Rexion, having decided to go to the Demon King’s castle, first notified his father, the Duke of West.
“No.”
To repeat: Rexion had not come to the duke to ask permission. He had come to inform him.
Even if the Duke of West objected a hundred times over, Rexion intended to go anyway, so hearing “no” didn’t faze him.
Sensing what Rexion was thinking, the duke quickly added,
“Everything has its reason, Rexion. Going to seek out the Demon King before you’re even eighteen… that cannot be allowed.”
The duke spoke as if he were worried about his own son, but Rexion did not expect those words to come from genuine feeling.
The reason he was being prevented from leaving the castle was obvious.
Because the oracle announcing the appearance of the hero had not yet been proclaimed.
If the world learned that Rexion West, heir to House West, had acted on his own before the oracle descended naming him hero, it would be a serious problem.
And if Rexion actually succeeded in slaying the Demon King?
People would rejoice only that the Demon King was gone, instead of praising House West.
What use would it be for House West to loudly claim then that it was their heir who defeated the Demon King when there would be no proof.
It would amount to losing the chance to raise the prestige of House West.
On the other hand, if Rexion went to face the Demon King and came back injured, that too would be a problem.
If anyone learned that a child of House West had been beaten by the Demon King, the duke would be so ashamed he wouldn’t leave his room for a year.
People would whisper that he had made a fuss about slaying the Demon King when he wasn’t even the hero yet.
Even if he were appointed hero afterward, it would be obvious that they’d fret and doubt, saying they couldn’t feel safe with a hero like Rexion West, who had already been proven no match for the Demon King.
Worse still if he went all that way and died.
Not the death of his son but that the hero who should have crushed the Demon King and exalted the family name would be gone, this was the difficulty.
“I’m going.”
“Absolutely not. If you wait just a little, the Demon King will be entirely yours. Do not ruin everything by failing to wait that little.”
Rexion’s temper soured.
He was confident that even without waiting a few months he wouldn’t ruin a thing. If anything, the duke’s words felt like a challenge aimed at him.
Having no interest in the family’s prestige, Rexion ignored the duke’s attempt to stop him and moved at once.
In the deep of night, when everyone slept, he avoided the eyes of the knights guarding the ducal castle and scaled the walls. In any case, there was no one in House West who could stop Rexion.
He could move stealthily without anyone noticing, and even if he were noticed, shaking them off would be nothing.
In Rexion’s hand as he set out for the Demon King’s castle was only a sword. He had no map to help guide his way.
It wasn’t that Rexion was ill-prepared. Those things weren’t necessary to begin with.
Having received instruction about the Demon King hundreds of times a day, he knew precisely how to reach the Demon King’s castle.
“I’ll handle it before sunrise and be back.”
Rexion set out for the Demon King’s castle without further thought.
If someone had seen him, they might have worried how he intended to walk that far in the course of a night, but the Demon King’s castle is not a place one can reach by traveling in ordinary fashion, as if going to a neighboring country.
If you know the exact direction, distance is meaningless.
To reach the Demon King’s castle is less walking along a road than moving one’s body there by means of mana.
The more mana you expend, the faster you can draw near.
If you lack mana, you must walk on and on for days; if your mana is strong and vast, you can arrive within mere hours.
Histories often wrote that the Demon King’s castle stood in the “demon realm,” but whether it truly was another world was not exactly known.
Records written at whim by people who had never been there are not to be trusted, but it’s said that if you have the right to enter the Demon King’s castle, you might feel as if the castle were in a forest beside the capital.
The qualification to enter the Demon King’s castle was simple:
Either be demonfolk or be the hero.
“Is this the demon realm?”
Having left the capital and walked along the forest, Rexion at some point felt the atmosphere around him turn eerie.
His skin pricked under the influence of dense demonic energy diffused through the air.
It was a feeling unlike any he had experienced before.
Not to the point of annoyance.
Rexion quietly looked down at his arm, then resumed walking.
Perhaps catching the scent of a human setting foot here for the first time in centuries, monsters emerged one by one.
Affected by the demonic energy, they were at least 1.5 to 2 times larger than the ones he’d met elsewhere, and, excited at having found prey, they charged.
“So the monsters of the demon realm are only this much.”
Disappointing.
This much was nothing to Rexion.
While taking hero’s lessons, he had done countless practical exercises.
It wasn’t that idiotic training other nobles did, trembling as they jabbed a sword at a feeble goblin that knights had pinned down.
The Duke of West had pushed Rexion into caves swarming with monsters, saying, “The hero must be stronger than anyone.”
Others might have resented their father and soaked their pillow with tears that night. But in less than an hour Rexion had cut down every monster inside and walked out with a blank face.
What Rexion said then, looking at the Duke of West, was, “Is this really all you could prepare?”
Instead of scolding his son for insolence, the duke clapped and praised him.
For Rexion, honed by years of real combat, oversized monsters were nothing at all.
Walking deeper still into the forest, he even ran into demonfolk. Facing them was a bit more interesting than the monsters.
But that was all. Even here, nothing gave any stimulation to Rexion’s life.
At this point, his anticipation began to plummet.
If even monsters that were said to be stronger here for being steeped in demonic energy and demonfolk that was supposed to strike terror into humanity were this feeble, then how worthless would the so-called Demon King who ruled over these weak things be?
Having come this far, he felt he would be greatly disappointed if the Demon King were like that.
“If he’s at least good enough to play with for a moment, that would be nice.”
If something could send even a small ripple through the emotions that had dried up at some point, he thought he could be magnanimous and end it by merely cutting off the Demon King’s arms and legs.
Rexion consumed a tremendous amount of mana, stepping deeper and deeper into the forest.
In the distance, the shape of the great Demon King’s castle began to come into view.
A nasty castle rearing up as if to pierce the large round moon.
The Demon King was on the castle’s highest floor.
A little closer, and he could reach the Demon King.
With a touch of expectation, Rexion took a step.
“So you are the hero.”
At that moment, a voice sounded from above his head.
‘The Demon King!’
Rexion thrust out the hand gripping his sword, took a defensive stance, and prepared for the Demon King’s attack.
Only hearing a voice was enough for tension to flood him and set his body trembling.
It felt on a different level entirely from when he’d confronted other demonfolk or monsters up to now.
As if even the wind were afraid of the Demon King, the air on his skin had settled cooler than a moment before.
A tremendous pressure.
He felt demonic energy like something pressing his shoulders down with twice the gravity.
So this was the Demon King. It exceeded expectations.
For the first time since he was born, he felt “threat.”
Amazingly, in this situation, Rexion smiled.
“This might be fun.”
If it wasn’t a fight that would end easily, all the better.
Never had the life of a hero destined to fight the Demon King felt so welcome.
“What’s this, did you come alone?”
The Demon King kept speaking, as if to press him for an answer.
Rexion raised his head to reply to that voice.
He intended to issue a proud declaration of war and, at the same time that he tasted the Demon King’s strength, show the ability of the foe he would face henceforth.
“Did you lose your way, little brat?”
But when Rexion raised his head, he could not say a word.
Whatever the Demon King said, whatever he did, the young hero, who had planned to enjoy the situation and then go home, found that the instant his eyes met the Demon King’s, he could think nothing at all.
Not even the resolve to slay the Demon King.
‘Beautiful…’
In nearly eighteen years of life, Rexion had never once seen a living being so beautiful.
The Demon King was shining.
Even the divine light the high priest was said to face when receiving an oracle could not sparkle so beautifully.
Hair blacker than tar looked softer than the thread used in the finest clothes Rexion had worn.
His eyes shone so brightly that even the vivid red robe failed to seize the gaze. Crimson irises more coveted than any precious gem in the world. A color that suited skin so transparent it looked almost pale.
‘This being…is the Demon King.’
Unwittingly, Rexion loosened his grip on his sword.
He couldn’t think anything.
He only wanted to hold this moment in his eyes a little longer.
The hero, at the very first sight of the Demon King, had his heart stolen.
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