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lucathiaSo some people asked for a summary of Volume 8. This is...a pseudo summary...pseudo translation...thing. It is too long to be a summary, haha...I thought I'd include all the details so I could refer back to this for fic purposes. Except... this got too detailed. I am terrible at summaries. OTL I do wish I have time to do this for all the novels, but er, with shorter summaries. I reread them all for the sake of writing Bittersweet Sweetness, but I didn't take any notes! Now I'm forgetting all the details again. /bad memory
Please only read this if you don't mind being spoiled, and please do not spoil other people about the ending. Please do not copy and paste this elsewhere, as it is riddled with mistakes and I cannot fix them if this gets posted elsewhere. Please do read actual translations when translators get around to it and don't let this take the place of their hard work. Also consider hoping over to Yu Wo's blog entry to let her know your thoughts, either about volume 8 or LSK in general. I'm sure she'll appreciate English responses too! (But don't mention this post please).
I've included long and short version summaries of each chapter, with my thoughts following each! I would love to hear other people's reactions to this novel. If anyone does read this, let me know your thoughts about the book! I'm bursting to talk about it. :)
In one of Yu Wo's plurks, she mentioned that it took a while for volume 8 to be published, so she saw some readers mention that they didn't remember what happened in volume 7. Her response was something like "Sun becomes the Demon King. The end!" (I don't remember the exact words, but it was something to that effect.)
So yeah. Volume 7. Grisia chose to become the Demon King so that he could retain his elemental sensing. Otherwise, he would have lost that skill and would have been completely blind and useless, meaning he could not have remained the Sun Knight. He told everyone that he was going to become a part-time Demon King while also being the Sun Knight, but once he received Roland's shard (his share of the Demon King potential), Grisia immediately went back on his words. He paid Lesus a visit and blasted him into a table, telling everyone he was no longer going to return to the Holy Temple.
Volume 8 opens where volume 7 left off. Grisia is now the Demon King. He refuses to return to the Holy Temple. What will everyone do?
Prologue: Challenging the Demon King
Long version:
The prologue starts with Roland wondering if he should have become the Demon King after all, how it was his fault that Grisia had to become the Demon King. Lesus refuses to let Roland mope, and everyone makes Roland aware that he is just as much a part of the Twelve Holy Knights as everyone else is, and that his place was at the Holy Temple. They share a moment over Grisia's small habit, some unconscious thing he always does when he is serious about his orders. Essentially, everyone can tell when Grisia is being serious or not. Everyone tells Roland not to tell Sun about his habit.
Judgment, Storm, and Stone pay a visit to the king for money to challenge the Demon King. Negotiating for funds is not something Judgment likes to do. Usually tasks like these were all left to Sun. Judgment brings Storm and Stone since they are skilled with negotiations. Storm feels strange that he's walking with something dark and murky by his side instead of something shiny and blinding. Judgment notices the guards meeting his gaze, when before with the previous king, the guards were always too frightened to meet his gaze because their king left them no pride. Judgment muses that their new king has already inspired them enough for them to be able to lift their heads.
Inside, everyone is busy organizing for the citizens to return to the city. Before the king, Judgment states, "The Sun Knight has been abducted by the Demon King!" Which, is a complete and utter lie, since the king and Judgment both know that Sun is the Demon King. The king's older confidant tells all those not involved to leave the room. The king then tells Judgment to speak his mind and to stop talking rubbish, which relieves Judgment a bit since it took a lot out of him just to say what he'd just said.
Now that everyone has left, the king beckons Judgment closer. Judgment tells him that he wants to challenge the Demon King. The king is not happy. Elijah steps forward to protect the king when Judgment shouts that they could not have let a Death Lord become the Demon King. The king tells Elijah to step aside. He then tells Judgment that he will not give him any funds to harm Grisia. This stuns Judgment. He did not know Grisia and the king were on such good terms, and it seemed that the king thought Judgment wanted to usurp Grisia's position as the head of the Holy Temple.
At this time, Neo and Aldrizzt arrive. Neo straightens out the misunderstanding. Judgment explains that Sun's plan was to become the Demon King and return to the Holy Temple to be the Sun Knight at the same time, so he planned to carry out Sun's wishes. Hearing this, the king is now ready to listen to what Judgment has to say. Also, no one reacts to the fact that Aldrizzt is a dark elf. He now sort of finds that normal behavior for those involved with Grisia.
Stone is a bit worried about what Judgment promised the king Grisia would do when he returns, but Judgment says that they'll worry about that later. The Pope comes and gives everyone new armor, saying he cannot let all the holy knights go to battle with flimsy, paper-like armor (which is what they've all been wearing up until now). He complains that if Grisia found harm coming to his holy knights, he'd for sure take revenge on him.
Short version:
Roland blames himself for Grisia becoming the Demon King. Judgment visits the king for funds to go against the Demon King. The Pope gives everyone new armor.
Notes:
-Neo is Sun's teacher
-Prince Revolution will be translating Neo's traveling companion's name as Aldrizzt. Aldrizzt is a dark elf who people are usually afraid of, but he's found many people who are not afraid of him after meeting Neo.
Lucathia's thoughts:
This chapter made my heart burst with fondness. Roland's guilt! The other knights accepting him wholeheartedly! Storm feeling off that he's accompanied by something dark and murky instead of something shiny! Judgment feeling off about having to spin an outlandish tale! The king being protective of Grisia! (This. I just. See, Grisia, people love you!) Judgment getting angry at Elijah for standing in his way when Grisia had once saved him! The guards gaining self-respect because their king is someone to e respected! *flails* This is one of my most favorite non Grisia POVs.
Chapter 1: The Enemy of the Demon King - A Hero
Long version:
Grisia watches a bunch of people play at being "heroes" who've gathered to defeat the Demon King, except these heroes are stealing furniture from vacant houses. Just as he's about to fry them with his magic, someone yells, "Stop!" He stops and sees someone he considers a real hero. He throws his sight outwards so that he can "see" the person's appearance. He learned how to do this from Scarlet, who he still has trapped inside Eternal Tranquility. He's thrown the necklace far away and only retrieves it when he has something to ask her.
Immediately, Grisia regrets using his sight because this guy has blue eyes and blond hair and is very handsome. It turns out the "hero" wasn't yelling at Grisia to stop but rather at the furniture-snatchers. The hero tries to persuade them not to steal the furniture. Even though the villagers have left their homes, they may still return in the future. Grisia thinks his persuading is useless and shoots lightning at the people, inciting them into a fight. The hero blocks a blow for Grisia and then carries him off to escape.
The hero wonders why Grisia's wearing a mask. He answers "fire", pretending he's been disfigured, but it's actually for hiding his black eyes, as even the whites of his eyes are completely black as a result of being the Demon King. The hero wonders if Grisia can see. Grisia lazily answers by telling the hero how to evade oncoming arrows.
A female cleric, the hero's teammate, mistakes Grisia for a female until the hero puts Grisia down. Grisia doesn't care about her until she's about to be hit and someone yells out "Charlotte!" Immediately, Grisia reacts. He knows this is not his Charlotte and they seemed to be worlds apart, but he could not stop himself from reacting. He then discovers that this Charlotte is completely in love with the hero, Tailin, and thinks that in this (their obsession over one guy), they are quite similar.
The third member of the team, an archer named Michele, invites Grisia to join them since they are missing a mage. Grisia immediately joins since he's been looking for a hero to play around with. They're surprised by his fast response, so Grisia then starts arguing over how much money he'll get, especially since he's a mage of high caliber (he had Awaitsun prepare a certificate for that so that he could pass off as a high mage). He wonders if 50% would be overdoing it. Michele immediate says they won't go above 30%, so Grisia says 35% and Michele immediately agrees, making Grisia wonder if he's been tricked.
Grisia laughs. He's found himself a talkative hero, an archer who's good at acting, and an idiotic woman. He finds himself very amused.
Short version:
Grisia joins an adventurer team who's out to defeat the Demon King (meaning him).
Notes:
-I don't know how people will be or have been translating Grisia's lich (I actually like to refer to them as witches, but I think lich is more accurate), whose literal name means "Red Poem" but actually stands for "Red Corpse", as poem and corpse sound the same. I'll be referring to her as Scarlet.
-Awaitsun / Silent Eagle is the Demon King's loyal follower from the Cathedral of the Shadow God. PR! will be translating his name as Awaitsun, as Sun has told him to "Wait for Sun" (meaning wait for his revenge).
-This chapter introduces some new characters. Charlotte is a cleric. Tailin (I'm leaving his name like this as I do not know a good English equivalent for his name, and volume 8 is too far down the line for PR! to have discussed his name yet) is a "hero"/warrior , and Michele is an archer. These are not official names decided on by PR. Michele's name uses the characters that are most commonly translated as "Michelle", but since he's a guy, I've opted for the male version of the name.
Lucathia's thoughts:
This chapter really confused me. It was like, what? Last volume, and we're still getting introduced to a new character? Who is this "hero"? At first, I thought maybe this was the next Sun Knight candidate, the little boy that Grisia met back in the village. That would mean a lot of time has passed for the little boy to have grown up. But thankfully he isn't that little boy. I didn't want so much time to have passed. It never ceases to amuse me when Grisia is mistaken for a girl. And now he's pretending to be a mage!
Chapter 2: The Sword of the Demon King - Silent Eagle
Long version:
Using a dimensional door, Grisia returns from his tent straight to hislair castle, thinking that he'll never be troubled by adventuring again since he can always travel back to his bed. Grisia sits on his throne (which has a beautiful jewel decorating it that he almost wanted to steal, but he stopped himself since everything here belonged to him already anyway). Awaitsun greets him and asks him if he needs anything. Grisia is pissed off by Awaitsun's expression (it's always the same damned smile that he was trained to use on the Demon King) and he is also pissed off at how he always says "yes" to Grisia, no matter what he orders. Grisia thinks to himself that he thought they chose him because they believed that he would be a Demon King who would not pointlessly send his men off to their deaths. Now it looks to Grisia like they didn't care about that.
Grisia commands Illu to deliver a message from the Demon King to all the heroes about how any action from now on against the Demon King will be regarded as a betrayal, etc. Illu wonders if he's supposed to kill everyone after he finishes reading the message. Grisia gets mad, saying that if he wanted them killed, he'd have Illu do it from the start instead of reading such a long message. Illu still doesn't get it. Grisia blasts the death knight into the wall, destroying one of his wings.
Awaitsun asks Grisia to allow him to go in Illu's stead, but Grisia states that Illu would make more of an impression on everyone as an undead creature and that the only thing Awaitsun is good for is attracting women. Awaitsun asks if Grisia wants women (if he does, Awaitsun can acquire women for him), but Grisia is angry that Awaitsun thinks Grisia can only get women this way. Grisia provokes Awaitsun, telling him maybe he'll order Alice to come over. (Alice is Awaitsun's wife). Awaitsun pales but doesn't say anything.
Grisia grumbles that the Cathedral of the Shadow God really shouldn't have chosen Awaitsun as Silent Eagle. Just seeing his face was enough to incite Grisia. When Awaitsun reacts to that, Grisia discovers that Awaitsun is keeping something from him. He makes him talk and discovers that the Cathedral of the Shadow God chooses candidates for Silent Eagle based on looks. By being handsome, he can attract the Demon King if they were female, and if the Demon King were male, then he would release his rage on Silent Eagle. Hearing this, Grisia is angry that the Cathedral of the Shadow God thinks they're so smart. He tells Awaitsun that they've miscalculated. What if the Demon King got angry enough to kill Silent Eagle? Then all the training would have been useless. Awaitsun says that if he dies, he has an entire squad of replacements. Realizing this, Grisia takes a look at Awaitsun's men and sees that they're actually all very handsome. So these twenty something men were here to suffer for the sake of the rest of the world, here to die at the hands of the Demon King if he were to get mad.
Angry at the silence of all these "Silent Eagles", Grisia yells at Awaitsun to answer him if it was worth it. "Answer me or die!" Awaitsun answers that once they got chosen, they were already dead. He continues on that they are his most loyal followers, willing to do anything for him. His expression becomes painful (Grisia has him gripped with dark claws), an expression he didn't even show when the entire world was only a month away from being swallowed by darkness. Grisia likes this expression.
When Awaitsun says he shouldn't have married, Grisia finally lets him down. Grisia realizes that even though Awaitsun is always very solemn and composed, he's actually scared. Very scared. For his wife. For his children. Awaitsun continues to claim that he's Grisia's loyal follower. This makes Grisia angry, as he doesn't believe Awaitsun is at all loyal. He touches the jewel on his throne and calms down.
He asks Awaitsun about Kissinger's royal family, a complete tangent from the previous conversation. The royal family consists of the king, queen, one prince, and three princesses. Grisia commands Awaitsun to kill the prince within three months. Stunned, Awaitsun doesn't immediately reply. He then asks if he may ask why Grisia wants the prince killed. Grisia answers of course he can ask, but first Grisia performs a wide scale magic spell. Afterward, Awaitsun finds that he can no longer speak. Same goes for the rest of his men. They can only communicate via telepathy to people who belong to the Cathedral of the Shadow God, so they won't be able to explain to Kissinger why they're going to kill the prince (Teddy). Grisia also has Scarlet monitoring their writing. Whatever they write will show up on their skin.
Awaitsun asks "why?" through telepathy.
Grisia answers that like Awaitsun wanted, he was not a Demon King who would destroy half the world. He was more the sort who liked to play games. Do you like my game?
Awaitsun leaves to carry out his order and doesn't even leave any of his men behind when he used to at least leave some to protect Grisia. Illu doesn't understand why Grisia gave Awaitsun three months. Wouldn't this mean he'd put it off until three months later? Grisia answers that's exactly what he wants. He wants Awaitsun to struggle to prolong the game. Illu doesn't understand and says that his lord was much easier to understand. Curious, Grisia again asks Illu how Roland had killed him. Illu answers that Roland never killed him. It looked like if Grisia ever wanted to find out what had truly happened, he'd have to ask Roland directly, but Roland was back at the Holy Temple.
Grisia reminds Illu about his orders. Illu asks him what his intentions are. Grisia answers that he plans to cultivate a hero. Illu wonders why. Grisia answers that of course there had to be heroes when you have a Demon King. Otherwise he would be putting on a one man show. Illu says cultivating an enemy is foolish behavior. Grisia tells him to shut up. Grisia goes to sleep. He needs more sleep now. Scarlet told him that it takes a lot out of him mentally to use so much dark aura. He wonders if this means he will eventually weaken and die. Scarlet reassures him that before the world's dark element balances out, he should be okay.
Illu yells at Grisia to go to his bed to sleep. It turns out that Grisia accidentally lets out magic in his sleep. His bed has protective barriers. Illu's other wing is now broken too.
Short version:
Grisia warps himself back to his castle, mutes his followers, commands them to kill Kissinger's prince within three months, tells Illu to deliver a message to the adventurer teams so that Grisia can rear a hero, and goes to sleep.
Notes:
-I'm referring to Grisia's place as a castle though it's referred to with the same character for temple
-Illu (name tentative) is a death knight that Roland created. Grisia has never been able to figure out how Illu died, and Illu does not know as he has no memories from before. Illu is completely loyal to Roland and only Roland.
-for now, I'll refer to the prince as "Teddy", which is usually what the first two characters of that name translates to, except there's three characters to the name, which would make this...not "Teddy", but well...again, unofficial translation.
Lucathia's thoughts:
Haha, oh Grisia, only you would still consider what you're doing "adventuring" when you're teleporting back to bed at night. He is a complete and utter bastard in this chapter. Muting Awaitsun and twenty other men? Prolonging the game? Taking his temper out on Illu? Nasty. I did grin when Grisia asked Awaitsun if he liked "his game". I feel Grisia was totally lashing out. I found it very interesting that the Cathedral of the Shadow God chooses Silent Eagle based on appearance. Oh what a delightful piece of trivia. Now I'm imagining Silent Eagle seducing the Demon King...
Chapter 3: The Demon King's Game - Role Play
Long version:
Grisia exits his empty tent. His three teammates make a big deal about how he's slept over 12 hours and how he hadn't responded at all to their calls. Grisia tells him that he needs a lot of sleep. They're dismayed because there's no way they call dally around every day for 12 hours. Grisia tries to compromise, but 8 hours is still too long. Grisia then says he'll lower his share to 30%. Michele immediately agrees again. Grisia is ticked, but then calms himself down by thinking that everything will belong to him in the end anyway, since he is the Demon King. Tailin quickly tries to calm Grisia down. Grisia smiles and says he's not angry, that companions matter much more than money. He seems to hear someone's thoughts (Michele's) about how his words sounded fake.
The night before, Grisia pulled a tent out of some magical space while everyone else made do with sleeping bags. While other people gave Grisia odd looks, Michele was overjoyed that they found themselves such a powerful mage who could magick things out of nowhere.
In the present, Charlotte has made breakfast (but it was so late that it was practically lunch), and her cooking is delicious. Grisia asks if they had any cilantro, making Michele wonder if he's some sort of noble, with his expensive-looking mask and with wanting cilantro. Grisia says that his past shouldn't matter. Tailin agrees, saying that even with him, they didn't ask so much. Grisia wonders about Tailin's wording. Even "with him?"
Charlotte starts wondering about Grisia's mask. The guys tell her to drop it, Grisia was in a fire and got disfigured, but Charlotte says that maybe he looks cooler now because of it. Grisia starts laughing, wondering how there can possibly be such an idiotic woman around. He tells her that she reminded him of an old friend.
At this time, someone calls out to Michele. This someone turns out to be one of Grisia's old companions (from volume 4) when he lost his memory. Woodrow. Grisia wonders if he'll be recognized, but he has black hair now, and is wearing a mask, so maybe he won't get recognized right away. If he is, then it's game over. He would never let anyone alive know that he's the Sun Knight.
Woodrow asks Michele who the new person is. Michele simply introduces him as a new teammate. Grisia discovers that Michele is the captain (he assumed Tailin was the captain, since Grisia pegged him as the hot-blooded fool who would rush off to save villagers).
Woodrow says that he heard the Church of the God of Light is planning on sending troops to battle the Demon King. This confuses Tailin, since if any kingdom's going to send troops, then Kissinger should be first as the Demon King does reside in Kissinger. Grisia thinks that this would make sense, except none of them knows that the Demon King is a citizen of the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound. Grisia discovers that his teammates are all from Kissinger. He reveals that he's from the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound. Charlotte responds that he doesn't look it with his dark clothes, as she's heard that the people of the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound are the children of sparkly light.
Grisia thinks to himself, "They're the children of the God of Light, not sparkly light!"
Grisia didn't dress himself, so he didn't know he was wearing all black. He throws his sight out again to see what he's wearing. At this time, he notices that Tailin is eavesdropping on Woodrow and Michele's conversation.
Grisia listens in and hears Woodrow asking if they want to join him in doing normal jobs instead of going against the Demon King. There are plenty of jobs no one's taken yet because everyone's tied up with the Demon King.
Blanking out, Grisia fumbles a bit and goes on about how the Demon King has to be defeated by a hero, not by the Twelve Holy Knights. Charlotte laughs at him for still believing in those kinds of tales. Grisia says that he'll be leaving the team if they aren't fighting the Demon King anymore. Tailin wonders if Grisia wants to be a hero. (untrue, as Grisia wanted Tailin to be the hero). Charlotte talks about how Grisia doesn't look like a hero at all. Woodrow overhears her using the name.
Michele wonders if Woodrow knows Grisia. Woodrow watches Grisia. He answers that it has to be a case of similar names, as it is impossible for "him" to be here.
Illu appears overhead. People below him start to panic. Tailin makes his way over and challenges Illu. Illu starts delivering his message but pauses in the middle to check his notes. Charlotte wonders if he's preparing some sort of incantation. Grisia gets angry and promises that he'll break Illu's wings again for not memorizing his speech.
Illu communicates with Grisia, asking if he should kill Tailin for disrespecting the Demon King. Grisia tells Illu to test Tailin's powers but not to kill him. He also tells Illu to summon his underlings to block everyone else. He's about to command his underlings to kill everyone but remembers in mid speech to change his command to "beat everyone up."
His underlings are a bit confused. Illu explains that the Demon King does not want the people killed. He wants to play with them. This makes Grisia face fault. Illu might as well announce to everyone that the Demon King is present with the rate he's going.
Grisia orders Illu around through telepathy and has Illu kissing some other female undead in front of everyone to mock the people. Tailin isn't even strong enough to defeat Illu's underlings. Grisia pretends to recite an incantation (he's actually saying a tongue twister) before he shoots out some magic at Illu's underlings. Illu is alarmed and tells Grisia not to kill his men. Grisia reassures him that he won't. He tells Illu to pretend to get stabbed by Tailin, and then retreat, but after Illu slams into Tailin, he sends Tailin flying and doesn't know what to do next. Thankfully, Tailin stands up.
Illu tells his underlings to back off. Grisia notices that they all seem very human and that their textbooks about undead creatures are really outdated.
Grisia tells Illu to end things. Illu and Tailin exchange many blows. Grisia wonders if Illu is purposely slacking off and asks him about how strong he is (if he's stronger than his underlings). Illu answers of course, otherwise how would they have become his underlings? Grisia thinks back to how there were many ways to go about that, as pretty much every one of the Twelve Holy Knights were capable of beating him.
Tailin slashes Illu. Illu feels a lot more pain than he should. Grisia notices that Tailin sprinkled some sort of liquid on his sword. When Illu retreats, Tailin yells that Illu was just a mindless follower of the Demon King. Illu is angered as he only answers to his lord (Roland). He tries to deliver a blow to Tailin. Grisia blocks it by teleporting himself in front of Tailin and gathering a lot of dark matter in front of his chest. Chastised, Illu apologizes. Grisia threatens to harm Roland. Illu pleads for him not to. Grisia tells him to scram.
Grisia reassures everyone that he's okay (though he thinks about how he no longer recovers like before).
Woodrow takes his leave. He's discovered Grisia is who he thought he was. Grisia warns him through telepathy not to reveal his identity.
Tailin tells Grisia that he owes him his life. This amuses Grisia. He thinks to himself, "You better use this life of yours to play this game with me."
Kissinger raises the reward money for fighting the Demon King, so the team decides to continue doing that. Illu sends a lot of undead for them to beat, so his team is actually making a lot of money. His team is also expanding as more and more people want to join. They are also famous for beating Illu. Grisia is pleased that Tailin's swordsmanship is improving. His only worry is Lesus' plans, though Lesus shouldn't be able to convince the palace, as the world needed Grisia to be the Demon King to absorb dark matter.
After a month, Grisia decides to pay a visit to the Holy Temple. He throws his sight out to take a look and almost thought he went to the wrong place. Everyone's wearing new outfits. Since when did the Pope become so generous? He feels a little guilty when the knights talk about how their old outfits would cave in after one hit (Grisia hadn't been able to buy them better outfits with his funds) but then he hears that their new outfits are for the sake of battling the Demon King.
This angers Grisia. He decides to pay the Pope a visit.
Before he finds the Pope, he sees Leaf, but he no longer looks "cute." His face looks a lot sharper. Leaf's vice captain talks with him about buying new arrows. They talk about how the Pope was very generous this time (they used to have to find twigs to make their arrows as they were only given money to buy the tips of the arrows).
Leaf pauses. He feels Grisia's presence. His vice captain points out two teenage female clerics, thinking they're who Leaf sensed. Seeing Leaf, they blush and run away.
Leaf wonders why since he's already engaged. His vice captain explains that things that aren't acquirable are always more desirable. They continue talking about preparations. Grisia wonders if Leaf is truly going to come to fight him because of Lesus' orders. Angry, Grisia starts thinking that he's the true head of the Holy Temple. He's Leaf's direct boss!
Charlotte calls Grisia's name. Grisia returns to himself.
Short version:
Grisia returns to his adventurer team. Illu delivers his warning. Grisia orchestrates a mock fight between Illu and Tailin. Tailin slashes Illu with his sword. Illu retreats but is provoked by Tailin. Grisia blocks the blow for Tailin. Woodrow discovers Grisia is Grisia. Grisia pays the Holy Temple a visit and sees that everyone has new armor. Leaf no longer looks baby-faced.
Notes:
-Again, I don't know how other people are translating this guy's name, but I'm going to call him Woodler for now. Now named Woodrow.
Lucathia's thoughts:
Grisia has been completely accepted by his new adventurer team. Their antics remind me a lot of his team from volume 4. Grisia does nothing to hide his personality, other than keeping information from them. Haha, Grisia getting viewed as a noble with wanting cilantro with his food. I suppose he has it better than many other citizens who are poorer, and he does live in the Holy Temple and has a large room to himself. Tailin seems to be keeping something hidden from the others. Just who is he? Oh Charlotte...the Children of sparkly light? Woodrow's return! Eeeeee! Someone who actually knows Grisia from before and also knows that he's not exactly benevolent. Illu, oh Illu and his note cards... oh man, Leaf looking older? (Oh dear, they had to use twigs to make their arrows?) The Pope sure was stingy!
Chapter 4: The Betrayer of the God of Light - The Black General
Long version:
Charlotte tells Grisia that someone's here for him. Grisia says to turn them away if they're here to beg him to be their teacher. Charlotte says that's not it, that he must truly be some sort of noble. The guy claims to be Grisia's butler.
The guy is Adair.
As Adair had even been responsible for preparing Grisia's breakfast, it wasn't wrong for him to claim to be Grisia's "butler". Charlotte wonders if Grisia knows the guy. Adair isn't wearing his holy knight armor, but his stance shows that he isn't just a nobody. Grisia curses master swordsmen.
Adair asks if he can have a private word with him. Grisia tells him they have nothing to say to each other, and for him to be careful with his words. Adair nods and says that he's always been loyal to his captain no matter how absurd the order. Should he not at least have the right to speak to his captain?
Grisia curses. Adair's acting has always been superb despite him being loyal. His swordsmanship is awesome, as is his ability to take care of matters. Sometimes Grisia wonders if Adair wouldn't have made a better Sun Knight than him.
Tailin wonders about Adair calling Grisia "Captain".
Grisia grabs Adair and teleports him away.
Back at his castle, Adair smiles at Grisia. Grisia tells him not to call him "Captain", so Adair starts calling him, "Your Highness (the Demon King)" as requested by Grisia. Grisia throws his sight out to look at Adair and discovers that Adair already has white hairs.
Grisia wonders if Adair's here to jump ship. Adair answers "of course," except there is no of course to this. Adair's the vice captain of the Sun Knight Platoon! Grisia tells him that he thought Adair was here to convince him to return. Adair replies that his majesty has already made his decision. His underling will of course follow that. Grisia finds himself unable to tell if Adair is acting or not.
Adair asks Grisia what he's doing with the adventurer team. Since Grisia can't figure Adair out, he decides he needs to see more of his reactions. He tells Adair he's playing a hero and demon king game. After he's done, he plans to slaughter them all. He looks at Adair to gauge his reaction.
Adair says that'd be a waste. He should capture them first and use them later. Grisia thinks Adair has revealed himself, that he's here to prevent Grisia from killing. Adair then continues to say that Grisia needs more protection. More guards. Illu's not his. He's Roland's. That's too dangerous.
Grisia purposely asks, "Don't I have you?"
Adair agrees but says that he's just one person. Grisia needs more guards who will never betray him especially since he will be defenseless when he loses the power of the Demon King.
Grisia is unable to comprehend Adair even though he's his vice captain. Making a "guard" would require Grisia to kill the people first. Grisia tells Adair that he is no longer his captain. Adair should return to the Holy Temple and take up the position of Sun Knight before Grisia kills him.
Adair kneels and protests vehemently, claiming no matter what position his captain takes, Adair will always want to serve him.
Grisia laughs and asks Adair if anyone has told him he never knows when to give up. Adair replies that everyone who knows him and knows that he's Grisia's vice captain has said this to him before.
Grisia laughs again and tells Adair, "Remember these words, 'Only you will never have to kneel in front of me.'"
Illu shows up. Grisia commands Illu to listen to Adair's orders. Illu is angry, but Grisia deals with this by asking Adair about Roland. Illu immediately becomes attentive.
Adair doesn't know much, as he left very early on. He has also not heard Roland mention Illu before. This makes Illu sad. Grisia sends Illu away to find armor for Adair. Adair watches Illu with dissatisfaction.
Grisia wonders how Adair found him. Adair says it was because of Woodrow. When Adair came upon the team, Woodrow's expression was strange, so Adair forced it out of him. Grisia wonders about how Adair already resembled a Demon King's underling before he jumped ship. Maybe it was because Grisia often sent him out to beat people up, to secretly investigate...
Adair notices that the place is completely empty. He says this would not do, since who knew what kind of traps Grisia's enemies would spring. This leads Grisia to remembering that the Church of the God of Light plans on battling him. He asks Adair about it.
Adair angrily reveals that Knight-Captain Judgment has been stubborn and is angry at Grisia. Indignantly, Adair complains that Knight-Captain Judgment is too thoughtless, as his captain had to sacrifice himself for the sake of the world.
Grisia feels a little cold knowing that Lesus is angry at him, but then he reminds himself that he's the Demon King now. No need to be scared of Lesus! He makes a small body for Scarlet out of dark matter and puts Scarlet's soul in it. He gives her to Adair. She distrusts him because he's a holy knight. She reminds him that the previous Sun Knight especially tricked Grisia the most. Angry, Grisia yells at her not to speak like that about his teacher. Grisia commands them to summon more undead creatures together and for Adair to train the troops. Scarlet reluctantly agrees to cooperate but warns Adair not to bring any harm to Grisia, or else. Adair smiles and says that's no problem.
At this time, Illu returns with armor, with his underlings carrying them. Again, Grisia thinks that their undead creature textbooks really need an update. He's seen more than 20 undead creatures that aren't part of his textbooks in one month.
The armor is pretty ridiculous. After wearing it, you can't even tell who's inside. It's actually quite perfect for the underling of the Demon King. One glance will let you know this isn't a good person. Grisia tells Adair to try it out.
Adair tries it out with the help of the female undead creatures, as it's not armor one can put on alone. Adair says it's only a little heavier than his armor from before. Which means this must be very expensive armor for it to be light and sturdy at the same time. Grisia has Adair wear the helmet too. Otherwise people might recognize him. Adair takes the sword that goes along with the outfit and then advises his majesty to tax the three kingdoms (for the undead creatures). Although they might not be short on money, his majesty needed to display his prowess to show people he was not a pushover.
Grisia thinks that Adair looks completely like an underling of the Demon King. They talk about why the kingdoms have put a warrant on the undead creatures. Adair reveals that this is so that Grisia won't get bored and go after the kingdoms themselves.
Grisia wonders why Adair knows this much. Adair replies that Kissinger at first wanted the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound to pay for the warrants as undead creatures was their expertise, but as the money would have come from the salaries of the Holy Temple, the Pope convinced the king to refuse to do this. Grisia is impressed by the Pope. Adair reveals a strange smile and says the Pope was partly able to convince the king because he said he would come straight to Grisia to tell on the king if he agreed to Kissinger's demands.
Grisia laughs. Scarlet is not happy that Grisia is being used, but Grisia says that if he gets angry over every little thing, then he would be angry all day long. Scarlet comments that he's not like previous Demon Kings.
This makes Grisia wonder if Demon Kings had to have bad temper. Scarlet denies this and says that absorbing so much dark matter always affects people no matter their original temperament. And they always threw their temper around and laid their eyes on hard to acquire things, and sometimes they destroyed entire palaces because of it. Grisia thinks it's because the liches spoiled their children that they turned out that way.
Scarlet says that Grisia is just as spoiled. Grisia does not think this. He hasn't destroyed a palace! Adair reveals that everyone thinks he did (as Charlotte, the other contender, did destroy a lot of property, and now he's responsible for her actions). Grisia states that he hasn't stolen any princesses! Adair reveals that people think he's stolen Alice away, and after getting tired of her, gifted her to Awaitsun.
Grisia thinks he must be the most misunderstood Demon King ever. He instructs Adair and Scarlet to do their utmost to force the three kingdoms to pay him money.
Short version:
Adair shows up, claiming to be Grisia's "butler". Grisia teleports them back to his castle. Adair claims he is here to serve Grisia, that he doesn't care what Grisia's profession is. Grisia can't tell if Adair is acting or not, but he accepts him in the end. He has Adair put on new armor and commands Adair to train the undead troops that Scarlet will summon for them.
Lucathia's thoughts:
Okay, this is where I went kl;JFL;ASJKDF;ASDJKF; ADAIR. Just. Adair. Claiming to be Grisia's butler, eeeeeeee. It is so true though. Adair pretty much takes care of everything for Grisia. Nice to see Woodrow mentioned here. I wonder how that confrontation went (between Woodrow and Adair)? Adair can be quite the sneak himself, and he sure seems devilish enough at the moment. I'm completely ecstatic over Grisia telling Adair that he is the only one who never has to kneel before him. Scarlet reveals that Demon Kings always have bad temper because of absorbing so much dark element. Is Grisia being affected by this or not? He seems fairly like himself to me, just not held back by pretenses. Unlike the time when he lost his memory and just did what he wanted, this time, he's doing everything while knowing the repercussions. Poor Grisia for having to take the blame of destroying property and "stealing" Alice...
Summary Part 2
Please only read this if you don't mind being spoiled, and please do not spoil other people about the ending. Please do not copy and paste this elsewhere, as it is riddled with mistakes and I cannot fix them if this gets posted elsewhere. Please do read actual translations when translators get around to it and don't let this take the place of their hard work. Also consider hoping over to Yu Wo's blog entry to let her know your thoughts, either about volume 8 or LSK in general. I'm sure she'll appreciate English responses too! (But don't mention this post please).
I've included long and short version summaries of each chapter, with my thoughts following each! I would love to hear other people's reactions to this novel. If anyone does read this, let me know your thoughts about the book! I'm bursting to talk about it. :)
In one of Yu Wo's plurks, she mentioned that it took a while for volume 8 to be published, so she saw some readers mention that they didn't remember what happened in volume 7. Her response was something like "Sun becomes the Demon King. The end!" (I don't remember the exact words, but it was something to that effect.)
So yeah. Volume 7. Grisia chose to become the Demon King so that he could retain his elemental sensing. Otherwise, he would have lost that skill and would have been completely blind and useless, meaning he could not have remained the Sun Knight. He told everyone that he was going to become a part-time Demon King while also being the Sun Knight, but once he received Roland's shard (his share of the Demon King potential), Grisia immediately went back on his words. He paid Lesus a visit and blasted him into a table, telling everyone he was no longer going to return to the Holy Temple.
Volume 8 opens where volume 7 left off. Grisia is now the Demon King. He refuses to return to the Holy Temple. What will everyone do?
Prologue: Challenging the Demon King
Long version:
The prologue starts with Roland wondering if he should have become the Demon King after all, how it was his fault that Grisia had to become the Demon King. Lesus refuses to let Roland mope, and everyone makes Roland aware that he is just as much a part of the Twelve Holy Knights as everyone else is, and that his place was at the Holy Temple. They share a moment over Grisia's small habit, some unconscious thing he always does when he is serious about his orders. Essentially, everyone can tell when Grisia is being serious or not. Everyone tells Roland not to tell Sun about his habit.
Judgment, Storm, and Stone pay a visit to the king for money to challenge the Demon King. Negotiating for funds is not something Judgment likes to do. Usually tasks like these were all left to Sun. Judgment brings Storm and Stone since they are skilled with negotiations. Storm feels strange that he's walking with something dark and murky by his side instead of something shiny and blinding. Judgment notices the guards meeting his gaze, when before with the previous king, the guards were always too frightened to meet his gaze because their king left them no pride. Judgment muses that their new king has already inspired them enough for them to be able to lift their heads.
Inside, everyone is busy organizing for the citizens to return to the city. Before the king, Judgment states, "The Sun Knight has been abducted by the Demon King!" Which, is a complete and utter lie, since the king and Judgment both know that Sun is the Demon King. The king's older confidant tells all those not involved to leave the room. The king then tells Judgment to speak his mind and to stop talking rubbish, which relieves Judgment a bit since it took a lot out of him just to say what he'd just said.
Now that everyone has left, the king beckons Judgment closer. Judgment tells him that he wants to challenge the Demon King. The king is not happy. Elijah steps forward to protect the king when Judgment shouts that they could not have let a Death Lord become the Demon King. The king tells Elijah to step aside. He then tells Judgment that he will not give him any funds to harm Grisia. This stuns Judgment. He did not know Grisia and the king were on such good terms, and it seemed that the king thought Judgment wanted to usurp Grisia's position as the head of the Holy Temple.
At this time, Neo and Aldrizzt arrive. Neo straightens out the misunderstanding. Judgment explains that Sun's plan was to become the Demon King and return to the Holy Temple to be the Sun Knight at the same time, so he planned to carry out Sun's wishes. Hearing this, the king is now ready to listen to what Judgment has to say. Also, no one reacts to the fact that Aldrizzt is a dark elf. He now sort of finds that normal behavior for those involved with Grisia.
Stone is a bit worried about what Judgment promised the king Grisia would do when he returns, but Judgment says that they'll worry about that later. The Pope comes and gives everyone new armor, saying he cannot let all the holy knights go to battle with flimsy, paper-like armor (which is what they've all been wearing up until now). He complains that if Grisia found harm coming to his holy knights, he'd for sure take revenge on him.
Short version:
Roland blames himself for Grisia becoming the Demon King. Judgment visits the king for funds to go against the Demon King. The Pope gives everyone new armor.
Notes:
-Neo is Sun's teacher
-Prince Revolution will be translating Neo's traveling companion's name as Aldrizzt. Aldrizzt is a dark elf who people are usually afraid of, but he's found many people who are not afraid of him after meeting Neo.
Lucathia's thoughts:
This chapter made my heart burst with fondness. Roland's guilt! The other knights accepting him wholeheartedly! Storm feeling off that he's accompanied by something dark and murky instead of something shiny! Judgment feeling off about having to spin an outlandish tale! The king being protective of Grisia! (This. I just. See, Grisia, people love you!) Judgment getting angry at Elijah for standing in his way when Grisia had once saved him! The guards gaining self-respect because their king is someone to e respected! *flails* This is one of my most favorite non Grisia POVs.
Chapter 1: The Enemy of the Demon King - A Hero
Long version:
Grisia watches a bunch of people play at being "heroes" who've gathered to defeat the Demon King, except these heroes are stealing furniture from vacant houses. Just as he's about to fry them with his magic, someone yells, "Stop!" He stops and sees someone he considers a real hero. He throws his sight outwards so that he can "see" the person's appearance. He learned how to do this from Scarlet, who he still has trapped inside Eternal Tranquility. He's thrown the necklace far away and only retrieves it when he has something to ask her.
Immediately, Grisia regrets using his sight because this guy has blue eyes and blond hair and is very handsome. It turns out the "hero" wasn't yelling at Grisia to stop but rather at the furniture-snatchers. The hero tries to persuade them not to steal the furniture. Even though the villagers have left their homes, they may still return in the future. Grisia thinks his persuading is useless and shoots lightning at the people, inciting them into a fight. The hero blocks a blow for Grisia and then carries him off to escape.
The hero wonders why Grisia's wearing a mask. He answers "fire", pretending he's been disfigured, but it's actually for hiding his black eyes, as even the whites of his eyes are completely black as a result of being the Demon King. The hero wonders if Grisia can see. Grisia lazily answers by telling the hero how to evade oncoming arrows.
A female cleric, the hero's teammate, mistakes Grisia for a female until the hero puts Grisia down. Grisia doesn't care about her until she's about to be hit and someone yells out "Charlotte!" Immediately, Grisia reacts. He knows this is not his Charlotte and they seemed to be worlds apart, but he could not stop himself from reacting. He then discovers that this Charlotte is completely in love with the hero, Tailin, and thinks that in this (their obsession over one guy), they are quite similar.
The third member of the team, an archer named Michele, invites Grisia to join them since they are missing a mage. Grisia immediately joins since he's been looking for a hero to play around with. They're surprised by his fast response, so Grisia then starts arguing over how much money he'll get, especially since he's a mage of high caliber (he had Awaitsun prepare a certificate for that so that he could pass off as a high mage). He wonders if 50% would be overdoing it. Michele immediate says they won't go above 30%, so Grisia says 35% and Michele immediately agrees, making Grisia wonder if he's been tricked.
Grisia laughs. He's found himself a talkative hero, an archer who's good at acting, and an idiotic woman. He finds himself very amused.
Short version:
Grisia joins an adventurer team who's out to defeat the Demon King (meaning him).
Notes:
-I don't know how people will be or have been translating Grisia's lich (I actually like to refer to them as witches, but I think lich is more accurate), whose literal name means "Red Poem" but actually stands for "Red Corpse", as poem and corpse sound the same. I'll be referring to her as Scarlet.
-Awaitsun / Silent Eagle is the Demon King's loyal follower from the Cathedral of the Shadow God. PR! will be translating his name as Awaitsun, as Sun has told him to "Wait for Sun" (meaning wait for his revenge).
-This chapter introduces some new characters. Charlotte is a cleric. Tailin (I'm leaving his name like this as I do not know a good English equivalent for his name, and volume 8 is too far down the line for PR! to have discussed his name yet) is a "hero"/warrior , and Michele is an archer. These are not official names decided on by PR. Michele's name uses the characters that are most commonly translated as "Michelle", but since he's a guy, I've opted for the male version of the name.
Lucathia's thoughts:
This chapter really confused me. It was like, what? Last volume, and we're still getting introduced to a new character? Who is this "hero"? At first, I thought maybe this was the next Sun Knight candidate, the little boy that Grisia met back in the village. That would mean a lot of time has passed for the little boy to have grown up. But thankfully he isn't that little boy. I didn't want so much time to have passed. It never ceases to amuse me when Grisia is mistaken for a girl. And now he's pretending to be a mage!
Chapter 2: The Sword of the Demon King - Silent Eagle
Long version:
Using a dimensional door, Grisia returns from his tent straight to his
Grisia commands Illu to deliver a message from the Demon King to all the heroes about how any action from now on against the Demon King will be regarded as a betrayal, etc. Illu wonders if he's supposed to kill everyone after he finishes reading the message. Grisia gets mad, saying that if he wanted them killed, he'd have Illu do it from the start instead of reading such a long message. Illu still doesn't get it. Grisia blasts the death knight into the wall, destroying one of his wings.
Awaitsun asks Grisia to allow him to go in Illu's stead, but Grisia states that Illu would make more of an impression on everyone as an undead creature and that the only thing Awaitsun is good for is attracting women. Awaitsun asks if Grisia wants women (if he does, Awaitsun can acquire women for him), but Grisia is angry that Awaitsun thinks Grisia can only get women this way. Grisia provokes Awaitsun, telling him maybe he'll order Alice to come over. (Alice is Awaitsun's wife). Awaitsun pales but doesn't say anything.
Grisia grumbles that the Cathedral of the Shadow God really shouldn't have chosen Awaitsun as Silent Eagle. Just seeing his face was enough to incite Grisia. When Awaitsun reacts to that, Grisia discovers that Awaitsun is keeping something from him. He makes him talk and discovers that the Cathedral of the Shadow God chooses candidates for Silent Eagle based on looks. By being handsome, he can attract the Demon King if they were female, and if the Demon King were male, then he would release his rage on Silent Eagle. Hearing this, Grisia is angry that the Cathedral of the Shadow God thinks they're so smart. He tells Awaitsun that they've miscalculated. What if the Demon King got angry enough to kill Silent Eagle? Then all the training would have been useless. Awaitsun says that if he dies, he has an entire squad of replacements. Realizing this, Grisia takes a look at Awaitsun's men and sees that they're actually all very handsome. So these twenty something men were here to suffer for the sake of the rest of the world, here to die at the hands of the Demon King if he were to get mad.
Angry at the silence of all these "Silent Eagles", Grisia yells at Awaitsun to answer him if it was worth it. "Answer me or die!" Awaitsun answers that once they got chosen, they were already dead. He continues on that they are his most loyal followers, willing to do anything for him. His expression becomes painful (Grisia has him gripped with dark claws), an expression he didn't even show when the entire world was only a month away from being swallowed by darkness. Grisia likes this expression.
When Awaitsun says he shouldn't have married, Grisia finally lets him down. Grisia realizes that even though Awaitsun is always very solemn and composed, he's actually scared. Very scared. For his wife. For his children. Awaitsun continues to claim that he's Grisia's loyal follower. This makes Grisia angry, as he doesn't believe Awaitsun is at all loyal. He touches the jewel on his throne and calms down.
He asks Awaitsun about Kissinger's royal family, a complete tangent from the previous conversation. The royal family consists of the king, queen, one prince, and three princesses. Grisia commands Awaitsun to kill the prince within three months. Stunned, Awaitsun doesn't immediately reply. He then asks if he may ask why Grisia wants the prince killed. Grisia answers of course he can ask, but first Grisia performs a wide scale magic spell. Afterward, Awaitsun finds that he can no longer speak. Same goes for the rest of his men. They can only communicate via telepathy to people who belong to the Cathedral of the Shadow God, so they won't be able to explain to Kissinger why they're going to kill the prince (Teddy). Grisia also has Scarlet monitoring their writing. Whatever they write will show up on their skin.
Awaitsun asks "why?" through telepathy.
Grisia answers that like Awaitsun wanted, he was not a Demon King who would destroy half the world. He was more the sort who liked to play games. Do you like my game?
Awaitsun leaves to carry out his order and doesn't even leave any of his men behind when he used to at least leave some to protect Grisia. Illu doesn't understand why Grisia gave Awaitsun three months. Wouldn't this mean he'd put it off until three months later? Grisia answers that's exactly what he wants. He wants Awaitsun to struggle to prolong the game. Illu doesn't understand and says that his lord was much easier to understand. Curious, Grisia again asks Illu how Roland had killed him. Illu answers that Roland never killed him. It looked like if Grisia ever wanted to find out what had truly happened, he'd have to ask Roland directly, but Roland was back at the Holy Temple.
Grisia reminds Illu about his orders. Illu asks him what his intentions are. Grisia answers that he plans to cultivate a hero. Illu wonders why. Grisia answers that of course there had to be heroes when you have a Demon King. Otherwise he would be putting on a one man show. Illu says cultivating an enemy is foolish behavior. Grisia tells him to shut up. Grisia goes to sleep. He needs more sleep now. Scarlet told him that it takes a lot out of him mentally to use so much dark aura. He wonders if this means he will eventually weaken and die. Scarlet reassures him that before the world's dark element balances out, he should be okay.
Illu yells at Grisia to go to his bed to sleep. It turns out that Grisia accidentally lets out magic in his sleep. His bed has protective barriers. Illu's other wing is now broken too.
Short version:
Grisia warps himself back to his castle, mutes his followers, commands them to kill Kissinger's prince within three months, tells Illu to deliver a message to the adventurer teams so that Grisia can rear a hero, and goes to sleep.
Notes:
-I'm referring to Grisia's place as a castle though it's referred to with the same character for temple
-Illu (name tentative) is a death knight that Roland created. Grisia has never been able to figure out how Illu died, and Illu does not know as he has no memories from before. Illu is completely loyal to Roland and only Roland.
-for now, I'll refer to the prince as "Teddy", which is usually what the first two characters of that name translates to, except there's three characters to the name, which would make this...not "Teddy", but well...again, unofficial translation.
Lucathia's thoughts:
Haha, oh Grisia, only you would still consider what you're doing "adventuring" when you're teleporting back to bed at night. He is a complete and utter bastard in this chapter. Muting Awaitsun and twenty other men? Prolonging the game? Taking his temper out on Illu? Nasty. I did grin when Grisia asked Awaitsun if he liked "his game". I feel Grisia was totally lashing out. I found it very interesting that the Cathedral of the Shadow God chooses Silent Eagle based on appearance. Oh what a delightful piece of trivia. Now I'm imagining Silent Eagle seducing the Demon King...
Chapter 3: The Demon King's Game - Role Play
Long version:
Grisia exits his empty tent. His three teammates make a big deal about how he's slept over 12 hours and how he hadn't responded at all to their calls. Grisia tells him that he needs a lot of sleep. They're dismayed because there's no way they call dally around every day for 12 hours. Grisia tries to compromise, but 8 hours is still too long. Grisia then says he'll lower his share to 30%. Michele immediately agrees again. Grisia is ticked, but then calms himself down by thinking that everything will belong to him in the end anyway, since he is the Demon King. Tailin quickly tries to calm Grisia down. Grisia smiles and says he's not angry, that companions matter much more than money. He seems to hear someone's thoughts (Michele's) about how his words sounded fake.
The night before, Grisia pulled a tent out of some magical space while everyone else made do with sleeping bags. While other people gave Grisia odd looks, Michele was overjoyed that they found themselves such a powerful mage who could magick things out of nowhere.
In the present, Charlotte has made breakfast (but it was so late that it was practically lunch), and her cooking is delicious. Grisia asks if they had any cilantro, making Michele wonder if he's some sort of noble, with his expensive-looking mask and with wanting cilantro. Grisia says that his past shouldn't matter. Tailin agrees, saying that even with him, they didn't ask so much. Grisia wonders about Tailin's wording. Even "with him?"
Charlotte starts wondering about Grisia's mask. The guys tell her to drop it, Grisia was in a fire and got disfigured, but Charlotte says that maybe he looks cooler now because of it. Grisia starts laughing, wondering how there can possibly be such an idiotic woman around. He tells her that she reminded him of an old friend.
At this time, someone calls out to Michele. This someone turns out to be one of Grisia's old companions (from volume 4) when he lost his memory. Woodrow. Grisia wonders if he'll be recognized, but he has black hair now, and is wearing a mask, so maybe he won't get recognized right away. If he is, then it's game over. He would never let anyone alive know that he's the Sun Knight.
Woodrow asks Michele who the new person is. Michele simply introduces him as a new teammate. Grisia discovers that Michele is the captain (he assumed Tailin was the captain, since Grisia pegged him as the hot-blooded fool who would rush off to save villagers).
Woodrow says that he heard the Church of the God of Light is planning on sending troops to battle the Demon King. This confuses Tailin, since if any kingdom's going to send troops, then Kissinger should be first as the Demon King does reside in Kissinger. Grisia thinks that this would make sense, except none of them knows that the Demon King is a citizen of the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound. Grisia discovers that his teammates are all from Kissinger. He reveals that he's from the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound. Charlotte responds that he doesn't look it with his dark clothes, as she's heard that the people of the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound are the children of sparkly light.
Grisia thinks to himself, "They're the children of the God of Light, not sparkly light!"
Grisia didn't dress himself, so he didn't know he was wearing all black. He throws his sight out again to see what he's wearing. At this time, he notices that Tailin is eavesdropping on Woodrow and Michele's conversation.
Grisia listens in and hears Woodrow asking if they want to join him in doing normal jobs instead of going against the Demon King. There are plenty of jobs no one's taken yet because everyone's tied up with the Demon King.
Blanking out, Grisia fumbles a bit and goes on about how the Demon King has to be defeated by a hero, not by the Twelve Holy Knights. Charlotte laughs at him for still believing in those kinds of tales. Grisia says that he'll be leaving the team if they aren't fighting the Demon King anymore. Tailin wonders if Grisia wants to be a hero. (untrue, as Grisia wanted Tailin to be the hero). Charlotte talks about how Grisia doesn't look like a hero at all. Woodrow overhears her using the name.
Michele wonders if Woodrow knows Grisia. Woodrow watches Grisia. He answers that it has to be a case of similar names, as it is impossible for "him" to be here.
Illu appears overhead. People below him start to panic. Tailin makes his way over and challenges Illu. Illu starts delivering his message but pauses in the middle to check his notes. Charlotte wonders if he's preparing some sort of incantation. Grisia gets angry and promises that he'll break Illu's wings again for not memorizing his speech.
Illu communicates with Grisia, asking if he should kill Tailin for disrespecting the Demon King. Grisia tells Illu to test Tailin's powers but not to kill him. He also tells Illu to summon his underlings to block everyone else. He's about to command his underlings to kill everyone but remembers in mid speech to change his command to "beat everyone up."
His underlings are a bit confused. Illu explains that the Demon King does not want the people killed. He wants to play with them. This makes Grisia face fault. Illu might as well announce to everyone that the Demon King is present with the rate he's going.
Grisia orders Illu around through telepathy and has Illu kissing some other female undead in front of everyone to mock the people. Tailin isn't even strong enough to defeat Illu's underlings. Grisia pretends to recite an incantation (he's actually saying a tongue twister) before he shoots out some magic at Illu's underlings. Illu is alarmed and tells Grisia not to kill his men. Grisia reassures him that he won't. He tells Illu to pretend to get stabbed by Tailin, and then retreat, but after Illu slams into Tailin, he sends Tailin flying and doesn't know what to do next. Thankfully, Tailin stands up.
Illu tells his underlings to back off. Grisia notices that they all seem very human and that their textbooks about undead creatures are really outdated.
Grisia tells Illu to end things. Illu and Tailin exchange many blows. Grisia wonders if Illu is purposely slacking off and asks him about how strong he is (if he's stronger than his underlings). Illu answers of course, otherwise how would they have become his underlings? Grisia thinks back to how there were many ways to go about that, as pretty much every one of the Twelve Holy Knights were capable of beating him.
Tailin slashes Illu. Illu feels a lot more pain than he should. Grisia notices that Tailin sprinkled some sort of liquid on his sword. When Illu retreats, Tailin yells that Illu was just a mindless follower of the Demon King. Illu is angered as he only answers to his lord (Roland). He tries to deliver a blow to Tailin. Grisia blocks it by teleporting himself in front of Tailin and gathering a lot of dark matter in front of his chest. Chastised, Illu apologizes. Grisia threatens to harm Roland. Illu pleads for him not to. Grisia tells him to scram.
Grisia reassures everyone that he's okay (though he thinks about how he no longer recovers like before).
Woodrow takes his leave. He's discovered Grisia is who he thought he was. Grisia warns him through telepathy not to reveal his identity.
Tailin tells Grisia that he owes him his life. This amuses Grisia. He thinks to himself, "You better use this life of yours to play this game with me."
Kissinger raises the reward money for fighting the Demon King, so the team decides to continue doing that. Illu sends a lot of undead for them to beat, so his team is actually making a lot of money. His team is also expanding as more and more people want to join. They are also famous for beating Illu. Grisia is pleased that Tailin's swordsmanship is improving. His only worry is Lesus' plans, though Lesus shouldn't be able to convince the palace, as the world needed Grisia to be the Demon King to absorb dark matter.
After a month, Grisia decides to pay a visit to the Holy Temple. He throws his sight out to take a look and almost thought he went to the wrong place. Everyone's wearing new outfits. Since when did the Pope become so generous? He feels a little guilty when the knights talk about how their old outfits would cave in after one hit (Grisia hadn't been able to buy them better outfits with his funds) but then he hears that their new outfits are for the sake of battling the Demon King.
This angers Grisia. He decides to pay the Pope a visit.
Before he finds the Pope, he sees Leaf, but he no longer looks "cute." His face looks a lot sharper. Leaf's vice captain talks with him about buying new arrows. They talk about how the Pope was very generous this time (they used to have to find twigs to make their arrows as they were only given money to buy the tips of the arrows).
Leaf pauses. He feels Grisia's presence. His vice captain points out two teenage female clerics, thinking they're who Leaf sensed. Seeing Leaf, they blush and run away.
Leaf wonders why since he's already engaged. His vice captain explains that things that aren't acquirable are always more desirable. They continue talking about preparations. Grisia wonders if Leaf is truly going to come to fight him because of Lesus' orders. Angry, Grisia starts thinking that he's the true head of the Holy Temple. He's Leaf's direct boss!
Charlotte calls Grisia's name. Grisia returns to himself.
Short version:
Grisia returns to his adventurer team. Illu delivers his warning. Grisia orchestrates a mock fight between Illu and Tailin. Tailin slashes Illu with his sword. Illu retreats but is provoked by Tailin. Grisia blocks the blow for Tailin. Woodrow discovers Grisia is Grisia. Grisia pays the Holy Temple a visit and sees that everyone has new armor. Leaf no longer looks baby-faced.
Notes:
-
Lucathia's thoughts:
Grisia has been completely accepted by his new adventurer team. Their antics remind me a lot of his team from volume 4. Grisia does nothing to hide his personality, other than keeping information from them. Haha, Grisia getting viewed as a noble with wanting cilantro with his food. I suppose he has it better than many other citizens who are poorer, and he does live in the Holy Temple and has a large room to himself. Tailin seems to be keeping something hidden from the others. Just who is he? Oh Charlotte...the Children of sparkly light? Woodrow's return! Eeeeee! Someone who actually knows Grisia from before and also knows that he's not exactly benevolent. Illu, oh Illu and his note cards... oh man, Leaf looking older? (Oh dear, they had to use twigs to make their arrows?) The Pope sure was stingy!
Chapter 4: The Betrayer of the God of Light - The Black General
Long version:
Charlotte tells Grisia that someone's here for him. Grisia says to turn them away if they're here to beg him to be their teacher. Charlotte says that's not it, that he must truly be some sort of noble. The guy claims to be Grisia's butler.
The guy is Adair.
As Adair had even been responsible for preparing Grisia's breakfast, it wasn't wrong for him to claim to be Grisia's "butler". Charlotte wonders if Grisia knows the guy. Adair isn't wearing his holy knight armor, but his stance shows that he isn't just a nobody. Grisia curses master swordsmen.
Adair asks if he can have a private word with him. Grisia tells him they have nothing to say to each other, and for him to be careful with his words. Adair nods and says that he's always been loyal to his captain no matter how absurd the order. Should he not at least have the right to speak to his captain?
Grisia curses. Adair's acting has always been superb despite him being loyal. His swordsmanship is awesome, as is his ability to take care of matters. Sometimes Grisia wonders if Adair wouldn't have made a better Sun Knight than him.
Tailin wonders about Adair calling Grisia "Captain".
Grisia grabs Adair and teleports him away.
Back at his castle, Adair smiles at Grisia. Grisia tells him not to call him "Captain", so Adair starts calling him, "Your Highness (the Demon King)" as requested by Grisia. Grisia throws his sight out to look at Adair and discovers that Adair already has white hairs.
Grisia wonders if Adair's here to jump ship. Adair answers "of course," except there is no of course to this. Adair's the vice captain of the Sun Knight Platoon! Grisia tells him that he thought Adair was here to convince him to return. Adair replies that his majesty has already made his decision. His underling will of course follow that. Grisia finds himself unable to tell if Adair is acting or not.
Adair asks Grisia what he's doing with the adventurer team. Since Grisia can't figure Adair out, he decides he needs to see more of his reactions. He tells Adair he's playing a hero and demon king game. After he's done, he plans to slaughter them all. He looks at Adair to gauge his reaction.
Adair says that'd be a waste. He should capture them first and use them later. Grisia thinks Adair has revealed himself, that he's here to prevent Grisia from killing. Adair then continues to say that Grisia needs more protection. More guards. Illu's not his. He's Roland's. That's too dangerous.
Grisia purposely asks, "Don't I have you?"
Adair agrees but says that he's just one person. Grisia needs more guards who will never betray him especially since he will be defenseless when he loses the power of the Demon King.
Grisia is unable to comprehend Adair even though he's his vice captain. Making a "guard" would require Grisia to kill the people first. Grisia tells Adair that he is no longer his captain. Adair should return to the Holy Temple and take up the position of Sun Knight before Grisia kills him.
Adair kneels and protests vehemently, claiming no matter what position his captain takes, Adair will always want to serve him.
Grisia laughs and asks Adair if anyone has told him he never knows when to give up. Adair replies that everyone who knows him and knows that he's Grisia's vice captain has said this to him before.
Grisia laughs again and tells Adair, "Remember these words, 'Only you will never have to kneel in front of me.'"
Illu shows up. Grisia commands Illu to listen to Adair's orders. Illu is angry, but Grisia deals with this by asking Adair about Roland. Illu immediately becomes attentive.
Adair doesn't know much, as he left very early on. He has also not heard Roland mention Illu before. This makes Illu sad. Grisia sends Illu away to find armor for Adair. Adair watches Illu with dissatisfaction.
Grisia wonders how Adair found him. Adair says it was because of Woodrow. When Adair came upon the team, Woodrow's expression was strange, so Adair forced it out of him. Grisia wonders about how Adair already resembled a Demon King's underling before he jumped ship. Maybe it was because Grisia often sent him out to beat people up, to secretly investigate...
Adair notices that the place is completely empty. He says this would not do, since who knew what kind of traps Grisia's enemies would spring. This leads Grisia to remembering that the Church of the God of Light plans on battling him. He asks Adair about it.
Adair angrily reveals that Knight-Captain Judgment has been stubborn and is angry at Grisia. Indignantly, Adair complains that Knight-Captain Judgment is too thoughtless, as his captain had to sacrifice himself for the sake of the world.
Grisia feels a little cold knowing that Lesus is angry at him, but then he reminds himself that he's the Demon King now. No need to be scared of Lesus! He makes a small body for Scarlet out of dark matter and puts Scarlet's soul in it. He gives her to Adair. She distrusts him because he's a holy knight. She reminds him that the previous Sun Knight especially tricked Grisia the most. Angry, Grisia yells at her not to speak like that about his teacher. Grisia commands them to summon more undead creatures together and for Adair to train the troops. Scarlet reluctantly agrees to cooperate but warns Adair not to bring any harm to Grisia, or else. Adair smiles and says that's no problem.
At this time, Illu returns with armor, with his underlings carrying them. Again, Grisia thinks that their undead creature textbooks really need an update. He's seen more than 20 undead creatures that aren't part of his textbooks in one month.
The armor is pretty ridiculous. After wearing it, you can't even tell who's inside. It's actually quite perfect for the underling of the Demon King. One glance will let you know this isn't a good person. Grisia tells Adair to try it out.
Adair tries it out with the help of the female undead creatures, as it's not armor one can put on alone. Adair says it's only a little heavier than his armor from before. Which means this must be very expensive armor for it to be light and sturdy at the same time. Grisia has Adair wear the helmet too. Otherwise people might recognize him. Adair takes the sword that goes along with the outfit and then advises his majesty to tax the three kingdoms (for the undead creatures). Although they might not be short on money, his majesty needed to display his prowess to show people he was not a pushover.
Grisia thinks that Adair looks completely like an underling of the Demon King. They talk about why the kingdoms have put a warrant on the undead creatures. Adair reveals that this is so that Grisia won't get bored and go after the kingdoms themselves.
Grisia wonders why Adair knows this much. Adair replies that Kissinger at first wanted the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound to pay for the warrants as undead creatures was their expertise, but as the money would have come from the salaries of the Holy Temple, the Pope convinced the king to refuse to do this. Grisia is impressed by the Pope. Adair reveals a strange smile and says the Pope was partly able to convince the king because he said he would come straight to Grisia to tell on the king if he agreed to Kissinger's demands.
Grisia laughs. Scarlet is not happy that Grisia is being used, but Grisia says that if he gets angry over every little thing, then he would be angry all day long. Scarlet comments that he's not like previous Demon Kings.
This makes Grisia wonder if Demon Kings had to have bad temper. Scarlet denies this and says that absorbing so much dark matter always affects people no matter their original temperament. And they always threw their temper around and laid their eyes on hard to acquire things, and sometimes they destroyed entire palaces because of it. Grisia thinks it's because the liches spoiled their children that they turned out that way.
Scarlet says that Grisia is just as spoiled. Grisia does not think this. He hasn't destroyed a palace! Adair reveals that everyone thinks he did (as Charlotte, the other contender, did destroy a lot of property, and now he's responsible for her actions). Grisia states that he hasn't stolen any princesses! Adair reveals that people think he's stolen Alice away, and after getting tired of her, gifted her to Awaitsun.
Grisia thinks he must be the most misunderstood Demon King ever. He instructs Adair and Scarlet to do their utmost to force the three kingdoms to pay him money.
Short version:
Adair shows up, claiming to be Grisia's "butler". Grisia teleports them back to his castle. Adair claims he is here to serve Grisia, that he doesn't care what Grisia's profession is. Grisia can't tell if Adair is acting or not, but he accepts him in the end. He has Adair put on new armor and commands Adair to train the undead troops that Scarlet will summon for them.
Lucathia's thoughts:
Okay, this is where I went kl;JFL;ASJKDF;ASDJKF; ADAIR. Just. Adair. Claiming to be Grisia's butler, eeeeeeee. It is so true though. Adair pretty much takes care of everything for Grisia. Nice to see Woodrow mentioned here. I wonder how that confrontation went (between Woodrow and Adair)? Adair can be quite the sneak himself, and he sure seems devilish enough at the moment. I'm completely ecstatic over Grisia telling Adair that he is the only one who never has to kneel before him. Scarlet reveals that Demon Kings always have bad temper because of absorbing so much dark element. Is Grisia being affected by this or not? He seems fairly like himself to me, just not held back by pretenses. Unlike the time when he lost his memory and just did what he wanted, this time, he's doing everything while knowing the repercussions. Poor Grisia for having to take the blame of destroying property and "stealing" Alice...
Summary Part 2
