It’s a series of games I know well. I played it many times, as the hero. The hero’s job is to kill all the demon lords, and free the world from the demons. Along the way, he would acquire multiple companions, mostly women who all in love with him, and so becomes his harem. The game’s mostly ends after the demon lords are all killed, though there are sort of ‘optional’ ends where the game tells you which girl the hero ended up with. 

So... when I got somehow transmigrated into this world, I immediately thought I’d be the hero. 

But no. Of course not. 

Instead, I’m one of the many demon lords that the hero will kill along the way. 

In this world, the demon lords are part-human, in the sense that they can have one human form, one demon form, and can switch between the two forms, and in my human form, I am Count Edmund Natar, a scheming, money-minded ruler of the Province of Natar. 

“Count! The hero has been chosen!” A servant ran it with the news, about a week after I came. I’m still struggling to believe myself, but somehow, that news really drove it home.

Ah, yes. The start of the game. 

“So... who’s the hero?” I asked the servant. 

“Some peasant boy from the countryside. Apparently the gods themselves appeared to appoint him as the hero.”

“Ah.” Just like the game. 

Well, here’s the thing. I’m a demon lord, that’s a fact. The hero, will kill me. There’s no denying it, because the hero’s blessed with all sorts of overpowered godly talents, that he will eventually have all the power he needs, to kill me. 

There’s just no way a demon lord can fight the hero in a straight fight, especially if he is in tip-top shape. A magical demon-slaying sword, divine holy magic, a regenerating body that can’t really ‘die’ since he can just revive after a period of time in some safe-zone? No way I’m beating that. Even if I won once, I won’t win another time. 

So... well, if this was a game, what would I do? As the demon lord?

There’s 3 possible outcomes.

Win - I somehow permanently kill the hero. I currently think this is impossible because how ridiculously OP the hero’s blessing is. 

Lose - I die. I don’t want this, and this is not an outcome I want.

So... stalemate, ie, we don’t kill each other. This is what I want to aim for, realistically, and I imagined a few ways of not dying. 

Considering the options, one, I be so tough that the hero can’t hurt me. Likelihood of this working? Zero. I don’t doubt the hero pulling out some kind of magical godly trump card to slay me.

Be friends with the hero and somehow talk-no-jutsu him into not killing me. If I recall correctly, the hero’s got immunity to status effects as one of his higher tier perks, so... not likely to work either. I could try it, but I wouldn’t bet on this.

So, the last would be.. running away and hiding constantly. Could work. But I would need to make this work sustainably over the long run. And to do so, I would need to find a way to break the hero’s progress. Slow him down without actually... interacting with him.

In my human form, I’m mostly indistinguishable from any other human. Mostly. Any anti-demonic weapons or items would still hurt me like shit. I actually tested it out. And it hurts.

So... I need to run, or I need to hide. And I need to slow down his progress. Maybe the other demon lords have something up their sleeves as well. 

Ah yes, that would be a potential option, ie, to work with the other demon lords, but personally, their solutions would be one based on might, and if it’s just ‘might’, we’re still going to lose. 

Eventually, I decided... maybe I need to somehow sabotage the harem, such that... he’s too preoccupied with that. Delay and distract!

And that, is how I began the project : Steal the harem!