Chapter 91 : A New Family Member
Chapter 91: A New Family Member
Lavinia Arkan stroked the core the dwarf had made.
“Kwang.”
“Yes?”
“Garbage.”
The dwarf looked on the verge of tears, but she wasn’t making it up.
Demonic energy and mana had mixed in a strange way, causing the quality of the demonic energy to drop drastically. And that didn’t mean the core operated properly either. Trying to modify it awkwardly to match demonic energy had turned it into nothing but an expensive chunk of scrap.
“Mana cannon. How?”
“Well, the mana cannon and a golem core are worlds apart!”
A mana cannon only needed a refined sphere of mana placed inside the shell. The cannon would receive that power and fire.
The process was extremely simple, so it didn’t matter whether mana or demonic energy was the power source. In fact, using the more violent demonic energy as a power source actually increased the destructive force.
“···Hm. I’m sorry to Lord Roger, but this is a piece of trash hardly worthy of being called a core···.”
“You aren’t sorry to me at all, are you?”
Reymon avoided Roger’s gaze.
“That’s not true. I respect you, Lord Roger. But this core’s design itself is a bit old-fashioned. Something the kingdom would have used about thirty years ago···.”
“Well, I’m not a professional golem artificer!”
The dwarf who had installed hundreds of mana cannons on the first floor of the Demon King’s Tower roared.
The golem artificer hurried to clean up after himself.
“But the durability is incredibly strong! As expected of you, Lord Roger!”
“It’s already too late!”
Roger switched on a mana cannon standing to the side. With a hum, lights began to flicker.
“I—I’m sorry!”
“Be careful next time. Understood?”
Reymon bowed his head repeatedly. Roger snorted and patted his shoulder.
“Golem. Level?”
“You mean what level of golem we’re making?”
“Mm.”
“Of course, the best!”
“You.”
“Yes, Princess.”
Reymon responded.
“Blueprint.”
“Yes, I’ll draft it right away···.”
“Latest.”
“···Those are top-secret in the kingdom. I can only give you something slightly outdated···.”
“Latest.”
“···If you give me a little time, I’ll draw it and bring it.”
As he said, the blueprints for the newest model golems were strategic assets treated with the highest secrecy and not allowed to be carried around.
But Reymon had been the golem artificer who directly participated in their design and production. It took him three days to draw the complex structures in his mind onto paper.
“Oh, this is···.”
Roger looked at the blueprint and gasped. He was an exceptional craftsman but not a specialized golem artificer.
Naturally, his understanding of golems had been lacking, but the blueprint filled with Arkan’s essence ignited his craftsman’s passion.
“Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! To think I’m seeing something like this···!”
“Make it.”
“Of course! Golem design may be Arkan’s specialty, but no one can match me in making them!”
Roger threw a contaminated mana stone into the forge of the Demon Realm. The bloodfire stone that devoured demonic energy began to radiate heat.
“Fuse.”
“Yes?”
“Inscriptions. Circuits.”
A golem core wasn’t something solved by simply hammering minerals. One needed to structure magic circuits and inscriptions centered around a highly pure—though contaminated—mana stone.
The person responsible for creating that process was the golem artificer.
“Grrr···. Understood.”
The dwarf and golem artificer shut themselves inside the workshop. Until the core was completed, Lavinia had nothing particular to do.
She instinctively knew what her role in golem production was.
Completely replacing the golem’s mana-based energy system with demonic energy. Identifying all problems that arose in the process and correcting them.
To do that, they first needed a fully completed core and a series of experiments.
“Cher.”
Lavinia called her companion.
The Titan stomped closer and lowered his head. She stroked it.
“This.”
Grr?
She opened her subspace and pulled out a twitching tail. It was the tail of the Succubus Queen, obtained in exchange for cooperation.
“Attach it.”
Cher shook his head violently.
He had known Lavinia for a long time, and though he had become a chimera, at his core he was still Titan, a demon.
As a macho Titan, he instinctively recognized that the tail belonged to a succubus and had no intention of attaching the tail of some lecherous creature to his own body.
But—
“Attach it.”
He had no choice in the matter.
GROOOOAR—
Cher began running away at full speed.
“Stop there.”
Lavinia chased him with the tail in hand.
---
It had already been more than a year since he descended upon Arein.
A lot had happened.
Ernan Hilderan of the Kingdom of Hilderan.
Ellena Hilderan of the Kingdom of Hilderan.
Kaede Zespine of the Zespine Empire.
And Lavinia Arkan of the Arkan Kingdom.
He had kidnapped three princesses.
Negotiated with one princess.
Blocked one hero’s march.
And turned Hillan Cargill, the hero who had killed two Demon Kings, into his underling.
Compared to before his regression, things were unquestionably better—except for the tower part.
At that time, the one-year-old Berje had kidnapped two princesses and devoured countless arrogant heroes and assault squad members who underestimated him as a newly descended Demon King.
Thanks to that, the tower had rapidly risen to the 6th floor.
Back then, he had graduates from the Demon King Military Academy—following him as a reward for graduating at the top—along with thousands of monsters and countless graduates from Demon Race Training Schools who were drawn to his abilities. It had been a completely different starting point.
A virtuous cycle—he captured the arrogant heroes, summoned stronger monsters, and strengthened his tower.
He had truly been like an undefeated sun back then.
But did he want to return to that time? Absolutely not. Because he knew better than anyone what that ending was.
‘The first floor is nearly done.’
The installation of the mana cannons was almost finished. Once the golems were produced and placed, everything would be perfect.
‘The second floor···.’
On hold until he accumulated enough demonic energy to summon a balrog. The third floor still had nothing in mind, so it was on hold as well.
‘The fourth floor···.’
The princesses’ floor—but more precisely, Ernan Hilderan’s floor.
The environment she created through spirits, and the summoned spirits themselves, ruled the fourth floor.
‘An incredible talent.’
The tower naturally contaminated all mana into demonic energy. Despite that, the fourth floor maintained its lush, green state.
That was Ernan’s ability. She was suppressing demonic contamination with her own power.
It was fortunate that she willingly took his side. Thanks to her, he persuaded Kaede and kidnapped Ellena.
That synergy caused Demonic Points to accumulate at a frightening pace. Summoning a balrog wouldn’t even take a month now, even after paying off all his debts.
‘And the one I look forward to as much as Ernan is Ellena.’
She was living like a dead corpse on the third floor for now, but once enough mana drained from her, she would be able to learn magic.
And the moment she learned enough magic to control her own mana—
The world would realize the arrival of a new archmage.
‘But for that, I need to find a mage first···.’
Two newcomers had appeared, but one was a crazy chimera maker and the other a golem artificer. Neither was suited to teaching Ellena.
It was then—
“Demon King.”
Gordon knocked on the door.
“We’ve received word from Granada. He says he’s arrived near Hortonwork with the elves. Because of people’s attention, they didn’t enter Hortonwork. What should we do?”
At last, what he had been waiting for had arrived.
---
After parting ways with Cain, Granada went straight to the Golden Moon Merchant Company. There, he met the elves who had once been slaves.
Their number had increased to a total of thirty-three, and after two weeks ago, no additional elves had been found.
“We scoured all the slave markets across the continent, but we couldn’t find any more elf slaves.”
It wasn’t that strange.
After the inter-nation agreement banning non-human slavery, the number of elf and dwarf slaves had continuously decreased.
“That’s fortunate.”
And the fact that there were only thirty-three made Granada feel somewhat relieved. It was never pleasant to see one’s own race enslaved.
Moreover, he now had to make those thirty-three become subordinates of the Demon King. He sincerely hoped the number would not increase any further.
The thirty-three elves he met were much cleaner and tidier than he expected.
Aman, following the Demon King’s orders, had treated them not as slaves but as free people. Thanks to that, their wariness had eased, if only a little.
Aman, now a member of the merchant company, gathered all the elves who had been working there.
Granada took a deep breath and opened the door.
“Nice to meet you. I am Granada of the Maple Leaf Tribe.”
“···An elf?”
All gazes shifted toward him. Thirty-three pairs of pointed ears stirred a sense of nostalgia in Granada, as if he had returned to Elven.
But that wasn’t all.
At that moment—
“···Lord Granada?”
“Charlotte?”
There was an elf who had actually lived with him back in Elven.
“It’s really you, Lord Granada?”
“How are you here···?”
“Well, I came out searching for you and then···”
“My goodness.”
Granada recoiled at the unexpected reunion. It was a meeting he had absolutely never wished for.
“So it was Lord Granada who saved us?”
“No, that’s not it.”
He rubbed his face.
“What do you mean?”
“Unfortunately, I’m in a position where I must force a choice upon you. I’ll only say this once, so listen carefully.”
Granada hesitated briefly, then clenched his teeth.
“You must swear loyalty to the Demon King for the next hundred years.”
“······!”
---
Charlotte of the Maple Leaf Tribe felt despair.
Her mind understood, but her heart couldn’t follow.
“To serve the Demon King…”
And not just any Demon King, but the current hotly discussed Demon King of Dark Flame.
She, an elf—someone who should guard the World Tree and stand at the forefront against the demon race—was being told to swear loyalty to a Demon King.
The other elves seemed to feel the same; the air was thick with gloom.
Though they had agreed for now, doubt continued to swirl.
“Is this really the right thing?”
“It is.”
Granada did not bother comforting them. His persuasion had played a major part, but ultimately, the choice was theirs.
The responsibility was theirs alone to bear, and with time, the burden would dull.
“Does any elf here wish to return to life as a slave?”
No one spoke.
The miserable life of a slave had been their reality until very recently.
For a brief moment, they had tasted the sweetness of being elves again, not slaves. Who would willingly return to the nightmare when honey lay right before them?
Though it felt like betraying the World Tree, the existence of others who had already chosen this path lessened the guilt.
And besides, it wasn’t a lifetime—after one hundred years, a guaranteed future awaited them.
“That’s how it is.”
“No matter what, if it weren’t for you, Lord Granada, neither I nor the other elves—no matter how much we had to return to slavery—would ever have agreed to become the Demon King’s subordinates.”
“I appreciate that.”
“But to think *you*, Lord Granada, would be serving a Demon King···.”
“He’s different from the Demon Kings you know. There’s only one demon in the tower—just the Black one—and there aren’t even any monsters. Instead, there’s a dwarf hero and a princess.”
“That part—I still can’t make sense of it. Is he really a Demon King?”
“It sounds strange even to me when I say it, but yes.”
“So you all think I’m not here, and you think you can talk nonsense.”
A strange voice suddenly cut in.
Charlotte instinctively threw a punch. Granada blocked it with his hand.
“Stop. This is the Demon King.”
“···The Demon King?”
Red hair. Red eyes. A presence like blazing flames—one could feel overwhelming heat from him.
And yet, the demonic energy that symbolized the demon race was nowhere to be felt.
If anything, he resembled a spirit more than a demon.
“······?”
All the elves shifted their gazes to Granada.
“It may be hard to believe, but he truly is the Demon King. He is simply suppressing his demonic energy for certain reasons.”
“That’s possible?”
“What about this?”
In an instant, his red hair turned black. Black irises replaced the crimson.
The pure mana that reminded them of a spirit vanished completely.
Thick, heavy demonic energy asserted his presence unmistakably.
“Now—do you believe I am the Demon King?”
“···How?”
“Does that matter?”
“No.”
As if everything she had worried about moments ago had been a joke, Charlotte stepped forward boldly, representing the thirty-three elves.
“We have already decided to serve you, Demon King. But before that, I want to ask just one thing.”
“Speak.”
“Will you truly release us after one hundred years?”
“Of course.”
“Can you swear upon the First Demon Emperor and *The Demon King’s Standard*, which the demon race holds sacred?”
At her confident question—
“I swear upon the great First Demon Emperor and *The Demon King’s Standard*.”
He answered without even a breath of hesitation.
“I promise that after one hundred years, you will be given your freedom.”
Charlotte knelt.
“I swear upon the great World Tree—Demon King, I pledge one hundred years of loyalty.”
“We pledge our loyalty!”
The elves all bowed deeply as one.
The Demon King smiled in satisfaction.