Performance Evaluation (8): Even Demons Call Him the Demon King
The demon executive stared at my bamboo spear with open contempt, as if it wasn’t even worth the effort to block. From his reaction, he clearly didn’t think it had any value. I drove the spear straight into his face.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”
Zan clutched his face and rolled across the floor in agony. I remembered him letting his guard down and eating a hit just like this in the previous timeline.
-By the way, he seems seriously pissed off, huh?
‘Of course he is.’
How dare this bastard try to interfere with my regression? He’d even tried to kill the hero I’d spent an entire month training. How could I not be furious? Even as a saint, there was no way I could let this slide.
-Wow. I seriously thought Master was secretly a yandere and got mad because the students kept touching you.
‘It’s pretty much the same thing, isn’t it?’
While I was chatting with Jukchang-i, Zan groaned.
“Ugh… What the hell is this?”
He touched his face with an expression of pure disbelief. It looked like he genuinely hadn’t expected to feel this much pain from a single blow.
“Sai, you’re in the way. Take the kids and get far away from here.”
“Ugh. It hurts so bad I don’t think I can move?”
He was whining dramatically about being unable to move when I thrust Jukchang-i toward him. His eyes widened.
“The pain… it’s completely gone!”
He sprang up like all his wounds had healed at once. Of course, blood was still trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Share these two potions with Sena. You’ll feel a little better.”
“Yes!”
He snatched the potions and hurried over to Sena. I turned my attention back to Zan. He was frowning deeply, still touching his face.
“Tch. If I hadn’t let my guard down…”
“Everyone I hit says the same thing.”
There were countless people who assumed my attacks only hurt because they’d been careless. And every single one of them had something in common.
“They all died by my hand. You’re no exception.”
“Getting cocky after landing just one hit!”
Zan kicked off the ground, his body wrapped in swirling demonic energy.
He had assumed the only reason the man before him had landed a hit was because he’d let his guard down. Movement aside, how much could a mere wooden stick possibly hurt?
But then—
-BAM BAM BAM!
“Keheheuk!”
An excruciating pain—no, a pain so intense he wanted to die—ripped through his body. And that wasn’t all. His head burned as if on fire, and his entire body felt paralyzed, like he’d been struck by lightning.
Of course, that was still within the range of what he had expected.
In reality, far worse sensations were assaulting every inch of his body. No matter how superior his physical abilities were, enduring something like this all at once was no easy feat.
“What the… ugh!”
The moment Zan dropped to his knees with trembling eyes, a voice spoke above him.
“Didn’t I tell you? Beating up bastards like you is my specialty?”
Elric smirked as he stomped down on the crown of Zan’s head. The moment he saw that smile, Sena’s earlier words flashed through his mind.
-Heh. You should run while you still can. That person is coming.
He had dismissed it as nonsense meant to buy time. From the situation, they had held the advantage. But she hadn’t been lying. She had foreseen this exact outcome and warned him.
Hoo… Calm down.
Trembling in fear would accomplish nothing. He simply needed to respond rationally.
That’s right. It’s true I didn’t expect it, but it’s not an unwinnable fight.
Elric’s attacks were certainly threatening, but all he had to do was avoid getting hit. His techniques and movements were undeniably beautiful, yet his physical abilities didn’t appear particularly outstanding. Therefore, all Zan needed to do was create distance and attack with his demonic energy.
-Hwaaaaak!
Having organized his thoughts, Zan explosively released his demonic energy. Elric frowned and stepped back. In that brief window, Zan condensed demonic energy into his two fists.
-Wooooong!
Both fists turned pitch black. At the same time—
-Whoosh!
A fist formed of demonic energy shot toward Elric, tearing through the air. Against that frail body, a direct hit would mean death.
As Zan watched with a triumphant grin—
“Every single opponent does this when they fight me.”
Elric lifted the corner of his mouth in a knowing smirk, as if he had expected it all along. The moment Zan saw that smile, he realized the truth.
He had walked straight into a trap.
And just as expected—
-KWA-CHANG!
Elric’s counterattack completely shattered the demonic energy. Not only that—
“Keuk!”
The same deathly agony from before slammed into him again. Sweat poured down his body like a waterfall.
“What… is this…”
“Everyone makes that exact face when they get hit by me.”
Before he knew it, Elric was standing right in front of him, smiling with a sinister, wicked grin. Seeing it, Zan finally understood what the students had meant earlier.
Demon King.
He hadn’t understood it at first. The Demon King was supposed to be the ruler of the demon race. Since demons were called devils by humans, calling him the king of devils wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Yet no matter what the students called him, he was clearly just a human.
But now…
What the hell kind of human is that…?
Watching him smile like a villain while beating someone with that dangerous weapon, it suddenly made perfect sense. The way he looked utterly satisfied while pummeling his opponent with that thing—it was only natural they would call him the Demon King.
“You demon-like bastard…”
Zan muttered in a trembling voice before he could stop himself. Elric simply smiled back.
“When your enemies say that, it’s usually a compliment.”
The sudden compliment caught me off guard. Still, as a righteous professor, I wasn’t about to let it slide.
-That doesn’t sound like a compliment at all, Master?
‘Hey now. When an enemy says something like that, it means I did a good job.’
-I don’t think that’s what he meant…
I ignored Jukchang-i’s retort and stepped closer. Zan flinched.
“Hiiik!”
He scrambled backward with a terrified expression. Seeing him crawl like that, it was clear he had reached his limit.
‘That’s right. No matter how strong your body is, everyone is equal before Jukchang-i’s curse.’
-Ehem! That’s the power of my ability!
‘Yeah, yeah.’
While I was half-heartedly stroking Jukchang-i’s ego—
“Then let’s get you beaten to a pulp.”
I had closed the distance without him noticing. I raised the spear toward the terrified demon and swung with completely different intensity than before.
-BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!
“Keeeeeuuuurgh! J-just kill me already!”
He was begging for death before I had even finished hitting him. Seriously, why did you commit terrorism? If you had just stayed quiet, you might have made it halfway.
I ignored his pleas and kept swinging. At the same time, I thought I heard a pitiful voice from the side.
“Wow… I suddenly feel bad for that villain.”
It was probably just my imagination.
After my righteous bamboo spear had completely knocked Zan out, he lay there drooling with unfocused eyes. If I kept hitting him, he probably wouldn’t even be able to speak anymore.
“Uuuuuurgh…”
“Hey.”
“Uuuuuurgh…”
He responded like a zombie. I lifted Jukchang-i again and threatened him.
“Want some more?”
“I’m sorry!”
He immediately bowed his head at a perfect ninety-degree angle. I looked down at him and offered a sliver of hope.
“Tell me the truth and I’ll specially kill you. But if you lie… you know what happens, right?”
“I’ll tell the truth!”
He answered with eyes full of desperate hope. He really must want to die.
I nodded and asked, “Just to confirm—this order came from the Demon King, correct?”
“Yes! That’s right!”
He nodded his head vigorously ten times in a row. It didn’t seem like he was lying.
“Right. But why would the Demon King send an executive like you all the way here? No matter how I look at it, it seems like a waste of manpower.”
I genuinely couldn’t understand it. Even if the goal was to kill the hero, was it really necessary to send an executive?
‘Hmm. Maybe because the previous terrorist attacks kept failing?’
As I pondered that, Zan glanced around nervously before answering carefully.
“Well… from what I remember, they said that on the human side, besides the hero, there was an extremely dangerous individual… And she said it while looking scared.”
“......”
An extremely dangerous individual on the human side besides the hero? This was news even to me. The only ones who could threaten the Demon King should be us regressors and the hero. If someone like that had existed from the start, humanity would have already defeated the demon army in the previous timeline.
‘Hmm. I’ll have to think about this later.’
I had no idea who they were referring to, but there was no point dwelling on it now. I quickly changed the subject.
“By the way, how did you manage to infiltrate this place? No matter how lax the security is, it shouldn’t be easy for demons to sneak in.”
“Ah, yes! Lilis, one of our Demon King’s executives, helped us!”
Yeah, that made sense. It would have been impossible for these guys to infiltrate on their own. But if the Succubus Queen Lilis had taken action, sneaking in wouldn’t be strange at all.
-Lilis is the one who tried to seduce Master in the previous timeline but got killed by the yanderes, right?
‘Yeah, that’s her.’
-Heuuung. She had such good taste too!
I inwardly sighed at Jukchang-i’s comment and turned back to Zan. He looked up at me with sparkling eyes.
“S-so… are you going to kill me now?”
He was practically begging to be killed. He really must be eager to reach the afterlife.
“Sure. I’ll grant that wish.”
Without hesitation, I stabbed the sharp end of Jukchang-i straight into his heart.
-Squelch!
His heart was pierced cleanly. Normally, he should have worn a resentful expression. Instead—
“Kuhuk! I’m finally dying!”
After tasting the horrific pain of Jukchang-i, Zan smiled with pure joy at being liberated. A moment later, his head drooped as he was freed from the agony.
“Wow. In all my life, I’ve never seen someone die that happily,” Sai muttered, smiling in disbelief. The Class A students who had just woken up nodded in agreement.
“Hmm. So in the end, you all got taken out by the demons?”
“Uh… yes?”
The students tilted their heads in confusion. I gave them the sweetest smile I could muster.
“Looks like the after-school lessons will need to be even more intense from now on.”
The moment those words left my mouth, the students’ faces filled with utter despair. A few even screamed for me to kill them instead, but I was sure I was just hearing things.
As I pretended not to hear their desperate cries, a familiar message appeared.
A different development has occurred. A reward is given.