Eh? Wasn’t I limiting the monsters to non-living ones so that I wouldn’t kill anyone, you ask? Well, heroic warriors who could make it this far will probably be fine.
…Mn? I thought that non-living monsters would be safe since they wouldn’t disobey me without an ego, but when he was defeated by Miss Leonora, the No Life King spoke, didn’t he? …I wonder why.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
I moved to the 30th floor and then sat down properly on the throne. Neither my personality nor clothing have any trace of dignity, so I have to try my best to look even a little more proper.
Speaking of which, I’ve established thrones like in the 10th floor boss room, and in the 20th and 30th as well, but thinking about it carefully, neither of the bosses are the right size to sit on a chair made for humans… They ended up being useless. Well, they’re serving me like this now, so maybe they were useful after all.
While I was thinking about things, the large doors opened with a groan. The teleport circle that Miss Leonora used brought her to the room before this one, so she’s properly arrived. When I turned to look at the entrance, I could see a girl with silver hair in a red armoured dress.
I waited for her to enter the room, but she showed no signs of moving at all. Could it be that she can’t enter unless she’s given permission? Or so I was wondering, but she eventually slowly made way into the room.
From my point of view, she was pale enough that I was worried for her, and I could see sweat was running from her face. She walked slowly and after a few minutes arrived at a place 10 metres away from me, when she stopped still. It’ll be hard to talk like this, so I’d have liked her to have come closer, but well, it’s not a distance that we can’t hear each other, so I guess this is fine.
“Nice to meet “Please excuse my actions!” …you?”
She suddenly dogeza’d at me. Speaking of which, I get the feeling that the explanation for the mystic eyes said something about being strong enough to have a demon king dogeza. A terror strong enough to make the daughter of the demon king dogeza as well… perhaps?
“Um, “I deeply apologise for my many acts of rudeness! If it’s something I can do, I will do anything! So, please… please have mercy on my countrymen!” ”
Why did it turn into a scene where I looked like I was going to attack the Demon Race Territory? I haven’t the tiniest intention of doing that, you know.
“No, you really need to “I beg of you, please punish me alone.” …listen to me.”
I got irritated at the conversation going nowhere, and unconsciously pulled out my tantou and threw it. The cursed tantou pierced right in front of her eyes, and Miss Leonora let out a voiceless scream.
“Raise your head, and stand.”
“H-, However…”
“Just do it.”
I spoke a little overbearingly and forced her to stand. Miss Leonora snapped up and stood still at attention.
“I’m not angry.”
“Eh?”
“I have no intention of punishing you either.”
“T-, Truly!?”
Miss Leonora who seemed truly relieved even had tears form at her eyes. I’m not mad at what’s happened up until now, but rather, it’s the back-and-forth we had just then that annoyed me, you know.
“And also, about the 10th floor boss…”
“R-, Right! Of course I shall carry out my duties with all my heart!”
“You don’t need to do it.”
“Pardon?”
The other day I said it half-jokingly, but if she actually did that, I’d be troubled. If the daughter of the demon king did something like work as a mid-boss, I’d be liable to make enemies of both the human race and the demon race. As for the 10th floor boss, I can just create a No Life King again. Or rather, after Miss Leonora continued down to the 11th floor, I’d already created a new one and deployed him already. Mysteriously he knew my name from the start, but I wonder why.
“In exchange, there’s a favour I’d like to ask.”
“W-, Whatever you would like!”
“I want you to be my friend.”
“F-, Friend…?”
It was from beyond the screen, but the three days that I spent talking to her was quite enjoyable. It’s a shame that she’s frightened because of my skill, but even so, I’d like to think that there’s room to get along enough that she won’t run away even so.
In the worst case scenario, since I already know that we can talk to each other normally once separated across the screen, both considering my feelings, as well as her position as the daughter of the demon king, if possible I’d like to get along with her.
“U-, Understood! Please allow me to humbly become your friend.”
“We’re friends, so you don’t need the keigo.”
“Unders… Got it.”
My first friend in this world, GET.
I didn’t threaten her into it.
…I didn’t, right?
* * *
TL Note:
“so I’ll try pressuring her a little.”
The “pressuring” is actually “repeatedly attacking with questions etc. to press her for an answer”.
Jashin Average – 17
Chapter 17 – Girls’ Talk
I recently found out that ‘jashin(evil god)’ is translated by Google Translator (CN>EN) as ‘Cthulu’.
Remember that ‘Sacred Goddess’ comes with the implication of ‘Holy Woman-esque Deity’.
The kukuku here is probably stifled laughter, and not ‘My name is Leysis Vi Felicity Sumeragi.’-type kukuku.
* * *
“Speaking of which, are you the daughter of the Demon King, Leonora?”
“Mn? Yeah, that’s right. The current Demon King is my father.”
I invited Leonora, who had signed the friendship contract, down to the residential area and had tea with her… after having her take a bath. She cleaned up that dirt and blood stained appearance of hers and we moved to the living room and drank the black tea that Tena brewed.
She was stiff at first, but perhaps because she gradually got used to it, we progressed to being able to call each other by the name. Only, she won’t meet my eyes. It seems that the Evil God Aura has an immediate effect on beasts and monsters whose instinct is strong, but to demons and humans whose reasoning is strong, the effect is equally weak. On the other hand, the effect of the mystic eyes apparently works just fine, and when our gazes meet, she’ll immediately dogeza. I wonder if I should count myself lucky just that she isn’t running away. I’m paying attention so that I don’t accidentally meet eyes with her.
“I heard that the Demon King revives once he dies, but is that true?”
“As if that’s possible!”
I got told off.
Asking her in detail, I found out that the Demon King doesn’t revive, but is apparently just passed on as a title. The previous Demon King from a few decades ago that Tena mentioned is probably Leonora’s grandfather. Even when they get defeated, the next generation steps up to take their place, which is probably why weird rumours spread amongst the humans.
“If you’re the Demon King’s daughter, then you’re the princess of the demon race… Why are you in a place like this?”
Although it’s near the Demon Race Territory, this is clearly in human territory. It seems weird to me that she’s here.
“The Romariel family has a custom of having the Demon King Successor go on a journey by themselves in order to become an adult. I wasn’t headed anywhere in particular, but I was thinking that I wanted to have a look once at the Human Race Territory, so I came here.”
It’s a custom that I’ve heard of someplace else. But still, to even think of being a princess who marched into enemy territory by herself, she sure has fire.
“I thought that the Demon King was in the Demon King Castle.”
“No, that way of thinking isn’t wrong. Because the Demon King has a lot of influence, from the m
oment he ascends the throne, he can’t freely go out anymore. ‘That’s why while I’m still only a successor…’ is probably one of the reasons for the custom as well.”
I see. So this is also the last period where they can ignore responsibility, huh? It’s like going on a trip after graduating from uni… Hm, maybe that’s a little different.
“How long is your journey?”
“It isn’t really fixed. I don’t have any plans of coming back until I have some kind of achievement though.”
“Achievement?”
“Like defeating the Hero that’s the enemy of the Demon Race, or maybe winning over someone useful as an ally I guess.”
I suddenly understood Leonora’s circumstances, as she made an extremely displeased expression for some reason.
“Did you come to this dungeon for that reason too?”
“”Gu-… That’s right. I was thinking that I’d hand down punishment on the fraud Evil God, and depending on the circumstances, I’d make them into my underling.”
I see. I don’t know what kind of position the Evil God holds amongst the Demon Race, but at the very least, it’s someone that you wouldn’t be forgiven for selfishly impersonating. Having said that though, it’s unbearable being attacked due to a misunderstanding even though I never called myself the Evil God, so I’d like her to do some serious reflecting.
“Then can I ask you this instead, Anri?”
I nodded to her question.
“You said that you were given that power by the Evil God, but…”
I wasn’t sure if she would believe that I came from another world etc. so I’ve kept that part from her just like Tena, but as for being a human that was given this title and these skills by an evil god, I’ve already told Leonora.
“Honestly speaking, the person himself didn’t call himself the Evil God. I’m just guessing based on the names of the title and skills.”
“Hmm…”
Leonora sank into thought about something after I replied. When I wordlessly prompted her for an explanation, she averted her eyes and began speaking.
“No, it’s not that I’m doubting your words, but… the ‘Evil God’ shouldn’t really exist.”
“? The people of Riemel and you used the term 『Evil God』. Don’t you call it that because he exists?”
“Certainly, there exists the word and concept of the Evil God. But the deity known as the Evil God doesn’t exist.”
Is this some kind of riddle? What she said “doesn’t really exist” doesn’t sound quite like she’s denying the existence of gods. It seems that Leonora said that with the belief that “gods” exist, but the “Evil God” doesn’t.
“The Evil God is an imaginary god created by the human race.”
“An imaginary god?”
That evil god was imaginary?
I actually met and talked to him though.
“Yeah. Anri, how much do you know about the gods?”
“I heard that the God of Light that created the world──Sacred Goddess Sofia, battles against the Evil God that tries to destroy the world, and leads the people through divine protection and revelations.”
“I heard about this from the rumours, but hearing it again really is shocking.”
She’s kind of looking at me really pitifully, but she won’t look me in the eyes, so I’m just guessing through. Only, I don’t have any information source about the myths of this world except for what I heard from Tena, so I’ll be troubled if Leonora looks at me like that.
“Very well. It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll tell you the true myths passed down in the demon race.”
It’ll apparently be a long story, so I called Tena and had her brew some more tea. Since she’s bringing it over anyway, I’ll have her listen to the story as well. I won’t be able to compare it to the myths that the humans have by myself, after all.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
“The world was created by the one and only god, the Creator God.
“The Creator God created various animals as the inhabitants of the world, and finally, with the Creator God’s own form as the basis, they created humans.”
Up until here, Tena hasn’t objected and has been nodding along. There were various myths in my old world, but creation myths were all relatively similar I think.
“The human race received the favour of the Creator God, and prospered to the extreme, but that immediately reached the limit. In a world with no natural predators, there grew to be too many humans, because they couldn’t gain enough food.”
So the balance of the food chain collapsed? Without any natural predators, that seems certainly likely, but this is quite scientific for a myth.
“The Creator God gave food to the human race who entreated for help, but at the same time, worried about the situation, the Creator God took countermeasures. They created the natural enemies of the human race in order to bring the world to harmony… the demon race.
“The demon race was born, and fulfilling its duties, it opposed and attacked the human race, decreasing their numbers. With the demon race who was stronger than humans, yet less fertile than humans, as the natural enemy of the humans, peace was born.”
“That can’t be…”
Tena was stunned at the story that was so different from the myths that she knew, but certainly, with a small-numbered strong foe standing on top, you’d get the food chain back into balance, and makes more sense than the human myths that I heard form Tena.
“However, the Creator God was tormented by their own actions. There was no choice but to torment the beloved humans for the sake of their prosperity… The result of that self-contradiction was that the Creator God split themselves into three parts. Most of their power was separated into preserving the world, while their remaining power and mind was split into two.
“The two parts of the divided mind became the God of Light and God of Darkness, and they split the things that they governed into two────the sun and the moon, the day and the night, the human race and the demon race, or so it is.”
“…”
Tena couldn’t even form words. It’s probably already quite divorced from her common sense.
“That’s the myth passed down in the demon race. Those called ‘gods’ comprise only the God of Light and God of Darkness. There is no god known as the Evil God.”
Certainly, if you take the demon race’s myths as true, then the two gods are beings born from the Creator God, and aren’t separated by good and evil, or right and wrong. The God of Darkness sounds exactly evil, but it’d be like the Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto in Japanese myths.
“To begin with, the ‘Sacred Goddess’ was something that the human race themselves attached to the God of Light afterwards, to strengthen the god’s authority. And for that sake, they proposed a fictitious Evil God as the enemy, and so the God of Light ended up fighting against it.”
“Couldn’t they have just had the God of Light fight the God of Darkness?”
“It’s just a guess, but I think that as you’d expect, they didn’t have the guts to go against the God of Darkness himself.”
“Um, excuse me, I heard that the Evil God that the Sacred Goddess battled against governed darkness, but…”
“Ahh, it’s obvious that if they didn’t clearly say anything, the idea that the Evil God was the god of darkness would come up. That’s why the demon race finds both the words ‘evil god’ and the worship of the Evil God something detestable.”
I see. So they hate it because it’s something that shows contempt for the God of Darkness that they worship. Is that why Leonora was going to punish the swindler who called himself the Evil God?
But there’s something she said that’s been on my mind.
“They worship the Evil God? Even though it’s fictional?”
“It’s fictional, but only a handful of humans know that, even though it’s something that the human race created. Even if it’s a fictitious story, as long a
s the people up top spread it around, it’s natural that people will think of it as the truth. It’s a weird fact, but there are apparently humans who worship the Evil God in earnest, you know.”
There were Satanic cults and demon worship in my old world too, so I guess there’s nothing weird about such people existing.
I can’t sympathise though.
“I understand what the Evil God is now. I don’t know what the guy I met was, though…”
“Yeah. Even if we debate it now, it won’t be anything but a guess.”
For now, I’ll just think of that evil god as the Evil God(?).
“I understand about the God of Light and God of Darkness, but what about the Hero and Demon King?”
“The Demon King is a being that the God of Darkness brought forth to lead the demon race. And the ones brought forth by the God of Light for the sake of the humans afraid of the Demon King threat, are called the Heroes.”
Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?
According to what I’ve heard, the threat of the Demon King is someone who plays a key role in making sure that humans don’t increase too much, so it’s supposed to be problematic if you eliminate the threat.
Perhaps sensing my doubt, Leonora gave a bitter smile as she began to continue.
“I know what you want to say. If the Demon King or demon race are defeated, then they’re right back where they started, and in that respect, the Creator God’s goal and God of Light’s actions create a contradiction. By separating from the God of Darkness, the God of Light specialises in favouring the humans after all, so that’s why things ended up the way they are.”
“I see. Then what does the demon race think of the Hero?”
From the demon race’s point of view, even though they’re attacking humans to carry out the role given to them by god, god’s underling ends up attacking them, so if you had to ask if it was unreasonable or not, then it was unreasonable.
“The God of Light’s wishes don’t matter. To us, the only god we worship is the God of Darkness, after all. The opinion of the demon races is that the Hero is just a strong opponent.”
Evil God Average 【First Half – Book of Evil】 Page 11