Demon Lord's Reincarnation

While he was waiting, the boy could hear various rumors being spread, as people who were gossiping left and right could be heard. 

"Did you hear that those idiots from the Reschbeauch Kingdom are saying we"re being controlled by Demons. How can those wimpy demons that only talk about love and peace be controlling this Kingdom behind the scenes?" 

"What kinds of nonsense is that? Well, that"s not as bad as the new king of Reschbeauch proclaiming that the Grand Mage is dead. We just saw him last week telling us not to believe the utter nonsense the people from Reschbeauch are saying." 

...

"I heard another mercenary company has been wiped out by that rumored adventurer from Reschbeauch. I think people call her by the nickname silent death." 

"Well, she isn"t the only one in the rumors. Different beautiful maidens from Reschbeauch seem to be killing our soldiers at the borders."

"Do you think it"s not too late to defect to the Reschbeauch kingdom? It seems like they have an abundance of beautiful ladies."

"Well, it is true that the rumors state that they are beautiful, but at the same time they"re all crazy. They keep on saying that our Kingdom is being controlled in the Shadows by some demons. Also, they keep on clamoring to hand over some guy, I think he was called Len, Zen, Hen I can"t really remember the name." 

...

The weak-looking student that was waiting for his turn to be called couldn"t help but notice that everyone seem to act so casually about the crisis their kingdom was going through. The crazy maidens that they were calling beautiful were slowly infiltrating the Kingdom and it took the entire elite forces of the Kingdom to be able to stop them. 

Also even though the rumor was crazy, but it was true that the Grand Mage has been acting weird as of late. He has been too aggressive in promoting to not only go to war with the kingdom of Reschbeauch but all of the neighboring kingdoms as well. He even publicly insulted the king and called him a coward. 

"Mr. Afeus," As he was thinking, the weak-looking student finally heard his name being called and headed to the receptionist that called him. 

"Yes, that"s me." He raised his arm as he hurriedly walked towards the receptionist. The guild receptionist was a kind-looking woman who warmly smiled at Afeus. 

"How can I help you today sir?" 

"I want to post an immediate quest." 

"Certainly sir, what kind of quest do you want to post?" 

"I just want someone to pick up some materials from the Kerrolan Woods." Upon mentioning the Kerrolan Woods the receptionist"s eyebrows twitch a bit. 

"I"m sorry sir, due to the increase of numerous A rank monsters in the vicinity it would be near impossible to hire adventurers to head to the Kerrolan Woods. For the standard pay of an immediate quest, no decent adventurer would take it." 

"Is there no other way?" Afeus looked at the receptionist in desperation. Seeing that look of pure desperation in a mage student"s face wasn"t anything new but for some reason Afeus whole demeanor made the receptionist want to somehow help him. It might be because unlike the other students, Afeus didn"t have that haughty look and aura that seem to be looking down on everyone else. 

"I can still post your quest and see if someone picks it up, but depending on the price it is highly unlikely any competent adventurer would take your quest. It is possible that some young new adventurers would jump at such a quest, but due to how powerful the monsters are in that area they"ll most likely be unable to finish the quest. So how much exactly are you willing to pay?" 

"I only have around ten white gold coins. That"s everything I have on me."

"I"m sorry to say but that isn"t near enough payment for the quest that you want to post. At a minimum, you would need at least forty white gold coins." 

"Forty?!" Afeus couldn"t believe his ears, just for the simple job of gathering a few materials would cost him so many white gold coins, which was enough to buy a small house near the central district. 

"Is there really no other way?" 

"The only other ways that I know of, is if you cant talk directly to the adventurers and see if you can convince some of them to do your quest with the amount of money you can give. The other possibility would be to hire mercenaries, but that might actually cost you more." 

"I see... Thank you for the advice..." Knowing that neither option was plausible Afeus left the adventurers guild dejected.  

...

"d.a.m.n it, what should I do? I can"t finish my thesis without those materials. If professor Epius finds out that I have nothing, I"m really going to fail his cla.s.s. I can"t afford to fail another cla.s.s... If I get kicked out now, I"ll lose everything! It"s either I fail and lose everything, or I can get the materials myself and pa.s.s the cla.s.s... She did say a lot of powerful monsters have been showing up lately... Well, whatever what"s the worst that could happen, dying?" 

After motivating himself to go Afeus went back to his dorm room got a bag and headed out to the Kerrolan Woods.

...

A few minutes upon entering Afeus was already running for his life. A pack of monsters were now chasing him. He wasn"t even able to determine what kind of monsters were chasing him as he continued to run around the forest. 

"Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t!"Afeus kept on repeating those words as he gritted his teeth trying to run faster. At first, he tried to attack using a spell, but he was unable to concentrate and circulate his mana properly. So instead he desperately prayed to every deity he knew off and tried to force his legs to move faster.  

...

It took everything he got but Afeus was finally able to ditch the monsters that were chasing him. He then hid behind a tree as he was trying to calm himself. While trying his best to remain calm and think of a way out of his current predicament, Afeus knelt on the ground and felt something weird. 

The moment Afeus looked at the ground he was so surprised he almost screamed. With all the effort he could muster at the moment, Afeus was able to stop himself from screaming. He looked at the ground again and rubbed his eyes. Yet no matter how hard he rubbed his eyes the thing he saw wasn"t disappearing. 

"So I"m not hallucinating, there really is a human body here in the middle of the forest." On the ground, lay the body of a young man. Not only was it weird to find a body in the middle of the forest, but it was weirder still that the body was still fully intact. In a forest infested with man-eating monsters, it was a miracle that this body was so well preserved. 

Afeus who was scared out of his wits a few seconds ago was now overwhelmed by his own curiosity. He started to check on the body and to his surprise, the young man was still alive. Afeus continued to examine the body but found nothing that could tell who the young man was. 

Now that he was able to calm down he finally noticed something weird was going on. He was already spotted by a few monsters but they never attacked. In fact, it would seem that all of the monsters were actively avoiding him. No, it would be more precise to say that the monster were all avoiding the unconscious young man. 

"Why are they avoiding him? Such powerful monsters and they won"t even come close to an unconscious person. Why are they so afraid of this guy? In the first place, what is this guy? Why is he here and why won"t he wake up?... Well, in any case, I guess I got lucky and with this guy in tow, I might actually be able to leave this forest alive." 

After figuring out that the monsters were afraid of the unconscious young man, Afeus decided to bring the young man back to Zouver city. Once he was done deciding what to do, Afeus dragged the young man"s body. 

"This guy is heavier than I thought." 

...

While dragging the body through the forest, Afeus was surprised to see the monsters running away from him. It was such a weird experience to see such powerful monsters, who he was running away from at the beginning were now the ones running away from him.