What if you are reborn as a demon after a funeral?.

What if you are reborn as a demon after a funeral?

Author: Friday the Raven

Summary:

He was reincarnated and became a demon with extraordinary talent and a long lifespan.

Although he was born an orphan with living parents and had to fend for himself, and had to be careful of both his own kind and humans, it didn't matter. At least he suddenly got a system when he was three years old, but the system was unexpectedly not very user-friendly.

However, he was still transported back to the past, where he befriended Frilian and became the junior brother of the ancestor of human magic. But he soon discovered that his friend had a great deal of prejudice against demons.

It's alright. Fortunately, my childhood friend and cousin, Awula, has made something of herself. It's just that... I used to boss her around a lot when we were kids, so our relationship is a little complicated.

It's not a big problem. He even met the strongest hero, but... the other party died a little too early.

As he oscillated between humans and demons, he gradually realized that he couldn't seem to rely on either side.

"There's no other way, I'll have to rely on myself."

He set himself a new life goal—to defeat the current Demon King! To become the new Demon King—tentative.

The Buried Frilian - A Thousand Years From Now On

Prologue: Reincarnation into a Demon Clan - Demon King Candidate

Inside the dark and damp cave.

The toddler crouching in the corner stared at the campfire in front of him, which crackled intermittently, his eyes filled with a sense of utter despair.

If you were to ask what it feels like to be reincarnated as a beast, Ash, the current child, would probably feel the same way.

Moreover, in this strange, alien world, there is a terrifying race.

They have no parent-child relationship and are generally born like wild animals... no, except for a very small number, wild animals generally raise their cubs, but this race does not have the behavior of raising cubs at all.

This upbringing and social structure have left them with little emotional and empathetic capacity, with only a few individuals exhibiting mutual assistance and social tendencies.

They do not live by cannibalism, yet they kill people from time to time. They have no motive for doing so; it is just an unconscious behavior. If they dislike a weaker member of their own race, they will mercilessly trample on them. Their racial identity is so weak that only the top strong individuals maintain a weak sense of sociality.

And since they do not harbor hatred or disgust towards humans... then the reason for killing humans seems very strange, as if a "god" created a race to kill.

To humans, this incomprehensible race is undoubtedly the worst and most ferocious race, and that is—the Demon Race.

What made the child even more unfortunate was that he was a demon! Moreover, he was a rare hidden-horn demon, meaning a demon without horns.

The greatest drawback of being born into this barbaric race was that he understood from birth that weakness was the greatest original sin.

If they encounter an adult demon who doesn't like them, they could be killed if they're not careful. That's why... even at the tender age of three, they have to fend for themselves.

Yes, it was them.

"Hey Ash, what are you thinking about?" The pink-haired little girl with two pairs of small horns on her forehead was standing next to him, hugging her slender knees, breaking a twig in two and throwing it into the fire. She noticed that he was daydreaming and frowned. "It's your turn to cook today, right? Hurry up and get started."

"I'm not trying to be mean," Ash, who had adopted a new name to better adapt to this world and avoid seeming out of place, sighed, then reached out and placed his hand on her head, saying solemnly:

"Awula, you shouldn't call me by my name. You should address me as brother, shouldn't you?"

"...Brother? What is that?" The little girl, Aura, stared at him with incredulous eyes.

He was exhausted and too lazy to argue with this guy: "Ha... fine, hurry up and cook."

"No, it's your time to cook now."

"Stop nagging! I'm stronger now, so you cook for me!"

“…Alright.” Aura was silent for a moment, then stood up and walked towards the bottles and jars by the cave, as well as the half-wolf that had been left there for dinner. She couldn’t help but mutter, “…Ash is really strange. He said he would take care of me, but in the end, I’m the one who has to do all the work?”

"..."

Ash, who clearly heard Aura's mutterings, chose to pretend he hadn't heard them and silently closed his eyes to meditate and practice magic.

Yes, magic.

He possessed inherited memories from the demon race, which allowed him to understand written language and even the methods of cultivating magic from birth. His own name was also ingrained in his heart as if by instinct.

It is precisely because of this that even without parents, the demon race, which can speak and act at birth, does not die in batches after birth... although the mortality rate in childhood is still extremely high.

But no matter what, magic still needs to be learned. It is the pride of the demon race and the foundation of their survival. It is part of their genetic instinct, which makes Ash also have a deep-rooted fanaticism for it. Whenever he has free time, he will unconsciously study magic.

Just as other demons would choose a subject to study diligently, he also had his own goal—gravity magic.

Although his three years as a toddler were spent living like a primitive man, his childhood memories are extremely unbearable, but now... he has no choice at all.

At least today he managed to get some fire from the forest that had accidentally caught fire not far away, so he doesn't need to eat raw meat for the time being.

...................

When night falls and all is quiet.

After the meal, the two sat together at the entrance of the cave, leaning against each other at the entrance.

Before them stretched an endless starry sky, and a spectacular meteor shower was unfolding.

The stars, like a tapestry, streaked across the night sky, leaving behind dazzling trails of light, breathtakingly beautiful, making him feel, for the first time, grateful for his birth in the mountains.

"It's really beautiful."

"Is it pretty? I don't quite understand." Compared to him, Aura, who was still wiping her hands with wild grass, seemed rather uninterested.

"So, you're still a child."

We're the same age, right?

I mean mental age.

"Do you eat a lot of heart?"

"...How about we change the subject?" Ash was speechless and didn't want to talk to her, but she looked over and said seriously, "Perfect, Ash, actually I want to eat beef tomorrow. That cow head meat we found last time was delicious!"

"Don't waste the wolf we picked up the day before yesterday, which we haven't finished eating yet. Besides, where are you planning to ask me to find one for you?"

"I believe Ash will have a way." Seeing that he had no enthusiasm, Aura encouraged him instead.

His tone was flat and indifferent, so much so that he couldn't feel any pride. He just nodded wearily and casually: "Yes, yes, I will try my best, but for now you'd better behave yourself and at least let me finish watching the shooting star."

"That wolf is rotten, it tastes awful."

Don't be a picky eater.

Ash is so long-winded.

"These are my lines."

While casually responding to Awula, he gazed at the increasingly dense shooting stars in the sky and, remembering something he'd heard somewhere before, unconsciously made a wish upon the starry sky.

"...When I grow up, I will never watch shooting stars with Aura again."

As he secretly made his vow, a series of characters suddenly appeared in his vision that he didn't recognize but could inexplicably identify.

Ash, the chosen candidate for Demon King, accepts the gift of the ancient Demon God, becoming the King of the Demon Race. He will sacrifice the world to ascend to become a new god, slay the goddess, and usher in a new cycle of reincarnation on this planet!

This series of texts completely baffled him, because—according to the contents of the inherited memories, there should only be the legendary creator goddess, so when did a demon god appear?? And a rather insane one at that? Wanting to sacrifice the world??

Chapter 1 The Reasons for Aura's Eccentric Personality

The strange characters that suddenly appeared before his eyes made Ash's head buzz.

He couldn't quite figure it out, and there were inexplicably many suspicious points, but... from the so-called Demon King Growth System, a gift from the Demon God, he learned that the system was quite different from what he had imagined.

Because the title of "Demon God" actually came from a deceased great demon who had taken a half-step into the realm of gods during the mythological era... and he was also the strongest demon king during the mythological era.

The reason he was chosen was entirely because his emotions were very special, possessing a level of sociality and a variety of emotions that were extremely rare among demons, even surpassing those of previous demon kings.

This system seems to have a very high opinion of his potential because of this... I don't know if it's a misjudgment.

After all, he wasn't a true god, and the system's capabilities were quite limited. It didn't possess any overpowered abilities. The only thing that could help him was... the ability to obtain miracles by plundering the souls of a thousand humans or intelligent beings with the same amount of souls.

To be precise, it is a replica of the goddess's miracle by the demon god. This system, which carries the power to release the miracle, was created by the demon god by replicating the miracle and separating the magic from himself.

The limits of this miracle's power depend entirely on how many souls it pays. According to the system's own description, if there are enough souls as fuel, it is almost indistinguishable from a true miracle.

This means you can use a minimum of one thousand souls, with no upper limit, to make a wish each time, and you can spend all the accumulated souls in one wish.

Although the conditions sound very harsh, the advantage is that demons have exceptionally long lifespans, and they can even find opportunities to make wishes while working in a slaughterhouse.

The entire system was excessively simple, with only this one function... which initially made him happy, but he soon returned to struggling to make a living.

After all, he's only three years old! Where is he going to get a thousand souls to make a wish?

.........................

Thirteen years after rebirth, by a lake in the forest.

A cold, sharp wind swept across the water, creating ripples and constantly stealing Ash's body heat.

His still-small body, with one hand dragging a beast resembling a tiger but about the size of a small cart, and the other hand gripping Aura's horn, headed towards the cave that would serve as their dwelling place, without even turning his head back:

"Why don't you stop researching mental magic and switch to something practical? After restricting this guy's mobility, you're exhausted yourself... It's really useless."

"Don't tell me what to do, Ash. My magic is my own choice, and you have no right to interfere even if we were born in the same cave."

"You're so cold-hearted, even though you have such a warm-hearted brother like me here." Ash, who was using gravity magic to lighten the weight of Aura and the prey, couldn't help but shrug upon hearing this.

"...If dragging me around like an object is what you call passion, then you can lie down here tomorrow when I'm fully recovered."

The pink-haired loli, covered in dust and utterly exhausted, let Aura close her eyes and let the other drag her by her horns across the muddy soil, while she launched a fierce counterattack without any politeness.

"Speaking of which, are you able to get up later? Will you have enough time to prepare dinner?"

"Why do I have to do that kind of thing again?"

"Isn't this a very democratic and fair distribution? I'll take you home, and you cook."

"During the battle, I was clearly putting in much more effort!"

"Don't be so petty between siblings."

Relying on his remaining strength, he directly shut down Aura's words with a single sentence, leaving the pink-haired loli speechless behind him.

Although reluctant, she lit a campfire when she returned to the cave where she lived, turning the surrounding stone walls orange.

Ash sat cross-legged on the side, using the firelight to stare at Aura's profile, unconsciously scrutinizing him closely.

Despite being a character with an odd personality and still just a little girl, she's surprisingly good-looking, with a delicate face and two pairs of devilish horns, making her exceptionally convenient to use. (Referring to dragging/dropping)

The key is that he's hardworking and capable, and even if he talks back, he's otherwise quite good. His only drawback is probably...