novelraw Chapter 77 : Chapter 77
Chapter 77 : Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Ajiyog, with a deeply scrowling face, surveyed his surroundings with an expression full of displeasure and muttered.
“Damn it all……”
He, a pure-blooded demonkin and one of the first, thought.
That the demon realm was going mad.
“Hey, move it, will you!”
Startled by the sharp voice from behind, he moved aside, and a young demonkin passed by, grumbling.
“It's not like he's showing off his country bumpkin-ness, does he own the gate?
Why is he blocking it?”
Ajiyog said nothing and looked up at the red sky.
‘Ha……’
What on earth had happened during the last 300 years he had been away, carrying out his duty as a ‘Shepherd’?
Of course, he had been reported on everything.
He had just thought that he would never return to the demon realm, so he hadn't paid much attention and had erased it from his memory.
The ‘entry examination’ he had just undergone was also one of those things.
When he heard that the examination for entering the demon realm would be strengthened, he had naturally expected an examination that would grind up the riff-raff and low-level demonkin.
So he had even gone to see it.
If he had known that the ‘examination’ was to confirm the purpose of the visit and identity, and that it was a useless act that took a whole month, he would never have done so.
‘Baal……’
Was this the demon realm you wanted?
‘The Beginning, Baal (Baël)……’
The First Monarch , Baal.
The first king of hell and the greatest of the demonkin.
He had heard rumors that the demon realm had been changing since he had appointed the 71st-ranked demon king, ‘Scholar Dantalion’, as the secretary-general.
He also knew that this change was an inevitable choice to prevent the extinction of the demonkin.
And yet…….
Ajiyog's gaze swept over the nameplates on the unfamiliar buildings.
[Demonkin Management Office]
[Middle World Business Trip Support Office]
[Plunderer Training Center]
[Business Trip Demonkin Support Office]
[Beginner Demonkin Nursery]
[Corrupted Soul Distribution Center]
[Middle World Summoning Waiting Area]
But looking at the something that had taken the place of his cozy home, which had reeked of blood.
‘Ha… at this rate, who is the invader?’
He couldn't help but have such a thought.
A nursery in the demon realm.
Was that even a plausible thing to say?
“Back in my day……”
Just as something that was either a grumble or a lament was about to come out of Ajiyog's mouth, who seemed to have aged considerably, someone shouted from behind.
“Hey, don't block the way, move it!”
Ah.
As he took another step back, young demonkin passed by, giggling and chatting amongst themselves.
“His clothes are just, is he some kind of king?”
“Kikikik.
Hey, even my great-grandmother wouldn't dress like that.
Nowadays, even the demon kings are so mindful of fashion.”
“That's right, I saw Lady Gremory from a distance the other day, and she was so beautiful……!”
Ajiyog, who had heard that story, glanced down at his own clothes.
His rugged demon realm combat uniform, which his friend had given him to wear just before he went to the middle world, and the formal wear that was the most popular in the demon realm at the time.
‘Hmm……’
As he looked up at the young demonkin who had passed him, he noticed their fancy formal wear, which barely covered the important parts or fell perfectly to fit their bodies.
‘Hmm……’
If they were incubi and succubi who seduced intelligent beings and sucked their essence, it was certainly possible.
Those prepared hunters were a meticulous species who even practiced their attire and minor hand gestures for the sake of the hunt.
But.
Ajiyog thought, looking at the horns that were proudly perched on the heads of the three demonkin.
‘They are small and insignificant, but they are the horns of a combat demonkin… and what is the king mindful of?
Fashion?’
Had he misheard hegemon or wickedness ?
‘And a demonkin from the great-grandparent's generation is still alive… ha!’
Though he had lived so long that he couldn't even remember how long he had lived, the current demon realm was difficult to accept.
Combat demonkin wearing formal wear instead of combat uniforms, and a demonkin whose lineage continued.
If it had been the era he had lived in, they would have died for breathing carelessly.
“Child.”
And yet, the reason he hadn't killed a single demonkin yet was because he couldn't forget the time before the ‘covenant’ was made.
The time when thousands, tens of thousands of demonkin were starving to death, when they lost countless of their kind to those who were called by the presumptuous names of heroes and champions, and had to appease their fleeting hunger.
How long had it taken, and how many dimensions had disappeared, for the demonkin to choose ‘farming’ instead of ‘war’ and succeed?
Ajiyog, one of the first demonkin, had felt pity for his kind who were dying without even being able to bloom during that tenacious period.
So much so that he, one of the first demonkin, had volunteered to be a ‘Shepherd’ of a dimension instead of challenging for the throne.
Ajiyog reached out his hand towards the young demonkin who were ignoring his words and walking away.
“Child.”
The young demonkin, who had grown up in a safe environment, not in a world of survival of the fittest, did not feel the danger of that small gesture and ignored him, walking on, giggling.
“Child.”
The moment the same word was repeated three times from Ajiyog's mouth.
“Kuaaaak!”
“Kyaaaak!”
An overwhelmingly dense and deep demonic energy enveloped and crushed them.
-Weeeeeee!
An unknown alarm went off, but Ajiyog didn't care.
Because repeating the same thing three times was, for him, a test of extreme patience.
As he lightly pulled his hand, the heads of the three demonkin were torn off with a grinding sound and flew to his hand.
“Ha, to be so fragile……”
Ajiyog had definitely pulled their bodies, but their bodies, unable to withstand the magical power, had been torn apart.
‘In my dimension's middle world, I am harvesting no small number of souls… and yet there are still demonkin who are fighting against hunger……!’
The moment he thought that, one of the three demonkin shouted with a venomous face.
“You!
You!
Do you know who my dad is?”
Ajiyog gave a bitter smile to the frail demonkin who was trying to provide information he hadn't even asked for.
Yes, this is what a demonkin is.
A being who would sell their children, their family, to survive.
Seeing as it was still stubbornly alive even after its head had been torn off, it must have just been a starving demonkin.
A demonkin with nothing might not have recognized his combat uniform.
Because the combat uniform he wore was a masterpiece created by none other than the best craftsman in the demon realm.
“Ha, to be so starved and yet your life force is still intact.”
“What?!
You're dead!
I'm going to tell my dad and have you thrown in the guardhouse and starved to death!”
…….
……?
“…Not you?”
“What?”
“If you're a demonkin, you should take your revenge with your own hands……”
“What is this crazy pervert talking about!
My dad is going to make you a body that can neither live nor die!”
Hmm…….
Ajiyog, who saw the demonkin shouting and mentioning its dad even after its head had been torn off, was convinced.
That the demon realm was going mad.
***
“Hahahahaha!”
The demonkin who was sitting across from Ajiyog and laughing so hard that the restaurant seemed to be on the verge of collapsing was someone he had fought with in several wars of aggression.
He didn't seem to be a very important demonkin, as he couldn't remember his face no matter how many times he looked at it.
He had heard that he was some kind of famous minister and that he was in a position no different from a demon king, but Ajiyog didn't pay much attention.
Because a power made of words, not of martial might, was as useless to a demonkin as a goblin's prenatal name.
“Hehehehe… sob, sob……”
Ajiyog, who was looking at him who was almost crying from being unable to hold back his laughter, calmly picked up a knife and fork, cut the meat in front of him, and put it in his mouth.
‘Mmm……!’
The meat that melted in his mouth and the flavor of the soul were indeed a luxurious dish fit for a demon king.
‘Wasn't it said to be made by simmering the soul of a monk who had killed his own child?’
Every time he put a piece of meat in his mouth, the despair, hatred, and anger popped in just the right way, and it was a delicacy that even he, who had considered meals and food itself to be the vanity of inferior demonkin, had to admit.
‘Indeed, there have been such changes in the last 300 years.’
As he was lost in thought, remembering the demonkin who had urged him to learn how to cook several times, the demonkin who had finally caught his breath opened his mouth.
“Heh-heh, so, so what happened?”
“I went to the examination hall and spread my demonic energy, and a young demonkin came out and scolded me for doing that in a public place.”
“Heup……!
So?
Did you kill him?”
“No, since it was a procedure made by Baal, I just followed it quietly… When they told me to name a demonkin who could prove my identity, as I was a demonkin not on the records, and I named Baal, Gamigin, and Amon, they got so angry.”
Gamigin and Amon are the 4th and 7th ranked demon kings, respectively.
“Heh-heh, you named the king at the entry examination?”
“I don't know many demonkin……”
If he had been able to contact them, things would have been much easier, but the demonkin at the examination hall were not foolish enough to deliver the words of a mere mad demonkin to the king.
In the first place, there was no way a friend of a demon king would come to the entry examination hall.
“Heuk, heuk……!
A war hero at the examination hall……!”
Ajiyog smiled bitterly as he looked at the demonkin who was laughing so hard that he was crying, his head bowed over his plate.
“So, what next?”
“I accidentally pulled off the head of a starving demonkin, and its father came.”
Fortunately, the young demonkin's parents had ‘common sense’, and the moment they saw the different class of demonic energy, they reported it to their superiors.
When that report went up through the team leader, the department head, the division head, and finally reached the ears of Belial, the minister of the ‘Dimension Enforcement Department’, he remembered it.
The name of Ajiyog, who was called a war hero and a slaughterer of the demon realm.
“Uahaha!
That ‘starving demonkin’ is the child of a family renowned enough to be counted on one hand in this city.
Heuk-heuk……”
Though he said it jokingly, wiping the tears that had welled up in his eyes from trying to hold back his laughter, Belial did not let his guard down.
Because if such an out-of-spec monster were to start rampaging, no one but a demon king could stop it.
“Right, that's enough for the explanation.
What did you come for?
If it's something I can help with, I'll help you in any way I can, and if you want to meet a demon king, I'll arrange it myself.”
Belial, the minister of the Dimension Enforcement Department, prayed earnestly for the first time to the demon god he had never once sought out.
To have the monster in front of him go back as soon as possible.
It was not an easy task for him, a minister, to contact one of the demon kings directly, but shouldn't monsters play with monsters?
“Hmm……”
Whether he knew Belial's heart was shrinking in real time as the silence grew longer or not, Ajiyog maintained his silence and carefully savored the feast before him.
‘It's ridiculous to ask a demon king for help with something like this……’
Ajiyog slightly lifted his head and looked at the demonkin who had provided an unexpectedly satisfying meal.
‘I don't remember who he is, but if he's been in a war of aggression and can prepare a meal like this……’
By the time Belial's evaluation had changed from ‘a demonkin not worth remembering’ to ‘a useful demonkin who serves wonderful food’, Ajiyog, who had finished his meal, slowly opened his mouth.
“I have a few favors to ask……”
Of course, Belial, who had been wondering which demon king to contact and how just a moment ago, despaired at such a monster's evaluation.
‘That monster is asking for a ‘favor’……’
It must be something that far surpasses his own limits.
Belial remembered the middle world that Ajiyog was in charge of.
‘The first farm and the unopened dimension……’
A report that had recently become a hot topic suddenly came to Belial's mind.
A report that several dimensions' ‘farms’ were suddenly collapsing, and that the indigenous gods and sub-gods were suspected to be behind it.
‘Could it be that a sub-god is in that dimension as well?
So he's trying to start a war……!’
As Belial looked at Ajiyog with a shocked face, he slowly opened his mouth.
“By any chance……”
Gulp.
Belial swept his hand over the burning wound from the war of aggression and looked at his mouth.
“…Do you know any children of the nightmare race?
I've been in the middle world for so long……”
At that request, Belial nodded his head so hard it seemed it would break.
The race was now called Nightmare, but whether it was nightmare or Nightmare, he could give them away as much as he wanted to protect the peace of the demon realm.
“O-of course!
I will personally look for a useful nightmare!”
“Hmm……”
“Ah, no, I will find the most competent nightmare even if I have to sell my most cherished soul, so don't worry!”
Ajiyog was puzzled by Belial, who was making a fuss over a trivial matter, but he nodded gratefully, as he was going to find one even if it meant selling his cherished soul.
‘As expected, he was a more useful demonkin than I thought.
To help me so kindly, he seems to have a good personality too……’
A relationship that Belial would absolutely not want was scheduled to last for a while.