DKFTI 47

This was definitely not a good sign.

‘Why did he have to be good to me?’

He should have remained just a frightening existence. He really should have….

‘Why does he worry, why does he watch over me?.’

Now his presence did not bother him anywhere. That was more than a red alert.

‘Why does he make me feel like I don’t want to make him worry?’

Feelings were frightening. A being that crossed the boundary of feelings was as frightening as an intruder barging into the house with bared teeth.

But.

The word but kept getting added. What exactly was the problem?

The problem was that he was not a bad person.

“Why did he have to bring up the past….”

The problem was also that he came to know Aizen as a person a little more privately.

No matter how he set his heart to regard him as an enemy, it kept collapsing.

“This is bad.”

Sibel was being swayed by an offensive on both the inside and the outside.

What should he do? Now Aizen was no longer frightening.

It started from this. He was no longer frightening. The more deeply he looked into it, the more serious it became.

***

Sibel knew his own personality well.

He grew attached easily. Whether to people, or animals, or even objects. Once he started to like something, he poured out feelings endlessly.

So once something stepped inside his boundary to some extent, his affection started to pile up exponentially.

‘Why are you letting yourself roast in the sun?’

‘Why are you staring at me. Are you hungry? Do you want me to cook for you?’

‘Don’t wander around dangerously at night, go to sleep.’

‘Are you hurt?’

‘Why are you smiling? You look ridiculous.’

Aizen’s actions were no longer strange. If he put his actions in the category of ‘affection,’ then none of it was strange. On the contrary, it felt natural.

All he did was change the way he looked at Aizen, and he no longer looked like a strange human as before. But that was only possible when the relationship of Apostle and Demon King was completely set aside.

“Shit.”

Sibel felt a threat from the fact that his view had changed.

Was this really okay? Could a Demon King and an Apostle become friends without the worldview breaking?

Sibel thought about it while scooping up cold watermelon slush.

“Demon Kiiiing! It’s me, Ruru, I’m working hard putting up the gate!”

“Graaaah!”

“Kairin is helping too!”

Even while Sibel took a short rest, the summoned creatures were working hard. It was something to be grateful for.

“Yeah, yeah.”

In his heart he wanted to suffer together, but physically Sibel could not keep up with them.

“By the way, this ice, you didn’t take it from your body, did you?”

Sibel looked at the very cold ice inside the slush and asked the ice golem, and the golem tilted its head.

As he was playing around and eating like that, Sibel, who was stuffing the punch into his mouth in a rush, choked.

“Kofff, kof kof.”

As he coughed, something suddenly dropped onto the back of his head.

“Ow ow ow!”

He was coughing and hurting at the same time, completely flustered. Sibel checked what had fallen on his head. It was a water bottle.

Sibel lifted his head and looked upward. Aizen was standing on the terrace of the Dmeon King’s castle, across from the shade of the tree where he was resting.

‘Since when had he been watching?’

Sibel fiddled with the water bottle that had landed in his arms. Then Aizen moved his lips.

‘Idiot.’

That bastard was still acting like that, and yet why did he not feel hateful? Was it because he knew that the water bottle in his hand carried a friendly meaning?

“This is driving me crazy….”

But why did that hero look especially handsome today again.

He liked his black, full hair shining under the sunlight, his dark, deep eyes, and the way that gaze aimed straight at him.

The firm muscles showed stiffly even through his clothes. Surely his face was an appearance that could not help but make people feel favorable.

When he was close enough to hear his breathing, his features had looked so strong that they felt frightening. But from far away, those features just looked like thick strokes in a painting.

Surely it was a figure no one could object to being a work painstakingly made by God.

If his ability was outstanding, shouldn’t at least his face have been ugly? Having everything was unfair.

As such crooked thoughts came to his mind, Sibel recalled Aizen’s past.

‘What was I thinking?’

Had Aizen ever felt proud of his holy power, his strength, even for a moment?

The fact that someone incomparably strong only looked pitiful meant he was definitely crazy.

This was a very nasty disease.

“…Thanks.”

Sibel gave thanks to Aizen and gulped down the water.

Why was the water lukewarm again, he was like a middle-aged man thinking about his health.

Even while Sibel finished drinking and wiped his mouth, Aizen, as always, leaned against the railing without moving an inch.

The humid wind blew past him and stirred his hair.

While he was already shaken by outside invasions, Sibel’s heart also became unsettled. The others in the Demon King’s castle must not find out about this.

For some reason it felt like he now had a secret that must never be discovered.

“This is really fucked up.”

He started to feel afraid of looking into his own heart.

This was a different kind of fear.

***

By the time the Demon King’s castle renovations were nearing completion, Sibel’s heart was in a state of chaos.

“What should I do?”

“What do you mean by that?”

Ramiel was keeping him company in his troubled state.

“That human looks handsome to me.”

“What?”

“That human looks kind….”

“Hm. I think I can guess who you mean.”

“Ha, how?”

Sibel lifted his body in surprise from where it was sprawled on the table.

“If it is a human here, there are only two. If you use the term ‘that’ in front of me, then the answer is only one.”

“Whoa.”

An extraordinary brain. As expected, a know-it-all who was good at everything.

“But I cannot grasp in what sense you have brought this up.”

“If a Demon King likes an Apostle, would that be a sin.”

“Hm.”

“Like betraying one’s own kind, something like that.”

“Do you love him?”

At Ramiel’s question, Sibel waved his hands.

“No, not love, nothing so grand! Just, that I like him as one human to another!”

“As one human to another…. That is a phrase that does not even make sense to begin with.”

“Then should I say as a demon to a human?”

When Sibel stuck out his lips, Ramiel handed him a teacup. Ramiel liked drinking tea.

“What is there to hesitate about. If your heart goes to him, keep him by your side, and if it fades, then discard him then, that is all.”

“Huh?”

“Are you not a being who can do such a thing?”

Not at all. Wasn’t he the kind of pushover who could not push anyone away just because he disliked them?

“But your concern, Demon King, is quite valid.”

“Really? What about it is valid?”

“Demon king and Apostle. Mortal and immortal. Light and darkness. Justice and evil….”

Even hearing it now, all of it was in opposition.

“To speak of friendship is already wearisome.”

Slurp. Ramiel calmly sipped the tea.

“If it is not friendship…?”

At that moment, Sibel never understood why he had spoken those words.

Why had he thought of the premise that it was not friendship. What question had he wanted to ask?

“…Should I give you a destructive answer.”

“Can’t you soften it, wrap it in a nicer way, something like that?

Ramiel gave a vague smile as if he was troubled.

“Well, whichever way it flows, I am personally curious which side will end up dying.”

“Wait a second. Is that even something to be curious about? And why does one side have to end up dying?”

“Who knows. I do not know why I had such a thought either.”

Ramiel’s clear laughter sounded unusually sly today.

“You are just circling around telling me to wake up from my dream.”

“I am always supporting you, Demon King.”

That did not make sense at all!

“I just do not like sad stories, that is all.”

Whenever Ramiel stepped back like this, Sibel felt a distance.

Sibel thought calmly again.

But, why had he even started this talk?

And why did his heart get swept away so easily just because someone was a little nice to him.

‘Could I be someone who falls in love quickly?’

It was something that hurt his pride. Looking at the memories of his previous life, this was clearly not a problem of the mind.

‘Is it this body that’s the problem?’

Now that he thinks about it, this body had kidnapped the protagonist and done all kinds of things, so in this body’s DNA there might be a trait of falling in love quickly, or something like being a slave to lust.

‘Yeah. It’s like being swayed by hormones.’

Thinking this way, he felt he could understand these ridiculous conflicts and agonies. He was rotten from birth!

“What carefree worries am I even having in my position?”

His head started to ache. Sibel gave up on thinking. Whatever happened would happen.