"Are you okay?"
“No, I think I’m going to die.”
I handed the "One Drop Hangover Cure" to Cedric, who was groaning in pain. As the na clearly suggests, it was originally created to relieve hangovers, but instead of just curing hangovers, it turned out to have detoxifying effects and helped treat drug addiction. In truth, it was an accidental discovery, like a cow stepping backward and catching a rat.
—Then I guess you can go back after you've been broken beyond repair and lost even more than you have now.
At that mont, in response to the challenge of whether he could truly act like a devil, Felix smiled like a daffodil blooming in the snow, enduring the fierce wind.
"Do you wish to embark on a journey to find the Holy Sword with ?"
Felix kindly suggested that they go on a suicide mission together.
—...I really hate you.
Larry loathed him, thinking of him as a flamboyant poisonous plant.
・・・・・
—Aaaah! I can't do this anymore, damn it!
Larry couldn't stand it anymore and scread. He was literally going wild inside Felix. This was because Felix's swordsmanship skills were so poor that it made him want to curse.
—Quit it, I said quit! I'll acknowledge your magic skills, but no matter how many tis you practice swordsmanship, you'll never get it!
"Hmm."
—How about sothing else? A minstrel?
"Well, I could manage simple morisation or reciting poetry, but I don’t have the confidence to express it with lody."
—Can't you sing?
"That's not your concern."
—You can't, can you…
Larry muttered as he freely browsed through Felix's mories. He unintentionally discovered another flaw in this annoyingly perfect human who seed to have mastered language from birth. He felt a bit proud but decided it wasn't the ti for that.
—As expected, let's use a bow. I can teach you that very well.
Larry desperately tried to persuade him, as if he were trying to sell a product quickly. Even if he had no talent for swordsmanship, he was still a sorcerer. His job involved ticulous calculations and setting precise coordinates. He must have so aptitude for it.
"What emperor would keep an archer as his guard?"
Felix retorted as if to ask what on earth he was talking about.
—No emperor has a swordsman with such poor skills by their side either.
“...”
Felix could only remain silent at Larry’s sharp remark. Felix had never held a sword except during physical training. Holding a weapon was for protecting soone precious, and to protect them, one must master how to deliver a proper strike. In magic, where various techniques could be learned together, killing was optional, but in swordsmanship, it was the bare minimum resolve one must possess.
He had no choice but to do it. He had to do it.
“That’s... true. In fact, even if I pretend to be righteous now, it's not like I've never had blood on my hands before...”
—Yes, that’s right. It's contradictory.
"Yes, it is contradictory."
Felix muttered as if brutally trampling on his crumbling beliefs. It didn't feel as horribly painful as he thought, perhaps because he had beco more numb. He looked silently at his palm, where new calluses were forming, and moved his lips.
"It seems we don't have much ti left."
The emperor's condition was becoming more critical, and recently, rumours were spreading that he was on the verge of death. In truth, sothing could happen at any mont, even today.
Felix asked.
"Your goal is my entire soul, isn't it?"
—Of course.
He added with a grumble, “To be precise, that includes your physical body as well.”
"Then I will borrow the power of the devil to fight and achieve victory. When that ti cos, take my soul completely."
It was consent given without hesitation or fear. Though he once declared he would never rely on the devil's power, believing revenge to be solely his burden, the mont he sensed that those around him might be endangered, he unflinchingly offered his soul as collateral.
A selfless individual who consistently placed himself at the lowest point, accepting without hesitation the prospect of being endlessly trampled and worn down. It was a gratifying offer. Larry thought it was what he wanted and had hoped for, and he believed it was the right decision. However, as the situation escalated to this point, Larry found himself not just exasperated but slowly consud by a creeping fear of that individual's unwavering consistency.
—A soul taken by a devil is the end. There is no reincarnation or anything.
At those words, Felix gently crinkled his eyes and laughed as if it was amusing.
"You're saying sothing strange that doesn't suit you. I guess it's because you took my emotions."
The person who said such things was the one who had been laughing a lot recently. However, he didn’t even pretend to smile or laugh unless he was around others. Perhaps it was because he sensed the end of his fading emotions.
—You really... don't care about yourself at all?
"What am I supposed to say when you arbitrarily narrow my choices and then say such things?"
—Ah, I don't know. I just suddenly felt like saying that, what can I do?
"You sound like a child who caused trouble without knowing and doesn't know what to do afterwards."
Felix faintly smiled and then closed his eyes, whispering softly.
"This body will turn to ashes anyway, so use it wisely. Instead of burning it, there is soone who needs it… so wouldn’t it be better for the devil to take it?”
Hearing those words, Larry felt a surge of frustration. Was this what humans often referred to as a sense of deprivation? It was strange. He wasn’t even competing with that person over anything. That person was a weak human, one who would die if stabbed in the heart or had his neck broken. And yet, facing him, Larry felt as though he were standing before a high, solid wall that he could never overco, no matter how hard he climbed. It was a thoroughly unpleasant feeling.
"Will you do as I say?"
—...
“I’ll give you half of my soul as collateral.”
In fact, Larry thought to himself, ‘Why wait until after you fight, achieve victory, and then fall to your knees? It would be quicker to just stimulate your desire and pounce on that woman.’ However...
"I’ll call you Larry for convenience."
For so reason, he suddenly recalled the innocent gaze that had looked up at him and the small lips that had murmured 'Larry,' making him unable to even bring himself to utter those words.
—Okay. That would be good.
Larry readily agreed, unaware that he was rapidly assimilating Felix's emotions at the sa speed that Felix was losing them.
・・・・・
Both Felix and Larry made the naive assumption that the situation couldn't get any worse since their interests aligned. Felix had resolved to give up everything he had. The person he would beco in the future wouldn't be able to protect anyone, and would only end up hurting those he had tried so hard to protect. So, he decided it would be better to throw himself away without leaving a trace and offer himself as food for the devil.
Larry’s only intention after completing the deal was to take Felix’s body and soul back to the demon realm and beco a full-fledged devil. At first, that was all. However, as they beca more and more intertwined, their interests began to diverge, and the bar for what constituted a 'worst-case scenario' continued to lower, as if they were trying to set a new record. To be precise, it started when Larry’s thoughts of Irene began to stretch longer. As the mories of her, which Felix had experienced, beca clearer with each passing day, a longing to see her again, even just once, began to grow.
"This isn't mine."
“Damn it,” he muttered to himself, trying to shake off the human emotions that were consuming him, but it was futile.
Born with the soul of a devil, he shouldn’t have been affected by such emotions. However, emotions couldn’t be neatly divided or categorised. Stimulating one side affected the other connected parts, and once engulfed, they took over the mind, controlling it at will. That was how he unknowingly awakened to love. Though they shared twelve hours and couldn’t invade each other’s ti, Felix sensed sothing strange and left a note for Larry.
[If I give you my body, where do you plan to go?]
Larry did not reply.
Felix had completely lost his emotions, yet a strange and incomplete form of love remained unmistakably clear. Larry had absorbed all of Felix's emotions, but in the end, everything that remained pointed to love.
[Didn't you say you were going back to the demon realm? You had confidently declared that you would disappear from this land, which is why I was planning to give it to you.]
[It’s not a big deal to just watch her from a distance again.]
[Do not recklessly lay a hand on her. Do not even think about touching her. What do you intend to achieve by destroying what I’ve been trying to protect?]
[Who says I'm destroying it? I took your emotions, so how could I even think of ruining it?]
[Please just leave her alone. Don’t touch her. I told you to let her be, to keep her from getting hurt.]
Although Felix no longer understood the reason or could empathise after his emotions were taken away, he still rembered the desperate feeling that they must never et Irene again. However, the devil seed indifferent to the demon realm, desiring only to stay by Irene’s side until her death. After all, to a devil, human ti was but a fleeting mont.
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