Chapter 5: The Hidden Boss (Left Side) Learns the Truth about the Demon Lord
The Demon Lord, the hero, and me. The hero had sealed away the Demon Lord, then I had killed the Demon Lord. With the constantly victimized Demon Lord at the center, this group, whose fates were intertwined, had met up in the Kingdom of Twilight.
“I don’t know your current situation, but I’m on your side.” As someone who knew the truth behind the legend of the hero, I wanted to side with the Demon Lord.
The reason we hadn’t been able to work things out while we were alive was because the Demon Lord had tried to destroy the Kingdom of Valschein. But that was an ambition that he couldn’t fulfill now, so there was nothing to be worried about.
Actually...is this okay? What if he’s trying to come back to life like the hero is?
“What is your current goal?” I asked the Demon Lord, giving him a side-eye as I stood next to him.
“To stop his ridiculous plan of coming back to life.”
“Do you want to come back to life yourself?”
“I have no desire to return to a world with nothing but suffering.”
Wow, religions that get popular when there’s a ton of public unrest think the same way. Can I really trust him? It’s not like this place is heaven or the Land of Bliss.
I wasn’t sure about what was in his heart, but for now I was relieved that the Demon Lord had no intentions of coming back to life. I could side with him without any hesitation.
The man clad in black armor gave me a suspicious look. “Are you going to stand with me?”
“I was planning to resurrect myself with the hero, but I can’t trust someone like him.”
His regal appearance had fooled me, but the hero was actually the first king of Valschein. I couldn’t trust someone who would betray his loyal vassal so easily. I didn’t want to work with him to find a way back to the land of the living nor could I allow him to come back to life.
Even after gaining an ally, the Demon Lord stared at his enemy with an expressionless look on his face that rivaled my own.
“I agree. You can’t trust that thing, all dressed up like a king.”
“By the way, what should I call you?” I asked. “Would you prefer I use your na—”
“Demon Lord is fine. He goes by ‘King,’ so why don’t I play along?”
Before he died, the Demon Lord had told me his name. I wanted to take this opportunity to use it, but he’d stopped me.
I don’t think you have to counter him with your own title. I could call you both by your names, if you’d like. I’m technically a member of the aristocracy, so the name of the first king is well within my scope of knowledge. Oh, it’s a long name, though. I guess Hero and Demon Lord are fine.
The Demon Lord didn’t ask about how I died or my right half being missing. He just stood there, glaring at the hero with displeasure. With his eyes still locked on the hero, the Demon Lord pulled out a black notebook and scribbled something in it.
Can he write properly without looking down? Also, what’s he writing in there? Curious, I slowly made my way closer to him to sneak a glance, but right as I got close enough he shut the notebook. It didn’t seem like he’d noticed me, just that he was finished writing.
The Demon Lord suddenly sniffed and asked, “What’s this smell?”
“Smell...? Oh, maybe it’s my perfume.”
“You have good taste.”
I’d only used a tiny bit, so I was surprised that the Demon Lord noticed. I had thought he was another Yumiella-type—someone who didn’t care about things like flowers and perfume—so it was pretty unexpected. I pulled out the perfume that the cat-eared man—no, Quartus—had given me and handed it to the Demon Lord.
“So this is it... Can I test it?”
“Go ahead,” I said.
The Demon Lord sprayed some onto his black notebook and enjoyed the scent. With his notebook open and his eyes closed, he mumbled, “It’s nice.”
I’ll use this opportunity to peek at what he wrote.
“Ugh, he’s so annoying! Also, I saw that girl for the first time in a while, and she was split in half! I was so surprised!!!”
I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that...
The Demon Lord handed the perfume bottle back to me, and I quickly worked to erase my memory. I need to focus on the situation at hand. I may have the Demon Lord on my side, but our opponent is the hero. This might be a difficult battle since I only have my left side.
Seeing that I’d betrayed him, the hero let out a troubled laugh. “Why are you doing this? I thought you wanted to come back to life too.”
“Because I know what happened between you two. You betrayed him, then sealed him away for centuries... Are you aware of what you did?!” I said, pointing an accusatory finger.
Though he acted like a saint, I knew the hero’s true nature. After founding the Kingdom of Valschein, he demoted the Demon Lord since he was done with him, ruined his reputation, and to top it all off, he sent his soldiers to fight him and seal him away. He was unbelievably cruel!
A dramatically saddened look washed over the hero’s face. “I guess you would know if you met him while you were alive. It’s all my fault—I’ll admit to that. But it wasn’t my intention—”
“Enough!” the Demon Lord fumed, interrupting the hero’s explanation. “I don’t want to hear your excuses.”
“Haven’t I told you countless times?! It was better that you stayed out of the capital for a bit. The fear people felt for you after your accomplishments while we were in a state of war would’ve resolved with time.” The hero was giving reasons for what he’d done, but they could all have been made up after the fact. I asked him about the one thing he couldn’t make an excuse for.
“Why did you seal him away?”
“Monsters were spawning in hordes, with him at the center. As the king, I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.”
Wait...that’s actually a fair point. The hero’s side of the story was that there were some misunderstandings, which led his former vassal to become the Demon Lord, and without any other choice, he had to seal him away. There was no proof that this was what had happened, but the reasoning was sound.
Oh, but wait, there’s still that thing—when I was at his castle, I was told that the first queen used to be with the Demon Lord. The Demon Lord backed off because he wanted them to be happy. The hero is so horrible!
“Her Majesty! The one who was called the saintess! You know what I’m talking about!” I pointed an accusatory finger at him once more, but the hero just gave me a look of confusion.
“What about her?”
“How shameless. If you’re going to wreck a relationship, you should expect some resentment.”
“Whose relationship did I wreck?”
“Theirs! I know that you broke him and Her Majesty up.” There was no excuse he could make here. I could sense the rage the Demon Lord was giving off as well.
I glared at the hero, wondering what kind of excuse he was going to make this time, but he just tilted his head in confusion. “No? I don’t think they were ever seeing each other.”
Huh? No, no. Don’t let him trick you. The Demon Lord and the saintess were dating, but the hero stole her from him. I heard it all from the Demon Lord.
It felt like the hero had completely destroyed everything I thought I knew about this situation, but the most furious one here was the Demon Lord.
“Don’t play dumb! We were lovers.”
“I knew that you had feelings for her, but...she always thought you were creepy.”
The Demon Lord was at a loss for words.
Why would he say something so horrible? He’s probably trying to destroy the Demon Lord’s relationships by broadcasting these lies. How despicable.
“There’s no point in questioning him after all this time,” the Demon Lord said. “Oh...if only I didn’t have this black hair and these black eyes.”
“Demon Lord...”
Urgh. Why is this world so tough on people with black hair? The hero was probably conditioned to discriminate against those with black hair. He’s putting words in the saintess’s mouth. She was the only one who understood the Demon Lord, and the hero must’ve kept them apart. I feel so bad for the Demon Lord. I’m definitely going to stick on his side until the end.
“No, you’re wrong,” the hero said, looking at the black-haired allies and shaking his head. “It had nothing to do with your black hair. She thought your actions were creepy.” What? His actions? “Let’s see. For example...”
The hero began to talk about the past.
One morning, the saintess had woken up and opened her curtains to let in the morning sunlight. She had noticed that there was a piece of paper tied to the branch of a tree outside her window, which was close enough for her to reach. Curious as to what it was, she grabbed it and found it was a love letter from an anonymous sender. Regardless of whether she wanted to return their feelings, she couldn’t respond without knowing who had sent it, which troubled her.
The next morning, another letter was tied to the same branch.
“And the day after that, there was yet another letter tied to the branch.”
That sounds lovely. It would spoil the story, but I checked with the Demon Lord. “So the person who wrote those letters was...”
“Yeah, it was me. What a fond memory.”
I knew it. What a romantic thing to do.
“It’s a romantic way to deliver a letter to someone, but after it happened three days in a row, she got a bit scared,” the hero said. “The saintess left the curtains in her room closed for a while.” Oh. Things are starting to go downhill. “After a while, she had completely forgotten about the letters and opened up her curtains out of habit. Outside her window was the tree branch that had letters tied all over it without a single open spot.”
I reflexively yelped out of fear. I had expected a heartwarming love story, but this was a real-life horror story. The thought of the view outside your window transforming into those places in Japanese shrines where you could tie your paper fortune slip onto was...quite creepy.
This isn’t true, right? You weren’t that much of a creep, were you, Demon Lord? You didn’t keep climbing that tree and delivering new love letters, day after day, even though the ones from before hadn’t been read, did you?
The Demon Lord didn’t wait to object. “How is that creepy?!”
So it’s true—you really did it... But wait, even if I find it creepy, the saintess herself might have felt differently. My last ray of hope was destroyed by what the hero said next.
“She was terrified, and she came to my room in tears.”
Oh, so she runs to the hero when she’s scared, not the Demon Lord. I feel so bad for the Demon Lord. I decided to speak on behalf of the man who’d fallen silent.
“A single misunderstanding like that isn’t enough to convince me.”
“I have other stories.”
Wait, hold on. I don’t want to hear any more, but I guess I’ll do my best and listen. No matter what he’s done, I’m going to be on the Demon Lord’s side.
“He kept nearly bumping into her multiple times in the same day, pretending it was all a coincidence.”
“Ugh...”
“There was one time when she returned to her room and found it filled with red roses.”
“Gross...” The word slipped out of my mouth unintentionally. Thinking I’d messed up, I turned to the Demon Lord who looked at me with shock.
“Huh?”
Oh, but if I imagine Patrick doing it, I don’t find it gross at all. I would actually be happy. All right, now I can tell him how I really feel and back him up.
“I would be happy to receive red roses like that. Anyone would love getting a gift like that from someone they like!”
“That’s what I thought... So why did you say it was gross?”
“W-Well, I said that because I first imagined what it would be like if someone I didn’t know that well suddenly did that to me... Oh.”
Someone you don’t know that well suddenly gifting you things... That’s probably why she found the Demon Lord creepy. It seemed that the Demon Lord hadn’t realized what I’d noticed, so I turned to him so I could smooth things over, but the hero opened his mouth before I could do anything.
“That’s right. She thought you were too much and creepy because you two weren’t even that close but you would suddenly prepare these elaborate gifts for her.”
The Demon Lord still maintained his expressionless demeanor, but I probably wasn’t imagining that his eyes were a bit teary. I see. So the hero didn’t get in the way of the Demon Lord’s relationship nor was he sealed away for unfair reasons...
I slowly made my way to the hero’s side and turned around to face the Demon Lord. He looked at me with disbelief.
“You’re going to betray me too...?”
“Too”? I mean, what I’m doing is definitely betrayal, but I think the hero’s actions are up for debate.
“Sta—”
“Stah?”
I was about to say that I didn’t want to side with a stalker, but I didn’t want to further break the Demon Lord’s heart. I think it will be better for the Demon Lord if I betray him for selfish reasons.
“Um... Oh! I just think I’ll be able to come back to life if I side with him.”
“You shouldn’t listen to someone so uncanny, parading around like a king.”
“That’s what you think of me? I’m hurt.”
“I don’t even know who you are anymore!”
You don’t know who he is...? I know he brought your embarrassing past to light, but I don’t think you have a leg to stand on with that objection. Despite my confusion the hero nodded naturally in response to the statement.
“You’re right.”
“Everything about you has changed, from the way you look to the way you speak!”
“But I seem more like a king this way, don’t I?”
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