The New Demon King: The Beginning

Chapter 1 - Beginning

My name is Brendan, 15 years old. I do not have a last name because of my poor origins. Only nobles and merchants have the privilege to have a family name.

I grew up in a poor village located in the north of the forest called, the Forest of Death. Apparently, our village consists of people from the Grammy Village who were escaping from the war between the Demon King and the Trinity Alliance, that happened years ago, even before I was born.

Yesterday, or maybe some other day, I'm not sure, our village were attacked by bandits. Our village was able to last long here in this forest because of the Monster Warding stones, brought by our Village Chief, who was a former Royal Knight. Due to the long period of peace, and with our Village Chief's old age, people might've been complacent, and took for granted the possibility of bandits. They thought, because of the danger in the forest, no one would dare check out the deep parts of the forest; and with the warding stones, they are also safe from monsters. I also took it for granted, since as a child, it never crossed my mind, and as a result, our people were annihilated.

If it was before, I would've never thought of such things, but because of what happened, memories from a life, that my soul probably experienced before, flowed in my mind through my dreams. Of course, it was a bit vague, but clear enough for me to remember many things about it and say that it isn't a normal dream, and it was too detailed for someone who lived all his life here. I therefore conclude, that they were memories from a life I previously had.

My thoughts were interrupted when the doors of the room opened.

"As I thought, you're already awake" the face that was very familiar to me, my brother, said.

I'm very happy to know that he's safe and sound, regardless if he actually tried to escape and leave me behind, or not. Knowing that there's someone I know, who's still alive is reassuring enough for me to feel relieved and warm.

But his observant gaze, full of suspicion, stopped me from relaxing. It's like he's waiting for me to say something.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

He was still silent for a few more seconds until he sighed and gave up from waiting.

"So, you have awakened, right?" he asked.

At first, I was confused as to why he was asking such a question. It was then that I remembered the message that flashed in front of me, before I fainted.

Seeing the changes in my expressions, while I was processing my thoughts regarding what his question actually entails, I was once again baffled and caught off guard; he knelt down in front of me very suddenly.

"Long Live, Our New Demon King!"

"Ehhhh???!" I shouted, full of astonishment.

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You are a demon tasked to protect me, until my powers awaken and finally become the official Demon King, and you are not my real brother, am I right?" I asked, after I calmed down, summarizing what he told me so far.

"Yes, my Lord" he answered, making me cringe, weirded out by the change in his attitude towards me. Imagine your brother, who is older than you, calling you that way. 

But I just ignored it and let it go.

"But that's weird, I'm sure that I'm a human. How can a human become the Demon King? Aren't they different races?" I asked, confused.

"According to what the world commonly knows, your confusion is quite understandable. But the truth is, there was never a demon race to begin with."

Based from the teachings I learned from the villagers here, there are four races that exists: the human race, known to be the best in increasing population and has average skills in magic, physique and knowledge making them the jack of all trades, master of none; the Elves, who are known to be children of nature and has a long lifespan, resulting in great accumulation of knowledge, in exchange, they have low reproduction rate; the Beastfolks, whose magic is either weak or none at all, but has the best physical capabilities among the races; and lastly, the Demon Race, who has quite a long life span, second only to the elves, and the race known for having vast amount of magic in their bodies, in comparison with others.

"The truth is the people called the Demon Race are only created to balance out the world. Long ago, there was one powerful god. He likes creating so much that he built this dimension and this world. But, one day, he started to feel melancholic, and so, he created the Seven Titan gods, who we know as the seven virtues. Time flew by and the god was happy talking with the seven titans, but little does he know that the seven were plotting against him, to overthrow him from his throne that controls this dimension. With their combined efforts and power, they tried to defeat him. But because of his great strength, they were only able to seal him. When they sealed him, they were able to gain the management rights of the dimension, and began creating the humans, beastfolks and elves, for fun, enjoying the authority they stole. To really establish the authority they wanted, they influenced the people they created to build a religion centered around them, which is now known as the main religion around here."

Amazed by the revelation he is telling me, I couldn't help but listen. All the things he is saying right now, answers all the loopholes the Anti-Virtues has been claiming for years. It was so convincing that I believed it, regardless if it was a lie or not.

"From then, the Religion of Seven Virtues were established. While the seven were enjoying their gained authority, they got so distracted that they never noticed that the seal were weakening and is starting to break. It didn't take long when the first god was able to break free from the seal and establish his connection with the dimension, once again. Feeling furious from the titans' betrayal, he desired revenge, but due to his weakened state, from exerting too much of his power in breaking the seal off, he used all of his remaining powers to create a system that can never be altered nor touch by the seven titans. The system he created is called, the Original Sin System, or what most people know as, the Demon Race.", he continued.

"W-Why? Why is his answer making a race?"

"He never wanted to punish anyone, aside from the seven, so destroying all of it or becoming hostile towards the races, was never the answer for him, instead he decided to disrupt their activities and make the people look at something else, and not the seven. Also, as I've said, he created a system, not a race. People just decided to call it a race because of how little they understand regarding demons."

Confused, I urged him to continue.

"The Original Sin System, is divided into seven, according to the seven deadly sins. It chooses the sinful people, as they are the least influenced by the Seven Virtues. The seven people will be given a hidden quest to fulfill, and whoever clears it first, will be the King. Through the King, he will spread his power and regain his full authority on this dimension. Each seed of sin, will have a different set of abilities, Sloth the King of Death, l**t the Sage of Will, Pride the Controller of Space, Gluttony the Emperor of Life, Wrath the Wizard of Time, Envy the Master of Skills, and Greed the Manager of Objects. Even among the people of the same seed, the skill may vary a bit depending on the knowledge and nature of the user. Because of the system, the bearer of the sin obtains a great amount of mana, and it continues to grow, to the point that it may endanger the bearer of sin."

"Wait! What?! This power endangers my life?! I did not even want this!" I complained. I don't usually complain openly, but if I do, it means that it's life or death.

"Worry not, there are ways to survive. First, you can continuously use your powers and make it continuously affect this dimension, even just a tiny bit with your mana. The simplest but efficient way to do that is doing battles. But of course, simple battles won't be enough in the long run, because the main objective of the system is to spread the power. So previous kings who went with this route usually becomes an S-Class Adventurer while hiding their race or proceed with World Domination. The second option is through propagation. By producing more demons, you spread power through them. Demon Kings who went with this route usually produces countries or continents due to the big size. An example is the King who was the reason behind the event centuries ago that made the Demon Race come to light. Lastly is by doing both. The last Demon King went with this, until it ended with war"

Listening to these options, the best way for me right now is to spread it by propagation. I don't like fighting or doing something outside my scope of knowledge. I never fought someone in my previous life, but I did manage a group of people before, so I have a basic idea if I went with that approach.

Thinking about it, this life-threatening system may be unfair under the normal perspective. Your life is suddenly threatened without much of a choice. But the way to survive is simply using the powers the Demon King obtained through the system. And in the first place, the candidates were already chosen according to the deadly sins, which entails the fact that these people has strong desires enough for them to use these powers, and the system doesn't need to actually force them. If you look at it that way, it doesn't seem much of a threat.

"So how am I going propagate or use my powers?" I asked.

Although I still can't believe what is happening because of the vast amount of information, I had no choice but to go along with it. This concerns my survival and my future. And obviously my brother, or namely Blake, is the only one who can help me about that.

"We'll leave it at that for now, my Lord. For now, you should rest. You just woke up after 2 days of unconsciousness. And I believe, these things are still too hard to swallow, and you need some time to process all the information, right? I'll return at dinner time, and we'll continue our conversation after that. Is that alright?" he smiled and left the room.

After he left the room, I had some time to process all the new information I got.

What's my next course of action? Obviously, I must accept the fact that I'm now the new Demon King.