Chapter 277 – Side Story 26 – The Demon King and the Hero’s Daughter (The End)

After leaving the Demon King fighting against monsters behind, Egger’s group crossed the gate and returned to Ea.

They had planned to take their rescued daughter back to their domain and then cross back to the demon realm.

But they couldn’t return to the demon realm.

This was because the gate that had connected to the demon realm wouldn’t open.

“If it were blocked by magic, we might be able to do something about it, but this isn’t magic—it’s closer to divine authority,” Yelena said, finally giving up after investigating the unopening gate through various methods.

“Is the Demon God blocking it?”

“Or perhaps the gods of Ea are blocking it.”

Unlike before, now the demon realm could be influenced by gods other than the Demon God.

This was because the Demon King had destroyed the Demon God’s tower.

Other gods would now be able to see the situation in the demon realm, and they would have seen the Demon King who opposed them.

“That’s more likely. No divine revelation?”

At Egger’s question, Zahina, Yerim, and Duchess Meliya, who had protected the domain while Egger’s group was in the demon realm, all shook their heads.

“No god has answered about this matter.”

Whether they wouldn’t answer or couldn’t answer was unclear, but if there was no response even to the Saintesses’ questions, it meant no one could get an answer.

And so, the birth of a new Demon King remained known only to Egger’s group.

Meliya, who had been angry about the hero’s death, was frustrated by this unexpected outcome, but she too admitted that it was better for things to end this way.

In the end, the hero who died in the demon realm and his companions were treated as missing, and the duchess returned to her domain.

And Egger’s domain became very lively thanks to the lord’s wives who had returned after a long time.

There were more long-eared races and people wearing unusual clothes, and buildings of unfamiliar forms continued to increase.

Moreover, the lord’s daughter, who had not shown herself outside before, now frequently appeared to people outside the castle.

Because of this, rumors briefly circulated that the lord’s second daughter was aiming to become the next lord, but when it became known that she was a mage close to a grand mage, those rumors quickly disappeared.

If she was nearly a grand mage at that age, she would soon become a grand mage, and then she could go to the Empire or any country and become a high-ranking noble who would receive a domain larger than this one.

Of course, this domain wasn’t an ordinary domain, but it was too remote to covet for such reasons.

“This isn’t just remote. Why do swords and undead keep endlessly appearing when even the gate to the demon realm is blocked?”

After sweeping away dozens of skeletons with magic, Selena pouted as usual.

The complaining Selena had changed a lot from before.

Previously, she had struggled to move during the day due to the transformed mana in her body, but now she could move during the day without such restrictions.

Perhaps because of this, she looked healthier than before, and unlike before, she was going around with people other than Seowoo.

Of course, the people accompanying her weren’t other noble women or mages, but all knights and soldiers.

And the places she visited weren’t other nobles’ reception rooms or mage towers, but places full of undead, just like before.

Thanks to her active movements, she earned the title “Undead Slayer,” which didn’t match her beautiful appearance at all.

Seowoo shook his head at Selena’s continuous grumbling.

Although it had been two years since the gate to the demon realm was blocked, Selena’s complaints hadn’t stopped.

It was partly because undead continued to appear in the eastern part of the continent, but the expression on Selena’s face as she spoke showed more longing than dissatisfaction.

Except for her family and Seowoo, no one knew why she made such an expression.

And even Seowoo had trouble understanding her expression.

He knew there was only one person she could be missing, but it was difficult for him to understand why she missed him.

The person Selena missed was Vlad, who remained in the demon realm.

But Vlad and Selena hadn’t spent much time together, and nothing special had happened when Seowoo was with them.

So Seowoo wondered if something had happened between Vlad, or rather the Demon King, and Selena in the demon realm.

Of course, Vlad, who had become the Demon King, had saved Selena and cured her illness, but could that be enough for her to miss him with such an expression for two years?

Of course, being from Earth, he knew well that emotions could be determined in an instant, but it was still hard to understand.

And he wasn’t the only one thinking this.

Yelena, who was worried about Selena as she was beginning to pass the marriageable age for nobles, felt the same way.

Seeing her daughter who showed no interest in marriage at all, her mother, who was of noble origin, was extremely worried.

Moreover, she was a noble of Ea who believed that things other than emotions were more important for marriage.

Additionally, unlike Yelena, Selena’s other parents—Lord Egger, Zahina from another world, and Yerim—weren’t worried about Selena’s marriage, which only increased the concern of her birth mother, Yelena.

In fact, the situation was difficult for Seowoo as well.

Though he aimed to be a knight, Seowoo, who was from Earth, wouldn’t have been guarding Selena all this time for no reason. Of course, it was because he liked her.

But in a short time, Selena had come to make such an expression.

“I hope it’s not a case of a rolling stone displacing a fixed one.”

Seowoo felt quite unfair.

But it was also hard for him to give up easily.

It was partly because of the time they had spent together, but also because of the promise he had made to himself after losing her to monsters that day.

The promise to protect her for the rest of his life.

By making it a knight’s vow, he had now made it impossible to back out.

In the end, all he could do was watch from the side like this.

And as the grown knight watched the mage Selena with a sigh, someone else was watching her.

The one watching her was a humanoid monster, or rather, a vampire.

The vampire was watching her from quite a distance, but it wasn’t far enough that she, who was now almost called a grand mage, couldn’t notice.

Of course, this was because the vampire was hiding his mana and aura.

Mana control that even a grand mage couldn’t detect.

The vampire had achieved this.

However, not everyone failed to notice the vampire’s presence.

“Wasn’t the gate to the demon realm closed? How did you cross over?”

The vampire turned his head at the words from behind him.

Behind him stood the middle-aged knight whom the vampire had known before.

He was the lord and former hero, Knight Egger, whose presence hadn’t diminished at all despite the two years that had passed.

Seeing him, Vlad, now a complete vampire and Demon King, waved his hand.

“It’s been a while.”

At the Demon King’s ordinary greeting, Egger, who had been gripping his sword, relaxed his hand and sighed.

“Fortunately, you haven’t changed.”

The Demon King smiled at Egger’s words.

“It hasn’t been that long.”

“It wasn’t a short time either.”

Two years might not be a long time for long-lived races like Zahina, but it wasn’t a short time for humans, and for Vlad, who had become a Demon King in his teens.

But Vlad shook his head at Egger’s words.

“Even so, there was nothing for me to change. Besides, I’m still far from achieving my goal.”

“That goal…”

“Of course, it’s killing all monsters in the world.”

Eliminating all monsters in the world had been his lifelong goal even before becoming a Demon King.

For that purpose, he had continued to sweep away monsters in the demon realm for two years.

During that time, there had been many crises and hardships, but he hadn’t stopped.

“Thanks to becoming a Demon King, I was able to continue without stopping. I had wondered why previous Demon Kings could continue their plans to destroy humans for so long, but now I think I understand the reason.”

As the Demon God’s representative, the Demon King, Vlad was able to maintain his thoughts and mind through any difficulty.

From a different perspective, it could have been a curse, but so far, Vlad hadn’t thought of it that way.

Because thanks to that, he had been able to continue fighting monsters.

Click.

Egger, who had been watching the Demon King speak calmly, put his sword back in its scabbard.

He slowly walked over and stood next to the Demon King.

Standing next to the Demon King, Egger asked something else instead of satisfying his curiosity.

“Don’t you want to meet her?”

Though the subject was missing from the sentence, the Demon King understood the hero’s words.

“We weren’t that close. I just happened to come to Ea after a long time and was thinking of clearing out some monsters when I ran into her.”

It didn’t seem like that was the case, but Egger didn’t contradict the Demon King’s words.

Instead, he asked about something else.

“Then, have you seen your mother?”

“No. I thought she would be doing well, so I didn’t look for her.”

At this unexpected answer, Egger opened his mouth with a sour expression.

“…She’s in the domain, why don’t you go see her?”

The Demon King nodded at Egger’s words.

“As expected, you brought her there.”

Egger pointed to Selena, who was visible as a tiny dot in the distance.

“Selena brought her. I thought it wasn’t bad to have a hostage, so I allowed it.”

“Haha, you were like this when I first met you too. You have a bad personality, Lord.”

“I’m a lord who has been through a lot.”

The hero and the Demon King continued their conversation as if they were ordinary neighbors chatting.

“I don’t plan to meet her. I’m a Demon King now.”

“Will that be alright?”

“As you know, my rank has risen, so I don’t need to worry about such mental issues. Besides, meeting my mother in this form wouldn’t be good for her.”

The Demon King now looked more like a vampire than Vlad, even more so than his father.

His mother would inevitably be shocked if she saw him.

“That’s true.”

So Egger agreed with the Demon King’s words.

After answering Egger’s question, the Demon King said:

“You don’t need to worry about the gate. The gods allowed only me to pass through, so I crossed over. They probably hope I’ll catch all the monsters in this world too.”

The Demon King glanced up at the sky and smiled slightly.

“Besides, there’s a time limit, so I need to go back soon.”

Hearing that there was even a time limit, it seemed the gods wanted to give the Demon King a vacation.

The Demon King seemed to know this too.

However, the place the Demon King visited during his vacation wasn’t where his mother was, but where Egger’s daughter was.

“Well, I’ve seen who I wanted to see, and I’ve seen the hero, so it’s time for the Demon King to flee happily.”

“When will you come again?”

“Who knows? It might take a very long time. More than 100 or 200 years, or I might never return.”

The moment those words ended, a gate began to form in front of the Demon King.

And it seemed Selena noticed it, as she could be seen flying in this direction.

The Demon King looked at her flying form one last time and stepped into the gate.

As the gate gradually shrank, just before it disappeared, Selena arrived in front of it.

She must have seen the Demon King.

Perhaps that’s why she didn’t stop in front of the gate.

Instead, she gave her father a big smile and jumped into the gate.

<Side Story Complete>