It was a slow touch, as if caressing a wound.
But for some reason, he felt like he was going to grab my neck at any moment, so I had no choice but to remain still.
Besides, this mark...
'It's not a curse.'
Of course, it was true that the Demon King did it. However, it was not for the purpose of weakening the body and other cursed purposes as the people in the Empire thought.
As I have said time and time again, my body was not weakened by external influences, it was just inherently weak.
So this brand was a 'location tracking' spell.
Think about it. Why would the Demon King trust me enough to obediently send me to the human world?
No matter how good I was in the demon world, in the end, I was a human whose home was the 'human world.'
Although I stayed in the demon world obediently without any complaints, wasn't it easy to be shaken when I saw the human world? That's why the Demon King always used a location tracking spell on me whenever I went to the human world.
'It was like that when I first accepted the Demon King's offer and went to the Empire.'
When I said that I would take the hero's body and return to the Empire, the Demon King cast a location tracking spell on me.
He said it's for my safety and to prepare for an unexpected accident... But in the end, it meant that if I don't come back, he'll come find me.
With my nose completely pierced, I couldn't say anything and just dragged the hero's body back to the Empire. I was in front of the Emperor and other important figures of the Empire without realizing that my clothes were disheveled from carrying the hero's body.
And because I had spent too much stamina, as soon as I put down the hero, I burst into tears and vomited blood.
At the time, I was so focused on getting my body in order that I didn't even notice that their gaze had moved away from my face and stopped a little lower.
A new black mark and hemoptysis. The hero's cold body and me, his colleague who collected it.
In a way, it was natural that their thoughts came up with the fictional 'Demon King's Curse'.
'They don't listen even if I said it wasn't like that, and I couldn't say out loud that I was the commander of the Demon King's Army, so I kept my mouth shut...'
Now, I just hope I don't get caught.
There was a good reason for deceiving even the Emperor.
Because I needed an excuse to go back to the demon realm.
What on earth would they think if I, a person who came and went from the demon realm with all four limbs intact, had to go back to the demon world? Of course, they'd think, 'This bastard is going to betray us outright, right?'
Shouldn't you start thinking about it?
Therefore, I implicitly acknowledged that it was a curse and added a condition required me to return to the Demon King's side to break it.
Therefore, it was too late to explain. The moment he finds out the truth, the Emperor, who had been fooled, will cut off my head himself. I guarantee it.
So my answer was already decided.
"...I'll try my best."
***
"Hardt Territory... That's surprising."
This land was of little use to him. Of course, if you looked at the profit and loss, it was closer to a gain than a loss...
Duke Stave Illuster glanced at Cruel, who, as always, did not respond.
"...Now that I think about it, when I met Honorary Count Hardt in the corridors of the imperial palace not long ago, he said he came because he wanted to return his territory."
Cruel Hardt was also there at that time.
No. He was there first and the Duke arrived late. And had a conversation with Deon Hardt.
'I heard that the Count also came to see Your Majesty. May I ask what purpose you came for?'
'Oh, there is something I would like to ask about the territory I recently received...'
'Is it because it is not enough? It's small or the land is barren?'
'No, I just want to return the territory.'
'That's interesting.'
He only said it was interesting, but he didn't really investigate what the territory was, but Cruel wanted to personally investigate it. If he did, there's nothing he couldn't figure out.
Couldn't the 'territory' in that conversation at that time be this 'Hardt territory'?
The Duke, who narrowed his eyes and carefully examined Cruel's expression, soon smiled and shook his head.
No way. It seemed that he has become sensitive due to the meeting that will be held a little later.
It's just that he was probably displeased with the Hardt estate being in the hands of the person who destroyed his family.
After thinking that far, the Duke grinned at Cruel.
As always, he looked kindly in his eyes and then spoke soothingly in a soft voice.
"I didn't mean to reprimand you. This was simply a light event to reward you."
"..."
"Is there anything else?"
'You bastard!!'
Recalling the shouts and Deon's attitude at the time, Cruel slowly opened his lips that seemed to have hardened.
Green eyes turned to the floor and an unwavering voice came out.
"Nothing in particular."
"Is that so?"
"..."
"I understand. I will gratefully accept the gift. If you wish, I will hand over all management authority of Hardt Estate to you."
"...Thank you."
Cruel quietly closed his eyes, bowed, and stepped back.[1]
"...Saerin."
"Yes, Duke."
The woman who had been waiting in the corner for their conversation to end, as she had once done, looked up.
A woman who willingly took on the tiresome task of overseeing the Salvation Church. The Duke looked sweetly at her.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"...I just did what I had to do."
The answer came a beat late. The Duke continued speaking regardless.
"From now on, move very secretly under the radar. The Emperor must not catch wind."
There were words that were filtered out from the Salvation Church and taught to the remaining believers as if to brainwash them. The Emperor was sin, the Duke was salvation.
'Stave Illuster is salvation.'
This was the purpose of the Salvation Church.
Making people blind to Duke Stave Illuster.
At the same time, it worsened public sentiment towards the Emperor.
"Please leave it to me."
"I feel reassured."
After smiling once, he turned around.
He erased the woman's existence from his mind and spoke to Cruel, who was waiting behind him.
"Then let's go. I'll be late for the meeting."
He started walking. He could hear a sound following him at a certain distance from behind.
The eyes of the Duke walking ahead were so cold that his previous appearance seemed like a lie.
***
When the Duke entered the conference hall, everyone except the Emperor had already gathered.
The noble faction and the imperial faction. It looked like they were sitting perfectly divided into two groups. Although the sight was quite funny, the Duke naturally calmed down his expression and gave a soft greeting.
"I guess I'm late."
These words were spoken by the head of the noble faction and the second most powerful person after the Emperor.
Those from the noble faction began waving their hands.
"No. Your Majesty hasn't come in, so the meeting hasn't started yet."
"You came at just the right time."
"There isn't even an agenda yet. Please sit here."
The Duke followed the instructions and sat at the head table, which was the seat closest to the Emperor among the noble faction's seats.
The faces of the Emperor's faction frowned at his confident and natural attitude, but they did not say anything.
Because according to principle, it was right for him to sit there.
It was just that the person himself was so unlucky that no matter what he did, they just looked disapproving.
"...A sudden meeting. I'm worried about what's going on."
"I don't know what it is, but it must be important. There's no way His Majesty would have held such a large meeting without thinking."
"What on earth is going on?"
A war. The Duke still couldn't get his head around the subject h'd been watching the Emperor for so far. The Duke suppressed the laughter that was trying to escape his mouth.
He had fully anticipated this situation from the time he prepared a separate budget plan.
Even if he had not been aware of the preparation of the budget, he would have fully predicted that the meeting would be related to the 'war' since the meeting was convened.
Wasn't he the Emperor?
The easiest way for someone who has cut off all of his blood to prove his qualifications as a monarch was to turn the tip of the sword he was holding outward.
Proving your worth by conquering.
'That's what he can do best, and...'
Because it would be much better to be remembered as a conquering Emperor rather than a corrupt Emperor.
'The conquering Emperor still deserves praise for expanding his territory...'
"What do you think, Your Excellency the Duke?"
"You mean what I think?"
He raised his head and looked around at the question that was suddenly proposed to him.
Not only the noble faction, but even the imperial faction had their eyes fixed on him as if they were curious about his answer.
"Yes, I wonder what your Majesty will say..."
"Well, how can you know his deep thoughts?"
"Ah..."
Contrary to his vague gestures as if he knew something, when the answer came back that he didn't know, sighs broke out here and there.
These were not people who will literally believe what came out of their mouth. There was a subtle confidence and doubt in their eyes.
He guessed he should respond appropriately at this point.
The Duke added, still showing a suspicious smile.
"However, I heard that the Kingdom of Ireon has been causing controversy recently. It might be related to that."
A cold silence fell in the conference hall.
He was glad for the silence, so he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes for a moment. At the cautious call, the Duke slowly lifted his eyelids.
"That means... Are you saying that there might be a war?"
"It's just a guess."
It wasn't an outright affirmation, but it was definitely not a denial. The moment the people in the meeting room fell silent at the answer of affirmation, a voice was heard outside the door announcing the Emperor's appearance.
As soon as everyone stood up, the door opened and the Emperor, accompanied by Nemeseus, walked in. He strode forward as if there was nothing to get in his way, and everyone flinched at his ferocious force for a moment, then a unanimous greeting came out of everyone's mouth.
"Blessings to the Empire."
"Everyone, please sit down."
A low voice spoke.
Those sitting in their seats reflexively looked at the Emperor's expression as the voice was uncomfortable to even pretend to hear.
Expressionless, but expressionless with a cool feeling somehow.
All of those who were here now were people who had survived so far in the imperial palace, where if you lose your head, it would be completely blown off. They have been able to sense the Emperor's mood and have calmed down. If you opened your mouth incorrectly, you will die.
"First of all, even in the midst of being busy, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who participated in the sudden meeting."
Of course, a few years ago, one person lost his title after failing to attend due to being busy...
"I'll get to the point quickly."
"..."
"Three days from now, I am planning to declare war."
"...!"
[1] So originally there was a whole action sequence here... But it didn't make any sense? So I deleted it and just modified it to this because this is kind of what happened? Yeah... I think there's an eavesdropping scene or something on Deon's end? It probably makes more sense if you read the manhwa here.