Demon King Daimaou: Volume 4 Read online

  Prologue

  Akuto Sai had always felt that he had trouble getting along with the rest of the world.

  He was an orphan. That alone was enough to make it likely that he wouldn’t fit in, but in Akuto’s case, his problems stemmed from his deeper personality.

  One day, a gentleman came to the orphanage he was staying at to make a donation. The gentleman was of noble birth, and it was clear from his appearance that he was financially well-off, but there was no sign that he felt this made him better than anyone else. His words were filled with a natural kindness, and donating to the orphans seemed, to him, to be a very natural act.

  “I happened to pass by and realize that this place was an orphanage. Once I learned this, I felt I had to do something. If it’s not a bother, please accept this small donation.”

  The gentleman took off his hat and smiled. It was Akuto who responded to him. Akuto was very smart for his age, and when the matron at the orphanage was busy, he would often be called upon to deal with guests.

  “Thank you, sir. We are truly grateful. The appropriate person will come to take your donation, so please wait for a second.”

  Akuto’s words were his own; there was no sign of flattery or falsehood in them at all. The gentleman seemed terribly impressed that young Akuto could say such a thing.

  “I’m amazed. What a polite young boy! I’ll give this to you directly, then. You can see that it gets into the right hands.”

  The gentleman took out a white envelope, which he must have prepared before even knocking on the door of the orphanage. It felt heavy in Akuto’s hands when he took it, so there must have been a good amount of money inside. The gentleman smiled kindly when he saw Akuto’s surprise.

  “Thank you. There’s nothing we can do to repay you, but at least allow the orphans here the chance to thank you directly. If you’ll come inside and wait, I’ll call everyone.” Akuto bowed deeply.

  “No, there’s no need for that. This is simply the duty of a servant of the god Ko-Roh. If you want to thank someone, thank the god,” the gentleman said humbly, and put his hat back on as he turned to go.

  “Wait, I want to thank you, not the god,” Akuto said.

  The gentleman stopped and rubbed the rim of his cap with a gentle expression.

  “No, I haven’t done anything. It was the god’s compassion that led me here to this place.”

  It was clear from the gentleman’s tone that these were no mere words, but the product of deep belief. If he’d been speaking to any other child, this would simply have ended as a pleasant story told among the orphans at the orphanage.

  But he was talking to Akuto.

  “The gods are a system. Thanking one of them instead of you would turn your kindness into an act of selfishness. So I cannot thank a god. Simply let me thank you instead,” Akuto said. He was too smart for his age.

  In this era, the gods were a system which recorded the doings of humanity and provided them with social benefits in accordance with their behavior.

  However, since everyone’s acts were being recorded, if you wanted to lead a better life, you needed to do the “right” thing. The result of this was to turn even the most educated into religiously fanatical believers. Perhaps the religious mind could not be controlled by reason, but that was something Akuto didn’t really understand.

  “That’s blasphemy! The gods are real, and have their own wills, so it’s natural to thank them! That’s what creates cohesion between believers. Now apologize to God!” The gentleman stormed up to him angrily.

  But what he was saying made no sense to Akuto.

  “Impossible. I can’t apologize to something that doesn’t exist.”

  “What a horrible child! How can you turn your back on God? That’s why you’re an orphan!” The gentleman looked at Akuto with disgust in his eyes.

  Akuto was shocked. It wasn’t the disgust that shocked him, but the way that such an obviously good person could say something like that to him terrified him.

  “Don’t you realize that your belief in a mere system that humans created is making you say something truly terrifying?” Akuto said in a shaking voice.

  “Enough! Everyone believes in it, so that’s good enough, isn’t it? And how can you talk that way to someone who’s giving you money?”

  By the time the gentleman started yelling, the teachers realized something was wrong and dragged Akuto out of the room. The teachers bowed repeatedly in apology, and managed to keep the donation and make the gentleman happy by having the orphans sing him songs.

  One of the male teachers sighed and chuckled at Akuto.

  “Listen, kiddo. Sometimes even when you’re right about something, you still have to apologize.”

  The teacher probably assumed that Akuto wouldn’t understand what he meant. But Akuto understood perfectly, and shook his head anyway.

  “I’m not ever going to do that. You don’t have to do that if you’re an important person, right? If you just have to be an important person, then there should be nothing simpler.”

  The teacher’s eyes went wide.

  “Fine, go be someone really important then. But it won’t be that easy...”

  The teacher’s words started to seem distant, and only then did Akuto realize that he was dreaming. He was remembering the past.

  1 - Someone’s After Someone

  Akuto woke up feeling annoyed.

  —Jeez, did I really need to remember something so unpleasant?

  He had an attractive face, but a nasty glare. When he was frowning, nobody wanted to get close to him.

  Not that anybody who wasn’t his friend particularly wanted to get close to him anyway.

  Constant Magical Academy was on a long break, and there weren’t many people left at the door. Akuto had been taking a nap under a tree in the back yard. He looked up and saw the clouds clearing out of the sky and a single bird flying through it. —It feels like nothing bad could happen on a day like this. If I’m remembering something like that on a day like this, there really must be something wrong with me.

  Akuto laughed at himself just as he heard a distant voice.

  “Ackie! There you are!”

  Keena Soga ran up to him with a brilliant smile on her face. It was the expression of someone without a care in the world. The red tuft of hair at the top of her head waved as she walked. Watching her, it was impossible to feel serious about anything.

  Keena sat right down next to Akuto.

  “I didn’t have anything to do, so I decided to spend some time outside.”

  “I see.” Keena looked like she wanted to say something, so Akuto pressed her.

  “What’s up?”

  “Well, Um.... Ackie, do you know when your birthday is?”

  “I was an orphan, so I’ve got one they just picked for me. It was the day I was abandoned, December 25th,” Akuto said, and then remembered that Keena was an orphan too. It was hard to talk about something like that with someone who wasn’t an orphan, so it was easy to talk to Keena.

  “I see. I didn’t know what mine was, so I picked my own birthday,” Keena said, and started to fidget.

  “What is it?” Akuto asked again. Keena blushed and laughed.

  “Um, if my birthday comes, will you celebrate it with me?”

  “Of course.” Akuto nodded. Keena’s shoulders relaxed in relief.

  “I’m glad. I mean, it’s a birthday I picked myself. I mean, I’m the type who just gets all kinds of weird ideas, right? So I thought you might think it was ridiculous.”

  “I’ve always thought you were ridiculous, from the first time we met.” Akuto shrugged.

  “Huh? How mean!”

  “I mean, you just decided that y
ou were my observer.”

  “I was so lonely until I met you though! And... it’s true that I was watching you...”

  “What day is it?” Akuto asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Your birthday.”

  “U-Um... It’s almost time for it. I’ll let you know.”

  “But then I might not be able to be with you.”

  “Just stay with me every day then!”

  “There you go, being selfish again.” Akuto sighed, but Keena shook her head.

  “Hey, hey, Ackie! The weather is so nice today! Let’s play!”

  Akuto felt like he couldn’t turn her down. No, maybe he would’ve refused before, but now he felt a strange sense of peace when he was around Keena.

  “We can do something, but I’m not really the having fun type. I guess we can play a game though. What do you want to do?”

  “Let’s take a nap!” Keena answered cheerfully.

  “Huh? A nap? I was just asleep.” But by the time he said that, Keena was already leaning up against him and snoring.

  —In a sense, it’s an amazing talent.

  Akuto decided to stay quiet so he wouldn’t disturb Keena. He took out his student handbook and called up the library function, then projected the mana screen in front of his chest and started to read. He thought he might get some kind of inspiration from the ancient religious texts. But even if they gave him some food for thought, they didn’t provide him with a way to force people like that rich gentleman from the past to use their brains and think. —If thinking only benefits yourself, maybe it’s better not to think at all. Like Keena.

  Akuto looked up from his book and started to play with Keena’s hair as it waved near his face.

  “No, that’s not appropriate for planting the stalks. Instead...” Keena was talking in her sleep.

  Akuto didn’t know why, but he felt like a moment like this may never come again. His mind went numb with a premonition that he would look back and miss a time that had only passed five seconds ago.

  —I can’t pray to a god, so it’s like I’m worshipping Keena instead, almost.

  ○

  The God Suhara was, in the broadest sense, a god of nationalism. There were two major organs of defense for the country: the knights and the imperial army. Only believers in Suhara were allowed in the latter.

  Suhara emphasized noble blood, pride, and order, and granted permission to use powerful attack magic to those who performed brave feats. For that reason, Suhara’s believers were often considered to be polite and familial, but also uncompromising and violent.

  The High Priest, the most important of the believers, was currently a man named Keizo Teruya. He was the father of Eiko Teruya, the girl who’d caused so much trouble for Akuto before. The Teruya family’s specialty was spying, and in an era where there had been no external wars for years, they’d gained military power by plotting the downfall of the noble families which ran the army.

  The Hattori family, whose job it was to provide bodyguards for high-ranking officials, had managed to compete for the role of high priest until the end, but since they had already been given the honor of directly serving the emperor, de facto power was given to the Teruya.

  Keizo Teruya was a rare man who could do cowardly and evil things with pride and dignity. Even those whose lives he’d ruined were forced to admit that. He stole and assassinated without the slightest hesitation or conscience, though he never lost himself in the pleasure of such deeds. Even after becoming high priest, he’d killed people with his own hands more than once or twice.

  Eventually an evil shadow began to appear on his face, which everyone who looked at him could sense. But as the years went on, his expression became pleasant and relaxed. Now, as he sat with perfect posture wearing a kimono, he was clearly evil, but also strangely had the air of a saint.

  He looked nervous, which was rare for him. His always-laughing eyes were now raised and sharp.

  He was in the temple of Suhara. It was a huge shrine in a quiet forest on the outside of the capital. Walk under the red tori gate, and you found a huge thatch-roofed temple building. Inside the sliding doors, you could see the divine tree that was the object of the Suharan’s worship. The tree was actually just a stump, about the size of a man, and Keizo sat across it on a straw mat. This divine tree was the device that connected Suhara to humanity. There was no one but Keizo in the shrine now. He was speaking directly to the god.

  “Are you sure this is her?” Keizo said searchingly.

  Two priestesses walked out from behind the tree. They both had identical beautiful faces. One sat in front of him on the right, and one on the left.

  “This is the judgement of Suhara.”

  “We leave the final decision to you.”

  They were artificial humans. When humans struggled to communicate with the god, they were there to act as aides. In terms of rank, they were bishops, ranking higher even than the high priest. But that was only in theory. The high priest was the only one allowed to make changes to the god’s program settings. Thus, the high priest was actually more important than the god itself.

  But Suhara was different than the others.

  “You really want me to assassinate her?” Keizo asked again.

  Those who were guilty of treason had their information given to the high priest by Suhara. The gods used the mana in the atmosphere to observe the deeds of mankind. For this reason, those who were certainly guilty of treason had the corresponding evidence and their location sent to the high priest.

  Of course, normal people didn’t know about this system, and it was heavily criticized even among the high-ranking officials who knew of it, but even they had to admit its effectiveness. It made it possible to stop treason against the empire before it reached a large scale.

  “We are not telling you to assassinate her.”

  “But her treason is clear.”

  The priestesses spoke in unison.

  “But there’s no proof.”

  That was what made Keizo nervous. The location of the traitor had been sent, but there was no indictment, and no evidence.

  “The evidence cannot be revealed.”

  “Even to the high priest?”

  Keizo was well aware of how strange this statement was. Once you reached the level of high priest, you knew better than anyone that the gods were just a system.

  —Should I use the unlock code?

  Keizo wasn’t sure if he should use his authority as high priest. If he did, he would be able to rewrite the god’s program. If Suhara had somehow gone mad, he would be able to deal with it quickly.

  —But if I overrule the will of god, the other priests may criticize me. And if the system is discovered to be acting incorrectly, then the other assassinations I’ve performed will have been wrong as well.

  The god only gave information on the traitors. Whether to kill or arrest them was left up to the high priest, and Keizo was a fan of assassinations. Before he’d become high priest, he’d deceived his political enemies into committing treason, and used that evidence to get them killed. If it was revealed that the system was wrong, it could lead to his own destruction.

  —Normally I’d use the military’s special forces... but I suppose I’ll just use my own personal army.

  “I’ll take this data, then. I will be the one to make the decisions from this point,” Keizo said.

  The priestesses nodded.

  “Understood. Thank you. But...”

  “Depending on how you use that data, even a high priest may be found guilty of treason. Do not forget that this is possible.”

  The priestesses said as they walked around him in a circle.

  —What?

  He’d never been threatened like that before. No, it was impossible for the divine system to behave that way. The only possibility he could think of was that it had developed some kind of will of its own.

  “Wait, you can’t threaten me like that...” Keizo said, but the two had already vanished b
ehind the tree. And Suhara said nothing further.

  “Either way, I’m going to kill her. That was my plan,” Keizo said to the god as he rose.

  —It has a will of its own? No, that’s impossible... Either way, once this is done with, I’ll reveal to the other priests that Suhara is acting strangely. In the end, it’s just the life of one girl. It will be over soon.

  Keizo flicked at the mana screen floating in front of him, marking the data displayed there as top secret. It was a photo of a girl with red hair and a bright smile, and a name.

  “Keena Soga. I’ve never even heard of her. She must be my daughter’s age. I do take pity on her, but...”

  ○

  The Hattori family were the enemies of the Teruya. And their eldest daughter, Junko, had a big problem.

  —What do I do? This is a problem I may never be able to solve...

  In her hands was the student handbook, a device which could be used as a method of communication. The screen had a message from her family on it. The subject was, “Preparations for the arranged marriage meeting are complete.”

  —If preparations have been made, that means that Father has given his approval, and there’s no turning back now...

  Junko was lurking out in the woods behind the dorm. She’d put a mana screen in front of her to blend in with the trees, concealing herself in a way that made sure no one would find her.

  In front of her, Keena was sleeping and Akuto was reading a book.

  The “arranged marriage meeting” was to be with Akuto. Junko had done nothing herself, but Korone had already discussed things with the Hattori clan.

  Korone was an artificial human sent by the government to observe Akuto, who was expected to become the next Demon King. She was well aware of the complicated political situation, and had decided that one way to protect Akuto from the hard-liners in the government who would have him assassinated was to marry him off to the politically influential Hattoris.

  —From the way he wrote in the message, Father seems very excited. It’s a political marriage, but Hattori women are usually fated to a worse fate in love. Compared to that, he wrote that it would be better that I achieve some measure of happiness... My little sister seems happy, as well, to be relieved of her duties. Now that the family’s future depends on me, she can go back to the carefree life she’s used to living. And I, myself, don’t mind the idea... There’s one problem, though...