I Was Summoned As A Hero, But I Became The Demon Lord Instead

"Hey Jūbei, have you ever seen fireworks before?"

"My good man, of course I have."

"Oh? Really? They're kind of beautiful, don't you think they would go well with drinking?"

"You my drinking buddy are a genius. Truly a good man."

After that his drunken "army" of fifty men came along with us outside Honnoji Temple at his command then, at what we drunks thought was a safe distance, fired flaming arrows high up in the sky along with poorly made experimental fireworks loosely wrapped around them with pieces of string. Truly, what could have possibly gone wrong with this simple d.e.s.i.r.e to see fireworks while drinking?

Oh, nothing much really, aside from being remembered as the ones that set Honnō-ji Temple ablaze leading to the warlord committing suicide when we tried to save him. It seems he thought we were plotting to take his head so he chose to commit seppuku and have his body burn up in the flames.

Our group of drunks were then pinned with the crime of murdering and betraying our boss. At that point my drinking buddy Jūbei in his drunken state declared "hehe, aren't we kind of screwed? Well, since we're basically dead men, why don't we just rebel like we've been joking about over the years? Haven't we been overworked lately anyways?"

That was what eventually led to the Battle of Yamazaki when Hideyoshi in a fit of rage slaughtered our group of drunks. I somehow slipped under the radar when I recovered from my drunken stupor. Just for the record, a lot of this dark history was altered and covered up by that lad Hideyoshi afterwards since it was too shameful. This cover up naturally led to the birth of the great mystery behind my drinking buddy's reason for betrayal.

Anyways, thanks to my careless remark at the time, I needed to flee for my life while in Japan after the incident I inadvertently caused in 1582 AD.

Unfortunately, I was eventually cornered by Hideyoshi's group, the only reason I'm still alive was because of my silver tongue and vast expanse of experience.

Since the first contact of the Portuguese with Japan in 1543 AD there had been a large scale slave trade developed After the Battle of Yamazaki in 1582 AD, where I turned that idiotic buddy Jūbei of mine traitor with my careless remark, I was eventually backed into a corner and faced the death sentence when things were brought to light. When cornered, I used every cell within my brain to come up with a path to escape and I brought up the rampant slavery to the fellow who won that famous battle.

When he heard what I brought up to save my skin, he was so disgusted his own Japanese people were being sold en masse into slavery to the point he wrote a letter to Jesuit Vice-Provincial Gaspar Coelho on the 24th of July in 1587 AD. He demanded the Portuguese, Siamese, and Cambodians stop purchasing and enslaving Japanese and return Japanese slaves who ended up as far as India. I then pleaded to be given the mission to deliver the letter to atone for my sins to try to save my skin.

Ah, truly it was the worst. Anyways I delivered the stupid letter in the end.

After many years passed, the times eventually changed and it was the dawn of the industrial revolution in 1870 AD during the Meiji period. During this time of rapid expansion and economic development, I kept a very low profile. After my blunder I decided not to make any careless remarks like I had in my drunken stupor that one time.

I somehow passed my life peacefully from that point onwards. Well, that's not really true. There were those two bloody world wars I took part in, from 1914 AD to 1918 AD and then 1941 AD to 1945 AD.

I truly watched as wars had advanced with the times and bore witness to the rise and fall of countless nations. I'd experienced first hand the powerlessness of being one man watching as humanity repeated the same mistakes over and over again. To be quite frank, I'd lost my sanity by the time things finally calmed down. I was no longer able to integrate with other humans normally when this quasi like peace was finally brought to the world. By that point in time. I'd seen far too much of the filth hidden within their hearts to open up to another person.

Though, nuclear weapons were what really drew the last line for me. Genocides, were all too common throughout history. At the end of the day, these disgusting wars were merely sparked from a difference in opinion. Often times the root cause was found to be a religion or a group's beliefs. Other times it was due to the evolving struggle to obtain resources and the thirst for power.

After those two wretched wars in particular, I was at the limit of what I could put up with in regards to this world. I kept my head down and spent most of my days reading the earlier versions of manga. As time went on light novels and anime became more and more popular. Eventually I found myself immersing myself in these fictional worlds. My head was in the clouds and I forgot all about moving about to keep my identity a secret.

I had grown lax and complacent as I had grown old. Thanks to that, I was eventually discovered by the Japanese government and my unaging nature was revealed.

Some time in the year 2009 AD I was captured and detained in a certain research facility. It wasn't until 2016 that I somehow escaped their control. During my seven years there, I underwent all sorts of cruel and inhumane experimentation for the third time in my life. What I gained through this third experience was genetic modification. These humans, just like those who gave birth to me were seeking immortality.

With a precious sample like me to work with, their research advanced by leaps and bounds. They even successfully improved my regenerative abilities. Most of my wounds would heal typically within an hour after being experimented on. My eyesight, hearing, sense of smell, reflexes, and intelligence all experienced an immense upgrade.

Eventually I became strong enough that they were unable to control me any longer. Sometime in 2016, I was able to escape when I was being transported between two facilities. After that, I destroyed the transmitter they implanted in my body and completely altered my appearance. My initial plan was to head to America to locate someone, but I discovered unfortunate news pertaining to them, so instead of fleeing the country I chose to stay in Japan and blend in.

Sometimes the most dangerous place was the safest after all. For certain reasons, I transferred into a prestigious high school that was known for its high academic standards.

There were many other times throughout history I'd occasionally pass time by attending high schools or universities to get a better understanding over the changing eras. With all the knowledge I'd acc.u.mulated over the two millennia I lived through, education was typically a walk in the park. I didn't even need to listen to the lectures and I could sleep through most of them since I'd already personally lived through or learned it all already.

As that was the case, people eventually grew under the impression I was a delinquent or something of that nature. Thanks to those misunderstandings all sorts of strange people created conflicts with me for no rhyme or reason. I found I'd be getting in more and more fights as time went on. However, it really wasn't much of a problem, after all, I was someone with a vast wealth of combat experience.

From the number of armies I'd joined, to the number of weapons I'd mastered, or even the number of martial arts I'd comprehended, they were truly uncountable by this point in time.

Yet, even with the wealth of knowledge and experience I may have, I'm not even a match for this woman known as the progenitor of vampires in the other world I'd yearned for.

I'd never gotten involved in any sort of serious relationship with a woman before since they all died before I did. I could never bring myself to cause them such pain. They would age and wilt while I remained the same; I was someone whose time was stopped. I couldn't bring myself to let them suffer through that pain, thus I remained single from the time I was born. At least that was the excuse I came up with.

When I encountered a woman who was the same as me, for the first time in my life, I lost control over my words and imposed the feelings I had felt all this time. Loneliness. It was a feeling I knew all too well. Our circ.u.mstances were slightly different, but nonetheless we were two peas in a pod who had underwent the same trials and tribulations in which we suffered through our isolation and loneliness. We were also both people who knew similar pains. The torture I went through was definitely not as extensive or graphic as hers though since I was only unaging at the time.

"Why are you being so quiet all of a sudden?"

Not wanting to talk about it I changed the topic and asked, "aren't you going to do something about the hero?"

"What's there to do?"

"Why not suck her blood?"

"Hah? Her? I have no interest in a female's blood."

"There's a difference?"

"Of course! Personal preferences vary from vampire to vampire."

"What if I wasn't around, would you have s.u.c.k.e.d her blood then?"

"Well if they were the only sacrifice this time then I would have reluctantly drained her blood."

"Then why not make her your lackey or subordinate or something?"

Of course I was maliciously plotting to try and divert her attention between two toys instead of one. Maybe I'd get some slack if there was someone else she could play around with.

"Hmm. So this crossdresser is your type? I really can't understand my food's preferences."

"I'm not interested in this cross dressing weirdo, but don't you think two people serving at your beck and call is better than one?"

It looked like she was slightly moved by my suggestion as she went into deep thought.

"Aren't there also things a female servant can better assist you with compared to a guy like me?"

"..."

Still not enough? She was just silently staring at me like she wondered what else I had to say.

"Didn't you also need to bring up a replacement demon lord figurehead within the coming years? You could turn her into one unlike with me, right? Wouldn't she also have vengeful thoughts towards humans after she was betrayed by the humans who she once fought for before she was heartlessly tossed down here?"

Then I can control her from behind the scenes and become the "true demon lord" who the figurehead demon lord will tell the future hero, "you may have defeated me the demon lord, but you'll never defeat the true demon lord! Mwahahahaha!"

Of course when my turn comes I'll also get to use the same line if I were to lose. I'll just play the part of a middle man if I'm no match. I can then pretend to betray her and act like I've joined the future hero party and then stab them in the back when their guards are down.

Isn't that the correct path to becoming a demon lord feared even among fellow demon lords?

"Well, since she is already at level 45, I suppose making her the future demon lord would be convenient. Like you said, she would also likely have the motive to get some payback for how she was treated."

"What?! She's already level 45?"

"She has been the hero for five years now, that's about what would be expected."

Ugh, doesn't that make me the weakest of the three of us at the moment? I don't know how old this vampire progenitor may be, but I'm definitely far older than this crossdressing hero. Will I be forced to suck up to her until I'm stronger than her? No way! The order of seniority must be followed.

I'll fight her to the death if I have to, it's not like I'm going to die or anything. Even an ant can defeat an elephant by tiring it out.

While I was starting to have second thoughts about it, miss vampire progenitor moved closer to the hero and gave out a seemingly light kick to turn her over. She flew several meters into the distance before landing face up. Yep, I've confirmed it, I definitely don't want to ever have her nurse me when I'm ill in the future if that's her treating a dead body gently.

The hero who was a bloody mess didn't budge an inch or retort at all and just laid their lifelessly. Miss vampire progenitor just walked forward and raised her foot over the seemingly dead hero. Suddenly a drop of blood emerged from her toe. Something straight of a p.o.r.no played out right before my innocent two thousand year old eyes.

Somehow, my eyes felt like they'd been violated and it was as though the doors to a strange world was slowly opening up in my mind. At the very same moment the doors opening appeared in my mind, I used my imaginary body to strongly shut them in fear of what was on the other side.

She pressed her toe onto the lip of the hero showing clear reluctance while she let her blood slip into the dead hero's mouth. As soon as she finished feeding her blood to the hero she took her foot away and wiped it like she had stepped on some nasty dog shit.

Did she really dislike females that much?

"Hey, is there some sort of reason you don't like female humans?"

"Female humans gossip behind people's backs too damn much. It's repulsive and whenever I think about that, it makes their blood taste terrible when I try to drink it."

"So it's not a physiological rejection, but rather a psychological one?"

She didn't say anything, but continued to coldly look at the hero.

An utterly shameless thought flashed through my head. Should I start cross dressing?

After several minutes passed there were visible changes occurring on the deceased crossdressing hero's body. Her wounds were all closing up and healing rapidly, I could also see her c.h.e.s.t starting to move up and down indicating she had regained her ability to breathe.

Tens of minutes later… we got bored waiting for her to open her eyes so we started playing shogi in the overly empty dark room with low visibility.

After several games, where I barely came out on top every time, and after having my finger ripped off a few times by her in her fit of rage after losing, a voice sounded out.

"Uhh… Where am I? Am I actually dead after all? Is this the after life?"