Chapter Ninety-Three: A Promise Once Made

[The fusion item, the Star of Legend, has been discovered. Designate a hero unit to use it?]

At the sight of the system message before him, Jann did not move at once. Instead, he lifted his head and looked ahead.

Enoya stood quietly in front of him.

Her hands were folded before her, graceful and serene as always. Even her smile was unchanged from the one in Jann’s memory.

Noticing his gaze, Enoya tilted her head ever so slightly in mild puzzlement, but she said nothing. She knew full well that if Jann needed her to know anything, he would tell her.

Just the same as back then...

Looking at her, Jann suddenly lost himself in reverie.

In a blur, he seemed to have returned to the moment when he had first summoned Enoya. Back then, Jann had only just been reborn into a demon.

Unlike humans, demons reproduced by very different means. In particular, beings of the Demon Lord’s rank, if they had children, would have the child’s soul automatically condense into an egg-like vessel, which would absorb magic and nourishment before hatching once it had grown to a certain stage. Jann himself had been reborn into the Continent of Klein in just such a way.

At first, Jann had been terrified of his fate. Before his rebirth, he had only been a hacker, living in an age of peace. Things like murder and arson had existed only in movies. Yet after he was reborn as the son of a Demon Lord, everything he saw was betrayal, slaughter, death, blood, war, and massacre. Evil and suffering, death and fear— all of it struck Jann with overwhelming force.

Fortunately, demons were not fools. Before a lion cast its cub into the abyss as a trial, it would first teach it how to hunt. A Demon Lord would certainly not simply throw his newborn son to the wolves. In truth, Jann was first raised by his elder sister, Lilisia. Once he had grown a little, he was sent to an academy to study, a training ground for the Demon Lord’s children of the same generation. Only after graduation did they officially receive the title of prince. After that, they would truly possess status and power within the Demon Realm.

During that period of study, Jann’s life was at least safe. But he was no ignorant child. With the memories of a former life, he understood perfectly well that if he could not accomplish anything, his eventual fate would be to be cast out and fed to the dogs. The phrase “son of a Demon Lord” sounded lofty enough, but in truth it was perfectly normal for a Demon Lord to have several, even more than a dozen children. There had been ten Demon Lord’s children in Jann’s cohort, but in the end, only Jann managed to walk out alive. As for the others, they had all “gone missing” without anyone noticing.

Jann still remembered that before the final exam, only he and one other girl were left in the entire academy. She was the daughter of the Succubus Queen, a sweet, cheerful girl whose smile was always bright. Among everyone in the academy, she had also been the kindest to Jann. Bound as he was by that useless system, Jann could not gain even a single experience point to level up beyond the growth of his body itself. So the other Demon Lord’s children all treated him like refuse and a cripple. Only that girl was willing to come near him, speak with him, and occasionally help him when she was able. In that hell, only she possessed a kindness and beauty that seemed angelic.

But in the end, only the two of them survived to the last.

The others either vanished under the strain of the cruel, exhausting lessons, or died a natural death— after all, once a knife had been driven into the heart, death came naturally.

At the end, only he and the girl stood before the gate, listening to the final question posed by their instructor. Before that, they had not been subjected to any real test— because studying at the academy itself was already a test.

Then, before the eyes of the two children, the succubus serving as their instructor revealed a vile, icy smile and asked a question that seemed utterly insignificant.

“Where were you last night?”

According to the academy’s rules, once night fell, the Demon Lord’s children were only permitted to remain in their own rooms and were forbidden to go out. Of course, this rule existed primarily to protect their lives, but if they violated it, they would likewise suffer a punishment that could cost them their lives.

“I stayed in my room and read,” the girl said softly, lowering her head. Her expression remained unchanged, as it always had been.

Hearing her answer, the succubus turned to Jann and narrowed her eyes.

“And yours?”

Jann did not speak. Instead, he looked at the girl standing beside him.

Her head was bowed, her face faintly flushed as she looked toward him, like a maiden experiencing her first love gazing at the object of her affection. In those lovely eyes, only his reflection remained.

That drew Jann once more into memory, into that exquisite body that had been endlessly delightful to recall. Soft skin, the breath of a voice as beautiful as an angel’s, and the delicate, pitiable expression the girl wore beneath him at the time. She had sworn she would be his lover forever.

So Jann looked at her, as he looked at everyone else, then opened his mouth and gave the most indifferent answer.

“She stayed with me, in my room.”

Upon hearing this, the succubus broke into an excited grin, greed shining in her eyes.

“Someone among you has lied. She must be punished!”

Jann merely stood there, quietly watching what happened next.

The hellhound that sprang forward bit into the girl’s frail body and, with a violent shake of its head, tore her alive in two. He watched those sharp teeth pierce white, tender flesh and swallow her beautiful, slender legs. Jann knew that, in truth, he should have died there too. Like all those who fell in love with a succubus, he should have drowned in her tenderness, her beauty, her allure, and willingly offered her everything he had— soul and life alike.

Unfortunately, he had no intention of dying.

When Jann finally came to himself again, the girl’s remains had already been devoured clean. All that lingered in his sight were splashes of blood and the succubus’s ugly, nauseating face.

“Congratulations on passing the trial, Your Highness.”

After that, Jann officially obtained the status and authority of a Demon Lord’s son. Of course, as a prince in training, he also bore the responsibility and obligation of raising the younger children born to his father and other women. Just as Lilisia had cared for him, Vivian and Nabelius— his two younger sisters— were raised by Jann and sent into the academy by his hand.

In the end, neither of those two sisters disappointed him. Both graduated at the top of the academy, and both went on to establish formidable powers that even the Demon Realm could not ignore. Having educated two first-place students, Jann finally secured his footing in the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons through that achievement.

And the reward he received for graduating from the academy in those days was Enoya.

At the time, the system had given Jann two choices: construct a summoning crystal, or summon a hero unit. For Jann, who had neither a dungeon nor any way to build one in the Demon Realm, a summoning crystal would have been useless. So he chose to summon a hero unit, and the one summoned was Enoya.

At first, Jann did not trust Enoya. During the years he had lived in the Demon Realm, he had nearly forgotten how to spell the word trust. Among demons, even cooperation was always a matter of interest, never of friendship or love. For that reason, he had tested Enoya many times and given her no small number of impossible tasks. Yet no matter how unreasonable his demands were, Enoya carried them out willingly, never voicing the slightest complaint. Even when Jann ordered her to steal things from the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons, she obeyed without hesitation.

In the end, she won his recognition. The two of them relied on one another and survived together in that cruel Demon Realm, all the way to the present.

For Jann, if there was anyone he could accept stabbing him in the back, it would only be the girl standing before him.

For a demon, that was already the highest form of trust.

“Enoya.”

The memories had receded, but the girl standing before him had not changed in the slightest.

Looking at Enoya, Jann remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.

“Do you still remember the promise I made you back then?”

“Of course, Master.”

At that, Enoya blinked slightly, then smiled and nodded.

“It has been eight years, twenty-five days, and three hours and fifteen minutes since you made that promise to me.”

“Honestly, sometimes I feel you’re no different from a machine. You can remember even the most boring things that well.”

At Enoya’s answer, Jann gave a faint, wry smile. Then he shook his head, his expression turning much more solemn.

“This is a gamble.”

“I know.”

Enoya’s expression remained unchanged, and her smile was calm from the heart.

“There are only two chances. Master, this is not the first time you have told me that.”

“I know. I was only making sure.”

Seeing that answer, Jann said nothing further. Instead, he reached out and lightly tapped the system message before him.

[Merge the Star of Legend. Designate hero unit Enoya Alkunis.]

Almost the instant that message appeared, a pillar of light descended from the heavens and completely enveloped Enoya.