The Demon King Tests His First Real Killings
The Dark Elf Queen Lucien, who relished slaughter, had wanted Kim Jae-hyun to head straight for the Holy Kingdom of Astraea, but since he had arrived in the Intermediate World first, she wished to practice real slaughter in the field.
Even in the Demon World, Kim Jae-hyun had been a sufficiently tyrannical ruler. He had slaughtered countless demons, beasts, and black mages, chopping off their arms and legs with the Holy Sword so they could never regenerate, then tormented them for endless pleasure.
But those acts were the same kind of things he had done during his hero days (?).
When combined with the numbers of demons, beasts, and black mages he had slain, the total reached tens of thousands. In terms of slaughter, he already possessed a Demon King-level record (?).
However, he had yet to kill a single human.
He was not the type to hesitate over pointless compassion or claim he could not kill humans, but Lucien wanted to see Jae-hyun apply methods to make humans suffer in a real setting.
Jae-hyun agreed, reasoning that he needed to build experience.
“Hmm.”
Spreading his senses wide, he searched for villages where people could still live.
This area was unsuitable for habitation. Black mages could intimidate monsters away and fight even the strongest beasts that refused to submit, so there were no problems there. Ordinary people, however, had no chance of surviving.
Therefore, although no one lived deep in the forest, the hills outside supported farming villages of displaced peasants.
“Hmm, seems fine.”
Upon spotting the farming village, Jae-hyun spoke to his subordinates.
“Follow me.”
His figure vanished. Selina let out a sigh.
“Haa, Demon King-nim is truly something. They’re telling us to bring them over, aren’t they?”
With her long golden hair swaying gently, Selina smiled and sighed at the same time. She was truly beautiful.
She had the finest skin in the Demon World, the ideal body that only showed where it should, and the divine beauty that ranked among the top beauties of the Demon World. Moreover, in reflection of the Vampire clan that loved splendor, while Lucien wore simple activity clothes, Selina had donned a dress mixing black and red.
“I’ll go slowly. Do your best to keep up.”
Lucien had already vanished. Selina pouted for a moment, then began to run.
The speed at which Ron and Rin could follow…
“Wait! Wait a moment! Pure Mana Wings, Eter Wings!”
“Pure Mana Wings, Eter Wings!”
The siblings, using seven-circle magic, Eter Wings, which creates semi-transparent wings made of pure mana to enable flight, put in maximum effort to pursue Selina.
While Jae-hyun and Lucien had vanished in an instant, Selina left behind tracks so the others could follow and slowed her pace. It was the only way they could keep up.
Thirty seconds later, they reached their destination.
“You’re late.”
There stood Jae-hyun, arms crossed, arrogantly. Beside him were Selina and Lucien.
Ron and Rin, wings deactivated, rushed forward and knelt before Jae-hyun.
“S-sorry.”
“Sorry, Demon King-nim.”
Even though it was only thirty seconds, the fact that the Demon King had said “late” meant Ron and Rin had to apologize.
For those belonging to the darkness, the Demon King was absolute. That was how it was. If the Demon King was angry, he had to be scolded.
Luckily, Jae-hyun did not seem inclined to dwell on the thirty seconds. He simply turned his gaze elsewhere.
In the direction he stared lay a wooden fence.
Unlike the deep forest where the siblings Ron and Rin lived, this was the edge of a monster-free forest. In the clearing behind the fence stood the farming village, covered in wooden barriers.
Originally, these peasants had fled into the forest during the fall of the Iberian Kingdom to the Demon King army. Though the Demon King army was said to have vanished from the continent, the displaced peasants had grown accustomed to life here. They had no intention of returning to the shattered land of the three kingdoms, even as the remaining seven nations divided their territories and trade routes among themselves in messy conflict.
Precisely, because the territories of the three kingdoms still simmered with disputes over annexation and trade rights, and because venturing outside meant paying taxes, they preferred the life of free farmers who paid no taxes.
Jae-hyun and his subordinates hid behind trees, watching the fence, while watchmen on the wooden towers inside scanned the surroundings.
When the fence was built, the positions of the trees that served as watch towers had been calculated in advance. It was a thorough structure to prevent and defend against monster incursions.
Kim Jae-hyun’s appearance remained unchanged from his hero days—no aging at all. The only difference after becoming Demon King was the color of his eyes. Red. He stared at the fence and spoke.
“Time to begin the test.”
Jae-hyun extended his hand toward the fence.
“Force Cage.”
He activated eight-circle confinement magic, Force Cage.
Shuuuung!
A semi-transparent cage expanded like a birdcage, locking the entire village inside. The fence and its surroundings now formed a massive circular prison.
Since this was confinement magic, victims would not die from collision even if they struck the barrier sharply. But because it was extremely durable, the pain would be unimaginable.
As the strongest grand mage the Demon King had ever summoned, even if it were an eight-circle spell, it possessed a strength no Grand Sword Master could break with repeated strikes of a sword.
And because Force Cage was a semi-transparent circular prison, it did not stand out in color, yet the enormous surging aura it emitted was strong enough for ordinary people to sense.
The murmuring inside the village could already be heard from outside. Jae-hyun clapped lightly once.
Clap—
“Field practice time. Remember this well. Never kill easily! This is important practice time.”
““Yes, Demon King-nim!””
Jae-hyun stepped forward at the front. Four subordinates followed.
The watchmen atop the fence spotted Jae-hyun and his group.
“Halt! Stop!”
With bows drawn, the watchmen threatened. But as the Demon King, there was no way arrows fired by ordinary people could wound him.
Even arrows from the Queen of the Elves, the strongest of the ancient Demon King Laylana, had been blocked. And after Laylana was killed, the Demon King had grown far stronger. An arrow from a mere watchman was no different from a dragon’s scale—hard as mithril—being struck by a single grain of sand.
“Arrogant.”
Jae-hyun looked at the watchmen with deep displeasure.
Crack!
When he lightly snapped his fingers, the fence walls suddenly collapsed as though struck by something enormous.
“Uwaaaah!”
At the same time, the watchmen screamed as they fell from the towers to the ground.
“You dare look down on me… Hmph. You have no sense of propriety.”
With that, Jae-hyun walked up to one watchman and crushed his head with his foot.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
The watchman screamed in agony. Jae-hyun could have crushed his skull instantly if he had applied a little more force, but that would have been too easy a death.
He had designed various methods to inflict greater pain on traitors who had betrayed him, yet since he had never applied them in the field, he could not afford to lose the subjects he needed for real experience.
Already a Demon King, he looked at the people of this village as mere test subjects.
“Selina, Lucien, Ron, Rin. I command you. Capture every person in this village and gather them at the center.”
““Yes!””
After giving the order, Jae-hyun ignored the watchmen and headed straight to the center of the village.
Of course, no one could escape. Even if he did not personally bring them, plenty of subordinates were ready to drag the watchmen away.
Clang— Clang—
Figures in black armor appeared behind Jae-hyun.
They were the Death Knights, undead created from the corpses and souls of knights, that Jae-hyun had subjugated as Demon King.
Each possessed superhuman combat prowess in life and could grow even stronger under the auras granted by black mages or demons.
Especially since they served a being who was a Demon King himself, their strength far surpassed anything possible in life.
Jae-hyun currently commanded a total of seven hundred Death Knights—fifteen Grand Sword Masters and six hundred eighty-five Sword Masters.
Even as Grand Sword Masters, they were still disposable to him. But for anyone else, a Grand Sword Master could rival a dragon. A hundred Sword Master-ranked Death Knights summoned by Jae-hyun needed no separate commands; they had already read his intent and moved on their own before he could speak.
Beginning with the watchmen, people resisting throughout the village, and those fleeing, were dragged by the Death Knights and Selina, Lucien, Ron, and Rin to the center.
Before long, every inhabitant of the village had gathered at the central square.
“One hundred sixty-two people.”
Compared to typical farming villages, that was quite a large number. After all, these were not ordinary displaced peasants fleeing noble tyranny, but people who had become farmers after fleeing the Demon King army.
The villagers’ atmosphere varied: eyes filled with rage and hatred, bodies trembling in fear, mothers clutching their children with desperate longing, all the diverse expressions of humanity.
“We have captured everyone, but what should we do first?”
Lucien asked Jae-hyun with eyes sparkling with anticipation. Her gaze shone as brightly as a pure maiden’s.
The imbalance of that shine—pure expectation of slaughter—was glaring, yet Jae-hyun coolly overlooked it.
“Then let us question them first. Just how noble and vile will they turn out to be?”
Jae-hyun’s gaze swept once over the one hundred sixty-two villagers and settled on a trembling young girl who looked about ten, clutched pitifully in her mother’s arms.
“Rin, bring that little one to me.”
“Yes.”
Rin pulled the girl forward with mana, but her mother was pulled along too. The woman stood before Jae-hyun and wailed in plea.
“No! Please, not the child! I’ll do anything! Please, I beg you!”
Seeing the mother desperately begging while clutching her daughter as maternal instinct flared, anyone would feel pity.
“If you enter a contract, I, and every subordinate standing here, swear we will not lay a finger on your daughter.”