that demon king army.
"Wearing the hero's sacred artifacts that the hero from a thousand years ago used to protect the empire, I will destroy that very empire."
Frey, wearing the hero's sacred artifacts, declares calmly.
"And, I will kill the Princess and float the magic circle that will rule the world... in the skies above the empire."
As Frey pointed toward the sky where the Imperial Palace lay, the demon king army simultaneously raised their weapons toward the heavens.
As if they were golems.
Without a single unnecessary movement, without a single individual acting on their own.
The demon king army, staring blankly at Frey with expressionless faces, had unknowingly become war machines devoting their lives to Frey's commands.
"Those who will enter the final battle are myself, the combat officers, and the strategist Lemerino."
Frey, surveying the demon king army from the high platform, declared while pointing at the combat officers behind them.
"Therefore, my loyal subordinates, witness with your own eyes today. The sun setting, and the black sun rising."
"Waaaaaaa!!"
Receiving the thunderous shout, Frey descended from the platform with hands in his pockets and headed toward the tent with his subordinates behind him.
"...Lord Frey."
Frey, who had entered the tent to check the operation one last time before heading to the Imperial Palace.
"What is it?"
Seeing Lemerino's serious expression as she entered with the combat officers, he began to tilt his head.
"I have something to tell you."
".....?"
Lemerino, who had been staring at Frey.
"Surrender."
Soon, changing her expression to a cold one, she spoke thus.
"Surrender? What do you mean by that?"
"Today, why did you kill Demirkan at the mansion?"
Looking at Frey who asked back with a calm expression, Lemerino began to interrogate with a cold voice.
"He was attempting treason. So I simply executed him."
"Don't lie. I saw the entire situation."
"You saw it?"
"To think you couldn't even discover that surveillance magic tools were installed in the mansion. As expected, though you are powerful, you fall short in strategy."
Lemerino, speaking with a cold voice, looked at the combat officers standing behind her with bewildered expressions.
"Right now, the combat officers' hearing has been nullified by my magic."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, and I have cast an absolute obedience spell on myself."
"So, what is this behavior?"
Hearing Frey's question, Lemerino answered while raising the corner of her mouth.
"It's simple. To execute an operation to control you."
Saying that, Lemerino placed a quite familiar piece of paper on the desk.
"The worn-out document you always carried with you. It's written in characters that only you yourself can read, so weren't you too careless?"
"How did you get your hands on that? I was definitely keeping it."
"Did you think I, the demon king army's strategist, couldn't snatch a paper in a defenseless state without copy protection magic, from you who's just brutishly strong?"
Lemerino, who had been frowning, continued speaking while crossing her arms.
"After making a copy and analyzing the characters, I realized something. That those characters are identical to the characters left in the ruins of the hero from a thousand years ago in the western continent."
"And so?"
"I analyzed them by comparing them. For days... no, for years. Staying up nights, diligently."
Lemerino, with a slightly tired expression, pointed at the dark circles under her eyes.
"After struggling to analyze them for years, I realized something."
"What?"
"That you are the 'Evil One', that if discovered you would receive a 'penalty', and decisively..."
Soon wearing a sneer, she drove in the wedge.
"...That you 'might be' pretending to be the Demon King."
Looking at Lemerino who placed considerable emphasis on 'might be', Frey snickered.
"Seeing you use that manner of speech, it seems the absolute obedience spell really is cast?"
"Yes, as I said earlier, I cast an absolute obedience spell on myself to not be certain about you. Of course, to avoid your eyes."
"Is that possible?"
"It is possible. Even the Demon King confirmed that the spell was successfully cast."
"Demon King?"
When Frey tilted his head, Lemerino spoke with a proud expression.
"If the Demon King is imitating the hero... conversely, whose imitation was the hero?"
"...Ha."
"Based on that speculation, after giving myself the command to not be 'certain' about everything regarding the hero, I secretly went to find the hero... and finally met the true master I should serve."
"Does that mean you were the Demon King's spy from the past?"
When Frey asked that.
"Correct. So please surrender."
Lemerino, who had been making a cold expression.
"Surrender?"
"Yes, surrender. If you don't surrender, I will reveal your truth to the combat officers behind you."
She continued speaking while taking out a scroll from her bosom.
"I've already prepared an image scroll containing evidence that you are the hero."
"Image scroll? What is that?"
"Not tearing it, but just touching it, and in less than a second, the image will be transmitted to the brain of the person I want."
"Hmm..."
When Frey let out a groan at those words, Lemerino said to him with a cold expression.
"Probably the real Demon King made you an offer, you who are the hero."
"An offer..."
"An offer that if you surrender and become his, not only will he spare your life, but he'll let you rule the world together."
Hearing those words, Frey answered with a snicker.
"What if I refuse?"
Then, Lemerino opened her mouth with an expression of disbelief.
"Hey... this is the 'mercy' the Demon King is showing you. You don't have a choice."
"Really no choice?"
"Sigh... words won't work."
But when Frey crossed his legs with a calm expression, Lemerino said with an annoyed face.
"Once you receive at least one penalty, your thoughts will change, won't they?"
Saying that, Lemerino placed her hand on the magic scroll and began looking at Frey with a triumphant expression, but.
"...Huh?"
For some reason, Frey was fine.
"W, what?"
"This is..."
Looking at Lemerino who started to become flustered, Frey spoke in a pathetic tone.
"...When a duckling tries to imitate a phoenix, that's what happens."
Sensing something was wrong from Frey's words, Lemerino.
"W, what? Why?"
She hurriedly looked at the other combat officers and frantically fiddled with the scroll, but.
".........."
They were just standing blankly in the tent.
"Are you curious why the situation turned out this way?"
Frey, who had been quietly watching that scene, slowly rose from his seat.
"Y, you... what are you? What did you do to the combat officers?"
To Frey, Lemerino started breaking out in cold sweat, and Frey answered in a cold voice.
"...What were you planning to do by showing the truth to those who are already dead?"
Saying that, Frey took out the hand that had been fiddling with the 'Stone of Domination' in his pocket.
-Thud...!
Then, the combat officers who had been vividly alive and moving all collapsed at once.
"H, how... how...?"
"If you saw that prophecy book, would you know about the 'trial' too?"
"...Trial?"
"My, couldn't you interpret all of it."
Looking at Lemerino who was making a dumbfounded expression while staring blankly at that sight.
"That's one of your reasons for defeat."
Frey began to speak with a smile.
"You may not know well, but the system's fourth trial... targets those who 'worry' about me."
"W, what do you mean..."
"It was easy as pie to make the entire demon king army 'worry' about me, who was imitating the Demon King."
".....!"
Though she didn't know what the 'fourth trial' was, Lemerino, who was the only one capable of somewhat matching Serena intellectually.
"Ah, ah..."
She could roughly deduce from Frey's tone and context, and the word 'system' how things had gone.
"Ah ah ah..."
However, not being able to deduce might have been better.
"............"
Because outside the tent, the countless demon king army soldiers she had rushed out to with a sliver of hope were looking at her with soulless expressions.
She had no choice but to forcibly understand how things were proceeding.
"After that, it's simple. The demon king army that ended up worrying about me all got caught up in the 'fourth trial', and as a result, failing to overcome the trial, they all became 'monsters.'"
"M, monsters..."
Frey, who appeared behind her, placed his hand on her shoulder and drove in the wedge.
"Of course, you, who uniquely 'doubted' me and therefore didn't worry, didn't get swept up in the trial."
Saying that, Frey continued speaking while looking at Lemerino's increasingly pale face.
"At that time, you were busy comparing the prophecy book I intentionally leaked and the western continent's language."
"I, intentionally leaked...?"
"And even after that, you were carrying out my orders while simultaneously communicating with 'the Demon King imitating the hero,' so you didn't notice the abnormalities of the demon king army."
At those words, Lemerino's mouth fell open, and Frey took out the 'Stone of Domination' from his pocket.
"Well, there's also the fact that I've been flawlessly controlling the demon king army with the 'Stone of Domination' until this very moment."
"T, that's nonsense! With a mere human's mental strength... that should be impossible!!"
"...A mere human's mental strength?"
Hearing Lemerino's words, Frey let out a hollow laugh.
"It was easy enough to make me yawn."
"That can't be! With a mere human's mental strength, controlling that many monster-fied demon king army soldiers is impossible...!"
"...Having gone through countless regressions and experienced all sorts of things, I'm no longer a mere human's mental strength, you see."
When Frey answered thus, Lemerino started making a dumbfounded expression.
"Oh right, shall I tell you something interesting?"
".....?"
Lemerino, who had been desperately analyzing the meaning of Frey's words just now, looked at Frey who was speaking with a pathetic expression and tilted her head.
"Absolute obedience magic cannot be cast on oneself."
"...What?"
She, who had been doing so, opened her eyes wide at Frey's words.
"What nonsense is that! I definitely cast the magic on myself! Even the Demon King confirmed that 'absolute obedience magic' is cast on me...!"
"The previous Demon King who devised the magic, the current Demon King, the Magic Tower Lord, and Irina in her prime. Those who could wield 'absolute obedience magic' never once cast that magic on themselves."
Soon Lemerino raised her voice, but Frey, ignoring her, began to speak calmly.
"There was no need. In the first place, there's no reason to cast absolute obedience magic on oneself."
"T, then... how do you know that?"
"Because I cast it."
At Frey's all-too-simple answer, Lemerino's eyes momentarily went blank.
"Exhausted from countless regressions, I tried to cast that magic on myself to eliminate emotions... but it didn't work."
Nevertheless, Frey continued speaking with a wry smile, and Lemerino hurriedly asked him.
"How can you wield 'absolute obedience magic'! That's nonsense...!"
"...I don't remember in detail, but roughly around the middle of my regressions, I learned how to use it. Of course, realizing I could only cast it on one person, I lost interest."
"You've been saying regression regression since earlier, but what on earth... no, wait. You're a swordsman, how can you use magic too...?"
"There's a fortuitous encounter in the forest near my house that lets me use magic. I discovered this early in my regressions."
Looking at Frey answering matter-of-factly with a soulless voice, Lemerino desperately racked her brain.
"...Huh?"
Soon she reached one conclusion.
"If... if your words are true... then what is the 'absolute obedience magic' cast on me?"
At the horrifying conclusion that gave her goosebumps all over.
"If one cannot cast absolute obedience magic on oneself... then what on earth is cast on me!"
"...Haven't you noticed too?"
Looking at her, Frey answered calmly.
"The obedience magic cast on you is one I cast."
"......!!!"
"The commands you thought you gave yourself were actually commands I gave."
"...Ah."
"'Mistakenly believe that the person who cast the absolute obedience magic is yourself.' Since I gave that command, naturally you had no choice but to think that way."
Hearing those words.
"And in the first place, that magic which only a very few of the strongest can wield, how could a woman like you possibly use it?"
Looking at Lemerino who had collapsed to the floor in shock.
"Now do you understand? That you and the Demon King were dancing in my hands from the very beginning."
Frey drove in the wedge with a cold expression.
"You duckling."
"P, please spare me."
And from that point, Lemerino began begging with a terrified expression.
"I, I'll do anything. I'll do everything you command."
".........."
"When everything is over, I'll lend you my head. Then you can live the rest of your life a bit more happily? And, if you wish, I'll offer my body too..."
"...I didn't expect to say this line again."
Frey, looking at her.
"You shouldn't have touched the children."
Drawing the sword from his waist.
"The sacrificial magic circle that awakens the Demon King by sacrificing countless children. That was your work, wasn't it?"
"Ah, ah..."
He whispered coldly.
"Even I, who committed countless deeds across countless timelines... never once touched children."
And the next moment.
Lemerino's neck was flying through the air.
"With this, your final scheme has also failed. Demon King."
Taking in that sight, Frey, who had been standing quietly in the blood-stained tent.
"...I command all demon king army soldiers."
He spoke while fiddling with the 'Stone of Domination' again.
"When the battle ends, all of you be incapacitated."
Thus, having selected in advance all those who had circumstances and those who had potential for rehabilitation.
Looking at the group of monsters, now consisting only of those steeped in slaughter and evil, nodding quietly.
"You lot, follow me."
He said to the monster-fied combat officers who had fallen.
"...We must go to the Imperial Palace for the 'final battle.'"
Right in front of him, toward the Imperial Palace.
.
"Hmm."
In front of Frey who arrived right before the Imperial Palace, familiar faces appear.
"Frey Raon Starlight."
"......."
"...Our enemy."
In front of the imperial soldiers with heavily tense expressions, the sub-heroines are lined up.
"Until the hero's awakening is complete, we will stop you."
Frey, looking at the sub-heroines who were saying such things while looking at him coldly.
"Subdue them."
He gave the order to the monster-fied combat officers standing behind him.
"Without killing, without injuring."
Thus, the 'final battle' began.