The journey to Kagoshima-Ken prefecture spanned forty-eight arduous days. Throughout their travels, Joseph couldn’t stop pondering—and boasting—to Yoshi and Lyra about his recent feat of taking down a demon lord. Yet, he couldn’t shake the thought that slaying one didn’t automatically grant him the status of a demon lord.
“So, you did kill a demon lord,” Yoshi said with a smirk. “How does it feel?”
“Well… not as I hoped,” Joseph admitted, scratching his head. “That demon lord wasn’t exactly the strongest out there. Sure, he was tough, but he wasn’t one of the heavyweights. From what I could tell, he was just trying to climb the ranks of the supernatural hierarchy.”
“You’ve really been fixating on this demon lord thing,” Lyra noted dryly.
“Yeah, I am!” Joseph exclaimed, his tone defensive. “If I don’t, who’s going to take me seriously? Or maybe that archdemon’s vision about me becoming a demon lord was just a sham,” he muttered, his voice trailing off.