The Day She Was Called by Name, and the Looming Five-Day Crisis
Someone was watching from afar as Lucia and Yuzuru shook hands.
"So… it has finally begun to move……."
The presence concealed itself and returned to the Demon Realm. Upon arriving, it prostrated itself before its sovereign, radiating an overwhelming, oppressive aura.
"My King, at long last the lineage of the Heavenly King and the human have begun to cooperate."
The overwhelming sovereign — the strongest of the Four Emperors, who would be called the Great Demon King the moment she stirred.
The Demon King — Bael.
"…You mean the Heavenly King's bloodline, and that being who is difficult to call a mere human?"
"Yes, exactly. Moreover, I have also observed the Heavenly King and the Spirit King growing close with a certain human."
"What? Those two, being friendly with a single human?"
As Bael spoke, her subordinate bowed obsequiously and conjured a magic-powered video screen in the empty air.
"It would be my honor if you would view what I witnessed, exactly as I saw it, My King."
Bael cast an uninterested glance at the screen — and then froze solid the moment she saw the face of a certain boy captured within it.
UUUUGGGGHHH—!
In an instant, the floor of the Demon King's castle split apart, and the entire region was crushed beneath a killing aura so fierce it stole the breath from every lung.
"M-My Demon King?!"
The subordinate cried out in shock and flattened himself against the ground, but Bael's eyes refused to leave the boy on the screen.
That face — drained of emotion like black-and-white, and yet so terribly, achingly missed.
"……Master……?"
A trembling voice slipped from Bael's lips.
The Demon King, who had never once bowed her head to any existence in this world, found herself murmuring, unable to tear her gaze from an utterly ordinary(?) boy in a school uniform on the other side of the screen.
"I don't know who that human is, but… this is the first time I've ever seen the Spirit King and Heavenly King dote on someone so affectionately……"
"Human? Watch your tongue!"
Bael's vicious glare bored into her subordinate.
The arrogant Demon King of moments ago was nowhere to be found. Now that she had realized the boy before her was constantly surrounded by other women — the Spirit King and the Heavenly King — an inferno of jealousy and possessiveness began to blaze in her eyes.
"Peace and Flügel had claimed him first, I see… and while I had no idea, they were even going so far as to feed him with their own hands……!"
In that instant, space itself warped, and the parasitic aberrant creatures infesting the Demon Realm burst apart without even a scream.
It was the Demon King's authority — the power to destroy or dominate the world itself. Ironically, its cause was nothing more than excessive jealousy and possessiveness toward her Master.
Her arrogant speech vanished the moment the word "Master" left her lips, and she transformed into something like a maid.
"Shiota Genryu… current head of the family. You, of all people, I can never forgive. …Because of you, I was buried in some corner of the Demon Realm!! I'll march in there right now and sweep every last trace of you away!"
How furious must she have been, for her manners and her haughty register to be flip-flopping back and forth like that.
"My Demon King! Please compose yourself! If you unleash your rage here, the boundary itself will shatter!"
At her subordinate's desperate cry, Bael barely managed to withdraw her killing intent, grinding her teeth.
She possessed the might deemed the greatest and strongest among all the Four Emperors — and yet before her Master, she was nothing but a lovesick monster rotting away from the inside.
"Hah… my jealousy nearly drove me to do something foolish. Master… just a little longer. Just a very little longer, and then I shall pay you a proper visit."
And so, drawing forth the spider legs from her back, Bael began cutting cloth.
"Master… please wait for me… I, your one and only maid, will come to you…."
At that same moment, Peace and Flügel — the ones who had been feeding Otonashi — sensed the killing intent, but the aura vanished so quickly that they soon breathed sighs of relief.
Our Otonashi, meanwhile, remained perfectly serene, noticing nothing at all.
"Teacher Yuzuru, where is the main estate of the Shiota family?"
"Hmm… well, that's a little complicated."
With that answer, the two concluded they couldn't put their plan into action immediately and ended their conversation for the time being.
"Then, Teacher Yuzuru, I'll see you later."
"Right. See you in afternoon class~"
Left alone, Yuzuru placed a hand on her chest and gulped down ragged breaths as she recalled the overwhelming presence she had felt only minutes before.
She pressed her hand against her sternum, gasping.
"The Demon Realm's killing intent reached all the way to this city? So this is the current Demon King's power… If she truly moved, she'd be called the Great Demon King for real……"
She turned her gaze toward the cafeteria. There sat Otonashi, surrounded by Peace and Flügel, eating his lunch without a clue in the world.
"Such a peaceful sight. The Spirit King, the Heavenly King, and now the Demon King too… this Academy isn't going to survive."
Yuzuru gave a wry smile and tried to shake off the chill crawling down her spine. Now was not the time to spiral into panic.
Afternoon class covered the eldritch presences that had been observed recently. They were one of the [Exception Races] — the Eldritch Race. Simply put, beings like the monsters of horror films.
Gaze upon an Eldritch for too long, and your mind would unravel — hallucinations, phantom voices, psychosis, until madness swallowed you whole.
Such a dangerous race left no room for negotiation. Like monsters, they were threats to be executed on sight.
It reminded me of the time a fragment of an Eldritch had sent Peace searching for me in the modern world.
'That's right. It was an incredibly tiny fragment, but I did destroy it.'
Flügel — did you sense the Eldritch's presence and come to the modern world? Or did you track me down because Lucia revealed my family name?
'Hmm… honestly, like Peace, I had been slumbering, but I awoke when Lucia's emotions flowed into me.
The fear she felt… but more than that, it was how pitiable, how utterly deserving of rescue she seemed — a heart moved to save her. That is what stirred me.
Besides, a fragment of the eldritch presence had drifted all the way into the Celestial Realm. I purged it and investigated where it was leaking in from — and it turned out to be the modern world.'
Flügel really is a Celestial, after all. Setting aside her combat strength, to humans she's genuinely like an angel.
'The decisive moment, though, was when Lucia spoke your family name and acknowledged your existence.'
Then let me ask you something — how is the Heavenly King's bloodline created?
'Simple. You see, I shape them from my own heart and emotions. The other Celestials reproduce through relations with males of other races, but I crafted mine directly, infusing them with my own essence.
In human terms, you might call them my direct-blooded household. Of course, if only Master permits it… ehehehe…… we could create them right away……!'
KONG!
That will be quite enough of that nonsense.
I slammed my mana output through the telepathic link and drove it straight into Flügel's skull.
Watching this, Peace smiled in deep satisfaction. Spirits really do seem to enjoy other people's misfortune now and then.
"Afternoon classes are over, so I have something to announce."
Yuzuru-neesan gathered us together before we left for the day.
"You all know that after the weekend, we have our field trip next week, right?
This one's on the longer side — four nights and five days. Don't get sick, and make sure you pack your daily necessities properly. Got it?"
The place we would be visiting was a city of the dwarves — a nation of iron, streets steeped in the romance of master craftsmen.
A field trip: the very quintessence of ordinary school life. The old me, before I recovered my emotions, would have felt nothing at all — but the me of now found that curiosity had rekindled a feeling called anticipation.
Against my expectations, however, Peace and Flügel each seemed to have something very different on their minds.
'Ehehehe…… a chance to be alone with Master for four whole nights and five days? I could just slip into his room and we could consummate——'
'Four nights, five days… that means a date with Master… hehe……'
I can hear every word of it, you two. I let out a long, deep sigh.
Just as I was about to head home, Lucia stopped me. She was fidgeting, unable to stand still.
"Um, Shiota…?"
"Hm? Did you have something to say?"
"If… if you don't mind it… would it be all right to call you by your given name?"
"? You already call me by my name."
"That's your FAMILY name! How are you so quick at everything else and so hopelessly dense about this?!"
"Is that sarcasm I hear?"
"Anyway! I'll call you Otonashi! Otonashi!"
"…Well, whatever works."
After I sent Lucia off, Peace and Flügel seized hold of me.
"That Lucia girl — bold as brass, and I'm so envious."
As Flügel said this with naked envy, Peace chimed in.
"Ahem… I remember having days like that myself…."
"What kind of old-timer nostalgia club are you two running here?"
They were like readers getting way too invested in a romantic comedy.
"I don't know how long you two have lived, but to my eyes you just look like girls my own age. Incredibly mature ones, granted."
At my words, the two seemed to flush with embarrassment. Just how neglected did a Master have to be… ah, wait, that's me. Forced neglect, technically.
"Everyone, were you waiting for me? I'm touched~"
At some point Yuzuru-neesan had walked up to us. Nobody had actually been waiting for her, but I didn't bother saying so.
"Let's head home. Though that's fine for Peace — Flügel, where exactly are you going to live?"
"Why, obviously! In Master's be——!"
CRACK!
"Urk……."
Nonsense gets punished with Void-laced mana.
"M-Master… that hurt far, far more than your chop…."
"Naturally. That was a chop thrown at roughly ten percent of my mana-coated fist's full power."
"Th-the… that power from when you smashed the wooden doll into splinters……?"
Yuzuru-neesan trembled as the memory of yesterday resurfaced.
"So the conclusion is, Flügel has nowhere to stay right now? Then you're coming to our place too."
"Master truly is… so kind… ehehehe……."
Perhaps thanks to the Celestials' inborn physical resilience, Flügel recovered in no time at all.
"Master! Stop nuzzling and let's get going!"
And so, called along by Peace, we all set out on the walk home together.
When we arrived home, the house had gained two new family members(?) in just two days and burst into cheerful chaos.
From my perspective, it felt like I'd picked up two older sisters. My mouth was hanging open before I even realized it.
"Peace-neesan, Flügel-neesan. We're grilling thinly sliced pork belly for dinner tonight — that all right with you two?"
"You called me 'sister' once before, as I recall. It startled me at the time……"
Peace seemed fairly used to it by now, but Flügel was another story entirely.
"S-sister…? Me…? Master's… sister?!"
Flügel promptly went off the rails, exactly as the words implied.
"This big sister shall teach her little sibling one essential lesson! It is called sex education——!"
"Flügel!! Get ahold of yourself!!"
KONG!
Having taken Peace's chop square to the head, Flügel spent the next few seconds seeing stars. I apologized to both of them.
"Sorry — I caused the confusion by calling you that out of nowhere."
"It's quite all right. Such things happen."
Peace smiled. She seemed to have settled completely into modern life.
Perhaps it was from living like friends with Flügel, or perhaps it was simply the peerless adaptability of the spirit race.
I thawed the thinly sliced pork belly, then opened the window and switched on the ventilation fan.
Sssssizzle….
The grill pan had hit exactly the right temperature. That sound. The favorite sound of ordinary folk like me.
A light dusting of pepper and salt over the meat, and then — the crowning touch — kimchi laid right on top to grill alongside it.
Ohhh YES! That aroma!! This is the true drug of the gods!!
At some point, thanks to that curiosity and anticipation, I found myself fully reclaiming the emotions of wonder and excitement.
While I was pioneering my own golden recipe, Yuzuru-neesan finished her shower and came out to sit at the table.
"Otonashi~ I'm starving~ Feed me, feed me~"
"Yuzuru. One must not beg so shamefully, I say…."
Peace valiantly suppressed her reaction to the smell, holding firm with a stern tone — but the tail swishing side to side behind her betrayed everything.
"So this is the fragrance food carried before the Age of Chaos? Ehehehe…… my curiosity is being stirred most powerfully!"
Flügel, meanwhile, had borrowed Yuzuru-neesan's tablet PC and was busily feeding her hunger for knowledge. Though the things she was searching for… no. Best not to think about it.
"Here you are — Otonashi-style thinly sliced pork belly and stir-fried kimchi."
Together we all cried out our thanks for the meal, and each of us began enjoying dinner in our own particular way.
Yuzuru-neesan volunteered for dish duty. I headed off to take a shower, never suspecting that pervert had laid a trap in wait for me.
"Ehehehe…… Master… got you……."
Having tasted the thinly sliced pork belly, Peace licked her plate clean like some world-famous chef.
"Hehe…."