Letting Go and Accepting. (2)
"Where do you think the Hero went?"
"Perhaps to the Royal Capital?"
Answering a question with a question.
Still, it wasn't a bad feeling.
Certainly, until recently, my depression had reached its peak, but now, it was even pleasant.
"The Royal Capital, the Royal Capital..."
Since I didn't know the way, I couldn't get a sense of it.
How long would it take?
A day? Two days? A week?
The longer the period I imagined became, the more my body trembled.
"Hero, Hero, Hero, Arthur..."
I gnaw at my lips.
Just because you, one person, disappeared, to become this anxious.
If it were the first time, it would have been a story I could never have imagined.
"That's not love, Demon King-nim. It's obsession."
"I know. I know it well."
But what if it's love, and what if it's obsession?
The fact that I need the Hero doesn't change.
What I needed now was certainty.
The certainty that I could revive Reina, whom I had killed with my own hands.
If she were to be revived, I would surely regret not killing Hallibel until the day I died.
Nevertheless, the reason I'm trying to do it anyway, yes.
'Self-harm, perhaps...'
The sin of letting her die.
The sin of providing the pretext for her death.
The sin created by my own helplessness.
All of this was nothing more than a self-destructive act to pay for all those sins.
"I told you. I don't want Demon King-nim to be in pain."
"...I don't particularly like pain either."
But I don't know what atonement is as certain as pain.
Even unrelated strangers could bury a corpse.
Attending a funeral and remembering the dead were things that could be done without much effort.
However, burying the dead in one's heart, and being wounded and suffering from the Red Spider Lilies blooming on that grave, was the only thing that only those who loved the dead could do.
"If that's Demon King-nim's choice, I will respect it."
"..."
"Instead, please remember my words."
I didn't answer.
Not as a sign of refusal, but because it was such an obvious thing.
There's no way I could forget.
How could I dare forget the life I saved for the first time?
"Still, it's nice to be on a date with just Demon King-nim~♪"
"...It's not bad."
I didn't know if what was in front of me was the real Hallibel or an illusion created by my delusion, but it certainly wasn't bad.
It was as if vitality was swirling around on what would have been a lonely journey.
Though I wondered if it was appropriate to say vitality was circulating with the traces of someone already dead.
"Now then, let's go kick the ass of that damn Hero who abandoned Demon King-nim and left!"
Hallibel shouted refreshingly.
It seemed she had no intention of forgiving the Hero.
***
The war with the demons carved indelible wounds in people's hearts.
Sadness, anger, and hatred from losing loved ones.
Until now, there had been a common enemy called demons, but not anymore.
In a world without demons, how could they possibly live?
They couldn't detach themselves from sadness.
They couldn't let go of anger.
Abandoning hatred was almost impossible.
The pain of loss was too great, making it impossible to understand others.
Clearly, the demons had disappeared, yet the world became even more of a hell.
Because the common enemy had disappeared, everyone else, except themselves, became an enemy.
"Rein-ssi, did you buy a demon today too?"
"...Yes. This time too, I chose a sturdy one."
He received the neighbor's greeting, filled with jealousy, with a hollow laugh and brushed it off.
The murderous intent in that gaze.
It was a look that seemed to want to tear the demon held in his hand to death at any moment.
'No, you can't. Because this one is my property.'
There was no yielding.
There were many who wanted to kill demons, and even more who wanted to torment them to death.
But the number of demons was extremely scarce.
Of course, since they were demons that ordinary people couldn't even touch, they had no intention of complaining.
What was needed now was just money and a minimum of pride.
"Now, come here."
With a clanking sound, a large nail and a hammer emerged from the toolbox.
Rein recalled what had happened last time.
The mysterious assailant who saved the demon.
He was a ridiculous fellow.
To save a demon, despite having eyes that seemed to want to tear it to death while looking at it.
He's not some Hero of Justice or anything.
"Mph, mmph, mmph?!?!!"
"Now now, you should stay still, shouldn't you? If you don't, it'll hurt a lot if a nail gets hammered into your head."
Shhh, shhhhhh...
Rein, who placed his index finger on his lips, put on a deliberately kind smile.
Seeing the demon cowering on the floor tremble, laughter naturally erupted.
It felt like just yesterday that he trembled in fear at the sight of demons, but how did it come to this?
It was so pleasant that tears almost came out.
I thought you were just devils, but you guys had tears too.
"Well then, shall I hear your voice once?"
"I, I made a mistake..."
"What?"
Rein tilted his head.
You made a mistake? What?
Was it a sin for demons to kill humans?
They were merely natural disasters in human form.
When a typhoon blows away buildings, a flood swallows the land, and an earthquake topples people, does everyone resent it?
No, they don't.
They just cursed loudly, saying they had bad luck, or freely cursed at some nameless god in the sky.
"What I'm trying to do is just to taste a fragment of disaster."
A sin was something only intelligent beings could commit.
And humans were creatures that became quite merciful when tormenting the same intelligent beings.
To tear away such mercy, Rein did not see demons as intelligent beings.
He just thought of them as natural disasters that had gained intelligence.
"The child from last time still held onto their sanity even after fourteen nails were hammered in. If they had just let go of their mind, they could have been at ease."
At the cackling laughter, the demon's face turned pale.
Now, shall I hear how many people this one has killed?
"How many did you kill? Tell me quietly, just me."
"No, Kyaaaah?!?!!"
Pale electricity scorched the demon's body.
Those damn slave traders, they've done something strange to the collar again.
He clicked his tongue at the demon, foaming at the mouth and pissing itself.
It was good that he could regularly acquire demons, but sometimes their pranks were too severe, which was a problem.
"Get up."
"Ah, ah?!"
With a dull thud, the eyes, which had only shown whites, became round.
At the repulsion, as if striking steel, Rein pulled up the corners of his mouth.
This time, it's a sturdy-horned one.
It wasn't bad. No, in fact, the sturdier it was, the better.
"Stop, stop, stop!!"
"You're quite a crybaby. I haven't even hammered in one yet."
Looking at the indented gap, he gently stroked its crown.
It's soft.
My granddaughter's hair was also soft like this.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!!
"...Eh, ehh, eh, eh......"
"Hoo..."
A long nail pierced the horn and popped out the other side.
With its tongue hanging out, the sprawled demon convulsed faintly.
What should I do next?
As expected, would it be better to hammer in as many nails as possible, like the one from last time?
'It's a dilemma...'
For Rein, torturing demons felt like choosing tonight's dinner menu.
Whether to cut off the horn, or carve it out, or chip it away, or bore through it.
The base obsession that arose because he didn't want to ruin the body, which was like a human's.
He exhaled deeply and reached out his hand towards the hacksaw placed in the corner.
"It would be best to try again with the one I failed with last time."
They say failure is the mother of success, so this time, he would surely succeed.
He slowly cut it off from the very top of the horn.
To carve off the part that least resembled a human from something that most resembled a human.
That would surely be sweeter than anything else in this world.
"P-please, just k-kill me... Please, *sob*..."
"What are you talking about? Your death is the basic premise."
Its already white face turned even paler.
It feels fear.
Just like a human.
The hacksaw in his hand reflected the dim light and glittered brightly.
Good. Very good.
Today, truly, the feeling is good.
Kkigik.
"Ah, ah..."
Kkigi... gik. Kkigik...
"Aaaah, AAAAAAAAAH?!?!?!!!"
Kkigikkigikkikgikkigikkigikkkigikkigikkigikkigikkigikkigikkigikkigikkigikkigik
"...Truly, you're too lacking in patience."
He clicked his tongue at the demon, which was spilling all its blood from every hole.
If it were the one from last time, it surely would have endured even this much.
He wiped his forehead with the handkerchief in his pocket.
Is this all for today?
Brushing off his dusty clothes, Rein, who was neatly dressed, slowly stood up.
As always, in his ordinary but neat attire, he looked forward to tomorrow.
"...Hm?"
Then suddenly, his gaze met eyes reflected under the moonlight.
What a beautiful golden color.
A hollow laugh escaped him at the color like a jewel.
In this world, which had become as dirty as it could be, that beauty still remained.
He continued to cackle with laughter, then choked and coughed roughly.
"......Oh dear."
Rein, who looked at the bloodstains on his hand, took a short breath.
It seemed the end was approaching.