Chapter 35
Disappeared.
I threw myself toward Yubel, who had collapsed, but in the blink of an eye, she had vanished without a trace.
Soon after, a scream that seemed to tear the world apart rang out behind me.
It was unmistakably the voice of the Dark Knight who had been attacking Yubel moments ago.
The moment I heard it, I was completely freed from the crushing pressure.
Enough to turn around and look in the direction the sound had come from.
So I turned.
Slowly.
No, a little hastily.
“……Huh?”
There was Yubel’s back, though I’d thought she had disappeared.
But that was……
A gigantic lance piercing her stomach.
The red blood flowing out along with it.
And Yubel’s benevolent smile, faintly visible despite the blood at her lips.
By all appearances, she was close to death.
Why?
A question.
Faced with that horrific sight, my first reaction was confusion.
Because it made no sense, by any measure.
Why was the woman I’d risked my life to protect dying impaled on that lance, and why was she smiling so peacefully, as if she’d resigned herself to everything, in a situation like that?
I couldn’t understand it at all.
My jaw began to tremble.
Because of that, I couldn’t get the words out.
At the same time, my heart began to pound hard.
As if it were ready to explode at any moment.
Just as something inside my body was on the verge of exploding.
Yubel turned her head toward me.
Then she gave me a quiet, sad smile.
That became the trigger.
“Aaaaaaaaah!!!!”
I rushed into that unbelievable reality.
“I’ll kill you—!!”
“Calm yourself for a moment.”
Huh?
Yubel raised her hand and stopped me.
For some reason, an overwhelming drowsiness began to wash over me.
N-No…….
Unable to resist the drowsiness, my eyes slowly began to close.
Through my blurring vision, I saw her smiling.
Yubel…….
***
Black Knight Kardin was terribly confused.
He could confidently say he would probably never be this confused again in his lifetime.
“N-No……! What, what in the world has happened!”
He had prepared his technique, intending to soon deliver death to that damn Hero.
But when he came to, the technique had been stopped before it could even be performed.
And the reason it had been stopped was the most shocking thing of all.
His lance was piercing his liege, not the Hero or the kingdom.
The blood flowing from the Demon King’s lips and pierced abdomen was something Kardin had never seen in his hundred years of serving her.
For the Demon King had never been wounded before.
Because of that, Kardin thought he had brought the Demon King to the brink of death.
He had rushed to save the Demon King, only to let his anger get the better of him and bring ruin upon himself. What a pathetic fool.
A traitor deserving the most terrible punishment, who’d stabbed his liege without thinking.
That was Kardin, the skeleton who deserved to be torn limb from limb.
“I-I……! What have I dooone—!!!”
I have to save the Demon King.
With that thought taking over his mind, Kardin immediately took action.
Kardin’s ‘core.’
The demonic energy contained within it should be able to heal the Demon King.
Crack—!
Kardin thrust his rough hand into his solar plexus to shatter his core.
Then he clutched the core containing his demonic energy tightly. It began to crack under the force, on the verge of bursting.
“Kardin. You should calm down a little, too.”
A calm yet bewitching voice rang out.
“D-Demon King……?”
“Yes. It is I. Hehe, this body will not fall apart so easily, so there is no need for you to worry.”
The Demon King looked up at him, meeting his gaze.
Then a small, warm hand stroked Kardin’s dazed face.
“Ah, ah…… Why would you treat this worthless skeleton so……?”
“A true ruler must be able to forgive the mistakes of those beneath her, must she not? And Kardin, you came all this way to save me, so you deserve praise, if anything.”
“Ah……”
Thump.
Kardin dropped to his knees.
Those words, recognizing his achievement and seeming to embrace him, felt like a ray of salvation to Kardin.
My liege’s heart is as vast as the sea.
I will serve my liege for the rest of my life.
He made that vow once more.
Just like that day in the throne room.
“However, my body is quite uncomfortable.”
“Pardon? ……Ah!”
As he foolishly stared up at the Demon King, he suddenly realized what was happening.
His shabby lance was embedded in the Demon King’s beautiful body.
What an irreverent act.
“Demon King, if you’ll excuse me for a moment……”
Craaack……
He slowly pulled the lance free.
Fortunately, the large hole in the Demon King’s body regenerated in an instant, leaving not even a scratch.
Then, to lower his foolish gaze, which had dared to meet the Demon King’s, he knelt.
The Demon King smiled in satisfaction at the sight.
“Hmm. You still look so full of life, smiling so brightly before me.”
!!!
Perhaps he had unconsciously relaxed at the realization that the Demon King had returned, because his expression had softened.
“I-I apologize……”
How long are you going to keep making a fool of yourself, Kardin?
He berated himself inwardly for his foolishness.
“Hehe, you needn’t worry about it so much. I have been in a delightful mood for the first time in a long while.”
“I-Is that so?”
Had the Demon King perhaps been waiting for me?
As that thought crossed his mind, the desire to die he’d had moments ago faded as if it had been a lie.
Ah, how could I be this happy?
“Hehe, yes. From now on, you and I will begin a battle to the death.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that, gk—!”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
The Demon King’s hand had pierced his chest in an instant.
Soon, he began to feel something being sucked out of the core that made up his body.
It was none other than demonic energy.
“What in the world……!”
It happened so quickly that he had no time to figure out what was happening.
So he first leaped far backward.
“Forgive me for beginning with a sneak attack. My body is not what it used to be, so I needed to borrow some strength for a moment.”
Hehe.
It was the laugh he’d always heard, but for some reason, at this moment, it sent chills all the way to his bones.
“Why! Tell me why! There is no reason for me to fight the Demon King!”
Kardin was frantic.
How could he fight the Demon King to the death?
Could there perhaps be some deeper meaning behind this, too?
That thought lingered in his mind.
“Hmm. First, I need to awaken my other self’s magical senses, and there is also a reason I need to reclaim your ‘Authority of Domination.’”
“Th-That……”
Authority of Domination.
It was the authority of the demon race he’d received from the Demon King in order to be reborn as a demon.
Humans could not accept demonic energy and would perish, so that authority had transformed his body into one suited to demonic energy.
In other words, the Demon King intends to kill me.
Just to take back this worthless authority.
That doesn’t matter.
My life was offered to the Demon King anyway.
But.
“I don’t want to fight.”
When Kardin attacked the Demon King, he understood.
That there were things more painful than death.
How could he injure someone more precious than himself?
He’d rather have cleanly disemboweled himself.
So he refused.
For the first time, he refused the Demon King’s command.
Then the Demon King closed her eyes, looking as if she were lost in thought.
“Ah, what a predicament. Very well. I cannot force you to do something you dislike.”
Kardin let out a sigh of relief.
Ah, to think she would accept such an insolent plea. As expected, my Demon King—
“However.”
He flinched.
The Demon King had not finished speaking yet.
“If you accept the fight and win.”
Kardin swallowed dryly.
What on earth was she about to say?
But no matter what, he had no intention of fighting the Demon King—
“I will let you have me.”
“……Pardon?”
Blink, blink.
Kardin blinked his violet eyes several times.
Then he spent a long time thumping at his own earholes, which had just heard such nonsense.
Have her?
The Demon King?
What nonsense he’d just heard.
He must have gone mad from fantasizing about the Demon King too much.
“Demon King, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you properly……”
“No. You heard correctly, so there is no need to apologize.”
“Pardon?”
He’d heard correctly.
Then could it be……?
“Yes. I mean that if you win, I will become your wife.”
Wife?
Thump thump thump thump.
Kardin’s core began pounding like mad.
The meaning of those words.
The Demon King was saying she would become his wife.
What was a wife?
Wasn’t she a man’s partner, someone who stayed by his side forever?
Someone who whispered sweet nothings, gazed into his eyes, and kissed him from time to time, making his heart flutter.
In the end, like any married couple, someone who would entwine their bodies with him on a soft, white bed and make love.
“What will you do?”
One step.
The Demon King approached him from where she had moved far away.
“Of course, that would be impossible in your current form.”
Two steps.
“So I have specially prepared a way to return your body to human form, too.”
Three steps.
Before he knew it, she was right in front of him.
“This is an opportunity more precious than anything to you.”
She paused.
The Demon King stopped and pointed to her lower abdomen.
“Right here, you have the chance to get me pregnant with your child.”
“U, ah, euh……”
Only a foolish sound came out.
His mind was in complete disarray.
“Haa……♡ Aren’t you curious? Curious about how it would feel to shove your cock in here and thrust wildly…… Aren’t you truly curious?”
Gulp.
I’m curious.
So very curious.
“I will surely be beneath you, letting out heated moans like any other female. In the end, I will squirt for you, unable to control my convulsing body, and submit to you……”
A sweet whisper reached his ear.
However, a small question arose in one corner of Kardin’s mind.
Had the Demon King always been so vulgar in her speech and behavior?
No. Something had changed the Demon King like this.
So, right now…… he had to refuse.
“B-But…… I…… Ah!”
Grab.
The Demon King’s hand seized Kardin’s wrist and pulled it somewhere.
And Kardin’s hand came to rest on the Demon King’s soft chest.
It wasn’t particularly large, but its modest size let him feel every curve.
The softness he could feel even through the bikini fabric was enough to strip away Kardin’s self-control.
And then.
“Do you not want to make me your woman……?”
Ah.
It felt as if the taut string inside Kardin had snapped.
“Haa……. Haa……”
Lust
There was no other way to explain it.
Could there be a man in this world who could refuse this?
Kardin couldn’t even imagine it.
“Damn……”
I want to ravish her……!
I want to grab those horns and ravage every inch of the Demon King’s body as I please!
I want to leave my mark on that tempting body so no one else would dare covet it!
That’s right.
Kardin was a demon.
Demons were dozens of times more driven by instinct than other races.
They were a race that naturally lived according to their own desires.
And Kardin held several hundred years’ worth of lust.
How much his heart had raced whenever he went to see the Demon King.
How much he’d suppressed his desires whenever he stood before her.
And how much he’d yearned for this situation right now.
Kardin himself knew.
But Kardin was a skeleton.
A body without muscles couldn’t give those desires an outlet.
So he simply concealed them.
Besides, he was afraid to reveal these desires to the Demon King.
If he confessed outright, she would surely doubt his loyalty.
He could never allow that.
So.
Kardin found the Demon King’s words very sweet right now.
To think he could return to being human and make his love for the Demon King, which he thought impossible, come true.
It was truly a dreamlike demonic whisper.
“Hehe, so have you decided on your answer?”
His gaze met her moist eyes.
At that moment, Kardin understood what an irresistible temptation was.
I want her.
I want to make everything about the Demon King mine.
I don’t want to remain in this kind of relationship anymore.
“I-I understand……. I accept the fight.”
In the end, Kardin agreed.
To the Demon King’s offer, which he could not refuse.
Then the corners of the Demon King’s lips curved in a seductive arc.
“Good. I have heard your answer. Then……”
Snap!
When the Demon King snapped her fingers, a large dome began to envelop the surroundings.
The dense trees and blue lake alongside the carriage road began to be swallowed by that enormous darkness.
It looked as if the space was being recreated.
The surroundings gradually took shape, looking just like……
The throne room?
“Let the duel before the throne begin.”