The Seed of the Demon King is born when monsters consume remnants of the Demon King.
So, if there’s just a fragment, any monster could be born, and if there’s a fragment in a place, it could exist anywhere.
That means…
If someone has a fragment of the Demon King in their hands, they can easily create the Seed of the Demon King anytime, anywhere.
The ones in the cave were seeds planted by someone.
Logically, the fragments of the Demon King, scattered after their death, couldn’t have possibly reached such deep underground, right?
So, it seemed natural to think that some faction intentionally fed the fragments to monsters to create seeds.
But for what purpose?
“······.”
I’ve thought about it over and over again, but I can’t figure it out.
Even after organizing the memories of the beasts I read, I couldn’t find the answer.
I was closely observing the golden fragment I took from the monster. So, it may look like this, but this is the Demon King.
It was just one of thousands of shattered pieces.
On the flip side, this means the Demon King must have had at least thousands of times more power than the seed.
Now I understood why the existence of the Demon King still remained a figure of terror.
“Iria? What’s that?”
“Nothing at all.”
On my way back after the practicum, I slipped the golden fragment into my pocket.
I thought I should investigate this later.
*
“······I-I’ll go in first.”
After the practicum, Iria hurried towards the back alley.
Walking on an empty stomach, it felt like my rationality would snap as I reached the Central Empire.
Upon arrival, Iria wandered around and spotted someone.
Not an ordinary person, but a criminal who seems to have imitated Iria, just like Asha last time.
“Asha is really stupid. Trying to kill someone and ending up dead herself. See? You gotta act smart like me!”
Her name was Eileen.
Claiming to be smart, she was a murderous fiend. The reason she was better than Asha was this:
While Asha got caught and killed by the Knights Order while acting openly, Eileen, on the other hand, hid her identity as a fiend.
Pretending to be harmless, she would stab and kill the moment she saw an opportunity.
Today, she roamed the back alley in search of prey. She hoped it would be a female since Eileen was a crazy lesbian.
Huh-huh~ hic…
As Eileen was humming, her eyes met Iria’s.
“Oh my.”
She was an extremely pretty girl.
With hair as white as silk and eyes resembling embedded jewels.
Eileen, feeling thrilled, approached Iria.
“Hello~ You’re so beautiful! Shall we go to a quiet place to play, sis?”
“······.”
“What’s your name?”
And then…
Chomp!
“Eek?!”
Iria grabbed Eileen with both hands and bit her neck.
Under normal circumstances, she would have made eye contact first and knocked her out, but right now, Iria lacked the mental faculties for that.
“Wait, wait! What power is this?! Let me go!”
Eileen, a former mercenary, had considerable strength. She tried to pull back immediately, but couldn’t.
Iria held on tight and wouldn’t let go.
Eileen struggled with all her might, but she couldn’t escape Iria’s overwhelming strength.
She drew a dagger from her sleeve to stab Iria, but before she could, her wrist snapped, and she failed.
“Ugh, stop…”
Eileen’s pained whimpers fell on deaf ears for Iria.
With her fangs sunk into the delicate neck, Iria began to drink Eileen’s blood. The sticky sound of human blood gushing out mixed with screams echoed through the dark alley.
After deeply sinking her fangs in once more, Iria licked it with her tongue.
At first glance, it might seem like a soft dining scene, but in reality, it was far from that. Halfway lost in reason, Iria held Eileen tightly and crushed her bones.
It wasn’t intentional; it was instinctively catching her prey that led to the breaking.
As she continued to suck, when the blood began to run dry, she chewed Eileen’s flesh one more time to squeeze out more blood. It was behavior that showed no consideration for the victim. A result of having given up thinking and surrendering solely to instinct.
After some time passed, Iria regained her senses.
With Eileen cradled in her arms and blood on her lips, she blinked on the spot. It seemed she needed a moment to comprehend the situation.
She remembered coming to the back alley to eat after parting ways with her team members.
And now… did she put this person to sleep before biting her?
Well, she couldn’t recall such memory.
Surely, it must have hurt a lot. Iria thought of lifting Eileen’s head to put her to sleep now.
But she couldn’t make eye contact with her.
“······You’re already asleep.”
Eileen was no longer breathing. Her whole body was limp, eyes closed.
Iria paused for a moment, then sank her teeth into her neck again.
After that day, the imitation crime rate in the back alley dropped significantly.
Twenty years ago, after the war ended, many places underwent drastic changes in landscapes.
There could be various reasons for it, but the main cause was the influence of the remnants left after the Demon King’s death.
The magical energy released reshaped areas around the continent, while beasts that became feral after consuming these remnants ran rampant, causing many places to collapse.
There were even opinions that the chaos immediately after the Demon King’s death was greater than when he was alive.
And now, with the passage of time, numerous unexplored areas emerged on the continent. The transformation of the terrain also affected the surrounding ecology.
Therefore, recognizing and investigating that was the Empire’s work as well.
“So, it led to another deeper place? In that deeper part, an overwhelmingly powerful monster appeared, and the exploration had to be terminated?”
We were in the office of Professor Eve, who was in charge.
She sat with her legs slightly crossed, reading the journals of the three students’ practicum.
According to the records, there were a considerable number of monsters in the cave. Furthermore, at the end, an unknown shadow monster emerged.
During the preliminary investigation, it didn’t seem that dangerous.
Clearly, the number of monsters in the records was fewer than expected, and the concentration of magical energy seemed low as well. So she thought it was suitable for students.
Did the measuring device malfunction? If not, perhaps some variable occurred in that short time.
In any case, this was indeed Eve’s mistake. So she slightly lowered her head and offered her apologies.
“It seems my investigation was insufficient. I’m sorry. I’m just glad you’re all safe. Is everyone all right?”
“Iria injured her wrist, but other than that, we’re okay.”
“Wrist? May I see it?”
Iria scratched her cheek and extended her hand. It was a wound she had inflicted on herself to draw magical energy during combat.
She hoped it wouldn’t be considered too weird.
“I treated the light injuries received during combat with holy water, but Iria remarkably refused treatment, so I left it be.”
By the way, holy water not only heals wounds but is also remarkably effective against monsters.
So, if holy water is poured onto Iria, it would turn into a rare sight of burning alive.
However, Iria didn’t want to burn, so she hadn’t applied any holy water.
“It’s just a minor injury. Are you sure you really don’t need treatment? There are skilled priests among the academy staff…”
“No.”
“You don’t need it?”
“Yeah.”
A priest? Please don’t utter such a horrific word. Just thinking about it sent shivers down Iria’s spine, causing her to quickly pull her hand back.
In fact, with a little effort, she could regenerate even such minor wounds anytime, but she couldn’t do so with someone watching.
It would be like blatantly revealing that she wasn’t human.
Thus, she wiped the blood dripping from the wound and loosely wrapped a bandage. She then displayed a satisfied smile.
This should make her appear human. An incredibly perfect disguise.
“That’s enough.”
Seeing Iria refuse treatment after several attempts, Eve didn’t press further.
Since it wouldn’t be right to force treatment on someone who deemed themselves fine. And moreover, the injury wasn’t large enough to warrant it.
After placing the documents she held down, Eve indicated that they could leave now.
“Understood. I’ll review the practicum journal separately and incorporate it into the grades. However, there were a few spelling mistakes in the middle…”
“That was written by Iria.”
“······.”
Rena pointed at Iria with her hand.
Although Rena was in charge of recording the journal during the practicum, she hadn’t written the first part.
As a result of Iria’s lack of foundational knowledge, she received a deduction in her score.
