-Alber-

I'm over 200 years old, and it still doesn't seem like I'll be able to retire any time soon...

Even after all this time I still remember the destruction of my home as if it was yesterday. The loss of such a small village was not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it was the most important event in the history of the world. And that is why I cannot retire, I simply cannot allow another tragedy like that to happen again.

But there's no end to the imbeciles that think of themselves as superior beings just because they were able to reach a high level. It's always easy to see them coming if I pay attention to the signs... but this 'queen of darkness' doesn't make sense to me.

She successfully mixed her mana in a town's water supply and then left without doing anything with it, she then defeated the knights that were chasing after her but didn't hurt them at all. She took control of two small tribes of manaborn but seemingly forgot about them. She destroyed part of a town, again without hurting anyone, for seemingly no reason. And when she was about to take over the Agua kingdom she again left without doing anything.

She seems to have a pattern of causing a big commotion and then just leaving without doing anything. And for someone who's described as extremely powerful and evil, there is a severe lack of casualties among the many people who have tried to attack her. And yet way too many witnesses have testified about her viciousness for it to be all a misunderstanding... I simply have no clue of what's going on here.

And that's why my only choice is to meet her in person and figure her out myself.

"So that's the old castle of the demon king."

"Uh... It's a lot more intimidating than I was expecting, my body is telling me not to go in."

Ren and Rena, brother and sister, I was told to bring these two young knights with me. Both of them are above level 200, but it seems like this is their first time in the wasteland.

On the other hand, I've been here many times, but even I have to admit that the castle seems a lot more ominous than usual... I can sense something truly terrifying lurking inside, the demon lords I'm used to cannot even compare.

Mmm, it seems that the cracks and holes than used to be all around this castle have been fixed. My wind lets me confirm the state of the walls much better than if I was actually able to see. And I think that the repair was recent, was this done to prepare for our visit? The previous occupants would not have cared about something like that.

Two rock demons guide us to the room where their queen should be waiting for us. We stop in front of the door.

"Master Alber... I can sense a sinister presence on the other side of this door. I think we might get attacked if we go in."

"Mmm, it's too late to turn back now. Don't be scared, but be ready for whatever we might face."

I'm trying to act tough, but the truth is that I'm afraid as well, this level of pressure is simply not normal... And to think that I believed that after everything I've experienced nothing could scare me anymore. Now I'm being intimidated by someone I've not even met yet.

Well, no point in delaying it, let's open this door.

I immediately sense the terrifying being of pure darkness on the other side of the room and get the feeling that I'm about to die. Let's calm down, I need to use my wind magic to figure out what it actually is.

Uh? It's a girl sitting on a chair, a very tall elf girl.

The moment she notices me, she quickly swallows something that was in her mouth. Then she uses spatial magic in a hurry, is that a storage spell? To put away what seems to be a box full of cream puffs that she was holding. Uh... what?

{Race: Elf, Class: Mage, Element: Dark, Level: 540}

It has to be her, that level is unbelievable... If I end up having to fight her I will have no other choice than to use that spell, even if doing so will undoubtedly kill me...

She seems to notice the wind I'm using to 'see' her and starts looking around the room for five seconds before staring at me.

It can't be... noticing that wind is already difficult enough, but realizing that it was my doing in such a short time should not be possible. If she really figured it out she must have a lot more to her than just raw power.

There are two more girls here, one is a human standing next to the dark queen... I believe that she's the princess of the Agua kingdom that ran away with her recently. The other is a really strong blood demon hiding behind a curtain, is she waiting for an ambush? It doesn't seem like such a thing should be needed.

"Uh, hello. I was not expecting you so early. Please take a seat."

"Ah, no thank you, your majesty. We are only here to introduce ourselves. My name is Alber, and these are the knights Ren and Rena. Our prince has not arrived yet."

"My name is Luna. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Such a commanding tone. She's only introducing herself, and yet each one of her words feels intimidating as if demanding absolute obedience.

The princess then whispers something into her ear.

"Luna, calm down. You always speak with a scary voice when you are nervous."

"How can I calm down? He called me 'your majesty'..."

"You are supposed to be a queen you know. You should get used to that stuff."

"I guess... Anyway, you should be careful. That old man is using wind magic to sense his surroundings, including sound. I think that he can hear us even if we whisper."

So she really is onto me. But that conversation was strange.

"First of all, there's one thing I would like to make clear. You might have heard some bad things about me, but that's nothing more than a mere misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding?"

"Yes, you can rest assured that I'm not a threat to your country. My only goal is to turn the demon wasteland into a prosperous country."

That's strange. How can she be saying that she's not a threat while still having that intimidating aura around her? My two companions don't seem to believe her.

"I'm glad to hear that."

"For now, you can discuss the details of your visit with Nera."

That's a weird job to give to a princess... I get the feeling that she's the only one around here who knows how to deal with royalty.

She approaches us, and then.

*BANG*

The chair that the queen of darkness is sitting on explodes.

"WAHAHA! That stupid princess finally moved away. So what do you think of my special bombs?!"

The blood demon just came out from her hiding spot. Is she the one responsible for that explosion? I don't understand what's going on.

The powerful explosion seems to have wounded the dark queen, she's bleeding from both the left and right sides of her waist as well as her left shoulder.

Wait, her wounds seem to be fixing themselves. The blood is flying back into her body and her flesh is twisting and closing the wounds. It's a bit unnerving to watch, but in just a few seconds she's as good as new. Is that the dark healing I've heard about?

"Zerana... I thought I told you to not cause trouble for our guests. And more importantly, you placed two bombs on the left side of the chair and only one on the right?! What were you thinking?!"

She seems angry. Was that an assassination attempt? The pressure from before has increased, and the knight siblings are hugging each other.

"D-does that matter? I just happened to only have three bombs on hand so I only put one on the right."

"YES! IT DOES MATTER! IF YOU HAD THREE BOMBS YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT ONE ON THE CENTER!!!"

"EEEK! S-sorry?"

"I'm going to let it slide this time. But if you try another assassination attempt as sloppy as this one I will have to punish you."

"Guh."

I'm having trouble understanding what I'm hearing... Why does she care more about the way the bombs were placed than the fact that one of her subordinates just tried to kill her? I think that understanding this girl is going to be harder than I thought...

 

---

 

"She was far more terrifying than I thought."

"Master Alber, what should we do?"

Something is clearly wrong... Back there we were all too scared for no apparent reason. Even before entering I thought that I was sensing killing intent from her when in reality she was just eating cream puffs. Her conversation with the princess was also very casual... So where was that intimidation coming from?

And then there's the interaction with the blood demon. She didn't seem to care much about an assassination attempt. That didn't seem at all like the behavior of a ruthless person. She did prove to be quite... I guess I'll call it eccentric, but not ruthless.

The important thing is that just being around her seemed to cause an irrational fear in all of us that made us believe that her intentions were much worse than what her actions would suggest, which means...

"I think I've figured it out."

"Eh? Figured out what?"

"I was confused because there were too many reports about her cruelty while all the evidence pointed to the contrary. It didn't seem possible for it to be all a misunderstanding when so many people seemed so certain about it, but it also didn't make sense for there to be no victims of such a terrible villain. But now that I've met her in person and experienced the same fear that everyone who's met her before must have felt, I finally understand what's going on."

"Right! Now it's clear that she's even worse than we thought!"

"No you id- It's the opposite!!!"

"T-the opposite?!"

"That fear we felt was completely irrational, it wasn't the result of anything she did or said. People often twist the facts in their minds to justify their emotions. And if everyone who meets her experiences that same terror, they will misinterpret all of her actions as something that would make that fear reasonable, while ignoring any evidence to the contrary. It's hard to believe, but now that I've experienced it myself, the idea of everything being a misunderstanding no longer seems as nonsensical as before."

"B-but what about the prophecy?"

"The prophecy? That thing was so vague that it could mean a hundred different things. You should probably just forget about it."

The two are looking at me as if they thought that I've gone senile. Ugh... This is why I cannot retire, people always have a hard time thinking rationally when they experience intense emotions.

Well, to tell the truth, I'm also the same. As much as we'd like to think that can become intelligent or wise, it all goes out the window when our emotions get the better of us. The only thing that makes me different at all is the fact that my mentor taught me how to realize when I'm having irrational thoughts. The only path to wisdom is realizing that I'm not wise.

And speaking of my mentor, there is another reason why I wanted to come here. I heard that there are two witches in this castle.

I need to ask them if they know what happened to the witch of the wind.