Escape. (5)
As I lifted my eyelids to a clanking sound, I saw chains hanging from the end of my leg.
So, what happened earlier, again?
"Ugh, haa......"
Recalling the sensation of falling down below, I let out a dry cough.
With coughs that felt like they would tear out my lungs, my throat screamed in pain, but I couldn't stop easily.
...My head hurts.
"Where is this, exactly...?"
As I tried to slowly raise my body, my strength gave out, and I slumped down.
I didn't know what was broken, but I could easily tell that something was definitely not normal.
'Surely, I didn't fall down a cliff, did I?'
Along with wheezing breaths, a rattling sound of phlegm mixed in.
Unable to bear the unpleasant sensation caught in my throat, I spat, and a black, dead clot of blood slowly oozed out.
"Ugh, ugh... Hmph..."
Could this really be considered being alive?
The ones who kept me alive seemed to not want me to recover more than necessary.
Or perhaps, they wished for my death.
"You're awake, nya."
As I gasped for a long time, a peculiar voice reached my ears.
No, to be precise, should I say it was a peculiar way of speaking?
"It's my first time seeing a Demon without horns, nya..."
"...Beastkin?"
Staring at the cat ears perched on their head, I muttered.
As I cast my gaze to the tail wagging behind them, the face that had seemed cute twisted violently.
They really hate Demons.
...It's understandable, though.
"I'm a Beastkin, nya, got a problem with that, nya?"
Of course I have a problem.
Anyone in this situation would naturally have complaints.
Though I didn't voice it, just lying there was agonizing.
"The others..."
"How would I know that? And I don't want to know, nya."
The Hero, well, they'll probably be fine on their own, but I was worried about the others.
They wouldn't have been badly hurt, would they?
The image of the child falling from the Magician's hands came to mind, and I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut.
...Let's not think about it. Because the more I think about it, the more worried I'll become.
"Haa... Cough, cough!!"
"It's my first time seeing such a weak Demon, nya... And it's a shame they don't have horns, nya..."
Staring persistently at my empty head, they wagged their tail back and forth.
Small fragments hanging from the tip of their tail made a clattering sound, announcing their presence.
I don't know why, but each one felt familiar.
"Did you notice, nya? These are Demon horns~"
As if showing off, they extended their tail.
The cloudy, gem-like ornaments were quite numerous.
This number must be the total count of slain Demons.
I didn't feel the need for revenge, or a surge of anger.
Although I held the title of Demon King, I didn't feel any bond with the Demons.
"Scary, isn't it? Scary, isn't it? Heavy, isn't it~?"
Rather than being scared of the Beastkin in front of me, the throbbing pain in my thigh, as if stabbed by a knife, hurt more.
It was completely bruised blue; it seemed like it was completely broken.
Why does my leg seem to break so often? Is it just my imagination?
In the sorrow of not being able to move freely, tears welled up in my eyes.
"W-wait, are you crying, nya? A Demon?!"
A voice mixed with shock burst out, but what do I care?
If you're going to kill me, kill me; if you're going to save me, save me. This was nothing short of torture.
***
The Demon they captured was quite peculiar.
Leaving aside the fact that it had no horns on its head, the human scent was too strong.
Although it wasn't mixed with human blood, how should I put it...?
Perhaps the scent of a human male was strong.
If you concentrated and smelled it, you could faintly detect the scent of a baby, as if from its belly.
"Really a weakling, a weakling, nya..."
"Why don't you stop adding 'nya' to the end of every sentence just because you're a Cat Beastkin?"
"H-hick?! G-give some warning when you move around, nya!"
While watching the Demon slumped on the ground, I was startled by a voice from behind me.
A tone full of complaints about everything.
When I turned my head with a displeased expression, the Cat Beastkin with one missing ear was there.
"I don't understand why Village Chief-nim keeps this guy alive instead of killing him."
"You can say that again, nya."
If you're talking about Demons, aren't they beings who have killed countless of our kind?
Both myself and that difficult one next to me, we all had our loved ones taken by Demons.
Even a Demon as weak as that, it feels like I could just poke it with one finger and kill it.
"Yet you're not killing it either, even though you could easily kill it."
"Nya, I don't want to get scolded by Village Chief-nim, nya! If someone's going to get scolded, you get scolded alone, nya!"
I was assigned to guard, and the one I was guarding dies?
If that happened, I would definitely not be able to avoid reprimand.
If it's serious, I might even be kicked out of the village.
"Then move aside. So I can kill it."
"W-what are you going to do if you really get kicked out, nya?!"
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not!
If someone's getting kicked out, let it just be you. Why are you trying to drag me into it?!
The feeling of hating Demons, I understand a hundred times over.
But that didn't mean it was okay to run wild as one pleased.
"Calm down, Bel!"
"Don't stop me."
"..."
"Please, Ryanyori..."
If you ask with a face like you're about to cry, I can't stop you, can I?
As I released my grip on her hand, a sharp dagger was held in Bel's hand.
An item taken from a Demon she had killed sometime ago.
Killing a Demon with a Demon's weapon.
That would be the best revenge she could get.
Thwack!
"..."
But that was that, and this was this.
Ryanyori, who had struck the back of Bel's neck, slowly lowered the limp body from her arms.
I don't have a hobby of carrying unconscious people, nya.
You could say it was heartless, but there was no need to be kind to someone who was about to cause trouble.
"...How cute."
"When did you wake up, nya?"
The Demon, who had opened its eyes without any sign of getting up, chuckled.
It wasn't an unpleasant laugh, but a laugh as if genuinely amused by something cute, which somehow made me feel even worse.
Why am I so angry?
Frazzled, I wagged my tail and glared at the other person, before finally finding the answer.
Because it was a Demon that wasn't like a Demon.
When you see something different from the norm, it's the same principle as instinctively becoming wary.
"If you're a Demon, act like a Demon, nya. Despise me for smelling like a filthy beast, nya!"
"...Why should I?"
Recalling an insult I once heard, as I yelled, the other person tilted their head.
It was an expression that seemed to say they didn't understand why they should hate something cute.
That made it even more annoying.
'Ah, this won't do, nya. If I don't do something about this guy—'
"Hnya?!"
I approached, intending to at least knock it out, but my tail was grabbed.
It was a weakling beyond imagination; I thought it wouldn't even be able to lift a finger!
To be tricked by an evil Demon and have my tail pulled off...
I made a tearful face at the gloomy future that was about to come, but the pain I expected didn't arrive.
"...Nya?"
"Haa, haa......"
Through the grabbed tail, a pitiful tremor was felt.
This feeling, I've definitely experienced it before, nya.
There was no way I could forget it.
I recalled the last breath of a comrade dying at the hands of a Demon.
That voice, muttering that they wanted to live while held in my arms, and that tremor...
"Guards, guards!! Come quickly, nya!!"
"..."
I don't know why.
The one in front of me was clearly the Demon I hated so much, but I couldn't bring myself to let it die.
Why. Why on earth?
Because of the tremor that seemed to cry out, "I want to live"?
If not that, was it because of those eyes that showed not a single trace of hostility?
"What's going on, nya!"
"Th-that Demon... The Demon is dying, nya..."
Although Bel was lying unconscious next to me, the Demon was the priority right now.
The fact that I was more concerned about an enemy than my own kind was a bit funny, but since there's an old saying to love your enemies, it should be fine, anyway.
Not that I actually loved it, though.
"Surely Bel didn't attack that Demon, did she? And you knocked Bel out to stop her?"
"...It was an attempted crime, nya."
Poking Bel's butt, I muttered.
As expected, when this one gets involved, nothing ever goes right, nya.
While grumbling a lot, I focused my attention on the hand holding my tail.
The faintly felt pulse was gradually fading.
"First, do something about this Demon, nya."
Only then, perhaps having smelled the blood, the Wolf Beastkin howled, "Awoo."
Ryanyori, who smelled the scent of her approaching kin from afar, slumped onto the ground.
'To cause such a fuss just to save a Demon, it's unbelievable, nya...'
Staring at the wounds etched on the pale skin, I instinctively reached out my hand.
How long do you plan to keep holding on?
When I gently applied force to pull my hand away, this time, it grabbed my hand.
"The broken bone still hasn't healed. Surely it didn't heal only for Bel to break it again?"
"No, it hasn't recovered, nya."
The Wolf Beastkin, who made a surprised expression at my answer, pressed firmly on the Demon's wound.
It seemed like they were trying to stop the bleeding, but if they applied that much force to such a fragile body—
"Haa..."
"B-blood?!"
Of course the wound would burst.
I lightly tapped the flustered person's leg and gently pressed down on the burst wound.
So, this much should be enough.
Thanks to some past experience, I was fortunate to be able to control my strength to an appropriate degree.
"No, why is saving a Demon fortunate, nya..."
Truly, no matter how I thought about it, this guy was just not to my liking.