“Your body was manufactured using bodies of various other races,” I said.
“Yeah, and then they stuck my soul in it. The last time I was the demon king, I was a normal demon, but not anymore. Now I’m a hodgepodge of races.”
Well, this was certainly confusing. But also, I had no idea how this had anything to do with the reason why he couldn’t kill me.
“So, here’s the problem. My Divine Blessing, Sixth Pillar of Divine Punishment, is more of a curse than a blessing.”
“It does sound like a divine punishment.”
“If I kill anything that’s the same race as me, I die too.”
Oh, okay. Wait... “Aren’t you both all the other races and none of them at the same time?”
“Yeah, but the rule still applies. If I kill a demon, dragonewt, beastkin, elf, dwarf, or human, I’ll die too.”
Yeah, there’s no way he could be the demon king like that. That’s a relief, though. If he was telling the truth, then he couldn’t kill me.
“So, you can’t kill me because I’m human?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
It didn’t seem like he knew I was a vampire, which meant that he didn’t know everything about me. Even so, I felt like he could see right through me. I couldn’t shake that uncomfortable feeling, which made talking to him hard.
“Well, I get why you’re here now. You can’t exactly give out orders to kill people when you’ll die too,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s part of it.”
“There are other reasons?”
“Yeah, and the main reason. But before I get into that, let’s talk a bit about the past.”
Well, this is sudden. Now he’s gonna tell me about his past?
“As you may know, I was the previous-previous demon king. Since birth, I have possessed abnormal powers. Everything always went the way I wanted it to. Booze, money, women—I took everything I wanted by force. All I had to do was flaunt my strength and then everyone fell in line. I got a bunch of beautiful wives and lived lavishly. Eventually, it became obvious that the powers I had would make me demon king.”
For demons, power was everything. One’s standing in demon society directly correlated with one’s strength. That’s probably why it had become obvious he would be the demon king of that generation.
“But no matter what I obtained, I never felt satisfied. I assumed the title of the demon king and began invading the lands of humans, but it didn’t satisfy me one bit. There wasn’t anyone who could oppose me. Until the very end, all I wanted was happiness...but that never happened.”
This all feels very stereotypical demon king...
“After I died, I appeared in a completely white space and met god.”
Hm? A white space? God? Just like I did?
“That individual claimed to be the chief god.”
Oh, nope. Not just like I did.
“They said that I’d gone too far and left a big scar upon the world. Thus, I was to be punished.”
“Is that where your Divine Blessing comes from?”
“No. My punishment was being stripped of my power, abilities, memories—everything that made me me—and being reincarnated into the Abandoned World.”
Hm...that sounds familiar. “What’s the Abandoned World?”
“The world you came from. None of the gods keep watch over it.” Oh, okay, so he does know that I’m Japanese. “So what do you think happened when I was reincarnated? I was born into a completely average family without any special gifts, abilities, or particularly good looks. I lived a completely unremarkable life, struggled through a regular person’s challenges, married a normal-looking girl, and had a kinda handsome kid. We had money troubles and I’d get into fights with my wife every now and then, but still, I lived my life as a normal salaryman.” He paused for a moment to chuckle. “I was happy. Isn’t that ironic? I had none of the things that I’d had when I was a demon king, but as a human I’d obtained the one thing that I’d wanted when I was a demon.”
Desire itself had no limits...but maybe not fulfilling those desires could still lead to happiness.
“Ultimately, happiness is really all down to how you think about it.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
In my mind, being happy was a form of self-suggestion. Happiness didn’t have any single definition. It was subjective. If you thought you were happy, then you were happy.
“When I was summoned to this world again as the demon king, I was given the Sixth Pillar of Divine Punishment and immediately remembered my life as the previous previous demon king. Hilarious, isn’t it? Then I began to think about what I wanted to do this time around, and I decided to toss out my old goal of becoming happy. Now, I don’t want anything.” He looked up at the blue sky and blew out a wisp of smoke. A small bird fluttered past, quickly disappearing from sight. “I’d gained everything that this world had to offer. I...became happy. It’s stupid to set ‘happiness’ as your goal when you can achieve that at any point in your life.”
“So what is your goal?”
“I decided to help others become happy. Not everyone, mind you. That’d be ridiculous. But I think I can help others achieve happiness with this ridiculous body of mine.”
“With that body?”
“Yeah. There are a lot of oppressed races out there, and I have every one of them inside me. I think I might be able to do something with that.”
“Yeah...maybe. At the very least, it’s true that you do have every race inside you.”
“If I can’t, then that’s fine. This is just an idea, after all.”
I was starting to figure out why I got such a weird vibe from him. He felt directionless. Like he had no will to live. Was this the result of having such a unique past?
“So that’s why I’m gonna destroy this sandbox the gods play around in. I don’t care about them, or being a demon king, or being a hero. I’m gonna bring it all down. That’s why I gave up being the demon king. It’s all so I can destroy this world.”
Interesting. I don’t hate that kind of extreme thinking, but destroying everything isn’t one of my interests. Also, he’s given me a lot of information. Is that okay?
“I don’t get why you’re telling me all of this. How does this benefit you?”
“Oh, I see. You want to know how I’m going to compensate you for helping me out.”
Helping him out?
“I’m not crazy enough to think about destroying the world by myself, especially with the kinds of divine punishments I have. Plus, after meeting a certain someone, I’ve changed my way of thinking.”
“Who?”
The demon king grinned and pointed at me. “You.”
Huh? Why me? “You think I’m gonna help you destroy the world? That’s a pretty big assumption you’re making.”
“No—I’m not asking you to help.” The demon king slowly lowered his finger. “I’m saying that, with the way you’re going, you’re gonna destroy it whether you intend to or not...which means my goal will be accomplished.”
“And that’s why you want to compensate me?”
“Exactly. All you have to do is live by any means possible, even if it means crushing others in your path. Just keep walking the path that you’ve been walking.”
I should’ve been offended or angry, but instead, I could feel the edges of my mouth curling upwards. “You really came all the way out here to tell me this? I would’ve done it even without you telling me to.”
“Ha! I knew you’d say that!” He looked at me the way a dad would look proudly at his son, and laughed.
“But,” I added, “I’m gonna need more information, or this won’t be a fair trade.”
“Jeez...” He let out a sigh and chuckled. “That’s just like you... Fine. Ask me anything.”
Sweet! Let’s get some more questions answered!