DKFTI 63

Sibel chose a smart way to store magic spells instead of reciting them. He had become someone who couldn’t live without his crystal communicator, but since he had set up an automatic summoning spell on it, there was no risk of losing it.

Beep.

When he pressed the stealth spell, an incantation in Sibel’s voice flowed out, and soon a purple mist surrounded his body.

“Now with this, magic detectors and bio-scanners should be nullified.”

The Demon King’s castle’s security system was upgraded day by day. Since many new inventions had been created, Sibel decided to counter the security with fitting spells.

“Hmm. Which way should I go today?”

On the left was the garden of illusions, on the right was the sticky swamp. He usually liked the feeling of stepping on the sticky swamp and often went that way, but today, somehow….

Tok.

“Eek!”

While he was hesitating, he suddenly felt a shock on his shoulder. Thinking maybe he had triggered something in the security system, Sibel was startled, but nothing happened.

But his back still felt heavy and warm. Sibel slowly turned his head back.

“What are you doing?”

“Hm? Helping out our Demon King.”

Aizen was leaning on Sibel’s shoulder. Since Aizen was taller than Sibel, it looked less like he was hanging and more like he was pressing down on him.

Aizen squinted playfully with a grin.

‘This man… he really got weirder.’

Sibel glared at Aizen with suspicious eyes, but Aizen didn’t budge and only tightened his arm around him.

“Urgh.”

Sibel wriggled as he was pressed close against Aizen again.

“Ah, why are you doing this!”

“Because it’s cute, seeing you training or whatever the moment I came back.”

The arm circling Sibel’s neck shifted, and Aizen’s fingers pinched at Sibel’s cheek.

“Stahhhp, don do tha.”

Sibel tried to tell him to stop, but his words came out completely mangled because Aizen didn’t let go of his cheek.

Maybe because he was too close to Aizen, his body scent filled the air. For some reason, he smelled no different than three years ago.

Refreshing, cool, yet soft.

While Sibel was indirectly indulging in Aizen’s scent like that, Aizen was openly smelling Sibel.

He pressed his face into Sibel’s nape and inhaled until his lungs were full.

“Urgh!”

When Sibel shuddered at that, Aizen chuckled quietly, and the breath mixed with his laugh brushed Sibel’s neck, making the tickling sensation even stronger.

“It still soft.”

Aizen had definitely changed. Three years ago, he at least pretended to watch for Sibel’s mood, but now he was just kneading him without a care.

Sibel dug his nails into Aizen’s arm, but Aizen didn’t even blink.

Instead, he rubbed his cheek against Sibel’s shoulder as if the scratch marks itched.

“Just showing I’m happy to see you.”

“Ah, I said move away!”

There was no time to think about what Aizen had come here for or what he was planning to do next.

He just acted like a lunatic. Almost like a child.

When Sibel struggled for a long while, Aizen finally released his arm and stepped back.

“Haa.”

Sibel scratched at his shoulder and neck, still tingling, and turned his body toward Aizen.

“What? Why?”

With a clearly defensive stance, Sibel glared at Aizen, who only shrugged and stood beside him.

“You called it a real-combat drill. Who else could be more helpful than me?”

“Wha….”

Sibel was about to scold him for talking nonsense, but there was some truth in his words.

“Let’s go. I said I’d help.”

Aizen strode off in the direction Sibel had been about to take.

“Ah, wait a moment!”

Sibel tried to stop him, but Aizen pulled him by the wrist.

“Yeah, yeah. Go on. Go on first.”

Aizen spoke as if he was coaxing a child, it was strangely infuriating.

“No, that’s not the problem….”

“Watch your step. It’d be embarrassing if the Demon King got caught in a trap.”

“Ah, well, that’s true, but…!”

In the end, Sibel was pushed forward by Aizen, step by step.

***

‘Just wait until he gets caught.’

Forced to accompany Aizen, Sibel sneered inwardly. Aizen was probably imagining the Demon King’s castle as it had been three years ago.

Now it was very different. No matter how great an Apostle he was, there was no way he could deal with all the traps so easily.

‘I really wanted to see him floundering in the swamp.’

He regretted not choosing the swamp instead of the garden of illusions, but then thought that watching Aizen collapse under the hallucinations might be fun.

“You did a lot of work in three years.”

“Yes. I put in some effort.”

On the way, Aizen easily dodged all the traps that had been prepared: the floor traps, the poisoned needles, and the jutting iron bars.

Thunk, thunk. His gleaming holy sword knocked aside the iron bars that shot out.

‘That’s not what that sword is meant for. How trivial a use.’

To be honest, he hadn’t expected those kinds of traps to work on Aizen anyway.

Soon the two of them entered the garden of illusions, covered in beautiful flowers.

“What’s this place?”

“What’s the point of telling you that.”

“Is that so?”

Aizen treated the Demon King’s castle’s traps with complete disdain. His confident expression, as if daring the traps to try, grated on Sibel’s nerves.

At last, the main square of the garden came into view. From this point, Sibel started to get excited.

Would the illusion affect Aizen? Judging by his lack of reaction, it seemed he hadn’t noticed yet.

The flowers here were beautiful, but they released pollen that caused hallucinations. The fine, invisible powder pulled people into illusions and made them wander in them forever.

He had struggled so much to stop Kairin and Gomdori, who had gotten hooked on the hallucinations here and came every day staggering.

If Aizen got drunk on the illusions, Sibel could use that chance to ask him about why he had come back.

Sibel smiled, pleased at his own cleverness.

“Fufu.”

Aizen glanced at him and his mouth curved upward.

“What kind of scheme has our Demon King so delighted?”

“Huh.”

He was annoyingly quick to catch on!

“Who’s the one you should be hating, and why are you taking it out on me instead?”

Sibel felt a pang in his chest at his words. With Aizen’s playful, disarming behavior, he had almost forgotten.

The look in his eyes on the day they had parted.

‘He looked like he was really hurt.’

So after leaving with such bitter, resentful eyes, why had he come back now looking so composed.

It had to be revenge after all.

“This path really isn’t normal, huh.”

As they walked, lost in thought, Aizen’s tone grew slower. It seemed the hallucinogenic pollen had started to affect him.

Aizen, who had been walking slightly ahead, turned back to look at Sibel. The playful glint that had been lingering in his eyes until just moments ago was gone without a trace.

‘Gulp.’

Sibel felt strangely tense.

Maybe he had been avoiding it all along. The moment when words of resentment would come out of that mouth, from those eyes, from those gestures.

‘If it’s something I have to face anyway, I’d rather he just get angry and be done with it.’

If he slapped his cheek, shouted “why did you do that then!” Sibel wanted to just take a hit and get it over with.

Of course, he hadn’t done anything wrong, but still.

If they said it out that way, at least the suspicion that he had come back to kill him might disappear.

Aizen stared into the empty air. Sibel watched him.

He closed his eyes quietly, opened them again, followed by a languid sigh.

Sibel wondered what it was that Aizen was seeing beyond his retina.

Normally, in the garden of illusions, demons had dopamine rise, but humans, on the contrary, usually felt extreme anxiety or sorrow.

Sometimes the darkest, most painful scenes from memory surfaced and drove them mad.

‘Is this too cruel?’

Something gleamed on Aizen’s cheek as he stared into the air.

‘Huh.’

Sibel had thought that with such a hot-tempered, rough personality, his mental strength would be on another level. But Aizen was human after all?

He felt guilty when he realized that the glimmer on Aizen’s cheek was tears.

“See, why did you have to follow me here?”

If blame was to be placed, it was Aizen’s own fault. But it bothered him.

“See… why did you come back here?”

From the beginning, Aizen should not have come back here. He should have remained as the shining Apostle of the Holy Kingdom.

He recalled image of Aizen riding a white horse during the festival parade. The kind of figure everyone looked up to.

Anyway, that man’s problem was his strange curiosity.

“Aizen.”

Just as Sibel reached out his hand to shake him out of it before his state worsened, Aizen’s head tirned toward him. He reacted to Sibel calling his name.

“Aizen?”

Vacant eyes stared at Sibel.

“…Why did you come back?”

Aizen said in a low voice. Sibel tried to withdraw his outstretched hand. But Aizen moved faster.

Sibel’s body was suddenly pulled close to him.

“Because I missed you.”

A small voice rang in his ear. It tickled.

“I missed you so much.”