Re:Demon - Reborn as a Demon Book 1

13

"The basic tactic you will use in most situations is charging, the challenge will be knowing when the right time for it is," Stegh told the class, nearly causing Nagi to slam her head against the desk. Things had been going like this for some time, she was finding that 'tactics' was a term that the demons seemed to be using differently than she was used to.

For her, it meant a lot of different things to choose from, such as a sneak attack, flanking, siege and a number of others, but for demons, it seemed that they preferred to attack head on and count on their superior strength to make up for any shortsightedness this might cause, something she couldn't get her head around. Sure, they did talk about a few other things, but they were for extreme situations, like finding an entire army sneaking up on you or other situations that were not only unlikely, but probably meant that things had already crossed out of survivable and into suicidal.

"I'm sorry sir," she said, unable to take it anymore, "But why would that be the primary tactic?"

Stegh let out a tired sigh while the rest of the class groaned, having grown used to her asking stupid questions by now.

"You again? What's so hard to understand about this?"

"It's not, that's the problem."

"Then why do you keep asking things like this?"

"Because I'm still not understanding why we don't use better tactics."

"This was the preferred tactic of Lyciyda."

"I get that, but why are we still using it?"

"I've explained this before, but would anyone else like to try and see if they can get her to understand?" He looked around. "Yes, Tiade, why don't you try."

The girl stood and glared at Nagi, something she was doing a lot. "We do it because she was the Demon Lord."

"Yeah, I got that, but why are we still following what she suggested eight hundred years ago?"

"Because she was the last Demon Lord."

"Maybe it would help if you explained what a Demon Lord is," Stegh said.

"I know what a Demon Lord is," Nagi snapped back. It was true, she'd heard the explanation dozens of times, that the Demon Lord was the one that made changes to society, that their word was law and that they were the ones that decided everything, but the problem was that there hadn't been one in eight hundred years, so by that logic, nothing had changed in that time, something she was having a hard time believing.

Her disbelief in this was causing all kinds of trouble. It was getting so bad that even Wreth and his friends were starting to avoid her, not that she cared.

"My question is, do you really think that no one else has changed tactics since Lyciyda's time?"

"Why should we care about that? If we fall, it just means that we aren't strong enough." This time it was Moss who answered, getting an approving nod from Stegh. Out of all the class, Moss seemed the most pleased with Nagi's repeated questioning, if for no other reason than it allowed him to answer easy questions like that, which made him look smarter.

"But she still lost, didn't she?" Even as she said it, Nagi knew that it was going to get her into trouble. It seemed that no one was allowed to question the Demon Lords, and especially not to criticize one.

Predictably, she found herself doing extra sets outside again. She didn't mind all that much, she'd gotten tough enough that she didn't really feel it anymore. Besides, it gave her plenty of time to think of new ways to ask her questions, so the next day, she tried a different approach.