Waiting (12)
"Really... can you actually do that...?"
Even as she asked, Vilma already knew what Valdes would say.
"Of course. If you want, I can even speak to the other people in the imperial family."
"Ah...."
Vilma let out a breath she couldn’t hold back.
It wasn’t because of what Valdes had said at the end.
The sweet temptation whispered by the Demon Prince had given her permission to be a little kinder to her own heart. She still couldn’t bring herself to spill everything she’d been bottling up inside, but she did want his help.
Simply getting close to the Fourth Princess, Theresia, was something she could have done on her own. The process would have been terribly arduous, but it was possible. What she wanted, though, was something else. She wanted more than that. She wanted those trashy followers trying to ruin her cute, kind little sister gone.
And she wanted to bring down the Magic Tower that had bound her sister.
Valdes had the power to do that.
"Valdes-sama... you already know what I want, don’t you? Even if I don’t say it out loud."
"I don’t know everything, but I’ll take care of whatever I can."
"...Kya-ha-ha. That’s really... the kind of thing I love hearing."
It wasn’t exactly a proper promise, but for Vilma, it was enough.
Valdes wore a quiet smile and watched her as she laughed happily. She looked genuinely satisfied. And at the same time, there was something cruel and frightening in her expression. She probably didn’t even realize it herself.
Seeing that face, he became certain.
Vilma really was the emperor’s daughter.
He had thought her nature might have come more strongly from her mother, but no—this was the blood of an imperial line that had endured for generations. It was a thick, heavy bloodline that could crush ordinary noble stock flat beneath its weight. And that power lived in Vilma, too.
"All right, then. We’ve settled the talking part, so should we go see Robert?"
"Sounds good! ...Oh, but before that, let’s check on these guys first."
"The monsters? Fine, sure."
He hadn’t thought there was any special reason to look at the monsters, but since Vilma insisted, he nodded.
He was the one who had asked her to remodel them, but he didn’t care all that much about the monsters themselves. To put it bluntly, any monster was fine as long as it obeyed commands. Some of them would be used in places where the mere fact that they were monsters would be enough to shock people senseless.
And yet, the moment he saw the monsters Vilma had modified, he couldn’t help but be impressed.
"Wow, that’s insane...."
"Pretty great, right? It took a lot of work to make these. But honestly, it was kind of fun!"
Watching Vilma speak with such energy, he thought to himself that however much she was a black mage, her specialty had to be dark magic. But looking at her now, she seemed more like someone whose true field was chimeras, taming, or maybe even modification. She hadn’t had a proper chance to show what she could do yet, but Vilma really did feel like a black mage.
Whether “feels like a black mage” is actually a compliment or not, I’m not sure.
Lost in these thoughts, Valdes soon turned his eyes back to the monsters.
The changes were impressive beyond words.
Putting aside the fact that their muscle mass had increased quite a bit since the last time he’d seen them, their lower bodies were absurdly excellent. In truth, “excellent” wasn’t really a word that suited monsters, but for the purpose he had in mind, they seemed more than appropriate.
"Nice. I’m very satisfied."
"Hehehe, right!!"
"Then let’s go."
"Huh?! Already?!"
Valdes looked at the startled Vilma, who was flailing in disbelief, with a dumbfounded expression. Where had the First Princess, who had been dreaming up schemes with him just moments ago, gone? In her place stood only this naive, foolish black mage. Even knowing about her dual nature didn’t make it feel any less awkward.
He gave Vilma a half-hearted glance, then turned on his heel without hesitation and left the room.
"W-wait! I’ll come with you!"
Calling out as she chased after Valdes, Vilma had become noticeably more comfortable with him now that she had bared a little of her heart. That didn’t make her rude or presumptuous, so Valdes didn’t particularly mind.
Thus, the two of them, now a little closer than before, soon arrived at the prison where Robert was being held.
The woman who had once been a male great mage was bound inside the cell so tightly she could barely move, and she was quietly considering how to escape. For her, sleep, food, and hygiene only needed to be maintained at the bare minimum. At least that was one advantage of having a homunculus body.
"Oh? It suits you better than I expected."
"...?"
Robert, who had been lost in thought with her head lowered, looked up. The moment she spotted Valdes, her eyes flew wide open and began to tremble violently.
He was the first person she had seen besides Vilma since waking in this female homunculus body. Her mind spun furiously as she tried to identify him. With Vilma walking behind the boy, about two steps back and slightly diagonal, his identity wasn’t hard to guess.
She growled at Valdes.
"You... you’re the one who trapped me in this body, aren’t you?"
"That’s right, Robert. Or should I call you Roberta now?"
Robert ground her teeth at the boy’s sly grin, but the anger didn’t last long. She had been locked away here for dozens of days, and she had too many questions.
"Who are you? How did you find this place? Why did you make me like this? What are you after? I’ve never even seen you bef—!"
The stream of frantic questions stopped the instant Valdes raised a hand.
"Calm down. I’ve got plenty I want to tell you, too. ...Unlike you, though, I’m not the one overflowing with questions."
Even with that rather gentle tone, Robert did not relax.
If he were well-disposed toward her, he never would have made her into this mess in the first place. And those eyes. The eyes of that boy, who didn’t even look old enough to be an adult, were full of hostility, anger, and resentment directed at her. Just like the way she had once flung them at the world.
"Let me start with an introduction. My name is Valdes. I’m the Demon Prince."
"Demon Prince? The next Demon King?"
In truth, the single word Demon Prince explained most of the mystery already.
After all, she had been a member of the Hero’s party that had defeated the Demon King. So if this boy was a demon, and not just any demon but someone tied to the Demon King, then the emotions he showed made sense. Of course, there were still many things she didn’t understand. For example, how he had found this place, or why Vilma was here with a demon at all.
And most importantly, Robert felt something strange coming from the boy. Familiar, yet unfamiliar. A feeling of something she hadn’t experienced in a very long time. The same kind of sensation Valdes had felt from her.
"And at the same time."
"...?"
"I was also the Hero, Pedro."
"?! "
"Long time no see, Great Mage."
The former Hero smiled.
Robert, the former comrade of the former Hero and great mage, stared at Valdes through the bars with a dazed expression, as if her mind had simply stopped working. It was clear she couldn’t make sense of what she was hearing.
Then, slowly, her pupils began to dilate. Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly. She wanted to say something, but the shock was too great, and her vocal cords seemed unable to accept reality. At last, one word slipped from her lips.
"Re... reincarnation magic...?"
"Oh? So you know about it?"
Of course she did.
Robert, who had been dreaming of a second life, had investigated not only the empire and the Magic Tower, but also many other places. It was a useful way to satisfy both her magical curiosity and her desire to improve her own abilities. What had drawn her the most, though, was the demons’ magic, largely unknown on the continent.
After the war, she tortured demons who had failed to leave the continent or had hidden in its shadows, and from them she obtained a fair amount of magical knowledge. Among that knowledge was information about reincarnation magic. But there were too few people who knew the proper formula, and the information itself was too sparse. In the end, she had no choice but to give up on that avenue.
But with the words Hero Pedro and the sight of a demon before her, Robert immediately thought of reincarnation magic.
"Th-that’s impossible...! Reincarnation magic is supposed to be cast on yourself! No, first of all, reincarnation magic is demon magic! How could a human, a Hero...!! Wait, before that!! How, how did you survive that situation...?! "
As Robert rambled in confusion, she remembered the incident Vilma had mentioned a few days ago.
Vilma knew about the assassination of the Hero. If the person she served was the reincarnation of Hero Pedro himself, then of course she would know about it. It was shockingly impossible, but if the boy before her was truly the Hero, then nearly everything else fell into place.
The only thing she still couldn’t understand was how he had managed to reincarnate as a demon.
"That’s none of your business."
"W-why...!!"
"Because you’re a mage. If you’re curious about something, you can’t leave it alone, can you? There’s no reason for me to tell you that, is there?"
"...!!"
Valdes smiled wickedly.
"I think I’ve already told you more than enough. So keep wondering, all right?"
"D-don’t be ridiculous!!"
Robert’s eyes sharpened like knives.
The Hero and the Great Mage had never been especially close. Their age gap had played a part, but more than that, it was because Robert had treated Pedro awkwardly and with a stiff, resentful edge due to her jealousy. Still, after traveling together for nearly two years, they had built a certain amount of familiarity, and the Hero had studied magic seriously enough that they could at least have conversations about it.
Because of that, they knew each other fairly well.
Robert’s magical talent was matched by a hunger for knowledge and curiosity that ran just as deep. She never bothered hiding it, and the Hero’s party all knew it well. With something so minor, Valdes was already tormenting her.
"Still, there is a little more I can tell you."
"W-what is it...!"
At Valdes’s next words, Robert’s expression brightened. But that only led her further into despair.
"Your future."
"!!"
"What I’m going to do to you."
"A-ah...."
"You have quite the imagination. So the things I tell you will be more than enough to make you anxious, and afraid."
"No... no...."
"As a mage, that’s one of your greatest talents, isn’t it? Until now, you probably thanked that imagination of yours. But from here on, it’ll be different."
Every word from the smiling avenger flew at her like a dagger and buried itself in her flesh. There was nothing she could do now that she had been reduced to such helplessness. And her opponent was Hero Pedro. She knew all too well how much hatred he must bear toward the person who had once tried to kill him.
To the clearly shocked and despairing homunculus, Valdes calmly laid out his plan.
"There are five things I’m going to do to you. The first is already done. That body of yours."
Valdes swept his gaze up and down Robert’s body.
The nude body of a beautiful homunculus woman.
The flesh he had specially commissioned from Vilma and had partially modified was built around every man’s ideal. It was only natural that it was beautiful, since it had been assembled from the most ordinary male fantasies. Even so, Valdes felt no lust at all toward that naked form.
"Things like appearance or build, you’ll notice for yourself, so I’ll skip those. What matters more is what this body can do."
"......"
"First, its regeneration is excellent. Most wounds heal almost instantly. And the muscles are flexible. I imagine if you could just endure the pain, your skin could stretch a great deal, too."
From the depths of despair, she sensed something wrong.
Everything Valdes was describing now was an advantage for her. If she made good use of that flexibility and regeneration, she might even be able to escape this cramped prison. Putting aside the fact that magic would likely expose her soon enough, it was still possible in theory.
"Beyond that, as a homunculus, it has all sorts of other advantages. Sleep, hunger, things like that."
The Demon Prince smiled.
"But."
He was thinking about the cruel truth he was about to reveal to that traitor.
"It has no magical ability or physical strength. Just as you’ve already noticed. And all of this exists for the sake of other plans."
"......"
"Isn’t it strange? Why did I put you in a female body?"
"?! "
Robert was horrified.
It was something she hadn’t paid much attention to before.
She had simply thought it was to mock her, to make her feel out of place, to weaken her by trapping her in a frail body. But all three of those explanations made no sense. If he only wanted to mock her or make her uncomfortable, there were far better ways. He could have given her an ugly face, or even made her into some nonhuman beast. And as for the body itself, since she was a homunculus, he could have made a male body much weaker with nothing more than a touch.
That left only one possibility.
"Second, and third."
Valdes declared it.
"From now on, you’re going to become a receptacle for the lust of countless monsters and low-ranking demons...."
Her future.
"A trash bin for sexual desire."