Chapter 374: No Money, What Kind of Demon King Are You!

Previously, when Megumin had just graduated from the Red Prison Academy, she experienced a period of days where she couldn't find a suitable job and became a shut-in at home.

At that time, Broly still accompanied her to Soket's Fortune Telling Hut to have her future career divined.

The career divination result obtained at that time was Demon King; Soket never understood why it would be Demon King, but now divining a scene similar to the one obtained during the past divination again, everything connected up.

"Megumin became the new generation Demon King for the sake of world peace, her title is 【Red】, the most similar fierce color to when Explosion Magic blooms, and simultaneously the meaning of the Red Demon Clan identity; her New Demon King Army will be called the Red Demon Army by future generations..."

After the past and present two divinations connected up, Miss Soket was able to see even more future scenes.

She raised her hand pointing at the group of people beside her, and began announcing their identities in the future Red Demon Army.

"Bone Dragon Knight (Princess Alice), Heavy Armor Bastion (Darkness), Frost Lich (Wiz), Logistics Minister (Yunyun), Dual-Faced Evil God (Aqua, Eris), Ultimate Destruction Weapon (Broly)..."

One by one, everyone present, in Miss Soket's prophecy, in the future Red Demon Army, surprisingly all had special codenames as aliases.

Even the old Demon King and his daughter were rehired as instructors for the Red Demon Army's monster corps, and Xiaomi became the commander of the demon corps.

"Ah, is this true? Can I really become a Demon King as I wished?!"

Megumin listened with her breathing growing rapid; she could already imagine her future heroic bearing as the Red Demon King.

At that time, there would definitely be no one who would continue to say she was merely a mere magic tool shop delivery worker, a laughable Red Demon clansman with a brain problem who spent whole days dreaming of training Explosion Magic to the world's number one level!

"Uh, this is just information obtained from prophecy; whether you can become the Red Demon King, Megumin, I also don't know. After all, the future, this kind of thing, the moment it is prophesied, is no longer a fixed fate."

Soket spoke the truth.

"Then what should I do to smoothly become the great Red Demon King?"

Megumin's eyes were shining; she grabbed Soket's hands, leaned in close, and asked.

"Don't know; that you have to ask yourself. Of course, perhaps there are also other people's opinions.

My divination can only prophesy the general future result, and cannot be precise down to every detail that causes this result."

Miss Soket explained.

"However, the only thing that can be certain is that this world's originally war-torn future has already undergone a change.

As for whether it turns toward a good direction or a bad direction, that depends on the people living in the present to strive; for example, persisting in one's own heart's choices?"

She added another sentence.

"Good, I will persist in my heart's choices. Everyone, I will become the Demon King, I will conquer the world!"

Megumin had already entered an excited state, swinging her cloak with her arms, publicly announcing her grand ambition world conquest plan for after she became the Demon King.

"Eh, if it's like that, I only see a future of ruins; Megumin, you will be assassinated, Broly will then kill all the people who assassinated you, and at that time only a small portion of people will survive."

Soket prophesied according to Megumin's words; without knowing the extra condition of the Crystal Palace, she obtained this future scene of the world welcoming the hypothetical condition of a minority surviving.

Megumin: "..."

Soket's words caused the Red Demon clansman girl who was in an excited state, currently displaying her soaring ambition, to fall silent.

"Cough cough, everyone, let's discuss how we can make this world become even better while letting me become the great Red Demon King!"

Megumin coughed twice, then presided over a new topic.

"Then why don't we discuss, under the condition of not letting you, Megumin, become the Red Demon King, making this world become even better?"

Aqua glanced sideways and raised a question.

"Mhm mhm..."

And her words received Darkness's nod of agreement.

"That's naturally because a future where I cannot become the Red Demon King is not a beautiful future; even if this world obtains peace, it is also absolutely not a beautiful world!"

Megumin decisively answered.

There are many possibilities for the future, but Megumin feels that the future where she can become the Red Demon King is the best kind of possibility.

And whether the future world is peaceful or not, it all has to be ranked after whether her future can become the Red Demon King.

Only the world peace that arrives after she becomes the Red Demon King is the most meaningful, the most beautiful!

"You selfish ghost!"

Hearing this, Aqua accused her; she didn't even consider the Axis Cult, naturally unable to stand a guy like Megumin who had even less of a bottom line and cared more about herself.

"Broly, you'll consider my future happiness, and firmly stand on my side, right?"

Megumin completely ignored Aqua's words; blinking her bright red eyes, she leaned close beside the boy, rested her head on the child's shoulder, made a dependent little bird posture, and acted spoiled.

Broly: "..."

Looked at Aqua.

"Megumin, you despicable shameless guy, you actually want to pull Broly to support you!"

Aqua was somewhat grinding her teeth.

"I'm his wife; a wife relying on her husband, what's the problem? Aqua, aren't you also relying on Broly to successfully ascend to Heavenly Main God?!"

Megumin glared and said somewhat righteously; there's no reason Aqua can rely on Broly to become a Main God, but she can't rely on Broly to become the Red Demon King.

These two living treasures, big eyes staring at small eyes.

"Please, no matter what method, please don't let that terrible war-torn future appear!"

Eris earnestly requested.

"There's no better method right now, is there, Aqua? You have a respectable goddess job; just yield a little to Megumin who is currently only a delivery worker. She really wants to be a Demon King; it's probably because for too long a time she hasn't obtained a comparatively respectable job."

Darkness switched sides at this moment, persuading from the side; Megumin's delivery worker job and Yunyun's alchemy apprentice job are different — that is a job with no room for advancement; any random outsider part-timer swapped in would be fine.

And if arguing by occupation for social status, Aqua as a Heavenly Goddess has the highest social status, while Megumin's type counts as stepping on the edge of the unemployed, belonging to a nepotism hire idling away in a family enterprise.

"Eh, that makes sense; then this goddess will be magnanimous and not haggle with you."

Having a way down, Aqua also didn't want to make things difficult for her own disciple, yet spoke like this.

"Hey, it's not because of this that I want to be the Red Demon King so badly!"

Megumin hurriedly retorted, but there were tears of a breakdown spinning in her eye sockets, making her words have no persuasive power.

"Alright alright, everyone discuss the proper business: how to let Megumin become the Red Demon King, and how to let the war-torn future be changed."

Yunyun took out a handkerchief to wipe Megumin's tears, and said just one sentence.

"Being the Demon King is comparatively simple; as long as the Red Demon Clan is willing to support her with the whole clan, that's enough."

The old Demon King actually didn't really want to participate in this kind of meeting, but considering the situation where if someone else didn't become the Demon King, he might end up taking the blame, he actively gave his advice.

"Is this a bit difficult? Although it's for world peace, not just anyone would be willing to play the role of a supervillain and become humanity's greatest enemy."

Princess Alice thought persuading other Red Demons to participate was a major difficulty, so she raised this question first.

"Eh, why are you all looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?"

Then, Princess Alice received the gazes of everyone, including Broly, except for the two guard girls beside her.

"Princess Alice, you are friends with Megumin and Yunyun, but you might not be familiar with the Red Demon Clan's situation."

Darkness broke the eerie silent atmosphere first, explaining to Princess Alice.

"Hmm..."

Yunyun nodded at the side, fully agreeing with this point.

"Let me tell you, an opportunity like this to become the world's enemy — if I propose it publicly, I'm afraid a pile of idle people in the village would be willing to help me with this favor."

Megumin spoke quite confidently.

"Megumin and the others really love pouring special character settings into themselves."

Broly nodded at the side, and incidentally gave a few examples.

"For example, possessors of Magic Eyes, a bandaged hand sealing a terrifying thing, another self inside the body, things like that."

"Things that are sufficiently dangerous for ordinary people, difficult to make decisions about, for the Red Demon Clan might be things they desperately wish for.

Princess Alice, you must understand the fact that the Red Demon Clan are not ordinary people; their brain circuits are usually different from common people's."

"Hey, Darkness, the way you put it makes it sound like we're weirdos with something wrong with our heads."

Megumin glanced sideways.

"Ah, I didn't say that; I'm praising you Red Demons as an uncommon species!"

The knight girl hurriedly denied it.

"In any case, persuading my clansmen to join the Red Demon Army is absolutely not a problem."

"Yeah, as long as you pay, naturally it's not a problem."

Soket agreed with Megumin's words.

"Eh, still have to pay?"

Megumin hurriedly looked over and asked.

"Not pay, do you expect them to work for love? Liking uncommon character settings is our clan's general situation, but daily life is still the problem of firewood, rice, oil, and salt — those all cost money. Otherwise, Megumin, why do you think I work as a fortune teller?"

Soket said as a matter of course.

Spiritual pursuit is spiritual pursuit; real life is real life — the Red Demon Clan distinguishes this relatively clearly. Even those who have sunk into their own character settings usually find a plain, normal job.

For example, watching the village gate, becoming a fishing old grandpa, working as a magic chef, opening a divination shop to become a top-tier fortune teller known to all.

Although Megumin is of the village's younger generation, wanting to pull the village people into the future Red Demon Army — just painting the picture of how excellent the supervillain member character setting is won't work; she also needs the material foundation ability to provide bread and milk and pay everyone salaries.

But does Megumin have this material foundation?

She has jack shit — a delivery worker; her usual large expenses are still supported by Broly's dividends from the magic tool shop.

Suddenly wanting to change jobs to become the Demon King, gathering a clan army that can support her becoming the Demon King — where would she have the financial resources to support them?

Thus, the somewhat bean-eyed Megumin couldn't help but look toward the Saiyan boy she relied on, but Broly also frowned at this time.

In this world, supporting an army like this is no problem for him, but if he's not in this world, he also hasn't thought of a good way to support such an army.

However, speaking of which, if he could stay in this world for a long time, he wouldn't need the Red Demon Clan, right?

Seeing Broly's difficulty, Megumin looked toward the others.

"The magic tool shop can turn a profit, but it hasn't reached the level of sustaining an army."

The Lich lady hurriedly said.

"Don't look at me; my money for buying alcohol, I absolutely won't let you squander it."

Aqua directly stated her position.

"Ah, I'm just the Dustiness Family's Big Sister, and also the Heir; the family still isn't mine."

"But it'll be yours eventually, right?"

"Even if it's mine, I absolutely can't use the family property to fully support you becoming the Demon King; at most I'd support a little."

"How much is 'a little'?"

"A few million Eris."

Darkness reluctantly gave a price.

"Is that enough?"

Megumin looked at Soket and asked.

"Uh, that's probably about what I can earn going out on a trip."

The fortune teller lady answered; she's still quite popular.

But the subtext is it's not enough — never mind others, just look at Megumin's parents; their magic tool manufacturing costs, back when they were poor it was hundreds of thousands at a time, let alone now — that's millions, even tens of millions of Eris starting.

Megumin silently turned her gaze toward the great Goddess of Luck, knowing that Eris is still this world's Fortune Goddess, with her divine statue portrait printed on the surface of gold, silver, and copper coins.

"I'm merely revered by believers as the Fortune Goddess, but my divine portfolio is still the domain of the Goddess of Luck."

Eris explained.

"Then can't you mobilize believers to support me a bit? This is for the future of this world."

Megumin thought her becoming the Demon King wasn't just her own (poor ghost) affair, but something others also had to help with.

It was for this world's peace that she wanted to become the Red Demon King; poverty made her engage in self-hypnosis and cognitive confirmation.

And if she really has no money, Megumin can only submit to reality, no matter how unwilling, and give up the impractical idea of paying to be the Demon King.

"If we could mobilize the Believers, the conflict wouldn't arise in the first place."

Aqua retorted.

"Uh, if we do that, the future will turn into a struggle between theocracy and monarchy."

Miss Soket divined once more and replied.

Under the Goddess of Luck's Blessing buff, she can even prophesy the future of the two Goddesses who have entered the Mortal Realm.

The conflict hasn't changed; only the target of the conflict has changed.

From conflict among the Three Great Kingdoms, it became the other two Great Kingdoms waging conflict against the Belzerg Kingdom, whose state religion is the Eris Cult.

Struggle between nations turned into struggle between theocracy and monarchy.

"Words return to the main point, if we have this money, wouldn't giving it directly to Princess Alice work? Originally, the fuse that ignited the conflict was the Elroad Kingdom refusing to continue providing military funding to the Belzerg Kingdom, even joining forces with the Bradlu Kingdom to target the Belzerg Kingdom, which then caused the conflict."

Darkness suddenly said.

"Eh, that seems like it would work too."

Soket's eyes brightened, and she found another way to change the future.

Money isn't omnipotent, but enough of it can indeed solve some problems.

For example, easing the conflict so it can land in a more stable manner, things like that.

"Ah, are you guys going to leave me behind and go solo?"

Hearing this, Megumin immediately became unhappy and started clamoring directly.

"Hey, you old thing, don't you have any good ideas?"

Old Demon King: "..."

This is the rhythm of getting extorted for Gold Coins.

Thinking thus, the Old Demon King explained: "Before, our Demon King Army also needed to rely on low-level monsters farming to sustain ourselves, plus sometimes we could breach human cities and demand war reparations from Human Kingdoms, which is how we persisted."

"Eh, right, there's still this move!"

Megumin realized.

She's aiming to be the Demon King, not a virtuous believer.

No money? Why not extort the Human Kingdoms?

With this line of thinking, the girl's gaze changed, turning into something like a street punk's gaze.

Megumin, somewhat listless, arrived before Little Princess Alice, reached out and grabbed the little princess's collar, her voice tone somehow acquiring a Yakuza accent.

"Kora, this is for your country, fork over the money, got it?!"

Little Princess Alice: "..."

The others had a sense of deja vu.

Thinking carefully, they discovered this isn't just the style of that Saintess from the Axis Cult earlier?

6

(Chapter End)