DKFTI 76

***

The morning bird sounds woke Sibel’s little by little.

“Haam.”

These days he had spent night and day with no sense of time, stuck in pachinko. It had been a long time since he lived this kind of constructive life.

Why does my body feel so refreshed? It feels like my body is warm… my hand is touching something soft, it feels kind of nice too…

He was in a good mood. But what was this warm, soft thing in the bed? Did Ruru sneak into bed again? Or was it Raccoon or Pudding… but who was he with last night?

At that moment Sibel’s eyes flew open.

“Uagh!”

Of course, right in front of his eyes was Aizen.

Why didn’t this guy go back to his own room, why is he still here?

“Too noisy….”

Aizen’s hair was all pressed down, he scrunched his face and rubbed his eyes with his hand.

This bastard… why is he lying here so casually?

Sibel checked that his body was tucked right inside Aizen’s arms, then he quickly pushed his chest.

But as always, Aizen’s strength was greater than Sibel’s.

“Could you please move your arm?”

Sibel swallowed down his embarrassment and asked politely.

“Let’s sleep just a bit more… it’s been a long time since I slept this deeply.”

“What do you do every night that you can’t sleep properly?”

“I… originally… insomnia….”

Aizen’s voice was heavy with drowsiness, dragging out slowly.

Is he really sleeping? Then why does someone sleeping put so much strength in his arm.

“I already slept enough….”

Sibel stretched his arms that were tightly bound by Aizen, and he grunted as he tried to free himself from his embrace. When Sibel squirmed, Aizen held him even tighter, looking uncomfortable.

“Kehk, kehk! I’m dying here! A hero is killing the Demon King!”

Sibel groaned. Then he heard a low laugh above his head.

“This is the first time I woke up because something was really funny.”

Aizen, looking absurd, lowered his face to Sibel’s crown. Their bodies pressed even closer.

“Excuse me.”

“Mm….”

“You seem awake, so release your arm.”

“Our Demon King, you talk so well now.”

“……”

What the hell is wrong with this guy. Sometimes they speak the same language, but it feels like they don’t understand each other.

“Ah, seriously….”

The truth was, Sibel had an urgent matter.

“Move your arm, ugh….”

When he opened his eyes, Sibel always urgently needed the bathroom. His morning routine was to get up right away and empty his bladder. But trapped like this, his bladder, which always kept time exactly, was panicking and protesting. His body hair stood up.

“I really need to go.”

“Mm. Mm.”

“Not mm, I said I really need to go now….”

“Mm….”

“Ah, damn it!”

When Aizen naturally draped his leg over Sibel’s twisting legs, Sibel finally exploded.

He put strength in his elbow and hit Aizen’s solar plexus.

“Ugh.”

Only then did Aizen lift his eyelids.

What came into his eyes was Sibel’s face, red to the point it looked about to burst.

“Did you decide to turn into a tomato?”

“No! Damn it, move!”

There was no other reason. It was because of the pressure and also because of his urgent bathroom situation.

Sibel hurriedly rolled off the bed.

Sibel rolled sideways with his arms neatly gathered, and Aizen stared at him blankly, looking intrigued.

“Ah! I almost pissed myself!”

Sibel rushed out.

“Haam.”

Aizen stretched leisurely. The sound of Sibel’s footsteps rang down the corridor.

“What kind of demon has footsteps that cute?”

It was ridiculous. Aizen lay down face-down on the bed. The warmth of the place Sibel had left was still there. The insomnia that came back again in the Holy Kingdom had vanished without a trace.

He couldn’t even remember when he had fallen asleep, but he had slept the best sleep. As always, this was the place where Aizen could sleep the most comfortably.

Aizen breathed in deeply the scent Sibel left in the bed. He wanted to bottle this scent somewhere and take it out whenever he remembered.

***

Escaping gambling addiction is difficult. But Sibel finally came to his senses.

“This place is now closed.”

Sibel, looking neat for the first time in a while, shut the casino doors.

“Why!”

“Demon King! This is cruel! Krrng!”

Raccoon and the orc collapsed on the floor crying.

“I didn’t want to do this either. But for the peace of the Demon King’s castle, I can’t let you waste every day on slot machines because of gambling addiction.”

“Pupu!”

“…If even Pudding is corrupted, then our Demon King’s castle is finished.”

With a heavy expression, Sibel peeled Pudding off the pachinko door.

“Kkaak!”

“No. Go back.”

An indignant Crow pecked at Sibel’s head. But Sibel waved his hand and chased Crow away.

“Gol… lem.”

“You gambled too much, you’ve melted a bit lately. No one tells you this?!”

Sibel spoke sternly to the ice golem dripping water, then looked at the meerkat family clinging to his legs.

“And you guys are underage! This isn’t a place to come holding your mom and dad’s hands!”

Sibel scolded like an adult.

“But Demon King, this is unreasonable.”

Ruru, whose own shop was forced to close, looked at Sibel with a pout.

“You are the problem! You, Ruru!”

“Eh, but Demon King, you were the one who enjoyed it the most!”

“My mana! My maaaanz!”

“Eek, they say the rich are worse, it’s true…! Kkeek!”

Sibel grabbed Ruru and locked his head in an armlock. Ruru struggled at Sibel’s side.

“Ruru, what are you planning to do with the mana you took?”

“That’s, a secret!”

“You want to steal the Demon King’s throne!”

“That’s not how a Demon King is born! Stop reading weird novels!”

The two of them started to quarrel. But soon Sibel felt hands tugging at his clothes and looked to the side.

“Demon King….”

Shanti, with dark circles down to his chin, was looking up at Sibel.

“What do I do? Your white fur got all dirty….”

Sibel covered his mouth. Shanti’s body even smelled musty. Just how had Ruru deceived them that everyone ended up like this?

The result of being absorbed in games and not properly watching over the Demon King’s castle was disastrous.

“Cho, co… choco….”

“The kids went crazy! You wicked Ruru!”

“Uaaaaah. Let me go!”

When Sibel knocked Ruru’s head with his fist, Ruru finally bit Sibel’s arm. Startled, Sibel flung his arm, and Ruru quickly ran far away.

“Ruru, aren’t you coming here?”

“If I come just because you call me, then I’d be an idiot!”

That was pretty reasonable. That would be stupid.

Sibel ran to catch Ruru. Ruru ran harder to avoid Sibel.

“My choooocolate!”

He ignored Shanti’s scream echoing behind him and kept running.

“If you open that door, you won’t be safe! Everyone stay right where you are!”

Sibel sternly warned the demons who were sneaking glances and trying to slip into the pachinko. The demons sat right down with tearful faces.

***

Ruru got away.

“Where did he run off to？

The pachinko room was not just closed but blown away completely. To make sure that terrifying thing could never be used again, he burned it all to ashes.

“That guy must be caught quickly and hung upside down at the castle gate!”

“He was too quick, darting around and running away.”

Sibel remembered the moment he missed Ruru by a hair. Just before being caught by Sibel’s hand, Ruru used magic to open a dimensional gate.

A round door appeared, and beyond it he caught a glimpse of a dark stony mountain and lava. It was scenery he had never seen before. Before he could even figure out where it was, Ruru slipped straight through that door.

“It looked like he was going to some strange place. It really looked like hell.”

“Wow, to avoid Demon King, he even went to hell. He must have really been scared of you.”

“Him? Of me?”

Honestly, that was hard to believe. Ruru never knew fear of anyone, and if it was Sibel, he would treat it even more lightly.

Anyway, being too kind turned into poison.

“Isn’t that fox your vassal?”

Aizen, who had been silently listening beside them, asked.

“Ruru is not Demon King’s vassal. He only follows the Demon King. Just like me.”

“Right, you were also a dragon.”

“That’s right. We follow the Demon King by our own choice, so we cannot be called vassals.”

It was different from other summoned beings. Ruru and Shanti existed even before Sibel was born.

“Why do you follow someone like him?”

“Don’t be rude to the Demon King!”

When Shanti got angry, Aizen shrugged his shoulders.

“But where did Ruru go with all that magic?”

“He took my hundred years’ worth of mana.”

“A hundred years…? Shanti, you really got played.”

Shanti’s lips trembled.

“Just find Ruru. I’ll get my mana refunded right now.”

“But honestly, demanding money back after gambling feels a bit… like a thug.”