５８. Mother, Children, And

――A certain room in the residential area of the demon king castle.

It was a gorgeous room owned by the demon race. It was decorated with a green tapestry embroidered with the pattern of the clan. Dwarven-made chandeliers ornamented with plenty of gold, silver, and crystal were hanging on the ceiling, and hanging on the wall was a landscape painting or portrait of relatives drawn by a human. Enshrined alongside the wall was the obsidian sculpture of the first demon king, Raohgias, and the golden statue of the current demon king, Gordesgias.

A demon race woman that was clad in attire with a lot of exposure with an emerald necklace hung down on her neck was sitting in the leather sofa made with high-elf skin.

Her long, braided green hair draped on her right shoulder, the woman puffed purple smoke from her pipe. Her black, cunning eyes akin to that of a snake were akin to a black hole―― That sucked everything.

「And then…」

The woman spoke while puffing the purple smoke again.

「I withdrew without doing anything.」

「…」

In front of the woman, the 4th demon king’s child, Emergias was bowing silently in a standing posture.

「… You really are unlucky huh? As if you used up your luck to be born in this world.」

The woman turned away from Emergias as she spoke in soliloquy while looking at the statue of Gordesgias.

“”

「You must be born under a black star. No talent, no luck… And yet, that little brother of yours, isn’t he just 5 years old? A baby. Don’t you feel annoyed? Can’t you do better?」

Emergias didn’t say anything even if the other party kept nagging non-stop.

Though he would normally be enraged if anyone else did something like this to him, 『The Woman』 before him was one of the few exceptions.

The reason being the woman was none other than Emrgias’ mother, Nefradia.

「You’re too slow. If only you had raised your speed once you saw that light pillar, he might not beat you to the punch.」

Said Nefradia as she puffed another smoke to her son. Whenever she met with her son, she would always keep her distance while smoking in front of him.

「This is why you’re always falling behind your sibling. Understand now? It’s not simply a problem with your plan. The problem lay in your character.」

「…」

「Do you hear me?」

「… Yes.」

Emergias replied curtly. His face was devoid of expression. He had no excuse or explanation. Because making excuses was considered a shameful act for the demon race―― And even if it wasn’t, Nefradia wouldn’t care about whatever he said.

「At this point I’ve pretty much gotten used to your uselessness.」

Said Nefradia, looking away with a bored face while inhaling from her pipe.

Their parent and child relationship had reached the worst point.

Naturally, it wasn’t like this from the very beginning. The 4th demon king’s child, Emergias was born while carrying the hope of his clan and his mother, Nefradia on his back.

But, bad luck had always been haunting him since his birth. When Nefradia went into labor, he ended up having no name for a really long time since the demon king Gordesgias was in the front line.

And when he celebrated his long-awaited name, a big storm happened. And just as the celebration was being postponed for another day, the alliance launched a big operation in the frontline, killing many warriors including the patriarch of the clan. Such incidents kept happening one after another.

Due to such coincidences piling up one after another, one might say that Emergias wasn’t blessed.

Whether in terms of luck―― Or skill.

From the perspective of the common demon race, he might look apathetic but that was only because the target of comparison was his more excellent older step siblings such as Aiogias, Rubyfia, and Diagias.

Even with that, Emergias always did his best. He wanted to answer the expectation of his clan, and his mother.

Emergias’ clan, the Izanis clan, was a rare clan among the demon race, most members of their clan were natural born tactician or civil officials. Their scheme ran deep in the alliance and they had a deep relationship with the night elf.

Emergias properly inherited his clan’s unique talent. He was an excellent commander and tactician. He splendidly captured a city before he reached adulthood.

But, last of all, he was forced to recuperate for a while due to serious injury from the battle with the heroes who rushed at him like mad dogs.

Properly speaking, the opponent was so dangerous that it wouldn’t be strange if he was killed in battle. It was such a dangerous situation in which he should be praised for surviving such a dangerous situation.

But, the other faction ignored that important fact. Since it was a departure that pushed aside the warrior of the demon race who was supposed to go in that battle, other demon race calling him 『The stupid prince who almost died in his first battle』.

In short, Emergias was by no means weak, or incompetent.

Still, the expectation of his clan wasn’t being excellent commander, it was for him to become a supreme commander who surpassed his father, demon king Gordesgias whose military prowess far surpassed Izanis clan.

Anyhow, his mother Nefradia wasn’t satisfied.

—This child wasn’t the king’s vessel.

… Thus, Nefradia gave up on him and started sharing bed with the demon king again.

She was considered as lucky for the demon race who had low fertility since she got pregnant soon enough.

『With this, the future is secured. I hope the next child is an excellent one.』

One day, Emergias overheard his mother speaking about her second pregnancy to her attendant.

… He was distraught. Even though he suffered so much. Even though he suffered so much, And yet, words of praise aside, he might have lost the love of his mother this time. Stolen by his sister, or brother――

Thus, Emergias…

Poisoned his own mother with abortion poison that he got from the night elf.

His plan had only half succeeded. Though Nefradia had a miscarriage, she discovered that the culprit was none other than Emergias.

And thanks to that poison, Nefradia couldn’t give birth to another child.

Though he didn’t have to fear his sibling snatching away the love of his mother anymore―― Their originally strained relationship crumbled down to pieces.

Since she couldn’t give birth to another child, she had no choice. His clan had also given up on raising him to be the next demon king, and made him join Aiogias’ faction.

That moment, he finally woke up from his unreachable dream called “Demon king from my clan!”.

But, if one was to ask whether those incidents made the treatment to Emergias become a bit better――

「… Enough. Get out of this place.」

Thus we arrived at the present.

Nefradia ordered Emergias to leave with a cold vice devoid of love.

「At least, make sure that you won’t let go off the prey right before you next time.」

「…」

Emergias nodded and then left his mother’s room.

「… I only have you after all.」

Nefradia didn’t forget to say such sarcasm.

「… Yes, mother.」

Emergias replied with a small voice and went out of the room and walked along the dark passage.

Now, he was alone.

Freed from annoying people of his clan, and his subordinate who only gave him the answer that he wanted to hear.

「… Damn.」

Emergias’ face warped as he hit the stone wall.

†††

――A few days after we departed from the beastfolk village.

I returned safely to the demon king castle. Though the return journey was rather comfortable, I miss my own bed.

Though I’m used to outdoor camping in my previous life, it seems my mentality grew weak during the time I spent as a prince.

Maybe I should sleep in the tent outdoors instead of inside the carriage…

「I shall do what I have to do.」

Sofia, who had fully recovered, left with the dispatch document in her hand.

The pressure she emitted made me think that rather than becoming the demon god of knowledge, she might be more suited to become Demon god―― of business procedure.

『Both devil, or demon god decided their own nature with something as a trigger―― Not that making the decision of their own path is a rare thing.』

Ante added such a remark.

Seriously. Then Ante, will you turn into the demon god of tidiness from the demon god of taboo when something happens?

『As long as it’s as important as something like the end of the world or the beginning of the world, it’s highly possible.』

Ain’t that literally impossible? Not that I don’t realize it though.

――We were visiting my mother’s, Platy’s room in the residential area while having such a conversation.

「Mother, I’m back.」

「Welcome back Jilba— What in the world is happening to you?」

Platy’s eyes opened wide in shock the moment she detected my inflated magical power.

「Let’s say that… Various things happen.」

「… Well, it’s good as long as you gain something from this marching training though. You’ve always been surpassing my expectation after all.」

After nodding in admiration, Platy stepped forward and hugged me. The smell of her perfume was as nice as usual.

「Anyhow, I’m really glad that you returned safe and sound.」

From her emotional voice alone, I knew that she was truly worried about me.

… Though she might faint if she heard what happened during the marching training.

「So, what happened during the training?」

Platy, then sitting comfortably on the sofa, asked me while fanning herself with her folding fan.

「… Let me see, I think there’s a need to hear the explanation from my secret escort too but to sum it up, there was an unexpected incident on site.」

To be honest, calling THAT huge mess as “Unexpected Incident” was an understatement.

「Due to the misspell written by the hobgoblin in the official document, we ended up arriving at the wrong destination.」

「… That was truly a disaster.」

「Yes. It would have been a good thing if the one that is waiting for us in our destination is the deserting goblin army ergo… Something else has taken residence in that place.」

Then I clapped my hands.

Upon hearing my signal, the door opened up and the warrior from the Reiju clan entered the room. They also brought with them a board to carry the white dragon’s――

「… Eh?」

Platy was at a loss for words, her mouth was agape.

「As you can see, we ended up running into a white dragon. Though our side suffered from devastating damage since the other party used dragon breath immediately, we somehow managed to turn the table and kill him. Rest assured, everyone is safe and sound, no one died due to this incident.」

――Platy’s folding fan slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

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Jill-kun and The Heroine(Dragon Mode)