He’d thought it was fine to know nothing except the fact that Xion liked him.
But knowing “nothing” turned out to be a bigger problem than expected.
Reinhild didn’t know the way back to Root nor how to get there.
“Where even is this?”
He walked and walked for a long time, but he didn’t see so much as a single human being, much less a village.
At least there were no monsters or dangerous wild animals. That was a relief.
Reinhild kept walking without stopping.
One way or another, he would find a human settlement and ask his way to Root.
“Brr, cold.”
As the wind grew ever colder, Reinhild hunched his shoulders.
If he’d known it’d be like this, he would have worn heavier clothes.
No… If he’d known, he wouldn’t have left Xion’s house in the first place.
What was the use of regret? It wouldn’t change anything.
Instead of spending time regretting, Reinhild hurried his steps to get even one pace closer to a village.
Cold, hungry, and dejected… over time Reinhild became scruffier and wandered for ages.
Just before the exhausted Reinhild collapsed, Ainel appeared.
A human?
Part of him wanted to run forward, delighted, but the other party had gone so far as to use magic to find this place.
Out here there were only trees and Reinhild. They surely hadn’t come to see the trees, so it had to be Reinhild they’d sought.
Thinking they might be an enemy, Reinhild started and hid himself.
But with only trees and rocks to hide behind, he was discovered immediately.
“Found you, Demon King.”
How do they know who I am? A chill ran down Reinhild’s spine, and he blindly drew up mana, ready to attack.
But then he noticed the face looked familiar and stopped.
Who is that?
Who? Why is that a face I feel like I’ve seen somewhere?
Reinhild wasn’t good at remembering anyone’s face other than Xion’s.
Even less so if they were human.
And yet for a face to feel familiar meant they’d had that much influence on him or given him a shock.
A shock?
Thinking that far jogged his memory.
This was the magician who had been Xion the Hero’s companion in the past.
Yes. He was sure. Even back then, while he couldn’t remember the other party members’ faces, he could distinctly pick out the magician.
Because from this magician, he’d sensed the aura of something not human!
The sorcerer with dragon’s blood?
If he had dragon’s blood, it wasn’t strange that he was still alive five hundred years later.
Reinhild lowered his guard somewhat.
Maybe Xion sent him to find me?
Reinhild looked at the magician with eyes sparkling with expectation. More than half his body, hidden behind a tree, was already showing.
At this point, he was practically hoping the other would spot him.
Ainel hesitated for a moment, taken aback by Reinhild’s unexpected reaction.
What if I were an enemy? Why act like that?
Hadn’t he trotted out after Xion when he came five hundred years ago, only to collapse without managing a single counterattack?
To greet a familiar face like this, what a Demon King with no learning ability.
No wonder he couldn’t run away from Xion.
Still, thanks to that, this just got easier.
Reinhild only fidgeted as Ainel approached; he didn’t put up much guard.
He wanted help from anyone, just to go back to Xion.
He missed Xion’s smiling face and the warm meals he prepared every morning.
He missed how, when he sagged, Xion brought warm milk or cocoa; how, on their walks, he’d pick tasty-looking fruit and place it in Reinhild’s hand. He missed walking at night together under the stars, and dozing on the narrow bed, sharing each other’s warmth.
He missed Xion so, so much.
“Long time no see, Demon King.”
“Are you going to take me to Xion?”
Reinhild asked point-blank.
Ainel noticed that the Demon King didn’t want to be apart from Xion.
The two of them were desperate for each other—so why twist the situation up like this?
With a meaningful smile, Ainel held out a hand.
“Don’t you want to know what Xion is really thinking?”
“I do!”
The Demon King took the bait.
From the start, Ainel had no intention of erasing Reinhild’s memories.
Nor did he have a way to do it.
He had bragged to Xion that with dragon magic he could pick and erase only the memories he wanted, but that was difficult even for a true dragon.
Unless one planned to wipe out everything and turn someone into a simpleton, it was better not to touch memories with magic.
Saying he’d erase them and bring him back had only been to calm Xion for the moment—Ainel’s plan was to find Reinhild and clear up the misunderstanding.
The Demon King would be dying, wandering with nowhere to go and nothing to his name, so with a bit of persuasion it should work out.
But seeing the Demon King stamping his feet, desperate to return to Xion, Ainel felt a mischievous urge.
What if Reinhild went back with his memories erased, just as he’d promised Xion?
That would be sufficient revenge for the broken mug and the soiled carpet.
“I’ll help you see Xion’s true feelings.”
The Demon King clasped Ainel’s hand.
❖ ❖ ❖
When Ainel went to find Xion, who was turning Root into an open field to welcome Reinhild, Reinhild listened to their conversation from start to finish.
He learned that Xion, insisting it was for Reinhild’s sake, meant to erase all his memories.
Watching it all, Reinhild trembled.
Even Ainel, who had resolved to take revenge for his mug and carpet, felt his heart soften at how pitiful he looked.
“If you get scared of Xion and want to run, I’ll help you. The aftermath… we’ll deal with somehow.”
For Ainel, who might have to take Xion’s rage head-on, it was a tremendous determination.
He had grown fond of Reinhild in the short time together, and felt sorry for him—for having lived locked up in castles and caves, and now bound to spend the rest of his life tied to Xion.
But the response he got was not what he expected.
“You heard? Xion said he’ll never hurt me again.”
So he’d been trembling not from fear, but from being moved.
“Xion is trying to sacrifice himself for me…!”
Ainel finally realized it.
This one wasn’t in his right mind either.
“You’re not even afraid that Xion means to erase your memories without permission?”
“Why would I be afraid of Xion? Isn’t he saying that even if I lose my memories, he’ll still like me?”
“…Weren’t you running away because Xion’s love was too much?”
“Running away? When a Demon King gets angry, he can go out for a bit of fresh air.”
Could “blowing off some steam” really be used to smooth over using magic to blow up an entire house, then forcing another spell on his ailing body to flee into the rainy night?
What a runaway… with a grand scale indeed.
“Fine. Then handle your business between the two of you. Leave me out of it from now on.”
Ainel thought Xion and Reinhild, both mad for each other, made quite a fitting pair.
“I want to go back to Xion right now.”
“All right. First I’ll cast a sleep spell so it’s easy to fake fainting. When you wake up, act naturally as if you’ve lost your memories.”
“Why do I have to pretend I lost my memories?”
“Well…”
The reason to erase his memories had purely been because Ainel suspected Reinhild wouldn’t go back of his own will.
If Reinhild wanted to return to Xion on his own two feet, there was no need to erase anything or to feign amnesia.
But Ainel wanted Xion to suffer a bit for a few days, keeping a memory-less Reinhild by his side.
It’s revenge for the mug and the carpet.
He did feel sorry for Xion but that was that, and this was this.
Looking at the utterly hapless Reinhild, he figured any lie wouldn’t last long anyway.
“It’s just that humans can love longer if they overcome proper hardship and adversity.”
“Hardship and adversity…”
Reinhild considered this with a grave expression.
Come to think of it, in human novels there was always something you could call hardship and adversity.
“Will pretending I lost my memories be enough for that hardship and adversity?”
“Sure, sure. More than enough.”
Having experienced dynamic human love stories only through novels, Reinhild fell for Ainel’s lie hook, line, and sinker.
“Okay. I can pretend to have lost my memories. No problem.”
Of course, Reinhild was not good at pretending to have lost his memories.
With Ainel’s help, Reinhild returned to Xion’s side and very nearly cried out Xion’s name and threw his arms around his neck the moment he woke.
“Where… is this?”
The fact that a line worse than something from a third-rate puppet show on the street didn’t arouse suspicion was only because Xion was in an extreme state of excitement.
Xion had a tendency for his judgment to blur when it came to Reinhild.
And he simply couldn’t imagine that Reinhild would, for no reason, pretend to have lost his memories and return to Root.
What do I do now?
When Xion hugged him, Reinhild, not knowing how to act, just froze.
What do I do?
Is it okay to hug him back? No, that probably won’t do, right?
Then should I push him away?
Should I scream and run?
I don’t know!
With no sense at all of what actions someone who had lost his memories should show, Reinhild had nothing he could do except watch Xion’s reactions.
And from about a week after that, the battle of wits began with Reinhild and Xion watching each other for cues.
Leave a Reply