The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody - Volume 1 - Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

The Ex–Demon Lord Versus the Child of the Gods

I made my way over, stomach churning in dread…as I reached the field where I was set to square off with Elrado. From a distance, Olivia, Ireena, and my other classmates watched over us.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”

“That dude’s as good as dead.”

“Elrado is the youngest guy in history to make it to the fourth rank and receive the title of a Square. And a child prodigy at that.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he blew past the Great Mages and Heroic Baron.”

As the spectators chattered among themselves, the aristocrats shot me a look of pointed pity, and Elrado gave me a vicious snarl—I mean, smile. Either way, it made his reptilian features seem five times more fiendish than usual.

“You’ve got some lousy luck, Snowflake. If Lady Olivia hadn’t been there, you would have gotten outta this scot-free,” he scoffed, eyeing me as if I’d volunteered to be a human sacrifice. His eyes held nothing but pure condescension.

Well, I guess I should have expected him to treat me this way. After all, this kid was a genius known as the “child of the gods,” and I, the most average villager in the world. But…something was off about this whole thing—to be precise, he really didn’t seem impressive enough to be called “child of the gods” or whatever. At any rate, I had to observe my opponent to evaluate his skills.

“Well, let’s get this over with—die already,” Elrado barked, thrusting out his right palm.

A magic circle materialized directly in front of his eyes, spitting out a succession of small bolts: Lightning Shot, an elementary attack spell. He talked big, but it seemed he wanted to test me before making any major moves.

This spell wasn’t a big deal at all. I cast Wall, a measly elementary spell of my own, calling forth a magic circle to allow a translucent barrier to envelop my immediate surroundings and cancel out his Lightning Shot.

This kind of barrage was nothing new to me.

“I—I can’t believe Elrado cast Lightning Burst without an incantation…!”

“But Ard’s keeping pace with him! I mean, he just cast Mega Wall! With no incantation!”

“Geez, if that were me, I’d be smashed to smithereens…! They’re honestly out of this world…!”

Huh? Hold up. What’s with this reaction? Don’t tell me they’re shocked that I didn’t need to chant anything. Oh, and Lightning Burst? Mega Wall? Why was everyone mistaking our spells for mid-level ones?

“Ha! Cool, cool. You’ve got some fight in you after all, even though you’re the idiot son of the Great Mages. Eh, fine. I take back that ‘snowflake’ comment from earlier.”

“…Um, was there something in that little back-and-forth that made you want to rethink things?”

“Hmph. Don’t get too comfortable. If you thought I’ve already shown you my best, you’re dead wrong.”

“That’s what I figured. For you, that couldn’t have been more than a warm-up.”

“…You better watch your damn mouth!”

Whoa. Why was he getting all angry at me? I didn’t say anything wrong. I mean, this level of magic should be nothing for a child of the gods.

Elrado’s face contorted in rage as he unleashed his second attack—Flare, another elementary attack spell… Geez, he talked all tough, but he was still trying to size me up. I obstructed his efforts with Wall.

“Huh. I’m surprised you’re still standing after having a taste of my Mega Flare.”

“What? Mega Flare?”

…Seriously, what was this dude talking about? He had to know Mega Flare was mid-level, right? I mean, the spell had the word Mega in it for a reason. It was in a totally different league from your average Flare…which meant he must have been duping others into thinking his attacks were more advanced. A son from a noble family, my ass. Yeah, that had to be it. There was no other probable explanation.

“Heh. I’m gettin’ pretty pumped. It’s been a while since I could go all out…!”

“…This is only making you look more ridiculous, you know.”

“Huh? What’re you blabbin’ on about, dumb-ass?”

“I’m just saying I’ve unmasked your true nature. This whole ‘child of the gods’ business is a sham—all to pad your overinflated ego. I bet you begged your parents to falsify and spread those rumors.”

“…What?”

Bull’s-eye. A vein popped on Elrado’s temple.

“Now, now. Calm down. I can understand where you’re coming from. I’ve been through that phase, too, you know. Like calling some low-level spells by embarrassing names—even when they have legitimate ones. As boys, we all have a phase when we want to seem stronger. But wow. To call yourself a child of the gods. That’s overkill. Plus, you don’t even live up to the name. In terms of wit, you’re a child of the most average pare—”

“You’re goin’ dooooooown!” Elrado snapped, which meant I was right on the money.

Goodness, I was stupid for thinking I needed to be cautious.

“Congrats, bastard! You’re the first one to piss me off this much!”

“Is that so? Well, same goes for me. I’ve never met a dunce who contradicts his own unmerited title. First time for everything, I guess.”

“Damn youuuuuuuu!” Elrado boomed, scrunching his face into a demonic glare as he invoked his magic.

From my perspective, it was horseplay at best—a cheap, pointless diversion. In an instant, I was surrounded by his magic circles that had appeared in every direction. He was planning to fire off multiple Flares at once. How unimpressive. I mean, he was treating me like a kid, unleashing this spell as if it was his deadly finishing move.

Anyway, I put up another Wall as the flames threatened to close in on me and neutralized his attacks with a copper-colored film that covered my body from head to toe. No biggie. At least for me.

“Wha…?! H-how…?!”

“H-he fended off a special spell from the House of Duke Burks! A Giga Flare?!”

Huh? A Giga Flare? You callin’ that a Giga Flare?

“Don’t tell me my Giga Flare was useless…?! Y-yeah, right!”

Erm, I hate to break it to you, but you unleashed a bunch of regular Flares. Don’t go around referring to your measly attack with the name of a high-level spell…

Plus, I was the creator of spells powered by ancient runes. I was sorely disappointed by his actions, that was for sure. It was honestly sinful to say this was anywhere near advanced.

“…Elrado. You’ve made a grave mistake.”

“Huh?! What are you—?”

“It seems you don’t know the real deal. Allow me to show you a true Giga Flare,” I declared, visualizing a magic circle in my mind’s eye.

As it swelled with energy, a ten-merel circle appeared beneath his feet, releasing a gale of flames that tore through the earth.

“Whoaaaaaa?!”

“Wh-what is this magic?! I can feel the heat from back here!”

“Eeeeeeeeeek!”

A roaring, swirling crimson hellfire: Now, this was Giga Flare. Its attack range was small and concentrated, making it one of the strongest single-target combat spells.

Elrado had managed to cast Wall beforehand—not that it’d do him much good. Giga Flare would tear through his defenses without leaving behind a single piece of ash, meaning I had no choice but to cast a mid-level defense spell for him. All five layers of it, and while maintaining control of Giga Flare. But even that wasn’t enough to withstand its heat.

As the invocation finally burned through its magical energy, the effect of the spell tapered off, revealing Elrado’s charred body. It crumpled onto the ground.

“Wh-whoa… I-is he dead…?”

“Duh. He underestimated the son of the Great Mages.”

“He got what he deserved.”

Wrong. Elrado wasn’t dead. I made sure he wouldn’t die. I wouldn’t want to pointlessly take a life; that wasn’t my style. And on top of that, it’d be more trouble than it was worth for a commoner (me) to kill a noble heir.

…In either case, why was everyone and their cousin practically jumping out of their skin? I mean, sure, he was a bit scratched up, but anyone could fix him, easy.

When I cast Heal, another one of those elementary spells, his entire body became covered in a large magic circle.

“Ah…?! D-did I die just now…?!”

It’d be more accurate to say you almost died, buddy.

With eyes like saucers, Elrado continued to mutter incoherently to himself—buck naked. Well, it wasn’t that I couldn’t give him back his clothes, but I honestly couldn’t be bothered.

“““D-did he come back to life?!””” a chorus of voices cried out.

Geez, I’ve been trying to tell you that he was never dead to begin with.

For starters, even if I had brought him back from the dead, it wouldn’t have been a particularly impressive feat, especially while his human spirit was still loitering around in this world—basically, anytime for three days after death. As long as you took the proper measures before then, anyone could be brought back to life, no problem. I was honestly more surprised that this wasn’t common knowledge for students attending such a prestigious school.

Anyway, I approached Elrado, looking down on him.

“I hope you understand. What you witnessed just now was a true Giga Flare. Please make sure you don’t commit the same mistake going forward,” I warned slowly to drive that point home, emanating a menacing aura of I won’t forgive you next time.

Elrado nodded emphatically. Where was his senselessly high self-esteem? Seriously? Did a single brush with death break his spirit? How pathetic.

“Well then, Elrado. I’m sure we can agree that I’m the winner of this duel, right?”

He continued to nod with increased vigor.

Whoa. I can almost see an afterimage trailing behind his bobbing head.

“Very well. I’d like you to keep your promise now and apologize to Ginny—”

“I’m so sorry for everything, Lady Ginny! I will never harm you again! You will never see me before you again! Please! Please forgive me!” Elrado skidded onto the ground, groveling marvelously before her.

Huh. To think one near-death experience was all it took to turn him around. I bet he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

But I seriously doubted we’d ever be friends, unfortunately, seeing as he was eyeing me in the exact same way as my former subordinates and the general public had ogled me…in other words, in all-consuming fear. I knew better than to try to form a friendship with anyone who looked at me that way. It broke my heart, to be honest.

I heaved a heavy sigh just as Olivia approached me. “Hey, you. The son of our great heroes.”

I was unwittingly startled by her cool tone. “Y-yes, Lady Olivia? Everything I did was totally average—”

“You invoked your spell and cast another one over Elrado at the same time, right?”

“Y-yes. Is there something wrong?”

“In other words, you did a Double Cast.”

“Wh-what about it?”

“A D-Double Cast?! Y-you’re kidding?!”

“E-even the son of the Great Mages couldn’t possibly…!”

Th-this reaction again?

“U-um. Just a simple Double Cast. Yep. I’d be surprised to see someone cast twenty or thirty spells at a time, sure, but I don’t see why a—”

“In this era, that ‘simple Double Cast’ is considered a Lost Skill.”

“…I’m sorry?”

A L-Lost Skill? A Double Cast? Really?

I didn’t understand. I couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat just as Olivia grabbed both my shoulders firmly and snorted.

…Oh, this was bad. This was really bad.

“So this is the child of the Great Mages, huh? All your spells are considered Lost Skills. You’ve done a splendid job of demonstrating them to us.”

“B-but doesn’t something become a Lost Skill only when it doesn’t get handed down and dies out? Um, like Ultimatum Zero, for example.”

I brought up the case of a special attack spell that only the Demon Lord (me) had been able to cast. That’d be a Lost Skill for sure, but this? No chance.

“Well, after the Demon Lord died, there was a huge shift in mana in the atmosphere, you see. It diluted considerably. I’m guessing you know what mana means, don’t you? The source of magical energy in all living beings. This means spells are far weaker today than in the past—because of the rapid decline in the amount of mana.”

“I-is that so?”

“Yeah. But you think your spells are perfectly normal.” Olivia gave me a menacing smile.

“Your sense of ‘normal’ aligns with ancient values. Your way of thinking couldn’t be further from the norm in today’s magically degenerative world. Your Giga Flare? That’s known as Ultima Flare in this day and age. It’s undoubtedly one of the most famous among the Lost Skills. And it’s known as a superspecial attack spell.

“Plus, your Double Cast is another one of those unattainable techniques. That’s right, even your parents—the Great Mages—can’t cast two spells at once.” Olivia paused, her black ears and tail twitching, as she let out the slightest of smiles. “I wonder: Why in the world would you think your ancient standards are the norm?”

…………

………

…Ah, I see. That explains it.

That was why everyone was showering me with praise, even though I was some random villager. Sure, I’d reincarnated as an average human, thanks to my spell. But that’s where the problem had started: I’d become an “average human” according to my standards… But in this modern, magically deteriorated society, I was still extraordinary.

Ha-ha-ha. I’m screwed—so, so screwed.

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Someone help me.

“Well, ain’t it strange? I feel so nostalgic when I’m near your magical energy. Weird, right?” Olivia’s grip on my shoulders was tightening by the second, pressing my heels harder into the ground.

At the same time, my stomach was twisting and turning in new directions as she beamed at me.

“Hey, Ard Meteor… What are you?”