Demon King – Chapter 859 – Mysterious Voice

“W-Where am I?”

Holding her head as she sat up, Xixia, still groggy, shook her head and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

“Feels like I had a dream about ghosts…”

Muttering to herself, Xixia only remembered that she seemed to have had a nightmare. That Demon Lord had lured her into an abandoned school building, and somehow it had turned into a horror movie scene. The ghosts at first were whatever, but that massive vengeful spirit later on…

Just recalling the ghostly face she had confronted directly made the hero girl shudder. She was so startled that she snapped fully awake on the spot.

“Ah, unfortunately, that wasn’t a dream.”

A frivolous voice came from nearby. Only then did Xixia notice that the silver-haired loli sisters were still close by. She was lying on top of a desk, being taken care of by Eiya, while not far away Eiru was rummaging through and examining something.

“You’re awake? Slept long enough. The surgery was very succe… forget it, you were a girl to begin with.”

“Ah, so it really wasn’t a dream. Then where are we now?”

The blow of reality hit her. Xixia clutched her head and descended into chaos again.

“The archives room of this abandoned school, probably? There’s a lot of material stored here. Logically, these things shouldn’t still be left behind.”

Only then did the hero girl notice that the loli had been holding an old-looking booklet the whole time. Seeing the way her brows were tightly furrowed as she flipped through it seriously, Xixia could guess there were extremely important clues inside.

“More or less what I guessed. Even though this is just a small Inner World constructed based on the surface campus, it still follows certain real-world rules. Functional places like this still reflect their original functions.”

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The Demon Lord opened the booklet in her hands for the other two girls. Starting from the blank pages at the back and flipping forward, it didn’t take long before the three of them saw their own names written inside.

“This booklet contains information on everyone who has entered here. Besides their names, it also lists their occupations and experiences and so on.”

Though calling them experiences, Eiru felt it was more like listing their crimes. Looking at the increasingly outrageous descriptions, even as a Demon Lord, she had only lived sixteen years. It was inevitable that she felt shaken.

There were delinquent students who bullied classmates and even snatched the hard-earned surgery money raised for their families as protection fees.

There were substitute teachers who physically punished students and used verbal abuse to provoke them, even saying “If you don’t dare jump, then stop trying to grab attention” to a child on the verge of suicide.

There were even despicable individuals who loathed children, deliberately luring them to deserted places to stage accidents, taking pleasure in watching their cries and despair.

All kinds of bottomless behavior constantly refreshed Her Majesty the Demon Lord’s understanding of crime and malice. It was also through this booklet that she confirmed the common trait of everyone who had entered this abandoned school.

“Age doesn’t matter. Occupation doesn’t matter. Identity doesn’t matter. The definition of evil in this abandoned school is very simple. People who feel absolutely nothing, or even take pleasure, over lives that directly or indirectly disappeared because of them.”

“But if that’s the case… what does that have to do with us?”

After hearing her sister’s explanation, Eiya became even more confused. If only vile people were dragged in, none of the three of them met that condition.

“Because there’s a bug, obviously. Our names are in there, but look closely.”

Following Eiru’s gesture, the two girls looked at the booklet again. Unlike the others whose crime lists filled the pages, beneath the three of their names there was nothing at all. Completely blank.

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“Since only evil people are supposed to enter here, everything inside attacks anyone who comes in without discrimination. But because we don’t meet the conditions to be attacked, all those things inside, ghosts or vengeful spirits, only look scary and act aggressive. In reality, they can’t touch or hurt us at all.”

The information in the booklet also made Eiru even more certain of another fact. The flow of time inside was completely different from the outside world.

For example, the white-haired old man they had met earlier. The Demon Lord had found his information in the booklet as well. Though he was only in his thirties in reality now, he had actually been born forty or fifty years ago.

“So the earliest person who entered here is even older than the three of us combined. But because of the chaotic time flow, he might have only stayed here a few years.”

Seeing the two of them hesitate as if wanting to ask something, the Demon Lord could already guess their question. If time flowed differently, then how were they supposed to get out? It couldn’t be that when they left, more than ten years had passed outside, right?

“Relax. Once this place establishes a connection with the outside, the time flow synchronizes. Otherwise how do you think I called Stupid Yuki earlier?”

So those ghosts weren’t reacting to the phone itself. It was simply because the phone in Eiru’s hand had connected to the outside world, and they had tried to cut off that connection.

Although they more or less understood the situation now, the serious problem before the three girls remained the same. How were they supposed to get out?

“Very obvious. It’s like a door that can only be pushed open from the outside inward. When there’s no handle on this side, we can’t pull it open from the inside to escape.”

So there was only one way out. When someone outside entered this place and the “door” opened, the people inside would have a chance to escape during that window.

As she reasoned through the situation, Her Majesty the Demon Lord explained the escape plan she had prepared to her two companions.

Even though it seemed there was no substantial danger inside right now, she still needed to hurry out and take Yuki to meet her father.

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“After seeing so many acts of human evil, don’t you feel anything at all?”

Suddenly and abruptly, while she was still explaining, a voice both unfamiliar and strangely familiar echoed inside the Demon Lord’s mind. Caught off guard, she froze on the spot.

“Big sis?”

Seeing Eiru suddenly stop mid-sentence and stand there blankly, Eiya looked puzzled and reached out to poke her cheek.

“Ah? It’s nothing… probably just my imagination. I think.”

She waved her hand to signal that she was fine and was just about to continue when that voice rang out in her mind again.

“You are no longer human. The current you can accomplish far more than you imagine. You’ve already witnessed the inherent ugliness of humanity. Why continue pretending to be one of them?”

“You are a Demon Lord. You have the power to dominate, the power to change everything. You don’t need to stand with them. You should stand higher, looking down upon them.”

The unknown voice seemed to carry a mysterious magic, making one want to keep listening. Its words felt like an abyssal pull, dragging at the mind, dulling logical thought and slowly drawing one deeper and deeper…

“Little Demon Lord… what’s wrong with you?”

Seeing Eiru’s expression turning strange, even Xixia rarely showed genuine concern.

After all, as a certified hero, she had certain instincts sharper than others. She could vaguely sense that something bad seemed to be happening to her.

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“Hm? Don’t worry! It’s nothing…”

Called out by Xixia, Her Majesty the Demon Lord snapped out of that voice and quickly slapped her own cheeks to focus.

“It’s just some idiot even more chuunibyou than you… looks like they’re trying to drag me into the water.”

Translator Note

That old man…

Isn’t it a plot hole??

Even if the time flows differently, there is no way it’s his first day, right? At least a few months or even years must’ve passed for him. So how could a human live there?

Even if there’s a cafetaria, the food is not infinite. How could a human live without food?