chapter 5
They said this was a test.’
So why does it look like a courtroom?
What is this, “competent = not guilty, incompetent = guilty”?
I, sitting with the twins in a semicircle of jury seats, slowly lifted my head and looked toward the center of the courtroom.
There was a seat that looked like the defendant’s stand. It seemed like people were being sent there one by one for their “test.”
Good thing I don’t have stage fright. I glanced around at the nearly fifty jury seats packed tightly together.
‘All of them are demons.’
As I scanned them one by one, a few faces felt familiar. Faces that had been famous in my past life.
‘Not for anything good.’
They were infamous for their filthy personalities. Cruel. Brutal. The kind of people who had reputations like permanent stains.
‘Back then I just cursed them for not being human… turns out they really weren’t human.’
Right. They’re demons after all.
Either way, better not get noticed by them. I couldn’t afford to be exposed as human.
The twins were still young, so I could probably fool them easily enough, but full-grown demons would be much harder. Until I fully settled in, I needed to avoid unnecessary attention.
“Sekina. Nervous?”
Pardes suddenly spoke to me.
Why would I be nervous?
I looked at him, confused—then realized. Ah. He was the nervous one. Trembling. Shaking like a leaf. He looked like he might collapse any second.
“You’re all probably nervous. It’s fine. If you don’t feel nervous here, that’s the weird part.”
“Fuu! Fuu!”
Looking around, not just Pardes but Merdes was trembling too. So were all the other kids nearby.
Well, of course they were. One wrong move here and you die.
‘If I hadn’t gotten my quest… I’d probably be shaking like that too.’
But that’s irrelevant. I’ve got the ultimate cheat.
“Meow! (You’re all dead, idiots!)”
I giggled and shouted triumphantly—
BOOM. THUD.
The ground and the seats began to shake.
What? A monster? In a place full of demons?
I widened my eyes and looked around, but no one seemed alarmed. The only exception was Pardes, who jumped up excitedly, eyes sparkling.
“Riat sir!”
He ran toward the open door, hopping like a child. Naturally, I turned my gaze that way too.
There stood an enormous man.
So huge and fierce-looking he could’ve been mistaken for a monster or a demon.
‘One punch from that guy and I’m dead.’
I felt a chill and narrowed my eyes.
Something was sitting on his shoulder.
Then it moved—jumped down lightly.
A man with white hair tied up high, wearing a tailcoat and a monocle. His expression was sharp and cold, but he was so small it didn’t feel intimidating.
“Sir Riat! When did you arrive? I would’ve come to greet you!”
Pardes stretched out his arms and shouted.
Based on what Pardes said last night, that small demon must be “Sir Riat.”
The brilliant magic power of His Majesty the Demon King, and the genius-level knowledge of the most respected Sir Riat in the world, combined to create us!
A demon who created homunculi (artificial humans).
That’s the one I need to watch most carefully. If he created artificial humans, the chance he’ll figure out I’m a real human is high.
And also…
That big one.
I’ve seen him somewhere before.
Before I could think further, Riat stepped forward quickly, holding Pardes’s hand.
“Is this the defective unit you mentioned, Lord Pardes?”
“Eek! (J-jesus, you startled me.)”
Riat’s gray eyes glinted as he looked down at me.
Defective? Interesting?
I stared up at him with my mouth slightly open.
“Yes. But I’m not sure it’s defective. It might not be. It doesn’t seem like the input was applied, but it’s already manipulating mana. It even defeated our Cerberus.”
For some reason, Pardes sounded a little proud while defending me. Why he was proud of me beating their dog, I had no idea.
“No input data, yet it retains self-awareness and can use power…”
Riat’s lips curled upward.
“Fascinating.”
He removed his monocle and put it in his pocket, then looked away from me.
“I look forward to seeing what it shows at the tribunal.”
I have a bad feeling about this.
If I fail here, I’ll be labeled a “defective unit with no input data” and discarded. If I succeed, I’ll become a “valuable research subject” and get dragged around by this guy.
Hmm.
Well, my plan won’t fail, so it’ll probably be the latter.
I glanced toward the huge man by the door.
And suddenly, I had a thought.
‘A veteran gamer always stands above the demons.’
I am that veteran.
Proud of myself, I mentally checked my plan step by step.
“Big bro is standing in front of Sir Riat… I’m so nervous I can’t even talk…”
“Well, of course! Sir Riat is the person I respect most in the world! I’ll become a scary demon like him someday too!”
The twins giggled and gave me a thumbs-up.
“Sekina, do your best.”
“Yeah! Sekina, fighting!”
Fine. I was always going to do well anyway.
Courtroom – Later
“Discard it.”
“Discard.”
“Throw them all away. Useless. Completely useless.”
Sitting in the judge’s seat, Riat ruffled his hair in irritation.
So far, eight homunculi had stood in the defendant’s seat. None had passed the test. All of them were discarded.
Damn it. What’s the problem?
Among his creations, only Julian—who showed exceptional talent from birth—and Nisha—who started weak but grew remarkably over time—were acceptable. And the twins Pardes and Merdes were decent as well. The rest were failures.
He had clearly “input” the correct data and performed proper “creation.”
Yet they kept failing.
If I don’t know the cause, I can’t fix it…
The reason Riat created homunculi was simple.
With the Demon King’s power sealed in the human world, fifty elite demon warriors had descended.
But demons required demonic energy to survive. They couldn’t stay long in the human world.
They needed humans who could act in their place—but proud demons could not bring themselves to mate with humans.
So Riat used the Demon King’s power to create artificial humans.
Beings with human bodies that could survive in the human world, yet possessed demon power.
Of course, he also embedded loyalty to the Demon King and basic knowledge as “input,” to prevent rebellion.
So they were supposed to be intelligent and capable from the moment they awakened.
And yet…
Most turned out flawed—too weak, too unintelligent, or unable to control human bodies properly.
For every ten created, nine were discarded.
Tch.
Riat clicked his tongue and rubbed the back of his neck.
At least the next subject was Nisha, one of his most promising creations.
“Whoa!”
“It’s a mid-tier spirit!”
Nisha, standing in the defendant’s seat, formed a summoning circle using her own blood—and immediately summoned a mid-tier spirit, a salamander.
“Using a spirit that is naturally opposed to demons… impressive.”
“If she’s not a full demon, it makes sense. If she keeps growing like this, she could overturn the human world.”
Riat agreed with the others’ assessment. At only six years old, Nisha already surpassed many adult human spirit users.
“Pass. Good work.”
“Thank you.”
Nisha bowed briefly and left.
Next were the twins: Pardes demonstrated alchemy, and Merdes swordsmanship.
Alchemy was solid, and the sword contained faint sword aura. There was no reason to reject them.
“Thank you, Sir Riat! We’ll work harder to be useful to you!”
“Thank you very much.”
They bowed repeatedly.
A heartwarming sight—but Riat turned away with a sour expression.
They’ll be discarded anyway once we find the Demon King’s power.
Half-finished demons could not return to the demon world.
Still…
He did treat them, at least formally, as the Demon King’s children.
That alone was enough reason for them to exist.
They were created for that purpose.
Suppressing a strange feeling rising within him, Riat turned to the final subject.
The infant he had seen earlier.
The unusual homunculus who had defeated Cerberus.
Sekina Daimon.
“Meow!”
Sekina crawled forward toward the defendant’s seat.
Even without proper input, it still shows some sense of awareness.
But that’s all.
No matter how special it seemed, without ability it was still a failure.
Show me.
Riat put his monocle back on and stared at Sekina.
Once seated, Sekina rummaged inside her clothes and pulled something out.
“Myaa! (Look at this, you bastards!)”
“W-what? Why is she holding that?”
“What is she going to do?”
That tiny hand was holding—
Riat’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.
