Chapter 14
“Um... well, I have a favor to ask.”
Perhaps she had meant to hide. Alice poked just her head out from behind a tree and murmured, fidgeting as if she found it hard to say.
“I want you to buy some medicine to cure my father’s illness...”
“What medicine?”
“I heard a rumor that the Quest Issuing Guild sells a panacea called Spirit’s Blessing Potion... I want you to buy some for me.”
“That costs 10 gold. Do you have any money?”
“T-ten gold?!”
Alice had assumed it would cost 500 silver at most, so she looked utterly stunned when she heard a price she couldn’t afford.
The Spirit’s Blessing Potion certainly lived up to its price. It worked wonders on everything from colds, poison, curses, and petrification to vitality, stamina, virility, physical strength, anti-aging, skincare, and muscle fatigue.
Only a tiny fraction of nobles used it, and even they only did so once a year, if that. It was an absurdly precious item.
“Well, I figured you wouldn’t. You don’t look like you have any.”
“Um... Could you lend me the money?”
Alice swallowed her pride and asked, but Kagami furrowed his brow, looking at her as if to say, “What are you talking about?”
“You won’t find a Villager who’d lend you a fortune to buy medicine for the Demon King. I have no obligation to go that far for you. It’s the Demon King’s fault he got sick. He can just accept being defeated.”
As Kagami declared this, pointing his index finger at Alice, her expression immediately darkened. Seeing that, Kagami bitterly regretted his words. Telling the Demon King’s own daughter to just accept his defeat had been too harsh.
“I can’t let my father die... If he dies, all the demons will be in danger. This isn’t just a matter between my father and me!”
Alice cried out, gazing at him with pleading eyes.
Kagami listened, looking thoughtful.
“Right now, my father, who has an enormous amount of magical energy, is humanity’s target. They’re so focused on him that they aren’t trying to find and kill the other demons. But if my father is gone...!”
“Ah... Yeah, I guess that would happen.”
Monsters wouldn’t disappear just because the Demon King was defeated. That was because they were created using the magical energy demons released; the Demon King wasn’t directly responsible for them.
If the Demon King, who held an abnormally vast amount of magical energy, were defeated, humans would start blaming the demons living throughout the land for the monsters that continued to appear.
For now, humans were so preoccupied with dealing with the overwhelmingly powerful Demon King that they had no choice but to leave the other demons alone. That was why the other demons weren’t being targeted.
Few demons understood that. The fact that they lived somewhere other than the Demon King’s castle because it was dangerous there was proof enough.
“But... that’s a problem that’ll inevitably happen sooner or later, right? The Demon King will die someday. Eventually, the line will die out, and he’ll be gone.”
Kagami understood that. Even so, he had left everything to take its course because he’d resigned himself to the fact that it was absolutely unavoidable.
Demons weren’t immortal. Like humans, they grew old and died. The Demon King was no exception, and the current Demon King was already several generations into the line. Kagami knew that. He also knew that if no one remained to succeed him, the overwhelmingly powerful Demon King would disappear from the world.
“I... won’t give up. If there’s still a way to resist, even if there’s only a tiny chance, I want to hold on to it.”
Watching Alice plead through gritted teeth, Kagami remembered a feeling from long ago.
For Alice, that possibility was probably keeping her father alive for now. Kagami was also beginning to sense the true reason she wanted to find a way for demons and humans to coexist.
“Do you hate humans?”
To confirm whether his guess was right, Kagami asked her that question.
“Even if I hated them, that wouldn’t get us anywhere. Besides... it goes both ways.”
Hearing that, Kagami’s face softened, and he let out a snort of laughter.
“W-why are you laughing?!”
“No... I was just thinking that the Demon King probably started looking for a way to coexist because you can think that way.”
Kagami was certain that her reason for not wanting to lose the Demon King—that the other demons would be in danger—was true, but not the real reason.
If the Demon King were gone, the demons would become targets. Naturally, the demons wouldn’t simply let themselves be killed, and war would break out between humans and demons. No one knew how long it would last. It would go on until one side was gone.
For now, since they weren’t being targeted, the demons were trying not to stir things up. But the moment they lost the great shield that was the Demon King, it would all begin.
“I don’t think it’s possible to improve relations between demons and humans.”
Why did he think that? Because Kagami had once thought the same thing.
He’d thought so, but then an unavoidable reality had stood in his way, and he’d given up.
He’d given up and thought of another way, which was why he’d accepted that it couldn’t be helped.
But the girl before him hadn’t given up. She was trying to accomplish what he’d once abandoned, and she was doing so even though she was a demon, all alone in a place like this.
In truth, demons killed humans because they hated them. Humans did the same to demons. Both sides were trying to ensure their own safety.
In the end, Alice believed humans and demons were the same. That was why she thought they could coexist, and why she’d said, “It goes both ways.” That was what Kagami thought.
And he was right.
“Even if it’s impossible now, if there’s a chance we might find a way someday, I won’t give up.”
“Yeah, yeah. Then keep at it without giving up. I’ll buy the medicine for you.”
That was why Kagami decided he would support this girl until she, like him, gave up on the idea that humans and demons could join hands. It seemed more interesting that way.
Maybe she would notice something different from what he had. He decided to believe in that possibility.
“I-is that okay? But what about the money...?”
At Kagami’s sudden change of heart, Alice’s face lit up, though she also looked apologetic as she cautiously asked him.
“Of course you’ll have to pay me back. You said ‘lend,’ didn’t you? That means you have a way to repay me, right?”
“Y-yeah! There are lots of jewels in the Demon King’s castle. I can easily pay back 10 gold, so you can take some of those.”
“Then I’ll go get them, so pay me back 15 gold.”
“Huh? That’s 5 gold more!”
“Can’t be helped. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth my while. This is a great deal for you as it is.”
Alice was astonished by the enormous sum, but Kagami was actually offering her a great deal.
It would take about ten days to travel from Valman to the Demon King’s castle and back. Kagami could easily earn around five gold in that amount of time.
“You also get a safe escort all the way to the Demon King’s castle. That’s cheap, isn’t it?”
“Ugh... Dad might get mad at me later, but it’ll be fine. The jewels have just been sitting in storage forever... I think it’ll be fine.”
“All right, then. First, we need to go to Valman and buy the medicine. Come on, hurry up, Alice.”
Having said that, Kagami started walking toward Valman again.
Alice stared blankly for a moment at being called by name so suddenly, then her face broke into a radiant smile, trembling with joy.
“Yeah! I look forward to working with you, Kagami-san!”
The fact that a human, rather than a demon, had called her by name gave the girl named Alice one more thing to believe in: possibility and hope.
At the age of seven, Kagami had hated and resented the monsters that took his father from him—and the demons who created them. From the bottom of his heart, he had wanted to kill them all.