All misunderstandings had been cleared up, but Xion had no intention of letting go of Reinhild.
Holding Reinhild like this made him feel as if he had trapped every part of him in his own grasp.
He loved this distance, where if he just dipped his head a little, he could touch Reinhild’s face.
So close he could hear his breathing at his ear.
It wouldn’t take even a second to kiss Reinhild’s small lips.
The moment he thought that, Xion put it into action.
Smooch.
Sensing Xion was about to give him a peck, Reinhild puckered his lips out, and so it took even less time than expected for their lips to meet.
With a smile still at the corner of his mouth, Xion looked down at Reinhild.
Perhaps relieved by the fact he no longer had to pretend to have lost his memories, Reinhild looked more at ease than usual.
“I’ve been wanting to ask for a while.”
“What are you so curious about, Rein?”
“That really is the Hero’s sword, right?”
“That’s right. I put dragon magic on it and set it on display to evade the High God’s watch.”
“Wasn’t there blood on that sword originally?”
“…I wiped it off.”
Regret dripped clearly from Xion’s words.
“Was it always shaped like that?”
“I swapped out the jewel so it wouldn’t be recognized as the Hero’s sword. Is that why you were so interested in it?”
“How did you know I was interested in the sword?”
“How could I not know what Rein is thinking.”
Again with that lie.
And then if you ask him to guess what you’re thinking, he’ll probably say something like, “You’re thinking you love Xion.”
As if he’d caught on to Reinhild’s thoughts, Xion narrowed his eyes and looked down at Reinhild, who was glaring back at him.
What are you about to say now!
Reinhild folded his arms as if to say, Go on, try and say it.
“Rein.”
“Mm.”
“Since when did you become afraid of heights?”
“…”
Caught off guard, Reinhild’s eyes went round.
The Reinhild Xion remembered hadn’t feared being off the ground.
A Demon King who soared freely through the sky, afraid of being lifted into the air was hardly something you could say even as a joke.
It puzzled him that Reinhild now trembled if his feet were even slightly off the ground.
When he first picked Reinhild up, he’d thought he was just quivering from nerves over the act of kissing, but seeing his reaction a moment ago when Xion lifted him, he was sure.
Reinhild was afraid of being in the air.
“I…”
Perhaps because the question came so suddenly, Reinhild fumbled and couldn’t answer.
Xion felt all the more pained by that reaction.
With an oddly sorrowful look, Xion asked carefully,
“Is it because of your memory of that day five hundred years ago?”
“…”
After a pause, Reinhild finally nodded.
Because all his memories had returned, the day he fought a decisive battle against Xion, the then-Hero, had been etched into his mind.
At that time, what left the deepest shock wasn’t the moment the sword pierced him.
It was Xion’s cold eyes as he unleashed attacks at Reinhild’s back as he turned and fled.
He knew Xion hadn’t done it on purpose, but there was nothing to be done about the fear carved into his body as he hovered at death’s door.
Worse, because the memory of plummeting from the air and crashing into the ground had stuck so vividly, the moment he was even a little off the ground, his body would shrink up on instinct.
Xion found that fact unbearable.
If only Reinhild had cursed him, saying he’d suffered because of him, that would have been better. But seeing him unable even to say it for fear of hurting Xion, his guilt only grew.
Xion knit his brow as if swallowing back tears and pulled Reinhild into a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, Rein.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose. I’m all right now, really.”
Still held up by Xion, Reinhild raised both arms high.
He wasn’t touching the ground with his feet, nor holding on to Xion with his arms, but he was determinedly signaling that he felt no fear because Xion would keep him safe.
At that, Xion’s expression softened a bit.
“See? I’m fine even now.”
“What frightens Rein is the moment of being lifted. Once you’re already in the air, you don’t feel fear.”
For proof, when Xion picked him up Reinhild had yelped and clung to Xion’s neck, but soon went limp and even nodded off.
That’s why Xion still hadn’t set him down and continued to hold him.
He was confident Reinhild wouldn’t fear this state, and besides, once he set him down it would feel precious and cautious to pick him up again.
“Then put me down and lift me again. I’ll be fine this time.”
“I don’t want to scare you, Rain.”
“I said I’m really fine.”
“No.”
Even with Reinhild spreading his arms and proposing it, Xion would not budge.
If even after all that he refused, there was nothing to be done.
With a faintly hurt sigh, Reinhild muttered,
“If I practiced being off the ground, I’d get over it quickly. Guess I won’t be floating in the air anymore. I’ll never be able to be in Xion’s arms again for the rest of my… whoa!”
Was it the shock at the words never be able to hold Reinhild for the rest of his life?
Xion, who had been sitting on the floor supporting Reinhild’s back and legs in his arms, stood up in that same position.
Reinhild, who had let his hands dangle limply, startled and threw his arms around Xion’s neck.
“See? You’re still afraid.”
“Even a Demon King gets startled if you lift him without warning.”
Trying to act nonchalant, Reinhild took his arms from around Xion’s neck.
He’d said he was fine to reassure Xion, and perhaps because he knew Xion’s hold was safe, he truly didn’t fear being in the air.
The strength he felt in the arms holding him brought him a sense of comfort.
Xion carried Reinhild into the bedroom. Then he laid him neatly down on the bed.
Reinhild simply watched as Xion climbed on top of him.
Is he going to kiss me?
Analyzing Xion’s recent behavioral patterns, Reinhild calculated the probability was high that Xion would bring his lips down.
Following the advice of the magician with dragon’s blood, they had gone through the “stage of overcoming proper hardship and adversity,” so perhaps they would move on to the next stage.
What was the next stage again? Marriage?!
While Reinhild racked his brains, recalling things from human novels, Xion kept slowly drawing closer.
Reinhild placed both hands together over his thumping chest as if in prayer and closed his eyes.
“…”
But contrary to his expectations, nothing happened.
“Haha.”
A laugh?
When Reinhild opened his eyes, Xion was looking down at him, laughing out loud.
With the brightest expression of any Xion Reinhild could remember.
It was such a fine smile that even a Demon King, who preferred bright and cheerful far less than dark and gloomy and somber, would fall for it.
“Rein.”
Instead of answering, Reinhild reached both arms out to Xion.
Xion bent his body into the space and, as Reinhild wanted, kissed him softly.
It felt like just a moment ago that Reinhild had escaped his arms, making him feel a world-collapsing pain.
But now Reinhild was holding him, comforting him, reaching out first.
Rein wanted him.
Even if all this were a dream, it was enough to wipe clean the torment of before.
Struggling to calm a heart that felt like it would burst any instant, Xion took Reinhild’s hand.
When he drew it in and gave a light kiss to the fingers, Reinhild’s eyes curved as he smiled.
Rein. Reinhild.
My beloved Demon King.
May calling him by that title be, please, the last time.
“Rein.”
“Mm.”
“I am going to strip you of your Demon King status.”
“Mm?”
Whispered like that, Xion’s voice sounded gentler and more resolute than ever.
Thump, thump, thump.
Reinhild blinked, not immediately understanding Xion’s words.
His heartbeat sped up like when he forced out insufficient mana to use magic. His face felt somehow hot too.
He didn’t know whether it was because of Xion’s sudden declaration of war, or because those eyes, full of gravity, faced him straight on without a flicker.
“Will you be all right with that?”
“I…”
How could one be all right when one’s very origin was going to be changed from the root.
Though he had, in words, sometimes grumbled about giving up being Demon King, Reinhild had never once imagined himself as anything other than the Demon King.
From the moment he opened his eyes, it had been a life of being shut in a room, endlessly yearning for the world outside the window, but it hadn’t been all bad.
When he heard a Hero had been born, and when he first heard that Hero’s voice, he was glad and happy.
Even without leaving his room, on days Xion came to see him, he felt as free as the owlbears living by instinct.
Even if the very end was a bit unpleasant, if all of it had been for his sake, he could understand even being pierced by the Hero’s sword.
And…
Huh? Wasn’t it only when I was entangled with Xion that I was happy?
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