Before the Sun Reaches Its Zenith
Before the sun reached its zenith. 15. Before the sun reached its zenith. Time flowed so easily that it left me ignorant. How many more weeks had passed since then? Kibotos and Cartoria, even though Kibotos's wounds had not fully healed, began spending their time together as much as possible. Jemma continued to serve us with tireless dedication, embodying the perfect attendant, while Tia handled not only the affairs of the Demon King's castle but also everything happening beyond its walls throughout the Demon Realm, gathering information and maintaining control as she worked to build a better world for demons.
Yes. This Demon Realm. After living so closely with them for a while, I realized this place was rather peculiar. Aside from those affiliated with the Demon King's castle, there were hardly any intelligent demons outside; everything beyond consisted solely of mindless entities. Yet when Tia issued a command, they all moved as if carrying her will. It was a fascinating sight. Every demon's will was bound to Tia, the Demon King, their collective consciousness, moving as one. It was both wondrous and eerie. The moment I witnessed it with my own eyes was the first time I truly understood how monsters fought. It felt as though the questions that had lingered were finally being resolved.
Of course, without the Demon King's orders, the other monsters lived like stray dogs released into the wild. They formed packs, with a leader emerging to guide each group. They hunted one another, tore into each other, and evolved by devouring their prey. Tia later explained this to me as well: demons had always lived and evolved this way. Not only by consuming their own kind, but by devouring everything to grow stronger. And once they had consumed enough to gain intelligence, their past harshness toward one another made them cherish their bonds all the more deeply. Intelligent demons could unite with a solidarity greater than that of any family.
“····”
As I listened, I wondered why, but it truly felt as though demons were superior to humanity, just as Tia had said. Humanity, whether intelligent or not, only tore each other down, killed one another, and declined rather than evolved. Yet the reason I still loved humanity was this: even amid such destructive tendencies, humans always discovered fire. Ideals, hope, courage—those things became flames that lit the way through any darkness or vague fear, and humans had always survived tenaciously in that manner. Of course, Tia evaluated me as the one with the most tenacious heart among them, but I did not think so. My comrades. The truly tenacious hearts I had seen belonged not to someone like me, who had already broken, but to my comrades. Even when they broke, they had never truly broken. They turned their broken emotions into opportunities to create hope once more, and that was how we came to be called heroes on the battlefield. I had done nothing. I had merely stood at the front and walked.
Still, the fact that I could not forget my memories with Idea even after all that, the fact that I forgave her with that single line "I'm sorry, Hite" written in the Hero's Tale of Idea, the fact that I erased the memory of that night when Idea truly tried to kill me by blaming everything on Marcus—it made me wonder if Tia's words were not somewhat correct after all. Whatever the case, I had ultimately been defeated. A loser had no right to decide this or that. But—
“Did you sleep well, Karia?”
“····”
Even as a loser, Tia looked at me.
“I dreamed of killing you···”
“Were you happy?”
We always lay in the same bed, slowly devouring each other's emotions.
“I was happy···· Very.”
“··· Then I'm glad too.”
Although the words we exchanged never quite aligned, smiles still formed on our lips as we gazed into each other's eyes. I looked into the Demon King's pitch-black eyes. Tia looked into my soft silver-gray eyes. Tia, who had been carefully holding me beneath the covers, spoke.
“Kibotos asked me to tell you thank you once more.”
Whenever it was that Tia had been able to converse with Kibotos after reopening her heart, she relayed the message.
“Thanks to you mustering the courage to share your life, thanks to you letting her feel your current emotions···· even though she was afraid, she regained the courage to stand again.”
Those were the words Kibotos had asked her to pass on.
“···· Good. That's a relief.”
It truly was a relief. Kibotos, who could have walked the same path as me, had still managed to pick herself up from the bottom. I had not been sure if my words alone could lift Kibotos again, nor if simply reading me would be enough for her to rise. Yet the reason Kibotos had found the courage to live was surely because Cartoria had held onto her. Just as Eustitia had taken me away. How fortunate. Truly fortunate.
“You look sorrowful.”
“A little.”
At Tia's continued question, I answered in a flat voice.
“Still, the valley of your emotions is so deep that I fear you might fall in.”
“Then why not just fall in and die?”
When the Demon King spoke again, I replied sharply.
“I'm already drowning in the sea that is you, so it's fine.”
The Demon King smiled faintly and pulled my head into her chest. I closed my eyes for a moment in her embrace, which carried a faint, pleasant scent.
“Hurry up and drown already.”
It was not coquetry at all, but pure venom I spat out. Absolutely not coquetry, but venom.
“Yes, yes, I'll drown for you.”
“Die, die, die.”
Thus, holding each other tightly, Tia and I greeted the morning.
“Hop hop, hop hop. Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
A voice came from somewhere, forcing me to turn my head. Tia, startled once more, remarked,
“You really do enter without making a sound····”
Even after all this time together, she had not grown accustomed to Jemma's infiltration skills. Following Tia's lead, I looked at Jemma and greeted her with a smile.
“Morning, Jemma. Good morning.”
“Yes, Master. Good morning.”
Jemma waved back in greeting, glanced at the clock, and asked,
“Breakfast will be ready soon. Will you be eating in the room?”
At Jemma's consideration, I shook my head. Lately, at Tia's frequent requests, I had begun accompanying her to the dining hall.
“No, it's fine now. I'll eat at the dining hall.”
It seemed better for the attendants that way as well.
“Understood. I will prepare accordingly.”
I waved Jemma off with a gentle smile as she left first. After sending her away, I leaned back against Tia and closed my eyes to rest a little longer.
“So you really do enjoy eating with me that much.”
Tia muttered something absurd while failing to suppress a creeping smile.
“Die.”
I hurled another non-coquettish insult at the irritating expression on Tia's face, adjusted my posture, and lay back down, pulling Tia into a tight embrace. In that comfortable position, the warmth of her chest lifted my mood, and a smile formed on my lips.
“No matter how much time passes, you remain just as adorable and lovable.”
The Demon King once again spouted nonsense and gently stroked my body. Still. Still, it was always like this. I liked that it was always like this. Tia still liked me just as she had at the beginning, and I still wanted to kill Tia just as I had at the beginning. And still—
Swish——
“Ugh, ugh·····”
Tia's touch on my bare skin was frightening, just the same. But—
“Don't worry.”
Since when had it been? When the blindfold was placed over my eyes and I could no longer see—
“I just··· I just wanted to see your bare skin for a moment.”
“Ah····, ah····”
My heart rate exceeded its limit, and for some reason the trembling stopped and I felt fine. I could accept Tia's touch with a pure, unadorned heart. She savored me softly until the morning schedule began.
“Ah···· Ah, ah····”
As the Demon King's hand slowly moved across my body, I flinched wherever it touched, clearly revealing the fact that I was now in contact with the Demon King.
“Karia.”
Tia drew close to my ear and whispered, asking,
“If humanity obtains the power to kill me and ultimately tries to kill me···”
The Demon King, who had once strongly declared victory for her race, was nowhere to be found. In an unbearably soft and fragile voice, she asked,
“In the very end, would you abandon me and leave?”
Therefore. Therefore, even more, in a voice that made my entire body feel as though it would burn starting from my earlobe—
“·····”
I could not answer immediately. It was a sensitive topic I had been pondering as well, and I had only recently reached a conclusion. It was a grace period during which I could reject my own sense of justice at any time. I could not answer right away.
Press———
Yet when I remained silent without answering and simply held onto the Demon King's body, she unhesitatingly slipped her hand into the valley between my thighs.
“Aaaa····! Haa, haaa·······”
She made my body even more intense, even more desperately urgent. As I began to drool uncontrollably from my parted lips without even swallowing—
“You don't have to answer, Karia.”
Tia, the Demon King, embraced my back with one hand while placing the blindfold and continued stroking my body with the other.
“I know you won't be able to leave me.”
Without even knowing what I was thinking. Without even knowing what I desired now. Arrogantly, she declared it.
“Because you're mine···”
“Ah, haaak·····!”
She asserted.
“Karia is mine alone.”
“Ooh, ah——! Auuu····!”
Even so, I remained in Tia's hands for a long, long time. As if my trauma and PTSD had vanished somewhere, I only panted and gasped in pleasure at Tia's touch, my waist twitching continuously. Even though I could not see, I was desperate to stay in contact with her longer as she pleasured me, nuzzling my head against her chest.
“My beautiful Karia·····”
And that morning of mine continued until mealtime. After finishing that brief act, we stopped by the bathroom before breakfast to wash ourselves off. Normally we would bathe after eating, but today it could not be helped. In the end, we had to ask the attendants for understanding.
“··· So Jemma's master was Gematria before I came?”
“Well, something like that.”
Thus, while taking a quick shower with Tia and chatting about trivial things, I naturally found myself looking at Tia's right eye.
“···”
As I did so, I suddenly recalled the day right after the incident with Kibotos. When I had asked if it had been difficult to adapt after first obtaining Clairvoyance, Tia had said that it was an eye taken from someone precious to her, and that if she could not handle it properly, she would not even have the decency to remain alive. Even though the vision and sensation of her two eyes were completely different, she had endured it somehow through the Demon King's will. Listening to such bizarre stories from the Demon King from time to time made me feel as though I understood how she had become the Demon King.
Swish——
“Your gaze on me today feels rather pleasant.”
“Hm?”
Tia Belberman would, without regard for time or place, fiddle with my waist with both hands in a ticklish manner, stroking it with desire-filled touches. Even so, sensing that something was different, I gently grasped Tia's wrist and continued looking at the Demon King.
“Does my face look especially pretty today?”
“No··· Ah, I just feel like killing you.”
Tia answered while fully enveloping my abdomen with her large hand.
“Is that so.”
Although Tia's reply to my sulking seemed somewhat flat, in truth her attention was far more focused on my body than on the conversation.
“Your abs really draw such a beautiful line that I can't get tired of touching them all day. I'm seriously troubled about what to do.”
“Pervert····”
When I finally pinched Tia's cheek and began to speak mischievously, she instead handled my body even more mischievously.
“Yes, ah, ugh····! Hey, stop now——”
“I'm sorry, but I'm a coward and a perverted Demon King, you see.”
Soon, with her pitch-black eyes visible beyond her long black hair, she intensely scanned my jawline and body, devouring my form even more stickily with both hands. Whether this was washing or having sex, we ended up showering in an extremely sticky manner. By the way, I only realized it now, but both of Tia's eyes were pitch black—why was Kibotos's left eye jet black? Did magic power have its own color? That remained a mystery, but if it was Tia, she would probably tell me someday. With escape from her grasp already impossible, I simply spent time with her now.
“Ah, it hurts, it hurts now—— the water's not coming out anymore···!”
“Is that really so.”
Press——
I was still offering my body to this damned woman who used her private parts so ingeniously····
“Ugh····?! Auk, you fucking bitch·····”
Fortunately, however—
Click———
“Hop hop—— Master, Demon King, the food is going to get cold!”
Just as I was about to fall for the Demon King's scheme again and engage in another act, my loyal Jemma arrived at the perfect timing, which was a relief.
“You see it too, don't you?”
“Ugh, huh?”
Yet this insane perverted Demon King was now trying to share my appearance with Jemma as well.
“D-don't, Tia, you bastard····!”
“I-if it is what the Demon King and Master desire, this Jemma···· can serve right here·····”
Jemma, that lunatic, actually approached us as if Tia had ordered it, covering her face with both hands but spreading her fingers wide to stare with wide-open eyes.
“Auk, ugh····! Aah, this damned·····!”
I desperately tried to escape Tia's hands, but as if bound by some irresistible force, I was held by Tia's two hands and ended up showing everything—both the good and the bad—to Jemma, ultimately exposing my shameful climax without mercy. No, wait. But wasn't it Jemma who had engraved this private part on me in the first place? Damn it, had they been in cahoots from the beginning, like a rigged WWE·····!
“··· Huek, heee····”
In the end, sensing that someone else was watching my shameful appearance triggered some strange stimulation, and I reached a climax I had never felt before while being taken by Tia. As a result, the inside of my thighs became completely soaked with my own fluids.
“Th··· hiuk, ik···· I, I already washed····!”
I shed a few tears from the pleasure I was experiencing for the first time and glared at Tia with a resentful face. Then Jemma, standing beside us, said,
“Phew··· I'll have to make do with this for dinner tonight. It was delicious.”
“You really······!”
It was quite a spectacle.
“Yes, yes, Jemma. We'll be there soon too. Go on ahead.”
“Understood.”
Thus, Tia sent Jemma, who had been watching me in admiration, away first. Then, perhaps feeling a little sorry, she properly washed my body afterward and whispered,
Whoosh———
“Were you very upset?”
“Shut up··· I'm going to kill you···”
Of course, I was filled with anger, lips pouting, as I was led by Tia's hand and washed clean. Tia, completely unconcerned, said,
“If you don't like it, I won't do that again in the future.”
Just as she always had before, she asked for my consent. Really. Really, what a kind bastard. The way she kept doing things and then apologizing was truly infuriating.
“···· Fine, do whatever you want····!”
Yet when Tia looked up at me with such a serious expression, it was a face I could not possibly refuse.
“Then later, with Kibotos, Cartoria, and Jemma, all five of us——”
“Like hell———!”
Thinking I had half-permitted it, Tia spouted more nonsense, and I exploded once again. Still. Ah, even her hateful sides had become endearing now.
“Do···· it if you want.”
Perhaps my brain was slowly being eroded by the perverted Demon King's way of thinking, but for some reason, it felt as though tremendous pleasure awaited, and it was so hard to refuse that my body already seemed addicted to pleasure. In the end, I answered with an extremely embarrassed face. At that, Tia stared at me piercingly for a brief moment, as if hesitating. But perhaps she had held back well.
“··· Let's go eat.”
After taking about three hours to finish washing and trying to leave—
“Phew, refreshing——”
Burp——
The moment I opened the door to go out, I was immediately sucked back inside as if pulled by something.
“Mmph, mmph, ugh, kgh····”
Me. I wonder if I'll even get to eat breakfast. Just because I said a few nice words to her, her switch flipped again···· I can't say any more. After some time had passed, I heard from a passing attendant that during breakfast that day, the attendants had gathered in droves in front of the bathroom. They said the Demon King had decided to create an heir···· As if. Fuck.