Convenience Store Chair

,”Roel! To beat you, I’ve prepared the worst deck in this world!”

At Ross’s declaration, Roel frowned and shouted.

,”…You don’t mean, the Aggro Devil Ping Pong Deck?! You bastard! Did you sell your soul to the Demon King-nim?!”

,”There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to beat you! I’ll summon a 1-cost devil minion to the field and end my turn!”

Looking past the doorway, I subtly turned my head to look at the Demon King-nim, whose face was swollen like he’d been stung by a bee, and asked.

,”What kind of world is this, anyway?”

,”Probably something like ‘A World Seriously Into Dueling’? It seems like it’s influenced by the Hearthstone I used to play?”

,”…I guess this isn’t the place, huh?”

,”Right, this isn’t even the latter half of the novel to begin with. Where, how about over here?”

The Demon King-nim opened a door, and we both stuck our faces in together. I saw the hallway of Transcendence Academy, which I hadn’t seen in a while, and another me confronting an unknown student.

,”Daring to act up to a senior, trusting your hyung? I’ll personally deal with impudent juniors like you―”

,”Too much talk.”

Tang―――!

,”H-Huh?! How did that sound come from a staff?! W-Wait, there’s a hole in my clothes too…!”

,”Ah― don’t you know? This is called a gun.”

,”A gun…?!”

,”It has been a long and humiliating time. Today, I will once again prove that the end of discrimination against underachievers is a shooting spree. I will personally deliver divine punishment to you who mocked and ridiculed the underachievers!”

Tang tang tang―――!

,”Aaaagh! Ross has gone crazy!”

This time, the Demon King-nim looked at me and said.

,”Yeah, I don’t think this is the place either.”

,”…Yeah.”

Nodding, we closed the door again and decided to move to the next floor. Before moving, I looked around, feeling strangely empty, and realized that Ellie was gone.

,”Where’s Ellie?”

At my question, the Demon King-nim frantically turned his head like a mother who had lost her child and found Ellie sticking her face out from a door far away.

,”She’s over there!”

I approached Ellie with the Demon King-nim, and following the Demon King-nim, I checked the record of Ross in another world that Ellie was looking at.

,”I’m going crazy because of my hyung. Do you think I… like being hyung’s younger brother?”

In a dark classroom, another me was grabbing Roel by the collar. Sensing a fight, the Demon King-nim and I exchanged glances, our eyes gleaming, when Roel’s voice was heard.

,”…I never wanted you to be my younger brother either.”

,”What?”

Ross’s eyes were shaking at the unexpected words. Roel, looking straight at Ross, gently wrapped his hands around Ross’s hand grabbing his collar and said with a painful expression.

,”I’ve never thought of you as a younger brother. I… actually I….”

At the strange atmosphere, the Demon King-nim and I simultaneously turned our heads and shouted.

,””Ew―!””

,”Why?”

The Demon King-nim spoke for me, who was speechless at the unbelievable sight unfolding before my eyes, Ellie’s cheeks slightly flushed as she focused.

,”Even though the 21st century is the world of LGBT… this is too far ahead.”

I agreed with the Demon King-nim’s opinion.

,”I guess there are deviants everywhere.”

What was certain was that Roel and I were definitely heterosexual. There was nothing we could do about the deviants that popped up with a 0.1% probability. At the sound of a button falling from the uniform to the floor, I didn’t even turn my head, afraid of seeing something disgusting, and forcibly pulled out Ellie, who was staring ahead with her mouth slightly open, and immediately closed the door.

,”I… liked it. I support you two.”

,”…Don’t ever support them.”

The Demon King-nim nodded vigorously, as if agreeing vehemently with my opinion.

*

After checking the records for a long time, we were finally able to find a record of Ross in another world heading to the 9th floor.

,”Okay, now I know the way. Just follow me.”

I was suspicious because of his multiple past failures, but seeing him confidently open the door and go inside, Ellie and I had no choice but to follow. Beyond the door was a vast world. Strangely, it was a place full of huge boulders instead of mountains… but upon closer inspection, all the boulders were in the shape of human faces.

,”That’s made from Jin Shian’s unconsciousness.”

I nodded at the Demon King-nim’s explanation. Somehow, it was a slightly familiar face. It was a face that I didn’t usually remember, but occasionally came to mind.

,”The way to the 9th floor is to go into the mouth of the face over there.”

The face the Demon King-nim pointed to was familiar yet unfamiliar.

,”That’s….”

,”Our goddamn mother.”

Did Mom look like that? It was a bit different from my old memories, so I was confused. It seemed to be the way she looked when I last met her. Mom seemed to have aged a lot, unlike my memories.

Anyway, it seemed like the time had come to part ways with the Demon King-nim. He hadn’t told me the reason, but the Demon King-nim had declared in advance that he would never go to the 9th floor. This was the end of our companionship.

As I always think, I can’t get used to farewells. Maybe awkwardness is the default of farewells. I didn’t know what to say, so I was rolling my tongue in my mouth when Ellie spoke first.

,”It seems like you need time to talk separately. I’ll go ahead. I’ll be resting comfortably… so talk slowly.”

The quick-witted Ellie gave us space. The Demon King-nim, watching Ellie walk away, suddenly said something out of the blue.

,”You know, I’ve always liked that back view.”

,”…The back view of her walking away from you?”

,”Yeah, I didn’t like it at first either… but as I kept seeing it, I even started to like that view.”

I chuckled at his clumsy confession. I see. This guy still hasn’t given up on Ellie until the end. The Demon King-nim, with an awkward smile, snapped his fingers and summoned two chairs. The plastic chairs were the kind you could often see in front of convenience stores.

,”If you sit here, you’ll talk without realizing how time flies, it’s a magical chair.”

,”Well, we don’t have any friends, so we just sat alone and watched YouTube.”

Saying that, I sat down on the chair with the Demon King-nim. It was a cheap chair, but I could feel a familiar comfort.

,”To be honest, I wanted to stop you from going to the 9th floor.”

I turned my head to the Demon King-nim, who started with those words.

,”Why?”

,”It’s too hard a place for us. No, I should call it hell.”

,”Do you know what kind of place the 9th floor is?”

At my question, the Demon King-nim tapped his temple and said.

,”I told you, the information was updated in my head without my permission. It’s called the 9th floor, but it’s actually a straight passage leading to the 10th floor.”

,”Then how long do I have to walk to get to the 10th floor?”

,”Well, it’ll be different for everyone. But you’ll definitely take longer than Ellie. Because you’ve lost a lot.”

,”…What does that have to do with anything?”

Looking at him with incomprehensible eyes, the Demon King-nim rubbed his forehead and sighed.

,”The Rosses in other worlds each have special abilities. So what’s my ability?”

It didn’t seem like a particularly difficult question. I answered without much thought.

,”Talent for magic?”

,”No, that’s a combination of my effort and luck.”

,”Did you ask because you wanted to brag?”

,”Keu keu, there’s a bit of that too… but my real ability is similar to Roel’s ability to convey his true feelings. It’s the ability to not make the atmosphere around me serious. It’s the ability to make any atmosphere light if I’m there.”

I could understand those words immediately. Being with this guy, I felt joy before sadness. It was thanks to this guy that Ellie’s gloomy expression brightened.

,”That’s an amazing ability.”

I sincerely thought so. The ability to make people approach you without hesitation and become friends quickly would be very appealing to someone like me, who always creates uncomfortable relationships.

,”Yeah, thanks to this ability, I was able to receive a lot of love. That’s why I was able to become a disciple of many people easily, and I was able to become a great wizard with a lot of help.”

,”…But why are you suddenly bringing that up? If you’re going to reveal a secret you’ve been hiding because it’s the end, I think it’s enough that I’ve already passed on my memories to you.”

The Demon King-nim chuckled at my joke. Turning his head and looking at Ellie leaning against Mom’s face in the distance, the Demon King-nim opened his mouth.

,”Until now, I’ve been able to protect you. But it’ll be different from the 9th floor. The 9th floor will make you regain everything you’ve forgotten.”

,”…Then isn’t that a good thing?”

,”Have you ever heard the saying that forgetting is a blessing for people? The 9th floor will force you to regain everything you’ve forgotten. And then it’ll make you head to the 10th floor in a state of having lost everything again.”

The Demon King-nim looked at me. His blue eyes were full of sincere worry.

,”The 9th floor will show you things you didn’t know or realize in order to destroy you.”

,”Why go that far?”

,”We know too well that there are many things in the world that we shouldn’t know.”

,”…That’s true.”

Of course, I know it well. I was born from my mother’s lies. Now I think I know why the Demon King-nim is so seriously worried. But I wasn’t really that scared. Whether it’s because of the Demon King-nim’s ability, or whether it’s because the anticipation of meeting Luna on the 10th floor is numbing my emotions… what I have to do is already decided.

,”But I’ll never give up. I want to meet Luna again no matter what. Right now, reviving Luna is my whole life.”

Instead of answering, the Demon King-nim smiled understandingly and put his hand on my shoulder. The time we spent together was short, but I felt a strange feeling of being supported by a friend I had known for a long time.