287. A lot of talk and a lot of trouble (6)
Of course, we can’t just say that cufflinks are a tool for hiding magical power, but doesn’t that mean that they are using a tool for hiding anyway? If you observe a little, you will know.
Deon roughly gathered his thoughts to the point that the Demon King’s magical power had decreased and left the terrace. Ririnel, who had been watching Dan and the corps commanders’ gambling from afar, quickly noticed his presence and tried to approach him, but it wasn’t long before he had to stop.
There was a passenger.
“Hello, Deon.”
It’s been so long since it came out that there are already people coming up to me with comments like this. Deon looked silently at the 12th Corps commander Myers and his lieutenants standing in front of him.
Myers shrinks as if his gaze is burdensome. In contrast, Adjutant Dahar slightly bowed his head and spoke calmly.
“It’s been a while since I said hello.”
“….”
“…Mr. Meius?”
Dahar pokes Myers in the side. Myers immediately bowed his waist.
“It has been a while since we last met!”
“…okay.”
what. I think I’ve been in this situation before…
Deon nodded hesitantly. After hearing the answer, Myers glanced at the lieutenant’s gaze. Dahar swallowed a sigh that was about to burst out at the look in his eyes that seemed to indicate that he had said hello and received an answer, so now was the time.
“…Mr. Deon, actually, there is something I would like to ask separately from Mr. Myers. I would like you to spare some time for me… Do you dare to ask?”
“okay?”
As Deon’s consciousness focused on me, Dahar immediately motioned to Myers to let him go. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Myers, who was bright-colored, quickly disappearing.
For a moment, I thought about nagging him if he went back to his usual routine, but… You went through quite a bit of trouble today regarding the hunting competition, so I think it would be better to let this go. If you push too hard, it can backfire and…
‘…I just happened to get caught by a boss like that.’
I suppressed the sigh that was about to come out again and raised my head. I immediately made eye contact with Deon Hardt, as if he had been watching me the whole time. He was smiling and rolling his eyes as if he was having fun.
There, Dahar suddenly felt a sense of discomfort.
‘…Now that I think about it… did I hear a positive answer…?’
I didn’t hear it. There was just a question, ‘Really?’
Cold sweat runs down my back as I face the relaxed smile that seems to know both Myers’s rudeness and the adjutant’s shallow blindness.
Did I come here for no reason?
‘At least I should have left Myers behind and come alone.’
…But today, Myers couldn’t sneak out of the banquet hall like usual.
Because I had to clearly show when and what situation I went through and how I got out of it. Dahar, conscious of the glances that were secretly glancing in his direction, quickly lowered his head, putting aside the unnecessary assumptions that crossed his mind.
“I have been rude in many ways. I am sorry.”
“Okay, that’s it. You said there was something else you wanted to ask, right?”
“…yes.”
Red eyes shone between narrow smiling eyes.
“I heard you often make eye contact with only one person today, so it seems it wasn’t because of your mood.”
“….”
“You saw me before the competition started, right?”
It was like that even after I came back.
This wasn’t a question, it was more like a self-talk reflecting on facts.
With Dahar’s silence in the background, Deon nodded after looking at him for a moment.
“Okay, follow me.”
It hasn’t been long since I left the terrace, but I feel like I have to go there again. Because it’s the only place close to here and disconnected from space.
I took the lead without looking back once. Dan’s voice sounded a little excited from one side.
“I won. The right to wish was at stake in this bet, right?”
“…Damn it.”
“I understand that it was a promise made with magical power. I understand that the only magical energy remaining, Trover, is the magical energy that forms the body, but if you break it…” “Damn it! I understand! What is your wish!?
”
“That’s…”
Tsk –
my concentration was interrupted by the sound of the curtain being drawn. Deon, who had just arrived at the terrace and was briefly scanning the outside scenery, looked back. Dahar was standing there holding two glasses and a plate filled with food.
As if responding to the puzzled look in his eyes, he put the plate down on the railing and said.
“I prepared it in case you were in the market.”
“…okay.”
Without hesitation, I reached out and picked up the cookie.
Crispy, well-baked cookies crumble in your mouth. Deon, who ate a few more pieces because they tasted better than expected, as if he had squeezed the Demon King’s chefs, glanced at Dahar.
He turns his head and sips from his glass, but when our eyes meet, he straightens his posture. I must have read the look in his eyes that told me to quickly say what I wanted to say, and soon my mouth opened.
“Currently, the Demon World is experiencing an unprecedented heyday under the leadership of Deon.”
It was a fairly unexpected introduction.
But you have to listen to the end to know. Deon didn’t bother to answer and took a bite of the cookie. A pleasant sweetness spread throughout my mouth.
“No one can deny that it’s all thanks to Deon.”
What are you trying to say by flattering me like this?
But heyday… heyday…
‘Well.’
He lowered his gaze to hide the mockery in his eyes.
Can we really call this the ‘heyday’? To me, it just looks like a full moon. A precarious full moon with only one thing left to do: tilt forward.
To begin with, the position of corps commander was so vacant that it is difficult to say that it was in its prime. If I had to compare it, it would be somewhere between the full moon and the half moon.
“Of course, I regret the inevitable sacrifices and unavoidable defeat that occurred in the process, but…” “
….”
“But it is also true that the conquest of the human world is just around the corner.”
The introduction is too long.
I picked up a new cookie with a sour face. As if reading Deon’s expression, Dahar finally got to the point.
“But Mr. Deon, the 12th Legion has never played a significant role in this war. Not even my superior, the corps commander.”
“…ah.”
He asked, looking at Deon, who let out a low exclamation as if he had figured out what he was going to say.
“I would like to ask whether my superior will play an active role in Deon’s future plans.”
“…It’s not like it doesn’t exist.”
No, it definitely will be there. There’s no way it doesn’t exist.
Especially considering the remaining battles ahead…
“I’ll correct you. I’m sure there will be.”
“Is that so.”
Deon was so busy picturing one of the few future moments that would exist that he didn’t notice the slight tremor in Dahar’s voice.
“That’s really… fortunate.”
Dahar paused for a moment and gently raised the corner of his mouth as if he had never done that before.
“My boss is not the type to step forward and do something. The conquest of the human world almost ended without even a single achievement.”
Myers has a timid personality. But…
Deon quietly lowered his gaze and looked at the glass held out to me. A friendly explanation followed as to how the incomprehensible gaze was interpreted.
“You only ate snacks a little while ago. You might choke, so please drink this too.”
…Doing things that only mad dogs or old Dan would do.
I accepted the glass. Deon, who stopped his hand before the liquid reached his lips, raised his eyes and looked at Dahar. And blood.
I took a sip of the liquid in the glass with a laugh that seemed comical.
“…I know that?”
A calm voice came out.
I habitually rub my fingertips, clench my fists, then rub them on my pants. Deon went through all of this slowly and spoke with hostility towards the demon in front of him.
“The scope of a hero’s physical abilities also includes ‘sense of smell.’”
“….”
“No matter how unfamiliar the ingredients are, you can immediately tell that something else has been added to the alcohol. So—”
Why did you do that?
The quiet voice fell with an uncharacteristically light weight.
“If I think about our conversation a little while ago, I think I can roughly understand the reason, but I think I need to hear it from your own mouth first.”
“….”
“Why is that?”
There was poison in the cup.
Even though he is a hero, he already feels sick, so it doesn’t seem like it’s some kind of poison… Come to think of it, this demon’s ability was ‘poison’.
Red gaze landed on Dahar’s pitch-black fingernails.
Just as ‘heroes’, which are fragments of heroes, can injure the ‘demon king’, it would also be quite possible for ‘demons’ born from the power of the devil king to injure the ‘hero’.
“….”
Silence fell. Deon looked at Dahar, who did not respond. An unfazed face came into view, as if he had prepared for everything.
“If you don’t want to say anything…”
“Legion commanders related to Deon.”
“….”
“You’re dying, right?”
It was the answer I had guessed exactly. That’s probably why I asked about my superior’s participation in the war.
‘And the fact that you held out the glass when you heard the answer in the affirmative… does that mean that if the answer was negative, you were planning to just let it go?’
Deon twirled the poisoned goblet.
If interpreted differently, it means that whether other corps commanders die or not, as long as their superiors are safe. This is truly a demon-like way of thinking.
I wasn’t surprised that I got caught. Because it’s time for someone to notice. One person already knows. But now, if this seems like someone’s intervention rather than something the demon in front of me figured out by guessing alone, is it because of my feelings?
‘Develania.’
He came up with the name of a demon without difficulty.
And Dahar stretched out his hand. As if he was about to leave after being caught, his long black nails stopped on top of the glass Deon was holding and dripped ominous liquid.
Deon, who had been quietly watching this, raised his gaze. Our eyes met and had not separated for even a moment since we dropped the poison into the glass.
“I was prepared to get caught from the beginning.”
Anger, betrayal, sadness, hatred… and determination.
The eyes, which contained all kinds of emotions to their limits, never seemed weak, even though they were shaking because they could not bear the weight.
“…okay?”
After silence, Deon raised the corner of his mouth.
It’s not that I don’t know that this action means that either you die or I die. Maybe it means that the poison of suspicion has already been dispelled, so it doesn’t end with killing just one person.
I shook the glass slowly. So that the poison mixes well with the alcohol. and.
“First of all, I understand that you think I had something to do with the deaths of the corps commanders.”
“….”
“To give you the answer to that….”
Deon drank all the liquid left in the glass. I made direct eye contact with the person whose eyes widened in surprise, put the empty glass down on the counter, and smiled.
The hand that was fiddling with the empty glass soon pushed it out.
“You got it right.”
“…!”
“But it will be you who dies, not me.”
Clink-!
A sharp sound rang out eerily.
Did you think I was stupid enough to kill you right here? A blatant sneer escaped.
No matter how much you are the general commander or the commander of Corps 0, you cannot justly kill the adjutant of another corps commander. Even more so in the current situation where many talented people have died.
So, you have to come up with a reason. Even if you kill this guy, no one will dare question it and everyone will nod their heads.
‘It’s been a while since I felt this way.’
Perhaps because it is a demon poison, it takes some time to detoxify it, but my insides suddenly become hot and I feel queasy.
“Cough-”
For the first time in a long time, blood came out of my mouth.
“Master Deon!!”
Ben, lost in thought, came running in.
