“Forget it! What kind of twisted game is this?”
“Huh?!” Darkness said, even more shocked. Then she looked at me as if she was about to shoot something back, but she didn’t immediately say anything.
Her father watched us with palpable amusement.
…Crap. How had I gotten myself into this mess? The kingdom’s confidant had apparently seen right through me.
Fine. If she has to go to somebody weird… Well, I’ll look after her.
As if he had read my thoughts, Darkness’s father’s face relaxed and he exhaled.
…It didn’t look like he had much time left.
He closed his eyes and whispered, “Lalatina. Do you enjoy the life you’ve been leading? So much that you could throw everything away for it?”
Darkness answered without a moment’s hesitation. “I’ve loved it. I would give up everything I have to protect my friends.”
Her father nodded once, as if satisfied to hear this, then murmured, “I see” very softly.
“Lalatina,” he went on. “You must take the path you desire in life. Leave all the rest to me. I’m sure I have the strength left to write one last letter.”
Darkness leaned in toward her father, took his hand.
“I love you, Father. Thank you for spending all these years raising me… Someday, when you’re better, tell me stories of my dearly departed mother until I fall asleep, like you used to…”
“I love you, too, my sweet daughter. Yes, I’ll be happy to tell you all about your mother, whom you so loved…”
Darkness’s eyes brimmed.
“Yes… Sometime…,” her father whispered, and then with a blissful smile he squeezed his daughter’s hand.
Suddenly, a magic circle surrounded him and his whole bed.
“Sacred Dispel!”
The incantation came from the one person in the room who had a special gift for spoiling the moment.
“Ahhh!”
“F-Father?!”
Father and daughter both cried out at the sudden burst of light. When the flash faded, the bags had vanished from under his eyes, and although he was still thin, his skin had regained a certain glow.
…………Um.
As we all stood staring, Aqua, sounding altogether too pleased with herself, exclaimed, “It was a curse! The old guy had a curse put on him by a pretty powerful demon. But it was no match for my strength!”
Darkness’s dad lay healed by the power of this oblivious goddess, still holding his daughter’s hand. They looked at each other.
““…………””
Slowly, Darkness pulled her hand away. She glanced out the window, red up to her ears. Her father drew up his blanket, hiding his face in embarrassment. The little bit of his cheeks that I could see poking out from under the covers was bright red.
…Like father, like daughter.
“Now everything’s fine! Yay, Darkness! Now your dad can tell you about your mom anytime!”
Aqua was genuinely thrilled. There was no malice in her at all.
Darkness, however, covered her face and slumped to her knees.
What a happy ending…
Interlude
Demons Cackle in the Night
“Arrrgh! Damn! Damn! Damn!”
I was in a secret underground room beneath my bedchamber, beating the daylights out of a cringing, grimy demon. Namely, Max, an incompetent fiend who had failed to grant even one of my wishes. I kicked him again and again.
“Wheeze… Wheeze… Wheeze…”
He made the strangest sound as he lay there, curled in a ball and covering his face. I kicked him again.
How long had it been since I had used that divine item to summon this low-level creature of darkness? Normally one comes to have some kind of affection for anybody one has known as long as this, but in this particular case, I had never been able to muster the slightest attachment no matter how much time passed.
“You! Miserable creature! If you were even slightly more useful, Lalatina would be mine now! Are you that inconsistent?! Are you that incoherent?! Worthless! Worthless! Worthless beast!”
“Wheeze! Wheeze! Wheeze! A demon is less powerful in a church building. More to the point, Alderp, it seems someone has broken the curse.” He didn’t even bother to uncurl himself as he delivered this devastating news.
“Broken the curse?! You! You can’t even curse one wretched human to death?!” I resumed beating the demon mercilessly.
Why did I keep him around? Because his memory was so poor that he quickly forgot even whether he had received payment or not, which meant my expenses were minimal. But maybe it was time to think about cutting him loose.
And yet I would need his power again to cover up what had happened this time. Even I knew that the way I had spoken to Lalatina was inappropriate in front of all those nobles and powerful people. I let the blood go to my head and spoke violently to her in public, even though her house is of a far higher status than mine.
There was a silver lining, though. After the way that obnoxious little boy disrupted the wedding ceremony, I had every reason and every right to put him to death. Perhaps Lalatina would even offer herself to me in hopes of saving him.
“Max! By tomorrow morning, I want everyone who was at that church and everyone who might have heard what I said to have their memories altered! Make them think I was more…friendly. You have your orders!”
My thoughts turned to the coming day, and I made to leave the dank underground room, but then I heard Max’s voice behind me.
“Wheeze… Wheeze… That’s impossible, Alderp. I lack…the power.”
I stopped in my tracks. Impossible?
Max might have been worthless, but in all our time together, he had never once spoken back to me. No matter what I asked him to do, no matter how much he was to alter the facts, he had never deemed a request of mine impossible. Why now?
“Impossible, you say? I know better than anyone that you’re a low-level demon. This divine item summoned you at random, after all. But still, you have no right to refuse me. So do it! I don’t care if it’s impossible; just do the job! Are you worried there’s too many? Memory alteration is your specialty! Do it!”
And yet…
“It’s impossible. The light… Wheeze. The light that broke the curse is too strong; it keeps me at bay. It makes the task impossible.”
Now I was well and truly angry. “Fine, you incompetent fool! I’ll tear up our contract and get some other, better demon! This is my final order to you: Bring Lalatina… Use your powers to compel her to appear before me immediately. Then I will pay you what is owed!”
That got Max’s attention. “Pay me? You’ll pay me my due?”
“Yes. I mean it. Your own idiocy has caused you to forget that I’ve already paid you several times. But this time I’ll pay you for real. Now! Bring Lalatina to me!” It was so kind of me to clue in this hopelessly forgetful monster.
…That was when I heard it: a knock on the door of my basement room, a room no one else should have known about.
“Lord Governor, are you there? It’s me. I’ve come to apologize for today. Won’t you come out?”
What was she doing here at this hour? How did she know about this room? But never mind all that! Because that voice was one I could never mistake…!
“Lalatina! You’ve come, Lalatina! G-good! Excellent work, Max! I praise you, I truly do! I have no idea what you did, but I’ll pay you, just as I promised. And our contract is finished! I set you free! Ahh, Lalatina, I’m coming!”
“And I haven’t even done anything! Wheeze, wheeze! You’ll pay me? And end our contract?”
Max was muttering something to himself, but I ignored him, rushing to the door of the room. I could see Lalatina looking down at me. And what a seductive negligee she was in! She smiled with an affection I had never seen from her before and came down the stairs into the room.
That smile—that body—I was immediately possessed by the most hideous lus
t.
Looking apologetic, Lalatina murmured sweetly, “I’m very sorry, milord. Let me apologize for what happened today. Please, just…take my body and spare my friends!”
Suddenly I understood it all. Just as I had expected, she had come to beg me for mercy.
I could be patient no longer. How many years had I wished for this girl, and now here she was before me—and in such a state!
I couldn’t even wait for her to get down the stairs. I threw myself at her—
And then Lalatina smirked, and her body began to twist and distort.
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Did you think it was Lalatina? Too bad—it is I! Ahh! Now, that is negativity! Delicious! Exquisite! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
A masked man was standing there, wearing a tuxedo just like Max’s.
“Wha—?! Wh-who the hell are you? Why am I shivering? You give off the same aura as Max! You’re a demon! You are, aren’t you?!” I pointed an accusatory finger at him.
The masked demon grinned.
“Max! Kill this filthy servant of evil!” I shouted, pointing at the newcomer. I ground my teeth in frustration at being duped. How dare he turn into my Lalatina, the one I’d so long desired!
My disappointment was absolute. Never, never would I forgive this!
“…? Why should I kill my fellow? Wheeze…? Hmm? Say…have we met before?”
He showed no sign of listening to my orders. Had sass become his new normal? What was wrong with him today? Had he, at last, truly broken?
As these thoughts ran through my mind, the masked demon before me gave a bow of such perfection that any nobleman would have envied it.
“How many hundreds or thousands of times have I introduced myself to you? Well, once again—it is a pleasure to meet you, Maxwell. Maxwell the Adjuster. He who can change the facts. I am the all-seeing demon Vanir. Maxwell, demon who can bend the truth, I have come for you!”
He calls this incompetent creature not Max but Maxwell? Wait… What does he mean, come for him?
“Vanir! Vanir! For some reason I feel…I feel you’re very familiar! We must have met before. Haven’t we met before?”
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You say the same thing every time! Your name is Maxwell! You are my fellow, who has come here from another world without his memories! Now, let us return to Hell, where you belong!”
“W-wait just one moment!” I exclaimed. “He is my slave! You can’t just take him from me!”
This caused the demon called Vanir to laugh. “Slave? Maxwell, a Duke of Hell just as I am—your slave? O greedy man, who has nothing in abundance but ill luck. For once, luck was with you. It was your good fortune that Maxwell happened to be the first demon you summoned. Any other demon might well have ripped you apart the instant he appeared, without any talk of ‘pay’! But you were lucky! Maxwell understands nothing! He is powerful yet no more thoughtful than a babe. He raised you to the position you now have, and you would do well to be very, very grateful.”
I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. My pet, Max, a Duke of Hell? And what did he mean about my status? I had gotten where I was under my own power. That shattered husk of a demon was hardly a toy in comparison.
My confusion only caused Vanir to smile wider. “And as I recall, when I appeared, you told Maxwell that you would pay him what he was owed, that your contract was over, and that he was free.”
Damn it all! He was right about that anyway. When I said those things, I had been under the mistaken impression that it was Max’s power that had brought Lalatina to me. In my elation, I had forgotten myself and allowed myself to say those foolish things.
Hadn’t this creature called himself the all-seeing demon? In other words, he had arrived here at this precise moment, knowing that this would happen.
As if he had read my very thoughts, the demon said, “Yes, your contract with Maxwell was something of a problem. Goodness, but I’ve had to take a roundabout route!”
Roundabout? “Wh-why, you—! You don’t mean you—?!”
“Indeed! It’s precisely as you imagine! It was I who enabled that boy to repay the debt and I who told him about you. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Good, very good! An exceptional animosity! A veritable delicacy!”
Clenching my shaking fist, I said, “What a damnable ruse! What a thing to do…! If you wanted this broken-down excuse for a demon, you should have said so! If you had told me what the both of you were to begin with, I would have given him to you immediately! There was no need to stir up the entire town, humiliate me in public—!”
Yes! Had I known that an omniscient demon was running around my town, I would never have been so bold…
What the demon said to me in response was simple, straightforward, and unbelievably stupid.
“This way was more fun! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha, what a sight it was to see! Even that goddess danced to my tune this time! While that thuggish little deity was at the ceremony, she even had to submit to the humiliation of having me tend her egg! Mm, such terrible negativity! And then there’s the hatefulness of a man who has loved and lusted for so long, and then—then, just as his perverse desires were about to bear fruit, just as he was about to gain what he had so long sought, his bride was snatched away from him! I find that if I were destroyed at this very moment, I could die a happy demon!”
Just what in the hell is this creature babbling about?!
“Now then, Lord Governor. I have no further business with you. I shall escort Maxwell back to Hell and then return to labor away under that ridiculous shopkeeper.”
It seemed the demon intended to go home, wherever that was. Very well. I hadn’t realized Max was so powerful, but I would get along fine without him.
But what was I going to do about tomorrow? It was too late now to erase the evidence of what I had done. But just as I was worrying about that, I heard Max huffing excitedly.
“Wheeze! Wheeze! Vanir! Vanir! Before we go home, I must receive my payment from Alderp! He told me! He said he would pay what was owed!”
Damn! I did say that, didn’t I…?
“Fine, fine, your payment. Take your payment and—”
—go home, I was about to say, when a muffled crunch echoed through the dark basement room. It took me a moment to register that it was the sound of my own arms breaking.
“…Hr—arrgh! Arrrrrgggggghhhhhh!”
Max was standing there, observing his handiwork.
My breath came in ragged gasps. “Hhh! It h— It hurts!” I cried as he dragged me up by my broken limbs.
“Alderp! Alderp! What a fine sound you make! Wheeze! Wheeze!”
What foolishness was my broken demon talking now?
“What is this?! Max, let me go! Stop! Stop that, owwwww!”
My weeping and yelling elicited an expression from the demon, the first I had seen in all the time I’d known him. His impassive, masklike face twisted horrifically, and he laughed as if he was truly enjoying himself.
At that, Vanir burst out laughing. “Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Maxwell, why not continue this when we get back to Hell? This man owes you a very great deal. Bring him with us and extract your price slowly.”
Even my pain-addled brain could detect the menace in those words.
“Under the terms of the contract by which you employed Maxwell, payment is to be granted in the form of his favorite flavor of negativity for a set period of time,” Vanir said. “Hmm, interesting. You’ve led a most indulgent life and mistreated Maxwell rather spectacularly… I highly doubt you can pay all you owe even if you devote the rest of your life to the effort…”
The masked demon’s words sent a freezing chill down my spine. I nearly forgot about the pain in my arms as my body began to shake, and I stared desperately at the monster.
“V-very well! I was wrong to be so cruel! I have a proposition. First, take my—”
“Enormous wealth? Once Maxwell returns to Hell, your various misdeeds shall come to light, and you shall have no wealth at all. Everything shall be given into the care of the Dustiness
family… It shall be distributed to that boy—the one who is just now at home, thinking that perhaps he shouldn’t have used all his money to save that girl and that maybe he’ll make her repay him with her body—along with the town and the nation. I, Vanir, the all-seeing demon, declare: From this moment forth, you are penniless.”
I gnashed my teeth at that, nearly frothing at the mouth. All my hard-earned treasure…!
“In—”
“In that case, take any number of servants from your house in your own place? Such a shame! The burden of payment falls only upon the one who entered into the contract. Ah! A fine fit of dark emotion, but that despair you’re feeling isn’t the flavor I prefer. It’s more to Maxwell’s liking.”
At that, my body finally refused to stop shaking.
“M-Ma— M-M-Max! Max…! I—I ad-m-mit, I did some unconscionable things to you… Terrible things. I beg of you: Won’t you save me? Won’t you forgive me? I know how it seemed, but I never hated you! It’s true! I beg of you, Max!”
Vanir continued to grin broadly as I spoke, but for whatever reason, he made no move to correct my lies.
I felt Max let go of my arms. I collapsed to the floor.
The faintest flicker of hope entered my heart; I looked up at Max fearfully.
He was smiling merrily…and with unutterable cruelty. This demon, who had remained expressionless the entire time we had known each other, now wore the innocent smile of a child.
“Alderp! Alderp! Me too! I love you, too, Alderp!”
Vanir was still grinning. What did he think was so funny about this?
The broken demon I had known so long, the smile now covering his entire face, went on. “Alderp! Alderp! I love you, too, Alderp! When we get back to Hell, I shall always be with you, Alderp! Always, always feasting on your despair!”
Now I saw it. Now I saw why I had never been able to feel anything for this creature.
Deep inside, I must have been afraid of his true nature. And now, with him smiling down at me, I was utterly terrified.
Oh gods… Please…
“Ho! How good to know your affection is mutual, Alderp,” Vanir interjected. “You’ll be glad to know, Maxwell is a very dedicated demon. I’m sure he’ll attend to you every hour of every day! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
110-Million Bride Page 16
