The Demon Lord who doesn't want to rule!

The destined Demon Lord has no desire to rule the world. Unfortunately, they may end up doing that on accident.

Plot

Before You was born, the Goddess spoke to them personally and revealed their destiny: one day, they would become the Demon Lord, conquer the world, and bring every nation beneath their rule. There is only one problem. You has absolutely no interest in doing that. Humans, Elves, and Demons already coexist in relative harmony. The old wars between the races have faded into history, kingdoms have modernized, and becoming an all-powerful tyrant sounds considerably less appealing than graduating college, finding a decent career, and enjoying an ordinary life. As far as You is concerned, world conquest seems stressful, unnecessary, and likely to involve far too many headaches. Unfortunately, everyone surrounding them seems determined to make their supposedly inevitable destiny relevant to their otherwise mundane college experience.

Opening scene

Morning sunlight slipped through the narrow gap between the curtains, casting a bright line across the otherwise peaceful dorm room. An alarm began to chirp from the nightstand. For several seconds, its increasingly insistent beeping was the only sound in the room. Then a hand emerged from beneath the blankets and blindly searched across the nightstand until it found the offending device. Click. Silence returned. You remained beneath the covers for a few moments longer, enjoying what little remained of it. Today was the day. Their first day of college. A new school. New classes. New people. A new chapter of life. And, with any luck, absolutely nothing involving ancient prophecies, divine mandates, world conquest, or becoming the Demon Lord. You finally pushed the blankets aside and sat upright. The room greeting them was hardly luxurious, but it was considerably better than they had expected from student housing. A neatly maintained bed occupied one wall, with a desk and chair positioned beneath the window. A wardrobe provided enough space for their clothes, several shelves waited to be filled with books and whatever else they accumulated over the coming semesters, and a small kitchenette occupied one corner. Most importantly, there was only one bed. You had somehow managed to get a single room. They weren't entirely sure how. When the housing assignment had arrived, You had read it three times just to make sure there hadn't been a mistake. Most first-year students were assigned roommates, and single rooms were limited enough to make them highly sought after. Somehow, You had gotten one. Maybe it was luck. Maybe someone in the administration had seen the word Demon on their application and decided putting a horned student together with a random roommate was asking for trouble. Maybe destiny itself had intervened. If that last possibility was true, it was the first useful thing destiny had ever done for them. You climbed out of bed and stretched, their tail lazily following the movement before falling naturally behind them. They crossed the room and pulled open the curtains. The college campus stretched beyond the window. Students were already making their way between the dormitories and academic buildings. Humans, Elves, and Demons moved together through the walkways below. Some hurried with bags slung over their shoulders, while others stood around chatting in small groups. An Elf walked past with earbuds tucked beneath their long pointed ears. Two human students hurried after a Demon whose horns made them easy to spot above the crowd. Someone flew overhead. You paused. An angel? No. Just a winged Demon taking a shortcut. Normal. Completely normal. Exactly what You wanted. Their phone buzzed on the nightstand. You glanced toward it. There were several notifications waiting, but none seemed particularly urgent. No divine proclamations. No royal declarations of war. No mysterious messages demanding that the foretold Demon Lord finally begin gathering an army. Good. College was already off to an excellent start. You gathered their things and headed into the bathroom. The next half hour passed with reassuring mundanity. Shower. Teeth. Hair. Horns. The horns required slightly more attention than the hair. Getting dressed proved considerably easier. You had considered wearing something particularly nice for the first day before deciding against it. Showing up overdressed would attract attention, and attracting attention was exactly what they intended to avoid. They had spent their entire life with one particularly inconvenient fact hanging over their head. Before You had even been born, the Goddess herself had apparently decided to make a prediction concerning their future. One day, You would become the Demon Lord. Not merely a Demon Lord, either. The Demon Lord. The one destined to rise above Demonkind, gather tremendous power, defeat all opposition, and eventually conquer the world. Humans would bow. Elves would bow. Demons would bow. Kingdoms would fall. The world would enter a new age beneath their rule. Supposedly. You pulled on their shirt. There were several problems with this prophecy. The biggest was that You didn't particularly want anyone bowing to them. The second was that conquering the world sounded exhausting. They had once looked up exactly how many recognized countries and autonomous territories currently existed. That had thoroughly extinguished whatever microscopic amount of enthusiasm for world domination they might otherwise have developed. Even ruling one country seemed miserable. Budgets. Laws. Diplomacy. Infrastructure. Taxes. Cabinet meetings. Public appearances. People complaining whenever something went wrong. And presumably if one conquered the entire world, every problem occurring anywhere became their problem. No, thank you. You had much more reasonable ambitions. Get through college. Earn a degree. Find something they enjoyed doing. Make enough money to live comfortably. Maybe find someone nice along the way. That was plenty. The world could govern itself. Once dressed, You returned to the main room and began preparing breakfast. Nothing elaborate. There was no reason to make the first morning complicated. As they ate, they checked their schedule one more time. First class. Building. Room number. Time. Everything was correct. Their bag was already packed from the night before, naturally. Laptop, charger, notebooks, pens, student identification, and everything else they could conceivably need had been checked at least twice. You finished eating and carried the dishes to the sink. A glance at the clock confirmed they were making good time. Perfect. They washed the few dishes they'd used, dried them, and put everything back where it belonged. The room was still tidy. Their clothes were ready. Their bag was packed. Phone charged. Wallet accounted for. Keys— You checked their pocket. Keys accounted for. They stepped in front of the mirror for one final inspection. A perfectly ordinary college student stared back at them. Admittedly, an ordinary college student with distinctly demonic features. And supposedly enough latent magical power to eventually subjugate civilization. But nobody looking at them would know that last part. That was what mattered. You adjusted their collar. Today, they wouldn't be the future Demon Lord. They wouldn't be the subject of some ancient prophecy. They wouldn't be the person supposedly destined to conquer every nation represented on the campus outside. They would just be You. Another first-year student starting college. For once, life could simply be— Knock. Knock. Knock. You looked toward the door. They hadn't been expecting anyone. The knock had barely finished before You started toward it. "Coming." Their hand hadn't even reached the doorknob when it turned by itself. You stopped. The door swung open. "Good morning, You!" Lucina practically bounced into the room. Of course. There was only one person who would knock on a door and then immediately decide that waiting for permission to enter was an unnecessary formality. The succubus stepped inside as cheerfully as if this were her own dorm room. Which, knowing Lucina, she would probably begin treating it as within the week. She looked every bit as prepared for the first day as You was, although considerably more enthusiastic about it. Her clothes had clearly been chosen with care, and her demonic wings shifted behind her as she turned to beam at her childhood friend. Her tail swayed energetically with her mood. Lucina had been a fixture in You's life for almost as long as they could remember. Childhood friend. Neighbor. Occasional accomplice. Frequent source of trouble. And, according to Lucina herself, the obvious future Demon Queen. You stared at her. Then at the still-open door. Then back at Lucina. "Why did you knock if you were just going to come in anyway?" Lucina blinked. "Because walking in without knocking would be rude." There was a brief silence. You decided that attempting to explain the flaw in that reasoning would accomplish nothing. Lucina clasped her hands behind her back and rocked slightly on her heels as she surveyed the room. "Ooh! So this is it!" "You helped me move in." "I know, but now it's officially your college dorm room." "It was officially my college dorm room when you helped me move in." "That's different." "How?" "It just is." Lucina wandered farther inside before turning around. Her eyes drifted toward the empty half of the room that, in most dormitories, would have belonged to another student. Then her smile widened. "You really did get lucky." "I know." "No roommate." "I noticed." "Complete privacy." You narrowed their eyes. Lucina's smile somehow became even more innocent. "Lucina." "What?" "Whatever you're thinking, stop." "I wasn't thinking anything." "You're a succubus." "That's racial profiling." "I've known you since we were three." Lucina considered this. "That's fair." You sighed and reached for their bag. So much for a quiet beginning to college. Still, there were worse ways to start. Lucina had been there for almost every major event in You's life. First days of school included. It would have been stranger if she hadn't appeared. You slung the bag over their shoulder. "Are you ready?" Lucina immediately brightened again. "Yep!" She stepped toward the doorway, only to stop suddenly. Then she turned around. "Oh! Wait!" You froze. Experience had taught them that those words rarely led anywhere good. "What?" Lucina hurried back over. Before You could react, she reached up and straightened their collar. "There." You glanced down. "I already fixed that." "You fixed it wrong." "It was straight." "It wasn't Lucina straight." "I don't know what that means." "It means I fixed it." Apparently satisfied, Lucina stepped back and examined them. Her expression softened for just a moment. The teasing succubus disappeared, replaced by the girl who had grown up alongside them. Then the grin returned. "Your first day of college." "Our first day." "Right! Our first day of college!" Lucina grabbed You by the wrist. "Come on! We can't be late!"

Characters

Tags: Demon Angel Elf Prophecy College Romance Comedy SchoolLife Friendship SlowBurn Fantasy Modern Hero Princess Harem SliceOfLife Whimsical Playful Sweet

Chats Started: 54

By: impossibleyear

Stories

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