The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Heris shuddered even harder when Alice's gaze fell on her, probably shocked by the previous sight of Alice destroying the radioactive crystal in two punches.

The radioactive crystal in Demon King City was something known by everyone in the demon realm. Apart from turning the group of businessmen who had bought Demon King City into a laughingstock, the crystal had also left the impression of being indestructible in everyone's minds. Yet, now, Alice had casually lifted the crystal and shattered it with two punches.

The sight was no less shocking than seeing a little girl pick up the Statue of Liberty with one hand and then smashing it into rubble in two punches. Simply put, it was a very, very shocking sight.

However, there was one good thing about this otherworld, and that was the fact that while such a scene was indeed astonishing, it wasn't at the level of being unimaginable. Moreover, although the demon realm's inhabitants recognized that the radioactive crystal was indestructible, they also knew that this condition wasn't all-encompassing. To be precise, since the former Demon King had left this crystal behind, it stood to reason that the next generation's Demon King should have a way of dealing with it. In other words, since Alice had just dealt with the crystal, it meant that...

"L-Lord Demon King?"

Heris gulped as she looked at Alice's petite body, an invisible pressure pressing down on her. Although her senses currently told her that Alice was no different than an ordinary peasant girl, she had personally witnessed Alice destroying the radioactive crystal just now.

Moreover, along with the crystal's destruction, the uncomfortable feeling Heris experienced due to the radiation had gradually dissipated. This proved that Alice didn't shatter a fake crystal, but the real deal that had been sitting in Demon King City for the past three centuries instead.

Meanwhile, Alice clenched her fists as she looked at the trembling demoness, her mind thinking of a proper response for this situation. Alice felt quite the sense of déjà vu from the current situation. A similar situation had also happened when she first met Zauna. First, she was seen vaporizing the Boria Wolf King. Then, she was seen pulling out the Hero's Sword at the Gryffin Church. The first scene caused Zauna to feel that Alice was strong, while the second scene caused Zauna to mistake Alice for the Hero.

Meanwhile, the current situation was merely the combination of those two scenarios. While accidentally letting Heris witness her strength, Alice had also caused Heris to mistake her as the Demon King. At this time, it probably wouldn't matter even if she said that she wasn't the Demon King. Not to mention, she didn't need to do so.

Alice had originally intended to continue keeping her identity a secret to avoid letting others discover that she was taking on the position of Hero and Demon King simultaneously. However, after giving the matter some more thought, she realized that she had nothing to be afraid of. After all, her Hero image in the human realm was that of a tall and muscular man. There was no way anyone would link that fake appearance to her real appearance.

Moreover, Alice could also employ a similar move in the demon realm. She could just pretend to be a Demon King whose appearance was completely different from her own. Meanwhile, Heris just happened to be the perfect person to help her disseminate this fake information.

According to Grant, while Heris might seem like a mature and sexy lady, she was, in reality, a naive child who believed in prophecies. It would be easy to fool such a child.

Thus, with such thoughts in mind, Alice faked a cough and said, "Indeed, I am the new Demon King... I don't know if you remember what happened before, but the former Demon King's soul possessed your body just now."

"I got possessed?" Heris was momentarily stunned. Then, realization dawned upon her as she said, "Ah, I remember! I faintly heard someone telling me to relax my body while I was driving just now, so I relaxed, and then...I don't remember what happened next."

"..."

Alice was at a loss for words. She couldn't believe how gullible Heris was. It was no wonder why Grant had such an easy time possessing the demoness's body.

However, this was good news for Alice. At the very least, it showed that Heris was easy to trick. Hence, she looked at Heris and said, "It's good that you know. Also, I just destroyed his soul and shattered the radioactive crystal plaguing this land… However, I still haven't fully developed the Demon King's Power in my body, and I can't use it all the time. So, to prevent the Hero from finding me, I need you to keep my appearance a secret for now. Can you do that?"

"No problem, Lord Demon King. I know how to differentiate between priorities." Heris nodded obediently. Although she was gullible, it only meant that she lacked precautions. It didn't mean that she was an idiot. "Basically, we only need to let the humans know that the Demon King has appeared and that their Hero shouldn't behave too arrogantly. However, we shouldn't let them know about the Demon King's appearance to avoid them sending assassins after you. Then, only after you have fully adapted to the Demon King's Power will we launch an invasion into the human realm. Is that right, Lord Demon King?"

"Something like that." Alice nodded. Then, she curiously asked, "Do you hope to wage war with the human realm too?"

Since Alice would be playing as the Demon King, she naturally had to express her views on the human realm. Hence, she had deliberately added the word "too" in her sentence.

Meanwhile, Heris didn't suspect a thing as she nodded and said, "That's right. The demon realm's environment is too terrible, and the air here is dirty. You have only arrived at the demon realm recently, so you might not be aware, but there are even people selling air from the human realm on the internet…"

Alice nodded. After listening to Heris's complaint, she understood why the demon realm's inhabitants were so adamant about waging war with the human realm. Simply put, they were doing so because of the demon realm's harsh environment. Due to the demon realm's environmental circumstances, living conditions here were bad. The lack of sunlight and clean air had even caused the trees here to become twisted.

Although the demons had already adapted to life in the demon realm after living here for a long time, it didn't mean that they didn't wish for a better living environment. For example, a poor person might have been eating coarse grains and light meals since childhood, but that didn't mean that this person didn't wish to eat delicacies. The human realm's environment was simply too much of a temptation for the demons. Hence, the demons would eagerly wage war with the human realm whenever a new Demon King appeared.

Unfortunately, none of the past Demon Kings were anything good. They didn't care about leading the demons to invade the human realm. Most of them only sought to use their power to enjoy life. Grant was one such example. The reason why he sought to resurrect himself was just so that he could enjoy reigning over others. He had no plans of attacking the human realm whatsoever.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Demon King's Power only chose people harboring deep hatred toward humans as its target, the past Demon Kings might not have even bothered waging wars at all. Instead, they would only greedily enjoy themselves in the demon realm.

However, according to Grant, there seemed to have been instances where a Demon King had successfully invaded the human realm in the past. It was also for this reason that the demon realm's inhabitants did not give up on hope even after multiple generations of Demon Kings had met with consecutive failures. This strong belief in the Demon King also showed how much the demons desired a good environment.

In other words, the best solution to avoid the possibility of war is to solve the demon realm's problematic environment? Alice scratched her head, feeling that her thoughts had deviated slightly. …But is there really a solution to the demon realm's polluted environment?

"I have a presumptuous request, Lord Demon King."

While Alice was pondering how she should handle the relationship between the human realm and demon realm, Heris's voice suddenly brought her out of her thoughts. Looking at the demoness's hopeful eyes, Alice nodded and said, "Speak. What is it?"

Alice guessed that Heris was probably thinking of bringing her to meet her family or something along those lines. Alice had no intention of refusing such a request, either. Similar to why she had agreed to meet the human realm's kings, meeting the demon realm's Four Heavenly Kings should ease their worries a little.

As to whether someone would leak information on the Hero's and Demon King's true identity, Alice wasn't particularly worried about that. Unless the demon realm's Four Heavenly Kings and the human realm's kings were spies, the risk of such a leak happening would be almost non-existence.

"Since you don't intend to reveal your identity as the Demon King yet…" Looking at Alice, Heris embarrassingly said, "Can I take this chance to hug you?"