"Wait! I didn't say anything about wanting to be their ruler! Why are they jumping to that conclusion?!"

"I just told you, the demons of the wasteland always follow the strongest. It's just natural that everyone would surrender to you after showing off your power as you did."

It seems like I got into trouble once again, and Xania is making it sound like it was my fault...

"Then I guess I'll have to go and tell them that this is all a misunderstanding."

"Of course, you don't want to become the next ruler..." Xania looks dejected for some reason.

"Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing, I was thinking of what's going to happen next after you leave..."

"What is going to happen?"

"That's... not something you should be concerned about."

"Each time the demons of the wasteland lose their ruler, the various tribes start fighting each other in an attempt to take their place." Since Xania didn't want to tell me, Arana decided to tell me herself. "I've heard that there are always a large number of deaths when that happens, so I can understand why Xania was hoping that you would become the next ruler and keep them in check."

"A large number of deaths?!"

"Don't even think of becoming our ruler just to save us! You do not owe us anything, and this is all our own fault anyway."

"Your own fault? What do you mean?"

Xania turns her head from me and lets out a sigh.

"The demon wasteland has some very high concentrations of mana, the demons that are born here are often stronger than both the natural races and other demons. You might think that our power should have given us an advantage, but it has been nothing but a curse.

We keep saying that strength is all that matters so that we can claim to be better than everyone else. That belief has caused us to be always fighting against each other. Our leaders have only been demon lords that ruled with fear and were only interested in using our strength to attack other countries, just to get completely defeated every single time. We have done very little to improve the wasteland, and the constant fighting has turned this place into a complete mess."

"That tends to happen to people with strength they didn't earn," says Arana. "If you don't know how to control your power, your power will control you. There was a time when the dragons came close to extinction, all because of the arrogance that was born from their power."

"Oh, do you think that the same thing could happen to me?"

"Don't worry Luna. You did earn your power, and it's clear that you are in complete control of it."

I hope that she's right...

"Anyway, Xania, are you sure that you don't want me to become your new ruler?"

"It's not that I don't want that. But you should not accept such a big responsibility for our sake. If you don't want to be our queen, do not feel like you have to."

"I see, but... I'm not really sure that I don't want to."

"EH?!"

"It's just that, when I think about it, there are a lot of benefits for me if I do this. I've always wanted to teach my magic to people, but much of it is illegal in most places. That's why I don't want to abandon the 'disciples of darkness' who I've only started to teach, and if I become the ruler of this wasteland I might be able to expand them further. I would also like to finally have a place to stay, I'm tired of running away from everywhere I go. Oh, and... If I really can make this wasteland a better place, that would also be a benefit for me. I know that this might sound conceited, but being seen by people as some kind of savior has always been a dream of mine."

"Then, are you going to become our queen?"

"I don't know, that decision is too big for me to make right now. And to be honest, I don't think that I would do a good job as a queen. My wisdom stat is only 4, and telling people what to do couldn't be any further away from my area of expertise."

"Thinking about all the rulers we've had until now, I cannot see how you could possibly be worse. Believe it or not, Kalroth was above the average."

"Well, I don't know... Ara, what do you think?"

"You already know what I think. Making you the queen of darkness has been my goal since the start. And by that, I mean making you an actual queen. You are perfect for that role."

"Why are you so sure about that?"

"Just think about it. If you become a queen, how would you rule your country?"

Mmm, that's a surprisingly easy question to answer.

"I would probably do the bare minimum of ruling and would try to get people who actually know what they are doing to run the country for me."

"See? You're perfect!" I don't know if that's supposed to be a compliment or... "Also, did you say that your wisdom is only 4? Why don't you check it again?"

"What are you talking about? Every time I've looked at it, it said-"

!!!

It is 6! I looked at my status and it says that my wisdom is 6!!!

"Xania! Look at this! Am I seeing things or is this a 6?!"

"It is, but... Isn't a wisdom of 6 still really low? Even Rax has 17 and he's still a kid..."

"But it was 4 before! How often do people increase a stat by 50% in a single day?!"

"Not often I guess."

"Right?!"

I don't think that Xania can understand my excitement.

"Well, that's to be expected. You probably got one from all that happened with Kalroth and another one for finally making me confess." Arana explains. "So, does that make you more confident about becoming the queen of darkness?"

"Ara... If I do this, I'm going to need your help."

"Uh? I'll obviously help you, yes."

"Yeah, but I need to tell you, that whole manipulation thing that you tried to do to me, you are really bad at it."

"Eh?"

"I don't know if you did it because you felt guilty, but you kept acting in overly suspicious ways, even I noticed that you were hiding something... But you are really smart for everything else, your advice is always great. That's why I said that I need your help, but I need YOU, I have no use for some crappy knockoff of your sister. I won't ask you to never keep any secrets from me ever again, but you need to promise that if you need my help for anything you will ask me and not try to manipulate me into doing it, and if there is anything that I should know, you will tell me."

"Oh, well... Yes, I promise."

"Good, then... I'm sorry Xania, but I'll need some time to make a decision."

"That's fine. But for the time being... Maybe you should go to the main hall and tell the people who have gathered there that you are not going to kill them."

Ah, right, the demons in the castle were in an uproar because they were afraid of me. That was the reason Xania was looking for me in the first place.

Then I should go and greet them. If I'm going to stay around here it is important that I give a good first impression.

"Hello!"

"Eh?! Is that?"

"It's her!"

...

The moment they see me, all the demons throw themselves to the ground and prostrate themselves. It might be that I've already given my first impression when I was chasing after Kalroth earlier...

I need to get closer and tell them to get back on their feet. But there's something weird with the ground here... I know that this castle is in a state of disrepair, but what are these rocks I'm walking on?

Oh, I just realized that those were not rocks. It was a bunch of stone demons prostrating themselves, and I stepped on each of them without realizing it. Uh... now everyone is going to think that I'm stupid.

"Sorry, I couldn't tell you apart from the floor."

"Yes! We know that to you we are no different from the ground you step on."

So they were expecting me to not notice? They really do think that I'm dumb...

"I think I made your backs dirty with my soles..."

"We're sorry for making your soles dirty with our backs!"

"That's the opposite of what I just said!"

"WE'RE SORRY!!!"

I don't think that they are even listening to me.

"That's enough prostrating. Everyone rise!"

"Yes!"

At least they listened to me this time. But why does everyone look so scared? I should get to the point and do what Xania told me to do.

"Anyway, I'm here because I have something important to tell you all."

"Something important?"

All the demons of various types are staring at me expectantly, it's making me feel a bit nervous.

"I'm not going to kill you."

"..."

There's a moment of silence as all the demons stare at each other in confusion and then turn back to look at me.

"Thank you for your mercy!"

"We're grateful for your compassion!"

Well, I'm glad that at least that got cleared up. But since I'm already here, there's one more thing I would like to ask them.

"By the way, if it was up to you, would you want me to become your next ruler?"

"Of course! There's nothing we would want more!"

"You would be the greatest queen we could ever have! No, the greatest queen the world could ever have!"

"Really?"

I didn't want to become their queen against their wishes, but seeing how enthusiastically they are encouraging me to do it, it's making me think that this is really the way for me to go.

A lot of things have happened ever since I left my home, and it seems like I've changed as a result. Back when I heard that prophecy for the first time, I could not have imagined that one day I would seriously ask myself this question.

Do I want to become the queen of darkness?

forli

This feels like it's the end of "part one" or something, but I didn't really divide this story into parts so this is just another chapter.

I had an idea of using the wisdom stat to signify Luna's growth. Since she's so strong, having her level up doesn't mean much, so that would be an alternate form of litrpg progression. However, I wanted to increase it only in big moments like this one, and it took so long to get here that I feel like it's already too late to do that...

Also, I feel bad for the readers that started reading this because of the 'kingdom building' tag. There has not been a lot of that so far...