The encounter with a cursed weapon.

I didn't know what being born into the modern era would entail. But I was sure as hell that they wouldn't do anything as brutal or inhumane as torturing children who couldn't even walk or talk yet. Even I- the former demon lord spared children... yet these irredeemable pricks don't. It's frightening.

'For love's sake, I'm a month old!

You can't be doing this to me. I haven't even built up any mana yet. I'm as frail as can be. Sure I was a demon lord in my last life, but you can't expect me to take a weapon like that straight out of the gate in this life.

I DIDN'T EVEN LEARN HOW TO USE HEALING MAGIC ON MYSELF YET!!'

My parents who I had trusted, respected and tried my best to love had betrayed me. Their betrayal was far more sinister and hurtful than what Lola did in my previous life. Her backstabbing me couldn't hold a candle to this since she was a real piece of work from the beginning. That witch.

Sometimes I wondered if there was any compassion left in this world and this situation clearly proved that there wasn't. People only think for themselves, and let everyone else live in absolute agony.

I could do only what a baby could.

I started to cry as the cursed weapon gets closer and closer to me.

Its razor-thin edge was sharper than any sword I'd encountered. And there was some toxin dripping ever so slightly from the tip.

I cried as loud as I could and struggled to get away from my captors.

But it was futile. I wanted to submit to this fate, but my body responded on its own. The man slowly brought the weapon even closer, slow enough to make me feel like he was enjoying seeing my petty struggle.

The world indeed was cruel.

I cried.

"Mouuu… Mao-kun stop crying… it's just a vaccine."

'Maybe to you, father, but to me, it was a needle the size of my entire hand.'

I cried.

"If you don't stop, I'll have to use mana to hold you down. Act like a man."

'Mother, stop assigning gender roles as you see fit. Do you not see me as a man when you let me suckle on your bosom? Why do I have to act like a man, in front of this imminent danger?'

I cried.

"Honey, he's not stopping, hold him down." When the conversation didn't work, the brutes resorted to violence. This was oppression.

"Okay."

Mana gripped my limbs and tied me down. My mouth was free but I could not move a muscle.

"UWEIN! UWEIN!"

I cried.

The needle slowly got closer and closer and closer. Until like a blade stabbing through my body, it pierced through my infantile bicep.

"AAAAAAAAGHHHHHH!!!!"

I cried.

###

[So you had your first vaccine, huh?] The little girl beside me on the bed asked as I messed around with my rattle. I realised this as of late, but a rattle had quite a few musical capabilities. Only if you used it properly that is.

[Yes.]

[How did you like it?] Was that supposed to be a rhetorical question?

[It was awful. The worst experience I've had so far.] I answered truthfully.

[It was fine for me. Maybe your doctor was bad. Anyways, you should get a better one since you'll have to get more of those.]

The rattle in my hand fell onto my face, but the pain did nothing but persist for a second. Her words echoed endlessly in my ears. 'More of those.'

'More of those.'

'More of thos...'

[Mao?]

I got snapped back to reality as she shook me a little.

[What do you mean, more of them?!]

[You get a vaccine every few months the first year.]

[This is no time to jest.] I reverted to my ancient way of speaking.

[I'm not kidding, I already had like six of them.] Her eyes looked at me with sincerity and displayed nothing else but the truth.

Reincarnation surely was a mistake.

[Say, Yuu-chan…]

[Yuu-nee.] She corrected me. Who does she think she is?

[Hero Wench…]

[Do you want to die?] She was someone who held more strength than I.

[Yuu-nee…]

[What?]

[Do you know when these vaccines were invented?]

[I believe, back in the eighteenth century.]

[Do you mean to tell me that in the seven centuries since their invention, they haven't figured an alternative out?]

[Yeah, I guess that's right.]

[What is this 'vaccination' for?]

[Boosting your immunity against pathogens.] She says.

[BOOSTING YOUR IMMUN- boosting your immunity against pathogens? When did demons get so weak? Only your people died when those rats spread around the disease back in our time!]

[The new races don't need to be physically resilient to survive. You just need money. Demons have become weak after years of desk jobs. They even suffer from stuff like back pain from desk jobs now.]

[BAC-Back pains?! Wow, this is just painful to hear. Getting hurt from sitting all day? Is evolution a joke? Why're they getting weaker with time? The patheticness of humans is rubbing off on demons too.]

[You do realize that you're human too, right?]

[Only half of me is. The other half is still pure demon blood. You know, back in my days I would go against an entire army just to get to my job at the castle and still be fine. And I was thirteen! Kids now-a-days are so weak getting hurt over some tiny bugs.]

[You say that in public, and they'd confine you in a chamber calling you an anti-vaxxer.]

[Oh no, those people are stupid. They don't change with time. I hate vaccinations, but at least now I know that they're necessary for me to maintain this weak lifestyle of mine.] I made a shameless statement.

{a/n: get vaccinated.}

[Hey, stupid demon lord…]

[It's Mao, you illiterate piece of sh-]

[Wut did you say?] Bloodlust. This lady was emitting bloodlust. Why was an ex hero so violent? Did our memories get exchanged? Was she the demon lord in her previous life? Scarrryyy!

[I said yes ma'am. Did you perhaps mishear me?] She swerved her head the other way.

[How were you born in your previous life? When I was two no one ever spoke of you, and then suddenly when I turned five, you were all people could talk about.]

[Was I really that famous when I was born? I think I only got famous amongst the humans after the first war tho. Ah, so many of those insufferable patriotic bastards died. Those were the days.]

[I'll ignore that. And as far as fame went the humans started fearing you since day one. When you were born, lands started decaying and there were storms all over the countryside… is what I heard.]

[Bullshit. Why were they blaming natural phenomena on my birth?] I was a demon lord, not a weatherman. I didn't give a crap about the weather, let alone alter it.

[They were saying that everything bad happening, epidemics and all was your fault.]

[Scheming bastards. They just wanted an outlet for public strife.] And the humans were pretty stupid too for believing that jargon. Demons were becoming a larger force as days went by under my rule. They got from the status of prey to predators. Naturally, the bigwigs in the human empires couldn't see that happen. Their influence and economy started taking a hit.

So they probably turned all the world's hatred towards us demons. As if there wasn't enough of that already.

UUUU... Just thinking of that pissed me off.

[So how were you born?] Yuu-chan switched the topic momentarily.

I gave myself a moment to think before answering her question.

[Born isn't the right word actually… I was created.]

[Eh?]

[There's a legend… when every demon's will unite, a new lord would be born. When the demon race was going through a tough time, they wanted someone to rule them. Someone stronger and more competent than the demon kings. A perfect and absolute existence. And then the miasma gave birth to me.] Miasma being the demon term for mana. Practically the same thing.

[So you were a walking talking ball of mana.]

[That's one way to put it.] The wrong way, but a way nonetheless. I wouldn't expect a musclehead to understand the complexities of a deity-like being anyway.

[You mean to say that a walking talking ball of mana killed me… the hero blessed by mana.]

[If you think you were blessed, you were scammed. Gods are selfish… that's why I had to beat mine up to make him submit his power to me.] Ahhh... those really were the good old days. The god of the underworld became my lackey and would do everything for me. Wonder what he's up to now.

[I formed a contract with mine. It was back when I got accep-]

[Hey, Yuu-nee.] I cut her off.

[What?]

[This exposition is getting too long… The vaccine made me sleepy..]

[Oh damn, it is! Let's just skip this part. You need some mystery to keep a long-running story going.]

[Eh?]

[Did I say something?]

[I thought you did-]

[Nope, you're just hallucinating because of the vaccine.]

[But I'm sure…] Well, that conversation went on and on. You don't really need to sit through all of it.

.

.

.

{a/n: Mao-kun got a bunch of vaccines after that.}