Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 490

“It’s broken...”

“Yes...”

Luna stared blankly at the axe in my hand. The handle had snapped in the middle.

“Son?” freēwēbηovel.c૦m

“Could you please not call me that...”

I suddenly understood why Luna detested being called “Mother.” It felt incredibly strange. Of course, just like I had done, Luna didn’t pay any particular attention to it.

“Rijaiera is not a place with abundant resources. Do you know how precious a single axe or pickaxe is?”

“I’m sorry...”

I was getting scolded.

Almost being killed by Luna had been a bizarre experience. Luna had tried to kill me because she believed the continued existence of the Demon King would eventually pose a great threat to Ellen and eventually cost her her life. Fast forward two years later, though, and I was being scolded by Luna for breaking an axe handle, while I stood there, bowing my head and apologizing as if I had committed a grave sin.

What was going on? What sort of situation was I in? It made my mind spin.

In many ways, I couldn’t maintain my composure.

“It seems you swung it with your ridiculous strength and it snapped immediately, right?”

“... Yes.”

It was chilling how she had been able to so accurately deduce what had happened.

“You’re always anxious and uptight, and you can’t even do the tasks you’re given properly. Is there anything you can actually do right?”

Come to think of it, all I did in Rijaiera was complain. But to say I couldn’t do anything right...

‘Hey, in the outside world, there are many things that can’t be done without me...!’

It was obvious that saying that would only sound pathetic, so I kept my mouth shut.

I was the king of Edina, and an Archdemon and the enemy of humanity. And here I was in a rural village, being treated as useless just for breaking an axe.

Luna sighed deeply, went back into the storage shed, rummaged around for a while, and brought out another axe.

“This one’s a bit old, so you’ll have to handle it more carefully than the last one.”

The first axe Luna had given me wasn’t exactly S-grade, but it had at least been A- grade. However, this one felt significantly older, and the handle felt especially worn.

“How am I supposed to chop wood with this...?”

“Well, if someone hadn’t broken the axe handle in one go, we wouldn’t have to resort to using such an axe.”

“Isn’t there an axe with a metal handle or something...?”

“...”

“Sorry, I’ll just use this...”

Her eyes bored into mine, clearly wondering what an idiot I was for even asking such a thing. I had no choice but to take the downgraded C-grade axe and head back to the forest.

***

To be honest, I didn’t really need an axe. Strictly speaking, Luna had told me not to use holy relics, but had said nothing about using my body.

If I channeled my Mana Reinforcement at maximum output and kicked a tree, I would be able to smash through all but the most massive tree trunks.

But doing such a thing was absurd. This task was supposed to aid me in getting used to the new way of maintaining Mana Reinforcement, and was not just about clearing out a new field as Luna had instructed. Using my bodily strength to knock down these trees would be ridiculous. It would go against the purpose of the task.

I needed to clear my mind and focus to get used to the new power. Focusing solely on the outcome of chopping wood and plowing the field would be pointless.

Holding the nerfed axe, I concentrated.

Exhale...

If I applied too much strength, my excessive strength would become a poison, breaking the axe instead of the tree.

The art of chopping wood... I didn’t know how to do it, but I had learned one thing. If you swing the axe too hard, it would break.

With moderate strength, I swung the axe at the tree.

Thwack!

A modest amount of bark chipped off from the trunk. It seemed I had controlled my strength well enough, as the axe didn’t break. However, only the bark of the tree had been peeled away.

How many more swings would it take to bring this tree down? I would also have to then split the fallen tree into more manageable pieces, load them onto a sled, and transport them to Rijaiera. Then chop down another tree, split it, and transport it.

“...”

Chirp chirp!

I looked around at the forest spread out before me.

Once the trees were done, I would have to dig out and remove all the roots of the giant trees, overturn the soil, and plow it...

My aim was to reach Master class. How had I ended up as an aspiring lumberjack?

***

“Damn it.”

Thwack!

I threw the axe aside and lay down. I had already let go of the intense concentration for Mana Reinforcement.

In fact, I had repeatedly lost and regained it throughout my activity.

I hadn’t felled a single tree.

My reflexes and dexterity, just like my strength, were far beyond ordinary. Therefore, I could accurately hit the spot I aimed for without missing.

However, the important thing was the amount of force applied. Since I did not know how durable this axe was, I could not apply too much force, so the groove in the tree never really deepened.

I suppressed the urge to just twist and break the tree with my bare hands several times.

Eventually, I collapsed from exhaustion.

As I lay in the forest catching my breath, I heard giggling from somewhere.

“I told you he’d be struggling like this.”

“Well, he doesn’t know, so it can’t be helped.”

The voices of Arta and Lena drifted through the forest. Soon, their faces appeared above me as I lay on the ground.

“What do you want...?”

“Luna ahjumma said you’d probably be having a hard time, so she told us to check on you.”

Lena offered me a canteen.

“Want some water?”

***

The moment I had broken the axe handle, Luna seemed to have been convinced that I was incompetent, so she sent Arta and Lena to check on me. I got up and drank the water Lena handed me.

Arta looked around, noticing the shallow groove in the single tree and no fallen trees, then smacked his forehead in disbelief.

“Seriously, how have you not even managed to chop down one tree yet?”

This was the first time I had met someone who was both generous and annoying.

“I mean, if I apply too much force, the axe might break, so I can’t do that.”

Lena tilted her head as if wondering why I didn’t just use my bare hands to turn the forest into a wasteland.

“Do you really need to use an axe?”

“Well, since I have to do this anyway, I thought it would be better to use the axe to get used to focusing my mind...”

“Hmm... I see.”

Arta looked at the groove in the tree I had been hitting and shook his head.

“It’s not a matter of strength; you’re doing it wrong. Who chops down a tree like this? Give it here.”

Arta held out his hand, and I handed him the axe I had thrown aside.

“Watch closely.”

Hefting the axe, Arta aimed the blade at the tree trunk.

“From top to bottom.”

Thwack!

Arta swung the axe down into the trunk. The bark peeled away slightly, forming a groove.

After that one swing, Arta looked at me again.

“This time, from bottom to top.”

Thwack!

Arta’s strike was accurate. A piece of tree trunk fell away from the intersection of his two strikes.

I could only stare blankly at the triangular piece of wood that had fallen off.

It had only taken two swings.

With that demonstration, I realized what I had been doing wrong all along.

“You can’t just brute force your way through a tree. How could that work?”

I had been hacking away at the same spot repeatedly, but it seemed chopping down a tree was more about carving through it. Arta clicked his tongue at me as I stood there dumbfounded.

“This guy. He’s a city boy, so he doesn’t know how to do anything.”

“Ah, no...”

‘I mean, I did stand out a bit at the Temple, right? I was even hailed as the empire’s greatest talent, though I wasn’t actually from the empire.’

I hadn’t heard anyone call me incompetent since the very beginning of my first year... But somehow, in Rijaiera, I was treated as a freeloader who couldn’t do anything right when given a task.

And it wasn’t because of some mysterious secret or special power within this village. It was simply because I didn’t know how to chop wood.

“I mean... Where would I have had the chance to chop wood, anyway?”

‘Right? Before coming here and even after arriving, when would I have had the opportunity to chop wood? It’s only natural that I didn’t know!’

Arta chuckled at my protest. “That’s why you’re a city bumpkin.”

“...”

It was frustrating, but he was right, so I had nothing to say.

“Anyway, good luck. I have to help my grandfather today.”

“Yeah, Reinhart. I have to take care of my younger siblings today as well.”

With those words, Lena and Arta left.

‘Grandfather, huh.’

Come to think of it, with so few households and no changes in population, it was inevitable that there were extended families.

Anyway, by just seeing Arta swinging twice to demonstrate, I realized what I had been doing wrong.

To chop down a tree, you couldn’t just hack at the same spot; you had to change the angle and swing from top to bottom, then bottom to top, gradually chipping away at the tree.

Even when it came to tasks that seemed mundane, there were techniques and tricks.

What Arta had shown me was probably very basic, and there were likely more detailed techniques for chopping wood.

The art of chopping wood... I wouldn’t have any use for it, and even if I mastered it, there would be nothing to gain.

Once I left Rijaiera, I probably wouldn’t have to chop wood for the rest of my life.

How did I end up having to do this?

A city bumpkin, they called me.

Being scolded for not knowing how to chop wood and for breaking an axe...

In Edina, I constantly worried about how many survivors had crossed over by ship, how to feed them, what murders had occurred, and how to deal with them.

The entire world hated me. Even if I survived the Gate Incident and beyond, it was possible that I had to fight Ellen after that, and war might break out between the Dark Land and the empire.

I had always walked the path between life and death.

In reality, I had had to kill countless people under the pretext of stabilizing society.

Yet here I was, chopping down trees in a remote mountain village to clear out a field. Being told I was a city bumpkin who knew nothing, being scolded for breaking an axe and not doing anything right.

‘Sigh...’

Somehow, I felt like I had become an ordinary person.

A weak laugh escaped me. I never thought such a thing was possible.

Away from Edina, I was neither a Demon King nor anything else. I was just someone who was ridiculously strong but knew nothing about rural work. A city bumpkin.

They say that position makes the person, and in a place where I wasn’t a king, no one regarded me as one.

No one respected or revered me, so no one hated or despised me.

Could I still have a normal life?

Regardless of whether I could be allowed to live that way, could I at least have such thoughts?

No one demanding that I be a king.

No one placing their hopes in me, or despairing because of my existence.

Neither the apostle of Ouen nor the Apostle of Alse, nor the Demon King.

Just because I couldn’t hear them calling for me didn’t mean I could forget them.

But the very thought that I wasn’t much of anything brought a sense of relief.

I was basically the creator of this world, its origin, but I was neither omnipotent nor omniscient.

Not every problem in the world was mine to solve, nor could I solve them all.

I had been arrogant, trying to make everything happening in the world my concern.

It was all just arrogance.

I felt anxious because not everything was under my control.

How foolish was I, unable to chop down a single tree, yet feeling anxious because the world’s affairs were beyond my grasp?

I was in the rural village of Rijaiera, not on my throne in Edina.

I would concern myself with the tasks of a king when I returned to the throne.

I realized that just because everything was within my sight didn’t mean I could solve it all.

Thanks to Luna and Arta pointing out my incompetence, I was able to realize how arrogant my thoughts had been.

The duties of a king were supposed to be handled from the king’s seat.

As a city bumpkin, it was only right to do what a city bumpkin would do, and learn what I didn’t know.

Only then did my jumbled thoughts begin to clear, and I started to understand what true peace of mind might be.

‘There might be things I don’t know because I’m here. So what? I will do the best I can imagine.’

Luna Artorius had told me to believe in myself.

So, I put my belief in Luna. There was nothing else to do.

Luna said if I kept calling her Mother, then it was only right that I act like a son.

The task at hand was to turn the forest into a field.

The first step was to chop down the trees.

To clear away the forest and turn the land into a field.

I didn’t know what that would mean for me.

However, in Rijaiera, I decided to stop thinking.

If Mother asked me to do it, there had to be a reason. I would not care about anything else.

I had been made to take responsibility for too many things. Perhaps I was allowed this much avoidance of responsibility.

“Heh, heh heh...”

Somehow, I remembered the time at the Temple when I had behaved like a mad dog, and laughter bubbled up.

Peace of mind does not come from some grand enlightenment or significant event; it comes from realizing you’re considered useless.

No matter the process, it would be enough as long as one achieved a good result, right?

I believed that Luna Artorius had some plan.

To be honest, I was actually quite useless and didn’t know much. So, I would just do what I was told and empty my mind.

On the throne, I lived in constant worry and contemplation, but at present, I was a guest in Rijaiera. Therefore, I would just do what I was told.

There was no point in using my brain; I didn’t know anything anyway.

I picked up the axe.

I hadn’t known this technique before, but now that I did, it was easy.

There was no need to apply excessive force.

Using a moderate amount of Mana Reinforcement, controlling that power as much as possible, and swinging from top to bottom.

Crack!

My movement was precise, and controlling my strength wasn’t difficult.

Aligning my blade with the groove that had already been made.

This time, from bottom to top.

Crack!

I watched the wood chip fly off.

It was just a small piece, not enough to fell the whole tree. But I had definitely chipped it.

Crack!

Crack!

Thud!

Gradually.

More and more.

I was carving through it.

I still didn’t know what true peace of mind was, but I had succeeded in clearing my head.

I was just doing what I was told. The distracting thoughts that had plagued me were gradually falling away like the wood chips being carved off.

It was a forest, so there were many trees.

There were as many trees to carve through as there were distracting thoughts to shed.

Clearing the forest, uprooting the giant roots, and overturning the soil...

I would turn this forest into a land where something could be planted. Like planting new seeds in new soil.

I would uproot the despair and anguish that were deeply rooted in my heart.

Or, even if I couldn’t uproot them, I would plant a new mindset amidst the despair and pain.