“Dad! Claire!” My younger self could do nothing but cry as my mother carried me away.
I heard the sound of something cutting through the air, dull thunks and my mother’s groans, but she continued running. As painful as it must have been for her, she still stroked my hair, trying to comfort me.
“It’s okay...it’s going to be okay...”
Miraculously, we escaped. The Demon King’s army didn’t pursue us any further. Instead, we were chased out by their scornful laughter.
“Run, you insects! Run to your puny lord! Tell him we’re here, and we’re waiting for him!”
No, we hadn’t escaped. They had let us go to draw out more humans to slaughter...and we were the tool used to set this in motion.
“Please...take care of him...” Running through the night and reaching the next town over, my mother used her last breath to ensure my safety. There were a number of black-feathered arrows protruding from her back. The most vigorous of soldiers couldn’t have done what she did, running throughout the night carrying a child with so many arrows in their back. Yet she had somehow found the strength to do so.
In the end, I was the only survivor. At least, as far as I knew. As a survivor and witness of the demon attack, I was escorted to a larger city, eventually being put in the care of the church orphanage. Just a few days before, the demonic kingdom on the other side of the mountains had felt so distant, as if the war was so far away it would be someone else’s problem. Everything had changed. Everything was over.
Not long after that I started training, pushing my body to the edge of death, struggling for every bit of strength I could muster. I’d kill them all. Every demon in that damn kingdom. That was my sole purpose in life.
I decided to become a soldier to prove my determination. The retaliatory force sent by the kingdom to avenge my village was effortlessly wiped out. While I trained, the kingdom’s armies couldn’t muster much in the way of victory—the situation grew more dire by the day.
On my coming of age day, I awakened the holy attribute within me, and so I was sent to the Holy Land to become an apprentice hero. My days were filled with yet more training. But while I dawdled, the kingdom I was born in was overrun. As soon as I’d gained some proficiency in the holy magic I was learning, I was dispatched to the front lines to stand alongside my seniors. The war against the demons was always one step forward, one step back. No, more like one step forward, two or three steps back, I suppose. The taste of defeat was more familiar than the thrill of reveling in victory.
My life could come to an end in the blink of an eye. But I continued to survive. It took everything within me to endure that festival of blood those disgusting demons brought upon us for even a minute longer, for even a second longer.
“Death to the dark!” I would cry. But it wasn’t enough. No matter how much blood I spilled, the people of my village, my parents, and Claire would never come back.
“Help—”
The last time I saw her is seared into my memory forever, tears streaming down her face as she reached for me.
I opened my eyes and found myself in a room of marble. Lying on a comfortable bed, layered in quality furs. I looked at my hands: disturbingly pale, the skin of a demon.
“Good morning, little one.” A monocled young girl, with reddish skin and a butler’s uniform, floated at my side. I’d gone from reliving a nightmare to an equally disgusting reality. Now, I was a demon prince, awoken every morning by this devil butler. There aren’t many worse ways to start your day.
However, I chose to bear it. I had to stay true to my convictions. If I could survive this, one day I may be able to deliver a fatal blow to the Demon King’s army.
“Good morning, Sophia.” I greeted the devil with an awkward smile.
Two years had passed since my reincarnation as a demon.
†††
When I’d been a baby, I could babble away without worry—that kind of came with the territory. But once I’d learned how to talk, keeping my true nature hidden was much more challenging. If I slipped up and blew my cover, it would all be over. So keeping a careful eye on my surroundings, I did what I could to act like a proper demon, and somehow managed to survive in my new life.
In two years, my body had grown quite a bit. Like, actually, a surprisingly huge amount. I was about the size of a human five-year-old. According to what I had learned, demons matured much quicker than humans, reaching full maturity by the age of fifteen.
It hardly felt fair. They already lived longer than us, so why did they mature faster too? That said, my rapid growth seemed to surprise the people I met in this new life, so maybe I was growing particularly fast for a demon. Maybe my deep-seated desire to grow up fast so I could take the Demon King’s head was accelerating my growth. That wasn’t something unique to demons either. Anyone with strong magic could use their words or thoughts to warp the reality around them. And I was a demon now, a race that boasted magical power comparable to the elves. Whatever the reason, if it brought me even one day closer to killing the Demon King, it was fine by me.
As I outgrew my wet nurse, I was then assigned a tutor.
“Today is the day, little one! After your meal, we will begin studying!”
That tutor was this girl...or rather, this devil in the form of a young girl. She wore sharp black and red butler’s clothes. Two horns sprouted from her forehead. As calm and composed as she appeared, her fangs alone proved she was anything but harmless. Almost as if an afterthought, small leathery wings akin to those of a bat or a dragon grew from her back, and now kept her suspended in the air. Her trademark was her monocle.
Her name was Sophia, and according to her, she was a mid-level devil that presided over knowledge. Apparently acquiring knowledge dictated her growth, both physically and in social standing. Given her nature, she was basically a proud walking dictionary, which made her perfectly suited to being a tutor. Having made a contract with the mother of my new body, she had tried to force me to a desk to study with an appropriately devilish persistence.
“The wisdom of the Abyss lies in wait for you! Now, let us begin working on our words and numbers!”
“No! Today I wanna explore the castle!” With an arrogance matching that of any demon, I stubbornly refused.
“What do you mean ‘today’?! All you do is explore the castle every day!”
“I hate studying.” I made no attempt to hide my sour mood. Sitting at a desk and learning hadn’t really been my thing even in my past life. After all, being a hero means having the heart of a warrior. The bare minimum understanding of literacy was all I needed. Learning the layout of the castle was much more beneficial.
“There’s more to being the Demon King than just being strong! You also need to be smart!” she said in an attempt to motivate me, but I didn’t really have any desire to be the Demon King. I just wanted to kill him.
“Hmm...I suppose demons have a strong impulse against authority...” she mumbled, pressing a hand to her forehead. “Okay then, little one! It’s time for exercise! Go exercise to your heart’s content!”
“Okay. I’ll go explore the castle, then!”
“Of course this time it doesn’t work!” Sophia clutched at her head in frustration as I responded with joy to her failed attempt at reverse psychology. Too bad! I couldn’t care less about learning! A knowledge devil is no match for me!
Sophia sighed. “Fine. For now, let’s at least get the waking meal out of the way.” With a snap of her fingers, servants pushed a wagon into the room. Night elves, beastfolk, and imps made up the motley crew.
Imps, like all devils, were bound by contract and thus couldn’t betray their masters. The night elves and beastfolk had been selected for their exceptional loyalty. For the record, they doubled as my bodyguards.
In short order, the servants arranged my waking meal on the table beside my bed. For a human like me, that was an unfamiliar term. Effectively it meant “breakfast,” but I was a demon now. The denizens of the dark were typically nocturnal, sleeping through the morning to wake up in the late afternoon or early evening. In other words, the first meal of their day wasn’t the “breakfast” we thought of as humans, but more like “lunch” or “dinner.” The distinction was quite annoying and confusing to be quite honest.
Unlike the undead, demons had no issue operating in open daylight, but we were still more comfortable in the dark. Looking out my window, I saw the dusky red sky of sundown. Evident by my own servants here, the workers in the castle were made up of nocturnal species, so the schedule of the castle centered around nighttime.