Volume 3: Beast’s Bride, Chapter 0: Dark Prayer

The country was falling apart. The earth as well. The sky as well. Even people’s hearts…

This barren land was unfit for human habitation; because of that, the rulers of each country declared it [Forbidden Territory], sending a large amount of [Human Personnel] under the guise of [Pioneering].

Criminals and people who were arrested under the [Pretext] of minor crimes were sent there, but the ones who were sent most were those with mixed blood between different races.

People with deformities. People with the appearance of a beast or who had scaly skin. People with horns coming from their forehead or with reptilian eyes.

Even though they inherited features from their [Non-human] ancestry, at least one of their parents was human. Most of them had a human’s feelings.

Regardless, the humans who were disgusted by them gathered them up and drove them into the remote area.

In order to live in this barren land, they killed, stole from, and violated their [Comrades]. As their mixed bloods mixed ever more, they became a new race.

Black skin, black hair, silver eyes… they came to be known as the [Daemons]

They, who had inherited the blood of the non-human races, had stronger magical power than humans. Living in the barren wastelands as they were, they had forgotten how to empathize with others, doing nothing but quarrel with each other. The blood which fell from their battles polluted the land with resentment to the point that the rising negativity even reached the sky, blocking out the sun, devastating the earth further.

Looking out at that country from an aging castle, a man gave out a slight sigh.

{This country has reached its limit……}

The strong oppressed the weak, and the weak took it as natural and accepted being oppressed.

The strong people also took it for granted, and believed that the country would become stronger if the weak people were gone.

The way thing were going, within a few hundred years, the daemon race would weaken and fall into ruin.

The man diverted his eyes from the stormy town and walked through the corridors of the royal castle.

{… A strong power is needed.}

It would be impossible to change the mindsets of the Daemon race. It was impossible to teach the daemons, who only knew of robbing, to think of not robbing others as normal.

There was no choice but brute force.

There would have to be a mighty [Power] to force both the strong and weak people to obey.

At the underground altar the man went to, there was a huge summoning formation in place.

The size alone was several times the size used in the demon summoning case, and hundreds of daemons had been dedicating their magic power to it for a decade.

{But, it’s still not enough…}

If it were only normal summoning, several years of magic would have been enough.

Of the [Greater Demons] that had appeared a long time ago, it was said that there were three of the [Master Class]…

If one were to be summoned, no amount of preparations would give one peace of mind.

If even a tiny mistake was made, it would spell the day of extinction for the Daemons.

“Is the progress going smoothly?”

When the man spoke to the daemons working to pour magical power into the summoning formation, the large warlord looking daemon who was overseeing the operation kneeled in front of the man.

“Currently, we’re at about 80% of the maximum prescribed amount… If we were to call even an Archdemon class with the current magic amount accumulated, we could call four or five of them.”

“…… I see.”

He understood what the warlord wanted to say.

Rather than relying on the presence of some legendary class that was unknown, it would be easier to handle an Archdemon who could do huge damage to a human nation just by being unleashed.

He was able to do this delicate work because of his high intelligence, but as a warrior he would be able to match blades with the [Hero] who would come if they released an Archdemon.

However, it would be useless.

Destroying and stealing from humans would only postpone the problem of them only knowing how to deprive others.

“………”

The man was tired.

He had thrown away the notion that the daemons would be able to stay calm if they took the territory of the humans, for they would surely fight each other to become rich.

The man had given up hope for the daemons alone.

“Keep working. No change in the plan.”

When the man sharply spoke those words, he poured out his magic power, said to be the most powerful amongst the Daemons, into the summoning formation.

This desperate behavior caused the warlords, who had watched over him since childhood, to look down upon him with lonesome eyes, as they renewed their determination to follow him.

“Even if it takes my life… Daemon Lord”

The daemons have no god. The strongest existence among the daemons, the [Daemon Lord] is their god, and there was no stronger person.

Still, the warlord dared to pray.

He prayed from the bottom of his heart to the [Demon] that would grant his wish.

Before he knew it, his heart gradually calmed down…

＊

At that time, a certain [Demon] was pouring a stupidly huge amount of magical power into the general-purpose summoning circle in the academy, and somehow broke it, managing to summon a massive amount of [Seaweed] at the same time. Since then, she has been racking her brains daily over how to make use of the seaweed, even as she dried it with her attendants.