Yomigaeri no Maou

A dull pain shot through the back of his head.
The pain forced Luru back into consciousness, and he opened his eyes.

Having only just woken up, he looked around with an absent expression.
The scent of alcohol ran through his nose, but when he heard the clatter of drunkards, ‘Ahh, this is the tavern, huh?’ he realised.

“Have you awoken?”

A gentle, calm and kind voice called out to Luru, and he turned his gaze towards it.
It was a familiar girl with silver hair, glossy like silk, and eyes redder than fresh blood.
However, she looked a little older than she did in the past, and Luru suddenly realised for the first time that an intense seductiveness dwelt about her that she didn’t have seven years earlier.

“…Is something the matter, Oniisama?”

Asked Iris, seemingly in confusion. She was the girl who was officially the adopted child of the Cadisnola family, and it seemed that because they were legally siblings, when they were in the presence of others, Iris referred to him as Oniisama as she did just now.
Luru shook his head at her so she wouldn’t notice what he was thinking about just now[i.e. that she’s hot], and advanced the conversation in the direction of the question he was wondering.

“Umm… Why was I sleeping here?”

“That is because you were unconscious the whole time starting from when you lost to Otousama in the fight.”

At that concise answer, the memories from just before he collapsed rushed up again.
The memory of failing the fight.

And then, once again looking around at the surrounding drunkenness, he found that his father and mother were amongst them, and noticed that they seemed to be drunk; something rare for them.

Whilst looking at this scene, he thought.
‘Didn’t I lose the fight?‘
However, he mysteriously didn’t feel any frustration about it.
It wasn’t as though there were no feelings of ‘because I lost without using my true power’, but more importantly, it was because in the fight with his father, he felt that he did his very best with the swordsmanship he learned.
In particular, the very final exchange made him as elated as the battles he had with the heroes.
The happiness probably came from, for the first time in a while, knowing that an opponent existed that he couldn’t defeat in a serious match.
He didn’t like war, and in his previous life he wanted to avoid it if possible, but he by no means hated fighting in and of itself.
He liked it enough that were it a battle with only their two lives on the line, he would surely enjoy the fight.

“…But I still don’t get why we’re in the tavern. They seem to be celebrating quite a bit… Did somebody just give birth?”

Looking around the room again, Luru felt that the bustle in the tavern was different from usual, seemingly making merry to celebrate some auspicious event.
Hence his question, but Iris seemed to reply in disbelief.

“Goodness… Oniisama. Did you forget why you fought with Otousama to begin with?”

It was an obvious reply to Luru’s question.
Right.
Luru was fighting with his father to show the power he needed to become an adventurer.
And then he was supposed to win against his father, and leisurely start his journey, but…
Preparing a celebration for that in itself wasn’t anything strange.

However, Luru lost.
Despite that…
When Luru voiced these concerns of his,

“It was not an issue of winning or losing, was it? And indeed, did Rusty and the others not leisurely set off on a trip a few months ago after losing? Were they not were beaten down terribly, with a strength that would not be problem for you, Oniisama…?”

replied Iris.
Rusty’s group―――― Mii and Yuuri included ――――were not in the village right now.
The three of them had set off aiming to be adventurers before Luru did.
Though they were of the same age group, the reason they didn’t set off at the same time was because Rusty and Mii were born a few months before Luru, and accordingly, the time when they could register as adventurers came those few months earlier.
Seven years earlier, Mii and Yuuri tried their best to somehow get Rusty to remain in the village, but no matter how much time pa.s.sed, his pa.s.sion towards becoming an adventurer wouldn’t cool down, so they eventually gave up. Since there was no other choice, they began training so that they could come along with him.
There was technically the issue of who would teach them the skills, specifically the combat skills they could need to become adventurers, but because there was the adventurer pair that regularly came to the village, Iris, and finally Patrick as well, in the end there was no problems with finding a teacher.
But, because Rusty was learning swordsmanship from Patrick, taking that into consideration, Yuuri and Mii wanted the positions from rear guard to middle guard for themselves, so they chose Yuumis and Iris as their teachers, and in the end they left the village quite skilled.
Before they left on their journey, as expected, the three of them ended up stuck with fighting their teachers just like Luru did; Rusty fought with Luru, Gran and Patrick, whilst Mii and Yuuri fought with Yuumis and Iris. The result was that Rusty and the others suffered a crushing defeat.
In other words, the pride that was growing in the three of them was smashed to pieces with a ma.s.sive hammer.
Having said that though, the fact that they had pretty much become skilled beyond any normal novice adventurer was evident from what Gran and Yuumis said, and since things were fine then, in the end they were permitted to leave the village.
In these seven years, Rusty, Yuuri and Mii had decided that to become an adventurer, they would first head to the royal capital and join Gran’s clan, and it meant that right now they were supposed to be in the capital, doing their best as novice adventurers.
The letters from Rusty and the others that arrived once a month said basically that, and they seemed to be having a great time; enough that reading this made Luru want to hurry up and leave for the capital, as though he were a normal boy from the countryside.
Luru heard that the families they left in the village received letters from them at regular intervals too, and despite being novices, they seemed to be flourishing as full-fledged adventurers.

Even the three of them who had lost in their battles against their teachers were allowed to leave the village.
If you thought about it just a little, you’d realise that there was no way that Luru, who had put up quite a good fight, would be forbidden to leave, but Luru somehow ended up with the idea that if he didn’t win then he wouldn’t be allowed.
It might have been a preconception born from his long time as a demon king, where loss was immediately tied to death.
Luru now realised that he had a disposition towards thinking that he had to absolutely win to achieve his goals, but because that wasn’t necessarily a bad trait, he gave up on correcting himself.

“And hence, this party is for celebrating your departure, Oniisama. …Though it may be presumptuous of me, it seems that it is also celebrating the departure of I who will be accompanying you… Having said that though, as expected the most important one is you, isn’t it, Oniisama? Incidentally, after we determined that there was nothing wrong with you, we immediately started the party here… Since then, Okaasama and Otousama have been in the middle of the tavern, speaking endlessly about their memories of you, Oniisama.”

Having been told that by Iris, Luru strained his ears to hear those ‘memories’ or whatever, and found that they were endlessly repeating stories from his first cries after birth, through to the fight with Patrick, and up until when he collapsed at the end from a single blow.
And the audience nodded along, going ‘mn, mn‘, and occasionally shedding tears whilst opening up drinks without end whilst they listened.

“…I’m surprised they haven’t gotten bored yet.”

Said Luru in shock, and Iris suddenly laughed in reply.

“Drunkards are probably that sort of thing, regardless of the era.”

Luru completely agreed.
And while he was at it, it didn’t apply to just eras, but to races as well.
After all, even to the demon race, parties were more or less this sort of thing.

Whilst memories of scenes that existed in this world in the distant pa.s.s came to mind, Luru nodded deeply at Iris’ wise words.

Even this party that seemed like it would continue until the end of the world had to end, and as the number of dead drunk people, sleeping people, and people returning home became to steadily increase, the party slowly came to a close.
Medea and Iris returned home first.
Luru had actually planned on returning home with them, but Patrick said things like ‘since you’re a man, isn’t it fine to stay a little longer?’ and ‘drink, drink’ so he was denied the option of leaving his seat.
The legal drinking age in the Kingdom of Lezaad was fourteen. In other words, it meant that there was no problem with offering Luru a drink today. Having said that though, he wasn’t going to force Luru, and it seemed somewhat that this was just a pretext.
Since it couldn’t be helped, Luru listened to his father’s story on loop whilst drinking [i.e. the stories he’s been telling endlessly], when his father’s face suddenly turned serious, and after looking around to check that there was n.o.body listening, spoke.

“…Luru. Why didn’t you fight me seriously?”

In that moment, Luru lost his breath in shock.
Shocked enough that his father could probably see his expression stiffen.
And then, seeing Luru’s face, his father burst out in laughter.

“Pfft… Hahaha! It’s a joke, Luru, a joke. …You don’t have to be that shocked.”

Since Patrick said that, Luru responded by taking a breath.

“Geez… Please don’t start saying weird things… Dad[/Tousan].”

“Ahhahahaha. Right… It wouldn’t do for you to fight me seriously, right…? You want to hide it no matter what, after all.”

However, as expected, from Patrick’s slightly sulking words, it seems that he had seen through Luru.
He had probably realised it somewhere along the line.
And he felt dissatisfied with Luru hiding it.
Dissatisfied that his son had a secret he couldn’t tell his father.
They were feelings that Luru could sympathise with, but it was something rare for Patrick.

And realising that there was no meaning in hiding things any longer, he spoke to Patrick apologetically.

“…Sorry. It’s not like I was going to hide it forever. It’s just that… you said it too, didn’t you? That I needed to have one or two trump cards.”

Right.
Though it was something he did on his own, it was also behaviour that Patrick supported.
Because he needed to keep a move in hand so that he could expand his options in battle, and so that he could say with confidence that he could win.
That’s why he needed to keep a trump card in hand. Patrick was supposed to be following this way of thinking.
Perhaps because Luru had poked where it hurt, Patrick pouted a little.
Since he was acting more childishly than usual, perhaps he was weak to alcohol.
Thinking about it, Luru couldn’t recall Patrick drinking a lot at once.
Was this the reason why?
In that case, he should have been a little more prudent, but…

“I did say that, huh… It was our last battle. I thought that you’d bring out everything. But…”

Patrick continued, a little lonelily.
And with those words, Luru understood just how far his father had seen through him.

His father probably realised that Luru held some kind of mysterious trump card, but that was as far as he knew. He probably didn’t know what kind of trump card it was or how powerful it was, or else he wouldn’t have said things the way he did.
His match with Patrick was a match of pure swordsmanship.
In that kind of match, what Luru displayed was unmistakably all his power.

If Patrick wanted something more than that, they would have to loosen the restrictions on mana, but wishing for Luru’s true strength in a match where this had been decided on from the start was nothing more than asking for the impossible.

His father might have thought as far as Luru having learned something from Gran.
Realising that he held the might of an ancient demon, or anything close to that, was probably not something his father felt from him.

So he could probably ward off his father’s slight selfishness here.

But,

Since it had come to this, wouldn’t it be a good choice to show him everything?

thought Luru.

To Patrick who felt the possibility from Luru, wouldn’t it be good to throw everything he had at him?

thought Luru.

Luru had absolutely no thoughts of avoiding this because he was worried his father would become afraid of him.

Luru trusted Patrick that much, after all.
Patrick was without a doubt, Luru’s real father.

So Luru spoke with resolve.

“…In that case, how about one more match? This time… with everything.”

Because of the timing of the carriage, they’d be leaving to become adventurers not tomorrow, but the day after.
There was also the fact that Luru felt that it was worth taking at least that much time for.
And then. Having come around from his drunkenness, Patrick replied to those words with an amused expression.

“Oh?[Hohoh]… Are you being serious? You’re not saying this unwillingly?”

Luru continued.

“Of course. But… I don’t want you to hold back during the match either.”

“…? That’s obvious! Even today, holding back was…”

Patrick was speaking honestly, but this wasn’t what Luru meant.
Restraining his mana and bringing his arm strength down to match his son, was not ‘fighting seriously’ to Luru.

“That’s not what I mean… Using your mana, and not using that strength reduction Magus Tool, is what I mean.”

Perhaps because Patrick wasn’t expecting this, Patrick’s eyes widened, as though he were sobering up.

“Luru… Are you making fun of me? Even like this, I’m probably close to the top of all the swordsmen in the country, you know? For me to… No matter how talented you are, for me to seriously fight with a fourteen year old child, you say?”

Patrick glared at Luru, with a vaguely threatening gaze.
It was, different from his usual expression, Patrick’s face as a swordsman.
An oppression with bloodl.u.s.t mixed in, shot through Luru.
However, this instead felt nostalgic to Luru.
Human experts of every field had challenged Luru countless times like this, and were defeated countless times.
Because of that, the emotion that rose up in him upon seeing his father like this was not fear, but instead joy.

“If you don’t, I can’t get serious. …This is our last battle. I don’t know if I’ll come back here again. You have your job too, so we can probably meet in the capital, but I can’t become serious in the true meaning of the word there, and I don’t think I would get serious anyway.”

If he did, things would become outrageous, in various senses.
He said it like that because he understood this.
Having said this much, it seems that his father understood that Luru was speaking honestly.
It seems that he didn’t believe him completely, but even so,

“…Alright. But, I really won’t hold back at all, you know? Don’t hate me if your injury delays your departure, okay?”

“That should be my line, Dad[/Tousan].”

Patrick looked stunned at Luru’s immediate reply, to which Luru burst into laughter, so Patrick spoke.

“If you’re going to say that much, then we’ll do as you wish… I’ll show you the power of the Kingdom of Lezaad’s top swordsman.”

‘the pride that was growing in the three of them was smashed to pieces with a ma.s.sive b.o.n.e.r‘ = ‘the nose that seemed to be growing long [jp fg of speech] was smashed and broken by a hammer with all (the hammerer’s) might‘

“…I’m surprised they haven’t gotten bored yet.” = (i am in awe at their ability to not get bored of listening to/speaking about this)

“That is probably what getting drunk means, irrespective of the era.” = “I believe that ‘getting drunk’ is that sort of thing, regardless of the era.”

Also I’m aware that ‘lonelily’ is probably not technically correct, but I hear people have been speaking and writing like this for like 200+ years now, so deal. Let’s make it official.

/Chapter 17 END