The Demon King is Unfathomable

She was draped in a cloth resembling a curtain that had been stitched so many times it could unravel at any moment. Her long, black hair hid her emaciated upper body, and her pointy ears were covered in light pink fur.

Roan could make out so many details not because of his good eyes, but because the excited Youyou had gone so close to the other party that the camera was jammed in this stray kitten’s face.

‘She must have been starving. She’s so focused on devouring the food that she failed to notice the nearby undead. Also, there is no doubt she’s a demonoid—one of His Majesty Demon God’s people.’

There was a simple method to distinguish between demonoids and beastmen—the former resembled humans who were genetically modified with bestial traits, whereas the latter looked more like feral beasts.

Roan had no idea what an underworld denizen was doing in human territory, but on second thought, if a human like him could graduate from the Demon King Academy, it didn’t seem that far-fetched for demonoids to appear in the Lyon Kingdom.

Looking at how she wolfed down her food, Roan could hardly imagine how terrible her living conditions in the human world were.

It could be because they were loosely scattered around the world; there was no reason for the humans to bring them together, after all.

“Capture her, Demon King! Faith! Brainwash! Discipline! Mold her in your shape!”

Youyou excitedly leaped around the place. She would have personally captured this ‘cat demonoid’ if she could.

Roan didn’t know how he should retort to the situation.

‘That fellow is even more vicious than me, the demon king.’

He couldn’t bear himself to lay his hands on the stray kitten who appreciated his culinary skills.

‘Should I let it slip since she isn’t an assassin? I’m already full anyway.’

While that was what Roan thought, Bant, who had already received clear orders, wasn’t going to let her off so easily.

“Hungryy…”

Letting out a low growl, Bant abruptly pounced out of the shadows and swung his greatsword. His greatsword sliced through the surrounding haystack as it flew with unabated momentum toward the light-footed thief.

The stray kitten, who had stuffed her mouth full with skewers, quickly pushed her paw against the ground and did a couple of somersaults to hurriedly retreat.

Those were reflexes driven by her survival instincts.

The sharp greatsword barely nicked her ear. If she had been even a split second slower, she would have lost that ear.

Through the mirror, Roan saw Bant’s greatsword passing right through Youyou.

It was fortunate Youyou didn’t have a corporeal body, so mortal attacks couldn’t hope to hurt it, be it physical attacks or magic attacks.

Rather, Roan was more worried about the stray kitten.

‘Buddy, shouldn’t you spit out those skewers first? Those have a sharpened edge. It’s dangerous to do acrobatics with them in your mouth.’

“Chase her! Demon Lord, you mustn’t let her escape!” Youyou exclaimed through the mirror.

Roan ignored his noisy divine persona and instead issued an order to Bant, “Bant, stand down.”

Bant was in the midst of preparing his next attack when he suddenly dropped his greatsword and sat down on the ground.

Having nearly lost her life, the frightened stray kitten remained vigilant. She didn’t calm down just because the demon before her stopped his attack. She didn’t know what just happened, but her survival instincts told her that now was the time to escape. ʀἈꞐοBĘṨ

Otherwise, it would be too late!

Her slim but sturdy legs bent like a drawn bow, ready to slip away like a gust of wind.

Yet, when she tried to take off, she found herself rooted to the ground as if someone had pumped her legs full of lead.

“Wuuu!”

She lost her balance and nearly fell down. It was only when she lowered her head that she noticed, much to her shock, two skeleton hands tightly clutching her ankles!

It was the undead!

Terrified, her fur stood on end, and she instinctively curled into a ball.

Watching as she desperately tried to struggle free, Roan was worried that she might die of fright at this rate, so he stood out from the shadows and revealed himself.

He didn’t expect this simple appearance to bring him an influx of faith.

【Faith +1】

【Faith +1】

【…】

‘Emmm… Am I that scary?’

Roan cleared his throat and spoke with his most amicable voice, “Good evening, uninvited guest. I am Roan from the underworld… To avoid unnecessary trouble, I’d like to ask you to report your name too.”

To be safe, he first spoke using the underworld’s tongue before using Lyon Kingdom’s tongue.

But the stray kitten didn’t reciprocate his effort.

She glared at him with her amber eyes and hissed through her skewers-filled mouth, revealing her canines.

“Grrr…!”

Not only was her fuzzy growl lacking in the intimidation factor, but it also made her rather doltish, the way her mouth was stuffed with food.

“…You still don’t want to pull those skewers out of your mouth? How many days have you not eaten?” Roan sighed in resignation.

He murmured a chant while waving his wand to conjure a stone stool for him to sit down.

“You can finish your food first. We can talk later.”

It could be because she had gotten tired of hissing or that she was too hungry, but upon seeing Roan’s lack of follow-up action, she quickly began moving her jaws.

“Don’t swallow the wooden skewers down too,” Roan casually remarked.

He took out a couple more skewered rat tails from the wooden box beside him and placed them along the campfire to be roasted.

By the time the stray kitten guzzled down her skewers, he was also done roasting his new batch of skewers. He sprinkled a dash of salt on them before passing them to her.

“Here.”

Her amber eyes were filled with wariness, but her body was honest. She gulped down her saliva as her hand reflexively shot out to receive the food.

Roan conjured another stone stool with a wave of his wand before gesturing to her to sit.

It was only when she was completely relaxed that he finally released the skeleton hands gripping her ankles, returning her freedom.

Roan noticed her shoulders tensing up when she regained her freedom, but after some hesitation, she chose to obediently stay put at the campfire, where another fresh batch of rat tail skewers had begun roasting.

“How are the skewers?”

“They’re cooked! Delicious!”

“Hahaha, I knew it.”

It turned out the cat demonoid was just exceptionally easy to satisfy; it was not that Roan’s culinary skills were out of the world.

Looking at the blissful smile hanging on her lips, Roan became increasingly curious about how her life had been.

“Slow down. Don’t choke.”

“Aurkayyy!”

“You don’t have to force yourself to eat. I can make more for you next time.”

“Mm!”

“Good girl.”

“Uh?”

“I said you have a good appetite.”

After devouring 5000 hell coins worth of skewers, the kitten finally revealed a satisfied expression mixed with a tinge of bloated pain.

Roan stopped feeding her upon seeing her slightly protruding tummy. He collected the wooden skewers and tossed them into a box.

‘I heard people who have starved for too long may lose their sense of satiety, making them prone to overeating.’

The kitten noticed that no more skewers were being roasted along the campfire, so she directed a yearning look at Roan to signal for more.

Roan responded with a shrug, indicating that was all.

She licked her fingers and the corners of her mouth before letting out a yawn.

“T-thank you.”

‘So she can speak the human tongue.’

Seeing how the kitten had opened up a little to him, Roan tried gently persuading her, “There’s no need to stand on ceremony. Demon God Bayeris often preach for us to help one another on the surface, especially since humans aren’t to be trusted… except for those who worship the Demon God like me, of course.”

“Demon God Bayeris?” The kitten tilted her head as she asked hoarsely. “Sara has only heard about Lord Saint Sisto…”

Roan’s cheeks twitched, but he firmly maintained his smile as he asked, “Has your esteemed Saint Sisto ever roasted skewers for you?”

Sara stared at him in confusion as she shook her head. “He hasn’t…”

“Has He ever given you money? Has He ever treated your illness? Or give you a warm home? Or help you catch rats? …You don’t have to answer my questions. I can see from your sorrowful eyes that you received nothing from Him,” Roan said with a lamenting sigh. “Remember, from this day onward, you are a worshiper of the Demon King.”

“Demon… King?” Sara looked even more confused as she struggled to make sense of what was going on. “Not the Demon God?”

Roan shook his head before calmly replying, “Well, I don’t think the Demon God ever gave you any of that too. But I, the Demon King, gave you my skewers. Don’t you think the least you can do is to worship me?”

Roan waited a few seconds—no lightning struck him.

‘Whew. I guess neither the Demon God nor Saint Sisto heard that.’

Sara confusedly nodded. She wasn’t too sure what was going on here, but Roan’s words made sense to her.

Back when her mother was alive, she was constantly reminded to have faith in Saint Sisto and the almighty holy light would one day bring redemption to them. Yet, not a single person who identified themself as Saint Sisto’s follower had ever shown her any kindness…

Rather, it was this fellow who identified himself as a demon king who fed her…

‘Demon King… He doesn’t seem that bad?’

She recalled her earlier ‘fierce’ attitude and lowered her head in shame.

“My name is Sara… Sorry for doubting you just now.”

“Don’t worry. It’s normal to be guarded against strangers. I also wondered whether you were an assassin at one point.” Roan chuckled softly before continuing on, “On that note, I’m still baffled as to how you circumvented the alert magic formation I constructed around this inn.”

“Alert… magic formation?” Confusion flickered across Sara’s eyes. She pondered for a long time before replying in uncertainty, “Are you talking about the carcass smell? I smelled it outside the inn and avoided it…”

‘Carcass smell? Is she talking about the bone ashes I used for the spell? Is it possible to detect them by smell?’

Roan fell into deep thought.

‘I should improve on it. Such as changing the bone ashes to fauna ashes.’

Sara thought that Roan was angry, given how quiet he had become, so she timidly apologized, “I’m sorry… No one was ever here. I saw a flame, so I came to take a look. I thought I could find something useful here.”

Roan could tell from her careful attitude that she was misunderstanding something, so he quickly clarified with a smile, “You don’t have to apologize. This inn doesn’t belong to me. I’m merely staying here for the time being.”

An autumn, night breeze tugged at the campfire, sweeping up fire sparks like dancing fireflies.

Sara stared at Roan for a long time like a curious little kitten before saying, “You are… different.”

“Of course. I’m not from here.”

“The underworld?”

“That’s right.”

“Is it… far?”

Roan saw a glimmer of expectation in her amber eyes.

“You wish to go to the underworld?”

“Mm…” Sara nodded, baring her true thoughts.

But Roan poured a bucket of cold water over her. “I suggest you drop those unrealistic thoughts.”

“Why?” Sara stared at him in bewilderment.

Roan spent a moment construing his words. “How should I put it? You would have lived more comfortably if you were born in the Demon Capital, but if not, things would be very different.”

He wouldn’t have come here to become a demon king if the underworld was that comfortable.

And this was taking into account he was born in the Demon Capital, his special privileges as a protected species, and the fact that his grandfather-cum-foster father worked as a priest in the Demon God’s Ministry of Truth.

Normal demonoids like Sara, particularly those born on the surface, would have to first fight on the frontlines to prove their loyalty before they could even enter the netherworld, let alone enter the Demon Capital.

Sara’s ears drooped in disappointment after hearing Roan’s response. She stared at her toes, deep in thought.

“I don’t mean to put you down, but those who have grown up on the surface like you won’t be able to adapt to the underworld’s environment. So, I suggest you drop the idea. You don’t know how many people in the underworld want to come up but are unable to… I happen to be in need of manpower. If you don’t have anywhere to go, why don’t you work for me?”

The players were all busy leveling up, so he was struggling to find NPCs.

A catgirl store attendant—this should rile up those succubus-chanting perverts for a while.

Sara didn’t answer right away.

Thinking the kitten was depressed, Roan was about to feed her some ‘chicken soup for the soul’ when he heard light snoring.

He took a closer look and saw a thin silver thread swaying rhythmically from her opened mouth whenever she breathed. Her curled lips looked like a little boat sailing across the Milky Way.

‘What delicacies is she dreaming of to be salivating like this… Still, to doze off just like that!’

A certain black-hearted boss was at a loss for words.

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