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Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 19

「I will not make it in time! 」

Unable to afford to become mist again, Dimitri reached out with his right arm and tried to suck the Werewolf’s life essence in, but in the next moment his right arm has been torn off at the elbow.

「Hou…? 」

Dimitri let out a voice of admiration.

Then the new King of Werewolves sprung up from the floor and twisted his right leg out of his thigh.

「Muh…… 」

Dimitri’s mouth twitched slightly.

「To think that my body would be taken away from me faster than I could breathe. 」

The Werewolves rush towards Dimitri, who has stopped moving.

「The reason I was able to live for 2000 years was not because I was invincible… 」

Dimitri smiled at himself as he barely managed to attack the Werewolves.

「But because I was good at running away. 」

With that, he became a mist, and disappeared into the small window that was left open on purpose without materializing. The werewolves ran their claws through the fog he left behind many times, but there was no response.

As he stepped out of the window, Dimitri turned into a gigantic bat and flew away with astonishing speed.

「Damn it! He got away! 」

Ion returned to his human form and grinded his teeth. When he glanced at his pack, five people were missing, including his sister Arte.

「I just did not have the strength… 」

Ion hung his head.

「It is not just your fault, brother. We are all to blame here. 」

「I cannot believe that even big sis Arte is gone…….. 」

Emma and Luna hugged Ion while shedding tears.

「No, I should actually be thanking you guys. I did not think that the tricks I learned while playing around with you would work for the Vampire King. 」

Ion put his hands on the twin’s heads.

It was Emma who delivered the first blow to the Vampire King.

Emma and Luna jumped in a together, kicking each other and instantly splitting in two directions. Even Ion was caught off guard by this technique several times, such as when he accidentally called them twins because of how good they were at executing that technique.

「I think you can become quite strong if you continue to improve yourselves… 」

Ion looked at his right arm on the floor covered in black mist and called out to them.

「… but ultimately It is all up to the two of you. 」

And Ion waited for the Chaos that evaporated from the right leg of the Vampire King that he had torn off to become a Chaos Core before eating it.

(But even with this, I am still far behind her. I have to eat more and more Chaos and become stronger for her…)

Ion swore it to his late mother, and to his dead sister that he will become stronger.

* * *

Thus ended the battle in the Forest of Eternal Darkness.

No one thought it was a victory. However, it is also an undeniable fact that they were not defeated, even though the Vampire King Dimitri, left the Forest of Eternal Darkness and disappeared somewhere.

The existence of an organization called Pandora became known to the world, and everyone was worried about what kind of conspiracy this secret society would plot next, aiming for the return of the time of Extreme Chaos.

Before long, however, a powerful member of Pandora, the Black Witch Elder, was captured and burned at the stake by the White Witches.

Waldrind sent Artuk a large amount of compensation for this disturbance, along with ransom payments for Frantz and other captured heavy knights. It is said that the deputy captain Frantz, who was repatriated to his home country, stabbed himself in the throat with a dagger in front of Marine as penance and returned his Crest to her. The remaining heavy knights also returned their Crests and then left the country.

A tribe of Werewolves lost their queen Clara, but was united around the new king, Ion, and soon returned to normal life. Vilar gave the Werewolf tribe the full amount of compensation from Waldrind and granted them the right to hunt in The Forest of Eternal Darkness.

Baron Eugen Niklae received accolades and rewards from the Constance family for his contribution to the battle as well. Three months after this battle, he welcomed the Mage Deadri as his second wife.

Theo Cornero has been appointed as the castle keeper of the former residence of the Vampire King in the Forest of Eternal Darkness. It was a vast territory comparable to a Viscount’s rank, but his peerage did not increase with it. However, it was said that he could take all the territory that would be cleared of the Chaos from the forest for himself.

Lords of Artuk were not particularly dissatisfied with this ruling because of one simple reason: because of its bad reputation, no one wanted to become the Lord of the Forest of Eternal Darkness.

Theo, however, gladly accepted the job, since he thought it would be a good rehearsal for him to practice dealing with the Devil’s Nests when he eventually returns to his hometown of Sistina.

Siluca was fully expecting to be removed from Vilar’s entourage after everything she had done, but Margaret pardoned her transgressions against the Earl, and now she was standing next to Theo who overlooked the area of The Forest of Eternal Darkness from the balcony of the castle.

「Residents who returned to the village pledged their obedience to you for the time being. 」

「But I bet you think the Vampire King will return one day. 」

「Probably… 」

Siluca nodded.

「Such superhumans will never stop fighting to bring back the time of Extreme Chaos. I wonder if we can really win against them. And as for Pandora… I heard that the Black Witch Elder is dead, but that Yana witch was not caught with her, right? 」

「She is a terrifying witch. Even though she let her guard down, if Lord Theo had not saved me, I would have been killed by her. 」

When she remembered that, I feel guilty of how careless and immature she was.

Because she has learned magic broadly and shallowly, he cannot cast high-level magic on the spur of the moment, and that reminded her that this might mean that she will not be as useful in actual combat as she could have been.

「I will become stronger. 」

As Theo looked at Siluca, he made an oath to her.

「Prince Milza was right. There is nothing wrong with being strong. But that’s all I approve from him. His strength is just for himself, and I will never be a selfish Lord like that. 」

「Of course. 」

Siluca smiled and nodded. She promised Theo in her heart that she will be strong too.

「The idea of the powerful protecting the powerless seems to be self-righteous. All the powerful have to do is carve out an era in which the powerless can live happily ever after, I think. 」

「Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind. But first, I need to become a powerful person myself. 」
「Fortunately, this forest has no shortage of trials in it. It’s a terrifying playground left behind by the Vampire King, after all. 」

「Lord Vilar surely is putting me through the wringer by giving me such a demonic realm to rule over. 」

Theo gave a wry smile.

「That is our luck for us. 」

At that moment, they heard Irvin’s voice behind them.

「If the two of you are forced to work hard, I will also be able to used more roughly than normally.

「I also feel like I could take my weapon for a spin today. 」
Behind Arvin was Aishela, but also…

「「Theo~!!! 」」

A double voice was heard, and Emma and Luna rushed over and grabbed Theo’s left and right arm.

Perhaps they were seriously thinking of making Theo their son-in-law, and so they ended up living in this castle. That also got the official approval of the Werewolf King Ion, and both Luna and Emma declared outright that they want to have many children so that they would not betray their mother’s, Clara’s, expectations of them.

(They are going to be tough to beat…..)

Siluca saw the twin Werewolves as a new threat now.

「Come on, let’s go cleanse some of the forest. 」

Theo said eagerly.

(I think it should be okay..)

Siluca began to think so.

「Okay, let’s go! Let’s head north today. 」

Theo looked around at everyone and started walking briskly.

Siluca now believed that with him, there will surely come a day when the hero turned Demon Lord who sleeps deep beneath this castle will be able to one day be released and come back as an ordinary person once again.