I Picked up the Demon King - Chapter 7

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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 7

 

On a morning when a cool breeze was blowing.

 

In front of the city gate, people wanting to pass through had been forming an endless line since early hours.

 

Among the peddlers who came to sell goods, residents of nearby small villages, and refugees who came looking for work, a suspicious figure wearing a black robe was mixed in.

 

“Hey, you there! Stop. Show your face.”

 

The Guard Captain’s shout.

 

The people who had already been keeping quite a distance stepped back further. Some were already guessing what was happening and trying to flee far away.

 

Rumors were spreading that remnants of Dark Mages who survived the war were running wild. Recently, even priests were voluntarily supporting the guard unit, making the atmosphere quite tense.

 

If that person was a Dark Mage trying to infiltrate the city, the situation would become serious. The moment the hand protruding from the sleeve moved, a guard gestured to his colleague with a tense expression. And then.

 

“What? It’s just a kid.”

 

The tension disappeared instantly.

 

At most, he seemed to be in his mid-to-late teens. The revealed face looked too young to be considered an evil Dark Mage.

 

The hand clutching the robe, as if flustered by the gathered gazes, even made them feel pitiful.

 

“What’s your purpose for visiting? Where are your parents?”

“I, I was wondering if I could find work… My parents during the war…”

“I see. You don’t need to say more.”

 

Looking closely, it was quite a worn robe. Bloodstains here and there and wounds on his body. He seemed to have suffered quite a bit getting here.

 

‘A kid who lost his parents and came to the city without a plan.’

 

There were quite a few of them. Eventually, those who couldn’t find work would form slums and cause headaches, but they couldn’t block entry altogether.

 

A priest in a white robe approached the Guard Captain and whispered.

 

“No mana is detected. He’s not a Dark Mage.”

“Is that so. Pass through.”

 

The Guard Captain nodded and suddenly stopped the boy who was about to cross the city gate.

 

“If you can’t find work, come find me. I’ll see if you can at least do odd jobs at the guard unit.”

“…Thank you.”

 

A while later.

 

“Phew…”

 

The boy, now completely out of the Guard Captain’s sight, let out a big sigh and said.

 

“That actually worked?”

 

* * *

 

-First, go to the city.

“The city?”

-There are several things I need to confirm.

 

What the Demon Lord said right after escaping the Demon Realm. It was something I couldn’t easily accept.

 

What was the reason I came to this detestable Demon Realm in the first place? The frenzied Dark Mage hunting happening in the city was dangerous enough to make me abandon even Master’s dungeon and flee.

 

Even though I had obtained the Demon Lord’s soul and learned several dark magic spells from him, the power I possessed was still weak. There was no way I could handle that frenzy.

 

-Your mana level is indeed pathetic. It’s not that there’s no magic to conceal mana, but you don’t even have enough mana to maintain it.

 

Even after absorbing several souls, my mana hadn’t increased much. It was probably because they were people who didn’t have much aptitude for mana in the first place.

 

Right now, if I used mana bullets about five or six times, all my mana would be depleted. If I entered the city in this state, I’d be killed the moment my mana was detected.

 

-There’s a way.

“What is it?”

-Use up all your mana. It’s a method that can only be used in situations where you have such pitiful mana levels like yourself.

 

Could that even be called advice?

 

If I depleted all my mana, I certainly wouldn’t have my mana detected for a while.

 

However, mana recovers over time, and there was no telling what dangers I might face in the process. Though it’s different from mana, stories of mages who became crippled from overusing mana even appeared in fairy tales.

 

Since mana originated from mana, the result probably wouldn’t be much different.

 

-Unless you possess something like a Dragon Heart or Demon Horn, your mana originates from the mana flowing in from outside your body. If you block the surrounding mana with Mana Manipulation, it won’t recover.

“You call that advice…”

 

Blocking external mana? Easy to say.

 

But that meant manipulating natural mana with just my will. And not just briefly, but maintaining it continuously.

 

If it were as easy as it sounded, every mage in the world wouldn’t have to worry about having their mana read.

 

-Why? Can’t do it?

“…What about the physical abnormalities from excessive mana use?”

-If you try to use more mana than you possess, it’s natural to face backlash. It’s like sacrificing your own body to gain temporary power.

 

A perspective I hadn’t considered. That meant using ‘exactly’ the amount of mana I possessed wouldn’t cause any problems.

 

Accurately gauge one’s own mana amount and exhaust it all, then manipulate natural mana to prevent mana recovery.

 

It required an absurdly high level of mana manipulation ability, but I couldn’t think of any other way to enter the city.

 

And now.

 

As a result of practicing non-stop for several days while traveling to the nearest city, I was able to confidently enter the city, even avoiding the priests’ eyes.

 

“Is there an execution today too?”

“There should be.”

“They say a large number of Demon Followers were discovered in the slums. It looks like it won’t stop for a while.”

 

Hearing the excited voices of people made me feel a renewed sense of crisis.

 

The madness that began after the war’s end still hadn’t ended. It was clear what would happen if the Magic Blocking was interrupted even for a moment.

 

‘The problem is that maintaining this state isn’t easy…’

 

It felt like my head was going to split in real time.

 

My best record so far was just over two hours. I had already wasted considerable time waiting for the entry inspection.

 

If I didn’t find a place to rest immediately, it would be dangerous.

 

-A place to rest… How about the slums?

“The slums?”

 

The place where a large number of Demon Followers were discovered. There might be guards or surveillance, but if the cleanup was already finished…

 

Finding the slums wasn’t difficult. A place far from the city gate, where people rarely set foot.

 

As I moved forward, the condition of the surrounding buildings changed.

 

Cracks appeared in the stone walls, wood rotted, and smells began to waft as if cleaning hadn’t been done. Then at some point.

 

“Is this the place?”

 

Streets that were already a mess, as if soldiers had thoroughly ransacked them. Collapsed buildings, scattered corpses. It was a scene closer to ruins than slums.

 

“Living people are…”

-I don’t sense any presence immediately.

 

People had definitely said that Demon Followers were discovered. Could it be that meant all the people in the slums?

 

‘That can’t be…’

 

That can’t be right. If there had been that many Demon Followers, humanity couldn’t have achieved such a great victory in the war against the Demon Realm.

 

In the first place, with the war ending due to the Demon Lord’s defeat, what could followers do even if they existed?

 

“Ugh.”

 

My thoughts didn’t continue for long. I could no longer maintain concentration due to the overwhelming headache and fatigue.

 

Preparing for any unexpected situation, I took out my scythe from my chest and immediately after releasing the Magic Blocking. Feeling my mana gradually recovering, I leaned my back against the wall of a half-collapsed building.

 

“So then.”

 

Perhaps because my mana had recovered a little. My physical condition quickly improved. At least I didn’t feel like I would vomit or collapse anymore.

 

Now what I needed to know was the reason for coming to the city.

 

“How about you tell me now?”

 

I needed to know what was so important that I had to risk my life to come to the city to confirm it.

 

-It’s nothing special. I just need to investigate the Hero.

“About the Hero?”

-It’s not that I didn’t have my subordinates investigate… But at the time, he was shrouded in mystery in many ways. I suppose they were concerned about information reaching our Demon Realm.

 

The Demon Lord was certainly right. We could only hear that a Hero had been born after the war with the Demon Realm had begun in earnest. Information about him was surely treated as top secret.

 

“Do you think we can obtain such information now?”

-You’re human yet you don’t know humans well. By now, you should be able to find books recording his biography quite easily.

“…You’re not even human, yet you act like you know so much.”

-Well, that’s natural since I’m a demon.

 

From the few days I’d spent with him, the Demon Lord absolutely refused to lose in any verbal exchange. It was annoying that he even sounded quite plausible.

 

This must be why they say “demon’s whisper.”

 

“But what are you planning to do with information about the Hero at this point?”

 

I understand the Demon Lord’s desire for revenge against the Hero. He’s the one who took his life and made him into his current state. He’d probably want to tear him apart if he were right in front of him.

 

Of course, if he rushed in with just that feeling, his soul would truly be annihilated this time.

 

-You, don’t tell me you think I’m trying to gather information for some petty revenge?

“Aren’t you?”

-Didn’t I tell you? The target of my revenge isn’t someone like the Hero, but the Goddess. The Hero is merely the Goddess’s tool. Would anyone harbor revenge against a robber’s knife after being robbed?

“Well, some might…?”

 

But calling the Hero a tool.

 

From the Demon Lord’s non-human perspective, could he really view it that way? This is why I had no choice but to fall for it when I made the Soul Contract with him.

 

-Of course, I do want to tear the Hero apart.

“What’s with you?”

-…Well, even if I did, it would just be venting anger. It’s not that important, so let’s continue the story we were having. About what I’ve been planning since I was defeated by the First Hero a thousand years ago.

“Huh?”

 

The First Hero. The protagonist of legends known to all, and the Founding Emperor of the Millennium Empire.

 

Why would a story about him suddenly come up now?

 

“Don’t tell me, you were also the Demon Lord who was defeated by the First Hero?”

 

I thought the name Alderion sounded familiar somewhere, and it’s the same as the name from childhood fairy tales, isn’t it?

 

-…A Hero is an existence meant to kill the Demon Lord. They are protected by laws that ensure they will inevitably kill the Demon Lord. What was important were the conditions for a Hero’s birth.

“You died twice to humans?”

-Are you not going to listen?

 

The Demon Lord asked in a serious voice. He seemed quite offended by my comment about dying twice to mere humans.

 

Thinking about everything I’ve suffered from the Demon Lord so far, I desperately wanted to tease him more, but if I did that, there’s no telling how he might get revenge later. It seemed better to hold back for now.

 

There would be plenty of opportunities in the future anyway.

 

-…I made several deductions based on that First Hero bastard’s actions, but the reliability of the information wasn’t high.

 

Come to think of it, I heard that the legends about the First Hero have slightly different details depending on the region.

 

There’s the story of pulling out the Holy Sword embedded in the Sanctuary and becoming a Hero, the story of being acknowledged by the Dragon guarding the sword. There’s even a story that the Goddess directly descended into his body and forged the Holy Sword.

 

-Since the Current Hero is still alive now, we could obtain more accurate information. If we compare that with the First Hero’s, we can narrow down the conditions for a Hero’s birth.

“The conditions for a Hero’s birth…”

 

It would certainly be valuable information. Historians or the Hero’s Followers might rush at it with fire in their eyes.

 

But what would we use that knowledge for?

 

“To prevent the next Hero from being born?”

-You should have caught on after hearing this much. Didn’t I clearly tell you before? If the Goddess establishes laws…

 

The Demon Lord is an existence that arbitrarily interprets and mocks them.

 

A Hero is one of the laws created by the Goddess to kill the Demon Lord that humans cannot reach. The meaning of the Demon Lord twisting that law is…

 

-You, become a Hero. My Hero, who will kill the Goddess.

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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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