Pen and Paper Translations

They say a bone once broken grows back stronger.

After a bout of serious illness, Reinhild’s body actually felt better than before.

His mana, too, was gathering at a faster rate.

At this pace, I should be able to build up enough to escape the Hero within two years.

If he collected mana stones and set up a magic circle, even half a year might do.

But Reinhild had decided not to run. He meant to face the Hero head-on.

Run, and the Hero would simply hunt him again. He would live out his life as a fugitive.

He refused.

How much mana must I store to stand my ground when the Hero shows up?

He didn’t have to win. Killing the Hero would only give him a short respite, after which a new Hero would rise to torment him.

If I can recover enough that I can drive the Hero off or hide my presence when he comes here, that’s enough.

Even with a mana stone circle, he would need at least a year or two.

If the Hero arrived with companions, he would still need more mana.

If the Hero was stronger than expected, it could take five, ten years—perhaps absurdly long.

To re-accumulate the power lost over five centuries in mere years was itself absurd.

Still, I’m finished cowering over things that haven’t happened yet.

He had lived with far too many worries:

Would the Hero come?

Would someone discover he was the Demon King?

Would Xion cast him out?

Utterly pointless fears.

Xion would never abandon me.

That groundless confidence made Reinhild bold.

He decided to become a little more brazen and unabashed.

“When you carry all those worries around, you only look more suspicious,” he told himself.

So dense it was a wonder he’d survived this long, Xion hadn’t noticed a thing.

He hadn’t even been the slightest bit suspicious. 

More than that, Xion hadn’t noticed his secret excursions outside.

He’ll never learn I’m the Demon King.

With Xion, he could pretend to be human without difficulty. He could enjoy that peace humans value so much.

Peace—a disgusting word, yet once tasted, it was not so bad.

Of course, in fifty years, he would tire of it.

“I can stand it that long.”

Human lives were brief.

For the time left him with Xion, he could refrain from tormenting humans.

He had no power to do so now anyway.

During those fifty years, he would gather mana, train, regain his strength, and become a Demon King worthy of the title.

Then the demons of the citadel would welcome him back.

“It isn’t strange that Xion waits on me,” he told himself.

He was the Demon King. Xion was merely a commoner.

Think of Xion as one of the castle’s servants and everything made sense.

Demons in the castle would do at least this much. Xion was merely performing alone what many demons did together.

Thus, leaning on Xion was perfectly natural.

It wasn’t laziness.

Absolutely not because Xion’s care felt pleasant and cozy and he was inventing every excuse to cling to it!

Yes. A Demon King should not depend on humans, but just this once is an exception, thought Reinhild who had in fact depended on a human every single day for months.

Maybe I lean on him now, but once I’m strong I’ll protect Xion when the Hero comes.

A reasonable decision.

Therefore he needed to grow strong quickly by hunting monsters and gathering mana stones.

He planned to collect stones thicker and darker than the one Xion had found.

“Reinhild, are you ready?”

Right on cue ,Xion finished preparing to leave.

Reinhild bounded from the room in high spirits.

“Let’s go!”

A day out with Xion!

❖ ❖ ❖

WROOOAAAR!

The trap they had set days earlier held a monster.

A grey owlbear.

Among owlbears—whose bodies are those of bears but faces of owls—the grey variety was relatively docile.

WOORAAAK!

Relatively docile did not mean gentle. The creature slammed the pit’s inner wall and the ground shook.

“It’s an owlbear.”

“First time seeing one?” Xion asked.

“Uh, w-well…”

Owlbears, native to colder regions, were common around the cool Demon King’s citadel.

Looking out a castle window, one could often see them climbing trees.

But a normal human wouldn’t watch owlbears from atop a demon fortress.

No. Today I decided to be confident… No, better be cautious here.

He wavered but decided it was safer to pretend this was his first owlbear. He couldn’t explain surviving an encounter otherwise.

“They say owlbears break out of pits quickly. Why’s this one so calm?”

WOORAK!

The grey owlbear screeched irritably, as if protesting that it was not calm.

“Must be the caltrops we set in the bottom,” Xion said.

“Look, its paw’s hurt! My trap worked!”

Xion watched Reinhild clap his hands in delight.

Of course, Reinhild’s roughly carved stakes were useless. It was too blunt to pierce even a leaf, let alone owlbear hide.

The real reason the creature stayed was that Xion, who had lured it, had already wounded its pads and coated the pit walls with oil so it couldn’t climb.

The monster had been chosen with care: not strong enough to harm Reinhild during the ‘hunt,’ yet not so weak it lacked a mana stone.

Xion wanted Reinhild to savor the joy of a first hunt, to discover something he wanted to do in Root, to give him reasons to stay.

If he could become that reason, wonderful. If not, he would still pile up joys and pleasures for Reinhild, one by one.

“Killing it down there is safest. If we haul it out alive, it may attack. I’ll fetch a spear…”

“Let’s set it free.”

“…Are you serious?”

Reinhild nodded vigorously. “It’s pitiful.”

Kiiii… The owlbear began acting pitiful on cue. Apparently, it really did understand.

“If we don’t take its stone…?”

“I have this.”

Reinhild lifted the necklace. The stone gleamed a vivid crimson.

“As bright as this, it’s still brimming with power. I can manage for a while.”

Naturally it gleamed. Xion had replaced it with a fresh stone that very morning.

Xion regained his composure. All of this was for Reinhild. If Reinhild pitied the monster, then it was pitiable.

“Then today’s expedition shall be listed as rescuing a grey owlbear from a pit?”

“Great!”

And so, the owlbear was liberated by the very human who had trapped and beaten it.

It meant to flee far, far away—out of sight of that dreadful man.

Thank goodness, Reinhild sighed inwardly as he watched it go.

That was close.

Grey owlbears had strong clan bonds. Slay one, and its kin might descend on Root in vengeance.

Better to free the beast than face an owlbear raid.

I’ve just saved the village.

Horrifying. Helping anyone, least of all humans, was something he had never done as Demon King.

The castle demons would mock him if they knew.

But I don’t want Root destroyed.

It was to be his home for a long while, and he didn’t want to see Xion sad.

Calling the owlbear “pitiful” hadn’t been entirely false. After five centuries of watching them from windows, they felt almost like pets.

I can gather mana stones more slowly.

Now that he knew owlbears roamed these woods, he would give up monster hunting here. He could collect mana another way.

Though disappointed, Reinhild forced a bright smile toward Xion.

“Let’s head back, Xion.”

“Let’s go home.”