Chapter 1: The Demon King’s Strongest Hand (1)

Thud. 

White hands as pale as the moon firmly gripped the desk. 

Underneath it was nothing but a piece of white paper.

The hand that stopped, withdrew slowly after a brief pause, leaving only the piece of white paper behind.

The man who was watching the withdrawing hand looked down at the paper on top of the desk and saw the words ‘Resignation Letter’ written on it.
His eyes widened, and his face turned ashen before he could even lift his head.

The man with red eyes and white hair looked at the man’s flustered expression and spoke in a firm voice, without a hint of emotion.

“I-I’ll resign.”

…

If the Empire has ‘Heroes’, the Demon Kingdom has ‘Corps Commanders’.

Just as the Empire puts forward its capable generals, the Demon Kingdom also puts forward its ‘Commanders’.

Therefore, the Corps Commanders serve as both the sword and shield of the Demon Kingdom, as well as a symbol of strength.

Officially, there are a total of 12 Corps Commanders in the Demon Kingdom, numbering from 1 to 12, but in fact, there is one more, hidden in secret, unmentioned Corps Commander.

The people of the Demon Kingdom, and even the enemy Empire’s army, don’t know of the secret, Zero Corps Commander.

The person in charge of the Zero Corps was none other than the one who had killed the last ‘Hero’, virtually the strongest Commander in the Demon Kingdom.

Having such a powerful Commander suddenly say they will resign was unimaginable.

“No! Never!”

“I can’t let a talent like you go to waste!” 

With great determination, the Demon King grabbed his subordinate’s legs and sat down on the ground.

Usually the Zero Commander hardly spoke and moved around, so when he came here personally, he wondered why, and was even a little happy.

But to say something like this.

Maybe he wasn’t being sincere.
As always, it was just a test.
It must be.

He raised his head while still holding onto the legs tightly.
His gaze met the red eyes, and silence flowed.

Perhaps he could tell from his eyes what he was trying to say.

‘If I go this far, you can’t tell me that you’re really going to quit, right?’

His eyes, which had been stiff all along, trembled slightly to see if his intentions worked properly.
At first glance, it was not obvious, but the Demon King, who was concentrating on him, was able to catch it quickly.

It was shaking.
Then we shouldn’t stop here.

He let go of the legs he was holding on to and jumped up.
Instead, this time he grabbed onto both shoulders.

“Why? Is there something not to your liking? Do your subordinates treat you badly? Are they discriminating against you just because you’re human? Which b*****d is it? Tell me, I’ll make them regret being alive!”

Contrary to his harsh tone, he was convinced that they wouldn’t do such a thing.

The power of the human was so strong that everyone had no choice but to acknowledge it.

’

No, what is ‘acknowledge’? To the demons, he possessed overwhelming  strength that can’t be obtained even with hard work.
Far from being friendly, everyone was in awe and respect, who would be brave enough to mess with him?

Nevertheless, there was a reason for doing this.

Deon Hart, known as “Demon Arut” in the Demon Castle, was the next “human” in command after the Demon King.

He was the only human in the castle, so he didn’t know what other humans were like, but unlike other demons, he was extremely reluctant to see someone’s blood.

So when it came to this, there was no choice but to react somehow.

-As expected.

Just as he was about to leave the office, his wrist was grabbed.

Turning around, he saw a pair of red eyes looking at him with a hunting gaze.
The Demon King forced on a smile.

‘…Looks like you’re finally willing to talk.’

The other party was his most treasured subordinate, and one who had just handed in his resignation letter, so instead of shaking him off, he let out a deep sigh and sat down with a tired expression.

“I’ll ask again.
What is the reason?”

“…Are you going to kill me?”

It was simply a genuine curiosity, but the response was another question rather than an answer.

Are you going to kill me? What a scary thing to say. 

He was surprised and looked up, their eyes met.
The red eyes that looked fierce were staring at him without any flicker.
He let out a hollow laugh.

‘That wasn’t my intention, but if I stay here any longer, my throat might really get ripped out.’

Although he was a Demon King with no one to fight except for the Hero, the man in front of him was threatening.

If he were to act on his thoughts and grab him by the throat, he would have to suffer greatly.

A voice intended to calm down the other party flowed out smoothly.

“There’s no way I could kill you! I just want to know why.”

“…That is.”

He opened his mouth to speak after a brief moment of silence, but then started coughing.

‘…Blood?’

“Cough! Cough!!”

“Ah.”

Blood poured out onto the desk full of paperwork.

He reflexively reached out and caught the blood.
His head was spinning too much to even think of any other actions.

Poison? No, he had been using a poison detection spell since seeing the blood, but there was no reaction.
Then there was only one possibility left.

The aftermath.

Officially, Deon Hart had killed the Hero.

Naturally the Hero was extremely strong, so he had suffered great injuries, and as a result, his already poor body was completely ruined.
He had also occasionally vomited blood like this.

’

‘The truth is, it’s not because of that, but in any case, the aftermath was fitting, and the outcome was the same.’

He suffered from hematemesis  several times before, but the frequency had clearly increased.

Ugh. 

The thought of possibly losing a valuable talent made his skin crawl.

At that moment, Deon belatedly realized the situation and took a few steps back from the desk, covering his mouth.
It seemed like he was trying to hold back the blood as he made a strained sound.

“I’m sorry.
The paperworks are…”

“That’s not the problem right now! Get the doctor! The Zero Corps Commander’s doctor! What the hell is he doing when his patient is so sick?!?!”

The entire castle was shaken by the Demon King’s screams, and chaos ensued.

***

The attending doctor Ben came running from far away.

My thoughts regarding making red stains on the carpet in the Demon King’s room were very simple.

‘Shit, I’m screwed.’

I just wanted to turn in my resignation letter and quit, but of course, blood had to come up and dirty the paperworks, dirty