Yeah, so I know I soared through the last chapter I translated in like, a day, but this one took me a whole week XD  It would have taken me a lot longer if la_prime hadn''t hooked me up with a scanned version of this book ~3  I do own a physical copy of the book, though.  Actually, I own two copies.

    Prologue

    Hey, Shibuya.

    I’m thankful for you saving me, but I’m telling you I’m definitely not a person who gets bullied all the time.

    If it’s the first time you’ve been cornered by bad classmates, then it’s the first time you’ve been extorted for money.

    And while I’m at it, grades are my life?!  Like, high test scores and stuff? Don’t go spreading stereotypical rumors when you don’t know anything about me.  I know that I used to fade into the background, but in order to train my body and mind, I’ve learned martial arts.  Like karate, uh… through the mail.

    Anyway!  Even I don’t even know what kind of person I am so please stop making conjectures about me.

    And anyway, knowing the kind of person you really are is an eternal mystery to mankind, right?  That’s why self-exploration books are always best sellers.

    So, I’ll try asking you.

    What about you?

    Why were you born and why are you alive?

    Ah!  Don’t get all absorbed in thought!  Nobody knows that sort of thing.

    [Spoiler (Scans of Character Profiles)]

    Chapter 1

    Have I drowned?  Is that why it’s so hard to breathe!?

    “Ugh… Bando, Eiji, you bastards…”

    “Please wake up, Your Majesty.”

    Even though it’s morning, peering at me is Lord Weller, his usual charming self without puffy eyes or tousled hair.

    “Don’t call me Your Majesty. You named me.”

    “Sorry, it just slipped out.  But the alarm bird has cried three times already.”

    “Really!?”

    According to my G-Shock, which is still continuing to valiantly keep the time, it is currently 8 o’clock in the morning.  By the way, it’s also November 30th and the first month of winter in this world.  One day here seems to be 24 hours, and there isn’t any noticeable deviance in their clocks.  So that means that the size and rotation of this planet is about the same as Earth… ah, I can’t really understand complicated things.

    Anyway, it’s been almost 120 days since I went with Ken Murata to Sea World because he was rejected by a girl, shook hands with a dolphin named Bando, went on a Star Tours, and got sucked into this swords-and-magic world.

    Because this was the third time I’ve come to this country, it’s about time I was considered a regular.  Even if everything hadn’t gone well, I somehow managed to solve the designated problem and was completely ready and waiting to return to modern Japan – I even changed into normal boxer-type underwear.

    However…

    As I was struggling to get up, Conrad rubs the corner of my eye with his thumb.

    “Were you dreaming of Bando again?”

    “Yeah.”

    … I wasn’t able to go back.

    I wasn’t able to go back to the Japan where I wasn’t Yuuri(Helping Village) or Yuuri(Gentle Pear Tree) or Yuuri(Distant Lapis Lazuli)(1), where I heard the familiar ‘Shibuya Yuuri Harajuku Furi, where I was the organizer of a grass-lot baseball team even though I was just a high school student, where I was captain and Number 8 and the designated catcher.

    “… Even though it’s already been four months… Ah!  Now’s not the time to be worrying about that!  I thought it was hard to breathe!  He’s completely on top of me!”

    Wolfram von Bielefelt, with the sleeping face of an angel and the sleeping habits of a devil, has got both his arms and legs wrapped around me, disturbing my peaceful sleep.  He had on a frilly-laced, silk nightgown.

    “This isn’t funny.  If Günter saw this…”

    “I’m already here!”

    Lord von Christ is yelling as he bangs on the thick, heavy wooden door.  His pretty face is probably distorted in unease and impatience, his hair in a disarray.

    “You’re Majesty!  What has happened, Your Majesty!?  Please open the door!  Please open the door-!”

    My body guard, who has taken the position of ally and protector, rolls over the half-awake Wolfram.

    “I locked the door, just in case.”

    “Awesome, Conrad!  You saved me.”

    I quickly put on my custom training wear.  It has a design that you only see on variety shows on TV – green with two thick white stripes down the side – and the lack of elasticity is a bit troubling, but it’s easier to move around in than my black school uniform.

    I burst through the door, uttering a quick “I’m going running” to Gunter and slipped past him.  Behind me, I hear a girlish shriek.

    “Why are you in His Majesty’s room!?  And in his bed!”

    Leaving the soon-to-be scene of carnage behind me, even I have to wonder about that.

    “Why is Wolf living with me?  In this huge place, there should at least be one or two guest rooms.”

    No before that, why is he even living here at Blood Pledge Castle?  His headquarters should be in the Bielefelt region.  This place with the creepy name is supposed to be my castle.  That’s right.  This completely normal baseball kid, Yuuri Shibuya, was made the ruler of a country just before his 16th birthday.  And not your normal king, either.  While it’s true that I laughed a bit at the King of Japanese Rock, my title is even more impressive. (2)  I was just supposed to be a normal high school student with my completely average height and completely average appearance and even my completely average intelligence…

    But I was the Demon King.

    After being unbelievably and miraculously flushed down a toilet, being randomly surrounded by good-looking guys, and being told that ‘starting today, you are the Demon King,’ anyone would think that they were dreaming. I thought so, too.  If this is a dream, let me wake up quickly.  I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed some more to someone called the True King to let me go back to my reality.

    But I’m past that.

    I have no time to be depressed.  I have a mountain of documents I need to sign and endless problems to think about.  I have to meet so many important people you could make a huge line of them like at a popular store.  And of course, I can’t skip my daily training.  When your occupation is the Demon King, your body is your wealth.

    Seeing such an exemplary king, my tutor and royal advisor Günter has been busy crying and being ecstatic. Well, since I’m a guy whose brain seems to just be made out of muscle (a Muscle-Brain Guy, for short), the one who’s been doing all the miscellaneous work is him.

    I’ve been slowly learning how to read and write.  Right now I’m at the level of an accomplished three-year old, but I’ve been able to read complicated words in book titles that I haven’t learned yet just by running my finger along them.  Maybe it was like in the propaganda in those English class flyers that say you’ll suddenly find your talent like a flower blooming or something.

    Stepping off the grey stairs and into the courtyard, I start running before the guards have time to pay their respects.  Bathed in the morning light, the wintry lawn was sparkling.  Under the grass, there were little icicles.  My breaths are white and even the tips of my clenched fingers are getting numb and breathing in the clear, cold air hurt my nose so much my eyes teared up.

    “You alright?” Conrad asked shortly, running beside me.  He asks that same question every once in a while.

    “Why do you ask?  I’m fine?”

    The blue stone swaying at my chest is making me colder.  With intricate silverwork and a color bluer than the sky, this Lion’s Blue magic stone helps me remember my responsibilities (3).

    “Wow, Yuuri!  And you look like you wouldn’t kill a fly.”

    Nicola, that’s not the right word for that metaphor.

    Günter, still on the floor, has started convulsing.

    “Even if I killed mosquitoes or cockroaches I wouldn’t father a child!”

    “And, this person claiming to be the illegitimate child is where?” My amazing bodyguard calmly prompts the soldier-turned-news-bearer.  He definitely believes that there’s no way the king could have a hidden child.  Either that or he learned how undesirable someone like I was while in America or somewhere.

    “Actually… they’re already here… They had a Great Demon Kingdom insignia that only the previous Demon Kings and their relatives can inherit so it seemed improper to not let them pass…”

    What’s that?  Is that like a commemorative championship ring that’s only given to the winning baseball team from the regular season?  Perhaps having his interest piqued by the soldier’s words, the hands of my ‘dear’ fiancé loosen from my neck.

    “The insignia?”

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    OMG, footnotes for days on this first part o.O!

    (1)    This is just a list of some of the more common kanji used to write ‘Yuuri’ that he has, in the past, wished were used to write his own name.  Personally, I thought they were a bit girly, but I’ve been assured by my Japanese linguist friend that they are indeed unisex if read as ‘Yuuri.’  They only get girly if you read them as ‘Yuri.’  Incidentally, they can all be read as ‘Yuri’ whereas the kanji actually used to write his name can only really be read as ‘Yuuri’ in case anyone is interested in that random info.  I’m a linguistics major so I love random info like that XD

    (2)    He’s referring to this guy.  He sings rock songs directly translated to Japanese.  Directly.  Even if the words don’t really fit all that well XD

    (3)    Baseball!  The Seibu Lions’s color blue.

    (4)    An actress/singer.  She was Jean Reno’s daughter in Luc Besson’s film, Wasabi.  She was also in Departures but that movie didn’t exist yet ;p

    (5)      Conrad uses a word here that specifically means a non-sexy kind of sleeping together: zakone.  When you hear zakone, you immediately think of a bunch of your friends sleeping all over your floor in a slumber party kind of situation.  I honestly couldn’t think of a way of translating this without it either sounding sexy or turning his brief comment into a long, convoluted monster.  So, I settled on sexy XD

    (6)      Golgo 13 is a manga about a professional assassin of the same name.  It’s been serialized since 1969 and is the oldest manga still in publication.

    The more you know! ミ☆

    *.*.*.*.*.*

    I climbed the gently sloping hill road while swaying on the back of a horse.

    The afternoon air was hot enough to make me sweat under my jacket.  I hadn’t expected to wear a down jacket in a sword and magic world.

    But now that I think about it, there are both birds and cloth here so it isn’t really all that strange for down jackets to be a favored way to protect against the cold.  Although there might be a flaw in the design because it’s as heavy as a leather jacket.  That makes it pointless.

    Although it’s only about as arduous a climb as would come up in an elementary school trip, the men who pass us all greet us with one hand like they’re following a rule of mountain men or something.  There were a few who were startled when they noticed the color of my hair and eyes hidden under my hood, but strangely they all nod in understanding once Conrad gives them a sign to be quiet.  Maybe they think we’re ninjas.

    “Everyone’s walking.  I want to get down and walk, too.”

    “When your ankle is completely healed.”

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    (1)    School sports team managers in Japan are different than their western counterparts.  Their main duties are to keep score, wash the player’s uniforms, keep their equipment in order, etc. and it is almost exclusively a girl’s job.

    (2)    The original exchange was  “… Ugh, I’m a young man living with the aid of a stick (sutekki)”  “It’s wonderful (suteki), just like an English gentleman, Your Majesty.”  I tried really hard to think of another pun to put in there that would sound just as possibly-accidental as the original sentence.  I kinda suck at that kind of thing, though, so I think it’s a bit awkward ^-^;;

    (3)    Uffoon (uffun) and ahhan are stereotypical sexy noises.  I would have made English versions of this, but uh, that didn’t work out so well XD  Anyway, basically it''s like everyone on the mountain is yelling out sexy noises.  Takabayashi-sensei, you scandalous, scandalous lady ;)

    (4)    This is the infamous Alaska joke.  Just to keep the ‘Alaska,’ I was thinking of using ‘Alaska’m to be patient’ but that was just way too good of a pun for Conrad’s standards (jk, it’s pretty lame, too XD).  Also, if you say it, it’s kind of hard to tell that it’s a pun.  Go on, try it.  I wouldn’t realize that was a joke unless I saw it written.    … I hope the fangirls don’t kill me for changing that o.o

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    End of Chapter 1!