Chapter 22 - Discussing an Unveiled Truth

After an ordinary day of training and study, the Heroes welcomed a time of rest. However, whilst the oblivious otherworld students embraced their beloved leisure with open arms, the palace’s higher-ups were met only by turmoil.

The one in the midst of investigating this turmoil was none other than Nicolas Baum.

His Unique Skill, Presence Erasure, did precisely what it said on the tin: by masking his existence from the world, he was able to effortlessly sneak around even the Royal Palace of Seronia without getting caught.

It wasn’t something on the level of mere invisibility, but rather the concealment of his entire being, both materially and spiritually, and as a result, even his nonphysical presence itself could be hidden.

There was no possible way for Nicolas to be discovered while this skill was in use, at least not within the current royal palace―this fact was further corroborated by having him channel his mana with the ability active; as it turned out, even mana couldn’t be detected when he was under the effect of his skill, meaning that, theoretically, it would be possible for Nicolas to cast magic whilst remaining completely undetected.

Unfortunately, he didn’t possess a great deal of talent when it came to magic, so this fact was unlikely to make much of a difference, but it still ensured that his skill worked even against mages skilled enough to be employed by royalty, proving its effectiveness in and of itself.

There was once a concern raised about the kingdom figuring out what he was doing, but thanks to Nicolas realising how to adjust the level to which his presence would be erased―and thus faking the strength of his ability―he now held great confidence that his secret couldn’t be uncovered, no matter the opposition.

In any case, with almost all of his free time being spent sticking his nose in places it didn’t belong, it was undoubtedly a task fraught with risk; especially so when it came to a place where royalty and state secrets resided. But, at the same time, it was exhilarating. Should he get caught, it was something that would get him immediately placed into interrogation, or worse, execution, just like what had been done to the late Mr Greene during the ranking ceremony, or to their missing classmate, Jae.

A matter like playing spy in the domain of royalty couldn’t possibly result in any less of punishment than that, after all, whether the one in question was a Summoned Hero or not. Notwithstanding that, Nicolas didn’t seem to mind the risk, and on the contrary, he even enjoyed the task.

But, just now, something unbelievable had been discovered.

“...He's gone?”

The fact that the body of the deserter―the so-called ‘Demonic Hero’ as proclaimed by the second princess―was nowhere to be found.

Ryan pressed on his temple at the news Nicolas had brought regarding the discussion held by the royal knight division leaders. They held a meeting in private whilst being utterly unaware of Nicolas’ infiltration, meaning there were no lies to be told. Furthermore, they spoke as if the boy having disappeared was an unwelcome surprise, denoting a number of things.

Ryan and Nicolas, as well as a few others in the class who were particularly interested in the matter, already knew that the kingdom had released a wanted notice for the “Demonic Hero”, but this incident alone told the truth behind that.

“As expected, it was a cover-up, eh...”

There was already a suspicion, but finally, it was confirmed.

Recalling the series of events that had occurred through a renewed lens with the level of information they have now, there was no way for it not to be so. When the royal knights who had been dispatched to take care of the runaway in question quote, “successfully captured him”, there was no further news from the princess nor anyone else about the matter, despite raised concerns.

Then, Ashley asked Camilla, one of the four Royal Knight Division Leaders, about the possibility of meeting him, and all of a sudden, they claimed he had ‘escaped custody’?

With those among the heroes whose abilities let them eavesdrop at the time, there was no way that such a secret was going to stay hidden for long and so, perhaps quite naturally, the students began to question how a thing like Jae 'escaping after being apprehended' was even possible, and why they had mentioned nothing about it until prompted.

First and foremost, if the so-called Demonic Hero was capable enough to escape custody within the royal palace, taking into account the fact he had already been ‘captured without casualties’, then why would he not have escaped earlier?

They, who only held a limited amount of knowledge regarding the topic, thought it was inexplicable, and since they had already held doubts about the kingdom for a number of things, there was no way they would let it slide so easily.

The excuse the pressured kingdom gave in response was simple:

Magic.

Almost as if it were a matter of course, the Demonic Hero was said to have used magic to escape imprisonment.

Such a story bore a multitude of holes, but of course, there was no way for the class to prove the kingdom wrong when they themselves hadn’t even been taught magic yet, so they reluctantly conceded in the matter, letting it be for the time being.

That was the case until recently.

Now, however, the situation was different.

With the discovery Nicolas had made that Jae had, in fact, been executed, and then that his body went missing, they unveiled the kingdom’s deception.

From the very beginning, their classmate had never been captured, and he had most definitely never escaped custody with magic he had never even been taught.

Instead, he had been killed on the spot and his body rudely discarded, though even that had now seemingly vanished into thin air.

The matter with the knight, physician and apprentice healer was still uncertain. Still, it was growing more doubtful by the day as no further information came of it, even from the “victims” themselves, who appeared to be acting completely normal after the fact.

Further, whether the ‘Demonic Hero’ actually ever had anything to do with Demons in the first place was almost certainly false.

Ultimately, at least half of what the second princess said had been confirmed to have been lies, and it was evident that the kingdom was actively working to cover up the truth even now as they utilised tools such as the aforementioned wanted posters and artificial testimonies, but it’s not like those kinds of intricate things could convince the students at this point.

The truth had been unravelled, and now, what had happened was more or less self-evident:

Jae was a victim; the kingdom of Seronia was guilty in every way... And there was nothing they could do to erase that image.

At least, not in Ryan’s eyes.

“Pft. Good job, Nico.”

He could only laugh, but whether it came from a place of satisfaction from being proven right, or bitterness for the same reason, wasn't clear. He gave Nicolas a pat on the back congratulations with, believe it or not, no strings attached. The findings were so big that even this party leader couldn’t bring himself to tease the lad.

What would happen now? The Demonic Hero-- Rather, their ex-classmate Jae Kang was alive and well―not captured by the royal forces and, most likely, not in collaboration with Demons.

They couldn’t know if he was still within the domain of Revel, the Seronian capital city, but as Nicolas had heard from the division leaders previously, his body was supposedly dumped in the neighbouring Plaentic Great Forest, which covers a majority of Seronia’s overall landmass, so if he was alive, he should still be there.

“Oi, they didn’t mention anythin' 'bout how he survived, right?”

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“No. In fact, I think they were even more confused than us.”

“Tch. Well, obviously. They know a helluva lot more about what’s possible in this world than we do, so ‘course they’re gonna make a big fuss outta it if somethin’ incomprehensible happens. Resurrection, eh...”

Ryan could only think that Jae’s survival had something to do with the ‘Curse’ in the Status he had seen in the past, but there was no way to know for sure. It could be that he truly was working with the Demons, and it could very well be that that exact thing is precisely the reason he was cursed in the first place.

At the end of the day, all they could do was ask the person in question when the time came.

“Well. You can prolly focus on other stuff now.”

“Mmh, right, I was thinking the same thing; I’m pretty sure there isn’t much more info to gather regarding this anymore since we basically figured out what happened thanks to this time. I’ll keep an eye on it still, just in case there are any new developments, but I’ll raise the main focus on other topics.”

“Do that. Incidentally, you managed to breach that door yet?”

The mysterious door in the centre of the palace.

It was a location marked on Jae’s map that the two surprisingly hadn’t noticed before, nor had anyone else in the class it seemed, as nobody had mentioned it even now. It was the type of place one could only find if they were intentionally looking for it, yet somehow, Jae had stumbled across it within the first day of arrival.

Now, whether that was due to mere coincidence, or if he was intentionally looking for it, they couldn’t possibly know.

Nicolas shook his head with a sigh.

“No, it’s completely barred from all angles. It doesn’t have anything like a traditional keyhole to lockpick, and I’d assume there’s no way anyone could open it forcefully without something like thermite from how thick the bloody thing looks. It’s got a bunch of these weird paper talismans and stuff plastered all over it too, on top of those weird black chains I mentioned before. It’s probably sealed with magic, too, so I didn’t get too close to it just in case.”

Ryan nodded. It was to be expected, but he would have to leave it alone for now since there was no feasible way to gain entry. Additionally, if it were protected by some kind of magic, there was no telling what might happen if they attempted to force their way in.

"What about the walls surroundin' it?"

"Oh, definitely not. The walls of the palace are all strengthened with magic anyway, but the bricks down there are way tougher. To be honest, I don’t know how Jae even found that place to begin with. I got lost even with the map, so I really don’t understand what made him go all the way to such an out-of-the-way place like that.”

Nicolas expressed his disbelief, but Ryan only snorted.

“The story is that he wanted to escape, right? Just look at the map; the poor bastard checked every fuckin' crevice he could stick his nosy little head into. Or, who knows, maybe he really did partner up with Demons and that's why? There's obviously somethin' special about it, so it'd make sense if Demons wanted to pry. Eh, I'd prefer that to be the case, but the point's that we dunno.”

“Mmm, ah... Well, I guess so. I don’t get checking the centre of the palace if the goal is to find a way to escape it, but I guess he was that desperate...”

Sighing once more, Nicolas thought the whole situation was contradictory and bizarre, yet so electrifyingly mysterious and thrilling that it only made his heart race. Then, he brought up a matter of responsibility.

“Are we gonna tell everyone else about it? I can imagine it would cause a bunch of chaos, so I think it might be for the best if we leave it a secret for now, right...?”

“Oh. Yeah, do that. We can reveal it whenever we want, and besides, they don’t know we’ve uncovered it. They’re not gonna come after us for no reason, there’s no pressure. It’s good to have at least one card up our sleeves for when we need it; if something happens in the meantime, we can just use it to blackmail them or somethin'.”

Nodding, Nicolas agreed with Ryan’s plan.

The whole ordeal felt slightly bittersweet―on one hand, it felt good that they had figured it out, but it also kind of sucked that he couldn’t brag or talk about it with anyone. Thinking so, he lightly slammed his fist into his palm, recalling the other subject discussed by the division leaders, and opened his mouth.

“Oh, that’s right! It should be in the transcript somewhere, but they mentioned some kind of deal between the kingdom and the goblins in the forest or something? It was only a brief topic, but I remember it distinctly because it sounded so odd.”

“Hm?”

At Nicolas’ prompting, Ryan flipped through the pages of the transcript and read the alluded-to part aloud.

“Ah. ‘You think it wasn’t such a big deal just because he’s classified as a goblin’―Is that it?”

“Yeah yeah, that,” Nicolas confirmed with a few quick nods of the head, so Ryan continued reading it silently.

“...’Goblin bastard’? Oh, I like how this guy talks...”

Ryan’s eyes subtly lit up as he read the transcript, causing Nicolas to tilt his head.

“What? Anyway, what do you think that’s about? It’s shady as all hell, isn’t it? What’s more, I’m pretty sure I remember one of them said something about a ‘Goblin Lord’. Isn’t that, like, omega sus?”

Ryan’s scrutinising gaze rolled through the lines of text until he found what Nicolas was talking about and opened his mouth.

“Seems like they made a deal with the leader of the goblins to provide the kingdom with prey for us ‘almighty, super sexy heroes’ to train with.”

“...Ha--... Hu-huh?? But, they’re goblins, right? So, why the hell would they-- No, how...?”

Nicolas couldn’t even finish his sentence as, having fought and killed goblins himself, he couldn’t comprehend how it was possible for humans to have a formal, perhaps even distinguished arrangement with such barbaric and instinctual, crude wild monsters.

Ryan, on the other hand, simply shrugged.

“Simple. If the leader can guarantee the survival of the rest of his tribe, and the kingdom can acquire however many goblins they want at a cheaper price than it would be to import them from elsewhere, then why wouldn’t they? It's not complicated. Might sound shitty to sell off your own people to be killed, but ain’t it the lesser evil compared to lettin’ ‘em all get slaughtered?”

“Uh...”

“As for ‘how’, well, ain’t it possible there are some capable of communication? Obviously, if it weren’t, then they wouldn't've done it, but they obviously have done it, so obviously, it is.”

“...That, uh...”

Nicolas couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but he couldn't deny the logic there. In a sense, what Ryan said was correct, but then again, it was simply incredible that such a thing might actually be true... Was that really the case?

“Anyway, there’re prolly some circumstances we don’t know, so don’t worry about it. Who gives a shit if they’re makin’ some buddies outta the green guys, anyway, eh? Not my problem, and it ain't yours, either, so forget about it.”

There wasn’t much else to discuss for today, so the two soon parted ways and the day came to an end.

“......”

The halls of the palace were quiet as Nicolas walked back to his room.

Still, he found himself pondering.

About what he and Ryan were talking about just a few minutes prior.

More precisely, when the day came―the day when they would once again, finally cross paths with Jae.

In this vast, mystical world of fantasy, fighting, monsters and magic; though incredibly unlikely, he believed it would inevitably happen.

As if it were fate, he felt it had to be so.

Thinking about it optimistically, Nicolas wondered how much everyone would have grown by that time, and what kind of wild situation they would all probably be swept up in.

A boy with the title of Hero, Chris Rowe, and the other high-ranking class members.

Ryan, the Great Sage’s Disciple.

Ashley, the Spirit Hunter.

Amy; Shadow Master.

Lucas; Soul Oracle, and Yamato; Reverse Magician.

Even aside from those S- and A-ranked classmates; he wondered about himself, and his other party member, Kaitlyn.

In six months, a year, two years, five years from now. At that time, where would they, including himself, be?

Would he still be partying up with Ryan and Kaitlyn?

Would he be travelling, wandering the world by himself; or with new friends; or would he have already settled down by then?

It was a pleasant notion to contemplate, and the ends of his lips could be found naturally curling up as he imagined such a future.

But, just as equally as it was pleasant, it was naive.

Thinking about it with a little more realism, he couldn’t help but consider what might actually occur, with a frightening likelihood.

He, or more likely the rest of his class, and Jae.

If-- or rather, when they meet.

Wouldn’t they, in all probability, face each other as enemies?

After all, although Ryan, Kaitlyn and Nicolas were planning to leave the country at some point just as he had, the rest of the class―whether they liked it or not―were none other than Seronia’s Summoned Heroes at the end of the day.

Jae, on the other hand, escaped as a fugitive and was dubbed the kingdom’s runaway ‘Demonic Hero’, and they even had wanted posters plastered around the capital city offering some serious gold for his head to supplement that story.

Whether he was working together with the Demons or not.

Whether he harboured negative feelings towards Seronia or not.

Whether or not either party desired for it to be so, wasn’t it impossible for them to meet on a friendly basis?

Nicolas could envision the scene clearly in his mind.

A time in the future, distant or otherwise.

A place in which they were most definitely not allies.

This thought spooked Nicolas.

And then.

If that time came.

The time when they would cross paths, and perhaps even blades.

When that time came.

Would one have no choice but to end the life of the other?

“......”

Such an imaginary scene was terrifying for Nicolas, and yet.

As much as it was imaginary.

Gulp.

He couldn’t help but see it as inevitable.