There Was No Fighting Because There Was No Competition
It was ice-cold. A dagger of ice stabbed straight into his chest. But don’t worry… yeah, right.
I’m screwed.
He had never once imagined that the so-called Four Heavenly Kings would turn out to be those four girls.
If he had known, he would have done whatever it took to keep the Heroes from ever setting foot in the Academy. Just so they could enjoy the view.
But the four Demon Kings had hidden their identities perfectly, and they had finally achieved their goal of giving Lethe the shock of his life.
“….”
“….”
As a result, whatever goodwill the Heroes had begun to feel toward him had frozen solid in an instant.
Hoping there might still be some way to salvage the situation, Lethe carefully studied the four Heroes who were staring at him.
He started with Haniel, the least aggressive of the group. Hmm. She looked thoroughly shaken.
Beside her, Selaphy frantically pulled a cigarette from her coat and stuck it between her lips—no, not one, but a full five cigarettes at once, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. Her mental fortitude was clearly in pieces.
Even Meta, who was always silent, was currently screaming without making a sound. And last of all…
“Sir Lethe….”
Look at Michaela’s trembling eyes as she tried so hard to stay composed.
Anyone could see the desperate denial written there: It can’t be. My war hero can’t possibly be…!
I’m completely screwed.
They had never been particularly close, but he had thought they were on decent terms.
Just yesterday those same eyes had looked at him with genuine fondness. Not anymore.
Right now they were regarding him as little more than a Demon King’s lackey—or something very close to it.
“Um. Michaela.”
He opened his mouth, hoping at least to manage the bare minimum of public relations—
“What do you think you’re doing? Don’t come any closer. Stop right there. From now on, no one gets within ten meters of Mister.”
“….”
Ashu? Ten meters is a bit much, don’t you think? One meter, maybe I could understand.
They had just signed a ceasefire agreement; the last thing he needed was a pointless brawl breaking out.
Peace! Peace! They had been shouting it less than a day ago, and already it was war! He moved to rein Ashu in at once.
But it wasn’t only the Red Demon King who was snarling.
“Get away from him.”
“Hey. Take those eyes off Master.”
Whoosh—
The other two Demon Kings—and even quiet little El—were waving their hands furiously, making it painfully clear they wanted those people gone from their sight this instant.
The gazes of Demon Kings and Heroes locked in midair. It looked as if beams might shoot from their eyes at any second.
And that wasn’t all. Mana across the entire area was growing ominously dense, as if everyone was quietly preparing for combat.
The moment anyone took one more step forward, it would become a fight to the death. The atmosphere was so murderous that even Lethe—who had walked through more battlefields than he could count—found himself sucking in a sharp breath.
No. Absolutely not. This was truly impossible. These were Demon Kings and Heroes.
The two sides could never coexist, not even if they died and came back to life. They were fated to stand in absolute opposition.
If they had run into each other like this inside the Academy, the outcome was only natural.
First Ashu, Mar, Sitri, and even El. These kids…
They were the runaway teenagers who had lived with him for years and then suddenly left home one day.
After that, the last news he heard was that they had ascended as Demon Kings—and then every scrap of information about them vanished.
For reference, the moment someone becomes a Demon King, their original name is forgotten by everyone.
There is only the Demon King. Everyone simply calls them “Your Majesty,” “My Lord,” or “the such-and-such Demon King.”
That made it even harder for Lethe to track them down.
So he had thought it was over. He had thought they had become enemies again. After all, a Demon King was the ruler of the demonkin.
And demonkin were the sort who would scream for war and fight until one side was on the brink of annihilation.
He had believed that once they became Demon Kings, they would be enemies beyond any hope of reconciliation.
He had even wondered whether they might already be among the Demon Kings who had died long ago.
There had been days when he smiled bitterly, thinking fate could not be changed, and sipped his coffee in quiet resignation.
“More importantly, Mister! I brought you some healthy stuff! Why are you so skinny?! Why did you get so old?! Sob! The Mister I remember was a hundred times cooler than this!”
“Ashu! Please don’t speak to Brother that way!”
“Master is perfectly fine! If anything, he’s even cooler than before!”
Nod nod—!
Looking at them now, every one of his predictions had been completely wrong. They were Demon Kings… and yet they weren’t.
Affection—no, pure love—dripped from the eyes of the women clustered around him.
It felt like he had gone back in time, to the days when he had raised four adorable little puppies.
They might have been future threats destined to become Demon Kings, but back then they had simply been ordinary demonkin girls.
Their fate of becoming Demon Kings had not changed. But the kind of Demon Kings they became had.
These four—the Demon Kings he had saved only because he mixed up the dates—had ended the war.
Of course the method had been extremely cruel, but that was simply the demonkin way. There was nothing to be done about it.
On the other hand, Michaela, Haniel, Selaphy, and Meta…
Originally he was supposed to have saved them. His goal had been to become the spiritual pillar of those Heroes.
They would fight together, defeat the Demon Kings together, and walk into the future side by side.
But Lethe had gotten the date wrong, and the four of them had barely escaped under their own power.
In the process, their hatred toward the demonkin had only grown deeper.
It was the destiny of Heroes layered with their own personal trauma.
“…We’re leaving.”
As a result, the Heroes turned their backs on him in an instant, radiating a freezing cold.
No matter what story there might be, they clearly had no desire to remain near someone connected to the Demon Kings.
Every trace of the fondness they had shown only moments earlier had been wiped clean away.
This had become genuinely awkward. Even if they were currently unemployed, Heroes were still Heroes.
He was in a real bind. How on earth was he supposed to handle this situation? Lethe was thoroughly at a loss.
Yeah. Saying “take care” and waving goodbye felt wrong somehow—they were the Heroes, after all. Considering they were the protagonists—
Swoosh—
“Mister.”
Of course the Demon Kings who had formed a solid wall around him could not have cared less about any of that.
“Hey. Did you get a woman?”
He had no idea what train of thought had produced that question.
In this freezing atmosphere, the first thing out of her mouth was “a woman”? Was she serious?
“No, it’s just weird. The Mister I used to know was way sturdier and cooler than this. I know you’ve gotten older, but this is too much. Yeah, that’s it. You got a woman. I’m sure of it! There’s no way you’d look like this unless some woman sucked all the energy out of you. Who is she?! What kind of bitch— Gack!”
Deciding there was no value in listening any further, Lethe delivered a solid knuckle-rap straight to the crown of Astaroth’s head.
A crisp thwack! rang out across the open ground, clear and refreshing.
“Kyaaaah! Th-that really hurts, aaaargh!!”
“I hit you so it would hurt. There’s nothing you won’t say in front of the kids.”
“Wh-why?! And we’re not kids anymore, okay?! We know everything there is to know! Huh?! We’re old enough to do everything there is to do!”
He almost asked, without any tact, what exactly they “knew” and what they “did.” He barely managed to hold it back.
If that question had actually left his mouth, Astaroth would have immediately charged at him with a “Curious? Then let’s find out right now!”
“Ashu’s right, Brother.”
Looking at them now, it seemed Astaroth was not the only dangerous element.
“We know everything there is to know now, and we can do everything there is to do.”
“Mar?”
“Master. If you happen to need a woman—!”
“Sitri, you too….”
True to their nature as Demon Kings, the three women were already preparing to attack first.
Even El, who never spoke, was already starting to pull off her top.
At this rate he was about to be mercilessly ganged up on by the Demon Kings! Crisis!
“Enough!”
At once the four Demon Kings who had been swaying toward him froze solid with a sharp snap!
They stood perfectly still, waiting for his next words as if some spell had been cast—or as if time itself had stopped.
It was exactly the same scene as long ago, when he used to prepare dinner.
“Mister! Food! Fooood!”
“Brother, I’m hungry.”
“Master, when will you give us our meal?”
Bang bang—!
The girls had whined that they were starving, and in the end he had raised his voice with a firm “Enough!”
If they just waited quietly, this Mister—no, Master—damn it, this older brother would give them a delicious dinner.
And miraculously, they would all fall silent and become well-behaved children.
Honestly.
It was both bewildering and somehow funny that nothing at all had changed from the old days.
After they suddenly vanished, he had thought trying to reform the Demon Kings was a complete waste of time.
Saving Demon Kings instead of Heroes, watching every plan fall apart, suffering through all that physical labor because his brain was too slow—looking at them now, none of it had been entirely bad.
…No. On second thought, since I’ve completely split with the Heroes, maybe it is bad?
Lethe pondered for a moment, but the only answer he came up with was “I have no idea.”
Unemployed Heroes, Demon Kings enrolled at the Academy, and himself a war hero. Could anything be more of a mess?
The flow of events and fate itself had already tangled into an unrecognizable knot. What more could he do at this point? He just had to live.
“You’ve finished everything you came here to do, right?”
“Yeees—”
“And from now on you’re actual Academy students.”
“Yeees!—!”
“Good. Then first we’ll do student counseling.”
This wasn’t some field trip; they were officially enrolled students. They would have to graduate.
As an Academy instructor, counseling was mandatory. That was why he made the suggestion….
“…What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you say we were going to have counseling?”
“Well, yes, but why are all four of you stuck together?”
Student counseling was obviously individual counseling. What kind of counseling could you do if you all piled in at once?
The moment Lethe explained that, the Demon Kings’ expressions shifted into something strangely ominous.
“So what Mister is saying is…”
“We’ll each be alone with Brother…”
“In the same space.”
“….”
He hadn’t even had time to ask what was wrong with them.
Rumble rumble rumble—!
Four terrifying streams of demonic energy erupted in every direction.
Crimson, azure, black, and silver. Multicolored demonic energy surged and writhed.
“The order’s going to be important, huh?”
“So this is how it’s going to be.”
“I can’t accept this.”
“…No yielding.”
What is this? What on earth is this? Kids, this is just counseling, okay? You can’t start a war for the main wife position right now!