Yomigaeri no Maou

“Umm, Ojisama. What did you just say?”

Iris’ sleek silver hair fell from her shoulder as she tilted her head to the side.
Luru had been thinking that he didn’t want to tell her if possible, but that was impossible.
As long as you were living in this world, this era, it was something you needed to accept at the bare minimum.
That’s why he told Iris clearly.

“…Iris. From that time; from the time that I was killed by the hero, thousands of years have pa.s.sed. I’ll say this just in case, but this is definitely not some misunderstanding. It’s something that I’ve properly confirmed; a reality. Having said that though, I’m only estimating based on things I’ve come across in books and hearsay, so there might be a measurement error, but…”

While speaking about this, Luru hinted that there might be a small possibility of a mistake.
It was in consideration for Iris.
He thought that it might be easier to accept if he spoke about it like that.

Luru had confirmed that there was no mistaking that thousands of years had pa.s.sed since those days, but it was unreasonable to expect the girl before him to accept immediately.
For now he would have her keep mistakes in mind as a possibility, and then have her slowly comprehend and believe in the reality.

However, Luru had underestimated Iris a little.
There was no mistake that Iris felt shock at Luru’s words, but even so, she was certainly not rejecting his words.
On the contrary, she was properly processing this inside, and even investigated on top of that.

“That is… You must have found some proof that convinced you, correct?”

Whilst feeling shocked, Luru slowly nodded.
Despite her proper speech and the intelligence she had, Iris was still a child.
Unlike Luru, there was no mistake that she was genuinely a child of roughly 10 years old.
Though she had lived a few years after Luru’s death, there was no mistake that she was not yet an adult.
But despite this, Iris calmly spoke to Luru with a pensive expression.

“Ojisama. Ojisama. I am fine… I cannot say that I was prepared, but though I feel sad at having those close to me suddenly having gone far away, but I have become a little used to it already…”

Her words contained a deep grief, and the remains of a sadness that had been worn down from experience, time and time again.
‘Right…‘ thought Luru.
The period in which Iris had lived, and the period in which Luru had lived were the same.
The weight of a life was unbelievably light, and both of them have seen over and over the scene of a comrade losing their life just a few dozen centimetres away from them.
Though Iris was still a child, she had gone through such experiences; being concerned about her resolution was an incredibly foolish act.

“…Sorry.”

So Luru apologised.
It was an apology as the demon king for failing to protect his race, as well as an apology as her friend for failing to protect his own life.
Iris accepted them with her eyes straight ahead, and then smiled with a soft expression.

“It is fine… Ojisama. I believe that you tried your absolute best. Were it not for you, the demon race probably would not have even survived as long as it did… Both as a banner under which we rallied, as well as the king that we were proud of, you were the hope of we demons. That is why… it is fine. …I apologise. Our conversation has taken a gloomy turn, has it not? I have even made you worry… Right now, what is more important is that I must grasp the current situation. Is that not so, Ojisama?”

Like that, Iris immediately recovered.
Luru felt that he had seen the strength of females.
He was moved by their ability to accept everything, and still choose to move forward.
Perhaps it was just Iris in particular.

However, Luru didn’t think too deeply about it, and continued the conversation to tell Iris what she needed to hear.

“You’re right… We can talk about the past whenever we want. Right… Iris. I’ll confirm it once more. Since that era, thousands of years have pa.s.sed. And this is important; in the current era, it seems that those of the demon race like you and I don’t exist.”

“…Is that to say that over the thousands of years, they perished?”

Iris asked with a feeble voice, casting her eyes downwards in sorrow.
The demon race had fallen to ruin. It was something that had also pa.s.sed through Luru’s mind; a sad reality.
However, Iris was right here before him.
There might be other members of the demon race like her that survived into the present.
That was what he now thought.
That’s why Luru shook his head.
It was because they shouldn’t give up hope.

As Luru began to explain, Iris’ expression showed her difficult to express, strange feelings.
Even if she was told that her own race had become something of legend, it was understandable that she some strange emotions about it.
You could say that her expression was natural.

“That is… I seem to have become a very strange existence, haven’t I? However, as you can see, I exist… Will I not be caught if discovered?”

Iris seemed to feel a little worried.
However, Luru shook his head at her question.

“That worry is probably needless, I think. The adventurer that you blew away… Gran, didn’t realise that you were an ancient demon when he saw you sleeping.”

Considering that fact, it was probable that they could overcome any problems by saying that Iris was a human.
There might be a tool that identified your race, but the kind of technology needed for that had declined in this era.
On top of that, Luru thought that it might be easy to find some kind of way out of it.
However, Iris was more cautious than he’d expected, and asked for more details.

“Could it not be the case that only that person doesn’t know?”

Certainly it wasn’t impossible.
In truth he wanted to go to a large town and confirm with more people, but right now that would be difficult.
However, adventurers like Gran and Yuumis were at the end of the day, essentially jack of all trades.
Their knowledge covered things from the everyday to the professional.
It was difficult to imagine that they didn’t even have a common sense level of knowledge.
If Yuumis didn’t know either, then it wouldn’t it support his theory? Or so Luru was thinking.
Yuumis was an ancient demon race freak, and should have known about them in more detail than the average person. For even somebody like her to be unaware of the racial traits of the demon race, meant that Luru’s prediction was correct, you could say.
That’s why Luru explained this to Iris, with that thought as the main principle.

“I think it’d be best to consider such information as something that wasn’t pa.s.sed down, not only to Gran, but to normal people as well. It seems that that guy is a pretty skilled adventurer, after all. I don’t think there’s any mistake in seeing it as something that normal people don’t know. I don’t know about people with a scholar’s level of knowledge but… We can confirm that later.”

Having heard that much, Iris seemed to finally accept it.
Nodding with a smile, she said,

“I understand. From what I have heard, there seem to be few obstacles that stand in the way of my being by your side, Ojisama.”

Like that, Iris touched on the heart of the matter.
Indeed, you could say that having thought it out that far, there probably wouldn’t be any problems regarding her race.
However, if Iris wanted to stay by Luru’s side, there was a problem that she had to overcome no matter what.

“Yeah, you’re right. There basically don’t seem to be any problems. Like I mentioned before, if we play you off as a human, and moreover an orphan who’s lost her parents, then… But, I also mentioned earlier that I have parents, you see. If we’re to live together, it’s something that we’ll have to overcome no matter what.”

So he said, but Luru didn’t think that it would be a big deal.
As long as Iris understood a certain amount about this era, if they could adjust her story later then things would probably work out somehow.
Hearing Luru’s words, Iris tilted her head to the side.

“Regarding your… parents…? Indeed. I have no skills to offer, and would just become a bother if I did nothing but eat, wouldn’t I…?”

Saying that, Iris began feeling depressed, to which Luru shook his head in a panic.

“No, no, it’s not that! It’s nothing so difficult. It’s just that, if I brought home a girl and told them that I wanted to live with her, my parents wouldn’t just casually accept, right? That’s why I was thinking that we had to deal with that somehow…”

Having heard that, Iris’s expression seemed to say ‘Whaat, is that it?‘ as she clapped her hands together as though she had thought of a good idea.

“In that case, if they hire me as a maid, then!”

What came out of her mouth was that shocking proposal.
However, there was of course no way he could get on board with this.
His home was the house of a n.o.ble family. Because of that, they could certainly go ahead with the idea if they wanted, but Iris was the daughter of his friend, and he knew that his friend cared quite a lot for her.
Because of that, there were certainly feelings of wanting to spoil Iris in Luru’s heart.
That’s why Luru shook his head.

“That’s no good… Your hands will become rough.”

That’s why he had no choice but to saying something subtle that seemed like an excuse.
However, it seems that Iris wouldn’t accept it.

“It is all right! Even as I am, I am still a member of the demon race, low my position may be. My hands will not become rough with just something like washing dishes!”

Certainly, that might have been true, but that wasn’t what Luru really wanted to say.
However, because he didn’t have any way of saying it aloud, Luru decided that he had no choice but to deal with the problem later.

“…Well, how about we leave that aside for now? We can just decide later. Ahh, I’m sure it’ll work out. Anyway… let’s go together to the village I’m living in, and have you meet my mother in person. After that, we’ll talk her into accepting you into our house. Yeah, let’s do that.”

At last, Luru ended up forming some haphazard plan, and Iris sighed at him.

“…Like I said, I would have been fine as a maid…”

Iris said.

A short while after that, Gran opened his eyes.

“…Friggin hurts… Oi”

Probably because he had hit them against the wall when Iris blew him away, Gran was now rubbing his head and hips as he stood up. And then, the moment he noticed the awakened Iris,

“…!?”

he backed away with all his strength, and vigilantly guarded with the greatsword that had just now been lying on the ground.
However, Iris didn’t particularly attack him, and moreover, after greatly tilting his head at Luru who was sitting next to her, he loudly shouted from a distance.

“Oi! What’s going on!?”

“Ohhh, it seems that it was a misunderstanding! She said that she won’t attack you any more!”

Luru shouted back in a voice just as loud.
Gran then replied,

“Haah!? …I have no idea what you’re on about… But it seems she really won’t attack, huh. There’s no bloodl.u.s.t[/killing intent]…”

Muttered Gran, as he approached them.
His greatsword went back into its scabbard, and he placed it back on his back.
It seems that he felt there was no longer any need to fight.

And truly, the antagonism that Iris had shown when she first woke up was now nowhere to be seen and she was now just smiling in a seemingly good mood, so Gran ended up losing his ill-will as well.
However, it seems that he still hadn’t forgotten the intensity of the first blow, and gazed at Iris like he was looking at a wild beast, before asking,

“…Hey, little miss[/ojouchan].”

“Yes? Whatever is the matter, Gran-sama?”

“I don’t really fit the t.i.tle “Gran-sama”, but… Well whatever. Why did you attack me?”

It was an extremely natural thing to ask.
No matter how broad-minded Gran was, being attack without any reason whatsoever was beyond acceptable.
If they wanted to reconcile, then she had to at least tell him the reason why.
Iris understood this, and while her face cheeks red in embarra.s.sment, she said,

“That was… although I am embarra.s.sed to say this, what people refer to as a misunderstanding, or a case of mistaken ident.i.ty…”

“What do you mean?”

“For a moment, I mistook you, Gran-sama, for the enemy that killed somebody very important to me. However, now that I take another look, you seem completely different… I am truly ashamed… I realise that it changes nothing now, but I am truly sorry for what I did…”

Hearing this, Gran made a slightly sad expression and muttered in a barely audible volume,

“Taking revenge at that age, huh… So the reason she’s that skilled at magecraft is for revenge… Her daily training must’ve been hard enough to spew blood… It’s a b.l.o.o.d.y cruel world.”

Because of his mana circulation, Luru had physical capabilities that exceeded a normal person’s, meaning that he could hear Gran perfectly, but the two of them didn’t particularly point anything out.
After that, Gran flashed a bright smile and spoke.

“I got it! If that’s how it is, then there’s no problem. Let’s leave this as an unlucky accident!”

He was a man you wanted to like.
Because of this time’s events, both Luru and Iris thought so from the bottom of their hearts.

“It truly helps that you are willing to say that. Thank you very much, Gran-sama.”

Said Iris, as she bowed.

“Like I said, -sama doesn’t suit me…”

Replied Gran, but he didn’t seem unhappy.
Since it seemed that they’d be able to leave here without any ill feelings, Luru felt relieved.
He spoke.

“Now that we’ve reconciled, how about we return to the village? There’s also the issue of this girl, …Iris, after all.”

“Ahh… That’s right, why was this little miss in a place like this?”

At Gran’s question, Luru replied,

“I asked about this while you were sleeping, but it seems that while she was being chased by an enemy, she unfortunately fell into a trap and was stuck sleeping. We don’t know how long she’s been sleeping, but we probably don’t have a way to check. Her parents don’t seem to be around anymore… Since we got along after talking for a while, I was wondering if she couldn’t live with us in the village.”

He didn’t tell a single lie.
It was just that he omitted the details.
Gran was nodding, seemingly fine with this explanation.
Iris didn’t particularly interject, and it seems she was leaving it up to Luru.

“I see. A trap, huh. Well, I guess with these kind of ruins, there’s stuff like that too, huh. Her parents being gone means that… she doesn’t have anybody to rely on, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Meaning… Right. Since you two got along, it might be better for her to live close to you, huh… If she went to the city, she’d just end up in the slums after all…”

Saying that, Gran seemed to look into the distance, perhaps because he was considering her welfare as a child who lost her parents at a young age, and ended up cornered by an enemy.
It seems that Gran was a compa.s.sionate person.

Progressing with their mutual understanding like that, Luru spoke.

“Well then, shall we go?”

“Aye.”

“Yes, let us go.”

Like that, the three of them began heading towards the exit of the ruin.

‘He was a man you wanted to like.‘ is actually ‘He was a man who made you feel good.‘ but that sounds dirty & awks to me. Is it because I’m a pervert, or…?

/Chapter 10 END