Chapter 266

Chapter 266

# 310

Stories of Others (1)

#1 Their Situation: The Situation of a Certain Demon Lord

“Argh......!”

Blood slowly oozed from his chest.

The pain was intense. Since becoming the Demon King, he had never experienced such agony.

“What... was that?”

A deep wound carved into his side by the hero, who had risked everything. An unexpected, brilliant move.

Truly the savior of the world, the natural enemy of the Demon King!

Ironbat, the Hero, proved his title by pushing me to the brink, even burning his own life force.

Had I defended instead of attacking, I would have fallen to his sword.

But, my instincts honed through countless missions for the organization of evil, and later as the Demon King overcoming numerous trials, chose attack over defense.

That choice sealed the hero’s fate. Until that monster appeared.

“Ugh.......”

Blood flowed from the wound inflicted by that monster. It was a severe injury.

As soon as the sword pierced my heart, it moved with such fluidity it felt unbelievable to have a blade lodged inside.

Had my reaction been slower, my heart and surrounding organs would have been shredded.

“My recovery is slow.”

Even pouring healing potions and using recovery magic simultaneously couldn’t easily heal such a grievous wound.

Moreover, I couldn’t benefit from recovery magic.

The Demon King is one who exists outside the world.

Immune to powers created by the world’s laws, like magic.

This is a double-edged sword.

While I am immune to enemy attack spells or curses, I am also immune to healing magic and various buff spells.

Thus, this wound had to heal naturally, but the situation was dire.

Bang!

“There he is!”

“Damn it!”

Before I could hear them, the attacks had already begun.

The Karan Empire. The strongest human nation and the de facto ruler of the continent.

And...

“Why on earth?”

They were specialists in pursuit.

“Die!”

“I won’t die to a nameless knight!”

A man, covered in dirt and dust, charged at me with a swinging sword.

I drew my own sword to block his, slashing at his chest...!

“Damn it, he’s strong!”

“Crazy...”

That’s what I wanted to say.

No matter how skilled the empire’s knights are, I was once hailed as the strongest hero.

With divine aid, I single-handedly slayed a dragon, and my abilities have remained at their peak even after becoming the Demon King.

Yet, an unknown knight could block my attacks!

The empire was powerful enough to hide such monstrous talents.

“Are you an imperial knight?”

With this level of skill, he could be the head of the King’s knights in a Kingdom without a Swordmaster.

And he didn’t look even thirty, yet had such abilities.

“What nonsense! A rookie like me can’t be a knight!”

Clang!

I was slightly delayed in reacting to the knight’s swing due to his words.

“What does he mean?”

A rookie?

If this was a rookie, then all the knights on the continent would be newborns.

“Just as I said! I’m an apprentice knight of the empire!”

“What on earth are you talking about!”

It was an incomprehensible statement.

Having traveled through many Kingdoms as a hero, I assessed that he was definitely at the level of a small Kingdom’s knight commander.

Even the empire wouldn’t call someone of such skill an apprentice.

“Is it a code?”

Then he must be someone from a very special organization within the empire, with the code name ‘apprentice’.

“What are you babbling about since earlier!”

“Ugh......!”

A strike from the unknown knight, called apprentice, made blood spurt from my heart. The wound had reopened.

“I can’t waste more time on someone like you!”

No matter how hidden they are, I am the Demon King.

The bringer of terror to the world.

The destroyer of worlds.

Until I fall to the hero’s sword, I will never fall!

“Haaah!”

Despite his great skills, pure swordsmanship was beneath me.

The apprentice couldn’t block my strike, learned at the risk of my life under that Professor, and was sent flying.

“It hasn’t fully recovered yet?”

“I told you not to summon it...”

“What... what is this?”

The Miria on the ground started to grumble.

“Sorry. My colleague wanted to see it.”

“Can I go now? This is annoying.”

“Yes, yes.”

When my eyes met Miria lying on the ground, I could only nod.

“Then I’ll go?”

“Good work.”

Miria waved at the disappearing corpse of Miria.

“What on earth is that?”

I didn’t know what it was, but it was terrifying.

Two Mirias.

If there were two Mirias, they might be able to take on the Professor.

“A familiar.”

“A familiar?”

“Yes. A doppelg?nger. I saw it a while ago and thought it might be useful, so I made a contract.”

Doppelg?nger? From before?

Something came to mind.

“Could it be... from the fall of Howling?”

“Yes. It was effective enough to fool even the imperial army, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

Indeed, the effectiveness of the doppelg?nger was extraordinary, fooling tens of thousands of the empire’s soldiers. The doppelg?nger could not only replicate a person’s appearance but also mimic certain aspects of their personality and abilities.

Especially compared to magically animated dolls or golems, doppelg?ngers were much more natural and intelligent, making them highly useful.

During the training in Howling, we even fought against the doppelg?ngers of previous batch seniors.

However, the doppelg?nger had a significant drawback as a summoned creature.

“Doppelg?ngers are demons, aren’t they?”

That’s right. Doppelg?ngers were demons, and high-level ones at that.

Even though they weren’t singular entities like archdemons, making them easier to contract with, they were still demons.

Making a contract with such beings wouldn’t be easy...

“Of course it is. Have you forgotten what we have?”

“What? Did you make a fraudulent contract or something?”

There was a case where the archdemon Surtr, incomparable to a doppelg?nger, was forced into a slave contract by the Professor.

If Miria, Professor’s apprentice, did something similar, it wouldn’t be surprising.

“Nope.”

“No?”

“Yeah. That kind of fraud requires deep knowledge of demons. I used the Eugrasia method.”

“The Eugrasia method?”

Eugrasia, that prestigious academy where the Professor was a faculty member.

Since Professor taught there, it must have turned into a new hell,

“Could it be a natural occurrence?”

It was quite possible that demons had arisen in the new hell and made contracts with the students!

“That’s impossible.”

“It seems possible.”

Miria denied it, but if it were the Professor, it seemed entirely plausible.

“That’s not it. The Eugrasia method means...”

I listened quietly to Miria’s explanation.

In some sense, it was an absurd method, and in another, it made perfect sense.

“So, you summon it first and, before it can get a grip and reverse summon, you beat it with a wooden bat? Until it agrees to the contract?”

“Yep.”

I wanted to ask the calmly nodding Miria one thing.

What color is your blood?

“Red.”

“No need to answer that. Argh...!”

As soon as I screamed, my wound burst open, and blood started to flow again.

Damn! It was a severe injury that would take at least a week to heal.

“What are you planning to do now?”

Clearly, the Demon King was more seriously injured than I was.

There was no choice.

No matter how strong the Demon King was, there was no way he could be fine after having his heart slashed to shreds.

If I pursued him now, I could defeat the Demon King and save the world. And as a bonus, I could end my contract and live a free life.

“What else? As the Professor taught, I’ll set a trap.”

But I knew that Miria wouldn’t want that.

“A bait that can catch the Demon King, the Professor, and my recipe all at once.”

Miria’s faint smile naturally reminded me of the Professor.

To be honest, if this guy is the mastermind, I doubt I could stop him.

Could he possibly be the final enemy or something? Hopefully not, right?

-Sorry. I don’t know...

Oh, damn god, stay quiet at times like this!