84. I'm the Last
84. I'm the Last
The life-or-death struggle the night before had been forcibly halted—no winner, no loser—by an overwhelmingly powerful being named Tasian Failoy.
Had she harbored any malice, both of them would likely have died on the spot. Instead, Tasian did nothing further, and even healed their injuries.
Not out of mercy, but purely so that he wouldn't catch wind of the commotion.
'Your romantic entanglements are none of my business. Just make sure your squabbles don't end up harming him. If you interfere with what he's doing, I won't stand idly by either.'
Yes. She wouldn't intervene directly, but she too wished for Woo Hyosung's personal journey to continue.
That shared purpose would serve as a check on the demon who couldn't contain her own madness. It was that conviction that allowed Airi to lower her guard against the woman in this moment.
"...What is that?"
"It's the new armor Hyosung acquired."
With a thud, the upper piece of the armor settled onto the table in front of Marilyn, who was drinking tea.
Airi, who had been tracing its surface with her fingertips, directed the question straight at Marilyn, whose interest was already piqued.
"As a fellow demon, you can feel it too, can't you? What this armor is made of."
"...Let me check for a moment."
Strictly speaking, this was a product crafted from the remains of her own kind. But Marilyn probably wouldn't take issue with it or cause a scene.
Demons, by their very nature, lived only for their own desires. Since most prioritized themselves above all else, any sense of kinship with their own kind was inherently lacking.
-Sniff sniff.
And because such desires could not be defied, the moment she realized it was his armor, naturally she'd start by inhaling its scent.
Realizing the problem a beat too late, Airi hastily tugged at Marilyn's sleeve to restrain her.
"...Enough with the sniffing."
"No, just a little more...."
"What do you mean, a little more?! I've never even had the chance to... I mean, that's not the point! Get away from it this instant!"
No matter how savage a demon might be, this was someone who held the rank of an executive in the Demon King's Army. How was it that she displayed not a single shred of dignity?
As Airi struggled with all her might to peel Marilyn away, Marilyn, having apparently finished her olfactory inspection, propped her chin on her hand and began rifling through her memories.
"This one... is a pure-blooded demon I remember."
"...Pure-blooded?"
"As you know, Airi, the Demon King's Army has crossed countless dimensions, plundering each world we passed through. With such a pronounced militant bent, the mortality rate was high. How do you think we filled the empty ranks?"
During the course of their plundering, they formed relations with captured otherworld species. The children born from those unions were then conscripted into the army.
Love or noble causes had no place in those relations. But whatever the case, the reason their numbers held steady across innumerable dimensions was that they replenished their forces in every world they crossed.
"In short, the Demon King's Army is a collective formed from a mixture of countless hybrids."
"Exactly. If you're talking about demons with no other species' blood mixed in, you're limited to those who've survived since the 'First World' where the Demon King's Army was founded. Most have died out, so the remaining pure-bloods... including myself and the Demon King... could be counted on one hand."
That meant the original members had been nearly wiped out by the present era.
Even among those left, the Demon King no longer felt any attachment to the army. Two of the Four Heavenly Kings, the most powerful of the pure-bloods, were dead. The remaining two had left the army to pursue their own goals. So the number of pure-bloods left in the Demon King's Army had dwindled even further.
"...Do you actually remember every single pure-blooded demon?"
"I can't speak for the present, but in the early days, I took my duties in the Demon King's Army seriously. I remember every named pure-blood."
Beings that precious naturally stood out more sharply in memory.
Marilyn's eyes, gazing down at the armor, slowly began to half-close, as if sinking into nostalgia.
"The one whose remains became this armor was a vanguard captain in the early days of the Demon King's Army. But even when his achievements were recognized and he earned the right to become one of the Four Heavenly Kings, he voluntarily gave up the position."
"He turned down... the Four Heavenly Kings?"
"At first, he found everything except fighting to be a bother. But at some point, even fighting became a bother, and he settled for blending in as a rank-and-file soldier."
The pity gradually seeping into her gaze was likely born of sympathy. Or perhaps a sense of kinship. Though demons lacked love for their own kind, the Demon of Sloth seemed to feel a faint recognition that this being had once walked the same path as her.
"It's only natural, I suppose. When the mighty being you idolized suddenly loses all will to go on."
Perhaps he had sensed the Demon King's condition even before she did. Perhaps he had foreseen the fate that awaited a desire-driven demon who survived to the bitter end.
How pathetically laughable must she have looked in his eyes, unable to cast aside her lingering regrets, still searching for a way to bring the Demon King back?
No. He probably found even that thought too troublesome to entertain.
His slothful desire had once served to keep everything but his goal beyond the reach of his concern. The moment he lost that goal, even his will to grow stronger must have been crushed.
"I'm a little jealous. Someone who foresaw the Demon King Army's future before I did... and yet he's ended up in a closer relationship with Hyosung than either you or me, Airi."
"......You and the way you phrase things."
For a moment, Airi's brow furrowed at the characteristic flippant joke.
But just as she thought it was probably her way of glossing over the dead end she herself might have reached, Marilyn leveled a serious look at Airi.
"So. What exactly did you want me to do with this armor?"
"I thought you'd know more about your own kind than Tasian would."
No matter how exceptional a dragon—the pinnacle of all creation—was at manipulating matter, demons were ultimately beings from another dimension. Their understanding of materials from outside this world was correspondingly limited. When it came to equipment made from the remains of a demon, Marilyn might actually possess the superior insight.
"You're asking me to awaken the latent potential in this armor, then."
"Yes. This armor is essential to preserving Hyosung's life right now."
Whatever the case, Tasian, and Airi herself, both wanted him to become stronger than he was now.
And that should be achieved not through sudden, drastic change but by carefully transforming what already existed, step by step.
The future must be rooted in the past. A straight and true future could never be seized by uprooting that foundation.
"...Is it possible?"
But that goal was not something that resonated with a woman who had despaired at the calamity looming over this world. So Airi had prepared herself for a refusal. Yet, looking down at the armor, Marilyn's face held an unburdened expression.
"Well, I can't promise it'll work, but I'll do my best."
A remarkably ready acceptance.
Wondering if there was an ulterior motive, Airi studied her face, but Marilyn simply continued as if it were no great matter.
"There's no need to be so wary. As you know, demons are a species that lives for their own desires. And I want my love to last as long as it possibly can."
True to her word, for this unpredictable woman, one thing and one thing alone was clear: her love for him.
That it was important enough for her to throw away her own life had been proven in yesterday's battle.
"Right. Desire knows no end, after all...."
But that very obsession with their own desires was why demons were doomed to short, violent lives.
Even if they fulfilled their desire, the outcome was the same. Fulfill one, and an even greater desire would be born. As this cycle repeated, at some point, even the act of living would become agony.
"If I become fixated on achieving that... in the end, I too might one day end up like the Demon King."
"...Even knowing that such desire will drive you to ruin, do you still intend to pursue Hyosung?"
"Of course."
Even though she might be intoxicated by that desire and march straight toward destruction,
the demon who wished to remain true to her very foundation chose to gladly embrace the desire that had newly awakened within her since arriving in this world.
"Because I cast aside everything and came here thinking only of being with him."
Airi Heven.
Because she had met someone who shared her ardor yet, unlike herself, could protect him with reason and calm composure.
If such a rival could check her madness, she would never become like her lord.
"So, Airi, if you intend to accept me, keep one thing in mind from now on."
The demon, holding onto the belief that this would at least prolong her happiness, smiled as she envisioned the moment that would come at the end of that belief.
Whatever might happen after,
"You may be Hyosung's first... but I will be his last."
she said, feeling that the current her had the right to dream.
"That in the far-off future, not now, the person closest to him will be me, not you."
An utterly sincere and gentle voice.
In that moment alone, it seemed as though her characteristic madness had subsided. But that was only when interpreted through the lens of human common sense. To think she understood patience, and even took pleasure in this moment where her impulses were restrained, despite being a slave to desire and impulse at her very core.
Was this not a sight that shattered every preconceived notion one had built up about the demon race?
"So make sure you protect him so I don't end up breaking him. If you manage that properly, I'll gladly play along with your unreasonable ideals, however many there are."
The moment that product of madness extended her hand toward her, Airi felt a trial heavier than the previous night's death match pressing down upon her shoulders.
For now, she would endure and move past it. But in the end, as a species maddened by desire, the impulses would only grow fiercer with time.
That meant she would have to hold out until the very end for the sake of her love and her mission. Still, Airi resolved to accept the woman's madness.
Even if she was an unpredictable being of madness, that very unpredictability meant she might just become the hidden card needed to change a future set in stone for destruction.
"...Alright. I'm counting on you."
Holding onto that belief, just before their open hands could meet for a handshake, Marilyn spontaneously extended only her index and middle fingers toward Airi's palm.
A battle of scissors and wrapping cloth.
"Hehe~ That makes it one win, one loss, now~"
Marilyn's victory.
"...Marilyn."
"Oh my~ Our Airi is a prophet, yet she loses at rock-paper-scissors too~ I'm starting to worry whether you'll really be able to protect Hyosung from me, you know~?"
"Are you going to keep doing this childish nonsense?"
An unpredictable existence that seemed playful one moment, then serious again, then suddenly flipped back to playful.
She was the natural enemy of a prophet. And yet, on the other hand, having such a being by her side was also a comfort.
'That's right. If she keeps throwing these whims around out of sight, it could return as an unforeseen calamity.'
Whatever else might be true, her love for him was genuine. So at the very least, she would never become his enemy.
Nevertheless, to confirm whether there might still be potential danger, Airi immediately took out her crystal ball and attempted to foresee the future.
To check how their current relationship would unfold later on, in a future not too far from the present.
'Please, let there be a normal future this time.'
But rendering her own hopes meaningless, what appeared in the crystal ball was a scene of her, lying with him in bed, entangled with him even more actively than before....
-Bzzzt!
The sight that involuntarily twisted her expression suddenly flickered with a violent distortion, and began to reform into a new future.
'The future... was overwritten...?'
Airi, startled, refocused on the crystal ball's vision.
Sensing the atmosphere turning grim, Marilyn, who had been inspecting the armor as requested, lifted her gaze and turned back toward Airi.
"What's the matter all of a sudden?"
"...Marilyn, please keep inspecting the armor here. I need to go see Tasian for a moment."
"Huh? Why that terrifying woman...?"
"I'll explain later!"
With that, Airi kicked open the front door and dashed out into the street.
Her body still hadn't shaken off the fatigue and pain, but the face of the woman sprinting through the streets was etched with urgency.
'Why on earth... why is Tasian starting to rampage when Hyosung isn't even dead?'
What the crystal ball had shown was a vision of a colossal dragon blocking her path, as she stood alongside an army meant to protect humanity.
The sight of everything beneath that dragon crumbling and burning carried a feeling similar to the tragedy she had witnessed when she read the Smoke Dragon Tasian's past.
Even though there was no way any other dragon besides her existed in this world.
'Just what happens in the future...? No. What happens to her right now to cause this whim, to make such a future unfold?'
A vow was absolute to a dragon.
So how was it that she, who should only rampage upon his death, stood reigning as a calamity before Airi's future self—a future self who was clearly aware he was still alive?
*****
After leaving Tasian's side, my heart still troubled by those inexplicable reasons,
I headed to the Guild, the designated meeting place, to find Ga-ram. But all the clerk there gave me was a single message she had left behind.
"Hero Yi Ga-ram is currently attending an assembly held by the Imperial Household, so she will be unable to come to the Guild today."
"An Imperial Assembly... That sounds like a fairly important affair?"
"Yes. Word is that a major mission will be issued soon, targeting a large number of heroes."
Well, the title of Hero was bestowed by the Empire itself. A briefing for a mission coming directly from the Imperial Household wasn't something one could ignore.
But that meant my plan to use Ga-ram's connections to look into a cleric had hit a snag.
As I wandered the streets after leaving the Guild, racking my brain for a solution, someone standing at a nearby construction site suddenly caught my eye, waving a hand in my direction.
"Hey there, friend passing by! Could you stop for a moment?"
A man clad in light armor covering his upper body and a white helmet.
At a glance, he looked like a knight. But what he held in his hand wasn't a sword or a mace—it was a shovel meant for tearing up roads.
A man in a helmet with a shovel....
Yeah. I definitely remembered this person.
"Oho, it really is the friend I knew."
"Woo Hyosung! You son of a gun, have you been doing well? Don't tell me you forgot me just because it's been two years!?"
"...Ja-seong hyung?"
The Shovel Paladin—Nam Ja-seong.
One of the few heroes who had shown me any kindness back when I first arrived in this world.