“Master, there is a hero party arriving." Buer the butler appeared out of nowhere and prompted Maou who had been indulging himself in some intense literature.
Maou lifted up from the book he was reading, “About time. Composition?"
“It's a one-man all-female party, Master.”
“Oh that sounds like fun. Maybe you’ll get a chance to show off today as well. What do you think Dom?" Maou turned to his son next to him who had been reading a children's storybook about how a demon manipulated a whole kingdom of humans, leading to a civil war and finally a coup.
"I'll do my besht!" Dom replied with determination. Maou smiled.
“Hmm.. What should I wear for today? Any suggestions?”
Dom thought for a bit. His expression turned bright as he came up with a brilliant idea “The clown coshtume, dada!”
“Oh that... I agree that would indeed be fun, but I have a craving for something a little more relaxed.” Maou said, holding his chin in thought.
“How about no clothes, Master?” Buer the butler gave his input from the side.
“Oh wait! I’ll go for the next best thing!” Maou suddenly stood up.
“What! What!" Dom also jumped up, exciting to see his father take on another hero party in a battle suit.
“You’ll see." Maou winked and asked Dom, "Do you remember the criteria for coming out?”
“A lady with big chesht!" Dom replied proudly, remembering what he'd been taught without hesitation.
“That’s my boy!!" Maou ruffled Dom's hair before he left to prepare today's outfit.
--------------------------------------------
The golden doors of the great hall of the Demon Lord opened. Four wary humanoid shapes appeared from it. The one in the front was a short man, more like a late teenager, with a shortsword. He had dark hair and a little uneven beard. From the straightness of the missing beard, it was probably a scar from a fight. Three women followed him, though Maou’s view immediately drew to one of them.
A wood elf.
The girl looked to be about 17 and had a mix of green and brown hair, more brown than green. Her skin was paler than the rest of her companions, though her most distinctive feature was the ears; long and pointed at the end. She had a bow in her hands and an arrow locked straight ahead, her eyes wary of any movement in sight. Maou used Inspect Enchantment in conjunction with Farsight to read the enchantments on her bow.
Impressive, he remarked.
The other two girls were another archer and a swordswomen, though hers was a rapier, unlike the hero’s shortsword. Maou felt the party was unbalanced in that they didn’t have a magician but he didn’t form an opinion before seeing their full capabilities; it was a hero party after all. Also, none of them was the type to warrant a visit from the cuddliest member of the castle.
It’s pretty rare that a hero doesn’t have a single busty woman in his party. Either he’s into small ones, or just unlucky. Well, at least he’s not cursed with lolis., Maou amused himself with a famous stereotype from Earth.
The party stepped into the darkness. None of them seemed to have a skill with an effect similar to Night Vision and took each step slowly, using an enchanted floating ball of light to give them vision of their immediate surroundings.
Maou quickly finished repeating the script for today in his head.
Suddenly, the hall lit up bright. The hero party tried to block the light with their hands but didn't completely. They grew ever more vigilant for incoming attacks.
"Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have people come into your home unannounced and they don't even bother to knock?"
The archers immediately fixed their target on the man who had just arrived and though spoke in a calm voice, was evidently pissed. In the brief span of half a second, they had first examined the surrounding and were internally shocked at the scale of the place. The hall was much more massive than they had expected. Dozens of pillars reached several meters high to touch the ceiling where a large number of chandeliers illuminited the surroundings with magic light. At the other end of the hall from which they'd come, sat a throne on a slightly elevated platform.
Their target eyes then returned to the target who, after his initial outburst, was walking towards the throne, grumbling to himself.
"Who are you!?" The sole man of the party shouted at the retreating entity.
"Great. You come into my house and now you ask me who I am." the weird man shrugged without turning around. He had almost reached the throne.
“Are you Maou?" the swordswoman asked. The other entity seemed to be able to hear them even in this massive space so she didn’t bother to shout.
The man finally reached the throne and sat done with a light annoyed expression.
“No. The demon lord castle that you painstakingly arrived to is actually owned by fairies and I’m the fairy king." the man replied from the throne.
“He utters lies! Do not believe this man! The fairy lord would never reside in the demon castle! He has to be Maou!" the elf of the group warned her other party members from the man’s deceit.
The rest of the members shared awkward looks amongst each other before the swordswoman turned around.
“Hey Floria, remember our talk about sarcasm?" the swordswoman whispered towards the wood elf.
The elf widened her eyes in surprise, then narrowed them and spoke as if spewing venom, “Just like a demon lord to use such a vile manner of speech.”
“Umm.. Okay, so you are Maou. I am hero Bokan. Can I ask you something?" the hero spoke with a more polite tone this time. Though his sword was ever ready should it be needed.
Maou just waved his hand to ask him to hurry up.
“Why are you in a bathrobe?" the human females in the party nodded at the hero’s question. The elf was still busy seething.
“Oh, pray guess hero Bokan. Let me give you two hints. First, I was taking a nice comfortable bath. Second, heroes have a very bad habit of trespassing into my castle." Maou spoke, more annoyance slipping into his voice.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The hero looked at his companions wondering whether he should apologise.
“Let me tell you something, hero. Your kind is a mannerless self-centered lot. You come here claiming you are pursuers of justice and declare me a villian and destroy my painstakingly built beautiful castle. Why? Why would you do that? Why must my property be collateral damage? Let’s go fight into whichever kingdom you came from but oh, if we do do that, then you will just use the livelihoods destroyed as another way to implicate me with evil doings. Tell me hero Bokan, how is what you’re doing right now any different from that?”
“We didn’t know--" Bokan managed to squeeze out of his awkward state of mind.
“You didn’t know. Oh, how so convenient a justification." Maou rolled his eyes, “The problem is that you heroes are so self-centered that you believe whatever you’re doing is right and never bother to look at things from the other person’s perspective. Tell me, why did you even come here? Due to my responsibilities as the ruler of the demons and as a father of a young boy, I have not been to the human side for years. Now don’t tell not doing anything to you humans is also evil? Oh puh-lease!" Maou finally raised his voice, “After two whole days of administrative work, I finally go to take a bath and relax, and I’M NOT EVEN ALLOWED THAT!?”
Maou breathed heavily as he held his head.
“...”
The hero party just stood there bewildered, unable to process what all was being said.
A little more, Maou mused as he sneaked a peak.
“I apologise. It’s been a little rough on me lately." Maou said meekly with his head still in his palms.
The hero party looked at each other, wondering how to reply.
“--" Bokan opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by laughter.
“Do you see the irony of the situation, hero? The demon lord is apologising for being rude to the hero who barged into his house with intention to do bodily harm. Tell me hero, should we fight and you slay me; who will take care of my son who is barely 2 years old?”
Hero Bokan gulped, as he came to terms with the reality of the situation.
“Are you a summoned one?" Maou asked in a low voice.
“Y-yeah." Bokan answered truthfully. Normally heroes wouldn’t be so willing to divulge their personal information so.
Perfect, Maou judged.
“Then you may understand better than the residents of this world." Maou took a pause as he readjusted his bathrobe.
“From what I am aware, your world only had humans?" Maou asked.
“That’s right." Bokan replied, his willingness to answer was on an all-time high, considering his opponent was a demon and he wasn’t being tortured.
“Then did the humans not war in your world?”
“They did. Many times." Bokan replied.
“Why do you think those wars started?" Maou asked a third.
Bokan stayed quiet for a while.
“Different ideologies." he answered.
“When men of the same species can have ideologies and cultures so different to wage wars, what do you expect would happen in a world where there exist intelligent species of several different kinds. Dark elves and light elves remain hostile to each other for their difference. Dwarves and elves badmouth each other on every occasion they can find, precisely for their difference. Humans enslave beastkins because they are different. It is the same for demons. Many other species label us ‘evil’ for how we look different and how we enjoy different things in our lives."
Bokan gulped as he listened. It had all been a fantasy life for him since he'd been summoned and he had never bothered to really think about all of this.
"And just so you know, by killing me you only make the world more unpredictable and chaotic. 'Demons lord' is a title given to that demon who is acknowledged as the most powerful one, and for us demons who live in a Kratocracy, the most powerful demons are all---”
“Maou." The swordswoman interrupted.
“Hmm?”
“Sorry to interrupt, but what is a ‘Kratocracy’?" she asked.
“It’s the rule of the strongest. Basically, anyone can challenge me and should they win, they will be the new demon lord.”
“Ah got it. Please continue." she replied humbly. Except for the elf, they had all sheathed their weapons and were intently listening to Maou.
“Ahem. So as I was saying, the more powerful demons have me as their goal and don’t bother to invade the human territories." Maou said.
“That’s not true! We have fought countless powerful demons in the human territory!” Hero Bokan retorted, finally finding fault in Maou’s speech. He didn’t realise he had been subconsciously looking for something to justify his deeds.
“No waaaayyyyyy.." Maou laughed, “They would be low-class or middle-class demons. Well, maybe rarely one or two high-class, but not the disaster-class. If a human defeated a disaster-class demon, the entire demon race would know. They are strong enough to destroy this entire castle in a single attack and stand their ground against ancient dragons by themselves. Trust me, it takes a special kind of Hero to defeat one of them. Disaster-class demons often end up being killed in their fights against the other disaster-class for my title so it is incredibly rare for your kind to encounter one of them. Hence, humans’ perception of the most powerful of our kind is drastically skewed until they meet me, which is kind of an overkill, truth be told, since I’m the strongest of them all." Maou shrugged.
The hero party looked at each other, unable to believe what they were hearing.
“Maou. Putting aside how strong the demons are for a minute. Why are you being so… nice?” Bokan said awkwardly.
Maou raised an eyebrow at the hero.
“I mean, why are you talking to us like this?” Bokan explained, “If you’re really as strong as you say, wouldn’t it be easier to just defeat us than any kind of talking?”
“Hmm.. You’re right. It is." Maou responded as he put his hand on his chin and looked away in thought.
“..." the swordswoman looked at the hero as if he was crazy. Bokan gulped as he realised what he’d just said.
“But you know..” Maou turned back to them, sorrow reflecting in his eyes, “Once you reach the top, there’s nowhere else to go. Life gets quite boring. Let’s say I fight and kill you all in 2 seconds, what then? Couldn’t we find a resolution that is in both our interests?”
“What do you mean?" Bokan shot back immediately, a bit of hostility in his voice.
“You’re young and quick to jump to conclusions, hero Bokan.” Maou said, “What I mean is that there have been times when heroes who came to me saw merit in not laying down their lives needlessly and instead extended a hand to me in friendship. Some of them still often visit me.”
“Do not listen to him, Bokan!" exclaimed the elf that had been quiet till now, “You should never trust demons! You have not witnessed the sights I have! They are not such amiable beings. Their words are poison, full of deceit, the moment you turn your back, they will stab you in it!”
The wood elf reminded her party not to give in to the words of their nemesis. As if brought back to their senses, the rest of the members got wary and put their hands on their weapons, ready to unsheath any moment.
“Haaah.” Maou sighed.
So much effort for nothing.
“Elf.” He tried one last attempt, “From your appearance, I suppose you are what? 150-200 years old? Just so you know, I officially became a demon lord only 10 years ago. Things have changed.”
“Don’t address me in your speech, filthy demon.” spat the elf, “It is not just my people whom you wronged! You destroyed an entire human kingdom!”
Why does that always come up...
“That’s right! How could we ever forget that, Maou!" the swordswoman spoke, unsheathing her sword and taking a stance.
“That happened before I became the demon lord. In my defense, even I was a victim of that event." Maou tried to justify but he knew it wasn’t going to work as even the hero took his sword and bent his knees to Rush. From his expression, it was clear that he wasn’t going to leave any room for words.
“You will at least let me change out of my bathrobe, right?” Maou tried one absolute last desperate attempt but the hero and the swordswoman took off while both the archers released an arrow directed at Maou’s head.
“Haaah..” He managed to leak out one last sigh before activating multiple skills.
Release two.
The first two of ten seals on his stats released and the arrows bounced off him as they failed to even make a dent against his Defense.
Disintegrate.
The sword in the hero’s hand turned to dust right as he swung it at Maou’s throat.
Breeze.
A light wind took the resultant dust cloud from the hero’s sword and blew it in the swordswoman’s face.
“Cough cough.." she closed her eyes and gagged as the metal dust entered her windpipe.
“Women last. No need to give the hero a chance for bullshit power-ups." He mumbled to himself.
Accelerate
His body sped up as he got off the throne and faced the hero who was still bewildered about at his sword’s disappearance.
Blade hand
His hand pierced the hero’s heart.
Freeze
Just to make sure there was no chance of bullshit resurrection through some cheat healing skill, he froze the hero’s chest.
“Bokan!!!" the elf screamed at the sight. The human archer was too shocked to think and the swordswoman was still gagging on the metal dust.
In her rage, the elf threw her bow and rushed at Maou, drawing a dagger in each hand.
“You know, I gave you a chance and anyways, you attacked me first. This counts as legitimate self-defense.”
The wood elf reached Maou right as he finished speaking.
Blink
Blade hand
Her daggers missed their target. Before she had a chance to see what happened, her vision tilted and all went blank as her head fell to the floor, separated from her neck.
“Ah, thanks." as her body was falling in slow motion to Maou, he removed two arrows from her quiver and turned to the remaining people.
Wind guidance
Power shot
Penetrate
Lock target
He let the two arrows leave his hand and embed themselves in the centre of their throats, severing their spines and instantly killing them.
“Phew." He calmed himself down. The fight had lasted a total of about 40 seconds.
Complete seal
He reapplied the seal to prevent himself from breaking anything unnecessarily.
“Bloody elves.”
-------------------------------------------------------
Supplementary teachings:
Will: Yo Maou. Why do you let Dom read crazy stuff like that?
Maou: You mean the storybook at the start of the chapter?
Will: Yeah.
Maou: You see, demon culture is very different from that of humans. Here, these storybooks are the norm.
Will: That's messed up.
Maou: That's exactly what demons say about human stories.