‘Xion likes me.’
There couldn’t be a shred of falsehood in that feeling.
If even that emotion Xion showed had been a lie, the Demon King would admit complete defeat and bow out cleanly in this cycle.
Of course, “bow out” didn’t mean submitting to the hero’s blade. It meant fleeing far away and hiding, waiting until this era’s hero grew old and died.
‘Xion likes me too much, it’s just that he can’t disobey the hero’s orders.’
That could happen.
Humans tend to think the hero is the absolute, and Xion is human.
Even if, for now, he sides a little more with the hero, that’s understandable.
In the end, the one who remains by Xion’s side will be me.
‘The hero’s side has been ready for ages. From here on out I can’t let my guard down.’
The battle between Demon King and hero had already begun.
Only Reinhild hadn’t realized it.
A battle isn’t only knives flashing and people wounded or killed. Over a long stretch of time, the hero had been nibbling away at Reinhild’s world bit by bit.
Reinhild, who had always assumed a hero would come honorably to the Demon King’s castle and challenge him to a duel, was impressed.
‘This isn’t the time to be impressed.’
The hero was several moves ahead of him.
But there was exactly one point where Reinhild held the advantage.
The hero didn’t yet know that Reinhild had seen through their plan.
‘That’s a massive trump card.’
Right now that hero bastard probably thinks Reinhild is dancing in the palm of his hand. With everything unfolding just as planned, he’s bound to have grown sloppy.
All Reinhild had to do was wait for the moment when the hero and his party were most off guard—and strike the back of their heads.
He could still flip the table.
The fight had only just begun.
Nothing was over.
So what was the very first thing Reinhild should do to upend the board?
Something that could throw a wrench into the hero’s plan.
Something big enough to shock them.
Only one thing came to mind.
“I need to go down into the basement.”
The so-called cursed basement.
Reinhild intended to go beneath it.
‘That bloodstained sword they say is there must be connected to the hero.’
The divine power he felt on the basement’s seal meant the hero’s party had sealed it.
At first, he’d thought they’d set it up just to torment Reinhild for the day he tried to touch the door.
Which was why he’d thought Xion had worked so hard to stop him from going down there.
Because he didn’t want Reinhild to get hurt.
But would the hero’s party really risk exposing themselves just to play a prank on Reinhild?
It would benefit them more for Reinhild to feel unthreatened and grow more slothful.
Following that line of reasoning, Reinhild realized something was hidden in the basement.
The hero’s party had stashed something beneath Xion’s house and gone so far as to seal it.
So Reinhild wouldn’t discover what lay below.
‘There’s definitely something about that sword!’
What could it be?
The hero’s secret?
Something that must never fall into the Demon King’s hands?
He didn’t know, but if he could get what was down there, he could smash the hero’s plan to pieces.
Beaming at the thought of finally striking back, Reinhild smiled brightly.
‘That talk of a curse on the basement must have been a lie.’
When the human Rebecca found the basement and went down, the hero’s party must have panicked.
Her disappearance would be their doing, too. They couldn’t let a human who’d discovered the basement’s secret walk free.
Powerful enough to pierce a hero’s seal, ruthless enough to promptly dispose of anyone who interfered with a perfect plan…
There was much to learn from this hero.
“I have to hand it to them.”
This foe was strong.
He would need to tense up and focus.
To smack the hero in the back of the head, he had to act more carefully.
‘There might even be a secret passage in the basement.’
He thought so because of the crazy human at the lake.
No matter how strong, a human is a human. A person can’t live alone out at the lake, with no heat and nothing to eat.
If he’d been hiding near Root Village for a long time, he needed somewhere to stay. And it’s not like he could live in the stables with the horses.
Especially on a day of torrential rain like this, he’d need a place to hole up.
And the only thing that came to mind was Xion’s basement.
‘He lives beneath the sealed basement most of the time and only comes out through a passage when he needs to!’
If the basement and the lake were connected by a secret passage, that would explain why Reinhild had never once spotted him at the house.
Holding his nose against the sickening stink of divine power, Reinhild circled the lake looking for an entrance.
He put up with all that unpleasantness, and yet turned up nothing.
Not a passage, not even a narrow hole he could squeeze through.
“Nothing at all.”
But giving up would disgrace the name of Demon King.
Whether what was hidden down there was a passage or not—he could just check.
Reinhild made up his mind.
“I really do have to open the basement.”
He had to determine exactly what lay below.
If the hero didn’t want him to go down there, then he absolutely had to.
That was the only way to seize the upper hand.
Whatever it was, the hero’s secret would be down there.
And if he could uncover it…
“I can win Xion back.”
Shaking off the horses that tried to follow him down into the village, Reinhild returned home.
Xion still wasn’t there, probably still working on the village repairs.
Who knew how long that would take, but he’d probably have an hour or two.
With all the rain, it wasn’t going to be a quick job.
‘It’s just a check and I’m back out. I can finish this fast.’
Reinhild brought in a burlap sack stuffed with mana stones from the storeroom.
Clean stones, with no divine power mixed in. They’re very useful.
“Let’s see.”
He needed something to draw a magic circle.
It’s most effective to draw it with the Demon King’s blood, but Xion had told him not to get hurt, so he couldn’t cut himself.
This was a time to rack up points with Xion; better not do things he’d asked him not to do.
‘Nothing suitable.’
He couldn’t just dash out and get beast blood, so he’d have to use what he had.
Reinhild grabbed the strawberry jam Xion had set out to go with bread.
Less effective, but better than nothing. At least the color was close to blood, so it would give the magic circle the proper vibe.
He rolled back the carpet and, careful not to touch the basement door, drew the circle around it.
He set mana stones on the circle, and, just in case, kept one separate in his hand.
He put the necklace with the tainted stone aside.
Preparations complete.
“Hoo, all right. Here goes.”
Reinhild took a deep breath and laid his hand on the magic circle.
Very slowly…
So that even if something seized his heart, he wouldn’t collapse right away.
Fortunately, up to the moment his hand touched the basement doorknob, nothing struck him.
Reinhild revved the mana in his body to the max and opened the basement door.
To break the seal.
Clunk.
“Huh?”
The door opened so easily it made his nerves seem silly.
Was the circle just that powerful?
No. That wasn’t it.
‘The seal is gone.’
What happened?
The basement had certainly been sealed.
‘Did someone lift the seal?’
Who? Why?
It might be a trap.
At the thought, his heart started pounding again and his hand shook.
‘What if they knew I’d come down here and set a trap?’
Even if this was the hero’s ploy to lure him into the basement, he had no other choice.
Reinhild had to go down.
If only for Xion, who was being deceived by the hero.
‘It could be Xion who broke the seal.’
Come to think of it, even if the hero’s party had set a trap, they had no reason to remove the seal.
If that was their plan, they wouldn’t have set a seal in the first place.
Maybe, after seeing Reinhild collapse when he touched the basement, Xion had removed the seal?
That would mean defying the hero’s orders, but he couldn’t help it.
‘Because Xion likes me.’
He wouldn’t have wanted to see Reinhild in pain.
He wanted to help him.
Seen that way, the door to the basement seemed to sparkle.
It made him want to hurry down.
Creeeeak—
Even the squeal of the old door set his nerves on edge.
Reinhild stepped slowly down the stairs.
Just as he’d hoped, with the seal cleanly gone his body felt no strain at all.
Taut with tension, he descended to the very bottom.
There was no light in the basement, but by the faint glow spilling in from the kitchen, his eyes gradually adjusted and a little of the space came into view.
He waited until he’d grown used to the dark, then looked around carefully.
A chill hung in the wide basement.
As if no one had set foot in there for a very long time.
“There’s nothing…”
The basement was empty.
It was spotless with not a speck of dust.
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