Arm Wrestling (2)
What the hell do you think you're doing, you son of a bitch?!
"Clack—click-clack!"
I stared into those vacant, hollow sockets. Those shifty, scheming eyes. He was trying to lose with everything he had. One look at the Demon King's power, and this bastard had already figured out the optimal play.
"Nngh...!"
"Claaack...!"
Green's clenched grip hurt like hell. Maybe because there was no skin on it — nothing but bone. Wasn't this cheating?
"Amazing... both of you. Neither one giving an inch."
The Demon King murmured as she watched our deadlock.
If I give an inch I'll die at your hands, so what exactly am I supposed to concede?!
Oblivious to the fact that we were both pulling with the express goal of losing, the Demon King seemed genuinely moved by the sight of two competitors locked in such a fierce exchange.
"I can't wait for the finals. Whoever makes it through."
"!"
"!"
Our hands clamped down hard. Her words sent the heat in the arena soaring. Even if my hand burst, I would not let up until it hit the table.
"GRAAAAH!"
"CLAAAACK!"
Lower-tier monster or not, a skeleton's strength stat was naturally superior to an unawakened human like me. But still...
It's not like I've only been hauling luggage for a day or two!
Picture it, Baek Dongha. The faces of every party member who worked you like a dog.
"Ugh... Dongha! This is bad! Come here!"
"What's wrong, Rebecca?!"
"Take my plate armor to the blacksmith for me. And pick up some fruit juice on the way."
"...That thing weighs sixty kilos."
"And?"
"...I'll be right back."
"Grrraaah!!"
But raw spite could only defy the physics of strength for so long.
Ah, no—
Thud.
"Clack!! Click-clack! Clack!"
The victorious... no, the defeated skeleton danced a little jig of pure delight.
"Wow! You're pretty strong, huh?"
She had no idea what was actually going on in that arm wrestle. She grabbed my forearm and hyped me up with the most innocent look on her face.
...I lost. No. I ended up winning.
I was so fucked. First prize might as well not exist, second prize — the massage coupon — was a straight shot to becoming a cripple, and fourth prize, an all-night gaming session with her, was its own special brand of torture.
Which means...
Third prize. Third prize was the only way.
In the semis, Scarlet is going to die against the Demon King. So if I just lose my own semifinal, Scarlet's disqualification puts me in third.
I didn't need Fenrir's Fang or whatever it was. Just being able to dodge every last one of those dogshit prizes was more than enough.
Next match... I have to lose. No matter what it takes.
More importantly.
Because of that bastard!
Green met my eyes, flinched, and stared off at a distant mountain. The look of a guy who could not care less what had happened to my arm.
You Sans-looking son of a bitch! I'm going to dump cola on you until every last bone melts off!
A tiny white hand settled on my shoulder. I looked up to find the Demon King grinning from ear to ear, the picture of pride. She leaned in and whispered against my ear.
"...You did great. Let's definitely meet in the finals."
Go fuck yourself.
The tearful struggle between Blue and Navy ended in Navy's victory — no, Navy's defeat — and Blue advanced to the semifinals looking scared out of his skull. Being a skeleton with no lips, you could see every last one of those white teeth clacking together.
And so the semis began.
A rush of air.
A thunderous crash.
...Another patient had been added next to Yellow. Poor thing.
Bracing for the worst, I carefully floated a suggestion to the Demon King.
"Hm? You want me to drop all my buffs?"
"Yeah. Wouldn't that be fairer?"
I meant it. Given everything she'd done so far, it was the kind of argument that should have landed. The fact that came out of her mouth instead left me stunned.
"I already dropped them, though?"
"What?"
"I dropped them all. Back when I was making the bracket."
Right... so the destruction I'd just witnessed was pure physical power.
I had nothing left to say.
"Nngh!"
"Claaack..."
The second half of the semis. A duel to the death between me and Blue was well underway.
"You... you fucking..."
"Clack... click-clack."
This bastard. Strength wasn't going to cut it. I leaned in toward Blue's ear-hole and spoke low, too quiet for the Demon King to hear.
"...Listen, you piece of shit. Give it up and just win already. An extra like you needs to know when to take the L and get out of the way. Before I dunk you in a bathtub full of cola..."
!!!!
"Nngh!"
Blue suddenly poured on the force, and I was dragged down until the back of his hand hovered a hair from the table.
You miserable bastard! So that's your answer!
I would not — would not — let that hand touch the table. I was the one who was going to lose.
"Nngh!"
With every last ounce of strength I had, I hauled our locked arms back up from his side of the table to center.
"Blue... you really are something..."
The Demon King watched from the side, marveling at him. From her point of view, it must have looked like Blue, driven into a corner, had clawed his way back.
Nngh?!
The hands tilted toward Blue's side of the table again. Crisis.
"Almost there! Hang in there!"
The Demon King was beside herself, breathing hard as she cheered me on. For fuck's sake. I wasn't even the one pushing.
A premonition settled over me.
The numbness creeping into my arm. The breath turning ragged. The veins standing out, flushed with blood. All the inevitable sufferings that came with a human body.
The Demon King would be sensing my victory right about now... and the skeletons, who knew the truth, would be sensing my defeat.
I knew it too.
That I couldn't hold on any longer.
...No other choice.
Hoo...
Blue. You brought this on yourself.
I drew my foot back as far as it would go under the table.
A whoosh of air.
A crunch!!
!!!!
"Click-clack! Clack-clack!"
Crunch! Crunch!
And then I started driving vicious soccer kicks into Blue's shin.
"Clack! Clack-clack!"
My own foot hurt, of course, but it couldn't be helped. This wasn't about losing the arm wrestle. This was for the bigger picture.
Nngh... please...
My toes were killing me. Bone versus flesh. Blue gritted it out and never once let up on the force.
Catch a fucking hint already!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Claaack...! Clack!"
Just as some part of my mind felt like it was about to snap—
"H-hold on, what do you think you're doing?!"
The Demon King blew the whistle and stepped in to break up the match.
"Clack... click-clack."
Only then did Blue clutch his shin and roll around on the floor. The Demon King rounded on me, furious.
"You... you really disappoint me! That's cheating!"
Competitive to her core, she puffed out her cheeks, her lips trembling.
Just as I'd expected.
"I-I'm sorry! I just wanted to win so badly! You told me to come to the finals earlier. So I... I couldn't help myself..."
I bit down on my lower lip like a man truly, deeply wronged, and hung my head.
That's not going to cut it, Baek Dongha. The performance is too flat. Pour your soul into it!
Drip. Drip.
!!??
Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I'd been ready to bite my tongue if they wouldn't come, but luckily, just digging up the memories of all the hell the Demon King had put me through got the waterworks going in no time.
"Clack, clack!"
"Clack, click-clack!"
Jeers poured in from the skeletons. I couldn't have cared less. The Demon King, having just heard my little speech, let the fury drain from her face.
...Alright, Demon King. Say it. Someone as serious about competition as you are will do exactly what I think you're going to do.
"...Still, cheating isn't allowed... I want to face you in the finals too, but... i-it's a loss by foul."
"...No. Hic. Sob."
HELL yeah! You skeleton sons of bitches!! Every last one of you shut your damn mouths and observe a moment of silence!!
On the outside I was face-down on the floor, wailing. On the inside I was folk-dancing across the rainbow bridge, drunk on survival.
I made it out alive again!
A cheater who pulled dirty plays in broad daylight would be getting nothing but the participation prize: a can of peas.
"...I'm sorry. Rules are rules."
The Demon King patted my sobbing self and said it like there was nothing to be done. Sorry? Don't be. I'm fine!
I cracked open a can of peas and sat down in the spectator seats, where I could feel the skeletons' glares boring into me.
"What are you looking at? What. Want a bite?"
And what were they going to do if they jeered, huh. I'd fracture every last one of them.
I went one-on-one with the Demon King every single day. Skeleton or not — hell, if an actual dragon wanted to shoulder-check me, I'd take that bet and then some.
The peas I chewed while watching those skeletons' arms get blown apart were downright sweet.
"Clack, clack. Click-clack!"
"Clack-clack!"
The arm wrestling was over. The Demon King took the championship, as expected. The Wish Coupon she'd awarded herself was decided — by majority vote — to be something I had to grant. For fuck's sake.
Yellow, Scarlet, and Blue, who'd all been in tears over the arms she'd blown apart, were healed up by the Demon King. Now we were all sitting around the table for the afterparty.
"Clack! Click-clack-clack! Clack!"
"Claaack? Clack-clack! Clack!"
"Whaat? Really? Hehehe..."
The Demon King had been mostly listening to the skeletons talk, laughing here and there in the gaps.
"...What did they just say?"
"...Hm? It's about how Yellow failed the fifth-grade skeleton soldier promotion exam. Blue threw the match on purpose."
...They had grades?
She looked like she was having fun, and yet, somehow, her expression kept getting worse. After days of walking on eggshells around her, I could tell.
I wasn't sure how much time passed like that.
"...I think I'll go to bed now."
The Demon King stood up from her seat.
"Claaack? Clack-clack! Click-clack-click-clack!"
"Clack... clack? Clack."
Judging by the way the skeletons caught at the hem of her skirt, they were probably saying something like, Already? No way! Stay a bit longer!
She paid them no mind, left the kitchen, and headed down the dark hallway.
What's with her.
A brief gloom settled over the kitchen when she left, but it was quickly replaced by a clatter of clacks and a rising chatter. Looked like they had plenty to say among themselves too.
I should head in as well, then...
That was when someone caught my hand as I stood. Blue, from the semis. Was this bastard looking for revenge?
"...What? You got something to say?"
"Clack! Click-clack!"
Blue smiled — good-naturedly, if you could call it that — scooped a spoonful from the can of peas he'd been saving, and held it out to me.
"...I'm good. You eat it."
"Click-clack! Clack clack!"
Let's just forget the whole thing! Like men! — or something along those lines, I figured. The sheer nerve of that rattling jaw trying to play it cool drew an involuntary laugh out of me.
"Yeah. Thanks."
Hm?
Before I could take it, the spoon he'd been holding out — the one with the peas — dropped to the floor. The peas scattered in a mess.
"...Hey, what are you doing. You spilled it all over the—"
Huh?
Blue was gone. And not just Blue. Every last skeleton that had been sitting at the table, clacking away just a moment ago, had vanished.
The kitchen stood empty.
Not even the smallest sound remained.
They ran out of mana and disappeared, didn't they.
All that was left on the table were the cans we'd been eating from, scattered about in a hurry.
...I should clean up and go to bed.
Rattle. Rattle.
In the wide, silent kitchen, the only sound was the quiet rustle of half-eaten cans being cleared away.
I finished tidying the kitchen, washed up, and was on my way to my room when it hit me.
...I can't stop thinking about it.
My footsteps carried me to the Demon King's door. She hadn't locked it, but I hadn't exactly gone opening it either. Her bedroom.
Come to think of it... this is the first time I've come looking for her first.
I wondered if I was poking a sleeping bear. But something about the way she'd been at the end there had gotten under my skin, and I didn't think I'd be able to sleep.
"You asleep?"
No answer.
She only just went in. She's probably out. I should...
"...What?"
From the other side of the wooden door, in the dark hallway, her small voice came back. The muffled quality of it told me she was under the covers.
"...Are you hurting somewhere?"
I'd been praying for the Demon King to drop dead for quite a while now, but that wasn't about to actually make her sick. I wasn't a shaman, after all.
"...No."
"...Alright, then."
I turned to go.
The Demon King's drained voice caught me by the hem, just as I was walking away. I came back to the door and asked.
"Those guys earlier... the skeletons. Can you summon them again?"
"...Yeah."
"...The same ones?"
"......No."
The first thing the Demon King had asked, the moment she summoned the skeletons.
A strange feeling welled up in me. The same lonely feeling I'd had in that empty kitchen after the skeletons vanished.
Was that why she hadn't wanted to use undead summoning?
A demon? Demons, who aren't any different from insects when it comes to feeling things?
It didn't make any sense. In everything I'd fought climbing to the ninety-ninth floor of this Tower, I hadn't felt a shred of emotion from a single demon. They just attacked the humans who came in.
Don't ask any more.
For some reason, I didn't think I could handle the answer.
"...I'm going to bed too."
"...Hey."
I could hear her bare footsteps approaching from the other side of the wooden door. It wasn't all that frightening. Strangely enough.
I could feel her standing there — the Demon King and I, facing each other with nothing but this wooden door between us.
"...What?"
"...You can't leave. You can't. You."
The same thing she'd said countless times.
For the first time, it wasn't frightening.
Because her voice was trembling, fragile.
I had nothing to say back. Don't leave? Stay here with you, like this, forever?
That's absurd.
If there was ever a moment I could say it all, it was now.
That being trapped here with her was too much. That she'd worked me to the bone more than enough. That she should let me go.
"...Good night."
I left nothing but a short goodnight and walked away.
Was I holding back the truth because I was afraid of the Demon King's revenge?
I didn't even know myself.
When I'd put some distance between myself and her door, a tiny mutter drifted through from the other side.