Chapter 3 - The Guide to the Guide

I am not much different even now, but before my return, I was pride incarnate.

Confident, certainly.

Arrogant, too.

Pride in my race, lavish praise calling me the greatest top graduate in history, and everyone around me putting me on a pedestal had made me that way. And it was more than mere talk. None of my fellow cadets could even begin to rival me.

Even among the students of a military academy said to gather only the finest demons, I stood alone. I entered superior to the rest and graduated overwhelmingly ahead of them.

That was why I saw Arain, the worst of all dimensions, as a trophy that would only make my brilliance shine brighter.

No, I thought it had to be Arain. Naturally, only Arain could be worthy of someone as outstanding as me.

And so, despite several people trying to dissuade me, I remained resolute and descended upon Arain. Defying everyone's expectations, I achieved a measure of success.

I overtook the Demon Kings already established there, who were too busy looking out for their own safety. That success convinced me I could conquer Arain and rise even higher.

Until I realized that the damned thing called The Demon King's Guide was meant not for me—not for Demon Kings—but for heroes.

'Just thinking about it again makes me want to swear.'

Whatever the case, my past self had experienced the dimension of Arain once already. And that experience was an invaluable asset.

Assuming I used that asset without following the Guide to the letter, I was genuinely confident I could conquer Arain.

Gordon, however, apparently did not agree.

"Arain? Arain!"

Gordon tore at his hair. Elven hair, said to rival silk in its softness, fell away in a tragic waste.

"We have nothing! We'd barely stand a chance even in the easiest dimension, and we're going to the worst one?"

The sight of him on the verge of tears overlapped with a memory of the past.

["It will be difficult, but we have you, my lord, and me. It's a challenge well worth taking! No, anywhere but Arain wouldn't even inspire me to try!"]

I remembered him being quite spirited back then.

"I can't go! I won't! If you want to die, die alone!"

What was different between then and now?

Quite a lot.

For one thing, back then I had been a model student. A top graduate acknowledged by everyone. But now? I was a rebellious screwup shaking the very foundations of demon values.

Thanks to the butterfly effect, I had neither the benefits I received back then nor the demons who had volunteered to follow me.

'No wonder he's changed.'

But I couldn't tell him I had returned to the past, so all I could do was tell him to follow me.

"Why don't you stop tearing your hair out? It's a waste, isn't it?"

"Do you think my damned hair is the problem right now?"

It backfired. Even more hair ended up strewn across the floor.

Would he go completely bald if I told him I'd been given a chance and turned it down?

* * *

Regardless of Gordon's objections, the time for our dispatch drew near.

The furious Alkain firmly assigned me to Arain and threatened everyone against helping me.

Naturally, Gordon tore out still more hair after trying to persuade demons he knew to help us somehow avoid the worst.

Time passed, and the day arrived. Only Gordon and I stood before the portal. It was probably the most pathetic departure for a Demon King's descent in history.

The one consolation was that Grand Duke Alkain had come to see us off in person. Not that his intentions were pure, of course.

"Even if you cry and beg now, you will never get another chance. Spend the rest of your life rotting in that damned dimension."

"Thank you for the kind wishes. I'll return after making it a full-fledged colony."

"Your nerve certainly befits a top graduate. If you truly do that, I will grant you one request, whatever it may be."

"I'll look forward to it."

I simply smiled as Alkain's face twisted even further.

I grabbed the limp, corpse-like Gordon by the collar and dragged him along.

And so, for the first time in the history of the Demon Realm, a Demon King and his adjutant crossed a dimensional portal alone.

* * *

The first thing to greet us was pure white snow.

A chill dug into my body, already weakened by the dimension's interference. I exhaled a cold mist and brushed the snow from my head.

"We're in the right place."

"Where are we...?"

"Somewhere in the Erjest Mountains, in the north of the continent."

A naturally treacherous wilderness still untouched by human hands. Monsters abounded in every direction, and the harsh environment refused passage to the weak.

That was why, here...

"I'll build the tower."

Where no one could find it. And even if they did, they would not dare approach.

"That goes against the Guide."

Gordon bristled.

Rule One of the Guide: A Demon King must build a tower in the world assigned to them.

The rule stipulated only that a tower be built, but later generations of demons had added detailed conditions to suit their tastes.

Choose a reasonably treacherous location, but never build in a region humans could not reach at all.

"So?"

"The Guide is a law of the Demon Realm that must be upheld."

"By me? After the uproar I caused at graduation? Do you really think I'd do that?"

"... Have you truly abandoned even your pride as a Demon King?"

I clicked my tongue at his deepening disgust.

I understood. It would not be easy to reject a faith so deeply rooted. Not without dying, or experiencing some extraordinary turning point tantamount to death.

I did not answer.

I slowly surveyed the mountain peaks and found a suitable basin among them. Surrounded by peaks, its interior would be difficult to discover unless one pinpointed its location.

It was the ideal place to build a tower.

"This will do nicely."

"Is building it in some remote place not enough? Do you intend to hide the tower altogether?"

Watching what I was doing, Gordon objected again.

"What if I do?"

"I will stop you. It is my duty to point out the Demon King's mistakes and assist him."

"Obeying the Demon King's orders is also your duty."

After effortlessly shutting Gordon down, I dug into the ground and planted the tower seed Alkain had given me.

I covered it with earth, cut my palm, and sprinkled my blood over it. Watching the earth dry out in an instant, I infused it with demonic energy.

A faint tremor followed.

[The tower recognizes its user.]

[Race, Black Flame Demonic Dragon.]

[Name, Berge Deias.]

The tower's system recognized me. Having absorbed its master's blood and demonic energy, the seed released all its latent potential at once.

RUMBLE

The mountain shook. The air churned with an enormous wave of demonic energy.

A massive tower five stories tall emerged.

Its exterior was plain. Smooth and seamless, as though carved from a single piece of metal, it had no other ornamentation.

It was worlds apart from the tower that had grown to twenty stories just before my return, but perhaps nostalgia lent it a charm of its own.

CREEEAK

The door opened. I walked inside along the red carpet that stretched out to welcome me.

And took in a completely empty cavernous hall.

Before, I had filled it with the monsters awarded to me for graduating at the top and the demons who had voluntarily followed me, drawn by my reputation. This time, however, I had only Gordon.

"Take a good look. This is the tower you'll be managing from now on."

"Is there even anything here to manage?"

He snapped back curtly. His constant sniping was really getting on my nerves.

If he hadn't been a capable fellow who could manage the tower for me, if he hadn't been a loyal retainer who had worked so hard for my sake in my previous life, he would already have lost a tooth or two.

"Enough. Elves treasure their ears above all else, don't they?"

"..."

Gordon flinched. No matter how things had turned out, the fact that I was a Demon King—one of the strongest even in the Demon Realm—had not changed.

Despite trembling, Gordon raised his head.

"... I will bear that in mind. And since I am your adjutant, I will offer some advice."

"I'm listening."

"Kidnap a princess."

"Why?"

"If you kidnap a princess and leave traces of your involvement, the anger and grief of an entire kingdom will be directed toward you. All those emotions will become sweet demonic energy, making you stronger and more prosperous."

Even through his fear, he was filled with the desire to somehow put me back on track.

That was one of Gordon's strengths. But this time, it was pointed in the wrong direction.

"Rejected."

"The Guide is the Guide because it must be followed! Because it is more efficient! There is a reason it has been passed down and upheld for over ten thousand years!"

"It may be right in other dimensions, but here in Arain, it is wrong."

"Is there any reason Arain should be different from other dimensions?"

"I think the fact that it hasn't been conquered in over a thousand years is reason enough to recognize the difference."

"But the first Demon Emperor established the Guide so we could gather demonic energy more efficiently."

"You're only half right."

After being toyed with and killed by heroes, I had wondered.

Was I a special case, or was it the same for everyone?

Had the Guide truly become a system serving heroes rather than Demon Kings?

From the moment I graduated from the military academy until my dispatch to Arain, I searched every archive in the Demon Realm.

The archivists regarded me with disgust, calling me a rebel, but I forced my way in and found the answers somehow.

And I understood.

What the first Demon Emperor had intended when he established the Guide.

And why that Guide had become corrupted only in Arain.

"To understand why the first Demon Emperor established those rules, you need to understand how demons obtain demonic energy."

Demons obtained energy through the life force and negative emotions of humans or other races.

The higher the quality and the greater the quantity, the better.

"There isn't a demon who doesn't know that."

"Then what do you think is the way for a Demon King invading the Middle Realm to obtain more demonic energy of higher quality?"

"Renown."

Whether demons, humans, or other races, those who accomplished great deeds gained renown.

For Demon Kings invading the various dimensions of the Middle Realm, those deeds meant destroying nations and defeating their adversaries, the heroes.

Destroying greater kingdoms.

Killing stronger heroes.

That was how a Demon King gained renown.

"You could kill weak heroes all day, and humans would scarcely react. Killing a weak hero doesn't prove that a Demon King is strong."

But what if you killed a hero so strong that everyone knew their name?

"A strong hero is more than just a hero. They are hope."

"Then isn't that all the more reason to follow the Guide? We need to raise heroes like that."

In other words, Demon Kings needed strong heroes to build their renown, but strong heroes were not all that common.

So the first Demon Emperor made a decision. If there were none, he would create them. Raise them himself, then devour them.

That was how the Guide's provision requiring support for heroes' growth, both material and moral, came into being.

Beyond their symbolic role as representatives of humanity, the despair strong heroes experienced upon defeat was worth more as well. It served two purposes at once.

"There was nothing particularly wrong with that method."

Only elites selected from the very best demons entered the Demon King Military Academy. And only a fraction of them survived the life-threatening process of graduating.

Demon Kings of that caliber were on an entirely different level from humans and other races. That remained true even when dimensional interference restricted some of their power.

"Countless dimensions have been conquered that way, and are still being conquered. From one perspective, the Guide wasn't wrong."

"Then why...?"

"But Arain is different."

There was one thing that made Arain fundamentally different from other dimensions.

"Yes. One thing."

A very minor difference, yet an utterly enormous one.

"Arain has a lot of heroes."

No, merely saying "a lot" could not begin to express it.

"A truly fucking ridiculous number."

That was why the relationship between them had reversed.

When circumstances changed, the rules needed to change as well. But to demons, the Guide was not a set of rules. It was a faith.

Because knowledge of The Demon King's Guide had gradually spread, there were heroes everywhere exploiting it.

And so there was a Hero's Guide that exploited The Demon King's Guide.

"So I will exploit that Guide."

I would toy with the scum of heroes who laughed at stupid Demon Kings for following their foolish Guide.