I was gazing at a party of humans fighting some werewolves through a magical crystal ball. Warriors with swords, archers with bows, mages with staves—how exciting.

The werewolves were summoned by my almighty father. He said something about raising heroes so they could put up a good fight against him.

My father was the demon lord. Apparently, he was the strongest being in the world. He looked rather average to me though. Some of the humans inside the crystal ball had a bigger body than him.

But I guess he looked pretty cool with his messy silver hair and amber eyes. The horns were a nice touch too. Apparently, those horns endowed him with a miasmic aura that disintegrated anything weaker nearby.

Anyway, in this world filled with magic, physical size meant almost nothing. Strength in this world was measured by the amount of magic something could control at once, and apparently, my father could control a lot.

Oh, was I using the word apparently too much? Mhm, that’s because I had never once seen him do anything even remotely impressive. He just sat on his drab throne all day staring into that crystal ball, watching the growth of pitiful humans, and hoping for a hero to rise.

And me? I was barely allowed to do anything. Though sometimes, he called me using telepathy magic and made me sit on his lap to watch along with him—like right now.

“Isn’t it interesting, my cute little Mari?”

“Of course Papa. So umm, how long is this hero thing going to take?”

“Like, uh, eighty years I guess? Isn’t it spectacular? Gahaha!”

”Yes, of course Papa!”

No no no no no. Like hell it was.

I was only ten years old, but I felt like I had already lost hair. There was no way I could’ve survived eight more of my lifetime. I would turn dull if that happened. No, wait. I was already fairly dull. If this continued, I was well on my way to becoming a vegetable—and definitely not the fresh type.

My father doing nothing was one thing, but why did I have to suffer too?

I was only allowed to eat, sit on his lap, or play in my room. By the way, there was nothing to play with in my room. I just stared at a wall and hoped that when enough time passed, I would start seeing some interesting hallucinations.

But there was a problem with that. My imagination sucked—and it wasn’t my fault. How could my creative juices flow when I was drier than a brick wall?

So then, I came upon a thought. Humans loved adventures, right? Their entire lives were dedicated to exploration, comradery, and advancement, right?

So why didn’t I just do that too?!

I truly wished it were that easy. My father would never let that happen. And hypothetically, if that were to happen, he could find me in less than a second.

On top of that, he would persistently annoy me through telepathy, and there was no way I could block his calls since he was essentially the service operator.

I needed a better plan. One where he wouldn’t be able to track me down anymore.

And on one faithful day…

Eheheheh. I finally found it—the best plan ever!

I requested one of the maids to let me enter into my father’s library, but they said that without his permission, it was impossible.

So, I asked him.

“Papa, can I go into your library?”

“What for, my cute little Mari?”

“I want to study!”

“Study? This early? Just start when you’re fifty.”

“Papa… pwease? ♥”

“Anything for you, my adorable Mari.”

Mhm, that actually worked. Father was way too easy. And really—fifty years old before I started learning anything? Demons truly had no worries, huh? We were naturally strong and lived so long—practically cheat existences when compared to humans.

If father wished for it, he could easily destroy everything, but “where’s the fun in that?”, he said. So instead, his idea of fun was to summon some half-baked monsters to aid humans in gaining experience, with their final goal to defeat the demon lord, aka him.

That was sooooo lame! Ba-ba-ba-boring!!

This place was boring as hell. No wait—they were one in the same. Gah! What did I do to deserve this life? I couldn’t hold it in much longer… I felt like screaming.

There was a single place where I couldn’t be monitored: my father’s library. This was a special zone that only he could grant access to.

“Papa, I’m going to study.”

“Again? You already did that yesterday… and the day before…”

“Yes, it’s quite fun learning about the weak humans.”

“…Fine. As you wish. But after today, no studying for a year.”

“Okay, Papa!”

Yes, that was okay because… today was the last day anyway, hehehe.

For the past six months, I had been reading about humans from tomes and learning magic from ancient grimoires. And today, I could finally make my escape!

I had learned so much, but the best thing I came across was reincarnation magic—my secret plan to break free of my father’s clutches.

Basically, there were two main types of reincarnation magic, both of which were invoked by rituals.

The first was Angelation, where someone met an angel before they reincarnated and were bestowed some divine power. All humans naturally went through Angelation to reborn as human babies—blank slates with arbitrary magical affinity.

But since I was a demon, the angels wouldn’t bat an eye at me. In the off chance they were feeling charitable, I would probably be reborn as a tree. No thank you.

The second was Demonation, where someone met a demon before they reincarnated and contracted some of that demon’s power. Humans who had gathered enough sacrifices or were powerful enough could activate the forbidden Demonation ritual and become a demon baby—again, a blank slate. But that was a trap. All they were allowed to do was train until my father announced an invasion, which never happened.

Of course, me being a demon again was out of the question. So, no Angelation and no Demonation. I just wanted to cry my little heart out.

Then, when all seemed hopeless, there it was: a hidden, third type of reincarnation with no name, only instructions.

It was a type of ritual that only high-ranked angels and demons could use. Deemed completely pointless, there were no records of anyone having used it. After all, why would an elite angel or demon want to reincarnate? It was essentially nerfing themselves.

But I had a reason: I wanted to be human.

And this third ritual was a special type of reincarnation where I was the numen. That meant I would be able to control the abilities and stats I got.

I couldn’t give myself new abilities though. Also, since I wanted to become a human, the most I could retain was a fraction of the abilities I had, but even then, I would still be overpowered.

Anyway, I should hurry. I only had two hours before either Father or a maid came to check on me.

Because Father made his library sequestered using magic, even he couldn’t monitor anything that happened inside. As it was, this had to be the perfect place for the ritual.

All I had to do was draw a pentagram with some symbols. Let’s see…

First, a giant circle—done.

Next, a star that evenly protruded the circle—done.

Third, some ancient text along the edge of the circle—done.

Fourth, a few extra symbols here and there—done.

And finally, a drop of my blood at the very center.

Drip. Plop.

Shriiiing.

It’s working—the lines started glowing a dazzling blue!

Goodbye, my boring life!!

Bye, Fathe—

✦✧

Hm?

I got teleported into a black space. I guess it really worked.

“Hello, is anyone there?”

「Hello, is anyone there?」

Oh, right. I was the god here. Anything I said was just announced back to myself.

Hehe, then…

“Welcome, Mari. You shall soon be reborn!”

「Welcome, Mari. You shall soon be reborn!」

Okay I’ll stop.

How did all this work anyway? How were abilities given? How were innate stats allocated? Maybe it was similar to the other two reincarnation rituals where I imagined everything.

Show profile.

A translucent panel with many numbers appeared in front of me.

My name was Mari and my age was 10.27. My type was Demon and my title was Princess. I had all six elemental affinities: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark. My affinity for the dark element was tier ten, while the others were only tier three. And I had 357 abilities.

Um, excuse me? That was way too much. Even the menu containing my skills was collapsed to save space. I didn’t have the will to press “Show All.”

I tried another command.

Reset stats to [Average Human].

The panel became fuzzy for a second before showing my updated profile. The basic details such as my name and age remained unchanged, but my type was now Human, and my title was no longer Princess. I had a single elemental affinity for water and one ability: Water Resistance—Lv. 1.

I supposed this was how an average ten-year-old’s stats were for a human. It also seemed that an affinity for water was randomly chosen for me.

Hmm…

Having merely these stats would be really bad. After all, I was vulnerable to nearly everything.

I decided to make some changes. Oh, and a new name too.

✦✧

After two hours, I was finally finished with the changes. It was time for the final step.

Respawn.

And… nothing happened?

So, um, how the hell do I leave?!

✦✧

[Six hours later.]

Gah! Did I mess up or something? I was sitting on the floor hugging my legs. I couldn’t spot an exit within this endless space and was beginning to feel scared.

Suddenly, I heard a roaring sound. It was gradually getting louder. I sprung up on my feet and tried to find the source of the sound.

It was small, and it seemed to be a bright pink ball of light akin to a shooting star. I then realized that it was heading towards me.

Think Mari, think!

How could I get rid of it? Come on, I was the god here!

…That’s right!

Repel!

Phew. It flew away. What was that though…?

Once the star was out of sight, I lost my balance when the space started rumbling as if it were destabilizing. I hoped that meant I would finally be able to leave this place.

After being momentarily blinded by a white light, around me were ten humans in fancy white robes with intricate golden embroidery.

I had read about this from the tomes in father’s library. People donning these vestments were called holy priests.

“A hero candidate has been summoned!”

“Finally, our faith has been recognized by the heavens!”

“Notify the king at once!”

Wait wait wait. What?

A hero candidate? Me? No way.

Did that mean the shooting star from before was… the actual hero’s soul?

But I… I sent it away somewhere else.

So that meant I… intercepted the hero summoning?

I stole the real hero’s position…? Pfft—

Gahahahahaha!

Oh lord. I just laughed like my father… Ew.

Well, to be honest, I didn’t really understand the specifics of the ritual, but things were starting to make sense now. It seemed that I summoned myself into a sort of waiting room and I needed someone on the other side to summon me. Earlier, when I tried respawning, I guess I was placed into a queue.

Great—everything worked out perfectly!

My boring life was no more!

But then my eyes widened with realization.

…WAIT.

Wait. wait.

My father… the demon lord.

Me… a hero.

His crystal orb…

Gaaaahhhh!!