"......"
"There's no need to look at me like I'm some pitiful creature. Nothing's happening here."
Something clung to my ankle. A damp, sluggish shadow. If I looked down at my ankle, the sensation would vanish instantly — but doing so would only spring the trap.
I called this sensation, personally, ticklishness. When my ankle itched and I scratched it, somehow my waist began to itch. When I scratched my waist, then my shoulders started itching. Just like that — once I gave those shadows my attention, they went on without end.
Look at the ankle, look at the waist, look at the shoulders — chasing the shadows away like that, and before I knew it, my path of retreat was blocked. Nothing was visible, yet the sensation remained, gripping my wrist, my ankle, my back, pulling me in.
Like bugs gnawing through every inch of my body.
I'll just say this: it was not a pleasant feeling.
"After Paimon died, you haven't slept with anyone......"
Barbatos murmured, half-sobbing. No — she was weeping.
"I thought... I stupidly thought it was because you were tired of me......"
"Ah. I grew tired of women. Tired of people."
I took a deep drag from my cigarette.
"Turns out sexual desire really does vanish once you're sick enough of people. I never knew that breaking free from lust could feel so wonderful. I suppose it feels like a prostitute who's successfully fled a vile pimp."
"It's because Paimon's ghost keeps appearing......!"
I silently pulled out a handkerchief. I accidentally drew the red one, tucked it back, and grabbed a white one instead. Then I walked over to Barbatos and wiped her tear-streaked face.
"That woman... in the end, she's the one who ruined you... Ahh! I knew it! I realized it ages ago, but I was a coward who hesitated... I should have killed her myself instead of telling you!"
"Stop crying."
"Where is she, where is that woman...... Is she clinging to me? Is Paimon superimposed on every woman you look at? Ahh, Dantalion, you fool...... You idiot......"
I shook my head.
"It's fine. I can see your face perfectly."
Whether to call it a stroke of luck or not — the situation wasn't nearly as bad as Barbatos thought. If every woman I looked at had Paimon clinging to her like a malevolent spirit, common sense would dictate that I couldn't even look a woman in the face.
It was the exact opposite.
"So let's talk business now."
Paimon was behind me.
Her right arm around my chest. Her left arm around my waist.
She rested her chin on my right shoulder. That way, her whispering voice flowed straight into my ear. Like a broken music box, she repeated the last words she'd ever left behind — over and over, and over again. Intermittently. Like exhaling a breath.
From my shoulder and chest, something damp kept streaming down. It probably meant blood. Metaphorically, it was a rather intense bout of ticklishness.
"Don't kill me, Dantalion......"
"......"
"Don't kill me. Please. Imprison me forever in the frozen earth instead. If I appear before you as a corpse, it really will be the end...... You know better than anyone that you couldn't possibly endure something like that......"
What nonsense.
Imprisoning a Demon Lord of Barbatos's stature in the frozen earth — the risk far outweighed any benefit. There were plenty in the Demon Realm who worshipped Barbatos. Even if the assassination of Paimon were laid bare for all to see, some demons would persist in trying to rescue Barbatos to the very end.
It was the only reasonable judgment.
Rationally considered, it was a burden no one could shoulder.
Perhaps she sensed the despair in my blank expression. Barbatos burst into tears and cried out.
"Then just... run away with me......!"
My hand, clutching the handkerchief, went still.
"Let's run away together, please? Why should you have to carry everything on your own? We could go somewhere in the Demon Realm... somewhere no human footstep or monster has ever touched...... And if we spend a few hundred years, a thousand years there, everything will be alright."
So that's how it would be — just Barbatos and me, together.
A normal husband and wife, building a cabin in a secluded mountain hollow and living out our days there. A Demon Lord doesn't need much food. There would be no need to be busy keeping house. Farming as a hobby would be fine. Say what you will, I had a fair amount of talent for agriculture.
Barbatos would probably scoff, "What sort of dull pastime is this?" She'd watch me from the side as I swung my farming tools, giggling away. The great Dantalion, and in the end his chosen profession was farmer? But once I finished the day's work, she'd smile warmly and say, "You worked hard."
An eternity of peace would flow.
Every night I'm tormented by nightmares and hallucinations. And Barbatos would hold me gently. With an expression nothing like the one she wore when she mocked me during the day, smiling with boundless tenderness, she'd stroke my back. It's alright. I'm here beside you. Whenever, for however long, at any time — I'll stay by your side, and everything will be alright......
Two people who have endured tragedy. If there are two who won't crumble even when they rely on each other, then even if it takes a hundred years, even a thousand — we would surely endure.
"Dantalion......"
Barbatos gazed at me, pleading.
I put on the most sorrowful expression I could manage.
Then the corner of my mouth twisted upward, as if mocking something.
Before long the mockery became unbearable, and I lowered my head.
I took Barbatos's cheeks in both hands. Fearing they might crack, I gently placed my palms against her skin. I slowly raised my head, bringing my face close to hers.
And then — I twisted my mouth into a hideous grin.
"A future like that is utterly impossible! And even if it were, I — this Dantalion — will never permit it! Running away! Fleeing! How disgracefully you've fallen, Barbatos!"
A demonic laughter reflected in Barbatos's eyes.
"Did you think I'd be the sort of person to forget everything under the guise of happiness? What a miscalculation! What — did my heart grow melancholy over the suffering of a loved one? Did I look like an Atlas shouldering the world's misery? How amateurish!"
I lifted Barbatos's chin. The tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, her trembling eyebrows — they were far too close.
"Your mind is distracted by useless things, and that's why you've come to this — the logic is simple! Right here, right now, there is one truth that has always existed and will continue to exist! It is to take responsibility for one's own actions! How can one who cannot even manage that dare to call themselves king!"
"Dant...alion......"
I laughed aloud. Because I needed to. The majority of humans kill things through rage and cursing. But I kill with laughter.
Four hundred thousand living, breathing souls couldn't stop me. Could four hundred thousand dead ones manage it? It was, in a word, a phantom pain of existence. Agony that could not bring me to death was, no matter how vivid, ultimately doomed to lose to me!
The idea that some mere hallucination could invade my mind was absurd!
"You told me to become king, Barbatos!"
I stared directly into Barbatos's pupils, our faces mere inches apart.
"This is my answer. I refuse to be a king who bears responsibility only for the living subjects currently before me. The lives I killed, the souls I massacred — I hereby declare that all of them are rightful subjects of my domain!"
"Ahh, ahhh......"
"Take happiness and peace and toss them as dog food."
I removed my hands from Barbatos's chin.
"The day after tomorrow, at the plaza in Niflheim, an execution will be held. Whether it's your execution or the execution of every member of the Plains Faction depends entirely on your testimony. You wouldn't want Beleth and Zepar to die too because of the assassination you committed, would you?"
"To you... if you do this... what's left for you......?"
Even at a moment like this, she was worrying about me instead of herself. There was truly no saving this woman.
For someone who acted with such cruelty, she was far too gentle toward the person whose affections she had earned. That was your flaw. A king should be equitable. A king must judge their lover — and ultimately even themselves — with perfect equality.
One who cannot do so is nothing more than a tyrant, and Barbatos, you were the kindest tyrant in the entire world.
"Everything remains."
I was, in fact, grateful for the hallucinations. They were preventing me from going mad, weren't they?
From losing my mind entirely, from being unable to even remember what I'd done, from collapsing into that pathetic lunatic old man — the hallucinations had blocked all of that thoroughly.
Whenever Jack cursed, whenever Hawk screamed, whenever Paimon whispered — the more they did, the clearer my mind became and the sharper my reason grew. It ruthlessly eliminated any distraction. Any dalliance — such as the temptation Barbatos had just offered.
Of course, from a certain perspective, I might have been mad. But everyone carried a certain amount of madness. The question wasn't whether you'd gone mad or not — it was whether you surrendered to it.
"Don't worry, Barbatos. The day after tomorrow, at the execution, the one who picks up the blade is me. I'm certainly not handing the role of killing you off to someone else. I'll carry out the sentence. Clearly. Without the slightest room for excuse."
"......"
"Let us all bear our responsibility to the very end."
And then I turned my back.
The gazes of the corpses followed me as I walked. I paid them no mind and headed for the iron door. Behind me, I could hear Barbatos sobbing.
"Dantalion, no... don't go... please, Dantalion......"
I think it was a scream buried beneath her weeping.
I slammed the iron door shut as if cutting off the sound. The clang of metal echoed down the prison corridor for a long time. In the narrow, solitary hallway, Daisy was waiting for me in silence.
"......"
I didn't like Daisy's expression. This one, too, had the same emotions as Barbatos reflected in her eyes. I didn't like it, so I struck Daisy across the left cheek. Annoyingly, the girl's head barely turned at all.
"Now I need to go meet the remaining Plains Faction Demon Lords, one by one. We have a long way to go, so why are you looking at me with such dead eyes? Lead the way, you blockhead."
"Just one thing."
Daisy murmured.
"Just one thing, Father."
Her dark eyes stared straight at me.
"The people who lived in my village too — the people Father killed in my village — are they shown as well?"
"Oh yes. They're shown very clearly. Their eyeballs have been eaten away, their mouths pierced by blades, and they're cursing me. Well? Are you satisfied now?"
I curled the corner of my lip.
"Do you feel compassion for me now? Has even a shred of forgiveness taken root in your heart? Then that only proves your will is that flimsy. Don't ever make the mistake of thinking you have the right to forgive them for their deaths."
I swept down the corridor, cloak trailing behind me. Mixing my footsteps with yet another muttering, I kept moving forward. Perhaps because I'd acknowledged those shadows for even a moment, they chattered with unusual frenzy today.
But it meant nothing.
I was here.