Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 421

“The interior is less impressive than expected, isn’t it?” Rother Dwin remarked.

“It seems so,” grand duke Saint-Ouen replied from within the spacious chamber of the dungeon.

There was no need to light a campfire, as everyone present was a mage capable of summoning their own light source.

The exploration of the dungeon had taken a long time, and they had found a space where everyone could rest. They took turns to keep watch.

“Perhaps it was much ado about nothing. Those tomes that caused such a stir in the world hardly amounted to a handful of paper,” Rother Dwin commented.

“It feels as if they’ve been deliberately removed, rather than just not being visible,” the grand duke replied.

“I feel the same way,” Rother Dwin agreed.

Rother Dwin was talkative, while the grand duke preferred to speak only when necessary. The woman, however, remained silent.

Luna moved slowly. Whenever Rother Dwin or the grand duke called her, she always responded a beat late. She mostly nodded or shook her head in response to questions, and rarely spoke.

There were no significant traps inside the dungeon, nor was there a labyrinth like there was outside.

They were simply taking their time exploring the dungeon cautiously, which was why it was taking so long.

Both the grand duke and Rother Dwin took turns leading the group.

The grand duke couldn’t help but notice that Rother Dwin was no ordinary mage. Despite his talkativeness, he moved cautiously, and even when he was leading the group, he seemed to be constantly on guard.

But the woman who introduced herself as Luna... She followed the group silently, neither leading nor lagging behind.

She did nothing, merely keeping pace with the group with her slow steps.

“Luna doesn’t seem to be an ordinary person,” Rother Dwin remarked.

“I agree,” the grand duke nodded.

There wasn’t a single ordinary person among them, but Luna, who had yet to reveal anything about herself, seemed the most extraordinary.

The grand duke’s mages watched Luna with a peculiar sense of awe, despite her plain cloak and ordinary attire.

Her abilities were unknown, her intentions unclear, and whether she was friend or foe was uncertain.

Everyone watched her graceful, slow steps, not out of enchantment, but out of a fear-tinged reverence.

The interior of the dungeon was excessively barren, and no one knew what lay in its depths, but within that space, Luna seemed almost like she was just out for a stroll, occasionally brushing her hand along the dungeon walls.

In fact, throughout the day they’d spent inside the dungeon, she never once slept but quietly walked around the chamber, sometimes stopping or gazing at something, as if lost in deep thought.

“Let’s get moving. There’s nothing special here, and staying longer won’t do us any good,” the grand duke suggested.

“Shall we?” Rother Dwin replied.

At the grand duke’s signal, the mage corps prepared to depart, and Luna, seeing them getting ready, joined the group with her characteristically slow steps.

It was strange. Despite her slow pace, she never fell behind.

“Luna seems to be quite an extraordinary person,” Rother Dwin remarked with a smile.

Luna, without looking at Rother Dwin, continued to gaze ahead and replied calmly, “If you see everything as extraordinary, then is there anything in the world that is ordinary?”

“Even if you try to see things as ordinary, there are beings that are inherently extraordinary, aren’t there?” Rother Dwin asked with a slightly mocking smile.

Only then did Luna turn her gaze to Rother Dwin. “Less extraordinary than those who have forsaken their humanity, or rather, those who are no longer human.”

Her eyes were indifferent, neither hostile nor friendly.

Rother Dwin chuckled, stretching his lips into a smile. “Haha. Is that so?”

‘Is this person not human?’ The grand duke wondered, observing Rother Dwin’s chilling smile and steadying his breath.

The old teaching that one should not get close to evil resurfaced in his mind. He hadn’t sought out sinister power, but the fact remained that he had come close to it.

‘Indeed, when you get close to sinister things, sinister things are drawn to you,’

He had come to find a tomb, hoping that it wouldn’t become his own.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, grand duke.”

“...”

The grand duke led the group.

***

The lich’s tomb was deep and vast. However, both Rother Dwin and the grand duke shared the impression that, despite its vastness, most of the space was empty.

There were no traps or monsters at all.

“It seems like there was something here originally, rather than it being an empty space,” Rother Dwin observed.

“It does seem that way,” the grand duke agreed.

It didn’t take exceptional observational skills to notice it.

The dungeon had numerous rooms and facilities, most of which were empty. However, there were scratches on the walls and areas where dust hadn’t quite settled, suggesting that things had indeed been laid about but had been entirely removed.

“It feels like someone cleared out all the internal equipment and moved it somewhere else... But why would they do that?” Rother Dwin wondered.

“That’s something we can’t say. But the important thing is that it doesn’t seem like the place was looted,” the grand duke replied.

It did not seem like the aftermath of some adventurers’ plundering; it felt like the entire space had been thoroughly cleaned.

“There are traces of traps that existed, but they’ve all been dismantled,” the grand duke’s mage corps reported, having diligently explored the surroundings.

Dungeons came in many types, but ultimately, a lich’s tomb was a magical research facility. Traps were there to kill or drive away ignorant intruders who entered such research facilities recklessly.

However, the research equipment was missing, and all the traps had been dismantled.

“It could be that those who broke through the labyrinth cleared away all the trivial things so that they could head straight to the depths without being distracted,” Rother Dwin speculated.

“... Is there a reason for that?” the grand duke asked.

“Well, I’m not the owner of this dungeon, so I wouldn’t know,” Rother Dwin replied.

The idea that the dungeon was cleaned out to allow direct access to its depths without distractions seemed absurd.

However, given the barrenness of the dungeon before them, it was hard not to agree with Rother Dwin’s statement.

The group advanced slowly. There was always the possibility that this was a tactic to lull intruders into a false sense of security before an unexpected attack.

Considering the complexity of the labyrinth outside, the master of the dungeon was certainly not someone to be underestimated.

The dungeon was vast, and they moved cautiously. As a consequence, the exploration was taking a long time.

They had resumed their exploration after a full day, and soon, the grand duke realized it was nearing nightfall.

As they continued to explore the underground rooms, corridors, and chambers, the group eventually came to a halt in a particular space.

“This is strange,” Rother Dwin remarked, pausing.

“This area feels different from the rest,” the grand duke noted.

“I’m not sure if it’s correct to say this, but it seems like it’s been newly constructed or renovated,” Rother Dwin observed.

If the previous areas had been part of the dungeon, the rocks along the path leading further underground appeared freshly cut, with white stone dust clinging to the walls.

While the previous spaces seemed aged and worn out over time, this area appeared clean, as though it was a new addition.

An endlessly descending staircase...

“We must be cautious,” the grand duke advised.

Feeling certain they were entering the dungeon’s depths, everyone proceeded with caution, descending further and further.

The descent seemed to take forever.

“It seems this is the deepest part of the dungeon,” Rother Dwin suggested.

The depths of the dungeon seemed humble, yet, the space was so vast that the light from the mages’ summoned sources couldn’t fully illuminate the entire chamber.

Snap!

With a snap of the grand duke’s fingers, a massive ball of incandescent light flared from the ceiling, illuminating the entire chamber.

The light revealed a colossal chamber, built like a stadium.

It was a vast space, devoid of any patterns, decorations, or anything else—nothing but an immense, empty area.

For a place that supposedly lured people to it with the promise of rare magical tomes, it didn’t appear dangerous. The core of this dungeon was merely overwhelming but barren, impressive only in its sheer size.

In the center of it all were three wooden chairs. Not ornate thrones, but three humble chairs made from logs and planks, upon which three beings sat.

One person in a black robe, a skeleton in a gray robe, and an old man in a black suit and fedora, leaning on a cane.

They gazed silently at the first group to enter this chamber.

“Are they the masters of the dungeon?” the grand duke murmured.

“...”

Luna stood silently, simply observing the scene.

And then...

Crack.

“Antirianus...” Rother Dwin muttered the name like a curse, his eyes so wide that the duke could see the blood vessels bulging within.

—Oh, a young man who recognizes me.

“So... it is you!” The young mage, who had been calm and sly until now, began to exude a bizarre and ominous aura.

Crack! Crack!

“Antirianus... because of you... because of you...!” Rother Dwin screamed, veins bulging around his eyes.

The old man stood up, removing his hat to greet those who had entered the depths of the dungeon.

—Who might you be, to recognize this old body?

Rother Dwin, who had been composed thus far, lost his calm. He ground his teeth in anger.

Flash!

“That’s enough. Die!” Rother Dwin exclaimed as he leaped through space, appearing right in front of the old man, who still wore the same frivolous smile.

“Oh.”

Boom!

Rother Dwin extended his hand and a torrent of mana erupted from it, engulfing the old man.

Rumble!

The torrent of mana swept over the old man and crashed into the wall of the chamber behind him, causing a tremendous vibration.

However...

“For you to recognize me...”

The old man, who had deflected the mana storm with a single barrier created by his index finger, looked into Rother Dwin’s furious eyes and spoke.

“It seems a proper guest has arrived...”

Antirianus’s eyes bored into Rother Dwin.

“Is it you, Lucren?”

Rother Dwin gritted his teeth. “That’s right!”

Rother Dwin’s eyes began to turn a deep red.

“So, the leader had come personally... What happened to all the other members of the order?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know, Antirianus,” Rother Dwin said.

Rother Dwin’s hair began to stand on end, radiating a crimson glow as he unleashed torrents of mana in all directions.

“Are you pretending not to know after killing half of them?!” he added.

“Oh, only about half, actually. I didn’t kill them all.”

Rother Dwin’s breath began to grow rapid. “Huuaaah!”

Crack!

A storm of fury erupted from Rother Dwin’s body, causing the ground to crack and violently battering the walls of the chamber.

The grand duke and the mage corps shielded themselves with barriers against the mana storm.

The torrent pouring from Rother Dwin’s body soon revealed his true form.

“Indeed.” Antirianus, standing at a distance, smiled as he looked at Rother Dwin. “I thought that rumors about an archlich might draw you in, and it turns out they did.”

Although his silhouette remained human, Rother Dwin’s skin was ashen, and his eyes glowed with a fiery red, flames flickering in their depths. His entire body was enveloped in a swirling aura of pitch-black energy.

The grand duke watched silently, sensing the indescribably powerful mana emanating from him. Legendary beings would have no fixed form to them, but the overwhelming and malevolent mana radiating from this ominous presence was undeniable.

The lich muttered something, its voice lost in the mana storm.

—Oh... This... this is... an archlich...?

“Instead of finding an archlich’s tomb, it seems we’ve been with the archlich all along.”

This was beyond the level of sinister things attracting other sinister things.

The false rumors about an archlich had summoned the real archlich.

Just as a Vampire Lord could overcome their fatal aversion to sunlight, the archlich had overcome its skeletal form.

“You took advantage of my absence to slaughter our comrades and flee, Antirianus. But after countless ages, I have finally found you.”

Just as there were vampires who overcame their fatal aversion to the sun, there were liches who could reconstruct their lost bodies—beings that manifested the flesh that was lost through mana.

“Now, it’s time to pay the price.”

The archlich, shrouded in vast mana, stretched out its hands towards the old man.

“Die, Antirianus. I’ll hear your story afterward.”

The archlich, deserving to be called a being of impure mana, brought its hand down from above.

Boom!

That gesture brought with it an immense wave of pressure from above, causing a spiderweb of cracks to shoot out across the ground.

“It will collapse,” Luna, who had been silent for so long, said to the grand duke.

Crack. Crack...

The grand duke watched as the ceiling of the chamber began to crack.

He looked at Luna quietly.

Though he feigned calm to prevent his subordinates from panicking, the grand duke was shocked to realize that this sinister being from legend had been their companion all along. Yet Luna acted as if she had known all along, showing no signs of surprise.

Was the archlich the problem? Or was it the dungeon’s master, who calmly withstood the archlich’s attack?

Or perhaps it was this woman, who still maintained the same demeanor despite witnessing the scene?

The grand duke couldn’t tell.

Crack... Crack...

Whatever the case, the ceiling of the chamber was collapsing.