Chapter 340: A Game of Fairness

“Me?”

“Unless you put them up to it, there’s no way those guys would have disobeyed my orders and come looking for me.”

No matter how unruly those fools are, they know when to follow orders and when they can get away with ignoring them. I made myself perfectly clear back then, so they wouldn’t have disobeyed without a good reason.

And since you knew I was cursed and the details of it, the culprit who would tell them is obvious.

“I think I know the reason without even asking, but…”

As if responding to my words, laced with certainty, the Demon King smirked.

“Well… now that I think about it, isn’t it fair? I lost legion commanders, so you should lose subordinates of equal value.”

…So he knew from the start. Deon sighed quietly.

Judging by the timing of the mad dogs’ arrival, the Demon King’s scheme started as soon as the legion commanders departed. He mentioned ‘losing legion commanders’ now for that very reason. In other words, he was certain of their deaths from the beginning.

‘Still…’

Even so.

‘Fairness’ instead of ‘revenge’?

“…This isn’t a game.”

“Isn’t it?”

The Demon King shrugged casually.

Detecting a subtle denial in his nonchalant question, Deon frowned slightly. It was as if he was saying that it was a very interesting and fun game, which was quite unpleasant.

My voice turned curt without realizing it.

“Your calculations are wrong from the start. Legion commanders aren’t important to you.”

“They are important.”

“…I chose the wrong word. Let me correct myself. They aren’t ‘precious’ to you.”

“That’s right.”

The Demon King had said it once before.

That demons were not kin. Along with saying that ‘Demon King’ was a single race, he compared ‘demons’ to excrement. He asked if humans considered their own waste as kin just because it came from inside them.

“But aren’t ‘precious’ and ‘important’ not that different?”

“No, they are completely different. Something precious has value ‘because’ it is precious, but something important is important ‘because’ it has value. This also determines whether it damages the owner or just causes a loss. You wouldn’t mentally break down just from losing legion commanders, would you?”

This could also be interpreted as meaning that Deon Hart would mentally break down if he lost the Lofty Knights.

Surprised by the weakness revealed without concealment, the Demon King tilted his head slightly.

“Are you sure it’s okay to reveal that like that?”

“It’s the end anyway, what can you do now?”

“True. Anyway, according to you…”

Eyes holding red pupils narrowed slightly.

“Isn’t it more fitting because of that? The value of the Lofty Knights themselves is insignificant compared to the legion commanders, so we have to borrow your value to barely match it.”

“…The premise itself is wrong.”

I thought he would be knowledgeable about emotions since he lived for so long, but conversely, he seems to have become duller to them. If you put even emotions into calculations, it’s no wonder you can’t understand.

Deon tapped the table with his fingertips as if to nail it down.

“I clearly said that I would break if those guys died. So, you should add my value entirely to the value of the Lofty Knights.”

“Even if the Lofty Knights die at this point, your actions wouldn’t change, would they?”

Clink. The Demon King put down the empty teacup and brought over the tea that was in front of Deon. He conspicuously put the untouched tea to his lips and tilted it, smiling slyly towards the red eyes.

Did I say the premise itself was wrong? Then I want to point out that Deon Hart didn’t consider the background itself.

“Whether the Lofty Knights live or die, you would have ended up standing here anyway. Isn’t that right?”

Don’t just focus on the value of the legion commanders and the Lofty Knights; broaden your perspective.

The summit is right in front of you; there’s no way you would stop just because you’re mentally broken. Being mentally broken isn’t anything new, and Deon, you’ve overcome crises countless times and endured. You would definitely finish what you aimed for and then collapse, if only because you’d be resentful of the time you persevered. Too many people have been sacrificed on the path you’ve walked to give up now.

So, there’s no need to add Deon Hart’s value entirely. The Demon King was confident that his calculations were not wrong.

Deon, who had been quietly facing him, slowly parted his lips.

“…It’s just an assumption, so nothing is certain. It’s a pointless topic at this point, so let’s stop here.”

The Lofty Knights issue was just something I felt I should bring up once. I wasn’t trying to argue about value or right and wrong, so it would be ridiculous to waste time on useless arguments by getting further involved.

It seems like the Demon King probed me thinking he would gain something if I got angry, but I have no intention of doing what he wants. Following my intention to get away from the current pointless topic, the flow of thought turned in another direction.

“More importantly, something I’m curious about came up.”

As we talked, there was something I was wondering about.

The Demon King meets my eyes as if telling me to speak. The flower behind him asserted its presence, but Deon didn’t spare a glance for the unnecessarily colorful background and asked his question.

“Still, why did you just watch as the ‘important’ legion commanders died in vain and headed to their deaths?”

“Hmm? It’s not like you’re asking something you already know…”

“I know that demons aren’t kin and that you don’t have any particular attachment to them. What I’m curious about is not that, but the answer to why you suddenly gave up everything now, despite having acted as someone responsible for the demons all this time.”

“Ah, I see.”

It’s certainly something to be curious about.

The Demon King smoothly raised the corner of his lips. A faint smile, like moonlight, floated on his face against the backdrop of a colorful flower garden.

“Because they are a race that will perish when I die anyway.”

“……”

An answer premised on his own death.

Deon rolled his eyes silently. At the end of his gaze, moved without thought, yellow forsythia came into view.

“…And why did you specifically wait here?”

I can’t get used to this background.

Judging from his attitude, he must have known I was coming for him, but why this place of all places?

Instead of answering directly, the Demon King spread one arm as if boasting.

“It’s not very cold even in winter, is it? And it’s not too hot for a greenhouse either.”

“……”

“I set the temperature here to be around mid-March. In human realm dates… maybe around March 15th. And yet, the flowers are quite diverse and beautiful, aren’t they?”

What is he trying to say? As questions, wariness, and boredom mixed and surfaced in my red pupils, the Demon King smiled, curving his eyes.

“How is it? If you die in a place like this, it will feel like dying in the human realm, right?”

“…Huh?”

“You’re human after all, and I thought you might be bothered by not being able to die in the human realm.”

…This is another answer premised on ‘Deon Hart’s’ death.

No matter how battered I become, surely one of us will survive this fight, but why is he so certain about both ‘Demon King’s’ death and ‘Deon Hart’s’ death? Rather than displeasure, questions took precedence, and I tilted my head slightly, but Deon frowned as he saw the Demon King just smiling and smiling, as if he had no intention of answering.

“Well. I don’t really like confined spaces.”

No matter how pretty the flowers are, they just look like they are submerged in blood, so what positive impressions could I get from them? Everything still just looks the same to me.

“…Ah, I see.”

“……”

“The curse has risen a lot.”

The Demon King slid his gaze, which had been on Deon’s face, down. His gaze landed on the location where the blood was rising, precisely around the neck.

Though unseen, he could feel it as the owner and source of the magic. Soon, Deon Hart would be swallowed by the curse.

“We should settle this before that curse chokes the life out of you.”

The time to fight has finally come.

Reluctantly, I moved my body and stood up from my seat.

“For the sake of the Hero who brought a mountain of weapons, I think it would be good for me to face you with a weapon befitting that…”

What would be good?

Picking up the small pouch that had fallen next to the chair, I rummaged inside.

“After all, it’s best to go out with a bang in the end, right?”

A greatsword of ominous shape was in my hand.

Deon quietly stared at him. It wasn’t that he was surprised that a greatsword came out of a small pouch. He had used magic pouches from the early days of coming to Demon King’s castle many times and found them useful, so it was absurd to be surprised now.

It was just that, he felt a strange hesitation in the Demon King’s slow movements.

“I’m curious about the reason for wasting time with pointless conversation.”

I opened my mouth.

“Well, be…”

“It’s not just because it’s the end, is it?”

“……”

“You still seem to be hesitating now.”

—Why?

A lip corner curved up crookedly, laced with clear mockery.

“Are you perhaps getting scared now?”

“……”

The Demon King did not answer.

The expression disappeared from his face, which was always filled with smiles. His fully revealed red eyes, filled with unreadable light, turned to Deon Hart, and then lowered to take in the greatsword in his hand.

A slow voice filled the space after a brief silence.

“…Well, partly it’s because I’m feeling sentimental about your growth… but I can’t say you’re completely wrong. Yes, I am a little scared.”

“…What?”

Deon’s expression twisted as if he couldn’t understand.

I said it first, but it was just to be sarcastic; the main purpose was to find out the reason for his hesitation.

But he’s really scared? Why?

“…Are you afraid of dying?”

Are you, ‘Demon King’, afraid of dying?

“Yes, I’m afraid of dying.”

Are you, ‘Deon Hart’, afraid of dying?

Afraid that I might win, kill the Hero named Deon Hart, and then have to live through another endless, uncertain time?

The words ‘I bet everything’ are not a lie. The Demon King was hoping for his story to end here more desperately than anyone else. Although I expressed it as ‘desperately’ for convenience, it was a desperate, deep, and very heavy wish that could not be fully captured by the single word ‘desperate’.

So if I win this battle….

“……”

“…What kind of.”

Deon momentarily saw a dangerous expression flicker across the Demon King’s face. It clearly held a self-destructive light.

But when the Demon King raised his head again, he wore a perfectly clean smile, as if the expression from just now was just my imagination.

“Anyway, Deon, you’ve done really well.”

“……”

“You’ve worked hard to get here.”

He lightly lifted the ungraceful greatsword as if handling a tree branch and pointed it at Deon. A calm and kind voice followed.

It was a light voice filled with laughter, as if it would be carried away by a gentle breeze and scattered.

“You’ve done well so far, so I’m sure you’ll finish perfectly too.”

“……”

“How about we fight purely with martial prowess, without magic?”

There was no reply. Instead, Deon quietly drew the spear he had slung across his back and faced him.

The air settled, and a taut tension flowed in the silence for a moment.

“Before that.”

The Demon King rolled his eyes, scanned his surroundings, and moved his sword to the left.

“Isn’t it too unsuitable to fight here?”

The sword tip moves to the right as if drawing a straight line in the air.

A very basic horizontal slash, a simple and slow movement that even ordinary people can easily follow with their eyes. Wondering what his intention was, red pupils that had been following the sword’s movement returned to the Demon King in that instant.

—Clang!!!!

The glass covering the greenhouse shattered all at once.

Under the three moons that began to overlap, shards of glass, uniformly broken without any large pieces, poured down, reflecting the white moonlight.

Red and black gazes crossed through the glittering glass rain. Neither the Hero nor the Demon King would be hurt by such trivial glass shards, so no one avoided their spot.

“…Now that the surroundings are roughly cleared up.”

As if by promise, the two took a step forward at the same time.

Deon opened his mouth, calculating in his head how long the Demon King might have lived. The Demon King murmured inwardly, contemplating the time he had lived.

“To you—”

To me.

“I will announce death.”

I will teach you death.”