The Demon King is Unfathomable

The demons entered the castle based on their seniority.

When Roan, holding a recording crystal in hand, stepped into the assembly hall, he took a quick look around and spotted many fourth-year seniors whom he rarely met.

The fourth-year seniors commanded a disposition different from the first, second, and third-year amateur demons. They were stronger, more ferocious, more scheming… and overall, their aura was just much more up there.

Perhaps sensing his wandering gaze, a junior succubus wearing clothes that covered less surface area than a bikini suddenly turned around, raised her chin, and looked at him with eyes so cold that she could have been looking at a bug instead.

Roan turned away and switched off his recording crystal in a fluster.

‘A two-minute video should be enough, or else I’m going to run out of mana.’

While Roan was distracted, the other students of the Demon King Academy got into positions. Professor Lilith, Professor Enos, and the others arrived too.

Soon, the assembly hall was jam-packed with demon students and professors.

“Silence,” a solemn voice reverberated from above.

Under the watch of countless eyes, Principal Evan Krueger slowly drifted up to the podium and began his commencement speech.

In gist, he thanked the professors for their hard work, complimented the students for their outstanding performance, and expressed the high hopes he harbored for the students when they finally joined the workforce.

This thousand-year-old monster’s voice was amicable but powerful as if he wasn’t giving a speech in an academy but in the frontlines of a battlefield.

“…You are the pride of hell and His Majesty Demon God! Put what you have learned from your classes on the battlefield and plunge our enemies into terror and despair! A day will come when we return to the surface, cleanse ourselves of the humiliation we suffered a thousand years ago, and restore hell’s honor!”

The old man’s impassioned speech was unlike a principal's, but this was how hell rolled. The demons gathered in the assembly hall were feeling all revved up.

The next one to take the stage was Vice Principal Doreen Weber.

A noblewoman who gave off an air of melancholy stepped into the assembly hall, and the castle’s temperature immediately plummeted several degrees. Some of the ifrits became visibly smaller.

Vice Principal Doreen Weber was a melancholia, rumored to be from the extreme north.

A thousand years ago, the melancholias migrated into the underworld together with the Netherworld Faction… It was a wonder how they survived in this searing hot place.

Vice Principal Doreen’s voice was soft and ethereal, filled with yearning like a sorrowful night tune. Unsurprisingly, it poured cold water over the atmosphere that Principal Evan had heated with his earlier speech.

“My beloved children, especially the third-year rascals, I’m apologetic that I’m unable to provide you with a complete academy experience as an elder…”

There were rumors that Vice Principal Doreen had arguments with Principal Evan regarding the mobilization of the third-year students.

The mobilization of the third-year students during this time of emergency felt more like a show than anything else. Most students here wouldn’t be going to the frontlines anyway.

Roan noticed Mia, one of his classmates, yawning out of boredom. She must have already settled her post-graduation plan.

The same went for Lumi too. That dumb furiataur was fiddling with his peculiarly-shaped fingers again.

Meykil was exhaling toward an ifrit like before, but it was because the assembly hall was freezing due to Vice Principal Doreen’s cold aura. That annoyed the ifrit, who was already feeling uncomfortable, so he turned around and pummeled Meykil.

While Roan’s attention was wandering, a voice echoed in his ears, “Dear, you don’t want to go to the frontlines too, right?”

The warm breath against his ear shocked Roan. He quickly turned around and found himself faced with Mia’s mischievous smile.

“…”

Mia wasn’t discouraged by Roan’s vigilant look. Instead, that stoked her desire to conquer him.

“I browsed through your records and learned that you live in the divine temple. Is that real? Are your parents clergymen?”

“…”

“The Demon King Academy is a place demon kings are nurtured, but demon kings don’t live a long life. A few unlucky fellows are put in those positions each year. I wonder who will it be this year.”

“…”

“A third-rate mage like you won’t survive more than two days on the battlefield, but I happen to have some connections to reassign you from the battlefield into a civil servant role.”

“…”

“You can share an office with me~”

“…”

Roan’s unresponsiveness made Mia’s face twitch. Her bright smile gradually crumbled.

‘Hmph, he might have good self-control, but that’s useless on the battlefield. I heard surface knights are not only ugly but also prone to jealousy. If they see your dashing face, they might lop off your head and hang it on the wall as decoration.’

“Stop putting on airs. So what if you accrue military achievements on the frontlines? Honor and glory are nothing before power. Even if you make outstanding contributions, the ultimate goal is still to be assigned back to the underworld…”

Roan interjected her speech with a cough, “I have already decided on my career. I joined this academy because I want to become a demon king.”

Mia was flabbergasted.

Even Lumi, who was fiddling with his fingers, and the ifrit pummeling Meykil stopped what they were doing to stare at him in disbelief.

‘He wants to be a demon king… Is he out of his mind?!’

Egor silently shot him a thumbs up from the corner.

‘As expected of senior. So dashing!’

Roan considered reciting some poetry to posture, but he dropped the idea and simply turned his eyes away when he remembered what happened last night.

But Mia didn’t let him off just like that. She was so shocked that it looked as if she had swallowed a messenger bat whole.

“Are you m-m-mad?! Going to the frontlines as a demon king?! Do you know how humans torture demon kings?! If they capture you, they will tear your intestines out and force you to swallow them back in…”

Uweh!

‘Do the surface humans have such heavy tastes?!’

Roan nearly barfed when that gore imagery popped into his mind, but he pressed his lips together and held it in. If there was one other thing he learned from the Demon King Academy other than knowledge, it was holding things in.

“So? Are you afraid?”

Roan took a step toward her, stared unflinchingly into her heart-shaped irises, and chuckled.

“Professor Enos said that fear is a type of faith. What do you have to fear as someone who worships His Majesty Demon God? Or have you offered your faith to someone else?”

Mia’s face turned pale, and she lowered her head in shame.

It was not just her.

Lumi, Meykil, and the other students who were secretly eyeing them looked uncomfortable too. These scions had their pride as well. They were living under their predecessors’ shadow, but if given a chance, they would want to prove themselves worthy too.

Roan, having spent three years with them, knew them too well.

Not wanting to force Mia into a corner, he retreated a step, turned his gaze back to the podium, and said composedly, “My only faith is in His Majesty Demon God. I don’t even fear Saint Sisto, let alone his knights.”

He had nearly blurted out ‘I’d fearlessly advance against an army of knights’, but it was too big of a boast that it made him cringe a little, so he decided to tone it down. At least his words were half true.

‘Someone who dares buy a house in the Holy Capital wouldn’t fear Saint Sisto’s holy light.’

But his classmates didn’t know better, especially Egor, who quietly admired him from the crowd with tears brimming in his eyes.

‘Uh? Something feels off. Forget it, I’m about to graduate anyway.’

Not too far away, Principal Evan was busy bragging to the elegantly dressed Vampire King, Kaiser Clint.

“What do you think? He’s a talent, isn’t he?”

Kaiser Clint was the Clint House’s patriarch and one of the six members of the Demon God’s Inner Circle. He governed over military affairs, a sector that the Demon God paid a close eye to.

He was the ex-student who had received Principal Evan’s recommendation letter.

The whisperings in the assembly hall were no secret to the two Half Gods, which meant to say that both of them had heard Roan’s bragging loud and clear.

Kaiser assessed the youth in the crowd with his sharp eyes. A long time later, he finally nodded.

“A talent indeed.”

‘He might only be at Bronze-tier, but he resisted a Silver-tier succubus’ seduction, as well as the temptation of beauty and power. That is evidence of his strong willpower.

‘Unlike my useless son who fell in love with a mortal who offered her soul to the Demon God… There is no way to extend the lifespan of someone like that. Even if I gather her soul together, there are no spells that can transform her into a lich or anything else.

‘Never have our Clints had such a foolish lunatic before!’

The angrier he was at Lockser Clint, the more he admired the ordinary lad before him.

‘But speaking of which, why does this child look so familiar?’

“…Must be my imagination.”

Kaiser eventually decided that he was overthinking it.

Despite being a playboy in his younger days, he had no recollection of ever getting together with a human woman. He had tried centaurs, succubuses, hell spiders, revemons, queen slimes…

‘No, scrap the last one.’

Kaiser hurriedly shook off his thoughts, feeling like his dignity would crumble at this rate.

Time ticked by.

The graduation ceremony was finally nearing its conclusion. It was time for the civil servants from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to step in and do their work.

Kaiser and Evan left the assembly hall to continue their chat somewhere else.

Mia received an invitation for a civil servant post just as she had wanted, but for some reason, she wasn’t happy about it. It was the same for Lumi and Meykil too.

The only thing that came as a surprise to Roan was Egor…

That shy, gentle youth had chosen to join the Ministry of War!

While joining the Ministry of War didn’t mean that one would step onto the battlefield, it was still a post closer to the battlefield than the others.

Egor made his way to Roan with his appointment letter in hand. His eyes gleamed with conviction as he said, “Senior, I spent the last night thinking things through and wrote another letter to my family. My family opposed me becoming a demon king, but they let me join the Ministry of War for the time being. I hope that a day comes when I can lead reinforcements to your demon king domain and fight alongside you!”

‘Bro… can’t you send someone more reliable if we ever come to that point, like the Vampire King?’

Those were moving words, but Roan couldn’t smile. He couldn’t imagine how the warriors fighting on the frontlines would feel when they realized that their reinforcement was a useless Silver-tier incubus.

Despite Roan’s lack of response, Egor placed his fist on his puffed-up chest and said, “Your courage has moved me. I have decided to learn from your example and be a proud demon!”

“Good! I like your spirit.”

Roan patted Egor’s shoulder with a conflicted heart. The latter was so motivated that it would fill him with guilt to crush the latter’s morale, so he instead advised, “If you ever encounter a knight, don’t obstinately hold on and end up… Just surrender if you are given a choice.”

His surface brethren, based on Mia’s claims, had a heavy taste. All of a sudden, he was no longer as excited about heading to the surface anymore.

“I won’t be caught! Even if I’m caught… I-I won’t submit!” Egor protested angrily.

Roan nodded with a heartened smile and smacked Egor’s unbudging shoulder with greater strength.

‘Good, good. Remember this emotion. It might save your life during crucial moments.’

After sending off Egor, Roan bid farewell to his classmates before finally making his way to one of the civil servants. It was a bespectacled gnome.

Unlike goblins who could be seen everywhere, gnomes were an ‘endangered species’ in hell, and they were much more useful than humans.

“Mister Roan, the Inner Circle has decided to assign you to… Ah, the previous demon king domain has been destroyed, so you’ll have to plant a new domain core and come up with a new name for the demon king domain.”

The gnome was exceptionally polite to Roan as he was chosen by the Inner Circle, though he was baffled as to why the Inner Circle would choose a Bronze-tier necromancer to handle this scalding lavastone.

‘Maybe His Majesty Demon God has already given up on that land…’

Roan didn’t hesitate to pick up the quill and write a name down.

“Let’s call it Necropolis.”

Being a naming cripple, it was beyond him to come up with something deep and meaningful. Besides, he was planning to lie low, so it was best for his domain name to be as low profile as possible.

The gnome civil servant noted that the chosen domain name didn’t conform to naming traditions, but he only hesitated for a second before stamping the document.

‘Why does it matter? His Majesty Demon God is likely to have already given up on that piece of land, so it might be dissolved very soon.’

It didn’t help that the demon king domain was located in Lyon Kingdom, the Tether Continent’s home of knights. Even a Diamond-tier furiataur had died there.

The gnome civil servant couldn’t imagine how a Bronze-tier necromancer could survive there.

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