This cycle is a story from the past, set before I met Blanc (Ria).
******
After being reincarnated in Hell, I found myself with all sorts of questions about this world.
Did this world truly share the exact same setting as the novel?
Were all the people here really the same people from the novel?
Should I accept all of this as fact?
Fundamental yet natural questions like those.
But depending on the answers, it was clear that many things would change.
Still, the unanswered questions kept multiplying, and I had yet to find any answers.
All that remained was the thought that perhaps I would learn someday, but I had no way of finding out, either.
Well, I guess I'll find out eventually, even if I have to force the issue...
My attempt to put off those worries for later was interrupted by an attack.
Boom!!
"..."
Boom! Boom!
The attacks kept coming.
They were simple and not particularly powerful, but more than enough to annoy me.
"...Sigh..."
Boooom!!
In the end, the chain of thoughts branching out like tree limbs was snapped cleanly by that noise.
Seriously, couldn't he at least let me think in peace...?
"...Aren't you getting tired of this? I think you'd be better off giving up and going on your way."
"Shut up!! Don't you dare flap your mouth so casually when you're distracted in the middle of a fight!!!"
"..."
...He's not wrong.
This wasn't exactly the situation for dwelling on things like that.
"Gah?!"
Because I was in a fight.
"Y-you bastard...!"
A yellow Greater Demon that looked to be at least three meters tall.
This guy had suddenly appeared and challenged me while I was minding my own business. Rare for a demon, he fought with his fists.
He apparently didn't even know I was an Arch Demon, and judging by his meager magicules, he seemed to be a fledgling who had only recently been born.
Of course, that didn't mean I had the slightest intention of going easy on him.
"Aaargh!!!"
The Greater Demon, whom I'd struck in the head, lashed back as if maddened... no, to be precise, at the very instant he was about to retaliate—
[Fighter.]
I moved first, using [Fighter], a skill that sent me into a berserk state.
Boom!!
A weighty blow.
My berserk fist drove precisely into the solar plexus of the raging Greater Demon.
"Ghk...?!"
"Now get lost."
Thud... BAAANG!!!
Then, accompanied by an explosive sound that no fist should have been capable of making, the Greater Demon flew off into the distance.
"...Whew."
I'd controlled my strength well enough, so it probably wouldn't take him too long to revive. By a demon's sense of time, that was—
"About twenty years, I suppose?"
I muttered that to myself and shook out my hands, just as I was about to return to my unfinished house.
"Ho ho ho, that is enough time for a human to come of age."
An old man's voice reached me.
"...You're early."
When I turned toward the voice, an enormous giant—someone who could hardly be called an old man—was walking over with a jet-black greatsword serving as his cane.
Thud... thud...
The old man, with a solemn face that spoke of a veteran warrior's dignity and tranquil eyes, smiled as he stroked his white beard.
"Ho ho ho. Did this old man interrupt you, perhaps?"
The old man and I knew each other.
"Not at all. I was planning to wait for you anyway."
He was one of the few people I was acquainted with.
.............
I had first met this old man several years earlier.
**
One day, when I was still unfamiliar with Hell, I was idling away my time in a cave, doing nothing but wondering what I should do.
Ting!
By chance, I was drawn in by the sound of a hammer striking metal.
Ting!
Perhaps because it was a sound I never expected to hear in Hell, my soul cried out for me to follow it.
Ting!
The dull, steady sound of hammering echoed on. When I reached its source, I saw the back of an old man hammering away at a broken sword.
Ting!
But my gaze was drawn less to the old man than somewhere else.
...
To the forge, which looked as though only a portion of it had been carved out, and to the remnants of more than several dozen demons scattered around the old man.
...What is this...?
Those remnants were the magicules formed when demons died. Which meant this old man had slaughtered more than several dozen demons all by himself.
So quickly that even I, an Arch Demon living nearby, had failed to notice.
"Hmm, I thought there were no more demons in this place, yet there was one who did not register to my senses... Who might you be?"
As I was thinking, the old man had already turned his head and was staring straight through me with brown eyes.
They were tranquil eyes, holding neither bloodlust nor anger, yet they seemed to contain an aura capable of overwhelming living creatures.
"..."
"Do you not wish to speak? Very well. I shall find out for myself."
And he really was seeing through me; it was not merely an expression. I felt as though my innermost self had been exposed.
The old man surely possessed a skill like mine, one that could pry out information on others.
[Report. An unidentified entity is attempting to analyze Master. Would you like to respond?]
And my guess was correct.
...Yeah. Block him as much as you can.
[Yes. Understood.]
Fortunately, thanks to [Answerer], it seemed I had succeeded in deceiving him to some extent.
...To some extent.
"An Arch Demon... Hmm? But how could you possibly... carry that within you? And despite being an Arch Demon, you seem to have no lineage."
"..."
It seems he didn't discover my skills... but he had to discover the one thing I least wanted him to find...
Someone that strong was almost certainly a close aide to one of the Primordial Demons. If that old man reported that I was a demon with an unusual soul to a Primordial Demon, there was a high chance I would immediately become an experimental subject.
...What do I do?
Fighting was impossible. Anyone could see that the old man was a monster several levels above me.
A Contract was impossible as well. I had to be cautious when I had no idea what price he would demand.
In the end, fleeing was my only option, but...
"Wait."
...That's impossible too...
"I have yet to hear your answer. Just what are you?"
Tell me about it. I don't even know what I am.
"...I do not know everything about myself either. I thought I had died, but when I opened my eyes, I was here."
At this point, I had no choice but to take a gamble.
I had to hand over the bare minimum of information and find a way to survive.
"...You were led here after death... Could you be a reincarnated one?"
The old man easily deduced what I was.
"Yes... Though my race is different from my previous life."
"Tsk... Hmm... So that's how it happened... Then perhaps that within your soul could indeed be different."
The tension left the old man's eyes somewhat. Apparently, he could tell my words were not lies.
I had no idea what exactly that thing was, though.
"...May I ask you one question as well?"
"Hmm. Go ahead."
As though it were payment for my answer, the old man readily gave his permission.
Once permission was granted, I calmly began my question.
"Which lineage's King do you serve...?"
"...Heh."
The old man fell silent as though he could not understand my question, then his eyes flashed open and he burst into laughter.
It was the reaction of someone who had heard something absurdly preposterous.
"Heh... Hahahaha!! I see! From your perspective, you could not help but misunderstand. My apologies—I have not introduced myself yet."
After laughing to himself for several minutes, the old man only stopped upon seeing my puzzled gaze.
...?
While I stood there with a question mark practically floating above my head, still not understanding what was so funny, an aura burst forth from the old man's body.
Wooooom...
A vast aura that stirred a demon's survival instincts.
This is...
[Report. You are under the influence of the Extra Skill [Heroic Aura]. Your magicules are being suppressed, and your mind is being interfered with.]
[Heroic Aura].
The mark of a Hero and a measure of strength bestowed upon only an extremely small number of exceptional champions among the races of the material world.
The aura of an adversary—something demons and monsters could never learn—reverberated through Hell.
And at its center stood—
"My name is Gran Dwargo. In the world outside, I am known as the [Adventure King], a dwarf."
He was the emperor of the dwarves, one of the great heroes beyond all doubt.
...No... Why is a dwarf in Hell...?!!
...That was my first encounter with Gran Dwargo, the [Adventure King].
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