From a distance, a giant volcano was visible, its peak split to form something like the letter M. Thick black smoke still billowed from its crater, and a stream of molten lava flowed down like a small river on one side of the mountain's split, cutting through the barren landscape below.
Upon closer inspection, on the part of the mountain split where the palace stood, among the small flowing lava rivers, there was a rickety suspension bridge. The bridge was the sole connector across a deep chasm to the opposite cliff, where the footpath to the old, magnificent palace began.
The palace stood alone, prominent among the volcanic rocks, with no other buildings around it. And that was where Elvar was now, having just stepped out of its main gate.
This was very different from other royal palaces Elvar had seen in his comics. Usually, the palace grounds were surrounded by neatly arranged residential houses, or classic buildings that adorned the capital city as the center of government.
The Blackfix Kingdom, as Elvar was beginning to understand, was an anomaly. The kingdom basically consisted of only one "city," Blackfix itself, the center of which was the single palace where Elvar now reigned. There were no residential houses. The demons lived scattered in the environment around the palace.
Where Elvar stood, just outside the gate, the guards had just opened the massive door. A dim landscape, dark from the thick clouds, stretched out before him.
There were no houses. No residents could be seen walking around. No wide, organized streets. Before Elvar, there were only steep ravines and black rock cliffs. The only man-made (or demon-made) structure was the rickety suspension bridge leading to the other side, and several other similar bridges connecting one cliff to another in the distance.
"Where are the residents?" I muttered.
When the gate opened, I swear, I was so shocked. There were no residents at all in front of me. Not even houses.
Can this even be called a kingdom? I really don't understand what this demon kingdom system is like.
The ritual altar from yesterday was located behind the palace, so I had no idea what the actual environment outside this main gate was like.
And this is the view? I'm truly shocked to see the kingdom's condition like this.
Can I make this into a proper kingdom? You think I'm capable right now? Please, don't expect me to be able to build a great kingdom from a condition like this. I can't even see the residents.
So... the residents who were present at the altar during the summoning yesterday were ALL the residents of this kingdom? Hundreds? Even if it's only hundreds, there should at least be some form of housing for them to live in.
Where do they live now? I really don't know. And we'll see where Valeria takes me. She said she would take me on a tour of the kingdom.
"Calm down, Elvar, calm down. Just go with the flow," I muttered softly, trying to calm myself.
Not long after that, Valeria took me a short walk from the exit gate. There was a suspension bridge connecting the cliff where the palace stood to the cliff opposite.
Next to it, there was a rough stone staircase descending steeply to the base of the cliff below the palace.
From the bridge, I dared to look down. A small river was visible flowing at the bottom of the chasm. Not a clear water river for drinking or bathing.
It was a slowly moving river of reddish-orange molten lava.
At the end of the river's flow, a large cave was visible, swallowing the lava flow back, re-entering the mountain's belly. If you think about it logically in the world where you readers are, this might not make sense.
Lava comes out of a mountain, flows for a bit, then enters a cave again and returns to its origin? Lava should immediately freeze into black rock.
But that's the fact here, where I am now. This is real. And I'm becoming more aware, this truly is a fantasy world.
Valeria walked ahead of me as a guide. We began to cross the suspension bridge. Although it swayed a little as we stepped, this bridge felt quite sturdy.
I could see super-thick ropes, the size of my body, which were the main support for the bridge's load.
From my architectural point of view, this bridge was unusual. The connecting ropes looked like ordinary ropes, but they were clearly not made of conventional materials.
I noticed layers of strange black fibers twisted around, perhaps hundreds or thousands of fibers intertwined, forming a single giant rope that seemed capable of supporting an extraordinary weight.
Technically in my world, a single steel cable the size of a wrist can support up to a ton, depending on its construction. If this rope is as big as my body, and made from this world's materials...
its strength might exceed my expectations.
In this world, there are no excavators or heavy machinery. There are only living creatures, perhaps giant-bodied demons, who pull and support this structure with their natural strength.
I don't want to discuss it too much. If I continue, this whole chapter could be spent just explaining this rope.
Okay, let's move on. When we reached the middle of the bridge, Valeria stopped and pointed down, right toward the cliff wall below the Palace.
There, several dark cave mouths were visible. Small firelights flickered dimly inside them, indicating there was life in those caves.
Valeria then turned and pointed in another direction, across the chasm. Over there, a grove of strange, ancient trees grew. Their trunks were massive and jet-black, without green leaves. The trees looked like dead trees,
yet they were clearly still alive and growing tall, adapted to this harsh volcanic environment. Their leaves were very sparse, but they looked dark black, indicating the tree was alive.
"Look," said Valeria, "some of the residents live in the caves beneath the palace. The rest..." She pointed to the strange trees. "...make nests in the crevices of those giant tree trunks." Indeed, large crevices were visible near the roots of those trees, and several dark holes in their trunks.
She then pointed to a flatter area of land further away. "And the rest live in holes in the ground." Several mounds of earth were visible with entrance holes marked with strange symbols.
"Demonkind doesn't really need houses like other races," Valeria explained. "We only need temporary nests to live and breed."
"But that's not how it's supposed to be! Development must happen! This is crazy. I really have to build a kingdom like this from scratch," I thought, feeling more and more dizzy.
I've reached a conclusion now. Why is this kingdom poor? Because there is no development at all. No organized agriculture, no managed mining.
They can live in this kingdom only by the most basic means of survival, like wild animals. Hunting by instinct. So what is the fate of the kingdom?
This kingdom remains intact in name, but it doesn't symbolize a civilized kingdom. It only relies on residents who acknowledge this as their kingdom.
From my perspective, this is more like a primitive tribe than a kingdom.
And I had also asked Valeria while walking in the corridor earlier. She replied that there is nothing unique in this kingdom that can be sold, not even a financial system or currency.
Then I also asked about the logistical situation for getting food or other necessities, like palace repairs. She explained that they each find everything themselves, without a centralized logistics system or trade routes. In conclusion, there are no trade routes at all.
From all the information I've gathered about the economy so far, the conclusion is: 100% must be built from scratch. That's why this kingdom is so poor, even its residents don't have proper houses to use as nests.
Valeria continued to point out each "nest" inhabited by the residents, one by one. Some were narrow caves, some were just hollows behind large rocks. My conclusion is 100% correct.
After looking around for a while and seeing the pathetic sights, I asked out of curiosity.
"Why not build a proper settlement for a kingdom?" I asked, my voice (thanks to the mask) sounding firm and authoritative, without diminishing the image of a Demon King. "Even if only as nests, at least it's a symbol that there is a kingdom here."
"We don't have the ability to build houses, My Lord," Valeria replied with a plain and honest, yet still polite, tone. "So we only rely on the existing nature."
"Then who built that palace?" I asked, pointing toward the magnificent palace behind us.
"That is a palace left by the previous King," Valeria explained. "The first King who was summoned by our ancestors, hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago."
"Did he have a form like mine? Or another form?" I asked again, trying to sound calm.
"No, My Lord. According to legend, he was in the form of a giant Fire Dragon. He came from another world, but I don't know which world," she explained again.
"That means the previous king referred to wasn't from Earth. On Earth, there are no dragon races that can build a palace this magnificent. Even dragons themselves are still called mythological creatures."
Not long after that, I remembered my previous plan, the list of questions I made last night. I switched the topic to the military.
"What is the number of troops in this kingdom ready for combat?" I asked, asking something I absolutely needed to know as the new King.
"About 200 regular soldiers, 50 elite soldiers, and the five of us, the Pillars," Valeria explained in detail, as if she had memorized the number of every resident. "From a total of about 580 adult demons living in the Blackfix region."
"This is crazy. I really have to build up the military too," I muttered.
"Then how can this kingdom survive if there are attackers or invasions from other creatures?" I asked calmly.
"Whenever humans, heroes, or other attackers try to attack this region, we are always strong in defense," Valeria explained. "This terrain, full of ravines and cliffs, is our biggest advantage. Our 'cage' defense strategy is the strongest. But... we cannot counter-attack effectively because our troop numbers are just too small."
In conclusion, this kingdom hasn't been destroyed because its hard-to-penetrate terrain strengthens its defense. Okay, that makes sense. But this is still a problem for me. I can't live like this forever.
I have to change everything so I can live peacefully and comfortably in this world as King. Most crucially, I need to eat normal human food! There's no way I'm eating wild boar meat every day. I need other things that humans need. Therefore, I can't just idly maintain this kingdom without any development.
Valeria continued her explanation about the environmental situation, economic and military conditions, and the status of the residents. She also explained that the nobles (families of the 5 Pillars and some other old bloodlines) lived on the lowest floors of the palace, which had their own rooms. Thus, there was no other place for ordinary citizens, and that was what differentiated the nobles from the commoners here.
"Who killed the Demon King before me?" I asked, returning to the previous topic.
"Heroes from the Human Continent," Valeria answered, her tone changing slightly, a hint of suppressed anger there. She squeezed the rope railing of the bridge slightly with her hand.
"They killed our King when he tried to prevent an invasion at the front lines. He ordered all of us to remain and defend the palace. The battle ended in a draw, the Hero was severely injured and retreated, while our King managed to escape back to the palace. However, his condition was beyond saving and he died here."
"Is the demon kingdom only located here? Or are there other demon kingdoms?" I continued with the question about other demon kings.
"There are, My Lord," Valeria answered. "Our kingdom is the smallest and most isolated, one that is barely even considered to exist by the others. There are two other large demon kingdoms led by very powerful Demon Kings on this Demon Continent."
"In this world, what is the reason Heroes attack Demons?" I asked further.
"That... you could say it's like a tradition or a bad habit from the past," Valeria explained. "Long ago, we demons often invaded human settlements to find new places to live, because we couldn't build our own houses."
"Then, every generation of their descendants continues to attack us back, considering us a source of problems and a worry for them."
"Then why do demons often eat humans?" I asked.
"That... we do it because humans taste good," Valeria answered honestly. "We don't specifically intend to hunt humans to eat. However, if there are fresh human corpses after a battle, of course we will eat them, as it's a waste."
"We get a lot of human corpses after a war, and it's a shame to just let them be."
"Then if you invade, you naturally kill the humans, right?" was my next question.
"Initially, we only try to scare them," Valeria answered confidently. "The goal is only to take over their territory as a new place for us to live. But if they fight back, of course we will kill them."
So that's the story, friends. After we've 'analyzed' it together, the main problem is now clear. A poor economy due to no development, which forces them to invade just to find new places to live. Wars happen just because of territorial disputes.
So, what should I do now? The long-term solution is to build a settlement. But how? We don't have the resources for construction.
I will find out more about this in the next chapter. Thanks for reading.