The SSS Ranked Demon King Goes to the Hero Academy-Chapter 41: Who opens his mouth too much seeks to have it broken.
Aku was starting to lose his patience.
How dare an insignificant fairy mock him, a demon king?
Sylvie had overstepped. She had crossed a line she never should have crossed.
The words coming out of that mouth were too insulting to let pass.
Attacking her wasn’t an impulsive reaction. It was simple rationality.
Or at least that’s what Aku told himself.
For the first time, the demon king needed to justify himself internally, since admitting that a creature as insignificant as Sylvie had managed to get under his skin so much was humiliating.
Aku, a cold and rational demon king who is guided by reason, not emotions.
The idea that an insignificant fairy had broken that nature was humiliating to acknowledge.
However, he couldn’t help it.
He had gotten angry. He had reached his limit.
How dare she insult him like that?
He had achieved great things.
He had broken his destiny, the destiny under which all demon kings in history, all his predecessors, had been killed.
A destiny that practically seemed like an axiom of reality itself.
"The hero always defeats the demon king."
If he had done something like that, the axiom "the demon king cannot be a hero" wouldn’t be difficult for him to break.
He had already usurped Alexander’s body, the strongest hero in history, making his destiny his own.
He had defeated other heroes in the qualifying trial, demonstrating he was already better than many veteran heroes.
By logic, affirming that Aku would be capable of becoming a hero was a logical statement.
Too logical for someone as insignificant as a fairy to dismantle that truth using such banal arguments.
Believing Sylvie’s words was stupid, so why was he getting angry?
Why was he doubting?
Aku didn’t understand it, but it’s normal for everyone to have doubts about something.
Sylvie’s words only fed embers that were already burning in his heart.
They fed a small fish until it became a sperm whale.
It wasn’t that Aku believed Sylvie’s words, but rather the fairy’s words fed an inner anguish the demon king already possessed.
Aku had become a slave to complex feelings he had never experienced.
That’s why his body let itself be carried away by anger, doing the simplest action to silence that anguish: silence Sylvie herself.
In an instant, his fingers were around the young woman’s neck.
She felt the cold metal pressing on her neck, making breathing difficult.
The first thing the fairy felt was fear, something understandable in that situation. She was weaker than Aku, and he had already threatened to take her life.
Had she crossed a line she shouldn’t have crossed?
That would be the conclusion many people would have reached.
However, Sylvie’s reaction was different.
Her smile twisted unnaturally. Her eyes became two ominous abysses that shone with an intense green.
That reaction totally proved her point.
The destructive nature of demon kings was there, inside Aku, about to explode.
It didn’t matter if he wore a shell. If he didn’t have Alexander’s merciful and kind heart, having his body was useless.
A demon king would remain a demon king.
"See?" she said with a hoarse voice due to the pressure she felt on her neck. "I’m right."
Hearing those words, Aku froze. His eyes opened, realizing what he was doing.
Immediately the boy released the fairy’s neck, letting her fall dryly to the ground.
It was true. That reaction hadn’t been logical at all.
He had let himself be carried away by his emotions, proving Sylvie right about his nature.
No.
Aku shook his head.
While it was true he had lost control, that wasn’t an absolute defeat.
It only showed he was developing emotions, like those of a human.
And that was the first step to becoming a hero.
That reflection managed to calm him somewhat. His guilt evaporated, and he returned to his cold attitude.
"What are you talking about? Is it wrong to silence an annoying sound?" Aku asked coldly. "Who opens his mouth too much seeks to have it broken."
The demon king responded with an authoritative tone. He also hadn’t done anything so bad. After all, if he didn’t silence Sylvie, she was going to keep insulting him.
Did it make sense to let himself be treated like that?
Aku didn’t think so.
Sylvie rubbed her neck. Red finger marks were on it.
However, she only smiled, convinced that this was a victory for her.
"Whatever you say," she said as she stood up again. "[Heal]."
A greenish light came from the palm of her hand, covering the marks the demon king had made on her neck.
In an instant the marks disappeared.
Aku felt some envy seeing that Sylvie could use her power without restriction.
In his head he began wondering if he too could use the "power of order."
A power that employs energy through specific rules or systems to function.
Unlike the power of chaos which grants great freedom in its use, the power of order is filtered through multiple rules.
It doesn’t have a single name, as "Azoth" would be, but can vary according to the world’s rules.
Aku was able to verify this in his battles against the other heroes. Each one has different power sources channeled through specific rules.
The demon king only knew ways to channel Azoth, however perhaps with Alexander’s body he could master that power.
Something that would be convenient considering that all the places they were taking him had barriers that sealed the power of order.
If he managed to use that new power source, it wouldn’t matter if they sealed him in a barrier to block the power of chaos or a barrier to seal the power of order, since he would always be prepared.
After all, he couldn’t always depend on "chaos within order."
"Why are you staring at me so much? Are you thinking of doing lustful things to my body for revenge? How repulsive," the girl commented as she covered her body with her arms and looked at Aku with disgust.
In contrast, the demon king didn’t give importance to those words. He wasn’t even sure he had understood what the fairy was talking about.
"Well, that doesn’t matter now. Tell me, what am I supposed to do now?"
