Ah, this acting thing was harder than I thought—
I lay still on the bed. Beside me, Gamigin was gradually quieting her sobs. Sniffling, then whimpering—the kind of crying she simply couldn't hold back. To put it poetically, it made for a magnificent lullaby.
She had no idea I was awake, of course.
In truth, I hadn't lost consciousness from the very start. Having Gamigin support me on the way here had been surprisingly comfortable, which put me in a pleasant mood.
Man, I could feel Gamigin's stress levels spiking lately. People aren't machines. No matter how fair a deal might have been, they still wanted to be treated with respect—at the very least, not made to look small in front of others.
Even if they were walking a path they'd chosen themselves.
Or maybe the fairness itself was the problem... Gamigin was ranked fourth. She might have thought that cutting an equal deal with someone like me was actually unfair—unjust, even.
People are quick to forget the days when they were the weak one. Gamigin must have held the lowest rank at some point too. But once she became a figure of power and hundreds of years passed, she'd unconsciously come to think: I'm not so insignificant that I can be brushed aside like this, I deserve better treatment...
All I could do was laugh at the foolishness. What actually changes after a few hundred years?
Two hundred, three hundred years pass, and suddenly I'm some great person? What a joke. Whether three hundred years pass or not, if my head gets lopped off, I'm dead. That's all my life is worth.
The fact that you should always, without fail, guard against losing your head—that too is simple to forget once you grow foolish. It's easy: you no longer think of yourself as the weak one. You have to be this foolish before even the pleasure of tormenting you starts to fade...
Gamigin rambled on about how survival was the one and only true value, and so forth. Yet for all that, she clung to her pride. I could only call it naive.
If I were in Gamigin's shoes, I would have submitted completely.
I'd have played the part of someone whose heart had been entirely captured, waiting for the chance to expose a weakness. They'd get to hear every kind of flattery from the fourth-ranked Demon Lord. No matter how cold-blooded the other party was, they'd still beam with delight, wouldn't they?
But Gamigin fumbled it. She neither fully cooperated with me nor fully opposed me. She straddled the fence.
"Status Window."
I opened my eyes slightly and glanced at Gamigin. A hologram promptly materialized.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Gamigin
Race: Demon Lord Affiliation: Gamigin's Demon Lord Army
Alignment: Evil (-55)
Level: 396 Notoriety: 5,233,100
Class: Grand Mage (SSS), Demon Lord (SS), Dungeon Operator (S)
Command: 295 Strength: 320 Intelligence: 353
Politics: 371 Charisma: 449 Technique: 446
Affinity: 22
Current Mental State: 'Everything... I'm so sick of it all. Everything...'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It had been exactly one year since Gamigin's Affinity first crossed 20.
Back then, Gamigin and I were getting along quite well. Regardless of how things started, we were business partners who exchanged what the other needed—and when you're mixing bodies frequently on top of that, a little attachment is bound to develop.
From my perspective, having the fourth-ranked individual on my side was beyond reassuring. I naturally treated her well, choosing words she'd want to hear. And so her Affinity climbed by 2, then 3 each month, finally surpassing 20 in just one year.
Slow and steady, but solid. Everything was going smoothly.
That was when the problems began.
'...Don't associate with Sabnak.'
We had just finished a vigorous round of sex and were lying in bed, savoring the afterglow. I was bewildered.
'Huh?'
Sabnak was the forty-third-ranked female Demon Lord and an unaffiliated Demon Lord. She had joined up with Agares when the civil war broke out, so she was carefully watching the Plains Faction's reactions. She'd make subtle gestures like "Please, just forgive me," which I found amusing, so I'd humored her a few times.
'I don't think she's particularly remarkable, though.'
'Associate with her all you want. She was the first to bail the moment things got tough for Agares.'
'Ah ha.'
I let out a soft laugh.
'Could it be that you're worrying about me right now...'
Wait a second, I thought.
Gamigin was lying with her back turned to me, so I couldn't see her expression. But as I gazed at Gamigin's pale, slender back, a nameless chill washed over me.
What exactly had Gamigin just said?
She had sold me information about someone who had once been an ally. All to earn a tiny sliver of my Affinity. Why? Why would she do that?
Anyone else probably wouldn't have noticed. But I sensed it instinctively. Gamigin was trying to create a debt between us!
All relationships start falling apart because of emotional debts. I did so much for you, I showed you this much goodwill. And yet I received nothing in return. You owe me, you have to repay me... Once a business relationship starts to crack, things spiral out of control.
Barbatos and I both knew this well.
That was why we never, under any circumstances, went beyond appropriate bounds—neither giving nor receiving excessive consideration. This was how you prevented the other party from harboring pointless resentment—I did this much for you! Why is this all you have to offer!—
People aren't machines. But they rust in a different way than machines do. From the attitude Gamigin had briefly shown, I caught an unmistakable metallic stink.
'...So you were worried about me. Thank you.'
'.....'
A loud sound effect rang out: Affinity has increased.
Sure enough.
As time passed, the situation skewed sharply in one direction.
'Lady Gamigin. Wait, just wait a moment!'
'...!'
'What's wrong? Damn it, are you upset because I said Barbatos was number one? Didn't we agree from the start that we'd be okay with that?'
'Go away... I said go away!'
Gamigin was definitely holding back tears. She was trying not to let me see her cry with her back turned to me — that was probably the last shred of pride she had left as a Demon Lord.
Only then did I fully realize just how carelessly I had underestimated Gamigin as a Demon Lord.
Come to think of it, Gamigin had never once had her mask crack before meeting me. She had maintained that mask for over a thousand years. It was easy to guess just how lonely and desolate that state must have been.
In short, Gamigin was a complete beginner when it came to romance.
She may have dated plenty of people and slept around, but she'd never had the chance to truly bare her heart to someone and figure out what a proper relationship was. I was the first person she'd ever dated with her mask off.
There was no way a woman like that could endure being told 'you'll always be second place.'
I had misjudged the situation. Because she was ranked Fourth, and because Barbatos, Sitri, and Paimon were all so thoroughly skilled in matters like these, I had simply assumed Gamigin would be equally adept. If I had just thought about it a little more carefully, I could have figured it out easily!
And so.
I decided to make a bold move.
'So that she wouldn't even be able to think about putting me in her debt.'
'I'll bury her under a massive debt first...!'
It was me who had hinted to the Grand Dukes to arrange the banquet.
First, the fact that only Gamigin and I among the Demon Lords had received invitations was part of the scheme. The two of us were already caught up in romantic rumors and had been generating all sorts of scandals. In that state, we attended the banquet like partners.
The Grand Dukes had wanted to curry our favor.
And it just so happened that a couple easy to pair off was right in front of them.
Their question was predictably predetermined.
'Well then... Your Grace Dantalion, which of the Demon Lords do you find particularly beautiful?'
'Ah, of course. Lady Barbatos is the most beautiful.'
It was a deliberate insult.
'Oh. This wine is remarkably fine.'
He savored the wine with an air of nonchalance, fanning Gamigin's fury even further. There was no way Gamigin would endure such an insult.
'I think I'll step out for some fresh air. I'm getting far too drunk today.'
Once he judged enough time had passed, he rose from his seat. If Gamigin's emotions were moving as he'd predicted, the Demon Lord would follow him nine times out of ten.
'Ah, me too~. My head is screaming for me to let some outside air in.'
Sure enough, Gamigin followed him all the way to the private room without a fuss. He was so perfectly on-script that the man nearly laughed.
Once inside the room, he drew out a pipe.
The tobacco leaves stuffed into the pipe were no ordinary cigarette. They were a kind of anesthetic. From the very beginning, he had intended to slit his own stomach.
Was he mad enough to feel every ounce of that agony in vivid detail? He was, after all, a delicate sort of man.
It was a special incense that dulled the body's sense of pain. The side effect—his face turning utterly, unnaturally blank—didn't matter in the slightest. There was no need for him to put on an act in this situation.
Once his body had gone sufficiently numb, he plunged the dagger into his belly without hesitation. Even under anesthesia, the pain didn't vanish entirely. It was more a matter of being tolerable.
'W-what are you doing!?'
Gamigin, who had no way of knowing his condition, was horrified.
The Demon Lord rushed over in a panic, casting healing spells in a frenzy. The man had slit his own stomach open knowing full well that Gamigin was a grand mage skilled in restoration magic. There had never been any real danger to his life.
And everything went according to plan.
"Nn... ugh... ugh..."
"...Dantalion? Dantalion, you're awake?"
Gamigin approached him. He caught a glimpse of the Demon Lord frantically wiping tears with a handkerchief. Naturally, he pretended to know nothing of the sort, scrunching his face as though in tremendous pain.
"Where... am I?"
"My villa."
Gamigin glared at me with an expression that could have been either weeping or rage. People usually wore that kind of face when they felt sorry for someone but didn't want to apologize. I used to make that face at my mother all the time.
"What on earth made you do something like that! How much I have——!"
"...My apologies."
I forced my lips open.
For the record, it was genuinely difficult. Acting like it was difficult—now *that* was a real struggle.
I looked Gamigin straight in her scarlet eyes and spoke.
"To apologize to Gamigin... ngh, this is the only way now..."
"...!"
Gamigin's face twisted even further. Perfect. Guilt—oh, how I desperately wished she would be smothered in even more clinging, suffocating guilt.
Nothing shrank a person quite like guilt. From now on, Gamigin would never again claim to be my lover while standing before me. The very person who had wounded her was none other than herself. She could think of it that way, and I would be grateful.
"...I, in my position... swore an oath to Barbatos, so..."
Here came the follow-up blow.
"I believed... that Gamigin, of all people... would understand..."
"...!"
Tears instantly welled up in the corners of Gamigin's eyes. This was the moment. I slowly closed my eyes, as though overcome with exhaustion.
When the other person started crying, you must not show mercy. The victim had to be me and me alone. Was I going to let her off just because she was pretending to be the victim through tears? Not a chance.
"I'm... a little tired... I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Gamigin... I'm sorry..."
My eyes drifted shut.
Before long, I heard the sound of Gamigin sobbing. It was unmistakably the cry of someone berating herself.
Of course, there had also been the option of fully and wholeheartedly shouldering Gamigin's loneliness. The two of us relying completely on each other, sharing our emotions, and walking forward together—that was another path.
But why must I choose that path?
Barbatos is the same way, but I have absolutely no intention of letting myself get attached to anyone. As for Gamigin — whether she lives the rest of her life drowning in guilt or not, I'll just tell her to live however she feels comfortable. You carry your own burdens yourself. That's just how it is.
"Ugh… hnn, hnngh… hnnngh…"
Using Gamigin's weeping as a beautiful lullaby, I finally fell asleep for real this time.
Mm, I worked hard today too.
============================ Author's Afterword ============================
May you all never meet a bad man.