Chapter 74: Back to the Demon Realm (2)
Chapter 74: Back to the Demon Realm (2)
I headed toward my room, crossing the hallway of the Demon Castle.
Even though it was my first time back at the Demon Castle in a while, I had absolutely no intention of wandering around here and there. If I went poking around for no reason and ran into some weirdos, that would be a pain.
For example.......
"......Demon... sir?"
"Ah."
......Someone like Hien.
A silence flowed for a moment as if time had frozen. Soon, unable to bear the awkward silence, I cautiously raised my hand to at least offer a greeting, but.......
Crash!
Hien dropped the flowerpot he had been holding blankly, and far from greeting him, I had to step back in an internal panic.
A bizarre plant writhed and died among the broken pot shards with a pathetic Kieee- sound.
'.......'
Right, this was what the demon realm was like. Why had I even come back here, as if I was going to enjoy some kind of riches and glory? Couldn't I just make a run for it to the human world like this?
I stood awkwardly frozen, staring blankly at just that, when a shadow suddenly fell before my eyes.
"D-Demon sir! You've returned!"
"Ah, uh, um... yes."
I get that you're happy, so could you maybe put that expression away? The dissonance is intense right now.
Alternating my gaze between the bizarre plant on the floor and Hien's radiant face, I, perhaps having received a mental shock, for the first time in a while.......
"Cough."
Coughed up blood.
"D-D-D-Demon sir!!"
Hien made a huge fuss. Unable to bring himself to touch my body, he hovered anxiously in front of me, fidgeting. Right. If it had just been this, it would have been bearable.
But the problem was,
"......Demon sir?"
My adjutant, Ed, who happened to be passing by, discovered me like this.
"Demon siiiiiir!!"
"......."
"I finally found you! Are you alright?! To meet you in this state of all things...! Ah, f-first, the treatment......."
My personal physician, Ben, had come looking for me.
The quiet hallway of the Demon Castle instantly became noisy, and servants passing by sporadically turned their attention this way, whispering.
To think such a beautiful event was waiting for me the moment I arrived.
'Haha, fuck.'
I wanted to hide anywhere.
This feeling of mine reached its peak when Ed suddenly grabbed Hien by the collar.
"You. What did you do?"
Why are you doing this to the poor kid. He didn't do anything.
"I'm sorry......."
"!?"
Why are you apologizing?!
At the sight of Hien bowing his head deeply, seemingly sincerely dejected, I even briefly retraced my memory to see if he really had done something to me. The only result was a confirmation of Hien's innocence.
"I, Ed- kuh, cough!"
"Demon sir!!"
"Don't speak!"
For reference, this was a swallowing gaffe. Like an idiot, I had spoken while forgetting there was still blood pooled in my mouth. I swallowed the blood wrong.
So what became of it?
The blood that went down my airway flowed right back up and flew out of my mouth again with a cough.
At the catastrophe unfolding before his eyes, Ed let go of Hien's collar and hurriedly approached me. A cautious hand touched me.
"Please don't force yourself to stand. Lean on me. Breathe slowly."
"Cough... hack,"
"Yes, like that......."
"......Cough."
Ah, it finally subsided.
To show such an unsightly state at our reunion after so long, it was so embarrassing I could die.
Because of that, I couldn't bring myself to lift my head and just stared at the floor. Ed, looking at me like that, called out to Ben in a subdued voice.
"......Ben, have you identified the cause?"
"Same as always. ─The aftereffects."
"Tch. So that means there's no other solution."
"Right. Since we can't tell exactly where, how, or why it hurts, it's just frustrating."
Well, of course...... it was a swallowing gaffe, so there's no knowing where, how, or why it hurts.
"More importantly, Ed, help support Demon sir. I need to finish the rest of the treatment in his room."
"What? There's more left?"
"Oh. He also sustained an injury on his arm."
"!"
Ed flinched and let go of my arm, which he had been holding to support me. Because of that, I lost my balance and stumbled, and he jumped in surprise, hastily extending his arm to support my waist.
His hand, supporting my waist, was trembling.
"I-I'm sorry. D-Did I happen to grab your injured arm? If I did......."
If you did... then what.
My instincts sounded a warning. A warning that if I heard the rest of that sentence, my sleep for the night would be done for.
Fortunately, he had grabbed my uninjured arm, so I hurriedly opened my mouth.
"No. You grabbed my uninjured arm. So you don't need to apologize."
"Ah...!"
"That's a relief. Now, how about you hurry up and support him? Are you planning to spend all our time here? Aren't you going to treat Demon sir?"
"I will! I'm sorry, Demon sir. Excuse me for a moment."
Ben rummaged through the bag he always carried, looking for something, while Ed supported me as if holding me up, practically carrying me as he moved his steps.
Then what about Hien?
When I glanced back at Hien, who was slumped and depressed, Ed caught it without missing a beat, turned his head, and bared his teeth at Hien.
"I'll see you later."
No, so I'm saying... he didn't do anything.
.......
"Is the injury serious?"
Ignoring my opinion that I was fine and persistently supporting me all the way, Ed arrived at my room, sat me on the bed, and helped Ben remove my outer garment as he asked.
This time too, my wish to undress myself had been flatly ignored.
"No, it's healing smoothly. The occasional minor pain that comes is something someone like Demon sir would brush off easily. So as long as you don't move roughly, there shouldn't be much reason to feel any particular pain......."
There was something in the middle that sounded terribly wrong, but I missed the chance to deny it. Because Ben, who had unbuttoned all my shirt buttons and exposed my bare shoulder, had paused for a moment.
His brow furrowed, a rare occurrence.
"......It's trying to get worse again?"
"......."
"Then why didn't the signal......."
Ben, who had been looking at the magic stone hanging around my neck with irritation, glared at it for a long moment before muttering, 'Was it a malfunction?' and changing the subject.
When he was alternating his gaze between me and the magic stone, I briefly heard him mutter something like 'Must be my imagination,' but since he dismissed it as trivial, I let it go too.
"Demon sir, did you happen to have a battle before you came here?"
"Pardon? Well......."
I didn't think there was anything that could really be called a battle.......
"Ah, there was something similar to a battle."
"As I thought! How intense must it have been......."
"Yeah... well......."
It was intense. To me, it was like a life-or-death struggle.
The chase with those Mad Dog bastards.
Come to think of it, I had pulled the bowstring like crazy back then. I was out of my mind at the time and didn't pay much attention, but since I had overexerted my already weak arm like that, it wasn't strange at all that the wound had gotten worse.
"If Demon sir personally stepped in, that opponent wouldn't be alive and intact by now, I suppose."
"Probably the fragments of that body are scattered piece by piece all over the ground somewhere."
"As expected, I'm sure."
......Just how are they seeing me?
Appalled, I kept my mouth shut, but the unbearable conversation between the two continued until the treatment was finally over.
Ben, who had wrapped a new bandage on me, lightly tapped my shoulder as if advising me and spoke.
"The treatment is perfectly complete, but to be safe, I think it would be best to keep the bandage on for the time being. Since we've minimized the use of magic, you never know what side effects might arise if you move roughly for no reason."
"Okay."
"Then I'll take my leave n......."
Knock knock-
In an instant, everyone's heads in the room turned toward the door. Even mine.
......Strange. Why does the sound of knocking on the door sound so terrifying?
This was the demon realm. Unlike the human world, the demon realm was a place where, in one sense, there were almost no people who would come looking for me, and in another sense, there were countless.
I couldn't even begin to predict who was standing outside the door, so it was even more frightening. Who on earth was it?
'No matter who it is, it's still a terrifying opponent I have to be careful of, though.......'
While I was spacing out for a moment, Ed slightly opened the door and checked outside.
And seeing his face instantly twist in what seemed to be confirmation of who it was, I was, funnily enough, actually relieved.
The fact that Ed was openly frowning without holding back at least meant it was a demon of lower status than him!
Come to think of it, one person came to mind... no way.......
"What is it? Hien."
No way, but speak of the devil.
I sharpened my senses and focused on their conversation. Noticing my reaction, Ed stopped whatever else he was going to say, pushed Hien, and stepped outside the door.
Hien, who had been pushed out fidgeting anxiously, had a stubborn streak in the strangest places and opened his mouth to the last,
"I-I, I am......."
"Before that, you and I have something to talk about."
Ed heartlessly pushed him out, and Hien was helplessly forced back into the hallway without exchanging a single word with me.
Uh, umm, isn't this a bit dangerous? From the looks of it, Ed seemed like he was ready to settle something.
Surely he wouldn't kill him, but Hien was fundamentally in a position of being despised in the Demon Castle.
To me, a human, all demon-race are just demon-race, but damn it, that incubus, succubus thing.
With the thought that he might end up breaking an arm or a leg somewhere, I hurriedly opened my mouth.
"I'm sorry, Demon sir, just a moment......."
"Ed."
"Yes?"
"Hien hasn't done anything wrong."
"Ah......."
Something about his reaction was off. This wasn't the reaction I expected.
With a strange sense of unease, I added something just in case.
"Truly."
"......Yes, I understand for now."
"Yeah......."
But why are you leaving, though? Do you really understand?
I stared at the already closed door, my heart full of anxiety, when Ben, who had finished packing up his things in the meantime, picked up his bag and took a step back from me.
"As expected, Demon sir, you are truly magnanimous."
"Pardon?"
"Weren't you just now being considerate so that the gardener wouldn't die?"
"No, it's not that, but because he really didn't do anything......."
"Yes, I know. There's no way a mere gardener would dare harm a Legion Commander. He wouldn't even be capable of it in the first place."
What, you actually knew? Then why.......
"However, to another Legion Commander, simply having witnessed their weak appearance is more than enough to warrant death."
"......."
"Because an incubus of all things doesn't dare have the right to see that."
Good heavens.
At the answer that surpassed my imagination, I quietly despaired.
So it meant I had to live squeezed among those kinds of bastards again from now on.
"Then does Ed......."
"He probably already knows, too. There's no way he wouldn't. He just needed an excuse, that's all."
An excuse...?
I reflexively tried to ask again but stopped myself in a hurry. It felt like not asking at all would be better for my mental health anyway.
But rendering my efforts useless, Ben kindly even added the reason.
"In the first place, doesn't it just not make sense for someone like that to be hanging around near the 0th Legion Commander?"
"......."
"Of course, given Ed's personality, he wouldn't dare disobey Demon sir's words, so since you've spoken to this extent, he won't kill him or anything. He'll probably end it at a warning never to approach carelessly again."
"Never...?"
So Hien won't approach me anymore.
It was something I had wanted, but something felt a bit off-putting. Maybe because the method just didn't sit right with me?
Ben delivered the finishing blow to my ambiguous feelings as I remained silent.
"Weren't you annoyed by him too, Demon sir?"
"......."
"......You must be tired from the long journey. I've been rude. I will take my leave now."
Ben left, and I, now alone, slowly laid my body down on the bed. The now-familiar ceiling came into full view.
I was tired. My body was one thing, but I was mentally exhausted.
I raised both hands and rubbed my face.
"Ah, seriously......."
Ed and Ben had misunderstood something.
I wasn't annoyed by Hien; I was scared of him.
He was a demon.
For a frail human like me, who was neither a Hero nor a hero with a fragment, it couldn't be helped.
'But still.......'
Hien, who had approached me with pure goodwill, came to mind.
Literally pure goodwill, not with some other insolent intention. Of course, that goodwill still felt terrifying to me...... but still, it wasn't on purpose.
Above all, every time Ed and Ben treated Hien like that, the resentment for it would surely pour out toward me.
A demon-race's grudge. I had no confidence I could survive that unscathed.
......Ah, I don't know.
I'll try bringing it up when Ed seems to be in a slightly better mood later, I guess. He said they'd end it at a warning never to approach, so there's no need to rush out and stop it right this moment, is there?
But right now, I wanted to rest a bit.
Unable to overcome the mental fatigue, I let out a deep sigh. Soon after, I slowly lowered my hands and looked at the ceiling.......
'......Motherfucker.'
Why won't the world just let me rest.
Afraid I might get cut if I moved recklessly, I just rolled my eyes to check the sword lodged right next to my neck, then looked straight ahead again.
Right before my eyes, a demon-race gripping the sword hilt was smiling, stretching the corners of her mouth as if glad to see me.
"Hellooo, Demon sir."
"......."
"As expected of Demon sir. Does that mean my sword isn't even worth reacting to?"
"Dvelania."
"Yeeees, I'm glad to see you too. I don't even know how long it's been since we last met~."
The 2nd Legion Commander, Dvelania.
The existence I found the most abhorrent by far was greeting me with a languid smile.