It all began that day.
Alexia stepped into the demon lord's castle to end the evil's reign over the world. She slaughtered every demonic creature which was impending her way, until she reached the topmost chamber where the demon lord resided. Yes, that day, she was really ready to put an end to the evil that was plaguing the world.
Yet, when she really reached that very door, she was unable to do anything besides stand dumbfounded in front of the opened door. It was a beautifully carved wooden door—varnished at every nook and cranny with prism-colored gloss—but it was not the point here.
Inside the chamber, the demon lord was laying comfortably on the sofa, with a book on one hand, and potato chips on the other. Chip crumbs dirtied his dark clothes as he savored them with a happy look on his face. It actually took him sometime to realize her presence, and when he did, his purple eyes instantly widened in surprise.
Both froze for a short second, but soon, the demon lord's surprise swiftly changed into amusement. He happily closed his book with a soft thud sound, and raised his body from the sofa to a sitting position.
While propping his body onto the sofa's backrest, he threw the book in his hand casually onto the marbled floor behind him, before he faced Alexia head on.
He smiled, and opened his mouth while munching the potato chips in his hand, “Oh Great Hero, I've been—” He stopped, swallowing the chips before resuming, “—waiting for you.” He casually raised a bag of potato chips in his hand to Alexia. “Before anything else, maybe you want some of this? This potato chips are very good, you know. They've got a special taste."
Alexia was lost at words. She was definitely not expecting this. As the Chosen Hero who was fighting against the demon lord and his minion for restoring the World Tree's power, she always thought that the moment she faced the demon lord, the final boss would be waiting on his throne, ready to fight her with all of his power.
She never even guessed for a second that the 'throne' was a very comfy sofa, and his 'power' would be a bag of potato chips. Both were surprising, and to add it to the pile, this demon lord only looked like a young man who was only a few years older than she is.
This was so wrong on many levels, and obviously, way out of her imagination.
To begin with, the demon lord didn't move from his sofa since her arrival. He was sitting too comfortably, as if he didn't care that his sworn enemy already in front of him with a sword in hand.
Alexia was already beyond speechless.
Chips, he said? POTATO CHIPS?? In this situation!?
Decided that this demon lord definitely had some few screws loose in his head, Alexia chose to ignore his weirdness and repositioned her longsword in front of her body while showing her strong gaze.
“Are you ready to accept your end, demon lord!?”
Her blade glinted and reflected chandelier lights from the ceiling, showing its menace to the demon lord, but instead, he looked even happier than he was before.
“Well, what a waste, you don't want the chips? Fine, I'll finish them myself.”
With a noisy munching sound, the demon lord savored the chips deliciously. Finally, he licked the last of the crumbs from his fingers and threw the empty bag on the floor, like the way he did to his book a few minutes before.
Alexia mentally shuddered at the demon lord's messy and dirty appearance. His white blonde hair—which hanged longer at one side—was curled unevenly like he slept at wrong position and woke up too sudden (kind of true, in a way). His dark fur cloak looked more untidy with countless crumbs sticks on fabric, while the red-colored shirt under them was crumpled so badly. His pants looked similarly dirty with dust grains, while his long boots were messily unlaced. The black cord necklace with tusked pendant that he wore was slanted sideways, but he wasn't even trying to fix it. He got a carved mark around his nape which was creeping into his chest but Alexia couldn't guess the motif, because most part was hidden below his clothes. Then last, but not least, a pair of dark horns on his head were shimmering at few spots, like he just touched them with his chips-oily fingers.
“Well, now.” The demon lord jumped from his comfy sofa and cleared his throat. He swayed his hand exaggeratingly, and the chip crumbs from his clothes fell into the floor, dirtying the dark carpet under his feet.
The castle topmost chamber, this audience room, should have a marvelous brilliance originally. The marble floor with carved pillars, big arched windows with prism glass, and a beautiful chandelier hanging on the painted ceiling, all of them showed the majestic aura, but everything gone to waste because of the filth scattered everywhere.
There were a few books, many empty bags of chips, few unopened bags of potato chips with various brand, chip crumbs, muddy footprints, crumpled tissue papers, and so many more lumps of unrecognizable things. It was so difficult to ignore the filthy floor, but Alexia tried her best.
Her sworn enemy was here in front of her, and obviously, she refused to lose her chance to kill the demon lord because of the filth distraction.
“I commend you for reaching this very place, Hero,” said the demon lord with an evil grin. “Your journey must've been hard. You should thank your friends who helped you reach me, sacrificing their lives to stop my minions and opened your way into this room. Unfortunately, they will die in vai—”
“I don't have friends.” Alexia interrupted.
The demon lord's word stopped immediately. He peered into Alexia with his doubtful violet purple eyes.
“You don't have friends?”
“No, I'm alone. But don't underestimate me!” Alexia shouted with rage, and strengthened her grip on the longsword's hilt. “I alone am more than enough to stop you, demon lord!!”
“W-w-wait a second!!” shouted the demon lord in panic. He looked so lost and dumbfounded, as if he really had no idea what just happened. "Alone? Where are your party members!?"
“I don't need them.” Alexia repeated, “Told you I alone am enough. And by the way, your minions? Pssh! Way too easy! They didn't even put out a fight.” Then, she added with mocking tone, “Why don't you check on their bloody carcasses outside?”
“You...”
The demon lord's face gone pale, and it made Alexia happy. Who wouldn't? Anyone would if they had seen their enemy's weakness.
Being in high spirits, the girl didn't stop pouring oil into the fire. “What?” She smiled victoriously, “Are you angry because I've trampled all of your minions' lives? Then, bring it on! Let's begin the real battle between the hero and the demon lord!”
The demon lord promptly showed a worried look. “Are you really the hero? You seem kinda....different.”
“I AM!! Now fight me!!”
“No way, I still need to make sure.”
“There’s no need to argue!! DIE!!”
Screaming her lungs out, Alexia dashed forward. She skidded across the filthy carpet. The tip of her longsword ripped the fabric and created friction against the marble floor, before the blade flashed straight into the demon lord.
She was sure that she would score a hit. The demon lord only stood there casually. He had seemed not ready to intercept her sudden attack. But no, she was wrong.
Her blade bounced against the demon lord's hand, leaving traces of the blue glow of a series of ancient language which was circling around in complicated intertwining lines—a magic circle.
Unable to comprehend her failure, she tried again. She immediately swerved her sword, and targeting the demon lord’s side. The blade cut through the wind, before it was deflected again with a high-pitched sound and another glow of magic circle.
Surprised but refusing to give up, Alexia swung her longsword again with enormous speed. So far, no one was able to stop the speedy skill of hers, but again, the demon lord easily fended off her blade. She tried again, and again from many angles, but the result was no different.
His minions were weak, they were a piece of cake, but the demon lord was definitely in a different league. He was standing relaxed, too relaxed, while deflecting every Alexia’s flurry of attacks with one hand, yawning wide in boredom.
As she realized that her strategy was futile, Alexia pulled her longsword and jumped away from the demon lord. As she put her blade front in a guarding position, the adrenaline rush from before was subsiding, and eventually, her breath became ragged. “What—are you—”
“You had enough?”
The demon lord glanced towards her with nonchalant look, realizing the girl of another probable truth. Amidst of the battle a second ago, she vaguely remembered that the demon lord didn't throw any attacks to her. He was just deflecting her attacks, easily and effortlessly.
It really hurt her pride. “You were just on defense!” Alexia shouted dejectedly. “Fight me for real, demon lord!! NOW!!”
“What an impatient hero.” The demon lord casually waved his hand, the one he had used to deflect Alexia's sword, and stared at her with a strange look, “Your attitude is making me more suspicious on your hero status. If you're really the hero, didn't you graduate from the famous Hero School?”
As she heard his words, Alexia promptly went vigilant. She immediately hid her surprise that her enemy knew about the Hero School, acting all indifferent. Honestly, she was still unable to understand this weird demon lord's point, but for now, she chose to follow his question, and keeping an eye for another chance to attack.
“I did,” She answered honestly. In truth, a person who becomes the Chosen Hero to defeat the demon lord should be graduated from the Hero School. It was the law of the Kingdom, but Alexia wasn't sure why the demon lord even knew about this fact.
“Then, you know their principle,” continued the demon lord with a serious tone, “A man who becomes a hero should have dignity, kindness, and compassion, even to his enemy. A man who becomes a hero is always waiting patiently for a chance to strike the victory. A man who—”
“Stop reciting that, please.”
Alexia accidently blurted her heart whisper. She hurriedly covered her mouth, cursing herself for saying 'please' to her sworn enemy.
To be honest, she hated her alma mater's principle. That principle confined a person into becoming the 'perfect' hero, and for Alexia, it means losing her freedom. So what if she's not kind and patient? It would never change the fact that she could graduate from the school and become the true hero, even if her motivation and resolution only burns by hatred not by compassion.
Still, she was more annoyed at the fact that this weird demon lord, who strangely knew that stupid principle, was repeating it again like a vexing spell.
“I AM THE HERO!!” Alexia shouted angrily. “You kept saying, a man, a man, a man! So what if I'm a woman!? I'M STILL THE HERO!!”
“Pause for a moment!” The demon lord instantly raised his hand. He dumbfoundedly stared at Alexia with widened eyes, “You're serious??”
“What!?”
“A...woman? You're a girl!? Are you kidding me??”
Alexia promptly widened her golden brown eyes, annoyed. “Isn't that obvious!?”
“I asked because it's not obvious,” said the demon lord, surprised. “You don't have...” His violet purple eyes shifted from Alexia's face to her flat chest. “I mean, you don't really look like a girl, more like a pretty boy who hasn't past his puberty age.”
“Excuse me!!”
Alexia was boiling with rage. Sure, she had short light-brown colored hair which hadn't grown past her shoulder, but she actually made some effort to braid it at the side so people didn’t wrongly surmise her gender.
It was not even her fault if her clothes were also not the kind of clothes a girl would wear. It was a dark green vest, draped on her left shoulder, above a combination of a shirt and skin-tight long pants with dark flat boots. It was not a skirt, obviously, because a skirt wasn't suited for battles and fights, but she is definitely, one hundred percent, a girl!
“And well, you know, your name...” The demon lord murmured and opened the palm of his hand. With a flash of magic circle, suddenly there were a few pages of papers on his hand. “See, it's written here, jobclass swordsman, weapon preference longsword, birthday January 1st, oh wow at new year! Pretty nice! Age 17, seventeen!?” He suddenly shouted and took a glance towards Alexia with a surprised look, “It seems there still are strange things in this world...” he muttered to himself, before he shrugged it off and darted his eyes back to the paper, “Lastly, the name, Alex.”
Alexia's anger subsided a little when she saw that. Suspicion grew inside her mind. Papers with her data on it, and they were within the demon lord's hands. What the hell happened??
The demon lord raised his eyes from the paper and took another glance towards her, “Well, Alex is a man's name, isn't it?” he innocently asked.
“It's Alexia!!” She exclaimed.
In contrast with Alexia's anger, the demon lord only showed ignorance. He threw away the paper, adding a pile of trash to the floor and peered into the girl with disinterest. "Okay, Alexia, was it? Nice to meet you, but you can go home now. I won't fight you."
Without paying attention to the girl, the demon lord picked up the nearest unopened potato chips bag beside his sofa.
His back was facing her, and it was supposed to be the perfect chance that Alexia has been waiting for. Yet, she was unable to move from where she stood, too shocked by the words she'd just heard.
"Why!?" she screamed angrily. Obviously, she couldn't accept the demon lord's one-sided decision. Today, her wish of revenge should have been fulfilled when she killed the demon lord, but instead, the demon lord refused to fight her.
Still with his back facing her, the demon lord popped the potato chips bag open and started to eat the chips inside. He walked to his sofa with relaxed step, before he threw his body back into the pillow-y cushion.
“You,” he said while eating, “aren't qualified.”
“What did you say!? I'm the real Chosen Hero who bears the mission to free the World Tree from you!!”
“Ah yes,” The demon lord shifted his sitting position to be more comfortable and peered into the girl. With a mouthful of chips, he continued, “I'm sure you passed the qualification from the Hero School, the papers are the valid proof of that, but!”
He pointed his oily fingers to her. “You didn't pass my qualification. Tell the school to find a new hero. Now, go home! Shoo, shoo!”
The demon lord's casual gesture only provoked Alexia's fury. Her anger was already burning at the highest degree boiling point, and in the verge of bursting out. “No way!!” She exclaimed, “The hell with your qualification! You probably are just bullshitting your way out from your certain demise!!”
“Wow, what dirty words. Is this the real you? Where is the dignified hero's image?”
Crap!
Alexia hurriedly closed her mouth. She forgot the mask she should wear in the wake of her fury. Now, only colliding her true self who was full of hatred to the demon lord. She knew that part of her wasn't exactly suited for a hero. She always tried to hide it, but in the end, her emotion got in the way.
Common sense started to seep into her brain, waking her from the burning fury. She tried to conquer her anger, but her attempt gone futile when the demon lord provoked her again.
“See?” he said while nonchalantly fishing his hand into the chips bag. He pulled out few chips and started munching them with a loud and noisy sound, “A real chosen hero would never use that impolite phrase. You’re just a fraud.”
“That's it, you asshole!!” She screamed in rage. Mask or whatever, she didn't need it anymore. For this shitlord, real hatred should be perfect. “Your shitty mind only confined inside a baseless prejudice. What makes you think that I was unqualified? My power is more than enough to kick your butt flying from this world!!”
For a moment, the demon lord only silently stared at Alexia who struggled to catch her breath after her outburst. A second later, he suddenly laughed happily. His body was shaking, enough to let the potato chips fell out from their bag. “That is so un-hero like, Alex.”
“Don't cut my name short, you shitlord!! It's Alexia!!”
To be honest, she never liked the manly part of her name, because it made people think that she was a male, not a female. In any chance her name must be cut short, she preferred Xia, definitely not Alex.
“Shitlord?” The demon lord's purple eyes were widened in surprise for a short second, before an evil-but-happy grin showed on his face. “Heh..you're kinda interesting. Well, I'm kinda bored with the repeats, this is like a breeze of fresh air, so maybe I can elucidate a little for you.”
Boiled with fury, Alexia forgot what the demon lord was going to elucidate. Only a second later, she realized. It was his said qualification.
“Okay, first reason,” said the demon lord, swaying his hand full of chips to Alexia. “You are a girl, right? You said it yourself.” Then, he added while throwing the chips to his mouth, “True hero should be a male, don't you think?”
His opinion was so far-fetched that Alexia instantly protested, “Is your stupid brain stuck hundred centuries ago, huh!?” She pointed her longsword to his face. “The era has changed! Didn't you hear about woman emancipation!?”
“Hm? Is that the one that said women could stand on the same ground as men?”
"Yeah, that!! It means a woman could become a hero too!”
“Huh…you have a point there...”
Alexia quietly stood, trying to reduce her anger. She satisfyingly watched the demon lord who had lost in thought while savoring his potato chips because of her sound opinion. The sight had sparked her hope a little. Maybe in the end, she would get the fight she wanted.
“Fine then, I could let the first slide,” The demon lord finally said. He leaned on the backrest and threw the potato chips bag that surprisingly was already empty behind him.
Alexia almost screamed in victory, but she stopped short because of the demon lord's next sentence.
“But not for the second!”
“What's the second?” asked Alexia warily.
The demon lord played his fingers to his longer part of his white blonde hair, spreading dirty oil splotches to them. He seemed unconscious with his actions, but not with Alexia.
She tried her best to ignore the demon lord's filthy gesture. Without showing her disgust head on, she opened her ears wide for the second qualification that she hoped she could probably overturn as well.
“You don't have party members,” The demon lord said, “and that is a fatal flaw for a Hero.”
Alexia almost doubted her ears. She opened them very wide, but what she heard was too nonsensical, enough to cause her mouth to gape like an idiot. “What?”
“Party members,” The demon lord repeated thoroughly, acting like Alexia hadn't heard what he just said, “Didn't you say that you were alone?”
“I did say that, but what is that have to do with—”
“It's common sense,” started the demon lord. “A hero should be accompanied with his—” he caught Alexia's glare and hurriedly revised, “—her friends, where they were called the party members. Together they journeyed to the demon lord's castle to defeat the demon lord.”
“So, to conclude, you refuse because I don't have party members?”
“That's right!!” The demon lord raised his two thumbs up to Alexia. “It's really unfortunate, but I can't accept that you deviated from the setting.”
“Ha? Are you still sane, shitlord?” mocked Alexia, “Setting? Don't make me laugh! Told you I alone am enough! Or maybe, you're so deaf that you didn't hear what I said!?”
“I heard,” he answered nonchalantly, “and I said, no.”
With a flash of magic circle, the demon lord summoned a book with dark bindings out of nowhere to his hand, and then, he started to open the pages. “I won't fight you, Alex.” He stopped and took a short glance towards the girl, “No, even if you glared me like you're going to drill holes into my face.”
“As if!”
Sneering, Alexia dashed towards the demon lord while raising her sword high, “I’d rather drill real holes than an imaginative one!!”
The demon lord seemed surprised with her sudden action. In panic, he jumped off his sofa, and vanished.
“Wha—!?”
Alexia was beyond surprised. Her blade slashed the sofa with a screeching sound, and left a big hole on it, but the demon lord was nowhere within her sight. His dark binding book was the only thing remaining, floating in air for a nanosecond, before falling right into the sofa's hole.
She was disoriented with the sudden happening, and a sigh sounded from her behind promptly made her jump—literally—from where she stood.
The girl wheeled back in a hurry, and vigilantly placed her longsword in front of her. Then finally, she saw the sight of the just-vanished demon lord, standing casually in an entirely different part of the chamber.
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Obviously, she really had no idea how he could vanish and appear at another place within seconds, but she had no time to think it thoroughly. She came for a fight, not for musing over an unimportant thing.
“You really don’t know when to give up, huh?” The demon lord shrugged wearily, “My lovely sofa really has seen better days.”
Ignoring his words, Alexia dashed again towards her enemy with a shout, “Yield!!”
Seeing her stride, the demon lord let out a short weary sigh. Right after, he immediately turned back and started to run away from her. “No way," he refuted, "stop being such a hard headed girl.”
His actions annoyed Alexia very much that she immediately ran to pursue him. “Don’t run from me, you shitlord!!!”
The demon lord giggled and glanced at her behind his shoulder, “Saying 'don’t' only makes me want to 'do', you know? Let’s see if you can catch me,” he said amusingly while keeping his speed.
Alexia's head seemed like it was going to explode in rage. What Demon Lord would ever run from the Hero? A crazy one??
“I’ll catch you! I definitely will catch you!!” Alexia yelled in between her breath, while chasing the shitty demon lord, in purpose of none other than ending his pitiful life.
Yes, this was supposed to be a chase of life and death.
Yet…
She couldn’t help to feel so out of place.
The demon lord ran around his dirty audience chamber, along the wall, and zigzagging around the thick pillar propping the ceiling. As Alexia kept pursuing him, she could swear that she could hear his joyful giggle not just once or twice.
“Hee…this chasing game is pretty interesting…” he muttered with a teasing tone, “how far can you keep up, Miss Hero??”
Alexia was so, so, sooo upset, that she glared at his running figure dejectedly with all of her might. It seemed that she was the only one who actually thought that this was the chase which would lead to his death. As a matter of fact, the shitlord only looked like he was enjoying himself to the fullest.
Having enough of his bullshit, Alexia kicked the marble floor faster and dashed towards the running demon lord. She won’t lose to this clown demon lord, never!!
Then, it suddenly happened.
Her boots stepped right on one of the empty chips bags littered all over the audience chamber floor, and she accidentally slipped away from it.
Crap!
Losing her balance, Alexia tripped over the marble floor and loudly fell face first onto it.
“—kh!!”
The demon lord promptly stopped. Near one of the chamber pillars, he wheeled back to face the fallen girl. His face grimaced as he gazed at her sprawled body, “Uh…that must have really hurt. You okay?”
Okay? OKAY?? Alexia felt her rage gushed up like an active volcano as she heard that very word from her enemy's mouth. Rubbing her sore nose that had kissed the floor—secretly glad she didn't suffer a nosebleed—she raised her body to stand. Propping herself with the longsword, she glared the purple eyed young man in front of her eyes with full animosity.
“Uwah, your nose looks so red.” The demon lord widened his eyes in astonishment, “no wonder, you fell to the floor in a really flashy way, you know?”
“Whose fault is that!?” Alexia couldn’t help but yell in anger. The sore pain on her face really added up to her bad mood, piling it up over, and over again.
“Well, isn’t it because you chased me in the first place, Alex?”
“Ugh! In the first place, I wouldn't have fallen if your chamber wasn’t so dirty!!” Alexia promptly retaliated, converging hatred within her words. Pulling back her longsword in front of her, she pointed it right to her enemy, “And, in the first place, it would never happen if you didn’t run from me!!”
“Huhh!? That’s an unreasonable demand,” the demon lord replied with a pout. “Told you, I won’t fight you, what’s wrong with running then??”
“Everything!!!”
Readying her sword again, Alexia kicked the floor and resumed her dash towards the demon lord. This time, she reached him, and successfully caught him off-guard.
Surprised, the demon lord reacted a little too late. He widened his violet eyes, “You—!”
Alexia swung her blade, grinning gleefully in her chance of victory, and—
—swoosh.
Nothing happened.
Alexia blankly stared at the empty space in front of the pillar where her blade just slashed. For a second time, the demon lord suddenly vanished from the reach of her blade without a trace. What in the worl—
“Really, aren’t you tired of doing this?”
A cold voice was emanating right from her back, and stopped every processes running through Alexia’s mind. She promptly turned back, only to face the demon lord who was standing right in front of her eyes.
He was showing none of his amusement and playfulness from back there, only the opposite. His violet purple eyes pierced through her with a cold stare, enough to freeze her in horror.
The demon lord moved to grab her forcefully by the neck, but Alexia reacted too late. Her reflex felt dull in front of the menacing gaze of his, and it had cost her the consequences.
Within a split second, the demon lord pushed her back roughly to the pillar and started to strangle her neck in the air.
“—!!”
Pain was running through all of her body and left Alexia to gasp. Her grip on her longsword was loosening off and it fell to the marble floor with a ringing sound. Her feet were dangling in the air, and struck her with complete hopelessness.
She struggled to release herself from the demon lord’s hand, but it was all gone in vain. She tried to kick him, only to miss. She slapped his strangling arm with all the power she could manage, but the demon lord didn’t even flinch.
As she stared into his cold and unmerciful purple eyes, for the first time since her arrival, she felt a shudder of fear. It finally dawned on her that she had underestimated her enemy.
“…it’s getting boring, the chasing game, and you too.” With a smiling face, he hissed with a same cold and low voice while strengthening his grasp to her neck, “why don’t we end this then, Miss Hero?”
His cold smile and the increasing pain was enough to ring the warning bell from within Alexia’s body. It was a completely different smile than every smile he showed to her before, and it was more than enough to tell the girl that death was approaching, while she had no way to escape from it.
Die? Death? Me??
As the painful pressure on her neck kept increasing, Alexia felt her vision darkened. She really didn’t want to go down like this, not when she still left so many unfinished businesses. Yet, she was unable to help herself.
Overwhelmed by the demon lord’s power, she regretted the rashness in her decision. Storming his castle was good and fine, if she really had the chance to win over him, but she couldn’t.
Was there no other choice besides giving up?
It’s getting really dark… no… I…
All of a sudden, the pressure on her neck was gone. She fell to the floor, desperately coughing for air, while light slowly returned to her eyes.
For a short moment, blurry marble floor was the only scenery extending over her vision, but she didn’t even wait to shift her gaze upward, right towards her enemy.
A stupid little blur would never stop her to glare her sworn enemy with hatred. Moreover, not after what that enemy had done to her.
“Hee…what a good face you have there,” the demon lord sneered, while nonchalantly peering at her, “even at the verge of losing, you still showed the ‘I’m not gonna lose’ gaze, huh?”
The moment her vision cleared, Alexia immediately reached her longsword which was falling beside her feet. She jumped back to stand, ready to face her enemy again.
In contrast with Alexia’s animosity, the demon lord only looked like he was having an enjoyable time. He gazed upon her with an expression full of amusement for a short second, before he wheeled back and casually walked towards his torn sofa.
As he picked up the falling dark binding book from before, he let out a long sigh with drooped shoulders, “Now, where should I sit? This is so puzzling…”
Alexia was too flabbergasted. Considering of what just happened, the demon lord’s action was very off. It was as if he stopped paying attention to her existence. He even showed his back to her! To the hero who wanted to kill him!!
Not much time passed since he strangled her. Alexia even fearfully thought that she would soon be dead, but now? What the hell is he thinking!?
Unable to understand his actions, Alexia stopped trying. Now when the demon lord was showing his back to her, it could be her only chance to strike. Gripping her longsword tight, she readied her stance once again.
She had tried to keep quiet for the sake of her surprise attack, but she actually lost to the tension created in the moment. When the tip of her blade inadvertently scratched the dirty marble floor, Alexia gasped.
The vague sound called the demon lord from his action of contemplating the sofa. As he peered towards Alexia behind his shoulder with eyebrows wrinkled, every cold feature of his face was gone completely—as if it was only a fata morgana, an illusion which was blown away and gone with a poof.
“You’re still here?” he asked confusedly, “I thought you had gone home already.”
The unexpected question staggered Alexia. “Home? Why would I—”
Turning to face the girl completely, the demon lord shrugged wearily. “Well, don’t you realize already that you can’t win against me? Why waste time here, then?”
What he said was so true, that Alexia felt a mentally piercing pain to her heart. She couldn’t win, it was pretty obvious, but she didn’t have the option of giving up. Not when her dream hasn't been fulfilled yet.
Putting up a brave front, Alexia at glared the demon lord. “I won’t leave,” she hissed quietly, “so what, you’re going to scare me again?”
“Hmm…” The demon lord looked lost in thought. While gazing over the book in his hand, he mumbled in disappointment, “I thought my act was pretty good. I’m sure that I scared you enough to make you go home.”
An act? That very word reverberated through Alexia’s mind and stopped everything that she was about to do. As she stared blankly at her enemy, the first thing that came back to her was the moment where he strangled her. The pain was real, his cold gaze also stuck hard inside her mind, she even remembered the fear, but it was all an act?
Now that she thought of it, his change of attitude was too drastic. Is it because he faked that one???
“Huh, what’s with your face?” asked the demon lord innocently, “I just showed you that you really have no chance against me, so you should just go home already.”
The word 'home' promptly woke Alexia from her running mind. The demon lord had probably fake an act to scare her home, but he’s really wrong if he thought he could succeeded with that trick!
“Hmph, sorry then!” snapped Alexia. “You should have just killed me if you wanted me to be gone.”
The demon lord raised his eyes from the book and peered back into Alexia with a difficult look on his face. “Well, that’s hard. I don’t want to kill you.”
His nonchalant answer immediately got on Alexia’s nerve. “Ha! Are you stupid!?” she exclaimed, “I’m your enemy! THE HERO!!”
Now that the shackle of fear she felt from before was completely gone, the demon lord’s actions only brought an irritation to her.
“Don’t want to kill me!? WHAT BULL!!”
The demon lord only shrugged indifferently. Looking as if he had no interest in Alexia’s opinion, he shifted away his eyes from her and opened the book in his hand. “It’s the truth, and well, it’s not like I wanted to stray from the setting’s rule too.”
“Uh…what? Setting again?”
The demon lord smiled. “Yup, it's the same setting which dictated that a hero should be accompanied by party members. The one you ignored completely.”
“What the hell is going on with this party member bullshit!?” Alexia started her protest, “Why should I—”
“You should,” interrupted the demon lord, “Hero and party members.”
Alexia retaliated, “But I'm alone—”
“Not enough. Don’t you see the difference in our power?” interrupted the demon lord again, his purple eyes darted back to the book, “You can’t win alone, but maybe the outcome would be different if you have some companions.”
“But, that—”
“If you don't want to do it, go home,” he interrupted Alexia’s defense again, and nonchalantly waved his hand to her,” The Hero School should send me a new replacement.”
Alexia felt her confidence drop down hard. He was right about the difference in power. She understood how easy it would be if he wanted to kill her. How he moved to strangle her (regardless whatever he said about not wanting to kill her), and how he vanished in a blink of time, it was just not something she could overturn with force and intention only.
True, party members sounded like a good idea, but to Alexia, it was a completely different story. “But I'm an individualist.” She tried to defend herself, coaxing her way out from this party member business. Yet, she sounded more helpless by the second. “I don't have—I'm not that sociable to—”
She didn't want to tell her sworn enemy about her weakness, but it seemed she had no other choice.
“Not sociable??” The demon lord raised his head and peered into Alexia with doubt and surprise. His purple eyes opened so wide, as if he was staring at a very strange creature. “You sound more un-hero like by the minute. Shouldn't a hero have many friends?”
“No, I-I'm not really good with people. This party members business, I can't—” She fidgeted while discontinuing her words. A topic which was probing at her weakness always made her feel very nervous.
Stranger anxiety, Alexia was unable to find another appropriate word for her weakness. She was always nervous if she had to face people she didn't know, and making friends was the hardest hurdle in her life. She didn't even have a friend in the Hero School, so much for party members who would fight for the same reason as her.
It's impossible.
“I really don't understand what makes it so hard,” said the demon lord. In contrast with his role as the sworn enemy and the evil villain, his face showed worry while looking at the nervous girl. “You just need to go out there in an adventure, helping people in the way, and build a strong bond with a few individuals you will meet in your adventure, the individuals who would become your party members.”
“You make it sound so easy...”
“It is easy! Even I could do it!”
“Even if you're the evil demon lord? That's a load of bullshit for a shitlord.”
“Again with the dirty words. Maybe you can fix that first if you want to get some friends,” he pointed, “and don't glare at me! I'm just stating the truth.”
Alexia did have a problem talking to total strangers. She would become too nervous even to say a word, less a sentence. Yet weirdly, she just realized that she talked to the demon lord just fine. She even could become emotionally angry and showed off her true color, cursing him on every sentence.
Was it because he was her sworn enemy, enough to cloud her anxiety with hatred? Maybe.
Or maybe, there was another reason.
The demon lord was a stranger, but at the same time, he wasn’t. She was only a child when the calamity caused by the demon lord struck her village and stole everyone's lives in front of her eyes. She swore revenge on that day, and dreamt of killing the demon lord with her own two hands.
In a way, the demon lord wasn't exactly a total stranger for her. Alexia always heard about him who had lived hundreds of years while gnawing at the World Tree's power, and in return, brought out calamity to the world. Still, only today she finally saw that the demon lord’s appearance didn't look like he had lived that long. Rather than a hundred year old demon, he only looked like a young man who hasn't lived past the age of twenty.
As for the fact that he was a potato chips freak and disgustingly filthy…well, it was kind of a new discovery.
“Then, how about I give you a proposition, Alex?”
Suddenly, the demon lord asked, waking Alexia from her daydream.
“Proposition?” She asked, before she added with an angry glare, “And don’t cut my name, you shitlord!”
The demon lord only giggled at Alexia’s protest. He closed the book with dark bindings in his hand, and walked to Alexia with steady steps. “You said that you’re not sociable enough to make friends, to make them party members, but I can’t accept a hero without party members. Then, there is only one option.”
He stopped in front of Alexia, pushed her blade to the side with his book, and smiled to the girl. “I’ll help you find them.”
“Haaa?”
Feeling too surprised, Alexia didn’t resist when the demon lord pushed her longsword aside. She let her blade fell to her side, while popping a new hole to her ears so she could hear more right, and raising her head to peer suspiciously at the demon lord who was standing in front of her, a head higher than she was.
“At the same time,” he continued, “I can prove to you that it’s easy, not as hard as you imagined.”
Her suspicion seemed baseless, and her ears didn’t hear wrongly even for a word. No matter how impossible, the evil demon lord was really going to help her.
“You really have some screws loose. What demon lord in their right mind would want to help the hero?”
In Alexia's mockery, the demon lord only smiled happily, “I’m helping myself by helping you.”
“Huh, then why should I accept? If you’re in for your own benefit, what’s in for me?”
The demon lord raised his eyebrows in curiosity. His violet purple eyes peered into Alexia's golden eyes, trying to find something wrong inside them. “Are you really, really the hero? Can you do something without expecting something in return? That’s going to be more hero-like.”
“Dream on, shitlord!”
The demon lord sighed, “Okay, fine, I’ll give you an extra chance.”
“What chance?”
“You can try to kill me anytime, anywhere, anyhow you want while I accompany you on your journey to find the party members.”
Alexia instantly gaped in surprise. It sounded too nice for a proposition offered by the supposed evil demon lord. Honestly, she was having some difficulties to believe it.
“But don’t expect me to not guard my life,” added the demon lord, pointing his book to Alexia, “You can try, but I won’t let you kill me. That’s why I said, a chance.”
“But I can try anytime?” Alexia ascertained, “Even now!?”
Without waiting, she pulled her longsword and swung it sideways. In his position right now, there was no way the demon lord could dodge the trajectory of her blade. She was ready to feel her blade sink into the flesh, only to find it stopped short with the book cover.
With screeching sound, the book’s leather cover was ripped—together with a few front pages—with a slash from her sword. Aside from those, nothing else got hurt, of course, including the demon lord.
“You’re really impatient,” The demon lord pushed away Alexia’s blade harshly from his book and stroking the ripped cover with a longing gesture, “True, it is effective starting now, but this is my favorite book, you know.”
Alexia glared the demon lord with an annoyed look, cursing herself with her own failure. “Hmph! Not my fault!”
The demon lord lowered his book and returned his gaze back to Alexia. “So, does this mean, you accepted my proposition?”
“Ha! Do you take me as an idiot!?”
“Huh, what’s with you all of the sudden?” asked the demon lord with a confused look. “I thought you had agreed already.”
“Hmph! No way!” Alexia snapped and turned her face away from the confused demon lord. She didn’t even think twice of her refusal.
Of course, a chance to kill him rang very nice in Alexia’s ears, but in the end, it was all preposterous. To begin with, there was no way, NO WAY, she would be willing to spend a journey with the enemy she hated most. What a joke!
“Hee…you’re fine with it then?”
An amused tone of voice coming from the demon lord's mouth turned Alexia’s eyes back to his figure. He was still standing there, and peered down into her with a victorious grin on his face.
Really, she wanted to slap him already. “What now?” she demanded.
“Hmm?” The demon lord smiled meaningfully, “No, I just thought you don’t need this anymore.”
For a second there, Alexia squinted her eyes suspiciously, unable to process the meaning of his words. Then, the demon lord moved to open his palm and a necklace fell through his fingers with a soft clink sound.
Alexia widened her eyes with mouth agape. It took her a second or two, gazing blankly at the necklace hanging around the demon lord’s fingers to understand what was going on. It was a simple cord necklace with cool green pendulum shaped like a small seed, and it was a very familiar one.
Panicked, Alexia hurriedly took a step back and brushed her hand over her neck, searching for something she's sure was there. But, she couldn’t find it.
Then, there was only one explanation.
Overwhelmed, she promptly darted back her eyes to the demon lord, who—by an unknown reason—was holding her precious necklace within his grasp. “That’s mine! How could—”
Alexia tried to grab the dangling necklace of hers, but the demon lord was faster. Pulling it back, he hid it within his palm and threw a grin towards the girl.
“I saw it back there when I strangled you,” he answered Alexia’s confusion with a nonchalant expression, “This necklace is kinda nice, there is something which pulls me into it, sooo, I think I should be having it.”
“Give me back my necklace!!” Alexia yelled and took a step forward with a stern face.
This was not something she could accept at all. That necklace was supposed to be a link to her past. Her parents once said she was born while holding the pendulum, that it would show her the way one day, but screw that right now. What was more important was that very necklace was the only memento of her deceased parents and the only remembrance of the peaceful life she had had.
It never occurred to her that she would lose it to her sworn enemy—the demon lord, nonetheless. It’s unacceptable!
“Give it back!!!” she yelled again and readied her longsword in front of her body, but her threat was futile.
The demon lord was only standing casually, as if he never felt any danger in the girl’s actions. Rather, he looked more amused than before.
“Well, should I return this to you, then?” he asked teasingly.
“Eh?”
That was unexpected. Alexia thought that the demon lord would never comply into her wish, but what he said was the complete opposite. She almost felt relieved with his words, but his unending smile seemed too disconcerting to her. It was like a harbinger of bad luck.
“What...do you—mean?” she tried to ask carefully. “Are you...really going to—return it?”
“Sure,” answered the demon lord. He raised his forefinger to the girl, “with one condition.”
Vigilance immediately ran through Alexia’s body. “Condition?”
“Yes, just let me accompany you in your journey of searching party members,” the demon lord answered with another smile, “I’ll return your necklace when we’re done.”
Alexia dumbfoundedly stared at the demon lord. She really couldn’t fathom his way of thinking. Again with the journey together??
“What’s your agenda!?” accused Alexia, believing her enemy was a number one no in her dictionary. “Just spit it out!”
“Spit what out?” replied the demon lord with an innocent look, “I just want to help you with your party member quest, nothing else.”
Alexia didn’t answer immediately. She took a brief pause to glare at her enemy—the very enemy she should not even believe in, before she yelled from her throat, “Ha!! I’m not that stupid, you asshole!!”
“Then you don’t need your necklace back,” the demon lord nonchalantly replied. He shifted his gaze towards the necklace in his hand and playing it around his fingers, “I see.”
In the blink of an eye, the seed pendulum necklace disappeared from his hand with a flash of bluish magic circle.
Alexia watched it gone in horror. “N-no!!” She didn’t want to sound hopeless, but she was unable to hold off her trembled voice. Losing the necklace was too unbearable for her, and watching it gone before her very eyes was more excruciating.
It was stupid and careless of her that the demon lord could rob the necklace from her in the first place, but that was the reality she couldn’t fight anymore.
“Easy, I'm just keeping it in a safer place,” assured the demon lord. He smiled towards the pale girl, “I’m sure it’ll be ready to return into your possession if you just accept my proposition.”
The proposition.
The demon lord already gave her a way, but even so, it was too hard for Alexia to accept it. Journeying together with him, the person she hated most, and the very one she wanted to have revenge on. To be honest, she didn’t have the confidence that she could do that.
His offer to try to kill him in every chance she had was probably the only good thing in it, but if she refused, she would probably lose her precious necklace to the demon lord (in any way, she wasn’t strong enough to rob it by force).
Is this is the only option?
“So?” the demon lord’s voice called Alexia back to present, “Last chance, yes or no? Your choice, Miss Hero.”
“I—” Alexia started. She really had no other choice, so she probably should start bracing it head on. After heaving a short breath to encourage herself, she darted her eyes to the demon lord. “If I accept, you’ll return my necklace?”
“Of course.”
“But,” Alexia glared at him hatefully, “I don’t think I can believe you. Who knows if you tricked me into this shitty idea so you could kill me?”
The demon lord incredulously peered into the girl and shook his head tiredly. “I’m not you, Alex," he said, "And I told you already, didn’t I? I’ll definitely return your necklace when everything is over, and why don’t you just believe me that I have no plan on killing you?”
“Lies.”
“Haaaah…” the demon lord exhaled a long breath and shifted back his eyes to the girl, “Really, if I wanted to kill you, I’d probably done it already. I would never choose this kinda bothersome way.”
“That’s—”
For an umpteenth time, he was right. She was still alive right now, probably because of the demon lord’s mercy. As shitty and crazy as he was, Alexia was unable to object his point.
Yet, it was really hard for her to accept his proposition as it was. As the matter of fact, she didn't feel safe being together with her enemy. Who knows if he was lying about not wanting to kill her, and secretly cooked up a plan behind her back?
If so, being together with him wouldn't be good for her. Hating him was one thing, but there was that imminent danger behind her back too. If there was any way she could keep him under surveillance, probably the danger could be reduced sufficiently.
With a new idea bloomed within her mind, Alexia darted her eyes back to the demon lord, “Then, if you could promise me.”
“Promise?”
“Just stay within my sight so I can keep my eye on you,” Alexia blurted her newfound idea, “I have to make sure you won’t bring any danger. And don’t forget my necklace.”
Looking surprised at Alexia’s words, the demon lord blinked his eyes a few times. “I got the necklace part, but stay within your sight?” he repeated reluctantly, and shifted away his gaze, “It’s not like I’m going to disagree, but…does that mean you’ll be observing me in the bathroom too?”
“Eh—?” Alexia blankly stared at the hesitant demon lord.
“I’m…well, fine with it, but—” he paused and incredulously peered into her, “—really?”
“B-b-bath—” Alexia struggled to find words as embarrassment started to seep into her mind. Just now, she realized the fatal mistake in her idea. Observing her enemy was nice and good, but a girl like her, watching the demon lord—a young man’s bathroom procedure? That was too—
“NO!” Alexia hurriedly revised. She forced herself to wipe clean any embarrassing image from her mind and moved to glare the demon lord. “Not the bathroom!! It’s an exception!”
“Heh? Is that so?” The demon lord showed a teasing smile, “That’s disappointing.”
“JUST SHUT UP!!” Alexia instantly raised her voice. Refusing to be embarrassed any further, she plastered a tough look, and blurted, “So what, shitlord!? Do you accept or not!?”
The demon lord promptly nodded with a smile. “Mmhm, of course. I promise to stay within your sight during the journey, and your necklace will soon be yours again, Alex.”
Feeling satisfied as soon as she got the promise she wanted (regardless he was sincere or not), Alexia moved to turn her face away and tried to sound as disinterested as she could, “Hmph, good! Now for the other dire problem.”
“Huh? Is there one more?” asked the demon lord.
Right, the problem hadn’t been solved just yet, as there was still one disturbing fact in Alexia’s mind. It was the most fundamental one. If this problem was not resolved, she didn’t think that she could have a journey together with her enemy.
“It’s because I’m the hero and you’re the demon lord,” Alexia grumbled in discontent. Whatever said, she just couldn’t let go of the first problem which made things sound pretty impossible. “What would people think with us being together?”
“What if I’m not the demon lord, then?”
“Huh, you aren’t?”
“I am,” the demon lord said while playing with his fingers on his slanted short bangs, “but no one knows that, right?” he continued, “As far as the people of this world know, the demon lord resides in his castle full of demonic creatures, no one really knows how I look like.”
Alexia widened her eyes. That’s true.
She also thought of that before. No one ever knew that the demon lord was a sloppy young man with white blonde hair and purple eyes who loves potato chips too much. Still, there was one problem left in that theory.
“Impossible. Don’t you think people can guess if you have those horns sticking out of your head, eh, shitlord?” Alexia protested while pointing the demon lord’s oil-splotched pair of dark horns.
“Ooohh, this?” The demon lord said while rubbing his fingers on one of his horn. “This is not a problem,” he pulled the horns from his head, and waved them in front of the girl’s eyes.
Alexia instantly lost at words. She was just staring at the detached horns with mouth agape, unable to process the fact on her mind.
It was a horned hairband.
A pair of dark horns on the demon lord’s head were actually a horned hairband. The demon lord himself, was naturally horn-less.
“This is kinda like the crown of a demon lord. Your King has one too, right? A crown from some kind of golden things?” He explained with a happy tone, “These horns are just the same thing as that crown.”
“W-wh-wha--?”
“Your surprise is really interesting. You look like a fish out of water, Alex.”
Alexia struggled to find her voice back from the abyss of surprise. “Urgh, shut up, shitlord!!”
Still, her anger only made the demon lord happier. He smiled joyfully while playing with his hand on his detached horned hairband. “So..” he started, “problem solved, I think?”
The problem had been solved, indeed. Alexia couldn’t find any other argument to back up her hesitation. He gave her a chance to kill him anytime and anywhere. He said he’d return her necklace, and he also promised to stay within her sight, like she wanted it. Now, he didn’t even look like a proper demon lord.
Without the horns, no one would know that her companion was the real evil incarnate. To tell the truth, she was still reluctant, but this was the best way she could think at the moment. She got nothing to lose, so might as well she face it head on. Hopefully, she would be the one to emerge victorious at the end.
“Okay, I accept your proposition,” said Alexia serious. “It sounds shitty like you, shitlord, but it seems to be the best chance I have.”
“Nice! I knew you would understand, Alex.” The demon lord raised his thumb, satisfied, before he added, “And it would be perfect if you stopped calling me shitlord. I have a name. It’s Zefrael.”
“If you stop calling me Alex then, shitlord,” answered Alexia with a sarcastic smile.
“In a way, you are really an interesting creature.” The demon lord—Zefrael murmured dejectedly while glancing at Alexia, but she only glared at him resentfully.
“Haah, fine.”
Finally giving up, Zefrael walked back to his torn sofa. He put his book and the horned hairband on the sofa's handrest. As if he was saying goodbye, he stared at them and at his messy filthy chamber for a moment, before he turned back to Alexia with a vibrant expression.
“Okay then. Let’s go on an adventure, Alexia!”