The Demon King Always Wants to Surrender
Chapter 7
“You’re so brave.”
The hero vigorously patted the demon king’s shoulder.
“Have you thought of your last words? For the sake of our alliance, I’ll help convey them.”
Anomis silently covered his face, only wanting to find a time machine to go back five minutes and grab that guy who got hot-headed and spoke nonsense, shaking his brain into mush. But it was already too late. Augustus sat there, quietly listening to this demon king who could be considered his junior finish his threatening words. Then, he snorted with laughter, put down the napkin he was wiping his mouth with, and left the room without a word.
What does that mean? Anomis was bewildered. In the end, are the balls still going to be chopped off?
Without mourning even for a moment over the demon king’s soon-to-be-lost balls, Noah gloated:
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I heard that internal affairs officers tend to be long-lived. Ah, right, you’re originally a long-lived species, aren’t you?”
It’s very difficult to judge age from a demon’s appearance. Due to their heaven-defying crossbreeding ability, their races have become chaotically mixed and impossible to count. There are known near-eternal undead, dragon-demon women who can live for over a thousand years, but there are also short-lived insect races that are born at dawn and die at dusk.
By long-lived species standards, the demon king looked to be about one hundred and twenty, but that wasn’t absolute either.
“Sometimes I quite envy you all.”
Noah shifted his gaze away from the demon king, gazing at the dark mountain ranges outside the airship. His melancholy brows and eyes could almost make the Virgin Mary weep.
“You can do many things, meet many people, experience many different lives. With your long life, what are you thinking about right now?”
“I’m wondering if there’s anesthesia when you chop off balls.”
Anomis was very practical.
Noah was stunned, his emerald eyes crinkled with laughter.
“You’re really very interesting.”
He propped his cheek and tilted his head, his pale golden long hair flowing like sunlight, his eyes deep and tranquil.
“Or, try begging me? Maybe I’ll consider letting you go.”
Is there such a good thing? Anomis immediately pondered what posture to use when begging someone. Unfortunately, social anxiety made him react too slowly in this regard. Just as he was about to speak, Noah had already sighed:
“Well, perhaps some birds are destined never to be caged.”
“???”
Wait, what did you imagine?
“And honestly, I really hate working overtime. Especially without overtime pay.”
Noah stretched lazily, flexed his knuckles, picked up the broad-bladed cross sword nearby.
“Considering that I’m severely injured, it would be quite reasonable if I accidentally let the demon king escape, right?”
Before his words finished, the cross sword heavily chopped down, like cutting through a piece of soft cheesecake, effortlessly splitting the sofa in half. Amidst the flying velvet, the hero made a puzzled “hm” sound, discovering that the sword blade was deeply stuck in the metal floor and couldn’t be pulled out.
…What kind of severe injury is this! Anomis fell to the side, screaming internally.
Wait, there won’t be a bill sent to the demon king, right? The hero had a criminal record when it came to passing the buck.
Without giving the demon king time to zone out, the teeth-aching sound of metal scraping arose. The hero dragged his single-handed broad sword, tearing the floor, overturning the coffee table, with tableware and candlesticks CLANGING and CRASHING all over the place.
“But just letting you go so simply, I can’t explain it to my superiors either… let me chop you a couple times.”
“If you chop me, can I still walk away!”
What responded to the demon king was the sound of the cross sword tearing through air. The scene was comical – the hero chasing after him looked just like the crazy old father in the horror movie “The Shining,” chopping at people while happily shouting “Here is Johnny!”, chasing the demon king into headlong flight.
This chase ended with Anomis being cornered against the wall. Noah raised the cross broad sword high, aiming at one arm and about to chop down, but unexpectedly the sword tip accidentally hooked onto the crystal chandelier, and with a tug it deflected the sword’s trajectory. Accompanied by the sound of the chandelier CRASHING to pieces, the cross sword diagonally split open the wall.
Accompanied by howling wind, Anomis was swept up by the pressure difference and tumbled out of the cabin, falling straight toward the earth!
“Whoa.”
Noah whistled, using his sword to anchor himself at the cabin edge with one hand, pressing down his golden hair that was whipping in the fierce wind with the other, bowing toward the demon king in farewell.
Surely those tears in the corner of his eyes must be from being moved! Absolutely not because of that foolish reason he vaguely heard –
“I can’t fly.”
The commotion from the fight attracted the guards. But when they arrived, only wreckage remained everywhere, with the hero gazing down at the direction the demon king had escaped. The guards were hesitating whether to pursue when they heard the First Prince who had arrived behind them calmly order:
“Stand down. You’re no match for him.”
They had to admit, this order made them all breathe a sigh of relief.
Military boots crunched over the crystal chandelier fragments as the First Prince came to the hero’s side. In their field of vision, the falling demon king was already beyond sight.
“Your Highness, my deepest apologies—”
Noah showed reluctance.
“Stop pretending.”
Augustus rubbed his temples with a headache, the exhaustion of an overworked corporate slave hitting him full force.
“Did you give him the thing?”
“Stuffed it in his pocket.”
Noah’s expression changed in a second.
So these two black-hearted guys were actually putting on an act. Augustus indeed needed a ceasefire agreement, but publicly, the Empire could never compromise with the demon king under any circumstances.
Think about it: you lead your soldiers across mountains and rivers to enemy territory, fight several intense offensive and defensive battles, almost conquering the place, then suddenly sign a humiliating ceasefire agreement with the demon king? It would be giving face to the army if they didn’t mutiny on the spot.
Anomis’s story gave him inspiration. The ceasefire agreement had to be signed, but not directly.
Internally, they would announce: The demon king stubbornly resisted and barely escaped, the Imperial Army achieved great victory and triumphantly returned to the capital.
Externally, they would privately sign a brief ceasefire agreement with the demon king.
Public opinion control was very important for morale. Augustus now needed a high-spirited army. This lie didn’t need to be maintained for long – once they successfully reclaimed the capital, future matters would have future solutions.
After finishing the business, Noah picked up his sword, humming a cheerful tune, looking like he was planning to go blast Bilden’s gold coins.
Augustus reminded: “Adrian already had half his teeth shattered by you.”
Noah smiled purely and beautifully:
“Then there’s still the other half to shatter.”
As they passed each other, Augustus suddenly asked:
“How much lifespan do you have left?”
“About two years.”
Noah shrugged.
“There’s not much time left for you to fulfill your promise.”
If you got close enough, you could see pale golden patterns flowing beneath the hero’s skin. Those were alchemical circuits carved into every hero’s body, allowing them to overdraw their lives to gain superhuman recovery abilities. This was also why Noah could still be lively after taking a sword to the chest.
In the Empire’s citizens’ perception, heroes were the Goddess’s chosen, heroes crowned with the names of the Seven Virtues. However, among the Empire’s upper echelons lurked another consensus: all heroes were human weapons selected from orphans and carved with alchemical circuits through the Church’s secret arts.
Augustus didn’t apologize for this. Although the assassination incident was caused by him, the lifespan Noah consumed should rightfully be counted against him. He simply nodded and reiterated that promise:
“After you, there will be no new heroes.”
***
Anomis almost stopped thinking. His body plummeted rapidly, the intense weightlessness accompanied by his racing heart – he couldn’t even breathe. Fear and despair engulfed him. His outstretched hands could grasp nothing. He was going to die.
Then his collar tightened and he was almost strangled to death— In mid-air, Seleinu grabbed his collar.
Red eye and heterochromatic eye stared at each other.
Anomis immediately clung to Seleinu, using hands and feet, wrapping around the demon like a twisted octopus, quite in the style of a face-hugger. Only then did Seleinu react – suddenly the human content was overloading, he almost couldn’t catch his breath, actually forgetting he could use magic, frantically trying to pry the human off.
The two struggled in an extremely foolish posture for quite a while, until at some moment, Seleinu suddenly realized Anomis was trembling. Only then did he remember that ordinary humans indeed couldn’t fly.
Why? Even unable to fly, even trembling with fear, he still leaped from the airship? This indisputable fact made the demon pause his movements, becoming rarely troubled.
“You… chose us?”
With such a fragile human body, chose the demon race? Incomprehensible.
“You want to stay here?”
“Don’t drop me!”
Anomis hugged even tighter.
Seleinu was stunned, something soft in his heart being touched.
He tentatively, slowly reached out his hand, and through his gloves, grasped the human’s trembling hands.
“Let go. Nothing will happen.”
Perhaps in this instant, he made a decision.
‘You are the Demon King, naturally the Demon King can walk in the sky’
Under Seleinu’s firm but gentle guidance, Anomis had to let go, and the next second actually felt solid ground beneath his feet, steadily suspended in mid-air!
Before he could be surprised, Anomis recalled the hero’s words: Seleinu had the power to make lies come true. He suddenly looked up at Seleinu.
Seleinu seemed not to notice the searching gaze. He simply supported the demon king’s hands, like a dedicated dance instructor guiding a student.
“Just like this, you’re doing very well. Now, imagine there are steps beneath your feet, slowly walk down.”
One step, two steps, dancing clumsy steps in the clouds.
This was truly an extraordinarily strange scene. Above them, the Empire’s airship was slowly departing. Below them was land burned by war, with great armies pressing down, suppressing slight restlessness in the solemn atmosphere. But the two of them were here, briefly belonging to no faction, exactly like two little troublemakers slacking off at work.
“It’s quite easy for you after all, isn’t it?”
Seleinu let go of his hands and smiled slightly.
Anomis was confused by this smile. Could incorrect facts that the person himself didn’t know also count as lies? In other words, as long as he acted convincingly enough, Seleinu would grant him power, and this power could in turn help him act more convincingly? Left foot stepping on right foot, spiraling to heaven?
It had to be said, he reached a correct conclusion from a completely wrong starting point.
“Look, that’s the Demon King’s castle.”
As the clouds parted, following Seleinu’s gaze downward, flying dragons circled, and the dark mysterious black forest undulated with the mountain ranges. The highest peak was a dormant volcano, with rainwater gathering in the volcanic crater forming a deep, tranquil lake. On the precipitous island in the lake’s center stood a castle of black obsidian, with towering walls and pointed spires gleaming like jewels in the sunlight.
Most surprising of all, the castle’s courtyard was a sea of pure white flowers, miraculously untouched by the flames of war. Sacred white and solemn black intertwined, creating indescribable magnificent beauty.
“Blackstone Keep.”
Seleinu told him.
“But I prefer the name the previous Demon King gave it – Terminus City.”
“Sounds quite fitting for its positioning. Does it mean the end of everything?”
“It means ‘finally beat up doomsday so badly it doesn’t dare come’.”
When Seleinu said this, he seemed to feel no shame at all, even seemed a bit proud.
“…”
Very hard to evaluate. Whether it was the castle’s name or the person who named it, both were very hard to evaluate.
Mentioning the previous Demon King, the demon’s tone became more elevated, but when Anomis listened attentively, the other party fell silent again. This reminded Anomis of the hero’s warning that the Demon King hadn’t disappeared but was confirmed dead. And as a subordinate of the previous Demon King, Seleinu undoubtedly knew the truth.
But intuition told Anomis this wasn’t something he could ask about now.
With their respective silences, they descended onto the castle’s main tower.
The demon army garrisoning the castle looked up, almost blinded by the dazzling sunlight. In that brilliant radiance, the pure white Demon King descended step by step from heaven, his bearing like a deity, so magnificent it almost brought tears to their eyes.
They held their breath and waited.
Seleinu stepped forward, his voice amplified through the plaza’s echo design:
“I’m sure you’ve all noticed that the Imperial Army has shown signs of retreat.”
This did follow logic… Although only Anomis knew he was actually knocked down, the First Prince had already intended to cease fire, and now that the Demon King had returned, he had even less reason to forcibly continue the conflict.
“This is all because our great Majesty single-handedly infiltrated the enemy’s main camp, and with courage and wisdom, captured the hero alive! Under His Majesty’s, humans humbly knelt begging for forgiveness. His Majesty, in his benevolence, spared their lives…”
Wait, wait… what was Seleinu saying? Anomis was dumbfounded. He understood every word individually, but why didn’t he understand anything when they were put together?
“Everyone, celebrate! It is the demon race’s victory! Praise! It is the Demon King’s glory!”
After a brief silence, erupting cheers almost shook the castle down. In the deafening cheers, only Anomis silently wept inside. But things didn’t even end there – Seleinu stepped aside, exposing the completely unprepared Anomis.
“Now, silence.”
He raised his arm to signal.
“His Majesty has words to say to you personally.”
Anomis: …
What the hell are you doing?!.
