DKFTI 8

“I checked the community. These days mages are raiding Demon King castles. Isn’t it fortunate enough that we’re not being plundered rather than receiving offerings…?”

“With such weak thinking, we can’t raise the name of our Valheim high!”

“…Is there a need to raise it?”

“We should lead the demon army right away and make an example!”

Ruru seemed oddly excited. He gave his speech in a solemn tone, but the tail behind him wagged happily left and right.

“No. I have a good idea.”

“A good idea?”

Ruru perked his ears, waiting for Sibel’s next words.

“Let’s send gifts of peace to the Holy Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom.”

“What peace? Are you mad? Gifts? Not a preemptive strike?”

Ruru tilted his head, and Shanti paused in his wiping to stick a finger in his ear and dig.

“The times have changed! How long can everything be solved with violence?”

“This makes no sense! We demons do not extend our hand to humans!”

“That’s right. How could you be so spineless and servile, Demon King? Ah, of course we still love you.”

Both rebuked him with eyes full of scorn, but Ruru still flashed a finger-heart so Sibel wouldn’t be hurt.

“But listen, you two. Battles should at least be between equals, right?”

“Hm. That’s true.”

“And I’m still inexperienced.”

“That’s true as well.”

“It would be humiliating if I fought in this state and lost, right? Word would spread across the world about a pushover Demon King, and everyone would pile on.”

“Wouldn’t that actually be a good thing?”

The conversation was going nowhere.

“Let’s approach it with a different strategy than before.”

“What kind of strategy?”

“Treat them well. If they come to trust and revere us, wouldn’t that be true victory?”

“Hmm.”

Ruru rubbed his chin, interpreting Sibel’s words.

“So, you mean we should dazzle humans, disturb their minds, and then rule them?”

They said a single word could change everything. It was the same meaning, but coming from Ruru’s mouth it sounded sinister.

“Y-yes…?”

“I like it! So that’s your taste, Demon King! You want to gather up hordes of worshippers!”

“It has been countless centuries since I last saw humans climb onto this altar themselves and slit their own bellies.”

Ruru and Shanti nodded. They seemed convinced, though Sibel felt vaguely uneasy.

“So what should we send as gifts? Should we release a bunch of succubi?”

“No, no.”

Sibel hummed as he glanced around. Opening the treasure vault of the castle wouldn’t be bad. If he returned the treasures the former Demon Kings had plundered, humans would be pleased. But giving material gifts might arouse suspicion.

As he wrestled with the problem, Sibel’s eyes landed on the castle’s garden.

“Yes! Let’s use those!”

He pointed at the large, magnificent flowers blooming there. They were flowers he had always found fascinating. With tulip-shaped petals the size of a human body, they were sure to amaze and delight humans.

“Ohh, the Puresia?”

“That’s their name?”

“Yep!”

“Good. Let’s send those!”

“Ooh… very well!”

Ruru eagerly clapped his hands. Watching him, Shanti lifted his shoulders in agreement.

“Shall we send them right away?”

“How many?”

“Hm, since they’re big, about ten apiece? Let’s send them to the Holy Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom near the castle.”

“Yes! I’ll have lower demons deliver them!”

Everything was proceeding smoothly. Sibel wiped the sweat from his forehead with satisfaction and continued scrubbing the offering altar.

“Our Demon King puts his all into everything.”

Ruru hugged Sibel tightly around the waist. Shanti pried Ruru off him, shoved a rag into his hand, and the three of them went back to cleaning the altar as they chatted together.

A breeze carrying the fragrance of flowers swept past them. It was a peaceful moment.

***

“Well, well.”

At a window on the castle’s second floor.

Aizen had been watching the Demon King’s group scrubbing and gossiping for twenty minutes, amused for some reason.

He was refreshed today too, he had slept well. Someone who was usually as sensitive as they came was now docile like a lamb, well-rested and well-fed.

He had to admit it. This place suited him. No, more than suited, it felt like he had lived his whole life wearing a gas mask, and for the first time had taken it off and breathed freely.

What was affecting him is the faint fragrance that drifted through the castle.

He had been to this Demon King’s castle long ago. Back then it had been gloomy and grim, a wretched dump. The change now was clearly thanks to that clumsy Demon King cleaning so diligently below.

Lost in thought, he heard laughter outside.

“They laugh.”

The Demon King, who lowered his eyes and trembled whenever standing before him, was showing a bright smile before his subordinates. It had been the same that other day, when Aizen followed him to return the pudding.

He had smiled widely in front of some handsome man. The way he had bounced along had almost given the illusion of a wagging tail that wasn’t there.

‘Why does that bother me?’

Remembering that day, his previously calm mood grew unsettled again.

‘Why do you think. Because he’s a Demon King, and yet he goes around with such ridiculous smiles.’

“Puu–!”

The pudding that Aizen still hadn’t returned rubbed its cheek against his shoulder. Was it because it resembled its master? How dare a mere monster cling to an apostle.

“What a mess.”

Aizen’s head felt tangled and chaotic. His gaze, fixed on Pudding, once again shifted back to Sibel, from where that clear fragrance drifted.

The more he thought about it, the hotter his temper grew.

***

After the altar was cleaned, Sibel lay down on the sun-warmed altar and fell asleep just like that.

His pale skin and silver hair glittered on the altar like a piece torn away from the sunlight. While he curled up asleep on the altar, someone approached.

“Pu, pu!”

Pudding hopped up and down on Aizen’s shoulder, delighted to meet again the one who had made it.

When Aizen reached the entrance of the altar, he looked at the Demon King, who was sleeping outside in the open, and let out a helpless laugh. Just how much of a flower field must this one’s head be to leave an apostle like him in the castle and sleep so soundly.

Did he not have even a speck of crisis awareness?

Unlike the other Demon Kings, who were layered with dark energy, the new Demon King here was exactly… yes. He was like the trivial, soft, squishy pudding on his shoulder.

Aizen’s gaze moved from the Demon King’s fallen hair to his eyelids, to the faint mole under his left eye, down his slim jawline, and to his pronounced collarbone.

Everything was white and transparent. Suddenly the thought struck him, that if the place where he lay were a snowfield, it would suit him.

Aizen’s steps drew closer. It came from the impulse to touch that fluttering hair just once.

That was when it happened.

From the shadow of a giant tree beside the altar, a huge claw shot out. The house-sized claw swung sharply at Aizen. He instinctively threw himself aside and dodged.

Do not disturb the Demon King’s slumber. Human.

It was not spoken directly, but pierced into his mind. This was a method only a high-ranking demon with powerful magic could use.

Aizen’s eyes shone sharply. The massive body, the razor claws, the three heads. Its form slowly revealed itself out of the darkness.

A dragon.

Its overwhelming aura radiated out, but to Aizen it was not an unfamiliar opponent.

“Why? Are you going to tear me to pieces?”

If necessary.

It was a certain reply. But Aizen’s lips twisted with arrogance.

“I think your Demon King told you not to lay a single finger on me. What was it again? Ah, right. Shanti.”

Through the aura the dragon gave off, Aizen recalled his name and smiled faintly.

The Demon King spared you. He even let you take whatever you wanted. Why do you not leave, human.

“Well. Maybe it suits my nature here.”

Aizen poked the cheek of the pudding on his shoulder as he replied.

The Demon King’s summoned creature…

When Shanti noticed the pudding, his voice rumbled like an echoing cave.

“Oh, this one? It likes me.”

Aizen stroked Pudding leisurely, then turned his gaze straight to Shanti in the darkness. Then he spoke in a low, playful voice.

“Just like your Demon King.”

At that moment, the ground trembled. Shanti’s claws dug into the earth.