Volume 6 Chapter 120 Demon King
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Here we go.”
Mistrena’s boomerang, thrown with all her strength, sliced through the night sky toward its target.
Vibration? No, that wasn’t a function. It was the Curse of the Sky, striking unerringly every time.
The Curse of the Sky randomly boosts the power of any flying object.
Being hit multiple times seemed to cancel the effect, almost rendering it useless. What an intriguing discovery.
Surrounded by enemies, it felt like being trapped amid demons on all sides. After sprinkling Wall Barley powder, my soldiers suffered severe allergies—their faces streaked with tears.
The hatred aimed at us was fierce. Of course, they’d want to vent that fury—even on a boomerang.
”Next! Let me throw it too!” Ra said eagerly.
The blue-skinned, self-proclaimed Demon King introduced herself as Ra. A scientist and explorer, apparently. Demon King was just a side role.
She hadn’t been summoned here; her spaceship had crash-landed. Most likely, it was shot down by the Curse of the Sky.
The Curse of the Sky is said to have been created by a god who despises anything that flies.
The magic is so potent it can shoot down a spaceship with almost no mana use. It’s practically a cheat spell—or maybe a curse.
Just by thinking, “How dare that quail fly?!” a child could trigger the Curse of the Sky.
Even a baby chasing butterflies could set it off. Though with something as light as a butterfly, the effect was nearly negligible. Still, it startled them.
Since its principles are unknown, it’s treated like a curse. Magic’s principles aren’t well understood either, and there are plenty of superstitious books on it.
The target must be off the ground.
Magnets levitating by magnetic force are affected, which is why a research team studies whether they can generate electricity with this magic.
The budget was approved, but I wonder… will the gods approve of its unexpected use? If they get angry, I’ll apologize.
”Here I go!” Ra spun before throwing the boomerang.
Her childish actions matched her looks.
The boomerang wobbled in the air as the Curse of the Sky struck intermittently. It hit only a few times but caused a huge deviation.
Not the Demon King’s soldiers, though. Mischievous spirits were everywhere; this was the usual result.
Even a few hits caused a bigger deviation than when Mistrena threw it.
The boomerang veered off course and came back, slamming the Demon King in the face.
”Ouch!” Ra cried.
She collapsed, clutching her forehead. Yikes, she might have died.
I rushed over, panic flooding me, ready to use the Dragon God’s Herb.
”Ouch, it hurts… I’m about to cry,” she whimpered.
No need for the Dragon God’s Herb. She was fine, as expected of the Demon King—tough as nails. Still, it hurt.
The orcs nearby seemed indifferent. No concern crossed their faces. She was trusted as a strong leader.
In a society ruled by strength, leaders endure silence. Even if they look like children, they can’t be coddled.
”Is this a boomerang? Primitive, yet its structure is refined. As a scientist, I can tell,” Ra said carefully, picking it up.
Making boomerangs seemed a good way to study fluid dynamics. I had quite a bit of fun making it.
”As a scientist, can’t you repair your ship?”
”Scientists don’t do that. Repair is for engineers.”
Usually, roles are divided like that. In anime, scientists build super robots alone.
”This planet is too primitive. If I tried to make an anti-gravity device, that’s the best I could manage.”
The hot-air-balloon–like flying ship the orcs desperately tried to fix seemed a makeshift anti-gravity device. It resisted gravity only by floating on something lighter than air, right?
Back home, the Demon King used a palm-sized machine to halve vehicle weight.
Coming from a world where anti-gravity devices are common in cars, it made sense they’d think to attach a balloon to a carriage.
They should’ve realized it was a failure halfway through. Isn’t anyone telling them it won’t work? Like the Emperor’s New Clothes.
”So why did you become Demon King again?” I asked.
”I was asked by the intelligent beings here. They’re called gods. Hey, what exactly is a god?” Ra asked.
Huh? Starting there? Don’t aliens have gods?
But then again, what is a god? Explaining it to someone who doesn’t know is actually tough.
”Well, a god is someone truly great—a terrifying, awe-inspiring existence,” I said.
”Hmm, I think I get it. That’s the easiest explanation I’ve heard so far.”
Now I’m curious what other explanations they’ve heard.
”So that god asked you to eliminate Wall Barley, right?”
”It’s technically my people’s project. Since I’m a scientist too, I’m the right person. If I can find the control device, it’ll be easy. I didn’t expect resistance from humans, though.”
”You know about the Wall Barley control device? It was originally an alien machine.”
Looks like aliens have visited this planet often.
Well, I’m an alien too. Just a difference of being summoned or arriving in a spaceship.
Interstellar travel versus summoning magic—what’s more impressive? I wish I could ask Einstein if he were here.
”I roughly know where the control device is. We planned to eliminate Wall Barley, too.”
”Huh? Why? You’ll all starve without a food source. Suicide?”
Chilling words.
”No, there are other food sources.”
”I’ve thoroughly investigated. We don’t have enough alternatives. If famine comes, we’ll starve. As a kind Demon King, I plan to kill ninety-two percent of you so the rest survive. That’s my calculation.”
A brutal kindness. Not like thinning radishes. Well, maybe a little.
”Even if Wall Barley disappears, we can start rice farming. It’s all planned.”
Some rice paddies are already planted.
Because of the Demon King’s invasion, we lacked enough hands to tend marshlands. We only scattered floating rice seeds. Still, it should yield a decent harvest.
”I plan to stockpile Wall Barley to survive the shortage. If this year’s harvest is the last, and people work hard to harvest several times the usual amount, we can store enough for years.”
”In those few years, if we expand rice cultivation, everyone can survive without thinning crops.”
”Rice? Is that a grain?” Ra asked.
”Seeing is believing.” I pulled out an onigiri [rice ball] and offered it. I was a bit hungry and invited everyone to eat.
”Weird taste. Hey, you all should try it too,” I said.
The orcs and goblins summoned by the Demon King nervously took bites. Their reviews were lukewarm.
”Why? The Funamayo [pickled fish] is delicious. Maybe there wasn’t enough filling,” one complained.
”I intentionally reduced the filling to savor the plain rice taste. Salted rice balls are best, but they’re too simple, so I added a little filling just in case.”
Mistrena, used to it, looked happy devouring hers.
”Is it too difficult for rice beginners? The real issue is they’re not even reaching the filling in the center. If that’s the case…”
”I’ll try making quail rice onigiri. The base is seasoned rice with chicken and vegetables. The flavor’s stronger, so even kids will love it.”
This time, the Demon King seemed to like it, too.
After nibbling the Funamayo, she pressed an orc to try the rice onigiri and finished half of it. She could only eat half—her appetite was small.
”Seems like it’s not poisonous,” Ra said.
”Rice allergies affect about one in a hundred people.”
”I had a classmate in middle school with it. Allergies can suddenly appear as people age. It’s rarer in minors.”
”I’ve never heard of allergens targeting specific races like Wall Barley allergies. It’s definitely unnatural.”
”With the control system’s settings, it’s possible to incorporate various poisons.”
”So we can eliminate weeds and pests.”
”Can we neutralize Wall Barley through the settings?”
”It’s possible. But then, you won’t survive the competition.”
”Ah, like how weeds overtake you without herbicides? It’s just a product, huh.”
”The regular wheat here has a low yield but is a tough plant.”
”Even with extensive farming, you can harvest about twice the seeds you plant.”
”Rice can exceed five hundredfold yield, but you can’t compare them directly.”
”It depends on the approach, but doubling yield without fertilizer or extra effort isn’t bad.”
”Even if wheat ears have about ten grains, most are empty. Filled grains sit only at the base. Two grains mean average yield, three a good harvest.”
”If you only have one grain, can you save seeds for next season? It’s over if you eat the seeds.”
”It’s hard to imagine for a Japanese person used to drooping rice ears. But they’ve supported this world for thousands of years. Recovering from famine that drained seed stocks must have been tough.”
”If you can double it reliably each cycle, you can eat well. But it requires planning.”
”So why did the Goddess of Fertility, Belzea, give people Wall Barley? My research uncovered inconvenient truths.”
”It seems likely the summoning Hero messed up. Ancient texts suggest they introduced what we’d call an agricultural cheat—and failed.”
It seemed successful temporarily, but the earth’s strength waned. The professor calls it salt damage. I suspect continuous cropping disorder [T/N: soil fatigue from planting the same crop repeatedly].
In any case, it was a man-made disaster. New farming methods brought rich harvests for years but eventually turned fields to barren land.
What saved people from famine’s hell was Wall Barley. It’s natural the goddess Belzea is thanked.
So they abandoned old wheat completely and switched entirely to Wall Barley, continuing to this day.
* * *
Paddy rice (水稲, T/N: rice grown in flooded fields) and wet-rice farming are known for causing less continuous cropping disorder. Fortunately, the Larse Empire spreads across vast wetlands and even larger peatlands. We know how to convert peatlands into rice paddies. Calculations show we can manage without cutting the population.
”Let me check those calculations,” she said. “I’m a scientist, so I’m good at math—I’d even say I love it.”
”Let’s see the power (力) of a space scientist,” he said with a smirk. “Looks like a child genius. But will the brain keep up with the task?”
For now, I’ll show the materials used at the meeting. The text seems readable. As expected of a demon king.
”Rice is amazing. Higher yield than Wall Barley. It’s crazy,” she said.
”If proper paddies develop, the harvest could improve even more—but that will take decades,” he said.
Rice farming demands hard labor. Scatter-and-forget methods won’t reach full yield. It will take several generations to perfect ideal paddies. Still, even with scatter planting in wetlands, a water barrier can prevent continuous cropping disorder.
”Because of Wall Barley, humans have become lazy. That factor’s missing from the calculations,” she pointed out.
”Indeed. That’s the biggest issue,” he agreed. “Harvesting floating rice in swamps is tough, and no one wants to do it. We’ll need boats. Wood is too precious, so maybe reed boats. Whatever we do, it requires manpower.”
”Because of Wall Barley, humans have grown lazy. That’s a fact,” she said. “But in our country, people are waking to the joy of work. What matters isn’t money itself, but having places to spend it—recreational facilities.”
”Which is better: doing nothing and sleeping, or working to earn and then having fun?” he asked. “There was no coercion. When jobs opened, the good ones filled quickly. It’s a great success. People respond better to honey than whips.”
”At least in my country, they can switch to rice farming without problems,” she said. “Next is scaling it globally.”
”If food runs out, foolish humans will start stealing from each other and fighting,” he warned.
”If all nations combined their strength (力), a prosperous future would follow. Would they still wage war?” she asked.
Most likely, what the demon king says is correct.
I believe in people’s inherent goodness, but hungry humans turn into beasts. They do foolish things without hesitation.
Wars waste resources anyway. If you waste supplies when you should conserve, stockpiles run out fast—it’s game over.
The demon king’s mercy-based population reduction plan is starting to look surprisingly accurate.
”Well, fine,” she said. “It’s painful to dispose of intelligent beings, too. Humans should decide their future. Even if the path is thorny, do your best.”
This demon king is hard to read—cruel or kind?
* * *
”We’ll withdraw our forces here. Provide rice seeds and cultivation techniques. That will be our Equivalent Exchange,” the demon king declared.
”Where’s the equivalent exchange in that?” he asked. “Depending on the amount, giving rice seeds isn’t much of a loss. If we run out, I can order more from my uncle. Since it’s urgent, we need to sow quickly.”
”Ah, the Demon Realm has a subtropical climate, so year-round cultivation might be possible. But if we overdo it, the sky whale might start rampaging,” she said.
”Aren’t you going to destroy the Wall Barley?”
”Humans should handle it. If they can’t, we’ll return after three seasonal cycles. Next time, we won’t show mercy,” the demon king said.
”So I have a three-year grace period, I suppose?” he asked.
”I can’t be happy about it,” she said. “Just as the Demon King said, the path ahead will be thorny. Will the great powers listen? Emperor Larse seems proud.”
”This is more lenient than I expected,” he admitted. “But suddenly, I’ve lost all confidence.”
”The future of the human race rests on my shoulders? No, that’s impossible. Why did I think I could do this? My mood’s been off lately.”
”Well, if I fail, I’ll deal with it then. Maybe being destroyed by this Demon King wouldn’t be so bad,” he said.
* * *
”Gubaa!”
Suddenly, a beam of light pierced the Demon King’s forehead right in front of me.
Huh? What?
A beam? No way! Could it be the Hero of the Sacred Gun?
A master assassin specializing in stealth and sniping. Heroes with Sacred Swords aren’t rare, but only one has a gun.
The sniper rifle, likely a summoning benefit, fires beams. Some magic resembling a beam.
The weapon’s shape is probably symbolic—it wouldn’t matter if it were a bow instead of a gun.
The specifics are unclear, but it doesn’t need bullets, and anyone killed by it is guaranteed lost.
The Hero of the Sacred Gun is strange, claiming an unknown real name—probably playing mysterious.
He’s said to be a professional assassin who kills only bad people but takes any contract for a large sum.
Skilled in stealth and sniping, his character overlaps with mine. I’ve been a little worried.
He once bought a certain graphic novel at an auction I held for a high price. The story was about a sniper hero.
Manga imported from Japan usually fetches high bids, but he spent an amount equal to a small country’s budget. He became a legend.
He must have really wanted it. For him, it might have been like a holy book.
Just when everything seemed settled and the Demon King was about to withdraw, everything fell apart.
”What the hell did you do?!” I shouted.
No. Calm down. Stay cool in crises.
I don’t know who hired him, but from the human perspective, assassinating the Demon King probably feels like justice.
It was exactly the right moment for top-tier summoner Heroes to get involved.
The Hero of the Sacred Gun, if he becomes our enemy, is terrifying.
I had no idea how he got close. If I’d been the target, would I have sensed the killing intent?
In a stealth showdown, I’d be equal or lose. In battle, at least, I wouldn’t win.
More importantly, what about the Demon King?
Her head was pierced, and with the Dragon God’s Herb, it seems too late for her.
The Sacred Gun has a special effect guaranteeing the target will be lost.
Huh? Completely out of ideas?
”Oh, that was a surprise,” the Demon King said. “Without cheats, I’d be done for.”
With no regard for my worries, the seemingly dead Demon King suddenly sat up.
”Whoa! Eh? Thank goodness you’re alive,” I breathed.
Thank goodness, but this makes no sense. Does she have multiple lives because she’s an alien?
Ah, someone just died nearby. A shiver ran down my spine.
It was likely the Hero with the Saint Gun. I couldn’t sense their presence at all—who could have killed them?
”I felt a strange presence, so I went to check—and found this,” Mistrena said, picking up a fantastical sniper rifle.
It’s different from my Indra Gun, with a beauty all its own.
”It’s a Saint Gun… The Hero’s Saint Gun has been lost,” she said.
This Saint Gun, a summoning benefit, was likely crafted by a deity.
The Hero’s weapon would become spoils of war, but who could have done this?
”Who killed the Hero? That would be me ,” the Demon King said.
Mistrena suddenly dropped a Mother Goose hint. That went over the Demon King’s head.
”They tried to kill me, so I had no choice, right?” she said.
The Demon King seemed flustered. You’re the culprit, aren’t you? But how did you manage it?
”A skill that kills the opponent and yourself?”
”That’s the one Ms. Nina used in the Puppeteer’s Tower,” Mistrena explained. “The Demon King’s version seems to have automatic revival.”
It’s a cheating skill—you kill your opponent and revive yourself. An invincible combo.
That’s why the Demon King’s men didn’t guard the Demon King. They tested us, underestimated us because of her frail appearance. We might have lost without even realizing it.
The beam wasn’t reflected, so it wasn’t an attack deflection. It felt more like a reversal of cause and effect.
Also, it might be a combo of two skills. If Ms. Nina used automatic revival on the Demon King…
Ordinary skills combined well can become incredibly powerful. Self-destruct and revival have always been a deadly combo.
Anyway, she’s the Demon King, the final boss. Unfair abilities are expected. This is mild by comparison.
This world isn’t a game, so a collapse in power balance doesn’t matter—though, in a way, it is a game. The gods’ pastime.
One-sided battles aren’t fun to watch. People get bored. That’s why gods intervene with boons or curses.
The Demon King likely has weaknesses, too.
Ah, this time the Demon King turned back just before the climax, so the gods are probably disappointed. We should do something—or we’ll be in trouble later. What to do?
”Maybe it’s a curse that keeps me alive. But I kind of like it,” she said, sounding a bit down.
”If she’s fine with it, I don’t see a problem. Demon Lords often have assassination attempts,” Mistrena said.
”Yeah, being a Demon King is tough,” I added.
Being a Hero is tough, too. I know that.
We received a flying carriage as a parting gift. The orcs struggled with the wind, so I’m glad to pass it on.
It’s interesting, so I’ll take it. The orcs responsible for the carriage seemed grateful—or so I sensed.
They struggled more than expected to bring it this far.
They also gave the spoils, the Saint Gun. It’s not a divine artifact, so they didn’t want it.
Divine artifacts bear the title ‘god slayer,’ so they’re easy to identify.
For a moment, I clearly felt the gods stir. Ah—this smells like a landmine case.
Truly, being a Hero is hard.
Notes:
• Mistrena – Wind spirit, wears hotpants and is quiet; mysterious but included among potential wives.
• Ra – The blue-skinned Demon King; a self-proclaimed scientist and explorer whose spaceship crash-landed; fights with childish enthusiasm.
• Ms. Nina – Doll Princess (Auroora 217), renamed by the protagonist. Beautiful blonde, ~168 cm, slim waist. Wears adventurer attire. Made from artificial parts and wooden limbs, resembling a princess. Knowledgeable, can read, write, and use basic healing magic. Reliable partner, often saves the protagonist with her skills.
• Nina – Doll Princess (Auroora 217), renamed by the protagonist. Beautiful blonde, ~168 cm, slim waist. Wears adventurer attire. Made from artificial parts and wooden limbs, resembling a princess. Knowledgeable, can read, write, and use basic healing magic. Reliable partner, often saves the protagonist with her skills.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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