episode_0033

Inside the quiet library, Arthur was sitting in a corner, quietly reading a book.

Normally, I would have been in the classroom because it was class time, but today, all the students were in the library because of Professor Serena’s assignment.

This is because the assignment was based on a problem that had not been covered in class, and the condition was to obtain the necessary information from the library, solve it, and submit it during class.

“.. It wasn’t that difficult.”

Of course, it was an easy task for Arthur, who was faster at counting the books he had not read, but even Fabian could guess the difficulty of the task by looking through several books for over an hour.

Sometimes I like this too… Doing something else during class by myself, I feel like a bad student or something?

Arthur, who laughed at his own thoughts, went back to reading his book. He heard some noises outside from time to time, but he didn’t pay attention because there was still a lot of class time left.

-Boom!!

“Eek!!”

Wow! What is this?

While concentrating on his book, Arthur heard a sound from above and his gaze naturally turned to the ceiling, the source of the sound.

“Huh..?”

Was there originally a hole like that in the ceiling? Now that I think about it, there aren’t any other kids around. Where did they all go?

Only then did Arthur realize that things were going strangely, and he began to look around, sticking his head out from a corner.

“Fabianㅡ! Professorㅡ!”

I shouted out in case someone was around, but there was no answer.

What happened during class, and everyone left before me because they couldn’t find me in the corner?

Of course, there were only many speculations, but nothing was certain, so Arthur thought he should start looking for other people first and tried to get up from his seat to leave the library. If only he hadn’t seen something coming in through the hole in the ceiling.

What are those… black wings and horns? Could it be… a demon? They even invaded the academy? T… let’s hide for now. I’m weak, so if I hide well, they won’t find me.

Considering that it had black wings and horns, it was clear that it wasn’t human, so Arthur decided that it would be dangerous to go out now and hid himself in a corner of the library.

“…”

About ten minutes passed, but fortunately, no sound from the demons could be heard.

..Did he go somewhere else? If so, that’s fortunate, but he might be lurking around..!

-Tap! Tap!

“Ugh… Ugh…”

Arthur, who was hiding at that time, heard the sound of running nearby and stuck his head out a little to look at the place where the sound came from.

“Ho.. Are there any students left? We have to run away quickly!!”

Arthur saw a man looking around in an urgent voice, looking for students, and he thought he was a rescue team and showed up.

“Excuse me?”

“Huh? Thank goodness you’re here!”

“Yes, please help me.. There are demons around right now…”

“It was difficult because it didn’t show the exact location, right?”

Location..? What does that mean.. Now that I look at it, the clothes aren’t Academy clothes..! Are you not from the Academy?

The man began to approach Arthur, showing an unidentifiable tool. Arthur, sensing something strange, tried to run away from the man, but was caught by the back of his neck by the man who had approached him.

“Please let go quickly!! I’m telling you to let go of this!!”

What should I do? Is it a kidnapper? Why are you after me! What was that demon thing earlier? I don’t understand what’s happening right now.

“Calm down, if you keep resisting I’ll want to kill you?”

Arthur’s body froze as goosebumps ran down his spine at the sound of the voice. He slowly turned his head to look at the man, who looked completely different from when he first saw him.

At first, he was a man wearing ordinary clothes, but at some point his appearance changed, and he had black wings on his back and was wearing a suit.

Although the face was still the same, unfortunately, a large horn was visible on top of the head.

“Ma, Demon?!”

“That’s correct! But I’m a little busy, so would you mind if I excused you for a moment?”

““Mirror World””

As soon as the demon spoke, the surrounding space was seen turning black.

“Here..”

As Arthur was talking to himself in confusion, the demon approached Arthur and began to explain to him kindly.

“This is my private space! The good thing is that no one but me knows what happens here! Not even the goddesses you believe in. Haha! ”

“Then you should go to sleep for now, because it will disturb your work?”

As soon as the demon spoke, Arthur felt something enter the back of his neck and quickly lost consciousness and collapsed.

“Ahem~ Demon King, I will save you!”

The demon approached the fallen Arthur, placed his hand on Arthur’s forehead, and began to look through Arthur’s memories.

“..That’s strange? I should have information about the Demon King in my memory..”

The face of the demon, who closed his eyes and searched his memories, began to harden little by little.

“I have a lot of memories of magic, so it’s annoying to read. Since they’re not that important anyway, can I just erase them all?”

The demon asked Arthur politely, but Arthur, who had fallen, naturally had no answer.

“Thank you! How kind of you. Then let’s erase everything… Ta-da! How is it? Since I erased the magic stuff, it’s definitely more comfortable, right?”

Afterwards, he searched his memories once more, but the demon tribe could not find any clues related to the Demon King in Arthur’s memories.

“Haa.. The Demon King’s soul is definitely there, but he has no memories..”

“Haha, don’t worry. It’ll definitely come out when you erase the unnecessary memories!”

-Thwack. Thwack.

Perhaps a side effect of having his memory erased, Arthur began to bleed from his nose and his body began to convulse violently.

“Oh my, I guess it’s because the human body is weak, I have to hurry!”

“Hmm… I swung my sword for a really long time. But I don’t need these memories, so I’ll erase them!”

At the same time, Arthur’s seizures began to get worse.

“Hold on a little longer! This time… um, who is this white-haired woman? She’s important to my memory, but it doesn’t seem like a very important memory. Can I erase it all? Then…”

“Stop.”

The demon was startled by the sudden voice and looked up at Arthur’s face.

“Your Majesty the Demon King..?”

Arthur, who had escaped from the demon’s clutches, was standing in front of the demon.

“Ahh..! Demon King! It’s nice to see you again!”

“Yeah, Raum.”

Raum’s expression of delight only lasted for a moment before it began to darken.

“Your Majesty… Your horn… Hasn’t it regained all its strength yet?”

“Power, I guess it’s because I just woke up. But I’m still satisfied with waking up.”

“Thank goodness..! I was already thinking I would fail because I couldn’t find the Demon King’s memories, right? Haha! ”

“I think your magic has awakened my sleeping soul. I guess I won’t have this kind of luck again.”

After the Demon King finished speaking, Raum continued speaking with a nervous expression.

“Your Majesty, I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can go to the Demon Castle right now. There are traitors here, and I think it would be dangerous to go in your current state..”

However, contrary to Raum’s expectations that the Demon King would become angry, the Demon King’s expression did not change at all.

“It’s okay. Anyway, I can’t move right now.”

“Your Majesty? What are you talking about..”

“It seems like my soul and the human soul are tied together.”

At the Demon King’s words, Raum began to panic.

“That.. If it’s someone like the Demon King, he can easily corrupt and absorb the soul of an ordinary human..”

“Hmm.. I’m just an ordinary human.. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a soul that shines this brightly in my life.”

“Perhaps a human with a close relationship to a saint or warrior.”

“No way.. I didn’t see all the memories, but I couldn’t find any connection..”

Raum spoke carefully so as not to upset the Demon King, but the Demon King smiled faintly and answered, making his worries seem meaningless.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have the initiative right now, but I’ll take it back soon.”

“Is there a way?”

“Yeah, it seems easier than I thought. The soul shines brightly like the sun, but the light dims intermittently. Perhaps the soul has a serious illness.”

“Then maybe..?”

“Corruption, this is the only way.”

Of course, from Raum’s perspective, no matter how sick the soul was, it seemed impossible to corrupt a human being who was related to the warrior. This was because not only had it never happened in history, but he could not even imagine how much despair it would have to cause.

The Demon King continued his explanation, perhaps noticing Raumu’s expression.

“Looking at your expression, I see you think it’s impossible. I’m not doing it without a reason.”

The Demon King placed his index finger on Raum’s forehead along with his words.

“I see.. It certainly seems possible.”

The scene that Raum saw through the Demon King was Arthur’s life. A life stained with pain and anger, a life where he had lost the will to live, but he was living because of a single human being, so it seemed very easy to corrupt him if he could use that human well.

“I need your power for the plan. So absorb me, and if you take my human body, I will revive you.”

The Demon King’s order to be absorbed was an order that any normal demon would have refused, but to Raum, the Demon King was a god, so he didn’t have to worry about it.

“Yes, as the Demon King wishes.”

With those words, Raum knelt before the Demon King.

“…”

-Phew!

At the same time, the Demon King’s hand pierced Raum’s heart, and the Demon King was able to absorb all of the power.

“Then… I guess we should start trading.”

-Crackling…

With a strange sound, the Demon King’s body split into two, and only two figures resembling Arthur remained in the dark space.