Reinhild decided to give the short-sighted Xion exactly one more chance.
It was a bold offer—one no ordinary Demon King would ever make.
‘Because I’m not some ordinary, run-of-the-mill Demon King!’
He was a magnanimous Demon King who’d had to suffer, shut up in the castle for decades. That’s why he was granting such a special chance.
“How about making a different wish?”
“I want to spend time with Rein on a regular basis. Here. Just the two of us.”
By “here,” did he mean the Demon King’s castle, or this room?
No matter how you thought about it, he couldn’t mean outside the castle, where owlbears and demonfolk swarmed.
Reinhild slowly looked around the room.
‘Being alone together here is easy!’
The hero really did have a personality that took a loss. If he was going to get an opportunity like this, he ought to think of slapping a penalty on the Demon King’s vast power; to make this his wish, of all things—
Was he planning to stay alone in the room and probe for weak points or something?
It was truly a ridiculous scheme.
“Every half year, on the day the full moon hangs lowest, I’ll send demonfolk, not monsters, into the human world. Take that as the signal and come find me.”
“Once every half year is too little.”
“Really?”
Hearing that, sending demonfolk only once every six months did feel like not being true to the Demon King’s job.
No matter how many monsters you sent, nothing worked the humans into terror like demonfolk did.
Reinhild decided to accept Xion’s advice.
“Fine. Make it once every three months. Remember this well, hero.”
“It’s Xion.”
“Right, Xion. You can ignore it when monsters infused with demonic energy show up. When demonfolk breach a city, that’s when you come find me.”
Xion accepted Reinhild’s proposal without resistance.
Reinhild found this entire arrangement quite satisfactory.
‘I don’t have to wait without a date anymore!’
He no longer had to hole up in his room just waiting for Xion to come.
On ordinary days he could go torment humans, and then once every three months just stay at the Demon King’s castle to wage battles with Xion the hero.
“Then I’ll see you then.”
“Take care.”
Reinhild even waved a hand as he told Xion to go safely.
Hero Xion, too, seemed quite satisfied with the situation.
Of course he’d be happy to have his life guaranteed. It was fairly unpleasant to have made a human happy, but this much was tolerable.
‘You gave me freedom, hero—no, Xion—so I’ll kindly overlook this much unpleasantness.’
But wasn’t his original name not Xion? Reinhild couldn’t fathom why he was so fixated on the name Xion.
Maybe he, too, had been displeased that his name overlapped in part with the Demon King’s.
Reinhild snorted and sprawled on the bed.
That day, from sunset until the day was gone, not once did he feel bored.
❖ ❖ ❖
A year had passed since Xion formally became the hero.
In that time, he had met Reinhild three more times, and the next meeting was just around the corner.
As promised, every three months Reinhild sent out bands of demonfolk. Each time, Xion reached the Demon King’s castle faster than anyone.
Except when Xion came, Reinhild would, whenever he had time, come out into the human world to scatter demonic energy and pollute the land. But at some point, he lost interest in tormenting humans and only waited for the day Xion would come.
Tormenting frail humans was less fun than he’d expected.
Xion was so feeble he couldn’t even choke properly, yet at least he looked him straight in the eye and said what he wanted to say. Why were humans so weak? Boringly so.
‘I thought it would be a little more enjoyable, though.’
Usually, when you’ve been confined and then regain your freedom, shouldn’t you delight and marvel at trivial things?
It was all because of that hero named Xion or whatever.
A flimsy, sloppy hero who couldn’t even launch a proper attack, yet every time he came, he kicked up some thrilling incident or other, and that killed Reinhild’s expectations for anything else.
For his first activity after becoming the hero, he had wiped out the demonfolk guarding the Demon King’s castle.
When Reinhild said he wanted to try that human food called a chocolate muffin, Xion said he’d baked one himself and brought along some black, burnt-smelling lump, trying to force it on him.
And when he gifted him a bright red jewel, saying he’d picked it up on the way… Now that had been quite interesting.
“Mm. I’m a little bored.”
It would be nice if the hero showed up at times like this.
Unfortunately, there were still a good ten days to go before the appointed date.
“But I’m really bored.”
After pretending to mull it over for a moment, Reinhild called for the butler.
A Demon King doesn’t keep promises anyway.
Meaning there was no problem with summoning the hero earlier than the scheduled date.
“Butler! Let’s send demonfolk to the capital. About five.”
“Had you not set separate dates for sending demonfolk?”
“This is all strategy. I’ve sent demonfolk at regular intervals this past year, so the humans must have gotten used to the cycle, right? They’ve probably marked the next demonfolk appearance on their calendars by now. But if demonfolk show up earlier than scheduled, won’t they be shocked?”
“Brilliant. I’ll send them at once.”
“You go along too. And bring me some of those chicken skewers humans, lacking in refinement, eat while carrying them in the street.”
He’d even cleared away the bothersome butler.
Perfect.
‘If I wait just a bit, the hero will come, right?’
But what if he didn’t realize the date had changed and didn’t come?
If he sent demonfolk again on the promised day, would he come then?
For the next time he called the hero, should he count three months from today? Or three months from the original date?
BOOM!
“Gah—what the—!”
While he was deep in worry, something exploded in the corner of the room.
Who dared commit such an atrocious act in the Demon King’s chamber!
Reinhild turned back in fury. Xion was crawling up from the floor, coughing.
“Xion?”
How on earth did you do that…come up from the floor?
In disbelief, Reinhild peered down at the hole Xion had made.
In the floor, layered very thick to defend against enemy attacks, there was a hole just big enough for a single human to squeeze through.
And it was remarkably clean.
Unlike Reinhild, who could fly, Xion didn’t know how; he had even carved footholds in the tunnel he’d opened so he could climb up.
He had clearly done this with intent.
“Rein, I missed you.”
“What is this?”
“A secret passage.”
“A secret passage?”
After Xion’s first visit, once the butler realized demonfolk were falling to the hero’s hand, he posted even stronger demonfolk in the castle.
It was fine that their numbers and strength steadily increased. That much was nothing to Xion.
But the fact that the time he had to go see Reinhild decreased accordingly was unacceptable. He hadn’t come all this way to waste time dealing with mere demonfolk.
So Xion had opened a secret passage straight from the castle entrance to Reinhild’s room. So he could avoid the other demonfolk and come straight to see Reinhild.
‘Impressive.’
Reinhild was purely impressed.
All this time, even as the Demon King, he’d been so aggrieved at not having even one secret passage, when small-time human emperors had them.
‘Now I have a secret passage too!’
Reinhild, who had regained his freedom, wouldn’t have any occasion to use this passage himself, but not using something because you didn’t need it and not using it because you didn’t have it were worlds apart.
Xion, worried Reinhild might be displeased at him punching holes in the Demon King’s castle as he pleased, was relieved to see Rein delighted.
“The castle has been enchanted so it can’t be easily damaged by external attacks—how did you make this?”
“I tore it up.”
Ah. Ah. Tore it up… Was that something you could tear up?
Reinhild couldn’t tell whether this human was weak or strong.
“What about your human companions?”
“I left them.”
“Good.”
Xion’s companions, due to the frequent visits to the Demon King’s castle, had become addicted to demonic energy and were undergoing treatment.
But Xion, not wanting to waste his time with Reinhild talking about his companions, skipped the details and pulled out what he’d brought in advance.
“What’s that?”
“Bread. Rein seems quite interested in our human food, so I baked it myself.”
“…”
Reinhild narrowed his eyes and glared at the bread.
When he didn’t move first, Xion split the bread, slathered on plenty of butter and jam, and held it out.
“I don’t want it.”
“Do you dislike bread?”
“I dislike food you make.”
Thud.
Xion dropped the bread he was holding.
Butter and jam slid off the bread and dirtied the floor, but with a flick of Reinhild’s hand it was spotless in an instant.
“Did my… cooking trouble Rein’s tongue and stomach?”
“It troubled my mood too.”
“…”
Xion was deeply shocked.
In over twenty years of life, not once had he failed to do something well. More than the fact that there existed a field in which he had no talent, what shocked him more was that he had made Reinhild uncomfortable because of it.
To think he couldn’t satisfy food-loving Reinhild with his own hands.
Would he have to spend his whole life merely watching as others’ food passed into Reinhild’s mouth?
“…”
“Xion?”
Shaken, Xion picked up the bread and turned his back just like that.
“Leaving already?”
“I’ll see you in three months…”
So he’d count three months from today! That was a relief.
No, that wasn’t the point right now.
“Are you really going?”
He really left.
Left alone, Reinhild was dumbfounded.
A hero who sulks and leaves because his prepared bread wasn’t eaten? It hadn’t even been an hour yet. Disappointing.
No, that’s not it. A Demon King doesn’t get disappointed over something so trivial.
‘But I failed to kill the hero again today; isn’t it okay to be disappointed?’
Come to think of it, perhaps it was fine to be disappointed.
Once again today, the hero left the Demon King’s castle with all his limbs intact.
Ah, now that was truly disappointing.
With a very disappointed face, Reinhild looked down at the secret passage Xion had made.
A secret passage he could fill in an instant if he put his mind to it.
“…”
After deliberating for quite some time, Reinhild covered it with a carpet and erased all traces of Xion.
So that even if the butler returned, he wouldn’t notice the secret passage.
“Haah, bored, bored.”
Reinhild spread both arms wide and lay back on the bed, murmuring words that had now become a habit.
He was bored because Xion wasn’t there.
Even if he brought awful bread, he felt confident he could eat it with gusto, so it would be nice if Xion came again.
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