The Demon King is Unfathomable

A resounding shriek echoed from the Demon Capital Bank’s counter.

“How much?!”

A uniformed orc security guard quickly turned to look at the counter, but he turned away with a harrumph when he saw that it was just an ugly human.

The female goblin sitting behind the counter looked shyly at Roan, whose mouth had opened so wide that an egg could be thrown inside.

“Two million kyrats… Sir, are you sure you want to withdraw everything?”

‘Now that I’m taking a closer look, this customer looks quite dashing.’

Humans might be beneath high demons in hell’s hierarchy, but they had value in scarcity. Furthermore, there were rumors that, with the exception of their noses and ears, humans were longer than goblins in all aspects.

‘I guess I can make an exception for him if he invites me out for a meal…’

“It’s fine. I’ll just… withdraw 10,000 kyrats first,” Roan quickly calmed himself down and replied.

He thought that the card would have, at most, a few thousand kyrats, since his monthly living expenses amounted to around 2000. Not even in his wildest imagination did he expect there to be a seven-digit figure in there.

‘Did Father Jeffrey accidentally give me his private account?’

The possibility of that happening was as good as null, but Roan couldn’t help but worry.

‘I should take a detour and pay him a visit in the West District’s Ferocious Ghost Street. I should return the money to him if he got it wrong.’

The female goblin counted ten thousand-kyrat bills twice before placing them neatly on the copper plate. These bills were made out of fire-resistant materials, and it was rumored that they wouldn’t be impaired even when boiled in lava.

This was Roan’s first time seeing the highest denomination note despite having lived in hell for eighteen years. The notes felt searing in his hands.

“Sir, please check the sum,” the female goblin reminded with a slightly raised pitch as she twirled like talon-like forefinger around her long ear.

Roan didn’t expect goblins to be so expressive.

All this while, he thought their only trait was gluttony since he had only seen them in the West Tower’s canteen.

“All right, thank you.”

Roan stuffed the money into his wallet before striding off, much to the female goblin’s shock. Not even her green foundation could conceal the redness glowing on her face, and her adoring eyes morphed into the most vicious curse.

‘How can an ugly human be this rude?! What are you showing off for? Disgusting! Prawn head! ￥%￥#@!’

…

Demons of all shapes and sizes walked along the Demon Capital’s West District’s Ferocious Ghost Street.

Some were as tall as giants. Some were as short as dwarves. Some had countless legs. Some had eyes that covered half their faces… and some weren’t even mammals but giant worms who swam butterfly stroke in the lava or seemingly harmless but fatal carnivorous plants.

There was a distinctive difference between them and high demons.

Lower demons, who formed the bulk of hell’s populace, tended to have hybrid bloodlines, so they weren’t classified into a specific race. Rather, they were collectively termed as ‘demonoids’.

That was a term mainly used to discriminate lower demons from high demons.

But the distinction between demonoids and demons had already faded. Only antiques like Principal Evan cared about such semantics. The new-generation demons didn’t care about it.

This was where Father Jeffrey’s church was located.

Roan sensed sharp gazes on him as soon as he stepped onto the street.

Non-clergyman humans were extremely conspicuous entities in hell… they were so conspicuous that everyone wanted to have a taste of them.

And this was one of the reasons Roan hardly ‘went home’ after getting into the Demon King Academy.

Father Jeffrey had just concluded his evening prayer when he saw Roan at the church entrance. An amicable smile formed on his wrinkled face as if he was looking at his grandson.

“What brings you here?”

“I miss you,” Roan replied with a grin.

He lifted the basket in his hand. It was filled with some of hell’s specialties—fireboar fruits and bread. He had bought these from a roadside vendor before entering this street.

“You don’t have to. Our church has never lacked food. Your money would have been better spent on the children living in rural areas.”

Despite his words, Father Jeffrey still received Roan’s gift with a smile. He pointed out with a leisurely voice, “You must be here for the bank card.”

Since Father Jeffrey had seen through him, Roan admitted it with a laugh, “I can’t hide anything from you.”

Father Jeffrey nodded as if he had expected it. “Were you shocked by the sum in it?”

“Yes… I was wondering when you got so rich.”

Father Jeffrey eyed Roan.

He passed the basket to a nun and told her to place it in the kitchen. There was enough food in the basket for all the church’s orphans to have a heartening dinner.

After dealing with the basket, he turned back to Roan and said, “I mentioned in the letter that the money is from your father.”

Roan fell silent for seconds before nodding. “I know, but… how should I put it? That’s a lot of money. I need to at least know his name to thank him.”

To be honest, he wasn’t sure how he felt about this.

That man had never appeared in his life for the past eighteen years, even keeping his name a secret. Yet, he suddenly tossed such a huge sum of money to him…

Father Jeffrey glanced at the chapel behind him.

“Your father… can’t meet you for reasons, so he can only offer you some help through me. I don’t like that man, but I can tell that he cares for you, and he’s doing this because he earnestly wishes well for you.”

Roan nodded.

“All right, let’s leave it at that.”

Father Jeffrey raised his eyebrows.

“I thought you would probe me more for his name.”

“What’s the point of asking the same question over and over again? You have already kept his identity a secret for so many years, and I’m not fond of sticking my face to someone else’s cold ass. If he thinks this is better, so be it,” Roan replied with a helpless but carefree smile. “As far as I’m concerned, you are my father.”

Father Jeffrey smiled, but he quickly put on a stern face and coughed. “I’m happy to hear that, but it is more appropriate for you to call me grandfather age-wise.”

“Sure. Whatever pleases you.” Roan laughed.

Father Jeffrey nodded. He placed his big palm on Roan’s shoulder and looked at him with nostalgic eyes as if he was seeing someone else through him.

A while later, he slowly spoke up, “Your obsidian eyes resemble your mother’s… I remember being constantly worried about her when she was your age, and there were times I lost sleep over that. She didn’t disappoint me… She returned with a surprise eighteen years ago.”

“Surprise?” Roan blurted out, but it was unnecessary as he immediately realized what Father Jeffrey was driving at.

“Right, that’s you.” Father Jeffrey looked at Roan deeply before slowly continuing, “It’s because of your troublemaking mother and indecisive father that I’m always worried that I can’t raise you well… but you surprised me.

“There are times when you don’t feel like a child to me. Even when you were little, there were times when I thought you seemed more mature than your mother and more decisive than your father. Whenever I remember those moments, I feel proud of you, but I also feel ashamed…”

“Please don’t say that,” Roan interjected with a light cough. “I am grateful to you for raising me.”

Father Jeffrey chuckled. “Is that so? Thank you for your kind words. What I want to say is that even though I might not be a very qualified father, I have always thought of you as my child… Forgive me for only being able to help you this far. You’ll have to walk your path by yourself.”

Roan flashed Father Jeffrey a reassuring smile, saying, “You have already helped me plenty. Don’t worry, I can deal with whatever comes my way by myself. Besides, I have already decided on where I want to go.”

“Go ahead and do what you want.” Father Jeffrey patted Roan’s shoulder.

His eyes were filled with pride and approval like a true father.

“Come back and take a breather if you ever get tired. I’ll always be here.”

…

The purple light scattered from the ceiling slowly faded to darkness.

The night-befallen Demon Capital resembled a snoring dragon. Only the streetlamps and lava provided bits of illumination on the streets.

Under Father Jeffrey’s invitation, Roan had dinner with the church’s orphans and slept in the dormitory he had spent sixteen years in for the first time in a long time.

The dormitory was refurbished from an old chapel; it was a wide room with thirty beds. All the church’s orphans stayed here.

These orphans came from different races—there were unoculias, tendrilum, centaurs, felisapiens, and even slimes. (T/N: One-eyed monsters, tentacle monsters, and catmen)

Just as Roan was about to fall asleep, a bunch of wingless ‘lower demons’ gathered around him and blinked their eyes in curiosity. They chattered like there was no tomorrow.

It evoked a feeling of deja vu like something similar had just happened not too long ago.

“Big brother Roan, I heard that you’re planning to become a demon king?!”

“Whee, I want to be a demon king too!”

“I’ll be your claws!”

“I’ll be your bride!”

“Wrong! A demon king wouldn’t have a bride!”

“I’ll play the village!”

“Aiya, I captured you.”

“Heh, let’s lock him up and torture him!”

“Enough, enough. Calm down, or Father Jeffrey might come knocking.”

Seeing how the rascals were slowly getting out of hand, Roan quickly stepped in and evicted him from his bed.

‘Something is wrong with the church’s upbringing… Oh wait, this is hell. It doesn’t seem that wrong to teach children to torture villagers in hell…’

After the lower demons dozed off, Roan lay on his bed too. He was planning to meditate and take a quick look at the forums, but he was so tired that he fell asleep right away.

Meanwhile, in another world where the purple chandelier didn’t shine, the players, who were hyped up but had nowhere to vent their energy, began ‘warmly greeting’ the developers on the forums.

Orcknight: “…%￥@#&! Why are you blocking my view?! (Angry)”

Soreloser: “Dogshit developers, come out! I’ll beat the shit out of you! (Angry)”

Minowarrior: “Succubus! Succubus! I demand a change of NPC!”

Bingtanghulu: “Damn it! I could at least see him just now, but now I can’t see anything at all!”

Lambskewer: “Argh, it itches! I feel like ten thousand ants are crawling on my body!”

Autumnleaf: “Are you all right? (Sweats)”

In a small bedroom, Zhao Jinyan was so stunned that he didn’t even notice his half-eaten popsicle falling to the ground.

‘They are already showing signs of addiction? Is this game really all right?!”

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