Chapter 5

05 . Royalty

“I accept the surrender of Zepes Endou . Winner Arnos VorudeiG.o.d . ”

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 n.o.body is reacting at all .

Have a lot of foolish people taken the name of the demon king in the past so n.o.body 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, b.a.s.t.a.r.d! 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 grat.i.tude 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 VorudeiG.o.d the break will be omitted . ”

At that moment I sense a flow of magic power from the pa.s.sageway that Zepes escaped down .

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

A scream echoes from the pa.s.sageway 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 pa.s.sed 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 cla.s.sified 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 cla.s.s was made particularly . Such a thing has existed in all ages, however, the demon king is someone who surpa.s.ses all laws and authority by their own power and forces other to acknowledge it . It’s not to be pa.s.sed 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 .

“b.a.s.t.a.r.d . 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 att.i.tude 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 pa.s.s 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 . ”

“b.a.s.t.a.r.d…… . . ”

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 pa.s.sed . ”

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 h.e.l.l 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 .