Chapter 1: Echoes of the Past

Late winter night.

A cold wind cuts through the forest.

In the clearing, a group of people is gathered in a circle, sleeping, leaning on a campfire.

Crackle, crackle.

I put the firewood piled next to me inside.

My face, illuminated by the flames lit by the spirits, had long red hair that reached down to my waist and skin as pale as a corpse.

One unique feature was my red eyes, like those of a demon.

People often say that those with red eyes like mine have demon blood flowing through them.

I think I might be the child of a woman who had an affair with a demon.

Of course, not all red eyes are like that, but those with demon blood all have red eyes.

It’s the same for demons, mines, and the demon king.

The reason I have these eyes is…

“Master. Aren’t you sleeping?”

The young man who approached me from afar, calling me ‘Master,’ was holding a shining holy sword in his hand.

He wasn’t coming to kill me, of course, but he had come to clean up the things that were threatening us.

“Why should I sleep? I don’t need sleep.”

“But it was my master who said that mental fatigue can be relieved through sufficient sleep.”

“That’s something that only the weak do. It has no meaning for a witch like me who has lived for hundreds of years.”

“Hundreds of years…”

The young man smiled bitterly at my words and sat down in front of me.

The young man’s gaze directed at me through the crackling flames was extremely burdensome.

“You must be lonely.”

“Not particularly. Nothing like that.”

“Haha, you don’t have to say that.”

“It’s true.”

Misunderstandings are difficult.

Even though I lied and said that I had lived for hundreds of years without knowing anything about the outside world, that was only in the ‘middle world.’

However, that guy interpreted it as he pleased.

“It’s okay. You’ve been sealed away for hundreds of years, so I understand that you must be lonely. But it’s okay now. You have me and your companions, right?”

“No, I’m really saying it’s okay?”

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. Right now, everyone is asleep. One day, they will know the true nature of their Master. They just don’t know yet. They all pretend not to know and take care of their Master.”

No.

Everyone knows except you.

I wanted to blurt out those words, but I decided to ignore the young warrior’s actions, who pretended not to hear me.

“Master is my savior and the one who made me a warrior…”

That’s right. That guy is a warrior.

He is the owner of the ‘holy sword that can stand against the seven demon kings summoned to this world.’

While other warriors wield sacred weapons granted divine power by the kingdom or some other group, this young man is a true warrior who possesses the ‘true holy sword’ that has been passed down from ancient times.

How did this guy come to have the holy sword?

I made him have it.

To be exact, I made him a warrior.

So that I could survive.

“…Thanks to you, Master, I was able to come this far. Thank you very much.”

“Oh, yes.”

“Master.”

The warrior looked at me with a stern face and straightened his posture.

“What do you plan to do after you seal all the Demon Kings?”

“Well, I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“As expected. The Master only thinks about his mission…”

“That’s not it.”

I aimed my staff at the warrior in advance to cover his mouth, in case he started talking too much to himself.

“I’m a witch. I’m a being who can’t live with the people of the world. If you weren’t a warrior right now, there would have been more than one or two people in this group trying to kill me.”

“Haha, how could that be? They’re all good people.”

“…”

Good?

I looked at the women spread out in a circle to the left and right of the warrior.

“How could there not be a single man?”

Why was I sitting across from the warrior?

The ignorant fool does not know the fierce battle of wits that took place underwater during the process of deciding the position.

If only I had not possessed the magic and power to seal the Demon King’s soul, they would never have left me alone.

The warrior does not know the truth.

“…Okay. So what do you want to say? What are you going to do after sealing all seven Demon Lords?”

“I will serve you, Master.”

“What?”

My stomach suddenly hurts.

My stomach feels like it’s going to turn inside out, as if the cells in my stomach are rotting away.

“Originally, I wanted to serve you in my hometown, but that’s going to be very difficult.”

“That’s true.”

The hero’s hometown.

There’s a reason why I chose this naive and innocent guy as the hero in the village where the Holy Sword was chosen.

All the others had disqualifications, so I kicked them out, and this guy was the only one left after the elimination process.

That’s all.

Of course, I didn’t say anything to the hero directly.

I chose this young man, Arthur, as the hero because he is more just, fair, and pure than anyone else.

Anyone can become the master of the Holy Sword, but I was the one who chose the master of the Holy Sword.

“I will serve you, Master. What do you think?”

“Okay. Instead of worrying about me, shouldn’t you be thinking about how you’re going to live with one of these kids?”

“Ah, that, that…”

Arthur blushed and started to check my mood.

“Master, if you’re talking about that in front of everyone…!”

“What. They’re all sleeping right now. It’s because they’re sleeping that we can talk about this. Hehe. Who is it? My childhood friend, the Sword Saint? Or the Saintess? Or the Princess of the Elif Kingdom? Or that one…”

“Master.”

“Huh?”

“That…”

Arthur let out a deep sigh and lowered his head.

“Do I really deserve to live the rest of my life with someone?”

“…”

Ah, here we go again.

He’s starting to dig by himself again.

“If that guy keeps torturing himself like that, I’ll have no answer for him.”

I want to punch him in the face and yell, “Enough, you punk!” but the guy with the holy sword is stronger than me physically.

Even if he responds to my attack by saying, “I’m sorry, Master!” and I apologize by saying, “I was so frustrated!”, the women next to me won’t leave me alone.

In that case, there’s only one best way.

“Why? Because the demon blood on your hands won’t come off?”

“!!”

All I can do is untie the knot so that I can finish digging as quickly as possible.

“You were just a country boy, but you killed countless demons. There are three demon lords sealed in your hands. Are you worried about the future after you defeat all four demon lords?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“How can someone who has committed countless massacres live happily?”

“Ahahaha!”

…I wanted to laugh, “Kuhahaha.”

However, my body wasn’t one to allow such hearty laughter.

Of course, my body was nothing more than a stunted 20-year-old child.

“It’s been a long time since you made me laugh again, Arthur.”

Of course, that didn’t mean that the laughter would disappear.

“Do you consider the demons alive now?”

“Yes?”

“No. The demons are not living beings. They are demons, monsters who act like humans to deceive humans. Don’t be fooled.”

“But they are….”

“Yes. They are intelligent and cunning. They pretend to be good for humans on the outside, but they worry and worry about how to use humans behind their backs. They are two-faced.”

Just like I use Arthur.

“Then, will the butcher go to livestock hell for killing countless cows and pigs? Does it make sense that someone who killed all the demon king’s troops who tried to enslave humans and brought peace to the continent will not only die but be dragged to hell and suffer forever?”

A warrior comes down to hell, the demon world, after dying? That is absolutely unacceptable.

“If that day comes, I will send you to heaven with all my might. How can you send a warrior like you to hell? That is ridiculous. I will fight with an angel to send you to heaven.”

“Master…”

“Then you should seize your happiness. When are you the happiest?”

“L…”

Arthur stared at the campfire and said nothing for a while.

I felt relieved that I had just passed the right time to dig.

Thank goodness!

Now I could feel a little more at ease.

I couldn’t understand why I had to take care of this guy’s mentality when there were so many other women.

No, actually, I know the answer.

These women only know how to physically satisfy Arthur and make him forget, but they don’t know how to mentally stabilize him.

The fate of a handsome man is truly strange.

There are so many women around him, but in reality, they are all women who are attracted only by Arthur’s appearance, abilities, and power as a warrior.

They pretend to be nice in front of Arthur, but behind his back, they are all desperate to share the same bed with him.

These guys are the warrior party.

This is truly the end of the world.

“It wasn’t like that when I was there! The warrior party I saw was nothing like this. The owner of the holy sword, the elven archer, the dwarven warrior, and even the great wizard were all muscular men who could easily defeat an orc in a 1:1. Friendship! Passion! A comrade you can trust! Compared to the current party of warriors, they were the kind of people who could have a drink and shake off their fights.”

“What are they doing now?”

The human warriors would have died because their lifespans were over, but the elven archers and dwarven warriors would still be alive because of their age.

The great wizard…

“Come to think of it, Master.”

“Huh?”

“When were you the happiest, Master?”

“Me? Me….”

I answered obediently.

“When I was sleeping in bed.”

“…”

Arthur didn’t say a word after that, but I was the happiest when I was sleeping.

I can’t sleep now.

This body, this body, is dead.

“I want to seal the demon lords quickly and go home.”

“I know the whereabouts of three demon lords, but you don’t know where the remaining one is, do you?”

“Ah, that’s fine. Once I seal the remaining six demon lords, the remaining one will appear.”

“Yes?”

“That’s right….”

That demon lord is me.

“Well, let’s talk about that later. It seems like the enemy is slowly approaching.”

At my words, the hero grabbed the holy sword again.

And the others lying next to him also got up one by one.

“We’re near the Demon King’s Castle, so be careful. That’s where the Demon King of Sloth, ‘Belphegor,’ ruled 500 years ago.”

The castle that was my base 500 years ago.

“Battle stance.”

I took a deep breath as I prepared to give orders to the Hero’s party.

The Hero doesn’t know.

The companions he thought were trustworthy were actually not sleeping and eavesdropping on our conversation.

And the Hero’s party doesn’t know.

The witch in the Hero’s party, who was supposedly sealed 500 years ago, is actually the Demon King.

“Will I be able to survive those women who look at the Hero with loving eyes and look at me with jealousy and envy behind my back?”

Once I seal the six Demon Kings, I’ll quickly take the kids and run to the Demon World.

I want to quickly regain my body and return to the Demon World and sleep.

However, that’s all I want.

“You’re all quick! Okay, great! I’ll take the lead!”

“So. Follow me! I’ll open the way!”

Please.

“Cat burglar.”

“Huh.”

“How cheeky…”

I wish you’d stop looking at me like a romantic interest.

“Ha, haha.”

I sighed as I looked at the women running forward.

“I’m a man, you idiots! I, Demon King Belphegor.”

I’m a Demon King who was forced to possess a girl’s body.