My name is Paluanen.
I am a man who once served as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Kingdom.
The title "War General Paluanen" might have once echoed across the land... or perhaps not. I earned that moniker because I spent my career fighting a never-ending war against mountains of paperwork. I was strictly a behind-the-scenes operative.
But let’s get to the point.
A friend of mine, a man I served alongside during our time as the Four Heavenly Kings, has gone a bit soft in the head. While visiting a certain village, he began worshipping the Village Head there as the God of Magic.
Honestly, I wondered what he could possibly be thinking.
Certainly, that Village Head is no ordinary man, but I wanted to tell my friend to take a deep breath and calm down. The God of Magic is the deity of the Demon Race, a being who commands monsters and magic beasts. More importantly, however, he is the god of magic itself.
From what I had heard, the Village Head was completely hopeless when it came to using magic. And yet, he was the God of Magic? It was impossible. It couldn't be. No matter what form he took, the God of Magic would never lose his true essence. That is the nature of our deity.
Oh... a cat?
There, there. You're quite the friendly little fellow, aren't you?
Ahem.
In short, I simply wanted proof of his divinity. I realized I was being rude, but I couldn't help but ask.
"Eh? Me, a god? No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m just an ordinary person."
……
Ordinary people do not build villages in the dead center of the Forest of Death, nor do they live unperturbed while surrounded by Inferno Wolves and Demon Spiders. Besides, the person bowing beside you is the Demon King of our country.
"No, even just a fraction of your power would suffice, if you could show me..." I persisted.
Hmm? What was this? A familiar face caught my eye. Ah, it was my granddaughter—the child of my daughter who had married off.
"It has been quite a while. Were you staying here as well?" I asked.
She offered to recount the Village Head's combat history. I figured I might as well listen.
According to her, he had annihilated the Wyverns of the Iron Forest. He had instantly slain Grappler Bears and Bloody Vipers. He had repelled the rampaging dragon Lastismoon. He had even driven off the dragon that had terrorized the world hundreds of years ago. On top of that, he had essentially one-shotted every other monster and magic beast in the Forest of Death.
……
Even for a tall tale, wasn't this a bit much?
Wait, what? The rampaging dragon Lastismoon was that girl over there, and she was currently pregnant? The dragon from the legends of hundreds of years ago was that woman, and her child was... ah, the one being held by the lady with the terrifyingly intense battle aura. He looked like quite an intelligent child.
Escaping reality was no longer an option.
Fine. I gave up. He was a god. He might not be the God of Magic, but he was a god of something. There was no doubt about it. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to step into a fray involving Inferno Wolves and Demon Spiders to break it up, nor could he physically settle a brawl between Dragons.
A martial arts tournament? And the subtitle was "The Battle to Decide the World's Strongest"?
In that moment, I vowed in my heart never to oppose the Village Head.
Ah, the Slimes were so therapeutic.
After returning from the village, I threw myself into fulfilling the request from my granddaughter. Apparently, the god was looking for talented individuals capable of serving as teachers. Perhaps he wanted tutors for the children?
Fortunately, I knew exactly who to call. However, since they all had their own careers, it would be difficult to get them there immediately. When I mentioned this, I was told there was no need to rush.
……
I wondered if it would be a problem to slip a few concubine candidates into the group. Their abilities were top-notch. Their personalities were a bit difficult, but since he had already taken a member of the Dragon Race as a wife, I doubted he would mind. Depending on how things went, perhaps they could even be for his son...
No? Absolutely not? What a shame.
Very well, I would focus on gathering the right people without any ulterior motives.
Strange. I couldn't get in touch with the candidates I was targeting. Was this some kind of conspiracy? Or... ah, had someone else who received the same request beaten me to the punch?
Ngh. I wouldn't lose. I had to work hard for the sake of the god.
Eventually, I heard about the Teleportation Gate. An operational gate actually existed? Well, it wasn't surprising that a god's village would possess one. The proposed location for the sister gate was Shashato City.
Hmm. Not bad. It wasn't a bad idea, but there were problems. Where in Shashato City would it be installed? Who would manage it? Right now, almost no one knew about the god's village, so it wasn't an issue, but if its existence became public knowledge, wouldn't people start fighting over the gate?
At worst, if the Hero found out, it would cause no end of trouble for the god. That was unacceptable.
So, what should we do? Assuming that keeping the gate's existence a secret was a prerequisite, where should it be placed? The goal of the gate was to allow them to sell the crops from the god's village...
Well, living in the heart of the Forest of Death certainly made buying and selling difficult. I felt that people should be willing to endure that much hardship just to get a taste of the god's crops, but...
Thinking about it logically, they would just die. It was the Forest of Death, after all. The survival rate would be higher if you were told to walk across a lake of magma.
But the food in that village was divine. It was a revelation, an inspiration. I had wanted to move there immediately, but I suppressed the urge. I found myself wondering if a man like me could even be useful in a place like that.
I had confidence in my administrative skills, but would a village like that even have a need for such work? If he was a god, he likely handled everything with a snap of his fingers.
Ugh. I resented my lack of talent in martial arts or magic.
Still, I would not give up.
Regarding the Teleportation Gate, I proposed installing it a short distance away from Shashato City and building a new village around it. I even put my own name forward as a candidate for the new village head. I planned to bring my best assistants from my own territory as well. We had worked together since we were young, so they were getting on in years, but I was going to make them work even harder.
Hahaha. My son, the current Lord, even agreed with tears in his eyes.
"No, that’s not it! If you and your team leave, the management of this territory will collapse! Please reconsider, I’m begging you!"
He was practically weeping with support. I truly had a wonderful son.
It seemed my friend with the long name was thinking the exact same thing. Ngh... I would not yield the position of village head to him.
"Wait, wouldn't it just be more convenient to build it inside Shashato City?" the Demon King suggested naively.
I promptly gathered a mountain of data and persuaded him otherwise. My primary concern was the Hero. There was no need to bother the god with such trivialities. The Hero was a problem for us to handle—more specifically, a problem for the current Demon King and the current Four Heavenly Kings.
We could not allow the god to be troubled. To ensure his peace of mind, we would establish a new village a short distance from Shashato City. The god would only need to provide the Teleportation Gate; I intended for us to handle everything else. I would stake my life on protecting that gate.
……
It turned out the god was the type who wanted to build the village himself.
No, wait. There had to be something I could do!
I would give it my all.