Running Away From The Hero!

Evade the Hero and Flee! 178 #20. This World Doesnt Want to Leave Me Alone (7)>

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Uheeheeheeheeheeheet!

Kkyahk! S-stop! Kuk! W-wait!

Why- kek What do you want from kuk!

Just one strike and that was it.

The thing I requested from the dwarves during the designing process of the metal bat was demonstrating its effectiveness right now.

-Master, should I hit her some more?

-Shes still talking, isnt she? Keep hitting her until she can only say yes, no, or uh.

-Roger that!

Uheeheeheet! Someone still wants to see you get hit some more~!

W-what an evil existence!

The metal bats provocative words caused the demon kings daughter to cry out in shock, and my two disciples on either side of me began nodding rather energetically.

Thats right. The evilest person in this whole world wants me to beat you up, so lets get to it, older sis!

N-no, I dont wanna!

The terrified demon kings daughter tried to move her body but, by then, her mind was no longer capable of controlling her own body.

All she could do was crawl on the ground, which made the metal bat go Uheeheehee! loudly.

It doesnt matter whether you want it or not, ya know!

Kkuuuueeeeehk!

The metal bats assault resumed once more.

When the demon races princess began screaming loudly, my disciples on either side of me began trembling as if they were the ones being assaulted right now.

And so, after about five minutes later

After that beautiful face became a slobbering mess of drool dripping down her chin, I slowly made my way towards her, squatted down, and stared deep into her eyes.

-Master, what will you do if this girl turns out to not be the demon race princess~?

-She probably wont accept my apology even if I make one, and judging from her appearance, she must have her own circumstances.

-Wha, you wanna help her?

-Nope. Ill eliminate her while leaving behind not one single piece of evidence.

-As expected of the villain class!

Uh-huh! This would be an obvious thing to do here.

Since time immemorial, humans and demons have been enemies!

The heroes in the novels that good-naturedly accept the demon king/queen or the demon princess just because of their circumstances? Now those fellas are the weird ones here!

-But, what about Alice, master?

-My daughter is an angel, so she doesnt count.

-Discrimination!

It was impossible to live without discriminating against something. Being nice to someone you despise was an act of lunacy.

If there was something tasty, I should be giving it to my pretty little daughter, no? Itd be stupid and crazy to give something like that to the metal bat that ate food despite being just a pile of metal.

-Hey, master? Why does it feel like you swore at me just now?

She could be so annoying with how observant she was in this sort of thing.

Im going to ask you a question. All you have to do is answer me yes or no.

What do you

Itd get doubly annoying if the metal bat got peeved here, so I promptly decided to change the topic.

If this was any other place, I wouldnt have cared, but this was the demon continent, and that made things dicey.

Youre the demon kings daughter, correct?

B-but, how

bbuh-ggeum, bbuh-ggeum[1]

bbuh-ggeum, bbuh-ggeum

[1]

Seeing her shocked expression and how her lips opened and closed like that, I was right about this punk being the demon kings daughter.

Seriously?!

I-it has to be a lie

Uh-huh?!Looks like these punks calling themselves my disciples didnt believe me!

Uh-huh?!

Looks like these punks calling themselves my disciples didnt believe me!

To think that they lack faith in their instructor to this degree!

C-could it be Youre Aggreahrts!

The princesss dazed eyes began regaining their focus.

No, hang on. Those eyes were getting ready to burn even more fiercely compared to when she first showed up.

-Beat her up.

Kkwuek!

And then, those fierce flames were rapidly suppressed.

Kuwaaaahk! You, you evil Kah-hak!

Sis, you sure know how to make pretty funny screams, dont cha! Its gonna be fun beating you up!

Yup, it was wise to kill the fire as soon as possible. A dying cigarette carelessly thrown away during Autumn could burn down several mountains, after all.

Whether youre awake or asleep, you better watch out for fires! So, lets re-examine the dying persons last surge, shall we!

Since ancient times, main characters and villains would always get defeated after letting their guards down.

Kku-uuuuhk

Okay, so. After making a rough guess, there was a rebellion in the demon race, and you think Im one of the rebels. But heres the deal. Youre wrong.

You lie

She was looking up at me from the ground with a pair of empty eyes, but even so, she still looked like a piece of art.

Her eyes, sparkling like jewels despite being pitch-black; her hair, as soft as silk yet as black as abyss trying to explain nothingness itself; and the horn in her head, a clear proof that she wasnt a human. Even then, her horns only added to her overall unexplainable charm.

Thats right, this daughter of the demon king was a stunner even in my book, and I was already an old and cranky bastard! But my life experience had taught me this.

That not a single beautiful woman I met in this world was sane in their head!

Beat her up.

Yesss!

W-wai Kkuweck!

Since ancient times, it was incredibly difficult to trust someone you didnt believe in the first place. Just think about all the religious people or con men from my past life, for instance!

Waiting around for hours in the middle of some streets in Winter and stopping any passersby for no good reason, or climbing up five stories of an apartment building with no elevators just to buzz the bell and ask for a glass of water! But I wasnt even talking about that.

No, take your time and think about that from a different perspective!

There was no freaking way they would ask only you for a glass of water! They mustve stopped by on every floor, starting from the ground floor! Imagine how many countless houses they mustve gone around, climbing the stairs up and down and whatever!

But thats not all! Now imagine around ten per cent of those houses would really offer glasses of water. That would be a serious problem, wouldnt you say?

If they went to one hundred houses, then with that odds, didnt it mean that they had to drink at least ten glasses of water?

Even they couldnt tell you how many hundreds of houses they would visit in a day. Just from that, you could probably suspect that the quantity of water they drink in a day must be enormous.

So, if they plead with you to use your bathroom, then it might not be a mere trick to gain access to your home but a case of a real emergency.

Thats why any kind-hearted people should pretend to not have any and not give them glasses of water. Thats was the best outcome for those people, you see!

Well, uh In any case, thats how difficult it was to trust someone.

As such, I should order the metal bat to beat the demon race princess some more so that she could start trusting me.

Master, this older sis is starting to drool nonstop from her mouth!

Its fine. To people, drooling like that is a natural thing.

Master, youre looking away.

Well, eyes are spherical in shape, you see. And spheres are easy to roll around.

And now, youre saying incomprehensible things, too?

I said, its fine. A person can sometimes say weird or nonsensical stuff, you know.

Uh? She died.

No, shes fine. Since its you, she wont die.

From either side of me, familiar voices were muttering things like Hes the devil and I dont wanna I dont wanna constantly, but I cleanly ignored them all.

They werent bad sounds to my ears, after all.

I was preparing for the possibilities of these two either trying to escape or attack me since the metal bat was some distance away. But now, the hero and No.17 both lost any will to fight here, so it was all great news for me!

Well, then. Lets see

I unsheathed my sword, the blade making ashwiiiingnoise. As expected of a high-quality weapon upholding the reputation of Ruibella the City Alliance, the frontline against the demon threat!

I unsheathed my sword, the blade making a

shwiiiing

noise. As expected of a high-quality weapon upholding the reputation of Ruibella the City Alliance, the frontline against the demon threat!

It cost a fair whack for a sword purchased from a regular blacksmith, but considering its quality, I knew I had got myself a bargain. It was not for nothing that mercenaries often travelled all the way to Ruibella specifically to get weapons.

Alright, time to wake up.

Poke, poke, poke

The ultra-sharp edge of the blade began inflicting flesh wounds on the demon race princess. Crimson blood trickled down her snow-white skin!

-Youre so cruel, master!

-Doesnt matter, since youre going to heal her, anyway.

Indeed, the princess looked even better than back when she first appeared here full of injuries. Since we healed to full health in such a short time, surely shed not get mad at me for cutting her up ever so slightly.

Alright, now beat her up.

Ng!

Slap!

Kkyaaaahk!

The flesh wounds might have been minor, but they were still stab and cut wounds inflicted by a blade. Even so, the princess remained unconscious throughout the process.

A single slap from the metal bat later, however, and she was right back up to her feet while screaming her head off.

Sit down.

Kuh-huk! It hurts it hurts so much

The moment she got up, the metal bats low kick landed splendidly on her, causing the princess to plop down on her butt again.

Alright, then. Are you ready to listen to me now?

Y-yes, sir!

The demon race princess instantly went on her knees to sit straight. I stared at her in satisfaction.

Yup, a stick was the best tool for education, indeed. It was not for nothing that the concept of tough love existed, wouldnt you say!

-Master, if you showed any more of your love, this whole world might get destroyed.

-A teachers grace is as high as the heavens and as deep as the oceans, you know.

-Shes not even your disciple, tho?

-In the ancient past, a wise man once said that everyone he meets on a stroll can become his teacher.

-If we go by that logic, master, isnt this the same as you beating up the teacher the moment you ran into one?

-Just say I see and nod along, will ya! Youve gotten awfully talkative lately, havent you?!

Thanks to the metal bat that had gotten sassy with time, it felt like I couldnt even say everything I wanted to these days.

Im not involved with this individual you called Aggre-whatever, princess.

Are you telling the truth?

The demon race princesss expression initially said she didnt believe me, but she quickly revised that to an I believe you! face thanks to the metal bat standing next to her.

Yes, I am.

But, how did you know I was the demon races princess in that case?

Just my intuition.

Oh I see

Now her expression said I shouldnt lie to her face, but her lips were saying something else.

This was good. She was talented in quickly assessing the situation.

Im being truthful to you. As I said earlier, we have nothing to do with Aggre-whatever because

Heuph!

I slowly raised my hand and carefully caressed my hair, causing the horns stuck up there to fall off.

Were humans.

The horn headband came loose and dropped to the ground.

This item was personally crafted by the dwarves that made the wearer look like demons and designed specifically not to come off that easily, as per my request!

When those horns landed on the ground, the demon race princess sucked in a deep breath, her disbelieving eyes glued to me now. R-really youre humans?

Correct.

H-how can humans be in this place? C-could it be that Ive entered the human terri No, if thats the case, you wouldnt have been wearing the horns in the first place!

Her utterly confused eyes hurriedly scanned me and the others surrounding her.

J-just what is going on Hah-wuk?!

Pow!

A small fist landed next to her face.

You talk too much, sis.

Yes. I was wrong. Sorry.

The moment that fist shook about, the demon race princess stared at the metal bat with nervous eyes while hurried nodding away, emphatically agreeing with what the ego weapon was saying.

I knew it, this girl was quick on the uptake.

Hmm. I think I can more or less figure out the situation here, but there might be some other aspects that Im not aware of. So, tell me the demon worlds current affairs that you know of, said I while picking up the horns from the ground to put them back on my head.

I told the dwarves to make the headband stick religiously to the wearers head no matter what, so they designed the dang thing to get entangled pretty tightly with the wearers hair. That caused a bit of pain on my scalp, but I needed to wear the headband to keep my head attached to my shoulders.

Still, this product demonstrated the ability to fool even the eyes of the demon kings daughter, so it passed with flying colours. As expected of the trusty dwarven products!

W-well, that is

The demon kings daughter, still deeply mindful of the metal bats moods, eventually began telling us the current situation as she knew it.

The demon kings sudden passing. The establishment of three factions soon afterwards. But, in reality, it was a battle between the moderates and the radicals.

She also said that most of the moderates executives were defeated during the radicals sudden raid.

Hold on. Are you telling me that you didnt expect the group called the radicals to attack you out of the blue?

Even though Aggreahrt and I differed in our ideals, we both still did our best for the sake of the demon race. Thats why I never imagined someone like that starting a civil war.

What kind of dog sh*t was this girl saying here?

Youd be a fool to trust someone close to you in the imperial court where all sorts of insidious plots were afoot!

I mean, folks in the imperial court would smile and shake hands amicably, only to start plotting your demise as soon as turning around to leave. Thats what that place was like!

Youd be signing your own death warrant by being that na?ve in the imperial court full of dastardly schemes and machinations, you know.

But to think that the demon race could be this benevolent!

And what happened afterwards was that

She continued on with her story, revealing that the civil war started due to Aggreahrts misunderstanding over her subordinates searching for the descendent of the Succubus race, which led to

Mm?

Why does it feel like Ive heard this story before somewhere?

No, before all that. We did have the final remaining descendent of the Succubus race with us, didnt we?

If only that descendent was found The demon race wouldnt have to experience the civil war, and everything would have been settled peacefully. But we still havent found the descendent in the human continent yet, and

I wordlessly looked down at the demon race princess still yapping on and on about her circumstances.

Obviously, you wouldnt find the Succubuss descendent on the other side of the continent. Thats because my daughter was the descendent youve been searching for, and she had accompanied me to the demon side of the continent, you see!

No, hang on a minute here

There was an old saying about a crisis becoming an opportunity. And the demon side of the world was currently embroiled in a crisis called the civil war.

And what do you know, the most important existence in this situation happened to be my daughter.

In other words, my daughter had the power to choose who would become the next demon king between the demon race princess and this dude named Aggreahrt.

Not only that but

You say that, as long as you can endure the demon gods blessing, you can become the demon king acknowledged even by the demon god itself?

Y-yes. However

You would definitely die after receiving that blessing.

In the history of the demon race, only five demons ever managed to survive the demon gods blessing. And all of those five individuals came from legends of the past, too.

After the previous demon king passed away, several demons stepped forward to take up the challenge, but they all died during the process. Understandably, no one else felt brave enough to receive the blessing afterwards.

However

Who cares about your circumstances, anyway?

The thing was, my daughter, with the power to cast the swing vote, was with me right now. And the unique existence that even the gods had to publicly acknowledge was standing right here, too.

After combining these two factors, creating the next demon king should be a cakewalk, no?

Thats why

How about forming a contract with me and becoming the next demon king, princess?

Its time to make some investments for the sake of peaceful demon world life.

[1]: Apologies, but uh, I couldnt think of an appropriate onomatopoeia for a persons mouth silently opening and closing, and decided to go with the romanised version of the Korean SFX, ????