Chapter 283: Demon King’s Pedigree

Launching multiple arrows at once was a first attempt. Deon stared at the Demon King, dumbfounded for a moment, then wiped his palm on his pants and took the bow and quiver.

He ignored the gaze that flickered between his hands and pants and drew the bowstring.

…….

The result was… naturally, a success.

Honestly, it was too easy. It wasn’t like he didn’t know how to shoot a bow at all. He grasped the feeling right away after just one shot.

As he readily did as he was told, the Demon King began to move to places where the wind was getting stronger and stronger, starting the same training again.

“…By the way.”

Something came to mind as he killed the magical beasts.

Deon, who had taken out three arrows in the place they had just arrived, opened his mouth as he gauged the wind.

“Don’t you feel any emotions at all?”

“About what?”

“I’m talking about the magical beasts and demons.”

Red pupils glanced sideways, examining the Demon King’s expression.

“When you think about it, aren’t they your children? I can understand magical beasts, but quite a few capable legion commanders among the demons have died. Don’t you feel anger or sadness?”

“…Ah.”

Is it because the wind is strong? Untied hair flutters here and there, tangling around the drawn bowstring. Deon frowned.

And then, someone else’s hand touched his head.

“‘Children,’ you say….”

The Demon King, who had gathered his white hair, which had grown quite a bit and reached down to his shoulder blades, into one hand, pulled and untied his ribbon that he wore instead of a necktie.

A sneering voice followed.

“Certainly, others might think so.”

He couldn’t see his face because he was behind him, but he wasn’t so oblivious as to not know this was a sneer. Deon frowned with bewilderment.

“Where should I start explaining this from….”

He felt hands combing through his hair. He heard the sound of hair falling between his fingers.

“First of all, do you know that ‘Demon Kings’ and ‘demons’ are not the same race?”

“…Pardon?”

What is that… Demons are born from the Demon King, so isn’t it natural that they are the same race? He knew that the Demon King was also included in the scope of ‘demons’, but is that not the case?

Reading the air of confusion, the Demon King chuckled and said. Now, information that only the Demon King knew poured down onto the Hero’s head.

“Demon Kings are a ‘single race’ modeled after humans.”

The past world hastily created the Demon King for the sole purpose of killing the Hero. In other words, they didn’t put much effort into the appearance. Since it was disposable from the start, there was no need to bother making it carefully.

Thus, they said they roughly modeled it after the appearance of the target to be killed.

In that way, the first Demon King was created by modeling after the Hero’s race, ‘humanity’, but became something ambiguous to be called human.

“If you are ‘Humanity A’, then the Demon King would be about ‘Humanity B’. To use plants as an analogy, it would be like red roses and black roses, and to use animals, it would be divided into pets or experimental animals of the same species.”

Therefore, even though they are bound by the same framework of ‘humanity’, the difference in affection from the world is so extreme depending on whether it is ‘A’ or ‘B’.

‘Truly miserable.’

The Demon King, who took his hand off his neatly tied hair, met his red pupils and smiled, folding his eyes as if to show off. The only part different from humans hid between his eyelids, and a handsome man with a strange atmosphere was reflected in Deon’s retina.

There, Deon realized.

“…It’s true.”

It’s not a lie.

Truly, he is human, but means he is not human.

“There’s no reason to lie, is there?”

The Demon King shrugged. Deon didn’t bother to answer because he knew it wasn’t a question asking for an answer.

He just stared blankly at the familiar man in front of him, whose created purpose was different from being of the same race, and whose roots were too closely intertwined to be called a different race. Then suddenly, a pointless thought popped into his head.

‘If humans and Demon Kings were compared to a family tree, wouldn’t they be relatives, and among them, cousins?’

Deon reached out his hand. His fingertips are directed towards the Demon King’s symbol hidden between his curved eyes. The Demon King smiled at the warmth that seemed to touch his eye area.

“Ironically, this is proof that ‘Demon Kings’ were made in the image of humans, and it’s the only line that distinguishes ‘humans’ and ‘Demon Kings’.”

“?”

“Well… I don’t think there’s any need to explain this far.”

Among humans, they say that eyes are windows to the soul, or something like that. In any case, the ‘human’ Demon King was no exception, so the error that occurred due to focusing on the primordial purpose of ‘killing the Hero’ – magic power – was reflected in his eyes and became like this.

But the topic of conversation right now is not this. Before the story went elsewhere, the Demon King corrected the flow of the conversation.

“On the other hand, demons and magical beasts are ‘errors’ and ‘mutations’ born from such Demon Kings.”

“… ?”

“It means that they are fools who were born arbitrarily even though no one, not even ‘Demon Kings’ like myself, intended to create them.”

Fools who were born arbitrarily even though they were not intended and nothing special was done.

They are fools who were born with inconsistent flowing power dwelling in various elements or gathering among themselves, with their own respective appearances. At least, he started to rule by gathering demons who have reason and can communicate, but that was only for convenience.

“None of the past Demon Kings.”

It wasn’t because they considered them their children or the same race.

“‘Demons’ were not considered the same race. Of course. This is not an emotional issue, but a strictly objective fact.”

Since there is a commonality of magic power, it cannot be said that there is no connection at all. But that does not lead to ‘children’ or ‘same race’. Crucially, the root of ‘demons’ does not belong to ‘humanity’.

Magical beasts are needless to say, so let’s move on, and demons also take on a human form, albeit clumsily and instinctively, following the origin of the owner of the magic power that makes up their flesh, but in the end, their eyes cannot reflect the origin.

Since they do not have the greatest characteristic of humanity, ‘demons’ are not ‘humanity’ unlike ‘Demon Kings’.

“… ?”

A question mark floated above Deon’s head as if he didn’t understand.

I don’t want to go on and on with useless talk, but how should I explain it in an easy-to-understand way? The Demon King, who put his bent index finger on his chin and pondered for a moment, soon opened his mouth.

“To put it more intuitively, you humans, just because you came out of the womb, you….”

“Ah.”

“Sh….”

“Enough. I understand.”

“Feces….”

“The meaning doesn’t change just because the word changes.”

Fatigue swept across Deon’s face.

A playful laugh burst out low, as if he liked the reaction quite a bit.

“Why are you so disgusted? If you’re human, you’ll have physiological phenomena, won’t you?”

“…At least that disappeared after I became a Hero.”

“Ah, right. You’re the Hero.”

There’s no way the Hero’s body would create useless waste except for ‘shards’.

“Anyway, humans don’t consider ‘that’ as the same race, right? You don’t have any special affection for it either. It can be seen as the same as that.”

“…Yes.”

There is a big difference in that the poop has its own will and emotions and speaks, but Deon chose to move on without bothering to argue. He roughly understood what he meant. As long as the meaning gets across, that’s enough.

Honestly, he doesn’t want to talk about that dirty story anymore.

‘Anyway, it means that even if demons, even legion commanders, die and disappear, he doesn’t even bat an eye.’

Even if he can feel displeasure or anger by calculating profit and loss, he does not attach meaning to death itself.

So that’s why he was so calm. Deon nodded inwardly.

Then it’s time to practice archery again. He raised his head and looked at the magical beasts that were his targets. He put all three arrows on the bowstring and drew.

‘…….’

Missed.

Deon, seeing the arrows that were stuck far away from the target due to the strong wind, clicked his fingers as if gauging the margin of error.

At that time, an outstretched hand took the bow.

“Rather, you should aim a little more in the opposite direction of the wind.”

The Demon King, who took out three arrows from the quiver, aimed the bowstring far away from the target. Deon stared at him without much thought for a moment, and the cuff buttons on the ends of his sleeves were particularly eye-catching, so Deon slightly tilted his head.

‘Were those originally there…?’

It is such a beautiful design that nobles, as well as artists, would go crazy for it. Even he, who has no knowledge of art, knows that he cannot casually assess its value.

However… the Demon King hates cumbersome things, so he preferred simple designs made of only cloth without unnecessary decorations rather than fancy ones, as far as he remembers…? As such, the cuff buttons were also simple designs that were not noticeable.

Why is he wearing something like that all of a sudden? The gaze that was examining him with doubt soon caught an subtle unsettling detail.

‘Come to think of it, the design of the cuff buttons themselves is fancy… but the gemstone embedded in the center is crude.’

Like… a mana stone.

He was a little late to notice because of the eye-catching design, but when he looked closely, he could definitely tell. That’s a mana stone.

The arrows that were shot pierced through the magical beasts before he knew it, but Deon didn’t even glance at them. Rather, he suddenly spoke to the Demon King, who was turning around to see if he had seen properly.

“That, the design is really pretty.”

“Huh? Ah, this.”

What kind of magic is cast on it?

Whether he knew his busy head or not, the Demon King, who looked back at his wrist, glanced at Deon and then asked with an eye smile.

“Does it suit me?”

Deon did not miss the moment when the Demon King paused for a moment before saying those words.

“…It’s not that it doesn’t suit you… but is it okay to walk around places like this wearing that?”

“Hmm?”

“It looks precious. It would be troublesome if you lost it.”

He doesn’t want to admit it, but it suits him terribly well.

If it’s that fancy, only the sleeves should be visible, but is it because the face is the completion? He looks very noble. You unlucky bastard.

‘…More important than that….’

When did he start wearing this, what kind of magic is cast on it, and so on….

He doesn’t have a reason to look closely at his sleeves, so he doesn’t know. Judging from the Demon King’s atmosphere and attitude, it doesn’t seem like he’ll answer even if he asks.

The way he naturally deals with surprise questions, he’s still unlucky. Ptooey.

In the meantime, the Demon King nodded.

“I’m planning to use it only a few times anyway. And precious, thank you for the compliment.”

“… ?”

“I made this.”

…Talented.

“But, is it okay for you to be hanging out with me like this right now?”

“?”

The Demon King grinned ominously.

“The magical beasts are running away.”

“Ah…!”

“Make sure to catch them all before they run away this time too. Of course, with a bow.”

…….

Deon drew the bowstring without a word.

Several fiercely flying arrows accurately cut off the targets’ breath. Even though the wind was still blowing strongly, his hair was no longer in the way, so Deon smoothed his low-tied hair once and then took out new arrows, speaking as if in passing.

“You’re good at tying hair.”

“Well, am I not? I used to have long hair too.”

“?”

“Did it come down to my waist?”

It was annoying when drawing pictures or playing musical instruments, so I tied it up.

A hand that was drawing the bowstring stopped, seemingly surprised. The Demon King glanced at the sky and shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s almost time, let’s finish up and go back.”