The moment Theo opened his eyes, he noticed something was different. He’d barely shifted under the blanket, and yet his clothes felt unusually short and tight. The sleeves had ridden up above his wrists, and his ankles were fully exposed below the hems of his trousers.
Over his memories as a twelve-year-old, forgotten stretches of time layered themselves.
At fifteen, he had been the youngest student ever admitted to the Imperial Academy’s swordsmanship division. The mockery and dismissal that had quietly trailed him for being a commoner and an orphan. Attitudes that were kind in words but drew a line in the end. They were things already past, and still they were as vivid as if he’d just lived through them. His heart beat fast.
Theo rolled onto his side and burrowed into Rihen’s chest. It was warm. When he pressed his forehead into it, his unsettled heart slowly began to calm.
Theo lifted his head and looked at the sleeping Rihen. His gray hair was scattered across the pillow, and the red eyes that had felt special from the first moment he saw them were hidden away beneath his eyelids. He was a man whose eyes curved into thin lines when he smiled, and it was terribly charming. His pale skin often gave off a not-quite-human impression, but the body heat coming off him was warm and snug in a perfectly human way.
To his twelve-year-old self, Rihen had simply been a good person. An adult who was kind for no reason, who had saved him as he lay dying buried in the snow.
But now, with the memories of three more years of living, it didn’t look that simple.
Maybe he has some purpose.
The thought came to him, but it wasn’t disappointing.
People generally move according to their own advantage. Kindness without a reason is the stranger thing. There had to be some calculation behind caring this devotedly for a child picked up out of a snowfield.
Theo carefully turned over the possibilities.
Perhaps Rihen was holding on to an expectation along the lines of, once his curse breaks and he becomes an adult, surely he’ll repay my kindness. He had been wearing a rather expensive-looking dress uniform when he collapsed, and by anyone’s reckoning he wasn’t an ordinary child. In Rihen’s eyes, he might have looked like someone who would one day recover power or position.
If that was the case, then he had to meet Rihen’s expectations. Once the curse broke completely and he’d recovered all his lost memories, he had to repay Rihen without fail.
Thinking that, Theo pressed himself closer to Rihen. Because he wanted to hold on to this warmth forever.
And then, suddenly, another feeling raised its head.
Once he was fully grown, he wouldn’t be able to be held like this anymore, or act spoiled. That fact made him a little sad. No, very sad.
Theo thought that if it were possible, he’d like to grow up slowly. Hoping that this time, these arms, would last just a little longer.
“Look at that. I was right, wasn’t I? You eat well and sleep well and you shoot right up. You’re a full-grown adult now. An adult.”
I looked at the suddenly grown Theo and applauded in earnest. He was wearing the loose-fitting clothes I’d prepared in advance. For some reason, though, Theo didn’t seem to like being called an adult.
“I’m not an adult yet. I’m fifteen.”
“What’s this? First kid I’ve ever met who hates being called grown-up.”
I grumbled playfully and gave Theo’s cheek a light pinch. It was soft against my fingertips.
“So, how far back have your memories come? What kind of person were you at fifteen?”
I slid a cup of warmed milk in front of him as I asked. Theo cupped it in both hands, took a sip, and then came out with something from nowhere.
“Do you want to play a question-and-answer game?”
“Hm?”
“We each ask what we’re curious about and answer. The topic is... the past.”
Theo seemed to have invented this game because he wanted to know more about me. It wasn’t a game suited to a demon corps commander with as much to hide as I had. One vague lie could come back and grab me by the ankle later. And more than anything, when it came to Theo’s past, I already knew almost everything there was to know.
“Let’s play the question game later. After all your memories are back.”
I did the best thing I could do. Deferring the decision.
Theo quietly took hold of my arm.
“Don’t you want to know what kind of person I am right now?”
I only smiled gently.
“Listen, Theo. Whether the fifteen-year-old you was a noble’s young master or a pickpocket scraping by day to day, it doesn’t matter. I already decided to stay by your side and protect you until you’re grown.”
Theo stared at me blankly, then muttered as if to himself,
“So it didn’t matter...”
He carefully let go of my wrist, then confessed as though he’d made up his mind.
“The fifteen-year-old me had a talent for swordsmanship.”
I pretended to be a bit surprised and widened my eyes.
“Oh, really?”
Theo’s eyes shone and he leaned forward a little.
“So, about that. Could you get me a sword? I want to practice swordsmanship again.”
“Sure. I’ll get you one. But there’s a condition. For a while, you practice with me. Don’t push yourself, only as far as you can go.”
I tapped the bridge of his nose with a fingertip. “Yes, I will.” Theo nodded happily.
Theo and I stopped by the bookstore, and I picked out a few books suitable for a fifteen-year-old. I didn’t pay attention to the prices. When you’re raising a hero, is money really the issue? Theo seemed more than a little shocked by the fact that one worn-out book had been priced at five silver coins.
“This is too expensive. You don’t need to spend this much money on me...”
“Oh, come on. I told you not to worry about money, didn’t I? I said I have an inheritance.”
It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand how he felt. He’d had some inheritance of his own after losing his parents and becoming an orphan, and even that had been taken from him by relatives, every last coin. He would know better than anyone how easily money can vanish. On top of that, I lived in a suitably run-down cabin without a single servant. I couldn’t have looked like a man who’d received a large fortune.
I couldn’t let Theo dredge up painful memories. To put him at ease, I deliberately laid the bravado on thicker.
“Besides, I’m confident I can make plenty of money. I’m living the unemployed life because I’ve got something to fall back on.”
He kept protesting that it was too expensive, and I went ahead and piled an armful of books into his arms anyway. Theo said he would definitely repay me and hugged them preciously to his chest.
The second we got home, Theo opened one of his new books. He sat at the desk with his back straight and began reading with quite a dignified air. Watching him, I felt like the parent of a model student.
Just then the communication orb vibrated faintly. Kairos. It seemed he had another quest for me. Having played through the game once, roughly at least, I vaguely remembered what that quest was. An event that, if it went well, would let me gift Theo a sword. Points and a sword both. Two birds with one stone, wasn’t it?
I pretended to go to the bathroom, locked the door, and took the orb out of my pocket. The order I’d expected came out exactly as I remembered it.
“Destroy the holy knights’ armories.”
〈MAIN QUEST〉 Destroy the holy knights’ armories Time limit: within 2 weeks On success: High: all 7 armories destroyed: Infamy +1,500p Mid: 4 to 6 destroyed: Infamy +1,000p Low: 1 to 3 destroyed: Infamy +700p On failure: Kairos’s fury
Maybe because it was a difficult quest, the deadline was pretty generous. The points were high, too. Anyway, what exactly happens if I fail and earn Kairos’s fury? I was curious, but not curious enough to try it. Unlike an actual game, there was no saving and loading here. Fail once and that was the end of it.
To begin with, destroying all seven was flat-out impossible with my current stats, and honestly I didn’t want to. The damage to the human side would be too great. Destroy just four and the infamy came to 1,000. That was exactly the right amount.
As I recalled, the truly top-grade weapons were in warehouses one through three, and from the fourth on the quality dropped off comparatively. The plan was simple. Grab a sword for Theo and a weapon for myself from warehouse one, then destroy four through seven. Collect the points and get what I needed.
I was tracing the route in my head when Kairos cut into my thoughts.
“And it seems the soul offerings haven’t been going properly lately.”
Huh?
This was a development that hadn’t existed in the original game. Was it because I hadn’t offered up a single soul so far?
“If you keep this up I’ll have no choice but to doubt your loyalty. A half-blood, no less. Do you pity humans just because you’ve got human blood in you?”
“My apologies for causing you concern. I wanted to offer the Demon King a soul of real value, so I’ve been giving it some thought...”
I put on the sort of smile unique to slit-eyed characters, the kind that looks like it’s hiding something. Kairos had no intention of listening to my excuses.
“I don’t care about that. Offer thirty souls within the week. If you don’t, I’ll strip you of your standing as corps commander.”
〈SUDDEN QUEST〉 Offer 30 souls Time limit: within 1 week On success: Infamy +1,000p On failure: Corps commander status revoked
My first thought was that if it was a standing I could only keep by offering up thirty souls, maybe it would be better to have it revoked. But if I got kicked out of the commander’s seat, the path to receiving further quests from Kairos would be cut off too. And without quests, there was no way to gather infamy points.
In the end there was only one option.
When I opened the door and came out, Theo was still reading with perfect posture. His blond hair and golden eyes, like something forged from melted sunlight, caught the light and glittered prettily.
He was the only proof I had that I was on the right path. Someone I had to protect by any means, and the human realm’s hero I absolutely had to raise to be good.
I stroked Theo’s hair enthusiastically. And then I said something so fatherly it surprised even me.
“Just grow up upright and healthy. There’s nothing else I want.”
Theo’s eyes went round, and then he smiled, clear as water.
“Just now, Rihen, you really sounded like a dad.”
Those words stayed with me strangely. I couldn’t tell whether to call it feeling good or feeling bitter with guilt. I was telling him to grow up upright while failing to live that way myself. I couldn’t take my hand off Theo’s head.
After a good long while of playing with his fine blond hair like I was petting a puppy, my heart gradually settled.
Right, what in this world is truly impossible? I already brought down a statue and burned a temple without a single casualty. So somewhere out there, a way to offer souls in the direction that carries the least sin must exist too.
Rather than spending my time groaning under the weight of guilt, I’d quietly do what needed doing. That was the conclusion I came to.
To air out my sunken mood, I tossed Theo a silly joke.
“What, do you want to call me dad? You can, if you’d like.”
“No. What kind of dad is this young?”
Theo shook his head quickly. His hair brushed somewhere around my chest. Only then did I realize we were closer together than I’d thought. He had his upper body leaned all the way toward me. He went on, in a voice as warm as spring sunlight.
“Rihen is... Rihen. That’s enough.”
