The training grounds of the White Ice Palace.
In that sparring arena, dazzling even without decoration thanks to being made entirely of ice, a demon's scream rang out.
"Stop! Please, just stop already!!"
The one shrieking was Rain, the hopeless excuse for a superior.
"Impossible."
Boom!!
As she kept making excuses, the righteous kick of justice came crashing down on her.
"Lord Guy! Isn't it about time this punishment ended?!"
Realizing I had no intention of stopping, Rain called out to Guy for help. He was watching the spar from the edge of the arena while enjoying tea and snacks with Milim and Ramiris.
Of course, Guy looked like he had no intention of helping.
"Hah? Don't talk nonsense. You're nowhere near done. Hey, Adelio, attack more."
"Yes, sir."
That was an extremely easy request.
'Perfect timing. Guy taught me Nuclear Magic last time, so I should try it out.'
Wooooong!
A faint gray magic power rose from Adelio's two hands, and then, as if compressing that power, he brought his hands together and formed a magic circle.
Fwoosh... fwoosh...
"Nuclear Flame!!"
[Nuclear Flame], created by exploiting the damage-reduction barrier spread across the training grounds to gather magic power and detonate it in an instant.
And with the flames of hell, the [Abyss Core], woven into it, that [Nuclear Flame] transformed into a scorching blaze worthy of the word "abyss."
"Hah!"
A top-tier Nuclear Magic spell, unusually tinged with gray, shot toward Rain.
"No! Who uses a high-output Nuclear Magic spell like that in a spar?!"
"I do."
She's a demon anyway. It won't kill her unless I go much farther than this.
KWA-BOOOOM!!!
*
Several hours after that truly demonic spar had ended...
"Phew..."
For the first time in a while, after properly venting my frustration, I let out a light breath.
I'd had a lot bottled up lately, and it had been stressing me out, but thanks to Rain, all of that stress had been completely swept away.
'If something like this happens again next time, I'll do it again.'
...Someone might ask if that was too harsh to do to my superior, but absolutely not.
Considering the useless nonsense she usually pulls, even this was getting off lightly.
'Next time, I should use an even stronger Nuclear Magic spell.'
After my spar with Rain, I heard the tragic news that the training grounds had melted just a little, but there was no need to worry about that. It would be restored in a few days anyway.
Velzard had so many magicules, after all.
*
More importantly, something else had come up.
Right. Not something I wanted to happen, but something that had simply happened.
That matter was this:
"A village in the Jura Great Forest... you mean?"
"That's right. A tiny, ordinary little village. But it seems one stupid dragon, Veldora, and one 'unknown powerhouse' are both heading that way. Find out what kind of existences they are, and how they move. There's no time limit."
Out of nowhere, Guy had given me my first mission.
The assignment was to investigate the movements of [Storm Dragon] Veldora and the powerful figure I suspected to be 'that Hero' I knew of.
...What a pain.
But that didn't mean I could refuse.
Because the reason he was sending me specifically was probably to broaden my perspective as a Hero by having me meet a dragon species, the strongest race in this world. Demons didn't die easily, after all.
Guy always looked indifferent toward his subordinates, but unexpectedly, he was the kind of king who took good care of his own.
"Yeah, just like Guy said, if you're going to broaden your perspective not as a monster but as a Hero, then it'd be best to meet the strongest beings—someone like me, or the dragon species, or maybe other heroes!"
That came from Ramiris, who was beside us—still kneeling in punishment together with Milim ever since they finished watching the spar earlier.
It seemed that, as the Spirit Queen, she wanted to offer some advice in her own way to me, a Hero.
She had fallen and become a childlike Demon Lord, but it seemed she still hadn't forgotten that she was the master of the spirits who guided heroes.
Still, more than her advice, it was the phrase "as a Hero" that caught my attention.
'...My perspective as a Hero...'
A monster following the path heroes had walked... it was practically a contradiction.
And yet, Milim and Ramiris didn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that I was both a monster and a Hero.
"......"
..............
"...I'm a monster, but I'm also a Hero. Doesn't that make me strange to you? Some half-baked thing?"
"Huh? That's what you're worried about? Being a loner isn't the problem! And you're fine, because your power feels warm!"
"By that logic, I'm a Demon Lord, but I'm also the Spirit Queen. Why would I dislike you just because you're a monster and a Hero? If anything, I think it's interesting."
...Why were those two, of all people, both Demon Lords, yet somehow able to understand someone called a Hero...?
............
Maybe it was because one was the daughter of the Creator God and the other one of the arbiters. From the moment they first saw me, they had realized I carried a [Hero's Egg], and yet they still seemed not to care.
'......So even a monster can call himself a Hero.'
The reason I kept thinking about things like this was simple.
The question of whether 'I' should be seen as a monster or as a Hero kept growing and branching in my mind.
*
At first, I hadn't paid it much attention, but as time passed, I gradually started to question the identity of 'myself.'
What kind of being was 'I,' really? What did 'I' exist for?
What sort of existence was 'I' in the first place?
Even more strongly than when I had first reincarnated as a demon, something deep in my soul kept sounding an alarm, demanding that I find the answer.
...........
'.........No, there's no point thinking about that right now.'
...Right now, what I needed to think about was the mission Guy had given me. Not 'myself.'
'The most urgent thing is making use of this opportunity.'
If 'that Hero' appeared during this mission, then I would finally be able to determine exactly what point in time this era was.
That was how I quietly talked myself down inside my own head.
"Then... when should I go to that village?"
"Hmm... tomorrow. If I'm there, we can move there in one go anyway."
"Understood."
In any case, it was decided that I would head to the village tomorrow.
And so, another day passed...
............
......
...
Or so I thought.
"......"
"......"
"...Milim. Why are you in my room?"
I had been planning to go to sleep early so I could prepare to leave for the village tomorrow, forcing myself to ignore the questions still lingering in my head. Then a sudden visitor threw me into an exhausting, troublesome situation.
A very troublesome one.
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