Chapter 3.1: Melancholy of the Maou [Maou Side 1]
My name is Maogreed Asura.
It was shortened to Maori ever since my parent"s death.
My parents pa.s.sed away when I was just three years old.
I can"t remember much about my parents.
It seems my parents were the leaders of a certain clan.
And their position gave them no choice but to fight an opponent with no room for retreat, and they lost their lives in that battle, or so I heard from Celazam.
Celazam was an old friend of my father, and my parents asked him to take care of me when they were alive.
Thus, I was raised by Celazam.
And I"m grateful to him for doing so.
It"s to the degree that grat.i.tude alone won"t be enough for it.
But then, when I heard the true story about my parents, things become more complicated.
Even though it"s the story about my own biological father and mother, for me it"s nothing but a story about someone who had nothing to do with me.
Since Celazam made an extremely sad face when I told him so, naturally I began talking less and less to him as time pa.s.sed.
In spite of yearning to call Celazam as my own parent, I couldn"t bring myself to tell him so.
To be honest, it easily made me irritated.
It always irritated me to see Celazam keeping his distance from me because he feels reserved about taking the place of parents I had never seen.
Despite being of the demon race himself, Celazam was living amongst the humans.
I never knew the reason.
I tried to ask him about it once before but, his answer was just “It"s something I must to do at all costs”.
Since we"re moving from one place to another, I think he"s looking for something. But then, my curiosity simply turned into acceptance of this way of life.
That"s why I was extremely shocked when I heard that we"re going to settle in a certain village.
I thought it was strange but, the me of that time almost never talked to Celazam.
And in that village, I met Lefiya.
Amongst the children of the village. I who couldn"t even bear to befriend those humans children was always alone.
But then, I didn"t mind being alone.
And yet, maybe because that person pitied me who was always alone, she always dragged me to come and play with those children of humans.
If I ignore her since it"s too troublesome, she would came to punch me.
I thought she was a meanie.
I thought she"s going to cry if I hit her back.
Hitting her back was just in my own head.
But I really considered her as an extremely mean bully.
Lefiya, the girl with smooth flaxen hair was easily goaded to explode, to laugh, and to cry.
And yet, maybe because she is only one year older, I couldn"t say she"s scary when she attempt to act scary, in fact whenever I"m in pain or sad, she arbitrarily took care of me like an older sister.
Before I realized, I couldn"t take my eyes off Lefiya.
Though at first, I felt that she"d make me cry whenever she found any chance to do so, I instantly forgot about that.
I ended up enjoying my times along with L efiya.
By the time I noticed, I"m always by her side.
Lefiya who wasn"t timid even when facing adults was instantly on good terms with Celazam.
And when I"m with Lefiya, Celazam would tell us various stories.
Names of animals, plants, history and civilization. Celazam taught many things to us starting from how to fight with the sword till making decisions in a moment.
My irritation had also vanished, I could finally see eye to eye with Celazam.
I had always wondered till when we could be like this.
I was so sure that I"d always be together with Lefiya forever.
When I turned 11 years old, however, I awakened to my power.
Along with the awakening of my power, Celazam told me the truth about myself.
Who my parent fought against and what they were trying to protect.
The feeble heart of a 3 year old me wouldn"t be able to hold out, thus Celazam waited till my awakening.
I prepared myself.
There was something that I have to accomplish.
For that sake, rivers of blood would flow in my wake.
But, I know that it"s my raison d"etre.
And that meant, I have to separate myself from Lefiya.
I must returned back to the demon kingdom.
「LEFIYA! PLEASE, YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO WAIT FOR ME TO PICK YOU UP! 」
The me who couldn"t bear to part with her made such a promise with her
Even though there"s no guarantee that she"d remember such a promise.
Even though there"s no guarantee that we would be able to meet again in the future.
Even so, Lefiya just nodded without any shred of doubt.
And that was…….. Enough for me.
My time when I was in the human kingdom and that promise became my treasure.
It became my pillar of support.
5 years.
I, who managed to put together my chaotic motherland under my command to fulfill my wish.
I had done nothing but single mindedly chase after that wish in these 5 years.
Fortunately, I"m also blessed with many comrades.
Even so, I knew that what changed me was the time I spent together with Lefiya.
The anguish of my feeble self. The pleasure of being together with someone.
I learnt from Lefiya that I could save someone just by calling out to them and stretching out my hands.
Thus, I became the demon king.
My power exists for that.
For the exhausted and chaotic kingdom of demons.
From then on, it"s my obligation to save this kingdom of demons using my own power.
For that reason, I became the demon king.
Lefiya shouldn"t be able to meet me who became the demon king. Because I became the king who is standing above the demon race and, Lefiya is someone from the world of humans.
Even then, there wasn"t a moment when I forgot about my promise with her.
Because that promise is my pillar of support.
Thus, I couldn"t believe it myself.
That I took in Lefiya, as my bride.
When such a topic came out, I thought that"s impossible.
There"s no way that is true.
Lefiya is a human girl.
There"s no way she………… Would become the bride of a demon king like me.
But, I desperately continued clinging onto such hope.
As long as there"s still a chance for me.
Of course, there is still a chance for me!
Thus, I agreed to my subordinates plans.
Naturally that was only if she wasn"t tied by marriage with someone else yet.
But then again, if it"s Lefiya……………