Ranker’s Return

Huge presences appeared one after another in Blanc, the throne of a demon king—in other words, John Blake’s new territory. They numbered over a dozen. It was a ridiculously large number when considering the fact that only six demon kings were visiting Blanc.

The reason for this was the demon kings. They never moved anywhere alone. There were many reasons why, but all of the reasons existed for only one purpose—survival. In order to survive, they could never look weak. Thus, they took the nobles they truly trusted and moved together.

“Have you already gathered? By the way... Wasn’t this only a gathering place for demon kings? I didn’t know there were so many demon kings in the demon world. Can any dog or cow be a demon king nowadays?”

Apart from the new demon king John Blake, Baler was the latest to arrive and moved slowly toward the other demon kings.

“Stop it, Baler. You are the only one who didn’t bring a noble with you,” another demon king countered Baler’s words.

Baler’s smile widened. “It’s not that I didn’t bring one. It is that I don’t have one to bring. Isn’t that right? Ah! No, I have one now. The new master of Etono came and entrusted himself to me.”

One man waved his hand at the words. It was Damanos, the demon king of iron blood who had Etono stolen from him. “This is an obvious violation of the pledge! What are you all doing? Baler accepted a noble!”

Damanos didn’t want a response from Baler, but the response he got from the others was strange. Putting aside John Blake who had yet to appear as well as—Baler and Damanos—the parties involved, the remaining four demon kings didn’t respond to his words.

“Pledge? This word is coming from the mouth of the one who insists on targeting the middle world. I’m speechless.”

“I agree. What iron blood? You are just an empty can that has hardened over the years.”

They attacked Damanos instead. Although they didn’t take Baler’s side, their attitude was completely different from the past. This shook Damanos’ spirit.

“Why...?” Damanos uttered. He still didn’t realize that there was a big difference between the time when they wanted to keep Baler in check and now.

Just then, today’s protagonist appeared. It was a silver-haired man—John Blake.

“What... There are faces I know and faces I don’t know.” John Blake looked coldly at the demon kings and demons standing around him. There was no sign of nervousness at all. “You are gathered here because of me, so I will start the introduction first. I’m John, and I killed Rubolle to become the new demon king.”

John Blake’s self-introduction was simple. There was nothing superfluous. He only spoke the necessary words.

Baler opened his mouth and said, “This friend... He is a friend who beat Rubolle overwhelmingly. It was right here in Blanc. This means... If you say the wrong words, the number of demon kings in the demon world will be reduced to six today. In addition...” 

John Blake looked at Baler like he was saying something useless. Feeling John Blake’s gaze, Baler stopped in the middle. Once Baler shut his mouth, John Blake started to speak again: “I will make it clear here that I don’t want an invasion of the middle world. In addition, the one who has become the master of Etono has a deep relationship with me. You can touch him if you want.”

It was a wild declaration—an unbelievable declaration for someone who had just become a demon king. However, John Blake had beaten Rubolle, who had the assistance of the magic power stone. There were only two demon kings here who could do that. In short, he had the qualification to make such a wild declaration.

“Well, that’s enough of the small talk. I would like to ask what you think about the invasion of the middle world. The one who was driving it the most, Rubolle, is dead. So why don’t you give up now? If you really want to go somewhere, go to the divine world. Or are you scared again?” Baler turned his head to the left and right and observed the demon kings.

Then Baler’s gaze fell on Damanos.

“Of course, we have to stop it. It is right to stop now that the leader behind it is dead,” Munas, one of the moderate demon kings, commented with a sneer. He hadn’t liked this plan from the very beginning. There was no merit in attacking the middle world. He thought it was much better to hit the divine world.

“I agree. It is better to jump to the divine world than to go to the middle world and fight with the lizards.” Another moderate demon king, Wokiri, strengthened Munas’ comments.

“Are you guys demon kings? Why are you so skeptical about the invasion of the middle world?” Galiya shouted when he heard Munas’ and Wokiri’s words. He was a hardliner like Damanos and didn’t understand why these three people were opposed to invading the middle world.

“It isn’t that we don’t want to invade the middle world. If we want to play in the middle world, we have to overthrow the divine world first,” Baha, the last of the moderate demon kings, said with a frown. He refuted Galiya’s words step by step: “In the middle world, we will have to fight against the lizards, humans, and other middle world creatures. We will naturally win, but there will be damage. Two out of the seven here are likely to disappear. What if the divine world invades at that time? What will you do then? Think about it, think. You are a demon king after all.”

Galiya’s face reddened due to Baha’s poisonous tongue. He seemed as if he was going to explode.

“We will go. I will meet you again next time.” Damanos decided to take Galiya and leave. He judged that having a conflict between demon kings was meaningless.

“The uninvited guests have left. Now we can earnestly talk.” Baler brought up strange words the moment Damanos and Galiya disappeared. The three moderate demon kings turned their heads to look at him.

“What does that mean?”

“Uninvited guests?”

“Do you have something to say to us?”

Baler grinned before he started to tell the demon kings about Hyeonu’s plan. He said, “There are too many pigs in the demon world nowadays. Don’t you think they are just high in numbers and low in quality?”

“I guess so.”

“It is too different from when we were active.”

The demon kings nodded. There were too many lowest-grade demons and demonic creatures. The average level was too far away.

“Honestly, it is hard to think that the invasion of the middle world will succeed. It doesn’t matter whether there are millions or tens of millions of lowest-grade demonic creatures. They are still demonic creatures in the end,” Baha said while not taking his eyes off John Blake.

Baha had known for a long time that the newly crowned demon king, John Blake, was a human. He might be a demon king, but he was still a human. If they attempted to invade the middle world, John Blake would definitely raise his hand to help the middle world, not the demon world. In other words, the great fighting power of a demon king was lost to the middle world.

“This is why I insisted on weeding them out. To be exact, this is the plan of the new master of Etono, and I like it very much.” Baler began explaining the plan in earnest.

The other demon kings waited for Baler’s explanation. They were quite interested in the plan.

Baler continued, “That guy will call adventurers to the demon world, and the adventurers will reduce the number of lowest grade demonic creatures. However, there are also many budding talents who will kill the adventurers and become stronger.”

The moderates nodded their heads. It was a pretty good plan. If this happened, it was clear that the entire demon world would become more energized. The lowest-grade demonic creatures would hunt for survival and growth.

“In any case, adventurers don’t die when they are killed, so it doesn’t matter. They will grow and be able to kill the lower-ranked nobles.”

The other demon kings had never even dreamed that the new master of Etono would be an adventurer. This was despite the fact that they had information about the middle world. Every time black magicians summoned demons to the middle world, they would bring back all types of information. Naturally, there was also information about adventurers. There weren’t any specific details, but they roughly knew the average level of adventurers.

“Baler, I just have a question...” Baha immediately spoke to Baler.

“Huh? What is it? Ask if you have any questions, and I will solve them,” Baler responded with a shrug that was out of place for his size.

“Why did you include those two to be weeded out? I don’t think there are any nobles as strong as them yet.”

“Ah! Of course, not those two. I want to weed out the ones who are rotten. They are trees that have already taken root and finished growing. It isn’t right to touch them. Instead... I don’t know about the guys under them.” Baler let out an insidious laugh.

***

Hyeonu traveled to the demon world without Leon Meyer’s help and returned to Etono’s inner office. This meant that Hyeonu now had no obstacles in moving between the demon world and the middle world. The moment Hyeonu confirmed that it was Etono’s internal office, he took out the Blanc Return Stone from the inventory and moved to Blanc.

“Duke!” He called out.

“You’re back already? You came back faster than I thought you would.” John Blake welcomed Hyeonu joyfully. Hyeonu’s quick return meant that things had worked out well. It was only when Hyeonu’s work was smoothly resolved that John Blake would be able to return to the middle world as quickly as possible.

“The work was resolved well. How did the meeting with the demon kings go?”

“They just went back. Only Baler remains.”

The meeting of the demon kings ended a little while ago. Damanos and Galiya might’ve left in the beginning, but the moderates called Munas, Baha, and Wokiri had just left after having a deep conversation with Baler.

“I’m just in time then.”

“The other demon kings don’t know you’re a human or an adventurer, so you better not meet them,” John Blake said.

Hearing that, Hyeonu lowered his head and took something out. It was the white scroll from Leon Meyer.

“Duke, can I ask you to sign here?” Hyeonu spread open the rolled up paper and handed it to John Blake.

“What is this?”

“This is what the dragon gave me. He told me to get your signature as well as Baler’s.”

“Signature?” John Blake cocked his head and snatched the paper from Hyeonu’s hand. Then he started to quickly read it.

[Pledge of No Middle World Invasion]

[Demon King Baler (hereinafter known as Party A) and John Blake (hereinafter known as Party B) will sign the pledge written by Leon Meyer to not invade the middle world (hereinafter known as Party C)]

“Leon Meyer? Leon Meyer is the lizard that you know?” John Blake’s eyes glowed intensely as he stared at Hyeonu.

Hyeonu was flustered by John Blake’s sudden actions and barely came up with an answer, “Huh? Y-Yes, that’s right.”