Saaaaa...
"......?"
'...What is this...? Why did I suddenly get chills...?'
While watching Jonne's wounds slowly close under the healing magic, Adelio sensed a sinister feeling rising from the other side at the same time, and it brought back a fear that felt all too familiar.
That fear, tinged with something like possessiveness, was the same thing he had first felt when he and Ria met as a rogue demon and an empress.
'Ah...'
Something had gone wrong. No, only then did Adelio vaguely realize that he had done something wrong. Keeping himself as calm as he could, he slowly turned his head back, as if it were so heavy it might creak.
"Hairo?"
"........."
Should he say this was exactly what he expected...?
The life faded from Ria's cold, sunken eyes, and a dreadful blood-red gleam spread through them.
They were the eyes of a beast that had found its prey.
Quiet, yet chilling, those two eyes locked onto Adelio.
"No... this is—"
Overwhelmed by her gaze, he tried to make an excuse with a trace of wounded unfairness, but she cut him off before he even had the chance.
"Enough. We'll talk about this later. Slowly."
"...Yes, ma'am."
With [Demon Lord's Haki] flickering around Ria, Adelio could only shrink up like a herbivore placed in front of a predator and obediently nod.
The haki Ria used in the material world was not especially overwhelming in raw power, but mixed with her emotions, it became a technique that was disastrously effective against Adelio.
He knew better than anyone what happened when Ria was truly angry, so there was really only one path left for him: cower.
As Adelio endured that gaze, thick with anger and jealousy—
"...Well, this time, I'll make it a special draw for his— no, Adelio's sake."
Jonne, whose condition had improved greatly, had seemed content to watch in silence, but then she ran a hand through her short hair and joined the conversation.
Her face was still faintly flushed. Whether her hostility toward Ria had eased a little thanks to Adelio, or whether this was her way of repaying him for healing her, she was trying, unusually for her, to avoid another fight.
"...Hah? I'm the one letting this go. I'll overlook it this time... but there won't be a next time."
She did not like it, but Ria was the same in one regard: she, too, was trying to avoid continuing this fight.
She still wanted more than anything to vent her anger on Jonne, but she chose to put Adelio's mediation first.
She disliked that he had cast healing magic on Jonne, but that was a separate matter.
Looking at it rationally, Adelio had been right: neither side stood to gain anything from this battle.
Ria, who tended to think logically, chose to accept the mediation.
Of course, the fact that it was her lover's words had not exactly hurt.
"So while I'm still letting you off, hurry up and go back to hell."
"I was already planning to. Don't rush me for no reason."
Jonne shot back sharply at Ria's cold words.
"And when we fight again... next time, I'll win!"
Then, after briefly glaring at Adelio, who was watching her, she obediently returned to hell.
...
Before long, the yellow aura that had split the skies over Eldorado in two faded away the moment Jonne vanished.
"......"
As Jonne's magic power disappeared, the knights of Eldorado looked relieved. Ria, by contrast, stared at the empty air where Jonne had vanished as if the whole thing still displeased her, then finally closed her eyes and suppressed the fury still raging inside her.
'...I've gotten too soft... but it couldn't be helped.'
Letting Jonne go without resistance, Ria accepted inwardly that this fight had ended in a draw.
It was not the result she wanted, but that annoying stray cat was gone from sight, and for now, that was enough.
'Just as Adelio said, this fight ends here.'
And so,
the battle between the [Primordial Demons] was over...
...or so she thought.
There were two things Ria did not know.
One was that Adelio needed to remain in Eldorado a little longer to earn Leon Cromwell's trust so he could save Izawa Shizue.
The other was that Adelio had promised Jonne he would visit the [Underworld Gate] often while he was staying in Eldorado.
Because of that, Adelio and Jonne were bound to meet again a few days later...
And as a result,
the second round between Ria and Jonne had already become inevitable.
*
Only a few days passed before—
"...You again, Blanc? I only agreed to meet Adelio, so stop showing up with him already!"
the clash between the [Primordial Demons] flared up once more.
"Shut up. Whether I come with Adelio is my choice. I have no reason to obey you."
In the end, the fight between the two demon women spread beyond Eldorado and into hell itself.
And Adelio, the demon caught between them, had no choice but to keep mediating their battles.
If he did not go to hell, none of this would happen—but it was not something he could solve that simply.
He needed to make sure Jonne and Ria did not become outright enemies, so even knowing how dangerous it was, he had to keep visiting hell regularly.
And because the only person Jonne was hostile toward was Ria, not Adelio himself, there was enough hope that things might still be resolved well. That made this chance all the harder to give up.
'...Why does everything always end up like this...?'
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