Chapter 99 - 92: Hikaru's Torturing Method

(One Week Later, In the Northern Part of the Continent)

The sun shined brightly, blazing even, but the unimaginable coldness in the village made it impossible for the demons to feel the warmth of the sun.

Only demons live in this village, if a human is ever spotted inside the village, the demons would literally tear them apart.

In this village, a single tavern exists. There weren't that many people inside and it was obvious that no one has cleaned this establishment for a long time now. Spider webs were everywhere, dust filled almost all the tables.

Behind the counter was a demon. He has a slim body, black hair, blood red eyes, and pale white skin. He wore a clean white shirt, bow tie, braces and smart black trouser. He held an emotionless face, and he just stood behind the counter, waiting for his next customer.

Then, the door of the tavern opened. It revealed a hooded man. He wore a mask beneath his hood. Footsteps sounded in the tavern as the hooded man walked towards the bartender to order something. He looks like he's missing an arm.

He sat on the chair in front of the bartender as he laid his hands on the table and said, "Give me something good to eat, preferably some eggs and bacon. And give me the most expensive wine in your establishment."

The bartender listed all of his orders and said, "I'll be right back." He then left to go to the backroom, where he prepares everything.

Soon he came back with all of his orders. Two plates of eggs and bacon and the most expensive wine they have. Even though the bottle of wine still hasn't been opened yet, the smell is already spreading throughout the tavern. It smelled sickeningly sweet and the smell of alcohol only got stronger when the hooded man opened it.

He drank straight from the bottle and slowly got drunk while eating his lunch.

And as he was eating, his eyes perked when he heard what the two demons were talking about behind him.

"Hey, did you get the news about the Kingdom of Humans?"

"What news?"

"A new King has taken over the kingdom, not only that, he made the former King his slave. No one has yet to see him except for his representative. He said that he will wait for his friend to come back, until that happens, he won't let go of the head nobles he holds hostage inside the throne room of the castle."

"Wow, I haven't been quite active lately on the news. But damn, that new King of Humans is quite savage, isn't he? He acts just like a demon would!"

"Yeah, but this can also mean to be very grave news for our demon race."

"How so?"

"That new King of Humans is way more powerful than the former King. There's a good chance that our forces will lose in the next war."

"I'm f.u.c.k.i.e.d, I'm part of the forces of our empire. By the way, what's the name of the Human King?"

The hooded man's ears perked even more just to hear who the new King is.

"I heard that his name is Hikaru, that's all."

The hooded man suddenly stood up, surprising everyone in the Tavern. The hooded man then said, "Hey boss, give me 10 more of that amazing wine of yours. I'll be meeting my friend soon."

The bartender did as he was told, and a few minutes later, the hooded man left. As the hooded man left, the bartender narrowed his eyes at him and looked at his customers. They all looked at each other and nodded.

A feast would start soon, for this is the very first human to enter this village after a long time.

As the hooded man left the village and walked into the thick and deeply snowed forest, the demonic residence of the village started gathering. This did not go unnoticed by the hooded man.

He would've preferred to be someone neutral towards the demons, but since they're coming towards him, wouldn't it be disrespectful to ignore them?

He took off his hood, revealing Hiroshi who had a little bit of facial hair on his face, and hid it inside his spatial bag, then walked back to that demonic village.

When he came back to that village again, he saw hundreds of demons surrounding him in every possible direction there was.

Hiroshi did not speak, and before the demons could speak, he used one of his skills to paralyze all of them.

"Wide Ranged Magic, Paralyze."

*Crackle* *Crackle*

Now, all of the demons couldn't move. One by one, he killed them with his dagger by stabbing them in the heart twice. It was bloody and brutal, but this was necessary. All demons have multiple hearts, making them harder to kill. But common demons only have two hearts, making this easy for Hiroshi.

But, since demon hearts were expensive in the Human Kingdom, he would carve out some of them. The heart must be kept undamaged, or it won't sell.

Demon Hearts are ingredients for temporary strength potions, or if the alchemist is talented enough, they could make a strength potion that could permanently increase one's physical strength. Although just a little.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm." Hiroshi hummed as he proceeded to carve out another demon's hearts. It was hard to not damage the demon's heart, since it's quite fragile. One wrong move might as well permanently damage a demon's heart.

But that's it, if a demon loves, it's supposed to be eternal. Once their hearts get broken, they either die or be consumed by their untamable rage.

The example of this was the former Demon King's daughter, who fell in love with the hero. But when she learned of the hero's disappearance, she died of sadness. She is the shame of the demon race, falling in love with a human is an extreme crime towards the society built by the demons.

Most Demons view humans as inferior creatures, because demons, from the moment they are born, already have the strength of a normal a.d.u.l.t human. Thus, they think that they're superior than them.

But, as strong as they may be, humankind has the blessings from the goddess, Deagaia. So they're more or less the same.

But demons cannot compete with humans on one thing.

Depravity. Humanity is arguably the most depraved creature on this planet. They enslaved their fellow kin, eat them, **** them, experiment on them, and they would sometimes cause genocides.

Throughout history, it's been shown that humanity is indeed more depraved than demons, beastmen, and elves.

Anyway, Hiroshi now embarks on his journey back to the Kingdom of Humans.

Now, let's see what happened to the nobles that Hikaru held hostage in the castle.

(Imperial Throne Room of the Kingdom of Humans)

It's been one week, yet Hikaru still hasn't removed their restraints. In this one week, they've learned that he, the new King, is a really sadistic guy. He loves torturing them by showing the foods he ate.

You see, just after 3 days of not eating, they are already hungry as hell. They were losing their minds over the fact that they can't eat, but Hikaru only makes that worse.

Over the course of the week, Hikaru would magically take out some delicious food and eat them right in front of them, the nobles.

Steak, whole turkey, chocolate, rice, and anything that was delicious, he brought them out. He even had a feast right in front of them, thus torturing them even further!

The nobles had no choice but to give in, but even then, Hikaru still refused to let them go or feed them. The only person he fed was that new Duke he appointed, Duke Bloodlaviline.

For a whole week, they didn't eat nor drink anything. They have been surviving off their mana, but it would run out soon. And eventually, they would starve to death.

Hikaru sat at the table he brought in the throne room, and said quite loudly for them to hear, "It seems like Hiroshi just heard of me being here, he should be here in another five days." He used his mana sense to watch Hiroshi's adventure throughout the week he's been here. He didn't leave the Throne Room and only ordered servants to do things for him.

It turns out, paying anyone with enough money can make them loyal to you for the rest of their lives.

Normally, a servant's salary is only just 50 silver coins a month. But since the day Hikaru took over, he promised them that he would pay each and all of them 10 gold coins every month from now on.

Well, after that, let's just say that they were beyond overjoyed.

Of course, Hikaru didn't take that money from his own stash, he took them from the King's vault. He ordered Cristoff to go to the vault and give every servant in the castle 10 gold coins. And Hikaru gave Cristoff 1000 gold coins, this time from his own money.

Cristoff seems like a talented guy. He can finish mountains of paperworks in less than 3 hours, and he's also talented towards military strategies and combat style.

And right now, all of the people inside the throne room, except for Hikaru, almost had a heart attack after hearing his words.

This is literal hell for them right now…

And in all this, Keiko is slowly recognizing who Hikaru truly was. But, for her, it was impossible that that guy is her ex.

The Hikaru she knew was socially awkward, didn't like talking to people, after his shifts, he would hole himself inside his house. And there is no possibility that this is Hikaru she knew, because her EX is still back on earth. The last time she heard was that he became a retard who couldn't speak a single word.

Meanwhile, Hikaru has long known who Keiko was. He just didn't care enough about her. Keiko, from all those time he spent with her, is an extremely materialistic woman. No, materialistic is not the right word for her. She's the type of person who would do anything to rise in a higher position in society, while stepping down on people like ladders on her way up.

But he didn't judge her. After all, he's quite a hypocrite himself, right?