Maybe I should just ask in the notebook... I scribbled into the notebook, and the Demon Lord looked down at the notebook in his hands. After what had happened, it seemed that he’d noticed our notebooks were synced as well.
“What are you planning on doing?”
“I don’t want to tell you, Yumi-Yumi. You’re too busy having secret convos with your boyfriend in front of me.”
“I’m sorry, Deemie. First, I totally and mistakenly thought you liked Patrick, and now I thought you were trying to overthrow the government.”
“That’s so mean! How could you think that?! I don’t want to write to you anymore, Yumi-Yumi! Bye!”
I had cold sweats upon realizing that I effortlessly called the Demon Lord “Deemie,” but I had to keep corresponding with him.
“I’m sorry! I want to keep talking. I don’t have any friends who write to me, so I’m really lonely.”
“Friends? Are we friends?”
“Oh, I’m sorry... We just met, so I shouldn’t assume. Of course we’re not friends...”
“I’m sorry too! I’m so happy you thought of me as a friend, Yumi-Yumi! I’m sorry I keep acting so nasty. I don’t like Valschein that much, but I don’t want to exterminate the citizens or burn the kingdom down or anything like that anymore!”
I was finally able to pull out what the Demon Lord’s intentions were. Also, I still can’t believe how he speaks when writing... It was starting to become too much, so I stopped writing in the notebook and spoke to him directly.
“I’m glad to hear that. I was worried that we’d have two world-level crises on our hands.”
“Two crises... You might not be wrong about that.” The Demon Lord looked up at the black wings spread out in the sky and continued in a low voice with another disturbing statement. He completely ignored the fact that I was confused, unable to connect the person I’d just become friends with to the person standing in front of me, and he said, “I wasn’t the only one who got mixed up in your half’s chaos. The king of the Kingdom of Twilight has probably returned to the living world as well.”
“You’re referring to the hero...the first king of Valschein, right? Is he dangerous?” So he’s here too after all. I knew he was in the Kingdom of Twilight thanks to Lemn’s information, and we’d already done our research on him.
The king seemed like a much more barbaric person than we’d imagined, but he didn’t seem like someone who would try to destroy the world. I couldn’t say it to the Demon Lord, but the king had regretted their falling out until the day he died. The king that was awful in ways that I hadn’t expected was probably not that bad of a person.
“Back in the Kingdom of Twilight, he said that Valschein is a flawed kingdom. He said that it was built upon countless sacrifices and it should’ve never existed in the first place.”
“That’s why he’s a threat to the world?” I wasn’t getting the full picture yet.
I was surprised that his regrets ran so deep that he was against the existence of the kingdom itself, but what did that mean for us? Patrick and I didn’t understand, and the Demon Lord got to the core of the hero’s intentions.
The Demon Lord spoke in a voice tinged with rage. “In other words, he’s planning to destroy the Kingdom of Valschein.”
I knew about the regrets the first king had at the end of his life, but trying to come back to life just to erase the kingdom he’d built was overly obsessive. Getting rid of a kingdom? That’s what a Demon Lord would do, not a hero. I can’t believe the actual Demon Lord is trying to stop him... Wait. It seemed that Patrick had the same question.
“You tried to destroy the Kingdom of Valschein in the past,” Patrick said. “The reason you’re telling us what’s going on instead of helping the first king, who has the same objective as you, is—”
Yeah, that’s right. The hero and Demon Lord should be kingdom-destroying buddies. In the notebook, he wrote that he’s not going to destroy this kingdom, but I still don’t know why.
I was listening to Patrick, who was saying what I was also thinking, but the Demon Lord interrupted him.
“I’m already dead. I just want to stop him from trying to change the past when he’s already dead too.”
It seemed for the best to not press any further. The bloodcurdling atmosphere made it clear that he truly felt that way. I didn’t really want to ask for details through the notebook either—it was hard to match his energy over writing.
So the first king is trying to destroy the Kingdom of Valschein, huh? If I’d heard about this yesterday, or even this morning, I wouldn’t have been able to believe it, but things were different now. I now had an idea of what sort of person he was, and I knew about the regrets he had.
Though his thinking was quite extreme, I could understand his motive. I also knew he was a violent person who might actually do what he threatened.
“We were just researching the first king,” I said. “We read things like a diary written by someone close to him who struggled.”
“Those close to him who struggled... There are so many people who were having a hard time that I can’t tell who it would be,” the Demon Lord said with a faint smile. I couldn’t tell what emotion was behind that smile. The corners of his mouth quickly turned back down, and he shook his head. “There’s nothing to gain from learning about his lack of regard for others.”
“I guess it doesn’t have much to do with stopping the destruction of the kingdom.”
“That’s not what I mean. After being in the Kingdom of Twilight for so long, he’s completely changed. He’s turned into a monster that’s nothing like his true self.”
Oh, that’s right. That’s the sort of place the Kingdom of Twilight is.
Even if Twilight didn’t affect someone, obsessing over one thing for several hundred years would have an effect on their mental state. The legendary, barbaric hero was now an unrecognizable monster... Patrick and I gulped because we couldn’t imagine what sort of beast he’d become.
“The hero is probably already here,” the Demon Lord said as if to mock us. “I’m sure he got mixed up in your other self’s mess.”
“You’re the only one who came falling down,” I pointed out.
“No, you probably just missed him. He’ll be here any moment.”
The founding hero turned into a beast who’s trying to destroy the Kingdom of Valschein and is coming here...?!
He suddenly arrived, his timing impeccable, as if he’d been listening to the Demon Lord’s words.