Chapter 16

Chapter 16
## Chapter 16: For They Are No Longer Among the Living

—

I had every intention of departing regardless.

As soon as Roger returned with the architectural drafts, my next task would be gathering the necessary resources to match the specifications.

At this stage, Berge was the solitary individual capable of exiting the tower without complications.

He simply viewed his companion as an additional piece of cumbersome cargo.

That was the perspective he chose to adopt.

“If the thought of desertion is crossing your mind, feel free to try. Dragging you back like a human kebab wouldn’t exactly be a highlight of my day either.”

“Not a chance! I could theoretically rebuild the device, but the time investment would be astronomical!”

Roger refuted the idea with desperate energy.

He would be being dishonest if he claimed the notion hadn’t flickered through his brain, but currently, it was a logistical impossibility. Especially with the restrictive collar cinched around his throat.

“Regarding the specific utility of this jewelry…”

“It serves a singular purpose.”

“Which would be…?”

“It severs your cranium from your torso. It effectively divides Roger Friedri into two distinct entities: Roger and Friedri.”

“…And what triggers this event?”

“That is entirely dependent on your behavior.”

“I see…”

“Are you eager to find out? You are more than welcome to attempt its removal.”

“As if I’d be so foolish! I am your most devoted subordinate, Great Demon King!”

“You should view it as a mark of distinction. It is likely the first time such a mechanism has been fastened to the neck of someone who doesn’t hold a royal title.”

The necklace was a lethal deterrent designed to stop high-profile captives from fleeing. It was a standard purchase available via magic points.

“…A true distinction.”

Roger forced himself to swallow his frustration and fear.

The pair soon arrived at Hortonwork, the human settlement positioned closest to the Erjest Mountains.

“I assume you have the inventory of required components?”

“Naturally. Sourcing them from the Dwarf Kingdom would provide the best value and craftsmanship. However… that’s off the table. The temporal cost would be too high.”

“It’s of no consequence.”

To evade any potential trackers and keep his true nature hidden, they trekked through several different territories.

A full month was spent waiting for the shipments to arrive. By the end, they had secured nearly everything on the list.

“Only one final piece remains.”

“That specialized apparatus you constructed?”

“I’ve dubbed it the Mana Ghost. It haunts the flow of energy, erasing every magical footprint like a phantom…”

“Your talent for naming things is atrocious.”

“……”

“Let us proceed inside.”

‘At long last.’

As he stepped back into the Dwarf Kingdom after an absence of nearly sixty days, Roger struggled to contain his agitation.

Despite his history here, the sentry at the entrance—whom he had encountered numerous times—didn’t spare him a second glance. A sophisticated prosthetic mask, indistinguishable from genuine flesh, obscured both his features and those of the Demon King.

Roger suppressed a frantic impulse to tear the disguise away.

He had no desire to become “Ro/ger” at this particular moment.

“Unfamiliar faces.”

“Soldiers of fortune.”

“A dwarf and a human traveling together—don’t see that every day. What brings you to our city?”

“Just finished a contract in the vicinity and looking for a place to recover.”

“Since you’ve got a fellow dwarf in your party, I’ll take your word, but given the current state of alert, I have to perform a cursory inspection. Don’t take it personally.”

“Is there some sort of trouble?”

“Just some internal matters. Don’t worry your heads about it.”

Berge and Roger complied without resistance. Any contraband or sensitive items were safely tucked away in a pocket dimension, leaving nothing for the guards to find.

“Keep your noses clean. Tensions are high—troublemakers won’t find any mercy here.”

“We understand the situation.”

“Right then. If you’re reliable enough for a dwarf to partner with you as a mercenary, I reckon you’ll be fine.”

Rumble rumble—

The platform began its vertical descent into the earth.

“What do you suspect is the cause of the tension?”

“…It’s likely a reaction to my disappearance.”

“Because of your status as a hero?”

“I was snatched away right in the middle of crafting a masterpiece for the princess.”

“You mean that scrap metal currently liquifying in the forge?”

“By now, it has probably reverted to a useless hunk of slag.”

“Which royal daughter are we talking about?”

The heirs of the Dwarf Kingdom were notoriously aggressive without exception. They were born brawlers and predators who actively sought out conflict.

“I am truly hoping it isn’t the 2nd Princess.”

“It is indeed the 2nd Princess, my lord. Are you acquainted with her?”

“…This has just become immensely tedious.”

Berge instinctively assessed his internal reserves. The distance from his tower had amplified the dimensional interference, significantly dampening his inherent strength.

He couldn’t be certain of the princess’s current power level, meaning a guaranteed triumph was no longer a certainty.

“Prioritize reaching your studio first.”

“Understood.”

The studio was devoid of its customary warmth.

The rhythmic clanging of hammers was absent.

The scent of laboring smiths had evaporated.

In their place was a different atmosphere entirely.

Heavy-duty iron barricades were guarded by a contingent of soldiers.

“How long has it been since your abduction? Two months?”

“Slightly less than that.”

“They don’t waste time.”

It mirrored the patterns of his previous existence.

“…How do we proceed?”

“We slip inside and reclaim it.”

“That’s a physical impossibility.”

“Reflect twice before you speak, and three times before you let your thoughts out. Do not conflate your limitations with my capabilities.”

“My apologies. I spoke out of turn.”

“Does the studio have any concealed entries?”

“It does.”

The hidden entrance was situated on the periphery, roughly three kilometers distant from the main workshop.

“I suppose you want me following behind you again.”

“…Pardon me for designing the crawlspace to accommodate my own frame.”

“Lead the way.”

“Directly!”

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Six weeks have passed! And you are telling me he is still missing?”

The princess of the Bergft Kingdom slammed her palm against the desk in a fit of pique.

Droplets of blood beaded on the foreheads of the knights where the impact had sent splinters flying.

“How can you be this useless? How much more of this ineptitude am I expected to tolerate!”

“We beg your forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness won’t fix my weapon!”

“The dwarves have riddled this place with secret tunnels. We are checking them systematically, but the culprit has likely fled the region by now.”

“Of course he has! It’s been over a month—anyone who stayed put would be a moron, not a kidnapper!”

She had abandoned the hope of seeing the criminal groveling at her feet after the first week of searching.

“Did I demand you bring the wretch to me this instant? I asked for a trail. To find even a single clue regarding that bottom-feeding scum—is that too much to ask of my guard?”

“Our deepest apologies.”

“Two weeks. That brings the total to exactly two months—I will give you two more weeks. Uncover a footprint of the thief who stole my smith. Discover his destination, his identity—I want even a single strand of hair!”

“It shall be done!”

“And obstruct every hidden crawlspace except for the officially sanctioned city routes.”

“As you command.”

“Leave. I find the sight of you nauseating.”

The knights scrambled to exit the chamber. The princess took deep, ragged breaths, trying to find her center.

But her fury remained white-hot.

“Arrrgh!”

She began a path of destruction, shattering chairs and pulverizing tables. She crushed metal chalices into formless lumps and stomped so hard the floor groaned.

“Tidy this mess.”

Eventually, her pulse slowed. Handmaidens who had been hovering outside hurried in to begin the restoration.

The princess exited her private office and made her way toward the studio where her armorer should have been toiling.

The vast workshop occupied nearly half of the third floor. The furnace, which should have been radiating blistering heat, sat dormant and cold. No ringing steel echoed through the rafters.

Only a single mass of scrap metal glowed with a faint, dying ember, as if it were trying to stay alive out of sheer spite.

‘That was destined to be my blade!’

The forge should be roaring.

Roger’s arms should be a blur of motion.

He should have completed her commission even if he was being dragged away—he should have finished it first.

He shouldn’t have left it abandoned, a pathetic, half-formed piece of junk.

“Roger, you had better be breathing.”

No, death wasn’t an option for him.

“You aren’t allowed to expire until my weapon is in my hand.”

In that precise moment—

“Uh…”

A segment of the wall slid aside with a muffled click. The princess, who had been mentally rehearsing how to skin him alive, locked eyes with the dwarf crawling out of the dark.

“…Is that you?”

“…Your Highness?”

The princess’s eyebrow gave a sharp twitch. She looked toward the cold forge, then back to the dwarf, her gaze sharpening into a lethal glare.

“…You are Roger, aren’t you?”

The face was unfamiliar, but this was Roger’s sanctum.

A place of his own meticulous design, a fortress no stranger could wander into.

Being a dwarf herself, she understood that a smith’s workshop was their soul.

She was certain.

The dwarf who emerged with such familiarity from a private passage could be none other than the proprietor.

The realization clicked into place.

This wasn’t an act of kidnapping—this was a coward deserting his post because he lacked the will to serve her.

“So…”

She completely ignored the human figure standing behind the dwarf.

“You vanished because you wanted to avoid your duties to me?”

She balled her small hand into a tight, trembling fist.

“You really should have voiced your concerns earlier.”

A cold smile spread across her face.

The dwarf took a frantic step backward.

“I would have carved you into strips and dried you for rations on the spot.”

“It’s a misunderstanding!”

“A misunderstanding? No, I think I see the situation perfectly.”

She lunged, her feet leaving the floor.

“I’ll pluck the tongue from the mouth of the coward who dared to mock me and turn you into my permanent thrall! You will hammer steel for me until your heart stops!”

“H-heek…! Mercy!”

Boom—

A violent tremor rippled through the workshop floor.

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?”

Her frigid gaze shifted to the human.

The Demon King, hidden beneath his human mask, felt a dull throb of numbness in his palm from the block.

“Roger, secure the machinery you mentioned.”

“So you abandoned your post and then had the audacity to return? You’ve set my blood boiling and now you act as if you’re a mere spectator?”

“You would be wise to compose yourself. You are royalty, after all.”

“Why don’t you seek your composure in the grave?”

The princess launched another strike. Berge clicked his tongue in genuine surprise at the staggering power contained within such a petite frame.

The corded, functional muscle visible beneath her attire was a testament to her strength.

“Where is the device?”

“Over in that section…”

Berge looked where Roger was pointing.

“…Are you seeking death?”

“That is precisely why I maintained that moving it would be impossible…”

Dominating one side of the studio was a massive mechanical construct.

It stood nearly five meters tall.

It was a masterpiece of magical engineering.

A labyrinth of hundreds of cables snaked away from it, interwoven into the very structure of the workshop.

Berge felt a flicker of annoyance that he hadn’t noticed the scale of it when he first seized the dwarf.

“You can disconnect it, I presume?”

“It’s integrated into the shop’s power grid. I have to shut it down and organize the wiring. It will require time.”

“Who gave you permission to touch anything?!”

Thwack—

The princess’s fist stopped millimeters from Roger’s nose. The sheer pressure of the air pushed his head back, and a thin trail of blood began to leak from his nostril.

“Prepare it for transport. Immediately.”

“Y-yes, right away!”

Berge seized her wrist and redirected her momentum, tossing her aside. She tucked into a roll and sprang back to her feet with feline grace.

“State your name.”

“Let’s just say I am the employer of the miserable dwarf you’re harassing.”

“His master? According to whom?”

The princess’s brow furrowed deeper.

“He belongs to me. He is my servant, bound to create my armaments for as long as he lives.”

“That arrangement is over. Deeply sorry for your loss.”

“No.”

The princess let out a low growl.

“I obtain what I desire. That has been the rule of my life, and it remains so.”

“This is the exception to your rule.”

“Do you realize? No one speaks to me with such insolence.”

“Because of your royal blood?”

“Because they’re all dead.”

She began to circulate her aura. It flooded through her pathways, saturating every fiber of her being—bolstering her muscles, reinforcing her skeleton, and hardening her skin.

She lunged. The floor cracked and shattered under the force of her takeoff. In a heartbeat, she was in Berge’s personal space.

Bam—

Her strike was devoid of deception. It was a blunt, primal display of force.

But it possessed the velocity and mass required to make finesse irrelevant.

Berge retreated. A deluge of strikes and kicks hammered against him like a hurricane; he was forced into a defensive posture.

‘She isn’t at the level she once was.’

The woman he had faced before the turning of the cycles was a titan among warriors. The girl before him now was a shadow of that future self.

However, Berge was also diminished. When he had once razed civilizations and shattered dimensional barriers, he was a dragon compared to this hatchling.

‘I have the means to end her.’

But it would mean burning through his reserves and falling into a stupor.

Then he would be captured or executed by the dwarven reinforcements arriving to investigate the noise.

It was a catastrophic scenario.

‘Finish your work quickly.’

If this escalates further, I may have no choice but to kill you and make my escape.