Nidome no Yuusha

Chapter 194 - Screams of Exceedingly Deep Forest and Ground [Continuation]

Translator: “Jay_Samuel + Pink Tea” Editor: ”Jack_of_Editing_Trades + Pink Tea”

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The king wanted to know if I had any interest in going back to being 『Lilia Lew Harstone』, rather than just 『Lilia』.

The idea was, by adopting me before he dies, I can live without having to lie about my name.

At the time, I wasn’t particularly perplexed or anything, as I had already figured out the gist of it through the stories that I have heard from the people around me. When curiosity got the best of me, I removed the concealment magic tool only to find out my real name.

However, I chose to remain as just 『Lilia』.

Rather than return to the position of the royal family as 『Lilia Lew Harstone』, I wanted to live as just 『Lilia』, the child of the elderly mage.

But what surprised me far more than this offer was that the particles that I have been seeing from within every living person…Couldn’t be found within the dying demon king.

As a rule of thumb the strong and lucky people tend to have a particularly large amount of these particles in their bodies.

And this didn’t change even in their dying moments.

So, I thought that the Demon King, whose strength was said to be unparalleled in history, would possess an enormous amount of these particles.

Even more so, like that of the Demon Spark Tree.

That day, I returned home and talked about this with the elderly mage who was my foster parent.

For a while, the elderly mage had a troubled look on his face, and then, with a gentle smile said 『Thank you』.

When I told him about the state of the Demon King that I saw with my 『Magic Vision』, the elderly mage whispered 『He is also one clumsy fool』with a saddened expression.

Then, the death of the Demon King was officially announced, and his wife soon after as if she was to follow him in his eternal sleep.

The next generation Demon king, the previous king’s eldest son, who was hailed as a genius, sat on the king’s throne.

When I saw him at the coronation ceremony, I thought at first that he was a different person. I couldn’t help but think that because of the something similar to magic power growing increasingly in his body.

Seeing that, I remembered the words of the elderly mage, I thought that perhaps the dead Demon King entrusted his power to the successor.

「Nee-sama?」

And so, I became the personal attendant of Leticia who at that moment was but a little child.

The next few years were the most tender I had ever experienced. Days I spent watching over Leticia’s growth, and helping out the elderly mage with his research during my spare time.

But, for some reason, the elderly mage started acting strange.

He started secluding himself in his lab as if something was haunting him, driving him into a corner. Eventually, he left town to live in the base of a Demon Spark Tree.

His eyes sunk in, his cheeks became hollow, and his face now covered even deeper wrinkles.

I could only watch over him worriedly as his ghastly state worsened.

Although I say that I am assisting him with his research, for some reason, he would refuse any aid I would offer. The days continued like this until one day, the rapidly aging elderly mage suffered a grave injury from allowing magic power to go out of control during an experiment.

Coincidentally, I happened to visit him that day, but by the time I got there, he was already beyond saving.

The thin elderly mage opened his pale mouth, but I couldn’t catch his final words.

I took some time off and started investigating the materials that the elderly mage was researching.

These investigations revealed to me the true identity of what I was seeing with my 『Magic Vision』.

☆

What the elderly mage was studying, was the very essence of magic itself, and the special magic core that only the Demon King possesses, called the Demon King Core.

His research seemed to aim to answer questions such as, What exactly is magic power? How is it able to conjure the 4 elements into magic? How is it applied to magic that do not produce tangible objects such as body strengthening and sorcery? In addition, a possible mystery connected to this, why do powerful monsters suddenly come out of pools filled with magic power?

The elderly mage defined magic power as 『a collection of high-energy particles that can change their properties to anything』. Magic is a technique that breaks down magic power and reconstructs that power from its pure energy state into something else.

The elderly mage who listened to what I saw with my Magic Vision came to that conclusion after numerous experiments, and called it the 『Power of the World』 as a power that sustains all things through the particles produced by the decomposition of magic power.

And it dwells in everything that is subject to change in this world, the higher the level and capability of the being, the more 『Power of the World』 they possess.

It is thought that one’s ability can be improved by taking in the 『Power of the World』 accumulated over a certain degree in the form of experience.

Like an epiphany, I was convinced immediately, as it integrates perfectly with my own personal experience and sensations of what I have seen with my 『Magic Vision』 which I have had since childhood.

「……Up to this point it’s all good, but……」

I closed the research material on magic power that the elderly mage disguised as a diary containing plant observations and put it on the bookshelf. I then opened another, detailing observations on the Demon King core which was similarly disguised.

Among the successive Demon Kings, there were those who possessed a demon core called the Demon King core.

Without exception, The Demon Kings who possessed the Demon King core wielded prominent powers as demons, their names carved forever in history.

However, when a Demon King with a Demon King core appears, the humans would always receive an oracle and summon a hero who has been bestowed with the power of god from another world, and in the end, the Demon King and the hero would clash with one another.

When a demon king having the demon king core defeats the otherworldly hero, the demon king would always metamorphose into a Demon Spark Tree. Even if the hero is either killed remotely and/or indirectly, the demon king’s fate remains the same, other than the fact that it would take a span of a few years before the transformation would begin.

The now transformed demon king would then move itself to the demon continent, taking root and becoming unable to move. Then, for a while, it continues to grow dark leaves and bright red fruit, sucking up magic power from deep underground, strengthening the power of those related to the demons.