The Hero Kneels Before the Demon King
The moment the word “regret” left the Demon King’s lips, I instinctively understood she had no intention of sparing me. Fuck. After everything I’ve done, she’s still going to kill me? She’s seriously planning to end me right here?
That single thought pushed me over the edge. Already teetering on the razor’s edge of life and death, the thick tension gripping me exploded into full-blown panic. I had scraped together the only excuse I could think of and shoved it forward with everything I had, yet that final desperate gamble had been utterly blocked. No time remained to come up with anything else.
I’m… going to die…? Die? For real…? Am I really going to end like this, without accomplishing a single thing?
The terror of death surged in, vivid and suffocating, the moment I realized I had reached a dead end. The cold certainty that everything would simply stop without me doing anything at all seized my heart in an instant. I no longer had the composure to think clearly.
I don’t want to die! After all the suffering I’ve endured… If it was going to be like this, I should have just died with those bitches. I can’t die this meaninglessly!
The primal scream of survival instinct tore through my chest. I no longer had the luxury to worry about how much worse things could get. All I could do was beg in a voice drenched in despair.
“P-please… spare me…”
A warrior who prized honor would never beg for his life. The sight was so pathetic that the Demon King might very well decide to grant me an agonizing death out of sheer disgust. Even so, I had no choice but to plead. My weapons had been taken, one arm was useless, and fighting her was impossible. The only path left was to beg for mercy, even if it meant risking a plunge into the abyss of hell itself.
So I cast aside every last scrap of a hero’s dignity and bowed my head before the Demon King. In that instant…
“!....”
A gentle hand suddenly rested on my lowered head. Before I could even process the sensation, a voice filled with unmistakable pity reached my ear.
“Very well… We shall spare you.”
Staring at the hero crumpled before her, his face twisted with despair and resignation, the Demon King could not help but feel a surge of genuine pity. He was an enemy, yet he possessed both power and character worthy of deep respect. Now, however, he had been betrayed by his own comrades and even his final shred of honor had been crushed to dust.
The sight of him—miserable, pitiable, having lost everything both as a hero and as a warrior—made her chest ache. With a hollow laugh, he told her he wished to live a different kind of life from now on. At the same time, he dismissed the past he had spent upholding honor and conviction as foolish and meaningless.
What a truly tragic turn of events. The hero who never once faltered has been broken so completely…
Having witnessed his dazzling feats through magic and her subordinates, and having trained with all her strength precisely to defeat him, the Demon King spoke with a faint trace of true emotion as she gazed upon the despair of the man she had once considered her greatest rival.
“…How regrettable.”
“!...”
The hero’s face flickered with surprise before darkening even further. Receiving pity from none other than the Demon King seemed to strike an even deeper blow to his heart.
And then—
“…Please… spare me…”
“...”
That single sentence carried such heavy defeat that the Demon King could tell the last fragile thread of the man’s pride had finally snapped. All that remained on his face was despair, torment, and regret.
He stood at the exact opposite pole from her, the one who had felt strangely familiar from the very first moment she laid eyes on him. Seeing that same being shattered beyond repair, the Demon King felt a bitterness and pity she had never known before. Without realizing it, her hand began to gently stroke the poor man’s head.
If she could, she wanted to offer him proper words of comfort. More than that, a thought began to take shape: perhaps she could slip into the broken heart of this mentally collapsed man and draw him to her side.
She truly did pity him. Yet if he did not actively seek death, and if he now harbored hatred toward the humans who had betrayed him, then her honest wish was for the hero to become her subordinate. After all, that was precisely why she had come here.
The only problem was that the Demon King had no experience in such delicate matters. She doubted whether her clumsy tongue could truly soothe his heart.
I should have brought Belzebeuty with me… It was a mistake to insist on handling this alone out of stubborn pride.
Regretting her lack of a skilled subordinate in conversation, she agonized for a moment before the words that finally left her lips were… even by her own measure, hopelessly blunt. A short, hardly comforting sentence.
“We understand… We shall spare you.”
“!....”
Even as she spoke, she cringed at how little she could manage. Yet the hero’s reaction was unexpectedly one of genuine surprise. A faint light returned to the face that had been moments from death.
Slightly puzzled, the Demon King decided to keep speaking whatever came to mind.
“We will spare your life. Moreover… We shall grant you an opportunity worthy of you. The chance to regain your honor… the opportunity to take revenge upon the humans who betrayed you and to carve your name into the world once more as a true warrior.”
“Ah…”
The hero’s expression went blank for a moment. Seeing him shaken, the Demon King, now caught up in the momentum, continued to pour out the thoughts rising within her.
“We will give you everything. The honor you crave, your revenge, and anything more you desire! Therefore, O Hero, kneel before Us and swear your loyalty… swear an oath of eternal obedience! Allow Us to bestow all of this upon you!”
At some point she had become fully swept up in the atmosphere and was speaking with real force. Even so, she couldn’t help thinking she might have gone too far. No matter how he had been betrayed by humans, he was still a human. More than that, he was a noble hero who had devoted his entire life to protecting them. She was frankly skeptical he would accept her proposal.
I simply said whatever came to mind, but… honestly, there’s no way this could possibly work so easily. No matter the betrayal, he is still the hero…
Once again lamenting her own lack of eloquence, the Demon King—
-Thud!
“!?!?”
The hero dropped straight to his knees before her without hesitation. Then his voice rang out clearly.
“I swear it, Your Majesty the Demon King! The hero Elan Savior hereby pledges absolute loyalty to you, Sovereign of the Demon Race and my new master!”
“…”
The declaration of submission came without the slightest pause. Even though she had suggested it herself, the Demon King could not help but feel automatic astonishment at the completely unexpected development.
Wait… could my clumsy words earlier have actually comforted him? But I possess no such talent… Ah, no. That’s not it. This is clearly…
Amid doubt and faint shock, the Demon King studied the hero’s face. What she saw there was unmistakable.
It was the fierce longing blazing in his eyes. An intense will burned like the flames of hell itself, utterly different from the dying man of moments ago. Looking at it, the Demon King instinctively understood why the hero before her had submitted without hesitation. Why he had chosen the humiliation of swearing loyalty to his “enemy” rather than a clean death.
The reason was simple.
Revenge… is it?