Chapter 80: Back to the Demon Realm (8)
Chapter 80: Back to the Demon Realm (8)
All he could see was the wall of shields, so he couldn't confirm it with his own eyes, but it was unmistakably him. When had it been since they last met, and he had had no idea they would meet again.
As if his mere appearance had quelled this chaotic situation, he leisurely posed a question among the now-silent group.
"What stage?"
"Estimated Stage 1."
"Estimated? You haven't properly confirmed it yet?"
"My apologies."
"Forget it. Just call Ben."
"Yes."
"Then─"
─Open up.
The words fell like a death sentence.
The seamlessly interlocked shields were pushed aside, and through the gap, the Demon King revealed himself.
He took one step inside, waited for the parted shields to close completely, and then, staring at my frozen self, carefully opened his mouth.
"Demon."
"......."
"Demon, can you hear me?"
I could hear him, but I didn't know what to say first.
This situation had gone too far for me to salvage.
"There's no way you can't hear words spoken at this distance, so it seems you're hearing and ignoring me, but I'll just speak anyway. Listening is enough."
"......."
"First of all, the people here are not enemies. No one intends to attack you, and there is no need for you to kill anyone right now."
"......."
......I know. I do. I know it perfectly well.
That the war was over, that battles wouldn't occur unless in special cases, that I was living in reality.
What the hell was he suddenly talking about.
Watching the Demon King, who was speaking gently with a serious attitude to calm me down, I clamped my mouth shut, feeling like a hollow laugh would escape.
The Demon King, interpreting my silence in some way, opened his mouth again. And then.
"So calm down a little, and first, put down that liquor bottle in your hand...."
"D-Demon King! I heard you summoned me! Where are you injur...!"
Ah, that voice. It was Ben.
Why did he call my personal physician? Don't tell me, he was going to heal me after beating me half to death...?!
But the Demon King's attitude was too gentle for that. He wasn't the type to kill someone with a warm smile... or was he?
......He wasn't?!
While I fell into serious contemplation, the Demon King, who had let Ben in by having the shields moved aside, still not taking his eyes off me, gave a cold order.
"Demon drank alcohol. Check what stage he is at now."
"Ah, yes, understood."
What stage?
As I tilted my head at the incomprehensible conversation, Ben stepped forward.
With a solemn expression, he took a step forward, swallowed dryly, and stared at me. And the first action he took was to lower his upper body and raise both hands slightly, as if pushing away, and said,
"Lord Demon, I am not an enemy."
While saying that, he neither avoided my eyes nor lowered his raised hands the entire time.
As if I were some kind of wild beast... Uh, shit, this might be right on the mark?
"Now then, Lord Demon? If you can hear me, would you please answer?"
"......Yes."
"!?"
At my reluctant answer, Ben froze on the spot. The Demon King beside him was the same.
I flinched in turn and searched my memory, wondering if I had said something wrong, but the only thing I had said was the answer, 'Yes.'
Wondering what was going on, I just rolled my eyes and gauged the situation. Ben, who had been wide-eyed, stammered out some words.
"Lord... Demon?"
"Yes."
"Lord Demon?"
"Yes."
"L-Lord, ahem, Lord Demon, you're using honorifics right now...?"
"Huh? Yes."
I always used honorifics, so what was the sudden fuss about.
"......Seems he isn't drunk."
"Yes, I think so too...."
At this point, someone really ought to explain the situation to me, but it seemed I wasn't even on their radar.
The Demon King and Ben left me hanging there and whispered seriously about something.
Occasionally, bloody words like 'false report', 'punishment', and 'kill him' seemed to pass between them before it abruptly stopped, and the Demon King snapped his head up to watch me.
"Demon, did you drink alcohol?"
"I did not."
Finally, he speaks. I felt relieved, but I was a bit worried about what came next. The matter had grown this big; would it really be let slide easily?
But contrary to my worries, the Demon King, who had never once raised his voice in my presence before, showed an unchanged attitude this time too. He nodded calmly, as if he had roughly anticipated it based on the situation.
Nowhere in his demeanor could be seen anger or irritation drawn out by the sudden commotion.
"I see... Then that liquor in your hand?"
"It was here. It's a commonly known alcohol in the Human World, so I found it curious...."
"Demon King, I think he was caught in the act before he could drink it. There's no way Lord Demon would just let a bottle of liquor be, is there?"
......What the hell.
Just what did Ben think of me? And what about the Demon King nodding along to that?
That alone was absurd, but the words of Dvelania, the 2nd Legion Commander, who had leaped right over the shields and entered, knowing exactly where to come and for what purpose, were a sight to behold.
"If Lord Demon is bored anyway, how about allowing a brief outing? For instance, going to the second city with me to buy clothes...."
At the completely unfounded, out-of-the-blue remark, I let out a snicker, my disbelief written all over my face.
Bullshit. As if I'd go. I planned on staying holed up only in the safe Demon Castle. And even if I did go, I would never go with you. Why would I go?
──There was a time when I thought that.
* * *
I was blind-sided.
By whom?
"Would you like to go to the second city with Dvelania?"
"Excuse me...?"
By the Demon King.
It was a suggestion, no, an order, that came a week after the noisy liquor incident had ended.
Just when I'd felt a bit relieved that he hadn't summoned me for a week, he blindsided me like this. Dirty move, attacking with a time lag.
The ridiculous liquor incident had fizzled out. It was a natural result, I guess, since I hadn't drunk any alcohol in the first place.
Though I was very pleased that, unlike the typical demon-race trait where drawing a sword meant needing to slice someone's throat to cool their temper, no one—especially me—had died and it had ended quietly, the current situation was extremely displeasing.
To the second city, with Dvelania!
"Just think of it as a relaxing trip. Ah, but instead of going in a straight line, take a slight detour around the outskirts."
"......With the 2nd Legion Commander... together... that is what you mean."
"Yes."
"......."
Couldn't I just not go?
"It would be best to go while you can."
As if noticing my reluctant expression, the Demon King smiled faintly and approached me.
Not stopping at simply approaching me, he placed his hands on both my shoulders, brought his mouth to my ear, and then whispered something. Hearing those words, I─
"What does that have to do with...."
"Do you really think so?"
"......I will go."
Even while unable to hide my unwillingness to go, I had no choice but to express affirmation.
That sly Demon King. Even if it seemed completely unrelated to me, once he said, 'Do you really think so?' I got anxious and had no choice but to go.
If I had known what 'take a detour around the outskirts' meant, I never would have gone no matter what he said. Fuck.
* * *
[Because war is about to break out.]
So I need your help. As it was, various other species were already protesting about the issue of demonic beasts.
[I hope a situation doesn't arise where I have to keep you tied down here once the war has started.]
[......I will go.]
Demon King Kaber, having persuaded Deon in an instant, stared blankly at the closed door before leaning back in his chair. The Demon King's unique Inverse Eyes were set low, casting a gloomy light.
The Empire had accepted the surrender of the Ireon Kingdom.
There had been no proper battle to begin with, they said. They had only trampled two cities on the straight-line path to the capital, and yet the King of Ireon, who had lost his will to fight, declared surrender.
No, the news of surrender had arrived just as they finished trampling the second city, so to be precise, he would have decided to surrender when one city was being trampled.
If they were going to crumble so easily, why bother with the useless provocation?
Did they think the 'Empire', built on blood, would just let a provocation slide? If they really thought that, they were hopeless idiots beyond redemption.
They woke a sleeping lion for no reason and couldn't even scratch it.
'We'll clash with the Empire sooner than I thought.'
Now the Emperor had begun rampaging without hiding his goal of continental conquest.
He was an Emperor who had already waged war against multiple kingdoms at once. Having done it easily once, there would be no reason he couldn't do it twice.
He had no intention of sitting idly by while the Empire swallowed the continent.
Because the direction of the power, swollen as the Empire swallowed the continent, would ultimately be obvious—here, the Demon Realm.
He had been thinking of moving when the Empire had swallowed about half the continent, but it seemed there would be less time than he thought.
Kaber, who had tilted his head back against the headrest and stared only at the ceiling, slowly straightened his upper body and reached out onto the desk.
Soon, the Communication Stone was in his grasp, and having confirmed the connection with all the executives of the Demon Castle, a voice devoid of any laughter flowed from his lips.
"From this moment on, I issue a Magic Prohibition Decree across the entire Demon Realm. Except for magic already imprinted on tools and used in daily life, its use is absolutely forbidden. However, should you feel your life is threatened, its use is permitted in that moment alone."
The appearance of a Hero wasn't something he ordinarily paid much attention to, but the situation had changed slightly. If a Hero appeared during a war with the Empire, it would become quite bothersome.
Either drastically increase the use of magic to force the Hero's appearance before the war, or cease using magic to delay the timing.
There was little time left before the war with the Empire, and even if he were lucky enough for a Hero to appear before the war, there was no way the Emperor would send a Hero to the Demon Realm under such circumstances, so ultimately there was only one choice.
'Whether the World will follow suit as intended is unknown....'
How could one predict and block a typhoon?
The best course was simply to make as many preparations as possible.
Thus, the monarch responsible for the fate of a race commanded.
"Additional duties are assigned to the 2nd Legion Commander, the 4th Legion Commander, and the 8th Legion Commander. If anyone uses magic without a justifiable reason, root them out and ensure they receive their due punishment."
It meant to simply kill them.
This method had been used constantly before, so there would be nothing awkward about it.
When the 2nd Legion Commander brought in various pieces of information, the 4th Legion Commander combined them to narrow down the list of suspects, and the 8th Legion Commander checked them one by one, rooting out and killing the targets.
It was the same method used to root out and eliminate the bastards who spread the 0th Legion Commander's appearance elsewhere, so there would be no fresh problems now.
"This is all."
After that day, the use of magic halted all across the Demon Realm.
This outwardly indistinguishable change was a shift only the Demon King, the fated nemesis of the Hero, and the Fairy King, sensitive to the World's flow, could feel. The Fairy King, sensing this change, sneered lowly from the center of his forest.
[It's already too late.]
The Demon King wouldn't know, since he could only roughly feel the approach of a Hero's summoning.
The World had already finished all its preparations. It was just waiting for the right timing.
The moment the World sent the Hero would be the worst possible moment for the Demon King.
Its end would surely be death.