A Guide to Running a Demon Lord's Castle [Western Fantasy]

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Cezar was born two hundred years after the previous Demon King.

He was peerlessly handsome, and from the moment he was born, he displayed extraordinary intelligence and power. He was the overwhelming favorite to inherit the throne.

The wicked demons under his command dreamed every day of their king leading them back to the human world to seize its fertile lands and plunder its resources.

But the Demon King only stared silently at the vast, boundless lands of the demon realm.

One day, the Demon King finally summoned a large number of bone dragons. His subordinates assumed he was launching an all-out assault on humanity, only to discover that the bone dragons, who should have been soaring through the sky, were clearing fields.

Subordinates: ??? The Demon King must have his reasons. We don't understand, but long live the Demon King!

Cezar used to be a hard-working corporate drone. After suddenly dropping dead, he became the Demon King.

Given another life, he swore he'd lie flat.

The demon realm was vast, but its environment was harsh and full of dangers. Rain from the sky could burn your skin, curses and corruption covered the land, and any random plant might eat you.

The lower-ranking demons lived as if they were in hell every day.

To lie flat more comfortably, he rolled up his sleeves and started farming.

As a former human, the Demon King didn't want the demons to grow too powerful and invade the world.

So he appointed a radiant holy knight who had fallen into the abyss as commander of the Demon King's army.

He made a mermaid who had lost her voice Minister of Publicity, and appointed a greedy demon Minister of Finance.

He made a fallen angel, whose healing magic had been rendered useless by dark corruption, the Demon King's army doctor. He put a weak, mixed-blood beastkin in charge of building the imperial guard...

And so he became a hands-off ruler, living a happy life where he could take his three-headed dog for a stroll and sample the demons' local delicacies whenever he pleased.

While waiting for his bunch of misfits to run the Demon King's Castle into the ground, he discovered that the outside world called him the Lord of the World.

Cezar: Wait, what?

The pairing is set: a blond, blue-eyed holy knight.

* A story where others project their assumptions onto the protagonist

* Everyone in the demon realm is a Demon King fanatic, or a twisted version of one

* My take on Western fantasy

---------------- This is the next novel I'm collecting advance readers for ----------------

The Comic's Cannon Fodder Refuses to Die

Shen Zhaobai, only son of a powerful family and an S-rank ice-type ability user, is the cannon fodder in the comic Ability Brawl. He clashes with the protagonist at every turn and eventually dies in the jaws of a beast because of his arrogance and carelessness.

That's what the System that showed up at his door yesterday told him.

The game System claimed it could help him change his fate and let him observe the comic and its forums. It also said he could exchange the audience's affection for him for items in its shop.

Shen Zhaobai raised an eyebrow, a hint of disdain on his proud, refined face. When had the young master of the Shen family ever needed to live off an audience's affection? He could get anything he wanted with a wave of his hand.

Still, he decided to go take a look at the future "comic protagonist" who would supposedly turn him into cannon fodder.

Shen Zhaobai asked his butler to find information on everyone named Ji Yang.

In the end, they found the protagonist lying on the ground in an arena inside an ability-user prison, limp as a pile of mud.

The boy at his feet was practically a pre-made corpse, breathing his last, yet his eyes remained as wary as a stray dog's.

Shen Zhaobai raised an eyebrow and said, "Things just got interesting."

The game System shrieked, "Stop cosplaying as a villain! You can't let the protagonist die here!"

In the end, Shen Zhaobai, all bark and a soft heart, still reached out and saved the stray dog's life.

Ji Yang, the most vicious "mad dog" in the ability-user prison, inmate number Zero.

He had spent decades struggling to survive in prison, and Shen Zhaobai was the only person who ever offered him a helping hand. He asked:

"Can you still stand?"

With those words, the mad dog accepted a master.

Born in prison, Ji Yang had never seen sunlight. Then a person with shining golden hair reached out to him, and for a moment, he felt as if he were basking in sunlight.

He wanted that ray of sunlight to shine on him alone. So he clawed his way out of his deepest nightmare.

Half a year later, Shen Zhaobai ran into a black-haired boy wearing an electronic ankle monitor at the academy gates. The boy smiled brightly, like a stray dog that had finally found its owner.

"Hello, Young Master Shen. I'm Ji Yang, the new transfer student."

Shen Zhaobai: Huh, why has the male lead's character changed?

Later, he followed the comic and tried to trip the male lead up, wanting to see if he'd really turned into a little ray of sunshine.

But the protagonist accepted everything without complaint.

Shen Zhaobai was baffled.

Until he looked through the comic and saw that all the comments floating across the screen during their confrontations said things like, "They're sworn enemies because they're basically married..."

Shen Zhaobai exploded. Him and that mad dog? Absolutely not!

Ji Yang: Woof, woof, woof!

Theme: No lying flat allowed!