He felt incredibly good.
He had received permission that once his body finished recovering, he could go out for a little while.
It would be his first time going outside the Demon King’s castle.
Or not—was it the first time in a long while?
More than that, was it not that it had been a long time since he came into the Demon King’s castle?
He did not know.
But the fact that he could go outside made him very happy.
If he went out, he would be able to meet the owlbears he saw through the window with his own eyes. He could breathe in the miasma that filled the sky.
If he was lucky, he might even catch a human who had lost his way and was wandering, and torment him a little.
Too pleased to lie still, he rolled around on the bed.
The bed seemed wider than usual… why was that?
Well, whatever. Wider was better than narrow.
He also felt as if something were hollow and empty, but since he had been shut up in the Demon King’s castle for so long, it was not strange to feel that way.
As he rolled on the bed, the butler prepared a meal.
When one lives shut in a room with no amusements, the only pleasure left is eating.
The dishes prepared by the chef the butler designated as the castle’s best were, as always, deli… not.
What was this? It was a little different.
For some reason, the food did not suit his taste today.
Even when he ate things he usually liked, he oddly felt bloated.
It must be that his stomach was not well…
In the end he could not even eat half his usual amount, but that was fine.
There would be many days ahead to eat meals, but this was the first day he had been given permission to go outside.
When he felt out of sorts like this, the answer was to look out the window.
In truth, there was nothing else he could do besides look out the window.
As for the view outside, all that could be seen was the gloomy forest and the owlbears.
Where was the owlbear with only the left ear tuft gray?
No matter how he looked, he could not see it.
It was his favorite owlbear… had it died?
Owlbears, even among monsters, lived long lives, easily two hundred years, and they did not fight among their own kind for territory, so there was little reason for them to die.
For such an owlbear to have died, perhaps something bad was happening outside the Demon King’s castle.
He did not know what had happened, but he felt regret.
The clumsy owlbear that fell while climbing trees had been the only one, so watching it had been fun.
It was a pity, but there was nothing a Demon King who could not even step outside his room could do for an owlbear.
In this empty room, all he could do at best was stare out the window or roll on the bed.
Not even thirty minutes had passed since he pushed the meal away, and already everything was boring.
He was bored.
He did not know why, but the boredom he felt now seemed a little different from usual.
It felt as though something ought to be at his side… It was all because that owlbear had disappeared.
To soothe this boredom, he had no choice but to recover quickly and go outside.
But how had he gotten hurt? He did not really know.
In fact, he could not tell where or how he was injured.
Even so, it was not hard to guess.
Since he had been shut in his room, he could not have been cut by a sword or broken a leg, so it was clearly a problem with his magic.
How could he recover quickly? Was circulating magic the best way? If so, he would circulate his magic.
Just in case, he should not move a large amount of magic all at once.
First, very slowly, centering on the heart…
…?
Strange.
There was an alien sensation in his heart different from usual.
Quite unpleasant and yet… for some reason, not hateful.
At the stinging feeling in his heart, he pressed down hard over his chest.
Through the thin fabric he felt something lumpy.
When he pulled the collar of his garment and looked inside, he saw the mark of a deeply healed wound over his left chest.
When had he been hurt?
It seemed this was the wound he needed to recover from.
Its shape was as if he had been stabbed by a sword, so it did not feel at all good.
If anyone saw, would it not look like he had suffered at the hands of the Hero?
The Hero.
Come to think of it, he had been waiting for the Hero.
Because the Hero had not arrived quickly, he had had to stay shut in his room for decades.
He wanted to go out even secretly, but the butler had said no.
He should listen well to the butler. Why? He did not know.
But the butler knew better than anyone the duties he had to perform as Demon King and the rules set by the Demon God.
There was no harm in following that. But why should he follow set rules? Because he was the Demon King, he could not help it.
But did he have to be the Demon King? He hated being confined.
Even so, there was no harm in listening to the butler. Why… he did not know why, but he had to follow the butler’s words. Because he was the Demon King.
He should listen well to the butler.
He must.
According to the butler, the only way to escape this boredom was for the Hero to appear.
No. The butler had promised that once his body recovered, he would let him go outside.
The only one who could end this boredom was the butler.
Or not? If the Hero came, he could go outside every day to perform the duties of the Demon King.
For now he would obey the butler, and when the Hero came…
The Hero… the Hero?
Had the Hero not already been born?
He must have been mistaken.
Just then the butler came, so he asked when the Hero would arrive.
He said that once his body recovered, the Hero would appear.
The butler had never been wrong, so once he recovered he would be able to meet the Hero.
He said one was fully recovered when one had regained one’s original strength.
What was this “original strength.”
At times the butler said things that were hard to understand.
He disliked the strange feeling he had, but since he had to recover his body, he tried again to circulate his magic.
Again, there was a peculiar sensation in his heart.
It felt as if something were poking at his chest, and as if his heart were heating up. His head swam, and he did not know why this sensation felt not hateful.
This unpleasant sensation seemed to be divine power, but subtly different from divine power.
This aura was surely Xion’s…
Xion? Who was that?
He asked the butler, but the butler said he did not know.
Strange. There was nothing the butler did not know.
Perhaps it was a name he had given to the owlbear with the left ear tuft gray?
That must be it. The name of the owlbear he cherished had been Xion.
Was Xion dead? When he asked that, the butler’s expression changed minutely.
But soon the answer came back that it was so.
But had he not just said he did not know who Xion was?
It must be a mistake. The butler had never been wrong.
As the butler said, the owlbear Xion must have died.
So that was it. Xion had died.
Strange. It was merely an owlbear he watched from the window, so why did he feel like crying?
A Demon King does not cry because an owlbear died.
Even so, in case he could not hold back and ended up crying, he should tell the butler to leave the room before he showed a shameful sight.
But before that, the butler spoke first.
It seemed he was not done speaking.
“Yes, Lord Reinhild. The Hero is dead.”
The Hero? Had they not been talking about Xion?
Ah, of course. Xion was not an owlbear but the Hero.
If the Hero was dead, was that not good? Why, then, did the butler look so displeased?
Then the Hero named Xion was dead, and until the next Hero appeared he would recover his condition…
The Hero… Xion…
Thump, thump, thump.
‘…Xion?’
Thud!
“Haah!”
Reinhild let out the breath he had been holding.
He felt something that had been pressing down on his mind leave his body all at once.
His breathing, which had been stifled as if submerged in water, became free.
“Hah… haa…”
Cold sweat poured down and fell onto the backs of his hands.
Clutching his wildly pounding heart, Reinhild slowly turned his head toward the butler.
“What have you done to me?”
“Oh my. You noticed.”
At the butler’s chilling smile, Reinhild flinched and shuddered.
For a Demon King to feel fear toward the castle’s butler.
It was shameful, but now was no time to quibble over such things.
He did not know what it was, but the butler was up to some trick.
“Is it because I became weak?”
The butler, obsessed with following the rules laid down by the Demon God, must have been disheartened to see a Demon King who had lost his power, and had concocted some scheme.
But that was because he did not know that the Demon God was deceiving all the demons.
“I have to persuade the butler and get his help.”
He did not know what the butler had done but now was not the time to argue right and wrong.
Above all, Reinhild had no strength with which to punish the butler.
“This is no time for this, Butler. The Demon God is deceiving us. There is no need to be bound by those rules you like so much… gah.”
Reinhild could not continue.
A chill ran up the back of his neck as the butler’s aura turned icily cold.
His fingertips began to tremble.
The butler was exuding killing intent. Toward him, the Demon King, not a Hero, not a human, not an owlbear.
Only then did Reinhild realize.
Not for a single moment had the butler been on the “Demon King’s” side.
“By any chance, Butler…”
His mouth would not open.
Asking this question felt like an irreversible choice.
After hesitating for a long time, Reinhild swallowed dryly several times, and only then barely continued.
“Are you on the Demon God’s side, not mine?”
Thud.
No sooner had he finished speaking than some enormous pressure weighed down on his shoulders.
“Ugh.”
Reinhild strained with all his might to endure, but in the end, he collapsed face-down onto the bed.
It was suffocating, as if an iron chain were hooked into his heart and pulled tight.
Pressing down on his bursting chest with all his strength, Reinhild barely managed to lift his head.
The butler, radiating killing intent as if he would crush the entire Demon King’s castle, watched the suffering Reinhild as if appreciating a spectacle.
With a chilling smile at the corner of his mouth.
‘That is not the butler.’
There had never been such a thing as a “butler” from the beginning.
Not now, and not five hundred years ago.
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