Miss Demon King, Please Endure a Little Longer - Volume 1 Chapter 1
Chapter 1: I Must Survive!
***
Many years later, which is to say now, Demon King Io would always remember that afternoon when he was walking home from school and got sent from his home on Earth to another world by a truck.
When he first opened his eyes and found himself not dead, he couldn’t help but exclaim “I,” then looked around at the unfamiliar environment, and upon realizing he had transmigrated, let out an enlightened “Oh.”
This is how his name in this life came to be.
Relying on his distant bloodline connection, powerful personal strength, and most proudly his wisdom, Io successfully became the new king of the demon race. Over these years, he led the demon race’s heroes in grand endeavors, accomplished many great deeds, and became the mortal enemy of the human kingdoms, making people cry out — “Demon King Io is here, another city is about to fall!”
Then, because the tree that grows tall attracts the wind, he was hunted by the Hero Party.
In the dense forest outside the Demon King’s Castle, Io collected his thoughts and refocused his attention on the present. The few small wounds on his back were no longer serious, but the situation was very unfavorable for him. Just dozens of steps ahead, three girls dressed differently formed a triangular formation and silently faced off against him.
The Hero Party!
In fact, he had received intelligence about these people some days ago—
“Lord Demon King, I hear that the human kingdoms have produced several young geniuses. The youngest Sword Saint in the kingdom’s history, and she’s a girl, called a once-in-a-millennium swordsmanship genius. The Great Sage of the kingdom’s Magic Court’s direct disciple, a once-in-a-millennium magic genius, also a girl. The Church of Light’s new Saintess, said to appear only once every thousand years. And there’s some unprecedented genius assassin… uh, Lord Demon King, why are you laughing?”
“I laugh because you’re too young and understand humans too little. These titles are just made up, they can boast about whatever they want. Think about it, all these ‘once-in-a-millennium’ and ‘rare for a thousand years’, so the human race has been laying low and losing for a thousand years, just waiting for me?”
“That makes sense, Lord Demon King.”
“Of course it does. So tell me, shouldn’t I laugh?”
And so they all laughed.
Recalling this conversation, Io suddenly felt his face hurt a bit.
The intelligence was real!
This morning, Io had just gotten up when he received news that a garrison unit at the forest’s perimeter was under attack and requesting support. Since it wasn’t far, he personally led the expedition, but unexpectedly encountered this Hero Party’s ambush right after leaving.
Initially, he didn’t take it seriously because there were only 4 of them and they weren’t shouting about friendship bonds or anything, but once the fight started, he realized his grave mistake. This group was not only well-trained and perfectly coordinated, but their tactics were flawless.
Io, outnumbered, fought while retreating, caught between advancing and retreating, and finally arrived here.
“You have nowhere left to run, small fry Demon King~”
Tch!
Of the three girls before him, the one standing at the front had ice-blue long hair and formed the single arrowhead of their triangular formation, the only front-liner. She wore silver dress armor, not made of hard metal but some kind of soft mithril, along with a knight’s sword that gleamed with cold light in her hand, showing how expensive this entire set of equipment was.
A girl as bright and beautiful as a rose, what impressed Io most were her similarly ice-blue eyes, which didn’t sparkle with liveliness or coldness, but had a very unique quality — stability.
Behind her on the left side was a girl with red twin tails and a petite loli build. At first glance, she looked innocent and adorable, but actually… that previous comment came from her.
What a waste of such a cute face, that damn human mage brat!
On the right side was a blonde girl with a great figure and a very pure face, dressed entirely in white, giving off an inviolable sense of holiness.
Their tactic was to have the strongest swordswoman hold the front line, while the Saintess on the back right provided healing, and the mage on the back left occasionally cast spells. As long as the front line held and the formation was protected, they could keep this up indefinitely, letting their real trump card, the assassin girl hiding on the flanks out of sight, find opportunities for sneak attacks.
Death by a thousand cuts, low damage per hit, but it would eventually become unbearable if it continued.
The situation was very unfavorable, you could say it had reached a very dangerous point, but it was still too early to call it a desperate situation, because tactics could be broken through wisdom!
“Hahahaha.”
Facing them, Io began to laugh.
“Small fry Demon King, what are you laughing at?” The mage girl tilted her head. “Have you given up on yourself?”
“I laugh because you’re too young, brave but lacking in strategy. You knew I was here and came running over with your hearts full of passion, but you didn’t think about why, when so many people know I’m here, why would it be your turn.”
Yes, why indeed? Where are all these whys coming from? Even if there were, Io didn’t know either. But that was fine, he believed these girls across from him didn’t know either.
The core of the Hero Party’s tactics was their formation, and the core of the formation was the single front-line swordswoman. If he could break through her, the formation would collapse completely.
“You can kill me here now, but what happens after? After you return with this achievement, what awaits you, flowers and applause, or…”
Now’s the time!
Io suddenly burst into action, raising his bone sword high with his right hand. Surging magic power transformed into sword energy, carrying countless undead spirits as he slashed toward the swordswoman.
These young ones definitely haven’t seen real storms. If he could just distract her with those vague words and catch her off-guard for a moment, he could easily…
Clang—!!
The exquisite rose knight’s sword and the bone sword clashed together. Sword energy scattered like a gale, leaving only the endless wails of the undead.
She didn’t fall for the feint!
Though it was with great effort, she still managed to block it. The girl’s ice-blue eyes showed not a ripple of emotion, only a slight furrowing of her brow.
“Oh God, bestow your grace and guide the lost toward the light.”
With the Saintess’s prayer, holy light fell upon the swordswoman, quickly restoring her magic power and dispelling the undead damage from the bone sword.
Now she wasn’t even frowning anymore.
“I’ve long heard that the Demon King is treacherous and cunning, full of schemes.” The swordswoman looked calmly at Io. “Seeing you today, it’s indeed true.”
Damn human bards, actually leaking my intelligence… Ah!!
A cold gleam shot out from the grass pile, a small dagger extending from a sleeve, flashing past Io from behind.
No greedy strikes, no impatience, just a shallow cut, strike once and retreat.
“Damn camper!”
Io furiously raised his hand and hurled a ball of fierce fire toward the grass pile where the attacker was hiding, but it was intercepted mid-air by an ice shield, creating a cloud of steam.
“Small fry Demon King, arson is an additional crime, you know~”
The swordswoman then stepped forward several paces and swung her sword. Though it was easily blocked, it prevented him from continuing to cast spells.
Clang! Clang clang!
After several exchanges of swords, the girl used the momentum to retreat, and holy healing light fell upon her once again.
The formation held, the Saintess was healing, and the assassin girl had hidden again. Everything seemed the same as the beginning, except Io’s back had one more wound.
What’s the point of fighting this!
After some rustling sounds, the girls in the triangular formation lowered their guard, and even the assassin hiding in the grass came out. In the direction they were looking, the Demon King was fleeing in panic toward his castle.
“He ran?”
“But there’s no way out behind the castle. Where does he plan to go?”
“He’s probably panicking and not thinking straight~”
After a moment’s thought, the swordswoman made her decision: “Let’s chase him and corner him inside the fortress.”
The Demon King’s Castle was indeed an isolated fortress. After all, when the previous Demon Kings built it, they hadn’t considered dealing with decapitation tactics or anything like that. However, after Io took over, he installed some traps and mechanisms in the castle. If used properly, they could play a big role today.
Going from the first floor up, he manually activated the mechanisms along the way.
“Pretentious ice cube, green tea from the Church of Light, annoying little brat, and that damn camper, just you wait!”
“Lord Demon King, what are you doing?”
Io looked up to see a creature with an octopus head peeking out from around the corner, looking at him in confusion, seemingly completely unaware of the situation.
This was one of the castle’s kitchen managers, responsible for seafood. Don’t let the many tentacles fool you, in a real fight, it would just end up as grilled squid.
“All of you hide. Go notify the others, everyone hide well.”
Since they had no combat ability anyway, might as well play an empty fortress strategy. As long as they triggered a few traps after coming up and then saw this empty castle, these young ones’ hearts definitely couldn’t handle it, and then he could withdraw.
After manually setting everything up, Io sat by the stairway on an upper floor, waiting for the traps to take effect. Soon, the Hero Party followed inside. His line of sight was blocked so he couldn’t see what was happening below, but he could hear sounds from the distance.
Footsteps approached, walking over, reaching the great hall entrance. Yes, right here, the first flame mechanism would make them…
“Maintain formation.” That steady girl’s voice said. “Zero, go check for traps.”
Huh?
“Roger.”
Tap tap, cling clang crash, boom!
It sounded like someone had thrown something on the ground, and the mechanism was triggered, or rather, depleted.
“First floor cleared!”
“Up to the second floor, maintain formation, continue checking.”
Tap tap tap, cling clang crash, clang thud boom!
“Second floor cleared!”
“Up to the third floor, same as before.”
Io’s face turned ashen.
With that attitude, what more was there to say? Might as well hand over his life to them.
The traps had no effect, so naturally the empty fortress strategy was useless too. Now he was truly out of options.
Slumped by the stairway, reviewing this life, Io felt he had done quite well, teaching the demon race who loved direct confrontation how to use schemes and plots, achieving considerable results.
But what could he do? The human race had been sharpening their sword for a thousand years… sharpening 4 swords for a thousand years, and he just happened to run into them. Anyone else could only sigh about bad luck.
With those 4 girls’ talents, they would surely become legends of this continent in the future. Perhaps then someone would trace their rise, and bards would sing of their stories. Then people would know that there was once a Demon King named Io, who was the first trial on their legendary path, the whetstone for their blade’s first edge.
That was a good thing too. At least his name would be passed down, and people would remember a… hmm? Hmm?
Io suddenly stood up with a snap and immediately rushed toward his room.
If he wanted to leave behind a decent reputation, he had to immediately deal with the things in his closet!
No time to explain. He rushed into his room, first threw a fireball to light the furnace, pulled open the closet by his bed, and started throwing things into the fire.
Little toys tribute from succubi, burn them, burn them.
Mysterious little picture books, burn them, burn them.
Mysterious little bottles containing mysterious liquids… wait, this one was truly mysterious.
Io picked it up and examined it carefully. Sunlight passed through the crystal bottle, and the clear liquid inside showed hints of light pink, somewhat dreamlike.
After thinking for half a minute, he finally remembered what this pink liquid was—
“Lord Demon King, this is a Permanent Transformation Potion that can turn a demon into a beautiful human girl. After our long efforts and using many rare materials, we finally succeeded. Using this, we can implement your spy plan.”
It was developed just last month, secret demon race technology.
Carefully recalling, this thing didn’t seem to restrict the demon’s gender, only guaranteed the final result, which meant…
Io’s breathing became rapid.
Calm down, think carefully. This was a path with no return. After drinking it, he’d have to be a girl for the rest of his life. Although his magic power would remain, after losing this strong demon physique, could he still be a Demon King?
Bang!
The explosive sound of a triggered mechanism came, followed by a girl’s voice: “Second-to-last floor cleared.”
They were coming. There was no time to hesitate.
Io raised the crystal bottle and grinned at it:
“Hehe, I must survive.”
With that, he drank it all in one gulp!