Demon King and Hero

Chapter 3

"Contract complete. So shall we begin?"

As the light faded away, the smirking demon king lifted a finger again.

"Now then, my second point, I am the owner of this house and you are a guest. No, more accurately, you are a bandit."

"Bandit, my ass!"
Yuria's voice got even louder at the demon king's declaration that she was a bandit as soon as the contract was made.
"You didn't enter through the door; you broke through it. No, turning it to firewood would be more accurate. Plus, the tea. It's from the Eastern Republic so it's hella expensive. The teacup was made by a renowned artisan as well. You've also destroyed someone's property and damaged the contents as well. Even if you claim that the teacup wasn't deliberate, my door being diced into firewood was clearly your intention, no? As far as I remember, a thief steals sneaking around whereas a bandit goes around looting brazenly, so I can call you, who entered by breaking down my front door, a bandit."

"I said it before, I had no choice in order to capture you!"

"Fine. Then, most importantly, third!"

Another of the demon king's fingers rose.

"So what did I do?"

"You!"

Of all the words that had passed through Yuria's mouth so far, that was the sharpest yet. Her voice was filled with killing intent. But the demon king just faced it and laughed.

"You call yourself a hero? You know how funny that is?"

"What's so funny?"

"That I sacrificed hundreds of children? That thousands of people died due to my followers? So you'd put me before the empire's courts for that?"

"Yes! It's all because of you! You need to pay for those sins!"

The demon king folded his fingers and propped his chin back up with his hand.

"That's the funny thing. Me revive? No, I was summoned. Forcefully at that. Blood is not a sacrifice, but just to supplement the magic power of those dark sorcerers that were short of it. And all demonkin are evil? That's a stereotype as well. Like humans have good ones mixed with sub-animal trash, among the demons there are those who love fighting, and those who prefer peace. The reason why demons all look evil is because most of the demons that cross over like to fight, but can't lift a candle to the strong in the demon world."

He took a drink from his teacup to soothe his parched throat, and continued,

"Also, my followers? I came alone. The ones you call my followers are the ones who were all 'evil alliance' and whatnot. From the start, when they called on me to conquer the world with them, I said I wasn't doing it and came out on my own. In response to that the temples went 'oh, a demon king has arrived, get him~' and they sent their kids over and died, so what about all this is my fault?"[1]

Yuria closed her mouth. If what the demon king was saying was true, then he was innocent. Rather, she was the one in the wrong.

'It doesn't seem... like a trap... So is it really my fault?'

"Let me ask you something. Why do you say you quit being a demon lord?"

The demon king smirked and said,

"People seem to be mistaking something, but I'm not the sovereign of demonkind. A demon king is the equivalent of a king in the human world, but to be more accurate, we're more like archangels that serve the demon king. Aside from me, there are 6 others that are the same rank as I am. And on top of that is the Demon Pope that acts as the representative for the Demon God."