Episode 67 – Demon King
by Afuhfuihgs
*
I knew it was a pressing situation with little time, but I couldn’t stop the sighs and irritation welling up from within.
Haha, ssi-bal (fuck)
A demon in the middle of all this?
I guess this is when you say it never rains but it pours.
The stuffiness of being tied up and shoved into an ant-infested hole filled my head.
Naturally, the surging annoyance flowed down my neck and throughout my body, making it hard for me to even come to my senses.
Even though I didn’t need to, I deliberately asked out loud.
Probably because I wanted to let out a refreshing curse.
“Fuck, so what the fuck am I supposed to do?”
[Ed… language…]
[What do you mean, what to do?]
“First of all, I have to get Banata out, right? What if I just leave her there? She’s a demon, so the problem isn’t just saving her, but preventing her from hurting others.”
[…First, look to your right.]
I slung the Holy Sword over my shoulder and turned to the right.
There, attached to the wall, was another machine box connected to the machinery of Banata’s glass case with long copper wires.
The box’s corners were made of a welded steel frame to prevent it from opening, and the entire front was made of glass.
Inside was the Demon King’s horn.
“Just by looking at it, I can tell that’s what they used to supply magical energy.”
[That’s right. First, you need to take my horn out of there.]
“Why bother? Even if you take it out now, you can’t reverse her transformation into a demon.”
[True, I can’t reverse it. But at least I can stop that bitch who’s become a demon from going berserk.]
[Does the horn have that kind of power?]
[It’s the horn of the ‘Demon King,’ after all.]
“Okay.”
Already annoyed, I swung the Holy Sword like a blunt weapon and hit the box.
After all, it’s not a person, just a horn, so there’s no need to be careful, right?
The box flew off as a whole, crashing to the floor with a loud noise and shattering.
[Um… even so, can’t you be a little more careful with my horn? It was quite difficult to manage it so nicely.]
“Oh, is that so?”
[… Haa- Why did I have to be defeated by a guy like you out of all the people in the world?]
[What’s wrong with Ed!]
I trudged over, bent down, and picked up the horn.
That’s when it happened.
The moment my fingertips touched the horn, the world was enveloped in darkness.
[Wait, Ed? Something’s wrong…]
“What is this…”
[…]
[…]
*
Standing alone in the darkness where I couldn’t see an inch ahead, I shouted in surprise at the sudden situation.
“What’s going on?”
I asked urgently, but no answer came back.
Silence fell in my head, and at the same time, a familiar sensation I had felt somewhere before flashed through my mind.
This darkness, this silence.
This feeling of both guests in my head, who always assert their presence even if I can’t see them, disappearing.
Yes, I had definitely felt this sensation before.
It was… when I first held the Holy Sword in the warehouse of Robin’s mansion a while ago.
The only difference was that back then, I was in a completely white space, and now I’m in a completely dark space.
“Sorry if I startled you, Ed.”
“…!”
I turned around at the voice from behind.
A man with black hair, a large, curled mountain goat horn on one side, and red eyes was approaching me.
I remember those red eyes glaring at me, full of anger.
Those are the eyes I saw the day I lost everything.
Well, this guy lost everything to me that day too.
“It’s been 20 years since I’ve seen you in person, Demon King.”
“If you don’t mind, call me ‘Ulgaros-nim’.”
“What? Is that your name?”
“If I had known that humans don’t hesitate to assassinate someone whose name they don’t know, I would be alive and well by now.”
“Demon King is enough.”
“Is ‘human’ or ‘thief’ enough for you? Oh, or is it ‘undead’?”
“Alright, Sibal-los (fuckface).”
“… Haha, my bad.”
The Demon King laughed hollowly at my sharp reply.
I swept my hair back and asked him.
“So, what’s the situation now?”
“Can’t you tell? It’s the same situation as when you grabbed the Holy Sword last time, except this time you’re meeting me.”
“I never thought it would be like this if I picked up that horn.”
“Well, I didn’t make a fuss like that idiot, saying, ‘Grab the horn, Ed!'”
“Geez, why do these guys always start one-on-one interviews without consulting me?”
I frowned and looked at Ulgaros-nim.
His expression, looking at me with his still vividly gleaming red eyes, was gentle yet somehow resigned.
The greatest enemy of mankind, the Demon King, who was always fighting each other to the death as a member of the Hero’s Party, and who was ultimately beheaded by me and died in anger by Robin’s Holy Sword.
It felt strange to be facing him like this.
I was used to having the Demon King’s consciousness in my head, but I had never actually faced him and talked to him.
His eyes showed no resentment towards me or hostility towards humanity, which made it feel even stranger.
I averted my gaze from his and asked.
“It’s not a good time to talk,”
“Don’t worry, time doesn’t flow outside.”
“How convenient.”
“Can’t you have a conversation without being sarcastic?”
“… Just tell me what you want.”
He smiled bitterly at my blunt response and said.
“…Ed. Do you know why humans tried to subjugate monsters and the Demon King?”
“Um? Well, it’s because monsters attack humans and cause damage. My hometown village disappeared due to a monster attack, and my parents died then too.”
“Yes, then why do monsters attack humans?”
“…”
That was a problem that humanity had been pondering for a long time.
However, even at the current point in time, after achieving a complete victory over monsters, humanity did not clearly know the answer.
I shook my head and said.
“I have no idea.”
“It’s because of magical energy.”
“Magical energy?”
“Magical energy is like air to monsters.”
“… So?”
“The problem is that magical energy is like poison to humans. In other words, humans and monsters cannot coexist.”
“I guess so.”
“As humans hunted monsters and purified magical energy to expand their territory, we had to reduce the number of human villages and their population to survive. Conversely, if we hunted humans and spread magical energy, humans would have to fight us to survive.”
I nodded.
The operation of the Hero’s Party was a plan that cost a huge budget.
We selected talented people in each field who could become party members, gathered them together, retrained them, equipped them, sent them on adventures, and even forced the villages they arrived in to support us.
To afford such a budget, taxes had to be collected enormously.
Yet, why do all the people yearn for the Hero’s Party?
It must be because the damage caused by monsters was that great.
Monsters, more ferocious and savage than beasts, would devastate villages, and the damage caused by demons with intelligence similar to humans mixing into human society was also terrible, so everyone supported the Hero’s Party that subjugated the Demon King without complaint.
But was it the same for the monsters?
The reason why monsters attacked humans was because human countries kept expanding their territory.
Well, there was no empty land in the human world now.
All the land on the map was owned by some country.
Even the Vortex Forest where the Demon King’s Castle existed was the territory of the Sioland Kingdom.
“So, it was a relationship of struggling for survival?”
“Yes. And we lost.”
There was a faint sadness in the Demon King’s calmly spoken words.
I said brusquely for no reason.
“…Humans aren’t a race that ends when their king dies, is it different for monsters?”
“No, monsters aren’t a race that perishes when their king dies either. But, Ed. Let me ask you. Have you ever seen a monster even once since you were resurrected?”
I was lost in thought.
Indeed, it had already been about half a year since I was resurrected, and even though I had spent four months in the Vortex Forest, I had no memory of ever seeing a monster.
The Demon King opened his mouth as if he didn’t need to wait for my answer.
“When you were gathering information for revenge, I was also gathering information by observing the surroundings. I was listening to places you couldn’t hear in Flavis’ inn or that sewer-like bar in Os Gravi.”
“…So?”
“And what I learned through the mouths of various humans chattering there is that monsters are almost extinct.”
“…Is that so.”
“Yes, it seems they’ve been subjugating demons with the Hero at the forefront while we were dead, and that crazy elf has been killing monsters indiscriminately in the Vortex Forest.”
“…”
Why is that?
The news that monsters, the enemies of humans, are almost extinct shouldn’t be a big deal to me,
It should be good news,
Is it because of Ulgaros-nim’s voice, which sounds so complicated despite his indifferent expression?
Or is it because I became an undead?
I was feeling a fluctuating emotion at his words declaring the extinction of monsters.
Ulgaros-nim raised his head and continued.
“So, I had virtually given up on resurrection.”
“What?”
“What can I do if I come back to life now that all the monsters and my subordinates have disappeared?”
I had often thought that the Demon King’s behavior had become lighter and more foolish lately.
I just thought it was a change that came about from being with me and the divine power.
A little ticklish, but I had grown fond of him, or something like that.
But it wasn’t.
The Demon King had already confirmed the destruction of his country and race.
He is a defeated king with nothing left to protect.
I now understood the tired resignation on his face.
I couldn’t even fathom the sadness he must have felt, hidden behind my boiling desire for revenge.
It was strange that he didn’t have a desire for revenge like me.
“I’m sorry.”
“But, the story is different now.”
“What?”
“Because I found out that there is a way to turn humans into demons.”
The Demon King’s expression changed in an instant, and the red light in his eyes began to shine brightly again.
Jennifer. That crazy bitch.
Does she even know what she’s done?
I couldn’t say anything and stared at him blankly, feeling goosebumps all over my undead body.
Ulgaros-nim said with a twisted smile.
“My magical knowledge has been accumulated over a long time, but unfortunately, I’m not a genius like that mage bitch, so it will take me quite a long time to understand the method, but it doesn’t matter since I know there is a way.”
“You’re going to turn humans into demons?”
“Why? Are you going to stop me?”
“Of course, I am!”
“You are a monster, Ed.”
“…!”
I was shocked as if I had been hit in the head by his resolute words.
The face of the Goddess came to my mind.
Just like she defined me as a human, Ulgaros-nim defined me as a monster with a very firm attitude.
Well, her criteria for defining humans were mental, and his criteria for defining monsters were physical, so neither of them was wrong.
Ulgaros-nim smiled and came to me, placing his hands on both of my shoulders.
“Of course, you’re a pro son of a bitch and an unlucky guy, but I admit that it’s been quite fun being in your head for the past six months.”
“…Is that so,”
“Ed,”
“…Why”
“Give up being human after you’re done with your revenge.”
“…Being human?”
“Since I’m secretly suggesting this when there’s no noisy divine power, this is serious.”
“…Huh, you want me to serve the Demon King who cut your throat?”
“Of course, just because I’m the Demon King doesn’t mean I’m going to treat you like a subordinate or use you as my underling. We already have a strange friendship between us, don’t we?”
“…Aren’t you just asking me to hand over my body in the end?”
“No, there’s another way. Something has occurred to me.”
Then, Ulgaros-nim came close to my ear and told me his proposal.
I couldn’t help but be shocked when I heard it.
“Are you… out of your mind?”
“Ed, I know that you still have an identity as a human. Of course, you were human for 21 years, and you’ve only been undead for half a year. But I promise.”
“…”
“For a long time that can’t even be compared to your 21 years, you will have a very happy time as a monster and my friend.”
Ulgaros-nim smiled contentedly as he looked at me, who was lost in complex thoughts as much as my shaking pupils, without saying anything.
He took his hands off my shoulders and looked at the empty air.
The empty air, which was only darkness, cracked open, and golden light leaked from the crack.
[Ed! Are you there?! What did that guy say?!]
“Ah, I can’t hold on any longer, I guess I don’t have as much talent as the Goddess.”
“… Ha,”
“Let’s get out of here soon, Ed. We have to save Banata and get out.”
Leaving me with a complicated expression, Ulgaros-nim raised his hand and cleared away the darkness that had filled our surroundings.
As the world brightened, Ulgaros-nim disappeared in the blink of an eye, and at the same time, I returned to the original laboratory.
[Ed! Ed! Are you okay?! Did that guy do something bad to you?!]
[That bastard, that guy, your bad language skills are getting better and better.]
[You bad guy! What did you do to Ed?!]
[Well. Ask Ed.]
[Ed, are you okay? What happened?]
“…”
[Ed?]
“…Nothing happened.”
At that moment, footsteps echoed from afar, and the sound of murmuring began to be heard.
It seemed that the soldiers had finally found the secret passage and entered.
[Ed, we need to hurry.]
[Ugh, it’s suspicious, but that’s right.]
“…Okay, I got it.”
I took the Demon King’s horn, put it in my arms, and hurriedly got up and approached the glass case.
Then, I carefully inserted the Holy Sword into the upper part of the glass case so that it would not touch Banata.
With a thud, the Holy Sword went into the glass that had a crack by a hand span.
I used the embedded Holy Sword as a lever and forcefully opened the lid of the glass case.
The front part of the glass case opened with a creaking sound, but eventually couldn’t withstand it and broke off with a shattering sound.
Banata’s sleeping body was naked, so I carefully took her out of the glass case and held her in my arms so that she wouldn’t get hurt by the broken glass pieces.
Banata’s body was really small, just like I saw at Aureo Academy.
[It’s a dangerous scene, Ed.]
[What are you thinking! This is a rescue!]
“I need to find something to cover her body.”
I looked around and found a bed placed on one side of the laboratory and a curtain to cover the bed.
Both the bed and the curtain were covered with dried blood, but now was not the time to be picky, and there was not enough time to find something else, so I grabbed the curtain and tore it off with all my might.
The roughly pulled curtain touched the surrounding objects.
As a result, various sundries and decorations hanging on the wall fell to the floor with a crash.
However, I didn’t have time to pay attention and laid Banata on the curtain and wrapped her in the cloth.
The murmuring sound from afar was getting closer and closer.
“Ugh! What is this!”
“Oh my god, this is complete hell!”
“Look at these corpses, my god, how many people…”
Hearing the soldiers’ horrified voices, I was preparing to hide in the darkness with Banata on my back.
At that time, something of a familiar shape among the objects that had fallen on the floor caught my eye.
“That’s…”
[Ah, I miss that.]
‘You miss that?’
[That’s what I mean.]
[What is that?]
I picked up the object without saying a word.
No matter how urgent it was, I had to take this with me.
[It’s a dagger?]
“…”
[Ed, there’s not much time.]
‘I know. Just a moment,’
I supported Banata on my back with one hand, and with the other hand, I spun the dagger in my hand with skillful movements.
Familiar weight and feel.
It was my dagger that I received from my master.
The dagger that Jennifer had snatched from my hand.
“… Ha,”
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