The small kitchen garden Xion made was packed full with well-grown winter carrots.
He was not harvesting crops in bulk like Xion, but there was a small pleasure in raising carrots.
It also made the tired, weary time of waiting for Xion a little less tedious.
“Oh!”
Perhaps because the god of abundance was exerting influence and all the land of Audrit had become fertile, these so-called “winter carrots” looked bigger and tastier than the carrots Reinhild had originally known.
Reinhild took a freshly pulled winter carrot and walked to the riverside.
As the weather warmed, the ice on the river melted and fish began to swim about.
Reinhild sat down on the bank.
The wind was cold by the water, but this place where at least he could hear the sound of water was better than the house buried in silence.
Roaaar!
If he sat quietly, he could sometimes hear the howls of the owlbears.
“What is Xion doing?”
It had been two days since contact with Xion was cut off.
He had been told that there might be times they could not connect, but even while saying that, Xion had contacted Reinhild without fail every time.
This was the first time there had been no message all the way until sunset.
And for two nights after that.
“I hate waiting, but Xion waited far longer than this.”
Thinking that, Reinhild crunched on the carrot.
“Ugh…”
Apparently it only looked tasty.
Reinhild threw the carrot into the river, intending to feed the fish.
The fish did not eat the carrot either.
He had suddenly become a Demon King who threw food waste into the river.
“Seeing the fish makes me think of Xion.”
Xion, I want to see you.
Measured by Xion’s sense of time, he had only spent a “comparatively brief” time alone, and yet he felt this lonely.
How had Xion waited out that long time alone?
“I am bored.”
He was tired of raising winter carrots.
How dare they grow so vigorously in the hands of the Demon King?
Taking out his frustration on the carrots for no good reason, Reinhild pulled up the remaining winter carrots and scattered them over the snowy ground.
If he did this, the deer would come down and help themselves, surely.
“I am really bored.”
The mere fact that it reminded him of when he had been confined in the Demon King’s castle made him feel so bad that he felt sorry toward Xion.
Back then, being shut in had been for someone else’s sake, but this was entirely for himself.
Besides, Reinhild could not even say he was confined now.
It was not as if the way out of Root was blocked.
No one had tied Reinhild’s feet to this place either.
If he set his mind to it, he could follow the road out of Root and enjoy freedom as he wished.
Only, the problem was that it would be safe only if he went in the direction opposite from where Xion was.
Freedom was good, but freedom without Xion was hateful.
“Nothing happened to Xion, right?”
Perhaps the lack of contact was not because he was busy, but because something bad had happened.
“If something happens to Xion, I have to help him.”
Reinhild clenched both fists tight.
He did not look like a threatening Demon King at all.
“Mm.”
Reinhild gave up on pretending to be threatening.
Instead, he placed his hand over his heart.
Because of the thick winter clothes he could not feel it well, but his amount of magic power was still miserable.
With magic like this, who was going to rescue whom?
He would probably have to wait several hundred years if he wanted to feel the kind of immense power he had once had.
He did not expect the magic that had leaked away for five hundred years to gather again in a single day.
In the past, he might have clutched his head and suffered, saying how could he wait several hundred years, but now he was fine.
No matter how long he had to wait, he knew Xion would be there with him.
“Ah. Thinking of Xion makes me miss him more.”
Reinhild took the crystal out of his pocket.
It would be bad if Xion had contacted him and he simply had not heard the tone.
Why was the crystal’s tone so feeble?
When he met the dragon-human later, he would have to ask him to change it to louder and more resonant.
Staring fixedly at the crystal, Reinhild returned home.
Even while washing up in warm water and drinking cocoa, he did not take his eyes off the crystal.
There was still no word from Xion.
Several more days passed like that.
“This is bad. It really seems something happened to Xion.”
It made no sense for there to be no contact for a whole week, not just a day or two.
Dozens of visions of Xion falling into a scheme of the Supreme God or the Demon God and ending up in danger drifted through Reinhild’s head.
“At this rate Xion will die!”
This was no time to be sitting at home pulling up carrots.
Reinhild sprang to his feet.
“Let’s go save him!”
Xion had said that if Reinhild drew close to Audrit he would be hurt by exposure to divine power, but in preparation for that he had trained very hard for the past few weeks.
His magic was still miserable and unsatisfactory, but even if he was suddenly exposed to divine power, he could at least endure for a little while.
He would just take one look at Xion’s face and come back.
He would go to the city and ask to be taken to Xion’s temple, which had originally been the count’s castle.
If he said he had come to see the god of abundance, the humans would guide him.
He only had to take a quick look at his face and then return.
“I am not such a weak Demon King that I would faint from being affected just that much.”
If there was leeway, could he not embrace Xion once?
He could hold him, and if the ripple of magic was not too strong, maybe even give a brief peck.
Imagining the near future, Reinhild smiled with satisfaction.
“Mm.”
Then, suddenly, the Hero’s Sword hanging on the wall caught his eye.
“The Hero’s Sword…”
He was sure Xion had said that if something happened he was to take the Hero’s Sword and hide in the basement.
He did not know the principle, but it was certain the Hero’s Sword would be of help to Reinhild.
He was not going to hide in the basement, but Reinhild decided to take the Hero’s Sword with him.
He put on the dragon-leather glove Xion had left him on his right hand and carefully reached toward the Hero’s Sword.
It felt strange.
The first and last time he had held this sword in his hand had been right after the human who had been Xion’s companion used it to pierce his belly.
Perhaps because the memory of that time was not pleasant, grabbing the sword did not feel good.
Srring—
With an unpleasant sound of the blade bumping against the iron ring that held it, the Hero’s Sword was drawn.
A very strange feeling.
Even through the glove, there was a tingling feeling in his palm.
“But it is not like back then.”
Was it because his magic was absurdly weak, or because divine power had settled into his body?
The Hero’s Sword could not harm Reinhild.
He found the separately stored scabbard and started to sheathe the Hero’s Sword, then stopped.
“He said this sword had a dragon’s magic on it.”
Magic to avoid the eyes of the Supreme God.
He had heard that they did not keep the sword in its scabbard so as to maximize that effect.
If so, to move without the Supreme God noticing, should he not carry the Hero’s Sword as it was, without a scabbard.
Come to think of it, except for those days five hundred years ago when Xion visited the Demon King’s castle every day, this sword had hardly ever been properly sheathed.
It had mostly been stuck in my belly or my heart.
“I will just carry it like this.”
Having been burned several times by unprepared escapes, Reinhild prepared thoroughly this time.
He dressed warmly and packed snacks to eat on the way.
He wondered whether he would need money since he would only see Xion and come right back, but just in case he decided to bring things that could be turned into money.
“How many winter carrots would it take to buy one meal?”
How would he know the value of human currency?
Times like this made him miss Brownie.
He did not know about winter carrots, but he knew very well how much one Brownie could be exchanged for.
Suppressing his regret, Reinhild gathered up the winter carrots and went outside.
For some reason, the air outside felt fresher than a moment ago.
“Let’s go!”
Striding forward with confidence, Reinhild entered the forest that led out of Root and immediately came face to face with a pack of owlbears.
Rooaaar!
“Uwaaah!”
The unexpected encounter threw Reinhild into confusion.
Given the nature of owlbears, they would surely charge rather than be wary of Reinhild.
Even knowing owlbears lived here, he had not anticipated this situation.
He had been foolish.
“I have to run!”
Rooaar!
Just then, pushing aside the other owlbears, one owlbear stepped forward.
A scar by its eye and a distinctively colored tail fur.
Reinhild did not distinguish human faces well other than Xion’s, but he could tell owlbears apart amazingly well.
The owlbear before him was the very one that had once fallen into Xion’s trap and been rescued by Reinhild.
“Bear!”
Did even monsters have a sense of loyalty?
Perhaps wanting to repay the favor from back then, the owlbear stood in front of the others and blocked their attack.
The owlbear looked around again and again.
And the moment it was certain that Xion was not at Reinhild’s side,
Roaaar!!!
The owlbear, several times more enraged, charged at Reinhild.
“Aaah!”
There was no such thing as loyalty in monsters.
Reinhild ran back the way he had come as if mad.
Rooaaar!
Rooaaar!
Perhaps because of the dragon’s magic, the owlbears only screamed at Reinhild and did not come down into the village.
“Hah, hah…”
Barely escaping, Reinhild braced himself on the ground, collapsed forward, and caught his breath.
“I thought I was going to die.”
If, after declaring he would help Xion, he had died at the hands of owlbears after barely ten paces, he would be too embarrassed to show his face.
“What… do I do… hah… I cannot… get out of the village.”
Perhaps because he had run too much.
His breathing was strangely labored and his heart hurt as if it were being pressed hard.
It was quite unpleasant, like something nasty was creeping up.
Step.
“…Huh?”
A shadow fell in front of Reinhild, who was frowning with his face down in the snow.
“Xio—”
Lifting his head in delight, Reinhild froze in place.
‘That is not Xion.’
A foreboding feeling made his body go stiff, as if seized.
Forcing his unresponsive neck to lift, Reinhild looked up at the person who had come right up to him.
It was someone Reinhild knew well, and yet had never expected to be here.
“…Butler?”
“It has been a while, Lord Reinhild.”
Thud.
With that gentle smiling face as the last thing he saw, Reinhild lost consciousness.
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