Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

24 – My Hero

Just like Lem remembered, I had met him two years before.

The only other person who knows about that is her Majesty. It wasn’t something that I’d want to talk to others about, so I never thought I’d reveal this memory of my foolishness and Lem’s kindness to other people.

There was another reason why I didn’t tell Lem about it.

I was scared of the off-chance that he’d dislike me after remembering it. Even though it was highly unlikely that that would have ever happened, I didn’t want to risk it no matter what.

That’s why I tried to get him to like me first. If I told him about it after we got to know each other well, then I thought he wouldn’t dislike me because of it. It might have been terribly pathetic of me, but no one in the world would want to get disliked by the person they admire.

Previously, I had worked as a vampire in a Dungeon in another town. My Dungeon name was also different.

There are all kinds of reasons why a Demi-Human might become a Monster.

They might think they’re cool, they might look up to Monsters, or they might have the desire to be personally involved in crushing a Hero.

In that sense, they’re similar to Humans that strive to become an Adventurer. The only difference is that Humans look up to Heroes and the enemy they want to defeat is the Demon King.

On the other hand, there are other negative reasons why people might choose to become a Monster.

For example, their Job. Their suitable occupation decided by God.

There aren’t many people like Lem out there who continue to devote everything they have towards reaching their dream even if their Job turned out to be something they didn’t want. It would be more accurate to say that people like that hardly exist.

But there are many people who don’t want to assume the occupation they were given, even if they have the talent for it.

This world is too tough to try and work in an occupation that’s outside of your assigned Job. You might be able to make some small change every day by doing some odd jobs or working behind the scenes, but someone like a Blacksmith could never hope to become a Chef.

It wasn’t that it was impossible, just that no one would recognize you for that.

Turning Dungeons into a form of entertainment was actually a proposal that was brought about because of situations like that.

Even after the world entered a state of peace, people were still being born with combat Jobs all over the place.

No one needed those with combat Jobs in a time of peace. Their talent for violence would have been only used for the sake of survival.

But it would be unreasonable to just leave them off like that.

Those who fight need jobs that involve fighting.

The same goes for Monsters, as well.

After Humans and Demons stopped fighting and discussed with each other how to maintain peace together, they arrived at the solution of the entertainment format known as Dungeon Capturing.

They’d turn dungeons into a show. Fights would entertain and excite the people. Those that won would receive praise.

It was a huge success. To this very day, Dungeon Clear has been one of the most popular forms of entertainment that’s familiar to just about anyone.

Now then, it’s easy to become a monster if you have a combat Job, but the same can’t be said for those that don’t.

It’s a mystery how God determines one’s suitable occupation, but there are even some Dream Demons that are given the position of Prostitute.

There’s no doubt that one’s given Job would truly be their suitable occupation, but not every Dream Demon would want to sell their body for money.

There are those that don’t care whatsoever, but not everyone is like that.

Those kinds of Dream Demons wouldn’t be able to become Chefs or Florists or anything like that.

Even if they made friends with others or fell in love, they’d get misunderstood once their Job was revealed.

That’s why people like that become Monsters.

They’d take on a temporary race name that doesn’t reveal their Job.

My Job is Blood Manipulator.

It’s a Job that only manifests in vampires with abilities involving freely controlling one’s own blood and the blood sucked from others. To be precise, it’s the greatest power a vampire could hope to attain.

But what was I supposed to do with a Job like this?

Being a realist, I became a Monster. There were other professions I would have desired, but there was no chance I would have ever obtained them. In that case, I decided that I’d do as much as I can with professions that were within my power.

I had trained my abilities and I had confidence in myself, after all.

It wouldn’t take me that long to become a Floor Boss, and maybe I’d become a Dungeon Master eventually, too.

I thought that I’d be able to do it.

But reality wasn’t that simple.

Someone more incompetent than me got the position.

They told me it was because Adventurers avoided Dungeons with women since viewers don’t like seeing women get hurt.

Oh, so my gender’s the problem.

Viewers didn’t want to see people fighting to the fullest of their abilities, they just wanted to see an entertaining battle. That was understandable.

But I was sad, and I was frustrated.

Even so, I continued to work hard. Manipulating blood was flashy. I trained my bats to mix the blood they sucked with my own, and I grew capable of even more sophisticated methods of manipulating blood. Since everything was made up of magic within the dungeons, things that I’d have difficulty doing in real life became easier to do.

One day, I was invited to dinner with the Floor Boss that was my superior.

I thought he might have recognized my ability at work and was about to talk about giving me a new position.

I was wrong.

Under a pretense of sympathy, he said he would improve my treatment at work if I offered my body to him.

Under a fit of rage, I splashed water onto his face, which ultimately led to my stationing to be changed the next day to a dead-end in the maze of my assigned Stratum.

I didn’t have much chance of changing jobs. Unless you were at least a Floor Boss, you’d need a letter of recommendation to get transferred anywhere else.

As a woman with no achievements who had touched upon the anger of a Floor Boss, I had no future.

I’d continue to get paid the minimum salary needed for survival in this maze’s dead-end and eventually lose the sole trait I had going for me, my beauty, as I’d enter my old age as the years passed.

I was hopelessly frustrated.

That was when I happened across Fenix’s party.

Since I was ostracized from my coworkers because of the incident with my superior, I was drinking alone at a bar that wasn’t part of a Monster-catering area.

I had no idea why they weren’t drinking at an Adventurer bar. I’m sure there wasn’t any particular reason to it, anyway.

After drinking to the point where my vision got shaky, I got annoyed from looking at a certain boy.

Lem. The Black Sorcerer Lem.

I knew him. He was someone who got into a party belonging to the top 30 just because he was best friends with the Flame Hero.

In the end, that’s how the world works.

You’re well off as long as you’re on good terms with those with power.

Those that can’t kiss up are doomed to sink towards the lowest depths and die without anyone ever looking at them.

It just wasn’t fair.

It’s not fair to be at a disadvantage by fighting by yourself.

That’s how I felt about him before I knew anything about him.

On my way out, I spoke to him.

「Sure must be nice to be childhood friends with a Hero… Even a Black Sorcerer like you can reach the top 30 that way.」

The boy was surprised at me suddenly acting rude towards him, but he didn’t get mad.

「You don’t seem to be walking very steadily, are you all right? Do you have an escort?」

Rather, he was even worried about me.

I felt pathetic and simply exited the bar ignoring him.

It was true that I had drank too much.

I was swaying left and right. My head hurt, and my body felt weak.

…I’ve never got this drunk before.

「Hey, miss, you all right?」

I heard the frivolous voice of a young man calling out to me.

It sounded somewhat familiar, turning out to be a man that was in the bar. He had followed me.

「Thanks for worrying about me, but I’m fine.」

「You sure don’t look fine. You should rest for a bit first.」

His eyes turned to my face, then to my chest, and back to my face. It was unpleasant.

「You’re being annoying.」

「C’mon, don’t be like that.」

The very next moment, someone had grabbed me from behind.

He held down my mouth and dragged me to a dimly lit alleyway.

「All right! Be a good girl and don’t you dare bite~ I’ll smack if you if you do anything dumb.」

I didn’t have any strength in my body to fight back.

「Whoa, we really hit the jackpot.」

The young man that had called out to me spoke.

「Hey, why am I always on lookout duty?!」

Along with the man that had attacked me from behind, there was one more person.

There were three of them in total.

They were probably after me ever since I was in the bar.

「You can’t move, right? A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be going off to the bathroom in a bar while they’re alone, you know?」

So they put something in my drink.

This was the worst. I was frustrated, sad, annoyed, and ultimately scared.

I’d win if I could fight, but thanks to what they put in my drink, my body couldn’t move properly.

Knowing that I couldn’t fight back, the man who had captured me started groping my body from behind.

And then he ripped open the clothes over my chest.

「Whoa, they’re huge!」

The stench of alcohol accompanied his vulgar voice.

「I’m definitely gonna have fun with these.」

The man who thought of women as nothing but objects licked his lips disgustingly.

Why was the world like this?

In the end, not a single good thing ever happened to me. Nothing good came from trying my hardest. The only things people were interested in me were my traits as a woman.

I felt empty.

I at least tried to make this as less entertaining as possible for the men by holding my voice down. Even if I cried and begged for mercy, that would only turn them on even more.

「Hyah!」

The man with the frivolous voice went flying.

It was because the man on lookout had jumped forward and slammed his fist into his face.

「Huh?」

The man that was grabbing onto me made a surprised voice. He probably had no idea what was going on.

It was strange how the rapist and I were sharing the same feelings for a second.

「Why, do you, always, put me, on lookout duty?!」

「Wait, hold on, stop!」

His punches lacked restraint because he was drunk as he pounded on the frivolous man.

A-Are they having a falling out?

The strange occurrences continued.

「W-What the?! I can’t see anything! H-Hey, you guys!」

The man who had grabbed me a clearly confused look on his face.

He pushed me away and grabbed at his face.

「T-This is disgusting…! What the heck is this…?!」

He broke out in anguish.

「Sorry I took so long coming after you.」

Someone had caught me after I was pushed away.

I couldn’t tell who he was other than that he was a boy with a small frame.

「…How awful. Here, wear this. It’ll be all right now.」

The small-framed boy took off what he was wearing and put it over me.

It was… the robe of a Black Sorcerer.

「What?! Who’s there?! What the hell did you do to me- Gueh!」

「Taste my rage! Lookout duty is something that we’re supposed to be taking turns doing! Understand- Gahah!」

「Stop! Please! I’m sorry! C’mon, seriously- Gyah!」

The man who had captured me, the man on lookout, and the frivolous man received a strike to the jaw, a spin kick to the side of the head, and a stomp to the face by the small-framed boy and fell unconscious.

「It’s over. Can you stand?」

The small-framed boy extended his hand to me.

「W-Why…」

「Excuse me?」

「Why did you save me? I… said those awful things to you…」

「Huh? How’d you figure out who I- Oh, the clothes.」

Even though I was put into Confusion, I was still able to tell that he was the Black Sorcerer Lem. I was only able to figure it out because of the association with his clothes, but it felt weird to still only see him as a “small-framed boy” rather than Lem.

「Well, I was worried about you since you seemed really drunk, but I didn’t plan on coming after you. But when I saw those three men leave the bar, I couldn’t help but notice their smiles…」

I could imagine. They were probably unable to hide the vulgar expectations of what they were about to do from showing up on their face.

「That’s not a good enough reason.」

「You think so? I wouldn’t be able to leave someone alone like that.」

He must have undone his magic, as I was able to recognize him as Lem now.

He was making a very mysterious face.

He was willing to chase after a vampire that acted rudely towards him just because he thought that I might get attacked.

On that day, I met a true hero.