Demon King & Hero

TL: Eevee

Ed: adkji

***

“Uuuu…”

A frowning Yuria grumbled.

“Idiot.”

“Takes one to know one…”

“Still, how on earth does a hero fail to catch a single goldfish?”

That was the reality.

The reason why Yuria was grumbling was because of that goldfish scooping.

From already limited funds, Yuria had spent 20 coins (incidentally, 2 coins per try), but had failed to catch a single one.

Also, that stall was set to artificially low difficulty, as it was originally meant for children.

Looking on this sight the demon king had led the charge himself and completely conquered the pond (He caught all of them with a single paper net.) The stall owner who had turned white as a sheet offered 20 coins to the demon king as a tribute and was returned the goldfish.

And so the final result was the bag with two goldfish in Yuria’s right hand.

“Goldfish have nothing to do with heros after all~” (Yuria)

Gazing at the pouting Yuria, the demon king said,

“Really? Then, do you wanna try that next?”

Following the demon king’s hand, Yuria turned around to another stall.

Where he was pointing was a stall where you shot for prizes with a bow and an headless arrow.

“Sure, I’m good at archery!”

Yuria said with a smile. And looking at this smile, so too, did the demon king smiled.

‘How good could you possibly be.’

***

“Idiot~”

Creeak. (Teeth grinding SFX)

A familiar word. But the difference this time was that those words were from Yuria’s mouth, who was holding a giant stuffed toy in her arms.

“I told you! It’s because I don’t have my glasses!”

“Pettiness, now excuses! Not much of a man now, are you?”

Yuria teased. Her smile had yet to leave her lips. In reality, the demon king had more or less lived with paperwork since his birth, and his eyesight was poor as a result.

In the demon world, he had extremely powerful glasses, but when the sorcerers had summoned him, he hadn’t been wearing them. And so, he had been unable to use glasses the entire time.

Of course, there were renowned spectacles shops in the empire, but they were practically worthless to the demon king.

That was why he wasn’t going to take part originally, but Yuria had badgered him into this, with the results as shown.

The difference between the demon king, whose accuracy would only fall even further with distance, and Yuria, whose archery was honed in battle, were worlds apart.

‘Heh heh, I’ve found something the demon king can’t do!’

Somehow, Yuria was feeling much more upbeat.

Looking at Yuria’s smile, the demon king started to get angry. He felt like he’d somehow lost the initative that he’d been holding up till now.

“Then, should we try that?”

Looking at where the demon king was pointing, Yuria smirked.

“As. Much. As. You. Want!”

That was the declaration that announced the end of the festival.

***

“Mister! Mister! Pleeeaaaseeee!”

“No, miss! No, ahhh….”

“Just take them all, damn you!”

“Ahh… M, monster…”

The gates to hell had opened, and two demons had appeared in the festival.

Of those two, the actual demon smirked and said,

“19 matches, 12 wins, 7 losses! Admit your defeat!”

『Enough already!』

Starting with goldfish scooping and archery, the fight that broke out from there engulfed all the stalls in the festival, and every time a new round broke out between the two, many stallholders lost their entire stock of prizes to them.

“Next is that one!”

The stallholder that Yuria had pointed to turned white.

“Very well!”

At the demon king’s spirited cry, another hellgate opened in front of the stallholder. But, there was a hero that sealed that gate…

“‘Scuse me, young’uns.”

“He-hey, that hurts?”

“Who is…?”

An elderly man had both the demon king and Yuria by their ears.

“Vi, village head!”

The stallholder who had narrowly avoided the hellgates’ grand opening wept tears of gratitude, gazing upon the visage of his hero, the village head.

“They’re still in their honeymoon period, it looks like a fight over something small. Forgive them for me.”

At the village head’s words, Yuria’s face reddened and she shouted,

“Wh, wh, whose honeymoon!”

“The paperwork hasn’t been filed yet.”

“Ah, my mistake. So, you’re saying you just haven’t tied the knot yet, is that right?”

“No way!”/”Yep, and an oath sworn on the Scales of the Chief God, too~”

Yuria glared at the demon king. But glare or not, the demon king was still gleefully smiling.

It wasn’t till the head reached his house, i.e. the village head’s house, that he finally let go of their ears.

“Either way, sure a lover’s quarrel every now and then isn’t a bad thing, but would you mind not ruining our village festival?”

The village head said with his sternest expression.

At his words, Yuria and the demon king said simultaneously,

“Eh? What did we ruin?”

“I’m sorry.”

Unlike the demon king that had bowed his head, Yuria tilted her head sideways, puzzled, and you could almost see a visible question mark floating over her head.

“You’re having a rough time.”

“I apologize. She can’t do housework, is completely useless, and can’t read the mood, but she’s a good woman.”

“You talking about me?”

“Yes, yes. It is a man’s duty to endure, after all.”

“You’re talking about me, aren’t you!”

“Haaa… but, it really is tiring. Especially her cooking…”

“It’s just as well. At least my missus is good at cooking.”

“Hang on, the two of you’re talking shit about me to my face?!”

“You’re blessed.”

“IIIIEET!”

There was an odd empathy between the village chief and the demon king. And in that kind of mood, Yuria was completely ignored.

“Fine, I can’t read the mood, can’t cook, can’t do housework, and I can’t farm, either!”

Yuria shrieked, storming off.

“Ha, good times.”

“Yes, it really is.”

The demon king grinned, then lowered his head.

“I’m sorry for getting overexcited and interfering with the village. I’ll return the prizes here.” ƒ𝔯𝗲𝗲𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧oѵℯl.𝒄𝑜m

“No, you won those legitimately, so no need.”

“No, we really have no need for them. Return them to the stall owners. These kinds of festivals, they’re running a loss on them anyway. It’ll be problematic if we sweep all the prizes.”

At his words, the village chief nodded his head.

“Alright. Well, find her quick. They say when a woman gets angry, it can even snow in summer.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

As the demon king ran out, a smile spread across the village chief’s face.

“These are good times. Good times.”

***

Author’s Notes:

Gimme comments! I’m all out of reserves!

TLN: More comments, more, more, MOAR!

Translator’s Notes:

(1) Original raws said ‘as a man, you’re the worst’ 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶

(2) Raws said ‘you’re still at the couple stage, is that it?’ – Korean is slightly more specific when it comes differentiating dating/married pairs. Kinda ironic in that the raws do use the borrowed English word ‘couple.’