Step.
The butler took a large step toward Reinhild.
The air pressing down on Reinhild’s shoulders grew even heavier.
His whole body trembled.
‘If only I had not lost my power, this trivial thing…’
He said that, but he actually knew.
Even before he lost his power, Reinhild would not have been able to handle the butler.
The butler’s magic was enough to surpass Reinhild’s from five hundred years ago.
‘That makes no sense.’
The title of Demon King is taken by the strongest among all demons living in that era.
It is not chosen as the heir of a particular lineage like the Hero, nor chosen at random.
A weak Demon King being born is the first time in this cycle where the previous Demon King was sealed and then revived, and there were no other exceptions.
In other words, five hundred years ago Reinhild had been the strongest of all demons.
‘If the butler had originally been this strong, there is no way I would have become Demon King.’
Then did the butler become this strong through training over the past five hundred years?
If not…
‘What if the butler… is not a demon?’
The magic that filled the room was quite different from that of demons.
A far thicker, darker miasma saturated with killing intent.
There is no way an ordinary demon could exude such miasma.
Even if five hundred years had passed, the world changed, and every living thing except himself had grown stronger, this made no sense.
‘The butler is not a demon!’
The Demon King’s instincts kept sounding the alarm.
The butler is not a demon. This situation is dangerous, so he must run.
‘If not a demon… then what?’
He wanted to lift his head and look at the butler, but his body would not obey.
His limbs felt heavy, as if he were wearing several layers of clothes soaked through with water.
Reinhild did not give up and struggled, finally managing to open his mouth.
“You… wh… who…”
The words would not come out properly.
The force that had been binding him only moments before grew more intense, tightening as if it would burst his body.
Under that pressure, even thinking was hard.
“Haah…”
He could not breathe.
No matter how he struggled, all Reinhild could do was roll his eyes up to look at the butler.
Before he knew it, the butler stood right before the bed where Reinhild lay face down.
A massive force swept over him as if to swallow him whole.
‘I have to run.’
If he could move somehow, an opportunity to escape would appear.
If he could only get out of the butler’s line of sight, he could move his arms and legs.
If he could just roll off the side of the bed, the problem would be solved.
If he pulled back the carpet next to the bed, there would be the secret passage Xion had made… was there?
‘What did you do to my head?’
Real memories and false information were in a mess, tangled together, making correct judgment difficult.
He wanted to grind his teeth in frustration, but he could not even do that as he wished.
Even so, in this place with no exit, the only means of escape was the secret passage.
Whether it was there or not, there was no other way. He could only try blindly.
‘All right…!’
But his body would not move as he wanted.
Even just breathing made his lungs hurt as if they were being torn apart.
“Ugh…”
Give up. If you submit to this enormous power, it will be easier.
If you follow the butler’s words, you can be freed from the pain.
The butler only wants to help you recover your body and regain your strength.
Dying at the Hero’s hand is unavoidable, but that is the fate of one born as the Demon King.
Think of it all as an honor and give up.
‘Stop, stop!’
Thoughts that had nothing to do with his will kept tormenting Reinhild.
It frightened him that that absurd nonsense was changing to feel like his own thoughts.
He feared that if this continued, he would submit to the butler’s power. He feared all his memories would be covered over by falsehood.
Perhaps… even his memories with Xion would all disappear.
‘I do not want that.’
He could not forget Xion.
Reinhild squeezed his eyes shut, doing anything he could not to forget Xion.
Despite his desperate effort, his memories together with Xion tangled into a mess in his head and began to lose their shape one by one.
He tried to hold on to his memories, but nothing went as he wished.
Growing frantic, Reinhild drew up his magic by force even though he knew his condition was not sound.
“No!”
A desperate cry burst out, piercing through the overwhelming force that was pressing down on his whole body.
Clang!
At the same time, the ridiculous thoughts that had been tormenting his mind shattered and disappeared.
‘This is… brainwashing magic?’
His magic state was unstable, so he realized it late, but Reinhild was a Demon King who had mastered all magic.
There was no way he would fail to notice that what had tried to control his thoughts at will was brainwashing magic.
‘How dare you lay a hand on my memories.’
Reinhild imagined clenching his fists in resentment.
He wanted with all his heart to truly clench them, but right now even moving his fingers was hard, so imagining it was all he could do.
“Kh… hhk…”
Every time he tried to exert strength to move even a little, it hurt as if his limbs were being ripped to shreds.
Stifling the groans that leaked out, Reinhild struggled to move somehow.
If he could not shake off the butler’s force with strength, he would have to use magic.
Thinking of meeting Xion, Reinhild gathered with all his might the magic he had been steadily accumulating.
‘Got it!’
His finger moved.
Even then, only the very tip of his finger twitched, but hope appeared.
He could move.
If he could somehow only roll over the edge of the bed, that would be enough.
Then he could jump down the secret passage and run.
Quickly, to Xion’s side…
“Khak!”
The sudden pain kept Reinhild from finishing the thought.
With a numbing sensation at the back of his head, darkness descended.
What was happening? Had his sight been taken? What if he could never see again for the rest of his life?
With his freedom of movement taken and now even his sight, Reinhild thrashed in fear.
As the miasma pressing down on his body receded, his arms and legs moved fine, but strangely his head felt heavy.
As if something were pressing his head down hard.
“Mmff, mm!”
No. It was not “as if” something were pressing his head.
His head was really being pressed down.
So strongly that he could not move at all.
“Ugh, hff…”
Noticing that Reinhild was trying to escape, the butler grabbed his troublesome head and shoved it straight into the bed.
Because of that, Reinhild’s face was buried in the thick covers, and not only could he not see, but even breathing became hard.
‘Help me!’
The more Reinhild flailed, the stronger the force pressing his head grew.
Was he going to die like this?
Would he become the first Demon King to suffocate to death buried in bedding?
Without even meeting Xion?
‘I do not want that…’
Contrary to his thoughts, his consciousness grew ever more hazy.
Though all he could see was pitch-black darkness, he felt the sensation of his sight blurring.
When Reinhild’s struggling limbs drooped limply onto the bed, the butler’s voice brushed his ear.
“A fine vessel was born, so I intended to manage it personally, but to think it would be this troublesome.”
A vessel? Manage?
He could not understand a word of what the butler was saying.
His body, which had no strength left to move, trembled on its own against his will.
Sensing that Reinhild was on the verge of losing consciousness, the butler lifted his hand.
“Gah, haah… hah…”
Even while he was about to pass out, perhaps because his desire to live was so strong, Reinhild raised his head and gasped raggedly.
“…Xi.. on…”
Having barely gained the freedom to open his mouth, Reinhild murmured Xion’s name.
The butler sneered at him.
“If I had thought you would fall for the Supreme God’s plaything, I would not have gone to such trouble.”
Xion, I want to see you.
“Should I have locked you in a small room where even moving your arms and legs would be hard.”
I will go back to Xion.
“The contract with the Supreme God has been fulfilled, the Demon King died by the Hero’s hand, and yet I receive none of what should fall to me. Tell me, Demon King, who should be held responsible for this?”
I must… go find Xion.
“There is no point protesting to the Supreme God. All I am told is that collecting the corpse is my duty, so there is no helping it. I can only piece together the shattered vessel and use it.”
“Gak.”
The butler grabbed Reinhild by the neck where he lay face down and tossed him, flipping him over.
He had surely been thrown onto a soft bed, yet a shock like falling into a bed of thorns struck his entire body.
“Kh…!”
But the butler did not even give Reinhild time to cry out in pain.
The butler placed his hand over Reinhild’s left chest where he writhed like a crushed bug.
“It was quite decent miasma, and yet you mixed in some divine power.”
Crunch.
“Ah, aaaaah!”
The butler’s fingers pierced the thin cloth and dug into Reinhild’s flesh.
As if to rip out his heart whole.
Over the scar hollowed out by the Hero’s sword, a new wound was layered, and the blood that flowed stained his chest.
‘I do not want this…!’
Faced with death, absurdly, the first thought that came to him was that he hated the idea of the wound Xion had left being covered by something else.
Reinhild shoved the butler with all his might.
It was so weak it did not even tickle, but the butler obediently stepped back.
He was angry that a good vessel had been soiled, but he did not intend to kill Reinhild.
He still had his uses.
“Hah… hah…”
Reinhild covered his bleeding chest with both hands.
Perhaps because the blood loss cleared his head, his thoughts moved faster than a moment ago.
‘The butler is…’
Every single word the butler had spoken a moment ago engraved itself in his mind.
At the time he had barely understood what the words meant, but now the sentences rose clearly.
Putting those fragments together, he could guess the butler’s identity.
‘That is…’
No, even without the butler’s words, there was only one being that could radiate such an aura.
It was a being that should not be in this place.
‘…The Demon God!’
What stood before Reinhild’s eyes was the only god of the demons.
It was the Demon God himself.
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