Demon King & Hero

Chapter 4-1: I am! That is! [The Hero!]

TL: Eevee

Ed: adkji

TL: Before we go any further, could we take a moment to appreciate my editor, adkji, who has edited this and my previous chapters at literally all hours, often within 10 minutes or less of me putting it up for submission.

EN: wowza, thank you, thank you -bow-

***

In the basement of a fortress, on the outskirts of the empire, a man draped in a black robe approached a young man bounded by ropes.

“Welcome, my lord Demon King.”

As the black-robed man bowed his head, the demon king smirked and said,

“So you were alive?”

“Yes, although I nearly was not. Although, most of my elite forces survived.”

“Of course, since you used all your non-elite forces as bait.”

“I see you’re quite on top of things?”

“Isn’t that how it always was?”

The black-robed man laughed and said,

“Ku ku, then again, even a powerless demon king is still a demon king. It stands for reason you would know.”

“In that case, why were you looking for said powerless demon king?”

“What do you mean, powerless. Just having you with us can act as half the tribute to summon Destruction, how on earth could you be powerless?”

At those words, the demon king scowled.

“You mad? If you call Destruction, you lot are gonna be the first to die.”

“Yes, and with our lives, so too, this world shall fall to destruction.”

Having said those words, he started laughing like a lunatic.

“You’re mad.”

“Yes, we’re mad! You can’t be sane and summon a demon king. Do you know how cruelly the children die during the summoning process? Most of my followers are the ones that have lived out their lives, but a few still kill themselves over their guilt. But the one who made us this way, is the world.”

“Isn’t that the natural result of asking for too much from the world?”

“Too much? Is being able to live normally too much to ask for?”

The black robed man laughed.

“You know humans. They think they’re the chosen ones. That their kind can just rule over the land. For that, they’ve slaughtered many other races. And the funnier thing is, for their own profit, they won’t hesitate to abandon, sell, kill their own kind. Those so-called chosen humans.”

“Aren’t you lot exactly the same?”

“No, we are different. The humans at the top look down on those below as nothing more than livestock, but we are different. Even the sacrifices that were used to summon you, we remember them as human. If the humans at the top act to satisfy their own desires, we do so purely for our spite. Whatever the others do, they all wish to avoid destruction, but we will be the first humans to welcome it!”

The demon king looked into the eyes of the black-robed man. Bright. Too bright, it had already transgressed beyond lunacy into pure devotion.

“True, from birth, humans commit sins, and continue to do so even now.”

“Yes, so we are the ones that seek to cleanse the world!”

“Is that so? But you know, do you think there might be people that aren’t like that?”

At those words, the man nodded.

“Yes, but they are weak and powerless. That is why we seek to turn everything into nothing.”

The demon king smirked and shook his head.

“Is that really true? In this world, every now and then, there are people born with particularly special talents. With intellect incomparable to geniuses and an unwavering patience, endlessly walking their own path. The willpower to soldier on no matter what. Blessed by the gods, for their justice, they draw their blades. Even if the enemy is a demon king.”

Taking a breath, the demon king’s expression morphed into a much more amused one.

“Even if they’re a useless existence that can’t cook or clean, bleed out if they try embroidery, trap themselves while knitting, and can’t do a single thing on the farm.”

“Who’s that?”

“Who, you ask? That is…”

Crash!

Just as the demon king was about to open his mouth, with a crash, the door to the basement broke and a swordsman appeared.

“Who are you?”

At those words, the swordsman glanced at the demon king beside the black-robed figure, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Who am I?”

As the warrior, Yuria opened her mouth the demon king spun around gleefully towards the blacked-robed man and said,

“You asked, didn’t you? Who I was talking about earlier?”

As soon as those words emptied into the air, Yuria confidently shouted,

“I am!”

“That’s!”

And the two shouted together;

“The Hero!”

Translator’s Notes:

(1) Before anyone says anything, swordsman is a gender-neutral term. Also, a wild swordsman appe – oh wait, she’s not wild, she’s taken.

TLN: Can opener —-> ass-whoopin’.

Now that I’ve remembered, would you guys prefer to have the name of the chapter/arc at the beginning of every new chapter part I upload, or just the first part of the chapter as I have been doing so far? For example, the current system, ‘Chapter 4-1: I am! That is! [The Hero!]’, and future chapters are called just Chapter 4-2, Chapter 4-3 etc. Or would you rather me have the chapter title in every single chapter part, e.g. ‘Chapter 4-2: I am! That is! [The Hero!]’ and so forth. As always, leave your opinions in the comments.

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