Esperanto

**Esperanto** was a captain and commander of the Demon Lord Extermination Army who was a member of the Alliance of the Races to fight against the Demon Lord’s Army in the Mythic Era thousands of years ago. He was the founder of a new nation called the Esperanto Kingdom as its first king.

## Chronology

### Great Race-Demon War Arc

Nine months later, after the construction of the Doors of the World was completed and the Emissaries of the Sun God returned to Earth via whirlpool. The 1,000 strong soldiers of the last group of the Alliance of the Races called the Demon Lord Extermination Army under Commander Esperanto with Ta Lou, Kenshiva, Luca, and Kijje marched towards the Gurganaff Plain from the Door of the World. Esperanto and Ta Lou had difficulty with a map of Grameus, according to Luca, their objective lay deep in the treacherous mountains to the Guradoah in the northeast of the Grameus continent when looking from the land of Topa. The journey would take four months by foot.

Two months later, they march in a wasteland that was unimaginably harsh with the shortage of food and water. Some soldiers who couldn’t bear the harshness of the march started going back one by one. At this point, the number of soldiers around 1,000 was reduced to almost half, getting lost or buried by blizzards. As soon as they went around the first mountain, they laid their eyes on the second. Since they got hungry without food, the season of frostbiting blizzards will come. They didn’t know how many would last up to when they reached the Demon Army’s base. Looking from the perspective of sending Ta Lou and his entourage up to this point, the Demon Lord Extermination Army decided to persuade them to go back to Topa the next time they stop for rest. However, Commander Esperanto refused to back down.

After Ta Lou’s explanation with his judgment, Esperanto and his soldiers broke down in tears after feeling shame and disappointment. Before any of his soldiers needlessly died in the march, Esperanto then decided to go back to Ta Lou and the others and told them that he would take leaving with his 500 soldiers and return to Topa, but the Demon Lord Extermination Army would come and find them if they never return. Esperanto and other 500 soldiers turned the other way and took the path back to Topa. Ta Lou, Kenshiva, Luca, and Kijje took their weapons and baggage and set off. They had divided the fighting amongst themselves, but the monsters, beasts, and enemies that they’ll encounter moving forward will have to be dealt with by their own hands.

Meanwhile, the Demon Lord Extermination Army, led by Esperanto, were on their way back home after parting with Ta Lou and the others when they were caught in a blizzard, forcing them off their route. So that none from the 500 would be lost, they all held hands as they marched on. The direction in which they were supposed to march was south, but they all felt that they were headed west of the Grameus continent, and after getting past the mountains, they found themselves heading northeast. Ironically, the others decided to go back before they returned to Topa safely and received the warmest welcome.

Two months later, they were in the middle of an extremely cold winter. They have encountered various natural threats that have never been seen before, trembling with great fear at every encounter. Since they were now encountering mountain hares, that just meant that they were no longer in the heart of the continent. However, they couldn’t even see the sun behind the thick blanket of clouds nor tell the direction from where the wind was blowing. Following the faint silhouette of Esperanto, who was leading them, they tread through the snow that had piled up. They ended up in a valley that looked like the foot of a mountain. If they go deeper into the valley, the layer of snow blanketing the ground may be thinner. The valley also contained patches of coniferous forest, and with the 500 men of the Demon Lord Extermination Army clearing away the snow, they were finally able to get some rest.

The next day, the sky was still covered in clouds as usual, but the blizzard had ceased. After they did a headcount to see if no one was missing, they ended up with 429. Where the other 71 went was something the 429 didn’t know. Everyone started offering their own opinions, and soon they all started quarreling with one another. Esperanto then started splitting the 429 and assigning the main force the duty of staying at where they slept for the night and building it up while assigning teams that will search the foot of the mountains, gather food, look for the missing 71, and other duties. Later, they found the remains of five and buried them with tombstones over their graves.

When spring had finally come with the weather clearing up, they tried sending people southwards, but the expeditions always ended up finding themselves on the coast. Moreover, after thinking of settling on where they camped, Esperanto began tackling the creation of a town. If they didn’t return in a year, the Alliance would send search parties for them anyway. They waited for the option that yielded the best probability of survival.

Five months later, Esperanto and his men started to expand the settlement they created. The wooden fence that served as their defensive perimeter was slowly changed into a stone wall. The simple dwellings were rebuilt with materials that allowed for better heat insulation while structures were made that allowed for the better storage of food. Esperanto lived day to day with these anxieties in mind, thinking more of it to wait another year for the four return. In a related event, the Alliance of the Races, unaware that the army was lost, believing that they had been destroyed by the Demon Lord, decided that no one could be sent to Grameus Continent.

After two years of waiting without any relief, the soldiers in the army began to wonder if humanity was destroyed by the Demon Lord, whether they were the last surviving people in the world. By that time, they would have no choice, but to build themselves into a nation.

After three years of waiting without reply, Esperanto decided to settle the land permanently as humanity’s last bastion. New lives had already been born, and the development and expansion of the settlement continued to press forward step by step. They built the simple stone walls into fully-fledged castle walls to avoid the attacks from magical beasts, increased their fighting force, and strengthened patrols. Finally, the investigation lands surrounding their own.

Ten years later, the construction of watchtowers had begun. At that point, the population had swelled to three times the population that initially settled there, allowing them to put more focus on the education and upbringing of the next generation.

Twenty years later, 60-year-old Esperanto took the mantle of king of the new state, which was home to 5,000 people. As the first king, he gave his name to the new state: the Esperanto Kingdom. In the meantime, they were fully fortifying their lands by connecting the watchtowers they had built with castle walls. From that moment forward, the long struggle between the beasts and the people of the Esperanto Kingdom in the west of the Grameus continent would begin.