Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: You! Become a Demonic Human!
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"P-please... kill me..."
A demon woman was kneeling before me, looking completely spent.
I was wondering why I'd suddenly dreamt of my past life. Was it all her doing?
"Sir Luke, you're safe."
"Suddenly?"
What do you mean, safe?
"Didn't you have a nightmare...?"
"A nightmare?"
I did have a dream, but was it a nightmare?
If anything, I thought it was fun, like playing a game I hadn't touched in a while.
And there was a newbie, too?
How could it be a nightmare when there was such a sexy newbie?
Luna glanced at the demon woman kneeling before me and spoke.
"Just what did you do in the dream...?"
"Nothing much."
I just made her beat Malenia with naked parries on her eighth run.
"K-ki-kill... kill me..."
"Alright. Rest in peace. You have my official seal of approval."
Honestly, clearing the game with naked parries deserves recognition.
I'm proud of you, but unfortunately, since you were born a demon, you're fated to become my experience points.
"Be reborn on Earth in your next life."
Girls who are good at games are popular with guys, you know?
You could be born on Earth and become a YouTuber or something.
I took a sword from my inventory and cut off the demon's head.
"Ah... finally..."
*Ssssh*, the demon's body turned to ash and vanished.
She was dying, but for some reason, she looked happy.
[ You have defeated the demon Lilith! You have acquired the skill Status Effect Resistance! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your.... ]
Lilith? I've never heard that name before.
I guess not all demons appear in the main story?
She must have gotten her head lopped off by the protagonist somewhere during the Academy's all-out war.
As I blankly dismissed the notification windows, Yui and Luna approached.
"Sir Luke. What will you do next?"
"What do you mean?"
"Marquis Crown. Circumstances suggest he's in on it, right?"
"Ah. Right."
At this point, anyone who wasn't a fool could tell the Marquis was an accomplice.
His strangely obsessive behavior towards us.
Actions that were completely unthinkable for a noble dealing with commoners.
That's right. We were lured here.
"See? I was right. I told you we should have killed him right then and there."
Slit-eyed masterminds are a certified trope, I tell you.
People always regret things after it's too late.
They should just not do things they'll regret.
"...Back then, I just thought you were saying something strange again, Sir Luke."
"Wow... Yui, you thought so too?"
"W-well... honestly, if you're violent towards someone you've just met, of course..."
"Tsk. Then again, what would you two know?"
I know because I'm from an advanced country with developed psychology where I encountered plenty of slit-eyed characters. What would you two, who don't even know what animation is, understand?
It's all my fault for being so brilliant.
"It's fine. It happens! Now that you've experienced it, you'll be more like me from now on!"
"Somehow, your expression is really punchable..."
"It's just your imagination."
I sheathed my sword and put it away in my inventory.
"So, are we heading to the mansion now?"
"We should."
If I hadn't slept at all, I'd go in the morning after getting some rest, but I got a little sleep, so it's fine.
We left the room and went down the stairs.
On the first floor, the clerk who had shown us to our room was fast asleep, head down on the counter.
When we stepped outside the inn, the first thing that came into view was a pink fog filling the marquis's domain.
It seemed to be the work of the demon we just killed. Since it remained even after she was dead, it would probably take some time to disappear.
"Wow... she really went all out, didn't she?"
"I know... Was she planning to offer all the residents as food for the demons?"
"Yui. Don't eat them, even if they look tasty."
"I-I won't...!"
Ah. Right, she's not a kid.
More importantly, to think he tried to kill all of his own people.
A marquis, of all people, just went for broke.
I wonder what incredible thing he received for becoming a demonic human to make him give up his status.
Huh? Then doesn't that mean it's legal to kill the people here now?
No one would know anyway. Should I kill them all, swipe the experience points, and pin it on the marquis?
'No. What if he runs away?'
He seems quiet for now, probably confident that we'll lose, but if he senses anything is off, he'll flee immediately.
Of course, I'm willing to chase him to the ends of the earth if he runs, but that would be a pain.
Once our course was set, we went straight for it.
I don't know what kind of amazing demon was sent after us, but there were no other obstacles on the way to the marquis's mansion.
In fact, even the diligent soldiers had been put to sleep, leaving the mansion's main gate completely empty.
So we walked right in through the main gate.
Finding the marquis's location wasn't difficult.
All the rooms were dark, except for one place in the mansion where a light was on.
It was as if he was advertising, 'I'm over here~'.
-*CRASH!!*
When I kicked down the door to the office, I saw a startled marquis inside.
He seemed to be just about to flee, as I caught sight of him hastily packing his belongings.
"H-how did you get in!?"
"Through the front door!!"
"Impossible... She was defeated...?"
"Don't be too heartbroken. Your opponent was me, after all."
We live in an age where even the Heavenly Demon, the Strongest Under Heaven, can be defeated. Why are you so surprised over a mere demon?
Anyone would think the Demon God himself was defeated, you punk.
This is why all these demonic human bastards are so weird.
I don't get why they have such deep faith in a mere demon.
"Kugh... If it's come to this!"
-*Crack! Crackle!*
As if trying to transform, something rose and fell from the back of the marquis, who had bent his upper body forward.
"Jet Kick!!"
"Keoheok!!"
So I served him a Jet Kick.
"W-what are you doing!? This is a crucial moment!!"
"Come on, let's be honest. Who wants to watch some demonic human transform? The readers would hate it too, you know?"
Describing how his skin color changes, what his new form looks like, how the demonic energy swirls...
Wasting hundreds of characters just to describe some small fry's transformation process.
I'd rather use that time to get in another hit.
This is an era where people don't even wait for magical girls or heroes to finish their transformations, right?
And you expect me to stand here and watch some pathetic nobody transform just because he's a demonic human?
Not a chance. I'm skipping this scene.
"Besides, I don't have time to waste on someone like you. There's something I want to try out."
-*Snap!*
I snapped my fingers, and a clear sound echoed through the room.
""...?""
Luna, Yui, and even the marquis, who were all watching me, stared as if I were some kind of weirdo.
"What are you doing, Luna, Yui? Get him."
""...""
Only then did the two of them move.
If they were going to do it, they should have just done it. I don't know why they were staring at me with those half-lidded eyes.
It couldn't even be called a battle...
The marquis wasn't a man of great martial prowess to begin with.
If he had been strong himself, he would have come to kill us personally instead of being a demon's lackey.
Even if a guy like that transformed into a demonic human, his combat power would just go from 1 to 2.
"Keoheok...!"
And just like that, the marquis was swiftly subdued.
Beaten by Luna and Yui, he fell to his knees.
"Wait...! You should become demonic humans too! He will descend soon! Then all humans will die!"
"Don't give me that 'He' nonsense."
"Become a demon!" Is that what this is?
That's a death flag, you idiot.
The guy who said that line ended up getting his head cut off.
The Demon God's standards have really hit rock bottom.
He must be so desperate for ass-kissers that he's got a guy like this doing it.
He seems to be trying to win us over somehow, but unfortunately, there's only one god I believe in.
"Arla Kalatol!"
-*Smack!*
"Kaak!!"
***
"Why did you have us capture him instead of killing him right away?"
"There's something I'm curious about."
It's something I've always wanted to try, but I couldn't do it on Earth because I'd be arrested for murder.
"Luna, Yui. Are you holding him tight?"
How much pain does it take to die from shock?
Today, I plan to inflict pain on this demonic human before me until he dies from shock.
With that in mind, the first thing I did was break the demonic human's fingers.
-*CR-CR-CR-CRACK!*
"Hup!!!! Hgeuaaaargh!!!!!!"
Not one by one, but all ten fingers at once.
Why would I waste time breaking them one by one when there's so much to experiment with?
It's not like he's going to die from the shock of one broken finger.
"Hoh... So just the fingers are nothing to him, huh?"
"He just screamed his head off, though...?"
"Yui. That much is fine."
What we need to do is inflict so much pain that he can't even scream.
What does screaming mean?
It means he's alive.
So, I'm going to raise the level of pain until he's dead and can't scream anymore.
After the fingers come the toes.
It's hard to bend toes sideways, so I bent them upwards.
To the point where his toenails touched the top of his foot.
-*CRACK!!*
"Hwaaaargh!! Stop!! Please stooooop!!!"
"Silence Punch!!"
"Keohak!!"
He was noisy, so I shut him up.
The Silence Punch was so strong it knocked out all his teeth, but that just means one less thing for me to do, which is even better.
"Looks like he can handle his teeth and toes being broken."
In fantasy novels these days, characters swing their swords just fine even with their guts spilling out, but that's something only superhumans can do.
The marquis before me was at the level of a normal person just a moment ago. Did his durability increase just because he became a demonic human?
'Well, it doesn't matter either way.'
It just means I can experiment on him for longer.
Fingers, toes, teeth.
Next are the ears.
"Luna. Cut off his ears."
Hearing my words, the marquis's pupils quaked.
"Should I just cut off one?"
"Both of them, of course."
Luna drew the sword from her waist and sliced off both his ears in one motion.
"Heueoeoeoeong!!!"
"Pfft. Hey, don't make me laugh. This is a serious moment."
Who screams like "Heueoeoeoeong"?
This bastard is trying to make me laugh to break my concentration.
"But Sir Luke, won't he die from blood loss first this way?"
"Dammit! I didn't think of that!"
Can't be helped!
I took a flask out of my inventory.
"Hey! Drink this! It's a potion!"
I uncorked the flask and held it to the demonic human's mouth. He drank it down eagerly, as if he still wanted to live.
"That's right, that's right. Drink it all up. This is a potion that's to die for."
"...Sir Luke? That's not a potion, is it?"
"No, it is a potion."
A truly killer potion.
After downing the potion, the demonic human coughed once, *kuluck*, and then vomited blood.
He spewed blood not just from his mouth, but from his nose, his eyes—from every orifice.
After about ten seconds of continuously vomiting blood, the demonic human's movements suddenly stopped, like a puppet with its strings cut, and he never moved again.
"So the pain has to be on the level of all your organs melting to cause death from shock."
I learned something new today.
"......I think he just died."
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
For the record, the experience points from the Marquis-turned-demonic-human were an absolute rip-off.