He was clumsy when it came to emotions born from longing.
For so long, he had always been alone, and the memory of that had remained as trauma. So he could only be awkward about it.
It was close to being dense. Oblivious.
Before he had even become an adult, he had been bound by the prison called a hospital and the shackles called a body, far removed from anything normal.
And even now, after being reborn as a demon, that had not changed.
The fact that he fell into battle instinct more easily than other demons, and the fact that he still wasn’t used to the flow of time—all of it was heavily influenced by his previous life.
This time was no different.
Since becoming Guy’s servant, Adelio had remained completely unaware of the feelings Rain and Misery had been harboring all this time.
And so—
"...What do you... think of us...?"
"......!"
Rain’s question drove hard into Adelio’s mind.
To him, Rain and Misery were his superiors and his [friends].
Friends he could speak to comfortably, ignoring the ranks demons were supposed to keep.
Adelio had believed they would remain like that even hundreds of years from now, so he had never once looked at them in a romantic way.
Not until this moment, before hearing what was truly in their hearts.
"...I..."
He couldn’t answer. No—he didn’t even know what he was supposed to say.
Part of it was because he had never been in a situation like this before. But the bigger reason was that he understood Rain and Misery’s feelings.
Just as he had been sincere in searching for Ria because of what he felt for her, he had realized that the feelings they carried were sincere too.
That was why he knew a half-hearted answer would only hurt them most. But he also knew the wound left by rejection would never be small either, and so he couldn’t respond right away.
On top of that...
If he coldly pushed Rain and Misery away, that would create its own problems.
Both of them would continue serving Guy, and he would have to keep seeing them from now on. He couldn’t leave bitterness festering between them.
And besides, Misery might let it pass, but Rain... with her personality, she definitely would not.
"...Hehe, both of you should stop right there——"
As Adelio stood there speechless like a mute, Ria, beside him, curved her lips into a cold smile.
Since she was still technically a guest here, she had intended to watch the situation for as long as possible. But her patience had reached its limit.
"Whatever the two of you may think, Adelio is my lover now. So pressuring him like this is... extremely unpleasant."
Just as she had done with [Jonne], Ria stepped in front of Rain and Misery, her voice as cold as her smile.
After already suffering one headache because of [Jonne], she had no intention of tolerating any more interference.
"...[Blanc]... no, Ria. Please stay quiet for a moment. That answer is something we absolutely must hear."
But they had no desire to be interrupted either.
Misery fixed Ria with a stare that radiated a silent demand for her to keep still.
It was a chill in her gaze that rivaled Ria’s own. Back when Misery had lived in hell, she had never once shown anything like it.
"......"
At Misery’s unfamiliar presence, Ria’s smile vanished for the briefest instant.
The fact that she, who could still smile even in front of Guy Crimson, had lost that smile meant Misery’s attitude was that unexpected.
"Hmm... Tens of thousands of years ago, I thought you were the [Primordial Demons] member most similar to me... but it seems you’ve changed quite a bit."
A demon like silent stillness, unmoved no matter what happened, never revealing emotion. That was the Misery Ria remembered from the past.
But now, something had changed.
More precisely, something had changed her.
Like a quiet wind meeting flame and feeling heat for the first time, the green demon had begun to burn with someone else’s fire.
And that something was almost certainly the ash-colored demon standing beside her at this very moment.
"Perhaps. And——"
Misery closed her eyes for a moment and steadied her breathing. Then she spoke in a voice without the slightest tremor.
As if to confirm that Ria’s guess had been correct.
"——if I really have changed, then just as it was for you, it is all thanks to Adelio’s influence."
Once wind had been swallowed by flame, it could never return to what it was before.
The same was true for Misery. And for Rain.
They had already made their decision.
There would be no more submission.
In that case...
No matter what answer came from his lips, the end of this would lead to a fight.
"So wait quietly. In any case, the fight between you and us... is already decided."
"...A fight, huh..."
Ria, Misery, and Rain gradually drew in their magic power, and the three colors of aura that had filled the area around the White Ice Palace quietly faded away.
At a glance, it looked like they were trying to avoid battle, but the truth was the exact opposite.
They intended to fight seriously.
They were preparing a single blow meant to completely erase the other side, and so they were gathering even the magic power they had been releasing as pressure.
The three demon women were about to manifest curses as vicious as Jonne’s Nuclear Magic.
But then—
Rumble...
The clash between the three demon women was cut short.
"That’s enough, all three of you."
The one who forced that deeply dissatisfied truce on them was the red-tinged Demon Lord, Guy Crimson.
"......Lord Guy..." "...Rouge..."
No matter how belligerent the three demon women were, they were not like [Noir], mad with battle frenzy.
In other words, they were not insane enough to fight Guy Crimson head-on.
In the space where the four demons had all fallen silent, he alone remained completely at ease.
"Hah... honestly, this has thrown the balance of the world into complete chaos..."
Sighing as he looked at Ria, who had obtained a body, Guy eventually turned his gaze toward Adelio, the one who was practically the root cause of this entire mess.
"...Adelio. I trust you’ve prepared a very good excuse... because this time, no matter what, I will not let it slide."
That red gleam in his eyes was the savage gaze of someone who treasured his disciple very, very much.
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