Running Away From The Hero! (Remake)

Chapter 196

< Evade the Hero and Flee! 196 #23. Policy Meant for My Dream! (3) >

#2 Their circumstance: Belegrea’s circumstance

“Old Man Mekel, am I… trembling?”

“Yes, your highness.”

I could only sigh at length at Mekel’s instant reply. “Old man, you’re supposed to give me encouragement in a situation like this, you know…”

“But ma’am, you were always on top of your game without me around.”

Mekel’s remark managed to calm my trembling hands.

“You’re still the same, old man.”

“But ma’am, I’m no longer a youngster. I’m old enough to have retired a long time ago. That’s why I ask of you to stop putting me to work and let me get some well-deserved rest.”

The Old Man Mekel’s solemn request brought a faint grin to my lips. “I can’t.”

“You’re being too much, ma’am.”

“No, I really can’t.”

When I solemnly replied to him, Mekel’s expression stiffened a little. “Is it… that serious, ma’am?”

“I’m just going easy on you because of your injuries, old man. But once you recover to an extent, you’ll be wading the depths of Hell with me. You better prepare yourself.”

I wasn’t joking at all here.

The birth of two demon kings led to the busiest-ever period in the demon continent’s history. However, one of said demon kings was doing nothing but sucking on his thumbs, which meant I was saddled with all the work.

Ria was helping me, but even she dumped most of the difficult work on my lap while saying that a human shouldn’t learn about the important matters of the demon race.

She was right about that, of course.

Marcus might be a human chosen by the Demon God, but Swinn and Ria were not. Not only that, but they were also high-ranking nobles of the human continent’s most powerful nation, the Karuan Empire.

This issue was beyond the matter of trusting them or not; nothing good would come out of them learning about the demon continent’s secrets.

Ria was right. But, all the really important documents still went through her first before reaching Marcus. Which meant that she still had access to all the important information! She was going to find out anyway, so why couldn’t she help me out?!

I requested her help so many times, but her silver tongue managed to get me every single time, and I had to leave her office with documents clutched in my arms, my head passively nodding away.

“Sounds like I’ll have to tender my resignation soon.”

“As the new demon king, I forbid it.”

Old Man Mekel seemed to be panicking slightly here, but if this work rate kept up, I’d end up as the first demon king in history to collapse from overwork.

“I’ll never let you go, Old Man. It’ll be better to resign yourself.”

“Ah, aaah…”

Just as Mekel began despairing, I taught him the truth of resigning oneself to reach one’s peace of mind.

“To think that I’d have to work overtime in my twilight years…”

“It’s better than working overtime from the start of your career, though.”

I felt genuinely sorry for the old man but, truth be told, there weren’t any talented individuals in the demon continent. Do you know what Aggreahrt and I had in common? It was our policy. A policy to foster individuals with excellent intellect even if their combat prowess was found lacking!

The demon continent’s politics and economy might be smaller in scale compared to the human continent, but we still had them, and we needed to deal with them accordingly. Tribes mostly took care of those matters, but Marcus’s ultimate aim was to unite them all!

“Old man, our dream has been achieved. Demons will not invade humans in our generation, at least.”

While trying to deal with the internal matters, the ruling class of the demon continent should keel over from overwork.

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“Is that so, ma’am…” Mekel’s tail visibly sagged, a sigh leaking out of his mouth after imagining all the work waiting for him in the future. “That damn Aggreahrt. He should’ve tortured me until I couldn’t even move anymore…”

“Don’t feel too aggrieved by it, old man. If your lower half was left paralysed, I’d have dumped a desk job on you. If your hands were cut off, I’d have tasked you with a speaking role. While alive, there are still so many things you can do for me.”

“I heard that the Demon God even has ties to the Great Devils in Hell… But I had no idea that our home would become actual Hell.”

“Ng. And she even brought her apostle to do so, too.”

Hah-ah…

Old Man Mekel and I groaned at the same time. That’s because we both feared what was in store for us.

“Even so, I’m no longer nervous now.”

“Compared to what’s waiting for us in the future, a coronation is nothing at all, ma’am.”

He was right. This was nothing at all compared to what Marcus and I had to do in the future. All this was the Demon God’s will. To bring her will to reality, I shall devote my entire being.

-B-but, it’s not my will at all!

My heart demon began voicing its noisy complaints in my head again, but it was not enough to shake up my determination.

-I’m not a heart demon!

“And so, we shall now commence with the coronation of the demon king, Belegrea.”

I ignored the voice ringing in my head and stepped forward in light steps. The demon king’s crown that once adorned my father’s head was now placed on mine, and Marcus began his congratulatory speech.

Soon, though, my turn had come.

“A spectre is wandering on the demon continent. A spectre called Communism.”

I began reciting Marcus’s speech that I memorised earlier while putting my life on the line… Since the silver girl was standing next to me while I was memorising it!

***

“When the concept of private property gets abolished, you could argue that laziness will run rampant in our society! However…!”

I watched Belegrea passionately make her speech while sensibly adjusting the tone and the force of her voice.

It was very satisfactory. As I thought, that girl was very good at this.

-But you placed me right next to her and threatened to beat her up if she gets any part wrong, master!

-Isn’t it fine to get a little love tap on the head, no?

-If you say that to the one getting hit, I’m pretty sure they’ll try to strangle you to death?

-Didn’t you also get excited back then?

-Obviously! An overabundance of people to beat up! All those people personally showing up to see me for their own beatdowns! The demon continent is the best!

The metal bat let out a shriek of delight and began explaining to me all the advantages of the demon continent. Well, if I were to summarise her rant, then the demon race was the ultimate masochist group in existence.

“All demons are fundamentally born workers! The first step in our revolution is for you to seize the authority for yourselves and secure democracy!”

The content of the original speech was quite long, but I had to trim it here and there. The thing was, I couldn’t recall far too many parts of the speech. However, I also bravely omitted certain sections that I did remember.

For instance, stuff about our history being one of class warfare, or how the class warfare was political warfare. I also omitted things like ‘bourgeois’, ‘capitalism’ and others of similar nature.

If I had left all those stuff in the speech, then well… The speech itself would have to end with, “All of you understand now, don’t you? And now, kill each other,” as if a certain famous snake ‘teacher’ from an orphanage was saying it.

What I required now was absolute royal authority. On the surface, it was supposed to be an equal, fair society no longer governed by the class system. But in reality, what I wanted to see was a world where the king’s command meant everything. Even I couldn’t tell just for how long the magic term “Demon God’s will” would continue to work on the demon race, after all.

Before someone starts questioning this whole thing, I must create a world where following the demon king’s will was the most natural thing.

“We shall endeavour for the total unity of all the tribes! We abhor hiding our opinions and intentions! What we discard today is the rotten, corrupted order of yesterday, but we shall gain a new world according to the Demon God’s will! People of the demon race, we shall unite as one!”

Belegrea reached the climax of her speech and began shouting even louder. Demons that showed up today to witness her coronation applauded raucously and cheered on.

Very good. It’s going very well.

From now on, I shall spread the goodness of Communism and become the Great Comrade Leader, Marcus! And then, I shall rule the demon race from the shadows!

“…But things are not working out as you intended, right?”

“Dammit!”

The metal bat’s snarky remark made me hold my head in despair.

Bloody hell?! This really was beyond my expectation!

“Who would’ve thought that the demon race as a species could be this stupid!”

I had to spend three days and nights racking my brain to come up with that Communism speech! If the original writer, Marx, had read it, then he would’ve tried to grab my collars and yell at me, asking me what I have done to his speech. However, I really did put in a lot of effort when judging from my own standard to write that speech.

I felt so gratified after completing it and even thought to myself, “To think that I managed to complete something this monumental!”

But now?!

“A-are you sure that none of the chieftains understood the speech?!”

“Y-yes. Unfortunately…”

I stared in disbelief at Belegrea as she sneakily averted her gaze away.

“Really? Seriously?! Not even one?”

“Yes. No one.”

“Okay, but what about regular demon folk, not the chieftains?”

“The thing is, most intelligent individuals among the demons happen to be the chieftains. And since none of them understood the speech, well…”

Huh. Huhuhuh…

I was speechless.

Sure, I’ve already heard that the majority of demons were muscleheads and that they hated using their brains. However, I still didn’t expect them to be this hopeless.

Even though I really believed that the Communism speech I wrote would be understandable even by young teens! No, make that kids from the lower grades of elementary school! But none of the demons understood it in the end?!

“B-but, what about their passionate roars and applause at the coronation? Weren’t they reacting like that after understanding the speech?”

“W-well, that… I also thought it was strange, so I began asking around. And they all answered that… that it seemed like a good time to start applauding, so…” Belegrea couldn’t finish her sentence and turned her head away.

This… was pathetic. To think that the level of the demon race would be this pathetic!

“How come the demon continent hasn’t been ruined yet?”

“I believe that it’s all thanks to the Demon God’s grace.”

When Belegrea offered her honest opinion, I silently offered my prayer to the Demon God, who must’ve worked her arse off until now. To think that she had to lead these morons still stuck in the Stone Age to repel the humans… How difficult would it have been?

At least, for the sake of the Demon God that must’ve worked so hard until now, I swore to myself to come up with a more thorough plan this time.

“Belegrea, have you explained it in detail to the chieftains?”

“Yes. But almost none of them understood what I was even talking about.”

That didn’t sound all that surprising, considering that chieftains were selected through the contest of strength. Each individual was either a swordmaster or had stepped into a comparable realm.

It would be difficult to hammer home philosophical ideas into the heads of demons that only thought about how to become stronger until now. However, that didn’t mean there were no other methods to go around this problem, though.

“So, then. I should assume that other demons will roughly be the same as them?”

“Basically, yes.”

“Very well. In that case… We shall alter our plan. No, let me correct myself. We shall be adding to our plan.”

“What will you be adding, sir?”

I could tell Belegrea the rough outline of my new altered plan, but it was still Belegrea we were talking about here.

Up until now, I thought she was a smart little cookie, but after learning the truth about the demon race? I found it a bit difficult to place all my faith in her now.

Before there could be a misunderstanding, I should perfectly organise the plan before telling her.

“I shall inform you of it through Ria, so there’s no rush. We’ll just take it step by step. The most urgent issue we have is with the chieftains.”

The core part of my plan was the abolition of the rank called the chieftain. My goal was to create my own version of a Communist country that looked like democracy on the surface, and it began with turning the tribal society of demons into a socialist one through a cultural revolution.

That was why we needed to convince the chieftains first. Convince them… very nicely, of course.

“The job of convincing them falls upon me, the one who spreads the Demon God’s will. Belegrea, your role as the demon king is to bring them together.”

“Understood.”

I watched Belegrea bow slightly and leave my office.

Honestly speaking, I’m a pacifist acknowledged by everyone! I detest fighting, you know!

“…Yet, this world doesn’t want to leave me alone.”

“But master, from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re the one not wanting to let go of this world, ya know…”

Uh-huh! A person always wants the world to revolve around them, don’t you know! I’m merely working a bit… no, I’m working extra hard to ensure that happens for real, that’s all!

“Besides, this ain’t gonna be a bad deal for you, now is it?”

“Ehehehe~. Ever since we crossed over to the demon world, it feels like my workload’s gone through the roof, master. And I feel so happy!”

Indeed, it’s your turn this time, too! Go and teach the concept of socialism to the chieftains to your heart’s content!

#3 Their circumstance: Chieftains’ circumstances

In a room within the Demon God’s temple…

The chieftains, considered to be the core of the demon continent, began gathering one by one in this room.

“Why did Her Majesty Belegrea request us the chieftains to come to this place?”

Asking such a question was not strange at all, of course. Not too long ago, these chieftains and Belegrea were trying to kill each other, after all.

But Aggreahrt was now dead, and Belegrea had ascended to the throne of the demon king. Which meant that officially at least, they were at peace – but that didn’t mean all grudges had been washed away.

“The last chieftain has arrived.”

The Demon God’s temple priest announced that, prompting one of the chieftains to raise his hand. “No, there are 100 of us here. One chieftain is still missing, so what do you mean, everyone’s here?”

“He’s right. Even if she is a mixed-blood child with human blood coursing through her, she’s still the head of her race. No reason to exclude her.”

If a certain former demon king heard that, he’d have been greatly surprised by what these chieftains were saying.

But that’s because said demon king was expecting the chieftains to hurl all sorts of abuse like ‘How dare an impure blood like you attend this meeting!’ and ‘There’s only one of you, so how dare you call yourself a tribe!’ if his daughter showed up to the tribal conference.

If only the former demon king heard these chieftains right now… He’d most likely think a bit harder about what he was about to do to them. Unfortunately for the chieftains, however, the former demon king was not around to hear them.

And because of that…

“No, sirs. All chieftains requiring further education have gathered. And from this moment on…”

“…It’s the start of your educatiooooooon!”

The light suddenly went out of the room for a brief second, only for a small girl to jump out of nowhere. At the same time…!

Clunk!

The only exit to the room was locked from the outside.

“W-what is the meaning of this?!”

One of the chieftains, realising that something suspicious was afoot, hurriedly raised his voice, but what a lamentable thing it was… Only one creature in the room was capable of replying to his question.

“Today is reserved for learning about the joy of Communism! And now, receive the great and noble Demon God’s will… with your bodies!”

And that was the silver-haired girl called the Demon God’s blessing and her tiny fists.

T/N note: From the onward, the name “Marcus” will change to… “Marx”. The romanised Korean could’ve gone either way, but with all this Communist talk, I figured “Marx” (as in Karl Marx) would be a better fit. Thank you for your understanding!