NOVPUB
Chapter 249
Suho was stunned.
“Holy sh*t.”
Three times the experience points?
The reward was beyond anything he had imagined. The sheer magnitude left him lightheaded.
“Esil,” Suho said, resting a hand on her shoulder. His gaze burned with intensity as they locked eyes. “Congratulations on becoming the King of Demons. Remember, we’ll always stand together.”
“My lord...!”
The sincerity of Suho’s words resonated deeply with Esil. Her eyes shimmered with tears as she was overwhelmed by gratitude.
From her perspective, this was a natural feeling. She was a failure, having already been disqualified for succession once before. Her unworthy desire to claim the throne had been an act of arrogance, and the cost of that hubris would have been her soul, swallowed by Nidhogg and lost to the primordial darkness.
But Suho had appeared out of nowhere and changed everything. He had seized the soul of a failed, sinful demon by the scruff of her neck and seated her on the throne!
Esil stood up with fiery resolve, her fists clenched and tears streaming down her face.
“My lord! I promise to serve you well!”
Beru, Suho’s longest-serving soldier, popped out beside him and screeched at her.
“Kieeek! You insolent creature! You are only saying this now? Does this mean you’ve been offering subpar services until present?”
However, Esil was absorbed in the mindset of a rookie soldier, eager to prove herself.
“No, sir! I will do even better!”
“I can’t hear you!” Beru shrieked.
“I promise to do even better!”
“That’s not loud enough!”
The two yelled at each other, the veins standing out on their necks as they hollered about loyalty.
Having evolved into the King of Demons, Esil now had a far more majestic and elegant appearance. But at heart, she was more humble and loyal than ever. Suho was her savior, the one who had rescued her soul from oblivion and the lord she would serve for the rest of her life.
“Louder!” Beru shouted.
“I swear to be loyal to you, my lord! If you will it, I shall offer you my body, my mind, and even my soul! Everything I have, I will dedicate to—”
“Great. Let’s draw some blood,” Suho cut in.
“Eh?” Esil said, taken aback.
“Your blood.”
Suho was grinning at her, having gladly accepted her offer.
“I need a donor.”
This was what he had been waiting for.
The Purified Blood of the Demon King was one of the three ingredients of the Life-Giving Elixir. Now that Esil was King of Demons, Suho had an unlimited supply—if “unlimited” was the right way to put it—that he could draw from at any time.
Of course, he knew full well the importance of blood to demonkind. But if Esil had a conscience, she would do as he said.
Though Suho hadn’t mentioned it so far, a significant portion of his earnings as a hunter had gone toward Esil’s meals—or rather, her meat. Perhaps that was why she was now called the Monarch of Gluttony. If one compared the number of World Tree leaves she had consumed to the amount of meat she had devoured in her quest to regain her strength, the meat would win by a landslide.
There was a reason the butcher in Suho’s neighborhood had been able to buy the whole building. He had made as much money as a hunter without even becoming one, and he had done it while giving Suho wholesale prices since he was a regular—which said a lot.
Maybe she should be called the Meat-Hungry Monarch, not the Monarch of Gluttony, Suho thought sincerely.
Still, all was well that ended well. All of it proved to be an investment that paid off in the current moment. The cost of the meat was nothing compared to the value of the Life-Giving Elixir.
“O-of course! If you want my blood, you may have it!” Esil replied, a firm look in her eyes. It was the first command Suho had given her.
“Purify it first, please,” Suho said.
“Yes, my lord!”
[Esil Radiru used the skill: “Blood Ties.”]
Thankfully, there was no need to go to the trouble of finding a syringe. A blood orb the size of a fist floated above Esil’s palm.
Demon blood was black, but Esil had purified hers to such an extent that it rippled with a red color. It even smelled more fragrant than pungent.
The demons trembled and cheered at the marvelous sight.
“Refined lifeblood!”
“I don’t believe it!”
“She is the King of Demons, all right!”
“All hail the king!”
Nobles could produce bloodstones, but the result of Blood Ties—refined lifeblood—was an enhanced version. Only the King of Demons could purify demon blood to such an extent.
While refined lifeblood had many uses, Esil focused solely on producing the pure blood that Suho needed.
He immediately purchased a transparent glass bottle from the shop and popped off the cork. The blood flew into the air and was sucked into the bottle.
Ding!
[Item: “Purified Blood of the Demon King” has been acquired.]
[Ingredient item: Purified Blood of the Demon King]
[Acquisition Difficulty: ??
Type: Ingredient
A liquid created by purifying the blood of Esil Radiru, the King of Demons.
It contains powerful mana, but remains poisonous even after purification. In order for it to be used for medicinal purposes, Echo Forest Spring Water and a Fragment of the World Tree are required to neutralize the poison.]
“So this is the blood of the King of Demons...”
Suho smiled in satisfaction.
The red liquid swished in the transparent glass bottle as he tilted it. It almost looked like some expensive perfume, but this was incomparably more valuable.
[Life-Giving Elixir]
[Ingredients:
Purified Blood of the Demon King (1/1)
Fragment of the World Tree (0/1)
Echo Forest Spring Water (1/1)]
“Kieeek! Only one ingredient remains! Once you obtain the Fragment of the World Tree, you will be able to craft the Life-Giving Elixir!” Beru cried.
“Tsk. What a pity. I should’ve brought a branch back with me somehow,” Suho responded.
Beru tilted his head in confusion, and despite the triumphant moment, Suho clicked his tongue in frustration.
The thought of all the fallen branches that Nidhogg had thrashed loose kept nagging at him, but collecting them simply had not been an option at the time. With six gigantic snake heads snapping at him from all directions, just gathering the leaves had been challenging enough.
Still, he knew better than to dwell on it. Even if he had managed to retrieve the branches, it was unlikely he could have brought them back. After all, it was only his mind that had crossed into the Sea of the Afterlife courtesy of the “Unknown” skill.
It was the same when he returned from fighting Querehsha. Not a single fragment of those swarming insects was left on his clothes when he returned.
Suho consoled himself with that thought. It was too early to give up, however.
“My lord, do you have any more orders for me?” Esil asked.
“Now that’s more like it!” Beru said, finally giving genuine praise.
Despite having just handed over the refined lifeblood, Esil’s eyes still burned with a sense of duty.
Seeing her gave Suho an idea. His eyes sparkled.
“Esil... Do you think you can go there again?”
“You mean... the World Tree?”
Esil frowned, trying to recall how she had encountered it. The tree had been glowing on its own in the dark. Its image was so overwhelming that she struggled to remember the surroundings.
“Perhaps... Perhaps I can,” she responded.
“Really?”
“Yes. I can still sense the taste of the tree.”
Her tongue could remember, even if her eyes could not. Such was the power of the Monarch of Gluttony after having eaten so many of the tree’s leaves.
Esil smacked her lips, then pointed confidently to her chest with her thumb. “And the scent flows in my veins as well.”
“No wonder the refined lifeblood smelled so good. So what happens if you let the other demons smell your blood?” Suho asked.
“Well, naturally...”
Before she finished speaking, they shared a knowing smile. They’d reached the same conclusion.
“Every demon in my service will be able to wander the Sea of the Afterlife and track down the World Tree by smell,” Esil said.
Demons were highly sensitive to the scent of blood. Those who got a whiff of the blood of the King of Demons and forgot the scent afterward deserved a fate no worse than death. If Esil’s blood carried the scent of the World Tree, the demons would be able to find it much faster than the shadow soldiers who were still aimlessly wandering the Sea of the Afterlife.
“Demons scouring the Sea of the Afterlife... Sounds like a real hellscape,” Suho remarked.
It was a strangely suitable combination.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
The weeds and Residents of the Rift would relentlessly attack the demons in an effort to take their bodies. The demons gathered here had fended off the Residents of the Rift only moments ago, and the Sea of the Afterlife was the most dangerous place possible for them.
However, every demon present was a warrior who had survived the trial.
“Those who defeated the trial are strong.”
Speaking on behalf of the surviving demons, Esil confidently brushed off Suho’s concerns.
“And they seek to be even stronger.”
At her words, the energy of the surviving demons quietly burned like a rising flame.
“It’s a basic tenet of the demon realm,” she said. “If there is a way to grow stronger, we will pursue it, no matter what it takes.”
Esil now knew the truth firsthand, and she had encountered the leaves of the World Tree.
“I have seen for myself that the legend of Vulcan’s ascent to a demon noble after eating the leaves is true. So we will find them, no matter where they may be!”
It will make us stronger.
That goal alone was more than enough motivation for them. For demons, power meant survival. In addition, most of Esil’s demons were low-ranked.
“For the survival of the demon race, all demons must grow stronger, not only me. So please leave the search for the World Tree to us,” Esil said.
“That settles it, then,” Suho responded.
But since he could not let innocent demons be sacrificed to the weeds, he came up with a strategy.
“The demons will track the scent while the shadow soldiers protect you,” he told Esil.
“That won’t be necessary. We will fight on our own. We can’t entrust our survival to anyone else.”
“It’s a sea. Do you have wings?”
“Oh...”
She had overlooked that important detail. Glancing back at her subjects, she realized there weren’t many winged demons among them. As Suho had indicated, all the shadow soldiers currently wandering the Sea of the Afterlife had wings.
“Then we’ll swim if we have—”
“There’s a better way,” Suho interrupted.
Having visited the Sea of the Afterlife twice now, he already had an idea in mind.
“We’ll build a ship... A warship that even the weeds can’t touch.”
Esil’s eyes widened in surprise.
