Because I Like You!

The situation we’d feared finally came to pass.

Though it was only for an instant, while we left Yubel alone and stepped away, she tried to end her own life without anyone knowing. ……By stabbing herself in the abdomen several times.

It was a sight that made you want to vomit just looking at it.

The blade tore through her small body with a gruesome ripping sound, and the blood gushing out showed no sign of stopping as it spread across the floor. What situation could the words “utter chaos” possibly describe better than this?

The moving reunion we’d shared with Yubel just moments ago had turned into a scene straight out of hell in an instant. Riella and I rushed in to stop her.

Unfortunately, Prea was a little slow to react because she was screaming.

Anyway, Riella first shot an arrow at the kitchen knife in Yubel’s hand, disarming her. Yubel gasped in surprise when she saw her hand was empty. While she was distracted, I knocked her onto her back, pinned both her arms with one hand, and raised them above her head.

Then, to keep from losing my balance, I braced my remaining left hand against the floor beside Yubel’s face. With a wet slap, blood splashed up from the floor.

Riella tightly grabbed both of Yubel’s legs beneath me—in other words, between my legs. Yubel had been trying to thrash around.

Prea came to her senses and rushed over, too. She took bandages from the first-aid kit on the shelf and pressed them against Yubel’s bleeding abdomen. Since she couldn’t use divine power, she was at least going to stop the bleeding.

It left us in a rather strange position: several adults restraining one tiny girl. And I, the only man among them, was on top of her. It felt a little odd, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Are you out of your mind!?”

Yikes.

I must have been so confused that I ended up shouting at her despite not wanting to.

Then I met Yubel’s tearful eyes. She looked so pitiful. Was it because I’d yelled at her? Was she scared of me? Those thoughts crossed my mind, but that didn’t seem to be it. ……She was probably afraid of something else.

For example, of herself, now that she’d become a demon.

“J-Just let me die! Sniff, I-I’ll disappear for good now……. You know I’m a demon, too!”

Just as I thought.

My careless remark must have made her realize that she’d become a demon. That was why she’d immediately chosen this course of action, for our sake.

It was my mistake.

My heart ached terribly.

But the words Yubel spoke next were even more shocking, enough to make me forget that pain.

“I’ll give up on the Hero’s party, too…… Sniff. I-I’ll just go far away……”

Give up.

Words that the old Yubel would never have uttered had slipped from her lips.

Why would a girl who’d always admired the Hero’s party say something so hopeless, declaring that she was giving up on it?

It jolted me back to my senses, too. Why did the girl who’d been so righteous and courageous now seem so small and fragile?

But I soon realized the reason.

The event that had twisted Yubel’s heart so badly. Hadn’t it happened just a week ago? The horrific torture where her arms and legs had been cut off, her flesh torn away, and her hearing taken from her. The witch’s torture.

No person could endure that level of torture with a sound mind. If anything, it would have been stranger if she seemed fine.

In other words, Yubel was now in a fragile state of mind and body because of that torture. She’d kept pretending she was all right because she didn’t want us to see her so weak.

But that act had crumbled the moment she realized she’d become a demon. To this kind girl, we were more precious than her own life—perhaps even more precious than her dreams.

“P-Please, just let me go……”

“I’m sorry……. I can’t give up on you.”

“Why not!? I-I said I’d disappear! Why are you so hell-bent on keeping me here……!?”

“There’s no way I’d give up on a precious companion!!!”

I shouted, and Yubel flinched.

“A-A precious companion……?”

“That’s right! Even if you’re giving up on life, we won’t allow it! We’ll hold on to you no matter what! And this time, we’ll definitely protect you!”

My shout made Yubel’s expression turn puzzled for a moment. She seemed a little flustered, too.

“Th-Then you’re not trying to kill me……? Ugh! H-How am I supposed to believe that!? That I’m a precious companion! That you’ll hold on to me! Do you think I’d believe those hollow words that could fall apart at any moment!?”

So she wasn’t going to come around that easily.

From what Yubel said, it seemed she was afraid that, as a demon, she might hurt us—and at the same time, she was afraid we might betray her.

That meant she didn’t trust us enough.

At last, I felt like I’d heard at least a little of what Yubel truly felt.

Thinking about it, Yubel had always been in danger. And this time, she’d been abducted by the witch and subjected to all kinds of torture, all alone. She must have been terribly afraid and in pain. So, in a way, it was only natural she felt this anxious.

“Your silence says it all! It’s all lies! Protect me? Who are you to protect me? You don’t even have a reason to protect me!”

“……Of course I have a reason to protect you!”

“Liar! Don’t make one up! I saw you hesitating!”

“I’m not lying, and I didn’t just make that up!”

“Then why’d you go quiet for a while!? Anyone could tell you were saying, ‘I’m lying~!’ You liar!”

“A liar!? I just…… needed to prepare myself! I wasn’t making something up!”

“Then say it! You can’t even get the words out, so how am I supposed to believe you? All you’ve done is yell at me, and then you couldn’t say anything—!”

BANG—!!

I slammed my left hand hard against the floor. Blood splattered in every direction. At the same time, Yubel fell silent. She was so startled that her tears stopped. Her beautiful face still bore tear tracks, and the way she lay beneath me looked incredibly sensual.

And then.

I faced Yubel like that, took a deep breath, and shouted.

“Because I like you!!!”

………

……

…

..

.

“Ehe?”

“……”

I-I said it.

Somehow, I’d been swept up in the moment and blurted out an answer.

My heart started pounding as if it would burst.

My mind went blank with embarrassment.

“W-Wait a second, Lord Se-on! What are you saying to my Lady Yubel out of nowhere? Confessing in a situation like this!”

“Ooh, that’s so brave! Is this what it means to be a Hero!”

“……”

I’d just gone and blurted it out, and had even forgotten Prea and Riella were right beside me. And now that I thought about it calmly, confessing right now felt like the absolute worst idea. Or was it? Maybe it was actually good?

First, I needed to see Yubel’s reaction……

“Huh?”

No, I wanted to, but I was too surprised to check her expression.

Because, right behind Yubel……

Flap—!

“Y-You idiot……”

Jet-black wings were unfurling.

***

After hearing Se-on’s sudden confession, Yubel was so confused that she couldn’t think straight.

That lust-tinged gaze Se-on cast down at her from above.

It was pouring an immense amount of mana into Yubel, more than she’d ever felt before. It was enough to bring out even the demon wings sealed inside the Demon King’s body.

Of course, that wasn’t why she’d given such a dazed response as “Ehe?” There was another reason her head was spinning.

All those fluttery feelings that had flowed into her when Se-on confessed.

Se-on had become Yubel’s retainer, and the stronger the emotions he felt, the more strongly his master felt them, too. Just as Yubel had once shared Se-on’s hatred in the Holy Kingdom.

Anyway, that was why Yubel was so confused now.

Her mind was making rational judgments like, “You’d like a hybrid like me? That’s a lie!” But in her heart, she felt like a girl thinking, “I love it!”

[What are you doing? Hurry up and answer him. A man has just laid his heart bare to the woman he loves. You ought to give him an answer befitting that—]

“I-It’s a lie!!!”

“I mean it!”

“Liar! There’s no way you could like a hybrid like me!!”

“A hybrid?”

Yubel had a man’s soul inhabiting a woman’s body.

And she’d acted like a man to match.

So, in her mind, there was no reason anyone could be romantically attracted to someone like her. That meant Se-on’s words were a lie. The feelings she could sense were all fake, too.

All fake, nothing but bluster and fabrication.

He must have fallen for some vile trick.

Yes, that had to be true, but……

“That’s not true!!”

“Ugh!?”

“I don’t care if you’re a demon or anything else! No matter what you become, I’ll still love you! I didn’t fall for your appearance—I fell for you, Yubel!”

Thump, thump.

“S-Stop saying that! I feel really weird—”

“No! I’m going to keep saying it! I’ll keep telling you that I love you! That I can’t live without you anymore!”

I love you! I love you! I love you!

As if trying to carve the words into Yubel’s heart, Se-on relentlessly shoved them into her ears. The more he did, the more her emotions swelled and the more chaotic her mind became.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

Yubel’s heart pounded as if it were about to burst.

Her consciousness was growing hazy.

If this went on, she really was going to fall in love with the Hero.

She could actually feel herself slowly beginning to share his feelings.

Like frames from a short film, images of her married life with the Hero flashed through her mind. Ugh! She could still look at that and think it was horrifying. But soon, she’d be filled with a woman’s desire to make that life her own.

Yubel instinctively realized it.

So.

When she felt she couldn’t take it any longer.

“I-I hate you!!!”

……That was what she shouted.