Lord Demon is behind you

"Well," the Demon King raised his hand immediately, "I am wholeheartedly loyal to the brave man!"

"...No, I didn't want to hear you say this..."

Although it's obviously too late to complain about this, but... won't this guy feel ashamed when he says such lines? !

"Well...Speaking of which, her reasoning is unexpectedly powerful, and it is indeed realistic from a human point of view." The devil habitually crossed his hands and raised his chin, "If the person involved is not me, maybe I I’m sure I’ll be persuaded after hearing it. But it’s because I’m the person involved that I can point this out—you humans, you still take things about the demons for granted.”

"After all, we have never thought of 'conquering' or 'dominating' humans. In general, do humans really have the meaning of being conquered?"

Having said that, he waved his hands in disgust.

"For us, ordinary humans are inferior creatures similar to bugs. Even the most ordinary demons can kill a group of humans casually, so weak that there is no need to face it-that's the thing. You will want to conquer and rule over a swarm of worms?"

"...Although it is true, these words sound really harsh."

"Of course, you, Brave, are completely different!"

Realized something, the devil hurriedly added.

"In my opinion, in most cases, human beings are indeed weak and disgusting. However, the intelligence and wisdom of these creatures cannot be denied-and you have a completely different social structure and way of thinking from the demons, so sometimes you will be defeated instead. It will be very interesting, and under the huge population, there are even infinite possibilities. The result of developing this possibility to the extreme is the birth of a pure personality like you, Brave—"

The brave man silently covered his mouth, stopping him from chattering further.

"I can roughly understand that you are praising me, but even if I am praised like this, I have nothing to be happy about."

In fact, until now the brave man didn't quite understand what he was talking about.

What about "possibility" and "extreme"—the brave man feels that he is just one of thousands of ordinary human beings, except that he works a little harder than some people and is luckier than others. any difference.

The brave man has long discovered that the Demon King seems to have an overly high opinion of him.The person praised by the other party is far superior to himself in the heart of the brave man.

And after he realized his feelings, the pressure brought by this high evaluation also increased day by day.

"Compared to that..." He forcibly put aside the faint uneasiness in his heart, trying to focus on the problem in front of him, "Since you are not interested in the human world, why did you come to the human world to be the devil king in the first place?"

"I'm very interested in the human world, but I'm not interested in 'ruling mankind'." The devil corrected.

"Anyway, isn't the job of the Demon King to conquer humans?"

"That's not the case. I said it before, right? The so-called demon king - the final boss, its ultimate meaning is to be defeated by the brave! A demon king who cannot be defeated is not a good demon king. This is not a joke, I am serious .”

Having said that, the Demon King slumped his shoulders.

"Actually...the so-called 'devil king' did not come to the human world voluntarily to cause destruction, but was summoned by the rules of the world."

"--Eh?!"

It's not just to the extent of ignorance, this is a ground-breaking theory for the brave.

"Why are there rules of the world here—"

"Well, it's probably because the existence of the 'devil king' itself is an important part of maintaining the balance of the human world," the demon king explained from the beginning, "you should know, the brave, that 'monsters' are essentially the accumulation of the dark side of the world. aggregates?"

"Well, I know that."

There is an essential difference between monsters and demons and monsters.The latter two refer to creatures living in the demon world, while the former is the gathering of darkness born in the human world.

Even in a peaceful age when there is no demon king, there will still be unorganized monsters haunting the dark places, waiting for an opportunity to hurt people.

"In a sense, monsters are the excrement of this world," the devil continued, "and humans are bacteria living on the surface of the world. When the amount is normal, it is harmless or even beneficial, but when it is in excess, it will threaten the health of the world." balance."

"So, when it is discovered that there is a surplus of human beings, the consciousness of the world will produce a large number of monsters and let them deal with human beings—in order to prevent the monsters from making trouble out of control, they will also summon a high-ranking demon to come to the world to act as the guardian of the monsters. Command. This is the true face of the 'devil king'."

"this,--"

The brave man has heard of the theory that "human beings are equal to the parasites of the world".But when he first heard the statement that the world consciousness deliberately used monsters to control the number of humans, he couldn't help feeling horrified.

"In other words, the 'devil king' was actually specially invited by the world consciousness of the human world...to destroy us?"

"It's not as exaggerated as 'destruction', it's just controlling the number."

Seeing that his face looked very bad, the Demon King raised his arms and put his arms around his shoulders after a short pause.

"When the reproduction speed of human beings is controlled, according to the rules, the devil will be defeated by the brave and driven back to the devil world, and the number of monsters will also be reduced-this kind of development is in line with the laws of nature, just like birth, old age, sickness and death. Brave, you There is no need to be swayed by such things.”

"……Um."

The brave man calmed down a little, and waved his hand away.

"I understand."

Anyway, no matter what the truth of the world is, what he needs to do as a brave man will not change.The "Ten Witches" in front of me are the command of monsters born in an abnormal way, and they are terrifying existences that will truly destroy human beings, and they must be eliminated no matter what——

It's just... For a while, I was somewhat unable to adapt.

For a moment, he didn't know how to face the devil in front of him.

After the arm was slapped away, the Demon King didn't have any special reaction, he just spread his hands and continued talking.

"Well, but you can also rest assured. Although every few hundred years there will be a summoning message from the demon world, but not every time someone is willing to come to the human world - after all, it is troublesome and tiring to do such a thing, There is no benefit, so the devil usually only appears once every 2000 years."

"Troublesome and tired...?"

——Then why don't you come here?

The brave swallowed this vexatious complaint in time.

According to this theory, the actions of the other party are really in line with the interests of the human world, and the Demon King has done his job very conscientiously, commanding monsters, deterring human beings, and finally being defeated by the brave; complain.

"Yeah, leaving home alone, without even a servant to take care of daily life, can only be with vicious monsters; being regarded as an enemy by the entire human population, the most terrifying thing is that you have to fall in love with your sweetheart... …but--"

The devil suddenly changed the subject.

"I have never regretted coming to the human world. After all, if I didn't do this, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to meet you, the brave man. For me, as long as I can meet you, the brave man, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what troubles you go through."

"...Although," at this point, he pulled out a sad smile, "you, brave, probably think...it would be better if you didn't know me at all. If I hadn't come to the human world in the first place , everything after that will never happen at all. If there is no demon king in this world, you will be able to live more securely—"

Did he realize it?At that moment just now, my mood——

"……sorry."

The other party lowered his eyelashes, and there seemed to be something bright shining in his eye sockets—just like when he first confessed.

However, the brave man at that time could stay out of the matter and be troubled by it, but the brave man now is easily panicked by it.

Anyway, the mood now is completely different from that time.The Demon King at that time was just a "former enemy" to him, but now he is... a special kind of existence.

But seeing him feel dejected by this kind of thing, the brave man has no way to frankly deny this statement.

After all, just now, a similar idea did cross my mind.

Obviously, this is not the other party's fault at all, and he is already a very important person to him.I am really grateful for the fact that the two of us met—but...

At that moment, such selfish and extreme thoughts still surfaced in my mind.

Perhaps this is the inferiority of human beings, but he couldn't use this reason to convince himself.Faced with the companions who selflessly helped him along the way, and the object of his secret affection, he could still think like this——

The brave man couldn't help feeling a deep sense of self-loathing.

"Ah, it doesn't matter. From the standpoint of a brave man, it's only natural to think so. After all, monsters have caused so much trouble in your life, and the Demon King is the leader of monsters..."

Demon King Youyou let out a sigh of relief, "Anyway, as long as the brave can trust me now, I will continue to try my best to help you."

The guilt in the brave man's heart suddenly grew wildly like weeds.

"Sorry, I--"

Suddenly there was the sound of something very loud cracking behind him, so loud that it was more like an "explosion" than "broken".

The brave man turned his head to look at the sound, and found that the double door behind him had opened a gap at some point, and the sound was coming out from the gap intermittently.

No, I remember that when I came out this time, I should have closed the door very carefully——he thought with some confusion.

In short, it is necessary to check on Ludi's situation first.With that in mind, the brave man stretched out his hand towards the doorknob.

"Wait a minute, brave man!"

The Demon King grabbed the hero from behind.It seemed that because he was too anxious, he didn't grab the hem of the clothes as usual, but hugged the brave man's waist firmly, making him stiff all over.

"--What's wrong?"

When the brave man asked back, the devil fell silent again, with an indescribably complicated expression on his face.

"Brave, do you... hope to save her?"

Why does it feel like he asked the same question before.

"Of course." The brave man replied without thinking.

"..."

The Demon King was silent again.

It wasn't until the sound of beating and smashing in the room in front of him gradually disappeared that he finally let go of his hand.

"You... it's better not to have too much expectation on this matter," he said hesitantly, "after all, the other party is a witch. Do you understand? Since you are a witch, you can't be a real companion—"

...What's going on, these two people.No matter which side is full of doubts about the other side, since everyone is working hard for the same goal, can't they get along a little more normally?

The brave man felt tired after a while.

When he returned to the room on the seventh floor, Ludi had already moved the robot to the entrance of the secret passage, and was busy taking care of it.On the wall and ground behind her, there were several deep ravines—it seemed that this was the aftermath of the noise just now.

As for the reason for her sudden madness, the brave man has already guessed.

"Did you just... listen to our conversation?"

"……Um."

Facing the machine with his back to the hero, Ludi reluctantly responded and lowered his head.

"Although, I hate the dirty demons, but I don't feel at ease to let the hero face him alone... I know that eavesdropping is bad behavior, I hesitated, and finally I couldn't hold it back— -sorry."

Sure enough.It seems that she opened the door a little secretly, trying to listen to the conversation between the hero and the Demon King—but because she hated the Demon King so much, she probably went crazy uncontrollably after hearing his voice.

"Just as I thought," she continued indignantly, "he's trying to deceive you with sweet words again! It's a pity that I can't leave the seventh floor, otherwise I will definitely throw the ax in his face on the spot."

...It's a good thing she can't leave the seventh floor.

"I don't think he's cheating," the brave man cleared his throat and said, "What he said is also true..."

"Forget it, Mr. Brave," Ludi frowned and shook his head repeatedly, "He lied to you so clearly, and only you will not find out, and you are sincerely blaming yourself for his affairs. Moisten your eyes, say something that seems considerate, and then take the opportunity to express your determination, and you can hold your heart in your hands—there is really no man in the world who is more deceitful than you."

"……Hey?"

Without giving the brave man time to further understand and digest these words, Ludi turned around and threw something over.

The brave man instinctively caught it.

"This is……?"

They are two palm-sized flat metal cuboids, each with a piece of transparent square glass embedded in the front, and several rows of strangely shaped small holes arranged below.

"It's a machine for communication," Ludi said. "Like this, two people each hold one of them, and then you only need to talk to it—the other party can hear your voice through the other machine in your hand. Specifically How to use it, you can ask that demon, he should know how to use it.

"At that time, the two of you will each take one, and you will be able to talk when you advance through the secret passage; although you still can't act together, at least you can understand each other's situation, which is better than nothing."

"Is this... prepared for us?"

The brave man tentatively touched the strange small machine in his hand, feeling a little moved and relieved in his heart.It seems that although Ludi said that he hoped that the Demon King would be farther away, he was actually taken into consideration.

"I can't help it. Although I hate him, but after calming down and thinking about it, I know that there is no other way but to let him continue to be your companion," the little girl embraced in a cold gesture that did not conform to her appearance. Folding his arms, "But please be careful of him, in case he finally robs the Demon Throne and restores—"

"...So, ah, that kind of thing won't happen."

"I hope so."

Ludi raised her hand and pressed her forehead wearily.

"Okay, so the preparations have been completely done. You just need to walk up from here, and my Ludi No. [-] will take care of you. Then—"

She jumped back a few steps, kicked the huge battle ax that was thrown on the ground far away, and faced the hero——

—opened his arms.

"--Now.

"Master Brave, it's time to come and kill me."