Shinji's POV:
"You're back from the hospital! You feeling any better?" I asked my fellow disciple as he rolled in on his wheelchair.
"I have no dick! What do you think?"
"Hehe! Guess Boss really wasn't kidding about those parasites!"
A long time ago, the boss had warned me to keep away from the pleasure district, and as tempting as the succubae are, I knew better than to disregard the boss's warnings and stayed the hell away from it. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell Kenji about the boss's warning after he was sent here last Christmas, and just a few short months later he was sent to the hospital with some giant black worm with teeth squirming around between his legs.
"At least you got to use it before you lost it!"
"I don't want to talk about it!"
"Okay." I said as I turned my attention back to my history book.
"Still reading about that guy? The boss might get angry if he knew you were wasting all this time on that!"
"She would also be angry if she heard you call her a 'he' again!"
"Oh, right! Do you think the boss could fix my … you know?"
"I'm going to ignore you now." I said as I started tuning out Kenji's complaints and continued reading.
Over a year ago, the boss threw me through a portal to what she called 'summer camp', but was in reality a portal to the most dangerous place known to man, the demon realm. According to legends, it was supposed to be a hellscape filled with nothing but suffering, or so they say, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. In place of fire and brimstone, they have well paved roads, giant buildings that scrape the sky, horseless carriages and free healthcare. As for the savage demons who feed on human suffering.
"Oh, Sir Kenji! Are you feeling any better? Can I get you anything?" Asked the talking floating ball of flesh covered in eyes and mouths.
I mean, some of them definitely look like something straight out of a nightmare, but every single one I've interacted with so far has been kinder than most humans I've met. If you can get past their weird looks and questionable fashion sense, they seem a lot more like angels to me. Which begs the question, what connection do these people have with our master who seem a lot more demon like than the actual demons.
"Hey, uh, sorry I forgot your name again." I asked the giant floating flesh ball levitating a juice box over to Kenji.
"Oh, Sir Shinji! My name is, Xzzklp!" she said, speaking out her hard to pronounce name.
"You know our boss, right?"
"I really am sorry, but as I've said previously, we are not allowed to tell you about your master!" She said, while eyeing the book I was reading.
It's been like this since I got here. Every time I ask anything about the boss, they all go quiet, and try to leave. It's like the boss has somehow threatened the entire city into keeping their mouths shut. The mystery kept me up at night, so I started investigating, and eventually discovered this book in front of me. The book in question is called 'The Records of the 36th'. As for what it is about, that would be the Demon King of Dreams, who brought the demon realm into this golden age.
Apparently, a few centuries before the 35th demon king of legends who led the war against our world, there was an apocalyptic event that nearly wiped out all of demon kind and left 90% of the world uninhabitable, but that all changed when the Demon King of Nightmares appeared. 10 years ago, he overthrew the ruling class and took the crown for himself. Then he recovered the ruined lands of the demons, before starting several revolutions, be it magical, technological, industrial, social, economic or political, it was all changed for the better, then he disappeared without a trace. There were some rumors about him reappearing once to stop some great calamity, but that's just hearsay, or so say this book anyways.
This book seems to be a bit dated compared to the other books in this library, its sources are dubious at best and there are several things that are clearly wrong, as I clearly saw the 36th hold a speech a month ago in front of the castle, but weirdly enough, it is the only book in this whole library that mentions the current monarch of the demon world.
I still haven't figured out how this great hero who created this flourishing civilization is related to my insane master, but there is one thing that has been bothering me.
"Xzz? Can I ask you something else?"
"It's Xzzklp, but sure! As long as it is not about you know who!"
"I was wondering about the 36th demon king. His title is the Demon King of Dreams, right? So, why does this book call him the Demon King of Nightmares?" I asked.
"Uh, well, actually -!"
"HELLO, MY BABY BOYS!" A rainbow clad chick shouted as she popped out of a portal.
"Wait, who are yo-!"
"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! WE NEED TO GO FIGHT THE FORCES OF EVIL! NOW GET IN THE SWIRLY HOLE!" She said, before lifting Kenji and his wheelchair off the ground and chucked him through the portal she popped out of.
Seeing this, I tried to sneak away but unfortunately got caught the moment I got out of my chair. As I was thrown into the swirly portal, I lamented not paying more attention in stealth class.