The Terminally Ill Hero’s Husband is the Demon King - Chapter 2.1
Stories about the Demon King
Hamutis, the last territory beneath Gray Mountain. Since beyond Gray Mountain lay Mezak, a neighboring country, the lord of Hamutis was a Margrave. It was customary for Margraves to take charge of and manage the land all the way to where the border met. However, the Margrave of Hamutis only managed the area up to the immediate vicinity of Gray Mountain.
At the eastern edge of Hamutis, there was a road that pierced through the mountain and led to the neighboring country of Mezak. Merchant groups and travelers would also move along that road. However, Gray Mountain was never included in the territory of Hamutis. What was born and grew on Gray Mountain had belonged to the king for generations.
This was because Yuers had few wars to begin with, and there had never once been a foreign invasion that came climbing over Gray Mountain. That was why Yuers had long regarded Gray Mountain as a sacred place.
Some hunters and farmers avoided taxes and surveillance by leaving Hamutis and settling on Gray Mountain. Once those who worked in the state-owned mines and merchants engaged in small-scale trade joined them, it grew large enough to form a city.
The lords of Hamutis had, for generations, found them troublesome and wanted to eliminate them or incorporate them into their territory. But the stubborn mountain residents, who lived under the king’s tacit approval, did not listen.
Hamutis and the residents of Gray Mountain waged war for 100 years. This war, recorded as the longest war in Yuers’s history, ended 200 years ago in peaceful coexistence. The residents of Gray Mountain named their city ‘Hundred-Year Fortress’.
It was late afternoon, and the sun was sloping gently downward. Gillian stopped by the post station in Hamutis and returned the horse that had brought him here. The post station administrators glanced at Gillian when they saw the horse from Tiera, the capital.
“What brings you all the way here?”
“I don’t believe there’s any reason I have to answer.”
Gillian spoke in a business-like tone. What he said was not wrong, so the administrator nodded and took the horse. The people nearby could not suppress their curiosity. Gillian found their attention bothersome and quickly pulled his robe over himself.
“Are there any decent restaurants and inns nearby?”
“There’s no reason I have to answer, but if you turn left from the main road and go down a little, they sell things worth eating.”
“Thank you. You’re very kind.”
The administrator winked with a playful expression, then led the horse away.
As the administrator had said, if he turned left from the main road and went up the slope, there was a small market, and beside it was an alley where inns and restaurants were gathered.
Gillian entered the largest tavern and restaurant among them and sat down. He had been eating nothing but dried food the entire time, so he wanted something warm. While the food was being cooked and brought out, he had a little alcohol and listened to what the people around him were saying.
There were many stories interesting enough that Gillian wanted to suddenly join in. He was also able to overhear talk about the Demon King. However, not a single person was worried about the Demon King’s return. And this was in the territory closest to Gray Mountain, where the Demon King was said to appear.
For some reason, it seemed the Demon King never came down from the mountain. They said he behaved quietly even on the mountain, so even the merchants who passed through Gray Mountain to go to and from Mezak had been safe all along.
By now, Gillian was starting to feel somewhat suspicious. They had sent punitive forces several times, but did the Demon King truly exist? He was a man who had defeated demonic beasts, dragons, cursed monsters, and even heroes who had gone mad.
The beings Gillian had fought had always drifted toward him, casting great rumors before them. Like the eye of a typhoon bringing rain clouds that covered the sky, or like a rotting corpse giving off a foul stench that spread far into the distance.
Ominous beings were always thickly surrounded by ominous rumors. How could a being calling himself the Demon King exist so blandly, without any particularly frightening rumors?
Gillian had passed through Hamutis and Hundred-Year Fortress three years ago as well, crossing over to Mezak. They said the rumors that a Demon King had appeared on Gray Mountain had begun circulating around that time, but Gillian had heard nothing of them.
Perhaps the rumors were so insignificant that Gillian had not heard them, or perhaps the Demon King had appeared and begun acting around then, and had luckily avoided Gillian.
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