Hero or Villain, Both

"Are you sure about all of this? If you reveal this, the top demon tribes won't sit still."

That was the one consensus that was among my subordinates when I told them my plan.

Then after the plan was over…

"What are you planning to do now? It's clear that they're going to be watching over you now and will make things harder for us."

Still, I just told them to handle the things that came to us.

The rewards that the demon race gave to me were all handed over to my subordinates to take care of and distribute among my other subordinates. However, there was something that I didn't give them and took for myself.

This was the one thing that I specifically requested since there was something that I wanted there.

Of course, it was something that only the demon council could grant.

Most of the land in the demon race's territory wasn't actually used.

The land that was used was said to belong to the tribe that used it, but as for the rest of the land that no one was using, this land didn't really belong to anyone.

Since it didn't belong to anyone in particular, it could be said to belong to the entire demon race. Which meant that the demon race council that was in charge of deciding what the demon race should do was in charge of this land.

That was why if I wanted this land, I had to get it from them.

Though if I really wanted, I could have taken the land for myself. The demons were a race that respected strength and only those that had strength could take what they wanted.

But this was a troublesome matter since there was no telling how many people would bother me for this land.

It was much easier to have it granted to me as a reward.

I even made sure to put in a special request for this land.

The demon race council didn't grant this request right away since they were confused why I wanted this land.

After all, it wasn't as if this land was fertile land to begin with. This land wasn't even considered normal land since it was a land that was quite barren to begin with.

If anyone else was granted this land, they would have thought that it was a punishment.

That was why the demon race council found it strange that I wanted this place to begin with.

But I didn't explain myself as I insisted on taking this land for myself.

Since they weren't able to figure out what was wrong with this request, they had no choice but to hand over this land to me in the end as my reward. With an official document granting this land to me, there was nothing that anyone could say.

Even if the demons didn't really care about documents and stuff when it came to owning land, it was different when it came from the demon race council. After all, the demon race council was made up of many powerful demon race tribes.

Having this approval was like having the backing of many different powerful demons that belonged to those tribes.

No one picked a fight with the top demon tribes for no reason.

It was the main reason that they were considered top demon tribes in the first place.

When I arrived at this place, I couldn't help revealing a smile.

It wasn't that this place was better than I thought, it was actually because this place was exactly what I thought it would be.

This place really didn't have any prospects at all, it was clear that this place couldn't be fixed up and built into a proper place.

But that didn't matter since what I wanted wasn't even in this land.

Well, it was in this land in the way that it was stored here, but the land itself wasn't important.

Though if I were to find the thing that I was looking for and took it away from here, there was no doubt that there would be an improvement to this land as well. After all, that thing that I was looking for was the thing that was causing this land to look like this in the first place.

Once I had gotten a view of the land, I leaned down and grabbed some dirt off the ground.

Rubbing this dirt between my fingers, I took a closer look at the residue that was left.

Without any hesitation, I suddenly headed off in a certain direction as I said, "It's this way."

I continued walking for a bit, but it really didn't seem like there was anything there. After all, this land was one that was completely barren, so it wasn't as if there would be anything here.

After walking for a bit, I suddenly stopped and leaned down again to dig my hand into the ground.

I didn't hesitate to pull my hand back out again, but there was something in my hand this time.

It was this brown thing that seemed to be connected to the ground.

Looking closely, it seemed to be some kind of root.

"Found it." I said with a smile when I pulled this root out.

It was only natural that I was happy to see this since this thing was my real reward.

This thing was the thing that I had come here to find and to bring back with me.

But there was a reason why there was no one that had settled in this land or found this thing all this time. It was all because this thing was very skilled at hiding itself from the sight of others.

Though it wasn't as if this thing lacked strength.

If it really wanted, the thing that this root belonged to would be able to take down many powerful demons.

After all, it was something that was passed down from one of the past demon kings.