The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Millinia
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 001 – King of the Sword
— Year 100 SS Era.
It had been 100 years since the second generation of the protagonist race, the dragon race, were exterminated. The newly created third generation of the protagonist race, humanity, had been created. Their ecology had also been established.
At first, human settlements merely consisted of dozens of people each. Men went out to hunt everyday, while women were responsible for other chores and child rearing. Obviously, if there was nothing else going on, life would have been tough enough with these challenges alone. However, it was hard to maintain this way of life due to things like turf wars with other settlements and other various circumstances. However, above all of these things, the existence of demons held the greatest threat.
— The Maou.
They were the king of all demons, and the absolute ruler of this world. Along with them were majins, the maou’s subordinates, who were granted the blood of the maou and possessed a great power. With their lead, demons functioned like an army and became a threat against humanity as a whole.
When demons would come across any humans, they would attack. Men would be mercilessly killed, while the women would be brutally raped. This was the predilection of the world that hadn’t changed since the birth of mankind.
However, humans didn’t silently wait for their doom. They banded together with fellow human settlements and gathered to become larger settlements.
In the beginning, turf wars for hunting grounds made it hard to form good relations with one another. However, the threat of demons forced them to put their feelings aside and unify. It was impossible for a common man to fight a demon one-on-one. If it was two on one, maybe they could put up a good fight. However, it wasn’t until the fight reached five on one, where victory became a possibility. With that being the case, if the fight included ten or more humans against a single demon, it was possible for an overwhelming victory.
And with that, humans created large settlements. From then it grew into villages, which turned into towns, and once they became big enough to be called countries, there would be kings — chosen from the strongest amongst the settlement — that stood on top of them. There were various kings, such as the King of the Night — a demi-human who led a kalar settlement as their leader, wielding powerful magic, and held peerless power during nighttime. Another was the King of the Beast — one who commanded dozens of creatures called mushi, where rumors regarding their bravery could be heard even from distant villages.
Among these kings, there was a king who led a certain settlement. It was a king who had swung his sword since his childhood, and slaughtered many demons.
This king was known as the King of Sword, this man’s name was —
“King! Is the King present?!”
Hurried footsteps echoed in the stone corridor. There was no composure on the expression of the man who ran about searching for his king, and he was desperate enough to not care about the sweat that flowed about as he ran.
On his way, he questioned soldiers and female servants about his whereabouts; he seemed to be in the king’s private room. As he learned that, he hurriedly headed to said place.
Eventually, the man reached the front of the room a few minutes later.
“King! Please excuse me!”
After calling out once, he opened the door.
What lies beyond there was…
“Here you go, Ah~n!”
“Ah~n!”
“Yahn! Leonhart-sama, please don’t touch a weird place~”
“Hehehe, isn’t it okay? … Oh, didn’t it get a little bigger?”
“Leon-sama, no ecchi!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
…A scene where the King played around with female servants was unfolding.
“Wha-wha-wha-what are you doing, king?!”
The voice of the soldier echoed.
As if he finally noticed the soldier due to that loud voice, the man, who was also the king of this settlement, laid his head on the lap of one of the female servants while still eating a fruit given by another female servant — Leonhart merely turned his face toward him.
“…hn. Aah… hmn! …What is it?”
“No, Leonhart-sama? There was no dignity there despite you trying to make yourself sound commanding, you know?”
Although he must have heard the female servant’s retort, he merely looked toward the soldier quietly.
During this moment, the soldier had his image of his king crushed and was stunned, but he quickly remembered his duty and began to report.
“King Leonhart! It’s the Demon Army! Demon Army is invading!”
“Hm… well then, time to go.”
Leonhart immediately stood and picked up the decorated sword that was leaning against the wall of the room.
“So, where did they attack from? Was it north, as expected? Or was it west?”
“Ha… Hah! As you had said, the monster had a large-scale invasion from the direction of north-west. The King is to go toward battlefield and cut down enemy leader was requested from elders —“
“Ah, I see. For now, you should go ahead and go back. I’ll head out right away!”
“I understand! We will be waiting for you at the battlefield!”
As soon as the soldier heard the order, he bowed and immediately ran back out of the room toward the battlefield. Naturally, he didn’t notice Leonhart’s big sigh as he saw him go.
After the soldier had left, I sent away the female servants and held my head in my hands once I was alone.
… Screw all of this.
Those words that were held before, began spewing out from my mouth, and I struggled to swallow them back.
I, Leonhart, cursed my own destiny. All of this was due to the special circumstances of my birth.
It was the so-called, having memories of a past life. Well, they weren’t that clear though — it was more of knowledge than anything. I was once a simple guy who lived my life normally in that world until I reached the end of my life there. I remembered that much.
If it was just that though, there wouldn’t be any problem. How I wished that was all I had. It would spare me from knowing the knowledge I wished I’d never have known.
If you were wondering what the problem with that was, then I would tell you that I was a human who lived a life in another world, and this world was depicted there. This world was something I came to know about from my past life.
In conclusion, it was complicated and difficult to explain. If I were to tell others about it, I would only be branded as a madman… Nah, I guess it was not that different compared to my past life.
In the previous world, civilization had advanced greatly compared to this world. There were many things that didn’t exist in this world, like TVs, telephones, cars, refrigerators … there were too many to list them all.
Within those, there were things called games. It was something I was unable to explain. No, maybe I could, but I didn’t want to. It would drive me crazy after all.
Simply said, it was a form of entertainment, and ran on a precise machine called a computer that was made out of metals and many other components. Yep, this made it more confusing instead.
Well, that part was not very important. What was important was, within that entertainment called games, there was one which projected this world; I owned many of such games, and I used to play them all the time.
The said game was called “Rance.” There existed several works of it, and all of them grouped were referred to as the “Rance Series,” which depicted the adventures of certain male adventurers. Simply put, that was what it was.
And compared to that world of Rance, this world was way too similar to it.
Well, it was a so-called fantasy world by my previous life standards. While there were many stories with that setting, the reason why I could tell that this world was a “Rance world” was due to many peculiarities that this world possessed.
The concepts of LV, Talent limit, Skill LV, demons like Hanny and Puryo, and several other things that existed in this world matched perfectly with what remained in my mind, which only further convinced me this world was the same world in the Rance series, the world of Ludo-Rathowm.
With all those lined up, if I were to say it in the way of my old world:
I had reincarnated in another world of Rance World! Tehepero!1
— DON’T SCREW WITH MEEEEE!!
Every time I was reminded of that, I couldn’t help but be furious and mourn while cursing my own destiny. And I was already pissed when I remembered being a useless person in my past life to begin with…
With all those facts lined up, I was indeed reincarnated, but I didn’t want to admit it. I really didn’t want to.
Because the “me” in my past life was not the “me” of the present. It might be hard to explain, basically “I’m aware that the past-life me is also myself.” But, that also means “it was me, but not the same me.”
Well, it was hard, all these monologues — nah, it was already at this point, I guess. Anyway, just listen.
The moment I was born in this world, I already had an ambiguous consciousness and was aware of my surroundings since I possessed my past life’s knowledge, experience, and memories after all. But, think about it deeper. When I was born, I was obviously a baby. It was an obvious thing to happen as a human, and because I was a baby I didn’t understand what those memories were.
I wasn’t a neuroscientist, but I was wondering if my knowledge and memories just happened to be unable to catch up with my brain at the time. Even with memories and knowledge, since the brain was that of the baby it was unable to be utilized properly. Maybe those memories haven’t been established perfectly yet.
Maybe I was wrong. As I mentioned, I’m not familiar with neuroscience after all.
But the important fact was I was born in a state of having an ambiguous state of self.
People who are smarter than my past-life self should have understood—and may have expected it—but I gradually established my sense of self as time passed.
When I was about a half year old, I already had a clear consciousness of this world, and was able to recognize things. That was a tree. This was a stone. It was raining. I managed to understand those as my past-life knowledge got mixed in.
At the same time, I was aware of my past self. And from here out was the important part.
As short as it was, I was born and raised as a baby in this world. There was nothing that related to my past life. It was all but a new life. It was my new sense of self that had been established without any intervention of my past self.
It has been said that if your environment as a baby didn’t seem different, it was because your sense of self was still ambiguous and hazy, so I agreed on that part.
But, the consciousness that identified me as myself alone didn’t get skewed. While I do have memories of my past self, it was like the hypothetical version of myself.
In fact, as I became more aware of the differences of the environment and the differences of my body specs compared to my past life, they became strong enough for me to declare them as myself the older I became. You see, it’s been said that even if there are twins or an exact clone of someone, they could become a different person if they were raised in a different environment, right? The idea of nature vs nurture, it was something like that.
So the feeling was like “I became what I was in my past life due to that kind of environment.”
And so, I was my own person, but I was still dragged through the bitterness of my past life.
Well then, sorry if I talked for long. I might never speak about these kinds of things ever again, so give me a break about that. Just like what I talked about earlier, I don’t want to remember how I was in my past life in the first place.
Now, back to the initial question. Why did I feel agony in the current situation?
It was because of the existence of the greatest beings above ground in the Ludo-Rathowm world—maou and majin.
Because I was born as a human whose role was to suffer by them, and the fact I was the King of this settlement — known as the King of Sword.
This current world was one where the strongest rules, it was a world that abided by the law of the jungle.
Humans were under threat of demons, and had to cooperate to repel said demons. It was only natural for a strong person to lead them. When I was a child, I desperately swung my sword around in self-defense. I had no choice if I wanted to become strong. Fortunately, it seemed I did have the talent for it. As I kept fighting, the number of people stronger than I dwindled.
And I fought demons day after day. Eventually, the King of this settlement was slain by a demon. Then I was named to be the next king of the settlement by the elders soon after. The elders consist of retired kings and people who had strong abilities that were not involved in fighting power. They possessed considerable political power — so nobody could go against their words.
Rather, since the management and decision making of the settlement was done by the elders, they were the ones who held the most political power.
The role of the king was solely to fight on the frontlines. Even I was unable to go against the elders. Anyone who did would only end up ostracized.
I wasn’t exaggerating when I say I was treated like a monster by people who weren’t soldiers. I was treated like a tumor since I was too strong. Even those female servants who seemed to like me were all just acting — since I could provide them with a better life. And I did what I liked despite knowing that. I was still a man after all, so I would have stress piled up if I didn’t use my rights as king during times like that. It was better to eat the food that was already being served, after all.
Going back to the topic. Even if I did kill those elders and purged them, there was no way people in the settlements would honestly follow me. They might obey me out of fear, but if I did rule out of terror it would only make more work for me and there was nothing fun about that.
But it was also reckless to keep on fighting.
If all I needed to worry about was fighting the Demon Army, then that’s one thing. I was confident with my sword skill, and I won’t lose … I think. I was able to come out winning all this time, after all.
But if I kept fighting, the majin and Maou would eventually come. If that happened, only death awaited me.
Maybe I could win against a majin, but … I didn’t know how strong they were since I had never fought one before. Since there was no invincibility field yet in this Era, I might have a chance.
But the Maou was out of the question. There was no way to win. It was like a horror game type of enemy that was not supposed to be fought.
It was an enigma that no one who walked upon earth was supposed to be able to win against. It was that kind of absurd existence. This world’s supposed protagonist, Rance, somehow managed to win against Maou, but since I didn’t see either of them myself I have been unable to make the comparison. Also since it was supposed to happen in the far future, I was unable to say for certain.
Anyway, it was an existence that was supposed to be avoided to survive in this world.
Then what should I do? Refuse to fight and escape? I actually wanted to escape with some women and lead a fun, retired life with them. But leaving people at settlement aside, I wished to avoid abandoning the soldiers who had followed me all this time. Should I also bring them along?
I guess that was impossible. Those soldiers had families they loved. It was obvious they would choose their family above their fellow comrade in arms.
I gazed at my silvery blade in my hand. I guess I had to go soon.
While I was also unable to reach an answer today, I left for the battlefield.
T/N:
[Supplementary Information]
Hello and welcome to the Rance series fanfic!
People who know the series, welcome! Those who don’t know are also welcome!
Well then, this series has deep lore. First-timers of the series might be confused about what’s what, so I will make supplementary explanations for each term that seems foreign by common words. I won’t explain titles (as they would eventually be explained in the plot anyway), but I will try to explain everything else that doesn’t get touched in the major part of the plot.
Let’s start from the top.
SS2: Rance world calendars were based on the reigning Maou’s name, since they were technically the ruler of the world, though how they reigned depended on their respective personality.
Protagonist Race: as stated above, Humans were the third protagonist race, succeeding the second protagonist race, the Dragon. Protagonist race refers to the main species that is designated to be the focus of the story, with the first generation of the protagonist race being so weak that they were eliminated by the Maou, while The second was exterminated since there was no movement after their generation of the Maou were defeated. Unlike their predecessor, since LV God/LV shop is active, they needed their services to reach LV up.
Demons: every species that are neither the protagonist race, remnants of past protagonist races, and demi-humans such as Kalar, Angels, Gods, Devils, or Mushi were all considered demons. They were also the main source of experience for the protagonist race to get themselves stronger.
Maou: as stated above, the absolute king of all demons and de facto ruler of the continent. Every member of the demon army, from Majin down to lowest mook, had to obey whatever the Maou commanded. This allowed all species of demon, regardless of actual species, the ability to unite as one due to the Maou being a deterrent. The word was localized as Archfiend in English, which I won’t use.
Majin: any being that had been granted or somehow managed to get the Maou’s blood source became a Majin. They were granted enhanced power, their lifespan was removed, and their social status was uplifted to be directly below a Maou — which compels demons to obey them (though not absolute). Their strength varies, some were absurdly strong while some just little stronger than common mook. Also, being Majin and Maou, they didn’t need LV God/LV Shop service to LV up, and could automatically do so once the required Experience is reached. The word was localized as Dark Lord in English, which for me personally, would only cause confusion between Maou and Majin, so I won’t use it.
Kalar: how the Elves are called in this world. In meta terms, the creator was tired of the common fantasy elf, so they tweaked it into something like this: all of them were female with light blue hair and iris, tend to proficient in either or both magic/curses and Archery, and they have a crystal on their forehead they born with — which was red when they were a virgin and became blue when they lost their virginity. The crystal is stuck in their forehead when red, and could only be removed when it was blue (in which case, they would die). They have a relatively short childhood, and quickly grow from baby into child within a year, in which they would grow normally (supposedly) until they reach the age of adulthood. At that time, their growth will cease until the end of their lifespan (if they didn’t die before). The end of their lifespan was called the “time of change,” which is the time where their karma would be weighed and would either turn them into an angel if they was good, or become devil if they was bad. Once they turned, they would lose the memories of their lifetime (most of the time) and adapt their new life with their new identity.
Kalar example: https://i.ibb.co/r04NMR7/Aegis.png (The model is Aegis Kalar)
Mushi: refers to creatures that don’t possess a soul. Some would categorize them as demons, but due to their lack of a soul, they basically only live on basic instincts like animals instead. Mushi users could interact with them to make them act to help them; some of the mushis could be domesticated like a common animal.
Rance: Protagonist of Rance series. His actions were solely driven by his lust toward women. But over the course of the game, all his actions somehow managed to make the world a better place and save various nations from their crisis—earning favor from the ruler and/or princess of said nations (which tend to be raped prior they open their heart for him over the course of plot). By those favors, he managed to unite all nations into a single front to fight against demons in the 2nd Majin War and become leader of that coalition.
Rance image: https://i.ibb.co/tbV6VrP/Rance-X-Portrait.png (His model on Rance X: part 1)
Hanny: a species of demons in the form of a mud/ceramic doll with 3 holes for eyes and mouth. It had no legs and its arm was just an extra bump on the arm side. They had their own civilization and businesses, like Amazun. They all possess absolute immunity against magic, absolute accurate and unblockable signature moves called Hanny Flash, and have a weird fetish like glasses girl. They were reigned by the Hanny King (which about as strong as the Maou (if you consider compatibility), as unbelievable as it sounds) instead of the Maou, so they have no obligations to obey the Maou, unlike other species of demon did (at least those in vicinity of Hanny king were not, but there were many Hanny in the demon army too).
Example of Hanny : https://i.ibb.co/WygsWwP/Hanny-face.png[Common Hanny]
https://i.ibb.co/Pgc1GBG/Hanny-King-X.png [Hanny King]
Puryo: weird and curious creatures with strange biological anatomy. Has a slimy and soft body with viscous physical structure. Think of a common fantasy slime that happens to have a fang like horn attached to its cheek area, which is used to attack.
Puryo Image: https://i.ibb.co/pKnf6CR/Puryo-face.png
LV: level, common fantasy setting, but there were no specific stats explained. It’s only known that the more levels you have the stronger you are. It grows by asking the LV shop/ LV God to LV you up once you have enough Experience (which you could ask a specific amount(if you interested) to the LV God. The LV of a person would continue to rise if they actively tried to LV, and would get reduced if they were lazy.
Talent Limit: LV limit, the maximum amount of LV an individual could achieve. The amount was set the moment they were born, and there are very few known methods to raise the Talent Limit of a person. Either use specific item, or sex with Rance.
Skill LV: people were born with a set of skills, which dictate what they could or unable to do. Humans (with the exception of Pope) have no way to know what talent they were born with, so they were encouraged to try many things to find out what they were capable of. Overall, skills were divided by 4 levels.
LV 0: just capable of said things
LV 1: Normal skill level. Don’t look down on this level since most professionals of said field mostly were on this level.
LV 2: Genius level of skill. Most of the best skill users of said generation tend to be on this LV of skill. Even series protagonist Rance only had this LV for his sword combat.
LV 3: Legendary being. Only a few individuals ever possessed this LV of skill over the course of world history.
Overall, the LV of skill would never change until said individual breathed their last breath, except if they got uplifted as a species of some sort due to some method, or due to a specific curse so said skill unusable or weaker.
Also, the Skill LV basically affects people’s speed of learning things related to said subject, and the upper limit of what they could do regarding said thing. With that said, having a high level doesn’t guarantee they would definitely master said skill; if they were too lazy, their skill might drop to the level where they couldn’t even execute it properly anymore.
Ludo-Rathowm: the creator god of Rance World. It had the form of a gigantic, shining white whale
Ludo’s image : https://i.ibb.co/pPYvHGn/Ludo-Rathowm-sprite-Rance-X.png
Finally, I would prefer it if the readers would ask about things they don’t know regarding the Rance world over in the comments instead of actually searching it online; it would be very likely that you will get spoiled about what will happen next. Those who are aware of the settings may also answer the comments, but please refrain from answering things that might spoil them in the long run. Let other people enjoy their journey.
Wow, interesting chapter and novel. Good work on that extra info as well. Is the MC someone who will loose his head in front of women? He seems level headed so far and I hope it continues that way.
he not really lose head in front of woman, per se(except for the main heroine, though the situation really force him to, if you put yourself on his shoes)
Alright cool, sounds good for me. I don’t prefer MC’s who don’t think logically. Thank you for your work!
likewise, thank you for your comment