I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 157

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 157

 

It wasn’t my first war, but I had never participated as a commander rather than a soldier. Let alone as a lord. Naturally, it couldn’t be easy, and I experienced many trials and errors.

 

Many people died. I nearly died several times myself.

 

From that point on, it seemed I had little desire for survival.

 

Only one thing remained. Climbing to higher positions, seeing and experiencing more. Only the pleasure and sense of achievement from my changing status moved me.

 

Those who had praised me quickly changed their attitudes. The territory residents groaned in pain day by day. Resentment toward me surged from all directions.

 

“Alde, Medei…. This insane warmonger lord!”

 

I had to be careful of poison when eating, and prepare for assassination when sleeping.

 

However, no rebellion actually occurred.

 

“Still, doesn’t he always stand at the front?”

 

“He doesn’t avoid the battlefield. He’s different from other lords.”

 

Perhaps it was thanks to my experience of jumping into battlefields as a soldier and mercenary.

 

I knew what their greatest complaint against commanders was, and I tried to fix at least that.

 

I left battle plans and such to the staff and swept through battlefields. With knights who had gained experience through years of war, there was nothing to fear.

 

I steadily occupied surrounding territories. I expanded the land and trained soldiers to wage larger wars.

 

Other lords who saw me like this also started wars. Wars spread across the entire continent. Finally, when someone began calling himself king.

 

The real king moved.

 

“You.”

 

The king with a bored face, sitting on a throne carried by slaves, said so.

 

“Alde Medei. Baron. Is that right?”

 

“Alde Medei. Baron. Right?”

 

They waged war for several years. They won the war against the count’s house and seized the duke’s territory. They were called by many titles.

 

The Lion of Medei, warmonger, tyrant. And king of the kingdom of Medei.

 

But the king before his eyes denied all of it with a single word.

 

Baron Alde Medei.

 

A single remark that dismissed everything he had built with his own hands. He had at least been called a baron, but even that could not be said to be something he had earned himself.

 

I was furious.

 

However, he didn’t even dare to rebel.

 

The army owned by the king was mighty. The knights loyal to him were beyond what words like “excellent” could fully express.

 

The elite soldiers trained before him and the Iron Blood Knights were all meaningless.

 

A sea of corpses and blood.

 

The loyal ones are already dead. Only those who quickly bowed their heads to the king’s procession have survived.

 

Only then did he understand the behavior of the other lords who had been cautiously watching from the sidelines. They had been afraid. They knew that the moment the crouching king took action, everything they possessed would become meaningless.

 

The actions of those who belatedly jumped into the war also made sense. The king had left him alone to rampage like a mad colt. They thought perhaps the king’s power had reached its limit, that maybe now was the chance to surpass the king. However.

 

“…I cannot understand your thinking.”

 

Only the king’s thoughts were incomprehensible.

 

The king is strong. The power he wields, the soldiers he commands—these are incomprehensible forces that surpass what all other lords possess.

 

How must she have appeared in his eyes? Why had he left her alone all this time, and why was he punishing her now?

 

The king looked down at me coldly and spoke.

 

“I didn’t get an answer.”

 

I felt an overwhelming sense of pressure. Even breathing was difficult.

 

“Well, whatever. I’m going back.”

 

The king was about to leave like that.

 

Only when I barely escaped the crushing pressure and could breathe again did I finally realize my situation.

 

All the loyal soldiers and knights are dead. Only the wolves remain. What will become of me if the king leaves like this? When the lord who dragged them through years of war has lost everything and been left in misery, what will they do? What would I have done?

 

I might die. No, I will die.

 

The survival instinct I thought I had forgotten suddenly flared up. I didn’t want to die like this.

 

So I cried out.

 

“Father…!”

 

The king stopped.

 

“I know! I know that you loved our mother, Sheila!”

 

It wasn’t certainty. It was merely a vague possibility that had occurred to me.

 

His actions that stopped the war between Medei and Lanvis, which were merely baron houses. The supplies and soldiers that supported Medei in the resumed war. It was a small possibility that emerged from combining the information gathered through repeated wars.

 

However, I bet my life on that possibility.

 

Just as I had done before, I expected this lie would save my life. I believed without doubt that it would change my life once again.

 

Pfft.

 

On the quiet battlefield, such a deflating sound seemed to be heard.

 

“Liar Alde.”

 

A feeling as if all the blood in my body was turning cold.

 

“Do you mock me.”

 

And hell unfolded.

 

* * *

 

The King’s power was mighty.

 

He performed miracles that could heal even those facing death. That miracle was directed at me.

 

Honey was smeared on my body, and I was placed inside a hollowed-out tree.

 

All kinds of insects swarmed. They licked the honey and bit my body. They tore flesh, sucked blood, and burrowed into my body.

 

At first it was itchy. That alone was already driving me insane. My eyes had long been eaten away, and my genitals and tongue were torn off. Yet I could not die.

 

The narrow space prevented me from moving. Even if it had been spacious, it wouldn’t have made much difference. It had been quite a long time since each muscle had ceased to function properly.

 

Even in such a situation, I did not die.

 

Do you know the pain of being unable to die even when you want to?

 

Do you know the terror felt at the fact of surviving each day?

 

There was no relief. I just endured, praying for this life that seemed like it would never end to finally end.

 

I recalled the priests who had spouted nothing but empty words, telling us to stop the war. I recalled their gestures as they condemned me to fall into hell. I recalled myself hanging them up and mocking them. If I could go back, I would have somehow grabbed onto their trouser legs and begged.

 

If there was such a thing as a damn god, please take my life.

 

I was already in hell, so please forgive me.

 

In this hell, time had no meaning. Forever, forever. It was clear I could not escape until the King’s interest waned. I struggled with such thoughts. Then one day it happened.

 

-Child.

 

A warm and benevolent voice was heard.

 

-My child.

 

It must be because I had gone mad. These insects had surely burrowed into my brain as well.

 

-Your earnest prayer has reached me.

 

Even thinking so, I had no choice but to believe. If there really was a god, if one had come to hear my prayer. I would do anything, so please take my life…

 

-I will grant one of your wishes.

 

God was before my eyes.

 

It was not the dark world I had known. The vast garden was beautiful, and it seemed like singing could be heard from somewhere.

 

I no longer felt pain. My eyes and ears, which had surely been destroyed, perceived the world.

 

God waited quietly until I calmed down.

 

“You are…”

 

-I am your mother. The mother of all things. You call me Goddess.

 

Her face could not be seen.

 

It was because she was so beautiful that it was impossible for human eyes to contain her. The voice was the same. It was her will being conveyed.

 

-Your voice has reached me. Your soul has reached me. Behold.

 

Below the beautiful garden, I saw a forest. I saw a tree. I saw the terrible form contained within it.

 

-That is the situation you are currently in.

 

Thousands, tens of thousands of insects were devouring me. My body that regenerated no matter how much they ate was the finest food. They laid eggs inside and bred endlessly.

 

-Pitiful. Regrettable. Heartbreaking.

 

“….”

 

It was a nauseating sight. It was a shocking sight that I couldn’t even open my mouth to. Just looking at it seemed to bring that pain to me.

 

“…Did you say you would grant my wish.”

 

-Yes. I always speak only the truth. Because I am your truthful mother, your god.

 

My wish was one thing. To be freed from this terrible pain. To end my life that would not end due to the King’s power.

 

Just as I was about to say so, the Goddess spoke.

 

-I will make one of your lies into truth.

 

She would gift me something even greater than that.

 

She gestured. The terrible reality disappeared before my eyes.

 

-What you said to the hunter about being together.

 

A new scene appeared before my eyes.

 

A cabin in the forest next to the rural village. The cabin I had burned down was standing intact. I was chopping firewood with a grumpy face, and in the distance the hunter was coming with wild game.

 

He was a bit older than I last remembered, but his hunting skills were still the same. I inherited hunting techniques and life wisdom from him, and respected him like a father.

 

-What you said about definitely returning to your wife.

 

A new scene unfolded before my eyes.

 

Having experienced terrible war, I forced my escape. Thanks to thorough preparation, I wasn’t caught by anyone.

 

I returned to the village again. The inn business wasn’t going well, but the money I had saved was considerable so there were no problems. Before long, a child was born. Emma was an excellent mother, and I became a clumsy but not bad father.

 

-About your mother.

 

It was a day from very long ago.

 

In cold winter, a woman came to the rural village. The woman holding a newborn child in her arms was gaunt as if she had suffered much hardship, but couldn’t hide her noble atmosphere.

 

She knocked on the door with difficulty. The kind villagers accepted her. The exhausted woman died not long after, but left the family crest as a keepsake for the child. The child grew up and went to the family with that crest. The Lord of Medei shed tears and accepted me.

 

-What will you choose.

 

Each one was sweet.

 

Actually, it would have been the same even if they were different things. If I could escape from this moment covered by insects.

 

I pondered and opened my mouth.

 

“I will choose something different.”

 

-Something different?

 

The first lie I had told.

 

In my childhood that was now only a dim memory, nonsense I had blurted out while caught in feelings of inferiority.

 

The Goddess smiled.

 

-You wanted to become a king.

 

“….”

 

Words I had blurted out without even knowing what a king was. I had simply thought it would be nice to have many family members.

 

Now it was different.

 

I knew what a king was. But more than that, I wanted to know what the world looked like from a king’s perspective.

 

The world I had seen as a beggar, orphan, and liar. The world I had seen as a hunter’s disciple. The world I had seen as an inn owner. The world I had seen as a soldier, as a mercenary. The world I had seen as a lord.

 

They were all different. As my position changed, everything was so different that my previous self seemed pathetic.

 

So I wanted to become a king and feel the world he saw.

 

-So it shall be.

 

Thus I became a king. I shouldn’t have.

 

The beautiful world was no longer there.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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