Love Letters Carry Disaster
Turning the clock back a little, to the very heart of the Demon Realm.
At the hour when the Black Moon climbed highest in the sky.
Nemesia Ragneil was spending yet another day, unchanged as ever, bleeding for the third time beneath the Black Moon.
"...How boring."
The words had simply slipped out from sheer tedium.
Across thousands of years, countless self-proclaimed heroes had come to kill her. Kings had come to kneel with treaties in hand. Apostles of the Outer Gods had dreamt of rebellion, and some Outer Gods themselves had thrown down the gauntlet, declaring they would become the new Demon King to rule the Demon Realm of Rahelon.
The result? Defeat for all of them. They had all left as blood, or ash, or with a heart or two torn out.
And what remained afterward?
Fear.
Awe.
Fanaticism.
In none of those emotions had the word "love" ever been mixed in even once.
"O Demon King of the Black Moon, please do not forgive my sins and kill me!"
"Great Nemesia, we are honored to—"
"If you want me to kill you, then I'll kill you."
Nemesia casually kicked the human noble who had been wailing such nonsense until moments ago. He had already long since stopped breathing, so there was no reaction.
"Before begging me to kill you, maybe you should have tried begging me to let you live."
She knew better than anyone that it was a pointless remark. No one had ever seen her as anything more or less than the Demon King.
The entire Demon Realm feared her. The human world called her a calamity—a symbol of death, destruction, terror, and the end. That image had solidified so perfectly by now that even the fact that a woman named Nemesia existed beneath it seemed to have been forgotten.
Was that why? Lately she had almost forgotten the reason her heart beat at all. Even when flesh was torn and blood sprayed, even when the world wept and gods screamed as they fell, her own heartbeat remained almost perfectly steady.
It beat. But it meant nothing. Nothing more than a mechanical motion to keep her body moving.
And so that night, too, it should have been the same.
Nemesia sat perched on her throne of black stone, raised high above a pool of blood, chin resting on one hand. She gazed boringly at the Black Moon hanging in the Demon Realm's sky as it dripped its crimson light.
"What a yawn-inducing night."
That was when it happened.
The light of the Black Moon wavered for the briefest instant. Nemesia's eyes narrowed slightly at the anomaly.
"Is the Demon Tree playing tricks?"
For a moment she wondered if the light had shaken under the influence of the Demon Tree... but no. Beneath the Black Moon, in the deepest, densest layer of mana, a quiet ripple spread.
It was neither the greatest magic of a grand mage's lifetime nor the interference of an Outer God. Mana that was far too small, far too humble, and strangely unrefined. And from the center of that ripple, something soon dropped with a soft plop—right beside the black throne, in the middle of the pool of blood.
"...What is this?"
Nemesia rose from her seat to pick up the object that had fallen from the air. Floating atop the pool of blood was a small cream-colored envelope—a pure white so clean it seemed like a lie, untainted by even a speck of the Demon Realm's blood or poison.
"Sending a letter straight to the Demon Realm, aiming for the coordinates right beneath the Black Moon? Whoever you are, you're pretty bold. But if it's a challenge, I won't run from it."
At a flick of her finger, the pool of blood parted and the envelope flew into her hand. No sealing magic. No curse. No tracking spell. A purely single-recipient transmission, made to reach only one person. On the front, only a single line was written.
To Her Majesty the Demon King of the Black Moon.
Nemesia lightly tore the seal with a fingernail. A single sheet of paper, folded inside, slid out. The handwriting was clumsy. Yet there were clear traces of it having been pressed carefully, letter by letter, with great care.
To the one who is always called by the names of fear and terror. I do not wish to become merely one more voice among the countless that fear Your Majesty.
The world calls Your Majesty a calamity and speaks of ruin. Yet at the end of all that terror, I imagine there may have been a moment when you wished, even once, to hear the words "I love you."
I have neither the power to bring Your Majesty down, nor the lifespan to forever stand by your side. I am merely a human who will someday vanish like dust, and very soon at that.
Even so, I wanted to dare write this. Even if you sit in that place no one dares approach... haven't you ever wanted to be called by a name that is not fear, just once?
Not as the Demon King of the Black Moon, but by the name Nemesia.
I do not wish to say that I love Your Majesty's terrifying power. Words that admire that power would be the first to turn their back the moment that power disappeared.
If someday Your Majesty wishes to meet someone not as the Demon King, but as Nemesia... then at that time, I want to force my trembling legs to hold and call that name without kneeling.
While still afraid, yet without running away. To say, "I love you."
— KJH, currently enrolled at the Academy
"..."
Nemesia's fingers paused, just the slightest bit.
That word. Love.
The word most often offered to her had been fear, then awe, then loyalty. The word "love"... was a first. Receiving a letter in which someone had so openly and honestly written out their feelings like this was also a first. And so Nemesia, feeling a strange emotion she had never experienced before, continued reading.
"..."
Her crimson eyes stopped for a very long time on that one line.
The Demon King of the Black Moon. Master of the Demon Realm. Calamity. Behind all those epithets hung a single name that had always been used like a mere ornament in one corner of the Demon King's castle: Nemesia. No one in the world had ever called Nemesia by Nemesia alone. They had only ever used it as one of her titles. Never as the name of a person.
Yet whoever wrote this letter had called her by her name.
It was short. The sentences were not particularly elegant. The grammar was not smooth, and a few lines showed where emotion had rushed ahead and spilled out. But—precisely because of that, the sincerity came through all the more clearly.
Thump.
Her heart gave one great, unmistakably clear beat. Nemesia unconsciously brought a hand to her chest. The heart that for so long had moved only monotonously, merely to maintain function, was now changing its pace as if reclaiming another purpose it had long forgotten.
"...You're insane."
A smile slowly spread across her lips.
"Not just bold... you're even cute, Academy student boy."
A human who, knowing he would vanish like dust, still refused to kneel, honestly admitted he would run, and yet said he would try to say "I love you."
"Fine."
Nemesia folded the letter, then lightly licked it and sealed it with the Demon King's demonic energy. At the same time, the heart of the Demon Realm trembled as if responding to its master's choice.
"Wait for me, insolent child."
As she raised her hand, pitch-black darkness condensed into a single point.
"I will go to you myself to receive the love you offered—and the price that comes with it."
And soon, a black star began to fall toward the sky of the human world.
"Won't you face me yourself?"
The moment those crimson eyes met mine, I truly thought my heart had stopped.
...Did she catch me?
Saliva caught in my throat and refused to go down. When I finally managed to swallow—
Gulp.
The sound seemed far too loud, and I reflexively clapped a hand over my mouth. A few seconds in which my gaze and the Demon King's gaze seemed locked in midair. No—it felt like hours. And then—fortunately, Nemesia looked away first.
"...Hmph."
She turned her gaze elsewhere as if flipping past a boring channel, as if she had no interest at all. In that situation, I offered frantic silent thanks.
Thank you... thank you. I don't know which god you are, but thank you so much for saving me!!
While I was throwing every kind of ridiculous fit inside my head, the direction of Nemesia's gaze was toward the two beings standing on either side of her. The Emperor atop a golden arrow. The Elf Queen atop a greatsword of flowers and trees.
Nemesia took one step through the air, then walked straight toward the two Transcendents.
"Oh my—"
The air changed once again. The heat of the Demon Realm, the pressure of the Empire, and the life of the forest began to clash tightly in midair. In that suffocating atmosphere, the first to open her mouth was Nemesia.
"What business brings a fledgling Transcendent and an old tree-stump pointy-ears here?"
The voice was playful, but the choice of words was amazing. More than that, "old tree-stump pointy-ears"... you're basically the same age as Arsiena, you know...
"If two Transcendents leave their posts, Silvareia and Roelina won't be able to withstand an attack from the Ragneil, will they?"
"If my empire would collapse just because I stepped away for a moment, then there's no need to protect it in the first place. It's been a while, Lady Nemesia."
Serain opened her mouth with a light shrug of her shoulders, as if completely unfazed by the Demon King's provocation.
"The same goes for Silvareia. We are not so weak a nation as to lose to a bunch of filthy half-breeds."
Arsiena smiled calmly as she returned the Demon King's provocation in kind.
"More than that, for Transcendents—three of them, no less—to gather in one place... this is truly a monumental day, one that will be recorded in the continent's history."
At those words, Nemesia lifted the corner of her mouth even higher, as if she understood perfectly.
"Hmm? A monumental day, you say... Then we should make sure it's recorded even more splendidly by fighting..."
As she continued speaking, she glanced back and forth between the two women, then suddenly closed her mouth. Because she had spotted the cream-colored letter envelopes held in the fledgling's hand and the old tree-stump pointy-ears' hand.
The moment Nemesia saw that shape and color, the mischievous little-devil smile vanished from her face in an instant.
"...Wait."
Her crimson eyes narrowed very slowly into slits.
"That thing in your hands. Don't tell me... you two received the exact same letter?"
"...The same?"
"You two as well?"
In midair, three pairs of eyes lit up at the same time. And down below, watching every single scene from beginning to end, I realized the situation was truly, completely going to shit.
...I'm really fucked. Not two, but three?
The Emperor. The Elf Queen. Even the Demon King. Honestly, with the other women I'd at least entertained the "maybe?" possibility, but I'd been certain the Demon King would never even give it a glance... I'm screwed. And if on top of this the Dragon Lord shows up too, then the full set of Rahelon's Four Great Calamities will be complete.
"I'm... completely fucked."
The words slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it. But I still couldn't stop. No matter what was happening up above, the "Catch KJH" game was already a foregone conclusion. So there was only one thing for me to do.
First, run as far as I can, then think.
Does it make any sense for the person who turned the Academy into this mess to run away? Then am I supposed to look at the murderous glares of the professors and students and go "I'm KJH!"? Don't talk nonsense.
I climbed over the piles of rubble, carefully, carefully. Quietly, truly quietly. I began to move my feet again.