That Time I Got Reencarnated as a Demon Lord (English)

29 - The Flames that burns Dreams

I and one other person were sitting in a room. I was playing a game on the small computer screen and the other person, the girl behind me, fiddling with her cell phone. She looked a little distracted, but I didn't mind that considering she was researching the new light novel coming out, about a damphir boy who becomes a demon king after he's reincarnated in the wrong way.

We were both very interested in this story as it seemed like something a little innovative. The idea of ​​a reincarnated character being evil isn't all that uncommon, but becoming a demon king in such an overt way is quite strange.

"Satoru-kun, the story sounds interesting, but it's pretty...sad. I mean, he goes crazy. I mean literally crazy! And I still haven't made it past the first chapter!!"

"Did he go crazy?! Well... I guess that explains him becoming a demon king, but... why did he go crazy in the first place?"

I started thinking, still not stopping playing. What would motivate a person to go crazy like that? I don't think anything so big happened in the first chapter that it ever made him go crazy...

"He lost his mother. After having lived two lives surrounded by people who hated him from the moment he was born, he had a mother in his third life...but his mother was killed. It seems that damphir is a race hunt in this story."

Hmm~... That makes sense. If my memory serves me right, Damphirs are an intermediate race, in the same way as half-elves. Damphirs are born from the union of vampires and some other race, usually mortal races. So, in the end, it makes sense that they are hunted.

Still, to become a Demon King just because of that... Isn't that overkill?

"No, that's not an exaggeration."

"How do you know what I was thinking?!"

"It was pretty... obvious. It was written all over your face!!!"

I felt kind of offended. I can't be that obvious... can I? Am I that simple? That can't be possible.

"Think with me: not only did he suffer a lot for two lives, he found a person who loved him with all his heart after having suffered so much! How do you want a person, who has gone through all this, to be okay with people taking even more of him?"

"But the thing is... is it worth becoming a Demon King just for that? I mean, the Demon King will bring pain and suffering to people, and it really makes sense that he would want revenge when he suffered like that. But all the effort of being a Demon King... Isn't it more worth putting that effort into doing good?"

"You talk as if you were so much better than him... If you were in the same situation as him I would see you doing the same things. I don't doubt you would kill hundreds just for the chance of winning someone you love back!"

"I'm not you to do those kinds of things, Saara-chan."

Yes, Manami Saara-chan, my childhood friend. A self-confessed otaku, just like me, who has been accompanying me on my adventures since the two of us watched an anime together for the first time.

And for some reason, she manages to be even crazier than I am...

"Ah, I would make a beautiful demon queen, don't you think? I mean, I would be nice to the demons that serve me, and I would be cruel to humans..."

I turned to Saara-chan, staring at her with a "really?" look. She sometimes forgets which side she has to root for, I've seen it many times before, but wanting to become a villain in a fantasy story? How crazy does one have to be to want to become the villain, hated and hunted by all, only to end up either on top of the world with others fearing him or killed by a "hero"?