Chapter 5
05 . Royalty
“I accept the surrender of Zepes Endou . Winner Arnos Vorudeigod . ”
Along with the owl’s words the barrier disappears as well .
Somethings strange though . My name has been declared which is the same as the demon king Arnos, but nobody is reacting at all .
Have a lot of foolish people taken the name of the demon king in the past so nobody thinks anything of it anymore?
It would be troublesome if I became too famous but I also want to prove my abilities .
“It was a good match . ”
I hold out my hand to Zepes and praise him but his body twitches and shakes like he’s frightened .
“Ba, bastard! Stop looking down on me! I’ll remember this!!”
Zepes runs off while shouting out a line an underling would say .
Fumu . Once a match is over there should be no grudge . What’s he so angry about?
He certainly failed because of me but I didn’t kill him . Can’t he just try again next year?
He will return home healthy and come back to fight me again . During the age of myth, many mazoku found happiness and shed tears of gratitude in this place .
“After a 10-minute break, you will fight your next opponent . ”
“Unnecessary . ”
I don’t need a 10-minute break . That last fight wasn’t even a warm up . I’ll actually get tired from so much free time .
I’ve got another 4 people to beat . I hope they are not all small fry .
“By proposal of Arnos Vorudeigod the break will be omitted . ”
At that moment I sense a flow of magic power from the passageway that Zepes escaped down .
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
A scream echoes from the passageway then a long haired mazoku appears . His brow is wrinkled and he has a nervous look on his face . Then the source of the scream becomes apparent . He’s dragging Zepes along by his throat .
“Eld, elder brother………I was wrong………please forgive me . Next time I’ll definitely…… . . ”
“Shameless . ”
The long-haired mazoku crushes Zepes throat . Magical particles gather and black lighting burns Zepes’ whole body .
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
Zepes turns into charcoal immediately .
The long-haired mazoku throws him away like garbage and walks towards me .
“I see you were taking care of my younger brother . ”
I see . Zepes older brother . He seems a better opponent than Zepes .
“Avenging your younger brother? It’s a good story . ”
“To be defeated by a mongrel . He’s bought shame on our bloodline . Helping him to die is the only sympathy I can offer . ”
Am I the mongrel?
Oh well . No point getting upset . I suppose I am a mongrel but since I’m descended from myself isn’t that fine?
It’s actually quite funny . I feel like a mother watching the fight between two sons .
“Shouldn’t brothers help each other?”
“Naive . Power is everything to the demon king families . ”
Yare yare . Who’s the naive one here? I don’t want to spoil their fun though . What I will say though is killing your own allies is stupid . If you did this in the age of myths you wouldn’t live long .
“You don’t seem to understand what power is . ”
“What a boring sense of justice you have using such grand magic like resurrection just to make someone give up . Everything is settled if you kill them . ”
While he’s talking I cast an interested gaze up to the spectators .
I see . Over there? Seats in the third row have mazoku not wearing a uniform . Are they also examinee’s . Is my next opponent there?
It doesn’t make sense . I was in row F but I passed straight through into the arena and started my practical test suddenly . I didn’t have a chance to go into the audience seats .
“Apparently you don’t know . We demon king tribe are purebloods . We are royalty and as such we can choose our opponents . We are treated differently to you mongrels who have the founder’s blood mixed in . ”
Fumu . That letter on the invitation must have classified us on how much our blood was mixed . I don’t know who came up with it but it’s hilarious .
My power doesn’t care how mixed your blood is . It’s completely unrelated to how much you inherit .
Why would they do something so stupid? It’s like trying to kill me before I reincarnated .
In the first place, the idea that pure blood is strong and mixed is weak is fundamentally flawed . A single drop of demon king blood is all that is required .
I’m absolutely amazed that something this simple hasn’t been realised .
“You finally seem to understand your position . ”
“No, not really . I couldn’t care less about such stupid things . ”
*Piku* The man’s temple twitches .
“…… . . Stupid things……was it?”
“Yeah, stupid . Because he was strong he was called the demon king by others without his permission . Pureblood? His position? Ha . Don’t make me laugh . ”
The long-haired mazoku’s face distorts at my ridicule .
You might be my direct descendant but your pride is boring .
“I don’t care that a privileged class was made particularly . Such a thing has existed in all ages, however, the demon king is someone who surpasses all laws and authority by their own power and forces other to acknowledge it . It’s not to be passed down as a privilege to the offspring . ”
The long-haired mazoku’s eyes were now thirsting for blood at the way I was talking .
“You words this day, disregarding the founder’s great exploits and criticising the royalty means your death . This great demon emperor Riorug Endou will put you to death . ”
“How did I disregard my own exploits when I was talking?”
“… . . What?”
“Your perception is really poor . I am the founder . ”
The hatred flairs up in Riorug’s eyes and he glares at me .
“Bastard . Do you even know what you are saying?”
“Of course I do . I told you who I was . ”
Riorug cried out as he reached the limits of his patience .
“That disrespectful attitude to declare yourself the founder . Die 10,000 times!!”
“I don’t get it . Your thinking is that the demon king will reincarnate but will be an idiot that doesn’t understand who they are?”
“Shut up! To doubt the 7 royal demon families is a grave sin!!” (1)
The 7 royal demon families . Another strange alias came out . I’d better look it up .
“What you are saying is lacking any ground but I don’t blame you because the demon king is not something that is proven by words . ”
“You!! Mocking the 7 royal demon families again!!”
That wasn’t my intention at all . This guy is really troublesome .
“It’s fine . Let’s make it quick . I’ll teach your body that I’m the founder . ”
I provoked him and wondered if he’d jump at me right away but unexpectedly he looked up at the spectator’s seats .
“Show this guy what happens to people who criticise the royalty . ”
As he speaks 3 mazoku get up from the seats and jump into the arena .
“Fumu . Is that okay? Should you do this in the middle of an entrance exam?”
Riorug answered me in a normal tone of voice .
“Have you lost your nerve? This is a respected entrance exam . It will be a pain to have to defeat them one by one . Let’s just save the time and effort . Perhaps this will prove who the founder is . ”
The owl referee flying overhead doesn’t point out that this is a rule violation .
I see . This must also be one of their privileges . I guess the power of the royalty means I can only pass by such means .
“About these 4 people”
“It’s too late now . Just regret your own remarks and die . ”
“No, you misunderstand me . There’s not enough of them . ”
Riorug’s expression turns grim .
“What?”
“I’m saying that these 4 small fry are not enough to prove I’m the founder . Get everyone to come down here and line them up . ”
“Bastard…… . . ”
Riorug didn’t even need to order it . The mazoku watching started jumping down one after the other .
I guess they are all purebloods as everyone looking at me looks dissatisfied .
I guess there’s about 80 of them .
“It’s often said that the mouth is the source of misfortune . ”
“Good grief . That’s too many . I don’t need to sacrifice 80 people . ”
Riorug started to frown then appeared to change his mind and laughed .
“Even though you are an outrageous person who pretends to be the founder if we one-sidedly destroy you the royal families name will be tarnished . We won’t do anything for 10 seconds so use that time wisely and prepare a powerful magic . ”
“Hou . You gained a very big mouth as your number of allies increased . You shouldn’t look down on people . ”
Though he was raging a little while ago Riorug was now laughing . Is it because he’s got numerical superiority?
“Do you have time to talk? Several seconds have already passed . ”
Riorug was talking like he’d already won . I had to laugh .
“Kuukuukuu . Hahaha . ”
“What’s so funny? Have you gone mad from fear?”
“Haven’t you noticed yet? Use your demon eyes . ”
Demon eyes are eyes that can see magical power .
After being told Riorug finally see’s the flow of magic power as he puts magic into his eyes . As soon as he did he was taken aback .
Has he finally noticed that his own magical power was running out of control?
The mazoku surrounding me raised a voice that was almost a scream .
“Wha, what is this! My magic power is……”
“Impossible…… . . he hasn’t deployed a single magic formation…… . . this……stop it!!”
“This fellow…… . 80 people from the royal families…… . at the same time…… . !!”
“Wha, what did you do? What the hell did you do!!”
Yare yare, getting so undisciplined over this much .
“Hey . You’d better take control of your magic power quickly . Otherwise…… . ”
The faces of the mazoku surrounding me became a deep blue . They are desperately trying to control their magic power but they are too late .
“You’ll die . ”
At that moment a loud noise rings out . The 80 people that jumped down into the arena exploded like a powder magazine that had been set on fire . (2)
(1) This is subject to change . 7 royal demon families is a very literal translation and I’m not sure it sounds right in English . The author uses 七魔皇族 and the furigana しちまこうぞく so 7, demon and Imperial family/royalty . I wondered if “the 7 imperial families” sounded better . Yes, it omits the demon part but we know that anyway . Possibly could also go with “the 7 demon emperor families . ” Let me know what you think .
(2) A powder magazine was a building designed to hold gunpowder in wooden barrels .