Why Did I Do That?
Why did I do that?
I'm lying down. In this place that no longer feels strange to call my room.
There's no blood on my hands, nor even the dampness of having washed it off.
Why?
I truly don't know why, but in the end, I couldn't cut her throat.
Was it because I'm a proud knight who doesn't attack a sleeping opponent? No. Because I didn't want to leave this place and go back to Earth? Absolutely not.
Whatever the reason, like a free-range sheep, I walked back into the pen of my own accord. The chance I kicked away with my own two feet today might never come again.
And yet, somehow.
I didn't want to kill her.
Could she have cast some kind of magic on me? I'd wished it of every last one of the countless people who'd stormed this place. That they'd carve out the Demon King's head. That they'd grant liberation to this soul of mine bound here.
I don't know...
Even after the drunkenness had mostly worn off and I'd spent hours turning it over, I couldn't find a reason. No—actually, a faint reason did brush against my mind, but it was such a grotesque thought that I discarded it immediately.
...Have I grown attached to the Demon King?
Bullshit.
Whatever the reason, what I did was, as a captive, as someone trying to escape, an irredeemably stupid act. That much is certain. Plotting another escape starting tomorrow after this would be nonsense.
I can't sleep.
...Does she even catch colds?
The Demon King, who walks around every day in nothing but a thin dress. She'd been fine even after taking Dorothy's absolute zero, but with her magic weakened now, I don't know.
...Maybe I'll go get some water.
Thud, thud.
I'd left my room and was almost at the kitchen when I heard it.
...Huh?
A low, mournful sound of weeping.
I drained every ounce of force from my careless footsteps and set them down with care. Then I peeked my head around the corner and looked inside.
The Demon King.
That Demon King was sitting in a chair at the table, snot and tears streaming down her face, sobbing as if her heart would break.
Uhh-hhk.... uhhk.... hic... uheeeeeng....!..hwaaaang!
As if sorrow were overflowing her small body and spilling out. She trembled from head to toe, wracked with it.
The ground beneath my feet felt terribly precarious. Like stained glass at the top of a skyscraper, I was afraid it would shatter if I took another step. I couldn't walk.
Like someone who'd stumbled upon a crime scene, I silently backed away. I went straight back to my room, crawled under the covers, and closed my eyes, hoping sleep would find me quickly.
I opened my eyes to a delicious smell. What I saw was still the ceiling of my room in the Demon King's Castle.
After everything that happened yesterday, I'd had some hope that maybe something would change... but it was still just everyday life.
That's the smell of grilling meat.
I threw off the covers, got up, and stretched.
Huh?
No hangover at all. That shouldn't have been possible. I'd gone way past my limit yesterday. What happened?
...The Demon King, maybe.
She might have cast a purification spell on me before I woke up.
Thud, thud. As if it were a standing appointment by now, I naturally headed toward the kitchen where she was.
...Last night, at the end...
The Demon King, wailing as if she might shatter to pieces. Honestly, I kept thinking that sight might have been a hallucination born of drunkenness. The fact that she'd been there alone, crying her eyes out after getting drunk... somehow, it frightened me.
Just around this corner.
The kitchen would be there, and the Demon King would be there.
...Just as I thought.
"You're up?"
".....Yeah."
The Demon King was fanning the smoke from the meat she was grilling on the griddle. Toward my room.
"...What are you doing?"
"I was waking you up. I was gonna use Roar of the Berserk Dragon, but I switched to luring you with the smell of meat instead."
What kind of eardrum-shredding skill name is that.
"...What's that on the Paper Crane?"
"Well, see, I noticed today that the Paper Crane's neck was broken? So I wrapped a bandage around it."
As if nothing had happened. Everything in its place. The Demon King's appearance, infinitely close to the everyday, brought a strange sense of relief.
"...I'll eat well, then."
The moment I pulled a fork from the utensil holder and reached for the meat she was grilling—
Clang!
What—what is this? A barrier?
There was actually a fucking barrier around the frying pan.
"Going soft, aren't you. Were you trying to eat this expensive meat for free?"
The Demon King shook her head vigorously, as if I were beyond saving.
"I thought about it, and I've been putting you up, feeding you, clothing you, even bathing you, all for free, haven't I?"
When did I ever ask you to do that. You're the one who locked me up! And fuck, you even secretly bathe me while I sleep!?
A chill ran through me at a level of sexual harassment from another dimension. This bitch. In the Republic of Korea, a nation of law whose crime arrest rate converges on ninety-nine percent, she'd be locked up before half a day was out.
"...What is it?"
I was hungry, and it wasn't as if refusing was an option. Let's just play the game, crush her, and eat the meat before it got cold.
The match she challenged me to was a revenge match of Iron Fist. She said she'd been secretly doing special training at dawn after losing to me. Just how diligent can one person be...
Ddoliya!
Last time, caught off guard by a beginner's unexpected all-out assault, I'd given up a fair number of rounds. But against me, a ranker in perfect form from the first second, at a hundred percent, her fighting spirit didn't stand a chance.
Ddoliya! Ddoliya! Ddoliya! Ddoliya! Ddoliya!
The demon character, beaten to death by my main's 5 Wind God Fists. Her face puffed up like a balloon as she huffed and puffed. It was exquisitely satisfying.
"Th... this... how is this..."
The Demon King wore an expression of utter disbelief. She pawed at the fallen demon character on the screen, but of course rubbing the glass a little wasn't going to bring him back to life.
"...Go on, hit me. A promise is a promise. Ddoliya. Hit that."
She spread both arms and stuck her belly out.
"...No."
"Hurry up and hit me. What are you doing? Going easy on me? Come on, hit me already."
"...I'd have to drop the auto-reflect buff first."
"....Tch. Stingy."
This evil bitch. Trying to turn someone into Captain Hook, for fuck's sake.
I nearly died choking on meat.
"Wh-what's wrong?! I don't know what it is, but I'm so fucking sorry!"
She suddenly bowed her head to me at the dinner table. I could hear all the demonkin who'd died until now wailing in hell.
"...This is the pose for asking a favor, right... I have a request."
I swallowed.
What could it be. A request from her, who reigns as king of all demonkin. I was already prepared, in my heart, to give up at least one arm.
"Teach me Ddoliya a bit..."
...Oho.
Is this something I'm allowed to look forward to?
"...Alright. But I have a condition. I'll teach you, so until you beat me at Iron Fist, no other games..."
CRACKLE!
Lightning grazed right past my ear. Seeing the black smoke rising from the Demon King's index fingertip, there was no need to ask who fired it.
"Hm? Ah, there was a fly behind you. What did you say?"
"What kind of payment would I want between us? Of course I'll teach you."
I accepted her as a disciple with a benevolent smile. Even if her face is pretty and her mannerisms are cute, one wrong step and it's a beam. Hitler's got nothing on her. Really.
After finishing the meal, we came to water the Cabbage Patch. For someone who can even make a palm-sized sun, I have no idea why she waters them one by one with a watering can.
"This is bad! A cabbage worm showed up!"
"Yeah. That's too ba— Hey! Why, why are you pushing my back?!"
"I heard it's an unwritten rule that men catch the cabbage worms."
An unwritten rule... She picks up language as fast as a four-year-old.
When did she say she wouldn't make me do things I hate... no... more than that.
We're above the clouds, so why are there cabbage worms.
"If you shoot that beam you use to kill flies, wouldn't the bug die?"
"What are you talking about. Then the cabbage would turn into a lump of charcoal. Are you stupid?"
Then why the fuck don't you care when you shoot it at me to kill flies.
"...Hey, I don't really like bugs either..."
At my grumbling, the Demon King pulled a coin tied to a string from her pocket, as if she'd seen this coming.
"Look right here. If you look anywhere else, you'll get in trouble. You like bugs... you like bugs..."
"Fuck! Fine! I'll catch it, so don't turn me into a bug freak!"
I caught the cabbage worm, grinning and bearing it. The way she bullied people was uncannily similar to Dorothy. She didn't hesitate to use force to get what she wanted.
Should've killed her yesterday.
Regretting it before a day's even passed... you idiot. Fine. Let's kill her today. This time I'll get her properly wasted.
"Want another drink? Today?"
"I heard if a man keeps asking you to drink, you shouldn't. That's what it said in a fairy tale book."
That's a fairy tale practical enough to use as a compass for life. This monster's personality was surely that author's handiwork. Hey, pal, watch yourself on the night roads.
"Hup... that's everything that needed picking... and the watering's done too."
The Demon King stretched her arms wide and patted the cart with a couple of thumps.
"Here, you pull this."
"..."
After finishing dinner, she suggested we decide who'd do the dishes with a bet. I proposed rock-paper-scissors to match, but she refused, apparently sick of the sight of games that involved luck. Barrel Roulette is apparently getting shut down soon too.
"...I'm going in to sleep now."
If I stuck around and she suggested Little Farm, I was done for. I quickly cleared the table and turned toward my room door.
"Hey. I'll tell you my secret."
"...What?"
She scurried off to her room and came back with her piggy bank.
"You said you were curious what I'd buy with this, right?"
"...A little."
".......You said you were curious, right?"
"I'm so fucking curious I could die. Won't you please not tell me?"
She beamed and rattled the piggy bank with a clink-clink.
"...Hehe. A friend. A friend."
"...What?"
"Yeah. I'm going to buy a friend."
...I didn't know she had a hobby of human trafficking. Then again, this is a world where they snatch prostitutes from the slums or children who haven't caught any diseases and sell them at slave markets. It wouldn't be strange for an evil, thoroughly evil Demon King to have such a hobby.
Even so, it sat so wrong with me that I had to ask.
"...You mean buying a person?"
"Whaaat? Do I look like that kind of villain to you?"
You ARE a villain. The great villainous Demon King.
"I'm going to buy the Orb of Eternity."
...What?
"The Orb of Eternity is..."
"I know. It grants permanent life to a subject with limited vitality, right?"
The Demon King's jaw dropped, then she clapped her hands.
"That's right! That's right! I'm going to make a friend with it!"
"To use on a summoned skeleton or something?"
"That's it! How about it? Pretty good idea, right?"
The reason she was saving money had been revealed. To think it was for that.
I'm sorry, but your wish won't come true.
I'd heard there aren't even ten Orbs of Eternity left on the continent. The price is an astronomical sum. Even if that little piggy bank filled up completely, and even if it multiplied by the number of coins inside, she probably still couldn't buy one.
"...Yeah. I hope you save up enough."
"Yeah!"
She smiled brightly. And yet, somehow, a lonely smile slipped through. I could clearly tell the difference.
"I'm going to sleep."
"Okay."
I lie looking at the pitch-black ceiling. I can't sleep, as if a dresser drawer in the room has been left open and it's nagging at me.
...It's a disease. A severe one.
An ordinary day in the Demon King's Castle, no different from usual. Today, I felt a strange sense of relief in this everyday life.
Is this really the proper attitude of someone who wants to escape?
Get a grip.
Just because yesterday's me didn't kill her doesn't mean I've changed. It was merely a groundless fear. Caused by an emotional reversal I can't even explain myself.
But.
Why, when yesterday I was so desperate to leave that I tore her heart apart, am I worrying about her feelings today?
Once I actually did it... I didn't feel good.
Like a slice of cake that's been dunked in muddy water, it wasn't sweet at all.
From now on... let's use a different method.
It's hard to explain why I'm like this, but... I don't particularly want to hurt her with my own hands. Physically or mentally.
"What? Got something to say?"
I turned my head toward the door and asked.
The Demon King is standing in front of my door. She does that sometimes. A presence that's no longer unfamiliar.
"Sleeping?"
"Not yet."
Today. The Demon King who'd smiled as usual, challenged me to games as usual, been underhanded as usual. Then perhaps now it was time for her to go a little dark, as usual.
"Hey. You like playing with me, right?"
"Yeah."
A usual question with a predetermined answer. I didn't bother hesitating.
"...Heehee... ihihit."
I could picture the Demon King's face beyond the door, covering her mouth with her palm as she laughed.
"Say it again. You like playing with me, right?"
"I like it."
"You like playing with me?"
"Yeah."
"The two of us, playing together—you like it?"
"Yeah. I like it."
"Me too. But, you know."
"..."
Only after a long while did she continue.
"That thing I mentioned earlier. The Orb of Eternity. Once I save up the money and buy it..."
And after another long stretch of time, she attached the next words.
Even without seeing her, I could feel her throat trembling. It's a habit. The one that comes out when she's wringing out words that are hard to say.
So she remembers... I wish she'd forgotten.
Yesterday's uncomfortable memories from the drinking session. I wished the Demon King would forget that muddy, fruitless memory.
...There's no chance she'll let me out of here, then.
Since she'll never get her hands on that orb.
In that case...
In that case, it shouldn't matter if I tell her a little lie that makes her feel better.
"......Huh? What did you just say?"
"......?!"
Boing! Boing! Boing!
A moment later, I heard her noisy footsteps bouncing wildly in every direction. That was definitely the thump-thump she made when she was jumping for joy.
Listening to that sound, I felt a little better. Only then did my eyes drift shut.