Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 16 - Chapter SS1

Extra Story: Together Forever ~Kudou Riku’s POV~

At the end of the Demon King’s path, one that had all started with a certain girl’s resentful wish, I watched as the one who’d thought of me to the very end breathed her last, then smiled bitterly to myself.

“Good grief, I suppose I have no choice.”

My hoarse and bloody voice couldn’t hide the agony I felt. Still, I wasn’t going to stop petting the gallant wolf who’d passed before me. This would only go on for a few more minutes at most. My journey was over. There was nothing that could be done about it now. Still, there was one thing I had to confirm before that.

“That’s enough, Anton. You must be at your limit too.”

I spoke to the other servant who was here with me.

“My king.”

As I did, a dark torso slithered from my shadow. This was the doppelqueen Anton’s true body. However, what used to be large enough to have to look up at was now no bigger than a baby and somewhat transparent. When the Army of Darkness was annihilated, she’d also lost a majority of her body to the Sword of Light. She too could no longer escape extinction.

“Has Berta passed?” she asked, her voice dry and containing no emotion.

“Yes.”

“How incomprehensible. She squandered her life meaninglessly.”

Her words were short and to the point. She wasn’t being cruel. This was who Anton was—the perfect pawn I’d hoped for as the Demon King. She stated what was appropriate for that role. It was simple for her to say such things, but...

“The same goes for you, doesn’t it?” I said. There was something I had to point out to her as their king. “I didn’t think you’d keep me alive like that.”

Looking down, beneath my broken clothes, about half of my body seemed to be dyed black. To be precise, my body hadn’t been stained. This blackness was making up for what had been lost. Anton’s body was substituting for my own. Berta had been the one to prevent me from being annihilated by the Sword of Light, while Anton had been the one to keep me alive this long.

I hadn’t ordered her to do this, though. Anton had done it on her own. Naturally, this only prolonged my life a little. It served no purpose—at least not in the way she used the word. She seemed aware of this too.

“Indeed. It’s as you say, my king.”

“Then why?”

A short silence followed. This was the time needed for her to draw her conclusion.

“By prolonging your life, nothing at all changes about our complete annihilation. At most, I suppose it allowed you to speak with Berta. There was no purpose.”

Her words were mechanical. As the Demon King’s pawn, she was capable of nothing else.

“Yes. It was meaningless. What I did served no purpose whatsoever.”

To the very end, she presented her conclusion logically like a machine.

“So, perhaps I simply wanted to allow Berta to speak with you. Yes. It makes no sense. None at all. Seriously. What a meaningless action.”

Her indifferent tone was the same as ever, but she seemed somehow satisfied. Anton then melted away and lost her shape. Having lived her life as the pawn I’d desired, she met her end somewhat like a human.

“Thank you for your hard work, Anton...”

She was the first servant to be named by the Demon King. Excluding me, Anton had known Berta the longest and had always raised her doubts about the wolf. Thinking back on it now, Anton had always shown signs of realizing why I’d really kept Berta at a distance. I didn’t have a grasp of every conversation the two had had, so maybe she’d made a move out of my sight. That was exactly why, when she’d seen Berta running to my side, she’d created this last moment for us.

In other words, what I’d believed to be the Demon King’s perfect pawn had also possessed the qualities that Berta had without anyone noticing it. If so, this last act had been a reflection of the humanity that’d developed inside her.

“I suppose in the end, I didn’t manage to devote myself to being the Demon King.”

I smiled bitterly as I came to terms with that fact. Living with resentment and anger in my heart, I met my last moments like this. What’s more, I died at the hands of the mastermind behind everything. I’d failed to be the Demon King to the end, and the one and only girl I didn’t want to get involved in this had followed me. How regretful, pathetic, incompetent, and lazy. So, it was truly fitting for the final destination in the pits of despair that I’d resolved myself for. This was my comeuppance for walking a path of atrocities.

However, something I’d never expected existed here. It was something Berta had wished for. My path had started with resentment, but I’d gotten here by surviving back then and continuing down it.

“That’s enough. Do as you like.”

With those last words, the remaining shadows that maintained my flesh came apart. My body ceased functioning. My breathing stopped. My heart halted. The hand I’d kept moving to the last moment could no longer move. My consciousness faded. Everything turned so, so white...

Then, I opened my eyes. Within an endlessly white world, I saw a wolf wagging her tail standing next to a girl. There were other curious figures around them too. I smiled, then walked toward them.