It has been six years since Ren formerly known as Kretos reincarnated and turned into a human. As he grew up, he now understood a lot of things, about his family, this village, and the world around him.
The first thing he figured out was about his family. His father was the best hunter of the village, while his mother was a seamstress. The next bit of information was about the village he was in. It was called Carto Village, supposedly it was named after a hero who was born from this village. How ironic, he the slayer of heroes was reborn in the village named after a hero.
Another piece of information about the village was it was a part of the Reschbeauch Kingdom. Being part of the kingdom of Reschbeauch the villagers pay taxes, to a marquis of the kingdom. The marquis is rumored to be a bastard of a man, who keeps on stealing married women.
It is a blessing in disguise that the marquis has never been to Carto Village since the village was located at the edge of his territory.
Ren also learned that he was living on a pretty large continent. Based on the limited information he gathered, this world seems to be bigger than his previous one. Also, there seem to be demons in this world as well, but they aren't treated as evil beings. They even have quite friendly interactions with the other races, based solely on the stories told by the village elder.
A war between races hasn't happened for a few hundred years now. The only war that's happening at the moment was between the same race. The Reschbeauch Kingdom he was living in is at war with another human kingdom called the Serbek Kingdom. They have been at war for a few years now, but they only do some small skirmishes every now and then.
This was all the information Ren could gather in this tiny little village that he calls home.
...
A black-haired youth was sitting in a lotus position in the middle of the forest. This boy who had an average looking face, that wasn't ugly but wasn't handsome either was Ren, and this was his secret spot where he would practice circulating mana throughout his body. At the moment he was trying to upgrade his understanding of the mana element of fire.
He could already use intermediate level dark magic, but because his current human body couldn't handle so much power, he wasn't able to use advanced level spells. So the only solution he could think of was to simply wait until his body naturally gets older.
It was a good thing that the way to use magic here in this world was the same as his previous one. As long as you become in tune with the elements, they will tell you how to use magic. Here as well as in the previous world, Ren kept on wondering if the mana elementals are actually a different race. Though they don't talk to you directly you could feel their teachings, and they can communicate using the mana of the world itself. Well, Ren didn't dwell too much on this topic since it wouldn't really make him stronger even if he learned the truth.
After a few more minutes, Ren decided today was still not the day he could advance from beginner fire magic to Intermediate fire magic. He then took a large branch from the nearby trees and started to swing it. He continued swinging the branch as if it were a sword, he did this a few hundred times. This was Ren's usual routine, ever since he got permission to play outside.
While he was swinging the branch, he heard footsteps. Someone was approaching him, and the only person aside from him that goes here is his neighbor and friend Valdel. This boy is one of the few children in the village that was near his age. Valdel was a year older than Ren, which made their interactions weird because to anyone who looks at them it felt like Ren was the older one.
As the village was small, and most of the young men and women of the village left to seek their fortune elsewhere, there were only a few kids in the village, including Ren there were five of them. One of which is still a little baby, the last two were a pair of twin sisters who were a year younger than Ren.
When Valdel saw Ren doing his practice swings, the little boy with blond hair and blue eyes like sapphires smiled. He then picked up a random twig he found on the ground and joined Ren as he was doing his practice swings.
The way he swung the twig was exactly the same way as how Ren does it. His stance was firm, which makes you wonder if he too was a reincarnated person like Ren.
"Hey, Ren why do you do this every day? Are you trying to be like the heroes in the old man's stories? Oh, that sounds like fun, I bet we'll be awesome heroes when we grow up!" Valdel was happily imagining himself as a hero, while he swung his twig.
Ren on the other hand almost choked, at what Valdel said. He a former demon lord become a hero?
'What the hell is this kid saying?! Me the strongest Demon Lord, slayer of a thousand heroes, wants to become one of those weak justice-seeking crazed people? Even though I'm getting used to being human, I will never become one of those feeble heroes.'
Seeing Ren not answering him, Valdel remembered the other time he spoke about being a hero. Ren suddenly spoke real loud shouting something in weird gibberish. After he calmed down, he explained that he didn't want to be a hero, he wants to be something stronger. After saying his piece he left, now that Valdel remembered this, he could finally ask the question he wanted to ask on that day.
"Hey Ren, remember the time you said you wanted to become stronger than the hero?"
When Ren heard Valdel's question he tried to remember if he did say such a thing. After a short pause, he indeed remembers saying such a thing, when Valdel first told him of his dream to become a hero.
"Yeah, I remember... Why?" The two were still swinging the wooden branch and twig as they had this conversation.
"Well isn't the hero already the strongest? How can you become stronger than the strongest?"
"Hmph, the hero is not the strongest, there are many more things stronger than the hero."
"But the old man said, the hero is the strongest. He can beat anyone and is the champion of the people. Even the king needs to bow down before the hero." Valdel passionately spoke, as to why the hero is the strongest. Ever since he had heard the stories from the old man, he kept on dreaming when he too would be able to have wondrous adventures like the heroes of old.
"The old man doesn't know anything. There are stronger things than a hero, and I'm going to be one of them."
"Hey Ren, how come you know a bunch of stuff, not even the old man knows off?"
"Um... it's... It's nothing I was wrong, I just dreamt that there is something stronger than a hero."
"Heh, sometimes you say some weird things, Ren. Of course, there can't be anything stronger than a hero. That dream of yours must've been weird" Valdel happily replied to Ren, now fully sure of himself that there could be nothing stronger than a hero.
It was a good thing, Valdel was a kid who was so innocent. He almost always believes everything he hears.
...
After his usual training, the two boys returned to the village as the sun was going down. When he entered his little house his mother was there to greet him.
"Welcome home Ren. Did you have fun playing with Valdel today?" Ren saw that her mother was setting up the table so he answered while approaching her.
"Yes, we played heroes! Um, mother, you don't have to do that I will set the table."
"Oh how considerate, such a wonderful boy you are. Still, I always wonder why you always call me mother nowadays. Back when you were smaller, you kept calling me mom."
When he was smaller, Ren had difficulty speaking long words, so he opted to shorten most of everything he said. Now that he was able to properly speak, of course, he decided to address the woman who was his mother in this life, with proper respect.
"Still you two keep on playing hero every day. Do you guys really like the village chief's stories about heroes?"
His mother smiled gently at him as she asked. When Ren heard this question he wanted to throw up, but he couldn't. He needed to say that he liked playing hero, even though mentioning like and hero in the same sentence was extremely difficult for him. He still needed to do it, so that he won't breed suspicion.
"Yup, me and Valdel dream to be heroes when we grow up." Ren smiled a fake smile at his gentle mother. While on the inside he felt like he was about to have a stomach ache.
While Ren was trying to suppress his disgust he suddenly heard a hearty laugh. "HAHA, you two want to be heroes? I thought you wanted to help me with hunting? Why don't you become a hunter like your old man?" The person who suddenly entered with a big portion of meat was Ren's father the best hunter in the village.
"That could be good as well," Ren responded with a genuine smile.
The family then started to discuss why being a hunter was better than being a hero. It was a very normal scene in their everyday lives, yet to Ren who has memories of a past life, as a demon overlord, this family this warmth was the best. It made him feel happy, this normal everyday human life made him happy.
At the table, while eating a meal, a family of three was joyfully discussing the random things they did in the day.