And Now
And now.
After that brief outing with the Demon King, I saw Tia off to her executive meeting and was walking back to my room alone. But on the way, I noticed someone passing by and lowered my head, intending to slip past without incident. Yet—
Step. Step———
“····”
“···· Hm?”
The demon who had been about to walk by suddenly hesitated when I tried to pass her. The moment I flinched, she stepped directly in front of me and spoke.
“You.”
“Yes?”
She wore a uniform that clung tightly to her body, and above her head floated a broken black halo. She also possessed a pair of horns like the Demon King’s, though theirs curved slightly farther back. Her hair was a soft lavender shade. Since I rarely saw her, the sudden address left me flustered and frozen in place.
But the woman blocking my path wore an incredibly foul-tempered scowl, her brows deeply furrowed. She gave my entire body a quick, sweeping once-over and said,
“You should wear a bra. It’s bad for your skin.”
“Pardon? Ah, um… thank you.”
After delivering advice I could never have imagined, she simply continued on her way.
“What… the hell was that just now····”
I stood there in a daze, feeling as if a storm had just swept through my body, and muttered while staring at her retreating back. Then—
“Hop hop, hop hop——”
A familiar voice rang out from somewhere.
“Jemma!”
“Yes, it is Jemma.”
Sure enough, Jemma appeared before me.
“Did you enjoy your outing?”
Having materialized out of nowhere again, Jemma promptly took the outer garment I had removed and draped over my arm, then walked with me back toward the room.
“It wasn’t bad.”
“Hmm···· It seems Master prefers outdoor play. I shall make a note of that.”
Even though Jemma had once again twisted my words in a strange direction and was acting oddly,
“Hssst. Stop.”
“Understood.”
She still understood when spoken to directly, so we returned to the room without any further friction.
Then, suddenly remembering the demon I had just passed, I turned to ask Jemma about her—
“Now that I think of it, I heard that Executive Cartoria came down to the underground level today for the meeting.”
Jemma spoke first.
“Therefore, today we must be especially careful not to be noticed by any of the executives——”
“By any chance····”
When I began describing the demon I had seen—broken black halo, skin-tight uniform, very faint lavender hair—Jemma’s expression shifted.
“A demon with a shattered black halo, wearing a uniform that clings to her body… and pale purple hair…?”
“Don’t tell me you already met her?”
Jemma began to look visibly flustered. The moment I nodded,
“Th-this is terrible.”
“Wh-why?!”
Jemma wore an expression of severity I had never seen before. She seized both my shoulders with surprising force and cried out,
“If that executive discovers you, Master, then surely…! Suuuurely———!”
Jemma explained to me just how terrifying the executive named Cartoria truly was.
“You will be subjected to the most rigorous management and care, and turned into an absolute princess…!”
“Huh?”
Of course, I was left stunned and speechless by her words, but Jemma continued in a frantic rush.
“Cartoria has always worried about when the Demon King would finally take a consort! She pursues perfection in all things, which is precisely why she worries so much about the Demon King who is not yet perfect…!”
After dumping information on me that I had never asked for,
“We must flee at once. The moment her meeting ends, Cartoria will——”
She tried to drag me off somewhere else immediately. But then—
Clack———
“So this is where you were.”
“Hic———!!”
“C-Cartoria…”
Just as Jemma had warned, it had not been long at all before she came looking for me in person.
“I heard from the Demon King that you are her most precious person. Even so, taking a human as a consort… is that not rather imperfect of her?”
I stared at her, slightly bewildered by the sheer force of will she radiated. Then—
Step. Step———
“Hm. First of all, your clothes are one thing, but what is this about your hair? Your skin is already beginning to show blemishes.”
She strode toward me at an astonishing speed, then began lifting and inspecting every part of my body, delivering her diagnosis.
“Ugh····”
The sensation was similar to what I had suffered at Jemma’s hands when I first woke up here, yet somehow this executive called Cartoria was even more clinical. She truly seemed to be evaluating my body like an object.
“J-just a moment…”
Her words were coming so rapidly that I tried to ask her to slow down so I could understand—
“Please remain still. From now on, you will require seventeen days of special care under my supervision.”
She had even calculated the exact number of days.
“P-please, Cartoria…”
“You will address me as Executive Cartoria. Never forget that if you wish your subordinates to feel the proper respect, you must first demonstrate it yourself through polite speech.”
Cartoria had already begun correcting my tone. She pulled several garments from the wardrobe, examined them, then clicked her tongue.
“Hm. So the Demon King truly only wears things like this.”
Deciding there was no point, she seized my wrist and began to lead me somewhere.
“W-wait, where are you taking me…!?”
I barely managed to squeeze the question in.
“To my quarters. The appropriate clothing is there.”
Cartoria’s demeanor was frighteningly thorough.
“Executive Cartoria, I must ask that you allow Master some rest. She is in need of it.”
When Jemma finally spoke up,
“Servants should remain silent. Are you not ashamed to let your master wander about in such a state?”
Cartoria’s voice was razor-sharp as she snapped at Jemma.
“That’s enough, Cartoria.”
Finally, I frowned and tried to yank my wrist free, but I lacked the strength. I staggered and shouted,
“I cannot allow that. You must begin to understand that you are now the Demon King’s consort.”
Cartoria pulled my wrist instead, drawing me close, and stared straight into my eyes.
“From now on, mediocrity is a sin for you.”
“····”
For some reason, those words stirred up an unpleasant memory. Rage surged inside me.
“What the hell is wrong with being ordinary…!”
The moment my voice rose in anger,
“Enough, Cartoria.”
A familiar voice came from outside the room.
“Demon King.”
“I returned because of the commotion, only to find that you had come after all.”
I sensed that the chaos was finally about to end. Though I never thought I would feel this way, I prepared to welcome Tia’s return. But at that very moment—
“No, Demon King. How many times must I tell you? If the buttons on your chest keep bursting, you must bring the spare uniform I prepared.”
“Ah, that… well, this morning they burst again…”
Cartoria radiated an aura so overpowering it could swallow even Tia whole, and she began criticizing the Demon King’s attire without hesitation.
“You represent our entire race. How many times must I implore you to uphold your dignity before you will listen?”
I could only stand there in shock. No matter how you looked at it, interfering to this degree should have provoked the Demon King’s true nature. Yet—
“I… understand. I’m sorry…”
“Honestly. If I am not here, how do you intend to take responsibility for us, Demon King?”
The sight of Tia remaining completely calm no matter how wildly Cartoria raged left me utterly speechless.
“This will not do. Both of you, follow me to my quarters.”
In the end, Cartoria declared that she would take both of us with her, and none of us could resist. We were all dragged along.
“You too, servant.”
“U-understood.”
Jemma was no exception.
Step. Step——
Cartoria. Just who was this woman?
Now being escorted against my will, I walked behind Cartoria alongside Tia and Jemma, my mind racing with countless thoughts.
The wing tattoo on the back of her neck. It looked like she could summon and dismiss wings just like the Demon King. Did that mean she was as strong as Tia? Or was the hierarchy not based purely on power? Wait—could it be that the Demon King actually had feelings for Cartoria? She likes me among humans, and Cartoria among demons. Maybe Cartoria is the proper wife and I’m just the mistress. Ugh, that suddenly makes me depressed. After losing everything and deciding to give my all to the Demon King, I end up as the side piece. Damn it—— Wait a second.
Wouldn’t that actually be better? I’d see less of the Demon King, and all I’d have to do is have sex. Or… would I?
Step——
After walking in silence for a long while, the whirlwind of wild thoughts in my head began to spiral out of control. Then Cartoria suddenly stopped.
“Enter, all three of you.”
“·····”
For some reason, she had stopped in front of an absurdly massive door.
Tia, as if used to it, pushed the door open with a firm shove and waited for me and Jemma to go in first. The three of us stepped inside and—
“Whoa——”
The interior was an overwhelming sight.
It was like an entire administrative complex. The space was so vast it was impossible to imagine from the outside. Every conceivable tool and object filled the room—things you would never find in an ordinary chamber. There was even a fully equipped forge with furnace and facilities. It was a room of such staggering scale that it seemed nothing could possibly be missing.
“This… is a bedroom…?”
I couldn’t hold back my awe and spoke aloud. After all, I had never seen a room of this magnitude in my life.
Jemma and Tia, however, wore bored, expressionless faces as if they had seen it many times before, simply waiting for Cartoria’s instructions. To me, it was simply astonishing. A room that produced anything you needed, like a magical pouch. If that were the case, maybe my dead comrades would appear if I searched hard enough. I even entertained that pathetic thought.
“·····”
Thinking about it only made me feel depressed.
Slide——
“Here. Take these.”
While I was still processing my first encounter with Cartoria’s private quarters, she returned with several sheets of paper and handed them to us.
“These documents detail the precise locations of every item each of you requires, along with the relevant shelves and additional instructions.”
“Oh.”
I accepted the stack with a murmur of admiration, then glanced at the others’ papers.
“Wait a minute.”
Theirs were impossibly thin—barely a few pages—while mine was a thick bundle almost the size of my fist. I couldn’t comprehend it.
“Objections will not be accepted. If you wish to finish today, begin moving immediately.”
Cartoria dismissed my complaint without a second thought, then headed off to attend to other tasks, leaving us behind.
“T-Tia…”
I looked at her with a truly miserable expression.
“I’m sorry, Karia·····”
How long was she going to keep apologizing? The Demon King who said sorry every single time I saw her was utterly useless in this situation. With no other choice, I turned to my last hope—my precious subordinate.
“J-Jemma… you’ll help me… right…?”
“····”
I pleaded desperately, but—
“I am truly sorry······ Even I cannot defy Executive Cartoria…”
It was the first time I had ever seen Jemma look genuinely overwhelmed. This was the same invincible maid who had remained completely unfazed even when Tia lost her temper.
“···”
With no help to be found, I eventually split up from the other two and began searching for the items listed on my absurdly long document.
Tap. Tap———
“Ah… number 17248, um… the 150,000th row? How many columns is this…?”
When I first received the paper, I had thought it would be like a simple hidden-picture puzzle—nothing serious. But the farther I went, the numbers multiplied exponentially. My life had never involved much mathematics, so I couldn’t even locate simple coordinates.
“Ugh, ughhh… hold on, brain, don’t give up on me…!”
One hand clutched my head, the other barely held the document. My eyes spun as I wandered helplessly through the vast labyrinth.
I really should have studied more.
“Aaaagh! Tia, Jemma, help me…! Aaaaaagh———!”
When I finally broke down, unable to find even a single tube of lipstick,
“···· Hm?”
“———”
A faint voice drifted from somewhere. I felt a flicker of confusion and surprise.
Was there someone else here besides Tia, Jemma, and Cartoria? I was certain no one else had been in the room.
“····”
Sensing the presence of a fellow prisoner, I stopped hunting for lipstick and cautiously moved toward the source of the voice. Following it through the maze of shelves, I eventually heard—
“Thisismurderthisismurderthisismurderthisismurderthisismurderthisismurderthisismurderthisismurder····”
“Huh?”
A woman with familiar messy dark-purple hair was crouched in a corner, repeating the same painful phrase over and over. Her appearance suggested her mind had completely collapsed.
“K-Kibotos?”
It was unmistakably the Kibotos I had seen that day.
The moment I felt an inexplicable sense of relief and began to realize why she had been missing from everywhere in the castle, she suddenly lunged at me.
“Thisismurderthisismurderthisismurder, this is, this is murder———!!”
Grab———
Kibotos seized both my arms and shoved me to the ground, climbing on top of me.
Crash!
“Ugh…!”
I was completely taken aback. Kibotos, who I never imagined would do something like this, had suddenly pounced on me. I grabbed her in reflex, but—
“Save me, please… Teeeeng·····!”
Straddling me, she clung to my body with surprising strength and simply wept without doing anything else. I was doubly shocked. I slowly set the document aside, stroked her hair, and cautiously asked why she was here.
“Why were you in here, Kibotos…?”
“Cartoria…! Cartoria said she wasn’t coming to the meeting so I went for a walk, but she showed up and caught me…! Aaaaaagh——!”
Kibotos struggled to explain what had happened while rubbing her face against my chest.
“I-I see… Well, to Cartoria, you are…”
Of course, I had assumed she had let her guard down and been kidnapped. I stroked her head and thought it was time to get up. But—
“Please don’t go!! Help me!! Stay with me!! I’m begging you!! Get me out of here———! I don’t want to be in this nightmarish space any longer…!”
“Ughhh——”
Kibotos shook her whole body, making me sway violently. In the end, I was overpowered and fell again.
“O-okay, okay…! I’ll help you…”
I ended up accepting Kibotos’s desperate plea for rescue.
“You really are the best, human!!”
Kibotos’s face lit up with joy and immense relief. She dove into my chest once more. Just as I began to feel uncomfortable, suspecting she was deliberately rubbing her face there—
“By the way, human, how much did Cartoria give you?”
Kibotos asked about the thickness of my document and pointed at the stack I had set beside me.
“···· Who are you again?”
She switched attitudes faster than light and began to slink away.
Grab——
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Eep.”
I was not the type to let a golden opportunity slip away. At the very least, I couldn’t let this Kibotos escape.
“I’m~ going~ to~ help~ you, Kibotos?”
In the end, I unintentionally awakened a new side of myself. Using a strength I didn’t know I possessed, I grabbed the arm of the fleeing Kibotos.
“So you’re going to help me too, right~?”
“N-no… this is murder, it’s murder———!”
And so we became one. Not physically, of course.
Kibotos, now caught, reluctantly accepted my document and agreed to the deal. With our newly formed team, I slowly began searching for the lipstick again.
“By the way, Kibotos, where’s your list?”
I asked, but—
“Mine… she brought so many that she said she doesn’t even want to write it down anymore.”
Kibotos, a regular customer of Cartoria’s private quarters, had reached the point where she no longer received a menu and simply had to find the full course on her own.
“What about running away?”
When I suddenly realized the door might not be locked and asked, Kibotos let out a terrified squeak.
“H-hiiiik…! N-no, don’t, please don’t, Cartoria…!”
I wasn’t sure why, but her reaction gave me a pretty good idea of what had happened to her before.
“Don’t tell me… if you get caught by Cartoria waiting right outside the door…”
I felt my own trauma being prodded. Then—
“Again…”
Our traumas resonated, and the situation threatened to spiral into total chaos. But after staring blankly at my document for a moment, Kibotos looked at me with renewed determination.
“…Human. If we keep going like this, we’ll definitely starve to death in here.”
“Let’s run.”
“Eh?”
The terrified expression from moments ago had vanished. She shouted at me. Of course, the tiny excuse that followed was a bonus.
“Th-that earlier reaction was just because a bad memory suddenly came up… It’s not like there’s no way out.”
I thought for a moment, then nodded and asked her to explain the method.
“Yeah, tell me the plan.”
“Look over there.”
Kibotos pointed somewhere far away.
“Are you trying to run away from me?”
I asked sharply. When Kibotos turned my gaze elsewhere, I worried she might try to escape. She looked at me with disappointed eyes.
“Was our bond only that strong…?”
“Yep.”
I nodded without hesitation.
“No, seriously. Just look where I’m pointing.”
Even so, Kibotos insisted desperately. Deciding to humor her, I turned my head.
“Yeah, look over there.”
“Huh?”
Following Kibotos’s finger, I saw Cartoria high up, handling paperwork while keeping watch over the entrance.
“To escape, we absolutely have to shake off that surveillance. And even if we do, we’ll need a way to stop her from chasing us.”
Having spotted Cartoria, Kibotos began laying out the plan like a seasoned escape expert.
“I have a good strategy.”
She revealed her secret plan to me. Of course, after hearing it, I was momentarily stunned.
“What?”
I glared at her in bewilderment, but—
“It’s fine, human.”
Kibotos continued.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while. I don’t care about Gematria anymore.”
Her eyes looked strangely sympathetic.
“What happened back then… I was just suddenly overcome with sadness.”
She avoided my gaze slightly.
“I never actually hated you that much. So trust me.”
She finished speaking.
“I’ll get you out of here.”
I quietly looked into Kibotos’s eyes. Just as Tia had said, beneath her messy hair, the right side of her face was covered by a massive scar, and her right pupil was a slightly different color from the left. She looked as if she were prepared to sacrifice herself for me.
The inexplicable warmth in her expression made memories of my earlier conversation with Tia resurface. I slowly reached into my pocket, wanting to tell her what I had been meaning to say.
“Kibotos, there’s something I want to tell you.”
But the very moment I tried to continue—
“What are you two doing over there?”
“Eh?”
“C-Cartoria!!”
At some point, Cartoria had approached us with eerie precision. The moment she grabbed my shoulder, I jumped in shock.
“Y-you… I won’t forgive you!!”
Kibotos began throwing a fit, pretending to be terrified. Cartoria pulled me away from her and glared.
“If you cannot even complete the tasks I assign you, what exactly is there left to perfect?”
She held my arm firmly, addressing Kibotos.
“Have I not been telling you for years? Only by accumulating good deeds can you escape the guilt of your past sins.”
“Cartoria…”
But as I listened, I began to sense something inexplicable in her words.
“I cannot simply stand by and watch you continue to suffer like this. Everything I have prepared is genuinely necessary for you.”
For some reason, Cartoria’s words had begun to carry a warmth filled with sincere care.
“So please, Kibotos.”
The playful anger Kibotos had been showing suddenly vanished. She clamped her mouth shut.
“Let’s go outside together now… I’m asking you.”
When Cartoria spoke those meaningful words,
“…I don’t want to.”
Kibotos turned her body away from us as she answered.
“I already told you I don’t want to get close to anyone anymore.”
Watching the two of them converse, I gradually got the feeling that Kibotos had not been locked in here after being caught by Cartoria—she had chosen to stay.
“Kibotos, please don’t give up… I will stay by your side…”
Cartoria slowly approached and reached out her hand.
“Stop it———!”
For the first time.
For the first time in front of me, Kibotos showed genuine fury. Her scattered hair parted, clearly revealing the enormous scar.
“Whether you like me or not, what can I even do anymore!!”
Then she revealed a secret I had never imagined.
“Kibotos…!”
“I can’t even use my unique magic properly anymore. I can’t fight. I don’t even know how to keep living!!”
Cartoria had been in love with Kibotos.
“No, I don’t even want to know anymore!!”
But Kibotos—
“Just stop already…! Stop paying attention to me and focus on your own work…”
—had already let go of everything. She no longer wanted to care about anyone who loved her. She would rather no one paid her any attention at all. She wanted to be forgotten by the world. Yet she was too afraid to take her own life, so she had given up on even that and simply wished to disappear. She had truly given up on everything.
“····”
Watching Kibotos, I began to see my own former self overlapping with her.
“How about Belberman?”
“It was the name of the protagonist from a very famous heroic tale. Ehehe…”
Even though this girl had someone as precious as Cartoria right beside her, she kept her eyes closed and refused to even try to see. An inexplicable urgency filled my chest. I stepped forward, grabbed her arm, and shouted.
“I… I almost lost my life to the single most precious friend I had, and I killed my own father with my own hands.”
The words tumbled out in a jumbled rush because I was so worked up, but at that moment, Kibotos’s appearance looked like something I could kill without remorse. Even though demons should have meant nothing to me.
“I spent my whole life killing people I didn’t even know—my own kind—and then I was betrayed by the only friend I trusted and nearly died.”
“Yet even someone like me received care and love from the comrades I met afterward… And yet, even then, in the very end, I couldn’t protect a single one of them.”
Even so, because Kibotos’s memories overlapped so strongly with my own, I felt I had to say these words.
“You demons who killed them…!! I hated you all so much I thought I’d go insane…! But I’m still trying to live———!!”
My heart was violently agitated. My face trembled uncontrollably.
“So why are you living like that…?”
Why? Was I speaking to Kibotos? Or was I desperately shouting at myself from that day? At the me of right now? Even I, the one speaking, could no longer tell what the words truly meant.
“What exactly are you saying…?”
Cartoria asked me in a voice full of bewilderment after I had hurled such harsh words at Kibotos.
But I wasn’t finished.
“If you truly cannot forget the demons who died, if you feel you can never forget the ones you failed to protect…”
Grab———
I seized Kibotos’s hand, forcibly opened it, and pressed the Soul Stone I had taken from my pocket into her palm.
“Then you have to live even better… If you keep living like this, what does that make the demons who died?”
When Kibotos realized what the Soul Stone was, she recoiled in shock.
“Open your eyes properly and look at the people who are still alive and love you right now.”
I told her.
“There are so many who have given you their hearts, just as much as you gave to those who are gone.”
After killing my father, after Idea died. After losing everything, abandoning my home, casting aside my own self. I had tried to die alone, lonely and desolate. Seeing that version of myself reflected in Kibotos,
“Even if you don’t want to, for the sake of those who remain, you have to try your best to be happy.”
The time I spent with Justitia afterward. The conversations I shared with Karman. The days I bickered with Jeren. They all flashed through my mind without stopping.
“The pain you feel isn’t something only you can feel.”
I said everything I could. But the more I spoke, the less I understood what I was even saying. I didn’t know if this needless meddling had any meaning. I had no idea whether Kibotos could empathize or understand. Not a single part of it was clear to me. Yet I truly wanted to convey these words.
“Later, if Cartoria ends up dying too, you’ll blame yourself for that as well.”
“·····”
I continued.
“Only then will you want to love her—after she’s gone.”
It pained me to see someone deliberately sever the love that was being offered.
“After you lose her and finally realize how Cartoria felt about you, you’ll be trapped in pain you can never escape and become nothing but an empty shell.”
My voice trembled as I spoke. The words I had exchanged with Justitia came flooding back.
“Belberman, um… do you have time after dinner?”
“Hm?”
The day before we set out to conquer the Demon King’s castle, Justitia had looked at me with an incredibly shy face. She seemed so nervous that even I, who had tried not to pay it much mind, felt my heart flutter.
“There’s a place I want to go with you…”
I already knew where Justitia wanted to go and what she wanted to say. But—
“Ah, sorry… I promised to train with Cain later.”
I was scared. If I accepted Justitia’s feelings, the relationships among my comrades might grow awkward. And if I accepted her heart and then someone left this world first… I simply could not picture myself being able to endure that sorrow. So I never spent that time with Justitia. And afterward, the conquest of the Demon King’s castle began. Until the very end, I turned my back on her. I let Justitia die.
“…Snap out of it, Kibotos.”
I had probably seen not just one moment of myself in Kibotos, but every part of me. All my regrets, all my pain, had overlapped with her. She was simply too similar to me in the sorrow she carried.
Even so, I hadn’t particularly wanted to say kind things to myself. After all, I hadn’t done anything right—how could I offer kind words? That was why only the harsh things buried deep in my heart had poured out.
If this girl, too—if even she ended up losing someone precious who loved her—then somehow, that would become my responsibility. I wanted to stop that from happening this time. This time, I wanted to listen to Justitia’s confession. I wanted to answer “Yes.” I wanted to go with her to the wildflower festival we had never visited together.
“·····”
At some point, I had begun to cry. Yet my expression remained full of venom. It probably didn’t look very pleasant. But if there was one thing I remembered clearly, it was that Kibotos—
“······”
—her left eye was glowing with dark-purple magical light. She looked at me with the exact same expression, crying as well.