Ch.152The Demon King’s Army First Corps Commander – 2

Durahan, the Ghost Knight and First Legion Commander of the Demon Lord’s Army, was once an ordinary human.

And one far removed from honor.

In ancient times, long before the current Empire was established, human nations were divided into several kingdoms, and demon races were too busy waging wars among themselves for different species to fight each other.

Richard was born as a child of ordinary lower-class people during such times.

As always, the life of the lower class could never be good. Yesterday’s friend would naturally become today’s enemy, and even with eyes wide open, one’s nose could be forcibly cut off in a place that was supposed to be home.

Richard, too, naturally influenced by his surroundings, grew into a child who could hardly be called good. A child who committed all sorts of dishonest acts without hesitation.

Unlike countless peers who died or disappeared doing similar things, fortunately, Richard had talent.

From a young age, he was one step faster, one step ahead, stronger, and larger than his friends. In the back alleys where power was the law and everything, this became a great asset.

After his parents died when he was 11, Richard grew up tenaciously and began working as a mercenary at just 14.

And he was quite good at it. It was only natural since all he had ever done was follow his talent for killing people. It was from then that his talent for killing truly blossomed.

It could have been seen as coincidence, or perhaps fate. One day, while living recklessly and working as a mercenary as usual, Richard happened to watch a princess’s procession.

“……”

As he watched the procession, he instantly fell in love upon seeing the face of the princess who happened to open the curtain and look outside. Just like in those stories that often circulate by word of mouth.

It was possible because the princess was the king’s seventh child, and because her position had become extremely precarious, pushed aside without even getting a chance to engage in power struggles due to her overbearing siblings.

Had he encountered the face of the first, second, or third prince in their processions, he would have been immediately caught by detection magic and lost his head.

“I’m quitting the mercenary work. Don’t look for me.”

“What? Are you crazy? Hey! Where are you going? At least tell me something!”

Completely smitten with the princess, Richard spent a week in lovesick agony before leaving the mercenary group with a grand resolution.

He decided to claim one of the positions of the armored and helmeted knights who escorted the princess.

Using all the money he had saved and connections made through intimidation, Richard was able to take the test for knight selection, and the talent that had always supported him did not betray him this time either.

Of course, this too was only possible because the princess was outside the realm of power. A normal king would have selected knights from the imperial palace to guard the princess, not through such a trivial test.

Thus, around the age of 26, Richard began a new life. Not as a mercenary who killed, plundered, and killed again, but as a knight dedicated to protecting just one person.

“Haaa……”

The princess Richard saw was a very depressed and pitiful woman, but her depression and pitifulness had reasons.

Although she had been pushed out of power struggles, her bloodline as the queen’s child remained, and even in this remote territory, she was still under scrutiny from the first and second princes.

One of only two children born to the queen. This was an unacceptable truth for the two who were merely the children of concubines.

The king greatly favored the third prince, a genius who excelled in all areas and was also of the queen’s bloodline, and showed almost no interest in the princess, but he couldn’t ignore her completely.

If the third prince were to die in an “unfortunate accident,” the next claim would naturally fall to the queen’s only remaining daughter.

Other siblings who had even the slightest interest in power would inevitably know this fact, and that interest translated into ruthless checks against the seventh princess.

The number of guards, once in double digits, was reduced to fewer than could be counted on one hand. Her residence changed from a castle to a small mansion. The number of servants barely reached ten.

Fortunately, despite years of such scrutiny, Richard was among those who remained, not those who left.

“Why… why do you still…”

But the princess was not at all fortunate. Unlike Richard, who remained steadfastly by her side with loyalty and affection, the remaining personnel had no loyalty whatsoever to the princess.

They were all talented enough to be selected to serve the royal family, and thus could not adapt to the changed environment of serving a fallen royal.

The servants began to leave the princess’s side one by one, seeking ways to return to the imperial palace. This was the strategy of those bloodlines who were checking the seventh princess.

By the time her residence had shrunk to a one-story building, the only person left by the princess’s side, who could barely pay proper wages and had only the claim of royal blood remaining, was Richard.

The old Richard would have jumped for joy, seeing this as an opportunity. A woman with nothing left who had to depend solely on him. What better opportunity could there be?

“……”

But the current Richard couldn’t do that. Although the way of the back alleys and Richard’s way of life had been to bite at someone’s weakness until death, the current Richard did not do so.

Standing by the side of the person he loved, watching her sorrow, his thoughts had changed.

“This is my final order as your lord. Leave me. I understand my brothers’ and sisters’ intentions. It seems they want me to disappear from the world rather than linger pathetically. I have no intention of selling my face and body to extend my life miserably, so it seems right to follow their intentions. I may not be able to remain in this world any longer, but you could certainly make a fresh start on your own.”

“I will stay.”

When the princess, who had been secluded alone for a long time, finally appeared and urged him to leave, Richard chose to remain by her side. The princess only looked at him with sad eyes, saying nothing.

It was from then that their relationship began to change.

Having accepted that nothing remained in her hands anymore, the princess began to rely on Richard rather than the king.

The fact that she had not received a single reply to dozens of letters sent to the king meant that someone was still watching her, and if so, it was clear that this wretched state would never be conveyed to the king.

“…You seem to be sweating a little. Shall I wipe your body?”

“My hands are too rough for such tasks. I apologize, but please do it yourself.”

Unlike her previous statement about not wanting to extend her life miserably by selling her face and body, Richard noticed that the princess was trying to keep him by her side in such a way.

But he pushed all of it away. He realized that someone as dirty and reeking of the gutter as himself had no right to be by the side of someone who shone nobly even when fallen to the bottom.

From the moment he realized this, it was rather Richard who kept his distance. His life goal changed as well. To send the princess to the best man she could reach.

So Richard refused the princess’s request to do odd jobs to contribute to their livelihood. Instead, he returned to mercenary work to earn money.

Of course, he chose only honorable missions so as not to bring shame to the princess’s name.

This strange relationship continued for four years. By the time Richard’s age had long since changed to start with a 3, and the princess had entered her mid-twenties.

The power struggles within the kingdom were becoming increasingly fierce. Rumors spread that the fifth princess had died for unknown reasons, and news came that the third prince had fallen in battle.

Richard hoped again. With the third prince dead, perhaps his lord, the queen’s only remaining daughter, could return to the royal family.

“Richard. A letter has come. From the royal family.”

Not long after, the princess received a letter from the royal family for the first time in ten years. It was a letter sent in the king’s name.

“They say they’ll give me five hundred soldiers to repel the monsters that have invaded the Aegis Plains.”

“…They mean for us to die.”

Richard understood the true intention behind the letter. And who had sent it.

It meant to stop lingering and just die. With the third prince dead, the seventh princess, as the only remaining blood of the queen, could claim legitimacy—surely they knew this, not just Richard.

And that legitimacy was a greater threat to mere collateral lines than any political enemy in the world.

The monster offensive expected to pass through the Aegis Plains was already infamous. The third prince had died trying to stop them before they passed through the plains.

Moreover, now they had merged with nearby monster groups, making them much larger than when the third prince had faced them. When the entire kingdom would struggle to fight them, sending just five hundred soldiers? The intention was blatantly obvious.

“Let’s go, Richard. To die.”

“I obey your command.”

But refusing would clearly lead to other charges being imposed, so the princess and Richard headed to the Aegis Plains with the five hundred oldest and sickest soldiers they had been given as “support.”

And they repelled the monster offensive.

The princess wrote a letter reporting the victory, without any exaggeration or joy, just plainly stating that the offensive had been repelled. She knew the first and second princes wouldn’t stop at one attempt.

“Another letter has come.”

“They must be surprised we didn’t die.”

As expected. Another deployment order came, in a somewhat more urgent tone.

Richard was victorious this time as well.

A letter with even greater urgency arrived.

Richard won again.

More letters came, and more victories followed. This incredibly simple but absurd repetition continued seven times.

“You know what? People call me the Goddess of the Battlefield. They say every battle I appear in ends in victory.”

“That’s an interesting nickname.”

“It is. At first, I was just there to die with you, but somehow my presence raises the soldiers’ morale.”

Naturally, unlike other royals, the princess’s name became known for directly appearing on the battlefield to command troops. Looking back on how she had initially appeared on the battlefield to die, it was quite ironic.

The Goddess of the Battlefield continued to survive. Despite participating in a total of seventeen battles, the princess and Richard repelled all the monster offensives.

“A letter from the palace, Richard. They want me to come to the palace.”

“Could it be a trap?”

“I’m not sure. But if we don’t go, that in itself would become a trap.”

One day, as rumors spread among the soldiers, the princess received another letter. This time, it wasn’t about battle but an invitation to return to the palace.

Neither Richard nor even the princess believed it at face value. They had already tasted too much of the world’s bitterness to jump for joy at a mere letter asking them to return.

But what awaited them was a truth far more cruel than expected. The first and second princes personally arrested the princess and Richard.

“Release this! Treason? What reason would we have for that!”

The charge was treason.

As the two were forced to kneel, all sorts of fabricated reasons were recited over their heads, and bribed witnesses wagged their tongues, but what broke Richard’s will the most was something else.

His past. Unlike other reasons that were obviously fabricated because they had never happened, Richard’s past was an undeniable truth.

The first and second princes knew that Richard had been selected as a knight through a test long ago, and they used all their power and strength to drag that past into the present and thrust it before the two.

Richard could only bow his head in silence as he heard about the path his former self had walked.

“A servant’s crime is the crime of their superior! Did you think you could just overlook appointing such a person to an important position?”

“It doesn’t matter! Richard is my knight! My knight! Whether there’s a crime or not is for me to judge!”

And that day, Richard saw the princess angry for the first time in his life. He saw the princess, who had silently endured all sorts of humiliation, get angry for his sake for the first time.

Of course, it was futile. The princess was kicked in the chest by the first prince and collapsed with the sound of breaking bones.

Seeing this, Richard rose with fire in his eyes and lunged at the prince, but with his limbs bound, he could do nothing. He was immediately beaten nearly to death by nearby knights and collapsed beside the princess.

“…Call my father.”

“See all you want. What can a man who is so ill he doesn’t even recognize his own children do?”

The first prince mockingly took them to the king, and as he said, the king, who had aged drastically, did not recognize the princess.

The princess lowered her head weakly and cried. The fact that the king had gradually become an invalid after the third prince’s death meant he had never had even the slightest interest in the princess from the beginning.

“We will execute the traitors!”

The execution of the woman once called the Goddess of the Battlefield and the knight who stood by her side was carried out surprisingly quickly. The two were dragged to the execution ground without even spending half a day in prison.

While the first and second princes personally recited fabricated charges—that the two had used civilians as shields or used them as bait to lure monsters—planted instigators hurled all sorts of jeers.

“I’m sorry, Richard. I’m sorry… if only I had been a little stronger…”

Amidst it all, the princess kept repeating tear-soaked apologies as she watched Richard being laid on the execution platform.

“……”

Throughout the execution, even as his neck was sawed off with the dullest dagger, Richard did not scream once. Instead, he just stared at the two princes with blood-soaked eyes.

“That stubborn bastard…!”

“Ah, I’m leaving now!”

The first prince broke out in a cold sweat, and the second prince, unable to bear it any longer, stormed out first. Richard had won until the end. But it was a victory too modest for its name.

‘In the next life… surely…’

As his consciousness gradually faded, Richard firmly resolved.

If there was a next life, if there was a second chance, then no matter what, he would become an honorable knight without a single flaw and protect his lord’s side.

When the headless body, carelessly discarded deep in the mountains, began to move again, that resolution remained unchanged.