Chapter 90

「U, um! Is it true that the person named Aulum Trace is a demon?」

Yoru sped up once again, and since I couldn’t hear her due to the wind in my ears, Ria, who was behind me, raised her voice .

I had forgotten that she was riding with me on Yoru, and stiffened at her response

It was a bad habit of mine to be too focused when I’m thinking about something .

「Aah, Yoru verified it . There’s no mistake . Besides, I had confirmed it as well . It was impossible for that magic to belong to anyone else besides a demon . 」

In that place dyed with Amelia’s bloodstains, there was magic residue that I had no memory of .

Generally speaking, for magic itself to dwell in blood and the like, with that much out in the open air, it would be impossible, even for me who had such a large amount of magic, for the residual magic to be so pronounced .

There were not that many people who possessed more magic than me whose magic surpassed even the elves .

In other words, it was the demons .

「Is that so… . The demons have begun to take action . That means the demon king has begun to move . I don’t know whether this the same demon king or not because in the past, when the demon king started to take action, the monsters moved quite vigorously . They would pour out of the dungeons of every continent, alongside other things…but this time, the demon invasion led to the abduction of Amelia-sama . This could mean that the demon king has a new successor…」

I nodded at Ria’s words .

Then, I suddenly voiced a simple question .

「Why does the demon king abduct those of other races?」

Was it because we had the impression that…the demon king was a villain, and that the demons and monsters were his subordinates, that we hadn’t thought of why the demon king as well as the demons and monsters abduct those of other races .

Did he want to conquer the continent, or turn people into the slaves of demons…?

『Someone like me wouldn’t be able to understand the mind of the demon king-sama, but it seems that the first demon king-sama abducted those of other races as revenge for when the demons had been driven away to Volcano . 』

Come to think of it, there was such a scenario in the legend that Commander Saran told me about .

If I remember correctly, the demons who commanded the monsters were detested by the other races, and were driven away to Volcano, the harshest place to live in or something like that .

Perhaps it was because that was the darkest time in my life, my memory was considerably fuzzy .

It hadn’t even been a year since then, but it was very much like how it was before .

At the time, I did not think that I would ride on a monster together with the beastman princess to go save the elven princess .

Actually, I wasn’t thinking about anything, but my face was quite thick .

TN: this means something along the lines of he was thinking about unimportant things but it doesn’t show on his face (he can remain unmoved no matter what happens) . This word ‘face’ appears quite often in Chinese novels, so for those who read a lot of Chinese novels, you know exactly what it means . There are two main ways of using it . One, when you say someone has a thick face, it means that they are not shy and/or is very shameless . Two, ‘face’ can mean reputation, prestige, social status, etc . So if someone gives you face, then that means that they will back down and won’t quarrel with you due to your reputation, etc .

Including Amelia and Aulum Trace, all the races would be assembled .

「I see . Were the other demon kings like that?」

Yoru nodded as he stared ahead when he heard my question .

He had trampled a monster at the same time .

『For the races other than the demons, the hero was treated as the savior, and the demon king was the king of evil . There were also idiots who strived to be those saviors and could reach the demon king’s castle with their own strength . It seems that there were also cases where those who were skillful in erasing their presence, like Master-dono, and strong enough to tip the balance in a war had invaded the demon king-sama’s bedroom just because they strived to be a hero . 』

TN: I usually translate eiyuu/yuusha as hero, but in this sentence, they included the katakana for hero, so I substituted it with savior instead to differentiate the two .

My eyes widened in surprise .

Wow, the defenses of the demon king’s castle is so weak!

The same with Retice, what are you going to do when you could be so easily invaded .

『It’s very embarrassing, but there are many demons who are conceited because their magic exceeds that of the other races’ and it’s not just once or twice that they’ve attacked the demon king’s castle . 』

Maa, that was before I was born, so everything was from the records, Yoru continued .

During the conversation, we instantly killed the twentieth-floor boss .

To be so easily killed, was it because we were experienced . Ria did not say anything .

The pace was remarkably fast compared to when we were at the tenth floor .

At this speed, we might reach the lowest floor in a few more hours .

As expected of my partner .

『Among them, the wife of the demon king from several generations ago was killed by intruders』

His voice was filled with sorrow .

While the wind was blowing past my ears, Yoru’s voice was the only thing that I could hear clearly .

『That demon king hated disputes, and did not do a thing to the humans, beastmen, and elves . On the contrary, he avoided conflicts, even going as far as to propose a peace treaty with the other races . He was a kind-hearted demon king who loved his wife, his children, his comrades, as well as the monsters . And yet, just because he was the demon king, his wife was killed . 』

I understood what he wanted to say .

It was somewhat similar to when the relatives of a murderer were subjected to the cold eyes of society even though they did not do anything that incurred such hatred .

「In other words, idiots who aspired to be a hero did idiotic things, huh . 」

The psychology of the people was, in reality, a simple thing .

People who did bad things were evil .

People who did good things were virtuous .

Things like their background were unrelated .

What’s important was only whether one was good or bad .

Everything about a person was arbitrarily decided on, applauded, and criticized just because of that .

There were also people who were truly cruel and couldn’t be saved, but I suppose there were also people who had no other choice but to be cruel .

『That’s exactly it . …after that, that demon king rescinded the peace treaty, and destroyed the towns that were of the same race as the beastman who killed his wife . 』

So he paid them back several times more than what was done to him, huh .

According to what Yoru said, the family of the man who killed the demon king’s wife was slowly tortured as they were killed .

In front of the man .

「…how sickening . That guy, he carried out his own justice and splendidly killed that demon king’s wife . He should’ve become a hero, but instead, it led to the death of his own family, or something like that, huh . 」

Rather than have my family, my mother and Yui, suffer due to my actions, it would be a much better choice to surrender myself and let them torture me and let them do as they wish with me .

『From then on, the other races were even more afraid of the demons, and coming to a peace agreement was a dream within a dream . …that’s why, Master-dono, please take this into consideration . 』

It was impossible for Yoru whose legs did not stop moving to turn to face me, but his voice was the most serious that it had ever been .

I thought about it a little and answered him .

「…saa, I wonder . 」

Perhaps it was because it was not a clear answer, but the shaking became somewhat more violent .

I diverted the topic before Yoru could say anything .

「I’ll say this now, but I never said that I wouldn’t listen to the demon king’s grievances . However, currently, Amelia was abducted like this, and even the beastmen had lost many people from this attack . This is different from the demon king and the state of affairs that we just talked about . 」

I won’t say anything about getting payback .

At the very least, you need to properly do to them what was done to you .

That’s just common courtesy .

「If this time’s attack was truly a command from the demon king himself, I will never forgive him, no matter what Yoru says . Ok?」

『…aah, got it . 』

As expected, Yoru could not resolutely say that he would cut ties with the demons .

It’s understandable, since the demon king was his creator .

However, Amelia was taken away from me . There wasn’t a shred of mercy left in me .

Certainly, this conversation made my heart ache, but this and that were two different things .

Maa, if Amelia forgave him, then that’s different .