《Aspiring Demon Lord》 Chapter 1 A/N: hi, the author here. i would like to share some stuff i had on my mind. each chapter would had around 1k-1,5k words, but i will try to update frequently. if you see any mistakes in the grammar section, pls tell me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¡°In the future, I wish to be the Great Demon Lord who ruled the whole world.¡± As the seven year old me back then said that, the surrounding immediately grew silent. Now that I thought about it, maybe that wasn¡¯t a good thing to say in a place dubbed as the ¡®Holy¡¯ Capital of Arla Empire ¨C a human empire with strong prejudice against any demon-related stuff. But hey, what can I say? I was just an innocent child that was asked about what would I liked to be in the future... ¡°Eh... Rafael, you actually mean that you want to be the one who defeated the Great Demon Lord, right?¡± My dad, with his forehead covered in beads of sweats, asked uncertainly. Unable to get my answer right away, as I looked at him with an expression that says ¡®what the heck are you talking about¡¯, my dad grabbed my shoulders with both of his hands and asked me again: ¡°Right?¡± ¡°Um, no, I truly wish to be one. What about it, dad?¡± I answered as I tilted my head. I could feel that there were several sharp glares pointing at the two of us as I confirmed my answer. Probably from the surrounding High Priests and High Priestesses of the Church of the Goddess Tian. Oh right, I forgot to mention but my father was exactly one of those High Priest. The youngest one, in fact. Currently, they were idly chatting with each other in one of the main temple¡¯s room, discussing many unimportant stuff which were mostly unrelated to the Church, and I happened to attend it too. ¡°Cough.¡± A mean looking old hag cleared her throat and glanced at my dad, ¡°It seems like you didn¡¯t teach your son correctly.¡± ¡°O-of course not, my son must be joking, haha...¡± My dad answered as he smiled sheepishly. Being accused by the mean looking old lady, I could see that my dad¡¯s eyes twitched. The others might have not noticed, but I knew dad must be pissed off and really hated that old hag. Ignoring my dad, the old hag ¨C Mrs. Puina, if I am not wrong ¨C directly asked me with raised eyebrows, ¡°Little brat, can you explain as to why you want to be a ¡®Great¡¯ Demon Lord?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that obvious?¡± I answered. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± It seems like my answer only further deepened Mrs. Puina¡¯s and my dad¡¯s confusion. The other people that originally weren¡¯t paying me any attention also turned their head towards me curiously. ¡°No, that wasn¡¯t obvious at all. Please explain.¡± Said Mrs. Puina. I thought for a while before I nodded and replied, ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°You see... my dad always tells the story about the Hero and the Demon Lord. Everything always begin with the Demon Lord trying to take over the world, and ended with the Hero, together with his companion saved the world by slaying the Demon Lord.¡± Everyone blinked. They¡¯d probably thought, ¡®what¡¯s wrong with that?¡¯ I continued, however: ¡°In the story, the Hero was depicted as a person who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through impressive feats of ingenuity, bravery, and/or strength, oftentimes sacrificing his own personal concerns for some greater good. The Demon Lord, however, are creature other than human that had gained great power and established a position of preeminence amoing their kind, and liked to do whatever stuff they wanted to do, conquering the world is also part of it.¡± ¡°If you compare the two of them, isn¡¯t it clear about who had better life? One had to sacrifice himself to serve anothers, and the other could live his life freely. And if I had succesfully become a Great Demon Lord in the future, don¡¯t worry, I wont kill you if you dont piss me off. Oh, and I wont do stupid things such as engaging a Hero in a deathmatch or something, I would¡¯ve just fled right away if I feel that a danger is approaching. Screw pride, my life is more important,¡± with that, I finished my explanation with a smile. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. As I looked around, I noticed that most of the people in the room, my dad included, were facepalming. ¡°Gale, It seems like... your son had a slight problem with his head.¡± A bald middle-aged man said. ¡°You call this small? We can¡¯t have a child of a High Priest with this kind of mentality! I suggest we¡¯d best send him to the Academy,¡± another one said, and the other nodded in agreement. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Hn.¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s the best for him.¡± My dad, however, was less than amused by the unanimous decision of the others and vehemently refused, ¡°Wait wait wait, how can you all decide his future path so easily? He¡¯s my son for Tian¡¯s sake!¡± The middle-aged man whom had proposed first snorted and indifferently said, ¡°What do you propose then? It¡¯s exactly because he is your son that we had to take action. If he was just the son of some random person, even if he truly did become the Great Demon Lord, as he says, we would just sent some army to subjugate him. However, this is the son of a High Priest of our Church we are talking about. If words got out that such a person was aspiring to be the leader of our archenemies, what would the believers says about it? Then we will have no face anymore!¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right!¡± ¡°Tell us what should we do then!?¡± ¡°Urgh...¡± My dad gritted his teeth as he tried to hold his anger. To begin with, his position between this group of people wasn¡¯t that high. Even if he vehemently refused, once the others had an unanimous decision, he still would have been unable to change it. Watching dad¡¯s body shook in anger, even the innocent me also felt pissed off. He shouldn¡¯t have deserved this kind of treatment! Though mostly, this was my fault to begin with... ¡°Daddy, what is this Academy they spoke off?¡± I decided to interrupt their bashing by asking the question I had in my mind. What actually was this so called ¡®Academy¡¯? Hearing my question, my dad¡¯s expression softened as he patted my head, ¡°It¡¯s some kind of boarding school.¡± ¡°Boarding school?¡± ¡°Un, it¡¯s a school in which all of the students had to live during the part of the year they attend the lessons, which in this case, 7 year. You can only leave the Academy¡¯s ground once in a year. Over there, students would learn all kind of lesson, combat techniques and magic included. However, one would have to wait until they reached age of 10 before...¡± ¡°We can do with some exception,¡± Mrs. Puina suddenly said, interrupting my dad¡¯s explanation. Every pairs of eyes turned to her. ¡°I know the Headmaster personally. If I were to send a letter to him, I think he would¡¯ve agreed to accept one additional student. An underaged one at that.¡± ¡°But my son is still...¡± my dad tried to said, however, a middle-aged man immediately countered him, ¡°A difference of 3 years aren¡¯t that much.¡± Watching my dad¡¯s pitiful appearance, I couldn¡¯t hold it anymore. ¡°I will do it, dad.¡± I said without hesitation. ¡°Huh? But Rafael...¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay dad, I will be alright. I will learn a lot of things there, and I will also become a lot stronger so that I could reach my dream! When the time comes, I will punish everyone who bullied you!¡± I said that while subtly glanced at the other people in the room. Okay, maybe it wasn¡¯t that subtle, since most of them knew I had been doing that... ¡°By ¡®your dream¡¯, you mean?¡± ¡°Becoming the Great Demon Lord of course!¡± ¡°......¡± ¡°......¡± And thus, on that day, my adminission to the Holy Arla Academy had been decided. Chapter 2 The 5th day of the 7th month of the year was the day when every prospective students, together with the senior students of Holy Arla Academy gathered from all over the world. Holy Arla Academy was said to be one of the best Academy in the whole world, with many talented and genius students attending it, guided by extraordinary and formidable teachers, recruited from all over the places. For the teachers, It doesn¡¯t matter even if you had suspicious or mysterious background, as long as you¡¯re capable and truly wished to pass down your knowledge to the students, you could still apply to became an instructor. It was also the same for the students, it doesn¡¯t matter whether you¡¯re part of the Royal Family of some nation, or just a normal commoner, as long as you¡¯ve got the talent and passed the admission test, you could also be accepted as a student. Even if you can¡¯t pay the school fees, the school wont even force you to pay right away. When you had graduated and worked in the future, you could gradually paid the accumulated school fees. Of course, if you tried to get away from your responsibility to pay, the Academy would sent its agent to chase you even to the end of the world¡­ However, there was always an exception for every rules. Even if, say, you¡¯re not particularly talented in any way, you could still be accepted as a student through some connection. A fine example of this case would be Rafael, whom had joined the Academy through the recommendation of High Priestess Puina of the Church of the Goddess Tian. And today, was the scheduled day when Rafael, together with countless new students from all over the place came to the Holy Arla Academy for the first time. *** Ash, one of the Academy¡¯s instructor with unknown background, was feeling bored. Just like many other instructors of the Academy, he was currently watching the newly arriving students of Academy that had passed the main gate from the shadow. At this time of the year, the various instructors would usually scout the new students. Depending on their personal interest, they would accept some people to be their personal disciple. To be selected as a personal disciple of an instructor was a great chance for the new student to develop their talent. And thus, on the day they first arrived on Academy, a lot of them would show their talents to attract the attention of the various instructors. It could be said that almost every instructor had at least accepted one personal disciple during their teaching period in the Academy. Yes, almost. There was one instructor that had never accepted a single personal disciple through all his years teaching in the Academy. That person was Ash, a person with unfathomable power, with unknown background, whom had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and applied himself as an instructor of the Holy Arla Academy for an unknown reason. One would have normally felt suspicious with a person like that, however, since time immemorial, this particular rule about accepting any strong people as instructor has been unchanged¡­ ¡®Another batch of untalented maggots¡­¡¯ Ash shook his head as he watched the arriving new students. If those ¡®untalented maggots¡¯ knew about what he thought, for sure they would be so angry to the point that they would¡¯ve vomited blood out of anger. In the place they came from, these ¡®untalented maggots¡¯ were always hailed as ¡®unparalleled genius¡¯ whose future achievement knows no bound. Actually, it wasn¡¯t wrong to call them geniuses. After all, Holy Arla Academy was known to only accept talented people as new students¨C except for those who entered through special connection, of course. It¡¯s just that, Ash¡¯s standard was too high! He had come to Holy Arla Academy to search for his successor, yet there wasn¡¯t even a single student whom had capable to move his heart. Even the so-called ¡®strongest student¡¯ was just barely able to meet his standard. And this strongest student was already in his seventh year of school, so it was natural for him to be strong, compared to the other younger students. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. What he was searching for were students in their first years who had the talent to shake the heavens and shattered the earth!! Okay, maybe it was too exaggerating and over the top, but at least you got the feeling, right? And his assessment was actually not unbiased. Ash had one special power that had differentiate him from other people. By channeling Spiritual Power to his pair of crimson eyes, he was able to see the ¡®spirit¡¯ of a person. People¡¯s soul would always emits the colored light of the potential power that lays dormant within their body. For example, a bright, red colored soul meant that a person would had a good talent to manipulate the flame element. Conversely, a dim, red colored soul meant that a person would had a bad to nonexistent talent to manipulate the flame element. In case of a person with two or more different elements, their soul¡¯s color would turn to a different one depending on their talent every few breaths. As Ash thought about how pitiful the current younger generation was, he suddenly turned his head to look at the Academy¡¯s main gate. ¡°Eh? That is¡­¡± Amidst the countless students passing the main gate, an inconspicuous little girl was walking with her head looking down. Her long black hair was swaying from the wind breeze. Her shabby looking clothes indicates that she came from a commoner¡¯s family. If you compare her appearance to the other new students in her surrounding, it was akin to comparing the light of a firefly with that of a sun¡¯s. However, Ash was somewhat taken aback as she looked at that little girl. ¡°Impossible, that¡¯s a black hole¡­¡± Ash muttered with disbelief. ¡°Her affinity with darkness element was so strong, to the point that it threatened to swallow everything within its surrounding.¡± It was only after a few moments had passed before Ash calmed himself down. He then shook his head helplessly. ¡°A pity, if only my technique wasn¡¯t incompatible with the darkness element, I would¡¯ve definitely took her as my personal disciple. If I forced her to learn my technique, it would only hinder her growth¡­¡± As he lamented about how he couldn¡¯t take such talented kid as his disciple, a commotion suddenly broke out near the main gate. A white colored horse carriage, adorned with golden ornament in its front and rear parts, was trotting down the street majestically. On the left and right side of the carriage were a small carving of a woman with a magic staff on her left hand, and a holy sword in her right hand. Everyone knew what those carving represented. The Church of the Goddess Tian. Most of the onlooker watched the carriage slowly walking toward the Academy¡¯s main gate with reverent expression. It was natural, since Goddess Tian was the Goddess with most follower in the world. As the carriage arrived to the main gate, the door on its right side opened, revealing a blond haired kid that was clearly too young to be a student of the Academy. His pair of light blue eyes scanned his surrounding with curiosity as he jumped down from the carriage. ¡°Huff~ so tired¡­¡± the boy muttered softly. Not far away from where the boy stood, Ash once again was taken aback by the sight in front of him. If the little girl from before was comparable to a bottomless black hole, then this little boy was definitely on par with an incomparably bright golden sun! ¡°This¡­ this is the kind of talent I am waiting for! This kid definitely had the strongest light element affinity among everyone I had seen in my lifetime!¡± Without hesitation, Ash approached the little boy¡­ who¡¯s actually none other than Rafael, the one who dreamed to be the Great Demon Lord¡­ Chapter 3 A/N : in last chapter, in the description of rafael''s spirit i wrote ''golden sun''. well, i was wrong, it should be pure white sun... will edit later. and here''s small flashback before the academy life began. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It has been half a month since I departed from home towards the Holy Arla Academy. Riding the specially prepared horse carriage was actually quite comfortable for me, but as comfortable as it was, my butt began to feel sore from sitting too long¡­ Recalling the pitiful sight of my dad crying as we parted, it somehow also made me feel sad. However, this was something that I must do, so that I could reach my dream and gave those meanie old man and old lady in the Church a good beating for bullying my dad! On the way to the Academy, since I was bored and had nothing to do other than eat and sleep, I began to train my magic. Yes, the great power of magic! Since I was a kid (¡­um, I am still a kid as of now, but you got my meaning, yea?) my dad has been personally teaching magic for me. And it was not just the usual magic, but it¡¯s the light element magic, the strongest kind of magic! Or at least, that¡¯s what my dad said to me. Originally, my dad was kind of reluctant to teach me any magic related stuff, no matter how much I beg to him. He always said something along the lines of ¡°your body is too weak to bear the power of magic¡±. Hence, I began my secret training to improve my physical strength! ¡­Well, even though I said ¡®secret training¡¯, it was actually just jogging around the main temple¡¯s surrounding in the morning. And it wasn¡¯t so secretive either, since my dad knew about it. Or rather, I actually asked permission to him every morning before I got to jog¡­ And the result? My stamina increased, and I can run longer. ¡­What did you expect? Sudden breakthrough to the next level? That kind of stuff only happened in the fantasy stories my dad kept reading for me every night. Even I knew something like that. Nevertheless, my dad still refused to teach me magic, but since jogging in the morning had somewhat became my habit, I kept doing it even until now. Everything suddenly changed, however, from a chance occurrence. My dad, maybe because he was annoyed since I kept begging for him to teach me magic everyday, decided to borrow something from the main temple. A small, transparent, and perfectly round crystal. ¡°This is a tool to check your aptitude,¡± he said, as he nonchalantly threw the small crystal to me. As I caught that small crystal with my right hand, it suddenly brightened to the point that the two of us had to close our eyes. And even though we had already closed our eyes, the light it emitted was still so bright that it even pierced our eyelids! It was at that moment when suddenly¡­ Boom! The small crystal actually exploded to pieces! Countless little shrapnel flew everywhere, some of it grazed my skin, and a few of them even pierced deep into my limbs, causing bloods to drip down to the floor¡­ As our vision recovered, we stared numbly at the sorry state of my hand. At that moment, our mind was unable to process our current situation, and could only thought, what the heck had just happened? And then, it wasn¡¯t long before the pain kicked in. I screamed and cried out loud, before I fainted on the spot. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. When I regained my consciousness, it was already night time. My dad was sitting beside me as I lied on my bed, staring at me with his rare to be seen solemn expression. ¡°Don¡¯t ask anything, just sleep and rest for now. We will talk about this tomorrow,¡± he suddenly said. I did as I was told, and immediately fell asleep once again. At that time, I was unaware that my body which should have been full of scars was actually already back to as how it was before, without leaving any scratch left, as if everything that had just happened before was just a dream. In the next morning, when I just awoke, I felt really refreshed. It has been a long time since I¡¯ve felt like this before. Now that I thought about it, that was when I also fell unconscious after I tripped and fell from the stair¡­ Shortly thereafter, I goes to met my dad in his office. A slightly bigger crystal ball was on his hand. It seems like I was somewhat traumatized by the sight of a crystal ball as I unconsciously winced and taking a step back from my dad. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this is an upgraded and complete version of Spiritual Crystal,¡± says dad. ¡°First, I had to apologize to you, the thing that I brought to you yesterday was the ¡®demo¡¯ version of this Spiritual Crystal, hence the durability was far lower than the completed version.¡± ¡°This crystal ball could be used to check the aptitude of any person who had touched it, as long as they channeled their spiritual energy towards this crystal¡± as he said that, the crystal on dad¡¯s hand began to shine brightly. It wasn¡¯t to the point that you had to close your eyes as to avoid the pain caused by the brightness, but the light was bright enough to make us narrow our eyes. However, unlike yesterday, the light that came from the crystal ball was a mix of white, red, and blue, with white being the brightest, followed by red, and then blue, the dimmest one. ¡°This light represent your aptitudes with certain element. A person could learn to manipulate the element they had affinity with. In my case, I had a strong affinity with light element, average affinity with fire element, and low affinity with water element. Rafael, try touching it.¡± As dad saw my doubt, he tried to coax me with the words I have been waiting to hear for a long time: ¡°If you do this, I will teach you magic¡­¡± And thus, the na?ve and innocent me was instantly baited. I slowly walked towards my dad, reached out my hands, and then touched the crystal ball. Ding¡­ The same occurrence once again happened. Though, unlike yesterday, the crystal didn¡¯t go boom. Pure white light covered my dad¡¯s office. As I closed my eyes, I couldn¡¯t see my dad watching the glowing crystal with astonished expression. A few moments had passed before I heard my dad sighed, and felt that he pulled the Spiritual Crystal back. As I opened my eyes once again, what greeted my sigh was the sight of my dad bitterly smiling towards me. ¡°Well shoot, what can I say? It¡¯d be a damn shame if I ignored this kind of talent that could even made my own talent, which was said to be the one of the best in the Church, pale in comparison.¡± And since then on, I began my light element magic training with my dad.