The Villainess That Was Once A VRMMO player

Country of the Daemons (3)

Creatures in this world turn into [Demons] when exposed to a large amount of magical elements.

Such creatures were rarely seen on the plains where people live, but in mountainous areas, deep forests, or places where a strong amount of magical power existed, such creatures appeared in large numbers.

Intelligent creatures like humans were less likely to become demons, but after a few dozen generations of living in areas with high levels of magical elements, they may become “demonized” to adapt to their surroundings.

The human-turned-demon creatures were called subhumans.

Dwarves were transformed to live in mountainous regions. Beastmen lived in the tropics and deserts. Elves “evolved” from humans to subhumans to survive in the forest areas.

Daemon was one of them. They became a race of strong beings by living a nomadic life in a variety of environments, adapting to the highly magical environment, and acquiring a strong body to protect themselves from the threat of demons.

However, this “evolution” was only useful in a few areas, and subhumans were scarce. Humans dominated the world, having been designed for procreation rather than adaptation to magical elements.

In the beginning, subhumans and humans were not on bad terms. The humans could not expand their sphere of life because of the threat of demons, even if they had more offspring. They needed support.

The kings of humans sought the cooperation of the subhumans. So, the elves learned the art of magic, the dwarves learned the art of blacksmithing to make weapons, the beasts learned the art of surviving in a harsh environment, and a race that was not called Daemon at the time protected the humans from the threat of demons as warriors, and in this way, humans flourished greatly.

As the population increased, even the weak survived and began to try to take advantage of the situation.

Elves and dwarves were not so feared because they lived in different areas and only a few of them were beneficial. Beastmen were looked down upon for their high physical abilities, but lack of magic and education.

However, the last race of subhumans was not accepted. They possessed a longer lifespan than humans, strong magic, strong bodies, and high intelligence. The kings of humans, fearful of losing their position to them, persecuted them as [those who gained their power by selling their souls to demons] — [Daemons] — and drove them out of their safe havens by sheer force of numbers.

“–That was about a hundred years ago or so.”

“Eh…”

I exclaimed as I listened to Grandpa Veritris, the king of Daemons, telling his tale.

I thought I was listening to a very old tale, but it was something that happened very recently… I did expect elves with a long life span to know about what happened.

“Many of the subhuman races that were previously friendly with humans have joined our cause. The subhumans who are still involved with humans are most likely from other areas and have never interacted with us before.“

“Hmmm…”

Even if they were not the victims, they would be angry if they were suddenly betrayed after having been kind and friendly to them up to this point.

“They are the real demons!”

I wasn’t certain how much of this story to believe, but there was an elf grandfather who was alive at the time and was in the king’s entourage, and he tearfully expressed his anger at the time.

He claimed that the elves were the only nation that existed at the time that was cooperating with humans, but when the royal family was found to have connections with Daemons, they were executed on the spot and the entire royal family was slaughtered.

He mentioned that these things happened a hundred years ago, and it was also around the time of the biggest war against the Daemons. The Arceides family became the nobility of the Caenista kingdom at that time, so the dates matched.

“To remember the anger of that time, we took the name [Daemons] and, to confront the threat of the humans, the most powerful of the subhumans took the name [Demon Lord] and led the people.”

“Not the King of Daemons?”

“No, I am Daemon, but I was not in a position to even meet the Demon Lord then, and I was told that it was an elf with Daemon’s blood: a half-elf.”

“Half-elf…”

I guess the half-elves were much more mixed blood back then compared to now. According to the stories, the humans with darker hair were most certainly mixed with subhuman blood.

“Carol-dono had a mysterious hair color. The [Jet Black] that was not mixed with any other color, like the [Pure White] hair of the High Elves.”

“…I see.”

It was probably because of my player character. I simply picked the end of the color palette.