DKFTI 68

“You guessed.”

The moment he heard those words, something snapped in Sibel’s head.

All the sensations that had been shaking him, hazy from the kiss and trembling from the fear of nearly being crushed to death against the wall, were unified into a single emotion.

Anger.

It was anger like bright red magma.

“……”

Look at that relaxed attitude. Aizen had done it on purpose without a doubt. Sibel pointed at Aizen with his trembling finger and raised his voice.

“You knew the solution from the beginning!”

“Do you have proof?”

“That shameless face is the proof!”

“Criticizing the face I was born with is cheating.”

“Cheating? Chea-ting? The way you act is cheating!”

“Your temper has gotten pretty sharp. I guess you’re not afraid of me anymore?”

“……”

Sibel’s mouth, which had been talking nonstop, shut. It was not that he wasn’t afraid. He had just lost his mind in anger.

“Why?Keep talking. I like that you don’t get scared.”

“…Pervert. Total pervert.”

His voice dropped a lot, but Sibel’s glare was still sharp.

“Why would I lie?”

“To make fun of me. You probably find it hilarious to see me flustered, right?”

“You’re overthinking it, our Demon King.”

At that moment, Aizen took a step forward. Still standing in front of the shelf, Sibel was pushed back with nowhere to escape.

Aizen’s arm brushed Sibel’s cheek as he grabbed the shelf.

“I only followed your brave decision to start with the lips.”

“Decision? I was panicked and said anything that came to mind.”

Now that he thought about it carefully, it made him furious. No, even if he did a back roll while not thinking calmly, it was still something to be furious about.

“My first… first ki, first….”

Suddenly, he remembered something shocking. This was his first kiss, counting both his current life and his past life.

“First kiss?”

Aizen kindly spoke aloud the words Sibel had forced himself to swallow down. Sibel glared fiercely at Aizen. Then Aizen’s eyebrows twitched into a strange expression.

“That can’t be.”

“What do you know, Hero?”

He didn’t want to confess to anyone that he was a hopeless virgin loser. But being in this situation, he had the rebellious urge to argue with anything Aizen said.

“If I say it’s not, then it’s not.”

“Do you think I’ll believe a perverted conman? And you can’t know me better than I know myself.”

What trick is this time?

“Conman? That hurts.”

“Hu-rts?”

Humans really had no conscience. None at all.

“I may tease you, but I’ve never lied to you.”

If he checked carefully, he was sure he could find at least one.

“Until the very end, I always told you the truth.”

“……”

Why was he bringing up the past again?

“Then tell me why you came back. Without lying.”

He had to seize the chance. He really did want to know Aizen’s true motive.

When Sibel asked, Aizen lowered his gaze to the floor for a moment. Sibel wondered what he was picturing in those half-hidden eyes.

“The Holy Kingdom is strengthening its forces, inside and out.”

“The Holy Kingdom?”

Well, maybe that was how it always was anyway….

Sibel listened closely to Aizen’s words.

“Their ultimate goal has always been the same. The complete extermination of demons.”

“……”

Why again? Just when life felt bearable, this happened again. Don’t they ever get tired?

“Did you come here to kill me?”

“Me, kill you?”

Aizen laughed.

“That would actually be easier.”

“I’m not weak like before, okay? I’m not such a pushover anymore!”

Sibel crossed his arms in an X over his body and shouted. Then Aizen laced his fingers through Sibel’s tightly locked ones and broke apart his defensive stance.

“Strengthen your defenses. Not with those tricks you showed me. Properly.”

“…It was never a trick.”

That was an extremely insulting thing to say. It was years of preparation, and he called it a trick? Trick?

“But, Hero.”

“What?”

“If you didn’t come to kill me, then….”

Why did you come? Surely you didn’t come to protect me like before?

Those words kept circling in his mouth.

“Just watch and you’ll understand why I came back to your side.”

Aizen’s eyes were serious. It was a completely different mood from when he had spouted nonsense about rooms you could exit by XX. They were the eyes of someone who had made a big decision.

“Then we’re living like before?”

Coexisting in the Demon King’s castle, getting along with each other…? No, did they even get along? It was vague.

“Do I look like a pushover? Do I?”

Anyone could see he had lived like one.

“I intend to get compensation from you for everything I threw away.”

“What did you throw away?”

“Well. My country, my family, my name, my beliefs. But more than those….”

It sounded like he was carelessly throwing away things that were extremely important.

Sibel stared at Aizen with a tense face. Then Aizen finally spoke the last word.

“My pride hurts the most.”

Oh no, if this man threw that away, wasn’t he basically a corpse? For a moment, Sibel actually worried about Aizen. He seemed like a human made up only of temper and pride!

“So compensate me, Demon King.”

“You always make difficult requests.”

When Sibel awkwardly averted his gaze, Aizen laughed again.

He should be getting angrier, but since the topic had shifted for no reason, he couldn’t just speak recklessly.

Why did Aizen’s face keep surfacing in his mind, the one who had looked straight into his eyes while drinking the antidote?

In truth, ever since Aizen returned, every time he saw him he remembered that moment. He hadn’t forgotten. The faint hope hidden inside the resentment kept stabbing at his heart.

And yet, this man who returned seemed to have scraped away something truly precious of his to reach this place, and that made his heart ache even more.

“I’m ready for the next round anytime.”

So if he just didn’t say crap like that, Sibel would at least treat him decently out of guilt.

“Total pervert.”

Sibel looked at Aizen with disgusted.

In the end, it always came down to this. Ugh.

***

“Unforgivable.”

No matter how he thought about it, it was unforgivable, and he couldn’t endure it. But even if it was hard to endure, there was nothing he could do.

If Ruru found out about this, the rumor would spread all through the Demon King’s castle. He had to keep it secret forever.

Today was a fine day. Sibel was leisurely looking in a mirror in the garden.

“Perfect. This angle, this expression. Anyone would see the look of a lonely ruler steeped in anguish.”

He was in the middle of practicing gazing at the air with wistful eyes while resting his chin on his hand. It was from Chapter 7, ‘How to Project an Overwhelming Atmosphere,’ in <Intermediate Demon King’s Guide>.

“Hm, should I try tanning?”

Sibel inspected his face closely.

Just then, a huge figure shuffled hesitantly toward him from behind. It was Kkotdol (Flowerstone), the orc in charge of outer perimeter security of the Demon King’s castle.

“Um…, Demon King.”

“Huh? Kkotdol? What’s going on?”

Sibel looked at Kkotdol’s face that had suddenly shown up. His eyelids were swollen.

“You look dignified today too.”

But in Sibel’s eyes, Kkotdol didn’t look different from yesterday. It was because his face was always so distinctive. Then Kkotdol put on a tearful expression. His lower tusks stuck out more than usual.

“Hm? Why? Did something happen?”

Sibel turned off his ‘anguished Demon Lord’ mode and looked back casually.

Contrary to his fierce appearance that didn’t match his name at all, Kkotdol was a very shy orc. He hunched his huge body as much as possible and tapped the dirt floor with his foot.

“It’s, um, I have a worry….”

“A worry? What is it? Did someone pick a fight again? Do you want me to punish them?”

“No, it’s not that… lo, lo….”

“Lo?”

“Love… advice….”

Kkotdol blushed. At that moment Sibel’s heart dropped.

“What…?”

‘Love advice…?’

Sibel always wanted to show the people of the Demon King’s castle the image of a proper Demon King. That meant, a Demon King who knew everything.

“Hm, love? That’s nothing much.”

Love? Him? Damn. He was completely the wrong person for this. If he handled this poorly, the fact that he was still a virgin would spread everywhere.

“Ahem! Sit down. Now, tell me. Which pitiful soul made your rough heart pound, let’s hear it.”

Sibel applied the posture he had just practiced and pretended to know as much as possible. Kkotdol sat down heavily in front of him with a moved expression.

“The most beautiful woman in our orc village, Kkotsun… her smile is so pretty. But whenever I try to talk to her, I feel like my heart will explode… my legs shake….”

Ah, it was a crush.

Sibel quickly worked his brain. The sources of his knowledge about love were only two. The Demon King self-improvement manual and… the secret collection of the former Demon Ling.

“Kkotdol. Listen carefully.”

“Yes, Demon King!”

“Women don’t feel attracted to men who are too nice. They’re drawn to a bit of a bad man.”

“A bad man…?”

“Right. First, act indifferent, approach her coolly. Then at the decisive moment… wall slam! You know? Push her against a tree or something and say ‘You’re mine starting today.’”

Sibel even demonstrated in the air. Then Kkotdol looked at him nervously.

Sibel started sweating.

Fuck, did he catch on?