Demon King of Tyranny Anos Voldigoad in The Eminence in Shadow

Chapter 3 - Reflection and Resolve

"Aren't you a distant descendant of one of the seven demons I created using my own blood 2,000 years ago?"

After Anos threw those outrageous words casually as if he was talking about the weather. Beta breathing hitched as her mind started turning hazy from the lack of oxygen. In that abnormal state, old memories that were long sealed deep inside her mind suddenly surfaced. Painful memories about her childhood back when she was still living with her family in the country of elves.

The cruel fate she faced after contracting the Demon Possession, how she was suddenly persecuted by her entire family and society. The horrifying treatment she received from everyone she trusted before being exiled from her home.

"How dare you..."

Beta muttered in a trembling voice as she clenched her fists tightly in frustration. Despite knowing everything about the curse and our suffering because of the damned demon blood...

How dare he claim something like 'that' so casually?

Blatantly saying he's the one who created the demon that destroyed her whole life and caused the death of countless innocent girls throughout history. He was even going as far as saying he made 6 more such heinous demons. Implying as if Demon Diabolos and by extension, all of our misery was nothing special. The sheer audacity. Even for being Shadow-sama's little brother, that's going too far.

Beta's expression changed drastically as she felt absolute fury toward the person standing in front of her. Small tears formed in her sapphirine eyes as she glared fiercely at Anos. Not only did he completely shatter her expectations of him by telling such a cruel tasteless joke, but he also offended her and everyone else in the Shadow Garden at the same time. She felt a level of disappointment she never thought was possible.

"How dare you!"

"Hmm?"

Anos blinked confused as he looked at the seething elf who suddenly had her whole mode switched in the blink of an eye. If just a few moments ago she was looking at him with respect and admiration in her eyes, then all he could see right now is hate and disgust.

"Am I wrong? But I can't be mistaken. Aren't you a hybrid–"

"EXCUSE ME Anos-sama, I still have other things to do. So I will take my leave now."

While Anos was still talking, Beta snapped and interrupted him rudely. She only half-heartedly bowed to him before she immediately walked towards the door of the library. Anos watched silently without doing anything as she transformed back into a maid and then once she was out, she angrily closed the door with perhaps a bit too much force.

*Baaam*

"..."

Anos frowned as he thought about what brought this unexpected reaction. This simple interaction with the elf woman suggested many unfortunate implications and conclusions that he was sure he wouldn't like at all. He noticed that the moment he mentioned 'demon', the elf woman's emotional state suddenly turned to the worst. It seemed to him as if she harbored extreme hatred towards the Demons or something. The same as the humans he meets in the past.

But she isn't a human, she is an elf. Even in the past, the elves in fact had a fairly stable relationship with the demons. Sure It wasn't really a good one, but it wasn't bad either. Mainly because of the complex relationship between the Spirits and the Demons. So the elves who worshiped those same Spirits found themselves in an awkward position with the Demons. Nevertheless, that doesn't explain the hatred he saw in her eyes.

"Did those seven rascals do something stupid while I was gone?"

Anos was extremely tempted to right away use the more powerful Demon Eyes in his arsenal to learn about the true past and history directly from the root of the world. But he refrained from doing so. Currently, he has lost approximately 90% of his powers. So he can only effectively use 10% of what he used to be capable of. Moreover, he just reincarnated and is also suffering a huge almost crippling backlash from the last magic he used in his past life to separate the whole world into four separate dimensions. The human world, the demon world, the spirit world, and the world of the gods. Doing something of that ridiculous scale put a great strain on him and so he needs time to calibrate into this new body while slowly recovering his original strength.