CHAPTER 14
The Ex–Demon Lord and a Confrontation with the Demons
Crack. Splat. As sounds of his transformation echoed though the space, the man morphed into something else entirely. And even though he’d been the one to accuse me of being a monster a few moments earlier, it was now safe to say that he was the one who had been hiding under the guise of a human.
Two horns sprouted from his head, a pair of wings sprang from his back, and golden fur covered every inch of his skin. He began to take a similar shape to that of a Minotaur.
“H-hwaaaah?!”
“A d-demon?!”
Ginny and Ireena shrieked in unison.
Yeah, it seemed he was a demon after all, though I couldn’t say for sure whether his gang members were his kin or just brainwashed humans. But back to business.
“If you want to challenge me, I accept. Come at me,” I declared.
Either way, it wouldn’t change the course of my actions. I was fully ready to take him on.
“Lightning Burst! Ngh!” he howled, but I could hear the fear in his voice.
As if to drive this point home, his attack spell blasted upward, completely missing me and puncturing the ceiling with a torrent of gigantic lightning bolts. Once he created a gaping hole leading from the sewers to the surface, he batted his wings and launched himself out of the tunnel.
“D-did he run away…?”
“I-it seems so.”
I called out to the relieved girls. “I’m gonna chase after him. As for the guys on the floor, let’s just let them be for now. I’m guessing they won’t have any intel anyway.”
““Huh?”” they asked in unison, as if trying to say, What are you talking about?
“Um, but he can fly, y’know?”
“Won’t he be long gone by the time we get out of this manhole…?”
“But why would we need to go the roundabout way? If he can fly, so will I.”
““Huh?”” They stared at me, bug-eyed.
I cast Skywalker, the spell for flight, letting my body gently float in the air.
“B-but I thought humans couldn’t fly…?!”
“Is that so? Well, I can. Remember that for next time,” I told the flabbergasted duo. “I’m off now.”
With that, I began to soar, continuing through the gaping shaft upward to pursue my target. I spotted him near the opening up top, and right before he was about to emerge from the ground, I halted his movements by casting an elementary attack spell, Flare. The flames blasted straight toward the beast.
“Graaaaaaaaaaah?!” he hollered as he was engulfed in fire, but he was apparently tougher than he’d let on.
I’d initially planned on making him crash from the force of the explosion, but that didn’t exactly pan out…and somehow let him escape aboveground instead.
“Ngaaaaaaaaah!”
As soon as we emerged from the hole, the demon yanked a girl within arm’s reach by the base of her neck, thrusting her in front of him as if she were a shield. All the while, he remained silent, which I assumed was because he was in too much pain to muster the energy to speak, but he still managed to make his intentions clear.
That said, the real problem wasn’t him taking a hostage: It was the fact that we’d surfaced on a main road. This was the worst-case scenario for sure. I mean, the never-ending stream of pedestrians was now totally fixated on this sudden intruder who’d appeared from the depths of the earth.
Even with the enemy completely covered with burn wounds, people could still easily tell that he was a demon.
“H-hey, is that…?!”
Fear spread among the masses.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh?!”
“R-run away! It’s the demooooons!”
Mayhem ensued.
This is bad. This is really bad. Something had to be done quickly or pandemonium would break out and maybe even spark a riot.
…I really don’t want to do this, but I guess I have no choice.
I took a deep breath—and shouted to the crowd raising hell in their efforts to escape.
“Listen up, everyone! My name is Ard Meteor! The son of the Great Mages!” I boomed, cutting through the screams and panic.
The place became so silent that it was almost as if there was never any commotion to begin with.
“Th-the son of the Great Mages…?!”
“C-come to think of it, there were rumors that he’d entered the academy this year…”
I really hadn’t wanted to stand out, but there was nothing else I could have done. To calm the people, I’d chosen to stand front and center.
“I’ve been secretly chasing down that demon over there to the brink of death! And now, I will extinguish that which threatens the lives of good people! For I—the son of the Great Mages—will rain divine punishment down on him!”
What an embarrassing speech, I thought to myself as I glared at the demon who was the source of my troubles.
As I began to construct a certain spell in my head, he shot me a little grin, apparently having recovered enough to talk.
He mocked, “You, defeat me? You fool! Don’t you see I have a hostage—?”
“A hostage? I don’t see any hostage.”
“Ha! She’s right…over…h-here…?!” he stuttered as his eyes popped out of his head.
The girl who had just been shielding him was nowhere to be seen.
“When did you start hallucinating that there was a hostage?”
“Y-you bastard! What did you do?!”
“Just a bit of an illusion spell. I saved the girl after casting it. It’s not very effective against those who are mentally strong, but, like, I guess the quality of demons has gone down in recent years.”
“Dammit…! Dammit all to heeeell! What in the world are you?!!”
As I let out a heavy sigh, I finished composing my attack spell.
“I’m your average villager. What about it?”
“And you expect me to believe that?!” he screeched with tears brimming in his eyes as he beat his wings and soared into the sky. This guy really didn’t know when to quit.
“You don’t seem to get it. Allow me to enlighten you,” I declared, pointing a finger at the flying demon. “(Demon) Lord knows, you’ll never escape.”
With that, I cast my spell, unleashing an enormous magic circle in his direction, and it gradually began to rotate, floating in the empty space between us.
“Flash of Babel, fire,” I chanted, unleashing a flood of golden light that quickly sought out and washed over its target in an instant.
But it didn’t stop there. The destructive beam of light shot upward into the sky, puncturing a ginormous hole among the clouds, where it finally reached its zenith and died out. I bet that demon had fallen onto some street in a charred heap—but he shouldn’t be dead or anything. I made sure of that. Taking that weakling’s life wouldn’t do me any good. Plus, he still needed to cough up some answers.
All settled, or so I’d thought.
“Th-that thing just now…!”
“I-I’ve seen it before! That was the spell of the Great Mages! The most powerful and advanced magic on earth!”
“Th-then that brat over there… I mean, that young man must be—!”
…Ah, this is just what I expected would happen, I thought as the crowd surrounded me and began to cause a stir.
“Ah, of course, the son of our great heroes!”
“Thank you for saving us!”
“We’re so grateful…so grateful…!”
The people in the streets were hoisting me high into the air before I had a chance put an end to this madness.
…Why did it come to this?!
As I continued to float up and down, I let out a deeply, deeply agonized sigh.
…Fast-forward. I had pinpointed the demon’s whereabouts based on his trail of magical residue and tracked him down, but when I reached his location, he’d already taken his own life, apparently using a spell that erased every last trace of his spirit and soul. Thanks for nothing. This meant I couldn’t resurrect him to get more information.
And the ones in the sewer were in the exact same condition.
I hated to admit this about our enemy, but they’d really thought through this plan and earned some of my respect. On the other hand, this whole situation was confusing and frightening enough to make me restless.
What in the world do they want? I hadn’t the slightest idea.
Given that they were demons, there was a pretty big chance they wanted to retaliate against Ireena’s and my parents, the Great Mages and the Heroic Baron…but this theory didn’t explain their plan to kidnap us.
At any rate, I better take more precautions from now on.
Incidentally, the little affair of defeating the demon was totally blown out of proportion by the public, even though it didn’t seem like a particularly big deal to me. I mean, there was even a knightly looking man calling himself an emissary of the queen who came to inform us that Her Majesty would honor us with an audience and requested that the two of us visit her at the palace.
I’d preferred to avoid garnering any more attention…but this recent development was more than I’d imagined for myself. If I could get the queen to agree to join me at the negotiating table, I’d be able to decline the battle event—you know, the one that’d been plaguing me. That was exactly why I headed toward the palace at the heart of the royal capital. I was grasping tightly onto this one wish.
The interior and exterior of the castle were every bit as magnificent and resplendent as you’d imagine for a royal home in the very heart of the nation. That said, it really wasn’t practical at all. Back in my heyday, I’d lived in the Castle Millennion, which had been built from 103,000 types of magical techniques, making it impervious to outside attacks and capable of unleashing special-class offensive spells.
If you compare this castle to that one, the queen’s was unreliable at best. I mean, if this structure were in the old world, it’d be blasted away without a trace.
I guess this all means there’s peace on earth and no need to fret over these small things, I thought as I tailed after our knightly guide through the palace.
…I’d totally assumed our meeting would be super informal and take place in the guest parlor, but I was proven wrong when we were led to a large reception hall.
In other words, it wasn’t a casual affair at all but a true audience—meaning official business. Men and women, young and old, who I assumed were vassals stiffly lined the walls, eyeing me up and down and chattering among themselves: “What’s this bratty commoner doing in the palace…?” or “I propose we execute these Great Mages. Any old reason will do.”
All their comments stressed their hatred toward peasants like me, which made for the most unwarm welcome.
Beside Ireena, I prostrated myself as we waited for the queen’s entrance, staring at the long carpet spread out underneath me leading to a magnificent throne… Even though I was gazing upon it as a commoner, I wasn’t particularly moved by it or anything. In fact, all I felt was pity for the person who had to sit there.
And then the queen herself, Rosa, made her grand appearance.
From the other end of the aisle, Her Majesty the Queen was surrounded by some burly knights.
Her beauty and prestige stood at the pinnacle of the modern world.
I’m guessing she wasn’t that much older than us—one or two years, tops—and neither too tall nor too short. She had a long and slender frame that didn’t possess particularly big boobs, unlike Ireena…but her body was absolutely stunning, wrapped in a golden dress hugging every inch. True, her breasts might be modest in size compared to Ireena and Ginny, but it was as if they were artfully shaped, and her curvaceous hips traced an arc that cut through the air.
In all honesty, words were too limited to express the extent of her perfection. She possessed a mature sort of beauty that was worthy of the regal appearance of a monarch.
That said…I was way more concerned about that hair—blond locks twisted into tight coils.
How in the world does she get them to stay like that? This had bothered me in my previous life, and it was still a mystery—
“Hey, commoner! You have no right to look directly upon Her Majesty’s noble countenance!” barked an old man behind Rosa.
He had a handlebar mustache and trailed the queen with sprightly movements. I guessed he was the prime minister.
Queen Rosa took her seat on her throne. “All is well. For it’s nature’s wish that all living creatures are captivated by my beauty,” she stated, waving a luxurious fan in front of her smile.
There was no arrogance in her voice—only supreme confidence in herself.
Well, how should I go about this? How exactly does one deal with the queen? I wondered.
“Rosie! It’s been too long! How’ve ya been?!” Ireena asked, snapping up from the ground with a huge grin.
It’d been a while since I’d felt the blood drain out of my face. If she treated the queen that way—
“What’s with this girl?!”
“How dare she insult Her Majesty…!”
“It doesn’t matter if she’s the daughter of the Heroic Baron or not! This is a grave offense!”
These reactions came as no surprise, and the danger pervading the room jumped up by 70 percent.
But even with this major shift, Ireena grandly puffed out her chest. “What’s your problem?! I’m not hurting anybody, right?! Besides, we’re friends!” she shouted back, to which all the nobles grimaced.
As for the queen, she shook with mirth. “Goodness, you ne’er change. This is thy true self, the Ireena I know,” she said, chuckling with merriment.
With that, her eyes swept across the nobles in the room, and she reprimanded them sternly. “Ireena is a friend of mine, and thus any and all forwardness is permitted. If you have any complaints, speak to me directly. I will not tolerate any untoward remarks directed at her.”
Her intimidating shift in tone silenced everyone in the room.
I couldn’t believe it. The queen was her friend. My Ireena was a superstar.
Rosa smiled elegantly and snapped open her fan. “Ah, yes. I’ve called thee here today for one reason: to praise thee for the remarkable achievement of defeating a demon by thyself. And to bestow a reward. That is, unto you, Ard Meteor.”
Her eyes pierced straight into mine.
…Well, what do I do now?
I’d dealt with foreign royals more than I could count. But that was all back when I was the Demon Lord. This was my first time having an audience with one as a low-class human.
So how exactly does a commoner address a queen?
Come on—you gotta remember. How did your subordinates and citizens act toward you?
…Oh right, that’s it: They always answered everything I said with “yes!” Yeah, now I remember. It was always “yes!” “yes!” “yes!”
And by everything, I meant it. Especially some of the villagers: They’d earnestly reply with “yes!” even if I’d asked, “Do you hate me?”
…When I heard that, I’d honestly considered ramping up their annual tribute by one hundred times.
Well, anyway. Until we got to the negotiation table, my new plan was to answer everything with “yes!”
“Thy actions have done us a great service.”
“Yes!”
“And they’re worthy of great merit.”
“Yes!”
“As expected of the son of the Great Mages.”
“Yes!”
“I have taken a great interest in thee and shall gift thee with a reward.”
“Yes!”
“Become my husband.”
“Ye— I mean, what?!”
She’d dropped a bomb with this request, leaving me absolutely dumbfounded—along with everyone else in the room.
“Hmm? Is it so beyond thy comprehension? Allow me to repeat myself in simpler terms: Ard Meteor, impregnate me, won’t you?” asked Her Majesty the Queen, smiling sweetly upon me and moving her thighs slowly to cross her legs.
She licked her lips in a way that was super erotic…and even managed to make my heart pound, even though I thought I’d gotten used to seeing beautiful women by now. But that moment was over in a matter of an instant, and the booming wrath of those around her brought me back to my senses.
“H-has she gone mad?!”
“It’d be unacceptable to have a filthy commoner’s blood mix with the queen’s!”
“This is why I’d proposed we completely purge all of the lower class!”
The vassals went berserk, with the prime minister taking center stage.
“Your Majesty! What could you possibly see in this ruuuuube?! Unacceptable! I oppose your decision with every fiber of my being! Why this commoner…? Ah! I see! So that’s what you’ve been craving. In that case, no need to worry! I’ll gladly serve as your nightly companion, Your Majesty! No worries whatsoever! My naughty serviceman is a grade-A stud! I bring the big guns, unlike that brat! Seriously!”
“Heeey, yo. Could someone pleeeeease slit this dirty old lolicon’s throat?”
But even as the prime minister continued to rant and rave, Queen Rosa completely ignored him and carried on with business.
“My word, it can be so restricting to be a queen. Ah well. Let’s just say this was a playful jest and leave it at that,” she concluded, slumping her shoulders forward and shaking her head vigorously from side to side.
In all honesty, it didn’t seem like her eyes held even the smallest crumb of affection for me. There was some other emotion I could sense… But Rosa started to talk before I could guess what it might possibly be.
“I must admit, I have other matters to deal with. Let’s wrap this up. For your reward, Ard Meteor, I bestow thee with the title of Pentagon, a promotion to the fifth rank of the magic arts,” she mentioned brusquely.
And the room fell into an uproar at the mind-boggling news once again.
“A-a Pentagon?! N-no commoner has ever been made a Pentagon before!”
“It’s one thing for a child prodigy from an aristocratic family like Elrado! But for a peasant? This is too much!”
“Your Majesty! Please do not continue any further! I’m certain this will inflate the grandiosity of the masses if you grant this promotion to a non-noble! It might even become grounds for an insurrection!”
I thought that last claim was a little far-fetched. At any rate, it wasn’t like I wanted to be a Pentagon! Like, not in the slightest! I could already see a huge smile spreading across Olivia’s face at the news. This was the number one thing I absolutely needed to avoid, so I chose my next words carefully.
“My deepest apologies, Your Majesty, but I must admit your vassals are right that this title is much too great for a simple commoner. I am aware that this may come across as disrespectful…but I hope you might grant my modest wish as a reward.”
“Oh? And what might your request be? Pray tell.”
I smirked internally at this opportunity. “I wish for you to increase the federal budget of my school, the Laville National Academy of Magic.”
If this went through, there’d be no reason for me to participate in the battle event.
Queen Rosa cocked her head to the side, eyes wide at my request. “What? Is that it? Really? And how will that benefit you?”
“No personal benefit. But the headmaster, Count Golde, has done so much for me on a day-to-day basis, and this is the least I could do to repay some of his kindness…”
Finally, the vassals started to take on an air of compassion.
“Ah, the commoner knows his place.”
“The complete opposite of his parents. If that’s the case, I suppose there’s no need to interfere.”
“We could grant him the title of Triangle and promote him to the third rank. That should be harmless enough. There’s no doubt of his excellence, and I’m sure we can expect him to do good work.”
Nice! Turning threats into support with one fell swoop—
“What virtue! To prioritize repaying a debt over thy desire! I have never met one like thee! I’m intrigued by thee, Ard Meteor! As a reward, I will make thee a Pentagon and increase the budget!”
…Thanks to the queen’s idiocy, the vassals took up their hostile tone once again. After even more back and forth, she finally managed to get a grip on the whole situation.
“Agh! Enough! Enough! Fine, I get it! What if I add a condition to this reward? Ard Meteor and Ireena Litz de Olhyde, in exchange for granting you both the title of Pentagon, I will include you in my personal guard who report directly to me, the Queen’s Shadow. I will regularly send you out on challenging quests.”
“…I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Er, we have more points of contention now. Bestowing the daughter of Olhyde with the title of Pentagon is—”
“I see no issue. Think of it as a bonus. I assume she’ll reach that level someday. Plus, it’d look bad if her partner is a Pentagon while she’s stuck in the first rank, a Single. Don’t you agree, Ireena?”
“Right on! That’s my Rosie! As thoughtful as ever!” Ireena chirped back happily.
The queen smiled in satisfaction upon seeing joy spread across Ireena’s face.
Of course, there was a whole mess and then some afterward, as I’d expected.
With the queen’s concluding words (“All righty! That settles it! Duty calls! I don’t wanna hear any more of this! Good-bye! Adios!”), we were locked into our new titles and enlistment in the mysterious group known as the Queen’s Shadow.
“Dammit! I still don’t know how to wrangle in the current queen!”
“Come now, try to calm down. Let’s have a nice long chat about that commoner. There’s no problem at all. If we take advantage of the fact they’re in the Queen’s Shadow…”
“Indeed. We can go about this in any number of ways… Let them bask in their new status. For now.”
…Geez, the politicians of this era really need to take other people’s feelings into consideration.
“Wowie, what unexpected news! Let’s write our parents when we get back! Ah, I can already see Daddy just exploding over the news!”
Sure. But I think he’ll be “exploding” in another way.
The issue of the battle event might have been settled for the time being, but now I’d been roped into joining the Queen’s Shadow or whatever, and a completely new problem had dropped into my lap.
Seriously, why do things keep turning out like this?
The sun was slowly dipping beneath the horizon at the royal capital.
In the center of a deserted back alley, a number of men and women had gathered, appearing upon first glance to be nothing more than your average commoners.
In actuality, they were part of a crime syndicate run by demons known as Lars al Ghoul.
An elderly one who looked like the leader among them spoke in a strong, clear voice. “That son of the Great Mages is more skilled than expected.”
But his little speech held an unexpectedly peppy tone, and the others around the old demon nodded with pleasant expressions.
“Aye. I was able to take measure of his power during the recent incident.”
“We had to sacrifice some of our kin…but our grief will be completely washed away with this.”
“Right. That Ard Meteor is certainly a strong one. Clearly beyond the norm. But…he cannot win against that monster.”
In their mind’s eye, everyone conjured the image of her, their collaborator. Their faces were colored by two emotions—relief…and distrust.
“Can we really trust that woman? She’s a different species from us, after all. Isn’t she known throughout history as a famous traitor?”
But the elderly demon was confident. “I understand your misgivings, but there is no cause for concern. She will not betray us because her devotion is genuine. She’s quite keen on destroying this world. And that’s why we’re using her.” He broke out into a wicked smile.
“Sure, she does hate that world, but she’s far too strong. Once our master returns for their second coming, we’ll need to get rid of her somehow, lest she ruins that reign, too,” someone continued matter-of-factly.
The old demon changed the subject. “Well, no changes to this current matter. We’ll need to abduct our sacrifice on the day the stars are aligned. That is, seven days from now. We won’t perform the ceremony until then. Take your time carrying away the sacrifice, and don’t act in haste or of your own accord. The enemy could catch on to our plan with one wrong move. If that happens, we might find ourselves in the worst-case scenario. We can count the most powerful monster as our ally, but don’t let that be the reason you lower your guard.”
The group nodded as one.
The leader continued. “No changes to the details of the plan, either. Thanks to this recent incident, we now know the extent of Ard Meteor’s power. He’s unneeded in this world. There’s no call for a complex plan: It’ll all come down to brute force. Employ all our forces to kidnap the sacrifice. That’s it. In the past, we might have incorporated suicide missions, but we now command limitless power and that fearsome beast is on our side,” he boomed with effusive optimism, bringing his speech to a close. “Everything we do is to bring the world under our master’s command and resurrect true morality.”
“All Hail Outer.” Following their leader’s chant, each of the members murmured this in turn…and then scattered separately back into the milling crowds. Once he was alone, the elderly demon walked toward the main road, where he overheard a conversation among the townspeople.
“It’s in seven more days, huh.”
“I can’t wait for the battle event at the academy this year.”
“Right? I mean, after all, the kids of those great heroes just enrolled at the school.”
As he listened in on this conversation, the elderly demon muttered to himself, “Yes, what fun indeed,” and his wrinkly face twisted hideously.
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