He Who Hates Dolls
On the right, Maria still held my hand tight while sucking on the cotton candy stick.
Ahead of us, the Demon King—who had somehow walked all the way up to us—looked furious, for reasons I couldn’t quite understand.
“Are you Mr. Jin-ho’s friend?”
Maria asked in that bright, cheerful voice of hers from the side.
The Demon King… was my friend?
Still, he had saved my life in the Backroom. Calling him just some random convenience-store customer now felt like I was spitting in the face of that kindness.
“That’s about right.”
The Demon King rolled his eyes between me and Maria, then shot off his line without hesitation.
“Do you have the hobby of collecting strange things?”
It was Kim Gichan who thought that way too. I still didn’t get why everyone assumed I was the problem. I had only gone to dump some trash, and if another trash bin had the same species collapsed in it, was that really enough reason to poke around?
You cold-blooded bastards.
“I don’t have any such hobby.”
“Then explain that doll next to you.”
The Demon King immediately turned to Maria and dropped the line like a bomb.
Doll? Yeah, sure. If he didn’t count the fact that she kept her mouth shut, she really did look like one.
The one being pointed at, however, just stared back at the Demon King with wide, unblinking eyes.
“I don’t know where it was made, but you dare lay a hand on a young girl’s toy?”
“Demon King? I’m just a convenience-store employee.”
When did I ever become your toy?
My complaint, however, was instantly ignored as if it were perfectly natural.
The real shock came from Maria herself.
“But Jin-ho-nim said he wants to live with me now, right?”
Outer God above.
How could you leave out the most important part and still explain it like this?
“…What do you mean by that?”
The Demon King wiped the teasing tone from his voice and looked straight at me. I shook my head frantically. Maria immediately latched onto my arm, refusing to let go. The cotton candy stick stayed stubbornly in her mouth.
“And I promised to give this to you first—mwaaah!?”
I clamped my hand over Maria’s mouth before she could finish.
Say “blessing,” you idiot!
“I’m losing my mind. Maria, please shut your mouth—!”
A wave of coldness hit my face. I turned my head with a crack. The Demon King was glaring at me with pure contempt.
“You.”
“…Yes?”
I wished at that exact moment that some oblivious bystander would walk between us. But the residents of Sanctum City were nothing like Maria—they were all far too clever.
…Or maybe Maria was an intelligence drifter too? Had she been trying to get herself killed on purpose?
“Do you have any reason not to take your soul right now?”
“This child’s words are nothing but baseless slander and forgery with zero connection to any scene or imagination you have in your head. Spare me!”
“For all that, you treat that doll like it’s incredibly precious.”
As the Demon King spoke, his free hand glanced at the cotton candy he had snatched from me earlier.
“You even bought that thing.”
“……”
Two of the Demon King’s snacks and an ice cream? The convenience store was getting expensive today.
“And the way you two strolled around outside together, giggling like that?”
It was perfect timing for the plane drifter paperwork.
I still couldn’t figure out which part of me had offended him so much… until one thought slid through my mind.
“Demon King, are you… jealous?”
“I’m not.”
The sharp way he cut the words off made it obvious. That cotton candy hadn’t been bought for him, and he was still mad about it.
How the hell was jealousy supposed to work?
I just wanted to work quietly at the convenience store.
“I’ll buy you some cotton candy next time too.”
“You said you weren’t jealous.”
“Yeah, exactly. Sorry, I’ll buy some. And she’s just a plane drifter who came here to submit the paperwork…”
I prayed the Demon King’s pressure was finally easing. But he still managed one last comment before giving up.
“…Cotton candy.”
“I’ll buy it right now. Let’s go.”
I caught the flicker in his eyes.
I stood up. The hand that had sealed Maria’s mouth came away as I rose.
“Awoo—ow! Why are you hitting me, Jin-ho-nim…”
“Reflect until you understand.”
Then I sent Maria ahead to the convenience store. I wanted to pacify the Demon King and get a bit of revenge on Kim Gichan too.
***
The Demon King and I headed back toward the Dimensional Control Bureau for cotton candy.
“Hmph. You thought the little girl would believe what that doll said?”
“Then you weren’t.”
The Demon King flicked his eyes at me.
“If a doll suddenly appeared that wasn’t there yesterday, it’s unlikely to have been your plan. Or maybe you got caught up in something. That’s just how you are.”
The Demon King was laying out perfectly logical thoughts, unlike the chaotic display from earlier. I still had no clue what he meant by “that’s just how you are,” but…
Did some inverse demon energy manifest here too?
“But why were you so angry earlier?”
“That’s that, and this is this. As I said before, a young girl does not tolerate anyone laying a hand on her possessions.”
“No, I’m just a convenience-store employee, Demon King.”
How childish is it to sign a contract and then claim “mine” without even asking the other party?
The Demon King pouted in reply.
“Anything that pleases a young girl becomes hers. Whether it’s a thing or a living being makes no difference.”
He added,
“Right now I’m simply respecting the bound contract I made with you first. But I cannot forgive something that drifted in from nowhere and is targeting you.”
I had no idea where to start questioning this violent, dictatorial logic.
In the end I could only arrive at the cotton candy store, unable to refute the Demon King’s firm stance.
“One cotton candy, please.”
“You want one bigger than that?”
“…One from the side, please.”
I bought a larger one and handed it to him.
On the walk back to the convenience store, the Demon King took a bite, then muttered something with his tiny mouth before suddenly devouring the whole thing at a blinding speed. He really did seem to enjoy the sweetness.
“Has your anger eased?”
“Anger when did I ever get angry?”
Watching the Demon King savor the cotton candy with half-closed eyes, I could tell his rage had completely vanished.
Now was my chance. I gave him a quick rundown of what had happened today—finding Maria, bringing her to the Dimensional Control Bureau, and the fact that I had been watching over the paperwork until it finished. Even at the end, the Demon King still looked displeased, but when I said I didn’t have the authority to interfere, he muttered,
“As long as it makes you feel better… I suppose it’s fine.”
“You really are an odd human.”
“Me?”
The Demon King nodded.
“Inside the rules, you’re strong enough to resist the young girl, yet you become endlessly weak toward others the moment those restraints vanish?”
“I’m weak toward others?”
“You couldn’t leave that doll behind today, could you?”
Technically I had agreed to watch it for a bit, but I hadn’t actually taken it. I had only taken it because the support money was promised…
The Demon King only smirked at my explanation.
“You’re doing it because you still don’t realize how valuable you are.”
“I appreciate the high praise, but… I don’t really want to raise my value here.”
As I kept repeating, my goal was simple: work quietly at this convenience store and retire in exactly one year. Whenever I thought about it, I felt Kim Gichan with only four days left was the luckiest guy alive.
“By the way, Demon King, why do you call Maria a doll?”
I had never called her that, and neither had Kim Gichan. Maria, however, had started using the word from the very first time we met. I asked him.
The answer came back disturbingly calm.
“If you don’t call a doll a doll, what do you call it?”
“Even if Maria isn’t very smart, calling a human a doll is a bit…”
The Demon King blinked at me. His crystal-clear eyes filled with understanding, then he looked forward as if he had just realized something.
“I overlooked the fact that you are a powerless human who possesses no talent other than your nature. My explanation was insufficient.”
“Do you always have to say it that way?”
It seemed the Demon King didn’t realize that words without malice could still wound someone.
“They are not human. Calling them vessels into which breath and soul have been inserted is more accurate.”
“That’s…”
Before I could ask what he meant, my feet stopped. We had reached the fountain near the convenience store.
The Demon King and I stood staring at the convenience store.
More precisely, at what had once been a convenience store.
“Oh. Back room, you’re here. Demon King too.”
Kim Gichan, standing inside the police line that cordoned off the area around the store, in front of the entrance, greeted me.
Next to him stood Maria. She was only staring at the ground, avoiding my gaze. That wasn’t because she felt ashamed for failing at the fountain earlier.
Behind the two of them, the CS25 Sanctum City branch—once a convenience store—looked like it had been bombed. The glass windows were shattered, and four display shelves had toppled over like dominoes. The products scattered across the floor were just the icing on the cake.
Even in Sanctum City, it was insane how much damage could be done in the twenty minutes it had taken me to buy cotton candy.
“Hyung. What the hell is this?”
“Yeah, yeah. Jin-ho. There are a lot of questions, but let me ask first.”
Kim Gichan cut me off immediately. He scratched his cheek and grinned.
“We’re all screwed.”