Part 1

 When I heard the old lady say Maou-sama, my mouth accidently repeated after her.

Maou-sama….that is a title of mine, I recognize. Could it be this old lady knows my true identity? I am beginning to suspect…..and I hate to admit this, that this old lady might be the most intelligent of all my servants. Even in my human form, she can see through and recognizes I am Maou-sama. Truly worthy of serving me – unlike the other idiots in this room. However, if she doesn’t stop pulling my cheeks I will need to reconsider her status.

Amongst the humans, it was not uncommon to come across few who worshipped me. Like I said before, my armies weren’t restricted by race. Humans too served in my armies when I waged wars against other humans in the earthly realm.

“Come on Shin-kun, say Maou. Won’t you say Maou for Obasan? Come on Maou Maou Maou? I am telling you he spoke!”

“Mother, come sit and rest. You must be tired.”

“Shin-kun, you are breaking Obasan’s heart. Say Maou? Please say Maou?”

This old woman is now repeatedly saying something and Maou-sama. I guess she is chanting my name in praise. As expected of occultist humans – even though they know I will wipe out their kind, they will still worship me. It is creeping me out since she is saying staring at me so passionately and with such a big smile. Even in the nether realm, such kind of people would be considered abnormal or rare i.e. to wish your own kind to doom.

However, for me this is perfect. I had resorted to instilling fear in the minds of my servants – to get them to serve me (by continuously reiterating in baby language that he is the Demon Lord and this is somehow supposed to instil fear in the minds of his ‘servants’). Now it seems that I don’t need to put in any effort to get them to serve me – as they already worship me.

Excellent. My fortune is not so bad to have reincarnated amidst Maou-sama worshippers.

This fits well with my plan.

Hero, your mistake of not destroying my soul will cost you dearly.

Part 2

Keeping track of days is cumbersome. I do not know how many days have gone by since I have reincarnated but I can say this – humans do grow slow. If this were my normal body, I would have already evolved to the second stage of an asura.

In my previous life, I was in the Asura Demonic Tribe. It is one of the more powerful races in the nether realm. The life cycle over there is much more simplified. We hatch, we survive, and we evolve.

As a hatchling, we are already capable of walking and talking. We stumble and fall but our bodies are extremely tough. There is no concept of family in our tribe. The hatchlings are left to fend for themselves in the wild – only the strong survive this way. My case was an exception. I was destined to be the grand overlord / Demon Lord of my tribe. Hence, I always had servants serving me from the day I hatched.

Nonetheless, I too was put through rigorous training. Day after day, I fought countless life and death battles, forcing me to draw out more power from within till I evolved to the second stage. That is the only way for an Asura to evolve. There are a total of five stages of an Asura evolution. Every time, an Asura evolves, all their powers go up an entire level. The strength gap between a single stage is as wide as heaven and earth. Most of my clan members will reach the third stage, but few cross the fifth. Even as the Demon Lord, from fourth to fifth stage of evolution took me a decade.

Humans are very different from Asuras. It has already been so long, but I have yet to evolve to the second stage. I can sense my self growing – but not evolving. I wonder if humans have a special restriction when it comes to evolving. Maybe I need to eat some monster cores to evolve. Or I need to eat demonic meat. Or maybe there is another method for humans. Whatever the method is, I need to discover it soon. Simply, relying on training is taking too long to evolve.

Talking about monster cores, I haven’t seen a single one in my castle. At first it was not something that bothered. After all monster cores are difficult to obtain – especially given the incompetency of my servants who lack fighting poweress. But I have become suspicious for a while, I cannot even find low grade monster cores. I can understand not having high-grade monster cores. But what about the weaker monster cores? Surely, these humans must have some of those?

I have searched my castle well, and couldn’t detect the slightest presence of any monster core. Hence, I am certain there aren’t any monster cores present in the castle.

This is troubling, although I have slightly favourable view of my servants, I am now beginning to doubt them. Maybe, our position in the world is really too low and the clan which serves me is in dire straits. This might explain why they have no monster cores.

Although, there is food on the table – the tableware is made of simple steel and not silver. This castle does not reek of poverty but it certainly isn’t a dazzling with lavishness.

I guess before I take my revenge on the world, it will be necessary for me to put the affairs of my castle in order. Without a strong foundation, even a Demon Lord will fall. I was only able to become a prefectural lord in the nether realm because my foundation, that is the Generals who served me, were strong. Their clans were prosperous and hence we had plentiful resources to gather the strong under one banner….

These human servants of mine are really too useless – relying on me to handle such petty affairs.

Sigh….

Part 3

I have spent my days training both the mind and the body.

Being a hatchling, and a frail human, it is of utmost importance to train my physical body. Beyond crawling, I am unable to do much. Therefore, I crawl as much as I can till I tire myself out. Okasan doesn’t like it much that I crawl all over the house. For a servant she pampers me too much. I guess seeing her Master struggle so much must be too much for her glass heart to handle. Initially, she kept a strict eye on me, I appreciated her enthusiasm to guard me while I trained. However, lately she seems have slackened in her duties. She no longer takes any interest in keeping an eye on me. It is bothersome, but when I begin talking I will make sure someone guards me all the time.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Tatsuya and Tomo, too seem to have lost their interest serving me. At first, they used to hang around me all day as they….I am not sure what they did. There were all these complicated miniature human toys that they played with? Seriously, what kind of stupid humans play and draw while their master is training himself to death?

Xerxes-san would cry to death if he ever saw Tomo and Tatsuya playing around like this.

Sensing magic is one of the most difficult things to accomplish – however the degree of difficulty varies from creature to creature. A dragon can innately sense mana in the atmosphere. Asura’s too can sense mana from birth. However, as one climbs down the ladder of the food chain, the ability to sense mana falls.

That is why it isn’t so surprising that many humans are unable to sense mana. Being unable to sense mana is the same as being unable to use magic. This pretty much concludes why humans are at the bottom of the food chain. However, despite lacking the talent to sense mana, humans have cultivated various techniques and tools to allow them to sense mana.

What I need right now are those techniques and tools, since my existing demon techniques are falling short of yielding results.

Till I don’t learn these techniques, I should only focus on training the physical strength. I will crawl and crawl, till my stamina increases. I will train my legs till I can walk and run. And then the real training will begin. Although, I shouldn’t put too much strain on the human body, I am nearing the limits of my patience.

Demon Lords aren’t that very patient to begin with.

Part 4

Today, when I woke up, I found myself in the forest. Okasan was with me, so were Tomo and Tatsuya….

I must say this is the most disappointing forest in my life. Not a single monster in sight - not even a goblin.

In fact, all I saw were human children everywhere. After a little thinking, it occurred to me that we are probably not in a forest but in a private estate of some rich clan. Yes that would explain why I sense no monsters.

In fact, the more I watch my surroundings, the more information I am able to gather. I can see human children training vigorously on the equipment scattered around in this estate. Some of the equipment is clearly useless. For example, what is the point of sliding down? What muscle will it possible train? All these children are doing is climbing a ladder and then sliding down another path. What kind of stupid training is this?

There is another training equipment, where two human children sit in front of each other and go up and down…..wtf is this?

How can any of this be considered training?

Only some of the older children are climbing bars….but even that too is pointless if aren’t hanging from a thousand feet gorge, with a heavy weights pulling you down and fighting a flying monster at the same time – now that is training.

What I just explained was part of the beginner series of training by Xerxes-san. Hanging to a rope with a single hand, with a raging lava river thousand feet below me, I had to cross the gorge whilst fending off monster birds. Oh, I also carried a one ton back up during the complete ordeal. Ah….good times.

Compared to that – I am not sure what the humans hope to accomplish through this sort of training….

Could it be?

Of course…this might be it….the technique I was looking for….maybe through these pointless exercises humans are able to sense mana.

That is the only explanation!!!

Yes, that is why the children are indulging in such pointless activities, this much be too increase their mana sensing abilities. If I think about it like this, it all makes sense.

No wonder, Okasan got me here. She understood that my training wasn’t progressing with regards to magic. So she must have decided it was time to bring me here….magic is abundant in nature and life. If I look around, this natural forest must be bountiful of mana. No wonder there is training equipment here.

Why did it not strike me earlier. I need to do what those children are doing as well!! Okasan let me do that!!

“Awww…look at him. He wants to join his brothers on the slide. Do you think it would be okay to let him ride the slide with the boys?” Sui asked as she watched her little one point to the slide.

“I don’t know Sui…maybe you should ride with him?” Another lady who was sitting on the bench suggested.

“Alright! Let us ride the slide!”

Part 5

Yes! Good job Okasan. You are finally understanding me. Let us commence my magic training!

Wait why are you sitting with me? I don’t need assistance!!! Okasan!!! You are embarrassing the Demon Lord!!! Get off!!!! I will do this training on my own!!!

…

Killing intent!

I only felt it for a fraction of a second but I certainly felt it!