Demon King and Hero

Volume 4 Chapter 3

"Are you here to interfere with us again?"

At those words laced with killing intent, Yuria laughed.
"Yep. That's my job."

But, even amidst the laughter, a bloodthirsty aura radiated from her, encompassing the robed man with her.

"Is she, actually a hero?"

Even in this tense situation, the demon king tilted his head. There was just too much of a difference between the normal Yuria and the one present right now.
Whether the two caught onto the demon king's thoughts or not, the two were locked in an intense battle of wills.

"Get her!"
The first to make a move was the black-robed man.

At his words, from every corner of the room, ominous-feeling objects were thrown at Yuria.
The hero easily dodged them but then, figures clothed in black leaped out towards her.
Slaaaassh
But, every time Yuria's blade moved, the black-clothed figures collapsed just like that.

"We will advance with the plan."

At the black-robed man's words, the men around him nodded, grabbed the demon king and ran towards the stairs, headed down.
"Demon king!"
As Yuria shouted, wide-eyed, the demon king laughed and said,

"Do you really need to come looking for me?"
"Are you joking around in a situation like this!"

The demon king flinched at those words, and with a voice as quiet as a mouse said,

"Are you, not going to save me?"

Clang!
"I'm busy so don't talk to me! Hold out as long as you can! I'll come and save you!"

At those words, for some reason, the demon king brightened.
"That's the girl I went crazy for!"

Yuria, maddened by his expression, swung her sword again and another three men fell.

***
"How far are we going?"
At the demon king's happy expression, the black-robed man scowled and said,

"The demon king waiting for a hero, are you really a demon king?"

"That's my job description?"

At this obstinately smiling demon king, the scowl on the black-robed man's face only deepened.

"Well, whatever. It's not like we can kill you anyway."

The entity known as a demon king. That was something that hundreds, no, thousands of humans couldn't hope to kill. However, only the one blessed or chosen by the gods could hope to do so.

Even they, who had honed their evil ways, no matter how great their number or how skilled and numerous their experts, could hope to kill a demon king.

How far had they gone, before arriving at a place that could be identified as the end of the basement. There, around three hundred young boys and girls were spread out on the altar, lying down, in an orderly pattern.

"The blood contract ceremony. If my lord demon king would stand in the middle, everything would be sorted."

"Using life energy. A pretty complicated ritual?"

"Of course, since were summoning a demon king. Then again... you can't die, but those children will all die horribly painful deaths, do you feel nothing?"

The black-robed man looked at the demon king from a demon king's perspective.

It was because he had started to doubt whether this demon king he had observed really was a demon king.

But at the demon king's next words, the man scowled.

"The hero's going to come and save us anyway, what's there to worry about?"