DKFTI 39

“How small-hearted does he have to be….”

“Ruru, I’m shaking. I can’t put strength into my legs.”

“Should I push you?”

“No!”

Sibel freaked out at Ruru’s words. Blood drained from his face.

“Looks like you won’t be jumping today.”

Ruru shook his head. He wondered what was so frightening with so many demons around who would save him if needed.

“Lord Demon King. If you’re not going to jump, then just go in and lie down.”

“That’s not allowed!”

“Why not?”

“Everyone will mock me!”

“…So what am I supposed to do about that?”

Ruru started to feel his patience reach its limit. He thought he should just kick him

“Haa. Fine, I’m ready now.”

Sibel stretched both arms out wide and felt the wind.

“Shall I count one two three for you?”

“No. I’ll jump on my own.”

Sibel closed his eyes. Then he slowly moved his steps forward on the roof. Was he finally planning to jump this time?

Ruru fixed his gaze on Sibel. Even if Sibel failed at flying magic, Ruru had to catch his precious Demon King.

“I can do it. I am a proper Demon King.”

Sibel kept muttering something over and over as if he was reciting a spell. And when he reached the edge of the roof, he took a deep breath.

Thud.

Some sand lightly piled on the roof fell to the ground, and Sibel opened his eyes.

“Here I go!”

Then he threw his body forward.

Flap.

Sibel’s clothes fluttered and his figure disappeared from Ruru’s sight.

“Oh.”

Sibel plummeted in an instant. It was a little faster than Ruru expected.

“Oh no.”

Ruru hurriedly jumped from the roof.

The cowardly Demon King, who would have thought he would really jump this time!

***

He had heard the phrase “feeling like flying in the sky.” He wondered what kind of good feeling it must be, that people would say they felt like flying after experiencing something amazing.

“Awesome.”

Having actually experienced it, it seemed he could understand. It felt as if his chest was opened wide. The excitement was at its peak.

“Wow, I thought you’d crash straight into the ground, but I’m glad you’re flying so well!”

“You said you’d protect me! I almost planted my nose in the ground!”

Sibel had nearly cracked his head open. But was it survival instinct? Right before hitting the ground with his nose, his body floated up.

Thanks to that, his head was intact and his body was able to stay in the air.

“This is awesome!”

As he got used to flying, rising to higher places wasn’t difficult. The feeling from being able to fly was incredible.

The full view of the Demon King’s castle could be seen at a glance. The gray walls tinged with blue and the white roofs were beautiful.

“Lird Demon King! Don’t go too fast! You’ll get hurt!”

“I’ve completely mastered how to fly. Put away your worries.”

Sibel proudly did somersaults in the air. He was busy showing off the tricks he had picked up.

“As expected, learning the bad things first, kids or adults are all the same.”

Ruru smiled proudly watching Sibel show off.

“When did our Demon King grow up like this… even flying in the sky…. I’m truly overwhelmed with emotion.”

While Ruru dabbed at his eyes, Sibel was now able to adjust his direction. He warmly watched Sibel fly farther away in the distance.

“This is awesome!”

The sight of the excited Sibel lasted for quite a while. Until the moment he suddenly fell from the sky.

“Waaaaah! Lord Demon Kiiiiiing!”

***

Taking care of a child required enormous caution. And it was the same here, even with the grown-up Sibel.

The place where Sibel fell from the sky was a densely wooded area. Fortunately, there was no major injury, but as he fell he hit his head on a tree branch and briefly lost consciousness.

When Sibel opened his eyes again, the world was already covered in darkness.

“Ugh….”

The problem was that in his excitement, he had gone outside the Demon King’s castle where the cotton padding wasn’t spread. Because of that, Ruru and the other demons couldn’t find him.

“Oh, what is all this?”

Sibel saw his body caught in a tree and carefully pulled himself free. The trees and vines had held up his body.

Barely steadying himself, Sibel checked his body. It didn’t seem like any bones were broken. He was covered in scratches, but those would heal quickly.

Sibel, who had barely let out a sigh of relief, looked up at the sky. There was not a single point of light in the black sky. Even when he looked around, he could not feel the presence of the Demon King castle’s members.

“Are these guys not looking for me?”

Was this exactly that kind of coup?

“But why did I fall?”

Sibel found it strange that he had been flying well and then just suddenly dropped. So he decided to recall the earlier sensation and fly again back to the Demon King castle.

“Hup!”

Sibel, who had worked up his energy, threw his body from the tree branch.

Crash, thud!

But Sibel just fell straight under the tree.

“Owwww….”

Nothing worked. In the end, Sibel fell again.

“Tsk.”

When he tried to stand up from the ground, a sharp pain ran through his ankle. Of all things, this time he had twisted his leg while falling.

“Argh!”

It seemed it had gone bad, since every time he stepped it hurt.

“Ruru! Shanti! Raccoon! Gomdori! Where are you?!”

Even when he shouted loudly, the surroundings stayed quiet. He heard the sound of grass insects from somewhere, the sound of leaves brushing in the wind, and the chirping of birds.

All he could hear was the colorful natural sounds.

“Ah.”

When he turned his head, he saw the walls of the Demon King castle far away.

‘When did I come this far.’

The path he had flown through the sky was farther than he thought. But there was nothing to be done. He had to go back on foot.

‘Surely a scary monster won’t eat me.’

As he worried whether a monster that did not even recognize its master might eat him, Sibel felt pity again for his own situation.

Was this right? What kind of Demon King was this?

“Let’s go. Let’s just go for now.”

Sibel limped and moved forward step by step.

The silence felt unfamiliar. Time felt endless. In fact, had he ever had such time alone since coming to the Demon King’s castle?

There was always someone with him. From the moment he opened his eyes, Shanti was there, and Ruru stayed by his side. After that, in the Demon King castle, summoned beasts like Pudding and Raccoon kept increasing, so there was almost never a time when he was alone while awake.

“It’s lonely. It’s so lonely.”

They treated the Demon King like a pebble by the roadside and were constantly rude, but it seemed he still wanted to see them.

His leg hurt every time he walked, so his pace was slow. He was walking the dark forest path with his sluggish steps when it happened.

Rustle.

“Eek.”

He heard the bushes moving.

‘Monster? Could it be an outside intruder?’

It felt like there was nothing but enemies inside and outside.

Sibel hunched his body as much as possible and stayed on guard. He wished nothing would happen, but if something really did, he did not want rumors to spread that he had died to some monster he was raising.

That would be disgraceful. The other Demon Kings would mock him! Without doubt the probability it would be posted as a hot community article was 100%.

Even dying while practicing flying would be the same. He would be too ashamed to even say anything in the afterlife.

Sibel’s ankle hurt, but he tiptoed as much as possible and moved cautiously. Since he did not know how far he had to walk before the Demon King castle would appear, it felt like he was walking on thin ice.

He could not make noise to call the Demon King castle’s members, and that made him sad.

‘Quietly, as quietly as possible….’

As he was moving forward like that, something suddenly touched his shoulder.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Because his nerves had been too on edge, at that moment Sibel’s heart dropped.

He thought, “Wouldn’t dying of a heart attack be okay as a cause of death?” and just then his life flashed before his eyes.

“…My ears are going to fall off.”

He heard a familiar voice. Sibel carefully opened the eyes he had tightly shut. As he focused on the dim view in the darkness, Aizen’s face came into view.

“Haa….”

Aizen roughly brushed back his hair and scowled. It was a familiar sight.

“H-Hero?”

“Do you have any sense at all, or not?”

“Eek!”

People always said the beginning spirit was important. But he wished Aizen would abandon his beginning spirit a little.

Why. Why was this guy always angry?

Aizen sighed and looked Sibel up and down.

“You fell from the sky and disappeared all day, do you think I would worry or not?”

“You would.”

“Then what were you doing until now… Do you know how long your subordinates had been looking for you?”

“It’s not like I wanted this to happen….”

From Sibel’s side, it was truly unfair. Did he want to faint? Did he want to barely open his eyes in the middle of the night?

“I thought you were dead.”

Aizen’s hand gripped harder and Sibel’s shoulder hurt. Only after Sibel groaned did Aizen’s hand let go.

“Why did you make a fuss about practicing to fly in the first place?”

“Well, that is. I made a vow to live with an exploring attitude….”

“To who?”

“Ruru.”

“There’s no hope.”

A faint disgust appeared in Aizen’s eyes.

Why. What. Why!