In every era, a person called the hero would always come to defeat the demon lord.

The demons with long lifespans would say, “Oh, it’s already that time?” whenever the hero comes and treat it like a customary cold wave, clearing the way to the throne in the demon lord’s castle.

Since the demon lord is their main objective, they wanted the hero to arrive quickly and lose to the demon lord rather than making a mess in the castle.

And then, well, it was also customary for the demon lord to receive them half-mindedly and wrap them in bamboo mat, throwing the entire party of the hero back to the human realm by express delivery. Of course, it was cash on delivery.

In the first place, humans thought that monsters were appearing in the human realm because of the demon lord, but that was not the case.

Monsters and demons were typically just grouped together in the same category, not unified by race.

The demon lord was only decided when its crest appears in the most powerful demon at the time; it didn’t mean that they were strictly the overall ruler. They were only the strongest in the meritocracy of demons.

When I notified everyone not to leave the demon realm, those who couldn’t beat me would obey, but as the population increased and the territories became closer to each other, I think some of the weak types would be exterminated.

Until then, there was no reason for us to fade out.

So, why do I have to do that for the sake of the others? It’s because they are a weak race, so there’s this kind of desire to protect them, but it’s rather ridiculous to go that far.

Generally speaking, demons protect the weak ones who obey them.

The demons in the meritocracy whose nature is to engage in one-one-one combat, would battle against each other to decide the hierarchy if they weren’t pleased with it.

If you lost, you must obey even if you didn’t accept your loss. If you won, you must protect the weak who lost instead.

So, there’s no way I’m going to protect someone who doesn’t obey me even if they lost.

That’s why it was an endless delivery front.

Though, the heroes who kept on being summoned as if the humans never learned their lesson were humans from another world whose blood tasted good, so the previous bloodsucking demon lords seemed to have beaten them up and took a little bit of their blood.

So, the heroes who kept on being summoned as if the humans never learned their lesson were humans from another world whose blood tasted good. It seemed that the previous bloodsucking demon lords had beaten them up and happened to taste a bit of their blood.

Back to the main subject.

I, the current demon lord, Azelidias Nilegown, was no exception to that game of cat and mouse.

I was sitting alone on the throne, when I was informed that the hero’s party had entered the castle.

“Heheh… I’ve been waiting for this moment…”

I smiled wryly and crossed my legs, staring at the dazzling door in front of me.

—And then, I quickly summoned a hand mirror.

“Ahh~~! I knew it, aren’t my bangs a bit messed up?! I can’t let the hero see me like this, what should I doooooo!”

‘Hueeeeeh!’ I cried out with tears in my eyes as I gazed into the hand mirror.

Uwah, I can’t let the hero see this weird bed hair that won’t go away…!

I could store away the hand mirror and writhe in agony, but it wouldn’t change anything. The fact that I looked so lame right now doesn’t change anything.

AAAAAAAH! I’m just gonna have to cancel it! Hero, can we cancel?! Can’t we do this tomorrow insteaaaaad~~?! Come on~~!

But I get to finally meet the hero whom I had been waiting for such a long time!

I didn’t really want to delay it even for a second!

As a matter of fact, I, the Demon Lord Azelidias, was once helped by the hero – apparently called Shal, was the one about to kill me. I had been waiting for the hero to come to me in order to get along with him.

Even though I was about to stand before the hero I had been longing for, t-these bangs…! It was a disgrace. It was the demon lord’s greatest disgrace!

Knock, knock.

“I have come to subdue the demon lord. This is the hero.”

“!!!!!!”

AAAAAAH, he’s here!! He’s finally here!!

I heard Shal’s low, calm voice from the other side of the door as he knocked politely and identified himself. I became flustered and hurriedly fixed my bangs with my hands. No, I’m not ready yet.

Oh, wait. There’s no way I could let him wait around. I’ll invite Shal in for the time being, and then…. and then, uhhh, fight him and win so he won’t get injured.

I managed to rise from the throne, leaving my hair unkempt.

“Come inf!’’

Oh no, I bit my tongue———!

I was so embarrassed that my face caught fire. There was literally a fire. Damn it, I accidentally used magic!

I was taking deep breaths when Shal had come in silently, standing in front of the door, alone.

Ba-thump! My heart was beating like a drum. The long-awaited appearance of Shal came into view.

I couldn’t see his face clearly the last time I met him because he was wearing a hood, but he was a neat-looking man with perhaps the color of magic, or bluish black hair cut short.

His calm eyes with colors like that of the deep sea, was endlessly beautiful and there was a sense of comfort in them that seemed to draw me in.