This is someone who survived that impact. Since we don’t know who they are, we need to be on guard. We continued watching warily, and a man clad in black appeared from behind the curtain of sand.
His long hair was the same deep black as mine, and his eyes were just as dark. Though he was a man, his face even looked similar to mine. This person, dressed in armor, who could be thought of as a male Yumiella, was someone I knew.
Patrick didn’t know who he was, so he spoke cautiously. “Who are you? Why did you come from the sky?”
The man seemed annoyed as he glanced over at Patrick, then he looked at me. He stared intently as I stood there, wobbling as I couldn’t maintain my balance with only having control of my right side. He then looked up at the thing in the sky with only a left side and said to himself, “I see.” He nodded and continued, “This must be the world of the living. I now understand why you only had half your body over there.”
My left half had died and gone to the Kingdom of Twilight. That place, where those who died with regrets gathered, was also where the first king of Valschein was. In that case, there was nothing strange about the Demon Lord being there.
I could guess that he somehow got involved with Left Yumiella’s resurrection and loss of control, but I had no idea what his plans were now. Worried that we might be enemies again, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“It’s been a while... Um, what should I call you? Would you prefer I use your na—”
“Demon Lord suffices.”
Patrick was shocked by his response. His guard towards the mysterious person was now fully up.
“The Demon Lord?! He’s the Demon Lord?!”
“That’s right, young man. I am... I’m... Um, the way I speak isn’t strange, is it?”
What’s this all of a sudden? Are you okay?
Patrick froze, not understanding what was going on, so I answered in his place despite not really understanding either.
“There’s nothing strange about it. You’re from a different time period.”
“What if I was from a time period where no one else spoke like me?”
That would mean...by current standards, right? I guess he can use strange phrasing at times, and the way he speaks is pretty rare nowadays. I pondered the changes in language that would’ve happened since the time the Demon Lord was from, where people surely spoke like him, and confidently declared, “It’s strange. It’s a little weird to speak in a manner that no one else is using.”
“I see...”
The Demon Lord was saying strange things, and Patrick was completely on guard against him. I don’t care who—can one of you just act normal? As that thought crossed my mind, Patrick spoke in his usual tone.
“You sometimes speak in a way that no one else does, Yumiella.”
Are ya tryna say I’m weird? I ignored the fact that my dear boyfriend had returned to normal because of his straight-man antics, but ’twas true that I mayst not be’st one to talketh. I’ll apologize and revise my statement.
“The way you speak isn’t strange. You’re just as normal as everyone else.”
“Hmm. I see.” The Demon Lord nodded as if he were satisfied before pulling out a black notebook and scribbling something inside it. It was a very familiar notebook. A black notebook owned by someone who was in the Kingdom of Twilight until moments ago...? No way... I opened up the notebook I had.
“I was a little bothered by something, but Yumi-Yumi said I don’t have to worry about it!”
Huh? But this notebook was probably owned by a girl, so there’s no way...
The Demon lord continued writing, and words appeared in the notebook in my hands. My suspicions were confirmed.
“Yumi-Yumi said that because of the boy next to her. He seems nice. I’m a little interested in him.”
I was going to ask him why his handwriting looked like that of a girl in grade school, but there was something else I needed to say to him. I responded to the Demon Lord’s cute writing with my own words.
“Um, that boy is dating Yumi-Yumi. What do you mean you’re ‘interested’? You better explain yourself.”
“Really?! They make such a cute couple!”
Oh. I thought he was going after Patrick, but I was totally wrong. Sorry for sending an angry text because of a misunderstanding. I should probably apologize for that in person, I thought as I looked up to see my classmate—no, the Demon Lord’s face.
I was talking to the Demon Lord. This wasn’t a grade school classroom, and we weren’t passing notes folded into paper airplanes.
Patrick, who had been reading our back-and-forth over paper, whispered in my ear, “I didn’t know that the Demon Lord was, um...this kind of person. I’ve never met him before, so I didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know either. You heard how he spoke—he speaks with flourish in a dated way.”
“So which side is he on? Is he an enemy or an ally?”
The Demon Lord had probably only returned to the living world because he’d gotten caught up in my mess. Though he didn’t intend to come back to life, who knew what he was planning to do now. The Ultimate Weapon still posed a threat: Left Yumiella still loomed, and it would be terrible if we had to deal with the Demon Lord on top of that.
The Demon Lord was strong. His stats would probably be similar to Patrick, and dark magic was very good at one thing: killing people. I would be able to handle him, but the Demon Lord merely existing was enough to be considered a worldwide crisis.
As Patrick and I spoke to each other, our faces close together, the Demon Lord spoke up.
“If there’s something you’d like to ask me, why don’t you just come out with it? If you have the ability to realize that there is something you don’t want me to hear, at least do your plotting somewhere I can’t see.”
I guess we have no choice but to get to the point. Our crises would go up to two, but there was no point in trying to leave this issue for later.
“What is your objective here?” Patrick asked, his voice tinged with nervousness. “It may be by coincidence, but now that you’re alive, what will you do here in the Royal Capital of Valschein?”
“I would’ve answered if you’d just asked that at the start... So how do you want me to answer?”
Uh...which is he? He doesn’t seem friendly, but I feel like that could change depending on how we respond.
There was a huge difference between how he was in his notebook entries and in real life. I was still in note-passing mode, so I couldn’t keep up with the Demon Lord’s final-bossesque statements.