Chapter 270 – Side Story 19 – Demon King Candidate (1)

Selena regained consciousness long after they had arrived in the demon realm.

Despite her young age, Selena, daughter of the hero and a mage, quickly gathered her wits and immediately assessed her surroundings.

Everyone around her, except for one person, were monsters.

And not just any monsters—these were the same ones she had fought before losing consciousness.

Seeing them, Selena realized she had been kidnapped.

Moreover, the place she now found herself was neither Ea nor Earth.

This was a realm with red skies and red trees filling the forest, a place saturated with aura and corrupted mana.

“Could this be… the demon realm?”

Selena asked the boy who was the only human(?) among them besides herself.

Unlike before, her question was cold and imperious, but the boy answered in a calm voice.

“Yes. I was told this is the demon realm. This specific area is called the Red Forest.”

Selena felt relieved hearing the boy’s voice.

Being kidnapped by monsters and brought to the demon realm—it was terrifying.

Though she maintained a composed and brave exterior, she was just as frightened as anyone would be.

In such a situation, having someone familiar was a comfort.

Of course, this boy had been deceiving her all along.

Among his deceptions was the fact that he wasn’t fully human.

But Selena couldn’t bring herself to be angry with him.

It wasn’t just because he was the only person she could communicate with.

When Selena had awakened, the lich had immediately issued orders.

[The human woman is awake, so you and the half-breed will be responsible for her.]

“Did you hear that? Make sure she doesn’t do anything foolish. If anything goes wrong, your life won’t be enough to pay for it, so do your job well.”

“…Yes. I understand.”

The lich’s instructions were passed down to Vlad through the vampire who claimed to be his father.

From the way he was addressed to every word directed at him, it was all so degrading that even Selena felt uncomfortable hearing it.

Hearing these exchanges, the intelligent girl could piece together what had happened.

She understood the boy’s situation and why he had acted as he did.

‘As the son of a vampire, he couldn’t refuse these monsters. He probably tried to resist by doing as little as possible.’

And she was the one who had dragged him along against his will.

‘He said meeting the monsters in Pyongyang was a coincidence,’

Moreover, it seemed Vlad had helped Seowoo escape.

On the ground where he had been hastily erasing something, there had been a scribble in Earth’s language that read “Seowoo survived.”

Of course, even this could be another deception, but Selena trusted her intuition, which she had inherited from her father.

Her senses told her Vlad could be trusted.

Additionally, a somewhat girlish sentiment made her trust Vlad even more—the belief that someone who shared the same transformed mana as her couldn’t possibly betray her.

After this basic assessment of the situation, Selena addressed the lich, who appeared to be the highest-ranking monster.

“Why have you taken me? Are you planning to use me to blackmail my father?

But my parents were former heroes, a Saintess, and members of the hero’s party. They won’t give in to such threats.”

It was a somewhat presumptuous statement, but Selena said this because she didn’t believe her own words.

Her mothers who had traveled through various dimensions to find a cure for her, and her father who had stayed in the domain to protect her despite being a former hero—they would likely give in to blackmail.

That’s why she needed to emphasize that her parents wouldn’t yield to threats.

But her words turned out to be presumptuous in a different way than she had intended.

They hadn’t kidnapped her to blackmail her parents.

The vampire answered instead of the lich.

“I suppose I have to explain this too.”

The vampire began, looking at Selena.

“Originally, when we first saw you, the daughter of the former hero, we intended to kill you immediately. That would have been the best way to enrage the hero.”

“But we changed our minds because of the mana in your body. You have mana similar to ours inside you.”

Hearing the vampire’s words, Selena looked down at her body.

She knew exactly what mana the vampire was referring to.

It was certainly her illness, the transformed mana.

Unfortunately, at the moment, she couldn’t manipulate any mana at all, including her transformed mana.

This was due to the multiple layers of magic circles surrounding her body.

They were simple but vicious spells designed to lock away the user’s mana.

The liches must have cast them while she was unconscious.

As the daughter of a grand mage and the disciple of another grand mage, these were simple spells and magic circles to her, but sadly, without mana, she couldn’t cast the spells needed to break them.

As she frowned at the magic binding her body, the vampire continued.

“That mana, similar to ours but not quite the same, resembles the mana of the former Demon King who was destroyed by your parents. It’s very suitable for our goal of reviving the Demon King.”

The vampire’s words reminded Selena of the Demon King stories her father had told her long ago.

The Demon King who had fought her father was a lich, but he had also used magic to return to human form.

‘That’s why Mother said he could use all the magic that humans use.’

So, did the former Demon King also possess mana that was a mixture of human mana and aura?

Such a mage-like question crossed her mind, but now wasn’t the time to ponder it.

“So you’re saying you’ll use me as a sacrifice to revive the Demon King?”

After hearing the vampire’s words, Selena imagined a terrible fate, but the reality was even more dreadful.

“No, the Demon King is already gone. So we plan to make you the new Demon King.”

The vampire’s words left Selena staring at him in a daze.

This was completely unexpected.

“Uh… so you’re saying I’ll become the Demon King?”

“That’s right.”

“But I’m not the only one with such mana. There’s someone right here too.”

She was unnecessarily dragging an innocent person into this, but having just been told she would be made into a Demon King, Selena couldn’t think clearly.

Vlad seemed to share her thoughts, as he looked at her with wide eyes, and only then did Selena realize what she had done and bit her lip apologetically.

[The half-breed lacks the proper rank to become a Demon King.]

Fortunately(?), the lich answered directly.

“So it was a matter of rank after all.”

The vampire also seemed to have just learned this reason.

Selena, with two Saintess mothers, understood well what the lich meant… The “rank” of a living being was a measure of how close they were to the gods.

For humans, it indicated how complete they were as humans, or how much they resembled the gods.

A human of high rank referred to priests with strong faith, grand mages, and heroes.

And Selena, as the daughter of a former hero and a grand mage, naturally possessed a high rank.

“Of course, a mere half-breed mongrel could never become a Demon King.”

While she wavered between relief and anxiety, the vampire was nodding as he looked at his son.

Seeing this, Selena shouted at the vampire.

Though it meant defending Vlad who had betrayed her, Selena couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Isn’t he still your son? Is this how vampires treat their children?”

“Haha. To hear such words from a human. While we vampires may be colder than humans, we have civilization and intellect. We take better care of our children than you humans do.”

Though treated like other monsters by humans, vampires, despite their corrupted mana, maintained the pride of intelligent beings.

That’s why they had tried to avoid participating when Demon Kings sought to destroy humans.

Even now, though they had reluctantly joined forces with the Demon King, vampires still looked down on other mindless monsters.

Of course, vampires also cursed humans who sought to destroy them.

“Then why do you treat your child like that?”

“He betrayed you, yet you still feel sorry for him?”

The vampire continued with a mocking face.

“Do humans treat children with monster blood as their own? It’s the same for us.”

Selena could only close her mouth at the vampire’s words.

Though she had never seen a human with monster blood, she had heard that if rumors spread of a monster having a child, the entire family would be slaughtered.

If someone truly had monster blood, it wasn’t hard to imagine how people would react.

“Using him as a useful tool is much better. A very useful tool that cannot betray us.”

At the vampire’s words, Selena unconsciously looked at Vlad.

Perhaps because he had lived through countless verbal abuses and pain?

Vlad’s expression remained unchanged despite his father’s harsh words.

But Selena noticed his tightly clenched fists, which contradicted his expressionless face.

Fists so tightly clenched that veins were about to burst.

Those fists were filled with rage.

However, only Selena could see this anger; the other monsters either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“Well, now that your curiosity is satisfied, let’s move. Our destination is just ahead.”

The vampire urged Selena, who had just gotten up, to start walking.

Surrounded by monsters, Selena began walking through the forest, and soon they reached their destination.

They arrived at a massive tower in the middle of the forest.

“So this is…”

“The Tower of the God. Like the temple of Ea’s gods in the imperial capital, this is where the god of this world resides.”

Listening to the proud vampire, Selena examined the tower walls, which were stained with blood.

Human blood, not monster blood.

It was where the hero had died recently, but Selena only wondered about the unexpected human bloodstains.

“Is this really the place that creates Demon Kings?”

“They’re merely representatives of the god, no different from heroes, but if you want to call them Demon Kings like other humans, go ahead. It will be your title soon anyway.”

At the vampire’s words, Selena tried to argue again.

“But surely becoming a Demon King isn’t that simple?”

This time her words seemed to have an effect, as the vampire nodded.

“That’s right. Normally, to become a Demon King, one must defeat all the guardians protecting the tower and reach the top where the god resides.”

“Is it possible to pass through with just the monsters here?”

Selena pointed to the monsters around her.

Though they were strong enough to capture her, they weren’t as powerful as Demon Kings.

Even her father, or rather her mothers alone, could easily handle monsters of this level.

The monsters knew this too.

“Of course not.”

“Then…”

In response to Selena’s question, the vampire grinned in a most un-monster-like way.

“We’re in luck. Someone recently came and defeated all the tower’s guardians before leaving.”

That person was her father, the former hero, but neither the monsters nor Selena knew this yet.

And so, Selena and Vlad began climbing the now-safe tower with the monsters.