I've Caught a Cold Too
"...Hahh... nngh..."
"Hey, what's wrong with you?!"
The Demon King's forehead was a furnace, her whole body burning as she lay limp, dragging one thin breath after another. Don't tell me. Had she caught my cold?
That was impossible. This was the Demon King — the one who shrugged off every debuff in existence, the one stacked with calamity-grade resistance. If anyone was the picture of health, it was her.
"Answer me."
"...Nngh..."
This was bad. Her cheeks had flushed a vivid red, and even breathing looked like work. I didn't have a scrap of medical knowledge to my name, so the only thought that would stick was that she'd caught the cold I'd been nursing.
Right to the end, all I do is cause her trouble.
"...Hahh... you... koff, achoo..."
"Stay with me. Can you tell who I am?"
"...Why... koff... why didn't you leave... achoo! H-hurry..."
The Demon King lifted a finger, the motion barely there. Was she trying to fire Chain Lightning at me? But no current gathered at her fingertip the way it always did.
Wait.
I remembered the last time — when she'd gotten drunk, and her magic had vanished.
I pressed a fingernail into the back of her hand. Just like then, the mark stayed put.
Her magic had weakened again.
"...Leave. You. Hurry... nngh."
Feeling that her power wouldn't gather, she bunched a feeble fist and thumped it against my chest. It wasn't much different from an ordinary little girl's. No — it was even frailer than that.
"...No."
I scooped her up.
"...This... put me... koff!... d-down. Leave."
Without strength and without magic, her struggling meant nothing. I gathered her up as carefully as if she were a glass bead that would shatter at a touch, and carried her toward my room.
"Nngh... koff, koff!..."
I drew the blanket up to her throat. The Demon King's Castle was a fortress sunlight never reached and air never stirred; a cold would only fester in a place like this.
"...Leave... koff, koff!"
She looked worse than I had, back when I was the one in bed.
"Just wait a second."
I bolted for the bathroom, soaked a dry towel in cold water, and came straight back. The moment the icy cloth met her boiling forehead, the Demon King shuddered all over, like a dried-out frog that had just been splashed.
"Stay like that. The fever will come down."
"...Lea...ve. I said leave... koff. ...I'll kill... koff!"
"...Fine. I'll go. And your throat has to be killing you, so stop talking."
"Koff! Achoo! Koff!"
At that rate she was going to start coughing up blood. I was genuinely worried about her throat. I could only hope it hadn't turned into tonsillitis.
No medicine. And no more plain water to buy off a con artist, either.
For now, I would do whatever I could.
I yanked the door open.
In the kitchen, I opened the cold-storage she'd made with her magic — a box she'd built after flipping through a catalog of Earth's refrigerators and taking notes. Of course, with her power weakened, it was just a box now.
Ingredients I could turn into porridge...
Beans, carrots, cabbage, and onions. That was everything.
I'd kill for some ginger or jujubes right now.
Nothing I could do about it. I'd just have to make the warmest, gentlest thing for a sore throat that these ingredients would allow.
With the Demon King out of commission, I kindled a fire from dry branches, threw everything in, and set it to boil.
"...You... hahh... haah... if you don't leave, you're gonna... get it..."
"Keep running your mouth and you're the one who'll get it."
"...Nngh. Mean..."
The exhausted Demon King had barely drifted off before she jerked awake again. Maybe the thought of an intruder showing up wouldn't let her rest. Still, even that short sleep seemed to have helped a little.
"...I'll keep watch, like last time. Close your eyes and sleep. I've got you."
"...Pshh. You're an... koff! If you're an intruder, then..."
An intruder.
She wasn't wrong. If anyone else broke in now, they'd kill her in a heartbeat.
She coughed again, one fit after another. Her soft cheeks were as red as her crimson eyes.
"...Nngh. Hurry up and leave... I don't have any more cure-all, I'm telling you..."
"...What?"
"Koff! Achoo! Iiih... I said... leave."
Her cotton-soft fists batted at my knee where I sat beside the bed.
"Alright. I'll go. But I've got a condition."
"..."
"Get some sleep. Do as I say. Got it?"
"...Fine. I'll... koff! Koff!... leave. You leave."
I slipped out of the room and left her there. If I stayed at her side she'd only keep whining at me to get out, and she wouldn't sleep a wink.
While the Demon King slept, I snuck back in and changed the wet towel.
Now I was in the warehouse, hunting for anything that even resembled medicine. If this was the same naive Demon King who'd bought plain water thinking it was a cure-all, there was a real chance she had actual medicine sitting around and simply didn't know it.
Nothing.
The dark warehouse held nothing but games. All kinds of them — every game she and I had played together up to now. And the ones we would have played from here on, if I never left.
The Demon King slept for a good long while before she woke. The porridge had gone cold, so I had to heat it up again.
"Eat."
"...Nnngh. The intruder's... trying to feed me carrots..."
"If you don't eat, I'm not leaving."
"..."
Sleep had put a little life back in her. The coughing had eased, and the color in her face was returning to its usual pale.
She took a spoonful of porridge.
"...Uugh. It's gross."
"Your nose is stuffed. You can't even taste it. Quit fussing and eat. Or I'm not going anywhere."
"..."
The Demon King scowled, but she ate. She'd been refusing the whole time — and the second I threatened to stay, she started putting it in her mouth, however grudgingly.
She finished the bowl.
The illness was settling. She'd be well soon enough. Luckily, it looked like a simple cold, same as mine.
"...Koff. N-now get out of here..."
Was she that desperate to send me away?
"Alright. Let me get you a change of clothes first."
The black dress she always wore was soaked through with her sweat. Before long it would go cold and start stealing the heat right out of her.
"It's in your room, right? I'll grab it."
"...Yeah."
What... was this.
It was my first time setting foot in the Demon King's room.
It was barren.
The things in my room — the bed, the desk, the blankets, the chair, the dresser — none of them were here. An old wooden wardrobe. A blanket that looked far more worn than mine. The paper house I'd given her, and the camera, sitting by themselves in the empty space.
The bed in my room had been there from the start. The rest of the furniture, I'd received piece by piece while living with her.
Had she... moved everything that used to be here into my room?
We'd only started sleeping in the same bed a little while ago. Had she been living in a room like this until then?
The wardrobe door creaked as I opened it and took out a black dress.
"Leave... hurry... before I... punish you."
"After you change."
"...You said you'd leave if I just ate the porridge."
"If you don't change, I'm watering the paper house."
"Nngh! You rotten... Kurdan of Destruction! You devil...!"
Lose the horn first, then call someone a devil.
"...Fine."
The Demon King pushed the blanket aside and, with slow, clumsy motions up on the bed, started changing. Feeling awkward, I opened the door and stepped out into the hall.
The bed in my room had been there from the beginning. Everything else she'd moved over for me might have been the measure of how lonely she had been.
Because she'd come to hate this empty castle. Because she was afraid I'd want to leave. In her own way, she must have been desperate. She didn't have a damn thing to her name, and she still tried to give me all of it.
I'm not playing with you anymore.
Yeah, right.
How much had I taken from her, and never given anything back? It wouldn't have been just the piggy bank this time. I'd probably been taking things from her I didn't even know about.
A good while later I opened the door, and she jumped. She looked far better than before.
"Ah! The liar of an intruder came back! You said you were leaving! What are you—"
"I'm not leaving."
"...Nnngh. No. Not this time. Even I can't give in on this."
"Because you're afraid I'll catch it?"
"..."
The Demon King, still lying down, jerked her whole body to face the other way. Fine. Then I'd just walk around to that side.
"You already drank all the cure-all. You're doing this because you're scared I'll catch your cold, aren't you?"
"..."
"Say it. We're secret friends, aren't we?"
"...But."
She bit down hard on her lower lip and held on. But the crybaby Demon King didn't have it in her — fat tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks in no time.
"...But... hhngk. Hhk... if you, if you die, then what? Hhk... I don't even have the piggy bank anymore. Hnng, and that was the only bottle of cure-all I had... sniff."
Had she already been coming down with it herself, back when I was the one in bed? Had she gone out in that state to buy medicine, fed it to me, and then tried to send me away because she was terrified her cold would jump to me next?
My cold had already broken. And yet, strangely, my throat felt tight. I was a grown man about to start sniveling, and I didn't want to talk.
But I was too grateful not to.
I opened my mouth as carefully as if I were carrying a flat plate full of soup.
"...Then... why did you give that medicine to me...?"
"...Hhngk, hhk... I don't know... if you die I can't... I can't. I can't. Hurry up and leave... hhk."
What was the strongest person in the world so afraid of? Tears poured from both red eyes as she spoke.
What was this feeling?
Even if she got angry, so be it. Even if I took a Chain Lightning to the face, even if an ice dragon bit down on me, so be it.
I peeled the blanket back a little and slid myself in beside her.
"Ah?! H-have you lost your mind?! You'll catch it! Hhk! Get out, get out! Or I'll punish—"
I pulled her in tight before the Demon King, throat raw, could get another word out. She tucked into my arms the way she always did. I stroked the back of her soft head. Even after being soaked in sweat, her hair still shone, and that same good scent spread through the air, unchanged.
"...Sniff... you'll catch it... I'm telling you you'll die."
"I'll be fine. And weren't you the one who said I'd die if I left?"
"...Hhk... sniff. Not anymore. I hate the thought of you dying even more."
The Demon King who had been hounding me to leave slowly settled in my arms. Wouldn't she need it too? Someone else's warmth.
"...Alright. I'll leave. But I've got a condition."
"Nngh, another condition? W-what is it?"
No matter how this ended, I would keep the seat beside her until the very last.
"You leave this place too."
"...Huh?"
At those words, the Demon King's crimson eyes shook hard.
"Hhngk, hhk!..."
She didn't look like she was crying from joy. She looked like she was crying from sorrow. Because she knew she couldn't leave this place. I knew that too. The only place in this world she was allowed to exist was right here.
Even so, I had said it. Because no matter what end was waiting, I had already decided to stay beside her until the last. And if I had to, I would fight for her.
Who knew? Like those shooting stars that had carved up the night sky that time — a second miracle might find its way to us, unlucky as we always were. Maybe I could take her back to Earth, and we could be friends for the rest of our lives. If a way like that existed, I would make it happen. No matter what it took.
"I'm not dying of a cold. So I can stay, right?"
"...Nngh, but still... there's nothing here... there's even a hole in the pot..."
"...Haha."
I laughed, low, and the Demon King pulled her face out of my chest to look up at me.
"...Blehhh."
I pulled a funny face for her. The one Rebecca used to love. Beat it, you bitch.
"....Kiih!"
The corner of the Demon King's mouth ticked up, just a little.
This was bad. I'd thought I couldn't like my friend any more than I already did. I liked her so much I couldn't stand it.
"Hey."
"...Yeah?"
"I like you so much I don't know what to do."
"..."
"..."
"...Kihihi! Ah... mmpf."
The Demon King burst out laughing, the tear tracks on her face not even dry. For some reason she could never stand laughing after she'd been crying; she clapped both hands over the huge grin that had split her face too late.
"Ahem... s-so you really want to stay here that badly?"
"Yeah."
"...You might catch my cold, you know? You might even die, you know?"
"Even if there's a hole in the pot. Even if all we've got is canned beans. I want to stay."
At that, she broke into a pffhehe of laughter she couldn't hold back.
"T-then can I swipe the golden potatoes from Warehouse Six?"
Yeah, no.
"...Guess I'll have to hide the potatoes somewhere else."
"What?! Why, why?! You can't give something and take it back!"
It took a long time to talk her out of every misconception she had about colds. She was relentless... clingy as a leech, that girl.
Now the Demon King and I were playing a game, still holding on to each other.
"I like you as much as the Six-Second Gale."
"I like you as much as the sugar-cube dice."
"I like you as much as the Demon King's cheeks."
"Ah! You already said that one! You're caught!"
The Like Exchange Game the Demon King had invented. The rule was simple: if someone said the word "like," you had to answer back with a "like" of your own mixed in. A strict ban on repeating anything already said was in force. The penalty was getting your cheek squeezed.
When I'd first heard the rules, I'd thought, what kind of boring garbage is this? This is Annabelle-tier trash. But...
This was a god-tier game.
Squish, squish.
"Ehehe, I like your cheeks so much. I could touch them every single day!"
So said the number-one ranked cheeks in this world, the mochi-soft Demon King, paying me a compliment.
"They feel like a cabbage I just pulled from the field."
...Was that even a compliment?
"Ah, wait!"
The Demon King, who'd been squeezing my cheek with a grin so wide it nearly reached her ears, stopped dead. She flared those suspicious eyes of hers. Yeesh, terrifying.
"You didn't go into my room earlier and water the paper house, did you?"
"...I didn't."
"...Ohoho. Sorry I doubted you. I almost turned you into a parrot."
I came this close to ending up like Nephilim.
"Thanks for giving me the bed."
"..."
Belatedly, I thanked her for a concession I hadn't even known she'd made. The Demon King took a long time before she opened her mouth.
"Don't be. I don't sleep anyway."
"...Thanks for the other stuff, too."
"...Hehe. Then I'm thankful too. For letting us share a room."
Something kept filling up inside my chest. I was so full I needed to let it out.
"Hey, friend."
"Friend... ehehe... yeah! What is it? Friend!"
I passed her what was in my heart, pretending I was starting up the Like Exchange Game all over again.