Chapter 15: Look at Me. Look at Me

The Demon King intentionally waited until just after sunset before returning to Kariel’s room.

If she returned immediately, a quick-witted lad like him would soon figure out that she had been spying on his parents.

So, if she projected a strong nuance of “I’m not interested~” like this?

Even if he asked outright, she could simply let it go in one ear and out the other.

“I’ve given it some thought.”

-You brat. What is this, cutting straight to the chase the moment you arrive?

“I need power.”

-You know I won’t give it to you. Do you wish for your training to be more brutal than it already is?

“Through that training, I’ve realized that I can become stronger. But… as you said, that is limited to survival and the art of coping. Is that not so?”

-Who knows if you keep repeating it.

Whether one finds a breakthrough on their own or not is a matter of effort.

Once he became so sick of being beaten that he reached a state where he could no longer be hit, then truly, every option except for beating the opponent would vanish.

Because the condition to clear the Training Ground was whether one dealt with all the enemies or not.

Those were the only two paths.

“To be precise, I need the power… the means to defeat, crush, and neutralize an opponent.”

-You sure wrap your words in knots. You could have just said you want to become overwhelmingly strong.

Well, it was a natural progression.

One cannot bring down an opponent simply by being good at dodging.

Subduing them was even more out of the question.

Evading until the opponent grew tired?

There is a limit to how complacent one can be.

-But why ask me? You have your father. Or there are many others. Oh, your fiancée is quite impressive; why not ask her?

“…….”

His expression seemed to ask if she was doing this maliciously, knowing full well the situation.

Has it only been a few days, and yet she can already read his thoughts just by looking at his face?

The Demon King was naturally exceptional in that regard, but this felt different.

In the first place.

…She loathed the very effort of paying attention to something.

Therefore, it was somewhat unexpected for her to grasp an opponent’s intentions this quickly.

Perhaps if the opponent were a complete enemy.

Or a competitor or a formidable adversary who couldn’t be ignored.

-Why not use this opportunity to move toward a plot where you reconcile with your parents?

“…Are you insane?”

Reconcile? What reconciliation?

“What am I supposed to do for two people who always insist that I am the one with the problem?”

The Demon King let out a short laugh.

‘Still, he maintains a level of respect by calling them “two people”?’

If the hostility were that deeply rooted, he would be hurling insults in private and dripping with malice in his speech, yet he still maintained a formal level of courtesy.

-What a pitiful, pitiful sentient being.

“What did you say?”

-I said, there’s such a thing.

In other words.

While the boy’s personality became this twisted, how much had those around him tormented him?

Ah, just imagining it makes my skin crawl.

Though that might have been enjoyable in its own way?

The curses, bluffs, and threats of others are ultimately the driving force that makes one strong.

And the pleasure of tearing them all to pieces later… would bring a thrill that is hard to concede even to parents or siblings.

…It’s a shame I have to settle for imagination since I’ve never experienced it.

Quite disappointing.

“So, I’ve thought about it.”

-Hmm? What?

“I’ll keep it short. Please make a contract with me.”

A contract?

-Why? Are you really going to sell your soul? I told you I won’t take it.

“How about granting one request?”

-Someone like you? A request to me? What? Which one? Should I ask you to kill your father to resolve my grudge?

Kariel fell silent for a moment.

-This brat? You actually considered it seriously for a second, didn’t you? What an impious fellow! You’ll be struck by Heavenly Punishment from the God for that.

“…….”

Seeing that he didn’t react here, it seemed the Saintess had indeed brainwashed his views on faith well.

Even so, his defiance clearly asserted that such things could not restrict his will.

Judging by his bloodshot eyes, the anger and suppressed resentment regarding this matter seemed very firm.

-It seems you’ve made up your mind, so I’ll listen to your proposal. So, what will you grant me?

“You’ll have to listen to that now.”

Huh? What?

-Look at this guy. Are you disarming yourself and begging for mercy from your opponent?

“I know from records that you were generous to those who surrendered. And that you utterly ruined and killed those who did the opposite. And I fully understand that all of this… was intended to alienate enemies and make them weigh fear against compromise, forcing them to submit on their own.”

-Anyone who thinks about it for a moment would know that. But I never asked you to explain it to me, nor did I ask for your empathy.

Even so.

The information about the Demon King available in this region would have been recorded in a very narrow and maliciously edited form, yet he surprisingly hit upon the essence.

He does not judge or discern others based on prejudice or fixed notions.

Racial traits, ethnic traits, a sense of homogeneity based on region, nation, or affiliation, or a sense of community.

While such narrow-mindedness might promote internal bonding and stability, it ultimately causes other conflicts.

…This is an element that is nearly impossible to grasp for those immersed in the current era, yet he managed to objectify it without prejudice.

‘Ah, come to think of it… this boy said he wandered through foreign lands as a child, right?’

Under the guise of being a hostage.

-Still, I truly have nothing to look forward to.

“You are the Demon King. Surely there is at least one thing you failed to achieve in your lifetime, something you regret?”

-That is a story for the foolish. I am not foolish.

An extremely objective self-analysis.

In the first place, she had striven to be wise specifically to avoid being foolish; to voluntarily act foolishly? That would be nonsense.

Unless one were blinded by desire, deafened and wandering within a great delusion.

Would one drink seawater just because they are thirsty right now?

While it is a reality that such errors are repeated countless times regardless of race.

That is not a standard to be applied to herself, the Demon King.

Did she think she chose and held the title of Wisdom just because she was bored?

“Then, as someone so superior, please show some mercy.”

-What?

Look at this bold and brazen fellow.

“If you have more than enough, you can afford to be generous, can’t you? Since you are a King.”

-That is the same bullshit as telling a member of the Demon Race to eat shit while they’re being screwed, and since that’s not enough, to drink urine for free.

Generosity.

Mercy.

Altruism.

The worst virtues that the Demon Race most avoids and rejects.

However.

-…….

It wasn’t as if such bastards never existed.

-So, you’re saying I should hand over a Royal Gift? That I should maintain the dignity of a King? You are a very audacious brat.

As a King, you say?

-How arrogant, not even being a subject.

“It’s possible in name. If I become your subject, would you be willing to grant me a gift?”

-…Ah, I detest clinginess.

In the past.

The moment someone showed such trivial behavior, she would have taken their head, or personally made them experience the worst catastrophe of their life.

-Are you truly that desperate?

“What you have already given me is more than enough. I am grateful for that. But… with just that, I can neither convince my father nor defeat him.”

-Sigh.

If he were to die a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times in his dreams.

He would surely become a warrior unlike any other on earth.

If he could endure that hell.

However, enduring hell and facing a Hero are two different matters.

Furthermore, to defeat him? To conquer him?

That is even more nonsensical.

Even if Kariel acquired the skill to ruthlessly sweep, overturn, and dominate that cruel virtual battlefield.

With a single gesture from the Demon King, even a Kariel reborn as an outstanding warrior would be reduced to a mere ‘nothing’.

The one who defeated such a Demon King was Lueld.

Therefore, Kariel was not harboring some naive, clumsy, delusional hope that he could vaguely win or that it might be possible based on childish emotions.

‘He is a mess in many ways.’

If guided to grow properly, he is the material for a hero without equal.

But that is a matter of personality and character.

And a matter of willpower and mental strength.

Without actual power, he cannot be a Hero, let alone a legend.

Still, he is no ordinary man.

His extraordinariness remains.

However.

…Such things rarely show on the surface.

-So that’s why you didn’t know satisfaction?

Even though he consciously realized he was growing.

Always infinitely, infinitely shrinking, resentful of his shortcomings, fighting back in anger, and fighting again.

Constantly resisting unreasonable trials.

That extraordinary resolve, which accepted increasingly absurd adverse conditions as if they were natural.

It all had a plausible reason.

-What do you intend to do after winning against your father, Lueld?

“I’m saying I’ll try to win; does what happens next matter?”

Next.

The current reality is already desperate, yet he thinks of what’s next?

To the point of affirming the crazy notion that if you dream big and long for it, it will come true.

…The Demon King was not of the optimistic variety.

Only by being extremely cynical and cold-headed.

Can one conquer intellect.

Being swayed by emotions?

Having one’s opinion lean toward the voices of others?

Distrusting one’s own choices?

Being tempted by condemnation and criticism, or lured by praise and flattery.

Mistaking one’s own judgment and choice for a complete choice and the best decision?

If she had distrusted even the failed results and processes, blaming others and evading the immediate responsibility.

‘I would have truly become a useless wraith.’

Therefore, just like now.

The fact that she could laugh and chatter cheerfully without any lingering attachment or regret in a state of being dead and gone.

Was because everything fit the logic.

It was an expected result.

Even so.

If presented with the choice of whether that was the right answer or the wrong answer.

Well…

She would have responded that it was neither the right nor the wrong answer.

Did the Great Demon King not say so?

[We are slaves forced to solve problems that have no answer.]

The right answer to life, the solution, the wrong answer.

We can only decide and carve them out ourselves.

[The meaning of life depends on you. Only your responsibility follows everything you do. Now that you have fallen into this world, that is the only unchanging truth.]

-An unchanging truth, indeed.

“??”

-Fine. Let’s do this.

As she snapped her fingers, a contract made of light was drawn in the air, as before.

The contents were extremely concise.

One. Kariel must defeat Lueld, the Hero and his father, and force him to concede the victory.

Should he break this resolve or lose it, he shall bear the most unhappy and painful despair in the world, which shall permanently extend to him and all those he holds dear even after death, continuing until the day his bloodline vanishes.

(This does not apply to his father Lueld, his mother Ermina, or any siblings born in the future.)

Two. No clumsy compromises or tricks are permitted. The sole criterion for acknowledging this is the subjective judgment of the Demon King of Wisdom.

Three. Accordingly, the Demon King of Wisdom shall provide training methods and a price for increasing combat power that Kariel finds satisfactory.

However, the Arcane Secrets of the Demon King of Wisdom and the current Emperor of the Demon Realm are excluded.

Four. The completion of the contract is based solely on a binary criterion: whether it was achieved or not.

Should he fail to complete it and meet physical death, he shall pay an additional appropriate price.

The price for this shall also be determined by the Demon King of Wisdom.

-If you wish to accept, stamp it. Like before.

The contents were beyond significant; they were almost terrifying.

Conditions that one wouldn’t dare attempt unless their resolve was exceptional.

However.

Conversely, if one’s resolve was firm, these were conditions where the Demon King stood to lose infinitely.

-Whether you don’t stamp it and simply accept reality, or live a life of submission or escape…

Before she could even finish her sentence, he stamped it.

Despite his fingertips trembling and his face turning pale.

Look at him, making that decision.

Complacent, clumsy.

It was almost pitiful.

‘That, too, is his choice.’

Of course, she did not pity him.

She had no reason to despise or mock him.

Anyone can make a resolve.

But continuing it is infinitely difficult, and completing it is another story entirely.

Therefore.

Whether his current resolve was special or extraordinary, she would not blink an eye.

She would not take it as an impression, nor admire it, nor inwardly praise it as growth.

Naturally, such things were impossible.

Countless people shout their oaths before her.

But how many truly keep them and complete them until the end?

‘If the day ever comes when I truly respect you.’

That will be.

The very day you completely fulfill this contract.

-Strive with all your might, so that it may at least serve as a diversion.

I hope this trivial expectation does not rot and decay into the regret of a useless waste of time.