Death's Door

Runfar knew full well from the various intels and reports from the Shadow Lords, what the public"s and knights" perception of Knight of Light was.

Common citizen treated Knight of Light something akin to the Chosen One, while most knights, even the heroes, envied Knight of Light"s power.

It was safe to say, that even on the frontlines, Knight of Light was always alone.

And judging by how eager Leon was to finally have a friend, Runfar could guess that among the Holy Order, she did not have a single person she could truly trust.

"The more power you possess, the more isolated you become; that sure is a heavy price to pay."

But this could also mean a perfect opportunity for Runfar to take advantage of.

Knight of Light"s blessing seems to operate on fate, but in Runfar"s case, as someone who does not possess fate, he was immune to her fate based powers.

But if she ever finds out that he is her enemy, she could easily annihilate him on the spot.

He knew full well that the first time he encountered her; she did not activate her blessing, overconfident in her power, and thinking of him as a weakling, she let down her guard and paid a heavy price for it.

Even without her blessing activated, she mercilessly slaughtered him countless times, and he only managed to strike her down in the final loop due to combination of strange luck and timing.

It was pure luck that her blessing was located on her back, thus it sustained damage when he struck it.

Had she activated her blessing when she fought him the first time, Runfar was confident that he would have been stuck in an eternal loop, with her killing him over and over again without stop.

"That truly would have been a nightmare"

But now, by some circ.u.mstances, the very same Knight of Light thought of him as her close friend.

Runfar was all in for keeping up the charade.

"Knight of Light is stronger than any other hero, and the one who should be the closest to her in terms of power, the so called Demon King, is currently sleeping in my arms."

With Runfar carrying Arin, the three of them ended up at the place of the festival.

"Wait here, I will get some snacks!"

Leon, or Leona, as she made a flimsy attempt at disguising her ident.i.ty, went to visit several stalls that were giving out food for the occasion.

Having a couple of minutes before Knight of Light came back, Runfar, still carrying Arin in his arms, sat down on a bench.

The night mana therapy sessions with Camilla may have restored Dark Lord"s capacity to function properly after the strain of being Morphus"s vessel, but carrying around someone this far, even with the strength temporarily enhanced by the mana of a Demon Lord, was rather exhausting.

But after a few minutes, Arin slowly opened her eyes, she was finally waking up.

"Good Morning, Lovely Princess"

"D-dark Lo...I mean, Runfar, where are we? Is this a dream?"

"Not exactly"

"What do you…Ah!!!?"

She cried out after seeing who was heading towards them.

"I got us some meat on skewers, it"s really delicious!"

"Thank you, Leona" Runfar took the food he was given, with a polite smile plastered on his face.

"He he, don"t mention it"

It was Arin"s arch-enemy, the one being she feared above all others, the Knight of Light, dressed in a drag.

That face, the face of her enemy she has seen countless times, there was no mistaking it. Without a doubt, this was the same man who almost killed her countless times.

"This is not a dream, this is a nightmare!" Arin ended up gulping in fright.

"Oh, don"t worry, Rin. I thought you would be waking up soon, so I got you one as well, her you go"

But at the moment Leona offered her the meat on a skewer, Arin overreacted.

She was sitting on Runfar"s lap on the bench, but when Leon offered her a meat on a skewer, Arin thought that Leon was going to stab her with it, which was why she ended up clinging to Runfar"s body, all the while shivering uncontrollably.

"Don"t worry, they taste delicious, I can vouch for that"

Leon ended up muttering after seeing "Rin" on Runfar"s lap; bury her head into his chest, all the while hugging him tightly.

As far as Leon knew, she couldn"t have guessed that Runfar"s date was her arch-nemesis, the Demon King, the one whose death is a goal for most of humanity"s heroes and knights.

Needless to say, it was a very awkward date.

"It"s just food, not a weapon" Runfar whispered into Arin"s ear.

"T-t-then I will eat this one" Arin took a bite of the skewered meat that was in Runfar"s hand.

"All right then, in that case, Leon, can I eat that one?"

"Yes, of course" Leon ended up a little hesitant after seeing "Rin" act so lovey-dovey with Runfar, not realizing she was the cause of "Rin" acting like that in the first place.

After all three ate their snacks, Leon ended up having the fun of her life, going from one stall to the next, Runfar simply followed her with an amused smile, with Arin holding on to Runfar"s hand, it was almost as if his presence itself was soothing enough to calm her down.

In order to not make Leona left out, Runfar partic.i.p.ated in some games with her.

Throwing darts, walking on stilts, shooting arrows… but after a while, Runfar was getting more and more exhausted, while Leon still had plenty more energy for more games.

After partic.i.p.ating in an eating compet.i.tion, Runfar was quickly eliminated, as he could not eat any more, but Leona kept going nonstop.

It was obvious she was having the fun of her life.

With Leona partic.i.p.ating in eating compet.i.tion, Runfar and Arin had some time to be by themselves.

"I can"t believe this…"

"Yeah, she just keeps going, no matter what kind of compet.i.tion it is, one after another, just how much energy does she have?"

"That"s not what I meant. I can"t believe that I am stuck in the same place as the man who is bane of demon-kind"s existence. How could this happen…How can my luck be so bleak?"

"Welcome to my life"

"That is one sad life"

"I can"t argue with that. Though why do you fear him that much, aside from being a demon, you seem to have a rather severe ordeal every time you are near him?"

"Runfar, when you found me within that jail cell…Did you wonder how I ended up there?"

"I know, Knight of Light defeated you."

"I fought him as hard as I could, but no matter what I tried, he overwhelmed me, he cut me down countless times, my regeneration could not keep up… He cut me, stabbed me with silver stakes, butchered me so many times I lost count…At the end, I was at his mercy."

Arin"s expression expressed pure terror as her hands were wrapped around her chest.

"Sounds rough"

"Runfar…How do you know him?"

"Knight of Light?"

Arin nodded.

"Well…It is a long story."

"I will listen to anything you say."

"In that case…" Runfar cringed a little, the left half of his face made a rather uncomfortable expression, almost as if he was remembering something rather unpleasant.

"Long before I met you guys, I encountered the Knight of Light… and needless to say, I barely escaped with my life."

"You were his enemy? Then why does he treat you as his close friend?"

"Most likely because, by some circ.u.mstances, I ended up saving his life after he received a rather grievous injury. Luckily, he did not recognize me."

"Grievous injury you say…Is that why he did not sense I am a demon? Because his body is damaged?"

"Exactly"

"But who could have done such a thing? To be able to injure the Knight of Light to the point that he is unable to discern a demon in disguise…I…I can"t imagine who could have pulled it off. Do you know who did that?"

"Naturally, it was me."

"What?!"

"Don"t make too much noise."

"But how?"

"Do you really want me to explain? What is done is done. That is all there is to it."

"If you say so, Runfar"

Now looking over the distance, Arin sighed.

"But it is a miracle that the barrier over the Holy City had faded away, allowing us to sneak in. No doubt, they will find a way to reactivate it again as soon as the Holy Maidens are found…"

"Barrier will not reactivate."

"And how can you know that? Only Holy Maidens have the power to create the barrier, it is not within your power."

"I wonder about that. As for the Holy Maidens….Holy maybe, Maiden…not so much, anymore"

"What do you mean? It was just a coincidence, a stroke of luck that the barrier was destroyed, wasn"t it?"

"There are no such things as coincidences."

As she saw Dark Lord"s smile, Arin"s eyes opened wide.

"You…you couldn"t have…"

"I did"

"The shattering of the barrier, the disappearance of Holy Maidens, and the countless deaths of prominent figures within the kingdom…Is that all your doing?"

Facing her, Dark Lord"s lips curled into a sly half smile.

"No way…that"s impossible…But how?"

As Arin made a critical realization, the distance between her, a Demon King, and the Dark Lord, grew more and more apparent.

What she couldn"t accomplish during the many years of battling against the humanity, he managed to accomplish within months.

He was a dangerous ent.i.ty that was for sure, in terms of power he may be weak, but he posed a threat to the kingdom several orders of magnitude higher than even the Demon King.

"It does not matter. Hey look! Leon seems to have won this compet.i.tion, let"s go congratulate him"

As Runfar stood up to head towards the Knight of Light, Arin couldn"t help stare in awe at his back with her mouth wide open.

"Magnificent…He is even more brilliant than I imagined."

In hear heart, Arin couldn"t help but feel grateful that he was her ally, even if reluctant one, having him as an enemy would have been rather terrifying.

"If only he was one of the Demon Lords…Demon-kind would be saved" Arin sadly sighed.