Chapter 1 : Soft Demon King and the Hero Party

The story of me becoming a demon lord is from a very long time ago.

It’s so old that I can’t remember exactly how many years ago it was.

I was born in Korea and lived a normal life as a man, but when I opened my eyes, I was in another world.

Now, I can’t even remember what triggered it.

Was I hit by a truck?

Did the web novel I was reading suddenly go off the rails, leading me to write a 5,700-word rant?

Did I create a new character in my favorite game because of the new DLC?

Honestly, it doesn’t matter.

I became a woman and the demon lord so long ago that the reason doesn’t even need to be remembered.

The demon lord with the magnificent horns on her head could do anything.

I met many demons who shared my will and could do whatever I wanted.

It was really easy to become a being who could rule the whole world.

And then the obvious happened.

A hero’s party appeared.

As the cliché goes, the demon lord was defeated.

Thanks to that, my second life ended spectacularly.

‘Thus began the great third life of this body…!’

I tried to shout loudly in my heart with a lot of spirit, but I couldn’t find even a fragment of charisma in my appearance reflected in the cracked mirror.

I still liked the blood-red hair.

I also liked that my hair had grown so much that it reached my toes.

‘It’s an absurd display of decline and downfall… tsk.’

But the horn, neatly split in half, was not good.

And the body of a child, where not to mention maturity, even the baby fat hadn’t properly disappeared, was the worst.

Isn’t it like bragging that I barely survived with a small and young body after being defeated by the hero’s party?

‘How did I end up like this…’

It’s too small.

It’s not just that I’m a little short or have a small chest, is it?

I look so young that it’s hard to say exactly how old I am in human years!

It makes me angry every time I look in the mirror.

Is it telling me to become a pet demon by acting cute in front of a passing noble human or what?

‘It would have been nice if I had a slightly more mature and voluptuous body…’

It’s a shame, but there’s nothing I can do.

Whatever form I take, the fact that I’m alive is important.

I’ve done it once, can’t I do it twice?

I can quickly return to being the magnificent demon lord who rules this world.

‘Still… really… it would have been nice if I was about ten years older…’

The image of the small demon visible beyond the mirror is something I can’t get used to no matter how many times I look at it.

Is it because I wasn’t this young when I started my second life?

The clothes I’m wearing were also a broken black dress, which made me look even younger.

‘But look at the state of the demon lord’s castle.

This is no time to be lamenting the youth of the body!’

The demon lord’s castle, overflowing with gold and silver treasures, decorated with magic stones and sparkling marble, is gone.

The demon lord’s castle I’m currently living in is a cave buried with pure white bones of unknown origin.

If those who don’t know magic well saw the state of this demon lord’s castle, they would laugh and say it’s pitiful or pathetic, but I was feeling an enormous possibility.

Honestly, if I were in a nice castle with this small, soft body, I would just get attacked by passing adventurers or nobles with nothing to do.

In a way, it had the advantage of being able to live a perfectly concealed life, and the ‘noble magic’ felt from these old bones had infinite potential.

‘Kukuku… yes!

Everything is ready!’

Food, clothing, and shelter are all taken care of, so I just need to wait for my body to grow.

If I’m lucky enough to get a smart monster that listens well as a subordinate, I can use it.

And this underground life, in a way, is practice for making a dungeon, so it’s actually good luck, right?

-Rumble!

I spent too much time in front of the mirror.

This small body needs to eat regularly and often.

There is a small field near the demon lord’s castle.

I never planted any seeds, but vegetables imbued with magic, ‘Potakes’, were growing wildly.

I was eating them every day because pulling the green sprouts sticking out of the field gave me a meal.

I get to eat breakfast and replenish my magic, killing two birds with one stone!

I grabbed the protruding sprout with both hands and pulled hard.

This time, please…!

Come out in one go!!!

-Snap!

“…Kkyipat!”

My body fell backward, and I landed on my butt with a ‘thud’, but it only hurt a little.

I’m feeling lucky today?!

Last time, I pulled for 10 minutes and it didn’t come out, and I just lost strength!

“Kkyapyaat!”

Flop flop!

The ‘Potake’ in my hand, with its sprout caught, waved its limbs cutely back and forth.

Even though they were called limbs, they were just the roots of a potato.

“Hup!”

I quickly used magic to create a blade and cut off the Potake’s sprout.

“Kkyapyaat…….”

Potakes had a lot in common with mandrakes.

First, they’re ugly.

Mandrakes look like old men with a lot of beards, but Potakes look like bearded dwarves with a lot of beards.

And they were the same in that the loud scream disappears when you cut off the ‘sprout’ growing on their heads.

Originally, eating a potato with sprouts is as dangerous as drinking a glass of bleach, but it doesn’t matter with Potakes.

-Ssssss!

I’m lucky today?

I hummed a tune and put the Potake in a basket made of branches.

What just went around me was a ‘square salt bug’.

At first, I thought it was a monster that played a bad prank, but it was really a square lump of salt that had turned into a bug.

Unfortunately, there’s really little to eat…

“Hyup…!”

I shot a fireball at the square salt bug, which was smaller than my thumb, and hit it.

This kind of magic is nothing to the demon lord who once ruled the world!

Anyway, I put the cleanly burned square salt bug in the basket too.

This should be enough for breakfast, right?

Since I got the square salt bug, I can season it with salt.

“Gulp…”

If only the monsters living around the demon lord’s castle were a little easier to deal with, I could have eaten more.

It’s really a shame.

Monsters like ‘instant death rabbits’ and ‘skeleton birds’ are too much for this small body to handle.

I gave up on hunting a long time ago because there was no point in suffering for four days just to have a delicious meal.

-Clatter!

But I have Potake today.

For lunch, I’ll go to the river and catch some fish.

Since I caught the square salt bug early today, if I catch just one or two small fish, I can make stew.

“Gulp…”

Ah, just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

If I catch two more Potakes and put them in a pot with the fish and boil them, it’ll be really delicious.

I’ll need one more square salt bug, though…!

I can eat well for two days.

-Chop chop!

While imagining a pleasant lunch, I prepared the Potake for the immediate lunch.

I tried the roots that looked like arms and legs last time, but they were definitely not edible.

I had to carefully cut off the sprout that was slightly left on the head.

-Bang bang bang pak!

After that, I prepared the blackened square salt bug.

If you peel off the square shell and grind it, you can use it as salt.

The subtle bland taste is a problem, but it’s nothing compared to the advantage of being able to taste salt.

It’s salt.

Salt!

It’s such a huge stroke of luck to be able to get salt, which is so precious that it’s used as money, by catching bugs.

‘I should put some water in the pot…’

I stopped my busy hands.

-Tingle tingle!

I felt a pain in my broken horn.

It was proof that an ‘enemy’ had appeared around the demon lord’s castle, so I moved quickly.

If I go outside the cave now, I’ll definitely be caught by the enemy.

I grabbed an old bone and skillfully climbed up to the ‘ceiling’.

Those who invade this demon lord’s castle will never know!

That there’s a secret place I found on this ceiling!

-Creak!

Like sneaking into an attic, I quickly pushed my body into the gap in the ceiling.

It’s a little unstable because I had to squeeze my body in, but it won’t collapse and fall, right?

-Creak!

There were small bones densely packed under the gap, so I could know what was happening below if I wanted to.

I hope things go well like last time.

Back then, they talked amongst themselves for about 5 minutes and left.

-Thud thud!

The sound of two footsteps coming from afar was strangely scary.

“Is the prophecy wrong?

No matter how I think about it, this isn’t the demon lord’s castle.”

The voice, full of energy, belonged to a woman.

She had shiny blonde hair tied in a ponytail like the sun.

And she was dressed in leather armor that showed care and luxury.

‘The sword at her waist…

Hmph, it’s an evil holy sword.’

A demon lord can tell just by the shape of the scabbard or the magic it emits.

“Sister Maeve, a prophecy is never wrong.”

“I don’t think our Saint Dominicus would be wrong, but~ look.

There’s nothing here.”

Dominicus’ voice was calm compared to the lively woman, Maeve.

He had neatly arranged brown hair and was wearing a clean, pure white priestly robe.

He said he was a saint, right?

A hero and a saint, it’s not just annoying, they’re humans I never want to meet.

“There’s no way a smelly, damp hole made by doggies is the demon lord’s castle.”

“I also agree with Sister Maeve.

But the prophecy is not wrong.”

“Is it saying that the demon lord’s castle will be here in about 50 years?

I really don’t want to wait again!”

Maeve sighed, hitting her back with her left hand.

I don’t want to either, so can’t you just leave?

If you don’t think it’s the demon lord’s castle, stop complaining and just leave!

“The demon lord, Purpure, is here.

The prophecy is still saying that.”

-Gulp!

The moment I heard the name ‘Purpure’, I unknowingly put strength into my hands and legs.

Purpure was my third name.

With the start of this soft and small healing life, I instinctively knew that the name was mine.

I realized my name instinctively in my second life too.

…Wait a minute, does that mean they came specifically looking for ‘me’?

A hero and a saint?

“Awawa…”

No matter how I think about it, this seems like a disaster…?