Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord

Chapter 17 - Decisions and Daves

Since that was such a mean place to end a chapter, I'll cut my pre-chapter rambling short and just get back to it.

Deal?

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I stood there staring down the [Hero's] blade. Fortunately, I wasn't a complete idiot. I had pretty much assumed this was coming. I, like anyone who had interacted with Jake for more than a few minutes, also knew that the chance of him cutting down a relatively unarmed person was basically zero. As such, I was a lot calmer than I expected when I raised my hands in surrender and asked, "I don't suppose you could put that down so we can talk?"

"Give me one good reason why I should," Jake said without moving his sword an inch.

"I don't know, does saving your life count?"

That made him falter just a bit. "From the mimic? I mean, it wasn't a sure thing I would have died there."

I just laughed. "[Hero], you saw what the mimic in the tutorial did to me. And you know as well as I do that there are no respawns out here."

"Fine," Jake said. "Start talking then."

I gave a sigh of relief as his sword disappeared. However, I finally noticed that a certain [Ranger] had an arrow nocked and pointed in my direction. "Uh, could you also put that away, Emilia?"

She gave me her patented death glare. "Why? It's obvious that you're the [Demon Lord]."

Jake walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I know you're not familiar with that term, but the [Demon Lord] is the big bad. The final boss. The guy that the party has to team up to take down. Titus is way too weak to be him. I mean, I accidentally hit him with 1 sword swing and did like a third of his health, there's just no way."

Ow. Harsh.

"I mean, he could be on the [Demon Lord's] side though-" Jake side-eyed me as he continued.

Emilia cut him off. "No, you're wrong. Titus showed up the same time that the announcement came out that the [Demon Lord] was here. The monster waves also started the same night that he came to town. Now he's claimed a zone for his faction right in front of us, and you're going to let him get away with it!"

I'm glad I kept my eyes on Emilia that entire time. As she said that, she let loose her nocked arrow. I hadn't checked my HP after I got tackled by the boss, but I knew that the number was "not enough to survive an arrow to the chest."

I hit the dirt and barely managed to avoid said arrow.

"Hey! Emilia! That was out of line! You could've killed him!" Jake shouted.

"And then we'd be finished with the dang prophecy!" Emilia shouted back.

"A prophecy that specifically mentioned my [Half-Demon] class!" I interjected. I saw my chance, and I took it. "If I was the [Demon Lord], why would the prophecy say that you needed to wait for me? And why would you need my help to stop me? It doesn't make sense! Also, [Identify] says I'm a frickin [Half-Demon]! My class just makes me claim obelisks for that side for some reason, okay?"

"Then maybe you found a way to trick the system into giving a bad prophecy!" Tim joined in.

Andrew nodded along. "Yes, I always knew there was something about you I didn't like."

"But, we would've died in this fight without him!" Sam pleaded. "I don't think he's a bad guy!"

"I still don't think he's the [Demon Lord], but I definitely think he's playing for that side," Jake said. "I mean, why else would he hide this from us?"