Yomigaeri no Maou

It wasn’t as though they couldn’t forcefully awaken the unconscious Gran, but on top of feeling awkward about waking up a man who had been knocked out by a huge impact and now lay crumpled on the floor, Luru felt that he needed to have a discussion with Iris to a degree about certain things, so he decided to have a question and answer session, and discuss what they were going to do from now on.

To begin with, it was on his mind; why was Iris sleeping in long term sleeping equipment in a ruin like this?
Furthermore, just what on earth had happened to their brethren after Demon King Luruslia Nord had fallen to the heroes?

After calming down Iris who was almost exhausted from crying, and then having her sit down, Luru sat down beside her an began talking to find out about these two questions.

“So… I have some questions, but would you be fine with answering?”

Iris nodded as though it was obvious, and began speaking.

“Of course! By all means, please order me as you please. And… I too have some things that I wish to ask. If it is fine with you, would you answer as well?”

Now that it was mentioned, Luru thought ‘Ahh, that’s right‘, and began to think.
From Iris’ point of view, certainly she believed that Luru was the demon king, but not only were his features that of a human, but on top of that, his appearance had changed and he was now a child; an incomprehensible situation.
It might be better for him to explain these things first…
Thinking this, Luru nodded.

“Yeah, definitely. You must be holding doubts about whether I’m really Demon King Luruslia Nord, huh…”

Thinking about the reality, it wouldn’t have been at all strange for her to be suspicious of him from now on, or so Luru thought.
However, Iris shook her head and said,

“Not at all! Ojisama is Ojisama! There is no mistaking it. I hold no doubts about this matter…”

The tears that were supposed to have disappeared were gathering like beads again as Iris said this, and she spoke with such intensity that Luru was taken aback.
He certainly hadn’t expected her to have believed him to this extent, after all.
He had expected it to be at best a, ‘that possibility exists‘ sort of level, so her words which were the same as saying she had zero doubt, were shocking to him.

“I’m grateful but… why?”

“It is because of your Magia Globus beanbag. You did so because you also thought I would recognise it, did you not? To control that number of Magia Globus, no matter how talented a demon they may be, there is n.o.body who can do so besides you, Ojisama.”

“Certain I was thinking that it’d be nice if you remembered but… is it really enough to be that sure? Your esteemed father… Bacchus; couldn’t he do this too?”

No matter how great Luru was amongst the demon race at manipulating mana, right now he couldn’t do all that much in this body.
There was also the fact that he wasn’t used to it yet, and the ability of this body was different to when he was a demon.
It was because manipulating Magia Globus was done outside of the body, and Iris, being a demon, had fired off mana that had the same feeling as when he was demon king; it was very likely that if somebody told him to do the same thing again by himself, he’d be unable to.
Furthermore, Luru had the feeling that his sworn friend would be able to do at least that much as well.
However, Iris shook her head.

“No. Father could not do it. How should I put it…? That person was bad with fine control of mana, and though only a little, he had trouble with precision activities, such as the likes of Magia Globus control. I have memories of playing this with him many times, but his numbered 10 at best. For him to control almost a hundred like you did… was impossible.”

Now that it was mentioned, Iris’ father, Bacchus Taesnola, had a part of him that was a little sketchy with the details, and Luru had memories of him being bad with detailed work.
When it came to battling he was an extremely skilled person, and was notably for being able to take on even an army by himself, but Luru hadn’t ever seen him do any fine work with mana.
Due to his mighty mana, he was a man who relied on large scale battle magic, and after circulating mana through his body he engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Because of this, perhaps he hardly ever did anything like controlling Magia Globus.

“Certainly I can understand if its him, but… there should be others, right? Myutos or Reine, for example.”

Both of them were once Luru’s subordinates, and known as excellent magic and magecraft specialists.
Myutos was a shrivelled and neurotic magus, whilst Reine was a stupid woman with stupidly powerful mana who loved to destroy things.
However, Iris shook her head.

“I do not believe that Myutos-ojiisama was incapable of doing so, but had he the free time to play with Magia Globus beanbags, he would have spent it on something else to begin with, and Reine-oneesama was perhaps a little too capricious perhaps I should say… She would lose interest in doing something like this, so…”

It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it, but that their personalities meant that they wouldn’t, huh?
Luru understand quite well what Iris was talking about.
If you had to categorise them, Myutos had the disposition of a scholar, and Reine was the type of r.e.t.a.r.d who liked to fire off flashy magic.
And then to Luru’s shock, the memories were so nostalgic that he teared up.

He hadn’t thought that he’d tear up over such a pointless topic.
Both Myutos and Reine had messed about in the day and he’d often turned a cold shoulder on them, but he realised that he quite liked them.

Noticing Luru’s behaviour, Iris said in worry,

“My apologies… I have brought up a topic painful for you who were defeated halfway…”

“No… It’s fine. On the contrary, I’m happy that a nostalgic topic came up. But I see… Just like you say, perhaps I’m the only one who could do it.”

To Luru who pulled himself together and continued speaking, Iris agreed.

“Yes. That is how it is. However, there is something mysterious and odd about this.”

“What?”

“There is no mistake that you are Ojisama, however, what on earth is that body of yours? It is unmistakably that of a human’s. Furthermore, the age is… It is difficult to say this, but you appear to be a child just like I am. Just what on earth happened…? I believed I could restrain my deep interest, but…”

“Ahh… You’re right. Earlier I said that a lot happened, but…”

“Come to think of it, you did indeed say as such. What did you mean…?”

To Iris who had tilted her head in wonder, Luru was a little confused at how to explain things to her.
However, it was not that difficult an explanation.
Were he to explain it to a human he might need to explain things in quite some detail, but with a demon, it would be fine even with a single word, Luru remembered.
Thus, he spoke.

“It’s simple… Iris. I experienced reincarnation.”

Iris’ widened eyes displayed to Luru her shock.
However, it didn’t at all feel like she had heard something impossible, but rather it seemed close to the kind of shock that someone got from suddenly hearing some joyful news.
Reincarnation was part of the demon race’s faith.
They believed that the world revolved like that, and after inheriting a soul, one would continue living as the next generation.
It was because they believed that that the demons could fight with strong spirits.

After that, Iris slowly took a breath, and asked a question.

“…Which means that after you died, Ojisama, a certain amount of time pa.s.sed and you were reincarnated as a human?”

Luru smiled at her speed in understanding.
Were he explaining to a human, something like this probably wouldn’t have happened.
In the past, reincarnation was something thought of as heresy to humans, and it was almost outside their imagination.
It would certainly be a bother to explain this way of thinking from start to finish.
‘Once living beings died, that was the end‘.
That was what humans believed.

Luru answered Iris’ question.

“That’s how it is. Right now I’m definitely a human. In other words, I have a human mother and father. Both of them are good people… and kind people.”

Recalling that Iris might be opposed to this, Luru said what he did.
Though Iris wasn’t the type of hate humans, they were a species that the demons had gone to war with.
It was quite possible that she didn’t hold good will towards them.
To begin with, it was because Iris had felt hatred towards the humans when she had just woken up.
However, the words that left Iris’ mouth were unexpected.

“Having heard those words… Just why, I wonder? I feel relieved.”

“Um, why’s that?”

Luru questioned her with his head tilted to the side.

“It is probably that… hearing about how you reincarnated, Ojisama, and on top of that how you were living a satisfying life as a human, it felt that the little biases that I had were washed away… Huhu.”

Iris suddenly smiled.
When Luru tilted his head in wonder, Iris continued to speak.

“Actually… I may have mentioned this earlier, but after you pa.s.sed away, Ojisama, my heart was filled with vengeance. I became quite wild…”

With a snap, it felt like time had stopped.
‘For the beautiful and graceful, silver-haired Iris to have become “wild”, just what…?‘
Perhaps because she read Luru’s expression, Iris shook her head in a fl.u.s.ter and began defending herself.
It might have been because she didn’t want Luru to dislike her.

“No! No! You are mistaken… Umm, even though I say I was wild… you see… I did not do anything too terrible. It was just to the degree of bringing along some slightly delinquent demons and annihilating the humans forces, or sneaking into the humans camps and leaving the officers and soldiers messages like 『I can kill you at any time, so prepare yourself』 while they slept. It was only these types of things at worst!”

‘That’s plenty as it is…‘ thought Luru, but sensing that he shouldn’t play the straight man in this atmosphere, Luru decided to change the subject.

“Well, let’s leave that aside. Anyway, does the fact that you could still do that after I died mean that the demon race weren’t wiped out or anything? The way things were going, I wouldn’t have thought it strange if they started large scale demon hunting, but…?”

“Ahh… I see. You do not know about it yet, Ojisama… Indeed, there was demon hunting. It was a truly unfortunate time. The Church dispatched holy knights and the demon race became steadily cornered, and our numbers fell. Had it continued, I believe even the proud demon race would have been eradicated.”

“Had it continued? It didn’t?”

It was unexpected; for the human race who hated them that much to have stopped hunting them, that is.
Iris continued.

“Rather than not continuing, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they were unable to continue. A while after you pa.s.sed away, Ojisama, the human forces were divided into two. In other words, they began to experience in-fighting. It was because a clear target like the demon king had disappeared, or so father said, but perhaps the reality was just as he said… One side used the Church as a banner, and the other side was represented by the one who finished you off, Ojisama…”

“…The hero, huh?”

It was something that he could imagine.
In the very end, the seed that Luru had sowed; it had borne fruit.
He didn’t know if it was for good or for bad, but that hero had certainly faithfully fulfilled her promise.
However, the result of that was that the human race split in two.

“Yes. It is quite ironic. The one who killed the demon king was the one who saved the demon race from doom. And then in truth… I do not know what happened after that. I do not know how many years pa.s.sed, but how is the situation now? It has been on my mind.”

When it got to the part he was most concerned about, Iris merely said that and shook her head.
Luru tilted his head in shock.

“…What do you mean by that?”

As though she was recalling it, Iris slowly answered Luru’s question.

“I mentioned that I brought along some delinquents to attack the humans. One day while I was doing so, somebody used that as an opportunity to capture me… Before I realised it, I was lying atop a bed someplace I did not recognise, and an intolerably sleepiness overcame me. By the time I noticed that it was a long term sleeping device, it was just before I fell asleep, and already too late. And like that, I fell asleep and once I awoke, you were before my eyes, Ojisama. Now that I think about it, that place was probably here, huh?”

“Meaning that you didn’t get in the long term sleeping equipment yourself?”

It wasn’t something that boded too well.
The information that Iris gave was interrupted halfway.
Iris seemed dissatisfied with the information she had herself, and pouted a little while she continued speaking. What she spoke of next was about the characteristics of her captor.

“Yes… There were a somewhat incomprehensible person. They donned a jet-black robe, and because of the hood, I could not see their face. They probably also had a recognition obstruction type of Magus Tool equipped. After all, even when I took a good look at them, I could not find anything out about them… However, I realised that from their figure and their scent, they were probably a woman…”

They couldn’t figure out anything with just that.
Their clothing was nothing more than that of a normal magician or magus, and there were as many female magicians and magi as stars in the sky.
However, the act of capturing a demon without harm meant that they could be expected to be somebody of considerable skill.
Their ident.i.ty was something to think about. As was their objective.

“I see… But just who was it? Moreover, what’s it mean that they aimed for you, Iris, and even went out of their way to put you in a long term sleeping device?”

“That is something I would like to ask as well. However… right now I feel thankful towards them.”

Iris’ voice and expression suddenly became gentle, and she gazed at Luru with a smile.
Luru tilted his head in wonder.

“Why?”

“Because of them, I was able to meet with you, Ojisama.”

Her voice was filled with deep emotion.
Because she seemed that happy, Luru felt a strong regret, thinking that he had some something inexcusable to her in the past.

“…Iris.”

To Luru who called her name, Iris spoke as thought entreating him.

“Ojisama. Please… do not die in such a manner again. This is a request from all demons.”

She was probably speaking of how he challenged the heroes by himself.
Because the others were stuck fighting the human armies and warriors Luru had done what he did, but thinking about it now there may have been a better option.
That’s why Luru obediently apologised.

“…It was my bad… But well, I’m a human now. I don’t think it’ll end up like that again.”

“…That seems about right. I would be happy if that were the the case. However… now that you are a human, Ojisama, there is a little problem…”

“What would that be?”

“What kind of position would I need to take to stay by your side?”

Because Iris had spoken about it as though it were obvious, for an instant, Luru’s words were stuck in his throat.
However, Luru had decided in his heart that he would keep her nearby ever since he had seen her lying on the bed of the long term sleeping device.
That’s why he immediately changed gears, and began talking about how they could do so.

“About that, there are some things we need to talk about before that, or we won’t make any progress… Iris, just a while ago you asked about what time it was. Why did you ask that?”

“The long term sleeping device being what it was, I thought it appropriate to ask. Before I fell asleep I had thought so as well, but immediately after I woke up I recognised it as what it was. Moreover, considering the amount of mana that my body had lost, I believed that I had slept for quite a long time. It wouldn’t be odd had I slept for a number of years, or even a number of decades, I thought.”

It seems that Iris’ intuition told her that she had slept for roughly that magnitude of time.
However, the reality was different.
The time that had pa.s.sed was much, much longer.
And the long flow of time had washed away everything that Luru and Iris had known.
Thinking that he had no choice but to tell her, with a half-desperate resolution, Luru spoke.

“Iris. Listen to me carefully. The current era is a long time after the one we once lived in. It’s probable that some thousands of have pa.s.sed.”

“Eh?”

Iris greatly tilted her head to the side.

Took liberties with the line 「眠っていた場所が場所ですから。眠る直前にも思ったことですが、起きてすぐ、長期睡眠装置だと認識いたしました。」 because it would have sounded much, much too awkward in English. Perhaps there was a better way to do it, but it hasn’t come to mind yet.