Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

What, truly, is a Demon Lord?
Those who bore that title through history were, in their strength, beings apart.
Some sought only power for its own sake. Some reveled in plunder and destruction. Some tried to annihilate humankind. Some aimed instead for coexistence with humans.
Looking at their varied lives, it seems those who gain such power are not bound to a single path.

The Hero, too, is shrouded in mystery.
Whenever a Demon Lord began to invade human lands, a Hero would surely appear out of nowhere.
Were Heroes latent among ordinary people during peacetime, or did they manifest in direct response to a Demon Lord’s emergence? No one can say.
Even this most recent Hero was full of puzzles.
Strange arms and armor for a supposed champion of mankind. And his actions—charging straight at His Majesty the Demon Lord.
I’ve heard his purpose was not the defense of humanity at all, but merely vengeance.

The Demon Lord and the Hero cancel one another out, like boiling water and cold water.
When they clash, one vanishes outright, and the other too will fade into the shadows of history. Like hot and cold water mixing into nothing but lukewarm—mere water again.
Perhaps this too is a law of the world, striving always toward equilibrium.
Or perhaps Demon Lord and Hero are like a mound of earth and a hole.
Dig a hole in flat ground, and a mound of soil forms beside it. The mound is the Demon Lord, the hole is the Hero.
Throw the soil back into the hole, and the land is flat once more. Balance restored.

Whatever the truth, the Hero’s assault dealt us grievous blows.
Friedenrichter is gone. So too is old Tiberit, one after another.
There is no one left but me to inherit the throne.

No, that’s not quite true.
There is another.
But he would never agree to become Demon Lord.
I have watched him since childhood, and I know: as a leader of demons, he is, at worst, naive. At best, gentle.
With that temperament, he would know no end of hardship.
As his mentor, I cannot force such a fate upon my pupil.

As for me, my record of achievements may be questionable, but I am without doubt an elder. That at least is unproblematic.
Within the Demon Lord’s army, no opposition remains.
The real issue is whether I possess power enough to befit a Demon Lord.

For in truth, I am but a human slip of a girl. Worse, half-dead.
My life hangs only by threads of sorcery.
Surely, in such a state, I cannot endure the burdens to come.
Which means, inevitably, I must knock upon the last door of necromancy.

Friedenrichter forbade the last door, calling it far too dangerous.
He was no sorcerer, yet he knew the human heart. He always said the human heart could not withstand the strain of the last door.
It always puzzled me: how did he know the human heart so deeply?

A Demon Lord is no omniscient being, as the deeds of past lords clearly show.
So there must have been some reason.
I asked him this question more than once, but he only gave that vague smile.
And always said, “Someday I’ll tell you.”
Friend, you never did.

And then there is my beloved disciple, Veit.
From him I sense the same air as Friedenrichter. Though a demon, he knows the hearts of humans to their depths.
And he bears a strange perspective besides.
Detached, as if looking upon the world from above—so it seems to me.

Others don’t find this semblance that much remarkable.
But I cannot stop thinking of it.
As a seeker of truth, I’ve formed some hypotheses.

First: that they have some ability to read human psychology.
Veit can glean a person’s state of mind from the scent of their sweat. Repeated often enough, it would naturally lead him to deep insight into human nature.
But Friedenrichter had no such ability.
Neither do other werewolves share Veit’s outlook.

Second: that they were once human in a previous life.
Reincarnation has long been entertained in necromantic theory. Though its effects eluded us, its theories remained.
The memory of a previous life surviving reincarnation is considered near impossible, both logically and statistically. But with unknown factors, who can say?
Yet the problem is that their values differ even from those of humankind.

Third: that they are from another world…

Enough. What am I writing?
This would make the epithet Great Sage weep.
It seems losing my comrades in such succession has unbalanced my fragile mind.
I must regain myself.

Before wallowing in reminiscence, I must remake….no, rebuild this frail body and spirit of mine.
There is no more room for hesitation.
Friedenrichter, you stopped me again and again in life, but I will open the last door.
As I am now, even a stray arrow would end me.
If so, before long we’d be forced to choose yet another Demon Lord.
That cannot be allowed.

Friend, laugh at me as a fool.
Better yet, come back and laugh at my face.
Why left only me behind?