The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody - Volume 1 - Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

The Ex–Demon Lord and a Change in Scenery

With the incident at hand coming to a close, Weiss the Heroic Baron and the Great Mages—Jack and Carla—headed home to their village, swaying in a horse-drawn carriage as it trotted forward.

“In any case, this whole thing seems fishy,” Jack noted.

“I know, totally! There’s a bunch of red flags,” Carla replied, as skeptical as her husband about the entire situation.

Weiss nodded. “I agree. It’s odd that this incident happened at all.”

There were two reasons for this.

One: It was unclear how the identities of Weiss and Ireena were leaked, especially because fewer than ten people had been aware that the pair carried the bloodline of the Evil Gods. Of those privileged with this knowledge, there was virtually no chance that anybody was conspiring with the demons. They were all at a total loss as to how this information got out.

Two: The sum total of demons at the scene gave them pause. With their species low in number, they’d never been able to execute anything other than a few small-scale attacks. Even in that incident when an Evil God had been revived ten years prior, the demons had achieved their goal through a series of smaller events.

This most recent occurrence was the largest in known history.

But the demon casualties numbered in the thousands. With these losses, Lars al Ghoul had to be on the brink of annihilation. It made sense if they were going all out after betting every last chip on this one plan…

But it wouldn’t make sense, since the top brass of the organization—not to mention their leader—hadn’t been at the scene. That meant this abduction incident hadn’t been the final act. This wasn’t over.

Then, why would the demons try to pull off a plan that would result in major casualties? Especially when they didn’t have many of their kin to begin with?

There was no reasonable answer to this, which made it even more shrouded in mystery.

“…I imagine Ireena will continue to face dangerous situations day in and day out.”

“Yep, it looks that way. But no need to worry. I mean, c’mon,” Jack replied.

“Ireena has our boy with her, after all!” Carla crooned.

They were absolutely convinced that her safety was guaranteed.

Weiss agreed. “You’re right. Everything will be fine when he’s by her side. That said…I wonder what he’ll do when he discovers our other secret. Everything hinges on that,” he murmured, flipping open a book that he’d brought to pass the time.

It was a timeless bestseller, the heroic ballad of the Demon Lord. Weiss had volume 98 out of 215 in his hands. This one was most famous for its tragedy.

“With his own hand, the Demon Lord murdered his close friend—Lydia the Champion. According to the tale, it’s because Lydia was a traitor, but…the truth behind his motives isn’t clear.”

It was the biggest unsolved mystery of all time. Scholars were still debating it among themselves.

“We must hide the fact that we are kin with the Evil Gods—and the descendants of the former Champion, Lydia. Especially from Ard… I mean, from the Demon Lord.”

Jack and Carla nodded in quiet contemplation.

The three of them had known that Ard Meteor was the reincarnated form of the Demon Lord just as he started to display a fraction of his true potential. There were several reasons.

One: It was incredibly strange that Ard had been born in the first place.

True, Jack and Carla may have been husband and wife, but they would never, ever, ever engage in any behavior that might result in bearing a child.

That’s because they both preferred members of the same sex.

Which meant that when Carla became pregnant, they had their suspicions—which were confirmed once Ard showed multiple instances of lacking common sense during his time in the village.

“…Going back to the day when she met Ard. Ireena went on a rare outing into the woods. She said she felt fate calling her there… It made sense. The moment I saw him, I sensed that our destinies were intertwined.” Weiss sighed.

Would it lead them toward happiness…or disaster—following their ancestral paths?

The two Great Mages were as uncertain as Weiss.

“It might wind up not bein’ such a big deal.”

“But if he’s been traumatized by any chance…”

“Their friendship would fall apart when he projects the image of Lydia on Ireena.”

The three sighed collectively. Ard and Ireena had a difficult journey ahead. It would be ideal if the truth could be hidden forever, but that would be too difficult.

That’s because all secrets eventually come to light.

Ireena’s abduction brought a slew of changes to my surroundings in its aftermath.

First and foremost, Operation: Instructor Ard.

I’d received high praise for Ireena’s rescue and been granted a part-time teaching position as both student and instructor. Why…?

There was one other major change regarding my living arrangements.

It was clear that intel about Ireena’s identity had been leaked to the enemy, which meant she was in danger day in and day out. She needed a guard at all times, and the duty fell to me.

When it was decided that we’d live together, they prepared a two-person room in the dormitory for the aristocrats, making a special allowance for me to live there as a commoner. Our assigned room was unnecessarily huge. The floor had a luxurious red carpet and a big canopied bed in the center of the room.

It was worlds apart from the dorms of the commoners.

That aside.

On this day, we’d finished our supper, and it was time to wash up. There was a communal bathhouse annexed to the dormitory, but it was separated by gender, which meant it would force me to leave Ireena alone for a long period of time. Just to be safe, we decided to make do with the shower in the room.

“Phew… That felt amazing!” Ireena exclaimed as she stepped out of the shower wearing a single bath towel.

Which meant there was only a measly little veil covering up her two weapons of mass destruction. Not that she seemed too concerned about this whole thing…

Strange. My face feels kind of hot. But it’s not like I’m feeling shy or embarrassed.

It could be because our bond had grown deeper just a few days prior. That was why I…

Nope. Let’s leave it at that. I wouldn’t get ahead of myself.

I enjoyed chatting for a while with Ireena, who’d slipped into her negligee right in front of me and…who I would be sharing a bed with once again.

Why is there only one bed in the room? I’d sent in an immediate request for a second one.

“It’s totally fine, right? We’ll just keep it this way! I wanna sleep with you every night, Ard!” she exclaimed innocently, which made it impossible to refuse her wishes.

“W-well then, I suppose we ought to get to sleep.”

“Right!” she chirped, nodding happily.

Ireena settled in and lay down beside me like it was totally normal, as if a puppy cuddling up to sleep with her master.

Why do I feel nervous? Maybe I’m…

My train of thought was interrupted by a huge BWAAAAAAAAAM! and the thunderous echo that followed. We were both convinced it was an assassin, leaping to our feet…but we were wrong.

There was a large hole in the wall near the bed.

“Good evening, you two,  ” sang Ginny, the succubus, smiling cheerfully.

It appeared she’d punched through the wall with her bare hands. She trotted over to us and perched herself on the bed.

“I’m actually going to be your neighbor from now on, so I thought I could make this into a three-person room.   I’m looking forward to having you as roommates!  ”

Ireena’s face burned with rage as she snapped at the grinning gal. “Q-q-quit screwing arouuuuuund!”

“Oh, that’s right, Ard! Remember my one-hundred-women harem plan? I’ve found some candidates, so I’ll be sure to introduce you next time.  ” Ginny ignored Ireena and all her fury.

“H-hold up. A one-hundred-women harem? What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you bring up the idea yourself? You want to make a hundred friends, right? Which means you don’t want to stop at a harem of five or six girls—but at an even one hundred.”

Nope, you’re totally off. I just want friends. I never said it was limited to girls.

I tried explaining this to her, but Ginny didn’t seem to be listening at all.

“Hmm, this room is too small for that many girls. Let’s all move to a huge mansion eventually! Don’t worry! I’m sure you’ll be able to buy one or two like it’s nothing! And you can leave the selection of candidates to me!”

“Er, I’m not leaving you in charge of anything. I don’t even want—”

“I already told you—no haremsssss!” Ireena screeched, forcing her way into the conversation and launching into a full-on argument with Ginny.

I smiled wryly as I watched from the sidelines.

“It seems life will still be anything but boring…”