This Isn't Right (1)

I can sum up my reaction to reading the newspaper in one sentence.

Something had gone horribly wrong—very horribly wrong.

I had only written a book to kill time, yet the world had suddenly been thrown into turmoil. This world wasn't scientifically advanced enough to have smartphones, or even radios, so newspapers were the only way to learn what was happening in the world.

Yet this newspaper had devoted its headline to the book I'd written. I couldn't help but feel utterly dumbfounded.

"Hahahaha! I knew there was nothing wrong with my eyes! Well done! My youngest son!"

While I was reading the newspaper with a blank, foolish expression, a hearty laugh came from in front of me.

I lifted my gaze from the newspaper and looked up, my face still vacant.

A mane of red hair that seemed to blaze like flames, a neatly groomed beard, and golden eyes that gleamed like those of a bird of prey.

This middle-aged man, whose manliness was as palpable as that of a battle-hardened hero, was named Hawk Duker Maishal.

He was my father.

"Honestly, dear. I've been telling you all this time that Isaac would make a better scholar than knight."

Beside him, a beautiful woman coyly stroked Hawk's thick arm.

Long navy hair fell to her waist, and her features were small and delicate, like those of a doll. Unusually, her eyes were purple.

By now, everyone had probably figured it out, but the woman who looked no older than her early thirties was my mother, Anna Duker Maishal.

"Our Isaac is amazing too. Everyone says they want to meet you."

My mother smiled elegantly before congratulating me with a happy expression.

'I'm sorry, Mother, but that doesn't help me at all.'

Those words rose to my throat, but I barely managed to swallow them back down. I didn't want to ruin this warm family atmosphere for no reason.

All I could do was smile awkwardly like an idiot.

"...Could you please remain anonymous for as long as possible?"

But surely I needed a final line of defense. I timidly made the request of my parents.

My parents had been the ones who helped me publish my novel anonymously, so perhaps it was possible.

To be honest, I didn't want to get entangled in noisy situations for no reason. The newspapers were already in an uproar, and I couldn't even imagine what things were like outside.

"Well, if that's what you want, I can do it, but won't your identity be exposed before long?"

"Why?"

"Even if your old man is a noble, I'm only a baron. You know, the imperial family is looking for you too, and they're not exactly far away?"

"Ah."

After hearing my father's explanation, I understood. No matter how much of a noble my father was, he was still only a 'baron,' the lowest of the five noble ranks.

On top of that, my father had originally been a commoner knight who became a noble after accomplishing terrifying feats, so it was questionable whether he could even be called a proper noble.

In other words, if the powers above decided to search for me in earnest, we would be helpless.

"Still, don't worry too much. I know what you're worried about. I'll do my best to stop them wherever I can."

Perhaps he had read the anxiety on my face, because my father smiled gently and patted my head. His hand was rough and callused, with a hard, coarse texture, but it put my mind at ease.

"Mom will keep an eye on things at the tea parties as much as she can. Mom doesn't want our Isaac to have a hard time."

"Mother..."

What a warm feeling this was. I gazed at my parents with an expression that clearly showed how moved I was.

That warmth and affection were the very reason I had been able to accept them as my parents.

Soon, my mother gave me a satisfied smile and spoke to me in a gentle voice.

"So, Isaac. May I ask you just one thing?"

"What is it?"

"When is the next volume coming out?"

"... ..."

"Mom is waiting for Lily and Jin to get together."

Give me back that touching moment.

I stared blankly at her beaming face before lowering my head.

I was moved, yes, but there was one fact I simply couldn't bring myself to tell my mother.

'Jin is the final boss, Mother...'

Among the characters in The Chronicle of Xenon, there were two supporting characters who followed a romantic storyline. They were the 'Lily' and 'Jin' my mother had just mentioned.

For reference, Jin was demonkin, while Lily was a cleric—and not just any cleric, but someone revered as the next saint.

If that were all you knew, it might look like a poignant romance, but I was the same person who had been called a professor at Satan University in my previous life.

In the latter half of the story, Jin was going to accept the remnants of the Great Demon in order to eradicate it completely, rising to become the true final boss of the story.

The mentally shaken protagonist would defeat him, and, as a bonus, Jin would desperately call out for Lily in his dying words.

'...I'm so fucked.'

It was fine for my family to read my novel. But hearing them talk about it aloud made my chest tighten.

I wondered whether I should change it to a happy ending even now, but I couldn't, not with all the setups and foreshadowing I had scattered throughout the story.

In any case, there was still time before the ending, so my life would remain intact until then.

"Honey. Isaac will be enrolling in the Academy soon, so don't put too much pressure on him. What if the story starts going in a strange direction?"

"Oh my. Mr. Isaac the author? Have I perhaps committed a faux pas...?"

"Oh, come on!"

In the end, I shouted out in embarrassment, and my parents burst into laughter befitting their personalities. Meanwhile, my face was turning red in real time.

"I'm sorry, dear. Anyway, will you be entering the Academy through Martial Studies rather than Literary Studies?"

My father stopped laughing and asked me. I calmed my excitement and thought about the Academy I would soon be attending.

The Academy—in other words, Halo Academy—was the finest educational institution in the country.

As befitted the nation's finest educational institution, it boasted an astonishing curriculum, but it was basically identical to a university from my previous life.

The only difference was that it was divided into Martial Studies, which focused on physical prowess, and Literary Studies, which focused on intellect.

'Why would I enter Martial Studies?'

Monsters existed in this world, so it was full of creatures that treated even tigers, lions, and elephants as mere 'nothings.' And unlike the protagonists of other novels, I had no talent for martial prowess.

When I was younger, my father had trained me brutally, telling me to become a knight like him, but he eventually gave up because I was so pathetically weak.

"Yes. I prefer Literary Studies to Martial Studies."

"Hmm... I see. But physical training every day is mandatory. Understood?"

"Of course."

I received physical training without fail. It had developed not only my stamina but also my patience.

I had once been unable to sit in front of a computer for even thirty minutes, but now I had the concentration to write for three hours straight. Thanks to that, I was able to publish one book every month.

The callus from writing with a nib had grown quite severe, but it wasn't worth worrying about.

"Do you plan to keep writing even after you go to the Academy?"

This time, my mother asked the question. She seemed worried that I would focus on my studies after entering the Academy.

Normally, it was only natural for a child to focus on their studies, but my mother was more worried about my novel instead.

It was a little absurd, but considering the impact of my novel, it was understandable.

"Well... I have to keep writing. It's not as if I'll have no free time. Still, even if they're shorter, I think I should be able to release one book every month or two."

"That's a shame. Still, focus on your studies. Your older brother and sister will be there, so call them if you need anything."

"Yes."

Halo Academy was a place every noble was required to attend, which was why my older brother and sister were there.

They weren't students, however, and instead worked as teaching assistants. Being a teaching assistant was a sort of position that only a handful of outstanding students could obtain.

And although they were merely called teaching assistants, they were already talents among talents, watched closely by countless knight orders.

"Come to think of it, how strange. Your brother and sister both became knights, while you're an author."

"I must take after you. I was quite good at writing when I was young, you know."

"Shall we have one more child? I'm curious what they'll be like this time."

"Oh my. You really are something, dear. Isaac? Daddy and Mommy are stepping out for a little while, so see you later~"

My parents linked arms affectionately and left my room. I blinked at the situation, as if a storm had just swept through.

...Phew.

All I could do was let out a sigh deep enough to make the earth cave in. I still couldn't quite grasp what had happened.

I had only put my previous life's profession to use and written a story, yet its repercussions were terrifying.

'No writing today.'

Muttering that, I unfolded the newspaper I had neatly folded. The moment I spread it open, I found it packed with news about my work.

Here and there were remarks from several famous figures criticizing it for lowering the quality of literature, but they had been completely buried.

'...Is this really something worthy of such praise?'

The praise was one thing, but I simply couldn't believe that people's treatment of demonkin had changed.

The Great Demon had swallowed the world three thousand years ago, and the history of discrimination against demonkin stretched back well over a thousand years. Yet the idea that all that discrimination had vanished because of a single novel I wrote was impossible to believe.

In fact, it seemed more plausible that my work had been completely buried and my father had worked behind the scenes so I wouldn't become discouraged.

The repercussions were so absurdly immense that I could genuinely imagine something like that happening.

"Phew... I'll just finish it quickly and write something else... Huh?"

I was flipping through the newspaper indifferently when one piece of news suddenly caught my eye.

-Princess Cecily Drat Isilia Vin of Helium has announced that she will be enrolling at Halo Academy... The Minerva Empire has gladly granted its permission.

-Now that the discriminatory view of demonkin has eased due to the influence of The Chronicle of Xenon, for the sake of friendship between the various nations...

... ...

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

******

"Are you really sure about this? Cecily, before I am the king of the demonkin, I am your..."

"It's all right, Dad. I've already made all the preparations."

In a dark space illuminated only by a faint light, a man and a woman were speaking.

Jet-black hair, blood-red eyes that gleamed even in the darkness, and, finally, horns jutting from their heads like a demon's.

They were demonkin.

"This is something I chose. And you know as well as I do that now is the perfect time to establish friendly relations between the other races and the demonkin, don't you, Dad?"

A beautiful woman with ebony hair falling to her waist spoke to the man in front of her.

Her beauty was as elegant and captivating as her alluring voice, and her mature figure was enough to stir the baser desires of many men.

Because of her appearance, she gave off an aura capable of beguiling people's hearts even while standing perfectly still.

"That may be true, but..."

In response to her question, the man in front of her crossed his arms and smiled bitterly.

They didn't seem to be very far apart in age, but demonkin naturally lived longer than humans. Thus, there was nothing strange about demonkin having relatively youthful appearances.

The woman's father, and the man known to the world as the 'Demon King,' Descal Drat Isilia Vin Helium, looked at his daughter and answered.

"It's because I still can't believe it myself. I know that people's views of our kind have changed since that book appeared in the world. But the wounds left by years of conflict don't heal easily."

As Descal had said, discriminatory views toward demonkin had decreased dramatically, but the wounds left by the conflicts of the past remained deep.

There were still demonkin in the world who had become demons, as well as people who had been harmed by them. Even if it hadn't been intentional, the moment someone was harmed, a problem arose.

At that, Cecily—the Demon King's daughter and Helium's one and only princess—smiled and spoke in a gentle voice.

"You read The Chronicle of Xenon too, Dad, didn't you? Do you remember what Sakran said at the end of volume five?"

... ...

Descal did not answer.

That scene had left a deep impression even on the Demon King himself.

At the same time, it had imprinted upon the readers that demonkin were not 'demons,' but 'a race that wanted to prove themselves human.'

There was even an assessment that, in that moment, Sakran—not anyone else—had been the true protagonist.

Meanwhile, when Cecily received no answer from Descal, she spoke first.

"At the final moment, Sakran looked at the people he had protected and asked this: Do not fear becoming a demon for the sake of those precious to you. That is the true courage of humanity, and it is sacrifice. I will die as a human, not a demon. That's what he said."

... ...

"Though it's a fictional story, I don't think it's fiction at all. The author must have received a great kindness from our people in the past. Otherwise, they couldn't have written a story so moving that lays bare our people's suffering."

Cecily spoke with her hands clasped tightly together and an ecstatic expression on her face. She was so moved that she didn't realize what expression she was making.

However, if Isaac were to see her like this, he would think the following.

You got that from a game. Since it was something from my previous life, I wrote it without a second thought, figuring there wouldn't be any plagiarism issue anyway.

Unfortunately, Cecily had no way of knowing that. She was simply mistaken.

Descal looked at Cecily, lost in the wings of her imagination, with a complicated expression before quietly playing along.

"...Besides, Sakran is the leader of the 'Devil Hunter' organization that executes our kin who have undergone demonization. You know this, but even Helium has a secret organization entrusted with the same mission."

In The Chronicle of Xenon, there was a militant organization that executed members of its own kind who had become demons after failing to overcome their desires.

Its name was 'Devil Hunter,' and the setting was that its members possessed far greater power than other demonkin by accepting some of the demons' power.

The problem was that Helium had an organization entrusted with a similar mission.

"You mean the 'Reaper,' right? Of course I know. It's only my guess, but the author probably received kindness from a member of the Reapers."

Cecily nodded and once again sank into her own delusion.

If Isaac were to see this situation, he would say the same thing as before.

That was from a game too. I wrote it with absolutely no meaning or intention behind it.

But as I said before, there was no way they could know Isaac's true feelings, which was simply unfortunate.

"Because of this, people outside are even questioning whether Devil Hunters truly exist. Thanks to that, they've gotten a chance to step into the light."

The fact that demonkin executed their own kind who had turned into demons was enough to show how powerful—and how holy and noble—the Reapers were.

Moreover, every time the Reapers executed a demon who had once been one of their own, they suffered horrifying mental anguish. As a result, far more Reapers took their own lives because they couldn't endure the psychological pain than became demons intoxicated by power.

Because of the unique nature of their mission, they had operated in the shadows, but after the publication of The Chronicle of Xenon, they gained an opportunity to step into the light.

What was more, several high-ranking demonkin who had read the book even suggested that, since things had come this far, they should formally establish the organization. There could hardly have been better news for the Reapers, who willingly embraced their sacred destiny and worked without any compensation.

"Anyway, if that's your will, I won't stop you. But don't assume the author is in the Minerva Empire. Since they published the book anonymously, they're probably a reclusive sage. Even if you happen to meet them, be sure to show proper respect."

"Honestly, Dad. I'm an adult now, you know?"

Cecily waved off Descal's worried words and joked lightly. Even so, Descal couldn't hide his concern.

She was his only daughter, and Cecily was so mischievous that he couldn't help but worry as a father.

What if someone, captivated by her beautiful appearance, reached out with lecherous, lustful hands? That was nothing to worry about either.

Cecily possessed enough power to blow away a mountain with ease. It was no coincidence that she was being discussed as Helium's next Demon King.

"Ah~ I want to meet them soon. Benefactor of our demonkin..."

Cecily clasped her hands together and eagerly looked forward to meeting the author.

Descal shook his head at the sight of his daughter, who was practically suffering from a severe case of infatuation.