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TL: ALT
Chapter 105 – Michelle’s Stay in the Demon Country Part 5 (Chel’s Chapter)
The one who was brought before the successive Demon Kings was a middle-aged woman with a beautiful, sleepy-looking face. She wore simpler clothes than any of the other Demon Kings, but she had a beautiful posture and more muscles on her shoulders and arms than even the most handsome sculpted men. Compared to the other Demon Kings, she clearly seemed to be specialized in fighting.
“You wanted to talk to me about Yggdrasil? Don’t go there. That’s all. Don’t wake me up with such trivial matters.”
The foolish king said this and tried to leave.
“I’m sorry, I’ve done it. I’m a resident there now.”
“Hmm? Young one, if you are a resident there, then you are not the demon king, are you?”
“I am the envoy of the demonic land at the site of the ruins of Yggdrasil. The current demon king is in the upper floors, training with the monsters.”
The foolish king looked up at the upper floors and then looked at me. She was probably assessing my abilities and such.
“I understand that strange things are happening. For now, let’s change this stuffy room. Someone prepare some tea. This girl is a living being, after all.”
When the foolish king waved her hand, flames erupted from everywhere, and the dust and dirt disappeared. Two sets of wooden chairs and a tea table appeared on the floor, and a magic stone lantern flew in from somewhere. The magic stone lantern stopped in mid-air, illuminating the area around me and the foolish king.
“Here is your tea. It’s just been made, so you might want to let it cool a bit first.”
As the foolish king and I sat down on the chairs, a demon king in the old robe, who had appeared without me noticing, placed a cup and teapot on the tea table.
“Thank you very much. I’m sorry.”
I let the demon king, who was treated with respect by the other demon kings, make me some tea.
“Don’t worry, even though she’s young. She used to be the head maid in the Demon King’s castle, so she’s used to entertaining people.”
The foolish king introduced me to the demon king in the old robe.
“It’s not that I’m used to it; I just like it.”
“Anyway, just make sure you don’t get in the way.”
“Very well.”
The other demon kings had already kept their distance from us, watching us from afar in the darkness. Only the demon king in the old robe stood within the light of the magic stone lantern.
“You said it was a demonic land? Has Yggdrasil become a demonic land?”
“Yes. It has become a land where giant monsters roam, various plants attack monsters, and ancient ruins lie dormant. It is not a land that can be inhabited by humans.”
“But you live in such a demonic land, don’t you?”
“That’s because the landowner of the demonic land happened to save me. If it weren’t for him, I would have died.”
“Is the landowner of the demonic land a dragon race?”
“No, he is a human race. He said that he bought the demonic land a few weeks before he saved me. It seems that he was also cheated by the real estate agent.”
“A human race. A race that is adept at survival, but is he from a famous noble family?”
“No, he’s the second son of an ordinary farmer.”
“As I thought, there are limits to the abilities he can gain through his bloodline, so it’s better not to trust him.”
The foolish king said this in a matter-of-fact manner as if it would shake the demon society. But if things don’t change, the Meiju Kingdom itself will be in trouble.
“You seem quite happy. Is the landlord of the demonic land so interesting?”
I seemed to be laughing at Makyo again.
“No, it’s just that he’s strange. I was the one who taught him magic in the first place, but the way he uses magic is strange… I mean, he always surprises me by creating new magic.”
“What kind of magic?”
“He uses magic to interfere with the forces of nature, and he has a high ability to observe and judge things, so even monsters that gave him a hard time were blown away the next day with magic wrapped around his fist.”
“Wait a minute. What kind of natural powers are you talking about?”
“For example, he can interfere with the forces that cause the ground to rise or the wind and water currents. That’s why he can make hills appear in an instant. He can also run with magic power in his legs…”
“What kind of magic is that? No, even if it’s theoretically possible, it’s impossible, right?”
“I think it is impossible, but he does it.”
“You could call it an external strengthening spell… but first of all, is there anyone who can sense such a thing?”
The foolish king put her hand to her chin and fell into deep thought. Meanwhile, I poured some tea into a cup. The pleasant aroma of the tea wafted through the room.
“Is that really so strange?”
The demon king in the old robe asked the foolish king.
“For example, everyone can see that morning is coming and night is coming, but who can feel the power of this planet’s rotation? The same goes for the power that can raise the ground. I don’t think that’s a form of magic. Is it not a form of magic? “
“That’s right. He made a maze with the raised hill near the entrance, so I don’t think it’s a form of magic or sorcery.”
“It’s probably close to spirit magic, but does he chant?”
“No, he seems to be sending out small magical powers to search underground, but he doesn’t chant any special incantations or make any hand signs.”
“He’s a strange one, isn’t he? The landowner of the demonic land.”
The demon king in the old robe said.
“That’s right!”
I was happy that I had finally found someone who could share my feelings about Makyo’s strangeness.
“I think the way he uses magic is not theoretical but rather a sensory thing for him. Can’t it be used by someone other than the user?”
“I’ve been taught how to run, but I can’t interfere with any natural powers.”
“Can you demonstrate it to me anyway?”
I wanted to be taught about the demonic land, but because of Makyo, I’ve ended up on the teaching side.
I stood up, even though I thought it was strange, and showed her how to run by concentrating the magic in my legs. I ran back and forth in front of the foolish king several times, explaining how to use magic and when to use it.
“…What do you think?”
The foolish king asked the demon king in the old robe.
“It looks like I was a fool to bother learning spatial magic just to move around.”
The demon king in the old robe said frankly.
“You might as well call yourself a foolish king. If you could move so fast just by using magic, there wouldn’t have been anyone to follow you when you returned to the Meiju Kingdom, would there?”
“That’s right. I was pretty much on my own.”
“Is that how everyone who lives in the demonic land moves around?”
“The birdman uses a flying broom, and the elf scholar is cursed and can’t use magic, but everyone has been taught by the lord of the demonic land, Makyo.”
“How many people live in the demonic land now?”
“Six.”
I told her the profiles of all of them.
“Of the six, is that man Makyo the most powerful in battle?”
“Yes, he has a lot of magical power, but if we’re just talking about fighting power, there’s only him who stands out.”
“It’s hard to imagine because there’s no one to compare him to, but are there any monsters in the demonic land that you know of? If you can tell me the characteristics of even something that only exists in Yggdrasil, I might be able to remember it.”
“What? You mean you’ve been to Yggdrasil before?”
“I was an adventurer before I became the Demon King, so I’ve been there many times. Didn’t you know? I even wasted three and a half years there, and I even stayed in Midgard for a while.”
“I didn’t know that. Where is Midgard?”
“Where, you ask? It’s in the dungeon.”
The foolish king said as if it were obvious. An entire city in a dungeon? If that’s the case, then the fact that the magical beasts stole the dungeon…
“It seems that various stories have been lost over time.”
It seems that the foolish king understood my confusion.
“Yes. I came back to the Meiju Kingdom to learn about the lost history of Yggdrasil. Talking to the current Demon King and the previous one was just a bonus…”
“I see. Hmm? So they didn’t tell you why I call myself the Foolish King either?”
“Yes, they just said that you banned ‘space-time magic’…”
The foolish king stood up, slamming the tea table, and turned to face the demon kings who had been waiting behind her.
“What are you doing, you idiots?”
“”””Hyiii.””””
The demon kings were frightened by the foolish king’s scream, and their spirits shrank. This is a reaction that only spirits can do.
“What was your name again?”
“I am Michelle of the Hitomi Clan. In the demonic land, I’m known as Chel.”
“I see. Chel. Ask me anything. And don’t listen to the other demon kings! Some of them probably tried to make you the next Demon King, but that’s not going to happen!”
The foolish king turned around and raised her voice in anger. The previous generation Demon King and the other Demon Kings were terrified.
“Let me tell you first. The position and status of a demon king are meaningless. If you want to, you can become a demon king just by using your magic ability. In fact, the only reason I became a demon king was because I was better at magic than anyone else. However, when you become a demon king, there are duties that you must fulfill.”
The foolish king looked me straight in the eye and continued.
“The only duty of a demon king is to ensure the survival of the entire demon clan and to create the environment for it. Everything else is considered to be incidental duties. In other words, you must first build up your skills, learn the history, and know how to protect the Demon Clan from other countries before becoming the Demon King.”
The current Demon King, Giulietta, was supposed to be good at history, but for a moment, the thought crossed my mind that if history itself had been different, she wouldn’t have been able to do anything.
“What matters is not your rank, but whether you can fulfill your duties. Chel, I don’t know how you ended up in the demonic land at the site of the Yggdrasil ruins. It seems that you have become very different from the other demons when it comes to protecting the demons from the other countries. You don’t have to become the Demon King. Just please…”
The foolish king bowed to me as she stood. Even though she is a foolish king who frightens the previous generations of demon kings, she is still bowing to me, who is just an ordinary demon.
“Please, as a fellow demon, will you cooperate with us? For that, we, the successive demon kings, will answer anything.”
The person in front of me is not a foolish king at all. She is the greatest king of all the noble demon kings.
“Please raise your head. I don’t know what I can do, but I will cooperate as much as I can.”
“Is that so? Then that’s good.”
Her appearance suddenly changed from the one she had when she was trembling with anger at the previous generations of Demon Kings. The foolish king drank the tea in my cup. Of course, since she was a spirit, the tea spilled on the floor.
The next thing I knew, I was offering my own help to the demon clan that had banished me. Maybe it was all the foolish king’s doing. If you say that this is the result of a thousand years of experience, then so be it. It seems that it is useless to suspect anything.
“Where do I start? If I have to tell you everything, it’s going to take a long time.”
“Just answer my questions, and that will be fine.”
“All right. Ask away.”
“The remains of Midgard, which is now in the demonic land, is a place where there is extremely little magic power compared to other areas, and it has become a place where the migrating monsters stay, but what happened to Midgard?”
“There are several reasons, so it’s impossible to say that it was just one reason, but Midgard was moved into the dungeon as a whole city using spatial magic.”
“Could this dungeon have been stolen by a magical beast?”
“It is more accurate to say that it was eaten rather than stolen. It was a huge magic beast. It’s probably even bigger after a thousand years.”
“It looked like a mountain range. It only appeared for a day and then disappeared, but it was a disaster for the inhabitants of the demonic land. The caves we use as our dwellings were also damaged.”
“Have you encountered it?”
“Only once, but it appeared about three months ago.”
“Then it will reappear soon. That magical beast is a giant turtle monster that travels through time. It is said that cranes live for a thousand years and turtles live for ten thousand years, right?”
“I don’t know.”
“Some crazy geneticist actually managed to create a turtle that lives for 10,000 years. While you were riding that turtle for a whole day, three months passed outside. In other words, time passes four days faster in the dungeon.”
“Huh, I see.”
My understanding is starting to lag behind.
“So, since it’s been 1000 years, about 4000 days have passed inside the turtle. About 11 years. It’s possible that the inhabitants of Midgard have already died. Even if you manage to reach Midgard by conquering the dungeon inside the turtle, it might be nothing but ruins. You’re lucky.”
I have no idea what she means by that, but anyway, Midgard seems to be at the far end of the dungeon inside that giant magical beast. My head was starting to get a bit confused, so I decided to take some notes.
“When you said that you wasted three and a half years, did you mean that you were in the dungeon?”
“No, when you learn space-time magic, you’ll definitely notice that there’s a place called Midgard. It’s like a landmark, and you can go there immediately, both inside the dungeon and inside Midgard. However, if you enter Midgard from the outside, you’ll be quarantined for two weeks to prevent the spread of disease.”
“So 14 days in Midgard means three and a half years outside?”
“That’s right.”
“The group that explored the demonic land a hundred years ago said that space-time magic was necessary to enter the ruins, right?”
“I believe they were talking about the dungeons. As I said before, if you can ride the giant magical beast, you can get into the dungeon. As for how to get around the demonic land, from what I hear, that Makyo guy might be able to figure out a way to ride the giant magical beast.”
“The fact that he can do that makes him dangerous.
I wrote down, “The fate of the ruins depends on Makyo.”
“Fufufu, dangerous, huh?”
I took a sip of tea and continued my questioning.
“Why were the Holy Knights executed in the dungeon?”
“Who are the Holy Knights?”
“The visitors who said, ‘Let’s eliminate racial discrimination.'”
“Ah, there was someone like that. It’s going to be a bad story.”
“Please tell me.”
I found myself leaning forward.
“Before Midgard was moved to the dungeon, there was an epidemic of a disease that turned infants and fetuses into monsters. It was discovered that there was a genetic factor that made the disease worse. So there were people who were forced to leave Midgard, depending on their bloodline.”
“So you mean that people were excluded from the city depending on their race?”
“In a nutshell, yes. Of course, those who were forced to leave Midgard began to rebel and say, ‘Let’s end discrimination based on race.’ That’s probably how the Holy Knights came about.”
“Human bones, presumably massacred by the Holy Knights, were found near the temple…”
“That was the end. When the return to Midgard movement gained momentum, there were those who wanted to return to Midgard, even as a soul, and live on as golems. I guess they thought they could return because souls transcend time and space.”
“Wait, are golems made of human souls?”
“Not all of them, but if they were in the demonic land, there’s a good chance they were made from the souls of those who were killed a thousand years ago. What happened? Did you defeat them?”
“Makyo hunted some of them in the desert. A cube came out of the golem’s body, and we tried to analyze it, but we couldn’t.”
“That was something the magic toolmakers of Yggdrasil had created by combining the best of their magic circles and technology… but you hunted them?”
“It’s Makyo. I can’t do it.”
The foolish king crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
“I’m going to ask you a question that may be a bit out of place, but there was a monster that guarded the city called the Guardian Spider in the area around Midgard. Have you ever encountered it?”
“Could it be the kind of magical creature that usually turns into a giant rock and attacks people who wield weapons?”
“That’s it! It was created as the greatest masterpiece of magical tools of that era… How was it?”
“It took the women of the demonic land until nightfall to defeat it. Although Makyo managed to land a single blow to its stomach.”
“A single blow with a fist?”
“Yes.”
When I nodded, the foolish king began to laugh in a strange voice.
“That Makyo is truly the natural enemy of Yggdrasil. If I were still alive, I would have married him. Chel, you really don’t need to come back to Meiju Kingdom for a while. It would be better for the Demon Clan if you didn’t.”
“Y-yes…”
It seems that the foolish king has come to the same conclusion as me.
“Is the reason you banned space-time magic to prevent the demons from entering Midgard?”
I questioned further.
“Yes. That city is so dangerous. Hmm, what shall I say…”
The foolish king looked at the ceiling for a while before she began to speak.
“Civilization is something that develops through the combination of all kinds of technology, isn’t it? The wheat fields that stretch to the sky, the monsters that were made huge to fight in the Colosseum, the magical machines that disarm the barbarians to protect the people, the dungeon core that creates a subspace to protect the city from disease, the giant stake that stopped the magical power that could split the continent, the golem that brings the souls of the dead back to life – all these things were gathered in Midgard. And because they were gathered together, civilization collapsed.”
The foolish king looked into the distance and explained, remembering what she had seen.
“It seems that when technology overtakes ethics and loses its direction, civilization falls. That is the lesson I have learned in my life. That’s why I didn’t bring the technology I saw in Yggdrasil back to the Kingdom of Meiju. I wanted to nurture the ethics and direction of the demon race before civilization developed. That’s why I’m a foolish king.”
The foolish king’s words caused the crowd to fall silent. Even the demon kings watching from a distance made no sound.
“Do you have any more questions?
I feel like I want to ask more, but I can only think of one more thing. That’s my limit for now.
“Just one more thing. Even now, a thousand years after the Foolish King lived, is it still possible to learn space-time magic? As someone who lives in the demonic land, I’m worried that someone who has mastered space-time magic might appear from a giant magical beast and take over the demonic land.”
“Space-time magic is a combination of time magic and space magic. I think you can learn space magic in the process of mastering defense magic. As for time magic, originally, there were deer monsters that used time magic. It is closely related to the beliefs of the Deep Forest, so you might be able to find out if you go to the elf kingdom of Satra, but it is quite dangerous.”
“What’s dangerous? The elves?”
“No, they’re difficult to deal with. The scholar who created the magic circle in the giant magic beast was a genius in mathematics and physics. That’s why the giant magical beast still appears every three months, just like it did a thousand years ago, but if someone who isn’t like that tries to handle it, it can be a disaster. I’ve only just begun to understand it, and I can’t explain it well, but if you use space-time magic, there’s a possibility that you’ll be thrown off this planet.”
This is beyond my understanding as a questioner. Sensing this, the foolish king continued to explain in an easy-to-understand way.
“I only heard about it through hearsay, but a young man learned space-time magic. It was a very convenient magic, so he taught it to all the villagers. The next day, there were no people left in the village. The stew pot was found on the fire, but there was no one around. All the villagers had disappeared.”
It suddenly got cold, and I shivered.
“Even if someone who can use space-time magic well appears, if there’s even the slightest deviation, it will appear as a big deviation, so it’s a matter of life and death. If you don’t have to use it, you’d better not use it. As a predecessor, I don’t recommend it. I’ve only used it a few times myself.”
“I understand. That’s all the questions I have.”
I tucked my notes into my robe.
“Yes, good luck. I’m curious to know what you’re going to do after Makyo, the lord of the demonic land, finds Midgard, so come back and report to me when you have some free time.”
“Understood.”
As I was about to leave the room, the foolish king stopped me.
“Chel!”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Are there any dragonkin left?”
“I don’t know. But it is said that the royal family of the Kingdom of Estinia, where the demonic land is located, has dragon blood.”
“I see.”
The foolish king smiled a little. I don’t know why the foolish king, who was an adventurer, went to Yggdrasil so many times. Was it because she didn’t want to miss out on the technology, or did she want to meet someone?
I’ll ask her the next time I return from the demonic land.
I left the dungeon and walked out of the Demon King’s castle. The sun was rising in the eastern sky.
“Let’s go back to the demonic land.”
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Wow, Chel found it hard to follow. It would be so funny if they were explaining it to Makyo.
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