77. Back to the Demon World (5)
“In the first city, there was someone who was talking about Demon to outsiders.”
“!”
“Oh no…! Hey Hell!!”
Before his startled adjutant could say anything, Hel disappeared. As if it was literally falling to the ground.
Although I was surprised for a moment, I quickly nodded.
‘That’s right, he was from Shadow.’
A literal shadow, not a metaphorical expression.
The power of the Demon King does not purely unite among itself to create demons. If you inhabit an ogre, a demon of ogre origin is born, and if you inhabit an object, a demon in the form of that object is born.
Hel, the commander of the 8th Legion, is a demon born with the power of the demon king imbued in his shadow.
Maybe that’s why the shadow, which can’t even see its face, appears to have a three-dimensional effect, but I never thought it would have had such an ability.
…But why did it disappear?
“A guy who couldn’t even fulfill his duties doesn’t deserve to eat Demon’s cookies. So, Demon.”
“yes yes?”
“Can you give me both of them?”
“Dvelania!”
Before I could answer, the adjutant who was kneeling where Hel had disappeared and looking at the floor in confusion shouted. Actually, I was the one who was scared by him.
The adjutant shouting loudly at the corps commander. It is also a corps commander who is not my immediate superior.
Is he really crazy?
‘Don’t do this here, go out and fight, you bastards…’
Don’t spill blood in my room.
***
Deon must have been very uncomfortable with the two demons roaring in his territory, so he handed each bag of cookies to Develania and Hel’s lieutenant, Nine, and sent them out.
No, to be more precise, it was closer to the fact that the two noticed the discomfort of ‘Demon Arut’ and took the initiative to back down.
If I had done more here, there would definitely have been a disaster.
I know very well how scary his anger is. The two were not foolish enough to look down on someone who was normally a moderate person.
However, a fight that temporarily stops because of one person cannot end just like that.
As soon as he came out of the room and the door closed, Nine held the cookie bag tightly in his arms and glared fiercely at Develania. Interest arose in Develania’s eyes.
“Oh, are you staring at me now?”
“Stop harassing our Hel!”
“I? “Why did I just say the right thing?”
“Even so, your self-esteem is at rock bottom, so do you have no conscience?! “It’s too much!”
8th Corps Commander Hel. A person who has mastered the art of weapons to the extent that he handles all weapons as if they were his own body.
Coming from the shadows, his unique abilities seemed to be suitable for missions related to infiltration, so at first even the Demon King wanted to appoint him as the commander of the 2nd Corps, but he had one fatal flaw… his self-esteem was ridiculously low
.
‘There is no way you would entrust me with such an important task.’ ‘There is no way someone like me could do something like this.’ ‘Is it really okay for someone like me to do something like this?’
But if you fail just a little bit, you’ll think, ‘After all, trash like me should go out and die.’ ‘Why do I live?’ ‘After all, I am trash, not worth breathing…’
“Trash… I am trash after all…”
Nine was confused as he looked at his superior, who suddenly popped out from the shadows at his feet and sat down, covering his face with both hands. He made an expression.
Blood was dripping from the edge of his clothes, as if he had just finished taking care of his work.
I explained several times how amazing it was that they got the job done so quickly…
“No! How did you come to organize things even now? Everyone makes mistakes. How you handle it is important. In that sense, Hel did an excellent job cleaning up the mess! “You did a great job!”
“…really?”
“of course! If Hell had made a really big mistake, Daemon wouldn’t have given him cookies like this! “Look at this.”
“Is that really mine…? “Demon-nim gave it to me as my share…?”
“yes!”
Actually, I got it through a war of nerves with the 2nd Corps commander.
Nine, who had lost his cool, waved the cookie bag as if to show off, attracting his attention.
“So don’t act like this here, get up quickly. “Let’s eat some of these cookies in our room and relax.”
Looking at this scene, some may wonder why the 8th Corps commander blames himself when it is just news that the story about Demon is circulating outside.
But this was natural.
Until the uproar caused by the monsters, the 8th Corps commander’s current external mission, which seemed to exist as if he did not know what mission he was in charge of and no one was interested in it, was ‘bordering major cities in the demon world.’
However, there is a secret mission he has been carrying out even before that.
A mission that Demon Arut took on from the moment he joined the Demon King’s army.
[To prevent information about Demon Arut’s appearance from leaking out to the human world.]
Why is the story about Commander 0 not widely known?
Why can’t the empire even figure out what the commander of the 0th Corps looks like?
Did all of this really feel like a coincidence?
Hel moved steadily from the moment she received the mission.
When a worker on vacation outside the Demon King’s Castle tries to tell an acquaintance about the appearance of ‘Demon Arut’. When a demon goes out on a monster hunt and is revealed with his bare face at a gambling house in the first city. A hero at the border with the human world. Even when fighting with.
He steadily followed the trail, killing and silencing it.
Contrary to his low self-esteem, it was excellent workmanship without a single mistake.
Even now, as soon as the 2nd Corps commander received a tip-off, didn’t he move immediately, deal with the enemy, and return? If you think about the amount of time it took to get all of this done, it’s ridiculous that people who heard the story would have dealt with it as well.
‘I just need to do something about his self-esteem… Sigh.’
While Nine was sighing, the true Hel barely got up from her seat. As if to reassure him, Nine smiled and politely held out her hand, and Hel was about to take it.
“Isn’t it important not to make mistakes in the first place?”
“…!”
“Dvelania!”
Hel collapses again like a sand castle. Develania giggled at the immediate response.
This is why I can’t stop harassing the 8th Corps commander. Because it’s fun.
It has nothing to do with Develania, so I turned around, leaving behind Nain, who was talking about how he kept arguing, asking why the demons could make a mistake, asking why my child… was so upset, and saying that he was going to go to the demon lord.
‘If this continues, I won’t even dream of disturbing you for a while.’
I plan to persuade Demon to go to the second city to buy clothes soon, but it would be difficult if there were disturbances even then.
Deon had no intention of going, but De’Vellania was already happily thinking about what clothes to buy, and took a brisk step forward.
I burst out laughing happily at the shout of the cocky 8th Corps commander’s adjutant coming from behind me.
***
The Kingdom of Ireon was in chaos.
“They say the imperial army has already trampled a city and is advancing towards here! You say you’ll be arriving in the next city soon, but what on earth have you been doing to get to this point? “There is no need to come up with any countermeasures!!”
“How can we come up with a solution that even you can’t come up with!!”
“So you’re saying we should all die together like this?!”
People who can’t do anything other than sit in front of a table and raise their voices are shouting loudly, saying that their lives are not worth it, while innocent people are dying outside.
The conference hall, which should have been sacred, has long since turned into an arena for fighting rather than a place for preparing countermeasures.
‘That’s bullshit.’
The King of Ireon, who was sitting on the throne, gently pressed his eyebrows. Even though I took the medicine, my head is already pounding as if I’m getting a headache.
That’s why I said, don’t mess with the emperor. Because black flames were flickering in his eyes that I met by chance.
It’s not a red flame. It was not burning on the basis of passion, anger, hatred, and revenge, which are common fuels.
A flame that is empty but burns relentlessly without losing the will to live. If I had to give it a color, it would be closer to ‘black’ rather than ‘red’.
Yes, it is a black flame. I still didn’t know for what purpose it was burning, but I instinctively knew that nothing good would come of touching it.
‘I thought this country was in good shape before…’
This is how it falls apart.
The king’s words do not work. The king’s authority has fallen to the ground, and the nobles are too busy serving their own interests and do not take care of the people.
Nevertheless, perhaps because they are politicians, they were not stupid at all, but this time it was a miscalculation.
The nobles were not blinded by money and demanded compensation from the empire. Underlying their actions was the expectation that, even if the empire would not immediately grant their demands, they would at least attempt ‘negotiation’.
Think about it with common sense. In any case, it is true that there was a small battle near the border, and depending on one’s perspective, this is enough to be felt as a threat to the Kingdom of Ireon.
In addition, wars cost a lot of money and manpower. Only two years had passed since the end of the Eight Years’ War, so it was difficult to imagine that the empire would easily take the call of ‘war’ in this situation.
Even Deon Hart, who was a great vanguard during the 8 Years’ War, had to rest due to injury, so who would have expected war?
Of course, only based on ‘common sense’.
‘The fist that I touched with all my might came back to me with a timid touch.’
The king covered his mouth, leaving the embarrassed nobles alone.
I felt like I knew what the emperor was hoping for, so I felt like I would start crying.
‘…Did the emperor want war from the beginning?’
A cautious guess soon became a certainty.
The emperor was waiting for a ‘justice’ to wage war. The Kingdom of Ireon has diligently provided him with the opportunity to draw his sword, and he will become the first victim of that sword.
If I had known this fact earlier…
‘…it would still have been the same.’
Even then and now, he is a powerless king and his voice will be drowned out by the remarks of the nobles.
“How about… surrendering?”
In the chaotic conference hall, one of the nobles spoke cautiously. The king quietly closed his eyes as he looked at the other nobles, whose eyes were shining as if they were waiting.
This was also expected.
Those who have much to lose are afraid to fight. Loyalists died or disappeared without anyone knowing, and even those who were clean were stained with mud.
There are only traitors left here. I knew very well that those who put their own interests first could not serve the country.
But why is my appetite so bitter?
“What do you think, Your Highness?”
The King of Ireon smiled helplessly as he faced the eyes that were looking at him with one mind and one intention, as if asking when they had fought.
“Let’s prepare for surrender.”
***
A month has already passed since I arrived at the Demon King’s Castle.
And I was able to recall a very important fact that I had overlooked.
“I’m bored….”
The devil’s castle has nothing to be dirty about! I should have brought something fun to play when I came.
snap. I threw the cube I had just solved onto one side of the bed and flew to the side. I turned my head, buried half my face in the pillow, and looked down at the floor.
There was a large, completed puzzle sitting there.
There’s one more thing to decorate the wall of your room. It was a few pieces long. Was it 6000 pieces?
That’s probably about it. I vaguely remember it because it was a puzzle I once threw out of self-destruction. It’s so hard for me to guess that in the end…
‘Oh, I don’t know.’
Thanks to a month of rest, the shadows under my eyes that had formed in the human world have disappeared, but I feel like I’m going crazy because people don’t do anything.
“…I guess I should at least go outside.”
