Graduation Ceremony!

Chapter 6: Graduation Ceremony!

The demons entered one after another in order of grade.

Carrying a crystal ball into the hall, Leon looked around and spotted many upperclassmen he rarely saw on ordinary days.

Judging by their bearing alone, the aura they gave off was indeed different from the rookie demons in the first, second, and third years.

They were not only stronger, fiercer, more cunning, and more aflame...

They were also hotter.

Perhaps sensing his gaze.

A Succubus senior sister wearing less fabric than a swimsuit suddenly turned around, lifted her chin slightly, and swept him with a cold glance.

That look was like she was looking at an insect.

Before he could appraise what kind of attribute this was, Leon swiftly looked away and hurriedly shut off the crystal ball in his hand.

Two minutes of footage should have been enough.

If he recorded any longer, his MP would run dry.

In the brief time he had been distracted, students from every grade of Demon Lord Academy had already taken their places.

Ms. Lilith, Mr. Ernos, and the other professors also arrived at their respective seats. The grand hall was packed with teachers and students, a sea of demons as far as the eye could see.

"Silence."

A solemn voice echoed above the demons' heads, and the once-noisy hall instantly fell quiet.

Every demon turned their gaze toward the stage.

Under countless watching eyes, Aiven Kruger, the headmaster of Demon Lord Academy, slowly stepped onto the stage and began the opening speech for the graduation ceremony.

In broad terms, the speech thanked the professors for their work, praised the students for their outstanding performance during their studies, and looked ahead to them achieving further glory in society or on the front lines.

The old man, who had lived for over a thousand years, spoke kindly, without the slightest hint of Demigod-level airs.

Yet his voice was also full of power, as though he stood not in a school, but at the very forefront of a battlefield.

"...You are the pride of Hell, and the pride of the Demon God!"

"I hope you will apply what you have seen and learned in the classroom to the battlefield, bringing fear and despair to our enemies!"

"One day, we shall return to the surface with the flames of punishment and torment! We shall wash away the hatred of a thousand years ago and rebuild the glory of the Underworld!"

The old man looked more like an impassioned warlord than a headmaster, but that was Hell's style. The demons in the grand hall were already fired up.

The next person to take the stage was Vice Headmaster Mrs. Doreen Webb.

The noblewoman, who radiated frost and sorrow from head to toe, was like a walking air conditioner.

The moment she entered the grand hall, the temperature throughout the castle dropped several degrees, to the point that several Flame Demons visibly shrank.

She was a Sorrow Demon, said to have come from the far north.

A thousand years ago, they had retreated underground alongside the forces of the Underworld... Leon truly had no idea how they had survived in a place as hot as a furnace until today.

Mrs. Doreen's voice was thin and light, rising and falling with a melody of reluctance, like a sorrowful serenade.

Thanks to her, the morale Headmaster Aiven had worked so hard to ignite was thoroughly doused.

"My dear children, especially you little third-years, as your elder, I am deeply sorry that I could not give you a complete campus life..."

According to rumors, Professor Doreen and the headmaster disagreed over whether third-year students should answer the mobilization call.

How should he put it?

Demon Lord Academy joining the war mobilization alongside third-rate schools was certainly an artistic choice. After all, it was obvious that most of the students here would never be sent to the front lines.

Leon noticed that Mia from his class had already begun yawning out of boredom. It seemed her family had already settled her post-graduation destination for her.

Lumi too.

That idiot Terror Demon had started fiddling with his uniquely shaped nail clippers again.

Mai Jinli was still blowing hard at the Flame Demon, though this time it was probably not for his own sake. He had simply been chilled by the "Frost Lady."

Good.

Since the Flame Demon was cold too, that guy who looked like a football player finally snapped, turned around, and gave him a thorough beating.

Just as Leon was spacing out, a sneaky voice suddenly came close to his ear.

"Hey, darling... you don't want to go to the front lines either, do you?"

The hot breath against his ear made Leon jump. When he turned around, he found Mia's mischievous grin exactly as expected.

"..."

Seeing that he still looked as though he were facing a formidable enemy, Mia was not discouraged in the slightest. Instead, it only stirred her desire to win.

"Hehehe, I looked through your file. You actually live in a temple? Seriously? Are your parents clergy?"

"..."

"Demon Lord Academy may be a place that trains Demon Lords, but you know how quickly Demon Lords die, right? Every year, a few unlucky bastards get assigned to that troublesome post. So who will it be this year? Who will it be?"

"..."

"I'll be blunt. A small-fry mage like you definitely wouldn't survive more than two days on the front lines. But I happen to have a few connections. I can transfer you from the front lines to the Ministry of Internal Affairs~"

"..."

"You could even share an office with your big sister~"

"..."

Seeing that Leon still did not react, Mia's eyebrow twitched sharply, and the brilliant smile on her face gradually began to warp.

"...Hehe, you've got quite the composure. But that won't do you much good on the battlefield. I heard the surface humans' knights are not only ugly, but also terribly jealous. When they see that handsome face of yours, they might chop off your head and turn it into a wall decoration."

"Hey, hey, listen. Don't be so disrespectful. So what if you can earn military merit on the front lines? Heroes, honor—they're nothing more than spiders before power. Do you understand what I mean? Even if you accomplish something incredible, won't it all be for the sake of getting transferred back to the demon capital—"

Leon coughed, interrupting her monologue.

"I've already decided on my aspiration."

"The reason I got into this academy was to become a Demon Lord."

Mia froze, her mouth forming an O.

It was not just Mia. Even Lumi, who had been fiddling with a pair of nail clippers, and the Flame Demon who had been mercilessly beating Mai Jinli stopped what they were doing and stared at him in disbelief.

He was aiming to become a Demon Lord...

Was this guy insane?! Ige, standing in the corner, gazed at that towering figure with a face full of admiration and quietly gave him a thumbs-up.

As expected of Senior! That was way too cool!!!

Leon had wanted to recite a few lines of poetry, but remembering that he had already done so yesterday, he decided against it and merely shifted his gaze away.

Yet Mia was not about to let him off so easily. Her stunned expression looked as though she had swallowed an entire Messenger Bat.

"Y-you-you've lost your mind?! You're going to the front lines?! And you want to be a Demon Lord, the one who draws the most hatred?! Do you know how humans torture demons?! If they catch you, they'll pull out your intestines and force you to eat them back..."

Ugh! Were surface humans really that hardcore?! The grotesque image nearly made Leon throw up, but he ultimately kept the corner of his mouth perfectly still.

During his three years at Demon Lord Academy, aside from knowledge, the only skill he had probably learned was an exceptional ability to keep a straight face.

"So what? You're afraid?"

Leon stepped closer. For the first time, he neither dodged nor avoided her gaze as he looked directly into those heart-shaped pupils. He gave a quiet laugh and continued.

"Professor Eunos once said that fear is also a form of faith. So what are you, a believer of the Demon God, afraid of? Or rather, to whom are you offering your faith?"

The moment she heard that, Mia's face turned green.

But it lasted only an instant. Shame quickly appeared on her pretty face, and she lowered her head in humiliation.

It was not just her.

Lumi, who had been secretly watching from the side, Mai Jinli, who was being held down and pummeled, and the other students... all looked more or less unable to keep up appearances.

These second-generation demons from prominent families still cared quite a bit about their pride.

Relying on their fathers' protection was a helpless reality, but deep down, which second-generation demon did not want to make a name for themselves through their own strength?

Having spent three years together day and night, Leon understood these people far too well.

Without pushing the Succubus lady too hard, Leon took a step back, turned his gaze toward the stage in the grand auditorium, and spoke calmly.

"The only one I believe in is the Demon God. Forget the knights of Saint Siss—even if I were facing Saint Siss himself, I would not feel the slightest fear!"

What he had wanted to say was that he would press onward even against millions, but after thinking about how disgusted he would be by boasting that outrageously, he decided to boast only halfway.

At least half of what he said was true.

How could someone who dared to buy a house in the Holy Capital fear Saint Siss's holy light?

But none of the students present knew that, especially Ige, who stood silently among the crowd looking up at him, his eyes even shimmering with touched tears...

Uh, why did this seem a little off? Forget it. He would be graduating soon anyway.

Leon quietly waited for fate to arrive.

Not far away, Headmaster Aiven, who had just finished giving his speech onstage, was looking smugly at the Vampire Prince Caesar Colin, who stood beside him in magnificent robes.

"Well? Didn't I tell you he was talented?"

Caesar Colin was no ordinary man. He was the current Patriarch of the Colin Family and one of the Demon God's six cabinet ministers—the Minister of Military Affairs, and the one most highly valued by the Demon God.

The letter of recommendation Aiven had written yesterday had been sent straight to the office desk of this former student! To two Demigod-level beings, the whispers in the grand auditorium were not whispers at all.

In other words, the two of them had already heard every bit of nonsense Leon had just spouted.

The stern-faced Caesar nodded, his hawk-like eyes fixed unwaveringly on the young man in the crowd. After a long while, he nodded again.

"Indeed. He is talented."

Though this boy possessed only Bronze-level strength, he had resisted the temptation of a Silver-level Succubus—and temptation from both beauty and power at that. That strength of will alone deserved recognition.

Unlike Caesar's disappointing waste of a son, whose soul had practically been stolen by a woman with a lifespan of less than a hundred years.

He had fallen in love with an acolyte who had offered her soul to the Demon God...

The Colin Family had never produced such a foolish lunatic! Even if Caesar wanted to gather that woman's soul and transform her into a lich or something else for that idiot, it was technically impossible.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became—and the angrier he got, the more he appreciated this utterly unremarkable young man.

But then again...

Why did this human look so familiar?

"..."

"...Must be an illusion."

Right.

It was an illusion.

Caesar stared at him for a long while before finally convincing himself that he had simply seen wrong.

Though he had had plenty of romantic escapades in his youth, he truly did not remember ever being involved with a human. At most, there had been some centaur lady, a Succubus, a hell mother spider, a nightmare demon, a balrog, an Emperor Slime... Uh, better not keep counting.

If he kept reminiscing, he felt his old face would no longer hold up.

Second by second, the graduation ceremony finally drew to a close. What came next was work for the civil servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Caesar and Evan turned and left the grand hall, heading elsewhere to catch up.

Mia got the Ministry of Internal Affairs job offer she had wished for, yet as she looked at the letter in her hand, she seemed utterly listless.

Lumi and Mai Jinli were the same.

The only thing that surprised Leon was Ige... This effeminate, usually timid youth had actually chosen the Department of War?!

Joining the Department of War did not necessarily mean he would be sent to the front lines, but at the very least, it was a place much closer to them.

Holding his receipt, Ige returned to Leon's side and looked at him with determination.

"Senior, I thought about it all night yesterday and wrote another letter home... Although my family still didn't agree to let me become a Demon Lord, they did agree to let me join the Department of War. I hope that one day, I'll lead reinforcements to your Demon Lord Territory and fight by your side!"

No—

Bro.

If it really came to that, wouldn't it be better to send someone more reliable? How about the Vampire Prince? Hearing this grand declaration, Leon could not smile at all. Nor could he imagine how the soldiers at the front would react upon seeing that their reinforcements were nothing more than a mostly useless Silver-level male Succubus.

Seeing that Leon said nothing, Ige pressed his fist to his chest and puffed out his chest with a reverent expression.

"Your courage inspired me. I've already made up my mind—I will become a real man like you, someone who stands tall beneath the heavens!"

"Very good! Very spirited," Leon said, his feelings complicated as he patted Ige on the shoulder. In the end, he did not dampen his enthusiasm and instead consoled him, "Anyway, whatever you do, don't get caught by female knights... No, if you have a choice, it's better to surrender to female knights."

If what Mia said was true, then the Compatriots on the surface had some seriously twisted tastes.

He suddenly did not feel quite so eager to run away.

"I won't get caught! And even if I do... I-I absolutely won't submit!"

Ige protested indignantly.

A gratified smile appeared on Leon's face as he patted the guy's utterly unmoving shoulder even harder.

Good, good.

Remember that spirit. It might save your life when it counted.

After sending Ige off, Leon bid farewell to the classmates he had once spent every day with, one by one, then approached the Ministry of Internal Affairs official.

It was a bespectacled goblin.

Unlike the goblins seen everywhere, goblins in hell were considered an "endangered species," and the kind more useful than humans at that.

"Mr. Leon, according to the Cabinet's decision... we are appointing you to... Uh, since that Demon Lord Territory has already been destroyed, we'll need to trouble you with arranging for the Demon Lord Territory core to be placed again, as well as renaming the territory."

The goblin was exceptionally polite and respectful toward Leon. After all, this was a candidate recommended by the Cabinet.

Though he could not understand why the Cabinet had recommended a Bronze-level necromancer to take over this troublesome Flame Crystal.

Perhaps the Demon God had already abandoned that land...

Leon was straightforward about it. He picked up a pen and wrote down a name.

"Call it the Great Cemetery."

He was terrible at naming things and could not come up with anything fancy.

Besides, he intended to keep a low profile. Naturally, the more understated and ordinary the name, the better.

Although the name did not conform to heraldic standards or Demon Lord Territory naming conventions, the Ministry official only hesitated briefly before stamping the document.

What did it matter?

Perhaps the Demon God did not care about that enclave at all. It might even be deregistered after a while...

After all, that was Ryan Kingdom territory—the Land of Knights on the Teda Continent.

Even a Diamond-level Fear Demon had fallen there. He could not imagine the man before him having the slightest chance of surviving.