A magic workshop sprawled beneath the Imperial Capital.
I moved through the facility, cutting down any mages who dared approach and shattering barriers as I went.
In one hand, I carried a stack of papers—documents I had scavenged from the workshop.
According to these records, the Empire was in the process of developing several weapons other than their heavy artillery. It appeared that the batteries on the wall were the only ones currently completed. Had I left them to their own devices for another few dozen days, several more types of armaments would likely have been deployed.
Since the workshop was vast, I had only managed to explore a fraction of it. I intended to search the remaining rooms and seize every document that looked relevant.
As an aside, the records also allowed me to identify the existence of a partner nation. This country provided the Empire with materials, prototypes, and engineers. Based on the timeline, their relationship predated my ascension as the Demon King.
However, their research efforts had clearly intensified recently. It was obvious they were operating with the explicit goal of countering the Demon King.
For the time being, I decided to postpone any retaliation against this partner nation. I would need them to provide clandestine support to the Empire, which had been left crippled by this battle. From their perspective, it would be inconvenient for the Empire to collapse now. If left alone, they would undoubtedly lend their aid.
(That is fine. Humanity must learn to join hands, after all.)
As I continued my search, I discovered a wide-open area—a room whose interior was reinforced with a specialized metal. It was exceptionally durable and treated with a process to prevent the leakage of magic power. It was quite a secure facility.
Several prototypes in various stages of production sat inside the room. I picked one up from a nearby desk. In appearance, it looked like a miniature cannon, with a grip attached to one end. It bore a striking resemblance to a crossbow missing its limbs.
(I recall seeing this in the files.)
I flipped through the documents I had collected along the way and quickly found the relevant section. This was apparently a weapon called a "gun." It was designed to fire specialized projectiles using an embedded explosion formula. The notes mentioned various performance issues that were currently being adjusted.
I tried taking a stance with the weapon, mimicking the instructions found in the manual. The center of gravity felt off, making it difficult to aim. Although I wasn't an expert in military hardware, it certainly gave the impression of being a work in progress.
I would bring these prototypes, including the gun, back to the Royal Capital later. It would be a simple task using the forbidden magic of space manipulation. Since I was capable of transporting the entire Forest of the World Tree, teleporting objects of this scale wouldn't take any time at all.
I considered building a research facility similar to this workshop back in the Royal Capital. It should be feasible if I gathered the more intellectual individuals from among my subordinates. Since I was going through the trouble of seizing these assets, I wanted to see if I could advance their weapon development myself. I made a mental note to consult Grom and Luciana about the matter later.
Next to the prototype storage was a room filled with shelves. They were packed to the bursting point with an immense volume of documents, barely categorized by type.
(What have we here?)
I picked up a random document and began to read. It contained an overview of the artillery batteries installed on the outer walls. The weapon was officially named the "Magic Cannon," designed to strike from beyond the range of conventional mages and archers. It was intended to be the cornerstone of their defensive interceptions.
Development had begun five years ago, progressing in secret with the cooperation of the partner nation. Following the emergence of the current Demon King, they had also begun attempting to imbue the weapons with the holy attribute. They had pivoted from a mere interception tool to a weapon specialized for the extermination of the undead.
The history was largely what I had expected.
I continued to rummage through the nearby records until I found a thick manuscript that appeared to be the personal journal of the Magic Cannon's designer. Since I was already there, I decided to read it on the spot.
Despite the high performance of the Magic Cannon, the manufacturing process had initially been fraught with difficulty. Years passed without results, and the designer had faced significant pressure from the government's upper echelons. He had filled pages with endless complaints and sarcasm regarding his predicament.
I had no interest in his personal suffering, so I skimmed ahead. My eyes stopped at the latter half of the document, right around the point where the topic shifted to the current Demon King. I slowed my pace and focused on the text.
One day, the designer had received a new mandate: incorporate the holy attribute into the Magic Cannon’s shells. It was a modification specifically intended to kill the Demon King. At a time when he hadn't even perfected the base design of the cannons, the designer had racked his brains for three days and three nights. It wasn't an easy modification to make, but he had neither the courage nor the authority to refuse. He was on the verge of being punished if he didn't produce results immediately.
Driven to his absolute limit, the designer had suddenly received a "revelation."
He had discarded his half-finished blueprints and completely overhauled the structure of the Magic Cannon based on pure inspiration. Within no time at all, he had produced a new prototype. Development proceeded so smoothly that his previous failures felt like a lie, and they reached mass production of the finished product almost instantly.
The designer’s excitement was palpable in his writing. From that point on, the journal was filled with boastful explanations of his magic theory, detailing the intent behind the internal structures and mechanisms. He must have been truly ecstatic over his success. At the end of the document, he had even included a template of the blueprints complete with annotations.
"......"
After reading through it all, I pressed a hand to my forehead. A wave of lightheadedness struck me, and I instinctively leaned against the wall. Had I still been human, I would have let out a long, weary sigh.
(This is utter madness...)
This was, of course, my impression of the designer’s work. Based on this magic theory and design, there was no way the Magic Cannon should have been stable. At worst, the entire workshop should have been leveled by a massive explosion.
And yet, those cannons were fully functional. A series of accidental inspirations had somehow clicked together like a cosmic joke.
I may be the Demon King now, but I was known as a Sage in my previous life. Even with a ten-year gap, I pride myself on the depth of my magical knowledge. I understood exactly what those blueprints were suggesting. By the methods described in that journal, the success rate was abysmally low. Even if a physical cannon were produced, it could never achieve the stable performance exhibited by the batteries on the wall.
From what I could gather from the text, the designer's magical knowledge was shallow. While he was more proficient than a common mage, I was far more well-versed. The blueprints were riddled with flaws and sudden, erratic changes. There were even sections where the designer admitted he didn't understand why a certain part worked. It seemed his colleagues had similar reactions, but their doubts had been drowned out by the joy of their success. Since mass production went off without a hitch, no one had bothered to question it.
(—There has clearly been some form of intervention.)
I reached a conclusion after synthesizing the information. It was the only logical explanation.
That said, this wasn't something that could be achieved through the schemes of a mere individual. If I were to name the culprit, it would be the "flow of the world" itself. A causality intended to destroy the Demon King had intervened. When viewed through that lens, even this unnatural phenomenon made sense.
Support from the world wasn't limited to the awakening of a Hero. It could also manifest as revelations and miracles, just as it had here. It was merely my conjecture, but I doubted I was far from the truth.
Things had become truly dangerous. Beneath the surface, the gears were turning to eliminate me from multiple angles simultaneously.
The world was an unwavering ally to humanity.
Learning this fact alone made this invasion of the Imperial Capital worthwhile. While taking countermeasures would be difficult, I could now formulate my plans with this phenomenon in mind.
It was a moment of stark realization: a Demon King was an existence that the world sought to exclude at any cost.