She started to sob again. And then the mana around Akuto started to stir. His own hand moved without him telling it to.
—Huh?
Akuto couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want it to, but his hand was moving slowly forward.
—My hand’s moving on its own?
His hand was placed gently on her head. Keina looked up in surprise.
—Is Doronz not controlling this herself?
He was surprised at her behavior, but his hand was definitely doing what Keina would have wanted it to do. It went down to stroke her face and wipe away her tears. In that instant, the two of them looked like lovers who’d promised their futures to one another.
“Th-This is going too far! I-I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him, and then I’ll die!” Junko moved to pull out a hidden dagger.
Korone, for her part, had taken a back scratcher out from somewhere, and was using it to keep Junko’s hand away from the dagger while she tilted her head in confusion.
“There’s a strange mana flow coming out of Keina Doronz... Wait, you two aren’t listening at all.”
Fujiko’s hairs were all standing on end, and she had the face of a demon.
“Gaaah! This wasn’t the plan! This wasn’t supposed to happen! But just in case, I put a booster on that necklace! If I set it to full power, Doronz will pass out drunk! She’ll humiliate herself, and then hopefully piss her pants and humiliate herself even more! Hahaha... Gwahahaha...!”
“At this point, I’m not even sure what’s going on,” Korone said, but she didn’t try to stop Fujiko.
“Take this!” Fujiko yelled, as she took out a control device and turned the dial to maximum.
The effects appeared instantly.
(Something’s going on with the target. The girl is crying! Should we assume the Demon King threatened her?)
(No, from the contents of their conversation, it seems like an internal dispute...)
But suddenly, the knights’ telepathic call was disrupted.
(I’m sorry... I know I’m on a mission, but I don’t feel well...)
(No, wait. Me too. Is this some kind of magic...)
The other knights who were pretending to be customers all started to feel sick, as well. They started to slump in their chairs, like they couldn’t take it anymore. Some fell flat onto the table.
The “customers” had been there long enough that they’d ordered several cups of coffee, so they were affected by Fujiko’s magic, as well.
I’m sorry, there’s something I need to tell you,” one of the knights said, not telepathically, but directly. “I’m actually sleeping with your wife!”
It was a shocking confession, particularly when delivered in a voice loud enough to hear throughout the whole café.
Of course, this was the power of the necklace’s magic.
The knight he was talking to was almost passed out drunk, but his mouth had gone wide open in shock. But what he said was even more shocking.
“I’ve been selling off garrison equipment on the black market for the past five years, and I’ve made several million off of it! And I’ve spent it all on Miss Takayanagi, the girl at the front desk!”
“Well, now you’ve done it,” Korone said, strangely calm.
“O-Oh no! This thing wasn’t supposed to be that powerful... They must have all had a lot of caffeine...” Fujiko quickly tried to turn down the dial.
But...
Snap
“Oops.”
“Well, I saw that coming. I think we all knew that was going to happen, in fact,” Korone said in the calm tone of an observer.
Fujiko stared down in shock at the broken equipment in her hands.
“Fujiko, let’s just watch and see what happens. We can tell ourselves that we did a good thing by revealing corruption within the knights’ ranks,” Junko said optimistically. Perhaps, at this point, she was beyond caring.
“Th-That’s right. Anyway, at least we knocked out Doronz.” Fujiko seemed to have decided that she would take no responsibility for this at all.
“We created a lot of chaos in doing so, though. Ha,” Korone said with an emotionless laugh.
The café’s open terrace was in an uproar.
“You bastard! How dare you sleep with my wife?”
“Katsuko said you were too much of a wimp to please her! She was crying, you asshole!”
“Stay out of my family problems! I’ll blow you away! Knight Garrison Special Attack: Volcano Eruption!”
“Stop making so much noise and just lie down and cry! Sword Tornado!”
Part of the terrace was blown away. The knights’ magic had collided.
Of course, the Captain was listening via telepathy, and he began to give orders.
(Calm down! We’re on a mission right now! Until it’s over, forget what anybody says!)
“But are we supposed to just ignore the fact that he’s robbing us blind?”
One of the other knights, his face bright red, was storming up to the knight who’d confessed to stealing from the garrison.
“It’s that greedy bitch’s fault! All she ever talks about is money!”
“That’s because you’re willing to give it to her!”
The two of them took out the electromagnetic blades they used for city patrols and began to hack at each other. The tables around them were knocked back and began to fall apart.
“Uwah!” Akuto jumped on top of Keina to protect her.
A chair hit him hard in the back, but it wasn’t enough to bother him.
—But... What am I supposed to do in this situation?
Akuto wasn’t sure. This was probably because of something Fujiko had done, but since he didn’t know the details, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
—I should run... but if I do, the knights will follow me. Maybe it’s safer to stay put.
He looked around, and saw that while the drunk knights were fighting, the sober ones were gathering and...
Keeping their distance.
—Why aren’t they putting a stop to this?
(They caught us off guard! The Demon King’s followers broke through our cordon!”
(Fool! How did that happen?!)
(Hearing about the thefts and other things distracted us!)
The Captain groaned to himself.
(Who cares if somebody’s cheating on somebody else? The Captain has a bastard kid!)
(The way the Lieutenant’s crimes were covered up was way worse than that!)
Shocking truths were being revealed every minute at Café Bakhtin. Unless it violated the rules of your religion, magical powers couldn’t be stopped. And looking at someone’s life log without evidence of a crime was forbidden for privacy reasons. But still, the Captain was shocked to see how many crimes, or almost-crimes, were going on in his unit. Of course, the fact that his own secret had been revealed didn’t help.
(I-I told them about that kid because I trusted them... Gah! It doesn’t matter! Capture the Demon King’s followers!)
(N-No, well you see...)
(What’s wrong?)
(The citizens heard the noise and are gathering around the café to protest!)
(Stop them! Get them away from here!)
The Captain was on the verge of tears.
The scene before Akuto was something straight out of hell. Keina was crying like a little girl in his arms. And next to him, drunken knights were revealing their deepest secrets as they battled each other with magic.
On the edge of the terrace, the manager of Café Bakhtin was trying his hardest to keep his café from being destroyed. And past that, the sober knights were running out of the café as angry citizens started to swarm the building.
—I thought I just came here for a date...
Beyond them, he could hear strange sounds, and saw a dust cloud approaching him.
—What’s going on here? The war almost seemed better than this...
Akuto sighed to himself.
“Wh-What’s this strange sound?” Junko
looked around her.
It was hard to see anything. The three of them were already surrounded by a crowd of townspeople who’d gathered to protest the Knights’ lewdness and corruption. Of course, a lot of them were just there to watch, but still, the space around the café was jam-packed.
A strange sound was echoing from the back of the crowd. It was a mixture of loud music and what sounded like static screeching.
“Wave pattern analysis shows it to be musical instruments,” Korone said, her hands around her ears.
“Who would bring a musical instrument to something like this?” Junko asked in surprise, and then turned to look.
The sound suddenly got louder.
GYAAAN!
There was an ear-splitting roar as the crowd of people around them split in two. The townspeople were covering their ears as they tried to flee from the sound.
“Wh-What is that?” Junko’s jaw dropped open.
There were men in strange outfits at the back of the crowd — five men in total, all wearing black leather. They were all wearing either leather belts strapped over bare skin, or black shirts. They’d decked themselves out with silver skull jewelry and steel spikes all over their clothing.
But that wasn’t the weird part. Their faces were all painted with white and black makeup. The area around their lips and eyes had been colored black, giving them an eerie, intimidating look. And there were incantations in the language of magic written on their faces, as well.
All five of them had instruments. They were a twin guitar band, it seemed. The vocalist, a man with long black hair, howled:
“You are in the presence of the Demon King! Bow before him, weaklings!”
“What...?” Junko was so surprised that she turned to look at Korone.
“Those are some of the Demon King’s followers. A type of band called black metal. They write extreme lyrics about worshiping the Demon King. Of course, I think they dress up that way just for fashion’s sake...”
Her explanation was cut off by Fujiko’s shout.
“Th-That’s the extreme black metal band ‘Black Demon King’!”
“You know them? ... Do you really hang out with people who’d call themselves something like that?” Junko asked, a little shocked. Fujiko shook her head.
“No, don’t let the name fool you. Black Demon King isn’t just playing dress-up. They’re all members of real black magic circles, who’ve given up their divine baptism. Their leader has an arrest record. They’re a real black metal band, and the only times they switch members is when one’s been arrested or assassinated by another black mage!”
“Ugh... Is that true?”
“Yes... I haven’t abandoned my baptism, because I still need to use magic. But the most fanatical black mages are so eager for the arrival of the Demon King that they’ll abandon their baptisms, even if it means giving up the ability to use magic!”
“So you’re saying...”
“That’s right. Ever since the Demon King War, Black Mages have been able to use magic. After the death of the god Suhara, their faith in the Demon King has reached its MAX!” Fujiko declared.
“Max!”
Peterhausen had functioned as a god for the black mages. He’d died, but before he’d gone to sleep he must have activated some subsystem. It was still providing magic to the unbaptized black mages.
“So that means they’ve come to see the Demon King...”
The band members forced their way through the crowd as they approached the café.
Their mana-powered instruments were in top form, and their hit song, “Triumphant Return of the Demon King,” was echoing loudly.
The knights tried to stop them, but they couldn’t use any magic that would hurt the townspeople. As they hesitated, they soon found themselves swarmed by goth-loli girls, fans of the band.
“Stop them!” the Captain ordered, but he may as well not have said anything.
Black Demon King’s members arranged themselves out in front of the café. The drummer set up his drum set, and when they were all ready, the vocalist bowed deeply to Akuto and declared, “We are honored to be in the presence of the Demon King.”
As he spoke, Akuto was sitting on a chair in the center of the open terrace, with Keina resting on his lap. From a distance, it looked like he was watching the chaos with a dispassionate and uninterested expression.
But Akuto was actually too busy to pay any attention to what was going on around him; something strange was happening to Keina. She seemed like she was drunk, but her body was incredibly cold, like it might freeze your fingers if you touched it. Akuto wasn’t sure what to do, but he’d managed to get her up on his lap.
“A-Are you okay?” Akuto asked.
“I’m okay,” Keina said in a thin voice. “It doesn’t hurt... But... you know...”
Then she turned to look up at him. She seemed very sad.
“What’s wrong?”
“I want you to fall in love with me.”
Her words were so honest and pure that they drove deep into Akuto’s heart. But before he could answer her, his hand moved on its own.
—I’m not doing this... Is she doing it?
He felt the same mana flow in his body that he’d felt before in class.
His hand ignored his commands and gently stroked her hair, as he wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Don’t try to control me like that,” he said, but Keina just looked confused.
“What are you talking about?”
She didn’t seem like she was lying. But his body gradually moved closer to hers, as his face was drawn towards her cheeks.
Keina looked genuinely surprised; he didn’t think she could fake that expression.
—Is she doing it unconsciously?
Akuto wondered to himself as he tried to get his body back under his control. But despite his efforts, he couldn’t do anything to stop its movements.
—This isn’t good. Not for her, either.
To try and make his voice heard by her unconscious mind, Akuto said loudly, “Get away from me!”
“Get away? How cold! If we’ve done something wrong, please forgive us!”
The members of Black Demon King got on their knees and begged.
“Please! Please forgive us! We’ll do anything!”
The band members thought that Akuto was talking to them, but of course, Akuto didn’t hear them.
“Get... away? But you’re getting closer to me!”
“You’re controlling me unconsciously!”
“Everyone, abandon your hopes! Your hopes for the Demon King only serve as a burden to him! But this means that he has heard our wishes!”
“What do I do...? I don’t know...”
“The loneliness you felt is burdening your heart. An unconscious power is trying to get that back.”
“The Demon King was lonely! Imprisoned within the Academy! Humiliated! But fear not, for he is about to get his power back!”
“Lonely...? Me?”
“You only cared about me. You thought that the only way you could be happy was for me to love you.”
“That’s right! You are everything to us, Demon King!”
“Oooooh! What an honor! The Demon King himself knows of us!”
“But... that’s because I love you...”
“I know that. But that’s not right. You don’t know who I really am yet.”
“Wonderful! The Demon King is going to show us his true power!”
“He says that even when he killed a god, that wasn’t his true power! Show us your true power! Show us your true power!”
“The real... you?”
“There’s no need to hurry. You can make new memories from now on, little by little. I’ll be watching you.”
“That’s right! It’s about to begin! The legend is about to begin!”
“A nightmare that will remain in the people’s memories! An unforgettable nightmare! The Demon King is watching! He’s watching the whole world!”
> “You’ll... be watching me?”
“That’s right. So grant me my wish. Don’t try to force everything around you to be under your control. Your feelings are tying me down.”
“The Demon King demands you grant him all you have! Grant him your money! Grant him your lives! Abandon all you have and worship the Demon King!”
“Yes! For the world to come! For the world to come!”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying... It’s too complicated...”
“Don’t worry. I’m about to begin. First, stay calm.”
Only when he said that did Keina stop controlling Akuto’s body. And at the same time, she passed out. It was only then that Akuto looked up and saw what was around him.
“The Demon King commands you to remain calm!”
“We shall make this land our own, and make of it a bridge to the future world!”
“This open terrace now belongs to Black Demon King! We shall remodel it into a concert hall! Out of the way, cowardly knights! Listen to this hymn of praise for our King, and sink into the abyss of despair!”
The band began to play what sounded like a black magic song.
“Uh... I’m sorry?” Akuto said, but by the time he had realized that things had gotten even worse, it was too late.
“Take them down! Ignore the knights who are drunk! Blow them away too if you have to!” the Captain’s order echoed.
The knights fired their attack magic, but their spells were stopped by a throat-crushing death metal scream from the vocalist.
“We are in the presence of the Demon King, and we must fight to prove ourselves!”
“Hang in there! Just keep fighting until reinforcements get here!”
And then, the quiet café in a residential street became a battlefield.
Explosions. Shouts. Guitar distortions. More embarrassing confessions from the knights. More insults and fighting. Screams. Shouts from the demonstrators.
The hatred and the smoke from the explosions was forming a spiral, with Akuto at its center. He was sitting there calmly with Keina resting on his lap. Of course, he actually just had no idea what to do, but to an outside observer he seemed to be calmly watching the chaos around him.
“How terrifying...”
“So that’s the power of the Demon King...”
“His mere presence is enough to cause confusion in the knights’ ranks, and bring chaos down around him!”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 6 Page 4
