The summer vacation has started and Lucas spent his time teaching Roland as much as he could. Roland had become quite skilled over the months and now was nearing a rank C. His growth was something that was seen as unnatural by most people. For a human, it usually takes years to get up a rank. The higher the rank, the more time people expect they have to spend to obtain it.
In another corner of the world, a woman and a little fairy girl were chatting. The fairy said "That man sure is fun to watch sometimes. Shame that he has mellowed down a notch compared to the old times." The woman replied "That's true. He used to be a lot more audacious, but now he spends most of his time focusing on the betterment of others."
The fairy cheekily said to the woman "But you still love him as much as ever. Maybe even more if we are honest here. After all, you used to see him simply as a tool to be used." The woman is silent for a while.
Then the fairy asks "What's wrong?" The woman then replies "I suppose he is a man after all. Cheating on me even though he knows I was watching." The fairy retorts "Cheat? Him? No way. That's just simply not possible."
The woman asks "How can you be so certain? He is a person too." The fairy answers "Do you know how strong the string is that connects the two of your fates? "The string of fate" I call it."
The woman says "You mentioned this to me before. Soul fairies have an unique ability to see other realities to some extent. By looking at these realities, you can determine what is fate and what is pure chance. But what about the string of fate between me and him?"
The fairy answers "In every reality that I have seen where both of you exist in some capacity, you two always end up together in one shape or form. You two will always be allies to each other and most often than not, you grow to become lovers. Out of all of the things I have seen in different realities, you two being together is the most fated thing I have ever witnessed. He will never forsake you."
The woman says "So what you're saying is that it is almost a law of the universe that we two are together in the realities where we both exist." The fairy says "For better or worse. But isn't it sweet though? You have a man that is only capable of falling in love with you and no one else. This is the stuff that ballads are made from. My my, I now feel like I want to create lyrics to a ballad such as this. I'll be back shortly. After I'm done, we can do the finishing touches on the plan and call him over. Now to the writing table."
The woman then mutters to herself "He is only capable of loving me. If that's the case, then how can I feel his heart shift to that person? Unless… But if that's the case, does that mean…"
She was lost in thought for a moment, until she decided to not linger on the subject. Then she stretched and said "I've been awake for two whole hours already. It's time to get back to sleep. Did I eat during these two hours? I don't seem to recall. Let's get a bite of something before going to sleep."
And thus the woman went and grabbed something to eat. After she ate, she went to her room and started to sleep.
During her sleep, she seemed to dream about how she and him came to be together. "It all started at Dorian Ranan's 200th birthday. I went there because my father requested me to keep up appearances. Well it was more of an order since refusing would have hindered my research. While floating about going somewhere discreet so I didn't have to deal with other people, I bumped my feet into a small shadowy figure. I apologized and tried to go on my way, but when I was already turned around, the shadowy figure spoke to me with my own voice. He said "Will you marry me?" I looked back to him and saw that he had started looking a bit like me. Luckily, my veil hid my face, so he might not have known my face, but considering his abilities now, he might have just wanted to mimic what I wanted to look like at that moment.
I said to my reflection "Why would I marry you? You are playing games with someone you just met. You are a mimic, right? I know your kind likes to do this, but you should know that most people don't like it when you mimic them. Can you stop looking and sounding like me?" The mimic then changed back to its shadowy form and asked again in, to be honest, a weird voice "So will you marry me?"
I said "No. There is no reason for me to marry you. In the first place, why would you want to marry someone you've just met?" The mimic then said to me "Because I was smitten by you." I replied to this with "Smitten? You sure know some fancy words for someone so young. But how can you be smitten with only a glance? In the first place, you can't see my face behind this veil."
The mimic thought for a moment until he said with a bit of confusion "Because I just do? I don't know why, but I have the feeling that I have to have you by my side. And who cares about faces? I can make my face look like anything I want, so faces aren't the start and the end of relationships. But do you even know who I am? I'm Legul Ranan. The next demon king. If you will be by my side, then I'm sure you will get everything you want."
I giggled a bit for some odd reason. Then I replied "It is an intriguing offer, but I'd prefer to have a partner who I can solely trust. This is our first meeting and all I can see is that you simply have a crush on me. And above all else, you are like two years old or something." Legul said with a bit of annoyance "Three. I'm three years old already. And who cares about age, I will give you everything you desire, so just marry me."
I gave a big sigh and said "I know that mimics mature faster than most races, but you are still too young for me. Let's wait a couple of decades and then I might reconsider your proposal. Until then, keep training hard on being the next demon king. I look forward to it." I start to leave, but I then say "Just know that if you do the same thing to someone else, know that I won't be offended." Then Legul shouted "I will marry you someday! Just you wait!" And he ran away.
Later on at that party I figured that I could use his infatuation to gain a powerful ally. And if I had power on my side, I could have more time to sleep around. I thought that if I just played hard to get, someone like him would do many things in order to win my approval.
And so four decades passed and he still was running after me. He would send me letters ever after that day no matter what I said in my replies. Eventually I just told my servants to throw all the letters he sent me to trash. If they felt bad for him, then they could read the letter themselves and if they felt like it was important for me to read them, only then would I reconsider reading them again. The servants did so for many years and barely any letters reached me after that. I considered myself lucky to have such attentive servants.
Then one day, at my 1000th birthday party that my father insisted on making, I met Legul again. I'm sure my father invited him so that I would marry him, but I knew his game, so I didn't take the bait.
During that party, when Legul came to give me his gift, many had their eyes glued to me. The gift he gave me was a necklace that had some kind of magic on it. He said to me "I hope that this will keep you safe if there is ever danger." I thanked him out of politeness and when I was about to put it on the table, my father coughs and I reluctantly say to Legul "Could you put it on me?" To which Legul happily obliged. After the necklace was put onto me, I played along with my father's game and asked Legul "How does it look on me?" To which Legul gave many praises.
After the party, at first I was indifferent to the necklace Legul gave me, but after a while, I felt weirdly drawn to it. I confirmed that the magic in the necklace wasn't the cause of my weird desire to wear it. Instead the magic was some kind of transportation magic that seemed like a pro would do. I figured that the necklace would teleport me to somewhere safe if I was in danger, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was the trigger to its activation. In the end I decided to wear it almost all the time.
Then a couple of years later, my father got angry at me for not marrying Legul already. He shouted at me "You are wasting your time! Why can't you be like your siblings and marry someone already?! You have the demon prince looking for your hand in marriage, but you lead him along without showing any signs of stopping! Do you know what they call you?! White witch! They call you witch for leading on the future demon king! Do you have any idea how you are making our house look for your selfish actions?! Even the founding father is disappointed in your actions!"
I just listened to him rant on like this for days, until one day he hit me on the cheek so hard that I thought it'd leave a mark. Then he shouted "You will marry him! Write a letter that tells him that you'll finally marry him! This way, our house will not be a laughing stock!"
I had no choice at that point. I was hoping that those visions of me and Legul being together were simply something that could wait. I knew that it'd happen eventually as my visions had never lied to me. "Why would I marry such a selfish prince?" I thought to myself. "He simply thinks that he can get whatever he wants. Why would I play along with his desires?" These thoughts plagued me ever since I met him. "If only I would have never met him" I once thought.
I told my father "Fine. I write the damn letter." I thought that if I didn't do that, then my easy life would be shattered to pieces. "It was my fate to be with that man after all," I told myself.
While I was writing the letter, I felt a man appear behind me suddenly and I quickly looked back and saw him. Legul was there and I could feel a murderous aura coming from him. At first I thought he figured out that I was hoping that I was leading him on, so the murderous aura was directed at me.
Then Legul asked in surprisingly calm voice "What are you doing?" I muttered "It… It's a letter I was planning to send you." Then I regained my composure and said "Now that you are here, I can tell you face to face. I accept your marriage proposal." I felt like my peaceful life was about to end one way or another after those words, but what surprised me was the question he asked.
Legul asked "Why are you letting your father control you future?" I was speechless for a solid moment before I managed to ask "What do you mean?" He said "The necklace I gave you. It is something that will transfer sound to my ear. It only activates when you are in distress. I heard what your father said to you, so I'll put a stop to this."
He left the room with that, shouting my father's name "Leron Inertia! Come here right now!" The voice was deafening and my ears rang for a while. Eventually my father came to the hallway and asked "Your highness, why are you here all of a sudden? I didn't hear that you would visit the manor anytime soon."
Legul said "Did I hear correctly when you ordered Sylviana to marry me?" My father stuttered a little as he said "Wha-wha-wha-wha- what do you mean?" Legul responded, "I heard you order Sylviana to marry me because of your image or something. What do you have to say to that?"
My father was terrified, but still his arrogance knew no bounds at times, so he said "I was only looking for the best interest for both of our families. Since my daughter finally gave in to your wish, then wouldn't it be something you would act with joy?"
Legul takes a deep breath, then says "I love Sylviana Inertia from the bottom of my heart. That much is true. While I would be happy that I married her, forcing her to do so isn't something I want. I don't care how Sylviana feels about my love, but if my love for her is something that causes pain to her, I'd gladly cut everything off with her. Do you know what I'm talking about Loren Inertia?
My father, still in his arrogance, said to him "But this would benefit both families. Who cares what she feels, if she can marry into the demon king's family, then what else matters to anyone. You win. I win. Isn't it as simple as that?"
Legul said "Did you not hear what I said? If she doesn't want to marry me, then so be it. I will wait forever for the possibility that she may love me back. But if it's something that isn't meant to be, then I will respect that. I will forever love her unconditionally, but I won't ever force that love onto her. If I ever hear you forcing your will to your Sylviana, I will make sure that you will pay for that. Do I make myself clear?"
Father tried to oppose "B-b-but…" but Legul stopped him with "Do I make myself clear?" After that, father meekly responded with "I… understand." With that, Legul turned around to face me and kneel. As he was kneeling, he said "I'm sorry it had come to this. If anything like this happens again, please pour some mana into the necklace and I'll know that you need help." Then he left as fast as he appeared and the hallway was deadly silent.
My father glared daggers at me ever since that day, but I was happy that he couldn't do anything to me as I had the demon prince's protection.
But eventually I started thinking "What if something that even Legul can't oppose will force their will onto me? What then?" As I thought about that, something finally clicked in me. "What if I become something that can't be opposed?" That was something that seemed necessary for my peaceful life. "But what can oppose anything and everything?" I thought long and hard, even missing sleep, but I eventually came to a singular conclusion. "There is no other choice. In the end, the thing I need to become is a god."
I spent years trying to find a way to become a god. Those years eventually turned to decades. And eventually a century had passed. I came up with the most optimal way to become a god. And those things were both simple and complicated at the same time. "Collect magic cores, fuse them together to create one with the most power possible and then transplant them to myself." There were three issues with that.
First problem was the amount of power that a god would need is enormous, so in order to get enough cores, many things would have to die. Luckily there was near constant war between demon territory and the rest of the world. I'd simply have to pay people to gather the magic core from those dead soldiers and from the monsters that adventurers find. And to get that kind of money, I'd have to start a business. I'm sure hiring a Knass would do the job. There was a business that sounded promising, and it was later named the Golden Barrel.
The second problem was that there was no such thing as fusing two magic cores together, let alone multiple. For that, I'd have to create a brand new spell in order to achieve that. It will take some time to research, but I already have a solid ground where to build it.
The third problem was similar to Legul mimicking a god. To keep my ego intact. For that, I'd have to cultivate my mind to a point where I can withstand the backslash of becoming a god. This will take a very, very long time.
There was also the matter of whether or not I could do all of this without disturbance. For that, I needed to make myself a harder target to hit in order for things to go smoothly. Being from the Inertia family wasn't enough. I needed protection from the most powerful being in the world.
Obviously I couldn't ask any gods to help me, so I picked the most easiest and reliable option available. That is to have the demon king's support. Dorian might have been reliable, should I have had the means to get his favor easily, but getting that favor without getting people's noses up on me was difficult. Hence I needed to become someone who supports the next demon king. I needed to become Legul Ranan's advisor.
I made an official letter that told Legul my wish to become his advisor, to which he made sure his father knew. Eventually, I managed to get the position.
The next thing I needed is to have solid proof that the demon king supports me. To do that, I needed to make Legul the next demon king as soon as possible.
The problem with that is, it would mean that he'd have to kill Dorian. It wouldn't be a problem per say, but since I was just elected Legul's advisor, it would put an unwanted amount of attention on me. Eventually people would think that I aimed to become the demon queen, but since that wasn't my objective, I needed a reason to divert their belief.
Hence I had to marry someone else other than Legul. This had two problems.
First was that I would have dampened Legul's mood quite a bit by marrying someone else. Even if he said it would be fine, I was sure that he would be less inclined to do what I wished him to do. Looking back on it, he probably would have listened me anyways since he is… well, Legul Ranan, but I'm glad I ended up doing what I did.
The other problem was that the whole purpose for my plan was to make me be able to be at peace. Marrying someone unneeded would have made me have to focus on other things, such as family and whatnot. And boy would my father have had a meltdown if I settled with just anybody.
So then I arrived at the only option available. I would make Legul make a false identity and I would marry said false identity. I managed to pull some strings to make a good false identity. His false identity was Lucas Knave, a cousin twice removed to Legul from his mother's side. The Elifito family was known to have many unknown offspring, so in the grand scheme of things, it was fairly easy to make that happen.
Legul agreed on this false identity after I told him that I have a grand plan that will make us both happy in the end. At first it was a lie, but over time, I made an addition to that plan after I became a god. I would sadly realize this only when he went to sleep for over a thousand years.
While my reasoning was solid and I wouldn't have done it any other way, after I realized my love for Legul, I regretted making him kill Dorian so soon. At the time I felt nothing for this sacrifice, but now, I feel like I robbed him of one of his few treasures. But I foresaw a future where he would make friends with the hero Ronan, so perhaps I thought that was enough of a trade.
Then I made Legul marry that succubus. Honestly, I didn't care one bit about how much suffering it put him through to be with her. I deemed it necessary since we needed connection to other demon lord families and we needed people's support by creating a solid royal family of sorts. I made him marry other concubines as Legul as well, one of them was with my little sister. In total, Legul Ranan had four wives.
I'm actually quite proud of myself for managing to make Legul and Pelina marry each other. A marriage between demon and angel was unheard of at the time, both because of the fact that each represented holy and demonic energies and the fact that angels are extremely rare beings in the mortal world. Thankfully, after the hero Ronan Legul had made peace, the angels looked at demons in a much more pleasant light. If it wasn't for Ronan, I doubt I would have had as easy a time connecting with that pure hearted lady with that rascal of a man. It didn't make things any much easier that Legul had multiple wives, but I'm glad I managed to do it.
And eventually Legul had to go to sleep and the big war happened. I'm still unsure if I should tell him the truth about that war or not. I probably will end up telling him before the great step in my plan is taken, but it sure doesn't feel easy to tell him that the reason his legacy would turn to dust was because of me.
But in any case, I need to meet this Naga when I finally meet with Lucas again. If the conclusion I come up with is correct, I need to make sure I understand how and why she is here. If I am correct and she is the result of my plan, I'm not sure if I can move forwards with it.
No. No matter what the truth is, I will make sure that my grand plan is a success. Otherwise, what were those sacrifices for?"