The castle made of pitch-black stone.
Only the pink flames, enticing lust, emitted any light in the castle.
A woman, seated on a massive throne, opened her eyes with a deep sigh.
“Sigh, this is the problem with the Hunter species. They calmly prepare for the ways they’ve been devoured by other humans, don’t they?”
With a faint groan mixed with a lament, the woman rose from her throne, wincing from a sharp pain.
The sensation of pain crawling up her spine was something she hadn’t felt in centuries.
In this body, she should have been able to withstand the electric shock head-on without issue.
However, Lilim’s fragile body couldn’t help but feel pain from even such a spell.
“Right, taking it head-on was insane.”
With a crackle, she shook off the electric shock that had sparked from her fingertips.
“I always forget. The other kids aren’t as strong as me.”
She swept her red hair, reminiscent of wine.
As she did, other demons below her carefully raised their heads to look at her.
“Your Majesty, you’ve returned.”
“Ah, yeah. I’m a bit late.”
“It’s not a problem. We arrived early and were just waiting.”
“Still, I am the one who’s late.”
This was not supposed to take so long.
It was a simple matter to kill the human who dared to take the hearts of the children she had captivated.
It was easy to either make them submit or kill them.
If only he hadn’t been able to captivate her.
If the succubus emperor, Lilith, hadn’t been charmed herself.
“Carlos, how many years has it been since you fell into the succubus form?”
“It’s been 312 years this year.”
“Then, during that time, have you ever been captivated yourself?”
“No, not even once.”
Yeah, that was the norm.
Succubus.
As demons who had fallen into lust and nightmare, their allure was unparalleled.
They were demons who, by their very existence, captivated reason.
They were not beings who were devoured by their own desires, but masters of desire itself.
“Is that so? I’ve been captivated once.”
“Your Majesty… Are you saying…?”
At Lilith’s words, a small commotion spread among the succubi.
Especially among the younger succubi, who had not yet lived for a century.
For demons who had only known Lilith as the noble queen, this was a great shock.
“… Could it be him?”
However, the succubi who had served Lilith for a long time were not surprised.
Succubi, born with the natural ability to captivate reason, do not fall in love.
They were rulers of desire, not those who taught love.
That was the role of angels, not demons, and they had no understanding of what love was.
Upon their corruption, they lost their past memories and lived for eternity without knowing love.
“Right, that human who dared to charm me.”
Lilith, like the other succubi, did not understand the emotion of love.
She had not known it until she met that man.
“… Carlos, do you think I could be charmed by another mere human again?”
“I believe it. Even if the others don’t know, I understand him.”
Even if she had been captivated, the fact that she had loved remained.
Even if it was a fabricated emotion, even if she had been used, Lilith could never forget it.
Especially because that was how she had learned what love was.
“Has another human like that man appeared?”
“Would it have been better if that were the case?”
If it had been, it would have been easy to dismiss it with just a little surprise.
What had happened once could happen again.
Moreover, it had taken 500 years for that event to unfold.
Even for demons who boasted of eternal life, it was not a short time.
Thus, it wouldn’t have been strange if something that hadn’t happened for a long time occurred again.
“I saw a man with the same face and the same powers as the man I loved… What should I do now?”
“… What?”
“What do you mean…?”
The expressions of the succubi froze, especially those who had lived similar lives to Lilith.
Having witnessed the birth and destruction of worlds, they understood what Lilith had said and clutched their heads in shock.
“So… Are you saying he hasn’t fallen?”
“Yes, I’m sure. That man, even after dying, chose not to fall.”
“Why on earth?!”
It was impossible to understand.
There were more than a few succubi who shared such thoughts.
Even demons who had lived for such vast, nearly incomprehensible amounts of time, their minds worn thin by the ages, could not forget him.
He had been that special, leaving such a profound and intense impression.
“That guy, who hated humans more than we did?!”
“Even humans didn’t like him…”
“There was no reason for him not to fall. Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand, Lilith?”
“That can’t be true.”
Lilith answered the succubus’s questions with a sad smile.
“I could forget anyone else, but I’ll never forget that man’s face.”
The succubi, looking at Lilith’s pitiful expression, fell silent.
“I… I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
At the far end of the castle, a demon who had only been corrupted for about a hundred years asked cautiously.
“Oh, I see. You all still don’t know anything, huh?”
“Yes, we’ve guessed roughly from what you and our senior have said, but… Who exactly is ‘that man’?”
At that question, Lilith let out a small hum.
“Hmm, I see. Do you all know about the ‘Demon Lord’?”
“Yes, we know that it’s a being chosen to destroy the world…”
“Then you know everything.”
The title of ‘Demon Lord’ was not given to the strongest demon among demons.
“The Demon Lord is chosen from among the demons who have the greatest hatred toward ‘humans.'”
It wasn’t that the Demon Lord was chosen to destroy the world.
It was because the demon was the most suitable being to destroy it.
“It doesn’t matter how strong that demon is.”
What mattered most was how intensely the demon could burn with hatred for humanity.
Whether they could burn themselves alive to bring about the end of human civilization.
“So, the man Lilith has been talking about is a demon chosen as the Demon Lord?”
“Half-right, half-wrong.”
Well, that man was chosen as the Demon Lord, but he wasn’t a demon.
“Yes?”
“Surprising, isn’t it? A human who hasn’t even fallen into a demon yet, chosen as the Demon Lord for his intense hatred of humans—this is so rare that even the history of demons can’t find a precedent for it.”
“Is that even possible?”
Demons do not forget their memories during the corruption process.
Even if memories from their human days fade with time, they never forget the trigger for their corruption.
Because of this, the notion that the Demon Lord is synonymous with a demon arose.
Unlike humans, who are blessed with the gift of forgetfulness, demons can never forget the memories that led to their fall.
They can clearly remember the malice of humans, the ugliness of humanity.
Even as time passes, their hatred for humans doesn’t fade.
“We were shocked, too. Even among countless demons, who had burned with hatred for humans, a human under 30 was chosen to be the one to destroy the world.”
“How… did that happen?”
“He received the blessing of the gods.”
The most beautiful blessing in the world.
“The problem is that the blessed child was not even a commoner, but a lower-class citizen.”
At the age of five, he lost one of his eyes.
At seven, he was chosen by an unknown sorcerer to be an experiment and a toy.
At ten, he was kidnapped by an unknown knight and encased in ice.
At fourteen, his heart was taken by a little witch.
At seventeen, the chimera’s heart implanted by the little witch was also taken by a female bandit.
And at twenty, the final blow.
“He was chosen as the Demon Lord the moment he died.”
He hated humans, despised them, and resented them.
Having suffered more than most demons, he burned with the desire for revenge and pressed on.
And he succeeded in his vengeance.
“He destroyed the world. He wiped out every single human on the continent.”
…So, you’re telling me that such a Demon Lord didn’t reincarnate as a demon?
“Exactly! If he was determined to leave no human alive on the continent, he would have chosen to be reborn as a human rather than a demon, even though he had received help from monsters, demons, and all sorts of creatures!”
Lilith shook her head with an expression of disbelief and let out a deep sigh.
“Even worse, he charmed me and then died.”
“His last words were ‘I’m human too.'”
“… Even if I wanted to forget, I can’t.”
At the succubus’s words, the past scene resurfaced.
Lilith snapped back to reality from the overwhelming landscape, leaning her body back against the throne once again.
“Is that enough of an explanation?”
“… Yes, thank you.”
“No, I had to explain it anyway.”
“Huh?”
Lilith extended her hand into the void.
She placed a pitch-black sword and a golden crown on her head, retrieving an old relic she had once said she would never use again.
Understanding the meaning of this action, the succubi bowed their heads without hesitation.
“My original plan was to wait after driving the intruders out.”
She had thought he would definitely fall.
It would just take time, but she was certain he would fall to hell.
“But once I realized that wasn’t the case, I had to change my plan.”
Unfortunately, they couldn’t cross over to that world yet.
Until the selection of the Demon Lord was complete, there was a waiting period in that world as well.
“I will conquer Hell.”
During that waiting period, Lilith set a new goal.
“I will kill every demon who hates humans.”
Her goal was to make him appear before her as the ‘Demon Lord’ who would destroy the world, not as an ally.