“He was a good man. And I hope that my good relationship with him will continue.”
“Isn’t he dead?”
“With my new master.”
“Glad to hear you’ve got a new one. Congratulations.”
“Are there no brains inside your skull, Akuto Sai? I mean you.”
—Huh?
Akuto sat up in shock.
“What do you mean?”
“Once I’ve awakened, I need a master. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have to kill someone every time I awoke.”
“But I need some kind of right, don’t I?”
“And defeating me shows that you have it.”
“No, hold it! Wait, I’ll pass! No thanks!”
“I’m afraid you can’t refuse. If you do, I’ll just have to go back to killing.”
“Wait, wait a minute. If I do become your master, does that mean I have to do anything special?”
“Nothing. But my master is usually known as the Demon King.”
—Crap... I didn’t think this through again...
Akuto cradled his head in his hands.
Then suddenly Fujiko ran up and hugged him.
“Uwah! What the heck is going on here?!” Fujiko was looking at him with dewy eyes.
—This is bad news... Did the shock of what she’s seen change her personality?
“Just calm down...”
“You are my master now, Demon King! As a black mage, I will serve you forever!”
Fujiko knocked him to the ground.
“Wait... hold it!”
—This is just making things worse, isn’t it... My dream was to become a first-rate... what was it again?
5 - The Cheerful Conspirator
“I really don’t know about this...” Akuto mumbled to himself.
Peterhausen had insisted that his master should live down here, and so he’d been given a room in this underground palace. It looked like a king’s throne room from a picture book, with red carpets and a tall chair. Akuto was sitting down in the chair, but it made his butt itch.
“And you know, if someone saw this...”
“If someone saw this, what?” Peterhausen asked.
“I definitely look like a villain, don’t I?” Akuto replied.
The tall throne was decorated with skull emblems. Akuto was sitting in it with his legs crossed. Fujiko was sitting on one of the armrests, draping herself off of Akuto’s shoulder. She had now awoken to her true destiny as a black mage, and sworn eternal loyalty to him. Keena was sitting on his lap, too, though more because it was funny than any deeper reason of loyalty. To top it off, Junko was standing beside them looking surly, with her hand on her sword.
Finishing off the scene was Peterhausen, the fifteen meter-long dragon, curled up behind the throne. Korone and Hiroshi were standing at the bottom of the steps.
“It totally looks like he’s trying to take over the world. Maybe I should take a photo for the school paper,” Lily said, only half joking as she watched from a distance. The trio nodded.
“Please don’t! I’m going back to the dorm, okay? I’m leading a normal life!” Akuto sobbed.
“You don’t know when to give up, do you? But...” Lily shrugged.
○
Somewhere in the Imperial Capital.
He was sitting in the director’s office in a certain building. The man was astonishingly beautiful, but strangely, he inspired no resentment. He had a gentle aura that made you feel he could talk to just about anyone.
The man — Boichiro Yamato — was staring at a Japanese garden outside the window. He looked like he was thinking about something, but he also looked like he had a deep enough understanding of the garden that he could stare at it for hours.
And then, someone rudely stepped into the garden. Boichiro’s expression clouded. But the girl in the garden didn’t seem to notice the change, and when she opened the window and came in, she told him exactly how she was feeling.
“Hey! I want you to make Akuto Sai and Junko Hattori suffer! Please?” Eiko yelled as she leaned herself against the chair where Boichiro was sitting.
“Make them suffer? Now that’s not very nice.”
“They’re crazy, though! They should just die!”
“That’s right. But in the end, Akuto Sai didn’t die,” Boichiro said, as if he only just now remembered.
“That’s right! And that’s weird! Why?”
“Hm. Well, predictions about the future are just predictions. When the situation is complex, they can be wrong. But this time, something was definitely strange. Akuto Sai was supposed to open the seal, and he was supposed to die. That was a certainty.”
Boichiro put his hand on his jaw in thought. Eiko furiously agreed.
“That’s right! That’s what you said!”
“But it wasn’t him who opened the seal, it was another, and Akuto Sai saved her. Perhaps the secret to why the plan failed is hidden there.”
“What do you mean?”
Eiko moved up to his lap, and wrapped her arm around his neck. Boichiro patted her on the head as he answered.
“He grew up in a very short period of time. And mana control is highly dependent on mental state, too. Something happened that caused him to become serious.”
“Wow! You really do know everything!”
Eiko was excited like a little child.
Boichiro laughed bashfully.
“I’ve been alive a long time, you know. Now, don’t you need to go give your family your work report?”
Boichiro gave her a tiny slap on her behind. Eiko squirmed gleefully and ran out of the room.
Once she was gone, Boichiro let out a long sigh. He took out the pendant on his chest and began to play with it. The pendant was a locket, and when he opened it, a 3D holographic photo appeared. It was an image of a beautiful blonde woman.
He brushed off his knees, as if wiping away some stain that Eiko had made, and then sat back in his chair as he stared at the picture.
“Time lasts so very, very long, doesn’t it? And I’m getting very tired. I think it’s about time I really, truly settle things with that Demon King,” he said to no one in particular.
Afterword
I’m Shotaro Mizuki, I guess. How are you guys doing? I’m doing... well, okay.
So this is volume two! Also my second afterword! I thought I should talk about the same stuff I did in volume one, but of course, I didn’t get mountains of information about nasty food from all over Japan (obviously). Instead I was impressed by the quality and sensibility of the Japanese taste bud, and so, I won’t be able to talk about that topic again. That’s right. Usually places with bad food just go out of business, don’t they?
But that being said, my rather twisted personality is unlikely to fix itself anytime soon, so I’ll be talking about something similar: “good deeds,” something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Lately I’ve noticed that lots of people brag about bad deeds they do, but nobody ever brags about good things they do. If, for example, local punks started bragging to each other about how they did good things instead of bad things, how would Japan change? Let’s imagine it.
“You know man, in the past I used to be one hell of a good guy.”
“Seriously, boss? You don’t look it.”
“Right? But I used to be a famous volunteer around town.”
“Really? That’s badass.”
“When I was little, I was satisfied with just collecting donations, but when I heard that barely any of that money went to the people in need, I got pissed off.”
“That’s right. There’s some of those charities that just spend the money on themselves. Screw those assholes.”
“Does that mean you used to be into that stuff too?”
“No, not like you. I never got into it like you did. You know how you can, like, kinda ‘adopt’ kids from foreign countries and send money to them? You’d probably know all about it. I do that. I only give a few hundred thousand yen a month, but...”
“Wow,
you don’t look the type.”
“Nah, I’m not as amazing as you are.”
I can tell you right now, this is never going to happen. Nobody ever brags about the good deeds they’ve done. It’s not that they’re hard. It’s that they’re boring. There’s nothing harder to brag about than a good deed. You can send reports of good deeds you’ve done to our editing department, but I’m not going to publish them, so keep that in mind.
Anyway, on to the book itself.
I wrote this book so that it wouldn’t need any complicated exposition. You should be able to breeze right through it. But I do get excited when I write this stuff, so I hope you get excited when you read it too. Like, maybe go yell in a place where nobody’s watching. Anyway, fortunately I’m gonna be able to keep writing, so I hope you’ll keep reading. I’ve got a lot left in me to write about.
And now, the thank yous.
To Souichi Itou, the illustrator,
I think he’s aiming to go worldwide. I was amazed the first time I saw his rough sketches for this volume. Personally I like the student council president the best. I’ve never seen a character who I wouldn’t want to have as a friend, a lover, or even an acquaintance, but I still love her! Even as the person who came up with her personality I still couldn’t predict this.
To my editor, Ohashi,
Thanks again for this volume. Next time I want to get it done at a slightly easier time. Maybe I’m just going to keep saying that, but it’s strange how long it takes to do this work. I pray each day that I’ll get a little faster.
And thanks to everyone else who helped as well.
Now come on, there’s lots more fun to be had!
Shoutarou Mizuki / Souichi Itou
Copyright
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 2
by Shoutarou Mizuki
Translated by Adam Lensenmayer
Edited by Aimee Zink
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 Shoutarou Mizuki
Illustrations Copyright © 2008 Souichi Itou
Cover illustration by Souichi Itou
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2008 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
J-Novel Club LLC
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: August 2017
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 2 Page 14