A/N: hi, the author here. i would like to share some stuff i had on my mind. each chapter would had around 1k-1,5k words, but i will try to update frequently. if you see any mistakes in the grammar section, pls tell me.
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“In the future, I wish to be the Great Demon Lord who ruled the whole world.”
As the seven year old me back then said that, the surrounding immediately grew silent.
Now that I thought about it, maybe that wasn’t a good thing to say in a place dubbed as the ‘Holy’ Capital of Arla Empire – a human empire with strong prejudice against any demon-related stuff.
But hey, what can I say? I was just an innocent child that was asked about what would I liked to be in the future...
“Eh... Rafael, you actually mean that you want to be the one who defeated the Great Demon Lord, right?” My dad, with his forehead covered in beads of sweats, asked uncertainly. Unable to get my answer right away, as I looked at him with an expression that says ‘what the heck are you talking about’, my dad grabbed my shoulders with both of his hands and asked me again: “Right?”
“Um, no, I truly wish to be one. What about it, dad?” I answered as I tilted my head.
I could feel that there were several sharp glares pointing at the two of us as I confirmed my answer.
Probably from the surrounding High Priests and High Priestesses of the Church of the Goddess Tian.
Oh right, I forgot to mention but my father was exactly one of those High Priest. The youngest one, in fact.
Currently, they were idly chatting with each other in one of the main temple’s room, discussing many unimportant stuff which were mostly unrelated to the Church, and I happened to attend it too.
“Cough.” A mean looking old hag cleared her throat and glanced at my dad, “It seems like you didn’t teach your son correctly.”
“O-of course not, my son must be joking, haha...” My dad answered as he smiled sheepishly. Being accused by the mean looking old lady, I could see that my dad’s eyes twitched. The others might have not noticed, but I knew dad must be pissed off and really hated that old hag.
Ignoring my dad, the old hag – Mrs. Puina, if I am not wrong – directly asked me with raised eyebrows, “Little brat, can you explain as to why you want to be a ‘Great’ Demon Lord?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” I answered.
“Huh?” “Eh?” It seems like my answer only further deepened Mrs. Puina’s and my dad’s confusion. The other people that originally weren’t paying me any attention also turned their head towards me curiously.
“No, that wasn’t obvious at all. Please explain.” Said Mrs. Puina.
I thought for a while before I nodded and replied, “Okay.”
“You see... my dad always tells the story about the Hero and the Demon Lord. Everything always begin with the Demon Lord trying to take over the world, and ended with the Hero, together with his companion saved the world by slaying the Demon Lord.”
Everyone blinked. They’d probably thought, ‘what’s wrong with that?’
I continued, however: “In the story, the Hero was depicted as a person who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through impressive feats of ingenuity, bravery, and/or strength, oftentimes sacrificing his own personal concerns for some greater good. The Demon Lord, however, are creature other than human that had gained great power and established a position of preeminence amoing their kind, and liked to do whatever stuff they wanted to do, conquering the world is also part of it.”
“If you compare the two of them, isn’t it clear about who had better life? One had to sacrifice himself to serve anothers, and the other could live his life freely. And if I had succesfully become a Great Demon Lord in the future, don’t worry, I wont kill you if you dont piss me off. Oh, and I wont do stupid things such as engaging a Hero in a deathmatch or something, I would’ve just fled right away if I feel that a danger is approaching. Screw pride, my life is more important,” with that, I finished my explanation with a smile.
Stolen novel; please report.
As I looked around, I noticed that most of the people in the room, my dad included, were facepalming.
“Gale, It seems like... your son had a slight problem with his head.” A bald middle-aged man said.
“You call this small? We can’t have a child of a High Priest with this kind of mentality! I suggest we’d best send him to the Academy,” another one said, and the other nodded in agreement.
“Yes, that’s right.” “Hn.” “I guess that’s the best for him.”
My dad, however, was less than amused by the unanimous decision of the others and vehemently refused, “Wait wait wait, how can you all decide his future path so easily? He’s my son for Tian’s sake!”
The middle-aged man whom had proposed first snorted and indifferently said,
“What do you propose then? It’s exactly because he is your son that we had to take action. If he was just the son of some random person, even if he truly did become the Great Demon Lord, as he says, we would just sent some army to subjugate him. However, this is the son of a High Priest of our Church we are talking about. If words got out that such a person was aspiring to be the leader of our archenemies, what would the believers says about it? Then we will have no face anymore!”
“Yeah, that’s right!” “Tell us what should we do then!?”
“Urgh...” My dad gritted his teeth as he tried to hold his anger. To begin with, his position between this group of people wasn’t that high. Even if he vehemently refused, once the others had an unanimous decision, he still would have been unable to change it.
Watching dad’s body shook in anger, even the innocent me also felt pissed off. He shouldn’t have deserved this kind of treatment!
Though mostly, this was my fault to begin with...
“Daddy, what is this Academy they spoke off?” I decided to interrupt their bashing by asking the question I had in my mind. What actually was this so called ‘Academy’?
Hearing my question, my dad’s expression softened as he patted my head, “It’s some kind of boarding school.”
“Boarding school?”
“Un, it’s a school in which all of the students had to live during the part of the year they attend the lessons, which in this case, 7 year. You can only leave the Academy’s ground once in a year. Over there, students would learn all kind of lesson, combat techniques and magic included. However, one would have to wait until they reached age of 10 before...”
“We can do with some exception,” Mrs. Puina suddenly said, interrupting my dad’s explanation. Every pairs of eyes turned to her. “I know the Headmaster personally. If I were to send a letter to him, I think he would’ve agreed to accept one additional student. An underaged one at that.”
“But my son is still...” my dad tried to said, however, a middle-aged man immediately countered him, “A difference of 3 years aren’t that much.”
Watching my dad’s pitiful appearance, I couldn’t hold it anymore.
“I will do it, dad.” I said without hesitation.
“Huh? But Rafael...”
“It’s okay dad, I will be alright. I will learn a lot of things there, and I will also become a lot stronger so that I could reach my dream! When the time comes, I will punish everyone who bullied you!” I said that while subtly glanced at the other people in the room.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that subtle, since most of them knew I had been doing that...
“By ‘your dream’, you mean?”
“Becoming the Great Demon Lord of course!”
“......”
“......”
And thus, on that day, my adminission to the Holy Arla Academy had been decided.