The Immortal Queen Cannot Escape the Lies and Obsession of the Demon — Not That She Wants To - Chapter 17

Mary Shija Liilakal was imprisoned for plotting to assassinate the queen.

—That much wasn’t a problem.

Both Viscountess Mary and Countess Grecia were nothing more than pawns to be sacrificed.

The problem was the unexpectedly swift investigation that identified both the perpetrator and the mastermind in just two days.

While it was true that Grecia, the perpetrator, couldn’t bear her guilt and revealed her crimes, the speed at which they traced it back to Mary was abnormal.

I had counted on Valerio, the queen’s fiancé, being a good distraction, expecting it would buy several days before the truth came out, but that plan fell through.

“Ah, damn it. Guess I’ll have to give up the big stuff.”

The man, who made his living lending money and also traded information as a curse practitioner, spat out his words in disgust, glaring resentfully at the instruments and gold furnishings he had hoarded in the back of his office. He had taken some as interest from the count’s family and others as payment from the viscount’s family.

If he sold them all together, he might have been able to exchange them for two high-purity magic stones, but greed had gotten him caught, and now he had lost everything.

To travel light, he stuffed gold coins, jewels, and magic stones into a bag, then boarded a small carriage in light attire and left the royal capital. Naturally, there were no pursuers.

The man was from a neighboring country.

After illegally entering Fenizard, he decided to steal an ID to move freely, taking on the identity of one of its citizens.

It was fortunate that the man he randomly selected and killed, who happened to be around the same age and resembled him, had been running a money-lending business in the royal capital. After all, the man had intended to work in Fenizard.

He would find likely targets, lure them into traps, get close as if he were an ally, lend them money with interest, and finally squeeze them dry.

The more virtuous the person, the higher the recovery rate. Though he had to cut his losses, the harvest had been greater than expected.

He headed straight for the road to his homeland, far from the royal capital.

The area around the royal capital was mostly open fields, but the mountain path was unavoidable. There was still a long time until dawn. He hesitated, wondering whether to give up crossing the mountains today and camp out, but decided to press on under the cloudless moonlight.

It was best to act quickly.

After a short break, the man urged his horse forward and began climbing the mountain path.

He passed the midpoint and slowly advanced along a dark road surrounded by trees, where the moonlight didn’t reach. It was so quiet one might think even the beasts were asleep.

“Humans really love shiny things, huh. I can’t say I don’t get it, though.”

“——!!”

The man, holding the horse’s reins from the driver’s seat, felt his entire body bristle at the voice coming from inside the carriage, which should have been empty except for his luggage.

Without hesitation, even as the canopy tore, he threw a dagger toward the direction of the voice.

In the darkness, a faintly visible figure lifted the corners of its mouth and caught the flying dagger with one hand, as if receiving it.

“W-who are you!? You! Since when have you been—”

The man lifted the lantern at hand to illuminate the figure behind him.

A child with strangely two-toned hair, gold and black, appeared, smiling eerily at the man before calmly crushing the dagger he had caught.

“Well, you’re not like those women who came directly for my life, and where the line of guilt lies is up to human standards, so it doesn’t really matter. I was in a real hurry, but as you can see, you got away and it doesn’t seem like I’ll make it in time, so I thought maybe I could let it slide. There’s not much in it for me anyway.”

The boy seemed to be speaking to the man, but it was more like a monologue, completely detached from conversation, as he lifted a drawstring bag with his other hand.

It contained the precious metals he had earned in Fenizard.

Blood rushing to his head, the man let go of the reins and lantern, drawing another dagger as he reached out to snatch it back.

“Give that back!!”

“Here you go.”

With disarming casualness, the boy tossed the bag toward the man.

He frantically grabbed it. The mouth was still tied, so the contents didn’t spill out, and he felt its substantial weight.

“Aren’t you going to check what’s inside?”

Provoked by the taunting words, the man loosened the drawstring and glimpsed the faint glimmer of jewels and gold inside before clutching it tightly with one hand so it wouldn’t be taken again.

He pointed his blade at the eerie boy, whose actions were entirely unpredictable.

“You, what’s your goal? Did you come to take back this gold? Or the jewels? The magic stones?”

In response to the man’s questions, the boy’s smile deepened, cruel and cold.

“Liar. —What’s in there is nothing but worthless stones.”

“…Huh?”

Not understanding the boy’s meaning, the man unconsciously dropped his gaze into the bag’s opening.

—There was no transparency of jewels, no brilliant shine of gold; the bag was filled with dull, dirt-covered, rough stones without any luster.

“Huh? Huh? —Eh,”

“Hey, you’re spacing out. You okay? Here, you better hold onto this rope, or else you might go off in a weird direction. Come on, come on.”

The boy, who had moved soundlessly to his side, lifted the reins and smiled.

A chill ran down the man’s spine. He couldn’t let this inexplicable being hold the reins. Letting go of the dagger, he reflexively snatched them back, and the boy laughed delightedly.

“Ahahaha! You really took it. But, is it really worth grabbing so desperately?”

“Hah!? Well, if I don’t hold them, the horse—”

“Liar. Where is this horse you speak of?”

“What are you saying?”

His murky green eyes were drawn forward.

No way. Such an absurd thing couldn’t be happening. Where the man looked, the horse pulling the carriage was gone. The wheels kept turning, descending the unstable slope.

Amid the absence of hoofbeats and the sound of wheels turning, a sharp metallic snap rang out.

The boy had torn off the carriage’s brake lever and tossed it aside carelessly.

“Haah. How anticlimactic.”

Muttering as if profoundly bored, the smile vanished from the boy’s face.

“Well, it’s like this. When you notice trash lying around, it feels better to pick it up than to ignore it, right? Ah, someone like you probably wouldn’t get it. Either way, that’s the reason you’re going to die now.”

The carriage, continuing by inertia, couldn’t follow the curve of the road and charged straight toward the cliff.

Unable to comprehend the situation, the man fell from the mountain to the ground below, along with the carriage.

The boy floated into the air, unbound by gravity, and looked down like the moon.

“Lucky you, getting a meaningful death.”

Humans are always seeking meaning in living and dying.

As a farewell to a life dying alone—clutching worthless stones, gripping useless reins. The demon Rai smiled and watched him go.

Crash, after the sound of a powerful impact, Rai’s expression returned to blank.

“Ah—… I wonder, if I were human, would I feel satisfied now?”

There was no one to hear his empty murmur.