Dawn City.
A luxury carriage, surrounded by fully armed knights and mages, had arrived before the city gate.
Inside the carriage sat two people.
A middle-aged man wearing formal clothes.
He was a representative from the Royal Capital.
And a priest wearing his holy uniform.
A high-ranking bishop from the Holy City of Strahl.
After years of waiting, the two major powers of the central continent had finally made their move.
As they were waiting inside the carriage, a commotion suddenly erupted among their guards.
The two dignitaries looked at each other in confusion before pulling down the window and looking outside.
And what they saw
made them freeze in place.
There was a figure floating in the sky.
And it wasn't a demon.
"A human is flying….."
"A mage from Dawn City? How did they do it?....."
The surprised and shocked voices of their own mages rang out as everyone watched the mage land beside the Dawn City guards.
It seemed the mage was a messenger, as he was quickly allowed inside the city after he said something.
As the carriage entered the city,
they were quickly stunned by the unreal sight.
The buildings, roads….. everything was so well made….
It was even better than the Royal Capital.
The two dignitaries silently watched the whole place, looking at the smiling humans walking around in some surprise and confusion.
Was this really a city governed by a demon?
They had seen reports from the spies, but seeing it firsthand was something else altogether.
After some travel, the two of them arrived at the Dawn Hall, which had finished construction last year.
It was created for the specific purpose of meeting and housing any foreign officers who might come here.
Walking inside, they were quickly escorted to the second floor, into a room with a large table and several seats, where they met the ruler of the city.
Lord of Dawn, Ryomen Sukuna.
He was sitting at the head of the table, with Demon Solitar sitting beside him.
At the same time, there were five human mages wearing black robes with gold outlines standing right behind him.
The mages who had arrived with the dignitaries stared at Sukuna with visible confusion.
Because unlike Solitar, they were completely unable to sense his mana.
Sukuna lazily leaned back in his chair and gestured towards the two dignitaries.
"Please take a seat."
The bishop and the middle-aged man both sat down together and gave their introductions.
"I am Hornbill, a diplomat from the Royal Capital."
"I am Kain, a Bishop from the Holy City of Strahl."
Sukuna nodded.
"Lord of Dawn, Ryomen Sukuna."
He gestured toward Solitar at his side and continued.
"And this is my most trusted confidant, Great Demon Solitar."
"Great Demon…."
"No wonder….."
Hornbill and Kain looked at Solitar's friendly smiling face and greeted her.
Solitar returned their greetings in kind.
Sukuna tapped the armrest, then got straight to the point.
"So? Why have you come here?"
"Lord Sukuna, it's like this….."
Diplomat Hornbill started speaking in a fluent tone, explaining the purpose of the Royal Capital.
It was to start trade among the cities.
But most importantly, he was here to gauge the attitude of the 8th Demon Sage of Severance.
Due to the past five years of dormancy, plus his previous act of not killing the soldiers and even healing them, many people in high positions in the Royal Capital had started thinking that the 8th Demon Sage might be different.
So they had sent him as a proxy to carefully understand his intentions.
That was why he would silently ask tricky questions out of nowhere, such as:
"Lord Sukuna, your city is… unexpectedly vibrant. In the Royal Capital, we often struggle with the 'unproductive' members of society—the elderly, the sick, or the orphaned. As someone suffering from a similar issue, I wanted to ask how you would deal with them…."
Sukuna gave Hornbill a weird look before saying,
"Deal with them? Well, there are quite a few without children, so we have opened up an old-age home to take care of them."
Old-age home? What's that??
Seeing Hornbill looking at him in confusion, Sukuna elaborated.
"It's a place where elderly people without any children to support them are taken care of by the city in the later stages of their lives."
"But… isn't that an unnecessary burden?...." Hornbill asked in confusion.
"Most of our population is young, so taking care of a few old people isn't an issue."
Sukuna shrugged his shoulders and replied.
In recent years, they had started earning a lot of money from traders who came via ships.
Not to mention the steady revenue, he also had the massive silver reserves, along with the gold Strahl he got from the Royal Capital.
Diplomat Hornbill stared seriously at Sukuna's face, but not seeing anything unusual, he held back his doubt and continued asking,
"As future trading partners, I wanted to inquire about some laws. If a human soldier here were to kill a demon out of old hatred, and a demon were to kill a human out of hunger… would your judgment be based on the law of the strongest, or would you find them equally guilty?"
'Demons do not understand the concept of guilt….. eating humans is but their nature, not something to be punished…..'
Sukuna heard his question, then raised his hand.
One of the mages behind him silently took a step forward and handed him a thick book.
Then, under the two dignitaries' confused eyes, Sukuna opened a page and started reading.
"Section 2 of the Dawn Constitution gives its citizens fundamental rights to protect their dignity….."
Right To Equality: Equal rights for all citizens.
Right To Freedom: Freedom of speech.
Right Against Exploitation: No forced labor or child labor
–
–
–
The more he spoke, the more dumbfounded the foreign dignitaries became.
Constitution? Fundamental rights?
What the hell was all this?
There was even a section targeted at alien residents?
After Sukuna finished reading Section 2, he closed the big book and placed it down on the table.
"To answer your question, if both the human and the demon are citizens of Dawn City and a human kills a demon due to his hatred, then he will be punished according to the law.
Similarly, if a demon citizen eats a human to fulfill his appetite, then he too will be punished for taking away a life with the death sentence."
"What if the human's family was killed by the demon? Will him killing the demon be justified then?" Hornbill asked with an interested look on his face.
"If the family of the human are citizens of my Dawn City, then he will not have to take action, as I will personally end that demon," Sukuna replied in a calm tone.
Kill a demon?
The 8th Demon Sage would kill other demons to protect the humans in his city?
The bishop, who had been silent all this time, suddenly opened his mouth and said with a smile,
"Lord Sukuna, you are indeed a unique demon."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Haha, of course it is….."
The more they talked, the more they felt that the Lord of Dawn was truly more like a human than a demon.
"Lord Sukuna, I saw a human mage flying in the sky before, could it be—?"
"That was a professor from my Dawn Magic Academy, and yes, the human flying magic was developed by us."
"!... To allow humans to fly… truly an incredible feat of magic…"
With excitement, Hornbill quickly asked him,
"Lord Sukuna, can you share this magic with the Royal Capital?...."
Sukuna glanced at him and asked back,
"What will you give me in exchange?"
"How about an exchange of knowledge? Our research in the field of magic is—"
"I know. I already have a copy of every magic book there," Sukuna smiled and shook his head.
"Your magic research is no longer interesting to me, as we have already left you guys behind."
Sukuna said it as if it were a matter of fact.
But no one there could deny it.
Since demons were the beings with the most terrifying magic.
Hornbill tried offering other conditions, but none of them could interest Sukuna, so he had to stop and reluctantly give up.
After the discussion was done, Hornbill and Bishop Kain rested in the living quarters inside Dawn Hall to relieve their fatigue from travel.
At night, they curiously took a walk around Dawn City, visiting the bustling and clean streets and even seeing a huge covered building at the harbor, with guards all around it.
"Can you tell us what is in there?"
The guard who had been leading them shook his head and said in a firm tone,
"That place is off-limits."
"Hm…"
Hornbill and Kain silently glanced at it before turning around and walking back into their rooms.
The next day, they exited Dawn City.
----
"Bishop Kain and Diplomat Hornbill have left," Erde said with a calm look on her face.
"I see," Sukuna nodded.
It seemed that now they would truly begin interacting with the other human cities.
Erde pulled her hair back and continued reporting.
"Recently, news about a new hero, Himmel, and his party has been spreading among adventurers who come to visit our city…"
'Himmel has come to the stage? Interesting…..'
Sukuna narrowed his eyes and continued listening.
"It seems the nearby villages are being attacked by the Elder Sage of Corruption, Qual. Quite a few survivors have come to our city to seek refuge…"
"Qual? Is it affecting us in any way?" Sukuna asked with a frown.
"…No, but a lot of people are dying."
"We can't take care of everyone. They are citizens of the Human Capital, so let them handle it."
Erde wanted to say something but stopped herself and nodded.
"Yes….."
"Finally, an unknown demon attacked our city's magic barrier last night."
"The barrier was attacked?" Sukuna asked in confusion.
He clearly didn't sense the barrier being disrupted…..
"The power was too weak to cause a fluctuation. We only came to know about it after one of the guards managed to spot him….."
"Oh? That does pique my interest…"
Sukuna got up from his seat and told Solitar,
"Stay right there. I will come back in some time."
"Understood."
Solitar agreed and kept writing a magic formula on the page.
Sukuna jumped out of the window and took to the sky.
After repeatedly scanning the area, he managed to find his target.
It was a young demon girl with pink hair and a pair of small horns protruding from her head.
She wasn't wearing any clothes, just walking around the forest with small, even steps.
'A newborn demon?'
Sukuna raised his eyebrow. Her appearance seemed familiar for some reason…
Ah! She was one of Aura's henchmen in the series.
Having remembered her identity, Sukuna suddenly stopped concealing his mana, making the young demon freeze in place and slowly look up at him with her calm purple eyes.
Sukuna dropped down in front of her. She had a petite frame with small breasts visible on her chest.
"Who are you?" he asked in a calm tone.
The young demon, shocked by his massive mana, silently answered his question.
"Linie."
"When were you born?"
"A few days ago, in that forest," she said while pointing her hand toward a piece of land he was all too familiar with.
Damn, are we siblings?
They were born in the same land.
Sukuna narrowed his eyes and fell into thought.
'There is something I've been wanting to confirm with demons…'
Linie silently waited for him to speak, like a subordinate.
The amount of mana defined hierarchy among demons; the one with more of it automatically became the superior.
"Demon Linie, would you like to follow me?"
"Follow you?"
"Yes."
"Okay," Linie calmly nodded.
"Then come here. There's something I want to try."
Linie obediently followed and came close to him.
Sukuna draped his coat over her shoulders, covering her body before making a binding vow.
But instead of cursed energy, he was using magic instead.
Through his research, he had found that binding vows worked a little differently in this world.
To put it simply, the consequences of breaking one were much more severe and terrifying.
The most basic consequence was losing the ability to use magic forever.
It was especially fatal to demons, who were quite frankly born out of magic.
Breaking a vow was more or less a death sentence for them.
That was why when Linie heard about the binding vow—how it was intricately linked with mana and especially its contents—
She silently took a few steps back and said,
"I changed my mind. I do not want to follow you."
Sukuna stared at her with a calm gaze.
The contents of the binding vow were simple.
Obey his every command.
And in exchange, he would give her access to the magic of Dawn City.
She was clearly unwilling to do it. Although demons were subservient to those with higher mana, they didn't completely become their subordinates.
They could leave whenever they wanted and disobey a command they did not like.
"It's alright."
Sukuna raised his hand toward her and continued,
"Since you do not want to follow me, you can die now."
An invisible cut slashed through the air, passing right by Linie's ear, cutting all the trees behind her in a clean arc.
With slow movement, Linie glanced back at the destruction before looking at Sukuna again and saying,
"I changed my mind again. I want to follow you."
To a demon, survival mattered the most.
When threatened with life, it was obvious what they would choose.
But since she wasn't obedient from the start, Sukuna changed the condition of the binding vow.
Follow all of his orders in exchange for sparing her life.
"You are now a citizen of Dawn City. Congratulations."
Sukuna patted her shoulder with an encouraging smile.
"…"
Linie simply stared at him in silence.
Sukuna ignored her gaze and fell into thought.
This was the first time he had made a binding vow in this world.
To be honest, he had used Linie more as a guinea pig to test it out.
A binding vow was unable to make demons feel emotions.
To be exact, the price he had to pay in exchange was simply too monstrous.
Just for a single demon to change their nature would require him to sacrifice half of his mana.
It was a crazy deal he would never make.
He will observe Linie for some time before deciding to create a unit of demons subservient to him.
If it succeeds then he will name it, Dark Order.
----
Note: I'm genuinely surprised people are liking this so much.