< 209. Demon King and Empire >
“I told you.”
Daniel Dayrus continued speaking.
“Get lost.”
“Get lost.”
His vision blurred, his body wracked with pain. Yet his emotions burned clear.
Loathing for the Demon King. Rage at humanity.
“Do you really need to bare your fangs like that?”
“I don’t collaborate with demons.”
“Am I a demon?”
“Anyone who sees you would think so.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is?”
In that instant, the Stone Demon King’s body shrank dramatically. Like a doll with its stuffing pulled out, its husk peeled away.
A man stood there—the one just before merging with the Demon King.
“What about now?”
“Are you forcing an answer by showing me this grotesque form?”
“Is that how it looks?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Isn’t there something more important?”
“What?”
“Your life hangs by a thread, I have a way to save you, and I want to work with you. Is your curiosity more pressing than that?”
“......”
“Time’s short. With the Demon King dead, the tower will soon return to the Demon World.”
“Even if it does, nothing changes. I’m alone, and they...”
“Then build a new force as a completely different person, no? What they fear is the hero called Daniel Dayrus.”
“What’s that supposed to—”
Crackkk—
The man’s skin shriveled like the Stone Demon King’s and peeled off.
A face of entirely different features emerged.
“...Is that your true form?”
“Not exactly, but think of it that way for now.”
The man approached, holding the sagging skin.
“...What are you doing?”
“Giving you a new life. Oh, first things first.”
The man reached toward Daniel’s wounds. Warm healing magic mended him.
“...You’re not a demon after all?”
“I am a demon.”
“Then how...”
“Best to gloss over the trivial details. Here.”
The skin draped over him. It swiftly enveloped Daniel’s body and settled in. The discomfort and blurred vision faded quickly.
“...What is this?”
“Today, Daniel Dayrus died here. Your name is Cortian Maserina. Just one of the countless heroes from the Jespain Empire... a skin?”
“...A skin?”
Berge’s face hardened.
“That’s right.”
“He shed his outer layer, and you wore it. Changed identities multiple times like that.”
“Exactly.”
“Ha, this is insane.”
Berge clutched his throbbing head. He wondered if what he’d heard was true.
No way.
Yeah, no way.
Or... really?
Truth be told, he’d suspected it, just a little.
When he realized Daniel Dayrus was wearing the shell of Balaf Disrod, one race came to mind.
But he’d dismissed it.
Why? Because it couldn’t be.
It was impossible.
“What’s wrong? Problem?”
“Hold on a second.”
Berge immediately summoned the two Demon Kings.
“Absorbed the Demon King and shed its skin?”
“Yes.”
“Turned into a completely different appearance?”
“Yes.”
Reina’s expression darkened.
“What if this hero is lying...”
“He swore on the power of the dimension.”
“...Then it’s true. Wow, how did these cockroach bastards survive?”
Vivian marveled.
“You all think the same as me?”
“If it’s what you and Vivian think...”
“What else could it be?”
Ha.
Berge let out a hollow laugh.
“Yeah, nothing else explains it. Surviving at all is incomprehensible otherwise.”
There exists one peculiar demon race in the Demon World.
Parasites that devour others, wear their skins, and live on.
In the Demon World, they’re called
Doppelgänger.
Doppelgänger.
To humans, they’re known merely as demons that duplicate their foes, with the saying that meeting your identical double means death.
That’s wrong.
They don’t just replicate appearances.
“Those greedy parasites survived, huh.”
As Reina said, they were parasitic demons.
They don’t duplicate—they infiltrate and parasitize. They absorb the host’s power until they devour it whole and don its skin.
In other words, true duplication is impossible. It’s just a Doppelgänger whose core has changed.
“I completely misjudged them.”
Berge had thought Jason had built power and foundations over a century-plus.
No. He was a Doppelgänger who’d lived for centuries after devouring the Demon King Jason.
“We need to kill it now. We can’t let a Doppelgänger roam free.”
“Agreed. The thought of breathing the same air as those creeps makes my skin crawl.”
Reina and Vivian spoke in unison.
“But we can’t act rashly. According to him, he met Jason centuries ago. He’s been devouring Demon Kings and heroes long before that...”
He might have become a monster even current Berge couldn’t handle.
No, he definitely had.
Berge glanced at Daniel, who was perking up his ears trying to eavesdrop.
But the space was already sealed with magic power. A guy suppressed from all mana couldn’t possibly hear.
Doppelgänger, Doppelgänger...
He hadn’t anticipated this at all. Not even before regression, until he took down Daniel Dayrus.
He’d just thought it was a clever Demon King who hid his identity well and twisted the canon to survive in the worst situation—Alein.
No.
His enemy was far tougher, mightier, and vaster than he’d imagined.
But it wasn’t all bad.
“...Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Things could resolve easily.”
“You have a way to kill it?”
“A way to get it strangled. Doppelgängers are traitors to the Demon World. Extermination order issued—wiped out.”
Rarer than the scarcest dragon race in another sense.
“If we tell the Demon World a Doppelgänger’s casually devouring Demon Kings and impersonating them?”
“Then...”
“Exactly. Say it was all lies. The Doppelgänger framed us—it orchestrated everything.”
Truth didn’t matter.
He knew how fanatically the Demon World hunted Doppelgängers. Pinning all crimes on it wouldn’t raise eyebrows.
But a prerequisite was needed.
“Reina.”
The connection to the Demon World.
Berge and Vivian’s were severed, but Reina’s had lingered until recently.
No guarantee it still did.
She’d appeared in the battle with the heroes, and Jason surely knew that.
If a report had gone up and Alkain Archduke cut it off, it’d be meaningless.
But fortunately.
“It’s still there.”
The connection remained.
Jason had been too focused on devouring Dorche to notice anything else.
It was madness.
Utter insanity.
“Withdrawing from the alliance? What nonsense is this!”
“It’s His Majesty’s will.”
“I get it’s unpleasant, but my brother was kidnapped. The empire’s cities turned to hell, ten thousand troops dead. And now Balaf Disrod and the heroes are gone. Withdrawing now? We should be leading the subjugation!”
“It’s His Majesty’s will.”
“Grandfather!”
Martin bit his lip. His grandfather—and the imperial kin’s pillar—Marquis Aint was the same.
“The imperial decree was issued, and the envoy attended the alliance council to announce it. Soon, news of the empire’s withdrawal will shake the continent. It’s irreversible.”
“All the people fear the Demon Kings. All kingdoms cry for subjugation. Yet we defy that and go against the tide alone?”
“We are subjects of the empire and His Majesty. We cannot defy the decree.”
“And you endorse it? Even a wrong decree should be refused. I’d understand if the reason held water.”
But the reason? “The empire’s suffered too much damage and needs time to regroup.”
“The empire’s true enemy is Flame Calamity, so no spare eyes for other Demon Kings.”
Of course, the empire’s losses were massive. Far beyond any other nation.
But the empire wouldn’t stagger from that alone.
The other excuses were the same. With the buoyancy ship destroyed and Balaf Disrod dead, there was nothing to do anyway.
Just flimsy pretexts.
“This isn’t an opportunity. Watching other nations bleed against the Demon Kings and striking then? It’ll make the whole continent our enemy!”
The motive was obvious.
An opening. To expand the empire’s territory.
So the emperor declared it.
Duke Osrian endorsed it.
Some nobles nodded along.
Short-term gain, but long-term folly.
The alliance wouldn’t look kindly on the empire after subjugating the Demon Kings.
“The empire is strong, sure. Could fight the continent. But the outcome won’t be positive. Even the empire won’t survive.”
Best case, mutual destruction. So Martin thought.
Thus, with Duke Osrian backing the emperor first, Marquis Boldervoff or Marquis Aint should’ve opposed to balance the scales.
Martin had expected that.
But no opposition. The three pillars upholding the empire unanimously endorsed, and withdrawal proceeded smoothly.
“Your Highness, please understand we couldn’t explain fully due to circumstances.”
“...There’s more to it?”
“What I can say is the empire has long colluded with the False Demon King.”
“Wasn’t it my brother who joined hands with it?”
“His Majesty and Duke Osrian connected the First Prince to the False one.”
“That means...”
Gods.
Martin groaned.
“...Not just preserving strength, but aiding the False to strike the alliance’s rear?”
The marquis didn’t answer. His silence did.
“...That’s a mad plan! Humanity must survive for a future. If all nations crumble and the Demon Kings grow stronger, what victory means for the empire!”
“The Demon Kings are controllable enough.”
“Even after this hero expedition’s result? The False helped Flame Calamity shatter the hero party!”
This was wrong.
No matter how ambitious the empire, this crossed the line.
“Your Highness.”
Suddenly, Marquis Aint’s voice dropped low.
Their eyes met.
Chills ran down his spine.
Hairs stood on end.
A gaze he’d never seen from his always kindly grandfather.
Was this even the grandfather he knew? Utterly alien.
“It’s the imperial decree.”
“......”
“Please don’t spread this anywhere. His Majesty strictly ordered secrecy.”
And then.
“Don’t worry. We won’t strike the alliance’s rear while they fight the Demon King.”
Marquis Aint vanished into the distance.
“...Haha.”
Left alone, Martin laughed hollowly.
“No, this can’t be.”
Demon Kings.
Untrustworthy scum.
Stabbing humanity in the back by allying with them?
Utter insanity.
It was betraying humanity. Even if successful, could they maintain it without reputation or righteousness?
Would the people accept an empire that betrayed humanity, allied with Demon Kings, and exterminated others?
Victory, yes—but a pyrrhic one.
Invisible wounds would fester and burst eventually.
They must know that.
Why had the emperor and all nobles fallen to madness?
I have to stop it.
But he lacked power.
Most came from his backer, Marquis Aint. His own forces outstripped average nobles but weren’t enough alone.
He needed help.
From whom?
Emperor and the three pillars united.
This toxic madness would infect the empire, already spreading.
Stop His Majesty.
Ideal: Alliance subjugates False Demon King with minimal losses, deterring any backstab.
But Martin was pessimistic.
The marquis said the empire had nurtured the False long-term. He was confident in inflicting heavy casualties.
If the emperor and great nobles believed it, the threat was no trifle.
But if we reduce those losses?
One way came to mind.
During the Flame Demon Tower search, Martin—who’d connected with a Demon King—heard things others couldn’t.
Like the rift between Flame Calamity and False, or rumors of False aiding Flame being a ploy to corner False.
“Use one Demon King to catch another.”
If Flame Calamity, hating False, killed it—with just a little help?
If alliance losses were lighter than expected?
If the empire abandoned the plan?
That’d suffice. That would.
Martin rushed to his office.
< 209. Demon King and Empire > End