“The real hero is here, Butler.”
“I told you he had come.”
“I mean he really came!”
“Yes, it is the hero, Lord Reinhild.”
Reinhild drifted lazily around the Demon King’s castle, observing the hero and his companions.
Companions qualified to enter here as members of the hero’s party.
His interest was piqued.
‘What was he thinking, bringing other humans all the way here?’
Humans cannot withstand demonic energy.
Here at the Demon King’s castle, where the purest demonic energy is condensed at high density, the air will press them down and ruin them inside and out.
That is why heroes usually did not come all the way here in search of the Demon King.
They waited until the Demon King moved first.
When the Demon King left his castle to go destroy human cities, the hero would track his location and engage him. That was the standard duel between Demon King and hero.
Once outside the Demon King’s castle, Reinhild could not draw on all his power, which gave the advantage of letting the hero face a Demon King made just a little weaker.
From the hero’s standpoint, there was no reason to come all the way here, where so many things favored the Demon King.
‘Could it be he’s keeping the promise he made with me?’
I thought he had a personality close to that of a demon, but a human is a human after all.
Even so, he still liked how the hero acted on his own without considering his companions’ condition.
“Mm, good.”
Another passing grade.
He was glad he had waited instead of going off to torment other weakling humans.
The butler grabbed Reinhild just as he was about to shoot off, excited.
“Why?”
“They have gathered companions, Lord Reinhild.”
“I can see that too. How admirable, gathering companions in so short a time.”
“I mean that if you step forward first, it would be beneath your dignity.”
I’m going to go mad.
After all these rules, now he was nitpicking about dignity?
If you’re going to quibble over every little thing like that, you should go to one of those human academies and behave by the rules with proper etiquette. Why be the Demon King at all?
“First, send monsters and demonfolk to wear down the hero’s companions, and wait until high-ranking demonfolk finish them off.”
“Then when is it my turn?”
“When the hero is left alone, it is best to face him one-on-one.”
“What if the hero dies before he gets to me?”
“If the hero disappears, it will surely be good news.”
To Reinhild, it was a bolt from the blue.
‘I waited all this time for a hero to be born and grow up, and now you’re telling me to wait for a turn that may never come? Ridiculous.’
He wanted to hurl the butler aside and go welcome the hero.
Embracing subordinate demonfolk with broad tolerance was also said to be one of a Demon King’s virtues, so he held back.
But cutting down an uppity demonfolk without hesitation was also a good way to highlight the Demon King’s majesty.
Reinhild calmly waited for the butler to overstep.
“Is there something on my face, Lord Reinhild?”
“…No.”
Crafty butler.
He always annoyed and pestered Reinhild yet never crossed the line.
Reinhild, hoping a pretext to dispose of the butler would arise soon.
“What shall we do about the hero’s party?”
“Do as you like. Send the owlbears or something.”
“I will send the owlbears.”
“Leave the one with grayish fur on its left ear alone. That one’s my favorite.”
The butler sent a pack of owlbears against the hero’s party.
He had a hard time finding the owlbear Reinhild cherished, since he couldn’t tell what was supposedly different about the color of the fur on its left ear.
Because of that, the butler failed to notice right away that the hero had vanished from the hero’s group.
“Haaaaah…”
Reinhild flopped onto the bed and abused the blameless, luxurious quilt.
If he couldn’t kill the hero even with him right before his eyes, he should’ve just gone off to torment humans.
Watching the hero and his companions fight the owlbears would make for good entertainment, but with the enemy before his eyes and himself reduced to mere onlooker, he felt pathetic and simply came back inside.
At this rate he wanted to hand in the title of Demon King and be an ordinary demonfolk.
The problem was that “Demon King” wasn’t a position you could give up just by deciding to.
“I want to quit being the Demon King.”
Had the butler heard this, he would have scolded him that such whining didn’t befit the Demon King’s dignity.
It really did seem best, for his mental health in the years to come, to bide his time and bury the butler first.
Clunk.
He heard the door open.
The only ones who came in and out of the Demon King’s chamber were Reinhild himself and the butler. In that short time, the butler must have already sent the owlbears and returned.
Reinhild, not wanting to see the butler’s face, turned his head the other way.
He’d just nag anyway. “With the hero here, lying down like that is undignified,” blah blah.
“I’ve intruded, have I?”
It wasn’t the butler’s voice.
Reinhild’s eyes went round as he sprang up.
A familiar voice.
One he had heard so much through the crystal orb that his ears had practically grown calluses.
“Hero?”
“It’s been a while, Demon King… no, Rein.”
Reinhild missed his timing to get angry. How dare he presumptuously change the Demon King’s name when addressing him?
There was something he wanted to ask first.
“How did you get up here?”
“It’s a bit high, but not unreachable.”
“There should have been demonfolk guarding below.”
At that, Xion gave an awkward smile.
“They’re not there anymore.”
Reinhild was impressed.
To say he’d killed them all so stylishly.
The hero was a human with more to learn from than he’d expected.
“Good. So my owlbears and your companions are all dead? Then it’s just the two of us now.”
If only the Demon King and the hero remained, he could begin a dignified battle. Thinking that, Reinhild rose to his feet, excited.
Whether the Demon King’s castle collapsed or not, it seemed best to open with Meteor first and see.
Meanwhile, the only thought in Xion’s head was how wonderful “just the two of us,” as Reinhild had said, sounded.
He had only slipped away in the moment when the owlbears swarmed and his companions took up battle formations, so he didn’t really know what had become of them.
Now that he had gained the ability to locate Reinhild, he had no further interest in them.
Even on reflection, it was an excellent ability. Thanks to the god’s power, he had been able to pinpoint where Reinhild was and find his way to this very room.
Xion thought that, even just once, he wanted to wrap a brightly smiling Reinhild in his arms.
Xion had never hesitated when doing what he wanted.
This time was no different.
He thought he wanted to embrace the Demon King, and so he embraced him.
“…?”
Reinhild, happily pondering what magic might inflict a mortal wound without killing the hero, was flustered.
‘What is this feeble attack?’
Was this supposed to be a body lock?
It didn’t hurt; it didn’t even tickle.
Reinhild, dumbfounded, looked up at Xion with a resentful gaze.
After waiting decades to finally get his hands on a hero, how could he be this weak! What did all that time waiting for the hero amount to!
If he’d known, he would have ignored whether the hero came or not and gone out to smash human cities.
Dumbstruck, Reinhild missed his window to attack the hero. Fortunately, Xion soon let go.
Perhaps embarrassed at having made such an absurd “attack,” Xion’s ears were bright red.
“My apologies. I… couldn’t help myself…”
Tsk. This hero was a lost cause.
‘Should I just kill him quickly and wait for the next hero?’
He considered it for a moment, but he really didn’t want to wait anymore. Just imagining the wait made him feel like he would go mad.
He had no choice but to make do with this hero.
“Hero.”
“It’s Xion.”
“Fine, Xion.”
“Yes.”
Originally, he had planned to fight alongside Xion and have a good time, but this hero didn’t seem like he could give him any enjoyment at all.
But to savor freedom, he needed Xion.
Given humans’ tendency to cling to survival, Xion surely wouldn’t want to die by the Demon King’s hand. If so, he wouldn’t be able to refuse this proposal.
“I could kill you right now if I wished. But I’ll spare you. Because I am a merciful Demon King.”
At Reinhild’s words, Xion nodded. Even as a human, he was at least smart enough to notice the Demon King’s magnanimity.
Good—conversation might be possible.
Feeling a little better, Reinhild, full of bravado, carelessly let the words slip out.
“If you promise not to let anything but me kill you, I’ll grant you what you want.”
Compared to his arrogant attitude, it wasn’t a bargain that brought Reinhild any particular benefit.
Having been told not to die and even allowed to ask for a wish, Xion answered at once before Reinhild could take it back.
“I want to come see Rein again.”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
The Demon King and the hero are destined to clash.
The Demon King spends his life striving to bring down the human world, and the hero must stop such a Demon King.
He’d never heard of a hero stopping the Demon King remotely, so of course they would meet again.
Reinhild thought Xion had the kind of personality that took losses.
Whatever the case, Xion was moved that Reinhild took their meeting as a matter of course.
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