Makai Hongi

Chapter 214

I didn’t know much about Lesser Demon King Melvis.

Some might wonder how I could be ignorant about the king of my own country, but I doubted anyone in the Ogre settlement knew much about him either.

He had been sleeping for so long… That’s all I heard when growing up.

No one had any more information.

“Lesser High King Yamato disappeared from the battlefield along with the enemy leader. And it is said that King Melvis was the first to reach the scene.”

Yamato and Hera.

The two giants had fought, and no one had been able to get close. And so only a few would have dared approach even after they were gone.

“When you say ‘disappeared from the battlefield,’ you mean when they fell into that place between time and space?”

“Indeed. King Melvis was the first to go and investigate, and apparently, there was still a great amount of power gathered there. Something different from mana or holy power. And in the center of it all, there was a space-time distortion that connected to some unknown place.”

“What kind of place?”

“Even I do not know that. I can only borrow King Bargman’s words and say that King Melvis looked very stern when he spoke of it.”

“I suppose it was a dangerous place.”

“Perhaps. After that, King Melvis slaughtered all of the residents of the Celestial World that gathered around. By the time King Bargman arrived, it had become an unnatural place where the mana had changed. All of the enemies in the area were annihilated. Such was the terrifying, destructive force.”

“Huh? But King Melvis’s curse… Wasn’t it the result of being attacked by holy power?”

“Mmm. He had taken great damage but had enough strength left to fight. In fact, it is my opinion that King Melvis went from being a Great Demon King to a Lesser Demon King for an entirely different reason.”

“…? You don’t think that the holy power took away so much of his mana that he was forced to go to sleep?”

“Well, there are a number of reasons that caused him to fall to Lesser Demon King. For instance, King Melvis never showed much interest in ruling. But when he became King Yamato’s subordinate, he did his job. He had many people working under him. However, he lost all interest in being a leader once King Yamato disappeared.”

Because he never had an interest in it to begin with, he had no incentive after that.

“So that’s why his mana decreased.”

“Mmm. King Bargman ended up taking the majority of his men. As Zaldan had died in battle, they had to decide on a successor. It was a very difficult time.”

“Ahh. King Bargman sure had it rough.”

Both his superior and his colleague were too free.

“King Melvis had only been working as King Yamato’s subordinate, and had no interest in anything after that. He let go of most of his men and became isolated. And since he allowed it, many small countries were created around him.”

“Smaller countries…yes, that’s how it is now.”

“Indeed. Only those who were most loyal to King Melvis stayed with him, and they lived on his small patch of land. That being said, everyone was still afraid of him. It didn’t matter if he was now a Lesser Demon King, he would destroy anyone if he became angry.”

“…A Lesser Demon King could do that?”

Surely a Lesser Demon King couldn’t destroy a Demon King… Well, actually, Tralzard herself had been beaten badly by him.

“I believe King Melvis became a Lesser Demon King because he is using his mana for something. In the first place, his ability was so far beyond that of a Lesser Demon King. While that title is what is marked on the Tablet of Control, I think he’s directly using the power from his Orb of Control for ‘something.’”

Was it to treat wounds inflicted from the holy power? Was it to search for Yamato? Or was it something else? Tralzard did not believe Melvis was any ordinary Lesser Demon King.

“He must have been very committed to King Yamato.”

“I agree. And so was King Bargman. That’s why he accepted such a difficult task, as it meant maintaining the Demon World that King Yamato had built.”

“A true man of the world.”

“He used to have a more wild personality, but that changed once he started working under King Yamato.”

“He has my sympathies.”

Perhaps I had also been poisoned by the Demon World. I felt like my personality was becoming progressively more rough and careless.

I was more likely to leave everything to my Adjutant. It was like I felt that people at the top didn’t have to worry about the details. We just had to think about the state of the world.

Well, not that I did much of that either.

“And there was something that King Bargman quietly told me about.”

“Quietly? What did he say?”

“One day, King Melvis said this to him. ‘King Yamato will return in the end time.’”

“…The end time.”

Humans talked about the end time. Something about trumpets and a final war of good versus evil. Monsters appearing and the end of humanity? I don’t really remember the details, but that was my impression.

What was the end time in the Demon World? An invasion from the Celestial World?

Was there a book of Revelations that recorded such things? But I had never heard of any books of prophecies.

“I did ask King Bargman what this ‘end time’ was, but he did not know. Do you?”

“…No. Perhaps it means the destruction of the Demon World. But I don’t really know what that could be, specifically.”

“I see. …But it sounds like King Melvis was sure about it. It must mean that something will come. Something that we can not fight against. And only then, will King Yamato return. In that case…”

“We will all hope that such a time will not come.”

“Mmm. And yet the Demon World is currently like a pot that is about to reach boiling point. Who knows when it will spill over? And so it feels like anything can happen.”

“Anything can happen…”

Those words echoed in my mind.

Yes, I agreed with her. No matter what happened now, it would not be strange.

“Well, that is about all that I can tell you. I will let you know if I remember anything later. …We’ve talked for a long time already, and I’ve had enough for today.”

Said Tralzard, and then she took her tactician and left.

After that, Yorba and the others hounded me with questions over why I was able to talk to Tralzard alone.

As it was related to the military, I was able to convince them that it was a secret.

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