“Oh, awake now, are you?”
I wasn’t certain where I was. When I opened my eyes, I was met with Rila’s face. I looked around and realized I was lying on her lap in an unfamiliar bed.
“Looks like I’m still alive,” I stated.
“All thanks to me,” Rila said. “You may thank me now.”
She looked smug.
“Where are we?”
“The island that those dissidents used as a base. The barracks, if you recall.”
“Yes. That was when you thought a stomachache meant you were pregnant.”
“D-do not speak of that…!”
I tried to get up, but swiftly lost my balance.
“There now.” Rila supported my right shoulder while I was caught by surprise. That’s when I recalled what had happened.
“Right…”
My arm was cut off. The chance to mortally wound Amy was worth a limb, and the weight loss proved helpful in getting at her.
“You remember?”
“Yes. They feel like someone else’s memories, but I won.”
“Indeed, you did.” Rila smiled and gently helped me back down, stroking my head.
The final blows hadn’t been a fight between assassins. I’d broken all of Amy’s teachings, which had undoubtedly surprised her. The moments following the battle were vague, but I remembered speaking with Rila and saying it was very cold. That was probably because of the blood loss.
“You don’t have your collar. So back then…”
Rila’s voice had come from below until suddenly, she was right before my eyes and holding me in her arms.
She’d cried. I recalled that much clearly.
I hadn’t touched her collar, though, and before I left the castle, she was still in her cat form.
“Oh, ha-ha… It has broken.” Rila laughed nervously as she showed me the torn collar.
“According to an expert appraiser I met on my travels, it was supposed to be unbreakable,” I said.
“It seems there are exceptions to all things,” Rila replied.
“I guess you’re not the most powerful demon lord in history for nothing.”
“You yourself are far from average, too, considering you defeated me.” Rila grinned softly for a moment before launching into a series of questions. “Are you hungry? Do you feel all right? Would you like water?” She was incredibly doting.
“You’re not going back to Hell?” I asked.
“You released me from the shackles of being the demon lord. If you would like me to go home, then I shall.”
“…You can do as you please.”
“Mm-hmm. I most certainly will.”
Rila had probably left Bardenhawk and come to this island because the collar had broken.
“What happened to Amy, the woman I fought?”
“She is sleeping in a room near yours. She was quite injured and has yet to awaken.”
“I see.”
Three days had passed since the fight. I’d been sleeping the whole time.
Meanwhile, Rila had cast magic to seal Amy’s skill, a very difficult feat, judging by how she explained it. Such a powerful skill demanded a lot of work to render it inert.
“It took great effort, but she should be no threat to Almelia now.”
“That’s why you’re the demon lord,” I replied. “If you hadn’t had the collar on, I probably could have gone straight to you for help.”
“Such flattery.” Rila laughed bashfully.
I asked, “So what do you plan on doing? Are you going to hole yourself up here?”
“…That house was too small for me. I shall make this island my residence henceforth. And you shall commute to work from here, naturally.”
I doubted that was the truth. This was likely the only way for Rila to live away from Hell without causing problems for humans.
“We could find a way to repair the collar… I guess I’ll stay here until then.”
“You believe there exists someone who is capable of fixing it? Then I should like you to find them.”
“Well, that’s unexpected. I thought you found the collar limiting.”
“No… It was at first. But I believe it was proof, in a way.”
“Proof?”
“Mm-hmm. Proof you presented to me. Proof that I am not a demon lord.”
So that’s what it meant to her.
“There is no mistaking it. You killed the demon lord,” Rila added. When I stared at her, she turned red and looked away.
“A-and I suppose it was also a piece of jewelry to accessorize. Yes.”
While she was a cat, it was a collar, but in her proper form, it was closer to a choker. If she liked it, there was nothing more to discuss.
“Let’s fix it, then,” I decided.
Rila nodded. “And we shall also find a way to reattach your arm.”
“Do you think that’s possible?”
I wasn’t even sure where the limb was. As though to answer the question I hadn’t voiced, Rila retrieved it from beneath the bed.
It was definitely my arm… But it was giving a thumbs-up.
Did I really leave it that way?
“It’s preservation magic. So long as I do not break the spell, it shall never rot.” Rila adjusted the fingers to make a V with the pointer and middle.
So she was the culprit.
“Don’t play with it,” I chided.
Rila chuckled.
Despite the existence of necromancy, there were no known ways to reaffix a body part.
“I am sure you are tired from talking. You may rest now.” With that, Rila left.
I looked at the ceiling and tried to remember the battle and what had come after.
Amy was still alive. I felt relief spread through my chest. I couldn’t quite put the feeling into words. Had Rila not been there, I likely would have killed Amy and died of blood loss myself.
It seemed that Roje had gone around telling everyone involved what had happened. They were all waiting to hear more after I woke up. Those at the guild were informed that I’d had an accident. Almelia and the others closer to the situation learned the full truth—that I’d lost my arm fighting.
“Lord Rileyla thought something was off,” Roje said. “So, on that day, she asked me to watch you to see whether you did anything strange. You should be grateful for her judgment and discretion!”
As usual, Roje sounded proud.
“If you were watching from an unseen place, you could have killed the hero and me,” I stated.
“…The war is over,” Roje answered. “And…after seeing such a sublime fight, I could not help but pay you and the hero respect for your efforts.”
Evidently, Roje hadn’t wished to sully the battle with guile. I guess the elf had her own sense of ethics.
Two days after waking, I found the strength to walk again. It still felt odd to be missing an arm, but I adapted quickly.
Amy was still unconscious. After Rila had gone to all that work finding a spell to seal off Amy’s skill, she’d admitted, “If she does not wake, all my effort shall be for naught.”
Roje used the Gate to bring a few visitors to the island: Leyte and Maylee; King Randolf and Almelia; Frank, Iris, and Milia. They all stopped by in turns, each clearly worried for me.
The only thing they asked of me was to consider when I should return to work. Honestly, I could handle daily tasks without issue now, but they were probably being considerate because of what I’d lost.
“Mr. Roland, we’re back home now and working at the Lahti branch,” Milia said, looking worried. She told me all about the recent events.
“Is that right?”
I hadn’t been away from my job for that long, yet guild work felt nostalgic now.
Our time in Bardenhawk had come to an end. I thought back on it. Everything started when I accepted that broadscale quest.
“How are things going? Do you think you’ll have any problems coming back to work?” Iris asked me directly.
“No, I can write with both my hands, so I can still manage,” I replied, just as straightly.
“That’s good.”
Losing that limb might have also robbed me of the part that made me an assassin.
“Hey, Rila’s mana… Does it feel a little eerie to you two?” I inquired.
Iris and Milia looked at each other.
“I don’t feel anything odd in particular?”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, I don’t, either. I saw Miss Prima Donna earlier, but it didn’t seem like there was anything odd…”
Rila’s mana had returned, but these two didn’t detect anything noteworthy. Come to think of it, I sensed nothing sinister from their power, either. It was as though Rila’s claws had been clipped.
Perhaps that spoke to some internal change? Now that she was no longer a demon lord, a weight lifted from her shoulders, and she became mentally whole, I suppose.
When I explained this to her, Rila seemed puzzled.
“A demon’s mana does not change. Not even through kinship with others. But…if Iris and Milia do not feel my mana…”
“Then you can go home.”
“Mm-hmm.”
We decided to move from the island back to our house on the outskirts of Lahti.
Today was my first day back at work.
I left in the morning, as usual, and said my hellos when I came in.
“Good morning.”
“Morning, Algan.”
“Roland, since you’ve been gone, none of the women adventurers have been coming in.”
As I joked with the other workers, I realized things were more lighthearted than I’d expected.
I felt at home, in a way. I spoke about nothing in particular with familiar faces and sat in my usual seat. When had this become such a part of me? A little farther away, I saw Iris with Milia and the other women in the office.
“Milia, hurry.”
“Wah…”
“Why do you sound like you’re about to cry…?”
Milia wiped her eyes with her arm as the others pushed her toward me.
“Mr. Roland.”
I noticed she was hiding something behind her back, only to realize it was a bouquet.
“Welcome home!”
I received the gift as she handed it to me with a smile. Then everyone clapped.
Maurey, who’d just barely made it in on time, was the only one who seemed out of the loop.
“Welcome home.”
“Tell me everything that happened in Bardenhawk later, okay?”
“Welcome home!”