A resounding shriek echoed from the Demon Capital Bank’s counter.
“How much?!”
A uniformed orc security guard quickly turned to look at the counter, but he turned away with a harrumph when he saw that it was just an ugly human.
The female goblin sitting behind the counter looked shyly at Roan, whose mouth had opened so wide that an egg could be thrown inside.
“Two million kyrats... Sir, are you sure you want to withdraw everything?”
‘Now that I’m taking a closer look, this customer looks quite dashing.’
Humans might be beneath high demons in hell’s hierarchy, but they had value in scarcity. Furthermore, there were rumors that, with the exception of their noses and ears, humans were longer than goblins in all aspects.
‘I guess I can make an exception for him if he invites me out for a meal...’
“It’s fine. I’ll just... withdraw 10,000 kyrats first,” Roan quickly calmed himself down and replied.
He thought that the card would have, at most, a few thousand kyrats, since his monthly living expenses amounted to around 2000. Not even in his wildest imagination did he expect there to be a seven-digit figure in there.
‘Did Father Jeffrey accidentally give me his private account?’
The possibility of that happening was as good as null, but Roan couldn’t help but worry.
‘I should take a detour and pay him a visit in the West District’s Ferocious Ghost Street. I should return the money to him if he got it wrong.’
The female goblin counted ten thousand-kyrat bills twice before placing them neatly on the copper plate. These bills were made out of fire-resistant materials, and it was rumored that they wouldn’t be impaired even when boiled in lava.
This was Roan’s first time seeing the highest denomination note despite having lived in hell for eighteen years. The notes felt searing in his hands.
“Sir, please check the sum,” the female goblin reminded with a slightly raised pitch as she twirled like talon-like forefinger around her long ear.
Roan didn’t expect goblins to be so expressive.
All this while, he thought their only trait was gluttony since he had only seen them in the West Tower’s canteen.
“All right, thank you.”
Roan stuffed the money into his wallet before striding off, much to the female goblin’s shock. Not even her green foundation could conceal the redness glowing on her face, and her adoring eyes morphed into the most vicious curse.
‘How can an ugly human be this rude?! What are you showing off for? Disgusting! Prawn head! ¥%¥#@!’
...
Demons of all shapes and sizes walked along the Demon Capital’s West District’s Ferocious Ghost Street.
Some were as tall as giants. Some were as short as dwarves. Some had countless legs. Some had eyes that covered half their faces... and some weren’t even mammals but giant worms who swam butterfly stroke in the lava or seemingly harmless but fatal carnivorous plants.
There was a distinctive difference between them and high demons.
Lower demons, who formed the bulk of hell’s populace, tended to have hybrid bloodlines, so they weren’t classified into a specific race. Rather, they were collectively termed as ‘demonoids’.
That was a term mainly used to discriminate lower demons from high demons.
But the distinction between demonoids and demons had already faded. Only antiques like Principal Evan cared about such semantics. The new-generation demons didn’t care about it. ṝ
This was where Father Jeffrey’s church was located.
Roan sensed sharp gazes on him as soon as he stepped onto the street.
Non-clergyman humans were extremely conspicuous entities in hell... they were so conspicuous that everyone wanted to have a taste of them.
And this was one of the reasons Roan hardly ‘went home’ after getting into the Demon King Academy.
“Go ahead and do what you want.” Father Jeffrey patted Roan’s shoulder.
His eyes were filled with pride and approval like a true father.
“Come back and take a breather if you ever get tired. I’ll always be here.”
...
The purple light scattered from the ceiling slowly faded to darkness.
The night-befallen Demon Capital resembled a snoring dragon. Only the streetlamps and lava provided bits of illumination on the streets.
Under Father Jeffrey’s invitation, Roan had dinner with the church’s orphans and slept in the dormitory he had spent sixteen years in for the first time in a long time.
The dormitory was refurbished from an old chapel; it was a wide room with thirty beds. All the church’s orphans stayed here.
These orphans came from different races—there were unoculias, tendrilum, centaurs, felisapiens, and even slimes. (T/N: One-eyed monsters, tentacle monsters, and catmen)
Just as Roan was about to fall asleep, a bunch of wingless ‘lower demons’ gathered around him and blinked their eyes in curiosity. They chattered like there was no tomorrow.
It evoked a feeling of deja vu like something similar had just happened not too long ago.
“Big brother Roan, I heard that you’re planning to become a demon king?!”
“Whee, I want to be a demon king too!”
“I’ll be your claws!”
“I’ll be your bride!”
“Wrong! A demon king wouldn’t have a bride!”
“I’ll play the village!”
“Aiya, I captured you.”
“Heh, let’s lock him up and torture him!”
“Enough, enough. Calm down, or Father Jeffrey might come knocking.”
Seeing how the rascals were slowly getting out of hand, Roan quickly stepped in and evicted him from his bed.
‘Something is wrong with the church’s upbringing... Oh wait, this is hell. It doesn’t seem that wrong to teach children to torture villagers in hell...’
After the lower demons dozed off, Roan lay on his bed too. He was planning to meditate and take a quick look at the forums, but he was so tired that he fell asleep right away.
Meanwhile, in another world where the purple chandelier didn’t shine, the players, who were hyped up but had nowhere to vent their energy, began ‘warmly greeting’ the developers on the forums.
Orcknight: “...%¥@#&! Why are you blocking my view?! (Angry)”
Soreloser: “Dogshit developers, come out! I’ll beat the shit out of you! (Angry)”
Minowarrior: “Succubus! Succubus! I demand a change of NPC!”
Bingtanghulu: “Damn it! I could at least see him just now, but now I can’t see anything at all!”
Lambskewer: “Argh, it itches! I feel like ten thousand ants are crawling on my body!”
Autumnleaf: “Are you all right? (Sweats)”
In a small bedroom, Zhao Jinyan was so stunned that he didn’t even notice his half-eaten popsicle falling to the ground.
‘They are already showing signs of addiction? Is this game really all right?!”