Demon King & Hero

Side Story 1 Part 2: A certain demon king’s dream

The second part of Eevee’s Boxing Day special, come on in! Massive discounts on TL speed, for the biggest sale of the year! (Some exclusions apply.)

TL: Eevee

Ed: adkji

***

SMASH

“Oi!”

The office door broke and a giant of a man started yelling.

With a musclebound body, he also had two horns protruding from his head, one of which was partially broken.

His name was Dawihaslo. But rather by his name, he was better known as Destruction, ruler of Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins.

At the blood thirst which would make any normal demon quiver in fear, I simply smiled and said,

“Line up.”

Wrath looked towards the direction of the finger that I, Greed, pointed towards.

And at that place…

“What are you doing? Line up!”

“Don’t push in!”

“…”

“Line up.”

“At the very back.”

The other five demon kings were waiting in line.

***

“Line? Do you lot have no pride as a demon king!”

“I’m a demon king, too?”

At my words, Dawihaslo’s face turned crimson and yelled,

“What kind of runt are you to expect to be treated as a fellow demon king!”

“The demon god’s approved me?”

“Don’t make me laugh! No matter how the demon god may accept it, I never will!”

A black aura surrounded Dawihaslo’s hand. That was the incredible strength that gave him the name Destruction.

But looking at that strength, I simply smiled.

“Oh yeah? Let’s see if you can still laugh while you’re dead!”

Dawihaslo’s fist flew towards my face.

And the other demon kings looking on had only pitiful expressions.

“Tsk. Is this all six?”

WHAM!

With and incredible sound, the demon king flew back.

That was, the demon king of Destruction, Dawihaslo.

“Do you wanna die?”

“Who was that!”

Dawihaslo started releasing his magic power even more, and stared at the woman, that was, my backer.

“You’re not gonna lower your eyes?”

THUD!

At the woman’s words, the power surrounding Dawihaslo vanished and his knees dropped as if they had a mind of their own.

“C, could it be?”

“I’ve approved of him, but you dare not to? Oi, you’re not gonna look down?”

Appearing right in front of him, she, the demon god said, stepping on him with her feet.

“Wh, why are you a woman?”

For Dawihaslo, who couldn’t recognize her at first, I answered,

“She said she was bored.”

“…”

His shocked and confused expression quickly morphed to one of understanding. As expected, he was more accustomed to the workings of the demon world than I was.

“Do you want to line up, or get beaten and line up?”

“But still, th, that runt…”

“Since when was seniority in the demon world determined by age? In that case, is that shriveled up Strife is you lot’s leader?”

“N, no, but…”

“Or surrender to heaven. I dunno about the rest, but you and Strife at least are probably going to get torn in half right off?”

At those words, Dawihaslo quietly fell in line.

And I quietly slipped behind him and handed him a sheet of paper.

“What’s this, a ticket number?”

“No?”

Dawihaslo looked at the paper and he made a dumbfounded expression.

The paper was in fact, a bill for the broken door.

***

“Dismissed.”

“Boy! Ah, no, Greed! Isn’t this still too little for us who protect the front lines?”

He glared at me briefly, before looking behind me, or rather, at the demon god who was lying down mid-air and yawning in boredom, before turning his gaze downwards again.

“With this, if you’re thrifty, it’s plenty. Actually, you’ll have some leftover.”

I showed him the data that I’d pushed other work aside to collect.

“Acrias, current commanding general of the demon army. You do know that since you’ve taken the job, your expenditure’s risen by 340%?”

“But in return, my army is the strongest in history!”

“Yes, fair enough… But if a war does occur, do you plan to ruin the demon world? What are you thinking of spending money as if we were actively at war! Are you planning to spend even more if we do wage war? Not only that, what’s this? Orichalcum training swords? Are you taking swords that are treated as Divine Swords by humans and giving them to new recruits!”

At those words, the demon god, too, made a surprised expression.

Orichalcum, the metal of the gods. And to be giving that to a recruit?

“You, are you mad?”

At the demon god’s honest question, Acrias shut his mouth.

“From now on, let’s make training swords out of wood.”

“Wait a minute! Not even, steel swords, but wooden ones!”

“Wooden swords are cheap. Always wooden swords! Shut up and wooden swords! And if you use wooden swords, you don’t even bleed! It’s good because you save on hospital fees! It’s good because you’re not spending any more moneeeeeeyyyyyyyy!”

I raged. Thinking about it, if wooden swords are used, I don’t have to pull all-nighters either!

Understanding(?) my words, Acrias nodded.

“I, I understand.”

As Acrias walked out, the demon god rubbed my shoulders and said,

“You’ve worked hard.”

Why is she looking at me with such a sorrowful expression? Anyway, next up was Ayariss. Also known as Charm.

“Why did my cute darling reduce my budget?”

She came at me with a pure face. Rumours have it was not just a couple of nobles that fell for that, and to think she’d brazenly act like this in front of the demon god…

“Because it was unnecessary. With that money, I’d rather get more troops for that peeking Strife over there.”

At those words, Strife, who was taking intermittent glimpses out of the side of the door, looked very, very happy.

“What do you mean, unnecessary! Demon kings like us need to show our prestige! Look at this room! Barely 8 pyeong? As for furniture, one bookshelf, one desk, one big sofa? Sure, the sofa can be said to be of the highest tier, but the rest is all old! Who would think this was a demon king’s office?”

At those words, I nodded.

“You’re right. This doesn’t look like a demon king’s office.”

At my answer, she smiled brightly and said,

“I know, right? So we need to-”

But instead of listening to her answer, I asked another demon king to move aside for a second, before pushing the wall.

“Wha, what’s that!”

And behind there… a mountain of forms.

“I got a bit behind with paperwork because I went to visit the demon god.”

At my words, the other demon kings were stricken dumb.

“What the… What has this slacker been saying to us!”

Ayariss who was talking to me said. At her vehement protest, the other demon kings started nodding.

At their expressions, I smiled.

“Two days.”

“What?”

“That amount of paperwork. I’m two days behind.”

“What?!”

Naturally, Ayariss was surprised. Not only her, but the other demon kings and the demon god too.

“That wall is normally a barrier. So that the forms don’t fall over. My office is a grand total of 100 pyeong, and of that, around 90% of it is used for storing paperwork.”

I pushed the wall on the other side, the one close to my desk, and continued,

“And this is where I eat. This is around two pyeong, my food is generally jerky, water, and coffee. It’s filled with the essentials for all-nighters, it’s quite livable, isn’t it?”

At my words, the others broke out in a cold sweat. Why, guyyyss~

“You know, when I first came here, there was five years worth of paperwork sitting in the basement. My predecessor worked hard but said it was too much. Ha. Ha. Ha.”

On the side, my predecessor in Internal Affairs died young. As an Earl, he never got to go home once before he died.

Because of that, there were celebrations when I took over Internal Affairs.

I was apparently the first demon king ever to take charge of the Department of Internal Affairs, and since demon kings are tougher from birth, they thought I would last longer. I can still vividly remember their cheerful expressions.

But as the previous manager died, the hell that was overtime started to unfold, and everyone’s lives were shortened or something.

“My sofa might be the best of the best. A demon king can’t sleep on a poor bed, after all. Hang on, I spend around 20 hours a day sitting, so does it qualify as a bed?”

“Ex, excuse…?”

“Oh, and I’m not saying this specifically for you guys. But since I’ve taken over, I’ve been to my demon king’s castle a grand total of three times. Day trips, at that. Because I’m too afraid of the work that’s going to pile up if I leave it for any longer. Actually, thinking about it, I don’t even have a reason to go, should I just sell the castle?”

Fufufu. Silence. Maybe even demons have a conscience after all? Then if you do, please shut your mouth?

“Alright. I’ll raise your budgets a bit more than normal. If I do, let’s have that demon king work in here with me?”

At my final words, everyone was silent. From then on, negotiations went smoothly even without the demon god there.

***

Author’s Note:

Ladies and gentleman, the demon king of all-nighter overtime…

Translator’s Notes:

(1) In Korea, but from what I’ve seen, Asian cultures in general, to talk to your superiors while looking at them directly in the eye outside of a casual context is disrespectful.

(2) pyeong = Korean unit of area. 1 pyeong = 3.30 m2 = 2 tatami mats = slightly larger than a Queen double bed.

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