Book 8: The Third: Chapter of the Final Battle: The Game of the Demon King—Role Play, Part One
From the Demon King’s Castle, I teleported into the tent. Actually, there was nothing inside the tent, for I had actually slept in the Demon King’s Castle last night. From today onward, I still intended to continue doing so. Even though I was playing a game, I still had to care for my standard of living! Anyway, since I could use teleportation magic smoothly now, and my magic was ridiculously strong, going back and forth every day wasn’t a problem at all.
“Grisia!”
The calls came from outside the tent. It was Taylen and the others, and the three of them seemed to be quite anxious. I didn’t blame them though, for it was already late in the morning. Moreover, I had not gone back to the tent to sleep that late last night either. Even pigs would not sleep like this.
“Coming!” After I lazily shouted, I threw open the tent flaps.
“Y-You…”
Even after he angrily went “you” for a long time, Taylen still didn’t manage to come up with words to reprimand me. After I told him, “Sorry, I overslept,” his rage disappeared without a trace. He was really from top to bottom, a good person. I had not picked the wrong person to be the hero.
“You actually placed a magic circle outside the tent.” Michel sighed as he said, “You should have told us beforehand. Taylen nearly touched it by accident.”
“Even if you accidentally touched it, you would only be zapped by lightning magic. You won’t die from it.” Tch! I nearly had a good show to watch.
“You woke up too late!” Charlotte shouted loudly in disbelief, “Michel has always scolded me for sleeping too much! In the end, you slept even more than me. Are you still a man?”
What does sleeping a lot have to do with being a man or woman? This stinking woman! I roared back, “I always sleep this late. If you want to form a team with me, then you better be aware of this point!”
“Is this true?” Taylen seemed to be in deep shock as he said, “You slept for an entire twelve hours. If you were to do this every day, then we wouldn’t be able to travel much at all in a day!”
Michel’s face also darkened.
I quickly explained, “Usually, eight hours is enough. Yesterday, I was reading a bit in the tent, so I went to sleep a little later.”
Actually, I usually sleep over ten hours, but for the sake of playing this game, I could only force myself to wake up a bit earlier. Otherwise, if I were to sleep that long, even if I cut my salary by sixty percent, there probably wouldn’t be any teams willing to accept me.
“Eight hours?” Once Michel heard that, his expression looked troubled as he said, “That’s still too long. It would already be pretty good to be able to sleep seven hours in an ordinary adventurer’s lifestyle. Also, five to six hours of rest time is considered normal. Eight hours is really a bit too long…”
Impatient, I said, “I’ll lower my prices and only take thirty percent of the share, okay? If you’re going to keeping nagging, I’m going to go find another team!”
Michel immediately answered, “Deal!”
This fellow… Never mind. Regardless of whether it is the hero himself, the hero’s companions, or the hero’s money, don’t they all belong to me?
“Grisia, don’t be angry!” Taylen hurriedly said. “This is only Michel’s habit. If you really don’t want to lower your prices, we can always negotiate!”
“Why would I be angry?” With a slight smile, I said, “Anyway, what is most important is having good companions. Money is not as important!”
Why do these words of yours not sound convincing at all?
“Michel, what did you say?” I tilted my head to one side and said, “I actually didn’t hear you clearly.”
“Nothing!” Taylen gave Michel a glare and quickly covered it up, “He says that you’re right, having good companions is the most important thing!”
I nodded my head and then surveyed the surroundings. There weren’t many people from the entire adventurers’ party left, and moreover, there wasn’t a single tent left. The tents had long been stored away. Actually, there weren’t a lot of people who had set up tents in the first place. Most of them who had done so were female. The others merely slept in a sleeping bag, and there were even some pompous warriors who slept directly on the ground without even covering it with a blanket.
Charlotte too had only slept in a sleeping bag and then used cloth and tree branches to set up a simple coverage. When I had set up a complete tent, almost everyone had looked at me with a strange look in their eyes, and some even showed contempt—
At that moment, Michel had gone, “Ooooh,” and then said with a touched tone, “To actually be able to take out a tent from an enchanted space! Spatial magic is really hard! Taylen, we have really struck it rich!”
Taylen had also been very ecstatic and looked at me with a beaming smile. His face that was originally that of a hero’s could actually smile until he resembled a fox. I couldn’t help but laugh again. Really, you have all saved those fellows who dared to look down on me. I was originally going to scrutinize and remember who those people were, so that when Illu came, he could conveniently kill them off.
“Everyone, come and eat breakfast!”
I returned to my senses and saw Charlotte at the campfire not too far off. She shouted, “It’s almost going to become lunch. Thankfully, what I cooked was porridge. It’ll be done once I heat it up a bit more and add a few more ingredients. Quickly come over and eat!”
She squatted on the floor, heating up the porridge while even adding in various ingredients proficiently. This woman can cook? I felt a little surprised. She completely looked like the type who would chop off her own hand once she picked up a kitchen knife!
“Charlotte’s cooking is really not bad!” Taylen patted my shoulder and smilingly said, “Even if your salary has been lowered by five percent, as long as you eat Charlotte’s cooking, you would still feel that it’s worth it!”
“I don’t care whether her cooking is tasty or not. It’s always the higher the salary, the better.”
“This is indeed true…”
Charlotte dished out another two bowls of porridge and said, “If you want to chat, wait until we are on the road before doing so. Eat up first! If we don’t hasten our journey, we really will be unable to catch up with the party!”
“Sigh!” Michel gave a sigh and said, “We invited a powerful mage into our group, but we have to hasten our pace every day because he likes to sleep. I really don’t know whether this is good or bad.”
“Would it hurt you to say less?” Taylen unhappily commented. “In the future, everyone will be comrades. You don’t have to speak so sarcastically of one of our own, right?”
“It’s because he is one of us, that’s why I can do so…”
The cooking is really not bad. I ate a mouthful of porridge. It was cooked until moderate softness and mushiness. The taste of the other ingredients such as the mushrooms and vegetables was also just right. It was much tastier than the stuff cooked by the Holy Temple’s kitchen, though it still couldn’t be compared to the food served in the Demon King’s Castle.
It only seems to be missing a certain taste… It suddenly came to me what it was. “Do you have cilantro?”
The three of them who were in the middle of eating their porridge bit into their spoons and then lifted their heads to look at me blankly. Charlotte even threw down her spoon and directly complained with dissatisfaction, “Where would you find cilantro in the wilderness? You’re demanding for far too much!”
“You have to add spices into your food?” Michel chimed in. “Grisia, could it be that you are a noble from somewhere? That’s right, your mask looks very expensive!”
As expected, this mask is too showy! I was a bit angry as I replied, “The current me is an adventurer and your teammate. No matter who I was before, it shouldn’t matter!”
“What Grisia says is right!” Taylen nodded his head and said, “Since we are all teammates now, it doesn’t matter who we were in the past. Michel, Charlotte, you two are not that fond of prying, right? Even in my case, the two of you didn’t question that much!”
Even in my case…? This phrase seemed to be a bit odd.
Michel raised both his hands up in surrender and said, “All right, all right. I was wrong, okay?”
“It is because Grisia is too strange!” Charlotte completely did not want to admit that she was in the wrong and argued, “Who asked him to wear a mask around for no reason. Not even his eyes are showing!”
Taylen was flustered and exasperated as he said, “Charlotte! Grisia has already said that it was because of a fire. Stop bringing it up!”
“Disfigured is disfigured!” Charlotte said indifferently. “Who knows, he might have become cooler after getting disfigured!”
Go to hell! What do you mean become cooler after getting disfigured, just what kind of ugly monster do you think I am?
“Hehe, hahaha—”
The three of them looked at me with an expression of being unable to make heads or tails of what I was doing. Michel asked, “Grisia, what are you laughing at?”
“N-Nothing…” I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t stop. “I had only remembered an old friend. Charlotte is really very similar to her.”
“Me?” Charlotte pointed at her nose with her forefinger. Both of her eyes were even staring at that finger until she was cross-eyed. She really looked so foolish until I couldn’t take it. In this world, to think that there could be a woman this foolish. Even if I pointed around randomly in the Church of the God of Light, I would be able to point at a woman who is twice as good as her in terms of aura, appearance, and personality!
“Michel!”
Suddenly, someone shouted at us and then ran over in small steps. Just as I was thinking that his face was somewhat familiar, I then remembered who he was. It is actually Woodrow! Previously, when I had lost my memories, I had stayed in their group for a while, and he was one of the members. I didn’t think that I would meet him again so coincidentally… Currently, I have a head of black hair and am even wearing a mask. I shouldn’t be recognized, right?
I hoped that Woodrow wouldn’t recognize me, or else the game would end – No matter whether it was my hero-raising game or these people’s lives, they would all end. I would not let those who know that I am the Sun Knight stay alive.
When Michel stood up and walked to his side, Woodrow even asked in a small voice, “Who is this person wearing a mask?”
“A new teammate.” Michel merely gave a simple introduction and then changed the topic. “Has something come up?”
Woodrow nodded his head and following that, started exchanging information with Michel.
As I ate my porridge, I felt a little puzzled. I turned around to ask Taylen, “Are the team’s matters all handled by Michel? Why aren’t you, the leader, doing the negotiations?”
Even if the one actually managing the team was Michel, he should at least ask Taylen for his opinion and not handle the discussion himself.
“I am not the leader.” Out of my expectations, Taylen shook his head and said, “Michel is the one who is the leader. Why did you think that I am the leader?”
That’s because you look like the hot-blooded, foolish leader who often brings his teammates to rescue villagers! Moreover, you are also the hero that I have chosen, so of course you should be the leader!
In the end, he actually isn’t… Fine, I don’t think I have heard that a hero must be the leader, so I consider that you pass!
“I misunderstood,” I casually said half-heartedly, bringing an end to the questioning. Taylen didn’t pursue the matter further either. We both busied ourselves eating porridge together and then listened in on the conversation between Michel and the other party.
“I heard that the Church of the God of Light is dispatching troops to attack the Demon King.”
Once I heard that, I frowned. In this short moment, I didn’t know what I was feeling toward this piece of news, so I merely continued listening.
“The Church of the God of Light is sending troops?” Taylen muttered in astonishment.
I gave him a glance and asked in incomprehension, “What’s wrong? It shouldn’t be strange for a church to send troops to attack the Demon King, right? Why are you so surprised?”
Taylen gave a wry smile and said, “I just didn’t think that the Church of the God of Light would be the first one to dispatch troops. No matter how you think about it, it should be the Kingdom of Kissinger who would send troops first. After all, the Demon King is living in our kingdom and not in the Church of the God of Light’s.”
That makes sense. What a pity you don’t know that though the Demon King lives in the Kingdom of Kissinger, he is someone from the Church of the God of Light. I asked in curiosity, “You are from the Kingdom of Kissinger?”
“Yes. Charlotte, Michel, and I are all people from the Kingdom of Kissinger.” Taylen too asked curiously, “You?”
“Kingdom of Forgotten Sound.”
Charlotte butted in, “You don’t look like someone from the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound!”
You mean you can recognize whether or not someone is from the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound? I couldn’t help but open my mouth to clear my confusion.
Charlotte lowered her head to look at my clothing and answered, “That’s because you’re all dressed in black! People from the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound would always wear very bright colors. Even adventurers would not wear black clothes. Everyone says that they are the people of shininess and shimmering.”
You mean people of the God of Light, what shininess and shimmering!
I looked down at my own black garb. As expected, I was too careless. Because I couldn’t see color, I had merely instructed Awaitsun to bring some normal clothing and had not paid any attention to what color the clothes were.
Looks like I will have to use farsight more in the future. If I were to become used to it, perhaps I might be able to use it as smoothly as my sensing. Then I would be able to use it anytime, anywhere, and would never make another mistake due to being unable to see color.
I took action immediately upon thinking of it. Once I used my farsight, I instantly noticed that Taylen’s expression seemed off. His face looked blank, and his head was tilted at least thirty degrees toward Woodrow and Michel’s direction. Though he was scooping porridge to eat, he didn’t chew at all and swallowed it directly!
It was very obvious that he was eavesdropping. Therefore, I too followed and eavesdropped earnestly.
Woodrow had started to painstakingly urge Michel, “So what do you think? You guys should also stop trying to attack the Demon King. Come with us to take on missions from the Adventurer’s Guild!”
Eh?
“Now that most adventurers have joined the crusade against the Demon King, there are many missions that no one is claiming. The rewards have increased by quite a bit. Anyway, once the Church of the God of Light dispatches their troops, there probably won’t be anything to do here anymore. So we might as well take the chance now to quickly go first and take on the missions before anyone else. If we wait until the others have also returned, then it would be too late.”
Hearing that, Michel furrowed his brows, deep in thought.
I froze for a moment and was about to speak, but Taylen had already jumped up, shouting, “Everyone is going? We’re not going to crusade against the Demon King anymore?”
“Of course,” Woodrow replied as though it was a matter of fact. “The Church of the God of Light personally dispatched those troops, an actual army. As for adventurers like us, we simply can’t compare.”
“Then how about the hero?” I quickly asked, “Isn’t the Demon King supposed to be defeated by a hero?”
Everyone at the scene looked taken aback, and Woodrow frowned as he tactfully said, “This… The Twelve Holy Knights should be more suitable for it?”
Without showing any restraint, Charlotte burst into laughter. “You’re already this old, so why would you still believe in this kind of fairytale like heroes battling the great demon king?”
This foolish woman is laughing at me as if I am more foolish than her. I angrily retorted, “Aren’t there a lot of people in the adventurer party who claim themselves to be heroes?”
“That is only to increase their own value,” Michel shook his head and said. “All right, all of you. Don’t interrupt anymore. Let me have a good talk with Woodrow.”
They started exchanging information again, and at the end of the discussion, it seemed like Michel was ready to give up on the crusade against the Demon King, making me angrier and angrier the more I listened. With much difficulty, I had finally managed to find a hero who passes my standards, yet now the hero was instead going to run away and not fight the Demon King anymore!
I loudly said, “I’m going to say this – If you all are not going to attack the Demon King, I’m going to leave the team.”
Michel turned his head and looked at me in surprise.
“Leave the team?” Taylen was shocked. “Did you want to attack the Demon King that much? Ah… Could it be that you wanted to be a hero?”
I want you to be the hero! If I were to become the hero, then wouldn’t it become a case of me fighting against myself?
Charlotte stared at me, shook her head, and sighed. “Grisia, not that I want to say this, but you don’t look like a hero at all. Brother Taylen is much more suitable.”
That’s why I want to make him the hero!
“Grisia?” Woodrow softly called out. “You are called Grisia?”
I lifted my head to look at him and purposely asked in a cold tone, “What are you calling me for?”
Woodrow stared at me, full of bewilderment. Though I was wearing a mask, the lower half of my face and my figure were unchanged. Moreover, I also had the same name. It was hard to guarantee that he wouldn’t recognize me.
“You know Grisia?” Michel inquired. I guess he was probably still rather curious about me.
Woodrow looked at me with confusion, but he still said, “No, it’s just that they share the same name. He couldn’t possibly be here—“
He abruptly stopped speaking, for both Taylen and Charlotte had suddenly jumped up. The two of them stared at the sky, so shocked that even their eyes were nearly popping out.
Woodrow and Michel turned around and looked. In the sky, a giant black vortex appeared. The dark element was so strong that even those without sensing could detect it.
He is finally here.
From within the black vortex, another hole abruptly opened. That was teleportation magic. Actually, using this magic wouldn’t cause such a large disturbance, or else I would have been discovered long ago due to teleporting around every day.
The black vortex was something that I instructed Illu to make. Otherwise, if the general working under the Demon King were to appear without a single sound, perhaps no one would discover him. If he even had to tap on someone’s shoulder to greet them, then he would not look imposing at all!
Illu flew out from the large hole. With a set of bat wings and blood red eyes that looked down at the crowd from high above, as expected, his majestic aura was simply outstanding. He was completely a different person from the figure last night that Awaitsun and I had bullied!
The people below started to panic. Everyone started to run, only wanting to be as far from Illu as possible. They didn’t know anything about their opponent, such as what kind of undead creature he was or how strong he might be, but once they saw his appearance, they were so terrified that they only thought of escaping.
That is why I’ve said people need to have an imposing aura! Even undead creatures too.
As for Illu’s appearance, I was already accustomed to seeing it, so he wasn’t frightening to me. Even Awaitsun wasn’t afraid of him, but to an ordinary person, Illu’s looks should still be rather intimidating.
With a stretch of his hand, a tall bone wall rapidly shot up and surrounded us, so as to make sure that not everyone would escape. This was something that I had not instructed him to do. Not bad, not bad. He still has some brains.
Probably because they had been scared silly by Illu, or the wall constructed with dead people’s bones looked too frightening, but once everyone saw that all four directions had been blocked, no one actually moved to attack the bone wall to see if it could be broken. They merely slowly drew closer into a large lump of people, looking at Illu with vigilance and fear.
Within these people, there should actually be a few people with the ability to break down Illu’s bone wall. After all, Illu was still more of the warrior type. Even though he can use necromancy, his necromancy was not strong enough. Moreover, casting bone walls was only low-level necromancy magic. They were not very sturdy.
“Taylen, don’t go over!” Michel shouted.
Taylen had actually headed in Illu’s direction until Michel held onto him, not letting go. Taylen then stopped in his tracks and shouted loudly to Illu who was mid-air, “Undead creature, what are you trying to do?”
He was indeed worthy of being my chosen hero. As expected, I hadn’t chosen the wrong person. Out of all the people here, he was the only one who dared to confront Illu. I once again praised my own foresight.
Illu didn’t really pay heed to Taylen and merely started to execute his mission. He announced, “I am Illu, the leader of the undead army belonging to the Demon King. In the name of the Demon King, I declare that this world belongs to His Majesty, the Demon King.”
Once he said that much, he suddenly stopped and turned around, not paying attention to anyone at all. This made the audience who had only gotten half of the announcement feel at a loss as to what to do.
“W-What is he trying to do?” Charlotte had a rare expression of fright. “Could it be that he is preparing some kind of curse, so that he can kill us all in one shot?”
Michel looked grim as he said, “He doesn’t look like a mage. Perhaps he is summoning an undead army.”
Taylen frowned and looked around. He said, “Oh no, we don’t seem to have anyone who specializes in holy magic among us. If only we had a holy knight. Hopefully, he won’t summon too many undead creatures, or we wouldn’t be able to deal with them…”
That fellow is peeking at his cheat sheet!
Bastard, didn’t I tell you to memorize your lines! At night when I return, if I don’t break your wings again, I’ll read my name Grisia backwards!
Finally, Illu turned back around and continued his announcement, “Any action that goes against His Majesty will be seen as treason, and will not be permitted to see the light of day. In particular, the action of going on a crusade against His Majesty is the most shameful and absolutely cannot be forgiven.”
He was reciting in a monotonous tone, without any inflections in his voice. He kept sneaking glances at me too. His acting skills were really so bad that they wouldn’t do! However, probably because he was an undead creature, his rather stiff actions did not actually draw attention.
Taylen roared in rage at Illu, “The most shameful person is the Demon King! He absolutely does not have the qualifications to be called His Majesty at all! The main duty of a kingdom’s king is to take care of his citizens. Other than undead creatures, what other citizens does he have?”
Illu lowered his head to look at him, but his attention was not on Taylen. Instead, he asked me with psychic magic, “Should I kill him?”
I pondered over it for a moment and answered, “Test his true strength. It’s fine even if you injure him, but don’t give him heavy injuries or kill him.”
“Oh? It’s fine even if he condemns you? I didn’t know that you were that magnanimous.”
“The one he condemned was only the Demon King of the legends and not targeted at me at all. Why should I go and condemn myself?”
Illu flew a bit lower, and then he immediately tucked his wings and landed onto the ground. Seeing that, Taylen immediately pulled his weapon out. Even Michel too retrieved his bow from his back, putting an arrow into position and drawing the string, so that he could start battling at any moment.
Taylen turned around to look at him and hesitatingly said, “Michel, he’s alone…”
However, Michel said, “Come on. He is an undead creature. If you can crawl back up after dying, then I’ll let you battle by yourself with him.”
Hearing that, Taylen laughed and didn’t insist on battling him one-on-one.
“Hey!” Charlotte pushed me and said, “Why don’t you quickly go over and help them?”
After I rolled my eyes at her, I then remembered that I was wearing a mask and hence she wasn’t able to see that at all. I could only reply unhappily, “I am a mage. For me, of course the farther the enemy is from me, the better. Am I supposed to go over and let the enemy conveniently kill me with one slice of his sword?”
“Oh!” Charlotte had an expression of sudden realization, and she rubbed her head, embarrassed. “Haha, what you just said makes a lot of sense!”
You don’t say! I looked at the adventurers in the surroundings. As expected, when one’s numbers and strength wasn’t enough, you can’t suppress too many people. Probably because of Taylen and Michel boosting their morale, there were actually quite a few people who had also drawn their weapons, eager to fight. I completely couldn’t see a trace of the terror they had just now when they were fleeing in disarray because of Illu.
There were more or less twenty adventurers, and within them, the strongest should be Taylen and Michel. Illu should be able to defeat them, just that it would be way too unsightly to do so. He was of the general class from my undead army; how would it look if he were dog fighting with a bunch of small fry!
“Summon the undead army, block off all the others. You can just fight with Taylen and Michel.”
Once he heard that he could summon the undead army, Illu showed a rare smile. However, seeing a smile appear on an undead creature’s dead face would usually only make people even more afraid.
He raised his right hand towards the sky, and a black summoning door appeared in the air. Five undead creatures heard his summons and came, falling directly from the sky. With a “bam,” they landed on the ground, and the five of them immediately knelt on one knee within Illu’s proximity.
The five undead creatures all had on guilty expressions, some not even daring to lift their heads. This was probably related to an earlier time when I’d ordered them to beat up their own general. Though they had obediently listened to my orders and beat him up, their expressions were simply a classic expression of “hurting you physically hurts me emotionally.”
However, Illu did not mind and also did not have the intention of appeasing his subordinates. He merely commanded, “Get up. Except for these two, kill all the rest…” He paused for a moment. He had probably remembered my instructions as he changed his words to say, “Teach a lesson to all of the others!”
The five of them looked a little confused, as though they were unsure of how to obey this order.
The undead creatures that Illu had summoned were all not cannon fodder, but high-level undead creatures that were the closest to him. Just a single one of them could probably already destroy all the adventurers in the area. Of course, that was not including Taylen and Michel. To send these five to teach the adventurers in the area a lesson was undoubtedly a bit like using the Divine Sun Sword to cut blueberry pie.
Moreover, an undead creature’s method of dealing with enemies has always been killing them. They would not have the notion of teaching a lesson.
“Beat them up.” Illu explained further, “Don’t kill them. The Demon King still wishes to play with the two of them.”
…. Idiot! You might as well just say that I’m here as well! Thankfully Illu had not said this loudly, and probably only Taylen and Michel would barely be able to hear him. I just hoped that they wouldn’t think too much about it.
“The Demon King wants to play with us? What does this mean?”
As expected, it was impossible for Michel not to think too much. He instantly asked this question.
“Start the battle now! Directly use psychic magic for commands! You’re not allowed to talk any further!”
If I were to allow Illu to continue speaking, I think he would even leak out the news that there basically isn’t anyone in the Demon King’s Castle at the moment!