~Chapter 5~
“What did you say? You idiot brat dare…!”
The boy stepped forward and raised his hand high.
“Ugh.”
I tried to hold back using magic, but no luck.
Using the magic I had carefully saved, black mist swirled around my hand.
The cousins got scared and quickly backed away.
“Eek!”
They acted like I had some disease.
“What’s that?! So dirty… Could it be… dirty dark magic! You don’t even know shame!”
“Huh? What’s ‘dark magic’?”
I spread both hands. The energy had vanished by then.
“What?”
“I don’t know that!”
“Ha! You think I’m afraid of such lies? You dirty idiot brat are nothing!”
A lowly, filthy beast!
Young cousin 1 shouted the worst curse he knew, face burning red.
“Ugh, I have good work to do…”
Why does the world make things so hard for me?
Hard, so hard.
“Your speech is weird and you’re dumb!”
Hearing angry insults made me think doing good deeds in this family would be very unlikely.
If I let them bully me, it’d be very miserable for the great Demon King.
Thud!
A nine-year-old extra boldly shoved my shoulder.
I staggered a little, unprepared because I was thinking how to deal with the jerk.
My head felt dazed like I was hit from behind.
Even though they were just kids pretending to be adults, it hurt my feelings.
“Hey, did you hit me?”
My pronunciation was clear this time.
I usually slurred words, so the kids looked surprised, eyes wide.
But this was a phrase I’d said hundreds of times as a human, so it wasn’t hard to say.
Fortunately, this phrase hadn’t changed in a thousand years.
“You’re dead.”
Just two words, but the easiest I could say in human language.
“Patati, akhu.”
(* “Get down, rat.”)
The boy’s face stiffened at my words.
“What, are you cursing me?!”
But nothing happened.
‘…Really?’
The boy, who’d been tense, now pointed at me proudly.
“This monster uses strange magic, I’ll tell Grandpa to give it a fitting punishment!”
Syphon looked worried but eventually bowed in front of the cousins.
“You dirty idiot! Don’t show yourself to me again!”
“…Yes, Nifel.”
Syphon looked cautious and gently pulled me away.
She wanted to leave, and since she looked like she might cry, I nodded.
Fighting this nine-year-old brat here wouldn’t help me.
Still, it was shocking that even simple magic didn’t work.
“Kyaaa! Rat!”
While wondering what was wrong, I heard a loud scream behind me.
Rats appeared from somewhere, chasing Nifel (or Niphl?) and biting his clothes and shoes.
“Ah-ha.”
Watching this comedy, I chuckled.
“Did you do this, Miss?”
“Yes.”
I’d asked the sky to send rats, but maybe I couldn’t use magic to summon them directly, so I gathered nearby rats.
“W-what is this!”
“Eek! Help! Ew! Filthy! What is this! Brother!”
“Shut up! What is this… aagh!”
The three servants screamed, stomping their feet, and ran away from the rats.
They looked like their tails were on fire as rats clung all over.
The kids pretending to be adults ran away crying—it was hilarious.
“Pfft, haha!”
I stayed put, enjoying their screams and laughed quietly before turning away.
“You won’t get away with this!”
I heard a scream from afar, but I didn’t care.
‘This is a problem.’
The guards here were too strict.
I couldn’t even inform my father about my situation.
I remembered a recent talk with Syphon.
“Syphon, where is my father?”
“Ah… Your father, Kaelos Egbert, is the leader of the paladins, so he lives at the temple.”
“Not home?”
“…No, I heard he hasn’t come to the mansion for years.”
“I see.”
I didn’t know what kind of man my father was, but I had to see him.
He was outside, and I couldn’t leave here without permission.
With strict guards, sending even one letter would be hard.
‘I definitely need a demon beast to help.’
To summon a demon beast, I needed magic.
About three times the magic I had now.
A young demon could do it easily, but I only had a tiny bit of magic left.
If my magic was a large lake, what I had now was a single drop in a dry lake.
So, barely noticeable.
It might dry up anytime.
Plus, to regain magic, I had to do good deeds, but the conditions were awful.
I seemed to be hated.
My magic was almost none.
Even if I wanted to help, no one would accept help from a powerless kid.
Right now, I was in a tough spot.
Syphon led me back to my room.
I touched my tiny hands, face, body, and even tinier magic.
‘Let’s try summoning.’
With a demon beast’s help, I could use magic without spending my magic.
Contracted demon beasts don’t require magic to use their power.
They can even fight small battles for you.
Demon beasts are a young demon’s guide, birth, death, and even the world’s end.
That was a saying in the demon world.
Why a demon beast means death and the end, I didn’t know.
One more thing a young Demon King needed was a demon.
Not “demon race,” but a demon as a protector.
Only powerful chosen demons earned the title of protector.
Demons were teachers, butlers, guides, and rule enforcers for Demon Kings.
While demon beasts helped with magic and other roles.
“Miss…?”
Syphon called me out of my thoughts.
“Can I go out?”
“Ah, yes. I-I’ll prepare your meal soon.”
I shook my head at her.
“No meal today. Come tomorrow, early.”
Syphon looked strange and backed out.
I dragged a chair to the door, climbed on it, locked the door, then jumped down.
‘I’m ready.’
All that was left was to summon a demon beast.
I had no magic to summon a demon.
When I was Demon King, a spell alone could summon one, but now magic was too little.
Maybe my bloodline was weak too, since I was half demon.
I took a fist-sized stone I’d hidden outside and stood in front of the mirror.
I hit the mirror hard with it.
Smash.
Crack.
Smash.
Clang!
One side of the old full-length mirror shattered, pieces fell to the floor.
I picked a suitable shard and pricked it with my finger.
It stung like a needle, but the pain wasn’t the problem.
I felt too weak to protect my life even from normal humans.
‘I guess they won’t kill me easily since I’m alive now…’
Better to prepare an escape just in case.
Before blood dripped, I quickly drew a circle on the hard marble floor with my finger.
Inside the circle, I wrote demon language—the summoning circle for a demon beast.
I filled the edges with swirling script and drew an inverted pentagram in the center.
I dropped a few drops of blood and plucked some hair.
Normally unnecessary, but needed to increase summoning chances.
‘Focus, focus.’
This was my only chance.
I had to pour all my magic in.
“Aham rakassa naman karootti, akya naba rakassa prasutti maratti etya.”
(* “In the name of the Demon King, I announce the birth of a new Demon King. Come, end, be my faithful servant.” *)
I carefully recited the summoning spell, not wanting to mispronounce.
The circle started glowing black.
