The Demon King is Unfathomable

A vicious-looking demon stood behind a black stone podium in an eerie classroom filled with torture tools hanging off the walls.

He was Enos, a Diamond (Tier VII) furiataur. He had two massive bull horns that made him resemble a wild beast walking on its hind legs. His hulking physique was wrapped under a scarlet robe, and his scarlet eyes obscured by his hood’s shadow reflected a chilling glint. (T/N: A fiend bull)

The words carelessly scribbled on the blackboard behind him were:

【How to efficiently torture a human and collect Terror Energy from their shrieks.】

“Terror is different from charm, but they share the same fundamental properties… Our energy also stems from human faith. Our believers might not praise but fear us, but that is worship too. A dead worshiper is meaningless as only a living worshiper can provide energy to us.

“Jot this down. We have to instill fear in our prey while avoiding excessive torture that may cause death or insanity.

“What we do loses its meaning once our prey stops reacting to external stimulus, so the best kind of torture should be bearable. But it could backfire on you if your torture is too light too. For instance, your prey might relish in it. That’s another situation we have to avoid.

“Focus! You shouldn’t think you don’t need such knowledge just because you aren’t a furiataur. Even a succubus can learn a thing or two from this. Never let your prey think that they have grasped you. Only when you remain as a lofty existence will simps will they treat you like their deity… I hope you have learned more than just crude seduction techniques from Lilith.”

This was hell’s highest education institution, the Demon King Academy.

As the humans grew stronger, being a demon king was no longer as lucrative as it was five hundred years ago. One could say that they had become a consumable resource.

So, most students strove to be civil servants in the Demon Capital to escape the battlefield, and that was why they were focused on the lecture.

But Roan felt a chill run down his back as he listened to the lecture.

The reason was simple.

Those seated in this classroom were either demons or undead. He was the only human here, and he was somehow seated in the dead center.

His ass clenched each time the lesson touched on humans. It didn’t help that Professor Enos would open his massive mouth wide and flash him a mysterious smile every now and then.

Professor Enos’ smiles were one thing, but trouble also came from beside him too.

Seated on his left, Furiataur Lumi would sneak occasional glances at him, revealing a tempted expression. He could only pray that Lumi was just flexing his imagination and wouldn’t try to do it for real.

On his right, Revemon Meykil gently blew at the ifrit in front, murmuring, “I heard that humans doze off easily when the surroundings are warmer…” (T/N: A dream demon)

Roan had no idea where she heard that from, and he didn’t want to know what she was hoping to do after he fell asleep, but he didn’t think that he would sleep in Professor Enos’ lesson even if he was baked alive.

But the one sitting behind him, Miss Mia, was worse than the two buffoons by the side.

Mia was a red-haired succubus with heart-shaped tail and irises and a pair of twisted sheep horns that grew above her ears. Her uniform skirt was tailored extremely short, making it tough for one to decide where to look.

She had been messing with him since the start of the lesson, sometimes kicking his chair, sometimes feigning an exaggerated yawn to blow at his neck.

This fellow is the most dangerous one!

Other demons had to resort to spells, but she could rely solely on her racial talents.

Without any spells, there would be no traces of her evildoing. There would be no way for redress his grievances if he fell for her tricks.

Roan dared not to let his guard down, fearing that whatever was currently covered in class would be immediately employed on him.

The only other relatively normal person in class was Egor.

He was an incubus, which was ranked in the lower rungs in the high demons’ hierarchy.

Roan, as a ‘protected species’ designated by the Demon God, was in a position similar to pandas. Bullying him had severe legal repercussions, so Egor became the class’ go-to target instead.

There were times when Egor would have such a pitiful look on his eyes that Roan felt sorry for him, but at the same time, he couldn’t decide whether Egor was putting on an act or not.

I have to keep my guard up!

The frequency of kicks on his chair was starting to get too much. Unable to tolerate it anymore, Roan turned around and glared at Mia.

But that failed to make Mia rein herself in. Instead, she provocatively licked her lips.

Her burgundy irises were like sweet chocolate marshmallows. Just meeting her eyes was enough to place Roan in a dazed state.

This was not a spell but succubuses’ racial talent. They were born with the innate power to enrapture anyone with their eyes.

Only high demons or those with exceptionally strong psyche would be immune, but Roan fell in neither category.

Shit, I fell for her trick!

It was too late by the time this thought surfaced in his mind.

It only took an instant for Professor Enos to notice his movement and roar like a bull, “Roan, how dare you get distracted in my class! You have guts!”

The entire classroom shook under that deafening voice. Those in the front rows had already covered their ears in pain.

But this was merely the usual volume Professor Enos used when reprimanding students.

“I’m sorry, Professor—”

Roan shot to his feet and apologized for his wrongdoing, only to be interjected by a furious rumble.

“Sorry? No such word in hell! Lift your head up and look me in the eye! You dare to look into a succubus’ eyes but not mine? Don’t submit to fear; conquer it! Yes, that’s more like it! Good, you may go to the toilet to dry your pants now! Hahahaha!”

Professor Enos guffawed, and the entire class erupted in laughter.

“Hahahaha!”

Only Egor glanced at Roan with worried, deer-like eyes.

Mia placed her hands behind her head and stuck out her tongue, her expression reflecting her dissastisfaction with the situation. It was unknown whether she was annoyed because Professor Enos had gone in the way of her ploy or because it was not her who had wet Roan’s pants.

Roan’s pants weren’t actually wet, so there was no need for him to head to the toilet.

He ignored his classmates’ laughter and settled back into his seat with a soft sigh.

It was hell. Such a situation couldn’t have been more common. This was not his first time being teased by the academy’s professors.

It was just yesterday that Professor Lilith, a succubus who taught Illusion and Control Magic, used him as a guinea pig for her lesson.

Mia’s earlier action was probably a crude imitation of that.

Professor Enos could be considered one of the kinder professors in the Demon King Academy. At least what he taught was useful.

It was thanks to him that Roan, despite being a mortal living in hell, hadn’t wet himself out of fear of a furiataur for a long time now.

Professor Lilith, on the other hand, simply enjoyed teasing him.

To this day, he still wasn’t immune to the succubus’ control magic yet. He was certain that something must be wrong with her lessons!

It was a long story how a mortal like him ended up attending this damned academy.

First and foremost, he was not from this world but a transmigrator from Earth.

He was caught in a traffic accident. He couldn’t remember the details anymore, but by the time he opened his eyes once more, he was already in Ors Continent’s deepest underground Demon God Church, with mysterious runes and a five-sided star behind him.

According to the Demon God Church’s shadow priests, his mother was a human acolyte, whereas his father was a vampire who refused to divulge his identity.

Yes, that should have made him a half-vampire… but that was not how it worked out.

The vampires of this world had to receive the Embrace to complete their heritage and inherit their vampiric powers. The Embrace was a troublesome ritual that was high demanding on not just manpower, wealth, but ancestry too.

Only children whose both parents were vampires were Embraced at birth.

As a shameful, illegitimate son, Roan was not qualified to receive the Embrace. The blood flowing through his blood vessels were no different from that of an ordinary human.

All he had inherited from his father was a dashing face and a noble but useless bloodline… though it was not as if Roan had expected anything more.

His mother passed away shortly after giving birth to him, whereas his father had never appeared in the past eighteen years.

But it didn’t matter anymore.

He did think that his life was screwed when he first transmigrated to this world, but after he stuck around for a while, he realized that things weren’t as terrible as he had initially thought.

First of all, humans were designed by the Demon God as a ‘protected species’ in the underworld. Hell’s demons and undead beings were not to discriminate against or harm humans who worshiped the Demon God. Those caught doing so would be severely punished.

This could have been done to assuage those who secretly worshiped the Demon God on the surface or to protect hell’s diversity, but regardless, it ensured a minimum standard of living for humans… as long as they weren’t captured here as prey or prisoners.

It was awfully optimistic to expect hell, a place that revered the strong, to not discriminate against humans at all, but at least, on the surface, no demons or undead beings would curse a human who worshiped the Demon God.

This was even more so for those closer to the center of hell’s politics.

On top of that, humans received special consideration when enrolling in hell’s tertiary education institutions… though most of them couldn’t meet the cut even with the special consideration due to their abysmal magic talent.

Humans also received employment benefits too.

Most demon factories didn’t welcome weak humans, but the Ministry of Truth’s churches always welcomed humans to join them as acolytes.

That was a job equivalent to being a civil servant in hell.

It was a respectable job in hell with a decent income. There was no room for promotion, but there was no danger whatsoever. Furthermore, they wouldn’t have become ghosts upon death. Instead, their souls were directly brought to the Reincarnation Lake to be reborn as demons.

Roan’s mother in this life was an acolyte.

Being an acolyte wasn’t a bad choice, but Roan didn’t want to stay in hell for his entire life despite having the coveted ‘hell citizenship’.

Yes, there were humans in hell, but that didn’t mean it was a conducive environment for humans to live in.

Putting all things aside, their ‘oceans’ were lava bubbling at over a thousand degrees Celsius. Any heat wave could raise a city’s temperature by a hundred degrees.

Such a temperature fluctuation might be nothing to demons, undead beings, or even dwarves, but it was lethal to humans.

He only managed to survive to this day thanks to the Demon Capital’s magic barrier.

Roan felt like he was sitting on a bed of nails for the rest of the lesson.

He could have been overthinking it, but Professor Enos’ latter part of the lesson’s lecture on ‘a hundred ingenious ways to make a human scream’ seemed to be out of the syllabus.

Fortunately, the recess bell finally rang.

As if someone had fired a race’s starting gun, the lower demons in the classroom rushed out of the window while shouting “Mine, mine!”. Their target was the neighboring tower’s canteen.

Just as they were about to flee out of the window, there were loud ‘Bams!’.

They had slammed into an air barrier.

Someone had instantaneously cast a Silver-tier spell—Air Barrier!

Roan looked at the furiataur on the podium with envious eyes.

On the Ors Continent, be it the surface or the underworld, power levels were determined using the First Epoch’s standards.

From weakest to strongest, Iron (I), Copper (II), Steel (III), Silver (IV), Gold (V), Platinum (VI), Diamond (VII), Amethyst (VIII), Master (IX), and Half God (X).

Actually, there was another tier above Half God—Pseudo God (XI). In conventional terms, Pseudo Gods were practically gods, but the only one who could have reached this tier in the underworld was its ruler, the Demon God.

Each tier was further divided into five stars.

But as combat experience and skills had heavier weight when it came to battles between people in the same tier, the star classification system was not as commonly used.

For a furiataur to instantaneously cast a Silver-tier spell, Professor Enos must have reached 5-star Diamond-tier!

Roan himself was at Copper-tier (II).

Despite excelling in theoretical knowledge—he was often one of the top rankers in the final examinations—there was little he could do to compensate for his race’s abysmal talent in magic.

As the disgruntled lower demons lying under the window crawled to their feet while cussing under their breath, Professor Enos stomped his feet and roared, “Silence! I didn’t say class is over yet! Get back to your seats now!”

It was as if there was an earthquake.

Upon sensing Professor Enos’ rage, the disgruntled lower demons turned pale out of fear, and they quickly scrambled back to their seats.

After the students returned to their seats, Professor Enos cast his gaze across the classroom, cleared his bull throat, and continued with his powerful voice, “Students, this is my final lesson to you. I hope you’ll take my teaching to heart, especially those who wish to survive!”

Roan could have been imagining things, but he had an inexplicable feeling that Professor Enos’ bull eyes were glaring at him. His back became a little wet.

A mere Copper-tier necromancer couldn’t hope to withstand the intimidation of a Diamond-tier demon, not to mention that his tier was dubious in the first place.

Professor Enos’ voice spurred a commotion in the classroom.

“Final lesson?”

“What does that mean?”

“Are our summer holidays being brought ahead this year?!”

“What’s being brought ahead if not your summer holidays but your graduation!” Professor Enos shook his head upon hearing that these buffoons were still thinking about their summer holiday. “The surface adventurers are becoming a problem. The demon kings we have on the frontlines isn’t enough, so everyone’s graduation is being moved forward.”

The lower demons in the classroom howled.

“Rawrrr! Tear them to shreds!”

“I’ll bite off their ears!”

“BRAINNNS!”

Lower demons were unlike high demons.

Strictly speaking, they shouldn’t have been qualified to enroll in the Demon King Academy… but these people here were nobles among lower demons, so they couldn’t be put in the boat.

Often, Roan thought that this bunch of good-for-nothing might not even be as smart as your run-of-the-mill lower demons. At least those crafty fellows would survive for two episodes.

Behind Roan, Mia raised her hand and stood up. The entire class looked at her.

“But Professor Enos, we are in our third year. We should only graduate next year. Did you remember wrongly?”

Professor Enos looked at her in disdain and scoffed, “I remembered wrongly? You’re the ones who don’t get the picture! The situation on the frontlines is tense, so third year and fourth year students will be graduating together… but you’re lucky.

“All slots to remain in school have been left for you. Don’t bother bringing your textbooks tomorrow morning. Get to the assembly hall eight o’clock sharp tomorrow for your graduation ceremony. Someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs will come at nine to guide you through your career application.

“You have hardly been through any combat classes, so pray hard that you aren’t sent to the frontlines. That place is no joke, especially since the situation isn’t optimistic recently.”

The lower demons were stunned, be it Furiataur Lumi or Revemon Meykil.

“How could this be…” Mia’s pink eyes widened in fear, and her fair legs trembled.

This was the first time Roan had seen such an expression from her. It could be because she had insider information about what was happening on the frontlines.

‘But is it really that bad?’

Most students in the Demon King Academy avoided the demon king job like the plague—they were only studying here to build their credentials. Roan, on the other hand, wanted to become a demon king.

Why, you ask?

Only by becoming a demon king would he have a chance to be dispatched to the surface.

It was his only chance of returning to the surface world.

Roan knew that things wouldn’t be that simple, but it was at least worth a try. No matter how dangerous the surface world was, could it be more dangerous than hell?

Even an ifrit’s sneeze could burn him, let alone the succubuses eyeing him.

Roan had already decided to put ‘Demon King’ as his first career choice tomorrow.

If he became a demon king, he would do his best to lie low and be transparent. He would do the minimum so that the demons wouldn’t single him out, but at the same time, if he could get away with a rattan cane, he would never draw his forty-meters saber lest the humans see him as a threat.

It was all about playing Taiji. (T/N: Deflecting anything that comes his way like Taiji.)

He might not be adept at magic, but he was an expert at malingering.

Professor Enos had been on the battlefield, so he was familiar with the frontlines. As much as he disliked these wastrels, he couldn’t bear to see his students marching to their deaths.

As much as he knew how demons tortured humans, he was also familiar with the plight of captured demons.

Looking at the buffoons before him, he shouted with his powerful bull vocals, “Gutless cowards, you have a night to write to your families! Class is over! You’re dismissed!”

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