Malcolm's Surrender
“This is your own doing, Malcolm. People and beasts are the same in the end. The moment they realize their opponent is an easy mark, they start acting up. That’s why it’s important to make sure they feel it when they bare their fangs. But how hard should I drive the lesson home?”
I looked at my old friend, who had thrown a punch while blinded by a love he’d dreamed up on his own.
“Hah!”
Malcolm’s first swing was easy to dodge. I didn’t need any grand movement—just a single step back. That one miss laid bare everything he had. He’d never hit anyone in his life. He hadn’t even tried before.
As expected, the moment I lightly avoided his desperate punch, Malcolm’s face flushed with confusion.
“H-huh? Ugh…!”
His face burning red, Malcolm kept throwing punches. Every single one was wild and sloppy. None of them came close to touching me—they were the kind of swings that were never going to land in the first place.
“Damn it, stop running! Fight me properly!”
“Fight you? If that’s what you’re saying…”
I snatched Malcolm’s incoming fist.
“…then I’ll take it to mean you’re ready to get hit.”
“Uwaaah…!”
I yanked his fist toward me and drove my own into his stomach.
“Guh…!”
When his body instinctively tried to pull away, I held him close and spoke clearly into his ear.
“Whether you did a good thing or not isn’t something you get to decide alone. You can only call it a good deed when the other person truly feels grateful for it.”
“What the hell are you talking about…!”
“What do you think? I’m saying you never actually did anything good for Ilena. You just did whatever you wanted to do, using her as the target.”
“Agh!”
Having said all I needed to say, I let him go—shoving him forward hard enough that his body rolled across the ground.
“Roen, you bastard!”
“Don’t get up. If you do, I’ll assume you still want to fight. And if that’s the case, it won’t end with just one hit like before.”
“Kgh, grrr…”
Malcolm glared at me with all the strength he could muster, but even his eyes were trembling. That was nothing compared to the state of his body after taking the blow.
“Feels different, doesn’t it? Getting hit while being scolded by your parents versus getting hit in a real fight.”
Now that he knew his place, there was no need to keep humoring him. I extended a hand.
“Come on, get up. Let’s stop with the pointless fighting. It’s been ages since we met, and the first thing we do is throw punches? We’re both pathetic.”
Malcolm hesitated for a moment before taking my hand and standing up.
“Wait here. I’ll go get some water.”
“Water? Make it liquor.”
The voice of the one who’d started the whole mess already sounded resigned. Once the instigator stepped outside, the atmosphere inside grew noticeably calmer. Everyone glanced my way once, but after confirming I was unharmed, they didn’t react further.
“Here, have a drink.”
“Thanks.”
“Thanks for what? I’m the one who threw the punch and then offered the cure.”
“I brought it on myself, didn’t I?”
“At least you know that much.”
Malcolm had thrown the first punch. I’d only responded. If anything, I was the one who’d landed a hit.
“Kgh…”
After clinking glasses and downing his drink in one go, Malcolm let out a satisfied sound.
“You’ve changed a lot, Malcolm. You used to be gentler than this.”
“Yeah. The reason I changed is all thanks to Miss Ilena.”
“Thanks to Ilena?”
“Look. The only young woman in this village is my little sister. Even so, I was born a man—I figured I ought to get married someday. So I was planning to leave the village. But then…”
“Ilena showed up.”
Malcolm nodded.
“Yeah. And not just any woman—a really good one. Honestly, she’s an amazing woman, isn’t she?”
“She is. Looks aside, she’s outstanding in all sorts of ways.”
“That’s exactly why I worked up the courage! I was going to try my luck with Miss Ilena no matter what!”
It seemed Malcolm had a lot pent up. And now he was pouring it all out to me—his rival? Well, with his sister Kana out of the question, I suppose I was the perfect listener for once. Especially since I’d already won the competition for Ilena’s heart. Or maybe he was only confessing now because he’d resigned himself to losing.
Actually… had there ever really been a competition?
“But Miss Ilena wasn’t looking at me. She just kept talking about you—the guy who left the village twelve years ago…”
“What about Malkuth or Tiphereth?”
I asked on a whim. After all, there were two other demon women who looked young.
“Those two are weird. Wait, more importantly—you’re already close enough to drop the honorifics?”
“Ah, yeah. It just… happened.”
I tried to make an excuse, but Malcolm didn’t press further.
“So what’s weird about them?”
“Miss Ilena coming here is one thing, but I don’t get why those two are in a place like this. Miss Malkuth is using that sharp head of hers to build village facilities, and Miss Tiphereth won’t even give a proper answer when you talk to her.”
I understood why. Malkuth had been the strategist of the Demon King’s army that had nearly destroyed the human world, and Tiphereth simply didn’t like humans. Thinking about it that way, it made sense why Malcolm had fixated only on Ilena.
“Anyway, it’s cheating. I always thought you were good-looking even as a kid, but when you came back after twelve years, you looked way better than before.”
“I have my mother to thank for that. She says if the mother’s beautiful, the son’s face turns out nice too.”
“It’s not just your face that’s improved.”
Malcolm gave my chest a couple of light taps with his hand.
“What the hell were you doing out there? The way you dodged my punch, that well-trained body… You didn’t look like an ordinary mercenary no matter how I looked at you.”
“You think so? I did make a bit of a name for myself.”
“Makes sense. Whew…”
Malcolm downed another drink and flopped down onto the soft grass.
“This is complicated. I’m proud that my childhood friend came back as such a fine man, but at the same time it feels like the person I spent so long pursuing was stolen away in an instant.”
“Don’t take it too hard. There are plenty of women in the world.”
“But good women are rare. Especially someone as wonderful as Miss Ilena.”
After venting everything he had, Malcolm sat up and refilled my still-half-full glass.
“Sorry. We finally meet after all this time and I start swinging fists right away.”
“It’s fine. Your punches had no substance anyway—they didn’t even land.”
“Ugh… Anyway, I’m letting go. No, I already have. When Miss Ilena told me not to follow her and asked you to take her home instead.”
That had definitely been a shock. She’d openly shown favoritism toward me over Malcolm. For the usually docile Ilena, it had been quite a bold move.
“So, what did you two do?”
“What do you mean? I just took her home.”
“Hey, come on. That excuse doesn’t fly. Just walking her home wouldn’t take that long. Plus, your face was all red the moment you got back.”
“Was it?”
“It was. That’s why I lost it and punched you.”
Malcolm held out his own glass this time.
“So what did you do? Let me live vicariously for a bit.”
“We didn’t do anything special. Just…”
“Just? You definitely did something! What was it?”
“……”
I wasn’t sure this was a good idea. No matter how much he claimed to have given up, was it really okay to tell the guy who’d just been in love with Ilena what we’d done?
I gave him a warning just in case.
“Think you can handle it?”
“……”
“No.”
“See? You haven’t completely let go yet. If you had, you wouldn’t have thrown that punch at me.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I know it’s impossible now, but I still haven’t let go completely.”
Malcolm took a deep breath while holding his glass, then shouted at the top of his lungs.
“I’m so jealous I could die!!”
His voice echoed through the entire village. Then he downed his drink in one gulp.
“So what are you going to do?”
“About what now?”
“My little sister. Kana.”
“Ah…”
Come to think of it, while Malcolm had been the one pushing her, Kana had also made her feelings for me pretty obvious.
“Kana can find someone better than me.”
“You bastard. Is that something you say in front of her real brother?”
“What can I do? I’m not trash enough to string two women along.”
“Hah, you lucky bastard. With your looks, you could probably pull it off.”
“Stop saying weird things and just refill the glass. We need to toast.”
We clinked our freshly filled glasses. Before Malcolm could pour the liquor into his mouth, I asked,
“Still, just tell me one thing. What did you do?”
“Only one thing.”
“What was that one thing?”
“Hmm…”
I had warned him. This was his own doing, Malcolm.
“A kiss.”
“……”
Silence hung in the air for a while. Then Malcolm suddenly emptied his glass in one go and shouted with all his might.
“Damn it, I’m so jealous I could die!!!!”