DKFTI 19

He clicked his tongue at the increasingly diverse animal-like residents of the castle. The captured Raccoon thrashed and cursed at Aizen, who then swore back.

Watching this, Ruru muttered to Sibel and Shanti.

“That must be what they call self-hatred. Birds of a feather with the same nasty temper…”

“True. But since there’s that saying about learning from a bad example, maybe it makes good synergy?”

“Wow, now that I think about it, Raccoon really does help with the castle’s security. He’s quick to spot enemies.”

Though Ruru and Sibel were whispering, Aizen still caught their words.

“Enemy? Do you want me to do something enemy-like?”

Raccoon managed to escape from Aizen’s grip. Apparently not liking that his scruff had been grabbed, he kicked Aizen’s shin again and ran off.

“Ah! Damn it, that thing!”

This time it must have hurt, because Aizen rubbed his shin with his hand. With a faint sigh, he stepped closer to Sibel and Ruru.

Then, just like the raccoon had done, he reached into Shanti’s snack bundle and plucked out a rice ball. The resemblance in behavior was uncanny. Sibel even wondered if Raccoon might secretly be Aizen’s lost son.

Sibel had by then picked up the shovel Ruru had abandoned and was digging at the ground. But the result was clumsy beyond belief. Even a clunky robot would have looked more natural.

“Ugh, maybe it’s because the ground’s so muddy.”

Aizen, chewing his rice ball, watched the pitiful sight until he finally stood up and walked over to Sibel.

He tapped Sibel’s shoulder and snatched away the shovel.

So robbery was a hobby?

“Never shoveled before? Look.”

Aizen skillfully drove the shovel into the dirt, pressed down with his foot, and lifted the soil out. He certainly looked the part.

“Are you a veteran?”

Aizen answered Sibel question as if he was dumbfounded.

“Have you completely forgotten that I’m an Apostle?”

“Oops. Apostles were basically a higher tier of paladins, so of course he’d be used to such work.” Sibel nodded.

“You have to do this so your arms won’t hurt. Got it?”

Sibel watched him closely as he demonstrated. Perhaps due to his stamina, his accuracy and speed were impeccable.

Sibel kept watching Aizen dig from behind.

Then he noticed threads tangled in the collar around Aizen’s neck.

“Hm.”

Without much thought, Sibel reached out and tugged at the collar at the back of his neck. Aizen, in the middle of digging, tilted his head back at the touch. His hair spilled down, hiding the thread.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah. Something was caught there…”

Pushing his hair aside and pulling the thread free, Sibel got a glimpse down Aizen’s loose blouse.

“The line from your trapezius to your shoulder blade is really pretty.”

The well-balanced muscles, neither too big nor too small, stood out clearly from the recent shoveling. Sibel unconsciously spoke the thought aloud.

“It seems like you don’t even exercise.”

He was muttering to himself and wondering if building a home gym in the castle could make a body like that.

Still caught by the collar, Aizen spoke.

“Let go and think about it.”

“Ah.”

Snapping out of it, Sibel released his collar. Aizen let go of the shovel and rubbed the back of his neck where Sibel’s hand had been.

“But why’s your face so red?”

Maybe his stamina wasn’t as good as expected.

Sibel assumed Aizen was tired out from shoveling. Then Aizen suddenly flung the shovel to the ground.

“Now you do it.”

Sibel let out a whine and crouched on the ground.

“You already rolled up your sleeves, you might as well finish it…”

As he muttered, fumbling with the shovel, Aizen sighed and lightly kicked Sibel’s hand away with his foot.

“Uh, rotten temper…”

Sibel feared Aizen, but he always said what he wanted to say.

But then Aizen picked up the shovel again, and Sibel beamed.

Lucky.

“Demon King, these rice balls are so good, come and have a bite!”

Shanti called out with his mouth full of rice.

In the end, the shoveling that day was left to the one who did it well.

***

That night, after the repairs were finished, the rain poured down in torrents. The sound of raindrops hammering against the windows was loud enough to keep one from sleeping.

For years Aizen had lived with insomnia, but since coming to the Demon King’s castle he had always slept soundly. Now, for the first time in a while, the stormy rain disturbed his rest.

Eventually, tossing and turning, he got up to get a water in the dining hall.

Kwang-flash.

Thunder and lightning crashed loudly. He wondered how much intense the Demon Realm’s rainy season would become. As he walked the dark corridor toward the dining hall, Aizen’s gaze suddenly turned outside.

Through the rain streaming down the window, and beyond it.

“What the hell.”

He saw a familiar figure. It was Sibel, dressed in a white nightgown.

“What’s he doing out there.”

Did he have sleepwalking?

The moment Aizen spotted him, his steps quickened. He eventually ran out of the castle.

***

“Hey! What are you doing! Are you crazy, out here at this out?”

Sibel was standing in the pouring rain, holding out his hand and watching the raindrops fall onto his palm. Aizen grabbed his wrist roughly.

Sibel’s hair was silver, his skin was pale white, and even his nightgown was pure white. At a glance he looked like a ghost, but for some reason Aizen thought he seemed more like mist.

He suddenly felt anxious, it felt like Sibel he might vanish without warning. Aizen’s grip tightened.

As he seized his arm, Sibel slowly turned his head.

Under his half-lifted lids, his blue eyes shone. They flickered with a mysterious aura, one Aizen had never felt before.

‘What is this?’

He suspected it was the power of a Demon King, but it was different from such crude things. Far more, no, a purity he had never once seen in his life.

As Aizen gazed in confusion into Sibel’s eyes, Sibel’s lips curved slowly. Then his mouth opened.

“When the rain falls, sprouts will grow.”

The voice was familiar, yet at the same time strange. Sibel was smiling brightly as he said it.

He looked like a madman. And in that moment, Aizen realized that this was the very illness the female Demon King had spoken of.

Sibel was not in his normal mind.

“Plants brimming with life, flowing rivers, the deep blue sky, the wells of animals and small fruits… ah, isn’t it beautiful?”

He said in a ecstatic voice. Aizen felt the same unease he had felt from the fanatics of the Apostles who had worshiped him.

“The world is full of things that are overwhelming. To touch, to feel, to have. For all of us.”

He softly laughed. Water streamed down Sibel’s cheeks, rolling to his chin and dripping away as he stood in the rain.

Aizen kept staring at him.

He felt a strange déjà vu. Was it because the raindrops clinging to Sibel’s lashes and falling reminded him of the day Sibel had cried?

After a while, Sibel lifted his head, he hummed lightly to himself as he looked out over the land, his eyes met Aizen’s, and spoke.

“Don’t you want to live inside that forever too?”

It was an innocent question.

Aizen’s gaze fell to Sibel’s lips, blue-tinged against his white skin. Too pale, and at the same time… he felt the need to protect him.

It was always that way. Sibel had a power that made anyone who saw him feel compelled to protect him.

The deeper Sibel’s gaze grew, the clearer the vivid blue aura in his eyes became.

Aizen unconsciously nodded. He didn’t even know what Sibel’s words meant, but he felt like he had to agree.

Sibel laughed. A faint dimple appeared and vanished on his pale face.

Aizen, staring dazed at Sibel’s figure in the rain, felt as if something inside him had snapped.

Had the moonlight bewitched him? No, beneath the heavy clouds there was no moonlight at all.

It was only because the touch of Sibel’s wet hand was so cold. Because he looked so pale. Because he made it impossible not to reach out.

In short, this was irresistible.

Aizen’s hand slipped from Sibel’s wrist. Then in an instant it passed by his cheek.

The moment Sibel blinked, his large hand wrapped around his delicate jaw, his neck, his nape–everywhere, without a care. Even the place where his pulse was racing.

Aizen’s face tilted, and before even their breaths could meet, their lips crashed together. He didn’t know why he felt such urgency.

His heart pounded like a drum, like a child doing something bad for the first time. An impulse that couldn’t be satisfied with just brushing lips smashed into his reason. No, it was a collision.

Rain poured down and made his hands slip on Sibel’s skin, so he gripped him tighter. Soft hair tangled around his fingers.