Chapter 180
Evade the Hero and Flee! 180 #20. This World Doesn’t Want to Leave Me Alone (9)>
#6 Their circ.u.mstance: Belegrea’s circ.u.mstances
Is this really right? Am I really doing the right thing?
“There, there. Sign right here.”
The human hand sneakily sliding forward held a piece of paper containing an incredible amount of magical power.
“Isn’t this…?”
“That’s right, it’s a Gea.s.s scroll. I only have two of these things left, but lucky for you, I’m prepared to use one!”
How strange. Gea.s.s scrolls were produced in tiny numbers by the temple of the Creator G.o.d and nowhere else. Even the demon king’s treasury held only five such scrolls, yet a regular human being possessed two of them?
No, wait. He couldn’t have been a normal human being in the first place since he managed to get here. Even so, him coincidentally possessing a Gea.s.s scroll right this moment didn’t make any sense.
“Could it be that all this had been prepared in advan… Ha-euk.”
Smack.
I was left with no choice but to tremble when a small hand lightly smacked the ground.
“Too much talking~, sis.”
Those words were spoken by a little girl with long silver hair. And this girl’s small fist smacking the ground made me tremble in pure terror. Me, who had been trained for a long time by my father the former demon king!
“Y-yes…”
The human man pushed a pen forward in my direction, and my constantly-trembling hand somehow managed to grab it.
No, this was wrong. Without a shred of doubt, this contract had to be a deal with the devil. No, more like an evil G.o.d!
This contract must be filled to the brim with every vile, disgusting and unreasonable demand I can imagine.
“W-where should I sign?”
However, I had no choice but to sign such a contract with a forced smile on my face.
I’m sorry, Old Man Mekel. I think I’m beyond saving now.
“Hey, that won’t do. It’s supposed to be a contract, so you should have a look-see at least once. It’ll get annoying if you start some other nonsense later on, you know.”
“Y-you think so?”
Hahaha…
With a cramped smile on my face, I began reading the contract laid out before my eyes. This was a Gea.s.s scroll, to begin with – once signed, no one could go against it, so was he forcing me to read it just to make me even more miserable?
“…Eh?”
But when I started reading the contract, I immediately discovered something strange about it. This contract, it… was surprisingly a legit-sounding one.
I had been expecting it to say that I’d become this man’s puppet in his quest to eliminate Aggreahrt, and then he’d rule over the demon world, but…
But this contract featured exacting and detailed conditions regarding how he’d like to live like a regular farmer in a small corner of the demon world, how I must help him achieve that end, and how I shouldn’t try to get revenge or treat him unfairly just because he happened to be a human being.
In other words, this human wanted me to help him and his group settle down and live a normal life in the demon world in return for making me the next demon king.
Sure, there seemed to be all sorts of annoying-sounding additional clauses but, all of them were for the eventuality of someone discovering their real ident.i.ties as humans.
If it’s like this…
“What do you think? It’s not bad, right?”
“Y-yes.”
Unlike how they suddenly started beating me up for no reason, the contract details written down on this Gea.s.s scroll were not bad at all. No, wait. I’d say these conditions were actually advantageous for me.
“However, the most important aspect of these conditions is that you shall make me the next demon king. Is that even really doable?”
Indeed, the crux of the contract on this Gea.s.s scroll was with me becoming the demon king. But to do that, we had to somehow deal with the problem of defeating Aggreahrt and bringing the moderate faction under one banner.
“Of course it is,” the human man replied confidently.
“You have a way to defeat Aggreahrt? You do?”
Ah, wait. It might be possible.
If this silver-haired girl next to him somehow managed to get close to Aggreahrt and somehow landed just one hit on him…!
No matter how strong Aggreahrt was, he’d be rendered completely useless afterwards.
Yes, she was that kind of a lifeform (?), wasn’t she?
Perhaps they had noticed my rising antic.i.p.ation, triumphant expressions began filling up their faces while looking straight into my eyes.
“Of course we can’t defeat him.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
I was sure that a flabbergasted expression showed up on my face just then.
Just what was wrong with this human? How could he say something so idiotic with a triumphant look on his smug face?
“But, didn’t you just say you will make me the next demon king?!”
“That I did. But I never said anything about fighting and defeating someone. Love and Peace, baby. Let’s love peace, shall we?” [1]
The man said some incomprehensible things to me and brushed aside my concerns with that smug grin.
“You, you really are…”
Anger rushed up to my head, and I nearly blurted out some harsh words, but my lips clamped shut automatically after spotting silver hair strands dancing dramatically in the winds.
That’s because… Anyone could tell that the moment I raise my voice would be the moment the silver-haired girl’s fist lands on my face.
“You told me there are certain conditions to becoming the next demon king, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Winning the election and getting the temple to acknowledge you. However, it’s impossible to succeed in either of those.”
The sole remaining descendent of the Succubi was nowhere to be found. Not even a single piece of information to go on. Not only that, the gamble called demon G.o.d’s blessing had such terrible odds that anyone not deemed ‘chosen’ would die instantly.
No matter how dire my situation was, I didn’t wish to choose the demon G.o.d’s blessing as my last resort.
“Can you see that carriage over there?”
“…Yes.”
These humans were riding on that carriage.
The human man pointed at the carriage, where two humans with dazed expressions were looking back at us, and said something strange to me. “My daughter is riding in it.”
“…Yes?”
“And my daughter is the descendent of the Succubus race.”
“…Yes???”
I ended up thinking that I must’ve misheard him because of how laid-back he sounded while revealing that shocking truth.
Who was riding on what carriage now?
“Are you really telling me that the sole remaining descendent of the Succubus race is inside that carriage??”
“Since my daughter is inside, yeah, you’re spot on.”
“Are you… telling me the truth?”
My voice grew louder without me realising it.
Just how badly did I search for her all this time!
So many of our agents had to be sacrificed for a chance to cross Ruibella’s walls, and after a few barely managed to pa.s.s through there and did their best to gather information, they still couldn’t find a single trace of a Succubus anywhere.
But to think, she was actually inside the demon continent all along!
“Oh, and it’s not just the descendent of the Succubus race inside that carriage. There’s a dragon, too.”
“You, you…!”
However, his follow-up words woke me up and made me realise that he was lying to me. In fact, this man was making a fool out of me right now.
Yes, he was deriving some kind of a perverted enjoyment from the sight of my hopes being lit again. For that reason alone, he lied about the descendent of the Succubus riding in that carriage!
“Just kill me already. Rather than becoming your plaything, I will simply kill myself!”
I chose to bite my tongue and die. I stuck my tongue out to show him how serious I was… only for him to cut me off before that.
“Hey, even if you bite your tongue, we can still heal you. And that healing will come from…”
“Aru’s hand is a healing hand, see~?”
Whoosh, whoosh-
I quietly pulled my tongue back inside after watching the silver-haired girl make whooshing noises while shadowboxing.
‘He’s not lying.’
‘If you want to live, you better believe him.’
I didn’t bite my tongue because of her but the pair of a man and a woman far behind the smug-faced older man shaking their heads at me, their eyes of pity clearly visible. I might have imagined it, but I thought I could hear their voices, too.
The older man asked me a question. “Besides all that, princess, why did you even try to bite your tongue out of the blue?”.
“Are you serious…?”
I truly disliked being led around the nose by this man, but it wasn’t like I had a say in the matter. I couldn’t see a way to escape, and this silver-haired girl was far too close to my side, after all.
The justice was far away, while the fist was near – now I fully understood what that old saying meant.
“Huh. I only spoke the truth, you know?”
The older human man said that, then got up from the spot. He headed to the carriage, and along with a young pink-haired girl in tow…
“Dad, who is she?”
“A big sister that will accompany us from now on. Now, child. Greet her. And Kkokko, it’s fine to greet this human… no, I mean the demon lady, too.”
“Hi, big sis! I’m Alice!”
“Hi~. I’m Kkokko!”
The pink-haired girl and a drake… was what I wanted to tell myself, but that lizard-like lifeform with wings speaking like a human could only be…
“S-seriously?!”
H-hold up! Just what kind of a dragon rides around in a b.l.o.o.d.y carriage!
Besides all that, what is the real ident.i.ty of this old human?! Could he be a dragon in disguise? A dragon travelling the world for fun or something?
“Are… are you a great, n.o.ble existence, sir?”
Existences calling themselves great and n.o.ble while even giving the G.o.ds the cold shoulder treatment… I began trembling from the fact that one such existence was standing right before my eyes.
“A great and n.o.ble existence? My foot’s great and n.o.ble. I’m just a normal human.” However, the man rubbished what I said with an annoyed voice. “Ah, wait. We do have someone that did kill the so-called great and n.o.ble existence all by himself right over there. Mister hero himself.”
I followed the man’s pointing finger and turned my head to spot a blonde man by the carriage. He and another woman had been watching me with eyes of pity for quite some time now.
“…He’s a hero?”
“Yes. A hero affiliated with the Order of Nature.”
This situation was getting further and further away from the realm of my understanding.
What… is this? The sole descendent of the Succubus race that I’ve been desperately searching for, a hatchling dragon and a hero from the Order of Nature… What were the odds of such a group travelling together like this?
Not stopping there, what were the odds of such a weird group running into me, the former demon king’s daughter, out in the middle of nowhere???
Was such a thing even possible?
N-no, wait. Before all that…
“Just who, or what are you…?”
This man, this existence, that the sole remaining descendent of the Succubus race referred to as her dad…
The pain that couldn’t have belonged to this world. The pain that defied all attempts to describe – and the vile, sinister silver-haired girl capable of dishing out such pain…
This man was accompanied by such a demonic creature!
And on top of that, the hero from the Order of Nature was travelling with him, too?
Finally, that man even used a Gea.s.s scroll to make a contract with the daughter of the former demon king, telling her that he’d make her the next demon king. All I needed to do was a.s.sist him with starting a farm in some remote corner of the demon world.
…Was this man before my eyes really human?
Maybe, Mekel made an error with his magic formula, which caused me to black out during the transfer magic and now, I was simply having a nightmare.
No, that couldn’t be right. That pain from earlier was so horrific that it simply had to be a reality, not a dream. That pain touched me in my soul, after all! My dreams weren’t vivid enough to let me experience something that terrible.
“You wanna know who I am?”
“Yes.”
I was dying of curiosity from this man’s true ident.i.ty. A man who defied all attempts to figure out who he was!
Just what kind of an individual was he that all these incredible beings were accompanying him like this?
Could he be a dragon, after all? If not, a transcendental existence referred to as one True Hero that surpa.s.sed the other heroes, who quietly retired in his old age? [Important T/N at the end of the chapter]
If that’s also not it, then maybe a trainee holy man wandering around the world to become the apostle of some G.o.d?
So many thoughts flitted in and out of my head non-stop for a while there. I was confident of not getting shocked no matter what this man introduced himself as next.
And so, as I stared at the man with just a tiny bit of antic.i.p.ation building up inside my heart, he triumphantly revealed his true ident.i.ty to the world.
“My name is… Yes, it’ll be Marcus! An exceedingly normal farmer!”
“Say what?!”
A… a farmer?
“Stop making fun of me!”
“My dear daughter, I’m a farmer for sure, right?”
“Ng! Dad is a pro farmer! And I’m an expert farmer!”
“W-what are you two even talking about??”
The supposed descendent of the Succubus race smiled brightly and agreed enthusiastically with the older man. What kind of farming were they partaking in that they need to have a dragon and a hero accompany them like this?!
N-no, before that!
“R-right! What do you mean, you’re Marcus?! Even a moron can tell that’s not your real name!”
“A person can change their name, you know.”
“Ng! Even Kkokko was called Bbi-yak and Chicken in the past, big sis!” [2]
“Really, mama?”
“Ng!”
Just why was this father and daughter duo looking at me like I was the weird one here? Could it be that I really was the weird one? Or was this down to the cultural differences between humans and demons?
‘Nope, definitely not.’
‘They are the abnormal ones.’
‘…Ah.’
My gaze started to swim around the surroundings after the stares of the weird father and his daughter a.s.saulted me. I eventually stopped at the spot where the young man and woman had been looking at me with eyes of pity for some time now.
For some reason, I felt like I could clearly understand what they wanted to tell me simply by looking at their expressions and the light flickering in their eyes.
‘Please, please tell me that I’m not the weird one here, please?’
‘Yes. That man is the weird one, not you.’
‘To be more specific, it’s not you, but everything connected to that man is weird.’
Two of them nodded at me in silence.
The hero acknowledged by none other than the Order of Nature directly confirmed that this old man was not right in the head. So… what I’ve been sensing all along must be true.
…That I’m the normal one, and this man is insane!
But the problem was…
“Alrighty, then. The explanations are over and done with, so it’s time to seal this deal.”
…That I was being forced into a contract with such a man!
“G-good sir, can’t we, like, pretend this never happened?”
My instinct was telling me that I need to become the next demon king to save the demon race, but it also told me that I must never, ever accept this human’s help. The moment I do, something huge would happen, that’s what it said!
“Alright, start signing.”
“Don’t worry~ Be happy~ and sign already~.”
But I was still too scared of the silver-haired girl who suddenly placed her small hand on my shoulder.
Just when would that small fist start pounding on me again, I wonder?
I’m sorry, Old Man Mekel. I thought about this one more time, and I still think it’s too late for me now.
“W-where should I sign?”
My trembling hands rose up. The older man and the silver-haired girl began smirking like villains while watching me.
I knew deep in my heart that I was making a terrible decision. But I didn’t have enough power and could only seal this contract just as they told me to.
And so, this was how I met the one referred to as the revolutionary of the demon world – Marcus the scamming human.
[1]: “Love and Peace” bit was written in English in the raw.
[2]: “Bbi-yak” is a romanised onomatopoeia for the sound chickens make, while “Chicken” bit was written in English.
[Translator’s note: Until now, all instances of the Korean term ‘용사’ have been translated as “hero” so that the translation can stay more or less consistent with the previous translator’s efforts. However, that term originally should have been “warrior”.
In this chapter, the author revealed that the concept of ‘영웅’ (hero) does exist in this world. Which creates a conflict with how it’s been translated so far. The solution I came up with is to keep using ‘hero’ for ‘용사’, which will apply to all the ‘heroes’ from different religious orders, and when the ‘영웅’ (hero) shows up for real in the future chapters, it’ll be ‘Hero’, capitalised, as a means to differentiate. Thank you for your understanding.]