Chapter 7: Hateful Monsters
Misa understood.
He shouldn’t have given Lance a chance to speak.
Fortunately, at this incredibly awkward moment, the lord’s steward rushed back, interrupting the dreadful silence.
He had already collected the losses caused by the monster invasion to Sky City and was prepared to report to the lord.
The lord of Sky City never expected the steward to return so quickly. He was naturally somewhat puzzled, frowning and whispering, “It’s all finished?”
The steward replied seriously, “It’s all finished.”
The lord was very satisfied with the steward’s efficient work. He encouragingly patted the young steward on the shoulder, saying, “Then quickly tell the hero the investigation results.”
Steward: “…”
The steward silently opened the investigation report in his hand.
He skipped all the irrelevant nonsense and went straight to the losses suffered by Sky City.
“The giant invasion caused a piece of stained glass on top of the church to shatter, and the glass shards damaged a lamp inside the church,” the steward said. “Besides that, the giants also broke three streetlights and five people sprained their ankles while running away in fright.”
After saying the last sentence, he expressionlessly closed the investigation report and looked up, waiting for the lord’s next instructions.
Lord: “…That’s it?”
The steward nodded.
His expression was somewhat strangely subtle, as if he himself couldn’t believe his investigation results. And rightly so; such huge, monstrous giants suddenly crashing into a human city—how could they only cause such minimal damage?
The lord frowned, pondering the motivation behind the giants’ entry into the human city.
The monsters had rashly invaded but hadn’t slaughtered the humans. This seemed like a significant conspiracy. If they wanted to uncover the essence of this conspiracy, they still needed the hero’s help to go to the areas where the monsters were and scout for them.
So the lord once again earnestly requested the hero, saying, “Respected hero, are you willing to—”
Lance decisively shook his head.
“They smashed the church’s glass, so you want me to bring back the giants’ heads,” Lance frowned. “Would you sentence a mischievous child who smashed a window to death?”
Lord, frowning: “Those weren’t children.”
Lance agreed with his opinion.
So Lance changed his words: “Would you sentence a mischievous adult who smashed a window to death?”
Lord: “…”
“Obviously not. You’re only so cruel to monsters,” Lance reached his final conclusion. “It’s just that most of them are inherently ugly and not of your kind.”
The lord did not agree with Lance’s point of view.
“They are creatures of darkness, innately possessing evil power,” the lord said, raising an eyebrow. “With such immense power, we cannot not guard against them.”
The Bishop had been sleepless all night, pondering their persistent reasons for exterminating monsters. He finally reached a conclusion and eagerly continued the lord’s words: “They actively attacked humans.”
The lord nodded repeatedly.
He patted the impassive steward beside him, asking him to report cases of conflict between monsters and humans in recent years to support the Bishop’s point of view. But after searching for a long time, the steward finally spoke with difficulty, “Five years ago, when the knights entered the Wasteland Swamp, they were attacked by monsters—”
Lance: “If strangers in full armor barge into your home, wouldn’t you be afraid?”
Lord: “…”
Bishop: “…”
Steward: “Uh… Hunters entering the Black Dragon’s lair to get dragon eggs…”
Lance: “If strangers in full armor break into your home and kidnap your child, wouldn’t you fight back?”
Lord: “…”
Bishop: “…”
The steward was also a little flustered. He quickly flipped through a few more pages and suddenly spoke, “Th-that… they… they kidnapped our prince…”
This crime was irrefutable. Lance closed his mouth, and the lord and Bishop finally seized an opportunity. They naturally took advantage of the situation.
The lord remembered the kidnapping incident very clearly. A large number of monsters broke into the royal capital and forcibly took away their crown prince. Although it did not cause many casualties, the nature of the incident was heinous and almost triggered a war between humans and monsters.
He frowned and carefully told Lance everything he knew.
Five years ago, a monster army inexplicably attacked the royal capital. When the royal capital was in chaos, a great demon took advantage of the situation to break into the palace and abducted the crown prince, Devant.
The king had sent knights to search for Prince Devant many times but had never found him. Prince Devant seemed to have disappeared from the world. This made the king and queen heartbroken. The king had wanted to wage war against the monsters, but for some unknown reason, shortly before the war, he suddenly changed his mind and only publicly announced that he had received a letter from Prince Devant sent by someone.
The prince was safe but could not return to the royal capital immediately. He asked the king to transfer his right of inheritance to his younger sister, Selina. As for the rest of the letter’s content, the king never made it public. No one knew what Prince Devant had actually said, except for the king and queen.
The king stopped the war against the monsters but still didn’t stop searching for Prince Devant. On this matter, Lance was speechless. He didn’t object and even nodded seriously, acknowledging the lord’s hostility towards monsters in this matter.
Lance asked seriously, “Who took your prince?”
Lord: “…Ah?”
Lance’s goal was clear: “I’m going to get your prince back now.”
Lord: “…”
Bishop: “…”
The giants outside Sky City hadn’t been dealt with yet, and the hero was already planning to attack the Demon Lord’s great demon.
The lord was a little at a loss. He looked at the Bishop, the Bishop looked at Arlo, so Arlo could only grit his teeth and persuade Lance: “The great demon’s power is second only to the Demon Lord’s. Perhaps we can’t—”
Lance was curious: “Do you know which great demon it is?”
Arlo: “Uh…”
Arlo didn’t know.
Before coming to the human world, he hadn’t really understood the situation of this world. Then he slept for three years in the Ginisus’s Divine Tower. He didn’t know anything about the grievances between the human king and the demons, but luckily, he knew someone who must know more than anyone else about this.
Arlo turned his head and looked at Misa, who had been silent.
Strange.
Arlo suddenly thought.
The hero kept being foolish, and Misa was too silent; he didn’t look like Misa.
Could there be something wrong with this story of human-demon grievances…?
Arlo looked at Misa, and the others, naturally curious, also turned their heads to look at the silent Misa.
Misa: “…”
Misa didn’t want to remain silent.
He just didn’t know how to speak.
When the lord told half of this story, he recognized the great demon protagonist.
His powerful subordinate, the second of the Four Great Demons, the king of the succubi—
The great demon Ashbey.
Compared to him, a Demon Lord stationed in the human world, Ashbey was a demon who was native to this world. His life was very pure, just the most ordinary, simplest, most simple kind of… succubus.
Yes, a succubus.
What role could a human involved with a succubus play in this story?
What human crown prince Devant? Misa only knew of the great succubus Ashbey’s Devant Sweetheart.
Help!
That prince!
He wasn’t eloping with Ashbey!
Misa was very panicked.
He felt that he had discovered a terribly frightening big secret that he shouldn’t have known.
After becoming the Demon Lord, he had heard this rare cross-species union countless times from different monsters—a model love in the demon world.
Everyone told him that Devant abandoned his reputation and status in the human world and was willing to go to the demon world for his love.
No one told him that Devant was the crown prince with the right to inherit the kingdom.
No one told him that Devant didn’t elope with Ashbey; Ashbey forcibly broke into the human palace and took him away!
With so many people staring at him, Misa could hardly suppress his nervousness and didn’t know what kind of lie to make up to cover this up. He stammered and happened to meet Lance’s inquiring gaze, so he almost subconsciously said, “Uh… probably… probably knows.”
He was so hesitant and stammering, but Lance showed a matter-of-fact expression, as if he thought Misa should know something. Hearing Misa’s answer, he sincerely asked, “Who is it?”
Misa: “…It’s that… great demon Ashbey…”
Sorry, Ashbey.
You’ll just have to be sacrificed for now!
“But Ashbey is just an ordinary great demon,” Misa skillfully took the blame. “It must be the Demon Lord forcing him.”
He finally said something that quite matched the lord’s and bishop’s thoughts. The lord naturally wanted to nod immediately and say, “Yes, the most hateful one is that Demon Lord!”
Misa: “It doesn’t matter about the other monsters; we must defeat this Demon Lord!”
Lord: “No, no, the other monsters are also important.”
Misa: “First, eliminate the nearby giants, and then I’ll take you to find Ashbey.”
Lance: “…”
Under everyone’s eager gaze, Lance finally nodded hesitantly.
He actually understood the lord and Bishop’s concerns.
Humans and giants have a huge difference in power. Giants can easily break into human cities and destroy everything humans have built. Under this disparity in absolute power, humans naturally cannot rest easy.
But violence isn’t the solution to everything. Lance didn’t want to attack the giants directly. He hoped to figure out why the giants were lingering and then find a way to persuade them to leave.
He made up his mind to go out of the city tomorrow to find the giants. Everyone finally persuaded the hero and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Misa was exhausted and was calculating how much work he still had to do after tonight.
He had to first find the giants to finalize tomorrow’s plan and write a letter to Ashbey, persuading Devant to return to the kingdom.
So difficult, he started to have a headache again.
After nightfall, Misa sneaked out of Sky City.
He transformed into his demon form outside the city and quickly flew into the deep mountains near Sky City, searching for the two giants. This time, it took him a lot of effort before he saw Kali hiding behind a huge rock on the back of the mountain. He breathed a sigh of relief, quickly flew over, and shouted towards the two giants.
“Kali!” Misa shouted, “What are you doing here!”
Kali turned his head aggrievedly.
He was holding his leg, trying to pull out human arrows and swords stuck in it. To him, it was like countless little thorns, extremely difficult to clean. As soon as he saw Misa appear, he couldn’t help but blink hard, pitifully shouting in his booming voice, “Demon Lord, woo woo!”
Misa: “…Ah?”
Kali: “Kali hurts OAQ”