Devil

“……And so, Sleris’s north and west have now fallen into Mortia’s hands.”

“Hehe, she really is working hard. Well, I expected as much… No, she’s taking longer than I thought.”

“Yes, that leech can only get so far, after all. For a vampire who survives by sucking human blood to presume she can take the Demon King’s place… It’s so absurd it’s laughable.”

Here, a short distance from the Hero’s party’s campsite, lay the vast flower field Belcia had discovered earlier, blanketed in white blossoms.

The Demon King and Belcia sat side by side, chatting beneath the moonlight.

Time had stopped, leaving the petals suspended in the air like stars. These fluffy white flowers, also known as ‘edelweiss,’ created a fantastical atmosphere all on their own.

“She should know that no amount of effort could possibly make her the Demon King. How pathetic.”

“……Hehe, who knows? That depends on the Goddess’s will.”

“Pardon?”

“It was only a thought to myself, so pay it no mind. In any case, why don’t we get to the point? You didn’t bring me all the way here just to tell me this, did you?”

“……No.”

Still crouched down, Belcia’s gaze slowly crawled across the ground.

Perhaps because she had so much she wanted to say to the Demon King—or hear from her—Belcia absentmindedly crushed the beautiful flowers as she hesitated, unlike her usual self.

She was afraid to say it.

Because the moment she did, it would feel as if she were truly admitting it.

In the end, unable to meet the Demon King’s eyes, Belcia cautiously opened her mouth. It was something she had hesitated over, her lips moving dozens of times.

“Your Majesty… You’ve changed a great deal.”

“……Yes, I suppose I have. I must seem like a stranger to you. I’ve always worn a ridiculous ‘mask,’ after all. Do you dislike the way I am now?”

“N-Not at all! How could I ever… It’s just that I’m curious about what changed your heart…”

She found herself at a loss for words.

This time, too, it was ‘that expression.’

Belcia slowly turned to look at the Demon King. The expression on the Demon King’s face wasn’t a smile brimming with her usual confidence. It wasn’t the kind of smile that served as a ‘mask’ to conceal her true feelings.

It was something that seemed to rise from somewhere deep within her heart…

A sad smile.

For an instant, that was the expression lingering at the end of the Demon King’s gaze.

“H-Hehe… Forgive me for showing weakness. Yes, the reason. You wanted to know the reason, didn’t you?”

“Y-Yes…”

The Demon King slowly raised her head and gazed at the sky. After a brief silence, she spoke.

“How much do you know about Riella?”

“Riella, you mean…”

It was a rather unexpected question, but Belcia thought carefully about what she knew of Riella.

An elf in the Hero’s party, serving as their archer and scout.

They had known each other for less than a day, but Belcia had a better opinion of her than she’d expected. The elf had brought her notebook back with a bright smile, even though Belcia had thought it lost to the force of the wind.

The first gift she had received from the Demon King.

Riella had said she caught the notebook as it flew away because it seemed precious. At the time, Belcia had only stared blankly as the elf cheerfully handed it to her.

It felt strange to see the same feeling she’d had when the Demon King saved her reflected in someone else.

She couldn’t bring herself to speak.

Belcia hugged the notebook tightly to her chest and cautiously opened her mouth.

“Other than the fact that she’s an elf… I don’t know much yet.”

“That’s right. She’s an elf—a rare elf who has left the kingdom of Edelia. A cheerful elf who joined the Hero’s party hoping to undergo the mental growth elves are meant to experience. Hehe, though she seems to have forgotten that herself.”

“……I see. I thought she seemed somewhat immature for an elf, but now I understand why.”

“Yes. Then do you know what happens when an elf, one of the long-lived races, achieves mental maturity?”

Mental growth.

Belcia knew little about such things, so she couldn’t answer the Demon King’s question.

The answer, of course, came from the Demon King herself.

“Hehe, to put it simply, they entrust their minds to the World Tree. The lives of the long-lived races are far too lengthy for them to bear a mature mind on their own.”

“I see.”

After that, the Demon King told her about various long-lived races. Spirits, vampires, fairies, and so on… Each had a story of its own.

The most notable among them were dragons.

Just as elves lived for ages by entrusting their minds to the World Tree, dragons sustained their long lives by sleeping for long stretches of time.

Their sole purpose was to keep their minds from wearing away.

In one way or another, the long-lived races did not simply enjoy or endure life as it was. They devised some means of protecting their minds, then lived bound by it.

By now, Belcia could vaguely guess what the Demon King was trying to tell her. After all, the Demon King was also one of the long-lived races: a ‘devil.’

“Hehe, then do you know how devils live so long? You’re not a full-fledged devil, so I doubt this will be easy for you to understand.”

“Yes, you’re right. Though I’m hardly a true devil, might I venture a guess? Do devils use their hearts…?”

“Oh, correct. Devils like me prevent our minds from wearing away by keeping our hearts outside our bodies. Keeping our hearts far away dulls our emotions. If a devil rejects this and keeps their heart within their body, they eventually fail to withstand the torrent of their emotions and meet their ruin. That is when they cease to be a long-lived race.”

Emotions, one of the things that wore down the mind.

By giving them up, devils continued to live.

Even so, one emotion remained faintly in devils like them: pleasure. Without even that, they would lose the drive to go on living in the world.

As a result, devils inevitably became monsters who indulged in nothing but amusement. But it couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t something they could control.

It was their only source of stimulation in life.

Satisfying their desires was their only joy.

Even today, devils set out in search of amusement. Whether it was someone else’s suffering or tragedy, they lived solely for stimulation.

A race that was, quite literally, enslaved by desire from the moment of birth.

Perhaps this was why devils were called evil. Belcia ventured the thought.

“Th-Then… Your Majesty…”

At that moment, a chilling fact came to mind.

Then what about the Demon King now? What was the Demon King, who could feel so many emotions now?

She found the answer through the Demon King’s own words.

“Hehe, yes. There is now a heart inside this body. It is the reason I’ve come to feel emotions. I am no longer one of the long-lived races. I’m sorry, my vassal.”

“……Ah.”

So that was it.

This was the reason the Demon King had changed.

Even if that body was nothing more than a shell for the Demon King’s soul, when the vessel’s shape changed, its contents were bound to change as well.

The Demon King had already changed.

No longer a monster searching for amusement, the Demon King now laughed and cried according to the emotions of the moment, like a human. The change had happened in that short time.

“Emotions are truly… sweet. Terrifyingly seductive. Even this scenery, which I would normally have passed by without a thought, makes my heart pound now. It’s truly… beautiful.”

“……Haha, is that so?”

The Demon King spread her arms and legs and lay down in the field of white flowers.

Her expression held ecstasy, melancholy, and delight.

Belcia hesitated for a moment, then lay down beside her. The soft petals tickled her ear.

“Ha, hahaha…”

A hollow laugh escaped her.

She had planned to ask all sorts of questions: why a heart had suddenly appeared, who the new personality was, and more. But seeing the Demon King’s wistful expression, none of it seemed to matter anymore.

No—she only wanted to think that way.

No matter what misfortune lay ahead, no matter how little time remained, if she was happy now, wasn’t that all that mattered? It was a smile that made Belcia accept everything.

A truly beautiful smile.

“……How do you plan to live from now on?”

“Hehe, for now, I want to watch Yubel’s fate unfold. A Demon King setting out on a journey with the Hero who must kill her—what a cruel fate. Surely I have to watch until the very end…”

“……Yes.”

There was so much she wanted to say, but Belcia kept her mouth shut.

She couldn’t bring herself to say that she ought to kill the Hero for the Demon King’s sake.

There were many reasons for that, but the greatest was her certainty that the personality called ‘Yubel’ wouldn’t allow it.

Though they had only just met, Belcia could tell by instinct. That personality couldn’t live without the Hero. So Belcia simply couldn’t bring herself to tell the personality to kill the Hero and survive.

Even if that meant putting the Demon King as she was now in danger.

“Tsk…”

What was Yubel thinking, staying by the Hero’s side?

Could Yubel possibly not realize that she was the Demon King? It was an absurd guess, but only by thinking so could Belcia make sense of the reality before her.

“Reality is truly this cruel.”

“Hehe, I’m feeling that all too keenly myself now. ……In any case, what became of the contract? You wouldn’t be planning to harm me. Could it be that…?”

“Pfft, yes. Contracts are made to be broken, aren’t they? Even if it means I cease to exist, I intend to serve you both to the very end.”

“……I see. So that is your answer.”

All Belcia could do was wish for the happiness of the two Demon Kings she loved. That reality pained her.

“I’ll be with you until the very end.”

“Hehe, you really are stubborn.”

That unadorned smile, illuminated by the moonlight, made the reality of the moment beautiful once more.

How cruel.

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[Success.]

[You have discovered the Demon King’s identity.]

[The final objective has been updated.]

〉[Objective: Kill ‘Yubel’ and return to your original world.]〈

“……Shut up.”

[The moment of choice is approaching.]

[Your fate—]

“I said shut up—!!!!”

The choices Se-on had put off until now had come at him in their worst possible form.

Yubel’s true identity was the Demon King.

How could Yubel be the Demon King?

Had Yubel been the Demon King from the start? Or had Yubel become one the moment she turned into a devil?

Se-on’s thoughts were a tangled mess, but that wasn’t the problem right now.

“……Damn it.”

Se-on had to meet the childhood friend and apologize for what had happened that day. But to do that, Se-on had to kill Yubel.

To atone for the guilt of the past sin that tormented Se-on every day, Se-on had to bring Yubel down with their own hands.

How could such a cruel choice exist?

For a moment, Se-on pictured the childhood friend and Yubel at the same time.

The childhood friend, who had told Se-on, ‘It’s okay,’ even though the friend had lost their parents because of Se-on’s mistake. The way the friend comforted Se-on, still in shock, despite looking anything but okay.

That face kept coming back to Se-on.

The girl who had wailed that no one loved her because she’d never been loved. The way she buried her face against Se-on’s chest and trembled.

That expression kept coming back to Se-on.

In the end, to save one, Se-on would have to give up the other.

To Se-on, the two of them were of a weight that could never be compared.

It felt as if cold thorns were sprouting throughout Se-on’s mouth.

“What am I supposed to do…?”

Noble love, precious memories, and courage.

In the middle of the edelweiss field that symbolized them, Se-on silently swallowed a scream that would reach no one.

So that no one would hear Se-on.

Slowly…

Se-on lowered their head.

[May your fate be filled with brilliant light.]