Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant

# Achieve Level 400.

'Hm?'

Seeing the contents of the quest, Su-ho's eyes half-lidded.

What is this?

This is supposed to be the promotion trial quest for Guardian God rank?

But there's only one condition?

And that condition is merely reaching Level 400.

As Su-ho stood frozen with a dumbfounded expression, Jack slid out from the shadows and asked,

- So it's finally the promotion trial for becoming a Guardian God. But why that look on your face?

"Do you know what the promotion trial quest says?"

- No.

"Why don't you know?"

- Because I met Umbra after he had already become a Guardian God.

"...?"

He looked at Jack like he was asking what that was supposed to mean, but it was true.

As Jack shrugged, Su-ho said,

"My level is 335 right now, you know? But the content of the promotion trial quest is to reach Level 400. Is it normally this easy?"

- Easy?

"Of course. It's not even something complicated like the special quests. All I have to do is level up, so what's supposed to be so hard about that?"

At that, Jack crossed his arms and thought for a moment, then soon let out a faint chuckle.

- It'll be hard.

"Hard?"

- Yeah, very.

"Why?"

- Think about it. At first glance, this might look like simple leveling. But where are you going to make up the experience needed to reach Level 400?

"Well...."

At that moment, Su-ho's words stopped.

And a little later, a shallow breath escaped him.

"Uh...."

- Right?

"Th... that's true?"

- Levels might look easy to raise at first glance, but once you reach a certain point, they're also the kind of thing that absolutely refuses to go up no matter how desperately you try. And even if levels don't look like much, they're still the most representative means of proving a player's level. So if Level 400 is the condition for the promotion trial, I'd say that's an appropriate level of difficulty.

"Ah...."

Jack was smart.

And beside them, Grid, who had been listening, nodded as well.

- I don't like the way he looks, but that pitch-black shadow bastard is definitely right. Levels look easy at first glance, but if you actually want to raise them with intent, you need an environment suited for it. But in the world you live in, aside from Big Gates, there are almost no gates left that can raise your level, are there?

He had even conquered the African continent, where all those countless monsters had been swarming, yet the results had still fallen short of expectations.

'Then where am I supposed to raise my level now?'

It was right when Su-ho had sunk into despair.

- This... maybe there might be a way after all.

Grid, who had been agreeing from the side, now had his gaze entangled in empty space.

He seemed to touch something, then soon shifted his eyes and looked at Su-ho.

Meeting his eyes, Su-ho asked,

"What way?"

- A new mission just came down to me.

"A new mission?"

- Originally, as the Great Demon of Greed among the Constellations, my mission was to scatter my stigmata across various worlds and cause quests to occur. But now I've become the Demon King, right? So that means I've been given a mission suited to that position.

"And what is that mission?"

- To carry out the East-West War.

"East-West War? What's that supposed to be now?"

- Ugh.

Grid let out a sigh.

But that sigh had not been directed at Su-ho.

It was a sigh dragged up from deep in his lower dantian, a sigh that sounded sincerely fed up and irritated.

After sighing, Grid looked up at the sky.

- So this is why they rushed us into the Demon King seat....

The look in Grid's eyes as he stared at the sky was deep.

The nature of that look was resentment.

Soon lowering his head, Grid said to Su-ho,

- Let's move somewhere else first.

At Grid's words and expression, which had grown incomparably serious, Su-ho silently nodded.

Then Grid snapped his fingers, and a large portal appeared before the two of them.

- Let's go.

As Grid walked into the portal first, Su-ho followed him inside without suspicion.

***

Once they walked into the portal, they had barely taken a few steps before they were already coming out through the exit portal.

What they saw outside was a broad field.

A blue sky and thick forest.

But in the center of it was an enormous open lot, tamped down bare without a single blade of grass.

Right after arriving there, Grid jerked his chin toward the open lot and said to Su-ho,

- Where do you think this is?

"No idea."

- Then look and judge for yourself.

Having said that, Grid swept his gaze around the open lot, then stretched out a hand toward empty space.

At once, several layers of overlapping purple hexagrams appeared in front of his palm, then soon began to spin in different directions.

Kkiiigigigigik-

The sound of old pulleys and gears turning.

At a glance, it almost sounded like some old mechanical formation was operating.

The hexagrams spinning in different directions drew larger and larger hexagram magic circles one after another with each repeated rotation, and when at last a magic circle large enough to easily cover an elephant had taken shape—

"...!"

Su-ho was able to feel an enormous amount of mana being generated from the open lot.

KWAHWAHWAHWAHWAH!!

There was nothing visible to the eye.

But what was vibrating the transparent air as if heat haze were rising was unmistakably mana.

[ Demon King Grid's qualifications have been fulfilled. ]

[ Opening Demon King Castle Belkanuel. ]

A system notification popped up all of a sudden.

Because Su-ho possessed the trait Grid's Partner, he was sharing the notification along with him.

Thanks to that, Su-ho could tell what Grid was trying to show him.

It was the existence of the Demon King Castle, which only the Demon King could open.

Right after the system notification, colors began to fill the transparently rising haze, and soon a Demon King Castle with the typical image of a black-and-purple Demon King Castle was summoned, filling the open lot.

'So that's why there wasn't a single blade of grass here.'

Perhaps because the summoned Demon King Castle had appeared without raising even a puff of dust, it gave off an even eerier aura.

Once Demon King Castle Belkanuel had been completely summoned, Grid stared up at Belkanuel for a while, lost in thought.

Then he lowered his head and took the lead.

- Come on.

Su-ho quietly followed behind him.

Grid entered through the front gate.

Because as the new Demon King, Grid was now the master of Demon King Castle Belkanuel.

And as if Belkanuel too recognized and accepted Grid, though not a single servant was in sight, Belkanuel opened its front gate on its own like a castle of mysterious magic and received its new master.

The inside of the Demon King Castle was finer than expected.

It was grand and clean, and felt far removed from the gloomy, bleak, characteristically dreary exterior it had shown from outside.

But because the things that a castle should naturally have in abundance—attendants, maids, servants, and the like—were nowhere to be seen, it felt empty instead, and in a different sense created an eerie atmosphere.

Grid walked on.

He surely had means and methods to move there in a single instant, but Grid did not do that.

As if taking a leisurely stroll, as if it were a hometown he had come back to after a long time, he moved his steps slowly and carefully looked over the inside of the castle.

For some reason, those gestures seemed steeped in history, so Su-ho and Jack quietly followed him as well without saying a word.

After following behind Grid for quite a while like that, they finally arrived at what looked like the Demon King's throne.

Grid stared blankly at the throne, then snapped his fingers and summoned three chairs in front of it, each as large and luxurious-looking as the throne itself.

- Sit.

At Grid's invitation, Su-ho sat in one of the chairs.

The chair had an antique {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} design, but contrary to its appearance, it was comfortable to sit in.

Once Su-ho sat down, Grid said,

- Since you're sitting anyway, why not call out your shadow friend too?

"Should I?"

So that's why he had prepared three chairs. The remaining one was Jack's.

At Grid's suggestion, Jack immediately sprang out from the shadows and sat in the seat assigned to him.

But the way the chairs had been set made them sit in a ring facing the throne, which somehow made it feel like someone ought to be sitting on the throne too.

Su-ho asked,

"Shouldn't that seat over there be the one you sit in, as the master of the Demon King Castle? Why are you leaving it empty instead of sitting there yourself?"

- For now, I feel like leaving that seat empty for the one who originally belonged there.

"The one who originally belonged there?"

- Yeah. I can no longer call his name, but if I had to refer to him by title, I suppose I'd have to call him the previous Demon King. A Constellation who had once been the Guardian God of the Demon Realm, but in the end chose annihilation. In another sense, let's say it was the seat of the player I bet on last.

"...!"

Grid's expression as he spoke of the throne's original master was bitter.

It could only be.

Because Grid had once been, like Umbra's Jack, the greatest partner who stood by the previous Demon King.

After staring at the empty throne for a while, Grid spoke.

- Did you know? Just like every person has different fingerprints, the countless worlds governed by the system also each have different Big Events that occur in them.

"What do you mean, the Big Events are different?"

- Exactly what it sounds like. Countless worlds are trapped inside the system's cage and turning for its amusement. But how boring would it be if exactly the same events happened in every world? So the system analyzes the traits each world possesses and causes events suited to them. In that sense, one of the greatest events that occurs in the Demon Realm I belong to is the East-West War.

East-West War.

Put simply, it meant a great war between the western region and the eastern region.

Grid continued,

- This Demon Realm is centered around one continent, split cleanly in half into two sides. The western region, the West Demon Realm, and the eastern region, the East Demon Realm. The place I belong to is the East Demon Realm, and since there are two regions, naturally there are also two Demon Kings.

Grid held up two fingers.

- Naturally, the seven Great Demons corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins also each exist in the West Demon Realm and the East Demon Realm. And from here on is the key part, so listen carefully. Originally, the West Demon Realm and the East Demon Realm would absolutely never come into contact. Long ago, the first East Demon King who existed to protect the residents of the East Demon Realm from the insane West Demon Realm created a barrier that no one could break through. But once the system appeared and the Great Cataclysm happened, everything changed. The system started using that barrier to stage events.

"The system started using the barrier to stage events... don't tell me it deliberately removed the barrier or something?"

- Exactly. Players themselves only arise in the East Demon Realm, and for the sake of vicious quests and gates to provide them, it started conditionally removing the barrier. But even among those, the biggest problem is the Big Event I mentioned earlier.

Grid closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

- Whenever certain conditions are filled, the system wipes out the entire barrier. Then it causes the East-West War, calling it the greatest event in the Demon Realm. In that sense, the barrier is going to disappear soon. Because I just received a mission telling me to set off the East-West War and do my best with it.

Grid opened his eyes again and looked at Su-ho.

- So, partner. I want to make you a proposal. Would you please participate in this East-West War?