The one who rejoiced the most at the West family’s happy event was neither the Duke of West nor the people of the duchy, but Reinhild.
“Congratulations, Lord Reinhild. The hero has been born.”
“The hero has been born?!”
Reinhild, who had been sprawled on the bed like a sloth as always, sprang to his feet on the spot.
The hero had been born.
At last, the hero of this generation had been born!
Hooray! Reinhild flung both hands up toward the sky.
It could be said with certainty that, since the creation of the world, Reinhild was the first Demon King to welcome the hero this enthusiastically. But right now, he felt he could even run over to the hero and greet him with a friendly hello.
Of course, after the greeting, he would kill him.
‘No, wait. I shouldn’t kill him, should I?’
If the hero died, from that moment he could torment humans other than the hero. But sweeping away humans in a world without a hero would be far too easy.
If he did that and this delightful time ended in the blink of an eye? After that, he might have to spend dull days confined in the Demon King’s castle again.
No good.
He would play with the hero as long as possible and then, slowly… only when he got tired of it, Reinhild would kill him.
“So where is the hero? Can I go now?”
“You may not.”
“Why!”
“The hero has only just been born. The oracle proclaiming the hero’s birth has not yet descended. We are calling him the hero for convenience, but he is not yet the official hero.”
“Even so, a hero is a hero.”
“No one in the world knows that fact. When the hero comes of age, an official oracle will descend. That is also when Your Lordship will be able to act.”
“How long until he comes of age? A hundred years? No, wait. A human lifespan is a little over fifty years. Then… ten years?”
“Eighteen years.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“It is right here. Better than waiting a hundred years, is it not?”
“Ha.”
Fine. Still better than nothing.
He only had to wait eighteen years, then.
After all, how many years had he waited with no promise at all? Surely he could manage that much.
He had even worried that the Duke of West might die before the hero was born, and that he would spend his whole life shut up in the Demon King’s castle. The fact that would not happen was something to be grateful for.
But a Demon King gives thanks to no one.
Reinhild laid all this joy and glory at his own feet and, in good spirits, looked out the window.
Even watching the owlbears in the forest wasn’t depressing today.
In just eighteen more years, he’d be able to romp around more wildly than those monsters.
‘Wait. What if the hero dies before he turns eighteen?’
Then the West ducal house’s eldest son would be gone. Even if the Duke of West had a second son, that human would not become the firstborn.
Would he then have to wait again until that second son grew up and had his first child?
What if he ended up spending his whole life confined to the Demon King’s castle?
“No way!”
What a dreadful thought!
“I need to go see the hero.”
“At present he is nothing but a newborn whelp of a human.”
“You said the Demon King and the hero’s powers are equal.”
“That does not mean the hero is born swinging a sword.”
“I was strong from birth, though?”
“That is the difference between the great Demon King and the human hero.”
Ha, what did they want from him?
Reinhild sat back down on the bed.
‘There’s nothing for it but to wait?’
He had no choice but to hope time would pass quickly.
Again he endured the dull, dreadful time, waiting and waiting.
Another nine years passed like that.
“The hero mustn’t die…”
Reinhild had many worries.
The past nine years had crawled by more slowly than ninety.
Had nine years ever felt this long?
During that time, Reinhild spent every hour worrying ceaselessly. Had something happened to the hero, was he growing up healthy?
He had heard that humans envied and resented one another, fought, and even killed.
The foolish humans did not know that the West family’s eldest son was chosen as the hero, so for now he would be safe, but if someone learned that fact, they might try to dispose of the hero out of jealousy.
No, he would be in danger even if the fact that he was the hero never came to light.
A duke was a status second only to the royal family. There was no guarantee he would not be dragged into political strife with other noble humans and killed.
Reinhild glanced sidelong at the butler.
Was there no way to escape the Demon King’s castle without the butler knowing?
“Butler. Do we perhaps have a secret passage in our castle…”
“There is not.”
Damnable Demon King’s castle.
It was clearly a place built to imprison the Demon King.
The Demon King might need to slip out without the butler’s knowledge and hide in the human world. Why hadn’t they built even one secret passage? He couldn’t understand it.
The demon who designed this castle thousands of years ago was clearly in on it.
Were they planning to let the Demon King dry up and wither!
“I’m not doing this.”
“You have chosen well. The idea of going to see the hero…”
“I mean I’m not doing the Demon King.”
“…Pardon?”
“I quit being Demon King. You, the butler—do it. Let me out. I’ll go live with those owlbears over there! Even living peacefully with humans would be less painful than this!”
“That is only because Your Lordship does not yet know how dreadful peace is!”
“My life is already far too peaceful and dreadful. I can’t spend my one and only demon-life like this. I despise peace!”
The butler stopped Reinhild from smashing the window and bolting outside.
“Understood, Lord Reinhild! I will show you the hero!”
“Really?”
“Yes. However, you may not meet him.”
What kind of statement was that? He may not meet but may see?
In any case, it meant he could leave the Demon King’s castle and go somewhere else.
With a hopeful expression, Reinhild nodded.
❖ ❖ ❖
What Reinhild wanted was an outing to the ducal house where the hero was, but what the butler prepared was a little different from his expectations.
The butler bribed a human living in the ducal castle to present the hero with a crystal orb.
It was a crystal orb enchanted with a special magic that would let Reinhild observe the hero even though the other party could not see him.
The human approached the hero carefully without being discovered by the other humans of the ducal house and handed over the crystal orb.
With a fluttering heart, Reinhild watched it all.
[It’s a gift, Lord Rexion. It’s a pretty crystal orb.]
Rexion.
For the first time, Reinhild learned the hero’s name.
‘Rexion West.’
Mouthing the hero’s name to himself, Reinhild glared at the crystal orb as if he were going to bore a hole through it.
The little nine-year-old hero cub was looking at the crystal orb.
It felt as if their eyes had met.
‘He looks exactly like a human.’
Even though he was still a human cub, his clearly defined features and especially bright, alert eyes made Reinhild want to charge right in that very moment.
The little hero stared into the crystal orb for quite a while, then suddenly knit his brows hard.
[Haa.]
A short, weighty sigh.
At the attitude that felt exactly like he had met Reinhild’s gaze and then sighed, Reinhild’s eyes went round.
At the same moment, the little hero picked up the crystal orb he was holding and threw it.
Thud, roll.
As the crystal orb rolled, the view Reinhild was peering into spun and spun.
‘What the…?’
Did he just throw away what he’d received as a “gift”?
Hadn’t they said humans treasured gifts?
Were all the records the demonfolk had left over the millennia studying humans nothing but lies?
As Reinhild blinked in confusion, the little hero’s voice rang clear in his ear.
[You call this a gift…?]
[L-Lord Rexion….]
“…?”
Apparently this generation’s hero had been born having traded strong power for his character.
“Excellent.”
He had heard that the hero was upright and righteous, following the way of the god, the closest to light among humans… but perhaps not all of them were like that.
With a character like this, he passed.
Of course, he was still far from demonfolk standards.
If he had crushed the crystal orb one-handed right in front of the human who presented it, Reinhild would have given extra credit, but since he was still a human cub with insufficient grip strength, he did not deduct points.
Reinhild felt a touch of fondness for the hero.
If other humans looked like maggots to him, the hero, who had barely qualified as an insect, now looked like a nicely dressed insect.
“It would have been nice if he were demonkind.”
If he were, wouldn’t he be able to see him a little more closely?
‘No. If this hero cub were demonkind, then the hero would still be unborn, wouldn’t he?’
That would mean Reinhild would have to stay shut in the Demon King’s castle even longer. Reinhild decided to be content with this human being the hero.
He stared fixedly at the crystal orb that lit the darkness. Since he could hear sound, the connection hadn’t ended. It seemed the orb had rolled deep under the bed.
He couldn’t see anything, but it didn’t matter. As long as the connection wasn’t cut, he could hear.
Reinhild was satisfied just to have news of the hero.
“Grow up strong and healthy, hero.”
He patted the crystal orb as if it were the hero’s head.
Wishing earnestly that time would hurry along so he could meet the hero soon.
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