The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 11
“I sense a Demon’s presence. Hmm…….”
Verity’s dissatisfaction was plain—she kept making small clicking and tut-tutting sounds, her displeasure evident.
‘This Count Deste fellow must have made a pact with a Demon in all the wrong ways.’
It was already shocking that Count Deste, reported dead, was alive. But to have made a contract with a Demon on top of that?
He didn’t seem like husband material.
“Still, is Demon Summoning really that easy?”
“What an insulting thing to say!”
At my careless mutter, Verity recoiled in denial.
“Demon Summoning may sound simple, but it’s a dangerous affair that interferes with dimensions!”
“Ah, I see…….”
“If the summoning fails, the backlash rebounds on the summoner. Can an ordinary human really bear the force of interfering with dimensions?”
Ian and I shook our heads quickly, like children desperate to avoid a scolding.
“No. We can’t.”
Most end up dead, and losing just a limb or two counts as lucky.
“Even if you somehow manage to summon one, that’s its own problem.”
“Why?”
“Because you won’t have prepared properly for it.”
Verity pressed her thumb and forefinger together, forming a small circle.
‘Ah.’
The faded Demon’s words came back to me.
“Since the summoner is calling something across dimensions into their own world, naturally there has to be a cost, doesn’t there?”
“When we take that cost, we convert it into resources our world needs. Using the power created that way, we grant wishes and maintain the world.”
I’d brushed past it then, but thinking back now, it was crucial information.
‘……Just how impressive am I, exactly?’
By grinding a nosebleed into the earth alone, I’d summoned not one but two incredibly powerful Demons called Lords.
With cost to spare, I even kept a Demon butler at my side to grant wishes whenever I pleased.
Ian leaned close and whispered in my ear.
“Hebenia, you really are incredible.”
“I’m starting to get scared I might become the strongest being in this world…….”
Then it happened.
“Nngh…….”
Count Deste, lying in the bed, jerked suddenly.
“……Ugh, uuuuaaaaahhh!”
With a sudden horrible cry, Count Deste’s body convulsed violently. His eyes rolled back white as foam began spilling from his mouth.
“Oh, what do I do!”
I hesitated, unsure whether to help.
“Someone’s coming. Three of them!”
“Miss!”
Ian and Verity pulled me into a corner and huddled close.
After rewrapping the Cloak around myself, I quickly rotated my right hand to the left. With a metallic click, a transparent Barrier unfolded before the three of us.
It was one of the techniques I’d learned while fighting monsters in the Primitive Forest—a skill that sealed off a space to create a defensive shield. I’d adapted it from the Barrier that separated the Primitive Forest from the Exiled Land.
The door opened almost the instant I raised the Barrier.
Three people entered, just as Ian had said.
In order: a heavyset man, then a thin-faced man with prominent cheekbones. Prejudice perhaps, but neither made a good impression.
And the last person to enter wasn’t a person at all.
Sharp yellow eyes like a reptile’s, skin the color of moss, and hair white as snow.
Crowned with perfectly round horns on its head.
‘Wow, anyone can tell that’s a Demon!’
Confronted with such a textbook demonic form, I found myself impressed anew. Ian felt the same, judging by the soft “Ooh” of admiration he let slip.
“…….”
Verity, meanwhile, wore an expression tangled between irritation and exasperation.
I felt like I’d seen that look somewhere before—it reminded me exactly of how my old coworker used to glare at that problem junior who caused scenes with inappropriate comments every single day.
‘We ended up having a huge fight, and even the team lead got involved.’
How are you doing, old colleague?
I’m in exile.
The heavyset man withdrew a Medicine Bottle and Syringe from the bag he’d brought, administering them to Count Deste.
The Count, thrashing moments before, went eerily still.
Beside him, the thin-faced man produced a Pocket Watch.
“The seizure intervals are growing shorter.”
“How long did this fit last?”
“Three hours and twenty minutes.”
“It seems the medication is beginning to lose its efficacy.”
“Tsk.”
The gaunt man clicked his tongue in displeasure and turned to regard the demon.
He lowered himself onto one knee.
“Great Arch-Demon, First General Guardian of the Sovereigns, Verity.”
What?
I scrunched my face in dismay.
‘Why is his name like that……?’
It sounded as though some adolescent in the throes of middle-school syndrome had painstakingly crafted it by ransacking dictionaries for the most impressive-sounding words available.
It was genuinely tacky and utterly ridiculous.
‘But wasn’t the first part of his name just Verity?’
I wondered if I’d misheard, but Ian tilted his head in confusion and shot Verity a sidelong glance.
Verity looked utterly foolish.
I understood his feelings perfectly. If someone shared my name but wore such a gaudy, childish title, I’d be mortified too.
‘Not to mention this “First General Guardian of the Sovereigns” business…….’
I recalled the long-haired demon and the bleached demon.
Though I didn’t know precisely what “Sovereigns” meant, I was aware of how formidable those two demons we’d encountered earlier were.
I knew it instinctively—they were the strongest beings I’d ever faced.
The same held true for Verity beside us now.
Yet this demon who shared Verity’s name emanated no such presence.
‘If anything, the chamberlain I saw this afternoon felt stronger…….’
That was when the nameless demon spoke.
“Where is the daughter?”
Daughter?
At the word “daughter” that had come out of nowhere, I quickly clamped both hands over my mouth.
‘Dalis’s daughter!’
The daughter is here!
‘But why would he suddenly be looking for that girl in a situation like this?’
No matter how you heard it, he wasn’t searching with benign intent.
I wasn’t the only one who thought so. The dark worry etched itself plainly across Ian’s and Verity’s faces as they glanced upward.
Then the portly man spoke.
“Shall we prepare the Summoning Succession Ritual?”
“Deste will be dead soon. We must hasten and transfer the Cost to the daughter before then. This time it must succeed.”
“I shall prepare at once.”
“By the will of the great Arch-Demon, the First General Guardian, Verity.”
The three of them left the room after concluding their cryptic exchange.
Yet we remained huddled in the corner, frozen, unable to move.
“Ian, you heard that, right?”
“Yeah…….”
“He didn’t mess up a single word of that long, ridiculous name. He even said it without pausing between parts. Middle-school syndrome is terrifying…….”
Even as I babbled on, Ian calmly waited for Verity’s explanation.
Verity suppressed a mounting exasperation with a sigh, then explained what the situation we’d just witnessed meant.
“You’ve witnessed a taboo. Whether your fortune is good or ill remains to be seen.”
“Perhaps both?”
Ian asked.
“What is the Summoning Succession Ritual?”
“Simply put, it is an illegal practice of transferring the Cost owed after summoning a demon onto another person.”
“It’s like co-signing a debt.”
At my murmur, Verity nodded, confirming that was precisely it.
“Demon Summoning is a personal, binding contract. It binds only two parties—the summoner and the summoned demon. Do you know why?”
That question called back the words spoken by the bleached demon.
The most crucial element of summoning a demon is the Cost.
Because summoning involves interfering with dimensions, it requires an astronomical price to pay.
I also remembered being told that if the Cost isn’t paid properly, you can die.
“……To prevent people other than the summoner from bearing the Cost, I see.”
“If people could pass the summoning Cost onto others, demons would be exploited without restraint.”
“Then if someone is discovered to have performed the Summoning Succession Ritual…….”
“Execution, without exception.”
“So we’ve just laid eyes on three death row candidates.”
I approached the bed and looked down at Deste, the viscount, slumped in drugged sleep.
“This human too?”
“He’s also scheduled for execution. What’s more, he’s already botched a Summoning Succession Ritual once.”
“You can tell just by looking?”
“Sometimes, yes—but this prematurely white hair and the convulsive symptoms are one of the side effects you suffer when a Succession Ritual fails.”
Verity clicked her tongue, as if the final piece had fallen into place.
“Deste’s wife was the victim of the first Succession Ritual.”
“What? What do you mean—”
“What on earth are you talking about!”
Ian, more startled than I was, pressed for answers urgently.
“Dalis is a victim?”
Verity gestured with her chin toward the viscount’s white hair.
“See how hers has gone white too? And her mind isn’t sound either.”
……
“I was uncertain at first, but now that I’ve laid eyes on this worm, I’m certain. It struck me as odd—why would a Half-Demon Half-Human appear in the Exiled Land in such a state…….”
……Wait.
“Hold on! Just hold on a moment!”
I cut in hastily, my alarm mounting.
My head throbbed under the onslaught of staggering information, but this—this I had to get straight before moving forward.
“A Half-Demon Half-Human? Dalis is?”
“Oh, you didn’t know.”
Verity spoke as though it were nothing extraordinary.
“Dalis is a Half-Demon Half-Human—born from the union of a Demon and a human. That’s why the side effects from the failed Succession Ritual were less severe for her than for her husband.”
* * *
It would have been a lie to say I wasn’t shaken by what Dalis truly was.
Did she even know herself?
‘……But still, finding Dalis’s daughter comes first.’
I’d process this overwhelming tide of information later, at my own pace. For now, I had to focus on the urgent matter at hand.
‘They said they were preparing the Summoning Succession Ritual.’
We had to rescue Dalis’s daughter while we still had the chance.
We made our way through the corridors, searching for rooms where a child might be kept.
Ian’s extraordinary senses proved invaluable once again.
“It should be here.”
Ian stopped before a certain door.
“I sense someone inside. One person, sleeping.”
“Wow, you’ve practically got a nose like a hound.”
Ian himself looked amazed at his own prowess.
“How do you even do that?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. I just feel it. The training we did in the Primitive Forest must have helped tremendously.”
“It brings me great joy as a master to see my human disciple improve so remarkably.”
“Ian, at this rate you’re going to awaken as ‘Mystic Lavender.’ Purple hair and that mature personality—you’ve got it all.”
“What’s that?”
“A magical girl that the young lady is fond of, apparently.”
“Was such a thing in the Empire?”
Unfortunately, our moment of camaraderie was not meant to last.

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