Let"s start from the conclusion. I was rejected. It was over with a single word — "No".
This is a room in the middle of the Demon Castle.
Indeed, this is the room I, the reincarnated Segawa Youki (now just Youki), guard.
Just what was I doing in the middle of this room?
"...Rejected. It"s over. I wanna die..."
I was hunched over, hugging my knees and drawing letters on the floor.
Including failures from my previous life, just how many times have I been turned down?
"Um...excuse me..."
Next to me was a fl.u.s.tered girl in cleric clothes, whose name I heard to be Cecilia.
"...hahaha..."
The laughter just started welling up.
Humans get rejected so many times over the course of their lives.
When I was human, I was also rejected a lot.
That"s why I was feeling the way I am now.
"Excuse me, are you all right? ....Wait, what am I doing, he’s the enemy!"
I thought she was cheering me up, but she suddenly readied herself for battle again.
She"s so kind. Her awkward kindness felt bittersweet..
I almost forgot that she sees me as her enemy.
Why is that?
It’s because I"m a demon.
I hope I"m reborn as a human next time.
If I was human...would my boring face still make it hopeless?
She pointed her staff at me.
Looks like she"s ready to take me down.
I can die happy if it"s at my beloved"s hands.
There"s nothing left for me in this world anyway.
"《Judgement Cross》"
A pillar of light in the shape of a holy cross came at me.
A senior level light-type magic.
Even with my cheat, if I don"t put up any resistance, I"ll probably die.
"Aah, please let me be reborn as a human next time."
I closed my eyes in prayer.
…
……
………
…………?
No matter how long I waited, the impact never came, so I hesitantly opened my eyes.
The magic she used was gone. Did she cancel her magic because I didn"t do anything?
"Haah..."
But the burden on your body is huge if you forcibly cancel it. It was evident she had done just that as she was collapsed on her knees and breathing heavily.
"...Why didn"t you resist? After a month of battling you I"ve come to understand some of the extent of your power. You should have easily dodged or countered that level of magic!"
She recovered from the backlash and asked me that.
The answer is quite simple.
"Since you turned down my confession, I felt like dying."
"Don"t toy with me!"
Even when angry she"s still cute...Er, I mean...I thought it best to give her a candid answer.
"I have nothing left to live for. I"ve lived my whole life in this room you know? If I went outside I"d have to attack human towns for no reason at all, and because I didn’t want to do that, I never left..."
I still had all my memories of my previous life in tact, so I was immensely reluctant to do things like that to humans.
"...I"ve never met a demon like you before. All the demons I"ve ever seen were ruthless and cruel, treating humans like garbage."
Seems like what I said was pretty strange.
As she said, most demons act like that.
However, I was an exception.
"That"s "cause I was originally human."
Nothing I said was untrue.
"Wha-? Do you mean to tell me there"s some dark magic out there that can change humans into demons?"
Her eyes were open wide in shock.
She seems to have misunderstood what I meant.
There is no such magic.
Even with my cheat I couldn"t do that.
"Ah, no no! I"m a human who was reincarnated. In my previous life I was a human."
Suddenly she stared at my coldly.
Even I could tell she was thinking "What is this guy talking about?"
"...Wh-what? It"s true! I was born on Earth as Segawa Youki. I died in a traffic accident."
She probably wouldn"t understand things like "Earth" and "traffic accident", but I still did my best to convince her I had died once before.
"...I don"t believe you. But suppose it were true, then why did you ally yourself with the Demon Lord? Would it not have been better to ally yourself with us humans?"
"Of course I wanted to, but say I did, would the Hero or anyone else in the party seriously believe a demon like me would ally with humans?"
Would a group of justice freaks really take the time to listen to a word I say? No, they"d just see me as a strong looking demon and immediately categorize me as an enemy. That"s what the Hero would do, obviously the Mage b.i.t.c.h too, and of course the Swordsman would be no exception.
I can"t see us becoming friends. Even if I did somehow befriend the cleric, there was still the pretty boy Hero, b.i.t.c.hy Mage, and taciturn Swordsman to deal with. There"s no way they"d let me in their party.
Even if she understood where I was coming from, she kept quiet about it.
"Still, Hero-kun and the others are powerful enough to defeat the Demon Lord."
He is a Hero after all.
The Swordsman and Mage are the real deal too, so they should be fine.
"...Wouldn"t it have been faster to kill the Demon Lord yourself?"
"Nuh-uh, not happening. In human terms, if a soldier killed the king, what do you think would happen?"
I propose the question to her.
"...At worst, they"d be executed; if they managed to escape, they"d be a wanted criminal."
"It"s not like that with demons. You defeat the Demon Lord, you"re more likely to be crowned the next Demon Lord. That"s not for me."
It"d be a little weird because of my low rank, but if I did become the Demon Lord then I would be fated to be taken down. Beyond other demons, sooner or later humans would come to defeat me as well.
"I say I"m protecting this room, but it"s more that I"m a shut-in, and it"s been quite boring."
And then the Hero Party appeared.
"I was honestly gonna let you guys defeat me when you came, but I ruined any chance of that when I got too excited and was overcome by my old Chuunibyou..."
And proceeded to wipe the floor with them.
"I figured the world would be in trouble if I left things like that, so I decided to heal you up and send you to that nearby village. And then when I saw you it was love at first sight..."
"I...see."
"I watched you for that whole month we fought. But then I realized that at this rate world peace would be impossible. I thought that I shouldn"t hold you back in this room anymore, so today I made up my mind to confess."
Sadly I ended up trying to die honorably.
"The Hero Party will defeat the Demon Lord. Then I"ll lose my home. You turned me down too. That"s why there"s nothing left for me."
My time being reincarnated as a Demon was at an end.
The room fell silent.
After a few moments, she slowly opened her mouth.
"...That"s unacceptable. You have great power. So much so that our Hero Party wasn"t a match for you. Please, won"t you use that power for us humans?"
She suddenly started giving a speech.
"...For starters, you have enough power that you can disguise yourself as a human, don"t you? If you do, you should be able to meld into human society seamlessly."
How did this turn of events come about?
Even though I wasn"t quite following what she was saying, she continued.
"So...Come with me to the outside world."
She reached her hand out to me.
Apparently it was time for me to graduate from being a shut-in.
That day, the Demon Lord was defeated and peace returned.
The news of the Demon Lord"s defeat at the hands of the heroes spread, and the world rejoiced.
Every town, village, and country held celebrations in honor of the heroes.
Of course, the imperial city Minerva in the Clariness Kingdom that had selected the heroes held a grand parade in their honor.
So, during that joyous event, I went to the Guild.
It was a considerably st.u.r.dy looking two-story building.
That day, Cecilia ended my days of being a shut-in, and I stealthily left the castle.
The heroes were successfully convinced that I had kicked the bucket.
I used the map Cecilia gave me, and finally arrived in the imperial city, Minerva.
"I left first, so just how did the Hero Party get here ahead of me?"
I was surprised to see the princ.i.p.al members of Hero Party already here.
And of course, Cecilia was with them.
"Did I get lost somehow? ...I suppose that path I took was pretty roundabout, so it"s highly likely."
Actually, on my way here I saw cat-eared, dog-eared, and all sorts of other animal-eared people along with some beautiful elves that ignited my pa.s.sion for fantasy.
So I may have unknowingly taken a slight detour.
But, I still made it to Minerva in one piece, so I won"t dwell on it.
While thinking about that, I enter the cla.s.sic RPG world guild hall.
Inside, there was even a wet bar.
It was about noon, so I didn"t see anyone drinking yet, but there were people eating a meal here and there.
Since I wasn"t hungry, I went straight to the reception desk.
"Excuse Mee~, I"d like to join the guild..."
No one was at the reception desk so I tried calling out for someone.
A male worker came out from the back when I did..
"Huh? The festival"s parade is today—I was sure no one would come..."
He lazily walked in while scratching his unkempt hair..
His eyes looked like the ones on a dead fish...is this guy okay?
And isn"t the receptionist supposed to be a pretty Lady?
...Well, I didn"t come to the guild just to see pretty ladies, so whatever.
"I"d like to join the guild..."
He may not have heard me the first time, so I repeated myself.
The male receptionist scratched his head again, and apathetically replied,
"Ya wanna join? Nearly all the staff are on vacation today...now where was it?"
There was certainly a lot of paperwork on the desk, and he was randomly searching for the right one.
Hey hey...is this guy really okay?
"Fer cryin" out loud, they all say they wanna see the Hero and f.u.c.k off...ah, what a pain in the a.s.s."
Don"t swear in front of your customers! Though I understand the staff who suddenly took time off are also at fault.
But really, why was this guy the only one left?
All things considered, they should have at least left one more person here besides this guy.
He kept b.i.t.c.hing about his co-workers while looking for the paper, then finally found it.
"Ah, here it is. Fill out the required information here. Well, I say fill out, but it"s just your name, age, and the exclusion clause that we"re not liable if you die on the job."
He handed me the paper while giving me instructions, and I filled out all the required parts.
"Name, Youki. Age, 21. Gotcha. Here"s your guild card."
He said ambiguously, and gave me a square pocket-sized guild card.
"It"ll cost you to replace it, so be careful not to lose it—at least for the next three days...I don"t wanna be the one to go through that irritating procedure."
Seems like the rest of the staff are off for the next three days.
Do you really hate work that much?
There"s no limit to your laziness.
"Right...understood."
I left my reply at that.
...Anyway, I"m not gonna lose it...probably.
"Then we"re done here. You"ll start off at the lowest F-rank and work your way up from there. Take your time and give it your best. ...No wait, give it your best in three days. Do that, and it"ll save me a s.h.i.+tton of work I don"t wanna do like processings quests and other bulls.h.i.+t."
How lazy can a guy get?!
I totally ignored what he said and went out to complete a bunch of different quests.
He said it was a pain, but whatever.
I took the gold I earned from my quests, got a bed at an inn, flopped myself down on it and thought about what I should do from here on out.
I chose an inn near the guild that wasn"t too expensive. Although cheap, the food I got was delicious, so I figure I made a good choice.
(If I keep on like this, my rank will increase, as well as my earnings. And once my livelihood reaches a certain point...I"ll confess to Cecilia once again.)
I haven"t given up just yet.
I"m living the dream of being reincarnated into a fantasy world with a cheat-level power, but since I was a demon, I had hidden myself away in the Demon Castle.
I can"t give up after my G.o.ddess Cecilia showed me the way.
(Heh heh heh...I"ll definitely win her love.)
I got excited thinking about Cecilia, and after getting into Chuuni-mode, I wasn"t able to go to sleep for a while.