Demon's Virtue

Sleep. Fight. Eat. Those have always been the only three things any simple Monster was supposed to know of. Of course, the higher their levels got, and the more intelligence or strength they gained, the more things they would be capable of doing, but more than 99% of all Monsters were mindless drones that knew nothing but how to fulfill their barest of desires.

Of course, there were still Monsters that had a fair amount of raw ability. Intelligence that put the world's greatest Human Scholar to shame. A strength that could only be surpassed by every nation of the world put together. Or Skills that every single person wished to have.

But there was one quality that was so rare in Monsters that only a handful were truly known to have it, while at the same time being glanced over by any single person in the world and swiftly dismissed as a mere lie. Kindness.

It was possible to tame a monster, but that was all it was. The taming of a wild creature that would never hesitate to cause havoc if the Tamer stopped paying attention to it. Teaching a Monster what kindness was was known to be simply impossible, no matter what method one used.

But even then, while they were mostly merely mindless and wicked creatures, those that were able to reason to a certain amount ended up following similar rules in civilization to what Humans did. They had concepts similar to dividing the populace up into Commoners, Nobility, and Royalty, although overall prowess was the most important value that Monsters used to choose who belonged into which 'caste'.

The mindless monsters without reason were Peasants. Those with at least something similar to a mind, who were able to listen to commands of those stronger than themselves were Commoners. Nobility was filled with monsters at the level of intelligence of humans, although they were far, far stronger than most humans could hope to be.

And then, at last, the Royalty was filled with those directly underneath the King, the Monster that stood at the peak of every single Monstrosity or Fiend out there.

The concept behind choosing a new 'King' was quite simple, however. If you could kill the King, you would become him. If a King died through natural reasons, the remaining Royalty would choose the strongest amongst themselves to be the new King.

Most of the time, the Royalty wasn't able to choose who the strongest amongst them actually was, and would end up fighting each other to death in order to be able to take over the position of their fallen Brethren, who they would not have spared a single tear for.

The current King of Monsters was a quite peculiar one. The majority of Kings in the past were those that had become as such through simple brutish strength after dethroning the former King and would rule over those beneath them to fulfill their own desires.

But the King that had taken the throne at the current time was one of the rarest kind. He felt kindness. However, this kindness did not extend past his brethren, so those he cared for were only those that he ruled. And one might be confused, thinking that such a thing is not 'Kindness', but simple loyalty to their people, although it was not too dissimilar to the kindness spread amongst Humans.

No matter how nice they were to those around them, if they gave everything they owned away to those more in need and lived without a single wicked thought when surrounded by other people, if they were faced with something else, such kindness had immediately disappeared. They would not bat an eye at the sight of a monster being slain and would celebrate it instead.

It did not matter if that Monster had done nothing wrong yet; it was a monster and had to be exterminated for that sole reason.

Such things showed what kindness truly was; selfish.

A Kindness that was meant to make life more convenient or to fulfill their own sense of self-worth. Simply, to do whatever they wished, and allow those around them to be selfish.

In that sense, the Kindness of the King of Monsters and the Kindness of the people of the world were not much different. All they wanted was to kill their enemy to protect their own folk.

And this is the story of a young Monster doing all it can to fulfill their own personal Selfish Kindness, trying to escape the Kindness of that King of Monsters.