To summarize the rest of the book, it went like this.
For reasons unknown, the man changed his mind and helped the Count of Audrit, and thanks to him, Audrit became a safe and prosperous place without monsters.
The Count of Audrit bought slaves from regions where slavery had not been abolished and drew in wandering tribes, settling them in Audrit.
The people of the domain raised livestock and farmed, and Audrit flourished.
Instead of meeting the bitter fate of being devoured by monsters, the Count of Audrit and his descendants became the masters of “the Land of Plenty, Audrit.”
As the price of their abundance, most of the taxes collected are offered to “That Person,” who is all but the true owner of the Audrit domain.
Though this fact is not known outside, a saying has been passed down in the House of the Count of Audrit for generations:
[We are under the protection of a very great one. Consider this land not mine alone, but mine and “That Person’s.”]
With that sentence, the story about Root ended.
What followed for some three hundred pages were speculations about what had transpired between the Count of Audrit and the Duke of East, along with invective against the ducal house of East.
Honestly, that part was even more interesting than the story of Root.
“Are you enjoying the book?”
While I was absorbed in reading, the shopkeeper sidled up behind me and spoke.
“Do you have any other books by the same author?”
“That one volume is all. As you know, these books are banned; they’re hard to get. We barely obtained it here because Audrit is so far from the capital.”
“Banned?”
Was there anything in it so great that merely reading or owning it was forbidden?
‘Not in the least.’
Then was it some grimoire under a curse or powerful interdiction?
I lifted the book and gave it a little shake, looking it over.
I sensed nothing of the sort.
“Because it mixes falsehoods into history?”
“More that all of Neria’s books are banned. Surely… you’re not going to say you didn’t know.”
Even after locking the door, the shopkeeper glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then whispered.
“Every book lays into the Duke of West so hard, there’s no way they’d just sit by.”
Where, exactly, did this book revile the Duke of West?
It mentioned no nobles besides the Duke of East and the Count of Audrit.
In any case, they flood the world with romance novels yet block fine books like this from being read. Human aesthetic sense really is appalling.
“If you’re not from Audrit, you might not know, but half of what’s in this book is true. People say this latest affair is also the work of ‘That Person.’”
“This latest affair?”
“I mean the restriction on going in and out. Isn’t it closely tied to the village of Root?”
The shopkeeper seemed like a man itching to tell this story.
“About twenty years ago, they say our lord disliked that a huge sum was going to the wrong person and stopped paying land dues to ‘That Person.’”
I thought he was talking about the current trouble, and now suddenly we were twenty years back?
“Then ‘That Person’ ceased protecting Audrit. It was utter chaos.”
With a faraway look, the shopkeeper gazed up at the ceiling.
I followed his look, but there was nothing there.
“You wouldn’t have been born then. I had just come of age.”
I had no idea what this human chick, like a newborn demonling, was talking about.
“I remember it vividly even now. Monsters stormed into the city, the rich land turned barren… it was truly horrible. They say ‘That Person’ came to our lord and warned him that he wanted to keep the peace for the next five hundred—no, at least a thousand—years.”
Whoever “That Person” was, he seemed to be a being who lived as long as a Demon King.
“Ever since, our lord will leap from bed at ‘That Person’s’ word. This time too, I’m sure our lord moved for ‘That Person.’”
At the shopkeeper’s account, I fell into thought.
‘Was there anyone like that in Root?’
Rebecca, who always comes by, the village headman I saw from afar, and the other humans I saw while walking around the village.
Even if I recalled every human I met in Root one by one, none seemed to fit.
‘Don’t tell me that lunatic at the lake is That Person… no, that bastard?’
I can’t really say whether he was immensely strong, but he certainly felt threatening.
It felt like I shouldn’t get close; he looked dangerous. The intense unpleasantness I felt—that had to be him.
“Ugh.”
Just thinking of that crazed human soured my mood again.
It had to be him who stirred this up to drive out the Duke of West.
The method would have been simple. Just assert ownership of the land and demand all the fields the humans farm and work, and the whole city would be shaken.
The people of Audrit would lose their jobs and live with nothing to eat. The entire domain would collapse overnight.
So the Count of Audrit chose an entry-and-exit lockdown.
Neighboring domains suffer, monsters swarm, nobles can’t eat Audrit’s produce—and somehow all of it becomes the Duke of West’s fault.
For a human, it was an impressively clever method.
“Now the Duke of West will quiet down. It will become harder for the Hero to come this way. It’s all well and good, but I worry it’ll hinder the Hero from subduing the Demon King.”
Well now, that’s the kind of talk that makes a Demon King squirm.
“Can I buy this book?”
“I’m sorry, sir. That copy isn’t for sale.”
The shopkeeper promptly snatched the book from my hands and took it away.
Then why show it to me at all? Did he just want to gossip about it?
To assign such great meaning to such a meaningless act… humans truly are an incomprehensible species.
In the end, I left the bookstore empty-handed.
I missed Xion.
“Oh? A magic stone.”
As I wandered aimlessly after leaving the shop, a magic stone glowing behind the glass of a sizable magic store caught my eye.
‘Come to think of it, the magic-stone necklace Xion gave me is gone too.’
This was no time to be worrying about Rebecca’s book.
Even the magic stone Xion had worked so hard to obtain and crafted into a pretty necklace for my throat had crumbled to dust and scattered.
‘Xion will be sad if he sees.’
If he learned I left the straw hat behind, lost the book, and even lost the magic stone, he’d be hurt.
He might think I didn’t value what he gave me.
For a Demon King, it’s natural not to cherish what a human gives—but I didn’t want to see Xion looking hurt.
I went into the magic shop.
I meant to buy a magic stone of similar size and wear it as if I’d never lost it.
“…”
The shop owner narrowed his eyes and looked me up and down.
‘Has he figured out I’m the Demon King!’
In truth, he merely doubted that a raggedy customer had the money to buy costly magical goods, but not knowing that, I felt guilty for no reason and hid behind a column.
Watching his mood, I examined the stones displayed in the window.
‘That’s a high-grade magic stone!’
Who’d have thought a place like this would have one.
With just that, a considerable amount of mana could be restored.
Its color was similar to the one I’d had before, perfect for fooling Xion.
‘No, no! I’m not deceiving him. I’m just trying not to make him feel bad.’
In the past I would have declared that deceiving a human was only natural for a Demon King; without even noticing my own shift in thinking, I reached a hand toward the stone.
I knew I couldn’t buy a high-grade stone with the money from selling one horse.
I only wanted to look at it a little more closely.
And the moment my fingertip touched the stone—
The enormous mana pooled in the stone flowed in through my fingers and into my body.
“Ah—no!”
The shop owner, who had been watching me, cried out and rushed over.
“Uh…? Th-this isn’t what I—!”
I was just as flustered.
The shop owner swung a long staff at me.
It looked like he meant to subdue me with a restraining artifact.
‘I’ll have to blast that human away and run.’
With more than enough mana gathered at last, I flung out my hand to knock the shop owner unconscious.
But at the same time, a searing pain made me clutch my chest and crumple.
“Ghh—ah, it hurts…!”
The sudden increase in mana brought a pain like my heart was being torn apart.
“You thief!”
Just before the artifact the shop owner swung could crack down on my head, I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘Xion…!’
Inwardly, without meaning to, I cried Xion’s name.
Thud!
There was a dull sound, but no pain. I didn’t feel myself being bound, either.
Was my heart hurting so much it drowned out other sensations?
Cautiously, I opened my eyes.
And right there before me was the face I had longed so much to see.
“…Xion!”
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