The Hero's Secret Hobby?
The Demon King arrived at the hero’s location to commend his achievements. For some reason she seemed noticeably hurried as she rushed all the way here. She tried to enter the room directly, and the servants opened the door without the slightest hesitation, allowing their lord, the Demon King, inside.
“Hero!”
The Demon King shouted urgently the moment she stepped into the room. But…
“!?”
“Ah…”
In the next instant the Demon King froze on the spot with a dazed expression. At the same time, the hero inside the room, upon seeing her, also stiffened with a rigidly hardened face, his movements halting as if time itself had stopped.
The scene before the Demon King’s eyes at that moment was…
the sight of the beast-kin warrior from the former Hero Party she had seen once before, prostrating herself like a dog and eating rice straight from a dog bowl with her mouth. On top of that, the hero was stroking the beastwoman warrior’s head exactly as one would pet a real dog.
Witnessing this, the Demon King fell into deep confusion, unsure what reaction she should show, and remained speechless for a long while.
And then, after a moment, the words that barely escaped her lips were…
“Th-this is… quite a unique hobby you possess… Hero.”
“Ah… no… that’s not… this… this isn’t what it looks like…”
The Demon King’s response was so painfully awkward it was obvious she was desperately trying to appear calm. The hero, seized by intense embarrassment, began struggling to explain the situation somehow, but seeing him like that, the Demon King forced a stiff smile onto her lips and spoke.
“I-It’s fine! There is no need to be embarrassed. Jim knows well that every person has different tastes. And as the ruler of this nation, Jim is fully prepared to understand all of it…”
The Demon King was exerting every ounce of effort to accept the situation. The hero, feeling a pain in his chest worse than if he had been openly condemned, could only remain silent.
Because of the Demon King’s sudden visit at an utterly unexpected time, I found myself in an incredibly awkward position—one that felt like an uncensored scene straight out of a certain genre. I had a truly difficult time explaining everything that had happened to her. Of course, I added a few embellishments, framing the process that had destroyed Terra’s mind and turned her into a dog through forty-five consecutive failures as something that had simply happened cleanly the moment I removed the shackle.
“Um… um… I am sorry, Hero. Jim seems to have made a strange misunderstanding.”
“Ah… not at all, Your Majesty. Rather, I must apologize for showing you such an unsightly sight.”
The Demon King apologized in an awkward voice after I barely finished explaining. I let out a deep sigh of relief inside and looked at Terra, who was wagging her tail energetically in front of me.
“Then… is there truly no way for her to return to the way she was?”
“It appears not. Seeing that this is the result of destroying the shackle that had been restraining her… I doubt there is any hope left.”
With those words I held out a single piece of broken metal to the Demon King.
Status: Failure
All magical abilities have been lost. Now nothing more than an ordinary lump of scrap iron.
The Demon King picked up the fragment, nodded slowly as if she understood, and said, “It seems it contained quite powerful magic. At this point it is literally nothing more than a piece of iron.”
She handed the broken piece back to me. I deliberately spoke in a bitter tone.
“However… to be honest, I think the current situation is actually better. After all, she had already betrayed me. If her mind were intact, I would surely be consumed with rage right now, subjecting her to the harshest tortures imaginable.”
In truth I had already inflicted more than enough pain on Terra through the forty-five consecutive failures I carried out away from prying eyes, but there was no need to mention that here. Since the Demon King, ruler of this nation, was essentially my superior, I needed to show her the best side of myself possible. And even apart from that, any man would naturally not want to leave a bad impression on the ideal beauty standing before him. From the beginning, one of the reasons I had achieved an overclear on this mission was the desire to look good in the eyes of the Demon King who had assigned it to me, beyond simply winning the trust of the demon race.
“What a pity… that one such as you had to experience such things.”
“Well, if we call it fate, then it is fate. The fate borne by the hero… no, by someone like me.”
“Hero…”
The Demon King spoke in a voice that carried a certain heaviness as she looked at me. Through her reaction I realized the situation that could have lowered her favorability had been appropriately smoothed over, and I breathed a sigh of relief inside.
The Demon King had visited the hero with the intention of praising him… or, to be more precise, to see how he was faring, since she suspected his mind must be complicated in many ways. Yet after meeting him and speaking with him, she instead felt her own thoughts and emotions growing even more tangled.
The hero was trying to accept the current situation with an attitude closer to resignation than acceptance. And as she looked at him and conversed with him, the Demon King found herself confused by the strange, contradictory emotions blooming inside her own heart.
‘This is truly a strange thing… Why does Jim feel so uncomfortable in a situation like this?’
Looking at it coldly, the original her should have had no reason to feel discomfort about the current situation. The supply convoy departing from the village of Rob—which played a pivotal role in the allied races’ supply line—had been the unending source of power for the monsters’ offensive, like blood poured into a beast’s maw. Inflicting even moderate damage on that supply line would have immediately improved the situation on several critical fronts; that was why she had ordered the hero to attack the place.
Yet the results the hero brought back were not simply severing the monster’s blood vessel—they were akin to plunging a blade straight into the heart from which the blood gushed forth. No matter how powerful the monster, once a blade is embedded in its heart it cannot endure for long and must collapse. The same held true for the allied races’ army that had been hammering every corner of the Demon Kingdom like a single gigantic creature. Although their total forces still numbered three times those of the Demon King’s army, no matter how strong they were, they could not last long without food and weapons. It would take at least several months for supplies to arrive from their homelands. If they seized this opportunity, they could not only reverse the unfavorable war situation but, if all went well, might even completely drive out the detestable enemies who had advanced deep into the Demon Kingdom.
The hero had delivered not merely a delay in the enemy’s advance, but a perfect opportunity for a full-scale counterattack—one that inflicted zero casualties on their own side. Nevertheless, despite such a magnificent victory report, the Demon King found herself unable to accept the current situation with pure joy.
From the position of a monarch who ruled over all demonkind, the hero’s achievement that brought such enormous benefit to the nation was naturally something to rejoice over. Yet at this moment, a deep sense of pity—not born from that public perspective but from the viewpoint of a woman named ‘her’—had taken firm root inside the Demon King’s heart.
The hero had mercilessly slaughtered his own human kin without hesitation and had captured a former comrade who betrayed him, turning her into a slave. The thorough and perfect corruption of a once-noble being who had risked his life swinging his sword to protect those same kin and comrades evoked a powerful feeling of pity in the Demon King, who now walked a path of noble duty similar to the one he had once followed.
‘Jim did feel sympathy for the hero’s circumstances. But after achieving victory, why does Jim feel this level of discomfort…?’
It was a situation she could not understand from her position, yet something told her that if she followed this feeling to its end, something important would emerge. However, the Demon King decided to stop thinking any deeper about it for now. Though an uneasy feeling remained in her heart, now was not the time to be swayed by such incomprehensible emotions. The most important thing was to carry out her duty as the Demon King.
Pushing the emotions blooming inside her to one side, the Demon King spoke to the hero before her in a calm voice.
“In any case… Hero, Jim wishes to once again express gratitude for splendidly carrying out the order Jim gave.”
Once more the Demon King spoke with the dignity of a monarch. The hero cleared the shadow from his face and replied in a respectful tone.
“This servant merely followed the command of my lord, Your Majesty the Demon King. Rather, I am grateful for the opportunity to prove my loyalty.”
“Jim is glad you say so, Hero. Yet your achievement has clearly surpassed Jim’s expectations and will bring great benefit to our Demon Kingdom. One who has rendered such meritorious service deserves an appropriate reward. Tell me what you desire.”
“Ah… no, Your Majesty! This servant is already more than satisfied with the grace Your Majesty has shown by sparing my life and placing your trust in me…”
The hero displayed bewilderment at the Demon King’s words. Regarding his reaction, she spoke in a calm yet resolute voice.
“Do not say such things. Reward and punishment according to merit is the way of the world. On the contrary, if Jim fails to give a fitting reward to one who has achieved so great a merit, it will negatively affect the morale of the commanders. Speak. Anything at all—tell Jim what you want.”
“Hmm…”
Faced with the Demon King’s words that left no room for escape, the hero pondered seriously for a moment. Then, cautiously, he looked straight at the Demon King before him and said.
“…Actually. There is one request… that I wish to make…”
“What is it? Speak.”
The Demon King began to feel keen interest. The hero showed a trace of hesitation, then carefully opened his mouth.
“Your Majesty the Demon King. If it is not too much trouble…”