It Seems the Demon King Has Returned to a World Where Gender Roles Are Reversed - Chapter 79

 Chapter 79 : 

Upon receiving the mysterious note, Eric somehow mustered the courage to come to the designated place.

He absolutely didn’t want to go.

But if he didn’t, by the next day, rumors about him might spread everywhere.

That would be the end.

If that was the case, he had no choice but to go.

At the very least, the other party wanted to talk.

Perhaps it could be resolved through conversation.

With that thought, Eric took a step forward.

Rustle.

“…W-Who’s there?!”

Startled by the presence he sensed in the darkness, Eric brandished the object he had prepared in advance.

In his trembling hand was a dagger.

Swallowing hard, Eric stared at the shadow approaching him.

Moments later, the figure’s identity was revealed under the shimmering moonlight.

And that figure was none other than,

“R-Ragna? Why are you here…!?”

“…”

Ragna nodded lightly in response to Eric’s exclamation.

Eric, wearing an expression of disbelief, prompted Ragna to speak.

“You saw the note, I presume?”

“…!”

Eric’s face filled with shock. Then, as if resolved, he gritted his teeth and,

“Ugh… Uwaaaah!”

With a scream-like cry, he charged at Ragna.

Gripping the dagger tightly in both hands, Eric closed the distance in an instant and swung the blade.

However,

“…Ugh!”

Even as a knight, Eric’s skill level was not particularly impressive.

As such, Ragna easily grabbed his wrist, disarming him of the dagger.

Clang, a dull sound echoed near the ground.

Eric let out a groan from the pain in his captured wrist.

Ragna spoke to him in a cold voice.

“You didn’t think it would be this easy to take me down, did you?”

“H-How…?”

“‘How did I know you’re a girl?’ Is that it? To begin with, it’s strange that anyone wouldn’t notice you’re a girl with such a flimsy disguise.”

“…!”

Eric’s face showed panic at Ragna’s response.

It seemed he genuinely believed his disguise was sufficient to fool others.

But as mentioned, Eric’s disguise wasn’t particularly sophisticated.

Honestly, anyone who spent an hour or two talking and observing him closely could easily figure it out.

The only reason he hadn’t been found out until now was sheer luck.

Moreover, the illness he suffered from.

His frail condition had somewhat masked certain traits.

But even so, a girl is a girl.

The differences become apparent with prolonged observation.

“Ugh… *cough, cough*!”

As Eric struggled to free his arm, he suddenly began coughing and collapsed.

Seeing this, Ragna released his grip on Eric’s wrist.

At that moment,

“…Hmph!”

Eric’s hand reached toward his chest.

Inside, there was a slight bulge, likely a hidden weapon.

But,

[“…I shall bind according to the form of the rippling polyhedron.”]

A rope-like tendril, resembling a demon’s tongue, extended from Ragna’s palm.

The rope swiftly wrapped around Eric’s body, binding him tightly and preventing movement.

“W-What is this?!”

Eric shouted in panic, coughing in surprise.

But Ragna, ignoring him, began searching his body.

“Ugh!”

Eric’s face twisted, his eyes reddening with shame as he felt Ragna’s hands on him.

It seemed he was humiliated.

But in the meantime, Ragna had already retrieved the hidden object from Eric’s chest.

It was another dagger.

“…You were relying on this?”

“W-What are you going to do now?”

Eric asked in a trembling voice.

His demeanor carried an air of resignation.

For some reason, Ragna had used a strange technique to bind him.

The dagger hidden in his chest was his last weapon.

He had nothing left to use.

But to Eric’s question, Ragna shook his head and said,

“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

“…?”

“‘What are you going to do?’ That’s the wrong question. In this situation, you should be asking, ‘What do you want to do?’”

Ragna let out a low chuckle as he spoke.

At the sight of him, Eric’s body trembled involuntarily.

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“Hm, even so.”

“…”

“…Pushing things forward recklessly like this feels a bit off. Yeah… forcing things this way… it’s not really my style.”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Hm, alright. Let’s start from there. Hey, Eric.”

“…?”

“First, let’s introduce ourselves. Nice to meet you. I’m ‘Ragna.’”

“…W-What are you doing? Are you mocking me?”

Eric asked, his voice quivering with tears. Ragna shook his head with a serious expression and said,

“I’m not joking. I’m serious. Let me introduce myself again. Nice to meet you. I’m ‘Ragna.’”

“…Nice to meet you. I’m Eric Tranmier—”

“No, that’s not it, is it?”

“…?”

“I told you to introduce [yourself]. Not the name you use at school, but your [real] name.”

“…!”

Only then did Eric realize what Ragna was getting at.

What Ragna wanted was the reason why he was disguising himself as a boy.

“…”

Biting his lip, Eric racked his brain.

How could he escape this situation? How could he silence Ragna? He desperately tried to think of a way.

But there was no solution.

In the end, Eric gave up and spoke his name.

“…Erika. Tranmier.”

“…Erika, huh? Just one letter off. So, why did Lady Erika of the Tranmier family enroll in this academy?”

“Ugh… That’s…”

“No need to answer? No need to ask, even. A girl pretending to be a boy to enter the academy. And trying to get close to guys. Hmm, there’s only one conclusion.”

“…”

“A honey trap, right?”

At those words, Erika bit her lip and grimaced.

A honey trap.

In other words, seducing someone with her body.

Making it a fait accompli to claim them as her own.

It was similar to the boys who confronted Ragna that morning.

But Erika’s case was slightly different.

“…But isn’t a honey trap usually something men do to women? Hmm… a woman setting a honey trap for a man… this is confusing. Care to explain?”

“…If I tell you, will you let me go?”

“Depends on the situation.”

“…”

At Ragna’s response, Erika bit her lip again.

But in this situation, she had no other options.

In the end, she had to tell her story.

“…It was to save my family. A family on the verge of collapse.”

“…I see. To save a fallen family, the seed of a male knight is the quickest solution, huh?”

“…”

“But if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to arrange a marriage? Why resort to this method?”

“…Not everyone can arrange a marriage. And there are nobles so poor they can’t even afford the dowry for one.”

As she spoke, Erika began coughing again.

Ragna, hearing her words, recalled what he had learned about the current noble system during his investigations.

Five hundred years ago.

Back then, nobles were mostly those who held “land”—esteemed beings.

But after five hundred years had passed.

In this era, the term “noble” had undergone a significant change.

Broadly, nobles in this era were divided into two types.

One was nobles who owned land.

In other words, they were like the nobles of old.

The other was nobles who didn’t own land and received a salary, called a stipend, from the kingdom.

Erika belonged to the latter.

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An example of nobles with land would be the Granstig family, to which Hazel belongs.

The Granstig family, or the Granstig Count family.

Befitting their title, they were granted the right to govern a sizable territory near the kingdom, known as a count’s domain, and acted as its rulers.

Other nobles also held lands of varying sizes baronies, counties, and marquisates.

However, only a small portion of noble families held land. Most nobles did not.

This was because the land available to humans had significantly decreased due to the invasion of magical beasts.

If land were distributed recklessly, the kingdom’s territory would quickly be depleted.

Thus, instead of granting land, the royal family gave nobles the freedom to choose their base of operations, the right to conduct business, and regular financial support in the form of stipends.

The majority of noble families now lived this way.

The Steiner family is a prime example.

The Steiner family was a noble family affiliated with the kingdom.

But without land, they held no rank.

Even so, they swore loyalty to the kingdom and were ready to carry out the royal family’s requests.

In return, they received a stipend.

However, for a prominent family like the Steiner family, operational costs were astronomical.

Relying solely on the stipend was insufficient.

But the Steiner family had no financial issues.

This was because they ran a dojo teaching martial arts, earning money from disciples, and operated several other businesses.

These funds sustained the Steiner family.

The same applied to Anita’s branch of the Granstig family or Liliana’s Rondgren family.

Anita’s family, though recently separated from the main Granstig line, still bore the name but was a branch family.

As such, they had no land and had to engage in business to survive.

As a result, Anita’s family ran a textile shop to maintain their household.

Over time, Anita’s family would likely change their name, as other branch families had, and walk a path entirely separate from the Granstig family.

Liliana’s Rondgren family, meanwhile, sustained itself by selling medicinal herbs grown on ancestral land.

But in either case, maintaining the family through business was the common thread.

This was true for nearly all noble families.

However,

While there were successful families like the Steiner family, there were also those that had fallen into ruin.

And Erika’s family, the Tranmier family, was one such case.

“…To begin with, we were a poor family, but it wasn’t *that* bad before I was born.”

“…”

“But problems started when I was born. A child born with health issues… It would’ve been better if they’d just left me alone…”

Despite this, Erika’s mother couldn’t abandon her.

It was understandable. Erika was a late-born child, with a significant age gap from her older sister the only two children.

There was bound to be attachment.

In the end, to save Erika, her mother resorted to every possible method.

Priests’ blessings, holy magic, and healing magic.

Through every means, Erika’s life was barely saved.

But in the process, the Tranmier family’s wealth was almost entirely depleted.

“…Even the stipend under the family’s name was seized. In that situation, the only thing we could rely on was the money sent under the name of my older sister, a knight serving far away in the frontier, whose face I don’t even know. But even she died fighting magical beasts. It was a truly hopeless situation…”

But was it a miracle? Around the time her sister’s death was reported, Erika’s body began to function again.

And she realized that magical power had awakened within her.

“But even so, the power in my body is minimal. I can barely move a golem for ten minutes or so. And it’s not even complete, with my body constantly plagued by illness. With a body like this, I can’t do anything.”

She hadn’t even undergone her coming-of-age ceremony due to her poor health.

But Erika saw it as an opportunity.

She had no value as a woman.

Living a proper life as a woman was impossible.

But if that was the case, she had to leave something behind for her family before her body gave out.

“…So, you disguised yourself as a boy to enroll?”

“…Yes. Since I hadn’t had my coming-of-age ceremony, I wasn’t known as a ‘woman’ to the outside world. My parents barely spoke of me to others. Maybe the healers or priests know, but to them, I’m probably a forgotten existence by now.”

“What about tests or inspections… no, there wouldn’t have been any.”

Ragna recalled that after being identified as a male knight, there had been no further scrutiny.

Even when enrolling in the academy, he hadn’t undergone any significant checks.

“…Do your parents know about this?”

“They do. I told them. My mother cried, but she accepted my decision. With my sister gone, there was no other way to continue the family.”

Perhaps recalling that moment, Erika’s expression was tinged with sorrow.

“…But why me? There were plenty of other guys.”

“…I told you before. The kids here all failed at arranged marriages for one reason or another. They don’t even talk to each other. No matter how much I tried to approach them, they never responded.”

“And then I approached you. Unlike the others.”

“…Exactly.”

Erika coughed hoarsely.

Looking at her, Ragna began to understand why she had suddenly acted distant when she saw Seria and the others.

She probably thought she couldn’t compete with them.

It made sense. They were so friendly.

In reality, those girls were the odd ones, but Erika thought differently.

She must have believed that people who could talk so freely were already too close for her to approach.

That’s why she tried to distance herself before her secret was exposed.

And the next day, when she learned that Ragna and Seria weren’t particularly close, she was visibly relieved.

“…”

Listening to Erika’s story, Ragna closed his eyes for a moment.

And he thought.

Erika’s story was truly a tear-jerking tragedy.

A tragic birth.

Her parents’ sacrifices to save her.

By the time she could move, her family was on the brink of collapse. And then, the news of her sister’s death, the only one who could carry on the family.

Amid all this, she had desperately tried to save her family, sacrificing herself to get this far.

She was like the protagonist of a melodrama.

And that’s precisely why—

—her pitiful state made her perfect to enslave.

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Translated by Reversalnovel.web.id