The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Chapter 219: Demon King's Power Q&A

The Rhine Kingdom's comic convention would begin half a month later, so Alice simply needed to take care of all of her matters within this period. Half a month should also be more than enough for her to study the catkins' taboos and use the dogkins' chief totem to search for the Demon King's Power. Then, once she was done dealing with these matters, she would head to the Rhine Kingdom with Andusia, participate in the comic convention, and try to persuade Blonde Twintails to take her on a tour of the Royal Magic Tower.

If Alice managed to get into the Royal Magic Tower, she could then find an opportunity to investigate who was impersonating Prince Etoria to communicate with the demons. This was something she needed to find out. After all, if the impersonator could casually ask the demons to interfere in the internal affairs of a human kingdom, it meant that this person was a downright traitor to the human realm. If she left this problem alone, there was no saying when it would blow up in her face.

In addition to standing in as the Hero, Alice also had to deal with the Demon King's Power and figure out a way to resolve the cause of the demon realm's pollution. She didn't have a lot of time to waste on other matters. So, it was best if she got rid of the malignant tumors that would bring chaos to this world as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Andusia, who still hadn't realized that Alice was going to show her off as a unique figurine to others, finally decided to speak up after remaining silent for a long time:

"Didn't you want to ask me something? Ask away."

"Oh? Finally decided to speak up?"

Alice looked at Andusia in surprise. She didn't think that the first thing Andusia said after turning taciturn for so long would be to agree to answer her questions. Considering how old Andusia was, Alice also thought that it would take Andusia much longer to change her mindset originally. However, by the looks of it, Andusia was quite open to change.

"I'll start asking, then. My questions are mainly centered around the Demon King's Power," Alice said as she let go of the mouse, her computer's screen stopping on the purchase interface for the train ticket to the Rhine Kingdom. Then, she looked toward Andusia and asked, "How long did it take you to fully convert the Demon King's Power into your own strength back then?"

The process of a Demon King converting the Demon King's Power into their own strength involved a considerable amount of time and training. In Luna's case, she didn't even manage to fully convert the Demon King's Power into her own strength despite working on it for several years. Meanwhile, it was also because Luna hadn't fully converted the Demon King's Power that the Loli Goddess had said that the Demon King's Power wouldn't need to recuperate for long before it could search for a new candidate.

With the Demon King's Power's recovery speed, getting from 0% to 1% was the part that took the longest. In comparison, getting from 50% to 100% was a much easier process. So, while Luna might have exhausted a significant portion of the Demon King's Power's energy already, the Demon King's Power shouldn't take very long to make a full recovery.

"Eleven years. It took me eleven years of training before I fully grasped the Demon King's Power," Andusia answered truthfully. "It was around my fifth year of training that I went to the demon realm and proved my identity to the Four Heavenly Kings of that time. By then, I already had enough strength to suppress the Four Heavenly Kings, so I didn't have to continue hiding in the human realm."

Before accumulating sufficient strength, Demon Kings would typically hide among humans. After all, without sufficient strength, the Four Heavenly Kings wouldn't easily acknowledge a Demon King's identity. It was similar to how Alice had to give Flaman and the others a beating before they were willing to acknowledge her.

"After you fully converted the Demon King's Power into your strength, did the Demon King's Power continue residing in your body?" Alice asked after pondering over Andusia's words for a moment. "Or did the Demon King's Power leave your body after you drained all of its energy?"

"No, the Demon King's Power only left my body when I died," Andusia said, shaking her head. "I moved my soul into the block of Living Wood I prepared just before I died. While doing so, I sensed that in addition to my soul, something else had left my body simultaneously. It felt like a source of energy, so that should be the Demon King's Power. Before I removed my soul, though, the Demon King's Power remained in my body even after losing all of its energy."

Similar to the recorded rumor, the Demon King's Power would only leave when its host died. It would seem that this rumor wasn't merely guesswork. Someone might have heard about this little detail from some Demon King. Then, this person must have shared this information with others, which led to the creation of the rumor that "the Demon King's Power would leave the Demon King at death."

"Did you feel that the Demon King's Power might have its own consciousness?" Alice asked another question after pondering some time. "Just like how the Demon King's Power would choose a suitable candidate to inhabit and leave its host after death, did you ever notice the Demon King's Power showing signs of conscious movement?"

"As it so happens, yes," Andusia said, giving Alice the answer she had wanted to hear all this time. "I would sometimes feel the Demon King's Power growing restless within me. It is especially noticeable when I come across the Hero. It's as if it is encouraging me to fight the Hero."

"How did you react, then?" Alice curiously asked.

"I didn't think much about it back then. If not for your questions today, I would have never thought those restless reactions were a manifestation of the Demon King's Power's consciousness," Andusia said, giving Alice a grumpy glare. "I didn't exactly get along well with the Hero of the time, either. So, even without the Demon King's Power encouraging me, I would still choose to fight that Hero."

Search hosted.novel for the original.

After saying so, Andusia added:

"Of course, I actually found the Hero of that time quite pitiful. She probably never realized how repulsive the humans she was trying to protect were. The kings of that era hid all of humanity's dark sides from her and treated her no more than a sharp blade for their personal use."

"That's how politics has always worked. But things have become a lot better than your era," Alice said with a helpless smile.

Human society in Andusia's era was still rather dark and barbaric. So, it wasn't strange that the human kings of that time would take advantage of the Hero like Andusia mentioned. While Alice couldn't say for certain that every human king in this era was a good ruler, they were still significantly better than the human kings of Andusia's era. At the very least, none of them thought of abusing Alice.

Luna was a Half-Demon King-level mind magician. If any of the human kings had harbored bad thoughts toward Alice during the Conference of Kings, Luna could have unmasked them immediately. However, seeing as Luna didn't notice anything, it meant that none of the human kings harbored any ill intentions toward Alice.

"Anyway, now that you've mentioned it, I'm starting to recall quite a few instances where the Demon King's Power has shown conscious movement. One of these instances, in particular, was quite strange," Andusia suddenly said. "You know about the Gryffin Forest located on the Gryffin Kingdom's border, right?"

More than just knowing about it, that was my starting point after I transmigrated here, Alice mentally retorted before nodding to Andusia's question.

"I once passed by that place and felt the Demon King's Power stirring within me," Andusia said while rummaging through her memories. "It felt as ifthe Demon King's Power was being controlled by something. It tried to escape from my body, but I forcibly suppressed it."