But... I’m too late...
Kuroka couldn’t receive her mother’s final words. If only she gathered her courage earlier and had her eyes healed. If she could see, it was possible for her to read her mother’s lips. If she could do that, she could answer her mother’s wish.
“Sorry... Mom... I can’t...”
See you off to the end. Just as she was about to say those words in tears...
“Close your eyes for a sec.”
Shax, whose name she just heard from Zagan, called out to her. Kuroka didn’t know what he was saying at such a time, but she did as he said and closed her eyes. It didn’t change a thing, all she could see was a world without light, it didn’t matter whether her eyes were open or closed.
“Hwah?!”
As she did, Shax pinned her head as if covering her human ears and began muttering something. It seemed he was putting some sort of sorcery to use, and it felt like something akin to water was pouring into her head through her ears.
A shiver ran down her spine, and Kuroka tried her best not to make any weird noises. Before long, his short chant came to an end, and Shax spoke quietly to her with his hands still on her ears.
“Okay. Try opening your eyes.”
Kuroka slowly opened her eyes. And then, a crack of light poured into her colorless world.
“Huh?”
The growing crevice was filled with color. What seemed like a blinding light turned dim, and took on the shape of an ashen stone floor. And lying in the center of the floor was her mother, wearing the robe of a sorcerer. Her mother’s eyes were hollow, but they were certainly pointed toward Kuroka.
Kuroka understood that this was the world she couldn’t normally see, but she needed a few seconds to collect herself. Even in absolute confusion, she came to her senses upon seeing her mother’s lips move. What kind of miracle allowed her eyes to reflect the outside world?
But that didn’t matter, she wouldn’t let this pass. Back in her early days at Azazel, she was taught how to read lips.
K-u-r-o-k-a.
She could tell that her mother was calling her name.
“Yes. I’m right here! Mom!”
As Kuroka grabbed her hand, her mother’s expression seemed to soften up.
Y-o-u-v-e-b-e-c-o-m-e-s-o-p-r-e-t-t-y.
What came out of her mouth were not words of regret from being killed, nor were they words of resentment from being toyed with and turned into the undead. They were words of joy at her daughter’s growth over these five years.
“A-Ah...”
Tears began pouring down Kuroka’s cheeks.
I’m doing great. I’m properly living my life now. I love you, mom. I’m happy to see you, even like this. I’ve been saved by so many people.
Even though she had a mountain of things she wanted to tell her mother, Kuroka’s voice wouldn’t come out. Yet her mother smiled happily back at her, as if she had heard them all.
B-e-h-a-p-p-y.
Those were the last words from her mother. Her body crumbled away like dust, and as Kuroka blinked, all that was left was ash.
“A-Ah... Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Kuroka cried out. Why couldn’t she say she was happy? Why couldn’t she at least thank her? No matter how much she grieved and tormented herself over this, there was no way she would come to an answer.
“Don’t cry!”
Kuroka trembled with a start from being yelled at suddenly from behind.
“Your mom just told you to be happy, right? You gonna see her off with tears?”
“...”
Kuroka mysteriously felt like all her confused emotions settled down from being scolded like that. She wiped away her tears, but not even a fragment of her mother’s body remained anymore. No matter how much she screamed, nothing would reach her mother anymore.
But, she was here.
Kuroka took a short breath in, then out. She calmed herself down, and faced where her mother was.
“Mom. Thank you... and goodbye.”
A refreshing breeze blew through what was supposed to be a sealed corridor. Kuroka felt like the wind was carrying her mother away somewhere peaceful, and gazed off into the distance. She didn’t even know how long she was doing so, and before long, the light once more vanished from her sight.
“Huh?”
Before she could even understand what was going on, someone leaned on her from behind.
“Hwawawa...”
Just as she felt like she was about to be toppled over, someone lifted up the man who was falling on her by the neck.
“You fool. Let go before losing consciousness will you...?”
“...Oh. Sorry boss.”
Zagan had apparently cut in.
“But, well done. I was told to come check up on her, but it nearly got to the point where I couldn’t even face Raphael anymore.” He said in an unexpectedly relived voice.
Kuroka brought her hand up in front of her face. She couldn’t see anything, regardless of how dark the area was. Nothing was reflected in her eyes. It was the same as before, a world with no light.
What was that just now?
Kuroka stood there dumbfounded for a while, as Shax then called out to her apologetically.
“Sorry missy. I didn’t fix your eyes or anything just now. I directly overwrote your memories to your brain by bypassing the optic nerves and... well, I guess you won’t really get it like that. Anyway, I made it so you could temporarily see what was going on.”
But Kuroka knew that this sorcerer said he couldn’t heal her back when she was a cat. In other words, there wasn’t a means of healing her at the time. And yet, even if just for a moment, she was able to see the outside world. That meant that he had searched for a means to do so.
Shax awkwardly scratched at his cheek.
“This sorcery is kinda just at the theoretical phase, it’s not even really experimental yet. I kinda gambled on whether it would work out, but looks like it functioned properly, huh? That’s a relief.”
The reason he was about to collapse was because he was trying to use such an incomplete sorcery.
This person went so far and kept silent just so to show me the outside world?
She was able to properly see her mother off. It would have been fine for him to undo his sorcery at that point, but he didn’t. He stayed still and maintained it until Kuroka calmed down.
What an awkward person...
At the same time, it was rather unfortunate that she wasn’t able to see his face after finally being able to see the light. Kuroka neatly straightened her posture and put her hands on her knees with a bow.
“Um, thank you very much. How do I put it... for all sorts of things...”
Even if she was a cat, the thought of her being carried around by this man all this time made her shy, and she could feel herself blushing. Shax’s reply however was completely unexpected.
“Uhhh, don’t worry about it. I made it to try and help Blacky in the first place. Sorry for using you as a guinea pig. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
“Huh...?”
It felt like they were talking on parallel lines. Kuroka cocked her head to the side, and Shax turned to Alshiera.
“Anyway, is Blacky still in that room? She’s probably all scared from not being able to see.”
“...I have no idea what you’re talking about here?”
“Wuh? I mean, I gave you a black cat, right? Where’d she...? Ow!”
It seemed that even Zagan was completely thrown off by this and dropped Shax. Zagan then turned to his other subordinate.
“Hey Kimaris. I thought you said this guy’s been with Kuroka all this time?”
“Ummm... Yes. That was supposed to be the case...”
Their voices were both completely bewildered. Kuroka could tell that the great Archdemon’s face was clouded over with a ‘Huh? What do we do about this?’ look plastered on his face, and the sorcerer next to him had his mouth open in shock.
Kuroka herself was likely making the same expression. Though in her case, far too much had happened to her today, and it felt like all her thoughts had come to a stop. The only one who could properly react here was Alshiera.
“...You may not believe me, but I tried my best, you know? I made it as easy to understand as I could, you know?”
“Ah... Mm. Sorry. My subordinate is really just... um... sorry.”
It was unheard of to hear an Archdemon apologize to another.
“Hey, what are you saying boss? I don’t really get it, but whatever, I need to excuse myself. I gotta look for Blacky.”
And still walking on a parallel line, the useless sorcerer left the corridor.
What a hopeless person...
Even though Kuroka thought so little of him, she smiled.
“Heehee...”
And even with all this going on, Kuroka giggled.
◇
“...Defeated...”
He wrung out his voice in complete darkness. Not only was his trump card, the army of undead, completely obliterated, even his base was totally destroyed. It would be impossible to send another army of undead to do his bidding. It was only possible to do so in the first place because of what day it was.
This was the day of the rebirth of the world’s one and only girl who had truly returned from the dead, the little sister of the nameless god that the church revered, Alshiere Imera. He bet on his victory precisely because this was a day where the boundary between the living and the dead was vague.
And he was defeated. Even though he was too fixated on Alshiera, he never thought that his base would be directly attacked by sorcery... no, celestial mysticism. He had no way of defending against it. If he took a direct hit, he surely wouldn’t even have left cinders behind. Nevertheless, he survived.
“Ahahahaa, that sure was close, huh, Shere Khan? That was celestial mysticism. You’d be dead if I wasn’t here, you know?”
A voice which couldn’t be identified as a boy’s or a girl’s reverberated in the air. And the one to speak had a Sigil of the Archdemon on their right hand.
“Hehehe, senior citizens deserve pity. The young ones these days don’t know how to hold back at all. Don’t you think so too, Shere Khan?”
He didn’t understand what was so funny, but the owner of the laughing voice began walking and pushing on his wheelchair.
“What... do you... want...?”
An Archdemon of all people would never save someone for free. The owner of the laughing voice stopped pushing his wheelchair, and opened their shirt to show their chest.
“It’s not all that big a deal. I’ve got just a slightly troublesome curse cast on me you see? I want your help in dispelling it. You can do it, right?”
A terrifying spell was placed on the childish chest before him. It was the same kind of power as the Seraph Hunters that had reduced him to his current state. Precisely because he had survived it, he certainly did possess a means of breaking the spell. If he were to refuse, this Archdemon would surely kill him without hesitation. However, he still had his doubts.
“Why... so rushed... to dispel it...?”
The Archdemon likely had a reason to push their demands on him so unilaterally. But, it didn’t change the fact that they were exposing their weakness to him. Given time, this Archdemon surely possessed the ability to dispel the curse themselves. Nevertheless, they shamelessly came to save him and requested his aid. That meant they were in a hurry.
“A filthy maggot has gotten attached to my cute little doll.” The childish Archdemon said with a twisted smile. “And this here’s stopping me from crushing them.”
Surprisingly, he sensed anger from the Archdemon.
To think the emotion of anger would still exist in one called an Archdemon...
Was this because this Archdemon was the youngest right behind Zagan? Or was there another reason for it? Nevertheless, he was able of sympathizing with such a reason.
“Very... well... I shall... lend you... my strength...”
And just in the same way that Zagan was beginning to form bonds with other Archdemons, an abominable alliance between Archdemons was being formed right here.
Epilogue
“Welcome home, Daddy.”
Upon returning to the castle, Zagan found that a brilliant party had begun. The once abandoned castle was now decorated with colored paper ornaments, golden bells and the like. The castle was steadily being restored ever since Nephy arrived, but it was nearly unrecognizable now. The garden had a table set up with a pure white cloth covering it, where a lineup of savory-looking food was prepared.
By the time the incident in town had concluded, the sun was in the middle of setting. Giving up on meeting back up with Gremory, Zagan took Kimaris, Kuroka, and while he was at it, Shax and even Alshiera, though he didn’t want to actually invite her, he just had things he had to ask... and returned to the castle by nighttime, where the party was waiting for him.
“Wh-What’s with all this?”
“It’s Alshiere Imera today.”
And once more, it was about Alshiera Imera. Even though he was told not to pry into it for the whole day, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity.
“What exactly is this Alshiere Imera?”
And Foll smiled, as if waiting for that exact question.
“Alshiere Imera is a festival where you give present to the people you love. So I’m having a party for Zagan and Nephy.”
Zagan’s eyes became hot. He had heard it was a day where one gave presents to their loved ones, but he never thought that he would be on the side receiving anything.
Wait... did that damn Gremory lead me on to think that way?
Thinking back on it, the example she showed him was a man giving a woman a present. He was unconsciously led to believe that the men were on the giving side.
I was wondering what she was hiding from me lately.
Zagan realized that Foll was up to something, even going as far as getting all his subordinates involved. But she showed no signs of brooding over it the way she did when she was seeking power. That’s why he decided just to keep quiet and watch over her quietly, but he never thought this would be the outcome.
And looking back on his life, he couldn’t even remember an instance of anyone celebrating anything for him. The only thing he could think of was the day he became an Archdemon, when Nephy congratulated him. Though he ended up hurting her horribly right after that, so it wasn’t all that good a memory.
Zagan lowered to a knee and lined up his sight with Foll’s, then rubbed her head.
“This is my first time experiencing something like this. It’s surprising, but... how do I put it... I’m happy.”
“Mm! Thank goodness.”
Foll jumped up and hugged him, and Zagan hugged her back. And seeing this scene, for some reason, Raphael and Zagan’s other subordinates, who were inexplicably wearing things like red hats and antlers, all pumped their fists in delight.
Zagan scooped Foll up into the air, then took a look around him.
“Oh yeah, where’s Nephy? Did she prepare all this with you?”
“Nuh-uh. It was a secret from Nephy too. She’s right there.”
Foll pointed to the castle gates. Looking closely, Zagan could spot Nephy in the shadow... together with Nephteros and Chastille as well. As his eyes met Nephy’s, she timidly came out of the shadows toward him. And upon seeing her, Zagan’s eyes shot open in shock.
“What?!”
Nephy was wearing a red outfit with what looked like white cotton decorating it. It was all fluffy and tremendously stimulated his desire to protect her. Nephy herself also appeared to be quite embarrassed, and she came rushing over while covering her face.
“W-Welcome home, M-Master Zagan.”
“M-Mm. I’m back, Nephy.”
That simple exchange was far too embarrassing for both of them, and they averted their gazes.
“U-Um, th-they really suit you. The clothes, I mea
n. Your regular clothes are good too! B-But... th-these are really cute! I want to hug you!”
Zagan was far too shaken and ended up rambling. And having that said perfectly straight to her, Nephy turned red right to the very tip of her ears.
“Hwa-wa-waa.... Th-Thank you... v-very... mush...”
Nephteros and Chastille were rushing toward them for a moment, but did an about face with tremendous vigor partway. Not that Zagan even noticed.
Foll then tugged on Nephy’s clothes.
“Nephy, don’t you have something?”
“Oh! Y-You’re right.”
Nephy fumbled about and took out a small package from behind her.
“Master Zagan. Though it may be but a trifle, this is an Alshiere Imera present for you. If it pleases you, please accept it.”
“What...?! A present from you?!”
After doing his best to pick out a present himself, Zagan never thought that she would beat him to the punch. And though he found himself disappointed for allowing it to happen, the option of refusing such a gift didn’t exist at all, even if it were to bring the world to ruin.
“I shall accept it. C-Can I open it now?”
“Y-Yes!”
Zagan opened the gift and stared at it in wonder.
“This is...”
It was a long and narrow pipe made of brass. The tip curved upward and contained an opening to place something within. The grip was made of wood and was contoured to fit in one’s fingers snugly.
“It’s a pipe from Liucaon. You seemed to enjoy the tobacco you had back then.”
Not only that...
It’s the one I was interested in while browsing the shop Gremory brought me to.
He didn’t really want to admit it, but it truly was just as Archdemon Andrealphus said. It wasn’t bad at all to have a smoke and blow away all the bad feelings of a battle away. Zagan had gone shopping to buy presents for the others though, so he decided to pick it up another time. And unbelievably enough, Nephy ended up buying it for him.
He was unintentionally just staring at it, as he then realized that Nephy looked a little troubled.
“Um, does it not please you?”
An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride: Volume 8 (Premium) Page 18