DKFTI 6

“Hic.”

Sibel instinctively shrank back in front of him, hugging Pudding protectively as he retreated. His back hit the wall.

The hero approached with long strides, ran his eyes over Sibel from top to bottom, and then spoke.

“You’ve grown horns?”

See, see, see! Everyone in the world knew it! Everyone knew about these horns!

Panicking, Sibel threw Pudding away, and Pudding bounced straight up onto Sibel’s shoulder. Sibel covered his horns with his free hands. Heat rose to his face.

“So you being the Demon King isn’t complete nonsense after all.”

Aizen spoke while staring at the spot where the horns were.

“……Why are you still here?”

Sibel asked Aizen cautiously. Maybe he had just come by to say goodbye before leaving.

“You imprisoned me.”

“Eh?”

“You, imprisoned, me, here.”

There was weight in his words. Or was it thorns?

“…Then go back, n-now…”

“What?”

His voice was harsh. He reacted as if he had just heard a declaration of war. Aizen crossed his arms, tilted his head in a crooked posture, and looked down at Sibel.

Sibel thought. If he was going to be born as the Demon King, they should have given him a large body. A tall height, around three meters, that a human hero like this could never look down on so lightly. It felt unfair.

“No, it’s nothing…”

But Sibel quietly lowered his eyes. The tiled pattern on the floor was very pretty.

Don’t talk back. If that large, solid hand filled with holy power struck him once, his jaw would spin. Silence stretched between the two.

After staring intently at Sibel’s face for a while, Aizen slowly reached out a hand. Shanti and Ruru immediately took battle stances, but Sibel hurriedly shook his head to stop them.

“You must never hit the hero…”

We’ll all die…

“But Demon King!”

He had no intention of harming the hero again. The karmic debt from the electric shock was already more than enough. Shanti and Ruru showed their displeasure, but Sibel stood firm.

Aizen’s hand brushed aside one of the hands Sibel had been using to cover his horns. Sibel blinked as he watched Aizen’s action. He couldn’t grasp his intentions.

“Why are you protecting me? You didn’t even kill me to begin with.”

“Eh?”

“It seems like what you want isn’t just my body.”

No? He hadn’t wanted anything so hideous.

“Well, I suppose it makes sense. There were plenty of things fooled by this shell.”

He seemed to be deeply mistaken. Just what kind of fantasies had this human spun overnight that made him into such a delusional narcissist? Sibel seriously questioned the hero’s mental health.

“I understand. Even demons have eyes, after all.”

“……”

“I was worried you’d come to me at night and suddenly grind your lower half against me, so I lost sleep. But it seems you slept well, didn’t you?”

Was this guy out of his mind? What misunderstanding was this?

Suddenly, Aizen’s fingertip flicked against one of the small horns.

Flinch.

“They say a demon’s horn is an aphrodisiac that can make even the dead rise.”

“That’s certainly what they say. And it actually works too.”

Ruru nodded and chimed in, saying the information was accurate.

“It’s just the right size for eating.”

Aizen’s hand scraped along the horn with a brittle sound. A sudden shiver ran down Sibel’s spine. His cold gaze was like that of a back-alley thug.

‘That bastard’s planning to cut off my horn and eat it!’

Sibel’s eyes flushed red. His shoulders heaved with ragged breaths.

It was fear. He felt like he would cry. He clenched his fists and trembled. Aizen’s gaze fell on those feeble fist, and he smirked.

“Eeek…!”

Sibel, desperate to stop Aizen’s strange behavior, shoved his chest.

Rip-.

But the result was not good. Aizen’s upper garment was a tunic of soft fabric, almost like sleepwear, and Sibel’s strength was greater than that of an ordinary human.

As Sibel pushed him, Aizen’s tunic tore apart. Everyone froze. The sharp outlines of his defined abs showed through the white cloth.

Sibel’s gaze stuck to Aizen’s abs, which had a solidity his own lacked, and Aizen too lowered his head to check his own state.

“…Hah, so you show your true colors.”

“……?”

“Are you that desperate to strip me?”

Sibel had not harbored any impure intent. He had only pushed him away as a reflex of self-defense when threatened.

“In broad daylight, in front of your subordinates… ha, how bold of you.”

What, what, what! Sibel did not even dare to guess how far the man’s delusions had spread. If he tried peering into that head, he feared he might stare into an abyss.

“I should have known from when you tied me up and put on a dog collar on my neck.”

“Eh?”

“And the electricity? Why are your taste so extreme?”

It was absurd. Completely absurd. Being treated like a pervert by a pervert was infuriating.

But he could not even imagine where to begin correcting it.

“……”

There was an old saying. Never deal with lunatics.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Unable to contain his uncontrollable fear, Sibel chose to run.

He ran very fast. Like an arrow, Sibel vanished from sight while Shanti and Ruru stared blankly.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Who knows. Maybe the Demon King’s ability is running?”

The two of them kept watching to see how far Sibel would go. Just then, Aizen, who was straightening his torn clothes, spoke toward them.

“You’re not going to follow him?”

At his words, the two came back to their senses.

“Ah!”

“Demon Kiiiiiing!”

The two demons started running.

Aizen, left behind, glanced around the empty spot. There lay the pudding that Sibel had dropped in his flight.

“Puu–!”

Aizen frowned as he looked at the pudding making its strange noise.

“What are you?”

It seemed to be a monster the Demon King had created, yet its appearance was so cute it was almost embarrassing to call it a monster.

“Like master, like monster.”

Aizen reached out a hand toward Pudding.

***

Why did the hero Aizen not even open the treasure vault, and why did he show no intention of leaving?

And why, as a so-called apostle, was his head filled only with obscene things? Was he just a perverted lunatic by nature?

Sibel instinctively felt that something was going terribly wrong.

“Ehyooooh.”

Sibel wondered if he ought to increase the guards inside the Demon King’s castle again.

It was then. Someone radiating an aura Sibel had never felt in the castle before was strolling casually down the corridor from the far end.

‘Who is that?’

A figure as tall as the hero, with hair flowing like silk, skin that shone, and garments fluttering beautifully as if even the air itself supported him.

“Ah.”

Sibel immediately recalled who it was.

“Lord Leviathan?”

He was the Demon King who had looked after Sibel to the very end when he had made a disgrace of himself, collapsing at the floor during the Demon King forum. For a fledgling, insignificant, new Demon King like him, just meeting eyes with such a figure would be presumptuous disrespect.

When Sibel recognized him, Leviathan gave him a bright smile. It was a beauty that made one lose their senses.

Huh? Was he a Demon King, or an angel?

***

The audience chamber of the Demon King’s castle.

Ruru poured tea into Leviathan’s cup with slightly trembling hands, he then spoke.

“It is an honor to receive you in this humble castle, Lord Leviathan.”

Even among demons, Leviathan was a singular, legendary figure. A living incarnation who had endured through the vast history of the demon realm and proven his strength.

“Thank you.”

But contrary to the rumors, his face was very gentle. Ruru bent his creaking body to bow, lowering his waist so much his head seemed about to touch the ground.

Sibel, who was watching, was dumbfounded.

Humble? Humbleee?

And besides, he didn’t show such courtesy to his own Demon King. If someone offered him a chance to change masters, fox-like Ruru would probably accept it gladly.

When Leviathan lifted his teacup, Sibel naturally spoke up.

“But, what brings you here?”

“I thought you might need help, so I came.”

“Ah…?”

Sibel was too shocked for a moment.

How did he know that he was struggling?

Sibel, touched by Leviathan’s warm concern for a newcomer, felt his eyes grow red. All the more because he had just gone through a rough experience.

“What is it, Sibel?”

Feeling Sibel’s mood, Leviathan asked with a gentle voice.

“It’s just, sniff, ah. I’m sorry. My emotions have been so unstable lately. Shanti says it’s because I’m still young. Even the smallest things make me burst into tears…”

Sibel did his best to manage his body’s reactions that refused to follow his will.