Hero or Villain, Both

"From now on, you'll all serve me and only me."

I said as I looked at all of the demons that I had defeated in the ceremony.

However, it wasn't just these demons that had been sent to me as slaves.

Since they were demoted to becoming my slave, their tribes didn't want to get involved in this matter either since they were nothing more than smaller and weaker tribes. If they were to get attached to the demon king through this, there was no doubt that they would be caught up in the matters between the larger tribes.

As such, they sent those members of their tribes that had been turned into slaves and their family members to me as slaves as well.

It seemed like they were just getting rid of anything that would link them to me, but the way that they put it…

"Your majesty, please take these dissenters as slaves."

"Your majesty, we are your most loyal subjects."

"Your majesty, please look kindly on us in the future."

They acted like they were the generous ones for sending these people to me and even acted like they were loyal only to me, but I knew that this was far from the case. I knew that they had dipped their toes into every pool that they could and there were many different masters that they served.

But still, it didn't matter to me since I didn't plan on using them in the first place.

The only thing that I cared about were the people that they sent me.

After all, it was time to start building my forces now that I had gained a bit of strength.

I needed to slowly build up the forces that I would be using to take down the stronger demon tribes.

It was only after I subdued the stronger demon tribes that I would finally be able to reclaim my freedom.

Until then, I just had to slowly build my forces up.

It was a good thing that I also had some secret places to hide these slaves.

To the other demons, it was as if I had made these slaves disappear. But for demons, it wasn't as if this was a strange thing.

Demons made demons disappear all the time, mainly they used them to strengthen themselves by absorbing the powers of those weaker demons.

So when these slaves disappeared, they just thought that I had taken care of them in the same manner.

But in reality, I hid them in one of the ruins that I had found.

This place was one of the ruins that contained a legacy from a past demon king, but this one wasn't as bad as Demon King Balcor. This past demon king was one of the ones that were more understanding, which was why he had left this hidden fortress for me.

It was a place that could completely sustain itself and the people that lived here, so that was why this was the perfect place to build a power of my own.

When the slaves arrived, they couldn't help being shocked by what they saw.

But it didn't take long for them to adapt and divide the resources among themselves.

However, when they tried to take more resources than they should have…

"Ah! Please spare me!"

The mighty hammer of the law that was my fist came down on them.

Violence was the only thing that demons understood after all.

Once they had been settled, I started recruiting people to join the private force that would serve me directly.

To my surprise, I found that the young demon with the scythe from before was there.

But at the same time, he wasn't alone.

There was another younger demon who was with him who seemed to be his younger sister.

This young female demon was holding a large hammer that really didn't fit her size at all.

Though the moment that she saw me, her eyes seemed to light up right away as she saluted me. After saluting me, she slammed her brother's head with the large hammer in her hand to make him bow as well.

When she was done, the young female demon said, "Your majesty, I'm really sorry for my idiot older brother. He foolishly tried to challenge your majesty to a duel. This is a great disgrace to our family."

I couldn't help raising a brow to look at her when I heard this.

After all, I could tell that there was only sincerity that was in her voice.

It seemed that her loyalty to the title of demon king was greater than the loyalty that any of the other demons had shown before.

Only I didn't understand why she would act this way…

"Your majesty, for many generations, our family has loyally served the demon king. I hope that you will give us siblings this chance now."

I couldn't help raising a brow once more when I heard this, but since it didn't seem like she was playing any tricks…

"You'll have to earn your place." I said in a calm and collected voice.

But even though I said this, her eyes lit up the moment that she heard it.

Then bowing her head, she said, "We will do our best to show that we are worthy of serving at your side."

It didn't seem like her brother agreed, but I didn't say anything about this.

For now, I would give them the chance to prove themselves and see how far they would get.

After all, loyalty wasn't something that was given that easily.

True loyalty was something that was trained into them, rather than expecting them to give it just because I had the title of demon king.

As such, it would be some grueling training that would instill this loyalty towards me into them.

"Is everyone ready to show what they're made of?" I asked with an evil smile once I reached the front of the hall.

When they heard this, there was a chill that ran down their spines.