"Ahhh. Holding hands like this is just so wonderful."
Gamigin held a wine glass in her left hand while squeezing and kneading my hand with her right. I replied.
"A touch too silken-soft for the likes of me to be handling."
"Sitri. I need to have a word with Dantalion — would you mind giving us a moment~?"
Gamigin spoke to Sitri in an adorable, coquettish tone. For the words of the 4th-ranked to the 12th-ranked, it was remarkably polite. Sitri, clearly unhappy about being separated from my side, puffed out her cheeks like a hamster, but she returned to where the Mountain Faction members had gathered.
Gamigin said to me.
"Last time at Bruno, I was flirting with you up a storm and you pretended not to notice! My confidence as a woman almost vanished."
"That's because I have a rather terrifying young lady serving as my Mademoiselle."
"Are you saying you like Barbatos better than me~?"
As if that could possibly be the case, I said.
"The world has fate, you see — who you meet first and who you meet later, that simple fact alone can change everything. Lady Gamigin. It truly pains me that I did not get to meet a beautiful woman like yourself sooner."
"Hehe."
When I responded with polite gentlemanly composure, Gamigin laughed bashfully. In truth, Gamigin had been beaming with a sweet smile the entire time before she even approached me. In this world, if someone went around smiling for absolutely no reason, it was one of two things. Either a very kind person — or...
"So, what is it you want?"
A very dangerous person.
And if that person was no mere mortal but occupied the position of 4th-ranked among all the Demon Lords... there was hardly any need to deliberate over which answer was correct. The number of humans Gamigin had slaughtered single-handedly must have been in the tens of thousands.
I kept the smile on my lips and spoke.
"What do I want. Why, of course, Lady Gamigin — I always desire your favor."
"Hm? Are you trying to play dumb? Fufu, there's no need for that."
Gamigin spoke in a soft, lilting tone.
"I'm well aware that Dantalion isn't one of Barbatos's devoted loyalists. You see, I remember when you sent that letter trying to get Paimon to drink water? Honestly, I thought something was off from the very start. I couldn't quite figure out why Barbatos himself didn't send the letter — it was Dantalion instead~."
Once, Paimon had conspired with President Elizabeth to annihilate Barbatos. I had caught wind of the plot and personally sent private correspondence to the high-ranking Demon Lords. That, Gamigin was pointing out, was what had struck her as strange.
"Normally, a letter from Barbatos himself would've been far more convincing. But that's not what happened. Perhaps Barbatos didn't know a thing about your plan, Dantalion? Fufu."
"Hmm. That's… a troublesome situation."
I flashed an awkward smile.
"Allow me to be frank. I didn't have complete certainty that Paimon would actually move against him. If my prediction turned out to be wrong, I was prepared to take the blame on myself and deliberately…"
"You got caught."
In that instant, Gamigin's half-lidded eyes flew open.
She muttered "caught" over and over again, repeating it several times, and leaned her face uncomfortably close to mine.
"Caught. You've been caught~."
Her scarlet pupils glowed with an almost unbearable glee, flickering like flames.
"Dantalion. I said Barbatos might not know a single thing about 'your plan.' Assembling all the commanders of our Demon Lord army and luring Paimon into drinking water… That whole scenario was something you — Dantalion — drafted entirely on your own, wasn't it~?"
"……."
"So in the end, the reason we're currently fighting over Habsburg territory is because Dantalion gave us the spark. Ah, don't worry — I've got a sound-dampening spell up, so nobody nearby can hear a thing!"
Damn it.
I cursed silently. It wasn't over yet. There was still room to wriggle out of this. I was just about to compose myself and open my mouth when Gamigin gently set down the wine glass she'd been holding in her left hand. The glass plummeted and shattered with a sharp, ringing crash.
The whole time, Gamigin stared unblinking into my eyes.
"Dantalion. Your expression has… frozen."
Gamigin narrowed her eyes into a thin, sweet smile.
"Pitiful, really. The type of person who builds their own role and throws themselves into it — even when something totally unexpected happens, they just can't step out of character. Like a third-rate actor playing a king who, when a spectator storms the stage, still acts like royalty right in front of them~."
Gamigin casually stepped on a shard of glass. The crunching sound it made was unpleasantly sharp.
"A glass breaks and instead of flinching, you keep smiling. Your expression has frozen. You shouldn't do that, Dantalion. You really shouldn't~. That level of acting might fool people who earnestly go about their lives, but someone like me — a 'first-rate actor' — will see right through it."
"……."
My heart went cold.
"Oh come on, don't get all serious on me. It's just a bit of light entertainment. We're supposed to be enjoying this together."
"What was the purpose of testing me?"
"Ah. I felt a sense of kinship."
Gamigin said.
"The world is just too damn miserable to spend your whole life smiling, isn't it? The only way to keep smiling in a world like this is to become someone even more wretched than all the world combined. That's why I'm always smiling. I believe you're the same way, Dantalion."
"…You and I are the same breed?"
An ugly emotion churned inside my chest.
"Kids like Barbatos and Paimon — they're seriously annoying, aren't they~?"
Gamigin broke into a wide grin.
"Because they actually believe there's such a thing as justice in this world. The two of us would never admit it, but we're practically carbon copies of each other. World peace, the wish of the Demon Realm — all that grandiose stuff, there's no fun in that. Honestly, I've wanted to kill them over and over again, and I barely held myself back, you know~."
"You're wrong. I like Barbatos."
"Oh really? It's not just admiration?"
Gamigin playfully flicked my forehead.
"I'm ranked Fourth. Two thousand eight hundred years ago, I was ranked Seventieth. Fourth — that's the best I could ever do. No matter how many people I deceived or humiliated, I could never climb above Third. Anything past that is where the real monsters live. Get what I'm saying? I'm the absolute peak of what you can become."
In the distant past, Gamigin had been in an even worse position than me. Back then, the world was overrun by the highest-ranking monsters who, despite being Demonkin, refused to submit to the Demon Lord's rule, and the Demon Lord's army was too busy dying in their great war against the Dragonkin to bother with the continent.
Dantalion was revealing to me that she had started at rank Seventieth and had eventually climbed to rank Fourth. She must have clawed her way through all sorts of struggles to survive too. And just like me, she had learned the art of staying alive……
Two-faced.
Just as I had expected, Dantalion was the sort of person who wore a smile on the surface while nurturing a serpent within.
"As a senior and a kindred spirit, let me give you a prophecy. I, Dantalion, speaking as the witch among witches, say this: a great misfortune shall befall the one who mistakes love and admiration for something real! The dashing Dantalion. Now, enough with the act—let's have a more constructive conversation."
"A constructive conversation?"
"I asked you earlier. What is it you want?"
Dantalion spoke.
"Surely a clever child like you didn't pick a fight with Agares and me for no reason at all. I may not fully understand it, but there must be something in it for you that only you can see. That's all—I'm just asking honestly. What do you want~?"
Ah, so that's it.
Dantalion really was similar to me. She moved with a ruthless calculation of gains and losses. Ideals, principles, loyalty—words like those were nothing but meaningless noise to her, less valuable than the clink of a coin. Survival was the one and only truth, and she would sacrifice everything else for it.
So I declared.
"Dantalion. I am not like you."
She blinked.
"You're still going to deny it? Geez. I told you there's no need for that."
"No, I mean it. Between you and me, there is a fundamental difference."
A difference so decisive that it forced us never to be called kindred spirits.
"Dantalion, you are the strong. You have risen to a high position and look down on those beneath you as an inferior breed. Barbatos and Paimon are nothing more than fools spouting nonsense in your eyes. Survival is the only truth. Everything else is a lie and an illusion……I'm sure that's what you believe. And it's a correct perspective."
"Mm."
Dantalion answered crisply.
"So, what's your point?"
"You're turning a blind eye to the simple truth that fantasies are the most beautiful things of all."
If by some chance you were me, you wouldn't have had the same weak points I did. You'd never have let a slave trader like Jack Orland live. You wouldn't have spared Daisy and Luke — people who might become the Hero in the future.
"It's precisely those utterly meaningless values — the Demon Realm's grand wish, peace — it's the act of beating one's wings in vain toward such things that is truly beautiful. It's not revolting because it's futile. It's moving *because* it's futile."
"...What?"
"Oh my. Lord Gamigin, it seems you don't quite understand my taste."
I let a thin smile curve my lips.
"Think about it. Everything vanishes in the end. Let's say Barbatos's dream comes true — an ideal society for the Demonkin. Even so, after countless ages, it'll disappear without a trace. The same goes for you, Lord Gamigin. Being a Demon Lord doesn't make you immortal or eternal."
I was having the time of my life. Ever since I'd fallen into this world, there hadn't been a single dull moment. Even Gamigin — whom I'd written off as nothing more than a slightly shady lady — turned out to be a magnificently splendid figure. I loved people like this.
"Fundamentally, the world is no different from a colosseum. Gladiators wager their lives moment by moment, throwing their entire bodies into each clash — ripping through their opponents' skin, spilling blood, roaring with victory. And yet the next day, or the day after, or maybe three years later, they'll end up as the loser and die cold and alone!"
"..."
"Even though it serves absolutely no purpose — that futile, desperate thrashing like a cockroach — isn't that something a true Demon Lord can't help but love?!"
I seized Gamigin's hand and shook it. I'd cast a soundproofing barrier, so I let my voice ring out freely. Ah, I'd found a kindred spirit who might finally understand my taste. How could I not be overjoyed!
"Barbatos will never achieve his ideal, and he'll die. Paimon is no different. People who carried such noble ideals... who possessed a willpower that ordinary people wouldn't dare dream of, who pushed forward for hundreds, thousands of years... in the end, they'll be defeated! In the end, they'll meet their final end! Without any reward, without any meaning."
That was truly —
"Don't you find it absolutely thrilling?!"
It was a staggeringly exquisite thing.
Gamigin's expression had gone rigid. Her smile had frozen. I pressed even closer to her.
"What final words will they leave behind? How beautifully will they die? Ah, just imagining it is magnificent. Lord Gamigin. Isn't it so? You can't sleep at night because you're burning with anticipation — what last words will Barbatos utter at the end? What kind of life will Paimon display before he departs? Oh. Among humans, there are occasionally people like that as well — rare beings who possess a truly 'magnificent will.'"
I thought of Fabian. Of everyone I'd met recently, Fabian was the most magnificent. In the temple of my heart, I would honor him for all eternity. Like fireworks, the memory of him would strike me with fresh wonder year after year.
"To watch those wills bloom and wither — that is the sacred duty of a Demon Lord, and I, Dantalion, believe this without the slightest doubt!"
=========================== Author's Notes ============================
Gamigin: Huhu, the craziest bitch in this whole damn neighborhood is me…….
Dantalion: Kyahahahaha, kyaru-ru-ru-rupl, kka-eo-mi-eo-a-m-rya!
Gamigin: ……I'm sorry. Would it be alright if I stepped out?