DKFTI 10

The breeze was cool, and the liquor was sweet.

After finishing the small funeral, Sibel opened a bottle once night came. It was irresistible. His chest felt clogged, and the only digestif fit for such a mood was alcohol.

“Ssshh.”

There were many inconveniences to living as a Demon King, but if Sibel had to pick the one he felt most acutely in his body, it was this situation.

“I don’t get drunk.”

Damn this Demon King body, was it immune to all poisons? He could not get drunk. Because of that, four empty bottles already rolled beside him.

At the very top of the castle was a small tower. A place where the wind passed through and the sky was visible.

Sibel, looking at the night sky packed with stars, tried to shake off the tangled feelings of the day.

“Am I getting tipsy or sobering up?”

By the fifth bottle, he was starting to think it was a waste. His body felt like it was heating up, but his head would not loosen the way he wanted. He even checked the label to see if maybe there were any words written on it.

As he turned the bottle this way and that, suddenly something popped out in front of him.

“Pu!”

“Pudding…?”

For a moment he thought it was a snack. But then he realized it was the pudding he had summoned, and wiped the drool from his lips.

“Pudding!”

He suddenly felt sorry for having forgotten about Pudding.

“Pu–!”

It seemed Pudding could only say the word ‘pu.’ Pudding hopped into Sibel’s arms.

“What’s with the misery?”

At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind him. Sibel turned his head. The voice belonged to Aizen. He was climbing the ladder to the tower, dressed casually.

Aizen’s black hair, like the night sky itself, swayed gently in the breeze. His sharp eyes, perhaps because they caught the starlight, looked softer than usual.

“Why, are you here…?”

“Your Pudding wouldn’t stop crying to find its master.”

It was Pudding who had led Aizen here.

“Ah…”

“It was born from your magic, so of course it would seek you.”

When Aizen explained the reason, Sibel nodded.

“Sorry, Pudding.”

When Sibel rubbed Pudding’s head gently with his fingers, Pudding pressed its body against his hand. Watching that, Aizen lightly kicked Pudding aside and perched himself on the tower’s fence.

When Pudding was knocked aside with a thump, Sibel narrowed his eyes at Aizen.

“Broken personality.”

Aizen snorted at the accusation.

“I guess your fear disappeared after drinking.”

At those words, Sibel came to his senses, he glanced nervously at Aizen, and quickly shielded Pudding with his hands.

Aizen, as usual, folded his arms and looked down at Sibel, who was sitting on the floor.

“Are you sad because your kin died?”

Aizen was curious. Why was a Demon King, who should be without emotion, acting so foolishly?

“That too, but I also feel pathetic for sending such a gift… I feel sad thinking I’ll forever only be hated by humans, and I feel scared that I might die…”

Sibel rubbed his face with both hands and picked up the bottle again.

“Are you afraid of dying?”

“Everyone is afraid of dying.”

At that reply, Aizen’s face stiffened in a subtle way. A Demon King afraid of death. Should he call that refreshing? Because of that, Aizen looked closely at Sibel for a long time.

Even though he was not crying, maybe because of the faint mole, it felt like tears might drop at any moment.

While Aizen was observing him, Sibel was also observing Aizen.

‘Why is he like that.’

He was very curious why he was using the Demon King Castle like some kind of inn. His eyes crept bit by bit upward, from the shoes to the knees, from the knees to the waist, and higher, until he saw the collar around Aizen’s neck.

It matched the bracelet on Sibel’s arm. That made him feel a little relieved. If Aizen tried anything, he only had to press the bracelet. Sibel was about to slyly move his right hand toward his left.

“Are you trying to do something sneaky?”

“……”

Sibel quietly lowered his hand and pretended to stroke Pudding. Aizen looked like someone peering straight into Sibel’s thoughts. In truth, to Aizen, Sibel’s awkward movements were far too easy to read.

“Why don’t you leave the castle and, and stop meddling…”

“Meddling?”

Aizen always found it strange that Sibel, though trembling in front of him, would still say things that subtly crossed the line.

“I have my own circumstances too, so don’t worry about it.”

“How can I not worry…”

It’s my house, Sibel muttered.

“Then worry about it.”

“…What?”

He had no idea what that meant. Sibel turned Aizen’s words over in his mind.

“Meals have been late lately.”

“Ah!”

If there had been any notepad nearby, Sibel would have hurried to jot that down. If meals were late, that ill-tempered Hero would get angry, and that anger would surely turn on him.

He thought he should order the meals to be timed exactly like clockwork. That was [unauthorized copy]when he suddenly realized something felt strange.

“…Why are you, the one imprisoned, so confident?”

“Why should I not be? It’s you, the captor who should feel guilty.”

Oddly phrased, but not wrong. Sibel thought Aizen was fairly clever.

“Don’t you want revenge on humans?”

Aizen asked him.

“……”

He almost answered. What revenge could he take when he had no power at all?

“Your subordinates look like they’d give their lives for you.”

“I don’t want to put them in danger.”

“You worry about your subordinates’ lives?”

“Of course, don’t you?”

Sibel spoke to Aizen as if it were obvious, and it struck at something in Aizen’s chest.

It was not obvious. Demons were supposed to be wicked, evil. Only then could the path of demon-slaying that he and the Holy Kingdom had walked all their lives be justice and truth.

So a Demon King who thought like a human, who felt sorrow like a human, should not exist in the world.

Aizen listened to the voice of his duty as an apostle, inside him. Kill the Demon King, now, when he has no strength. He wears the mask of a human, but who knows when his evil nature will show.

Where the voice of God should have reached, there was instead the whisper of a demon. Aizen’s face twisted all at once.

“I’m going.”

While Aizen was caught in torment, Sibel rose from his seat. Aizen silently watched him.

Sibel, holding Pudding in his hands, got up unsteadily. He stepped on the hem of his robe and staggered. His body tilted forward, and without time to think, Aizen reflexively caught Sibel in his arms.

The distance between them has suddenly become closer. Sibel, who fell into Aizen’s embrace, smelled of the forest. A fresh, deep, and cool scent.

The scent that had swept away Aizen’s sleepless nights.

Yes. This was the scent.

Aizen breathed in deeply the smell of Sibel in his arms. The scent mixed into the wind had not been enough.

Before he could think of anything rational, Aizen’s face lowered to Sibel’s shoulder, and then deeper, toward the softer flesh.

Only when he reached the inside of his neck, did Aizen feel satisfied and savor the scent.

“……”

And Sibel stood frozen before. Aizen’s hand, which had been supporting ​visit our site​him, was now wrapped around his waist, and his face was buried in Sibel’s collarbone and sternocleidomastoid muscle.

‘This pervert…’

Sibel panicked. He was too close and his neck was exposed, he imagined the crazy Hero might bite into his throat. The thought sent chills through him, and goosebumps rose on his skin.

“…Are you going to bite me?”

He asked cautiously, just in case.

“You’re acting like a pervert again.”

“…Isn’t the one sticking his face into someone’s neck the pervert…?”

“You’re the one who fell into my arms.”

It was true that Aizen had saved him from falling and smashing his face on the railing. But anyone could see what followed after…

“I’m not a pervert. You just misunderstood.”

“You?”

Each time Aizen spoke, his breath tickled Sibel’s neck. When Sibel’s body flinched, Aizen held him more tightly.

“…Sir Hero.”

Sibel corrected the tone of his address. Then he cautiously raised his hand and pushed at Aizen’s chest.He grunted from the effort when he did not budge easily.

Ah, this guy, seriously.

In the end, Sibel pushed harder with both hands against Aizen’s abdomen. Finally, Aizen, who had been holding firm like a tree rooted in the ground, separated from him.

But the strange part came after. Aizen’s hand grabbed Sibel’s wrist tightly as they parted.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

Caught off guard, Sibel shrank back and asked.

“You’re going to run away again.”

Knowing Sibel’s past behavior, Aizen was not going to let him slip away tonight. How did he know?