After falling victim to Ria’s surprise kiss attack—otherwise known as getting kissed out of nowhere—the next place I headed was another tower, the one opposite the tower where Ria had been isolated.
Yeah. The place where Rain and Misery were.
Originally, I’d thought there was no way I could mediate between Ria and those two in a single day, so I’d planned to stay by Ria’s side and at least keep her calm...
"Go see Rain and Misery too. Those two... are probably waiting for you as well."
...I was only able to go because of Ria’s consideration.
She said she hadn’t fully accepted it, but it seemed she was still worried about Rain and Misery, who were like sisters to her in their own way.
Well, considering they were all bound together by the same fate as [Primordial Demons], maybe that was only natural.
In any case, things had ended well on Ria’s side, so that much was a relief.
But...
It was still too early to relax.
From here on out is the real problem...
Just because things had gone well with Ria didn’t mean there was any guarantee they would go well with Rain and Misery too. I couldn’t let my guard down yet.
The "chance" Ria was giving them didn’t mean, "Try taking him from me if you can." It meant, "I’ll test whether you deserve second or third place, so do your best and prove it."
In other words, first place was an absolute, untouchable seat, and she intended to personally judge whether anyone deserved the places after that.
And if Rain and Misery realized what that meant, what would happen?
Obviously, there were only two possibilities.
Either another fight would break out, or they would accept it with the same understanding Ria had shown.
Of course, the former was overwhelmingly more likely than the latter. That was exactly why I couldn’t relax.
Still... I have to do something.
Ria had given her permission even though she obviously hated it deep down, and she had endured that much. So shouldn’t I do everything I could to resolve this too?
Besides, it wasn’t like I had anywhere left to retreat to, and it didn’t seem like sitting around agonizing would magically produce a better answer. The only option was to face it head-on.
Creak...
I carefully pulled open the door to the tower, identical to the one Ria was in, and this time, instead of going upstairs, I walked straight ahead.
Trusting my instinct that, if I knew them at all, they would be here.
**
Adelio’s intuition was right again.
On the first floor of the tower, filled with ice shards and black shadow, stone chairs lined with dark crimson carpet had been set out, and seated on them were a blue demon and a green demon, both wearing shadowed expressions.
The blue demon, Rain, looked as though she had been crying, her eyes red-rimmed, while the green demon, Misery, had a gaze so worn down it looked almost ruined.
"Rain. Misery."
Perhaps because they weren’t in their right minds, the two of them didn’t hear Adelio call out to them. Or rather, they did hear it, but treated it like a hallucination.
That was because they had sunk into despairing thoughts like, "He’ll stay by [Blanc]’s side," and, "He isn’t here."
Even if not to the same extent as Ria, Rain and Misery understood Adelio well enough to roughly guess which side he would choose.
"......"
Realizing what they were thinking, Adelio decided that simply calling their names wouldn’t be enough, and immediately acted.
With both hands, he gently took Rain’s hand and Misery’s hand.
"...Huh...?" "Adel... io...?"
Only then did Rain and Misery lift their heads.
Once they realized his earlier call had been real, the two of them tightly clutched Adelio’s warm hands and stared at him with trembling eyes.
As if, if they stopped looking at him, he might disappear again.
As if, if they didn’t hold on, he might scatter like a mirage.
The two demons carefully pulled Adelio into an embrace, as delicately as if they were handling a work of art.
"...It’s okay. I’m here."
Watching Rain and Misery tremble faintly, Adelio gave a bitter smile and drew both demons into his arms as well.
Just as his lover had expected, it was impossible for him to push them away.
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