Chương 2: Chapter 1: Truth From a Thousand Years Ago

Once I entered the Demon King's castle and entered the throne room, I saw the Demon King. To my surprise, she was a beautiful woman with horns, with a small and feminine figure. I was surprised. How could such a woman lead such bloodthirsty monsters? The fight then began, and a brutal battle ensued. I was heavily injured but managed to finally land the finishing blow that nearly killed the Demon King. Now she was too injured to continue attacking in anyway.

This fight was much better than expected, as over the course of several months we had killed so many high-level demons and monsters that the demonic continent was running low on manpower and had to scatter even those in the castle. This left a situation where the hero party could fight just the Demon King alone. With the defeat of the Demon King, I asked, "Why are you attacking the human continent? Why not coexist with us instead?" The Demon King responded, "Do you really think we haven't tried before?

All we asked was for some land on the human continent for us monsters to survive. We have squeezed as much value as we can to survive on this barren continent. The monsters you see that have grown strong are due to circumstance and had to grow strong to survive. When we asked for land, we were pushed back by the humans, being banned from stepping foot on the human continent. To survive, we could only invade the human continent, hoping for more resources."

I then realized maybe I didn't understand the full situation and maybe this war was in the wrong. I then thought about what to do next. My party, who were kept in the dark about this, also realized maybe the war was wrong, too. Maybe the human higher ups hated monsters and demons and didn't want them on the continent and didn't want to associate with them. Finally, after some thought, I made a decision.

I tied up the Demon King, restricted her magic with my magic to prevent her from escaping, and put a cloak on her so nobody knew who she was. I then told my party about what I was going to do, "We're going back to the human continent and say we have dealt with the Demon King. If we are in the right and the humans don't want the war either, we'll force the Demon King to order the demons and monsters to stop attacking. If they don't stop, then we'll have to deal with the rest of the demonic continent's forces.

If it is as the Demon King said and the human side really hates the demons, then I might just help the demons. From what I can tell, the demons aren't as bad as I thought and this war is wrong. It wouldn't hurt to coexist, and if the higher ups don't agree, I will try to force them." The party, after some thought, agreed with me. They were still skeptical of the monsters and demons, but they too saw how the monsters and demons lived. We then went back to seek answers from the human side.

Several months later, we finally reached the human continent. After making the Demon King order her forces to stop attacking the humans for the time being, and killing some who didn't agree, we finally made it back. The border was peaceful as no more monsters invaded. The border forces, upon seeing the hero party return, erupted in cheers, as they could assume the Demon King was defeated from the lack of invaders. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

We didn't stay for the victory party but instead rushed to talk with the higher ups of the human forces. The kingdoms, upon hearing the victorious return of the hero, convened a meeting to welcome the hero back. I then received a summons to participate in this meeting. I took my party, along with the Demon King who I had disguised, to the meeting. Entering the meeting, I saw several noble-looking people who were the leaders of each kingdom. They all congratulated me on my return.

My party and I sat down, and after a few pleasantries, I was finally given a chance to speak. I asked, "I have heard the origin of this war. Why can't we give some of the land or perhaps trade supplies with the demonic continent?" Hearing this, all the leaders of each kingdom suddenly turned dark. One of the kingdoms then asked, "Why should we share our human resources with a bunch of monsters and demons? We are humans, we should help ourselves."

I, not understanding this logic, asked again, "Wouldn't it have been better to prevent this war by coexisting?" The other kingdoms all showed disagreeing expressions. Then, another kingdom explained, "We will never coexist with them. Now that the war is over, they shall become our slaves to supplement our losses in this war. We shall now lead our forces to claim the demonic continent without a leader. As for you, if you don't agree, you can just go back.

We received an oracle from the Goddess that once you kill the Demon King, you should have gained enough energy to transport yourself back home. The energy from the Demon King is special, mixed with hero energy, and they create a special type of power to give you magic that leads you back to your world." I, upon hearing this, suddenly realized maybe I fought this war in vain, and left with my party in anger, as this war was caused by these stubborn people.

In the next few years, I traveled back to the demonic continent to repel the human forces, allowing the Demon King to be released again. My party, understanding they had been used to fight a war for the gain of the greedy kingdoms, also helped me defend the demonic continent. After these years, the demonic continent had recovered their strength, and we were known as the heroes of the demonic race. After recovering, they regained the balance between humans and demons. I finally was free from my duties.

During these years, I had a hard time as I still had the title of hero. There was an invisible force preventing me from killing humans. At most, I could defend against them while my party injured them enough for them to retreat. In this way, we bought time for demons and monsters to regain their strength. We then hoped the monsters would come to peace with the humans now that they held equal power. The Demon King, hearing my suggestion, agreed.

To my anger, the demons and monsters disobeyed the Demon King and invaded the human continent with their regained strength. After repelling humans for so long, the human side had grown somewhat weak and the border was breached. The monsters and demons started to loot and kill what they could find. I had followed them, wondering what they were doing, and to my horror, I caused another catastrophe. That was the demonic continent invasion.

The Demon King too was saddened as her words no longer held power after years of war against humans. I no longer knew what to do, so after repelling the monsters and demons again from invading any further, forming a complete balance on the sides of demons and humans, I then disappeared from the public view with my party. I decided to not get involved with either side again, as neither side was in the right.

My party followed me as well as the Demon King, and we formed a group that kept a balance in the war with demons and humans. We were called "Equilibrium," the organization to keep the balance between humans and demons, not allowing either side to get too strong. We realized that peace could never happen, and keeping this balance was by far the best, as even the Demon King, for whose people we wanted the best, realized that her people had gained a bloodthirsty nature that was no longer in line with her beliefs.

She never wanted them to commit atrocities among humans, but to fight for some land for survival. She had only been the Demon King for a few decades as her father had died. The war started from her ancestors, but it seems the original ideology of demons and monsters had changed and she hadn't even realized it. So, she decided there was no need in continuing her reign. Instead, it would be best to keep both sides in check, just like the hero. So, this organization kept the balance for a long time to come.

A thousand years later, the organization still held strong to this day, and I had changed my class to "Outsider" after a lot of effort so that I could fight humans, too. This class allowed me to be outside the rules and stop myself from aging, so I have survived until now. Today, a new hero has risen on the hero side and a new demon king has recently risen from the demon continent. I now need to go oversee that neither side gets an advantage.

With that, I leave the castle I've built these thousand years, and behind stands the organization Equilibrium which I had formed. I set out with the core members of my organization, preparing for another battle against the humans and demons.