A thousand years ago, someone had also come to this barren land

Long before this, a thousand years ago, someone had also come to this barren land... a Demon Lord Territory of hellish difficulty, an aged antique, two notebooks, and a stack of reference books that he had no idea how long it would take to finish...

Those were Leon's entire gains from the principal's office.

Although the official appointment had yet to come through, judging by Professor Ai Wen's tone, there seemed to be little doubt about it.

In other words.

If nothing unexpected happened, he would soon be in for something unexpected.

After thanking the respected principal, Leon left the office carrying a huge pile of things, his face full of misery.

He had thought he had used up all his bad luck for the day and that nothing else could possibly go wrong before it ended. Yet an accident still happened as he went downstairs.

His view blocked by the books, he failed to see where he was going and crashed headlong into Miss Lilith, who had just come out of the teachers' office.

A Diamond-level Succubus being knocked to the floor by a Bronze-level necromancer.

There probably wasn't a colder joke in hell.

"Ow, ow, ow..."

Miss Lilith sat sprawled on the floor. Her crossed black-stockinged legs barely concealed the hem of her tight skirt, and she looked so frail and badly hurt that no one could tell she actually possessed speed and strength no less than Professor Eunos's.

Her silver short hair draped over her slender shoulders, and her rimless glasses had, by sheer coincidence, fallen into her half-open collar. Every detail was textbook-perfect—wait, when had that button on her collar come undone?!

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Still dazed, Leon instinctively apologized first, then nervously gathered the books back into his arms. Afraid of provoking this walking disaster, he did not even dare meet her eyes.

Yet unfortunately, she had clearly come for him. She sprang to her feet, snatched the two books in his arms with her right hand, and pinned him against the wall with her left arm.

"Student Leon, there's no such word as 'sorry' in hell. Do you think one apology is enough to compensate your teacher for her losses? Or do you think this is what you meant by 'being more manly'? Shouldn't you help dear Professor Lilith back to her dorm, then massage her injured little feet?"

A jailer?

That did sound like an enticing proposal.

But he had only just turned eighteen. He had no desire to be downgraded from a protected species to a Skeleton Soldier.

"Do you look like you need help walking right now...?" Leon said with a straight face, staring unblinkingly at the dent her elbow had left in the wall.

"Uh..."

Realizing that she had used too much force, Professor Lilith was the one who could no longer keep a straight face.

Especially after noticing the sharp gaze from above the top of the tower, the professor with questionable professional ethics ultimately felt too embarrassed to bully her student any further and returned the books she had snatched from him.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Still, she had not expected this little fellow to be so lucky, to actually win the favor of that Demigod-level old monster at the top of the tower.

Perhaps...

She could make an additional investment.

Over the years, Demon Lord Academy had sent quite a few talents to hell's government offices and the Demon Gods' courts. But the Demon Lords it sent out had mostly become disposable materials who did not survive more than a few years, so students had been squeezing their way into civil service positions instead.

She did not lack connections in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but the "Demon Lord" side of things was not merely her weakness—it was a weakness of the entire Demon Lord Academy!

There were some good things that could not be found in the underground world and could only be acquired from human territory. And as everyone knew, only Demon Lords possessed territories near the surface... even if, in everyone's eyes, such a thing was a scorching Flame Crystal.

Come to think of it, she had always wanted a pointy-eared maid as a pet.

Lilith licked her lips, and a few hints of deeper meaning suddenly appeared in her profound eyes.

"Fine, I won't tease you anymore. Big sister actually came to... give you something."

Big sister...

That old monster really had the nerve to say that.

Leon silently grumbled to himself, only to see her delicate finger swipe through the air.

The dark space split open into a pink fissure, and a bronze-colored ring fell out, landing right atop the stack of books in his arms.

A dark-red gemstone was set into the top of the ring, its soul-stirring dim glow resembling a Succubus's eyes.

Looking at the item thrown onto his books, Leon was suddenly startled, and his breathing instantly quickened.

"A Gold-rank magic ring?!"

Because his MP pool was too short, as a necromancer, he could barely use any spells.

For that very reason, he had once tried taking an unconventional route, considering the use of scrolls or magic items in place of chanting spells.

Unfortunately, crafting Gold-rank scrolls or magic tools required at least Platinum Grade strength.

He was merely a Bronze-level who talked tough. Making a pile of Black Iron-level Magic Scrolls could not exactly be called useless, but they were basically only good for wiping his ass.

As for Magic Devices that could be used repeatedly and even serve as casting mediums in place of Magic Wands? Their costs were ten or twenty times higher than Magic Scrolls! And with his tiny living allowance, simply staying alive already required careful budgeting.

Seeing Leon's flushed face and rapid breathing, Lilith was both smug and annoyed. She lightly flicked his nose with her index finger.

"That's right, clever little cutie. Its name is 'Soul Extraction.' Once you head to that distant frontier, a Gold-rank magic item will be enough to help you keep up appearances."

"If anyone dares bully you, use the token big sister gave you and suck that guy dry with a sluurp—."

After making a slurping sound beside his ear, Lilith decided to stop teasing this human youth and lazily returned to her office.

Just as Leon had judged, this guy had come looking to scam someone. With his strength, even if he got a running start from the top floor, there was no way he could knock over a Diamond-level succubus, much less injure her.

Still, for the sake of that Gold-rank ring, he felt a brief moment of solemn respect for Professor Lilith.

And this lady had somehow learned so quickly about the letter of recommendation Headmaster Aiven had sent for him.

Her abilities, in every sense of the word, could not be underestimated...

With that thought, Leon walked to Professor Eunos's door and deliberately lingered there for a while. When the door still did not open after ages, he finally left in disappointment...

The Demon Lord Academy dormitory was not far from the West Tower, a massive five-story manor.

Of course, by human standards of beauty, this aged mansion looked exactly like the sort of haunted house one would expect.

The statue at the dorm entrance was a gargoyle, the maids responsible for cleaning were low-level demons, the ornamental plants in the pots were Man-eating Flowers, and the vines crawling along the walls were Man-eating Vines... though none of them seemed to have developed enough to actually eat people yet.

In addition, the oil paintings hanging along one side of the corridor could move, much like the newspapers in the Demon Capital.

But they were far more impressive than the Demon Capital's newspapers. Their range of movement was not limited to their frames, and they occasionally even appeared in the mirrors of the washroom.

After merely washing his face, Leon saw a woman in white standing behind him, her eyes gouged out.

"Good evening, Madam Susanna."

It was said that she had once been a human prophetess. After foretelling a certain king's death, she was blinded and hanged by a fiercely loyal lord.

Later, during a war between Hell and humanity, she awoke again as a banshee of ill omen and successfully killed both the lord who had hanged her and the king that lord had served.

In a sense, her prophecy had indeed come true.

Later still, she was nearly blasted into oblivion by a priest of the Saint Siss Church wielding holy light during a battle.

Now, with only a wisp of her soul remaining, she was not even as formidable as an ordinary ghost, much less capable of wandering about freely. She could only sit in the wheelchair the headmaster had made for her—that was, the oil paintings and mirrors in the Demon Lord Academy dormitory.

At first, Leon had found it rather hard to get used to, but over time he adapted. He even began greeting the ghosts.

The still-charming middle-aged woman paused for a long time before letting out a long sigh.

"For me, morning is when the sun rises and the moon sets..."

"But there's no sun in Hell, is there?" Leon said casually as he dried the water from his face.

The woman in the mirror fell silent for a long while. Then crimson blood gradually flowed from the empty sockets where her eyes had been gouged out.

It was quite frightening, but still a little short of Professor Eunos's fear-inducing gaze. Leon could give her fifty points at most.

However, Madam Susanna did not seem to be trying to frighten him. She truly seemed to be reminiscing about something.

"Ah... I want to see it one more time."

She sighed softly and sorrowfully, then drifted away from the mirror in the men's washroom like a wisp of smoke...

Hell had no natural cycle of day and night. Most demons had no habit of sleeping at night at all—some slept for days at a time, while others simply never slept.

As for the undead, it was said that they could go without sleep entirely.

Yet thanks to the insistence of those old fossils from the surface, led by Headmaster Aiven Kruger, the first Demon God had at least installed an enormous amethyst ceiling above the Demon Capital. Using the thermal energy of underground lava to power the Magic Array within it, it simulated the cycle of day and night by imitating the light of a purple moon.

This ceiling was supposedly stolen from a Dwarf castle, and the Dwarves still held a grudge over it to this day.

The moonlight outside the window had now gone out, which meant it was nighttime for demons.

Day and night here were the exact opposite of those on the surface.

Sitting by the window, Leon thought it over and ultimately wrote a letter to his godfather and adoptive father, Jeffrey. He explained what had happened today, as well as the fact that he was about to head to an exceptionally dangerous Demon Lord Territory whose core had been destroyed, leaving it without even a name.

He left out the part about the succubus.

Though he was grateful for Ms. Lilith's help, Reverend Jeffrey Mount hated succubi.

He really wanted to know what had happened to him when he was younger.

"...Dear Mr. Jeffrey, please accept my regards once more. The above is everything that happened to me today."

"Also, I've run out of living expenses..."

Hell had no concept of work-study programs, nor were there any places where university students could hand out flyers, deliver takeout, or collect packages.

He could work for a professor, but that was usually not a good idea for humans.

The law was the law.

Who knew what kind of accident might happen if he spent long periods alone with a Diamond-level demon?

Leon did not want to ask for money either, but he truly had no choice. It was not as though he could offer himself to Ms. Lilith.

As for Professor Eunos? He had never even considered it.

After finishing the letter, Leon folded the envelope, rolled it up, and stuffed it into a thumb-sized copper tube. Then he reached out and pressed the bell on the windowsill.

"Ding—"

A night bat the size of a toy poodle soon landed on the windowsill. It stared at him with its beady black rat eyes, then stylishly kicked its right foot forward.

Leon fastened the copper tube into the leather strap on its right foot.

"Deliver to the temple at No. 104 Fierce Ghost Street, West District, Demon Capital... Recipient: Jeffrey Mount."

The bat let out a squeak to show it understood, then shot toward the dim sky like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Leon watched it vanish before leaving the window and returning to the oak table beside the bed.

Looking at the towering stack of books, he could not help but sigh.

"I never expected these three years of university to end so quickly..."

A Bronze-level Demon King.

He just hoped the heroes who came to subjugate him would not burst out laughing...

To avoid ending up as free experience, Leon pulled himself together and picked up Isaac IV's Notes, along with Professor Ai Wen's "Hell Language" translation of the notes written many years ago.

Though he did not believe he could uncover in ten days or half a month a secret that Professor Ai Wen had failed to crack after decades of research, learning some history would still help him infiltrate—or rather, integrate into—local society.

With the mindset of cramming at the last minute, he opened both books at once, preparing to study the original against the translation.

Yet the moment he saw the first line of Isaac IV's diary, he froze on the spot.

Os Calendar, December 12th, Year 77. My two brothers were killed by assassins they sent after each other. My father was so furious at the front lines that he coughed up blood and died without treatment. I was lying in the Duchess's bed when I somehow became the King of Ryan Kingdom. My servants think the kingdom is finished, and coincidentally, so do I.

It has been twenty-four years since I came to this world. I never imagined something this absurd would happen to me. Compared to running a massive kingdom, I still prefer doing what a transmigrator ought to do—like flirting with the Duchess who lusts after me, or researching perfumes and soap that can cover up foul body odor...

Forget it. Worrying is useless. But if I screw things up someday, I should at least let people know that the fall of Ryan Kingdom was not because it had a king with excessively good luck in love, but because everyone here had problems—every kind of problem... So I have decided to start keeping a diary.

Ah... It would be troublesome if these natives understood it, so for now, I'd better write in my mother tongue. That way, when I decide to publish this diary someday, it will also be easier to polish up the details, hehehe.

"...Chinese characters?"

Wait—

The so-called cipher was actually Chinese?!

Snapping back to his senses, Leon shot to his feet, and the chair behind him crashed to the floor with a bang.

"Holy shit—!"

A fellow countryman?!—

(Thanks to "Tang Su Mu," for the Alliance Leader donation!!!! My first Alliance Leader, hehehe!)