Pen and Paper Translations

The temple side may not have anticipated that the hero’s companion would end up dying in such a state.

If so, they also wouldn’t have realized that, because the hero’s sword wasn’t retrieved immediately, it would become known to Xion that the temple was involved in this incident.

‘So that’s why they reacted like that when I asked for the hero’s sword.’

If they had known that the duke had plotted this scheme to warn Xion, they might not have gotten involved.

Duke West wanted to warn Xion even if it meant deceiving the High Temple.

Do what you’re supposed to do.

Do not defy the orders of House West.

Obey me.

That kind of arrogant warning.

He may also have wanted to hint that he knew more than Xion thought he did. Duke West liked to clutch information and brandish it as a weapon.

‘Just how little do you take me for?’

To dare issue such a warning… going so far as to lay hands on Reinhild.

Unforgivable.

The reason Xion had left House West alone until now wasn’t because they were too powerful, nor because they were his family.

It was because time was precious.

Rather than waste time on them, he wanted to spend even a minute, even a second more with Reinhild.

Had he known it would lead to this result, he would have acted long ago.

‘How did they learn about the secret passage?’

The only ones who knew of the secret passage were Xion himself and Reinhild. The High God, who constantly watched the hero and the Demon King, would have known this, but the deity would not have directly revealed it.

The High God cannot deliver information directly to the faithful. At minimum, the god can express intent only through twisted, ambiguous words.

Just looking at the records of previous oracles made that certain.

If the High God could say what the deity wanted outright, it wouldn’t have been information about the secret passage that got divulged. It would have been something else.

That the hero and the Demon King had taken up with each other, shirking their duties and whispering sweet nothings, so could someone please do something about it.

For a moment, Xion wondered whether, if such an oracle did come down, he should consider that their relationship had been officially recognized in the name of the god.

It was a pleasant daydream, but now was not the time for such fantasies.

‘Did a companion tail me?’

He had not once sensed another presence while visiting Reinhild’s room. No matter how great an assassin, none could slip past Xion’s eyes.

Xion was certain.

A human born with power on par with the Demon King was said to be the strongest in history. To tail such a Xion and discover the secret passage without being noticed?

If anyone could do that, the High God should have chosen that person as the hero instead of Xion.

However, even without tailing Xion, there might have been a way to discover the passage’s existence and if someone had told that to Xion’s companion….

If that were the case, wouldn’t the other three companions know as well?

❖ ❖ ❖

“Ah, the secret passage. I’m the one who told him.”

The full story of the incident came to light in a way almost laughably simple.

It was the party’s mage who had told the deceased companion about the secret passage.

“Did you tail me?”

“Relax. I don’t have that kind of skill.”

“Then how did you learn of the passage’s existence?”

“I noticed an anomaly in the enchantments on the Demon King’s castle, so I conducted a private investigation.”

The mage was unabashed.

Xion spent most of his time at the Demon King’s castle alone, but once in a great while he moved with his companions.

It wasn’t because he needed their help, nor because he felt any special camaraderie.

Merely, to look on the surface like he was actually doing hero work, there had to be days he moved with his companions.

That way it would be easier to move under the title of hero and that way he could see Reinhild for a long, long time.

That day, as always, Xion brought his companions to the Demon King’s castle and then disappeared.

In the midst of fighting monsters or demons that had suddenly surged in, the mage grew curious.

Where does the hero keep disappearing to?

He claims he goes to face the Demon King, but Xion’s condition was always neat for someone supposedly returning from a fierce battle with the Demon King.

Some people, seeing Xion injured, babbled that he did nothing but suffer wounds at the Demon King’s hands and questioned the hero’s qualifications, but those weren’t injuries from fights with the Demon King.

There was never any demonic energy felt in Xion’s wounds. Anyone could see those were injuries Xion had inflicted on himself.

‘While we’re fighting this hard, is he goofing off on his own?’

Thinking so, the mage promptly investigated the Demon King’s castle.

If he investigated Xion directly, he would surely be detected, so he tried checking whether there were traces of Xion’s visits at the castle.

If the hero really was fooling around alone, then only the people fighting in earnest would be the fools. He would put his battle with the Demon King on the back burner too and go have some fun.

“Oh, he’s been going properly to the Demon King’s castle?”

There were faint traces of the hero at the castle.

But oddly, those traces showed on a corner wall, not at the entrance to the castle.

‘Did he climb the wall or something?’

It was a pretty ridiculous picture, but not impossible. The mage thought little of it and was about to turn back.

If only he hadn’t discovered that part of the castle’s enchantments had been damaged.

“That’s when I investigated and learned about the secret passage.”

Hearing the mage’s explanation, Xion felt a flicker of admiration.

It had been Xion who damaged the enchantments by making the passage, but it was the Demon King, Reinhild, who had fixed them so only Xion could pass.

For a mere companion mage to detect such delicate magic—magic so subtle that even the butler of the Demon King’s castle, highly skilled in the art, hadn’t sensed it.

That was a tremendous development.

To the point he should be wary of the other.

‘Has he been hiding his true ability?’

Xion looked at the mage with eyes gone cold.

Was the other, in fact, an enemy?

Someone who could harm me and Reinhild?

The mage acted as though even Xion’s killing gaze didn’t bother him.

“Why did you disclose the existence of the secret passage to others?”

“He asked me, so I told him.”

“…Was that all?”

“What other reason would there be?”

If you asked this person “Why did you hide your abilities?” he would probably answer, “I didn’t hide them; you never asked, so I didn’t say anything.”

“What exactly did he ask that made you reveal the passage’s existence? Did he ask for a way to approach the Demon King?”

“He asked if there wasn’t anything that could be the hero’s weakness, so I answered that it was suspicious he’d set up a secret passage he kept using.”

It wasn’t that he spread the word out of malice or that he acted in order to screw over the hero. He just told it because he was asked.

Barely suppressing a tumult of emotions, Xion asked the next question.

“Do the other two companions also know of the secret passage?”

“Those two don’t. They didn’t ask.”

Truly, an answer to leave the questioner speechless.

“Sorry for leaking information on my own. I’ll help with one thing of your choice instead.”

The mage shrugged, as if the whole affair were nothing much. There was no sign he truly felt sorry or feared Xion’s anger.

Such behavior didn’t come from thoughtlessness or stupidity, but from the leisure that power affords.

The mage was confident in himself.

He was sure that even if Xion attacked him, he could escape, flee far away, and hide.

‘Troublesome.’

Unless he wanted rumors spreading that the hero had fought to the death with his companion, he had to hold back here.

If the mage were to turn his arrows toward Reinhild, it would be even more troublesome.

Since the other had apologized first and lowered his stance, Xion decided it was best to pretend to accept it even if he didn’t like it, and gave a slight nod.

“I’d like to ask you to investigate whether anything suspicious is going on at the ducal castle.”

“The ducal castle?”

The mage slowly raked his eyes over Xion.

“I’d have thought the heir to a ducal house would already know everything.”

“What if there’s something even I don’t know?”

The mage rubbed his palms together as if extremely intrigued.

Like a gnat.

“Looks like you’re plotting something.”

Xion did not answer.

❖ ❖ ❖

Contrary to how he had spoken of it as no big deal, it must not have been such a simple matter. The mage who went to investigate the ducal castle did not return immediately.

It was three days later when the mage got in touch.

“There’s more hidden over here than in the Demon King’s castle. Digging up the backstory was fun.”

“Get to the point.”

“It’s not like I can uncover every last secret of the ducal castle. What I can find is limited to whether there are suspicious movements of magical energy like what kinds of enchantments are laid over the castle. If you want anything else, you go to an information guild.”

Xion nodded.

It wasn’t that he agreed with the mage’s words.

Even if he went to an information guild, he wouldn’t be able to get anything House West had hidden.

“So did you find anything?”

“There’s a concealed space under the ducal castle.”

Xion could not hide his disappointment.

He had long known there was a place under the ducal castle where the true history was recorded.

On his twelfth birthday, the duke had even taken Xion there as a “gift.”

‘So I wasted time on something pointless.’

“You look like you think you wasted your time on something pointless.”

“I do not.”

“So you already knew that. Then I suppose you also know there’s another basement below that one… nothing especially useful as—”

“Hold on. Are you saying there’s yet another space below the basement?”

At Xion’s reaction, the mage finally laughed broadly, satisfied, and said yes.

A hidden space within a hidden space.

Beneath the ducal castle, there existed a space unknown even to Xion, the ducal heir and the hero.