## Chapter 116 – Charlotte. Witness
Charlotte knocked on Acer’s door as she always did.
Acer remained silent, so Charlotte sighed briefly and entered the room.
Her room, once filled with charming little dolls, now had wallpaper that looked like it had been scratched by fingernails and scattered shards of broken glass.
Charlotte carefully stepped through the room, approaching Acer.
At the beginning and end of each month, the paperwork that all districts except District 2 were obligated to submit to District 1 was infuriatingly voluminous.
Acer’s condition hadn’t improved much, but she could still manage simple paperwork. If she were in such a dire state that she couldn’t even do that, she would have been forcibly hospitalized, not just confined to the castle.
Of course, Charlotte wasn’t taking her condition lightly. She spoke as cautiously as possible, trying not to agitate her.
“You still can’t go today, can you?”
Acer responded by pulling the blanket over her head, completely covering her face. Seeing Acer practically melded to the bed, never leaving it, Charlotte sighed deeply again.
“Haa, then give them to me. I’ll go in your place. Where are all the documents?”
In principle, the Demon Lord had to go herself, but Charlotte possessed the special rank of Nuili Secundus, granting her the authority to act as the Demon Lord’s proxy.
Acer, completely covered in her blanket, barely extended a slender finger to point at the documents scattered on the desk.
Before collecting the documents, Charlotte opened the window wide without permission to air out the room.
Acer, suddenly exposed to the brightened room, curled up under the blanket and groaned in discomfort.
Charlotte couldn’t leave Acer alone in this pigsty of a room. She cleared away the shards of glass scattered on the floor, returned the various dolls that had taken liberties with their positions to their original places, and only then could she finally gather the documents from the desk.
The documents weren’t properly filled out either. The handwriting was completely scrawled, making it impossible for anyone but Acer herself to understand.
Charlotte sat at the desk, rewrote the poorly written documents, and finally stood up.
With the envelope containing the documents tucked under her arm, she said to Acer,
“I may be acting as the Demon Lord’s proxy, but how long are you going to live like this? 25 is gone now. You need to start a new life, Your Majesty.”
Of course, Charlotte herself wasn’t without her own pain in saying these words. Her heart was filled with the immense affection that 25 had left behind.
There was no response, even when she brought up 25’s name. Charlotte bit her lip and said as she passed Acer,
“I’ll be back. I’ll leave your meal on the desk, so eat a little if you get hungry.”
Stepping out onto the streets of District 7, Charlotte frowned and looked around.
The streets of District 7, reeking of a fishy blood smell, were in even worse condition than when Charlotte had lived as a vagrant in the past.
The buildings that had been somewhat intact were now ablaze, and every window was shattered.
A complete lawless zone, Acer’s loss of power meant that no one had dared to invade the castle while Charlotte’s presence still served as a deterrent.
However, once the suppressed violence was unleashed, it spread like wildfire, like a plague.
Charlotte glanced disdainfully at the guys who were gleefully tormenting the weak and clicked her tongue.
The center of the Demon Realm, District 1, connected to all other districts.
Charlotte was able to reach District 1 without much delay.
Whether she disliked the bright sunlight and cheerful buildings of District 1, so different from her own district, Charlotte opened her mouth with her characteristic sarcastic tone.
“This place never changes.”
Charlotte didn’t even glance elsewhere, heading straight for the Academy, which was practically a symbol of District 1.
Charlotte’s existence was kept secret unless she revealed it herself, so only the Demon Lord or those of at least the 3rd Stratum knew of her existence.
Therefore, some clueless students would deliberately bump into Charlotte’s shoulder as she walked around the Academy in her maid uniform, or subtly display an attitude of disregard.
Each time, Charlotte would stand still and stare intently at the back of their heads as they walked away.
‘Why are these kids so ill-mannered these days?’
She wanted to drag them to a back alley and stomp on them right away, but she suppressed her anger. She wasn’t trashy enough to lay a hand on students who were studying hard.
Charlotte entered the central building of the Academy familiarly, bypassing the top floor where the Demon Lord of District 1 resided, and walked further down the hallway.
She didn’t want to meet that annoying and repulsive guy.
Since most of the professors knew who she was anyway, she chose an easier method.
Charlotte stopped in front of a certain door and kicked it roughly without using her hands.
With a cheerful ‘pop!’ sound, the door to the professor’s office flew open.
Adriana, who had been conducting research inside, contorted her face in a fierce expression, but as soon as she confirmed the identity of the person who had kicked open the door, her eyes widened and she opened her mouth in disbelief.
“Lady Charlotte!?”
Adriana, who had jumped up from her seat, was wringing her hands, unsure of what to do.
The Primordial Vampire, the first Demon Lord’s proxy to receive a new stratum just for her.
For those other than the Demon Lord, those who knew of her existence, Charlotte was also an object of worship.
Adriana’s eyes sparkled as she immediately moved to prepare tea.
“What brings you all the way here?”
Charlotte knew Adriana’s intentions, but she had no intention of engaging in idle conversation.
“Hey, pass this on to your chairman.”
Charlotte tossed the documents onto the desk and turned to leave.
“W-Wait a moment!”
Adriana, clutching the research materials she had been working on until just now, approached Charlotte.
“There’s a part here that I don’t understand, so if it’s alright, could I borrow Lady Charlotte’s wisdom….”
Adriana trailed off, carefully watching Charlotte’s reaction.
Charlotte pressed her temples, clicked her tongue, and snatched the materials from Adriana’s hand.
“Just for a moment.”
“Thank you!”
●
Charlotte was delayed longer than expected due to Adriana’s enthusiastic requests.
Worried that Acer, left alone, might do something strange, Charlotte moved even more quickly than usual.
As she exited the Academy building, a familiar figure caught Charlotte’s eye.
A man bidding farewell to a burly man and walking away.
Long black hair for a man, horns peeking out slightly above.
A slender physique that stirred impure desires to hug him from behind.
A figure so familiar, one she had never erased from her mind.
‘25?’
She shook her head.
‘No, it must be someone who looks alike.’
She couldn’t imagine him leisurely strolling around the Academy in District 1.
He was probably being held captive by the Demon Lord of District 2, living a new life of slavery, wasn’t he?
However, the figure she had just seen lingered in Charlotte’s mind.
‘But what if it’s him? What if it really is him?’
The moment she entertained the question in her mind, Charlotte’s legs were already moving.
When Charlotte rounded the corner where the man presumed to be 25 had disappeared, there was no one there, contrary to her expectations.
Only leftover food waste and bugs crawling on the ground.
Charlotte, finding the situation absurd even to herself, let out a self-deprecating laugh and shrugged her shoulders.
‘Ha, am I even seeing hallucinations now? I can’t just blame the Demon Lord. I’m starting to lose it too….’
She was pretending to be fine on the outside, but her insides were probably rotten and festering.
In this state, she wasn’t in a position to say anything to Acer.
‘Wait a minute….’
As if sensing something, Charlotte wore a serious expression and couldn’t leave the area, continuing to wander around.
She stood there like a stone statue, deep in thought, until a cleaner who had come to clean the alley was about to approach her.
Charlotte roughly pushed the cleaner aside and immediately returned to District 7.
Rushing up to Acer’s room, Charlotte didn’t even knock, unlike usual, and roughly opened the door.
Acer, startled, barely raised her upper body and looked at Charlotte.
Her eyes, covered up to her neck with the blanket, were wide with bewilderment.
Charlotte, who had rushed in, didn’t even catch her breath before approaching Acer and opening her mouth.
“I have something to tell you.”
Charlotte said with a slightly flushed face.
Her expression clearly mixed with joy.
Acer was curious about Charlotte, who always wore a gloomy expression, now showing a bright one, but she wasn’t in the mood for it.
Except for one piece of news, the news Acer desperately longed for, nothing could change her mind.
“I don’t really have anything to….”
Just as Acer was about to cover herself with the blanket, Charlotte smiled faintly and said,
“It’s about 25, are you sure you don’t want to hear it?”
At the same time, the blanket fluttered into the air.
Acer, who had jumped up in an instant, asked back with shining eyes.
“You’re talking about 25…?”
She wore an expression of disbelief, but Charlotte wouldn’t lie to her about something like this.
She was more sensitive to this wound than anyone else, and she carried the same pain.
There was no reason for her to tell such a lie to cheer her up. In other words, her words contained only complete truth.
Charlotte also wanted to deliver the good news to her quickly, so she completely skipped the context and went straight to the point.
“I saw someone who looked like 25 in District 1, but he disappeared. I thought it was a hallucination too, but….”
Charlotte tapped her nose and grinned.
“I can’t forget the taste of blood I’ve tasted once.”
“Y-You saw him? 25!?”
“I didn’t completely confirm it with my own eyes, but isn’t this enough? It’s certain that he’s in District 1.”
It was different from District 2, which Lowe governed. Even if 25 was really in District 1, Lowe had no authority to say anything about them talking or meeting.
In the first place, District 1 was a district where other Demon Lords were prohibited from exercising their power, so even if Lowe found out, there were no particularly dangerous elements.
A glimmer of hope that hadn’t even been properly confirmed.
But a signpost that brightly illuminated the path of those walking in the darkness.
Acer looked straight at Charlotte’s face, parted her lips that had begun to regain vitality for the first time in nearly two years, and said in a strong voice.
“Let’s go.”
Acer, who had been curled up in the sorrow of parting, began to straighten her body for the first time.
Her golden eyes, awaiting the joy of reunion, were shining brighter than ever before.
