With Xion…
Together with Xion!
That day, Reinhild’s heart was pounding so hard he couldn’t sleep.
Even if he was a Demon King.
Even if the enemy was the Hero.
Even if the place they had to flee to was the very edge of the world… would Xion go with him?
As those thoughts spun, his thudding heart began to quake as if an earthquake had struck.
Worried the sound might wake the sleeping Xion, he even pressed his palm firmly over his chest.
After tossing and turning for a long time, Reinhild passed the night wide awake and only finally fell asleep around the time the roosters crowed and the sky grew light.
And Xion stayed awake beside him the whole night.
Without sleeping a wink.
Each time he felt Reinhild stir, Xion feigned sleep and turned toward him. Then Reinhild would clamp his mouth shut so as not to wake the sleeping Xion.
Xion could picture him with his lips pressed tight but his eyes wide open, and it made him smile for no reason.
He liked the way Reinhild’s thudding heartbeat traveled through his skin to him.
He liked it too when, after a while of tossing, Reinhild would sneak an arm around his waist and cling to him.
At those times, Xion would pretend to be half-asleep and hold him even tighter.
It was a happy night, even if he couldn’t sleep.
Only after confirming Reinhild was asleep did Xion get up.
He would have loved to stay by the side of the one sleeping soundly on his arm, but there was something he had to do.
Xion ran straight to the kitchen and started kneading dough, so that when Reinhild woke he could eat warm, delicious bread right away.
The mansion’s cooks tried to dissuade him, asking him to leave meal prep to the staff, but it was no use.
‘Rein said he wanted to eat bread I made.’
After hearing that, how could he entrust such an important task to anyone else?
Thinking of Reinhild as he worked, he soon had all sorts of breads piled high on the table.
❖ ❖ ❖
“…Xion…?”
Reinhild, who had slept as if fainted, rustled awake and reached out as if to pull Xion into an embrace.
The space beside him was empty.
The thought that meeting Xion, coming to this unfamiliar mansion, and sleeping together might all have been a dream made his eyes fly open.
He was only reassured after confirming this wasn’t a narrow, chilly inn room, but Xion’s broad, warm mansion.
‘Where did Xion go?’
Back in Root, waking in the morning meant the whole house was filled with the smell of Xion’s cooking, which felt wonderful, but here there wasn’t even a trace of him having lain in the bed, let alone any cooking smells.
It was all because the bed was too soft.
He preferred a bed that was a bit hard and creaky, one that bore the marks of living together with Xion.
Smacking the hapless bed a few times, Reinhild left the room.
“Xion!”
He called loudly for Xion, but no answer came back.
Reinhild’s dissatisfaction and unease swelled like a balloon.
If this were Root, Xion would have come running just from the sound of him rising from bed.
He would have brought warm tea or milk and wished him a good morning.
The house would have been full of the smell of Xion’s bread or pies, and he could have woken happy.
Here there was no not-so-soft bed still warm, no buttery aroma to stoke his morning appetite, no Xion who came running at the sound of his voice.
‘I want to go back to Root.’
He let out a long sigh, turned around, and went back to the room.
Xion couldn’t have abandoned him; if he waited, he’d come looking.
Reinhild sat on the soft bed and waited.
Clack.
“Xion!”
“Lord Rain. I’ve come to escort you.”
It wasn’t Xion.
Reinhild’s displeasure grew.
He’d thought if he waited nicely, Xion would come to get him—what was some human doing here in his stead?
‘If I smash this mansion, would that make us go back to Root?’
He pondered this quite seriously as he followed the man.
‘Huh? Bread.’
A familiar smell. Reinhild bolted straight toward it.
He heard the guide behind him cry “Lord Rein!” and give chase, but Demon Kings do not, by nature, heed humans.
He threw open a large door; on the table where he’d faced Xion the day before sat all kinds of bread.
And beyond the table, Xion was spooning jam and butter into little dishes.
“Xion!”
It was Xion. This time it was really Xion!
After a whole day of calling his name, Reinhild finally spotted him and ran to squeeze him tight.
Behind him the man who’d been chasing let out a small “Oh my,” but he ignored it.
“Sleep well, Rein?”
“Yeah.”
It was a bit late, but hearing Xion’s greeting made it feel like he’d woken well rested.
Full of complaints until now, Reinhild finally wore a satisfied look and turned toward the table.
“Why so much bread in the morning?”
“I thought you might want it.”
Instead of pointing out it wasn’t morning but afternoon, Xion split a freshly baked warm loaf and slathered on plenty of fruit jam.
Even before tasting, Reinhild realized the bread had been made not by some other human, but by Xion.
‘How did he know I wanted Xion’s bread?’
As expected, Xion had known everything he wanted. Marveling, Reinhild took the bread Xion offered.
He’d already been out of sorts because the meal prepared by others the day before hadn’t suited his taste.
If he had to keep eating that kind of food while staying here, he was ready to bolt.
‘Xion said he’d go with me wherever.’
If he said he hated this place and stormed out, Xion would go with him. Thinking that made silly smiles keep bubbling up.
‘Even if every human here told me not to go, Xion would take my hand.’
Emboldened, Reinhild squared his shoulders and ate.
Though five hundred years had made him the weakest Demon King in the world, just thinking he was with Xion made him feel he’d beaten every human alive.
Xion’s already delicious bread tasted twice as good as usual.
❖ ❖ ❖
After eating, Reinhild sat to rest beneath a huge sunlit window. Feeling good and full, drowsiness crept in.
Nodding off, he blinked to see trees outside whipping back and forth.
‘So it’s cold even with the sun this bright.’
He could feel the wind raging even through the glass.
If Xion hadn’t come for him, he’d have been wandering with nowhere to go today too. He might even have frozen to death.
For a Demon King who’d been stabbed in the heart by the Hero and endured five hundred years to finally survive, to freeze to death—anyone hearing it would think it a dull joke. It would have been an absurd end.
“Huh?”
Come to think of it, it was strange.
With wind this strong, cold air should have leaked in through the window gaps, yet the house was only warm.
Reinhild rose and wandered the mansion, looking around. There was no fireplace anywhere.
To keep a mansion this big at an even temperature, you’d have to use magical implements. Looking closer, he spotted several practical magic devices here and there.
It wasn’t as advanced as the capital or the great cities, but the city of Audrit seemed to have all the essentials.
‘Then why did we use firewood in Root?’
Did he pretend to be poor so the humans in Root, who used firewood, wouldn’t feel relatively deprived?
Xion had only wanted the excuse of a cold house to hold Reinhild as they slept, but not knowing this, Reinhild was only perplexed.
“Do you like it here?”
Xion, noticing him peering around the mansion, came over and asked.
“No. I like Root.”
Reinhild answered without even half a second’s thought.
He was anxious Xion might misunderstand and suggest they spend the rest of their lives here.
“Then shall we go back tomorrow?”
“Can’t we go right now?”
“It’s too windy today; it would be dangerous. Let’s leave early tomorrow morning.”
At Xion’s soothing tone, Reinhild sighed with relief inside.
‘We can go back to Root, thank goodness.’
The house in Root was small, but that meant Xion was always in sight, which he liked.
And it was even better that no other humans walked around inside.
He’d thought he was getting used to sharing space with humans while with Xion, but the only one he could bear was Xion.
He disliked any human who wasn’t Xion.
Still, if he could just return to Root, he felt he could be a little kinder to other humans too.
Right. A greeting at least would be fine.
Not the kind of “greeting” he did with Xion. Just a “hello” and done.
‘When I go back this time, I’ll never leave Root again.’
Xion had said anywhere was fine as long as they were together, but Reinhild intended to put down roots in Root.
He no longer felt like fleeing from the Hero or gathering mana to return to the Demon King’s castle.
Demon Kings and Heroes—none of it mattered.
All he wanted now was for this time with Xion to last even a little longer.
Reinhild was slowly learning how to enjoy peace.
And peace is always at its easiest to break the moment it reaches its peak.
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