Miserable Defeat (5)
Two months after Kyle's suicide, every one of his companions had changed.
Jain had locked herself in her room. Alice had turned to drugs and self-harm. Muni scoured the land for magic that might bring Kyle back to life.
And Emilia. She drifted aimlessly through the slums like someone possessed.
"Heh heh. It's all... all your fault, Kyle. If only you hadn't rejected my proposal. If you'd just done as I said..."
Even so, she still blamed Kyle.
Like the others she felt guilt over his death—but resentment toward him was mixed in as well. After all, everything would have been fine if Kyle had simply accepted her offer. Instead of taking her hand, he had chosen to hang himself.
Emilia simply could not accept this reality.
"Lady Emilia. Good morning."
Damian appeared before her. This made three days in a row. She stopped walking and looked at him.
"...You again?"
She was hardly friendly. She only bothered with him because he was a Hero like Kyle. Yet he smiled brightly.
"Haha, I'm truly honored that you remember me, Lady Emilia."
"Haa... If you're just going to waste my time with nonsense, get out of the way. I don't have time to deal with you..."
"How long do you plan to keep living like this?"
"What?"
Emilia glared at him, eyes flashing with murderous intent, as if she might pin him with an arrow on the spot. Damian did not back down.
"It wasn't your fault, Lady Emilia. So why must you suffer like this?"
"That's..."
"It's all his fault! Not only did he collude with the Demon King, he committed every kind of crime—and then, without even apologizing, he went and killed himself on a whim!"
"..."
No—those crimes had all been fabrications by Yuli and the Emperor. Emilia knew that too. But...
Hearing it put that way, it wasn't entirely wrong.
Yeah, if you set aside the false charges, everything else is true.
The day Kyle came to her before he died, if he had just said something—anything—things wouldn't have ended this way. If he had simply told her he was suffering under the false accusations, that he wanted to die, she would have helped him for sure. But he never said those words. Instead he left only a request not to regret their choice, then, just as Damian said, took his own life on a whim. As if leaving the curse of guilt for those left behind.
Thinking of it that way, there was no one more vile.
"Yeah, that's right. It's all Kyle's fault..."
No one had told him to kill himself. Kyle was the one who chose suicide on his own. Kyle was the one who hanged himself over a few false charges. Who could have imagined that the Hero who defeated even the Demon King would die over a few petitions like some fragile weakling?
Yes—in the end, this incident had no perpetrators. Only victims. Emilia began to truly believe it.
"Heh... heh heh."
Thinking that way, her heart lightened. The suffering she had endured until now suddenly seemed foolish. How had she only realized something so simple now?
"That's right. It's all Kyle's fault. Dying without a word, on his own—that's the crime. Isn't it? He was the one who messed everything up from the start."
"Yes. Exactly. It's all his fault. You did nothing wrong, Lady Emilia."
Beside her, Damian agreed and comforted her. Of course, every word and action of Damian's right now was part of Yuli's plan and script. Nothing was more effective than consoling a heartbroken woman. He had been the only one to find her wandering the slums, and he came every day to comfort her. Before long, Damian was the only one left in Emilia's eyes.
"I will never make you sad, Lady Emilia."
So saying, Damian carefully took her hand. Unlike Kyle, who had returned as a cold corpse, the warmth that reached her was real. Emilia swore she would never let go of that hand, no matter what.
...Yes.
She had been so sure...
"I'm sorry, Lady Emilia."
Damian said that—and slipped his hand free from Emilia's, which the Demon King had seized. Then he turned his back on her and began to flee.
"...Huh?"
For a moment Emilia could not understand what had happened. All she could do was call his name.
"Da-Damian? Cough... Wh-where are you going right now?!"
No matter how desperately she called, he did not return. No matter how far she stretched her hand, she only flailed at empty air, unable to catch his retreating back.
"Th-this is a lie, right...?"
Emilia stared after the vanishing Damian with vacant eyes. She could not believe the scene unfolding before her. She had sworn. She would never let go of Damian, no matter what. But the one who had released that hand was not her—it was him.
With support from Yuli and Muni, he fled to the rear and soon stepped onto a portal. There were Damian and Yuli. Muni and the mages. Before long even Jain was there. And as the magic activated, Damian's party vanished. They escaped this hell by themselves.
"N-no. This can't be. Hic... This can't be happening..."
Emilia muttered like someone who had lost her mind. Tears of shock streamed down her face. But to the Demon King, her circumstances meant nothing.
Shunk—
"Kyaaah?!"
When the claws drove deeper, Emilia screamed and her body convulsed. Now only the Demon King and Emilia remained here. Just the two of them.
"You were one of the Hero's companions, were you not?"
Looking at Emilia's face, she recalled the memory from the previous war. She had definitely been one of the women at Hero Kyle's side.
"Tell me. Who was it that killed Hero Kyle?"
"Ahk... I-I'm not... I don't know anything..."
"Hah. Is that so?"
Shunk.
When the Demon King pushed her claws in further, a scream burst from Emilia's mouth of its own accord.
"Kyaaaaaah?!"
"Still don't know, even after this?"
The claws dug deeper into her flesh. Before long her feet were dangling in the air.
"Ahk... ghk... ghhh?!"
Emilia flailed her legs pitifully. In the end she could not endure the pain and cried out.
"I'll talk! Ghk... I'll talk, okay?!"
"Speak."
"Everything! Everything is Kyle's fault!! That bastard died on his own, without telling anyone!"
"...Haa. What is that supposed to mean?"
But hearing those words, the Demon King tilted her head again. Just like that Damian fellow earlier, nothing but incomprehensible nonsense kept coming out.
"Y-yeah, that's right. It's all that bastard's fault. I did nothing wrong!"
"..."
"So please... please spare me. Hic... I'll beg. I'll do anything you want...!"
Emilia's eyes were more desperate than they had ever been. As an Elf Princess, as a companion of the Hero, she had lived her entire life in abundance and happiness. That was why she wanted to live all the more. There was still so much she wanted to do, so much she wanted to enjoy.
The Demon King looked down at her without pity.
"You want to live that badly."
"Hic... sob... I-I want to live. I don't want to die in a place like this."
"Yes. No one wants to die. Not I. Not you. Not the soldiers here."
As if understanding her heart, the Demon King slowly nodded. At that, Emilia clung to a thread of hope and spoke.
"Th-that's right! So..."
"And the same was true of Hero Kyle."
Slash!
With those words the Demon King withdrew her claws.
"Guh—"
As the claws came free, a final death cry left Emilia's mouth. Blood sprayed into the moonlit night, and her body crashed onto the cold ground.
"N-no... I don't want to die... I-I want to live..."
Crawling on the ground, Emilia begged for her life to the very end. But the Demon King no longer even glanced at her.
"...Just what happened while I was defeated."
Her thoughts were only of Hero Kyle. While she was lost in thought, the war came to an end.
Most of what littered the ground were human corpses. Humanity had been defeated in vain, and the commander's flight had been the decisive blunder. In contrast, the demonkin who had suffered little damage celebrated their victory and reported to the Demon King.
"Victory is ours, Your Majesty!"
"Yes. I can see that."
"At this rate we should push straight to where they are and join the main force!"
A demonkin pointed north and advised, but she soon shook her head.
"...No. The time is not yet right."
She had only overextended because of Hero Kyle. In truth she was still in no condition to fight properly. The fact that she had been caught from behind by the likes of Emilia and had her ankle cut was proof enough. Even swinging the Demonic Sword had been her pouring out every last bit of strength. If Yuli had stayed to the end and continued commanding, the outcome might have been reversed.
"For now we will remain in this village for a while. And tell them not to touch the villagers for the time being."
"Yes! Understood."
Obeying the Demon King's command, the demonkin began to move, trampling the dead soldiers underfoot.
"Ah... uh... s-save me..."
Among them was Emilia, still barely twitching with a spark of life,
Thud.
but the Demon King drove a claw through her heart and snuffed out that last breath. And so only the corpses of a miserable defeat were left behind.
A southern city of the kingdom.
In the orange sky there, the dawn glow of a new day was blooming.
"Whoa. Morning already."
Waking from sleep, Kyle rose from the soft bed with a pleasant stretch. He made coffee, stepped out onto the second-floor terrace, and sipped it while admiring the dawn glow.
"Mmm~ delicious as hell."
At the very hour the subjugation force was annihilated by the Demon King's army, Kyle leaned back in the terrace chair, savoring his new life.