✦ ✦ ✦
Noah turned her back to him and made to leave the balcony.
“I think our talk is finished. Do as you will,” she said with a sigh.
Diablo clenched his fist. He’d decided to protect what he held dear at all costs, no matter what he had to do. Even if it meant crushing his very soul!
How can I say I’m determined to defend them if I reject the safest, most correct answer?!
“...Fine. I’ll listen to you.”
“Huh?!” Noah turned around, her eyes wide with surprise.
Diablo struggled to breathe. The thought that this wasn’t the Demon Lord-ly thing to do was booming repeatedly in his mind like an alarm, and he broke into a nervous, cold sweat.
“I’m saying I... the Demon Lord Diablo, will lend you my aid! Until we defeat Emperor Gelmed!”
“That means I’ll be the leader,” Noah told him, narrowing her eyes. “And you’ll have to obey my every command on the battlefield. Can you promise that?”
If he simply replied to that with a resounding “Very well!”, it would be proof that he didn’t really understand the meaning behind her words. But he wasn’t a child like Klem. And so, Diablo simply nodded slowly.
“I admit it. You are the leader.”
He thought she might laugh at him. But instead, she regarded him with the most earnest, serious expression he’d seen her make yet.
“Thank you, Diablo. I will do everything to answer the trust you’ve placed in me.”
She extended her right hand to him. And after some momentary hesitation, Diablo reached his own hand out to hers and grabbed it in a handshake. As he did, Diablo pondered that he didn’t really understand what being a leader meant, nor what the true weight of responsibility was.
But Noah did know.
Even when he led Rem and Shera on quests, he didn’t feel quite responsible for them. He never thought to act like a leader. And how much trouble had that brought upon them in the past?
As their hands parted, Diablo felt an odd sort of warmth remain. And with that sensation on his mind, he once again gazed at Noah.