Girl in the Box: Please tell me why I was reincarnated as a mimic monster!

"Eh~" Li knew that her expression was gradually becoming lewd, but she still couldn't help but reveal what was on her face.

“You two are too easy to understand…” Xuanze rolled his eyes at them.

"You flatter me," Ning apologized. "That idiot is always like this. But your subordinates don't seem to be much better."

"Heh, what that woman does is beyond my control." Xuanze blatantly averted his gaze. "How much do you know about the current state of this world?"

"I know everything I need to know," Ning said calmly. "In fact, there's almost nothing I don't know. The only reason I'm here now is to accompany her and help her understand what's going on between you two, specifically about the hero."

Upon hearing Ning's words, Hei Yu raised his head and looked at Ning with disdain.

"You're joking," Black Feather scoffed. "We Book Spirits have lived in this world for so long, yet we haven't truly experienced its entirety. What could a slime like you possibly know?"

"—Kuroba, you've gone too far."

"snort……?!"

Just as Hei Yu was about to retort after being calmly rebuked by Xuan Ze, two powerful pressures suddenly filled the tent. One originated from Ning, the person in question, and the other from Li, who was already burning with magical flames beside her.

"...!"

Black Feather was overwhelmed by the two oppressive forces, unable to breathe or even utter a sound. Because the Book Spirits were neutral beings in this world, and many people sought to gain something from their race, they typically wouldn't attack them.

But the two people in front of me didn't seem to have that intention at all; I couldn't see any thoughts in their eyes.

“Take it easy, Dragon King,” Xuanze said. “I think she already knows she was wrong. For my sake…”

“…Since you put it that way.” Ry put away the raging magical flames and sat back in her original seat.

Ning also withdrew his oppressive aura imperceptibly, and said expressionlessly, "I didn't mean anything by it, I just wanted to tell you, and all of you, that we are not pushovers either, including that little fox next to you who is messing with your coat."

"Ah, I can tell." Xuanze walked to Heiyu's side, and Jasmine patted her head. "I told you a long time ago, there are always people more capable than you."

"...I don't understand what you're saying at all."

Black Feather snorted coldly, and black light emanated from his body. His black feathers turned into specks of light in the air, and then transformed into a black book.

Demon King Xuanze picked up the book, carefully placed it on the table, and turned around.

"So, how much do you actually know?" Xuanze stared at Ning Heli. "About me, about the Hero."

“For example,” Ning smiled mysteriously, “everything before you became active as the Demon King.”

“You know quite a lot.” Xuanze smiled. “Where should I begin…? Or rather, just ask me anything. I’m too lazy to go through it all again. Also…”

Xuanze suddenly paused here.

"In this world, there is only one hero."

Chapter 12 The False One, The Birth of the Demon King

"Huh...?" Li let out a strange sound.

If she heard correctly, the hero himself did say that there is only one hero in this world... What's going on?

"Before that, let me tell you in detail about the hero summoning ritual in this world."

Xuanze stood up, imbued his hands with magic, and then walked inside the tent. He drew a circle and continuously refined it, and the magic circle gradually emitted magical power.

"Hey! You idiot, don't do this kind of thing in the tent!" Serena yelled at him.

“Let me give you an example,” Xuanze said as he drew. “This is a summoning circle. The object I set to be summoned is something that is unique in this world, which is my smartphone. I’m keeping that thing at the Demon King’s castle right now.”

“A smartphone…” Li nodded, then asked, “How do you know that yours is the only smartphone in this world?”

“You didn’t, right?” Xuanze glanced at her. “When that fake hero from over there came to this world, he had nothing with him except his school uniform.”

"Hmm...it doesn't seem like there are any." Li carefully recalled the treasures that 'Gathering Treasures' had produced over the past period.

“Then, let’s begin.” Xuanze completed the last stroke of the magic circle, “‘Synchronize,’ ‘Locate,’ ‘Search,’ ‘Summon.’”

The summoning circle was activated with three syllables, and after emitting a burst of bright light, an ordinary black smartphone appeared at its center.

“Like this,” Xuanze picked up his phone, “it will summon the target very accurately.”

"I think I understand what you mean." Ning stood up and walked to the magic circle. "So, what about the second summoning?"

She activated the summoning circle once more, making the magic circle work again.

Logically, I think that summoning magic should no longer be valid. Summoning magic is not teleportation magic. Summoning magic should remember the same summoned object and then exclude it from the summoning range.

However, the second summoning was successful, but something completely different happened.

A crystal ball shaped like an eyeball landed in the center of the summoning circle, the ritual was successful, but the smartphone didn't appear...

"Ah!" Li Yi clapped his hands, suddenly realizing.

“That’s how it will turn out.” Ning glanced at Xuanze.

“That’s right.” Xuanze laughed arrogantly. “Because of the nature of summoning magic, it remembers the summoned object and excludes it from the summoning range. So, running it again will not lead to failure, but will summon something else similar.”

“So…” Rin stated the surprising fact, “If you are the eleventh hero and still alive, then there will be no twelfth hero. That is to say…”

The kingdom concluded that the eleventh hero, Xuanze, was dead, and then began preparing for the twelfth hero summoning ritual. However, because Xuanze was still alive, it conflicted with the nature of the summoning ritual, and in the end, a similar innocent person was summoned into this world.

And that innocent person was none other than Xia Que, the twelfth hero publicly declared by the kingdom.

This explains many things, such as why Xia Que didn't receive the hero's blessing when she was first summoned, and why she later gained some kind of power. These are all people selected by the hero's summoning ritual, people who are similar to the hero.

This made Li even more conflicted... On the one hand, she sympathized with Xia Que, but on the other hand, she didn't want to just let go of the past grudges and pretend that nothing had happened.

“So,” Ning looked at Xuanze, who was playing with his phone, “why are you here, and what have you been through during this time?”

"Ah...where should I begin?" Xuanze stopped playing with his phone. "Well, let's start by briefly talking about when I came to this world."

Xuanze, the hero. As the eleventh hero of this world, he was summoned to this world through a ritual, and naturally, he was treated in the usual way after arriving.

Explain the situation to him, take him to see the king, reward the hero, let him rest, and the next day set off on your journey with your companions.

Xuanze inquired about the world from the king, but the king seemed to be hiding something, so Xuanze began to have doubts. However, he was indeed a genuine hero.

For various reasons, he concealed many things about himself, preventing his true self from being fully revealed to these people from another world.

However, what Xuanze had foreseen eventually happened. During a battle, they were poisoned and ambushed by unknown individuals, and almost all of his companions died protecting Xuanze.

Xuanze was also unable to move due to the poison. He possessed the power of a hero, and if ordinary poison could have such an effect, it would be a lethal poison to an ordinary person.

In that situation, there was nothing he could do but watch his companions being killed one by one. Finally, he saw that person.

Priest Hoel.

Xuanze already knew why he was here when he saw the silver dagger gleaming in his hand; he was here to take the lives of everyone here.

In order to survive, Xuanze chose to fight Hao'er, but at that time he was no match for Hao'er. This priest was unimaginably powerful. Then, Xuanze was hit by a fatal blow and was even finished off by Hao'er.

However, Xuanze used magic to put himself into a state of suspended animation, and Hao'er failed to see through his disguise, so he survived.

Upon regaining consciousness, Xuanze initially believed that Hao'er was a traitor to humanity. He carefully examined himself; his belongings had been searched, but nothing was missing.

He tried to return to the kingdom, but he discovered that the kingdom was the real traitor. Upon seeing him, the soldiers drew their swords without hesitation and attacked him, claiming it was the king's order to kill the hero.

He fled in panic, and after an unknown period of time, he somehow ended up in the territory of the demons. Finally, he collapsed due to excessive blood loss and exhaustion.

When Xuanze woke up, he found himself in a demon village. Although the demons were wary of him, they did not mistreat him. Instead, they treated his wounds and gave him food.

Soon after, his relationship with the villagers gradually improved, but this didn't last long; a battle broke out. It was an invasion from humans, from the kingdom—something Xuanze hadn't anticipated.

For the first time in the world, he lost his temper and wreaked havoc, even killing all the invaders without hesitation; he looked almost like…

Devil.

Chapter 13 The Dragon King and the Demon King

"Haha, actually we were quite startled at that time too," Aye suddenly said. "We suddenly saw magic erupting in the border region and wondered if it was some kind of demon king. We went over to take a look, but we never expected it to be a hero who looked like a demon king."

At that time, because Xuanze caused a huge disturbance, the high-ranking members of the Demon Clan, who were still able to unite, were thrown into chaos. In the end, it was Aiye who calmed them down and sent her to investigate.

But to her surprise, nearly half of the villages there had been burned down, and she learned that the cause was a sudden human invasion. What bothered her, however, was that the person who saved the village was actually a human.

She asked someone to take her to see the man, but the villagers became wary and refused to help. They feared that Aye would kill the man because he was human, but unexpectedly, Xuanze stepped forward on his own, despite many people trying to stop him.

When Aye met Xuanze, his aura had become incredibly oppressive. Indeed, he possessed the power and presence of a demon king, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to mistake him for one. And Xuanze's very first words were...

“‘The person you’re looking for is me. Your Demon King is right here.’” Aye mimicked the way Xuanze had said back then. “That’s what he said. To be honest, I almost believed him, but he looked completely human, so I could only take it as a joke. I just never expected that he would actually fight his way to the Demon King’s castle all by himself. Now no one dares to oppose his ascension to the throne. It took a lot of effort to clean up the mess.”

“That was your dereliction of duty; I am the Demon King.” Xuanze insisted that he shouldn’t be the one to take the blame.

"That's truly... a legendary story." Ning's expression twitched involuntarily.

“So,” Aye retorted, “I was just joking back then, saying that if you could single-handedly storm the Demon King’s castle, I would acknowledge you as the Demon King or something. Why did you take it seriously?”

"It's true," Xuanze said firmly.

“The first Demon King did indeed use overwhelming power to fight his way from a border village all the way to the Demon King's Castle. This should be considered a trial,” Ning added.

"I've never heard of that kind of trial!!" Aye tried her best to correct him.

"Yes, yes, so can we all put aside the issue of shifting blame for now?" Li intervened with a wry smile.

If they keep discussing this kind of thing, it will never end; there are other things she wants to know.

“If that’s the case,” Li asked, “why are you here? You’re the hero, right?”

"Do you remember your thoughts? That relative thought," Ning said calmly. "The Demon King and the Hero are essentially the same type of character, just with different styles of doing things. So, if there can only be one Hero in this world, and he stands on the side of the Demon Clan, what does that mean?"

"...Is this what the hero should be doing this time?"

She understood now, recalling what she had said before. Moreover, if this world could summon a hero, it meant that this world needed a hero, and now it seemed that the hero had become the Demon King, the Demon King who allied with the demon race.

“Although this is just my speculation…” Xuanze showed an unhappy expression, “I suspect that this is all guided by this world. To some extent, we are all being guided into this situation. The reason I am here is because there is a problem on the human side. The mission of the hero is not to save humanity, but to save the world. This means that the real ‘evil’ is on the opposing side now.”

"Ah, I understand what you mean." Ning nodded. "I'm not too happy right now either... It feels like I've followed someone's path all the way here, you idiot. How are you going to take responsibility?"

"Why are you coming to me for an explanation?!" Li shouted inexplicably.

"Ah, right, you're from this world, aren't you? I remember you were the Dragon King, someone like that would know something about the origins of this world, you should know something, right?"

"So why me?! This is ridiculous, you two?!"

She didn't know why Xuanze got involved, and Li was caught in the crossfire, which she found hard to accept. These two people have such similar tempers and personalities, okay? Although Ning has been getting better recently.

“There are some personal reasons why I’m standing here. It’s because I’m planning to take revenge,” Xuanze said bluntly and without emotion. “Helping the demons is just a side effect. Since we share the same interests, we’re just cooperating.”

"Oh dear, Demon King, you're still not being honest at all," Aye said with a grin. "You clearly accepted our help and want to repay the favor, don't you?"

“…That’s one reason too.” Xuanze was silent for a moment, but he did not deny it.

“…Thank you.” Aye stopped laughing, a somewhat surprised expression on her face.

She had originally planned to tease Xuanze about his insincere words, but he readily admitted it instead. Feeling embarrassed to pursue the matter further, she could only blush and thank him.

After all, he was the one who brought about this situation. Without him, without the Demon King "Hero", who knows what the demon race would have become.

"In short, for various reasons, coupled with the winds of this world, I, as the Demon King, am here..." Xuanze put away his nonchalant demeanor, "simply to accomplish what I want to do."

“…I understand more or less.” Li stood up and walked up to him. “Then, take me with you.”

“Li…” Ning looked at her in surprise.

“I’ve figured it out.” Li clenched her fists tightly. “I can’t stay like this. I can’t turn a blind eye to these things and run away just for my own comfort. I have to face what I have to face… I still can’t forgive the kingdom, and I can’t forgive that Xia Que.”

After hearing the words of the Demon King "Hero" Genze, she remembered what the three people in the labyrinth had done. It seemed that they were also guiding her in this direction.

She didn't know if her decision was right, but the kingdom was something she couldn't forgive. Not only had they assassinated Nao and seized the labyrinth, but they'd even dragged innocent bystanders into it.

“No matter what the kingdom does…” Li said resolutely, “Let us… destroy humanity.”

"...Heh, that's what I have to do."

The Demon King extended his hand, and the Dragon King extended hers. Their hands clasped together, and that night, the Demon King and the "Time-Space Dragon King" officially joined forces.

Destroy humanity.

Chapter 14 Quest: "Kill the Hero"

"That's what we say, but do you know what we're really going to do?"

Xuanze's unexpected counter-question immediately put Li in an awkward position.

"Eh... how could I not know..." Rin's face broke out in a cold sweat. "Wouldn't it have been over if I had just attacked in one go?"

“…Hey, over there,” Xuanze looked at Ning, “is that guy an idiot?”

"I don't deny it," Ning said noncommittally.

"Ning, why don't you deny it?! I'm not stupid!" Li could only retort angrily.

“This isn’t a game.” Ning suddenly stared at her. “All the experience you gained about the other world from [the other world] isn’t applicable here. Although the Magic Eye can tell you everything and digitize everything, not everything can be treated as a game.”