Chapter 2
In this slice-of-life novel I’ve written, I was experiencing the most violent event as an involved party, to be exact, as a victim.
Strange letters I didn’t recognize were carved into the walls above each entrance to the numerous rooms of the Demon King’s castle. However, I was able to read them.
Although this, too, was a common setting, it still felt uncomfortable, maybe because I was experiencing it myself.
You didn’t know how it felt to suddenly be able to read letters you were unfamiliar with, until you experienced it yourself.
I passed by numerous rooms, including the dining hall, the kitchen, the armory, the magic item storage, the alchemy lab, the prison and the kennel.
Of course, there were no signs pointing to a secret passage or something.
I mean, it would have been weird If they put something like that on display, but couldn’t they at least mark it like an emergency exit?
I must say, it felt really strange being able to read a language I have never heard of before, but that couldn’t be helped now.
Naturally, the layout of the Demon King’s castle, which never appeared again after the Prologue, didn’t magically appear in my head!
In those other possession stories, when a writer or an avid reader entered the book’s world, they immediately knew what to look for.
That was just ridiculous!
I didn’t have a single clue about these things, even though I wrote it!
I’ve never thought about stuff like that. Why should I describe or imagine places that weren’t part of the main stage?!
Although, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have remembered the layout even if I set it up properly!
Even the things I was wearing were just those fancy clothes the demonic royal family wore, not a single special magical item.
-Kugong! Kugogogong!
This place was as complex as a maze… I didn’t know if I’d ever find an exit, but in this situation I had no other choice, but to just wander around through this castle even though I hold the title of Prince of the Demon Realm.
Let’s think.
I didn’t really know what I was hoping would happen, but I had to think.
There’s no way to find out the structure of the Demon King’s castle no matter how long I thought about it, as I didn’t even know it to begin with.
I didn’t even see any of my loyal subordinates that could help me out or tell me where to go.
Shouldn’t there be someone like this sticking to my side?
They’d provide explanations on this world’s common sense and the current situation without being prompted to.
Something like: “Oh, this is this and that, but in this and this situation, this is where you’d blah, blah!”
They’d either die right after they fulfilled their role or they became my advisor!
Why didn’t I have someone like that?!
Just because I was this novel’s writer, did they think I didn’t need someone like that?
The Demon King would die in today’s battle.
I didn’t know if there was a genre for this, but I tried writing this novel in the style of a Post-ending story.
A happy world after the story came to its conclusion.
The part where everyone lived happily ever after, after defeating the Demon King.
The world after the story of the heroes’ journey to defeat the Demon King came to its conclusion after his death.
That’s the stage of [The Demon King is Dead].
The hero and his party, who were the protagonists of the imaginary original story, are supposed to die here as well.
Like this, the only way they get mentioned in the story is when they get praised as the heroes who saved the world. Except in the Prologue, they didn’t have any other appearances.
I had to come up with something.
I had to come up with a way for me to survive.
It had nothing to do with me that the Demon King, who was only my father, would die in this setting.
If I was just a day earlier I could have maybe done something, but things were already set in motion.
I needed someone to guide me, anyone who recognized me would do, the Demon King’s attendant, anyone, but I didn’t even catch the glimpse of a single hair of someone like that.
They might already be dead or locked in battle with the human forces trying to besiege the castle outside.
And the hero party who infiltrated through the castle’s basement should’ve been fighting with the Demon King in the audience hall.
I could escape using that underground passage, but I had no idea where it was.
The hero knows this Castle better than me, the Demon Prince! That was my situation!
-Ruuuumble!
Just the sounds coming from the main stage were really terrifying.
After the Demon King died, the castle would fall.
The strong magic barrier that was supported by the Demon King’s Mana would be lifted, and human soldiers would rush in here like surging waves.
I couldn’t look in the mirror, but I could feel a pair of horns on my head.
I didn’t know how different I looked from humans, but this alone was enough to reveal that I was a demon.
How was I supposed to survive in a situation like this?
No matter how much you knew what was going to happen in the future, what’s the point of that if you were born right before a truck drives you over?
The Title of Demon Prince and the advantages I actually had were only useful if I was alive!
I only found out that I died a few hours ago, but here I was already on the verge of dying again.
“Hah…. Haah….”
I was already out of breath, because I ran around the Demon King’s castle without knowing where I was.
Wasn’t there anything special about the Demon King’s bloodline?
Or was it because I was still so young?
No, this body was just hella weak.
How could I be 17 and have such poor stamina? This body should be in its prime!
I have no idea what talents this blood brought with it, but for now it was clearly useless.
After running for some time, I finally was able to see my own face reflected in a window.
I looked at it, but it didn’t seem much different from a human’s.
I had horns on my head though.
No.
These horns were the only thing that stood out besides…
I looked quite handsome.
“Oh, oh…. Oh!”
Handsome.
No, now wasn’t the time for this. Absolutely not.
It was all over if I died!
To think I’d feel even the slightest bit of happiness in this kind of situation….
I felt more miserable about getting happy. I tried to endure not to shout out in fear or joy.
If I survive this place, I’ll treat this body preciously. I wish I could show my ex-girlfriend my current body, though I won’t be able to see her ever again…
Let’s calm down for now.
First, the horns.
The horns on my head were a problem.
If the human army caught me like this, I should be grateful if they just quietly cut my head off.
There’s a good chance they’d do even worse.
If I knew how to use magic, maybe I could have changed my appearance with magic.
Huh?
I suddenly stopped running.
“That place!”
I quickly turned around and ran back.
That method might be surprisingly simple. So simple, one could call it ridiculous.
Although I had no clue about the Demon King’s castle’s layout, I definitely remembered the places I passed by.
Although I didn’t know what’s in those rooms or what I could do in them.
In the places I passed by, there might be something that could save me somehow.
-Rumble….
The quaking was starting to abate.
It seemed like the fight had stopped.
If the Demon King died, the castle would fall immediately.
I had no time to lose.
* * *
“Quickly…. Quickly….”
The first place I went into was the magic item storage.
I didn’t have a clue what was in there, but there had to be something in there that could help me out.
There were a lot of magic items rolling around, but those weren’t things I wanted.
I went to the scroll storage where scrolls were piled up to the ceiling. There were some missing, but fortunately they were ordered and had the spells they contained written on them.
The thing I was looking for was none other than a teleport scroll.
Getting out of this place somehow was my top priority.
I didn’t know what I’d do next, but that was something to think about after I got out of here alive.
[Inferno]
[Glacial Strike]
[Blizzard]
[Blazing Storm]
.
.
.
There was a scroll cabinet that was apparently once full of powerful magic scrolls, but now it was empty.
As a writer, there were many things I had no idea about, but I did know about this world’s common sense and world view.
Scrolls that made it easy to cast spells were sinfully expensive and difficult to make.
Scrolls containing such powerful attack magic were being treated as powerful strategic weapons by modern standards.
Scrolls could even be used by those who didn’t know how to use magic simply by opening them.
So they were worth their price.
However, currently, the magic scroll cabinet that contained those powerful magic scrolls was empty.
We were in the state of an all out war now after all. They took whatever they could with them.
Damn it, what if they took all the teleportation scrolls with them? I don’t know how they were going to use them, but that was definitely a possibility.
I searched the huge scroll storage and looked through countless scrolls.
I didn’t have much time.
Most of the attack magic scrolls got taken out, but the storage was still overflowing with scrolls.
There were some so small, I couldn’t even tell what magic they contained.
Many subtype scrolls were left behind, such as fascination, delusion, illusion etc.
Obviously teleportation was one of the highest leveled magic spells in this world.
Teleport scrolls weren’t common, but this was the Demon King’s castle, for crying out loud.
And after looking at that highest-level scroll cabinet just now, it was pretty clear that they should have teleport scrolls as well.
“Found it!”
Among the pile of countless scrolls, I finally found it.
[Teleport]
I didn’t really know where to go.
I’ll just think about where to go after I cast the magic.
As long as it wasn’t this place, I was fine with anywhere.
Even somewhere in the human realm was fine.
It may have taken me 10 minutes or maybe an hour to find this, but death came closer with each passing second, so I just opened the scroll quickly.
And then.
Nothing happened.
[Teleporting is forbidden in this area.]
“Oh my god!”
The barrier made it impossible to use space related skills or magic that moved one through space inside of it.
Even Though the Demon King was dead, was the barrier that interrupted space travel still active?
Well, if that weren’t the case the heroes would’ve just teleported in and wouldn’t have used a secret passage.
I tried to justify my thoughtless rough writing.
The heroes didn’t have to teleport, they just entered the Demon King’s castle through a secret passage.
Wasn’t it obvious? If they could teleport, why would they use a secret passage?
There should’ve been that kind of comment.
If someone commented something like this while I was still alive, I wouldn’t have gotten punished like this.
I didn’t know about warp gates, but teleport scrolls were out of question now.
There might be such a gate somewhere, but even if there was, I wouldn’t know where it was.
-Waaaaaaah!
Shouts began to echo from afar.
The human army must be pushing the demon army back, after their morale had fallen to the bottom, like autumn leaves.
Should I just die like this?
If I just had some offensive magic scrolls here, I’d have bought time with those.
However, there were only auxiliary magic scrolls, that had no use in war, here.
I was the Prince of the Demon Realm, but I turned out to be some loser dog with no power.
The fancy clothes I wore on my body were only to show that I was the main character of the Demon Realm……
A minute later.
Fancy clothes.
My appearance as a Demon.
And.
Magic scrolls scattered around the floor.
There was still one straw I could grab onto.
* * *
I didn’t know if this would work, but that was the only thing left I could do now.
There might be other methods, but to survive, I had to gamble with my life anyway.
In this situation in which I was completely surrounded and didn’t know the location of the secret passage, I had only one goal. To survive.
Where I arrived was.
“Haah…. Haah….”
The [Prison]
As I descended to this dark, moldy smelling place, I threw away all my clothes and went in naked.
It would have been nice to just have a few extra scrolls with me, but I had to gamble and throw everything away.
If I had something with me, that would have been too suspicious.
The magic spell I wanted to use was a low-level one.
However, in my situation it was the most fitting spell. One, my plan wouldn’t work without.
[Casting Camouflage Magic.]
I changed my appearance.
I disguised myself as a human prisoner caught by the Demons.
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