A Demon Army Officer Is Obsessed with Me
Letios, direct subordinate of the Demon Army officer Belial, let her magic settle and slowly opened her long-lashed eyes.
There stood a boy, frozen like a startled deer.
"Heh."
To someone who had endured nothing but scorn and contempt from the moment he was born, the offer she was about to make would sound irresistibly sweet.
She tossed her shimmering hair and parted her lips.
"Shion Frelia. I have been watching you."
To a boy with that empty, carefree look about him, her seductive voice would land like a potent drug.
And once she turned him into a demonkin and slipped him into Luin Academy, her mission would be complete.
Failure was impossible. Why?
Because I am beautiful.
Not a single male had ever managed to refuse her looks. Every last one of them had fallen to their knees before her flawless beauty.
And this grinning little nobody would be no different.
"Come into my domain. I have a most attractive proposition for you. Won't you hear me out?"
"…Yes. I shall listen carefully to your valuable words."
Oh my. How adorable.
He was clearly putting on a show of composure to hide how terrified he was, but to Letios—who had corrupted countless souls—it only made him cuter.
"I have always kept my eye on you. Your surroundings are forever crawling with creatures who tear into you for the pettiest of reasons. Do you know why?"
"Hmm… I find it rather difficult to guess. If it would not be too forward of me, might you be so kind as to tell me the reason?"
"Your birth is no problem at all. There is only one reason you suffer. You are weak. Because you are weak, everyone looks down on you. That is why you are always someone else's prey."
"Ohh… The way you take something anyone could figure out and dress it up like some enlightened sage dispensing wisdom is truly pitifu—ah, no. Truly magnificent."
?
For a split second she wondered if he was mocking her and her eyes narrowed—then she shook her head.
In the presence of someone as beautiful as herself, almost no one in this world could keep their wits about them long enough to spout nonsense.
That reaction had to be pure, unfiltered admiration.
I nearly misunderstood him.
Having sorted her thoughts, Letios continued.
"To one such as you, I shall personally bestow power. With my strength, you could take revenge on every servant who ever scorned you—and at Luin Academy, you could easily make those you have always longed for your own."
"…So if I accept your power, I will be able to achieve everything I desire. Is that what you are saying?"
"Exactly. No one will ever be able to harm you again. And more than anything—"
"More than anything?"
Letios stroked her slender, elegant jaw.
"You will be granted my beauty. Is that reason alone not enough?"
She was certain. With that, the boy would be completely hers.
No one dared resist this all-powerful beauty. And the chance to claim it for themselves would feel like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to anyone else.
"Ah, about that… Would it be possible to decline just that part?"
There had been a time when Letios believed such a response was unthinkable.
"…?"
She doubted her own ears.
What? He was rejecting her beauty?
Stunned by the impossibility of it, Letios blanked for a moment—then laughed.
"Well, I suppose receiving my absolute beauty would make life rather troublesome. Insects drunk on the beauty you gained would swarm you endlessly. I understand how you fe—"
"Forgive me for interrupting while you are speaking, but I believe you may be under a slight misunderstanding."
"…A misunderstanding?"
At her irritable echo, he nodded and answered—still wearing that same easy, smiling expression from the start.
"Haha. Even someone as ignorant as myself knows one should not say such things to a person's face. But if misunderstandings keep piling up, they will eventually come back as something far more harmful."
Shion spoke with an air so light it seemed ready to drift away on the breeze.
"I do not find you beautiful. Hmm… If I had to define it in a single word, I would say you are closer to repulsive, would I not?"
Letios's mind stopped working.
"Ah, of course, I do hope I have not offended you. This is purely my personal opinion. Perhaps I simply lack sufficient refinement when it comes to beauty, no?"
"What did you just…"
"Good heavens! You didn't catch that? Haha, no matter. I can simply say it again. This time, please do listen carefully."
Letios had gone rigid from the shock of his words, but Shion paid her no mind and pressed on.
"I do not find you beautiful. In short—you are ugly."
From some point onward, Letios could no longer hear Shion's voice.
Her brain, under extreme stress, had simply shut out all incoming information.
"Huu…"
She drew a deep breath.
Right now she stood torn between two choices.
…Should I just kill him?
Should she slaughter this goddamn bastard, or grit her teeth one more time and corrupt him as planned?
Anyone who not only rejected her beauty but outright denied it deserved to be torn apart a hundred times over—but she could not kill him if she wanted to complete the mission.
— You're repulsive. You're repulsive…
Huu…
Every time that light, breezy voice echoed through her head, her murderous intent surged—but she forced it down and endured.
"All right, little boy. I will not ask twice. Will you accept my offer?"
"Hmm… And what happens if I do not accept the offer?"
At Shion's innocent question, she conjured a fireball and answered.
"Something rather dreadful will happen, I am afraid. Too dreadful to imagine."
"Whew! Then I really must give this some careful thought!"
Shion folded his arms and sank into deliberation.
"Hmm…"
He said nothing for quite some time.
"Hrmm…"
Time kept ticking by.
"Nnngh…"
Just as Letios's patience reached its absolute limit—
"You little—"
"Ah! I have decided. Oh? It looked as though you were about to say something. Was that just my imagination?"
The exact instant she was about to snap, Shion made his decision. The timing was far too infuriating to call a coincidence.
Endure it… Just endure it.
Letios took a deep breath and wrestled her inner self back under control.
"…Haa. Fine. So what is your answer?"
"Hmm… On second thought, perhaps I should consider it a little longer."
"You son of a—"
"Haha, I am joking. Just a joke. Please do not get angry. You will get wrinkles."
Hot flames flickered into existence and vanished again and again in Letios's smooth palm.
The sputtering fire seemed to mirror the precarious state of her composure.
"I… must decline after all."
"Is that so? What a shame."
"Arara? For some reason you look rather pleased. Am I correct in that assumption?"
She flinched.
"Of course not. I am simply disappointed by your choice. May I ask why you refused?"
"Well… I would rather not say, if I am being honest. But since you yourself have asked to hear it, hiding it would be just as rude."
That peculiar way of speaking—respectful on the surface, dripping with mockery underneath—grated on her nerves.
"To get straight to the point: it is because you have nothing you can give me. I am not nearly as weak as you seem to think."
What a joke. Letios snorted.
His physical ability was no better than an ordinary adult male's, and he possessed almost no magic to speak of.
And he claimed he was not weak? A passing werewolf would laugh itself sick.
"Ah, and of course that is not the only reason. If I accepted your offer, I would be bestowed with that beauty you keep talking about. But no matter how I look at it, that feels like nothing short of a curse. Haha. You see, I have no desire to become ugly."
A thick vein bulged at Letios's temple.
…This bastard, to the bitter end.
This one had to die.
"Ha, haha. You really do have a talent for getting under a demon's skin."
She wiped the gentle expression from her face and glared at Shion.
"Besides, you are an evil demon, are you not? Of course, I believe there must be kind and righteous demons somewhere in this world—but at the very least, you do not appear to be one of them. I have no wish to walk the same path as you and soil myself."
That cold, murderous gaze bored into Shion, but he paid it no mind and kept talking.
"Do you see this marble?"
A gleaming, beautiful sphere appeared in Shion's hand.
"A perfectly spherical object of great beauty. What thoughts come to mind when you look at it?"
"It is passable enough, but compared to my beauty it is worthl—"
Crack!
Shion clenched his fist and shattered the marble into pieces.
"Oh dear. It has been smashed to bits. The marble that once boasted such beautiful form is no more."
He brushed the fragments from his hand and continued.
"Is there any difference between your beauty and these shattered pieces of marble?"
"……"
"Yes! Of course there is!"
He ground the scattered shards underfoot as he spoke.
"These marble fragments are hundreds of times more beautiful than you. Would you not agree?"
"You… You…!"
"Of~ course, this is purely my personal opinion, so please do not take it too much to heart. In this day and age, if you believe yourself to be beautiful, is that not what matters most?"
Hearing that shameless, thoroughly fake consideration, Letios's mind went white.
"Haha. I shall be cheering you on."
This bastard was garbage that deserved to be killed a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times over.
She immediately arranged her magic and forged an enormous fireball.
Fwoooosh!
Surely even he could not keep that face after seeing this murderous spell. Letios looked at Shion with that expectation.
Indeed, Shion's expression had changed.
"Oh dear."
But not in the direction she had anticipated.
Where before it had been something like Please do not be too discouraged, haha!, now—
"It seems I may have overestimated you rather severely."
Pity and scorn filled his face.
"A word of advance warning. If that is the full extent of your power, you would do well to think very carefully before you actually attack."
He opened the eyes he had kept closed until now.
The light, easygoing impression was gone—replaced by a chill so sharp that even a glancing brush felt as though it might shear off a limb.
Those abyss-like eyes fixed on Letios.
"However feeble the fangs you bare, once you have shown them, I have no choice but to answer that expectation in kind."
A serpent was closing around her throat.