Chapter 94

That night.

"… You killed three guys in a row?"

Through the stillness where everyone was asleep, an old voice reached Suho's ears.

Suho, who was sitting in the prison, turned his head towards that voice.

It was an old man, no, a dirty old demon.

He was still lying with his back turned in the darkness far away.

Suho stared at him in silence, and after a while, a clicking voice flowed from him.

"Tsk. Occasionally, there are demons like you who are well suited to light-blooded poison. But you will regret it in the end for ignoring my warning and eating the food."

Just as the old demon said, Suho killed three light-blooded demons sent by the demon guards in a row.

Audience was thrilled with the amazing sight.

The sight of a demon who seems weak as an oppressed slave yet executes demons who are much more powerful than himself is extremely cathartic.

However, such a situation was by no means the picture the demon jailers had hoped for.

The prison guards wanted a show where the strong kill the weak brutally and play with them before consuming them.

By doing so, the absolute truth of 'obedience to the strong' would clearly be imprinted in the minds of the slaves.

However, what Suho showed was the complete opposite.

"… Still, it's a good thing you didn't eat the mad-blooded demons."

The old demon's words to Suho continued.

At the execution site, Suho did not eat the corpses even after killing them.

After hunting the same demons, the demons become stronger by ingesting the mana that is dissolved in their blood.

However, since Suho was not a demon, there was no reason to suck their blood.

Besides, Vulcan's Horn devoured their souls.

The demon guards, unable to understand the reason, stopped Suho's execution ceremony after the situation did not go as they had hoped.

If they continued, only the precious mad-blooded demons would die in vain.

"It is only natural for demons to eat demons. However, you must never have the blood of demons poisoned with light-blooded poison."

"… Why?"

Finally, Suho's mouth opened.

"It's because the more you eat the light-blooded demons, the more the light-blooded poison continues to accumulate in your body. The stronger the power, the greater the pain."

"I didn't ask for that."

What Suho was curious about was something else.

"Why are you saying these things to me?"

"… I've told all the other guys, too. It's just that they didn't even listen to me."

That was expected.

Although light-blooded poison was painful, it amplified strength.

Not taking light-blooded poison before the execution ceremony was nothing more than telling him to die obediently.

That was why the other demons there mocked and blamed the old demon.

"If you become a mad-blooded person, your end will be a pitiful and painful death."

"You mean, just like you right now?"

Cough.

The old demon vomited black blood instead of answering.

[The Queen of Insects, Plague Monarch, watches the blood of a demon completely poisoned by light-blooded poison.]

"… I ate whatever they gave me at first. I went to the execution ceremony and won countless fights, and became stronger by eating the blood of countless corpses. Then, I finally realized it by listening to the words of the mad-blooded demons who survived like me and got the blooded poison penetrate to their bone marrow."

The old demon coughed for a while longer, then chuckled.

"The tyrant king waits for the moment when we ripen most deliciously before getting eaten by him. It is the most efficient."

Realizing that fact, the old demon began to fast.

Even if he won the execution ceremony, he never ate the corpse of the loser.

The moment the concentration of light-blooded poison penetrates deep in one's own body, the tyrant will eat them.

"This Colosseum is a breeding ground for the tyrant king and a food warehouse. Hehe."

[Now I know why they're so skinny.]

Esil murmured.

[Suho, I think the food you ate today is the last meal here. From now on, if you're hungry, you have to kill and eat the other person at the execution ceremony yourself.]

"It's really terribly demonic. I hate this."

Suho shook his head and, while talking, asked the old demon what he was curious about.

"Mister, where is the tyrant king usually hiding?"

"Hiding? It's such an accurate expression yet I'm afraid someone will hear. Certainly, young people these days have no fears."

The old demon tossed and turned for the first time and turned to Suho.

Then, he looked straight into Suho's eyes with his eyes wide open and whispered in a low tone.

"No one knows the whereabouts of the tyrant king. He's a terrible coward."

"Coward?"

"That's right. The tyrant king is the absolute ruler of this place, but at the same time he is the most delicious prey. Anyone can become strong the moment one eats his corpse."

As he spoke those words, the old demon's eyes glistened with intense greed.

Lick.

No matter how unlikely the future was, the image of him licking his lips with a snake-like tongue was truly demonish, as if he was happy just imagining it.

[I'll tell you in advance.]

Suddenly, Esil spoke to Suho.

[This kind of fighting between each other and being eaten only happens to weak demons. Don't misunderstand that noble demons like me are like them.]

'I didn't say anything though.'

[Seriously. You also often saw me eating. We don't vulgarly eat corpses ourselves. Absorbing bloodstone is much cleaner and more efficient.]

'Bloodstone?'

Those words suddenly reminded Suho of the mid-level demon he had hunted before entering the demon realm.

'Come to think of it, you said that he ate bloodstone and amplified his strength, right? What exactly is bloodstone?'

[It is a highly condensed crystal of the mana power of demon blood. Occasionally, nobles with vulgar tastes will eat the demon themselves, but nobles, like the Radiru Clan, have bloodstones instead.]

'Isn't that just the same?'

[No, it's completely different! We can collect only a little bloodstone without killing the other person. Who would serve us if we became nobles that ate all the demons under our command?]

'Ah, that's right.'

Esil worked hard to defend herself, fearing that Suho would look at her in a bad light.

[So, right now, this guy who isn't even a noble is cultivating and eating his own people, imitating a noble. Not only is this inefficient, it also only reduces the number of demons.]

Listening to Esil talking hard, Suho simply organized what he had to do in his head.

"So, in the end, to catch the tyrant, I have to look as delicious as possible."

"W-What? Did you just say you would catch the tyrant king? Hahaha! Such a crazy person!"

Suho's words must have been so absurd that the old demon bursted into a hearty laugh.

Other demons who were sleeping woke up one by one at the sound of loud laughter and began to lose their temper.

"Ah! Why is it so loud?"

"What kind of senility is this old man having at this late night!"

The quiet prison was suddenly filled with profanity.

But the old demon's laughter wouldn't stop.

Since the demons were each locked in a solitary cell for fear of harming each other, there was no way to shut his mouth.

In that noisy atmosphere, Suho looked straight into the eyes of the old demon who laughed at him from afar and opened his mouth.

"Mister, can I ask you one more question?"

"Hahaha! Oh, sure! What are you so curious about?"

"What can I do to look delicious to the tyrant king?"

"Puhahahahaha!"

At those words, not only the old man but also the other demons bursted into laughter.

"What is that madman talking about?!"

"What? You want to look delicious to the tyrant king?"

"This time, we really have a madman here! Hahaha!"

What Suho did at the execution ceremony today had already spread among the demons.

But most of them were locked up in prison, so they did not actually witness the sight.

It is said that Suho defeated three mad-blooded demons in one day, but all the demons confined there were prisoners who survived by consuming countless blooded demons.

In their eyes, Suho was still just a newbie.

"You've been lucky enough to survive today that you completely misunderstood things!"

"He really lost it!"

"You want to get the attention of the tyrant king? Do you want to get in his sight and become his subordinate!"

"That's too simple!"

"Eat and eat! They will let you eat endlessly at the execution ceremony. Eventually your brains will be thoroughly stained with light-blooded poison!"

"The tyrant king will then appear in front of you!"

"Haha."

Suho regretted it for a moment.

If he had known they would be so kind with information, he should have asked them sooner.

"… Had I known this, I should've just eaten today."

There was a frightened being somewhere at the words Suho muttered.

[The Queen of Insects, Plague Monarch, is amazed at your ferocity.]

[The King of Beasts, Fang Monarch, giggles, saying that the world is a weakling.]

"Let's see…"

He slowly turned his wrists and gave a meaningful smile.

"Should I do an eating show?"

* * *

Suho's mukbang (eating show) started the next day.

"Yesterday was the first day, so only the weak ones were sent up."

"Today will be different."

The demon guards sent Suho to the execution ceremony with vicious smiles.

"You will regret leaving yesterday without eating those corpses."

"That's right. I regretted it all night."

"… What?"

"So, I'm going to eat today."

Suho's unexpected response made the guards look puzzled.

"One Horn said…"

"It's a useless bluff."

"That also ends today."

The guards, who firmly believed that Suho had already been poisoned by light-blooded poison, thought that Suho would be weak today as much as he used his strength yesterday.

Light-blooded Poison burns the demon's blood the more mana power is used.

That was the reason why Esil's strength has become so much weaker these days than when she was a demon noble. Her blood was sucked by countless demons.

"… In that sense."

Suho smirked as he looked up at the executioner who looked more savage than yesterday.

He attacked forward like a cannonball, and thrust his hand into the opposing demon's body.

Blag!

The demon's body was pinned to the ground by Suho's tremendous power.

"Eat freely this time and gain strength, Esil."

[Nice to hear that.]

At those words, the eyes of the demon noble nestled inside Vulcan's Horn lit up.

Swoosh!

Black energy began to be sucked out of the demon's body.

The energy then coalesced into a small bead and floated in the air.

"Hey, wait!"

"What is that?"

The spectators who witnessed the strange sight were in shock.

"No way! Is that…!"

"Bloodstone?!"

Even the demon guards were wide-eyed in astonishment… much more than yesterday.

It was natural for them to be surprised.

Extracting the bloodstone from the body of an opponent before killing them.

The only thing who could do that was…!

"Noble…?!"

"He's a demon noble!"

"That's crazy! Could there be a noble still alive?!"

The bloodstone floating in the air flowed into Vulcan's Horn.

To be precise, into the mouth of the real demon noble hiding within.

"The one-horned man was a demon noble?!"