“Firstly, the Empire doesn’t know the reason the Demon King Territory appeared in this Randia continent, either. Really, all we could say is that it just suddenly appeared there one day. Then, through the stories told by the people chassed off the Territory and through actual combat with the existence known as the Demon King Army, we were able to come to a conclusion?”
“Conclusion?”
“Among the thing called the Demon King Army, there are grotesque beasts that don’t have much intelligence even though they could form packs, that simply devour living things, and there are those like Kobolds and Ogres with control like an army, that are little different from the human side. To distinguish between them, we call the former Demonic Beasts, while the latter are Demon Races”
“Ah, now that you mention it, I’ve heard something like this from previous King Alberto”
The area popularly known as the “Demon Realm” suddenly appeared at the northern end of the great continent of Randia. From there, all kinds of demons great and small came gushing forth, causing chaos among the nations. Humanity’s side united and patched together a punitive force and sent them to the afflicted area, but it ended in failure. In the Demon Realm, there existed “Demonic Beasts” with low (or no) sentience, and sapient “Demon Races” with great war strength. Those Demon Races annihilated the punitive force the nations gathered up. The Demon Races then proceeded with a counteroffense toward human territories, expanding their influence into the land that was now called the “Demon King Territory”, or so I heard. When I told Jeanne what I heard from Alberto, she made a grave nod.
“Yes, so I’ve heard. I was seven when the punitive force was sent so I didn’t really see it for myself. Except that after taking time analyzing what the people at the site said, a new fact had come to light”
“New fact?”
“The initial onslaught of monsters that destroyed many nations, killed countless people, and turned still more into refugees were all done by Demonic Beasts”
“Demonic Beasts? Not the Demon Races?”
“Yes. That was then”
Jeanne took a sip of her tea.
“The first sighting of the Demon Races was when the punitive force was ambushed. Naturally, they were there when the counteroffensive destroyed countries and killed and made refugees of people”
“Which means, there were two waves to the Demon King Army Invasion”
The first wave was a Demonic Beast onslaught. The second wave was the Demon Race counteroffensive. The Kobolds that led Tomoe’s Mystic Wolf Tribe to become refugees were probably part of the second wave.
Jeanne continued.
“The damage caused by the first and second waves were also starkly different. The Demonic Beast attack of the first wave was a brutal scene. The fires the Beasts breathed turned towns into scorched earth, devouring soldiers and civilians without regard for age nor gender. I heard that all that was left of the towns they attacked were ‘food scraps'”
Literally ‘beasts’, it was a ‘Demonic Beast’ attack. An attack by beasts, like locusts, that only view humans as food.
“But the second wave was a total war. Sentient beings with purpose capturing towns and villages. There were still killings and plunder, but there were lots of cases where if one were able to flee them they didn’t give chase. The cases of people being killed for food dropped sharply but on the other hand, cases of rape by Demonic Beasts increased”
“… so just like any other war. Like between humans”
“Yes, although I’m reluctant to call rape a sign of intelligence,” Jeanne spat. It was unforgivable for her as a fellow woman, it seems.
“But how did that change happen? Did the Demonic Beasts gain intelligence as they fought humans and become Demon Races?”
“For a time, there were church officials who said that they ate human brains and gained intelligence, but that of course wasn’t what happened. It was a fact that Demonic Beasts still exist. Ever since the human and demon sides came to a deadlock, the only attacks came from packs of demonic beasts. Though, that was what allowed us to maintain the status quo”
H~m … I don’t get it. So what are these demonic races and beasts?
“That reminds me, we found heaps of demonic beast fossils when we were digging out settlement tanks near Parnam. Those were definitely at least several thousands of years old”
“Fossils … are what, exactly?”
“Ah, it’s not common knowledge in this world, I see. Simply put, they were the remains of bones of dead beasts left buried in the ground. There are certain conditions, but after many years the bones in the ground turn into stone, though even bones that were only left for several thousand years also get called fossils”
“I see … so you’re saying that demonic beasts exist from several thousands of years back”