Yomigaeri no Maou

The sound of something being flicked rang out in concert with something flying Luru’s way.
Upon catching it with a small SMACK, Luru found that it was cool to the touch.

Luru opened his fist and looked at it.
It was a coin representative of the currency that circulated throughout the Kingdom of Lezaad, the Lezaadian Silver Coin.
The front was of the profile of the queen that ruled the first generation of the nation, but on the back was carved the sacred beast said to protect it, the unicorn.
Why was this thrown at Luru just now?

The reason was something that only the man standing a few paces in front of him, Patrick, knew.

When the night had broken, and the morning was still misty, without anybody knowing, Luru and Patrick headed out of their house with wooden sword in hand.
The purpose was, of course, for the real duel that was promised yesterday.

As long as they were fighting seriously as promised, there was initially the problem of location, but in the end they decided to hold the battle in the forest a little distance from the village, in a clearing close to the ancient demon ruin.
Almost n.o.body came here, and additionally, even if there was a little damage, n.o.body would be troubled by it.
Though it was ‘fighting seriously’, the two of them made the distinction of not burning up the forest, and set their ability to a level where they could be careful about that.

That’s why they probably wouldn’t destroy the ecology of the forest either.

And then, when the two of them were facing each other, Patrick tossed the coin mentioned just now.

“…What’s this?”

As Luru tilted his head in confusion, Patrick spoke.

“I was thinking that it might be good as a starting signal, you see. Throw that up, and the moment it lands, our match begins, I was thinking.”

“…? Then couldn’t you have thrown it, Dad[/Tousan]?”

When Luru said that, Patrick replied,

“If I’m the one who throws it up, isn’t it possible that the fight will start without you being completely prepared? In the end, I just want to fight against your true strength… When you’re completely ready, Luru, you can throw that coin up. …Me? I’m ready whenever.”

Was that because he felt he still had room for composure, or was it bragging that because he was a swordsman, he was constantly ready for battle?
However, Luru decided to accept his proposal.
It was the truth that he was a little more worried about his control of mana than when he was a demon, and the time lag needed to use that mana and reinforce his body was not something he could ignore, once the opponent was somebody strong.
If the start signal were left to Patrick, then there was certainly the possibility that the battle would begin before he had prepared for battle, or circulated mana through his entire body.
That’s why to Luru, it was a convenient proposal.

Like that, Luru began to leisurely circulate his own mana through his body.
From his well of deep mana, he pulled out as much as he could, and after compressing it, pa.s.sed it through his entire body.
More than when he was born, more than seven years ago, it was now much easier to pa.s.s mana through his body and compared to the past, it was something he could do comfortably.
However, as expected, once he compared it to his time as a demon, the response was slow, or perhaps you could say it was like the out-of-place feeling of forcefully pumping water into a hose that was blocked somewhere.
He didn’t know if it was because of the limits of the human body, or if he had gotten the technique wrong somewhere, but he felt that he had to make sure to take care about this so that this reality wouldn’t hold him back when he was truly cornered.

Watching Luru do this, Patrick’s eyes became sharp, and then he changed a little bit from how he was up until now.
Up until they had come here too, Patrick had been shocked upon seeing some of Luru’s body reinforcement when he used his mana, but in the end, that was nothing more than one portion of Luru’s entire mana.
This time, was different.
He poured into his body as much mana as he possible could, and reinforced himself with it after all.

Even now, Patrick’s cool-looking expression hadn’t faltered, but if you looked closely you could see cold sweat hanging from his brow.
He could probably feel Luru’s power.
However, the fact that it ended only with a cold sweat, instead showed Patrick’s strength of will.

Had a normal human been there, they probably would have fainted within just a few seconds.
That level of abnormal concentration of mana was now worn around Luru’s body.

“…Luru. To think you were this…”

At the words Patrick squeezed out of his throat, Luru smiled.

“Actually, I’m still not at my best yet.”

“…? You can’t be saying that you still aren’t being serious?”

“That’s not it. That’s not it, but… Right now there’s still some power that I can’t control, you see.”

Were he in the body of the demon king then he could completely grasp both his mana and his physical strength, so he could perfectly control it.
However, the fact that this wasn’t true right now was not something that Patrick had any way of knowing.

“I don’t really understand, but… if you’re being serious, that’s fine. …Luru, is it fine to start soon?”

If you looked at Patrick, you could see that he was itching to begin moving even now.
If you looked at Luru, you could see that his desire for battle was excited.
The confidence to start at any time, and defend against any attack was br.i.m.m.i.n.g from his body.

Seeing Patrick like this, because Luru had confirmed that he had plenty of mana spread through his body, he nodded.

“…Yeah. I guess… it’s time to start.”

-PINN-

Luru flicked the coin he was grasping into the air.

Spinning in the air with the queen and unicorn interchanging as the coin went up, it stopped for a moment at the peak of its flight, and then was guided by gravity as it accelerated to the ground.

And then…

-DONN-

The moment it could be heard colliding with the ground, in that instant, the forms of Luru and Patrick blurred.

Together with the sound of something hard colliding with each other, the trees growing in the surroundings shook from the shockwave.
Just one exchange, just one collision of their wooden swords had that much effect.

Of course, because they were wooden swords, normally they would have immediately broken.
However, the fact that the two swords that the pair freely collided with each other was even now without a scratch, and were even now continuing to grind as they locked together, was due to the pair’s close to G.o.dlike control of the magical strengthening they placed on their swords.

Were there to be even a small mistake in the flow of, or the amount of mana, a normal wooden sword would probably crack and break from the pressure of the mana it was saturated in.
However, the mana that flowed through the wooden sword continued without a break even the size of an ant, and was no longer a mere wooden sword, but something that now held enough strength to be compared to even a sword made of metal.
You wouldn’t be let off unscathed if you were hit by it.
It was a weapon that now possessed that much destructive power.

“…I’m surprised, Luru. I didn’t think that there would be so little difference between us…”

In the height of their sword-locking, Patrick said this with a grin.

“I feel the same, Dad[/Tousan]… I really do still have a long way to go, huh… I planned on finishing this with a single hit, but you withstood it…”

Luru replied as such.
Honestly speaking, as long as they said they were battling seriously, Luru had planned on not easing up even a little.
He had planned to use up all of the mana that lay within him, and steal away his father’s consciousness in a single attack.
However, the reality was that that attack was stopped, and on top of that, it seemed that right now he and his father’s strength were competing against each other.
[tl: need to come back and reword once i’ve had enough sleep. basically rather than overwhelming him, instead they’re balanced-ish and are going back and forth to try and win in strength.]
The cause of this included the fact that his father was stronger than expected, but more importantly, was because Luru couldn’t draw out all of his strength.

As expected, the fact that he was now in a human body had a large effect.
Once he actually fought with somebody strong, it became obvious.
It might be dangerous if he fought the way he did as the demon king, relying on his natural born physical capabilities.
Having said that though, it seemed that he had plenty enough power to engage in close combat with the powerful human, Patrick.
In addition to that, considering that he could use large scale magecraft, he wouldn’t lose so easily.

They couldn’t just lock swords forever.
To Luru, it hadn’t been that long.
He waited for that one moment when Patrick’s concentration was upset, and took a distance, and from there immediately put power into his arms, aimed towards Patrick and stepped forwards.

It seems that Patrick had sensed the danger from Luru who after parting for an instant, immediately leapt in with a thrust.
He thought to immediately ward it off, but remembering what happened yesterday, he concluded that it would be a bad move.

Luru could attack once more even if Patrick avoided it.
To Patrick, even if he knew what move Luru would take next, he didn’t have the confidence that he would be able to deal with the abnormal power in Luru’s second attack from yesterday.

Because of that, since there was no choice, Patrick had no choice but to bet on smacking down Luru’s thrust.

Against the thrust that came at a speed that made the words ‘couldn’t be seen’ a reality, Patrick prepared in concentration to parry it downwards from the side.

However, Luru was thrusting at a speed that wouldn’t easily slow down, and even if he could do so, Patrick would probably attack him in that instant.
That’s why Luru now had no option but one.

And then, the two of them made contact.

The sound of sword colliding against sword rang out, and in the next instant, one of the swords danced through the air.

The one who won this bet, was again, Patrick.

In that instant, he was sure of his victory.

“It’s my win… -!?”

――――However, during that instant, Patrick realised that the Luru reflected in his vision did not have the eyes of somebody who had lost.

Thinking about it, it was strange.
The feeling when he robbed the wooden sword from Luru’s hands.

It was, too light.

Wasn’t it almost as though he was holding it one-handed?

So Patrick thought.

And the next moment, he noticed that there was something grasped in Luru’s hand.

That acc.u.mulation of jet-black darkness was, from its form, without a doubt the same as that of a wooden sword.

However, that black sword whose outline wavered, was clearly not something material, and was moulded from mana.

Luru’s face curved into a grin.

“Who’s win was it?”

Patrick’s sword was high overhead, and he realised that he wouldn’t be able to cope in time.

And Luru did not overlook that opening.

Luru thrust the black sword forward, and as though gouging Patrick’s gut, he advanced deeply into him.

By the time he had noticed, his consciousness was falling into darkness.

“Dad[/Tousan]… It’s, my win, huh?”

Only his son’s voice resounded in Patrick’s ears.

“Good grief… my body sure hurts.”

While muttering this, Luru walked down the road to the village, with his unconscious father on his back.
Having said that though, this speed was almost no different from an average adult’s running speed, but to Luru it was not a very fast pace.

The reason being that right now Luru was suffering from what you could call intense muscle pains throughout his body.

Perhaps it would be best to call it an aftereffect of fighting seriously, or perhaps it would be best to say it was because Patrick was stronger than Luru had expected, Luru ended up having to use several levels more mana for body reinforcement than he had normally up until now, and the result was that he was stuck with the development of muscle pain.

In fact, since he was little, he had put in great effort in order to little by little add to the amount of mana he could use in body strengthening, but even so, the body of a human was far more frail than that of the demon race’s, and each time he did this, he would feel strong pain.

To begin with, at the time, when he used half of his total output then he could fight forever without any problems, but once he started using more than that, little by little the amount of time he could fight decreased, and once he tried releasing all of his mana, roughly fifteen minutes became the limit.

He understood from experience that earnestly and consistently doing this would increase the limit, and at present he couldn’t even see a limit so it would be fine to strengthen himself forever, but even so, each time he did so he would be struck with muscle pains, so Luru was sick of it.

Once he started living as a human like this, thinking back on the level of effort of the heroes that he had fought in the past, even feelings of respect began to well up inside him.

Luru’s physical body aside, his mana was the same as when he was the demon king, so if he could stand the muscle pain of that training then it wasn’t all that tough, but the heroes should have struggled with the mana limits of a human countless times.

Towards they who had overcome even that, and came as far as defeating the demon king, Luru truly felt awe.

And Luru felt that he wanted to be able to fight like those heroes one day, but considering today’s fight with Patrick, and the condition of his overworked body, that day seemed to be still far off.

It seemed that if he had a magic artillery then he could do some rather crazy things, but once he considered that he might meet people who could Resist, even that didn’t let him feel safe.
The power or weapons to nullifying magic and magecraft, or to extremely weaken it, was something that in the past, existed in no small number, and Luru remembered this clearly.
That’s why in regards to his abilities in close-combat… Luru decided that it was something he needed to think about and work on.

Before long, they reached the village,
Visible at the entrance to the village was somebody’s standing figure.
Once he strained his eyes, it seemed that it was Iris.
It seems that she had sensed Luru and Patrick leaving the village, and was waiting there for their return.

“Welcome back, Ojisama. How was the result?”

From her way of speaking, it seems that she more or less understood what they were leaving for.
They had used quite a lot of mana, and it didn’t seem like an ancient demon’s senses would have any problem in sensing it.
Luru didn’t feel that he had any reason to hide it either, so he obediently replied.

“It was my win. It was my complete victory… is something that I can’t say, but it wasn’t a tough battle. If we redid it, there’s no mistake that I would have won. Only… he was stronger than I expected, you see.”

It seemed that these words were surprising to Iris, for her widened eyes displayed her shock.

“…It is rare for you to praise somebody you fought, Ojisama. Was his skill that great?”

“Were he born in that era, let’s see, it depends on his weapon as well, but maybe he’d be a good match for Bacchus? You probably can’t beat him, Iris…”

“A match for Father[/Otousama]… I see. I understand.”

Iris nodded.
After that, the three of them headed towards their home.
Along the way, Patrick opened his eyes.

“…Uu… where is this?”

“Dad[/Tousan], you’ve woken up?”

“Luru huh… Ahh, that’s right. I lost, huh…?”

‘My…,‘ muttered Patrick in wonder, but he sounded by no means dissatisfied.

“I thought that the world was wide, but I never thought that my first defeat in a long while would be by the hands of my son, you know?”

Whilst saying that, Patrick got down from Luru’s back.
However, it seemed that he had also overworked his body quite a bit, and even now his legs were unsteady.

“Don’t overdo it…”

Saying that, Luru supported Patrick.
Iris supported him from the other side as well.

“Oh? Iris… You noticed?”

Said Patrick, in wonder.
Iris replied.

“I noticed that the two of you left early in the morning. After that, I waited at the entrance to the village. Mother[Okaasama] is still asleep.”

“I see… Iris, did you know about his strength?”

“In the past when I was rescued from the ruins, I had the chance to see it once.”

That was just the setting, and not the truth.
But, this was something that Gran and Yuumis had arranged their stories to match, in case it ever came down to it, so there was no problem with her reply.

“I see… It seems that there was no need to worry about you two becoming adventurers… I’m relieved.”

Said Patrick, as he cast his eyes down, before speaking again.

“But there are things that can’t be solved through strength alone as well. When that happens, it’s fine not to hesitate about relying on somebody else. Adults like me, or Gran or Yuumis, okay…? Understand?”

Luru and Iris nodded at his words.
It was certainly just as he said; that was exactly why there was nothing Luru could do about the war in those days.
That’s why, the fact that there was something needed besides just power, was something that he deeply understood.

After that, seemingly honestly relieved at the nodding Luru and Iris, Patrick leisurely began to walk to the house, and then spoke.

“Well then, shall we start packing for you two?”

After that was finished today, Luru and Iris would be setting off on their journey tomorrow.
It wasn’t as though they didn’t feel any loneliness about this, but their two chests throbbed, knowing that a new everyday would be coming.

‘At a speed that made the words ‘couldn’t be seen’ a reality‘ is  ‘at a level that made the term ‘couldn’t be caught with their eyes’ not a figure of speech‘

‘Luru thrust the black sword forward, and as though gouging Patrick’s gut, he advanced deeply into him.‘ You have no idea how difficult it was to stop myself from rewriting this section into blatant s.e.xual innuendo. Aahhhh, Eris-sama, Reika-sama, Chie-nee-sama! Forgive me for I have sinned!

/Chapter 19 END

 

I experienced chagrin and regret that day.
The day that the person whom I tried to reach, but in the end never could, was simply erased like mist.

Thus.

I decided that I would never part from them again.

This was the decision that I made that time, that day, that moment when I met them again. A decision that I told n.o.body else.

I, Iris Taesnola, was in the far off past, born a daughter of the demon race.
Perhaps because of good fortune, my parents were a famous family within the demon race, and inheriting the blood of my mother and father who both possessed a powerful mana, I was born with powerful mana housed within me.
However, the world was not so soft that I could become powerful with nary an effort, and even for the demon race who were born with powerful mana, the skill required to handle that mana needed talent, and long years of endless practice.
It was not as though people who were born with unimaginable power, or that incredibly outstanding talent didn’t exist, but amongst the many demons, there was only one such person that I knew of.

His Majesty, the Demon King Luruslia Nord Ojisama.

For he was the strongest demon in the world, and existed beyond a wall, insurmountable to all others.
His ability to manipulate mana, his mana volume, and his physical strength ― all of these placed him far beyond the reaches of all others.

That Ojisama had gotten along strangely well with my father since they were young, and he often visited our house.

Unlike my heavy drinking father, Ojisama who liked to quietly sip wine while he read was a kind person who would unfailingly celebrate my birthday each year, and I think that a person like that required no important reason for me to come to like.

Unfortunately however, before I could ascertain whether these feelings were merely affection, or something beyond that, Ojisama pa.s.sed away.

His chest was pierced by the holy sword of the hero who served as the emblem of the humans, and when I heard that he was annihilated, with even his remains dissolving into the air, I understood that I would never be able to meet him again, and did nothing but cry.

After that, the revenge began.

I loathed them.
That which had killed Ojisama.
The reasons that deemed Ojisama as somebody that needed to die.

Mysteriously, I did not loathe the hero.
I knew that that human had apparently held a few conversations with Ojisama.
And among those, the hero lent an ear to what Ojisama wanted to say.

I found out this truth a little while after Ojisama pa.s.sed away, when the hero and the church suddenly opposed each other, and the conflict that split the humans into two began.

The fact that the church believed it was justice to destroy all of the demon race, and the fact that the hero opposed them, meant that the hero had probably stopped facing the demon clan with hostility.
And it was clear as day that the reason she did so was because of the conversation she held with Ojisama.

If the hero was following the wishes of Ojisama, then it wouldn’t have done to get in her way.

That’s why I didn’t feel hatred towards the hero.

In that case, what was I supposed to hate?

When I considered this, at first the church came to mind.

They were the group that one-sidedly saw the demon race as enemies, and challenged us to a war.

I didn’t know what meaning there was behind this, but there was surely some significance to it.

Wouldn’t it be fine to hate them?
No, that wasn’t it, I thought.

I didn’t think that I should hate all of those who ended up following that ideology.

The human race who were deceived, the demon race who had given up on dialogue, and I, who had done absolutely nothing.

I came to believe that I should hate the way the world was.

And I came to decide on a guide for myself.

I would act to change the world.

In other words, I would get rid of conflict.

What I could do was first of all, beat down those who continued the war.

What I could do was destroy the influence of the church.

However, the reality did not go well.
I was caught by an unknown somebody, and was thrown into some facility and was made to undergo long-term sleep.

And when I opened my eyes, before me were humans.

‘So the ones that shut me in here were humans?‘ I thought in my half-awoken daze, and becoming angry, I ended up attacking them.

However, unexpectedly, one of the humans standing there was Ojisama…

The fact that you never knew what kind of things the ties of destinies would bring, resounded profoundly in the depths of my heart.

Because I was thrown in here, and made to sleep, I was able to meet with Ojisama.

Once I thought that, on the contrary, I even felt that I couldn’t thank them enough.

And then, in that instant, I decided.

That I would never part from them again.

I think it just happened to come to mind.

However, at the time, it felt extremely natural to me.

I didn’t know the name of this emotion that resembled determination, but I felt no hesitance at following it.

Ojisama lived as a human in a human village.

When he told me this, it was natural that I was shocked.

However, the reality was that Ojisama’s appearance was that of a human, and because of that I couldn’t reject the facts.

I met with his two parents, but as expected, the two of them were humans, and I could feel that they had not a single thing to do with the demon race.
In fact, the fact that they didn’t think I was a demon at all was…

Mysterious.
Even though they were humans, they weren’t different to the demon race in any way, and I was able to live with them without a single problem.
It was mysterious.

It was a demon ideology that souls were all equal, and the same souls just lived in different bodies.
However, living beings are easily influenced by what they see.
It was natural that it was easy to group together with those that looked the same as you, and so it couldn’t be helped that you felt a little hesitance when it came to others.
Even though this should have been the case, I, who was the only one in the village with silver hair, was easily taken in by Ojisama’s parents.
On top of that, they even spoke about becoming their daughter, and I really did end up as their foster daughter.

It was something that was absolutely impossible in the era when Ojisama and I battled.

I felt shock at the fact that the long flow of time could wear down prejudice, and turn it into a completely trifling matter.

I met the children in the village, and even learnt something.

Shockingly, Ojisama had friends of his own age.
It goes without saying that Ojisama would ordinarily be far older than them, but to my surprise, Ojisama was skilled at pretending to be a seven year old boy, and fostered friendships.

Those friends of his were a boy named Rusty, and two girls named Mii and Yuuri.

When I first met them and they saw me, the moment the boy, Rusty, stuttered,

“N-, Nice to meet you…”

as he held out his hand, I felt deeply moved about the fact that this era really was different to my old one.
Were it that era, a human child holding out their hand to a demon was an impossible scene.

Was the fact that Mii and Yuumi seemed to be glaring a little because of their avoidance of the demon race?

No, that probably wasn’t it.
According to Ojisama, the knowledge about how ancient demons look wasn’t pa.s.sed down to this era.
Accordingly, it was impossible that these children know that I’m an ancient demon.
In light of all of this, it meant that the two girls were glaring at Rusty for a different reason, but… Didn’t their behaviour towards him seem a little affected?

I tried to recall a reason, but couldn’t.

It was on my mind, so when Rusty and Ojisama were playing together by themselves, I spoke to the two girls that were around them at a distance.

When I did…

“…Eh? You haven’t noticed?”

“This girl, could it be that she’s actually dense about these things…?”

Said the two of them together.
When I asked them what they meant, they said that Rusty had fallen for my doll-like appearance at first glance, and after shaking my hand, his face was red for a while.
In other words, he held ‘good will"(love) towards me, and to the two of them, that was an extremely perilous situation.
Because they even went as far as asking if I could somehow step back, I found it hilarious and started laughing.

“Huhuhu…”

“It’s not something to laugh about…”

Said the younger girl, Mii, as she puffed up her cheeks in a pout, as though defending herself.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I did not intend to make fun of you… Rather, I was thinking that I was a little blind, you see.”

“Blind?”

Asked Yuuri, as she tilted her head to the side.
I continued.

“Yes… Though I feel sorry towards Rusty, it seems that my heart already belongs to another…”

“Eh-… M-, meaning…?”

“We’d sure be happy if you told us…”

A moment ago they were feeling an impending crisis, but now their expressions suddenly changed, and their faces began nearing me as though pressing me for an answer.
Seeing their expressions, I suddenly thought, ‘Back then, my friends and I used to talk about this sort of stuff too, huh.‘
While recalling those friends whom I would never meet again, I felt a little moved at the fact that it seemed that I’d be able to make new friends over here.
Then, I spoke.

“They’re somebody who is a little bit… my senior.”

“Your senior… I see, then Rusty is in the clear, huh.”

Said Mii, seemingly relieved.

“By senior, just how much do you mean?”

Asked Yuuri, cutting in.

“I don’t believe that it is ten or twenty years, but… Exactly how much is it, I wonder? At this point, just how I am supposed to calculate it…?”

I said, a little troubled.
I didn’t know how I was supposed to measure Ojisama’s age, precisely.
Should I just count it normally, or should I count the years back then as well?

However, without hearing me out to the end, Mii and Yuuri, in shock,

“EHH!? I-, isn’t that a grown-up then?”

“Iris-chan is a precocious one, huh… It gave me a shock…”

Said Mii and then Yuuri, as they flushed red.
Yuuri then continued,

“When it comes to the older men around Iris-chan, then… There’s no one but the adventurer Gran-san, and Patrick-san, you know…”

Mii accepted this, and nodded.

“You’ve ended up with a tough love, huh… Mmm, we’ll cheer for you, okay!?”

The two of them unilaterally advanced the conversation on their own, but because of their threateningly intense att.i.tudes, I accidentally went,

“M-, mmm…”

and ended up giving a vague reply.

After that, after I returned home, Ojisama casually said to me,

“…I don’t know if it’s Gran or Otousan, but wouldn’t it be better to give up on them? I mean… look, the age difference really is too… You know?”

So I replied,

“Ojisama. The likes of ‘age difference’ is but a trifling issue. On the contrary, it’s romantic because one overcomes it! You feel the same, right!?”

Because it was a rare occasion where I spoke forcefully, Ojisama was pressured and said,

“Y-, yeah… Well, I guess. Mmn. If the person herself is fine with it, then…”

I felt that a strange misunderstanding was being born, but decided to leave it aside.
For now, this distance between us was fine.

One day, once I become a little older…

Thinking this, I decided to hold these feelings in my heart for a little while.

/Side Story END