Demon King Daimaou: Volume 10

by Shoutarou Mizuki

  “C-Come on, it’s fine. You’re a strong girl. You can kill anything if you put your mind to it. So just get off me for a second...” Akuto was a little hesitant after seeing his foe’s strange appearance, but he knew it was an enemy, and he was ready to deal with it. But...

  “What? Is that how you think about me?!” Junko said in shock. Akuto hurriedly added,

  “No, I didn’t mean that. You’re actually a very delicate girl who can be very cute. I know that. I just mean that now is a time when you need to be strong.”

  “Thank you. I’m glad I got to hear that in my last moments.”

  “W-Wait, your last moments?”

  “Everybody’s going to die here, right?”

  “No, we’re not...” Akuto said, but Junko was no longer listening at all.

  “I love how you’re so kind, the way you always try to keep me from worrying. I can finally tell you the truth. I know only a coward would say something like this before she dies, but now I can tell you how I really feel. I love you. From the bottom of my heart. Hold me until the moment of my death!” Junko was grabbing on to him as tightly as she could.

  “Hey... Um...” Akuto blushed, not sure of what to say. It was very clear that she wasn’t messing around.

  “At least... At least tell me before I die... Tell me that you love me!” Junko shouted as she looked up to Akuto, pleadingly. Of course, Fujiko wasn’t just going to ignore this.

  “Stop messing around! You’re not the only one who loves Akuto! Tell me, Akuto, why don’t you love me like I love you? We’re all going to die, so I want to hear it. Akuto, who is it you love?” Fujiko looked up at him demandingly.

  “T-This isn’t the time...”

  “It’s the right time if I say it is! This is important!”

  “Oh, um... If this is what we’re doing now, can you put me on your list of candidates, too?” Yoshie said.

  “Ackie, I’m feeling kind of jealous. Come on, answer them!” Keena seemed a little desperate too as she clung to Akuto.

  Akuto wasn’t sure how to answer, so instead he just looked at the monster. By now, it was almost on top of them.

  “Gogagagagugegiagagigogogoro...” It was making strange sounds, like its throat had been crushed.

  “Fine! Fine, I’ll tell you!” Akuto said.

  “It’s not just me being indecisive. As you know, I’m different from other people. The only person who could normally be my partner is Keena.”

  Everyone froze in shock.

  “But I’ll tell you how I really feel. I love all of you. The story that you can love only one person is just another illusion. I want to love all of you the way you love me. I’m still an unstable being. I haven’t decided what my future will be. But when the time comes when I know how I’m going to live, I promise I’ll live for all of your sakes. That’s my answer.”

  “He’s not indecisive...”

  “He just wants us all, huh?”

  “Oh? I’m fine with that.”

  “Ackie, I still feel really weird.” Somehow, his words had drained the tension from everyone. They all whispered to themselves.

  “All I did was tell you how I really felt.” Akuto wasn’t sure how to take their reactions. And it wasn’t just the girls who were confused.

  “Guga...” The monster was blushing too. It had lifted up its face to reveal that it was Arnoul.

  “I did nah expect this to get so romantic,” Michie Ootake said as she walked into the hallway. She was blushing too.

  “Sigh... This is what we get for scaring innocents.” Kanna Kamiyama walked down the hallway towards them as well. All three members of the student council trio were there.

  “Wh... wh... wha?” Junko was looking rapidly between them, confused. The others were all surprised, too, to a greater or lesser degree.

  “Was this all your doing...?” Akuto asked. Michie nodded.

  “Yup. I’ll say, though, that we didn’t know you were here. When we made our plan, we didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Huh? What does that mean?”

  “After last time, we got to be friends with Monami the Liradan, and we came to play with her. And that’s when we heard Nozomi was up to something, and decided to scare her,” Kanna said.

  “Then that blood in the baths was...” Fujiko asked, and Michie blushed and put a hand to her cheek.

  “That was me. I was hiding, and I saw what you two were up to and got a nosebleed...”

  “There was an awful lot of blood, though.”

  “Well, I’m a little different than most people. As long as I’ve got the nutrients I can create infinite blood... It means I have to eat a lot of red stuff, though.”

  “You have to be kidding me...” Fujiko sighed.

  “Then the hanging woman and that thing we just saw...” Yoshie asked, and Arnoul nodded.

  “Gugah.”

  “And the hand?” Akuto asked, and a voice came from further down the hall.

  “I heard what they were up to, and decided I had to join in the fun. It was worth it, too! I got to see your big romantic moment.” Lily Shiraishi appeared, grinning. Next to her were the “twins,” Monami and Keisu.

  “Now Nozomi won’t be able to boss me around!”

  “Look, master! I made a friend who owns a kimono!”

  Monami and Keisu were happily waving at them.

  “But how did you get past the royal guard?” Akuto asked. Lily shrugged.

  “They were pretty bossy, and didn’t know who I was. So I just knocked a few of them out. If they’re friends of yours, you should’ve warned them about me.”

  “They’re not friends, they were the elite royal guard...”

  “Who cares? Anyway, why not go take a bath? It looks like you’ve got plenty of girls who’d want to wash your back.” Lily grinned. And then Junko, who’d been strangely silent, began to moan.

  “I... I...”

  “Hey, are you okay?” Akuto put a hand on her shoulder, worried. But Junko brushed it off.

  “I-I told you I liked you...” Her voice was quavering. And then she screamed.

  “I told you I liked you! In front of everybody!” She turned bright red and began to yell, but no one around seemed impressed.

  “Are you stupid? Everyone already knew that.”

  “But who cares? It worked, right?”

  “You should be thanking us, not getting mad,” Lily said.

  “Uwaah! I’m so embarrassed! This is your fault!”

  Junko tried to hit Akuto, but she was so distraught she simply staggered and collapsed in a random direction.

  “Oh, watch out!” Akuto tried to grab her, but she’d fallen onto one of the shelves of antiques in the sealed room. There was a loud clatter, and then an awkward silence.

  “Well... That ruined the fun.”

  “Jeez, what’s wrong with that girl? The Student Council isn’t paying for that.” Fujiko and Lily sighed. But then Korone spoke up, seemingly after realizing something.

  “But there’s something we haven’t figured out yet. The problems with the mana.”

  “Is there something going on with it?” Akuto asked. Korone nodded and pointed to the end of the hall. Everyone looked. There was a woman in white standing there. She was thin, with long hair, just like Arnoul, but she had a strange, noble aura about her.

  But the biggest difference was...

  “Hey, whose dat?”

  “No idea, gyah.”

  “Do you guys know?” Lily asked.

  Akuto shook his head.

  “Which means that’s...?”

  “Not human,” Korone said.

  “I don’t hear the sound of a heartbeat, or the sound of motors.” Lily snorted when she heard Korone’s words.

  “Stop right there. That body is probably made out of mana, but...” Lily stretched out a hand to grab the woman’s shoulder, but her hand passed through empty space.

  “Huh?” Lily’s hand was going right through the woman’s body. This was eno
ugh to shock even her.

  “That’s not mana...” She reached out a hand again and again. But the woman was drawing closer, as if her hand wasn’t even there. No, it was hard to tell if she was even getting closer. Her legs weren’t moving. She seemed to be motionless as she glided across the floor.

  “Is that a real...” Junko stammered. She must’ve been too scared to stand, because she’d crawled back to Akuto and wrapped her arms around his legs. Akuto put a hand on her head.

  “It doesn’t look like she wants to hurt us, though.” As the woman got closer, they could tell that he was right. Her narrowed eyes had a light in them, as if she wanted to say something. Korone suddenly spoke.

  “When she manifested I was able to pinpoint the center of the mana disturbance. It’s one of the antiques that Hattori knocked over, I believe.”

  “It is?” Junko stood up in surprise and looked back at the antiques. One of them was a wooden box that had fallen open. There was a small branch from a tree inside that was shining with a golden light. It seemed to be just an ordinary decoration, but the light it was giving off wasn’t mana. It was the same light that was coming from the woman.

  “Is that...?” Akuto gasped in surprise. The same light began to pour out from the small box he was holding. It was the same light as the imperial seal.

  “W-What’s going on?” Junko looked towards Korone for an explanation. Korone shook her head.

  “I don’t know. It’s probably some secret hidden by the ancient imperial family.” She took Nozomi, who’d been clinging in terror to Akuto’s legs, and helped her up.

  “Huh? W-What’s going on?” Her forehead reflected the light from the branch and the seal.

  “Your family does not have royal blood. But you’ve followed the royal family’s orders for generations. The strange disasters at your inn may have been caused by the branch and the seal, to delay their being found.” Nozomi’s eyes went wide.

  “Then my family served the Emperor...” Nozomi’s voice was shaking. Huge tears rolled down her face, as if all the worries she’d kept bottled up were pouring out of her.

  “Well... all’s well that ends well, I guess? But that means she...” Akuto turned to Keena.

  “I don’t really know for sure but... I think her job is to welcome me,” Keena said. And then, the shining woman opened her mouth and spoke.

  “You have the right to bear the royal seal. Preparations have been made. Return the jeweled branch to its rightful place, so that the true empire may be born.”

  Nobody said a word. But Keena tugged on Akuto’s sleeve and pouted.

  “Hey, Ackie, I told you I felt weird.”

  Afterword

  Thanks as always for buying my book.

  It’s me, Shoutarou Mizuki. This is volume 10, so we’re now in the 2 digit range. This time it was an anthology of short stories, and I hope you enjoyed it. It’s meant to stand on its own, so if somebody out there says, “I learned about this series form the anime, but I don’t want to buy 10 volumes,” then you can enjoy this one on its own.

  You can see for yourself what happens in it... Though I suppose I should explain a little. This is the first volume where the student council trio are the stars. When I saw them come to life in the anime, I felt like I had to give them a story of their own.

  Anyway, on to the anime. It’s over now, and it was quite popular. It was true to the story, but also very daring in a lot of ways. The voice actors all did a great job and had a great time.

  The DVD and Blu-rays are available now.

  I hope that those of you who watched the anime and those of you who missed it will buy all of the volumes. If you’ve read this far, you’re sure to enjoy it. Now, there’s a reason I talked about the anime before I talked about this book, and that’s because I contributed several ideas to the bonus for the DVDs, “Another Extra Demon King,” and I used a bit of those ideas in this volume.

  You can enjoy the gags both in written and anime form. I was there for the voice recording of the mini-anime, and the voice actors were having a great time and made it a lot of fun. I hope you’ll watch it too.

  Thank you to everyone who helped with this volume, and of course, the readers too. As you saw from the plot in this volume, there’s a little more to go. How much more, you’ll have to wait and find out. I hope you’ll stick around to see.

  There’s lots more fun to come!

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  Copyright

  Demon King Daimaou: Volume 10

  by Shoutarou Mizuki

  Translated by Adam Lensenmayer

  Edited by Christopher Foxx

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2010 Shoutarou Mizuki

  Illustrations Copyright © 2010 Souichi Itou

  Cover illustration by Souichi Itou

  All rights reserved.

  Original Japanese edition published in 2010 by Hobby Japan

  This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo

  English translation © 2019 J-Novel Club LLC

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

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  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Ebook edition 1.0: March 2019