I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 4

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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 4

 

After the contract was established, the Demon Lord asked me many things.

 

Though I didn’t like his mocking tone, I was the one who had tried to deceive first and got caught. Thinking of it as the price for underestimating a demon, I answered faithfully.

 

What the situation outside was like, what I was thinking when I came to this Demon Realm. What kind of person my Master was. What spells I could use. There wasn’t really that much to talk about.

 

-An Apprentice Dark Mage? Ridiculous. What kind of apprentice in the world knows about Soul Contracts? I’d like to see the face of that so-called Master of yours. …You didn’t learn it? You remember a Magic Circle after seeing it once?

 

In return, I also asked him questions. Most of them were about my Master.

 

-I’ve never heard such a name. At best, just some human Dark Mage nobody. Do you think there’s a king who memorizes the name of every single soldier? …Don’t insult my Master? What nonsense are you… W-wait. Don’t do that. Gaaaah!

 

The Demon Lord faithfully carried out the contract. Though I didn’t get very satisfying answers, thanks to him I was able to escape from the pit.

 

-To the right. It’s an Acid Troll’s corpse. Collect the bones. They have no magical value, but when they touch water, that water becomes acidic. From the condition, it should be usable several times.

 

I was able to collect items that would be worth money. I suppose you could call him a high-performance treasure detector.

 

-Stop. Dig the ground here. You’ll see roots, right? Cut them. They contain a large amount of moisture and can be used as a substitute for drinking water. You’ll feel moderately full too.

 

My water was just running out. I tried chewing a little as a test and could feel the moisture.

 

“Ugh…!”

 

The problem was the terrible taste. While I was retching from the horribly bitter taste that was impossible to eat, I heard the Demon Lord’s giggling laughter.

 

It was the worst. Instead of quenching my thirst, I had lost moisture.

 

-Are you planning to die? The sun of the Demon Realm is hot. A weak human body cannot endure without replenishing moisture.

 

Pain felt along with the Demon Lord’s voice. My soul sent a warning message.

 

“Guh, guhh…!”

 

Terrible pain struck as if squeezing my head and chest. I hadn’t even tried to give up on survival, but the contract forced my actions. Just for the single reason that it hindered survival.

 

It meant that dying on my own was impossible until the contract was completed. The contract I had made to control the Demon Lord was instead strangling me.

 

Seeing that the Demon Lord was fine, it meant eating this was for my survival.

 

I clenched my fist.

 

Even without the contract, I had no intention of dying. I would survive by any means until I got sick of it.

 

-Oh?

 

I cut the root into large pieces and stuffed it into my mouth. It was hard to bear, but I didn’t think about things like taste.

 

“Mmph…!”

 

I endured the dry heaving and safely swallowed the root. My thirst subsided and I felt like some strength was returning to my body.

 

-You have quite the grit. Even most magical beasts won’t eat Spyroot.

“…I have to live.”

 

To survive, I could chew and swallow even the flesh of magical beasts, not just these roots.

 

-A good mindset. Well then. One who has declared they will achieve God Slaying and accomplish the great feat of reviving the Demon Lord shouldn’t die like this.

 

His tone was clearly sarcastic. However, thinking that it seemed definitely less so than before, I picked up another cut root when.

 

-Put down that disgusting thing now. There’s a well not far from here.

 

The Demon Lord said so.

 

“….”

 

I shouldn’t trust demons. Even if they couldn’t lie, it was the same.

 

* * *

 

The place I followed the Demon Lord’s guidance to had something like a huge oasis.

 

“Didn’t you say it was a well?”

-Don’t compare things of the Demon Realm to those of humans.

 

A huge lake in the middle of barren land, to the point where I wondered why I hadn’t discovered it all this time. Looking closely, it did seem to be artificial as I could see what looked like carved stone blocks.

 

The well was so deep that the bottom couldn’t be seen. Where in the barren land of the Demon Realm could such a large amount of water come from? The blue, deep water stimulated humanity’s instinctive fear.

 

“…There aren’t any monsters or anything in here, right?”

-Well. I did place a guardian, but I don’t sense anything now. The expedition party must have dealt with it.

 

I drew water to quench my thirst and filled my emptying water bottle. If I just drank sparingly, there wouldn’t be much shortage on the way back.

 

“Haah…”

 

Once the urgent problem was solved, despair washed over me.

 

As the Demon Lord had mocked earlier, I had inadvertently become someone who had to kill the Goddess and revive the Demon Lord.

 

These were all things that would make me a public enemy of humanity without excuse. I had only needed money to hide my identity and live, so how did it come to this? No, in the first place.

 

“Is it even possible? Killing the Goddess.”

 

There isn’t a human who doesn’t believe in the Goddess. The Religious Order’s immense power, miracles, and history prove her existence.

 

Even Dark Mages who reject the natural order don’t follow her, but they don’t deny her existence. The fact that the Goddess exists is an undeniable truth.

 

-Of course, it’s impossible.

“….”

 

The Demon Lord stated firmly. He wasn’t even angry. It was only natural.

 

Who could dare kill a god?

 

-No matter how much power humans accumulate, there’s a difference between us and them like that between ants and dragons. With effort, they might manage to tickle us at best.

 

Suddenly, I felt something strange. ‘Us’? That sounded like he was speaking of the Demon Lord and Goddess as beings of equal standing.

 

-There are some differences, but strictly speaking, you could say that’s correct.

 

Words that completely denied not only common sense but the entire doctrine of the Religious Order.

 

But I had no choice but to believe it. While it was possible for him not to tell the truth, he couldn’t speak lies. That was the constraint placed upon the Demon Lord.

 

“But you, as the Demon Lord, were killed by a human.”

 

A story that contradicted his claim that no matter how strong humans became, they couldn’t kill a Demon Lord. Though the Hero’s power made me tremble just from its traces, if the Demon Lord’s words were true, the Hero should never have won the war.

 

-That’s right. That’s what makes the Goddess terrifying. In terms of raw power alone, I’m definitely stronger. But she creates the laws of the world.

 

Creates laws. It was difficult to understand.

 

-Let me give you an example. Suppose the Goddess created a law that ‘one can communicate with the dead.’ What do you think would happen?

“Well….”

 

It didn’t seem like such a big deal would happen.

 

The dead. Dark Mages who handle Undead are common as dirt. Though I might need to use past tense now, that was the case until recently.

 

High-level Undead are said to retain their intelligence, so it’s not impossible even now.

 

-Seeing you talk nonsense, it’s clear that so-called Master of yours didn’t teach you properly.

 

Rebellious feelings rose up, but the Demon Lord’s words were true. Master had left without even teaching me basic magic.

 

But wasn’t that because of the war between the Demon Lord and Hero? It wasn’t Master’s fault.

 

-Listen carefully. The Undead of Dark Mages who handle the dead—that is, Necromancers—are strictly speaking different people from who they were before death.

 

I couldn’t easily understand why the Demon Lord said they were different.

 

-Unless the soul has high standing like mine, most beings have their souls depart upon death. Beings capable of communication in that state would be few even if you searched the entire world.

“That’s….”

 

To most Dark Mages, souls are merely energy. They hold no value beyond being processed into magical power to increase one’s strength.

 

How could that mean they become different people? As I pondered this incomprehensible statement, the Demon Lord clicked his tongue and spoke.

 

-Since they inject magical power to control bodies in place of souls that have already departed. Even if communication is possible, it’s just utilizing information left in the living body, having nothing to do with the actual person.

 

But aren’t there soul-type beings like banshees and wraiths among the magic Necromancers handle? Moreover, if communication with the dead is impossible, then who am I talking to right now?

 

-Right. That’s the problem. The truth is, there are those who can communicate with the dead. Namely, you Dark Mages. And the Priests of the Religious Order.

 

If Priests could communicate with the dead, why had he given such an example?

 

As I pondered, a certain hypothesis came to mind.

 

“Don’t tell me….”

-That’s right. Originally, it was impossible. But the Goddess made the impossible possible. To expand the Religious Order’s power.

 

The fact that Priests could communicate with the dead was shocking, but it paled compared to the revelation that soul-type Undead were born from this.

 

Something that had existed since ancient times, something I thought had always been natural, was actually created by the Goddess.

 

-The Goddess used her ability to engrave the law ‘the Hero triumphs over the Demon Lord’ into this world. Therefore, I needed to be defeated by the Hero.

“…Needed to be?”

 

The Demon Lord’s words sounded as if he had deliberately lost the war.

 

-The Goddess creates and modifies laws, but she’s not omnipotent. To create strong laws requires many constraints. Think about it. The Hero won. The Demon Lord was defeated. This was accomplished according to the law. Then.

 

Would the Demon Lord truly lose if he fought that person again?

 

“Well, the Demon Lord must be defeated by the Hero, so….”

-No.

 

The Demon Lord stated firmly.

 

-The Hero fulfilled his role by achieving victory over me. Strictly speaking, he’s merely ‘one who was a Hero.’ While the power he accumulated doesn’t disappear, he can no longer receive the benefits of absolute law.

 

Then the Demon Lord wouldn’t lose.

 

-At minimum, a new Hero can’t be chosen for several hundred years. During that time, I recover my strength, destroy the Middle Realm, and crush the Goddess. That was the original plan.

 

The plan was disrupted because of me. The Demon Lord, who had been conserving power for resurrection, became bound to me and consumed the power he had carefully gathered. That’s why the Demon Lord pushed his role onto me. But.

 

“Even so, that doesn’t mean I can kill the Goddess, does it?”

-That’s right.

 

I couldn’t even defeat the Hero, let alone the Goddess. Just because the Hero no longer received the benefits of law didn’t mean he had grown weak.

 

-However, that’s if you were alone. Don’t worry. If the Goddess sets laws, I’m the being who arbitrarily interprets and mocks them. The method is already prepared.

 

Long ago, Master had asked me. Did I know the difference between a Mage and a Dark Mage?

 

When I answered that I didn’t know, Master smiled and said.

 

‘Mages hold the truths of the world as absolute values and pursue them. But we Dark Mages are those who circumvent and twist the rules.’

 

Suddenly, I thought the relationship between the Goddess and Demon Lord was like the relationship between Mages and Dark Mages. Though it was on a completely different scale from myself, who was merely an Apprentice Dark Mage.

 

-Prepare yourself. It’s going to be quite a long and arduous journey.

“…Right.”

 

There was no choice. A contract staked on one’s soul was absolute.

 

-But first, get ready.

“Huh?”

 

Just as I was about to ask ‘What exactly?’

 

“Didn’t you hear something like a human voice from somewhere?”

 

From the distance, a voice could be heard.

 

“…I don’t see anything. Didn’t you mishear?”

 

People.

 

“Let’s search around. If there’s someone who came here first, they might have something valuable.”

 

In other words, they were enemies.

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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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