“.......”

I had a gut feeling. The smile and voice were exactly the same as when I questioned the source of the horn of Unisus.

But fortunately, unlike back then, I wasn’t stung.

“That happened before I was even thirteen. I think I danced with Master Ruthless less than ten times, all together?”

“......Really?”

“Yeah, ask my brother. Master Ruthless entered the Knight Academy with my brother.”

“Then this dancing skill can’t be explained.......”

It can’t be explained.

“Don’t you remember? The trophy you gave me after catching the Grim Reaper Lord Grellius.”

“Hmm?”

“The ‘Dance of Destruction’ I learned has the additional effect of improving my dancing skill.”

In other words, it’s skill-skilling.

“Ah.......”

Tesilid realized that he had misunderstood, and the tips of his ears turned red. I decided to embarrass him a little more.

“Hey, you damn fool, you’ve made it big. You’ve been getting all jealous of handsome guys like our Terry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. Do it often. I like it.”

I stopped dancing because I didn’t finish the five songs I had planned, but I felt like I had to let Tesilid have a cold drink.

While I was sipping on the sangria, two people approached me.

A long-haired wizard with a deceptive firmness, and a middle-aged man with a mask covering his lower body.

“Pope, it’s been a long time!”

“It’s been a long time, Your Majesty, Your Eminence.”

The lord of the Tower, Morifis Marcellion, and the master of the Night Eagle Guild, Fligel Knight, greeted us.

Of the two, Fligel was the one who could communicate, so I naturally exchanged greetings with him. I smiled and cried.

“Congratulations, Master Fligel. I heard the news.”

“Huh? What news, Your Majesty?”

“I heard that the disguise dessert shop is bustling? I heard that the side income is greater than the main income of the Night Eagle Guild.”

Fligel coughed awkwardly.

“Not yet.”

“Not yet.”

“Yes....... How have you two been?”

“I’ve been well. I recently went ice fishing with Terry. We had doribangbang and it was delicious.”

“Iced fish? It’s not winter yet, so you went all the way to the north?”

“No, that’s not it. I went to a dungeon I know well.”

The Dungeon Farm expanded day by day, and Suwon also needed to expand its size. Since the reservoir construction was done on a large scale, I released icefish, and went to enjoy Tesilid’s hobby when winter came to the dungeon.

Hyas, Tesilid’s fishing instructor, happened to be there.

A human and a skeleton caught icefish with fishing rods, and I arranged them in a circle on a pan, fried them in oil, and spread spicy sauce on them.

By the way, the frying pan was placed on top of Helberos’ head.

“We stayed for about a week in dungeon time.”

“You’ve been here a long time.”

“There were a lot of things to do besides fishing.”

After a long time, I ground the bones of the skeletons, and replaced all the gravestones that had worn out over the past 30 years with new ones.

In the past, I had ordered the gravestones from outside, but now there was no need to do that.

This was because Ranun, one of the skeleton family members, had honed his sculpting skills and reached a high level.

I got granite to use as a tombstone and entrusted it to Ranun. In a week, a beautiful tombstone with the names and shapes of flowers was completed.

It was a time when I felt spiritual healing as I recalled many happy times. Someone I had briefly forgotten about made his presence known.

“The Pope!”

“Oh, right. Morifis. Congratulations on being four years older than me after three 70th birthday parties.”

“Thank you!”

He nodded enthusiastically and spoke obediently, looking quite harmless. In fact, he had been so absorbed in his research for the past two years that he had not caused any accidents.

So it was about time I started to think about taking off the dog’s collar.

“Pope, since we’re talking about dungeons, I have something to tell you.”

“Huh?”

“Three years ago, I was the one who guessed the Pope’s survival through the phenomenon of dungeons not disappearing even after Armageddon ended, wasn’t I?”

“That’s right. My succession to the Demon King’s throne had an effect.”

“I discovered another theory related to that. It’s a very important fact.”

“What is it?”

“You must have a successor!”

Since it was said by a human who was my ancestor, it felt like he was nagging me about when I would have a child. However, I thought I knew the reason.

“The dungeon can only be maintained if I succeed to the Demon King’s throne, right? The Demon King’s throne is inherited by blood.”

“That’s right. You’re so smart!”

The dungeon was a place where various resources were produced, so it would have been difficult if it had suddenly disappeared. Tesilid and I still had important work to do to protect the world.

According to the future that the Inspector of the Heavenly Secrets had told me, Tesilid and I were scheduled to have our first precious baby in the year after next.

When that time comes, I should do it with a sense of mission!

‘Make a baby!’

I said with burning enthusiasm.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

Normally, I would have encouraged the couple here and ended the conversation.

However, Morifis Marcellion was an abnormal person who was far from ordinary.

“How can you not be worried? There’s still no news from the Pope! Just in case, it would be better to take a healthy man as a concubine! Like me!”

“Ah, I just [N O V E L I G H T] decided, Morifis.”

“Oh! You’ve already decided to take me as a concubine?! As expected, you’re so cheerful!”

He smiled as he looked at her silver eyes that were shining with anticipation.

“You’ll live your whole life wearing a dog collar.”

“Oh, no......!”

Morifis sat down on the floor in frustration. Tesilid, who was expressionlessly looking down at his sky-blue crown, muttered quietly to himself.

“I guess I’ll be the one to do the magic top.......”

Unlike when he spoke half-jokingly at church during the day, his cold gaze gave off the feeling of the 100th time.

He felt he had to stop it quickly, so he tried to quickly change the subject.

“By the way, when are you going to show me ‘Carls’?”

✠

Ssssss, sssss.

When Carpeios’s ego woke up, the first thing he heard was the sound of the floor being quickly rubbed.

‘Where am I, and what happened to me?’

It was dark all around and the air was humid. There was no other information he could get.

After a long time, he concentrated on figuring out the source of this sssssss.

The vague sense gradually became clearer. Eventually, Carpeios realized a shocking fact.

‘Was that a sound coming from my body!’

He had become a writhing insect without hands or feet, rubbing his body on the ground.

The soul of a great demon king like himself is trapped in such an uncivilized bug!

The bug’s body trembled involuntarily with endless shock and humiliation. Thanks to this, the louder friction sound brought back a sense of reality.

In fact, the bug’s sensory organs could not possibly process the visual, auditory, and tactile information that Carpeios was feeling now.

The high-level soul was supplementing the performance of the low-level body and replacing the five senses.

‘Yes, I died.’

Therefore, recalling memories of a past life now should be seen as a function of the soul, not the head.

‘Ugh! Chaos! How could this happen when I revered it so much... ... Kkueeeek!’

The time spent ruminating on the betrayal and fear did not last long.

As soon as dawn broke, he was eaten by a passing bird.

And the next morning, he opened his eyes again as a bug... ... .

Wagjak.

He was eaten by a bird again.

The next day was the same, and the day after that. He was faithful to the role of the insect in the proverb, “The early bird catches the worm.”

While those days continued, Carpeios awakened to one of the abilities he had as a demon king.

<This insect has a really good texture. Chirp chirp.>

<An unusually large and sturdy insect! Is that the one I ate yesterday? I have to savor it while eating it. Kkuruk kkuruk.>

<I’ll wake up early tomorrow morning and catch and eat delicious insects. Kkuk kk.>

That ability was the ability to understand the voices of animals and demons. This ability was very useful for raising pets that couldn’t tell when they were in pain, but for the prey now, it only added to the humiliation and contempt.

‘I’d rather be annihilated!’

As expected, Count Rodrigo Orche, who was cleanly annihilated by the executioner of Danak, was a good man.

At this point, he missed the executioner of Danak so much. As his reincarnations repeated, this feeling became more intense, and he even had the illusion that she had been his thousand-year love.

Then one morning.

For some reason, he opened his eyes in a place other than the forest. His body had evolved, and he was born as a species with fairly fast legs.

Moreover, strangely, this place was cozy. While living in a group with his kind, he never encountered a natural enemy, and food was always abundant.

As his life became more comfortable, he became more relaxed and got used to the disgusting appearance of his kind. As he continued to watch, he got used to it, and he thought this while looking at his kind with pink antennae.

‘I think it’s time for me to mate too... ... .’

In that way, the identity of the bug grew bigger than that of the Demon King. It was soon as if he would completely assimilate with the bug. However, cruel fate would not let him accept the life of a bug.

The voice of a higher life form fell from above his head.

“Good, everyone has grown up well! Now it’s time to deliver!”

‘What? Delivery?’

Soon, Carpeios and his fellow bugs were kicked out of their cozy nests and were put in sacks like grain and moved somewhere.

As expected, there was nothing to eat in the sacks, and they were suffocating from being crushed by each other.

It was obvious that they would be crushed to death or starved to death if things continued this way. The crisis awakened Carpeios, who was almost assimilated with the bugs.

‘Yes, I wasn’t a bug. I... ... I was the great Demon King!’

He abandoned his insect self that had become numb to his comfortable life and opened his eyes again as the Demon King.

On such a historic day, he had to cause a disaster. So, as befitting a great demon, he slaughtered tens of thousands of his own kind in the garrison.

‘Hahaha! Look! That is the power of the Great Demon King Carpeios!’

As he stepped on the corpses of his compatriots and detonated the light, the voices of higher creatures were heard again from outside the fort.

“Out of all the supplied bags of demon feed, this one is the only one that is quiet. Did you sneak in some past its expiration date?”

“Oh, you misunderstood! You know that our farm is strict about quality control, right? I’ll check what the problem is right now... No!?”

The moment the fort opened and light poured in, Carpeios jumped up and tried to escape.

However, unfortunately, there seemed to be a wizard nearby. Carpeios was quickly captured by gravity fluctuation magic.

‘Let go! You lowly human!’

As he was struggling in the air, a wizard with long blue hair stuck his face out.

“Wow, you’re a strange guy?”

“It looks bigger and more lively than other bugs. Could it be the king of bugs?”

“Interesting.”

The young wizard brought a large glass bottle and trapped Carpeios.

“From now on, your name is ‘Carls.’ Let’s have fun together.”

A bright and cheerful smile. At that moment, Carpeios had a gut feeling.

This little guy was his natural enemy.