Reinhild left the flustered villagers behind and returned home. Then he sat quietly and simply waited for Xion to come back.
Xion came back late at night, several hours after the knights had left.
It seemed all the humans in the village had gathered for a meeting.
“Rein. I have something to take care of, so I’ll be away for a bit.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be going to the next village.”
“When are you going?”
“As soon as I say goodbye to you, Rein.”
“At this hour?”
Instead of answering, Xion pressed a kiss to Reinhild’s forehead.
“It may take a little time. Will you wait for me?”
“How long is ‘a little’?”
“I’ll be back by tomorrow at the latest.”
Xion forced a casual smile, but somehow he looked tired and worn out.
Maybe it was because of the quota he hadn’t met.
Or because of the Hero who’d been hit on the head by the umbrella he swung and ended up with a broken leg.
Or maybe his body and heart were simply exhausted from the troublesome Demon King who did nothing but attract bad things.
“…”
When fatigue and hardship pile up, even Xion might someday resent Reinhild.
‘I don’t want that.’
If even Xion turned his back on him, Reinhild felt he wouldn’t be able to bear it.
He’d never again be able to trust and rely on anyone.
He’d done well to decide to leave.
And with Xion stepping out, it seemed he could leave more smoothly.
No—he felt as if the whole world were opening a road and telling him to go.
He wanted to remain a good memory for Xion.
How could he keep looking good to the very end?
Perhaps because Reinhild’s slumped shoulders looked pitiful, Xion gently wrapped an arm around them and said,
“If you don’t want me to go, I won’t.”
“No. If you have to go, you should go.”
Even in this moment, Xion was trying to give something up for Reinhild’s sake.
That made Reinhild so very happy and, at the same time, sad.
Trying not to let the gloom show, Reinhild looped his arms around Xion’s neck.
Like the princess imprisoned in the Demon King’s castle did to the hero on white horse who came to rescue her in a book he once read.
Regrettably, Reinhild was not a princess trapped in the Demon King’s castle—he was the Demon King himself. And Xion was a poor farmer who had snubbed and driven out the Hero and become humanity’s enemy.
‘See? Those awful books have had a bad influence on me.’
It seemed he’d developed a habit of mapping situations onto those darned stories whenever something happened.
But it didn’t matter.
He could chalk these slightly embarrassing gestures up to the books and be done with it.
“Don’t get sick while you’re gone.”
Reinhild said that and pressed a kiss to Xion.
This would probably be the last “greeting” he gave Xion.
Xion didn’t look like he had closed his eyes, but Reinhild felt the lips against his move slightly.
No doubt he was smiling, as always.
Reinhild pulled away, leaving the regret behind.
“Xio—mmph…!”
Xion came half a fingertip closer and pressed himself against Reinhild.
Because they were already pressed close, their lips met so tightly there wasn’t even room for air to escape.
He didn’t mind the greeting going long, but it had to stop here.
Otherwise leaving Xion would only get harder.
Reinhild tried to push Xion away.
But he couldn’t.
‘Huh?’
Something was different than usual.
Something a little different—hot and swelling—touched Reinhild’s lips.
The moment he reflexively parted them, it slipped into his mouth.
Startled, Reinhild’s eyes flew wide.
Right there, up close, Xion’s eyes were looking at him.
“U—”
When Reinhild flinched and his shoulders jerked, Xion wrapped his arms around Reinhild’s waist.
Thanks to that, he didn’t collapse when the strength left his legs, and he nearly fell.
But Xion didn’t stop there. He stroked Reinhild’s back.
From the waist up along the spine, to the area of the shoulder blades. Slowly.
He was definitely wearing a thick autumn outfit, and yet Xion’s fingers felt as if they were piercing the cloth to caress his bare skin.
The places they touched tickled, and Reinhild hunched his shoulders.
Because of that, he missed his timing to push Xion away.
Before he knew it, Reinhild’s trembling hands were clutching tightly at Xion’s hem.
It felt like if he let go of it, he would simply sink to the floor; that was how little strength he had in his legs.
In all his life as a Demon King, he had never once imagined that someone else’s tongue would enter his mouth.
The only time another creature’s flesh should go into your mouth was when chewing meat.
Well… cooked meat, at that.
“Hah, u….”
Each prickling sensation poking into his back jammed his breath up into his throat.
Maybe this was some new form of torture humans had devised.
Maybe Xion, who had at last come to resent Reinhild, had found a way to slowly suffocate him.
If not, why would his feet twitch and his fingers tingle when he was just standing still?
His chest felt tight, and his face burned as if it might explode.
He wanted that sticky sound squelching in his ears to stop already.
“Mm—mmh.”
At last, Reinhild couldn’t bear it and pushed hard at Xion’s shoulder.
Xion didn’t budge.
He’d known Xion was strong, but he didn’t think he would be a boulder like this.
Rather, in trying to push him away, Reinhild lost his balance and slipped.
He didn’t fall.
Xion was holding him fast.
Instead, his legs gave out completely and he dangled from Xion.
Afraid he might fall, Reinhild clutched at Xion’s back in a panic.
Then Xion, as if he’d been waiting, lowered his head a bit more and explored deep inside Reinhild’s mouth.
Even though he was the one leaning on Xion, Reinhild felt as if he were being crushed beneath him.
To be honest, it felt like he was being swallowed whole.
“Mm, uh….”
How long did it go on?
To Reinhild, it felt longer than the five hundred years he’d been sealed.
Of course, he’d been unconscious during those five hundred years, so naturally it was just a feeling—but still.
Smooch—
As if licking another’s tongue weren’t enough, Xion gnawed Reinhild’s lower lip until it puffed up, and finally ended the long kiss by sucking noisily at his lips.
“Phaaah…”
The moment his lips were freed, Reinhild let out a long breath.
Then, like a limp jellyfish, he sagged in Xion’s arms.
“Is… is it over now?”
“Regrettably, yes.”
Xion stroked Reinhild’s cheek as if he truly regretted it.
Reinhild panted, unable to close his mouth.
If he’d had even a little strength, he would have grumbled: what’s there to regret?
It wasn’t regret… He’d nearly died.
To explain how he felt: it seemed as if half his soul had been stolen by a demon.
His head felt hazy, as though he were drifting through the sky.
His breath had been so stifled that his eyes had filled with tears.
He’d shaken so hard that all his energy was drained, and he wanted to just keep clinging to Xion like this.
The places where Xion’s touch had skimmed still tingled.
With a scarlet face, Reinhild glared at Xion.
“It seemed like you wanted to give me a greeting.”
Was that supposed to be an excuse?
Today, Xion’s tone felt even more brazen than usual.
‘He must think I’m a fool.’
Did he really think that even as a Demon King, Reinhild wouldn’t know what this act was?
It wasn’t that Reinhild didn’t know. He didn’t believe in the fiction called love, but he knew full well about the reproductive act humans enjoyed under the pretext of love.
It was a pastime the demonfolk quite enjoyed too.
Even in those boring days five hundred years ago, someone had suggested it to Reinhild.
But Reinhild had little interest in such things.
Back then, all his attention was fixed on the Hero chasing him to ram a sword into his heart.
And now…
‘What about now?’
Even now the Hero was on Reinhild’s heels.
He wasn’t especially threatening, but a Hero was still a Hero.
And yet Reinhild had no interest in him at all.
All he cared about was Xion.
When he quietly raised his head and looked at Xion, somewhere in his chest twinged.
It wasn’t like the pain he’d felt when the Hero’s sword stabbed him, nor like the pain of forcing his mana to move.
It was as if something were kneading his heart, pressing and pressing.
A more stifling, ticklish sort of feeling.
What was he supposed to call this?
He didn’t know.
Affixing fancy names and modifiers to messy feelings was a specialty of humans.
So Reinhild decided to permit the human Xion to name all of these feelings himself.
Reinhild closed his eyes quietly.
A single tear gathered on his long lashes and then slid down his cheek with a plink.
Xion pressed another kiss to Reinhild’s cheek, where the tear track remained.
If it’s Xion, would he run away with me?
Even if that road were strewn with thorns.
Just a little. He wanted to be selfish.
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