The Impersonating Daimaou Wants to be Hated (WN): Chapter 124

 

Chapter 124: Prologue: Until Then

 Flames burning the trees stretch dark shadows across the land. Piles of corpses stained the fresh snow reddish black.

 I was dreaming. I was aware of it. In the dream, I was a young child, moving my tiny legs, wandering aimlessly across the vast land.

 There was once a war on the central continent.

 Several races killed each other for no good reason, and sometimes even their own kind crossed blades with each other.

 There were no laws, only primordial chaos.

 It was a time when everything was in its infancy. The race into which I was born did not want to be drawn into the fray and chose to live quietly in the depths of the forest, but in the end, they could not escape the great fire that engulfed the continent.

 It happened one night when the stars were covered by thick clouds. As I gazed helplessly at the remnants of the blizzard, the woman who gave birth to me uttered a high-pitched voice.

"This is... what does this mean!?"

 The fiends were about to attack the village, so I killed them before they could.

 The people in the village were all trembling as I told them.

 They were frightened. I did not understand their reaction at the time, but now that I was dreaming, I understood it well.

 The woman who gave birth to me pointed at the darkness where night reigned with a devilish look on its face.

"Go."

 Why? I asked.

"You are too different from us. I am afraid. I can't shake the feeling that our differences will bring about some definite doom. So go. Before I kill you or you kill me."

 The woman who gave birth to me repeated again and again that I should go. So I left the village. It was exactly five years after I was born into this world, on a night that chilled me to the core.

 I was not sad to be driven out of the village, but I had nowhere to go. Like a falling leaf down a river, I continued to wander and drift alone.

 Then one day, about three years later, I saw a group of people for the first time in a long time. I wanted to see people, so I stopped by the village that the dwarves had built.

 In this era, except for small communities, the basic rule of settlements was that people were of the same race as each other, but the settlement, or the town as we call it today, was open to all races.

 This kind of chaotic community, which began to increase in number at a certain point in time, was new to me even as a child.

 I slipped past the guards and entered the town, and with the magic stone I had gathered from the mountains and the sea in my hand, I looked around the main street, which was lined with stalls where hunters and craftsmen displayed their wares. And then, at that moment, I heard a voice.

"Hey, don't be selfish."

"No, no. I want this. I want this. Buy it, buy it, buy it, buy iiitt!"

 The exchange sounded strangely familiar amidst the clamor of angry voices.

 Oni... I guess. A brown-skinned woman with a horn on her forehead and dressed in a rather revealing outfit was lying on the ground, her arms and legs flailing wildly.

"N-o-p-e~. If you think that you can always get people to buy you things if you complain like that, you are mistaken. You should learn to be a little more patient."

 A woman (?), her whole body completely covered by a black robe. The woman standing next to her patted the other one on the head and made a disgusted voice.

“No, no, no. I can't stand it! Why are you being so mean to me! Daimaou's a fool! Stingy! Cold-blooded! Say something, Celicia!"

"Haa, haa... what is this, you're so cute. Hey, Shudoji, I'll give you my virginity, so why don't you give me yours?"

"I'll give you my virginity as many times as you want! So buy it! Buy it!"

"Wait a minute, you guys? Mother will not allow her children to do such things. Wait until you are grown up."

“I'll wait, I'll wait as long as I have to! So buy it! Buy it!"

"Kuhaa. A begging pretty girl is the best! No, I'm going to have my first period, and. Ah~, I'll fuck you. So grow up quickly and be a cute one~.... hmm?"

 The woman whose head was being stroked turned her face toward me.

 The woman, who is about the same age as the oni and probably a little older than me, was...... amazing.

 Despite her youthful features, her beauty is guaranteed for the future. No, the atmosphere that radiated from her body was more beautiful and radiant than any person I had ever seen before. But what caught my eye more than anything else was...

“Rainbow… eye?”

 Mysterious, shining silver-white hair and an odd-eyed eye. The eye, shining in seven different colors, were so different that they seemed to be chanting in an inaudible voice about the wonders of the world.

"Celicia? What's wrong?"

"My cute girl's sensor reacted. This is a virgin... no, a little girl?"

"I've said this about a hundred times already, but no matter how cute they are, taking them without permission is called kidnapping, and it's a kind of declarating war."

"If obstacles stand in the way of love, my wind will blow them all away."

"Yaah. My child, so cute."

 The hooded woman (?) wriggles.

 Why? Looking at the women, I felt as if I was looking up from the ground to a high place. And then. Suddenly, a face hidden behind a hood turns toward me.

"Eh!?"

 In an instant, the skin all over my body turned red.

"Haa, haa... w-what... are? What is... that?"

 The scenery was flowing. Before I knew it, I was running.

 Run away, run away, I have to run away.

 If that thing catches me, it's over. Like the living becoming the dead, I will never be the same. Something decisive will be deranged. That's what my instincts are telling me.

 It is truly a death-defying experience. Leaping out of the city, running across the devastated land, and fleeing into the forest, but not feeling at ease, I waded deeper and deeper into the green sea. And thenーー

“Hmm. This is a surprise. I never thought I would find another one talented enough to be a candidate. This is truly a bountiful harvest in this era~."

 As if it were a matter of course, the woman was standing in front of me.

"She's cute and her magic is amazing. I really want to take her with me."

 I unintentionally took my gaze away from the robed woman at the words spoken from the side. The silver woman was looking at me as if she was trying to decide what to buy.

 If it was just a woman in a robe, it was fine, but even the woman who was not much older than me caught up.

 I felt as if I had been hit over the head with that fact. With her odd eyes wide open, the silvery-white woman slowly approached me.

"Hey, you there. A slave... no. Um... no, my slave. Ooh, you cute little girl. You can be my slave and pat me on the head every daayyy!!"

 A gale. The speed was so fast that it gave the illusion of it being a gale. So fast that I had no time to launch an attack, I pulled myself back halfway and placed my elbows in the air.

“Nugya!?”

 Using my whole body to support the mass that rests on my elbow. Her own speed becomes a weapon, and the silvery-white woman is blown away. She spun around and hit the ground. Cold sweat broke out all over my body. I never thought that the day would come when I would feel threatened by a woman who is almost the same age as me.

 The world is a big place. I remember what an old man said to me during my wandering.

 The oni appeared through the bushes.

"Wheeze*, wheeze*... y-you guys are too fast."

 I was relieved to see her breathing roughly and holding her side painfully. The robed woman flickered her forehead, hidden behind her hood.

"You're already exhausted from this speed. Your materialization of magic and simple power are spectacular, but you are completely lacking in everything else. Celicia also surrenders herself to her desires and got hit …it’s true that she took the initiative to reduce the damage, but if she had been watching carefully as usual, she would have found that that child's movements were on the same level as hers. …Is my education a little too lenient?”

"Hiii!? W-what!? W-what are you going to do about it, Celicia? Hell is about to get even more upgraded...... so why are you lying in there?"

“…I heard the sound of a new door opening. I've decided to change my job."

"H-hey! Pull your hands out of your crotch."

 The silvery-white woman, looking up at the sky with a rapt expression on her face, showed no damage of any kind.

"Well then, you there."

 Before I knew it, the robed woman was standing right beside me.

 Tremble*, tremble*. My whole body trembles.

 I was going to be killed. I am definitely going to be killed. More than experience, more than instinct, something more fundamental is telling me this.

"Wait, wait. You don't have to be so scared."

 The hood was removed, and what appeared from under it wasーー

"......Beautiful."

 The words came out naturally. The face looks a lot like the silvery-white woman. But her beauty was very different from the one who was lying on the ground.

 The woman's jet-black hair reminded me of the starry night sky I saw at the top of a mountain higher than the clouds, and her rainbow-colored eyes looked as if they were made by gathering all the beautiful things in the world.

"Beautiful."

 I repeated unintentionally, and perhaps amused by my repetition, the beautiful woman smiled at me.

“Fufu. Thank you very much. From today you are one of our family. You may call me Daimaou or Mother. Oh, you can also call me Master or something."

"...Family? Mother?"

 I heard the word I knew for the first time. It was such a strange feeling.

"Well, let's go, both of you. Something delicious to celebrate the arrival of a new family member... huh? What are you guys doing?"

"Daimaouuu! Stop it. My friend's, my friend's illness is getting worseee!!"

"Haa, haa... just a little more, just a little more. I get my ass handed to me, and then I masturbate in defeat in front of everyone! Ecstasy! Ecstasyyy!!"

"Yes, yes. It is good to enjoy sex, but you should think more about your age and the situation."

 The beautiful woman turned around and extended her hand to the silvery-white woman who was playing with her crotch with one hand, holding the silvery-white woman aside.

"Here, let's go."

 In fear? Out of curiosity? I still don't know. I just remember that I took the hand so naturally that I was surprised.

 After that, I traveled around the world as I was told. As we traveled, the beautiful woman who called herself the "Daimaou" imposed various difficult tasks on us.

 One time, we intervened in a war between the Empire and the Elves, who were the most powerful force at the time, and ordered us to help the Elves win. At other times, we were told to defeat the most powerful people on the continent by any number of people at any given time. As we completed the various instructions, which varied in content and difficulty, our name became well known, and there were times when we made enemies of nations all over the continent.

 Those were dangerous and exciting days. I was no longer just a leaf that was being swept away. What would happen to me when I ascended this ordeal?

 Even these questions soon became unimportant. Daily life with my overly quirky but delightful and dependable sisters. There was a joy there that I had not felt when I was alone. There was a peacefulness. I felt a bond.

"What's wrong?"

 The Daimaou... Mother tilted her head next to me. I answered that it was nothing and squeezed her hand tightly.

"Fufu. You're a spoiled child."

 Mother took me in her arms and held me gently. My heart fluttered in my chest as if responding to her warmth.

 I will cherish this warmth. That's what I thought. That was my intention.

 Until the time when I would be called the Water King.