"……."
"To think you'd criticize my attire instead of praising me as a dutiful daughter."
Daisy kept on talking about this and that.
I nodded along, playing along adequately. Yet, a part of my mind was constantly thinking about something else. It felt as though the skin on my face had separated from my skull and was moving independently. It was a sensation I was quite familiar with.
"……."
A voice whispered at my ear.
It was the same voice I'd just heard in my dream. It was Paimon's tone. I knew perfectly well it wasn't Paimon, so I didn't react much. I simply listened to Daisy's voice instead.
"Lord Barbatos the Regent also received plenty of cuteness. Father, have you ever heard how a pig squeals when it mounts? It's worth listening to once. Indeed, when its flesh is torn, the pig can only scream."
Daisy sneered.
It was probably her scheme to exploit my affection for Barbatos.
In the past, I would have been furious. On the day the public execution was held, my reason went numb with the thought that Daisy had broken Laura and Paimon. I cursed her with every vile word. I ordered her to kill herself.
How must Daisy have felt when she heard those words from me?
It must have been agonizing.
Unbearably painful. Yet, she endured. She bore the Slave Brand carved into her heart grinding, she endured her innards being shredded by my every word, and somehow, she made it all the way here.
For the final purpose.
To be blunt, to save me.
"Daisy."
But I was not a person suited for words like salvation. No matter what Daisy thought of me, that was the case. An unchangeable truth was embedded here like a tombstone: that I must never be granted any comfortable solace.
"It's alright now."
"I'll reveal that starting now."
"You don't have to act anymore, Daisy."
"……."
A crack had formed in Daisy's face, which had been cold as steel.
That child was wise. Wiser than anyone I had ever met. It was nothing more than a slight hint, but Daisy would have understood everything from that alone. However, there were things a person wanted to refuse even after understanding them, things they had to refuse.
"Acting, you say…… You're really talking in your sleep today."
She was a girl whose eyes were particularly dark.
Like black ink pressed onto blank paper, Daisy's hair was endlessly dark yet simultaneously smooth and lustrous. She had been complete from the moment I first met her. She held certainty about this world, and within that certainty, she knew what meaning she herself held.
"Father's words are, as always, too difficult to understand……"
That was why she was frightening.
She seemed to already know that this place was a stage and that she could play any role. Amid the villagers dying and their corpses scattered about, this child had stepped forward with the conviction that she could persuade the slaughterer before her. That was what brought me terror.
I had to kill her.
"That was quite the nonsense, but today especially, the concentration is…… the concentration is severe. Meaning: unclear."
So that I could kill her at any time.
It wasn't a question of whether I could kill her or not. Of course I could kill Daisy. The question was whether she would accept being killed by me. That was all.
What if she grew attached to me?
What if she came to see me as "not a bad person"?
That couldn't be allowed. It was unacceptable. Murder was an evil act beyond any excuse. Those who committed murder — those who carried out endless slaughter — had to remain villains through and through.
Being killed by someone who wasn't a villain…… I could never accept that kind of narrative. Daisy felt the same way. I had resolved to always remain a villain in Daisy's eyes, and therefore, I had arranged things so that no matter when or where Daisy was killed, she could accept it on her own terms.
It is not because of some splendid cause that you die.
I am the villain for killing you. I have arrived at the point where there is no room for excuses, and I have proclaimed my territory there as a villain. Therefore, you are killed.
A dry equation.
But it was concise.
"Father, you've always been like that……."
Daisy fell silent.
Did she realize that her lips were trembling?
Daisy swung her greatsword. He could feel, to his bones, what emotions had driven her to move the blade. She had figured out that his Acting was seen through, but unable to accept it, she was putting it to the test. She was secretly, desperately hoping that he would dodge or block the attack.
Murderous intent born from genuine feeling.
He could tell that the blade was not aimed at empty air but was truly rushing for his neck.
Naturally, he didn't flinch.
"Gah……!"
Daisy abruptly halted the greatsword. The blade stopped right in front of his neck. Daisy's test had failed. Her composure crumbled.
"Why…… why aren't you dodging?"
Poor Daisy.
His daughter.
"You could have actually died. I can't understand it! Why, how could you……."
He had never once shown her what it meant to be a father.
When she was struggling, he had failed to leave behind even gentle comfort. When she shuddered in loneliness, he had never once been by her side. He had forced a role onto Daisy. He had demanded that she hate him. Without any regard for how much it would wound his daughter. And yet Daisy had followed him without a single word of complaint…….
For the first time, with his whole heart,
he held Daisy in his arms.
"Ah……."
Such a tiny body.
There was still so much empty space left even after he settled against my chest. She was this small and frail. What have I done? What on earth have I done……. Made this child kill countless people, forced her into torture, and let her human heart wither away.
A child who had done nothing wrong.
Simply because she might one day become a dangerous existence.
"I'm sorry……."
Dantalion should never have apologized to anyone.
He was meant to remain the very epitome of a villain to the end.
Therefore, this was an apology from myself alone.
A confession of remorse spoken entirely by me.
Daisy was trembling in my arms.
"I didn't look at you properly. None of it. It's all my fault……."
At first, Daisy had resisted.
She begged not to be killed. With Paimon gone and Barbatos's death already fated, if she were to die as well, Father wouldn't be able to endure it. Or else, she screamed, she would rather kill Father with her own hands.
I smiled.
"I thought you might say that."
I took out a glass vial filled with poison. It wasn't just ordinary poison. A single sip was enough to kill a human instantly—the deadliest of deadly venoms. It was a toxic substance Jeremy had crafted with painstaking care. For a Demon Lord like me, one vial wouldn't be nearly enough, but there was no need to worry. I had prepared quite a few.
"Father, that is…?"
I uncorked the vial and drank the colorless, odorless poison.
I felt the searing pain as it burned down my esophagus.
My insides screamed with a searing shriek. My esophagus and stomach melted away. My consciousness blurred from the agony, but I desperately downed the second poison and then flooded my mouth with the third. Just as I'd expected—Daisy realized what the vials were and lunged forward.
"Father!"
A little closer.
"No…tell me the type of poison, the name! Ah…ahh! No…"
Closer still.
"I don't want this…I don't want this…"
And then Daisy buried her face against my chest.
With my right hand, I painstakingly stroked her hair. Daisy looked up. I pressed my lips lightly to the place where tears streamed down ceaselessly.
"…!"
Daisy's pupils widened. But only for an instant. As if she understood everything, she pressed her lips against mine. She really was a clever girl. I wanted to talk with Daisy a little longer. I wanted to stay by her side a little more.
When I had the time to stay, I couldn't find a reason to—and now that I wanted to stay, there was no time left. What a laughable thing. Looking back, my regrets always came in exactly this form.
But at least for the end…
Little by little, the poison trickled from my lips into hers. At some point, the last of it had flowed away entirely. We slowly pulled our lips apart, as if reluctant to let go.
"…It hurts, Father."
Daisy gave a faint smile.
I must have been smiling the same way. I couldn't feel my face, but I was certain of it.
"I had Jeremy specially make these for me."
"It hurt…so much."
Daisy clung to me, snuggling close in that tender way of hers.
Our mana had already gone berserk. A massive crater had opened in the ground, as if a meteor had struck. Fragments of rock and stone floated in midair, defying gravity. The sight of a world coming to an end. This was the final destination we had both arrived at.
"Like this…all the words I shared with Father will disappear too…no one will be able to remember Father…"
"That won't happen."
Besides, I added.
"Honestly, there's nothing worth being remembered for by other people."
"You're always so cynical, Father."
"You don't have to be afraid."
I held Daisy a little tighter. Her shoulders had been trembling for a while now. Was it the fear of dying? Was the sheer inevitability of vanishing like this simply terrifying? Come to think of it, Daisy wasn't even twenty years old yet. Of course she'd be afraid.
"I'll stay with you until the very end."
"Father."
"Yes."
"…I love you."
Once more, our lips met.
I could feel life fading away in my arms. Daisy's life. My own life.
The breath Daisy exhaled grew weaker, little by little. Gently. I somehow sensed that Daisy's candle would gutter out just a fraction before my own. That brought me a small measure of relief. I didn't want her to depart while feeling my death.
"……"
It felt as though an eternity had passed.
I looked at Daisy's face one last time. She wore a faint smile. That was a relief. I had done nothing but bring her pain her entire life, but it seemed I had managed to give her a smile at the end.
My eyelids grew heavy.
The sensation of my body dying.
The feeling of my mind flickering out, like a television losing its signal. I had experienced this feeling once before. Yet no matter how many times it happened, it never got any easier to accept. We grow accustomed to living, even when we hate it — so why is it that dying, no matter how many times we repeat it, never becomes familiar?
Truly.
The mana that had been surging through my body drained away in all directions. Nothing remained inside me now. I didn't even have enough breath to exhale through my nose. I closed my eyes as I felt the pain of my innards tearing apart. I wanted to see Daisy's face just a little longer, but that was impossible.
The sounds coming from all around grew distant.
My thoughts came to a stop.
Darkness closed in before my eyes.
And then.
And then…
"..."
At last, I looked ahead with my own two eyes.
I lay on the ground, gazing up at the sky.
A sky blanketed in ash.
I could hear birds singing in the distance. The leaves between me and the sky told me I was somewhere deep in a forest.
"...Did it work?"
I murmured. I'd tried to sound self-deprecating, but to my surprise, my voice was tinged with moisture. I was crying. Were these tears for Daisy? For a while, I lay there and wept in silence.
But I couldn't stay there crying forever.
For Daisy.
And for everyone.
"..."
I rose to my feet.
There was no time to waste.
From now on, I have to accomplish what only I can do in this world.