KWA-BOOOOM!!!!!
"...Damn it!"
The Primordial Demon, [yellow].
Among the kings of demonkind, she was the most violent tyrant.
True to that epithet, once she was genuinely enraged, she became a ticking bomb no one could stop.
"...That vicious bastard turned down my offer because he likes that white one...?! Damn it all!!!"
There was only one reason she was this furious right now: a single demon Blanc had brought with her.
*
Several hours earlier.
The shattered truce ground.
At its center, immense magic power churned violently.
"...Say that again...!"
[yellow] asked back as if she could not believe what she had heard.
She was radiating fury like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"You're saying you'll keep serving that damn white one?!"
That anger was a declaration in itself: answer wrong, and there was no telling what would happen.
"...No matter how many times you ask, my answer will remain the same. I swore loyalty to Lady Blanc, so I cannot ignore her will."
But the ash-gray demon standing before her did not bend.
He was clearly afraid of both her and Viole, and yet he kept giving the same answer.
"...! You little—!!"
Unable to contain her rage, [yellow] moved to lunge at him that very instant.
To those who would not obey, there was only punishment.
That was her way.
Fortunately for Hairo, however, her attack never reached him.
Clang!!
"Please stop, my lord."
As she was about to leap forward and fight,
"This is the truce ground."
an elderly gentleman with long yellow hair blocked her path.
"Move out of my way! That bastard just—!!"
[yellow] tried to fly into a rage again without caring, but the old gentleman spoke once more.
"My lord. Please regain your composure. To rampage here would be the same as declaring all-out war on Lady Blanc and Lady Viole."
He was one of [yellow]'s subordinates, but he had taken it upon himself to restrain her whenever she lost control, which was why he stepped in now.
"Even so...!!"
"I understand why you are angry, my lord. However, now that even Lady Viole has accepted his will, it would not be right to raise objections."
Anyone would have been terrified of [yellow], yet the old gentleman merely stated his opinion calmly.
"What are you even—"
Having recovered a little of her composure thanks to that, [yellow] turned her head and looked toward Viole, expecting her to be rampaging just as wildly.
But contrary to her expectations, Viole was astonishingly quiet.
"Viole, you..."
At the sight, [yellow] looked completely incredulous, but Viole remained indifferent.
"......"
"Hmph. I'm not a thoughtless idiot like you, you know?"
The Viole everyone had expected to explode like [yellow] instead sat there quietly, waiting in place.
"......"
When everyone stared at her in stunned silence, Viole finally smiled like a little devil and spoke.
"I don't mind if he chooses Blanc for now. In the end, he'll become my butler anyway."
After leaving behind that meaningful remark, Viole looked at [yellow] and added,
"Unlike you, I actually know how to think~"
*
Boom!!
"This is pissing me off...!"
Just like before, [yellow] unleashed Nuclear Magic once again.
It was weaker than the last one, but it still held enough destructive power to erase dozens of mountains with ease.
"Viole's annoying, and that bastard's annoying too!!!! 'I swore loyalty to Lady Blanc, so I cannot ignore her will'...?! If it's not even a contract, then why the hell is he sticking to something like that?!"
If it had been a contract, she could have understood.
To a demon, a contract was both a bargain and a binding restriction that absolutely had to be honored.
If his loyalty to Blanc had been contractual, then it could not be helped. No subject could dare defy a king.
But judging from his tone and Blanc's reaction, his refusal had been entirely his own choice.
In other words, he had judged both her and Viole to be beneath Blanc.
That fact had wounded the pride of [yellow], the tyrant.
"...Just wait. One day, I'll take you from her for sure—"
Feeling the emotion called greed for the first time in a long while, [yellow] muttered inwardly.
It was already hers.
*
The other Primordial Demon, Viole, had remained quiet on the surface, but she was just as angry as [yellow].
She too was one of the proud kings of demonkind.
But if there was one difference, it was that what she felt leaned less toward anger and more toward desire.
A dark desire that might one day turn into obsession.
"So he wants to keep following Blanc... Fine. Taking him away sounds fun in its own way."
The most childlike king.
The most innocent Primordial Demon.
She was a mischievous child who was always searching for amusement, and so she treated stealing that demon away as a kind of game.
That was also why, instead of throwing a tantrum there, she had made [yellow] look like a ridiculous clown.
"...Hairo, was it......? He doesn't look half bad either~"
That colorless soul was so fascinating she wanted to study it right away, but it was not time yet.
When he truly came to serve her and became her subordinate, it still would not be too late.
"Ahaha, one day I'll make you my butler, Hairo~"
Today as well, she wore a dark smile, satisfied that she had found a new source of fun.
As she looked forward to the opportunity she believed would come someday.
*
Meanwhile, in the white castle toward which the two tyrants' anger was directed, Blanc and Hairo were meeting alone.
"...There's something I'm curious about. May I ask?"
The long silence that had continued on the way back here was finally broken by Blanc's question.
"Yes, ask me anything."
At my answer, Blanc seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end she asked.
"Back then... why did you say that on purpose? To be honest, I thought you might want to leave this place."
Blanc tilted her head, as if she truly could not understand why.
"......"
That.
She was probably referring to what I had said about swearing loyalty to her.
Just as I expected that, Blanc continued.
"I thought there was a chance you'd choose to follow one of those two, so I had already looked into their weaknesses in advance. Well, thanks to that, I ended up keeping two cards in reserve, so it wasn't a bad outcome."
As she said that, Blanc gave her usual cold, chilling smile.
'...Just as I thought. She'd already made preparations so I wouldn't be able to go with [yellow] or Viole.'
Then again, among the Primordial Demons, the only ones who could really match her in a battle of wits were Rouge and Noir, so maybe that was only natural.
One of the reasons I had not betrayed Blanc was because she was smart.
"I want you to answer me honestly. Why did you decide to stay here?"
"...Why, you mean."
...Well, besides the fact that she was intelligent, there were a few other reasons too.
To name just a few, compared to [yellow], who spammed Nuclear Magic whenever the mood struck her, and Viole, who would pursue anything interesting no matter how many sacrifices it caused, Blanc, though cruel, was calm and rational, making her the better master.
And on top of that, life over the past three months had not been as bad as I had expected.
But more than anything, the biggest reason was this.
"...There is one demon I want to find here."
"A demon you want to find?"
"Yes. A white-lineage demon... one I knew until a few years ago."
A friend.
I wanted to find Ria.
.....................
Only a few years.
For demons, who were close to immortal, that was a short time. But for me, the time I spent with her had been the most precious part of the roughly hundred years I had lived as a demon.
Ria, the first friend I made after reincarnating. It was not as if I had never crossed paths with other demons before meeting her.
I had met quite a few demons, made deals with them, and formed connections.
But none of those ties could compare to the time I spent with Ria.
Before I realized it, the bond between us had grown far longer and deeper than I ever expected, and that made me want to find her.
But the only things I knew about her were these two facts: she was a white-lineage demon, just like her hair color, and she was of a fairly high rank.
That was all.
The reason I knew so little despite how long we had spent together was simple: Ria herself hated talking about her past. To the point where I had wondered if it was trauma.
In the end, I had to find her using only those two scraps of information, and the easiest way to do that was to remain under Blanc.
.........
...But why is she acting like that all of a sudden?
"...Lady Blanc? Is something wrong?"
Blanc's expression looked strangely off after hearing my answer.
Her snow-white skin had turned faintly red, and the way she avoided my eyes made her seem flustered.
Almost like... someone who had just received a confession.
'...Did I answer too easily and catch her off guard...?'
Maybe she had expected me to make excuses, and was surprised that I just told her outright instead.
"...Lady Blanc?"
When I called to her again, Blanc finally seemed to come back to herself. Then she answered in a voice pitched higher than usual.
"...I-It's nothing. Let's head back now."
"......?"
Her face was still red, and even at a glance her flustered state was obvious, but I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.
If I said the wrong thing and made her angry, I'd be the one in trouble.
"Yes... understood."
Not knowing her true identity, he simply dismissed that reaction as his imagination.
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