He was the strongest of the Demon Army’s Generals, the highest-ranked Noble Demon, and the second most powerful individual in the demon race’s hierarchy.His name was Lucas Ernest Bradshaw, and throughout the human world, he was widely known as the most powerful demon in existence besides the Demon King.Whenever the Demon Generals of the Demon Army were mentioned, humans and elves alike would think of monsters capable of bringing mountains crashing down and sinking entire islands to the bottom of the ocean.They were regarded as beings capable of causing earthquakes and drying up seas, the most vile, monstrous, and ruthless entities to ever walk the surface of the planet.However, Lucas didn’t really see himself that way. Half of the things that humans said he did were made up anyway.In his own opinion, he was just a guy doing his job.And today, the last day of the millennium, Lucas was following orders once more, just as he’d done throughout his entire military career.He was the

“Unhand me, you vermin!!!” the Demon King bellowed, struggling against the bloody restraints.Lucas merely laughed at the Demon King’s furious expression, then turned his gaze towards the Hero and her surviving companions, who were watching the confrontation with expressions of disbelief and growing alarm.“Get out of here now,” he said. “Or you’ll get caught up in the blast and die.”Hearing his warning, the Hero blinked in confusion. Then, her eyes moved to Lucas’s chest where his magic power was rapidly condensing, and the realisation that he was planning to blow himself up along with the Demon King dawned on her.“No,” she muttered softly, slowly shaking her head.She let go of her sword, about to dash over to him, but one of her companions grabbed her and pulled her back.“What are you doing?!” the knight demanded.However, the Hero barely paid her any mind, her eyes fixed on Lucas as she struggled to break free from their grip.“Get her out of her,” Lucas said to the knight, tur

‘But which path should I take? Relying on the church and the royal family would be relatively safer and eventually grant her political power, but it’d also come with the unpleasant experience of the church attempting to brainwash her, a much slower rate of power growth due to their coddling, and greater inconvenience for me in terms of status.’Even though Judith had said she’d take him along with her, Luke knew things wouldn’t be that easy.The church only cared about the Hero, and even if they initially allowed him to accompany her just to appease her, they’d eventually try to get rid of him.‘The self-development route would be a LOT easier for me in terms of status, and there wouldn’t be any church priests trying to brainwash her or royals attempting to use her as a pawn in their political games.Most importantly, her power growth speed would be much faster since I’d be the one directing her growth.The danger associated with this route, however, is incomparable to that of the fir

Luke exhaled softly as he stared at the five corpses lying in front of him, all of which belonged to the monsters that had attacked the village, including the one he had fought and killed.The night had passed, and dawn had broken, and now, the village men were handling the aftermath of the monster attack.A total of five monsters had attacked the village, and the village guard, which consisted of hunters and a few villagers who had once worked as low-ranked adventurers before retiring, had managed to take down four of them.The fifth monster had been dealt with by Luke, which was precisely why he had become the subject of so many gazes as he sat at the edge of the village square, watching the men prepare the monster corpses for dismantling.Word had spread throughout the village that the orphan kid living on its outskirts had killed one of the monsters that attacked the previous night.Initially, many villagers hadn't believed the story, since it was common knowledge that Luke didn't