DKFTI 54

‘This is fucking ridiculous.’

How could someone who smiled that brightly give him poison.

Aizen had been shaken by Leviathan’s words for the past few days. The human heart is so shallow.

But, unlike other people, the words said by the being called Leviathan carried more weight.

He must have infused it with some kind of magic.

That bastard.

Disliking one man made everything else look twisted in turn.

For Aizen, the Demon King’s castle, once colored in vivid summer hues, was turning dull like a gloomy ghost story.

What a shitty thing.

The antidote, which he had been too troubled to touch, remained in his arms the whole time.

Normally, with his personality, he would just bring it up openly. Yet for some reason, he hesitated.

It was fear.

If by chance that remote possibility turned out to be true, he didn’t know how his heart would collapse. It was a defense mechanism to protect himself.

So Aizen felt like his head was going to split. Whether his head split, or his heart tore, the result was the same. It would kill him.

Aizen, with a twisted expression, stared at Sibel, who was brightly laughing with the Demon King’s castle family.

At this point, it was stalking. His eyes stuck on him relentlessly. If Sibel didn’t notice after being stared at so openly, then he was an idiot.

Why was he dragging himself into misery?

“Ha.”

He signed for what must have been the three hundredth time.

He didn’t dare open it. Afraid that if he made a mistake, everything would shatter.

He was afraid he would lose the comfort of this place. The desire to bury it without knowing the truth and the desire to confirm it clashed fiercely inside him.

“This isn’t my style.”

This kind of anguish didn’t suit Aizen’s character.

Never in his life had he faced such hesitation.

A man who could decide on death easily was now stumbling over feelings.

Gods would laugh at him.

So it was time to stop wallowing like a coward. Aizen gripped the antidote tightly in his hand.

Whether it turned to poison or medicine, whether it shattered everything or broke him to pieces. His philosophy was always to confront it in the end.

***

It was a night with a beautiful moon. In the damp summer air, the two of them were together.

Sibel was nervous. He was taken aback by Aizen’s sudden summons.

After not showing his face for the past few days, now he was suddenly calling him.

On the softly moonlit terrace, Aizen sat across from him, looking somehow troubled.

Usually when he was with Aizen, seriousness was nowhere to be found, but today was different.

The temperature, the humidity, the atmosphere….

Had he done something wrong?

Sibel, stealing glances, recalled the past.

Forcing him to fight the Holy Kingdom, giving him food he couldn’t eat, shocking him with electricity, locking a strange collar on him, making him dig under the blazing sun… ten fingers weren’t enough to count his wrongs.

Thinking about it like this, maybe he really had been intolerable.

The night breeze blew. Aizen’s eyes, which had been fixed on the ground, turned to Sibel.

“Well, do you have something to say….?”

“I heard something absurd.”

“Huh? What was it?”

How was it that he heard so many things from who knows where while living in the Demon King’s castle?

Tak.

A bottle with a familiar shape was placed on the table. It was the antidote Sibel had given Aizen the other day.

Why the hell hasn’t he drunk it yet? Always a contrarian bastard.

Sibel inwardly grimaced.

“Is this poison?”

It sounded like words thrown out carelessly, but Aizen’s voice trembled faintly.

And in that moment, Sibel felt that tremor in him. His instincts weren’t dead.

He almost shouted the word “No”. But Sibel paused to think.

Maybe this was a chance.

Sibel had to send Aizen out of the Demon King’s castle. But as things stood, with their relationship this close, that was nearly impossible. Yet if he left Aizen to keep misunderstanding like this…

‘He’ll hate me.’

He would definitely dislike him. Maybe he would get angry and go wild, even threatening to kill him. But Sibel didn’t want to waste this chance.

If he had to be heartless at some point anyway, then laying his spoon on this table already set before him was the easy path.

“……”

Sibel stayed silent.

It wasn’t that he was acting. When he thought about it, maybe this wasn’t an antidote at all. The current [unauthorized copy]situation itself was poison for Aizen.

An Apostle protecting a Demon King.

Humans had always been that way. They were harsher on traitors inside their ranks than on enemies outside. Aizen must not become a traitor.

He couldn’t let Aizen’s honor and achievements be destroyed. He had to be enshrined forever as a saint, recorded in textbooks, remembered as myth, with statues built in his image….

Yes, living in the light suited him.

Shining and warm like the midsummer sun.

When the path to his happiness was so obvious, what could Sibel do? There was no reason to avoid becoming the villain.

‘In the end, I become the villain.’

It was the same as when he first reincarnated here. The villain as the villain, the main character as the main character. Thinking of it that way, there was nothing unfair.

The moment he let feelings take root, he was already losing. Even if he lost, there would be no regret… even if there was, so what?

At last Sibel made up his mind.

***

“Why can’t you answer?”

Aizen’s voice trembled. No matter how he tried to face it calmly, inside he only felt twisted.

It was simple. Just say no, just say it’s an antidote. That was all it would take.

For Aizen, it wasn’t about whether it was true or not. What mattered was the answer coming out of Sibel’s mouth. That was what he was hoping for.

Even if what he held was poison, he wanted Sibel to tell him it was an antidote.

If he thought that this stupid Demon King hadn’t even realized it was poison, and had just made a mistake, then even if he died, he wouldn’t feel wronged.

So why couldn’t he answer?

“…Fuck, stop dragging it out and say something. Just say something.”

He was angry.

“That is….”

The frustration was killing him. He felt like he would explode.

Please, just say no. Or say you don’t know. At least leave me some room to spin a hopeful thought.

“What you’re thinking is right.”

But the words that came out of Sibel’s mouth ripped Aizen’s chest apart.

What was he thinking?

“You know what I’m thinking.”

He suddenly felt wronged.

Was it because he got offended that he doubted him? Should he have stayed unshaken even if he heard nonsense about poison?

“Fine. What does the answer matter? I’ll drink it. If I drink, whatever it is, the answer will show.”

At Aizen’s words, Sibel’s eyes widened in shock. In that instant, Aizen felt a moment of relief. But then,

“If you do that, you’ll die.”

With Sibel’s next words, the storm of emotions in his head collapsed.

“…Die.”

Was he really saying it was poison?

“So just, stop here.”

“Stop what?”

Aizen realized what Sibel meant they had to stop.

He wasn’t talking about the potion. He was talking about something intangible.

“Did we even start anything? Why are you pushing me away for no reason. Why?”

“Go back to where you came from.”

“……”

He was finally forced to face the situation he hadn’t wanted to.

“So if I don’t want to die, I should leave. That’s what you’re saying.”

His jaw clenched tight and trembled. The anger he swallowed surged under his skin.

Silence fell between them. That moment struck Aizen harder than a blade and heavier than a blunt weapon.

He couldn’t breathe. He felt like he was being strangled.

His gaze, which had dropped helplessly, slowly lifted back toward Sibel.

Sibel wasn’t even looking at him. He just stood quietly, like a prisoner waiting for judgment.

Aizen swallowed down the words that rose to his throat over and over. He needed time to sort out his thoughts, but the situation gave him none.

How could he think calmly when he was being pushed to the edge of a cliff?

Pushing him over didn’t even need a finger. Just one word from that mouth, and he would fall.

Did he really have to leave? His mouth tasted bitter.

He lifted his head and thought back on the days he had spent here.

A ridiculous life that had begun by chance had unraveled into chaos, and in it, Aizen had recovered.

His body, his heart, even wounds he hadn’t known existed had healed.

All he had here were gains.

The holy power in his body, once like a time bomb, no longer stabbed him with the same pain as before.

The only pain left now was in his heart.

Aizen closed his eyes. He had come here to give everything up, but instead he had been filled.

So he couldn’t find any reason elsewhere for why he shouldn’t leave. Only his heart. And what was that worth.

Aizen’s eyes opened again. The confusion that had been clear in his gaze had faded somewhat.

“Yeah.”

Now he was ready to take it all on.

“Poison, whatever it is, how could I refuse? You’re the one giving it to me.”

He has made up his mind.

Even if he died here, even if the Holy Kingdom branded his name with disgrace, he was prepared not to regret it.

Compared to the thoughts that came before, that wasn’t so hard. No, it was far too easy.

Aizen raised his hand to his neck. Then he tore off the restraint bound around it.

The collar tore apart in his hand with no resistance. He had always been able to free himself from the flimsy thing. He just never felt the need to.

If the one who had put the collar on him was now kicking it away, then it was useless anyway.