Red demon     Side    Marius

The demons which suddenly broke into the castle were disorderly scattered around. Knights and mages had weapons in hand as they faced the demons, while those with no way to fight were escaping to a safe place. There has never been a situation where demons appeared in Alvina Kingdom’s castle and began attacking people before. It was unthinkable to even be able to breach the city, much less the castle, with all the adventurers and the country’s elites stationed.

But that belief broke easier than a thread, and the people fell into a panic.

“Damn it, what happened all of a sudden! Riya, purification please!”

“Ye,yes!!”

There were unsuppressable number of monsters even with the purification powers of the priestess Riya combined with the innate light magic of the Hero.

“Where did Yuu and Naoki go?!”

We seem to have lost them. Touka took a look around, as he swung his sword.

And he met my eyes. He cut down the demon between us and moved closer.

“Marius! You’re back! …That, your back!?”

“…that, that, you were an angel-sama?!”

Riya’s were sparkling. Like a maiden dreaming of a fairy tale. Legends and folk tales were looked up to and praised as good.

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‘“I’m not an angel, just part of the angelic race! [1] Forget that, what happened?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know either! Nii-chan and Hana suddenly appeared and just as I thought that they were being swallowed up by a red magic circle, demons started to pour out instead. And so the whole place is panicking. In fact, I want to ask someone to tell me what’s going on!”

Take a look, he prompted me to taken a look at where the stained glass was. Where Touka’s brother had put into a miserable state, was a huge, bright red magic circle, swaying as if it was alive. As if it was twisting space. That was connected to another space.

“Argh, damn it! There’s no end even if I defeat them!!”

Even as we were doing this, demons continued to come forth from the red magic circle. I too took the sword at my waist to deal with the demons, but as Touka said, there’s no end in sight. First, we need to do something about that magic circle. Making up my mind, I moved away from Touka and flew towards the red magic circle.

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“This, is”

I noticed as I came closer. The spell from magic circle was made using ancient letters and spelling. And it was a particularly old set of letters. Making use of this to cast space magic, one must have a large amount of magical power for that. And the number of people who can do so are limited.

Just who’s doing this, I mumbled. At that moment, the magic circle flashed. I prepare myself for a new demon which might appear.

But what appeared, instead of a lion shaped demon, was a completely bright red person. Dusky red hair that looked as if it was thirsty for blood, with dull eyes the shade of a crushed pomegranate.[2] Dark brown skin which reminds you of someone who lived in a dark, dank cave instead of looking lively. And sinister, red, bat-like wings stemming from it’s back.

It’s clothes fully exposed it’s arms and back. It looks like a man from it’s build, but Demons were famous for being genderless. They could take the form they liked.

As I was thinking that a Demon had appeared through the magic circle, it glanced at its surroundings expressionless.

I wonder if it is searching for something.

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―― Wait a minute? A Demon? But Demons and demons shouldn’t be related. Although their existences were similar, they were fundamentally different. And anyways, the world’s agreement this round didn’t only involve the kingdoms. The angelic and demonic race would also be troubled if the world they lived in were to disappear, so they have at least publicly consented to the agreement.

Why would such a Demon, appear from the magic circle where monsters were appearing?

…I see, it could be Demons from the demonic race with outdated ideas.

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Flick, those red eyes suddenly meet mine, making me tremble.

“The great devil-sama?[3] …no”

“Great, devil…?”

The great devil, is a name that is as old as the times where we used to be called ‘angels’. It’s name was just passed down as part of the fairy tale read just before bed.

“The great devil, is it referring to, the demon king?”

“You know it?”

It was a bad decision on my part to react. The Demon swiftly flew right in front of me. Realising that that bony hand was about to come close and touch me, I hurriedly shook it off.

“You Demon…! Don’t touch me!”

The blood of the angelic race in me instinctively rejects Demons. The demonic and angelic race were incompatible. The past few hundred years, they had no conflict nor huge public relations at all, it was no exaggeration to call their relationship like those of cats and dogs. Demons have corrupted uncountable members of the angelic race. And they see it as nothing more than a game. I don’t even want to think about having my wings dyed the detestable colour of the demonic race.

“Are you, an Angel? …I see, then, don’t,  interfere”[4]

That was the first time that expressionless face crumbled. A face with wrinkles above the eyebrows approached. 

“Guh..!”

His extended arm grabbed my shoulder, and my body was instantly thrown toward the ground. It was so sudden that I couldn’t deal with it. At this rate, I’d just be rammed into the ground. I couldn’t even breathe for a moment because of the shock to my back.

With my wings held down and being sewn into the ground, right ahead of me, were the squinting, pomegranate coloured eyes of the Demon.

“Not, demon king-sama. Great devil-sama. You, don’t know. No, want.”

“Just what are you calling different…! You guys’ old man boss is the demon king isn’t it. Even if you add a ‘-sama’, it’s the same either way!” 

“…how carefree, they are, completely different, you don’t, understand”

My lips distorted, forming a twisted arc.

“Demon king-sama, became human. No, want. Great devil-sama, stopped being human. Have, want”

The demon king became a human? I’ve heard of that Demon called Maji from Vito, but this is the first time I’ve heard that he became a human.

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“Blue eyes, black hair.  That one too be come our new ruler of demonic realm.”

It’s language ability must have been pretty meagre, as only a mess came through.

“I can’t communicate at all here?! As I thought, it’s impossible to have a proper discussion with a Demon— eh?”

I got hooked by what the Demon said.

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“Blue eyes, black hair. Is the one that will become our ner ruler of the demonic realm”

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There’s only one person that comes to mind.

Black hair isn’t something easy to find even if you searched the whole world. And to speak of black haired people currently in the castle? There are just two. But Itoka has black eyes, not blue eyes.

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In that case, there’s only one person left.

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“Eh? Hold on. That means— Naoki… Eeh?!”

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“Naoki, sama. The great devil-sama’s, name?”

“No, that’s not it! It’s not! There, there has got to be some mistake. There’s no way, Naoki is the great devil. There’s no way I’d believe that! You must be lying!?”

The Demon looked toward me blankly.

“Female?” [5]

Crap. When I lose my composure, I unconsciously revert to female speech. Even though I should have fixed it long ago, it just comes back sometimes. If it was 2 years ago, I could still pass as a girl in guys clothes, but I’ve already developed more like a man, both in terms of physique and face. No matter how you look, I’m a guy. If such a guy suddenly used female speech, I’d just look like an okama. [6]

What a grave situation, to have shown a disgraceful sight to my enemy, the Demon. My face flushed red from embarrassment. No, hold on, if I just extinguish it here and now, won’t this disgrace disappear too…?!”

“An-anyways, get out of the way! …no, move! Or, are you gonna attack just like the other demons?”

“Attack, good, too. But, no, time”

It’s good too, what’s up with that!

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“To defeat Angels, is the Demons’ pleasure. I’ll save, that fun, for later” 

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With a bewitching smile, it licked it’s lips with it’s long tongue, just like a succubus— then, I realised. …This is the worst. This Demon, is probably an Incubus type-Demon. Or it might be a succubus. [7] Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a phantasmagoric type Demon. I don’t want to be catching its eye. Mother taught me, these were the number one kind of Demons you should never mess with. In the first place, it was these Demons’ fault that Mother only had one wing.

The hatred I feel is not just from my angelic instinct, but also my own will.

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“That’s why, see you, later”

My chin was held up by it’s long fingers, as its long tongue licked my cheek.

“What…?!”

When I heard the sound of wings flapping, the weight of 1 Demon disappeared. By the time I noticed, the Demon was already flying in the air.

Crap. I don’t want to think about whether Naoki is the Great devil or not, but that Demon is definitely looking for Naoki. There’s no way I can just let it leave like this. Besides, we still haven’t figured out the relationship between the magic circle and the demons.

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“Miss Maribelle!! Are you okay?”

I got up and was about to chase him, when I was called.

There’s only one person who calls me Miss Maribelle. Turning back, a lady in a knight’s gear was running up to me. Unlike the Demon from earlier, her hair was a bright, fiery red, and her eyes seemed as if pure passion was residing within. They are both shades of red, but the difference between them was like heaven and earth.

“Minette, do you know where Naoki is?”

“I was worried and came rushing over because I saw you held down by the Demon earlier, but you immediately bring up the name of another man, how cold. But that’s also adorable”

“Enough of that, where is he?”

“Even your angry face is cute, Miss Maribelle”

“I said before, I’m not Maribelle, I’m Marius! I’m a guy!”

“What are you saying, Miss Maribelle. If it weren’t for these circumstances, you’d be wearing a cute dress downtown, looking good and charming enough to be heading for a rendezvous”

“…agh, enough!! I’ll wear the dress and go for a rendezvous or whatever you want, so go find Naoki!”

“Gotcha! Leave it to me!!”

Minette’s eyes shone brightly.

Good grief, it’s so tiring to deal with this person!

I heard from Ariade that Minette was fond of young girls, and even I’m aware that my outfits are right in her strike zone. Well, it’s bound to happen because I’m cute. But that’s for when I’m Maribelle. When I’m Marius, no matter how you look at me I’m a guy, and I keep telling her that. Even after confessing my secret to her, she still persistently looks after me.

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I’ve had enough, it’s driving me crazy!!

…Ah, oh no, I reverted back to female speech again.

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Minette has long since left elsewhere.

I also need to search soon, I thought as I run around the castle.

Ever since the Demon appeared, no more demons have appeared and are no longer increasing, but just what does this mean.

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Maybe because I was running while brooding, but I found him much faster than I thought. How anti-climatic.

But it wasn’t Naoki, it was that red Demon.

The Demon’s red eyes stopped on me, it’s face tilting and looking confused.

“The Angel, huh. Want, something?”

“Isn’t it obvious I do. Do something about that magic circle. That thing, it’s something you made isn’t it?Thanks to that, the castle grounds have become a mess. In the first place, what are you even doing in such a place”

Above the statue in the courtyard, the Demon was squatting with its bat-like wings fluttering. If you look really closely, there were two small horns growing on its head. They looked just like the horns of the toy cow I had when I was young—Nono, I don’t know!! I didn’t think they were cute or anything!!

Calm down, me.

The opponent is a Demon.

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“Naoki-sama, I cannot find”

A grim expression. I wonder if it’s a habit, as the Demon was biting the nail on its thumb.

“It’s weird. No, presence. No way, in that, magic circle”

The red eyes widened, and lowered toward the ground. And right in front of me. At the sudden change, my body shot into the air with a jump. Without a care about me, the Demon approached and peered at my face.

Close. It’s too close I said. Just casually grabbing my arm, are all Demons like this?

Maybe because of what happened earlier, I was strangely put on my guard.

Regardless who sees it, its well ordered features and face were praiseworthy, and it’s entire body was overflowing with charm, most likely for seducing it’s opponent. Just how many humans have been sacrificed I wonder. No, not just humans. There may have been many of my brethren among those countless sacrifices. 

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The reason the angelic race was trapped in the heavenly realm could be attributed to the fault of the Demons. In the past, in the age when the angelic race used to be called angels. It wasn’t rare for angels to descend to the lower realm and interact with the humans. But, the Demons also frequently appeared, causing the number of angels being corrupted by them to increase. That inevitably resulted in the angelic race being forced to withdraw to protect their people, establishing rules to keep the angelic race in the heavenly realm. But that wasn’t the only issue, even if the rules have resulted in fewer sacrifices than before.

Because even then.

My mother, became a sacrifice. 

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“Hm, is there someone, who got caught up?”

Being talked to, I came to my senses.

“…That, there seems to be someone, but”

As Touka said, Touka’s older brother and the dragon called Hana might have gotten involved. It might even be that, Naoki got involved too, without us noticing. I can’t find Yuu either, and maybe not her either. Which means, they may have been sent to that place which was rampant with demons. I don’t know if that’s hell or what not, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a dangerous place.

It looks like it’d be best to go consult Touka as soon as possible.

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“I got it, then, come”

“Huh?”

I was pulled by the arm and collided with the Demon’s chest. Just when a neutral face appeared right in front of my eyes and nose, and arm wrapped around my back and my knees, before lifting up into the air and flying.

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It’s the all-famous princess carry.

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…Well, when I was Maribelle, it was something I once yearned for?

Like, I’d be happy if Lance-oniisama had done it for me. It’d be lovely, and every girl’s dream, or something like that. I’d be filled with a sweet and sour feeling. Because, ain’t it my dream? To have a prince appear and do so one day, isn’t it a cute young girl’s dream?

But you see… who the hell would want a Demon to! It, it’s not like you had to carry me with a princess carry right?!

“I, I can fly too, you know?! That’s not it, put me down!”

The more I flailed about, the more strength was put into the arms holding me. The Demon’s delicate physique was hiding a lot of strength.

“Naoki-sama, face, don’t know. Angel, knows. So, take with”

“You’d be able to tell with the black hair, blue eyes won’t you! Black hair is rare!”

“Hell is dark”

That’s why everyone looks black too, huh, I didn’t need such information!

And just as I thought, that magic circle was connected to Hell. And we are heading to that place right now?

You’ve got to be kidding!!

For a member of the angelic race to head into Hell alone, it’s like throwing feed in front of starving crows.

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―― Itoka, save me!!

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My scream was drowned out by the magic circle before it could reach her.

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