Chapter 6

Maou took out a whiteboard and marker along with his teaching spectacles and turned on Teaching.

Dom sat at his typical magic-adjusted chair and desk.

"Today we're going to pick up where we left off the other day about the good summoned heroes, but before that, let's review my latest encounter with the hero party." Maou spoke with professionalism.

Dom nodded.

"It was a male hero with all-female comrades party. We had discussed this type during our last session. Now even though the result was bad, do you think that if there was a little change somewhere, things would have been different?"

"Elv." Dom replied without missing a beat.

"Very good. So you noticed that I was on the verge of convincing them and it failed only because of the elf?" Maou asked in confirmation.

Dom nodded.

"So let us briefly go over why that is so. Elves are generally all troublesome but understanding why will help us understand some things on a more fundamental level that will help in our discussion later on." Maou paused in case Dom had any questions. Seeing none, he continued, "So this discussion will revolve around a certain abstract notion known as 'orthodox'. Do you know what it means?"

Dom shook his head.

"No issues. You understand what a 'belief' is, right?" Maou asked again.

Dom returned a puzzled look.

"Do you 'believe' that daddy is super-duper-strong?"

Dom furrowed his brows and nodded as if it was a matter of fact.

"Hmm, bad example. Okay, do you 'believe' that all heroes are bad?" Maou changed his question.

Dom shook his head with force. His cheeks wobbled as a result of the momentum, almost causing Maou to lose his composure even with Teaching.

"Ahem." Maou coughed as he stood up straighter, "So that is a 'belief'. A belief that not all heroes are bad."

Dom nodded with excitement. He liked learning new things and so far he was able to follow what his dad was teaching.

"Now, this is generally the case that the longer you 'believe' in something, the harder it is to let go of that 'belief'."

Dom nodded. He could see how that would be the case.

"Elves are special in that regard since they are the longest-lived humanoid race." Maou continued.

Dom raised his hand.

"You have a question?"

"What ale humanoid rashe?" Dom asked.

"All those races like elves, dwarves, humans, beastkins that have similar body shape and size as humans are collectively referred to as humanoid races. Others among intelligent non-humanoid would be dragons, elementals, unicorns, fairies, etcetera." Maou answered.

Dom raised his hand again. Maou nodded indicating to Dom to ask away.

"Ale demon humanoid rashe?" Dom asked.

"Strictly speaking, no. Demons are a varied bunch. There are many demon species that look humanoid but not all."

Dom raised his hand yet again.

I think I know what the next question will be. Maou thought.

Maou motioned towards Dom to ask with slight hesitation. He couldn't not answer his adorable son's queries.

"What demon shpeshiej ale we, dada?" Dom asked.

Ughh.. I knew it.., Maou internally facepalmed.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Putting me aside, you are not of pure blood. Your mother was a mix of many demon species already, so you have that and then mine. So you're a mix of many a different species. We'll discuss this some other time so if you understand this much for now, it is okay." Maou answered a little vaguely and concluded the side-tracking discussion abruptly.

Dom nodded, not realising the crux of the slightly misleading answer.

"Where were we?" Maou wondered out loud. Teaching came in handy at these moments and he immediately remembered where they left off, "Right. So elves live for centuries and hence have very deep-rooted beliefs and are very unwilling to change them. This is also called being 'orthodox'. It means that they keep holding on to their old beliefs and traditions. This is also the reason why humans have large kingdoms while elves still live on trees."

"Whooaaa…" Dom's eyes shone bright as he came to realise a whole new concept.

"Yup. Basically, hindsight tells us that elves turned into idiots just because they live longer. They look down on others for the same reason and though they were once the apex humanoids, they have been pushed back to smaller areas. Another consequence of this is why we rarely see elves in hero parties. Though it's not all that rare because, well, heroes have this uncanny ability to attract rare and powerful beings through 'plot' power. But in general, elves are quite rare." Maou explained.

Dom nodded a little hesitant this time. He had heard his daddy speak about this thing called 'plot' several times and how it was the whole reason why heroes were powerful but never really understood it well.

"Now the exact opposite of this is why summoned heroes are much more likely to listen to us than normal heroes who are chosen from this world." Maou quickly drew a line in the middle of the board, wrote ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ in the two resultant columns. He further subdivided the two columns into ‘Summoned’ and ‘Hereditary’ each. He filled them up similar to what he had done last time. Next, he wrote ‘RARE!!’ in the ‘Good’+’Hereditary’ column.

“There were times in the early years of when I had started to befriend the heroes when I managed to come to friendly terms with some heroes of this world but since they had lived in this world all their lives, they had dreams of defeating the demon lord and then going back to their homes. And once they would go back, they would be branded traitors or used for propaganda against me by claiming I brainwashed them. Eventually, it came to the point that none of the normal heroes was even willing to hear me out so now I don’t bother with them. One example is those from the kingdom of Nuttlebaggart.” Maou explained.

Dom nodded. He had gotten the experience of the hero party from Nuttlebaggart recently only and remembered what his father had explained to him about them.

“Now this is why our main focus is---” Maou stopped as Dom raised his hand, “Go ahead.”

“You lajt time shaid that not all of uncle-aunt have Helo class. Meanj they not shummoned?” Dom tried to formulate the question to the best of his ability.

“Excellent observation, my dearest son!” Maou clapped his hands in excitement, “‘Summoned’ hero implies Hero class. So no Hero class implies the hero is ‘Hereditary’!”

Maou wrote ‘Summoned ⇒ Hero class’ and ‘No Hero class ⇒ Hereditary’ on the side of the board.

“Note that the reverse is true in general but not always." Maou added.

Dom nodded. He remembered this from the last class.

“You’re also right, that one uncle of yours is neither summoned nor does he have the Hero class. Though I doubt you remember him. It was long back that we last met and he’s the only beastkin to have ever come here as a hero. That also had a lot to do with why we ended up becoming friends. Last he visited, I think 6 or 7 years ago, he told me he was going to free beastkins from the human kingdoms and make a kingdom for beastkins. I have not received any news since, so I don’t know what happened to him.”

Dom didn’t know how to respond to the new information so he just nodded.

“Again, getting back. Our main focus is summoned heroes. Since their time spent in this world is short, they are much more likely to hear us out and willing to accept changes." Maou explained, "Now let's review what all we know. Heroes can be divided into two categories: 'Good' and 'Bad', each of which can be subdivided into 'Summoned' and 'Hereditary'. 'Good'+'Hereditary' is incredibly rare, so they are not worth putting efforts into. This lets us narrow down our discussion on 'Summoned' heroes. Last we understood why they are more likely to listen to us. Any questions till now?"

Dom shook his head.

"Good. Now that we have understood the what's and why's, we can look into the how's." Maou applied his magic power to the whiteboard, which wasn't a Skill, and distributed it equally to erase everything.

Then he drew a flowchart with 'Encounter' on the top and circled it. One line came out of it to meet a diamond below it with the with 'Determine' in it. From the two side ends of the diamond, a line came each leading to a circle with 'Summoned' in the left one and 'Hereditary' in the right one. He repeated the same structure below 'Summoned' with a diamond 'Determine' and two circles containing 'Good' and 'Bad'.

Spoiler:

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GQUJins6PRWHsyrM1UmzPrCwM1W0FI9a/view?usp=sharing]flow_diagram [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GQUJins6PRWHsyrM1UmzPrCwM1W0FI9a/view?usp=sharing]

{A/N: This is an image of the flow diagram. Right click + "open image" works}

{A/N: I shared in drive and tried to put it here but that didn't work. Can someone suggest a working alrternative?}

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"This is called a flow diagram. And this is the start." Maou pointed at the circle on the top which said 'Encounter'.

"Whoooaaa.." Dom stared starry-eyed at this new structure of representing information.

"Yes yes. Interesting isn't it? You could probably understand it even without me explaining. Humans from the world of heroes come up with some nice stuff. " Maou commented.

Dom nodded with excitement.

“So we will next look at two things: How to determine if a hero is summoned or hereditary. And if we can determine that he is summoned, how do we go about befriending him. The two steps do not necessarily have to be performed in that order. More often than not, heroes will not be willing to divulge information about themselves so befriending them can be started early and whether they are summoned or not will come out eventually." Maou stopped his lecture as Dom raised his hand again.

“Heloes can shometimej tell?" Dom asked.

“You mean information about themselves?”

Dom nodded.

“Why not." Maou continued, “It depends on the hero’s personality. For example, your aunt who must not be named told me readily when I met her first.”

“Aunt Lyca?" Dom asked.

“....." Maou facepalmed.

Dom, as he realised what he’d just done, covered his mouth with his small hands.

“Haah.. Well, I guess it has been a while since we last saw her." Maou said as he put all the teaching material back into his storage ring and turned off Teaching.

“Though she usually comes over immediately. Maybe she’s busy." Maou thought out loud, “C'mon Dom, let’s prepare some snacks while we wa--”

Maou stopped speaking as he sensed an incredibly powerful dimensional magic in his vicinity. He mentally sighed right before he felt a pair of hands come from behind and cover his vision. The newly arrived entity hugged him from behind. He felt their bodies rub against each other as the entity tiptoed to reach his ear.

“Fufufu.. Did you miss me?”

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Supplementary teachings:

Will: When did you start teaching Dom?

Maou: I've always been teaching Dom. But I think you mean Teaching. That's when he turned 12. So only just recently. Why?

Will: Just curious. Why 12 though? Is it a demon thing?

Maou: Not really. I had been thinking about it for some time and decided it was good a time as ever. For one, since the growth of a demon can vary drastically between individual demons, there's nothing set in stone for when a demon should start studying, or become adult, or anything along the line.

Will: Complicated shit, huh?

Maou: Yup.