Prologue
"Why...?"
A pair of elegant turquoise eyes sparkled. The Saintess bit her lovely lips and questioned me accusingly.
"Sirmiia clearly said she wasn't interested, didn't she? She told me so herself."
"...."
Truthfully, I had plenty of rebuttals, but my lips refused to part. Any pathetic excuse would only deepen my guilt toward the Saintess—I could see that clearly.
"I'm sorry...."
"...."
Besides, this wasn't even my fault to begin with. To be precise, it was the hero's fault. Did he really think I'd ever imagine he'd choose such an idiotic path among all those options? The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.
'Hoo... No. Olga, calm down. Getting worked up won't help anything.'
I swallowed my rage toward the hero and lowered my head, carefully parting those crimson lips.
"I'm sorry... I mean it."
Even as I spoke, doubt crept in—was apologizing really the right thing to do? Honestly, I hadn't done anything wrong. But that thought vanished the moment I saw the Saintess activate her all-purpose cheat skill: squeezing out tears. I folded the doubt neatly and tossed it into the trash.
"No, it's fine. I don't want to speak with you anymore."
She turned away as if my apology meant nothing, her bright golden hair swaying as she disappeared into the forest.
"Wait!"
I called out pitifully, but the Saintess was already gone from sight. Where could Aria have gone at this hour? A mere heal-slave whose only skills were barriers, buffs, and healing. More importantly, I was supposed to take the next watch shift—and now I'd have to cover for the missing Saintess too.
"Ah... that walking nuisance of a woman."
The frustration forced the words out. Today marked the third day since I'd resolved to live virtuously. What a shame. Then again, the curse was well-deserved.
"I didn't do anything wrong."
Who could have predicted the hero would keep confessing to me after being rejected over ten times without a shred of pride? Or that the gloomy heal-slave would be watching the whole thing?
"Ah... I need a cigarette."
The headache made me crave one. Not that I'd ever smoked before. Damn it. Instead of getting some sleep after my shift, I'd end up pulling an all-nighter covering for the heal-slave.
"About three hours left?"
I turned toward the tent where the hero—that hero—was sleeping.
"That hero-obsessed bastard...."
My teeth ground together. In the dark night, my eyes flashed with killing intent as they naturally fixed on the tent.
"If he's a hero, shouldn't he at least stand watch alone instead of making a frail woman do it?"
That thoroughly kimchi-brained idea was rejected by this new era's hero. He was, after all, a true hero of justice who didn't discriminate between men and women. I clicked my tongue and sat on a log by the campfire.
"Well, shit! What's done is done. I'll just stay awake and endure it."
I was the type to accept reality quickly when there was no way out.
"Ah... I want some warm cocoa."
Veled might have had the personality of an idiot, but at least he made good cocoa. I passed the time with such pointless thoughts.
-Hoo-woo-woo
The sound of an owl snapped me back to attention. I glanced at the watch on my wrist—only twenty minutes had passed.
"Ugh... still two hours and forty minutes left? Ha...."
My body was exhausted, and drowsiness was already creeping in. Tomorrow was going to be a disaster.
"Why?"
Why had the party nearly fractured less than a month into our journey?
"Because the Saintess is an idiot?"
Correct.
"Because the hero is an idiot?"
Also correct.
Well, my own idiocy was obviously part of it too. It all started the day I first met the hero—at Notre Dame Cathedral. From that moment, every thread of fate had become hopelessly tangled. That's what I believed.
***
Ahaha. Hello, friends! Aren't you curious about me? Then allow me to introduce myself—not simply. I am a demon. Right now I'm just an insignificant human girl traveling with the hero, but my true identity is one of the Demon King's army's highest-ranking commanders—the Four Heavenly Kings! Specifically, the former demon executive known as Olga, granted the title of Condemnation.
I am the son of the former Four Heavenly Kings, Berks Lewis, and an elite demon renowned throughout the demon realm for my handsome looks and mastery of both civil and military arts—a flower boy demon, if you will. Of course, being compared to the other monstrous Four Heavenly Kings earned me the dishonorable title of "weakest among the Four," but that was none of my concern. I was still the ninth-highest-ranking demon in the demon realm.
Mm-hmm. ...Though saying all that now is pointless, since I've become the hero party's most beautiful girl with navy-blue hair and blue eyes. Why did I, a powerful demon, end up in the body of a mere human girl? That's a long story. It happened just a few months ago. So let's go back even further.
***
Former Four Heavenly Kings and Fourth Legion Commander, Lieutenant General Berks Lewis. In other words, my father was killed by the previous hero. I never saw the body, but he was dead. As the sole heir and direct descendant of the Lewis family, I naturally ascended to the position of Four Heavenly Kings at a young age. I didn't refuse, of course. The Four Heavenly Kings? At first, I was overjoyed. It was the highest position of power in the demon realm after the Demon King himself.
But as time passed, my expression began to sour like rotten persimmons. Being one of the Four Heavenly Kings... was just insanely busy. It wasn't a ceremonial title. Rebuilding the disbanded Fourth Legion, managing the family as its head—mountains of backlogged work piled up. If things continued like this, I'd die from overwork before I even had a chance to marry and grow old. I had to find a way to survive.
'My still-young brain worked desperately to secure its master's future, and eventually arrived at a novel idea. A strike! Yes, I thought it was quite original. Or not. What can you do when your brain is at this level?'
I legally (or illegally) abandoned all my duties and holed up in my mansion's bedroom. Day after day, my father's aides and the family elders knocked on the mansion doors, but I never stepped outside. Was I crazy? Go back to that hell? My demon-life philosophy had become "those who work shall not eat."
After about two years of this, the family elders and aides stopped coming. But perhaps the years of laziness had come back as karma—my demon life didn't flow as smoothly as I'd hoped. I had planned to live comfortably on my pension, secure in my Four Heavenly Kings position with no fear of dismissal. Yet because of the Demon King's insane trap, I ended up as this pathetic human girl.
But why would the Demon King do something so stupid? There was a reason, of course. First, because he was an idiot. Second, because he was ugly—that was the real reason. You might ask what his ugliness had to do with me becoming a woman. I'll explain from here.
The Demon King, ruler of the demon realm, was so hideous that he'd rank number one even if lined up with all the ugliest demons in history. His face was rectangular like a block, and his dark skin was covered in disgusting liver spots. His first impression alone... well, he looked like some mad scientist's chimera experiment gone wrong.
Perhaps because of that hideous face, not a single demon in the realm wanted to marry him despite his status as the most powerful being. No matter how ugly he was, wasn't the treatment of the demon realm's supreme ruler too absurd? You wouldn't understand unless you'd seen that face. It was so rare you'd be lucky to find one like it even if you searched the entire world. Just looking at the Demon King's face gradually drained the life force from lower demons.
Marrying someone like that was realistically impossible. Yet power-hungry individuals existed everywhere. There were those willing to endure even that ugly appearance for the sake of power—high-ranking demons of rank 40 and above. They were truly obsessed with power. They thought they couldn't give up the Demon King's blood just because of a face. But they couldn't marry him themselves. They had respectable families, and more importantly, they were men with... certain parts.
So they had only one option: sell their carefully raised children. They traded their daughters for power. It was like a relay race—one became two, two became three. The one who started this relay was Caleb, rank 21. He was a power-mad, insane old man who dreamed even in his sleep of becoming the demon realm's supreme ruler. Eventually, that fantastic dream became reality.
After years of effort, Caleb succeeded in arranging his daughter's marriage to the Demon King, perfectly positioning himself as the Demon King's father-in-law to seize control of the demon realm. First, he threatened his daughter. He didn't hesitate to threaten murder if she refused. Then he laid various groundwork to catch the Demon King's attention from behind the scenes. The plan was flawless, and Caleb finally succeeded in finalizing the marriage talks.
However, something he hadn't anticipated occurred—Caleb's daughter Grain's will was stronger than expected. Remarkably, Grain pulled off the feat of escaping the demon realm. She left only a single letter at the mansion saying she was going to find her true love, shed her old life like a husk, and fled to Niflheim, the land of the elves.
When Caleb belatedly discovered Grain had run away, he was furious. He gathered all his elite troops and headed to Niflheim to capture her. But Caleb couldn't lay a finger on Grain. She had cleverly seduced the son of one of the three elven elders and already spent a night with him.
"...Father, give up on me. I'm already carrying his child."
"...?"
Leaving only questions behind, Caleb had no choice but to return empty-handed. The Acacia Knights were protecting Grain and the elder's son. Forcibly taking her would have meant war with Niflheim. Given the demon realm's already tense relations with other races, they couldn't afford more enemies.
Thus Caleb failed, and his failure became fertilizer for the next runner in the relay. His name was Casper, a top-ranking demon of rank 23 who ruled the barren western demon realm. Casper arranged his daughter's marriage to the Demon King while stationing watchers inside the mansion and bolstering the border guards near Niflheim to prevent her escape.
Yet all that effort proved futile—this attempt failed too. Casper's daughter used a hidden secret passage to escape the mansion, then crossed the border into the human realm. She knew how demons were treated in the human world, so Casper hadn't worried about that route. But mocking his expectations, she exploited the gap and boldly fled to the human continent.
Was marrying an ugly man more terrifying than becoming a slave? Casper couldn't understand her actions. Afterward, he tearfully severed ties with his daughter. The reason was that keeping a slave and traitor as a family member would only give other nobles an excuse to attack. Within days, he hired assassins. He personally eliminated the demon realm's disgrace.
The relay continued after that. However, ranks 19, 26, and 29—all failed. The methods varied, but the reason was the same: the daughters' escape. Somehow, whenever a marriage was arranged, the children all seemed to conspire together to flee the demon realm. Eventually, one noble resorted to locking his daughter in a room as a last resort. He planned to release her two hours before the wedding while keeping her under 24-hour surveillance until then. But even that attempt failed absurdly. The imprisoned woman lost her virginity the day before the wedding. The demon royal family strictly followed ancient customs, so a non-virgin couldn't marry. She had brilliantly exploited that very point.
The rumor spread in the blink of an eye, and it became the top choice among methods for other imprisoned noble children to avoid marriage. The high-ranking demons trembled with rage at their children's viciousness. In the end, they gave up on marrying the Demon King. There was no longer any way to marry off their daughters.
However, even an underground space that's been sealed shut has some breathing room. This time, the Demon King himself moved. Fearing he'd never marry if he kept following old laws, the Demon King decided to ignore the petty customs and marry a non-virgin. And that became the Demon King's first and last wedding.
Meridas, daughter of Zephar (rank 16), bit into poison hidden in her mouth and committed suicide just before exchanging the oath kiss with the Demon King. A suicide note was left in her room, containing only two words: Ugly man.
The Demon King went into seclusion.