Chapter 3: The 0th Legion Commander, Deon Hart (1)
Chapter 3: The 0th Legion Commander, Deon Hart (1)
"I refuse to do paperwork!"
That was what I'd blurted out when I first heard the Demon King's recruitment offer. Thanks to that, by taking on the unofficial position of the 0th Legion Commander, I became something of a figurehead—just had to keep the seat warm and sit there.
I had no particular complaints. Watching the other Legion Commanders buried under piles of paperwork, groaning and grumbling, honestly made me feel pretty proud of myself for saying that.
But if I had to pick one fatal flaw....
"I'm bored!"
I was way too bored! There was nothing to do, and even if I went out, the demon realm was always night, and the garden was home to only horrific plants.
But going to see the Demon King was insane, going to see the other Legion Commanders was basically walking myself to my own death, the bastards under me always avoided me—probably because they didn't want to deal with a human—and I couldn't trust them anyway... so in the end, the things I could do were bound to be limited.
Like, for example, cubes or puzzles. Very wholesome....
"Screw thiiiiiiis!!"
Shrrrrr.
Thousands of puzzle pieces flew into the air. I looked around the room, seething. Neatly completed large-scale puzzles hung in frames, decorating the walls.
At first, I'd started with simple 50- or 60-piece puzzles just to kill time, and before I knew it, I was doing 6,000-piece ones.
Damn, I could probably sell those. Me, a bastard with absurdly high focus and nothing useful to apply it to.
A sudden wave of emptiness washed over me, and I let out a hollow laugh before yanking the door open. The servant waiting in front of the door flinched visibly and hastily bowed his head. Pretending not to notice his desperate effort to not even meet my eyes, I spoke.
"Bring me alcohol."
"Excuse me?!"
"Alcohol. I don't care what kind. As long as it's alcohol."
"B-But...."
Contrary to his desperate attitude that suggested he would do anything I ordered, he hesitated with a face like he was about to cry, wavering repeatedly.
I had a rough idea why he was reacting like this. Ben must have forbidden it, obviously.
I was born with a constitutionally weak body. This unnatural white hair, these red eyes, this deathly pale skin—all proof of it. The fact that I coughed up blood at every chance was also because of that.
Here, I could pass the cause off as 'chronic after-injury from fighting the Hero,' so that was fortunate at least, but not being allowed to drink was a little sad. More precisely, Ben's thorough professional dedication was deeply regrettable.
Some doctor who examined me when I was young once said:
[It seems as though all the health that should be evenly distributed throughout the body has concentrated itself in the liver!]
In practice, I didn't get drunk easily unless it was something serious, so it probably wasn't false. Thanks to that, I was able to survive taking harmful medicine without issue... well, anyway.
The point was, I'm fine to drink. I wouldn't die.
So bring me the alcohol. Right now was exactly the time I needed a drink.
Awareness of my own situation—a 0th Legion Commander with nothing to do, holing up in my room doing puzzles—was so crushing I absolutely couldn't endure it sober.
I stared at him pointedly, conveying the demand to hurry up and bring it, and the servant jerked his shoulders before bolting off somewhere at top speed.
......Wait, was that a no?!
"He'd better not be not bringing it."
Right, he probably didn't run away or go off to do something I never ordered.
Even as I muttered that, an inexplicable sense of foreboding crept in, and I shuddered.
The ominous feeling was spot-on. The servant who'd vanished like a fleeing man without answering had returned.
—With the Demon King in tow, no less.
This traitorous little shit.
"You want to drink, I hear."
I was glaring at the servant, full of resentment, but at the sound of the Demon King's voice, I quickly lowered my eyes.
If I said yes, the nagging would surely fly now. But I couldn't exactly say no at this point, so I half-resigned myself and bobbed my head.
But the response that came back far exceeded my expectations.
"Were you that restless?"
"...Excuse me?"
"I guessed you'd be bored lately with no battles, but I didn't realize it was to this extent. It seems I've been going too easy on you. My apologies."
Ah, n-n-n-n-no, no no wait a minute.
I just wanted some alcohol, why was the stream of consciousness heading in that direction...?
"If you truly wish, I could let you participate in even a small skirmish. The 9th Legion Commander on the frontlines has been making a racket about being bored. If you go, the war situation would likely shift, what do you think? Shall you go even there?"
If it was where the 9th Legion Commander was stationed....
'That's the very frontlines.'
A place where large and small battles broke out frequently, as it bordered the Empire. He was offering to send me to a place like that?
Oh, I get it. So the idea was that since my body was already deathly weak anyway—so weak that even drinking could kill me—I might as well be put to at least some use as a meat shield on the battlefield before I died.
Seriously. Dirty and petty. Fine, I just won't drink then.
"I'm fine."
Absolutely not doing this because I was scared. Doing this because it's dirty.
"Well, a wise decision. Even if you went, you wouldn't see enough blood to satisfy you anyway."
I was speechless. No, I correct myself. I was frozen stiff from fear.
Even so, threatening me this much just because I tried to drink a little was too much.
Worried that my feelings might get exposed while our eyes met, I quietly lowered my gaze. The Demon King's voice continued.
"In any case, no alcohol. Do you have some business that'll turn the Demon Castle upside down? If you're truly bored, go check on your legion, or at least tour the garden. Hien was delighted, saying he'd brought in new flowers this time."
I jerked my head up. That madman?
The fact that he was a demon-race goes without saying, so I'll skip that. Hien was the gardener. If I may be so bold as to say, that guy was through-and-through, stone-cold insane. Insane about what, you ask?
Freaky, dangerous, carnivorous plants!
At first, I'd tilted my head, thinking that having a gardener at the Demon Castle was strangely incongruous. But after touring the garden with him, I'd understood with brutal clarity.
[That's exactly why a guy like him works at the Demon Castle!! I let myself believe it was a peaceful profession! I will never! Trust a demon again! So help me!!]
It was a valuable lesson learned firsthand and etched into my bones. I couldn't afford to dismiss it lightly, so I looked at the Demon King with a dead-serious expression.
"I'll go check on the legion."
The legion members were dangerous too, but they were definitely preferable to that insane gardener.
...That was what I'd thought barely five minutes ago, when I'd set off for the 0th Legion's training ground.
"Oh, Demon-nim!"
"......Hien."
I hurriedly raised a hand and wiped my face to hide my rapidly paling complexion.
And when I lifted my head, I found myself abruptly eye-to-eye with a man of refined features who had somehow gotten right up to my nose.
Wha—, that startled me!
"Are you tired?"
"Well, a little...."
"At times like this, smelling flowers is just the thing. I've brought in a new flower this time, would you like to see it? I'm showing it to you, Demon-nim, first of all, as a special treat."
A devil. A devil was smiling at me, his eyes gently creased.
Normally, his looks would be something to blankly stare at, but I was entirely focused on racking my brain for a way to escape. His appearance didn't even register.
Why don't I fall for that face, you ask? Well, he's a guy.
If he were a succubus, maybe, but an incubus? As if I'd fall for that. I may be going crazy in this place lately, but I haven't gone crazy enough for even my sense of gender identity to waver.
'Now that I think about it....'
This bastard, he's subtly a high-level operator. Maybe it's because he's an incubus, he had a talent for narrowing choices down to just one.
Are you tired?
Route A: Yes, I'm tired > At times like this, flower scents are the best!
Route B: No, I'm not tired > Then, perhaps you could come have a look at the flower I've brought in this time....
Normally, I would've been half-tricked by his words and would've had to tour that ghastly garden. But right now, I had a perfect excuse.
"I was just on my way to check on my legion members, so that's difficult."
"Ah... I don't suppose you could postpone it...?"
"......."
Persistent, wasn't he.
Postponing was entirely possible. The 0th Legion members didn't particularly seek me out, and even if I went to them, instead of approaching me or striking up conversation, they only watched my every move with burning eyes.
Effectively, the only thing I had to do there was to hole up in a corner, idly touch a sword or something, and then slip away.
Ah, by 'touch a sword' here, I don't mean it figuratively—I mean literally just touching it. Because if I stupidly tried to look cool and swung a sword even once, and my actual skill got exposed, that would be trouble.
Anyway, so postponing was possible, but I still refused. Hadn't the reason I'd been heading to the training ground for the 0th Legion in the first place been specifically to avoid this guy?
"......."
"......."
At some point, I realized the silence was stretching longer than expected. My thoughts had apparently grown so long that I'd missed the timing to respond.
Hoping he wasn't offended by the prolonged silence, I subtly shifted my eyes to glance at Hien. As if he'd been watching me at exactly that moment, our eyes met.
Before I could even worry about how to react, Hien flinched his shoulders back. Then, his usual faint smile vanishing entirely, he bowed deeply at the waist.
"I apologize."
"......?"
"I was out of line."
At this point, I felt the need to reconsider the demon-race as a species. It wouldn't be a bad opportunity to discuss it properly, just this once.
Now, today's topic.
Is suddenly apologizing a trait of demons?
'What is it with this guy now?'
* * *
Hien was an incubus. An incubus, the exactly the sort ignored as vulgar and lowly.
Getting a position as the Demon Castle's gardener had been pure luck. His hobby was collecting and cultivating all manner of dangerous plants, and as he happened to cross the street carrying a rare carnivorous plant he'd acquired, he'd caught the eye of the Demon King, who was out for a stroll, and was recruited as the gardener.
There was no way that high-ranking people like Legion Commanders would treat someone like him properly.
Even the servants spat on the ground and muttered curses when their eyes met him; he couldn't possibly measure up in the eyes of a Legion Commander. He'd be lucky if they didn't torment him. In fact, some did—kicking him aside and similar.
What could a mere incubus do against such figures? He could only endure.
That day, too, was a day he'd been wholly exposed to verbal abuse and violence.
"An incubus, of all things...."
Hien, who had been sent tumbling, crushing the garden he'd painstakingly cultivated with his whole body, fixed his eyes on the ground instead of getting up immediately.
It was agonizing that his precious plants had been ruined, but right now, a more important situation lay before his eyes.
The 10th Legion Commander, wearing a displeased expression.
He, who had sent Hien flying for the mere crime of being in his path, stood there muttering with a deeply twisted scowl.
"I'm already so distressed I could go mad, and now this, of all things...."
Hien only bowed his head.
The 10th Legion Commander was someone who wanted to flaunt his power. If Hien sprang right back up, like one would when dealing with the 1st or 3rd Legion Commander, that would be taken as provocation.
Thus, he was pretending to be too hurt to get up, keeping his head bowed and trembling, when—
"Ah...."
"Hm?"
An utterly unfamiliar, very small voice, one ill-fitting the Demon Castle, groaned as if in pain.
Up to that point, it was understandable. It could have been a servant who hadn't been here long, accidentally stumbling upon the scene.
The problem was the 10th Legion Commander's reaction.
"Heuk...!"
Reflexively, Hien's head rose.
Had he misheard? But his expression was far too blatant to dismiss as mishearing.
It was a look close to shock. An expression that, at a glance, even seemed to betray fear and awe. Unknowingly, Hien turned his head to follow the commander's gaze,
And he saw a single 'human.'
A lean frame that looked not just average but outright weak. Distinctively strange white hair and red eyes. And pale skin on top of it. If not for the complete absence of any detectable mana, he would never have dreamed the man was human.
'......Come to think of it.'
At some point, a rumor like a storm had swept through the Demon Castle. When exactly had it been—probably right after the war with the Hero had ended.
[Someone other than His Majesty the Demon King killed the Hero, they say.]
[His Majesty the Demon King tried to recruit him on the spot, they say.]
[He's even human, they say.]
'That's him.'
His instincts screamed that this was the protagonist of that rumor he'd believed to be a wild fiction.
The nail in the coffin was the 10th Legion Commander's words and actions.
"What... brings you here...."
"I heard there was a gardener, so I came to meet him... but it seems I've picked the wrong moment."
"N-No, not at all."
For even a Legion Commander to treat him so cautiously—that meant this human must be stronger than him, or hold a higher position.
Now that he thought about it, Hien vaguely recalled hearing a rumor that the man had accepted the position of 0th Legion Commander.
The 10th Legion Commander, who had been waving his hands in refusal, hurriedly excused himself, telling them to chat comfortably, and then the man resumed his halted steps and approached Hien.
He'd said he came to see Hien. He was curious about the purpose, but held no particular expectations.
'Because, well, I'm an incubus.'
On top of that, the other party was none other than the 0th Legion Commander. What were the chances he would treat Hien well?
—That was definitely what he'd thought.