The Hero and the Demon King 2
When Ferdinand and Griffith immediately stepped behind Yu Ji-ho, a young boy revealed himself. His eyes were the familiar crimson hue, yet the boy who possessed black hair—exactly like Ji-ho—could only be Kim Jae-hyun, the Demon King himself.
Kim Jae-hyun’s arrival filled Ferdinand and Griffith with fury, but the Dragon Lord’s gaze remained utterly calm. After all, in the age when he had once been the Hero, the Dragon Lord had stood against the previous Demon King, Leylana, to protect the Intermediate World alongside Jae-hyun.
Yet the Dragon Lord was an embodiment of pure dragon nature—always cold, unflinching, and utterly indifferent to the lives of mortals. He cared only that the Demon King who threatened the Intermediate World in the present era had appeared. He saw no need to concern himself with the tangled webs of hatred and grudges woven among humans.
And Jae-hyun felt no emotions toward the Dragon Lord whatsoever. He had never entertained the pointless act of appealing to a being completely devoid of feeling.
He regarded the Dragon Lord as nothing more than a machine performing the role of guardian of the Intermediate World, dismissing him without a second glance while glaring at Ji-ho with cold contempt.
“8000 years ago, the ancient Hero. Your name is Yu Ji-ho, is it not?”
“That’s right. Kim Jae-hyun. How did you know my name?”
Ji-ho was stunned that Jae-hyun already knew his name, despite never having introduced himself. In the modern world he had not held a lowly position, yet he had kept his presence hidden. In the twenty-first century, the unseen side of the world was far easier to manipulate than the visible one, so he had concealed himself and moved in shadow. Even if Jae-hyun were Korean, it was inconceivable that the young man before him would recognize him.
“Why do you suppose I know?”
Jae-hyun’s cold smile asked the question, and Ji-ho blinked, as if something had clicked. He glanced at Ferdinand and Griffith.
“Ah, the curse blocked my sight. You even set up listening and monitoring magic on them?”
Ji-ho’s surprise at the display of magic strength allowed him to pierce the curse laid by Jae-hyun on Ferdinand and Griffith and uncover the hidden power beneath.
While placing curses on Ferdinand and Griffith, Jae-hyun had discreetly added listening and surveillance magic precisely to watch them suffer from their post-sexual agony. Even a 10th Circle Archmage like Griffith and the ancient Hero Ji-ho could not easily detect it; it had been hidden with extraordinary solidity.
“I have no interest in the gay antics of those two, but watching them enjoy themselves and then sob in regret afterward is quite amusing.”
Jae-hyun’s calm voice admitted what he had overheard. Ferdinand and Griffith’s faces turned ashen.
“Y-you bastard! So you’ve been laughing at us the whole time… and you knew our plan all along?!”
“Hehe, of course. Because of you I had to become the Demon King. I had to be prepared. Summoning the ancient Hero was entertaining, so I let it happen. But if it hadn’t been for other plans, I would have interfered.”
Ferdinand felt crushing humiliation. He had been the Emperor, the purest blood of the Habsburg Empire! He had come to view Ji-ho as a lowly wretch, yet he had been toyed with by someone even lower—Kim Jae-hyun. The anger surged like never before.
“I’d like to speak with the ancient Hero and the Demon King of today for a moment. Any objections?”
Even Ji-ho nodded.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“Then we should set up a barrier.”
To prevent Ferdinand, Griffith, and the Dragon Lord from overhearing or interrupting, Jae-hyun flicked his fingers. The barrier flared into existence.
The Kim Jae-hyun standing here was not the original body but one of his clones. Yet that did not make him any less than the Demon King himself. The only difference was the distance; the body he moved with was undeniably his, and it possessed sufficient power.
The instant the barrier enveloped Ji-ho and Jae-hyun, Ferdinand, Griffith, and the Dragon Lord could see nothing and hear nothing of the conversation.
Now the ancient Hero and the Demon King faced each other in direct confrontation. Ji-ho spoke first.
“It seemed I could have prevented my summoning here at any time. Why didn’t you?”
Jae-hyun chuckled softly.
“Was there any reason I should have stopped you?”
“Was there not? If I am truly the righteous Hero as recorded on the stone tablet from my era, I should have stopped you. Is there any reason I would have let the Hero’s interference stand? Demon King of the current age.”
“You know my goal is not conquest.”
“Yes, revenge. I was dragged here against my will, sent to the battlefield of war, and the world was supposedly saved at the cost of a miserable betrayal and the forced taking of the woman I loved. Revenge is certainly justified.”
Ji-ho acknowledged that Jae-hyun had reason to seek revenge.
“But apart from that, you are a threat to the continent. An enormous danger, a plague upon this world. You even made me kill my own granddaughter Seria with my own mother Irene’s hands. You slaughtered countless people and plunged the continent into agony. For the sake of the world, you must die.”
“Hehe, is that all?”
Jae-hyun folded his arms and asked. Ji-ho frowned and answered.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“I mean that your reason for hating and killing me is nothing more than that. You are definitely not the pure soul the tablet claimed you were. You are furious about your descendant Seria’s death, but I don’t sense deep grief. It feels as though you are using her death as an excuse to justify the actions you intend to take.”
After a moment of silence, Ji-ho gave a short laugh.
“The Demon King of today is smarter than I thought. He’s only been here twelve years—barely twenty-nine years old if you count chronologically—and yet he wants to match me, who is forty-three years older. How amusing.”
“It isn’t matching. You were already surpassed long ago.”
Jae-hyun spoke arrogantly and sneered. Ji-ho felt his pride sting and scowled, yet he could not deny it outright. He had no idea how strong Jae-hyun truly was; he only knew that the Demon King had defeated Leylana in two years. For someone who had needed a full decade to reach that level of power in the past, twelve years now seemed insufficient. He wondered if a straight 1:1 fight would even be winnable.
Jae-hyun possessed the knowledge of all previous Demon Kings, including the late King Karkus. He did not reveal this, for fear it might ruin Ji-ho’s chances and spoil the fun.
“Enough bravado. You are quite impressive. To have noticed that. Indeed, I am not a particularly kind person. The suffering you endured is a shame, but I don’t regret it. Besides, the girls named Irene and Lucretia—though used goods now—I still feel a pang of regret. I promised to give Irene to Ferdinand, but once that old bastard dies, I intend to claim her myself.”
Ji-ho threw down the gauntlet. Jae-hyun did not rise to the bait.
“You dislike living in Korea, do you?”
Jae-hyun had already discerned the truth. After Ferdinand’s death, the Demon King would take Irene, yet that would still leave many years before Korea was safe. He had deduced that Ji-ho had no intention of returning to Korea even after decades.
Once again Ji-ho nodded.
“Correct. I have no desire to return to Korea. My family is all there, but if I summon them here, there is no need for me to go. While I could never fully rule Korea from afar, here I could become an eternal emperor or god. Mana is scarce, and the power system is unstable. Why would I live there? This world is far more comfortable.”
Ji-ho longed for a life here as the ruler of all, at the very pinnacle. In the past he had returned to the modern world yearning for his family, but fifty years in this world had made adaptation impossible. The modern age felt too alien, too uncomfortable. He had grown to miss this world and, therefore, had accepted the summoning with resignation.
“Because I could not bear the ugliness of my own world, I summoned a being from another realm. Eight thousand years later, through ancient records, you were called. Your usefulness spent, you were betrayed. When the consequences could not be contained, I summoned you again. I will kill you and be revered once more in this world. I will make this place my home to live in.”
Ji-ho declared his purpose openly, issuing a death sentence. Jae-hyun nodded.
“I will kill you as well. You are the ancestor of Ferdinand and the root of all evil among my targets for revenge.”
“Hehe, is that so…? By the way, you said you are Kim Jae-hyun. After revenge, will you return to Earth?”
“I will.”
Jae-hyun answered without hesitation. Ji-ho laughed softly.
“You will regret it. You are now the Demon King; you can never live comfortably on Earth again.”
“I will bring only my family back here. This is where I belong.”
Jae-hyun believed the same. His home was the Demon World; Ji-ho’s was the Intermediate World. Yet the two worlds shared an unspoken connection. Ji-ho smiled as he realized it.
“Our thoughts are the same. An ancient Hero and a Demon King agreeing—it’s rather amusing. Perhaps I became this way because I rotted in the modern world.”
In truth, when first summoned, Ji-ho had burned with the passion of a righteous high-school student who respected his elders. But as he witnessed the depravity of humanity in this rotting world, he gradually distanced himself from the nobility, avoided politics, and eventually returned to Earth. Five years there changed him completely.
The sight of irredeemably corrupt, decayed humans he had never imagined before shattered his belief that humanity was not evil. He made a decision.
He would rule this fantasy world he called his own, transforming it into a structure where he commanded life and death. He would smile as the righteous Hero while becoming a dictator far beyond any king or emperor in history.
The thought the ancient Hero had carried was, ironically, identical to the structure now ruling the Dark Empire and the Demon World under the Demon King.