There Is No End to Learning
"What in the world? Why is this happening all of a sudden...! Where did my Chapchu go, and why am I being shown this bald man?!"
Emergency hunter-related news
gets priority broadcast,
so... want me to go back to the original video?
"...... Hunters? You mean those hero types?"
They're saying the Haeoreum Guild is heading toward complete dissolution.
Looks like a whole mountain of crimes they've committed have come to light.
Really, really bad people 😠
Hae... what?
Ah. Haeoreum.
The ones who had the gall to act insolent toward my vassal. I had most certainly filed them away in my memory.
I had absolutely not forgotten about them.
"Hrm...... Tell me more, Chloe. In detail."
I'll play the related news for you.
A short while later, I yanked open the door to the next room and went looking for Carson.
"Carson! Have you heard the news?"
"I beg your pardon? Of what do you speak, Demon Lord?"
"Those wretched scoundrels have received heaven's punishment!"
And here I had taken them for nothing more than ill-mannered louts.
They had been bleeding the nation dry. They had murdered the innocent. Among the dead, they said, were even children still in the midst of growing up.
Even the demonkin born of evil itself would not stoop to such things.
"I knew it from the moment they dared act insolent toward my vassal. Ugh, in the old days I would have delivered the punishment with my own hands..."
"There is no need for you to soil yourself facing such filthy creatures, Demon Lord. That is the sort of work we lesser ones exist to handle, is it not?"
"... Hmm? Wait. Was this your doing?"
"Heh heh. Yes. I did not step in personally — I merely made a request of a friend with whom I have long been acquainted. I had expected it would take two days, but they handled it rather faster than I thought."
"Hoh...! Well done, well done!"
No wonder. That was why he hadn't made a fuss even when I brought him such thoroughly satisfying news. Truly, my butler, of whom I am so proud.
In my delight I made to stroke Carson's head — but my arms were a little too short. So I settled for patting him on the back.
"You did wonderfully, Carson!"
"Heh heh... I merely did what was only natural, Demon Lord."
"Have that friend of yours show his face sometime. I shall praise him most generously."
"Yes. I will be sure to tell him to make the time. Though I imagine he is rather occupied with that affair at the moment."
"Hrm? Why should he be busy? You just clap them in irons, toss them into the Abyss, and be done with— ah."
The words were out of my mouth before I caught myself.
The demon realm has the laws of the demon realm. This place has laws of its own. And as I was now, I was no longer the ruler of the world.
Frustrating as it was, I had to acknowledge what must be acknowledged.
"Nnngh.... When the day comes that this body takes the world into its hands, there will be considerable friction even just in the laying down of rules."
"Yes. The world has changed a great deal over ten thousand years, after all."
"......"
I am the Demon Lord.
One who stands above all, and whose duty it is to guide them as is only right. No matter how much the world has changed, that fact does not.
"Carson."
"Yes, Demon Lord."
"I have a most important mission to bestow upon you."
"...I hear and obey."
For I am a being who was born for that very purpose.
"Demon Looord......"
"......Demon Lord."
"I don't wanna study.... I want to watch shorts.... My adorable Chapchus are waiting desperately for me inside the smartphone......"
Seoha, you clearly said it yourself.
"One is supposed to say those things to sound cool...! You're not supposed to take it at face value!"
To rule them, one must first understand them. That is the way of things.
I had resolved to study the ecosystem of those hero types. I could not depend on Carson's knowledge forever, after all — and I had already decided to take that human called Shin Yeeun as my second vassal.
That said.
"Idonwannaaidonwannaaidonwannaaidonwanna......"
In all likelihood, one of those heroes had placed a powerful curse upon me back then. That would be why I found this so unbearably distasteful.
I am most certainly not lazy...!
Then how about this?
I've analyzed Seoha's behavioral patterns, and I think there's a method that would suit you.
"...And what would that be?"
"A quiz?"
"A trial in which one contends with knowledge. A contest, of sorts."
"Oho. A contest, you say......"
I lifted my head.
I do not dodge a fight that comes to me. Even if I was a Demon Lord who loved peace, that much remains an unchanging truth.
And where there is a contest, there is always one thing that follows.
Namely.
"And what will you offer up when I win, Chloe?"
"Ooh......!"
She's finished.
I would show her I had not become Demon Lord for nothing...!
"......"
"Demon Lord, are you all ri—"
"I'm trash, Carson. Don't tell me that turning into a little girl's body turned my intellect into a little girl's as well? I had it all memorized! This is unjust. No — this isn't my fault. That Chloe didn't want to buy me a snack, so she pulled some kind of trick......"
I had lost.
The last question I had memorized right up until the moment the test began. And the third one I just pressed the wrong answer...!
That wicked, wicked Chloe. How could she not let me off even once?!
Chloe doesn't cheat.
"Enough, you. If this Demon Lord says it is so, then it is so! How dare you resort to such underhanded tricks...."
He was mouthing the answers from behind you.
"A-ahem...!"
"You did...? To help me...? That devil Chloe never lets me off — she said it would reduce the learning effect!"
"Of course I know that as well. But this Carson simply could not bear to watch you in distress, Demon Lord..."
"Ahh...! I don't even need snacks! A vassal like you is all I require!"
"D-Demon Lord...! I'll work myself to the bone and buy you a whole truckload...!"
And so, after a round of heartfelt embracing with Carson, I steeled myself anew and returned to my studies.
Carson, murmuring that it was nearly time for work, went out with tears still standing in his eyes.
And though I was loath to admit it — Chloe's intellect was... a little higher than this body's, now that I had become a little girl.
A little. Just a little. Really, only a little.
"...... Mm. I see."
🏔 Tower = Growth, Honor 👍
💰 Dungeon = Wealth 💰
🌀 Gate = Calamity 😨
"Yes, yes, I said I understand."
First, the Tower.
In their language, the Tower was growth — and competition. Who had climbed higher. Who had cleared it faster. When first called by the Tower, one would Awaken to an ability of one's own, and with every floor climbed, one's level would rise and one would grow stronger automatically.
How convenient.
"This body wandered the world for thousands of years just to scrape together even a speck more power."
And then I had fallen asleep, and woken, and every last shred of that power was gone, and I had become a little girl. The more I thought about it the angrier I became — but it was fine. One must not remain bound to the past. Now was not the time for such thoughts.
"Next, the Dungeon.... Every ten floors of the Tower, the next tier of Dungeon is unlocked, and the monsters within drop magic stones and equipment far more readily. Have I got that right so far?"
The current record on the Tower is the 84th floor, so
that person can run 8-tier Dungeons.
A.k.a. farming content!
"Hrm.... To grow stronger, one climbs the Tower. Having grown, one then trains repeatedly in the Dungeons to acquire wealth......"
Not so different from those hero types of old, then.
Last of all, the Gate.
If the Tower and the Dungeons were hunting grounds granted for the Awakeners' sake, then the Gates were trials the Tower itself imposed.
Cause of appearance: unknown. Location of appearance: unknown. How to clear it? Unknown.
There were Gates an A-rank Hunter had closed in ten minutes — and there were nations that had fed five S-rank Hunters into one and still failed to stop it, and perished.
"In the end, it is all so that their own world will not be destroyed by the Gates — everyone staking their lives on growing stronger. How truly peculiar."
Seoha, that's amazing 🎉🎉
"Ahem. It was nothing, really. That quiz business just now was a mistake born of being in poor condition. So the snack you were originally going to give me......"
Rules are rules.
"Tsk. How petty."
How much could that one snack even cost, for her to be this stingy? The way she acted, anyone would think she was the master here.
At any rate.
This body must climb the Tower.
Even if an Awakening never comes to me — climbing the Tower and raising this thing they call a level is still the fastest path to recovering my power.
"Chloe."
"You said you could see my level, did you not?"
I'll convert Seoha's stats as I measured them into Tower standards and show you.
Overall Assessment: Civilian level.
Even challenging the Tower's 1st floor would be dangerous. 😭
"...... Pathetic. Truly pathetic."
I had no idea how high and mighty this 'Tower' thought it was, daring to evaluate this body — but even I could feel that was about where I stood.
The Tower's starting point: the first floor. The weakest of the weak, unable to pass even that alone.
"But then, well. If my vassals offer me their loyalty, that in itself is my power, is it not?"
Non-combat classes like Seoha
usually form a party to climb the Tower.
But party play has all sorts of restrictions...
"Enough. I'll hear the rest later. Walking a path without obstacles is a tedious affair in its own right. Now then — I ought to have a word with that Shin Yeeun. Carson said he had prepared a way."
If you speak, I'll convert it into a message and send it to her!
"Just hand it over. Didn't you say I need to practice this typing business anyway?"
But...
"Enough. If you keep failing to obey, I shall not charge you."
Okay!
I took the smartphone from Chloe.
According to the explanation she kept chattering from the side, it was a tool that allowed Awakeners to speak with one another through written words without ever meeting face to face. I understood it as something akin to the crystal balls of old.
"Nickname... setting......"
"No need. The Great... Demon Lord...... There. Hah. Now I need only type, yes?"
I drew a single, steadying breath.
Through this trial, I shall grow stronger once more.
And who am I? The first Demon Lord in history to hold a record of 34 keystrokes per minute on Hancom Typing.
Good. Confidence bloomed.
"Haaaah...!"
I poured every ounce of my being into my fingertips.
That human. It might prove a touch awkward if she were moved to tears by my dazzling eloquence.
Heh heh heh.
"...Is this spam?"
Tap.
Yeeun pressed the block button.