Hero or Villain, Both

"I nominate that the demon king be the one that leads this expedition."

I narrowed my eyes to look at the one that made this suggestion.

This was supposed to be one of those normal meetings where the different leaders of the various demon tribes brought their own interests to the table.

But once someone made this suggestion, it immediately stopped the entire meeting.

Everyone looked at the one person that made this suggestion with narrowed eyes, as if they were trying to figure out what they were planning by saying this. Only that one demon didn't seem worried at all.

That was because it was one of the top tribes that made this suggestion.

The Asura Tribe was one of those tribes that had the best fighting abilities, so there were few demon tribes that were willing to go against them.

But it wasn't just a few demon tribes that were here, it was most of the powerful tribes that were gathered here since this was a meeting for any that had power in the demon race.

"What do you mean by this?" The representative from the Minotaur Tribe asked this.

The Minotaur Tribe was also one of the top tribes since they were a race that was built for combat just like the Asuras. It was just that these two tribes didn't get along since they lived close to each other.

There was a buffer zone between them, but as large demon tribes, it was only natural that they would want to expand. During these expansions, it was only natural that they would run into conflict with each other since they were so close to each other.

After many long years, there was a hostile relationship that developed between the two tribes.

So when the Asura Tribe spoke up, it was only natural that the Minotaur Tribe would speak out against this.

The representative from the Asura Tribe just calmly said, "You should have already heard the rumours spreading among the humans. They already know that we have a new demon king sitting on the throne."

Then looking at the other demon representatives, he added, "Now that the demon king has been revealed, I personally believe that he should take the lead to represent our demon race. If he doesn't reveal himself, then the other races will look down on our demon race."

A few of the representatives that were sitting there agreed with the Asura Tribe representative, but most of them seemed like they were holding back.

After all, they cared more about their own benefits than they cared about the prestige of the demon race. It didn't matter what prestige the demon race had since this wasn't something that would help them survive.

Even the ones that seemed to agree only agreed because there was something for them to benefit from when it came to this.

Since most of the other representatives didn't seem to agree, the Minotaur Tribe's representative said, "The demon king is a representation of our entire demon race and you want to thrust him into danger like this? Do you really think that this is the right move at this moment?"

There were a few representatives that nodded in agreement to this as well, but it was clear that there were many fence sitters that were waiting to see how this went.

For them, the most important thing was how much they could get out of this for themselves.

After a back and forth between the Asura Tribe representative and the Minotaur Tribe representative, someone suddenly said, "Regardless of who goes, we still have to decide on what the next expedition will be."

At this, everyone stopped talking and revealed serious looks.

After all, this was a fiercely contested matter.

But before anyone could say anything, I said, "Go for the Deter Kingdom this time."

All of the representatives from the different tribes were surprised that I would suddenly speak up like this, but it didn't seem like they were against this.

After all, this was the target that most of the representatives had already agreed on for this expedition. This was an easy target that would give them a lot of resources since there was a festival that was supposed to be held in the Deter Kingdom.

It wasn't a large festival, it was only a small scale festival, but it would bring in many resources from all over the Deter Kingdom.

That made it the perfect place to strike.

However, it didn't seem like the demons were going to agree that easily.

It seemed like they were trying to figure out what I was planning by volunteering for this role.

"I'll lead the troops, but I'll have to ask for a strong tribe to be sent with me." I said in a firm voice.

When they heard this, there were traces of disdain that appeared in most of the eyes of the representatives.

Just from this, they could tell what I was thinking.

They thought that I was planning on using this opportunity to gain prestige for myself and then try to break free from their grasps as a puppet. They could tell that I was risking it to try and gain any form of power.

But in reality, that wasn't the case.

Since it was only a matter of time, it was better for me to go on my own terms rather than follow their terms so that I would gain as much as I could from this.

Of course, this was something that I would never tell them.

After discussing this for a while, it seemed like most of the demon tribes agreed on this.

The ones that wanted me to go were naturally happy to see me go.

The ones that didn't want me to go were planning on using this so that they could stop me from going anywhere in the future. After all, this was a rather simple expedition since the Deter Kingdom wasn't that strong.

But the one thing that they didn't know was that the hero's party was currently in the Deter Kingdom.

It was perfect for a clash between hero and demon king.