Chapter 210 – Chapter 210 ― The Demon King (5)
Episode 210 ― It’s the Demon King (5)
I had a dream.
Surrounded by monsters, a dream that only children dream of.
And yet, strangely, the nightmare that should have been scary was not scary, but rather bizarre and ridiculous, because in the dream, monsters surrounded the goddess, dancing and singing.
From Orcs, Trolls and Minotaurs to Goblins, Arachnes and Imps.
Monsters of various colors were spinning round and round in a big circle, surrounding the goddess wearing a garland. What the goddess was thinking, she smiled and looked at them as if they were cute.
I heard a faint song, so I listened closely. The wind blew the lyrics.
Ringa linga linga linga linga linga…
While frowning at the meaningless lyrics, the monsters all looked back at themselves.
“Omg… !”
I tried to run away, but there is no law that always goes as I want in my dreams. The moment her strong hand grabbed her shoulder, her eyes widened.
“… Are you okay?”
Strange ceiling, unfamiliar face.
Sermo was once again startled by the blurry human figure.
It was the voice of a girl with light pink hair.
“Who…”
Sermo frowned.
It was to recognize the person in front of me.
The voice is familiar.
“This is Grünent.”
It’s a familiar name.
Grunent. Grünent…
Who was it
Yes, Grunent Les Merde… ?!
Sermo, who finally remembered who the owner of her name was, vigorously raised her body.
“Wow!”
“Ouch…”
As a result, the foreheads of the two clashed violently.
Aina was shocked and ran to Grunent.
“Are you okay?”
“Ha ha…”
“… Oh my, princess… Sorry, sorry…”
Aina, who rubbed Grünent’s forehead to see if there was a lump, screamed.
“You look like a lesser human being! Headbutt all over again, are you crazy?”
“Gong, why is the princess here…”
“Sermo, are you okay?”
Helen called to Sermo in a worried voice in the midst of a mayhem. Hearing her voice, the bishop felt like he was coming back to his senses.
“Helen. Where is this place?”
“You passed out earlier.”
“As soon as I woke up, I almost did it again. This time with someone else.”
Aina smirked. Hearing those words, Grunent touched her forehead and suppressed her laughter.
“Aina, it’s okay, I am.”
“What is that strange human being?”
“Long time no see. Sermo. Nothing has changed. You are healthy.”
Fortunately or not.
Grünent smiled and said hello.
Only then did the bishop, who fully grasped the situation, belatedly regain his calm voice.
“Her Highness Princess Grünent, long time no see. I am very happy that you seem to be doing well.”
“I almost didn’t feel good.”
“Majesty.”
Seeing Sermo’s embarrassed expression, Grünent covered her mouth and laughed softly before clearing her throat and straightening herself.
“Hmmmm. I am no longer Your Highness. It’s just Grünent.”
“Ah…”
Sermo understood at once.
“… The news is true.”
“I’m satisfied, so it’s okay. You said you met His Majesty on the way?”
“Ah, yes, what…”
Sermo shookly nodded his head.
In his mind, he was desperately examining whether he had committed any major disrespect while meeting Roan at the temple.
And Grünent is a person who can see through the heart.
“Bishop, you don’t have to worry about that. Your Majesty doesn’t care about such trivial things.”
“He seemed like an unassuming person.”
Said Sermo, putting her glasses on, which Helen had brought her, and set her head back down.
“But, being surrounded by demons overnight, my heart is still racing.”
“It will take a while, but you will find out soon. That they are just like us.”
The gray-haired old man nodded his head.
In the end, the title of demon king would be demeaning to the people here, but the emperor called himself the demon king as a joke.
It must have been an introduction considering myself as a human being.
All the demons I met inside and outside the castle,
Even the spider-human chancellor I met in the hallway didn’t seem strange to me.
He responded like a human to Sermo’s words.
His Highness Grünent is probably right.
Like most of her words were.
“By the way, you will meet not only the demons, but also unexpectedly precious people. She thought it was a miracle that the saintess was alive, but before the princess… , No, meeting Grünent and the forest fairy outside the forest.”
Aina’s gaze, which had been looking at Sermo with her arrogant gaze, softened even more.
“Grunent and his friendly people are generally my favourites. Most humans think of us as something from a legend.”
“I’m not as good as a forest fairy, but I think I’ve lived quite well for a human.”
“Huh.”
Aina stood up beside Grunent, crossed her arms and nodded her head.
“It’s not the forest fairy, it’s Aina.”
Grunent and Helen, who knew the meaning of her name she revealed, looked at each other in surprise, but Sermo, who did not know it, just introduced herself.
“Thank you, Miss Aina. My name is Sermo, who served Goddess Laurecia and served as the bishop of Berat in the church.”
“Oh yeah. His Majesty said that the church kidnapped priests, but that’s you.”
Sermo’s eyes widened.
As Grunent looked at her child with her triangular eyes, Aina scratched her cheek shyly.
“… I’m kidding.”
“Aina, the one who fainted and just woke up!”
Grunent, who had scolded her Aina, also rose from her chair.
“Then, shall we move, Bishop? There are quite a lot of things I want to show you.”
Grünent smiled brightly.
**
Instead of Roan, who was away for office work
Grünent, Helen, and Aina were to be guided by Bishop Sermo to Basel.
“Please understand, Bishop. His Majesty is very busy since he got married only two days ago.”
“Yes? Marriage?”
The bishop, who had inadvertently asked, suddenly looked at Grunent. However, Grünent said with a stern smile.
“Are you okay. Yes, Her Highness has finally arrived.”
“I didn’t know. The emperor of one country, before and after the wedding, even changed his appearance, appearing directly in the capital of the enemy country. I couldn’t have imagined it.”
“You have an unconventional side. You have a boyish side. He is a lovely person.”
It was an amazing choice of words.
The remarks of a young lady who fell in love no matter who saw it.
Sermo was startled and turned to Grunent.
Grünent spoke of his love affair with Emperor Goseon, dyeing his cheeks red.
“Anyway, Your Majesty asked me to guide you outside the castle. I work at the top.”
“Are you working? At the top?”
It was a bit embarrassing to think that he was only asking questions, but to Sermo, it was just a surprise.
Because Saint Helen was close to Princess Grunent, Bishop Sermo also had many opportunities to talk with the princess.
He knew how much she longed for her freedom, but how much Sprouse III hindered it. So Sermo could guess how liberated Grunent must have felt.
“Yes. It is one of the top states even if it looks like this.”
“Mr. Grünent. Are you going to work?”
During the conversation, a kobold approaches from the end of the hallway. Wearing official uniforms.
Grünent, after begging her pardon for her bishop with her eyes, greeted her.
“Oh, Alicia. Did you shift quickly today?”
“Yes, it’s the festival period, so the department is short of people.”
While walking the outer castle to head to the top.
That’s how Grünent met and talked with various demons several times.
That scene moved Sermo’s heart more than anything he had ever seen in Basel, the capital of Evirzio.
The creatures of this country, which I thought of as monsters in my heart, are gradually starting to be recognized as ‘people’.
The country they live in is also beginning to feel like another group rather than a land where monsters live.
And that thought culminated when Grunent arrived at the top and showed the demons and humans busily working inside.
“Is this the first time Sermo has been to the headquarters of the corps? He never even visited the human guild, did he?”
“That’s right.”
At Helen’s question, the bishop, who had been looking around blankly, nodded.
“It is such a crazy place.”
“Ah, if you block the road like this… Oh my, sorry!”
A faint, pale-faced maiden was hurrying down the stairs when she bumped into Sermo. Exhausting her tantrum, she noticed Grunent standing in front of her group, and she nodded her head hastily.
Sermo tried to apologize, but she often walked away as she held a pile of fabric in her hands.
“… He is also human… ?”
“Ah. Naru is silky. Undead.”
“Huh…”
In Merde, undead are objects to be exterminated like rats and insects.
But here, as Silky, she has a job and works with humans, living an irritatingly busy life.
No different from the people of Sprouse.
I could already see a human sometimes on the street. While heading to the top through the overpass where humans and small demons walked, Sermo was amazed at the shops looking down, the humans working there, and the demons mixed with them.
‘It’s truly amazing.’
Sermo thought as he looked around the upper building, which was filled with buzzing noises like beehives.
Since then, Helen and Sermo, who visited the guild after a long time, met the humans returning to the guild for work reports after finishing their work for the day.
Thanks to Roan telling the people of Berat through the guild manager in advance, people who knew Bishop Sermo’s face in Berat finished their work early and returned to the guild.
The resistance to the demons was clearly fading little by little. However, this does not mean that the discomfort disappears overnight.
Traveling around the world of demons was more tiring than I thought.
No matter how much they hurt Sermo,
Even if humans do not find it strange to live in the world of demons,
The tension in her body made Sermo more tired than usual.
That’s why he collapsed when he saw humans, even familiar ones. As soon as he saw the face of someone he hadn’t even thought of in a distant land, his tension was relieved.
“Bishop!”
“Uh huh? Isn’t that Hans!”
Helen, who was waiting for the humans with him in the guild drawing room, supported Burinake Sermo.
“Are you okay?”
“Oh, Bishop.”
The old man stood up and laughed as if he had collapsed.
“Anyway, today is too stimulating for an old man like me.”
Sermo, supported by Helen and Hans, settled into a chair, correcting his glasses and smiling benevolently.
“Hans. I heard he lost his life on the battlefield. That he is alive like this It is the grace of the Goddess.”
“Yes. Goddess Laurecia and Her Majesty the Emperor of Evirgio showed mercy.”
Hans ran a farm in Bondi Merde. He was a farmer who had built up his wealth steadily, but he was forced to go to the front after being requisitioned for most of his crops during the war.
Remembering what kind of life the rest of his family is leading, the bishop felt sorry for him.
Hans, who was helping and teaching the work of a wholesaler of crops in the capital of the demon country, looked better than his family in his home country.
“Your Majesty has taken great care of us. When he was first taken prisoner, I thought he was going to die, but he gave me many benefits.”
Sermo had been able to hear briefly about what Hans and the other human captives had been through in the country, and what the Emperor had done for them.
Helen, who had been tipped off by the emperor in advance, added:
“If possible, I would like to bring their families here as well.”
“Oh.”
Sermo’s eyes widened.
“If the family comes here, His Majesty says he will give them a house and land to settle down in. While teaching the demons how to operate the farm.”
Not quite like Helen.
Sermo also met many people while serving in the church, and gradually built up his holy power.
His skill is to penetrate people’s hearts.
The bishop, who read Hans’ hopes for the future and expectations for his family, listened to him happily for a while before asking cautiously.
“Um, Hans. It’s a presumptuous question, but. Have you ever thought of His Majesty deceiving you?”
“… Yes?”
Helen, Hans, and the people from Beratryeong around them looked at the bishop with an absurd expression as he calmly raised his glasses.
