Chapter Thirty-One: None Shall Sleep Tonight

"So, this is Prince Ota's study? Hmph, there are far more anti-magic detection devices here than last time... and divine power sensors as well. As expected of Prince Ota, truly airtight... I must finish this quickly."

With no intention of lingering, Swier immediately channeled his power as a Book Demon to sense the magical signatures embedded within every book in the room. Before long, he fixed his gaze upon a specific drawer in the desk.

"As expected, it matches the intelligence provided by Hero Mino—it is the unique magical signature of the Paper Demon race... the manga must be inside."

After a cautious verification, Swier confirmed his conclusion. There were very few books in the study containing magic; after a process of elimination, both the magical characteristics and the location of the drawer aligned perfectly.

"I have a strange feeling about the residual magic on these manga... a pity it’s locked and I cannot see them. No matter, that does not affect my objective."

Swier drifted slowly in the air for a moment, then snapped his fingers. Immediately, black smoke, as if from spontaneous combustion, began to pour from the crevices of the drawer, growing thicker by the second.

***

Ota was immersed in a sweet dream.

Beautiful girl figurines and adorable manga characters had broken through the barriers of dimensions in his sleep. Their light, fluttering skirts danced before him, and brilliant rays of light fell upon the maidens... Ota closed his eyes in bliss. "I must be in heaven."

The maidens’ bodies began to drift toward the sky. Suddenly, Ota felt something was wrong. Why did it seem as if... they were actually going to heaven?

"You all..."

*Thump, thump, thump—!*

A frantic knocking at the door startled Ota awake.

"Who is it?"

Because the dream he had just awakened from was so bizarre, Ota felt no annoyance at being disturbed. He quickly regained his royal composure and asked toward the door.

"It is I, Your Highness, Erwin!"

The commander of the Knights stood outside, his voice laced with panic. "An emergency has occurred!"

"Erwin... always so easily flustered."

Ota shook his head helplessly, not holding the interruption against him. "No matter what has happened, the most important thing is not to rush, do you understand? Even if the sky were falling, one could speak of it calmly."

"Yes, Your Highness." Erwin took a deep breath and regained his composure.

Only then did Ota smile with satisfaction. Through the door, he asked:

"So, what has happened?"

Erwin spoke with measured calm: "Just moments ago, a certain magical fluctuation was detected in your study. After we sent men to investigate, we discovered... that the drawer in the lower right corner of your desk appears to have suffered a spontaneous combustion."

Listening to Ota’s earlier advice, Erwin calmed his mind, feeling more and more that he had been overreacting. It was just a small item in a drawer; to the Prince, it surely meant nothing...

***

*Bang—!*

"What the hell did you say?!!!!"

With bloodshot eyes and not even waiting to put on his outer robe, the Prince burst through the door.

"Are you sure... it was the bottom right drawer?" Ota swayed, feeling as though... the sky had indeed fallen!

Erwin hesitated, then nodded.

The next instant, the Prince looked like a walking corpse, his gaze vacant as he staggered toward the study. Upon reaching the doorway, the sharp scent of charred paper hit his nose.

Ota fell to his knees with a thud, his hands trembling as he pulled out the key and clicked open the drawer.

The light in his eyes vanished instantly. Before him lay no more images of adorable maidens, but a pile of black paper ash.

It had turned to ash... all of it...

Ota stood petrified, his mind flashing through countless desperate hypotheses, desperately trying to find a rational explanation. The next moment, he wept like a child:

"God damn it——————!!!"

"My wings! My spiritual pillar!!!"

"This is a crime! This is the most heinous act of terrorism in the history of the kingdom!!!"

"Your Highness!" Erwin rushed forward, shocked to see Prince Ota, usually so composed, in such a state. "What exactly was destroyed?"

The surrounding soldiers grew noisy, their minds filled with wild guesses.

"Could it be... the last testament left by the late Queen?"

"Perhaps it was the kingdom's most important secret—a weapon to destroy the Demon race?"

"No, no, look at how heartbroken he is, as if he’s lost his lover... surely it must be the correspondence between him and Lord Mino?"

"What kind of logic is that? Get out!"

Erwin, at a loss, knelt beside the Prince and finally managed to offer a word of comfort:

"Your Highness, do not despair. If these were merely ordinary paper items, we can summon the priests from the Holy Cathedral to cast Restoration Magic... there is a solution for everything, is there not?"

Erwin knew his words were more comfort than encouragement. How could anything kept in Prince Ota's most precious, locked drawer be ordinary paper?

Ota looked up, dazed. "Restoration Magic..."

That was right! There was still Restoration Magic. Although the manga had residual magic on them, the material itself was ordinary paper; it could be completely restored piece by piece!

***

Ota’s eyes regained their luster. He stood up abruptly, his emotions surging. He was about to blurt out, "Then hurry and..."

Wait. Restoration Magic?!

Ota froze in place.

It was indeed an excellent, high-level magic. As long as enough mana was supplied, it could restore damaged items to their exact state before destruction.

However, the magic had two conditions.

The first was that dozens of priests had to be mobilized to ensure a continuous input of mana.

The second was that it had to be cast in a wide, unobstructed area rich in magical energy.

And the only place in the Royal Capital that met those criteria... was the Central Plaza, the area with the highest foot traffic.

At that time, under the gaze of countless citizens, after dozens of priests had exhausted their divine power, they would restore... page after page of lewd, beautiful girl manga?!

Tears welled up.

His heart throbbed with pain. At this moment, Ota could no longer distinguish between dream and reality.

He had had a chance—a chance to save those innocent manga girls—but it was now the furthest distance in the world.

His vision went black, and Ota collapsed to the floor.

"Your Highness? Your Highness!"

Erwin was horrified, his panicked cries echoing through the palace in the dead of night.

"The Prince has collapsed!!!"

...

"My Lord, is the intelligence you mentioned about Prince Ota loving beautiful girl manga really true...?"

Late at night, when the rest of the demons were fast asleep, Altotai finally could not suppress the doubts he had felt during the day, and asked softly.

"Idiot! Of course it’s fake. Forget about others; how could a righteous monarch like Prince Ota possibly like such girl-reading material?"

"I see... then if the things in the drawer were really destroyed by the demons, I wonder what Ota’s reaction would be."

"Heh heh, do you even need to ask?" Mino narrowed his eyes, as if thinking of something delightful.

"To have something he hated so much, yet was so obsessed with, destroyed overnight."

"The Prince must be sleeping very soundly right now..."