The White Ice Palace’s training ground.
In the training ground, which felt splendid even without decoration thanks to being made entirely of ice, a demon’s scream rang out.
"Stop! Stop already!!"
The screaming demon was Rain, my useless superior.
"Denied."
Boom!!
A righteous heel drop came crashing down on her as she kept making excuses.
"Lord Guy! Isn’t it about time you ended my punishment?!"
Once Rain realized I showed no sign of stopping, she sought help from Guy, who was watching the sparring match from the edge of the training ground while having tea and snacks with Milim and Ramiris.
Of course, Guy did not look remotely inclined to help her.
"Huh? Don’t talk nonsense. You’ve got a long way to go. Hey, Adelio, attack her more."
"Yessir."
A very easy request.
Perfect timing. Guy taught me Nuclear Magic last time, so I should try it out.
Vwoooong!
A faint gray magical aura surged from Adelio’s hands. Then, as though compressing that power, he brought his hands together and formed a magic circle.
Fwoooosh...!
"Nuclear Flame—Flames of Destruction!!"
Nuclear Flame was created by exploiting the damage-reduction barrier spread throughout the training ground, gathering magical power and detonating it in a single instant.
The Nuclear Flame created using the [Abyss Core], the black flame core and fire of Hell, transformed into an intensely hot blaze suited to the word “abyss.”
"Hah!"
Then, the highest-tier Nuclear Magic spell, unusually tinged gray, flew toward Rain.
"No! Who uses Nuclear Magic this powerful in a sparring mat—!!"
"I do."
She was a demon, so something this minor would not kill her anyway.
KABOOOOOM!!!
**
A few hours after that sparring session, truly befitting demons...
"Phew..."
Having properly vented my frustrations for the first time in a while, I let out a light breath.
A lot had been piling up recently, stressing me out, but thanks to Rain, all that stress had been completely swept away.
If something like this happened again next time, I should do it again.
...You might ask whether I was not being too harsh on my superior, but—
Absolutely not.
Considering all the useless things she normally did, even this was getting off easy.
Next time, I should use even stronger Nuclear Magic.
After Rain and I sparred, I heard the tragic news that the training ground had melted a tiny bit, but there was no need to worry. It would be restored in just a few days anyway.
Velzard had an absurd amount of magicules, after all.
**
Right now, something more important had come up.
Yes, it was not something I had chosen to create—it had simply “come up.”
That matter was...
"A village in the Jura Great Forest... you say?"
"That’s right. It’s an ordinary, insignificant little village. But it seems that one foolish dragon, Veldora, and an ‘unknown powerhouse’ are heading that way. Find out what they are and how they move. There is no time limit."
Guy had suddenly assigned me my first mission.
The assignment was to investigate the movements of Veldora, the [Storm Dragon], and a powerful figure I expected to be that Hero I knew of.
...It was rather troublesome.
Still, I could not refuse.
After all, the reason he was deliberately sending me on something like this was probably so that I could meet the strongest species in this world—the True Dragons—and broaden my horizons as a Hero. Demons did not truly die, after all.
Guy always seemed indifferent toward his subordinates, but unexpectedly, he was a king who took good care of them.
"Yeah, just as Guy says, if you want to broaden your horizons not as a monster, but as a Hero, it would be best to meet the strongest—me, a True Dragon, or other Heroes!"
Ramiris spoke from beside us—still kneeling in punishment alongside Milim ever since they finished watching the sparring match.
As the Spirit Queen, her true profession, she apparently wanted to offer some advice to me as a Hero.
She had fallen and become a childish Demon Lord, but it seemed she had not forgotten that she was the master of the spirits who guided Heroes.
Still, rather than her advice, my attention was drawn more to the words “as a Hero.”
...Broaden my horizons as a Hero rather than as a monster...
A monster following the path walked by Heroes... It was nearly a contradiction.
Yet Milim and Ramiris did not seem particularly bothered by the fact that I was a Hero despite being a monster.
"..."
..............
I’m a monster, but I’m also a Hero. Don’t you think someone half-baked like me is strange?
Huh? Is that the problem? Being alone isn’t a problem! Besides, I can feel warm power from you, so it’s fine!
By that logic, I’m a Demon Lord but also the Spirit Queen, right? Why would I dislike you just because you’re a monster and a Hero? If anything, I think it’s interesting.
...Why did the two of them, both Demon Lords, understand someone called a Hero...?
............
Perhaps because one was the Creator God’s daughter and the other one of the Arbiters, both of them had known from the moment they first saw me that I bore a Hero’s Egg. Yet neither seemed to care.
...So it is all right to call myself a Hero, even if I am a monster.
The reason I kept having such thoughts was because one question continued to breed more questions in my mind.
Should “I” be considered a monster, or should “I” be considered a Hero?
**
At first, I had not thought much about it, but as time passed, I gradually began to question the identity of “myself.”
What kind of being was “I”? What did “I” exist for?
What exactly was “I”?
Even more intensely than when I had first reincarnated as a demon, my soul within sounded an alarm, demanding that I find the answer.
...........
.........No, there’s no use thinking about it now.
...That was right. What I needed to think about now was the mission Guy had given me. Not myself.
——Taking advantage of this opportunity is the most urgent matter.
If that Hero appeared during this mission, I would be able to determine exactly what point in this era it was.
That was how I persuaded myself inwardly.
"——Then when should I head for that village?"
"Hmm... Let’s go tomorrow. I can take us there in one move, after all."
"Understood."
In any case, we decided to head for the village the next day.
And then another day passed...
............
......
...
...Or so I thought.
"..."
"..."
"...Milim. Why are you in my room?"
As I was about to turn in early, ignoring the questions that still lingered in my head so I could prepare to leave for the village tomorrow, an unexpected visitor put me in a wearying and irritating situation.
A very irritating situation, at that.
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