76. Can You Handle What You Just Said?
76. Can You Handle What You Just Said?
The loyalty she had believed would last forever had reached its end, and as she left his side, she resolved to leave those days of glory in the past.
The lingering regret born from being unable to forget the intensity of that day guided her—casting off the shackles that had tormented her for so long and leading her here.
For she had lived through eons of time in the void, something no human could even imagine.
The passion of that single accidental day felt dazzling beyond words.
"...Marilyn."
"Just like this."
That was why she could not easily shake it off.
Even though she considered herself accustomed to enduring, and had expected that someone would eventually fill her place.
Rather, precisely because she had endured for so long, the yearning to act on her desires had been piling up ceaselessly.
"There's no way I can send you back. For your sake...."
"Marilyn, I...."
"I threw everything away to be with you. My status, my loyalty, my past... all of it."
"......."
"...I know. That you were trying to forget yourself for my sake."
She could feel it keenly through the time they had shared today—that he too had taken those fleeting encounters seriously.
And that he had sought a new companion because he felt lonely in her absence.
"But just once...."
So she did not want to let him go like this.
If he still harbored lingering feelings for her, she was even less willing to give up.
Even if she was not the first, she wanted to become closer to him rather than merely watching from afar.
"Even if it's the last time, could you let me have my way?"
"Marilyn."
"If I can fill it just a little... then I might be able to give up."
The strength in the hands that held him, born of lingering regret, only grew heavier.
Facing that desperation, the man, after a brief inner conflict, relaxed his body and closed his eyes.
Maintaining silence without any reply was a sign that he intended to accept this situation.
Even if he would not do anything of his own will, it was surely an expression of his resolve to calmly accept whatever she did.
"...Thank you. For indulging my selfishness."
His stubborn nature that held fast to his heart, yet his considerate heart that did not push her away.
She had come to like him for those very things.
The fluttering at this moment surely sprang from a feeling called love.
No matter how much it was said that such feelings could never exist for demons, the way her heart raced just from facing him could not be expressed as anything else.
"Thank you, truly."
And so, she felt no hesitation in placing her hand by his lips.
After caressing those lips, she felt no hesitation in overlaying her own upon them either.
'So warm.'
The first kiss of her life.
That first felt even more intense than the moment she had first become aware of her own desire.
Realizing that seizing with her own hands—rather than merely waiting for someone else to fulfill it for her—was this euphoric.
-Thump.
Yes, seizing...
The days of only watching were over. Now was the time to follow her feelings and seize.
-Thump, thump.
She felt that instinct become a whisper, spurring her on in this moment.
"Mmph, mmph...!"
The being she desired was right before her eyes.
Why in the world would she need to suppress this surging emotion and continue enduring?
"Haa, Marilyn. W-wait... mmph!"
Staying true to her feelings, she covered his lips as if layering them, and repeatedly pushed forward step after step as if driving him.
She moved beyond the light illuminating the dark alley, until his body was about to meet the wall... but it was not enough.
After enduring for such a long time, she could not possibly let go of this reward that she had sought out with her own feet and now grasped.
"Mmph, haa, heeup...♥"
Going beyond a kiss, she parted the seam of his lips and slipped her tongue inside, continuing with an intense French kiss.
The more she felt the heat inside her seep into him, the more she felt the saliva welling in his mouth grow thicker and flow into her.
The moment she realized that he too was feeling euphoria from this act.
"I'm sorry, Hyosung. I know I shouldn't be doing this...."
"M-Merry...."
"I... I can't hold back anymore."
She twisted and caught even his flailing hands born from guilt, forcibly pulling his hand to her chest.
Guiding his hand beyond her clothes, to a place that could surely stir his desires.
And so that she could feel his touch vividly.
"Haa, haa.... Uh, haa~♥"
She twisted his wrist, drawing out his strength by force, and after that simply followed her desires without a single thought.
Casting aside worries about reality, anxieties about the future, and all other trivial things.
She wished he too would immerse himself endlessly in this moment of feeling her.
"Hyosung, I like you, Hyosung...♡"
Lost in the pleasure that heightened the more passionately she pressed on, she recited whispers filled with her desire into his ear.
"So please, don't resist."
Don't resist. For me....
If you have even a shred of lingering attachment to me.
"Please... don't abandon me."
Her madness magic, carrying that wish, seeped into his body, dominating his mind and suppressing his reflexive resistance.
Something was dangerous. Even he, with his strong will, would have vaguely sensed it.
"Ma, rilyn. I...."
But the desperate whisper he faintly heard the moment he was engulfed in forced pleasure.
Was making him lose resistance even more than the pleasure he felt.
-Thud.
Seizing that moment's hesitation, the invading magic numbed his reason, and his body went slack, beginning to droop limply.
He could have enjoyed more time with her, and yet choosing to lose consciousness—was that his final desperate act of not being able to put himself first?
"Hyosung. I'm sorry."
But even that did not matter to her now.
Simply realizing that what she desired was in her hands, the demon leaned her head against his body without holding back her flowing tears.
Tears born from passion—tears that not even the cold night air could quell—moistened the lips that were damp with her happiness.
"I thought I would be able to give up, but it seems impossible after all."
Yes, she was happier now than she had ever been before.
And because of that, she was afraid.
For she had a foreboding that even the modest daily life she had shared with him today would someday shatter in this chaotic world...
****
Before returning to his side, she had spent some time wandering the world.
Because she needed the certainty that she could return to him without worry.
Because she felt the need to confirm over a long time that her feelings were not merely a temporary bravado.
'The world is chaotic. Enough that humans, even demons, can be swept away in vain.'
She saw omens of collapse even in the Demon Lord Army, and saw demons losing control, leaving the army and causing unforeseen problems.
She saw even the beastmen, considered enemies of humanity, facing the crisis of annihilation by an undead legion.
Thinking there might be hope, she tried to venture beyond the continent, but that place too was so filled with absurd disasters that she could not even dare set foot there.
The Demon King might be able to stop it, but if there had been any hope in him, she would never have left his side in the first place.
And that soon led her to a single realization.
That her time in this land—more chaotic than any dimension she had ever traversed and destined for imminent destruction—would be the final amusement granted to her.
'Now there is no place to return to. There is only a place to go forward to.'
Lost in such reminiscences, the dazed demon eventually realized she had arrived at a certain place with the precious person in her arms.
A slum area that had been occupied by a criminal organization until just a few months ago.
But after they were all annihilated as retribution for angering a single mage, even the beggars who had settled there had all fled, turning it into a ghost town.
'With you.'
In this place where only a silent stillness lingered, it would be enough to rest for the time being.
Realizing that, the demon entered the neglected ruin, laid his unconscious body on an old bed there, and caressed his face.
'I believed that moving forward with you was the only path left for me, who had thrown everything away.'
Sleeping without knowing anything.
His face illuminated by the moonlight seemed so terribly lovely.
"I adore you."
If permitted, she would want to gaze at him and nothing else for a lifetime.
"You, who liberated me from the shackles that were meant to last forever...."
So much that she wished he would just not leave her like this.
So much that a part of her even wished he would be consumed by her magic and never wake up.
"...But this too will end as a fleeting dream, won't it?"
Knowing that even such a wish was unreasonable in this chaotic world, impatience began to wash over her heart.
Because even the Demon Lord Army, having lost its focal point in the Demon King, was now on the verge of collapse.
And though many other groups fought to protect what was theirs, the moment would come when they would resign themselves before the uncontrollably swelling disasters.
"Hyosung. Just like this."
Such realizations were more than enough to lead to the anxiety that even this barely grasped happiness was not eternal.
"Shall I just stop thinking about anything, and do as my heart pleases?"
If the madness magic born from that impulse were to seep into his body, he would no longer be able to think of anything from then on.
Because if consumed by madness, he would not have to think of anything, nor suffer any longer.
No matter how arduous and painful that life had been, at least the end would be intense and euphoric, without despair or regret....
Because perhaps, in this bleak world, erasing reason as if drunk on drugs and drowning in pleasure might be the 'happiest ending' they could ever meet.
-Crackle.
Just as she felt the impulse take hold, her fingertips halted at a sudden sense of wrongness.
Her guard went up at the presence she sensed outside the abandoned house, but Marilyn maintained her composure and merely pulled her cloak over her head.
"...Seems we have an uninvited guest."
A prior occupant of this land? Or a pursuer?
Either way, if they meant to threaten him and her, she could not end this by simply running away.
"Don't worry, Hyosung. I'll be right back after I finish them off."
Marilyn placed a kiss on the forehead of her precious one, quietly left his side, and slipped out of the abandoned house.
As she emerged onto the street and a chill descended, she suddenly felt a faint vibration at the spot where she stepped.
An earthquake?
-Biiing.
No, this was a physical reaction caused by magic.
Sensing danger, Marilyn barely had time to throw her body backward before a form began to materialize from the glow that rose from the ground.
-Crack!
Sharp crystal blades shot up from the floor. If she had remained standing there, her body would have been split apart alive.
But the danger did not stop there.
-Kwagagang!
Beams of light surged from the heart of the dark night sky.
Attacks falling like meteors slammed into the spot where she stood with explosive roars, sending clouds of dust spreading in all directions.
Whoever it was, they were not attacking with half-hearted intent.
-Crack!
The moment she realized that, crystals shot up again at the spot where she had stepped.
Marilyn grimaced, detecting each magic reaction around her one by one, and bit her lip.
'It's not a surprise attack. This is a trap....'
A trap that someone had set here in advance.
And not a trap triggered by stepping on it, but one set with a 'time delay' so it would activate at a predetermined time.
A trap that could only be installed with a 'prediction' that perfectly grasped her movements, based on the premise that the target would stand at that exact spot at that exact time.
"...That was a warning."
The moment she noticed this, a faint light soon began to shine from the opposite side of the dark street.
"If you don't retreat from here, I will attack with the intent to kill from now on."
A woman threatening her, holding a magic-infused crystal ball in her hand.
Instinctively realizing that the presence emanating from her was by no means ordinary, Marilyn asked in a tense voice.
"...What are you after?"
If possible, she wanted to avoid a fight, even for his sake.
So she had thought she would roughly go along with whatever the opponent wanted and leave this place.
"Stay away from him."
But what actually came out of that mouth was, of all things, words targeting the very person she wanted to protect most.
Yes, it was only natural.
In this district where a criminal organization had vanished overnight and even beggars had fled in fear, there was only one person worth mentioning besides herself.
"...I'm having trouble understanding. Care to say that again?"
"I said stay away from my man!!"
The moment that shout, uttered in response to her cautious question, echoed through the street.
Marilyn's face stiffened coldly at that, but then she noticed the identity of the face illuminated by the crystal ball's light and began to smile.
"Ah, I see. So it's you...."
Airi Haven.
The one chosen by the man she had wished to spend the rest of her life with, as the companion to take her place in eternity.
"Well, it seems quite a lot happened while I was away."
The demon who encountered such a being.
In this moment, her eyes flashing brighter than the stars covering the sky, she thought.
"Can you handle what you just said?"
So it's this woman.
The bitch who's trying to steal away my 'last'.