The NTR Hero Knelt Before the Demon King – Chapter 160

After quite a commotion, Elias barely managed to calm down.

Then, with a voice that felt genuinely heartfelt, she tightly held onto Eliza’s hand and said.

“Um… really… is it true? This isn’t something that worries your mother?”

“Yeah, Mama. It’s not like that, so don’t worry. It’s not like I’ve been dumped or anything, and I’m not really that concerned about you remarrying.”

“But…”

“Really, it’s okay. What happened with Nyadan… it’s purely the result of innocent affection.”

To be honest, it was less about pure affection and more like emotions spiraling into something strange. Regardless, at this point, it could be considered a level of affection, so from Eliza’s perspective, it wasn’t a complete lie.

After the atmosphere settled down, Elias looked at her daughter with a calmer voice—more precisely, one that carried a bit of sternness.

“First of all… I’m glad it wasn’t a rash action due to your mother. But Eliza, do you understand what this situation means?”

“…Yeah. I know well.”

“Ha…”

As Elias spoke, a deep shadow began to cast over Eliza’s face.

In response, Elias, wearing a genuinely disappointed expression, looked at her daughter and said.

“In the end… it seems our daughter doesn’t care about her mother’s wishes at all. I talked about it so many times… how long I’ve waited and waited…”

“…”

Elias spoke with genuine sadness, and upon seeing this, Eliza could only lower her head in silence.

Then, words escaped her mouth—words that contained not a shred of blame, only profound regret, which pierced Eliza’s heart dreadfully.

That was…

“I had always hoped… that one day I would get to see our cute grandchildren…”

“…”

“Who would’ve thought the line of our family would be cut off like this… At this rate, after I die, I won’t even have the face to meet your father. He even said before he died… it would be nice for you to remarry, but he asked you to carry on the family line.”

“…Um…”

Elias’s words felt like sharp needles poking at Eliza.

Unable to ignore her mother’s words any longer, Eliza reluctantly replied.

“Ha… Alright, Mama… I’ll do something about that issue!”

“Hmm? ‘Do something’…? What on earth does that mean… Oof!”

Elias raised a common-sense question about her daughter’s vague response.

In response, Eliza covered her mouth, slightly flushed and a bit uncomfortable as she said.

“…Just don’t ask anything and wait. I won’t disappoint you, at least.”

“Uh… okay… if you say so…”

Thus, Elias closed her mouth without expressing any further doubts regarding Eliza’s words.

However, just after that, she faintly recognized that her daughter might be planning something concerning the grandchild issue.

‘Could it be that she’s thinking of adoption? That’s likely… although it’s not exactly an ideal method, to be honest, it seems like that’s the only option…’

Elias thought logically, but at this moment, Eliza was feeling tremendous inner turmoil while having no choice but to make a decision.

‘What can I do… even if it’s really a horrible future, it’s the future I chose… I have to grit my teeth and endure.’

With that thought, Eliza glanced at Nyadan.

In turn, Nyadan looked back at Eliza, appearing puzzled, not knowing what she was thinking.

Seeing her beloved’s expression, Eliza could only let out a deep sigh for now.

*

In the depths of the Demon King’s Castle, in her office, the Chancellor of the Demon Kingdom, Beelzebub, was examining the stacks of documents in front of her with a serious expression.

These documents included records from the war between the Elf Church Country and the Falcon Empire, which erupted right after the Racial War, as well as those from the recently concluded bloody battles against neighboring nations.

However, while at first glance, this might seem like a simple collection of documents, it was far from being straightforward upon considering their true nature.

The sources of the materials she was reviewing came from three places.

One was the Elf Church Country, now a vassal of the Demon Kingdom.

The second was the information sent by the Falcon Empire, which had allied with the Demon Kingdom because of this incident, at Beelzebub’s request.

And the final one came from a source that could not be publicly disclosed, known only to Beelzebub and the Demon King.

In a time when the nations of the continent were coldly at odds with one another, making information exchange nearly impossible, only Beelzebub and her master, the Demon King, could gather such documents in one place.

In this regard, Beelzebub felt the day when her long-cherished wish would be fulfilled was drawing near.

She automatically smiled with joy, sensing that the day when all the nations of the continent would tremble under the name of the Demon Kingdom was not far off.

‘Just two nations left. The Beastman Kingdom in the south and the Magic Kingdom in the north. The Beastman Kingdom, while powerful, is too unbalanced to act alone, so essentially, it’s just the Magic Kingdom remaining.’

The Magic Kingdom, which had occupied a significant portion of territory during this war, was rapidly recovering from the war’s scars due to its solid foundation.

Now that the Falcon Empire had lost its momentum, Beelzebub concluded that the last remaining enemy was the Magic Kingdom and began meticulously reviewing the war materials in hopes of finding something useful to launch an attack against them.

‘However… there doesn’t seem to be much to look forward to. Even though it was a large-scale battle, the combat power of the Magic Kingdom remains largely unknown…’

The known elements like the Magic Battalion and the Magic Kingdom’s strongest four-person defense unit, the Four Demon Maidens, were somewhat measurable.

The problem lay with the enigmatic figure known as the Magic King Overseer Azuthas, the current strongest witch.

According to reports, her power was said to be beyond imagination, yet aside from that, her distinct identity had hardly been revealed until now.

‘An unknown entity, hence one about whom I can have no certainty… I hoped to gather some information in this war, but… nothing truly stands out.’

In this war, the Magic King had not revealed herself and had shown no notable movements.

Even Beelzebub, who was meticulously reviewing documents, found no clues regarding the Magic King.

Feeling regret over that fact, Beelzebub considered wrapping up for today and began to organize the scattered maps and documents.

However…

“…Huh?”

The next moment, something began to catch Beelzebub’s eye.

It might have just been an illusion, but for an instant, a feeling of foreboding washed over her as something passed before her gaze.

‘C-Could it be? Ah… no way, even so… but… just in case…’

Despite feeling intense tension, driven by some instinct, Beelzebub pulled out a map of the continent and began marking the locations of the large-scale battles that occurred on it.

‘Castle Delphi… Makidon… Minos, Arcadia, Peloponnese, Kanna, Florence… and… the city of the Beastman Kingdom, Akiage…!’

Following that fleeting moment of perception, Beelzebub successfully marked the previously unseen record of years of warfare across the continent onto a single map.

Then right after that…

She found a symbol forming naturally before her, a symbol she was well acquainted with—connecting to what it represented and the truth it held.

Suddenly struck by a tremendous shock, it felt as if a hammer had hit her in the head, and a sense of dreadful shivers ran down her spine.

“The Magic Kingdom… how could these bastards do something like this!”

While they had never been regarded as good people in the first place, the truth that even Beelzebub, who had thought she knew them well, made her curse out loud.

In response, she immediately stood up to report and rushed toward where the Demon King was.

However…

“Your Majesty! Something terrible has…?”

“Ugh… ugh…!”

In the next moment, before Beelzebub stood the Demon King, who appeared to be struggling to suppress her urge to vomit.

Unlike her usual unyielding self in the face of pain, there was no mistaking the visible agony she was expressing as Beelzebub’s heart sank with worry.

“Y-Your Majesty, are you alright? Hey, you guys! Go summon the Court Physician right now! This instant!”