Chapter 266
# 310
- Stories of Others (1)
#1 Their Situation: The Situation of a Certain Demon Lord
“Argh……!”
Blood slowly oozed from his chest.
The pain was intense. Since becoming the Demon King, he had never experienced such agony.
“What… was that?”
A deep wound carved into his side by the hero, who had risked everything. An unexpected, brilliant move.
Truly the savior of the world, the natural enemy of the Demon King!
Ironbat, the Hero, proved his t.i.tle by pushing me to the brink, even burning his own life force.
Had I defended instead of attacking, I would have fallen to his sword.
But, my instincts honed through countless missions for the organization of evil, and later as the Demon King overcoming numerous trials, chose attack over defense.
That choice sealed the hero’s fate. Until that monster appeared.
“Ugh…….”
Blood flowed from the wound inflicted by that monster. It was a severe injury.
As soon as the sword pierced my heart, it moved with such fluidity it felt unbelievable to have a blade lodged inside.
Had my reaction been slower, my heart and surrounding organs would have been shredded.
“My recovery is slow.”
Even pouring healing potions and using recovery magic simultaneously couldn’t easily heal such a grievous wound.
Moreover, I couldn’t benefit from recovery magic.
The Demon King is one who exists outside the world.
Immune to powers created by the world’s laws, like magic.
This is a double-edged sword.
While I am immune to enemy attack spells or curses, I am also immune to healing magic and various buff spells.
Thus, this wound had to heal naturally, but the situation was dire.
Bang!
“There he is!”
“d.a.m.n it!”
Before I could hear them, the attacks had already begun.
The Karan Empire. The strongest human nation and the de facto ruler of the continent.
And…
“Why on earth?”
They were specialists in pursuit.
“Die!”
“I won’t die to a nameless knight!”
A man, covered in dirt and dust, charged at me with a swinging sword.
I drew my own sword to block his, slashing at his chest…!
“d.a.m.n it, he’s strong!”
“Crazy…”
That’s what I wanted to say.
No matter how skilled the empire’s knights are, I was once hailed as the strongest hero.
With divine aid, I single-handedly slayed a dragon, and my abilities have remained at their peak even after becoming the Demon King.
Yet, an unknown knight could block my attacks!
The empire was powerful enough to hide such monstrous talents.
“Are you an imperial knight?”
With this level of skill, he could be the head of the King’s knights in a Kingdom without a Swordmaster.
And he didn’t look even thirty, yet had such abilities.
“What nonsense! A rookie like me can’t be a knight!”
Clang!
I was slightly delayed in reacting to the knight’s swing due to his words.
“What does he mean?”
A rookie?
If this was a rookie, then all the knights on the continent would be newborns.
“Just as I said! I’m an apprentice knight of the empire!”
“What on earth are you talking about!”
It was an incomprehensible statement.
Having traveled through many Kingdoms as a hero, I a.s.sessed that he was definitely at the level of a small Kingdom’s knight commander.
Even the empire wouldn’t call someone of such skill an apprentice.
“Is it a code?”
Then he must be someone from a very special organization within the empire, with the code name ‘apprentice’.
“What are you babbling about since earlier!”
“Ugh……!”
A strike from the unknown knight, called apprentice, made blood spurt from my heart. The wound had reopened.
“I can’t waste more time on someone like you!”
No matter how hidden they are, I am the Demon King.
The bringer of terror to the world.
The destroyer of worlds.
Until I fall to the hero’s sword, I will never fall!
“Haaah!”
Despite his great skills, pure swordsmanship was beneath me.
The apprentice couldn’t block my strike, learned at the risk of my life under that Professor, and was sent flying.
“Burn.”
“A spirit?”
An upper-cla.s.s fire spirit suddenly appeared and punched me.
“Tch!”
Clicking my tongue, I couldn’t finish him off and started fleeing again.
Perfectly killing him would prevent future enemies, but things are different if the opponent is a summoner.
“Just what is the empire…!”
Summoning was a technique only chosen ones could use. Even if one could summon a familiar with magic, making a contract with it was another matter.
No matter how much magic power one has, if the familiar rejects the summoner, the contract cannot be made. However, the imperial army chasing me could universally use summoning.
While earth spirits, who can move the land itself, are difficult to handle, they were imperial soldiers.
The summoner who controlled the fire spirit could also summon earth spirits and even familiars.
Although high-level familiars were not invincible, they could buy time by holding off enemies.
One minute, no, even 30 seconds.
Delaying for just that amount of time would allow many of the empire’s enemies to catch up to me.
Having experienced several battles already, I quickly realized I had to give up on defeating them swiftly.
BOOM!
“He went that way!”
“These crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!”
Before I could even speak, they attacked again.
With a ma.s.sive explosion, I saw a huge crater from 40 meters ahead, and I began to run, keeping as low as possible.
“Just a little… just a little more!”
I needed to get over two more mountains. Then I could join up with the forces of evil heading this way.
I knew the forces of evil couldn’t defeat the imperial army, but they could at least buy me some time.
All I needed was to escape safely.
If I could get the last fragment of evil that the Professor possessed, and if I could hold out until the fragment given to Parfait had grown to a certain extent!
No matter how many monsters the empire had, I would be able to drench the world in evil and bring about its destruction.
And now,
“I must endure.”
This is a time to endure and endure again.
Why do I live? Why do I seek to destroy the world?
Was it not for her, who had to face a terrible death despite doing her best for the world?
It was for her revenge. No, to be more precise, it was for my own satisfaction.
And for that, I was willing to endure anything.
So, I endure.
“Where did you run off to, Demon King!”
“A Demon King running away from an apprentice! Are you really the Demon King?”
“You became the Demon King?! Do your parents know about this?”
“Your parents didn’t feed you for this!”
Such low-level insults from what is supposed to be the strongest army…!
#2 Their Situation: The Situation of a Certain Hero
“Good job.”Wiping the sweat off her forehead, Miria spoke, and I shook my head.
“I didn’t do anything.”
It wasn’t a falsehood. The Demon King’s escape was all thanks to Miria.
If Miria hadn’t been there…
“I would have been killed by the Demon King.”
Indeed, I would have been slain by the Demon King.
“You fought well considering you were alone against the Demon King.”
“Alone…”
It was true I faced the Demon King alone. However, just before the fight, I received various buffs from multiple saints and priests, including healing. I barely managed to stand my ground, using every trick I had.
Even then, the Demon King effortlessly blocked my attacks and attempted counterattacks without breaking a sweat.
Thanks to that, I had to prepare my final strike with everything I had.
I reinforced my body with magic and waited for the right moment.
Just before the enemy’s final blow, I chose to risk everything on one last attack, knowing it would either be him or me.
I managed to inflict a long wound on the Demon King’s side, but that was it.
Despite the severe wound, the Demon King didn’t stop attacking and kept pushing me back.
I thought it was over. My wretched fate would end here.
At that moment, Miria appeared.
And then she died.
Seeing her body, perfectly bisected and falling to the ground, was surreal.
Was she really dead? Miria? It seemed like she could get up any moment and cut down the Demon King.
Just as I thought that, Miria appeared behind the Demon King and drove a sword into his chest.
“What… was that?”
The Miria lying on the ground looked real.
It wasn’t magic or an illusion.
Blood was gushing from Miria’s body on the ground, and it was warm.
“This?”
Thud!
Suddenly, Miria popped out of thin air. It was the corpse, with the upper and lower halves separated.
“What the h.e.l.l!?”
Startled by the falling corpse, I jumped back.
“It hasn’t fully recovered yet?”
“I told you not to summon it…”
“What… what is this?”
The Miria on the ground started to grumble.
“Sorry. My colleague wanted to see it.”
“Can I go now? This is annoying.”
“Yes, yes.”
When my eyes met Miria lying on the ground, I could only nod.
“Then I’ll go?”
“Good work.”
Miria waved at the disappearing corpse of Miria.
“What on earth is that?”
I didn’t know what it was, but it was terrifying.
Two Mirias.
If there were two Mirias, they might be able to take on the Professor.
“A familiar.”
“A familiar?”
“Yes. A doppelgänger. I saw it a while ago and thought it might be useful, so I made a contract.”
Doppelgänger? From before?
Something came to mind.
“Could it be… from the fall of Howling?”
“Yes. It was effective enough to fool even the imperial army, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
Indeed, the effectiveness of the doppelgänger was extraordinary, fooling tens of thousands of the empire’s soldiers. The doppelgänger could not only replicate a person’s appearance but also mimic certain aspects of their personality and abilities.
Especially compared to magically animated dolls or golems, doppelgängers were much more natural and intelligent, making them highly useful.
During the training in Howling, we even fought against the doppelgängers of previous batch seniors.
However, the doppelgänger had a significant drawback as a summoned creature.
“Doppelgängers are demons, aren’t they?”
That’s right. Doppelgängers were demons, and high-level ones at that.
Even though they weren’t singular ent.i.ties like archdemons, making them easier to contract with, they were still demons.
Making a contract with such beings wouldn’t be easy…
“Of course it is. Have you forgotten what we have?”
“What? Did you make a fraudulent contract or something?”
There was a case where the archdemon Surtr, incomparable to a doppelgänger, was forced into a slave contract by the Professor.
If Miria, Professor’s apprentice, did something similar, it wouldn’t be surprising.
“Nope.”
“No?”
“Yeah. That kind of fraud requires deep knowledge of demons. I used the Eugrasia method.”
“The Eugrasia method?”
Eugrasia, that prestigious academy where the Professor was a faculty member.
Since Professor taught there, it must have turned into a new h.e.l.l,
“Could it be a natural occurrence?”
It was quite possible that demons had arisen in the new h.e.l.l and made contracts with the students!
“That’s impossible.”
“It seems possible.”
Miria denied it, but if it were the Professor, it seemed entirely plausible.
“That’s not it. The Eugrasia method means…”
I listened quietly to Miria’s explanation.
In some sense, it was an absurd method, and in another, it made perfect sense.
“So, you summon it first and, before it can get a grip and reverse summon, you beat it with a wooden bat? Until it agrees to the contract?”
“Yep.”
I wanted to ask the calmly nodding Miria one thing.
What color is your blood?
“Red.”
“No need to answer that. Argh…!”
As soon as I screamed, my wound burst open, and blood started to flow again.
d.a.m.n! It was a severe injury that would take at least a week to heal.
“What are you planning to do now?”
Clearly, the Demon King was more seriously injured than I was.
There was no choice.
No matter how strong the Demon King was, there was no way he could be fine after having his heart slashed to shreds.
If I pursued him now, I could defeat the Demon King and save the world. And as a bonus, I could end my contract and live a free life.
“What else? As the Professor taught, I’ll set a trap.”
But I knew that Miria wouldn’t want that.
“A bait that can catch the Demon King, the Professor, and my recipe all at once.”
Miria’s faint smile naturally reminded me of the Professor.
To be honest, if this guy is the mastermind, I doubt I could stop him.
Could he possibly be the final enemy or something? Hopefully not, right?
-Sorry. I don’t know…
Oh, d.a.m.n G.o.d, stay quiet at times like this!