"Yuuto-sama. I must take my leave from this place, if only for a short time."
"You may do so."
Holding her head low, Anri exits the great hall. While she does generally spend the entirety of the day kneeling in front of me, there are a select few times when she retreats from this place. I haven"t gotten around to asking for a reason just yet, but I"m more than willing to bet that she needs to use the ladies" room. Demon or not, there"s no going against nature"s call.
Whenever I have to use the bathroom, Anri sticks to the front of the doors like glue. I really wish she"d stop with that already…
In any case, with Anri gone from the hall, I"m the only one left inside. This is my chance. Or it would be, if leaving at a moment"s notice wouldn"t stick out in a matter of seconds. What"s the best way to leave this castle without having Anri pick up on my trail? I have to be quick and think of something before Anri comes back from her business.
I waste no time and rise from my throne.
Yep. That"s pretty much the only thing I can think of right now. It"s a pretty childish scheme, but when the bells don"t ring…
"Incantation: Creation!"
I use my magic to create a life-sized replica of yours truly, then let it sit on my throne.
This should do it. I do have my doubts if that’ll be enough to fool Anri, but considering that she"s rarely ever the type to initiate a conversation with me, it shouldn"t be a problem. Surely. Probably.
Hopefully.
"Incantation: Teleportation!"
I then cast another spell and teleport to the outside of the castle.
A vast green spectacle of a land spreads out before me. I"ve never left the castle before, not once since my reincarnation into this world.
The large, charred patch of land - courtesy of the Disaster Cannon I had cast only a few days ago - enters my field of vision, but I pretend that it isn"t there. To avoid being seen by the demons patrolling the outside, I hide in the shadow of a large tree close by.
I did it! I"m finally outside! I"m so moved I can almost feel tears in my eyes. As much as I want to scream, "I"m free!" at the top of my lungs, a part of me knows it would give me away. I settle for cheering in my head.
"…"
I fold my arms and lean against the tree.
So… What do I do now?
My head"s just been stuffed with the idea of leaving the castle, so I really hadn"t given much thought to what I should do once that was over and done with. It"s not as if I"d gone out of my way to reincarnate myself, so I really don"t have much in the way of ambitions and goals.
Well, since I"m finally getting a taste of freedom, I should probably make some kind of goal for myself. Really, anything would work. Well, now that I"ve been reincarnated, I"d love to try and make some kind of name for myself. The best way to do that would probably be to eradicate all the evils of this world as soon as I can.
I"ve made my decision! Br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the determination to vanquish all the evils of this world, I -
"Wait, that"s me in a nutsh.e.l.l!"
I bang my head against the tree, playing both parts in a slapstick duo. I can"t believe I forgot that I"m the High King that rules over all demons. h.e.l.l, I"m the one that should be eradicated.
"Hey, did you hear something just now?"
"Yeah, I heard it too…"
The demons patrolling the area start to make noise among themselves. d.a.m.n it, did I just say that out loud?!
I can hear them running about the place. I huddle where I used to stand, all senses alert while my heart thumps in my chest.
"Looks like we were just imagining it…"
"I guess…"
The sounds of them running around finally settle down, and I sigh in relief. Now then, back to business. Let"s try to think of some grand goal I can make for myself.
Actually, come to think of it… there really isn"t much I can a.s.sociate with these types of supreme rulers other than the fact that they were evil. If I go around this world doing nothing but good, then eventually humans may just a.s.sociate the t.i.tle with something more virtuous. Humans and demons might even live together in harmony.
What"s that? "Wait, didn"t you already kill like fifty thousand people?"
Come on now; there"s no need for that kind of talk.
I finally make my decision. I"m just going to go around doing good deeds. To do that, I have to find something I can use as a kind of foothold, an "initial boost" if you will. Is there any incantation that might help me out?
In all honesty, I don"t even have a full grasp on all the magical incantations I have at my disposal. Normally they"d show up on my stat screen, but as I mentioned before, there are so many spells I"m privy to that the display screen sort of bugged out on me. The only incantations I"ve used thus far are the Disaster Cannon, Almighty Healing, Creation, and Teleportation. Just those four. I should, by all means, have at least a hundred or so available.
I close my eyes and poke around in my head, searching for any other spells I can use. This isn"t the best way to look up what your spells can do, and they do tend to stay a little unclear, but at least it"s something.
Let"s see here… Demonic contracts, ultimate barriers, hair regrowth, ability granting… Wow, there really are a lot swimming around in there… Wait, what"s this about hair regrowth?! Do we really have spells like those?!
"…!"
Finally, I stumble on a clairvoyance spell. This certainly seems like it could be useful. I immediately activate the spell and allow my sight to fly out to various locations. There doesn"t seem to be any limit to its range either, so I let my vision move to the human lands outside our own territories.
"Oh."
After some time, I discover a village. It looks like it"s in the middle of being a.s.saulted by a band of bandits.
This is it! If I go to defeat those bandits and rescue the village, I"m sure to be hailed as some kind of hero. I already have major cheat stats, and this is just the right situation to put them to good use.
Having found my resolve to save those villagers, I drop the clairvoyance spell and activate another teleportation spell. My presence disappears from the outside of the castle.
"Take all the women that look like they"ll make money! Kill all the rest!"
"Hyahhaaaah!"
Just as my clairvoyance had shown me, bandits roamed about swinging their blades while the villagers did all they could to escape from them, running about in chaos. Dozens of them were already on the ground; their blood had already spilled. It wouldn"t be a stretch to say that the bandits were about fifty men in total.
Coming to another world means that something like this is bound to happen at some point. I can"t imagine anything like this happening to me in my old world.
"Uoh?!"
"W-What the h.e.l.l?! Where"d he come from?!"
The bandits are finally aware of me now that I"ve teleported, and they"re sure to express their surprise as loudly as they can.
Now then, time to get to work. I"ll make it clear to all of them that the High King"s a "totally swell bloke." It"s time to make my strengths known to the world, with my HP of 9,999,999,999, my MP of 9,999,999,999, my ATK of 99,999, et cetera et cetera.
"Not sure what"s goin" on, but we got some major backing here!"
"Wohooo! Let"s go and get "em, boys!"
The bandits think I"m on their side!
"Oh… It"s all over…"
"Has G.o.d abandoned us…?"
Upon seeing me, the villagers fall into even deeper despair. Well, given my more than ominous appearance, I suppose there"s little I can do about that. I have to get right on alleviating them of this major misunderstanding.
"Hmph. It would seem that there has been a bit of a misunderstanding. I have come here to deliver judgment upon you."
I speak and do my best to come off as overpowering as possible. The bandits make themselves heard in response. Phrases like, "Huh?" and, "What"s his deal?" come up a couple of times.
"Keh, are ya seriously playing hero lookin" like that? You"re just one guy, what can you do?!"
Well, I already tried to raise stakes, but… this is going to be fine, right?
"If you"re gonna spout s.h.i.t, do it when you"re sleep-talkin"!"
One of the bandits moves towards me.
"Guh?!"
The bandit stabs my abdomen with his blade, and I can"t help but let out a small noise.
"Hahahaha! Screw the bite; you can"t even bark!"
"…"
Already bombarded by the raging laughter of the bandits, my eyes wander to the spot where the sword had pierced me. There isn"t even the faintest sign of a single scar, and there really isn"t any kind of pain worth mentioning.
HP 9,999,999,999 / 9,999,999,999
There doesn"t seem to be any change to the HP either, if my stat screen has anything to say about it. It looks like whatever hit I tanked just then isn"t even enough to be registered as actual damage.
Then again, I do have a defense of 99,999.
I"d even gone and sounded all surprised, probably thanks to this being my first-ever experience of being, well, stabbed through the gut. d.a.m.n it.
Actually, I"m not even sure if this experience qualifies as "being stabbed" in the first place…