DKFTI 53

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Sibel always kept an antidote close at hand. From the very beginning, he had.

From the beginning, he was sure he had to give the antidote to Aizen and send him back.

“What’s there to hesitate about? This is the right thing to do.”

They shouldn’t have grown closer in the first place. They shouldn’t have built walls like companions. They shouldn’t have joked around while giving names to summoned monsters. He shouldn’t have eaten his cooking and praised him.

A Demon King should never accept help from an Apostle.

“How do I even give it to him….”

He had already tried to offer the antidote several times, but each time Aizen had refused.

At first Sibel thought maybe he was just suspicious by nature, but afterward it seemed like he wasn’t interested in the antidote at all. He was an incomprehensible man.

Looking at the half-transparent bottle filled with the rippling antidote, Sibel sighed. He did not feel good.

“You seem to have many worries.”

Ramiel, who had been at Sibel’s side, spoke.

‘Since when was he here?’

Sibel was a little startled. Ramiel always had no presence, but it’s too much to not notice there was a person nearby while he was lost in thought….

“I need to give this to the Hero, but I’m thinking of a good way to do it.”

“May I ask what it is?”

“Just, an antidote that’s good for the body.”

“Aha. Then there’s no reason for him to refuse, is there?”

“Exactly. There’s no reason, but he refuses.”

“Hm.”

Ramiel stroked his chin, thinking.

“But I think if it’s now, he’ll take it.”

“Huh?”

“If the Demon King offers him something, he’ll swallow it.”

“What?”

“Definitely.”

Ramiel smiled brightly. He looked very confident.

Was that really true? Would he just eat whatever was given to him now?

Well, hadn’t they built at least that much trust?

“That makes sense.”

“Of course. No need to complicate things. Just tell him to drink it.”

“Should I?”

Thinking about it, it wasn’t even something bad. If he acted hesitant and nervous, it would only raise suspicion.

Sibel understood what Ramiel meant. Offer it boldly.

“Okay! Got it!”

Sibel stood up with the antidote in hand. Ramiel made a small clapping motion.

“Let’s go!”

“You seem full of energy.”

“I have to go with fighting spirit!”

So Sibel took the antidote.

***

Aizen was in a good mood. Of all the days he had spent in the Demon King’s castle, today was a strangely exciting day.

It was because Sibel had forced the antidote into his hand. It wasn’t anything grand. Just the timing.

Maybe he felt guilty for making me suffer?

Even if he had no sense, he had sided with a demon in front of the Holy Kingdom. Maybe Sibel realized a little of his true feelings?

He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he even indulged the fantasy that maybe the Demon King’s heart was already on a similar path to his own.

If only those bothersome demons and hangers-on weren’t around, he’d keep Sibel at his side and just spoil him endlessly.

Somehow the Demon King always seemed busy, despite having nothing to do. So monopolizing him was not easy. Even just now, he had pressed the antidote into his hand, told him to drink it, and then ran off.

If he’d known it would be like this, he would have shown off his wounds, not even that serious, and asked for a lap to rest on.

Sibel was softhearted. If he so much as pretended to be sick, he would definitely panic.

That kind of thing was cute.

He has all the time in the world, so there was no need to rush. It was a shame, but he would savor today’s good mood.

He started to hum. He rolled the antidote between his fingers as he walked lightly down the corridor.

But as he hummed quietly, his expression slowly stiffened.

Just when he was in high spirits, something always had to ruin it.

That annoying handsome face was walking down the corridor.

“It’s been a while.”

Aizen had hoped to just pass by in silence, but as the two brushed shoulders, the other spoke first.

Long blond hair swaying lightly, an expressionless face that revealed nothing.

“Is the Hero’s escapades fun?”

It was Leviathan. He had asked Aizen the question.

Aizen had intended to ignore him and walk away, but in the end he stopped.

The thought that maybe Sibel had ran off to play with this bastard crossed his mind, and his feet moved on their own.

“What exactly are you curious about?”

“Well. The things that happen during your stay, perhaps?”

The man’s tone seemed polite on the surface, but he could heard the faint ridicule beneath it.

Would a mere human even be worth the concern of Demon Kings?

“Is this your house? Why are you wandering around being curious about things?”

At Aizen’s brash reply, Leviathan turned his steps and looked back at him. Between the two of them, shadows stretched long against the setting sun.

Leviathan’s gaze went to the antidote in Aizen’s hand. Feeling his stare, Aizen gripped the vial tightly.

“Do you intend to drink it?”

“Otherwise, what, throw it away?”

“…Hm.”

Leviathan gave a faint, ambiguous smile. A face that made it hard to tell if he was amused or pitying. Soon he spoke.

“That is poison to you.”

Aizen found his words strange. What nonsense was he talking about.

“Poison that will kill you if you swallow it.”

“Sibel gave me poison?”

Leviathan only laughed in answer.

Fuck, that’s bullshit.

Aizen thought Leviathan was lying.

“You don’t believe me.”

“Even if you’re right, nothing changes. He wouldn’t know. He’s too stupid.”

It occurred to him that maybe, Sibel might not even know it was poison when he gave it.

He was the kind of guy with holes in everything he did.

“I think he knows well.”

“And who are you to act like you know someone’s insides?”

Aizen was starting to get angry. He hated the agitation that nonsense was stirring inside him.

“Why not test it?”

“What?”

“Whether it’s poison or medicine.”

Leviathan laughed lowly and turned to walk away again. Aizen couldn’t call him back. His mouth wouldn’t open.

He should have shouted at him, told him to stop spewing shit. But he was afraid the turmoil spreading inside him like wildfire would show.

Afraid he’d be laughed at for having only that little trust.

He is shaken this easily?

But Leviathan’s overconfident attitude rattled him. His own confidence was too weak to deny it outright. Because it wasn’t his heart on the line, but Sibel’s.

As Leviathan walked farther away, Aizen stood there frozen like a block of wood.

‘What kind of demon bastard dares shake me?’

This was clearly a trick to test him. So he only needed to ignore it.

Only… in the end, the thought of “what if” caught his ankle.

The world had always been that way.

***

“You are mischievous.”

Ramiel said it when he met Leviathan. Leviathan wasn’t surprised to find Ramiel waiting naturally in his path.

“Am I?”

“Well, I do know you’ve always been that way.”

“If you knew me well, you wouldn’t be here.”

At his words, Ramiel hopped down from the windowsill where he had been sitting.

“Would you kill me for it? If ‘He’ knew, He would be very sad.”

Ramiel smiled faintly, and a fine crack ran across Leviathan’s calm face.

Even knowing Leviathan’s true nature, Ramiel showed no intimidation before him. Instead he acted confident, calculating, and sly.

All of it came from knowing Leviathan’s reverse scale.

“Your powerless appearance is amusing. Truly amusing.”

“Do not be insolent.”

“Have you ever shown that angry face to Him as well?”

The soft laugh in Ramiel’s voice scraped at Leviathan’s nerves.

“How does it feel? For you, who once feared nothing under the sky, to have a reverse scale.”

Leviathan’s gaze turned cold.

“My, don’t misunderstand. I am nothing more than a bystander. You know there is no need to bare your fangs at me.”

“You talk too much.”

“I told you. I’m simply enjoying myself for the first time in a long while.”

“I wonder how long you can keep laughing like that.”

At Leviathan’s words, Ramiel shrugged.

“If it were me, I would not have made the same choice as you.”

“You would not dare to.”

“I wonder. Is your behavior now the arrogance of an absolute being, or the flaw of an incomplete one?”

“You, who pursue only perfection, wouldn’t understand this feeling.”

“Well, I do not know corrupt emotions like lack or emptiness. That must be a trait your kind possesses.”

Ramiel walked past Leviathan. The sunset glimmered across his path.

“I wish you luck.”

With that, Ramiel walked the other way. Leviathan turned his head to watch him go.

“Lack.”

He rolled the word Ramiel had spoken quietly in his mouth.

Harsh words.

But weren’t they fitting for one born of darkness?

Leviathan sneered.

***