The End of an Ill-Fated Bond
It looked as though rain might fall. The gloomy sky, heavy with dark storm clouds, seemed to mirror my mood exactly.
"…And Athena?"
"The Master said she was tired and would remain in her chambers."
Head Maid Rosewen spoke with her hands folded neatly before her. She was not alone. Countless people from the mansion had come out to see me off.
And yet Athena herself was nowhere to be found. Not so much as a glimpse of her.
Really…
Was she truly just going to let me leave like this?
Faced with a situation that had crashed down so suddenly, I could not find a single word to say.
When I had woken that morning, I had thought I must have misheard. She had told me to leave the mansion—and then vanished. I had been certain it was nothing more than a delusion my mind had spun.
But then Mari had taken my hand the moment I rose and led me outside. A great carriage stood waiting beyond the mansion gates. And when I saw Rosewen and so many others gathered to see me off, I finally understood.
What Athena had said the night before had not been a lie.
"Hmph. She must know she was in the wrong."
Sepheer, disguised in human form, pouted beside me and grumbled under her breath. Then she glanced around a few times with a startled look, confirmed Athena was nowhere in sight, and let out a quiet sigh of relief.
I turned from Sepheer to look at Mari. Something had been bothering her all morning; her face had been twisted in a frown since she woke.
She had told me everything Athena had said—and about the unbelievable sum of platinum coins Athena had pressed into her hands.
With that much money, one could live in luxury for a lifetime even within the Empire. And yet I felt not the slightest gratitude. If anything, the ease with which she was casting me aside only made less sense.
What happened to all those times she said she could not live without me?
And now she was simply sending me away?
Perhaps the sheer absurdity of it all was what finally did it. Irritation surged up from deep inside me.
I had been the one who wanted to escape this mansion. Even now, I still wanted nothing more than to get out of this hell as soon as possible.
But.
But… not like this.
"Hey! Where are you going?!"
Sepheer called after me, but I did not look back. Leaving behind the sharp stares of countless onlookers, I ran toward where Athena was.
No matter how resentful I felt toward her, ending things in a single instant like this was wrong. Surely she would think so too.
Or had I been mistaken?
"You still haven't left?"
"…"
Athena spoke to me with a look of pure indifference. I could only stare at her, stunned.
"Did you come to say goodbye? I'm busy, so I'd appreciate it if you left quickly."
I could not understand it. Only days ago she had approached me with such desperate longing. Who was this person looking down at me now with such complete emptiness?
"…You're really telling me to go?"
"Of course. Did you think I was joking?"
I stood frozen before her for a long moment. Something seemed to click for her then. Her eyes widened, and a faint smirk curved her lips as she stepped closer.
"Ah. Sorry. You came because of this, didn't you?"
She laid her hand on my stomach.
"Hhk—?!"
Almost at once, a dizzying sensation swept through me—something slipping free from deep inside. Strength drained from my entire body in an instant, and I staggered. It felt as though something vital had been torn away, leaving me hollow and empty.
When I looked up at Athena again, brilliant golden mana drifted and thrummed in the air around her.
"The slave contract ends here. You can go now."
She spoke as if none of this mattered in the slightest. Rage boiled up inside me at her flat, emotionless tone.
I could not hold it in any longer. I lunged at her and seized her by the collar.
"…You bastard."
"What?"
"You really hurt me right to the very end, don't you."
Tell me, Athena. What was I to you, exactly?
Just a toy you wanted to own? Someone convenient enough to play with?
How—how could you reduce me to something this miserable?
Did you ever love me, even once?
"…"
Once again she gave me no answer. A hollow laugh slipped from my lips.
"Fine. I don't want to look at your face anymore either, Athena."
I turned my back on her, offered my final farewell, and walked the way I had come.
"Live well, you awful woman."
A single small tear slid down my cheek.
It seemed she said something after me. But the distance between us had already grown too great, and her words vanished into the empty air.
And so the ill-fated bond we had shared through so many trials came to an end—so absurdly, so hollowly, it almost defied belief.
"……Please… be happy."
I love you, Hera.
However fine the carriage was, the road ahead did not look smooth—and yet it rolled on without so much as a single jolt, carrying us in perfect comfort.
"My lady… you don't look well."
"Hey… are you okay? Something didn't happen, did it…?"
Alina and Sepheer sat across from me, watching with worried faces. Mari sat quietly at my side, still frowning, lost in some deep and troubled thought.
We were on our way to the Empire. Originally it was meant to be only Mari and me. But Sepheer, having stepped down from her post as a Demon Commander, claimed she had nowhere else to go and insisted on following. Alina had begged to come along as well.
Honestly, I had wanted to be alone. But I knew how much care they had given me all this time, so I accepted them.
"Hera…?"
When I gave no answer, Sepheer called my name again, unease plain in her voice.
"…Sorry."
I apologized to her. It was not that I had deliberately refused to speak. No thoughts would come at all.
No—more precisely, there was only one thought. Only her.
Her change had been far too sudden. In the heat of the moment I had spat venom at her and walked away. But sitting here in the carriage, thinking it over calmly, her behavior had been strange beyond measure.
Quietly, I brushed my lower abdomen. Feeling nothing there was deeply unfamiliar. Being free of the slave contract should have been a good thing. And yet my body, stripped of her mana, felt unbearably empty.
"…Mom."
While I sat staring blankly at the floor, Mari pressed herself tightly against my waist. Her face, full of worry, filled my vision at once.
"Mm… I'm okay, Mari."
I stroked her hair and offered her a small smile, trying to put her at ease.
"…"
But Mari did not look reassured in the slightest. She kept working her mouth, restless and unsettled. The knowledge that I was worrying her again stabbed guilt straight through my chest.
I can't keep doing this. I shook my head hard, forcing out the thoughts of Athena that had filled it.
Right.
It was time to forget. Our relationship was already over. Dwelling on her any further would mean nothing.
The truth was, I had no confidence I could erase her from my memory. She had been far too large a presence in my life for that. But if I simply tried not to think of her—if I let enough time pass—perhaps one day I would be able to forget her with indifference.
I rested my head against the carriage window and closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, an entirely different world would unfold. Not that stifling mansion that had felt like hell, but a new home I would have to find. Should I look in the Empire? Living deep in some uninhabited forest did not sound so bad either. Whatever it was, it would be better than that mansion.
I opened my eyes again and looked up at the dim sky.
It looked as though rain might fall. The gloomy sky, heavy with dark storm clouds, seemed to mirror my mood exactly.
"…Have you come here to die, you wretch?"
Her vast wings unfurled within the castle, displaying a majestic form. The surrounding demons erupted in cheers, one after another lifting their voices in praise of her.
This place was filled with blood and screams—the very heart of the Demon Realm. The Demon King's Castle.
Countless demons thronged there now, all of them staring at a single human.
For an ordinary person, the terror of the scene would have been enough to make them faint on the spot. Astonishingly, however, it was the demons who trembled and shook with instinctive fear.
The woman who stood there so boldly wore an almost leisurely expression. She stretched out a hand toward the red-haired woman seated upon the throne and crooked a finger.
"I don't know. Aren't you the one who's going to die?"
"Hahaha. How absurd."
The red-haired woman with a pair of enormous wings began to laugh, as if the whole thing were ridiculous.
"Even you—without so much as a scrap of a goddess's power—do you truly believe you can face this one upon the soil of the Demon Realm?"
She rose from the throne and set her feet upon the ground. Every demon in the castle dropped to their knees at once, offering her their reverence.
This red-haired woman who referred to herself with such regal authority was Arbes—the being commonly known as the Demon King.
"A goddess's power? Why would I need something like that to kill you?"
The Demon King's brow furrowed at the provocation, but then she threw her head back and laughed heartily.
"Hahaha! Very well. If you are so eager to die, this one has no reason to refuse."
Dark, dense mana—destructive and murderous, black as pitch—began to surge and thrash through the air around them.
"Do try to entertain this one."
The Demon King's deep crimson eyes blazed with a savage light, as though she meant to devour the woman before her whole.
But the woman showed not the slightest fear. She simply stretched a hand into the empty air and murmured.
"Shine brilliantly. Lucete."
The moment the words left her lips, a light fierce enough to sear the eyes erupted from her hand. A mass of radiance in the shape of a sword settled into her grip.
She swung the blade once. With a sound like a raging typhoon, every demon around her was torn apart until not even corpses remained.
"It's been a while since I held a sword."
She leveled the blade toward the Demon King as she spoke. And her eyes—
like a single brilliant sun—blazed with a dazzling golden fire.