Episode 19

 I Was Accused of Looking into a Woman’s Mind, but Somehow She Ended Up Feeling Sorry for Me

When I was asked what I was doing, I replied, “I am the ruler of this world, the Great Demon King.” but Suzuna, who heard my reply, had a face that seemed to be pierced for a moment, and then muttered with a jerk.

“…Yeah, yeah, that’s right. When you think about it, you’re in a position where you can do whatever you want if you want to. But…”

Then she looked into my eyes and said with a serious tone.

“I didn’t expect you to become a demon King who treats people’s hearts lightly like that. I thought you would be more serious and respectful of people’s hearts.”

Then, she smiled sadly, as if she was really sad. Seeing this expression of her, I felt something very bothering and painful deep inside, so I decided to argue with her.

“Wait. I read their minds in order to respect their hearts because although they were eager to marry me, both verbally and in their expressions, they didn’t want it in their hearts.”

“What?”

For example, the princess of the Kingdom that summoned you, said something like, ‘You are very handsome, I love you,’ but secretly she was thinking, ‘You have a chubby face. Well, I’m not getting married based on your face, so I don’t mind. More importantly, if I marry you, you will make my country the number one country in the world. I have to do my best for the sake of my father and my country.’

“That innocent-looking princess?”

“Hmm. But in her case, she is doing it for the sake of the King and the people, so I’m not going to blame her for telling a lie. In the first place, as you say, the fact that I read her mind is in itself ethically wrong and a foul act, and I do not intend to punish her for it.

“By the way, you said, In her case, she was doing it for the King and the people. You mean to say not everyone…”

Suzuna’s words were quiet, but I knew what she wanted to ask.

“Yes. The princess of the Great Eastern Empire said, ‘I was attracted to the integrity and selflessness of the Demon King. Even if the Demon King were to give up his position as the ruler of the world and go into hiding, I would adore you forever.’ But inwardly she was thinking, ‘You’re a fool, Demon King. You don’t want to use all that power for yourself. If that’s the case, I’ll use it for you and you can marry me. But you will only be attracted to a woman who is as pure and selfless as you are, so I have to be good at pretending to be pure and selfless’. As I said before, I won’t punish her, but I definitely don’t want such a woman.”

“…But when you’re royalty or an aristocrat, you have to hide your true feelings like that and apply for marriage with a smile on your face even if you don’t like the person.”

“That’s right. The one I felt particularly sorry for was a princess from the southern part of the New Continent. She had no choice but to participate because her father, the King, had strictly ordered her to be my wife, “The God”, even though she had another man she loved. Laughing with face and crying within her heart, I guess that’s what she was doing. Well, it was so pitiful that I directly told her, ‘I will talk to the King so that you can marry the man you really love,’ in a way that others couldn’t hear, and this time she cried because of happiness.”

“Hmm, I’m not convinced about the whole mind-reading thing, but oh well, you did a good thing with it.”

“It was the same for the others. None of them really liked me.”

“Eh? Not even one?”

“Well, if you don’t believe me, let me give you an example. The daughter of the chief of a female warrior tribe in the new continent thought, ‘You’re poor, you don’t have a trace of masculinity.”

“I don’t know. I think the Demon King works out quite a bit. …Well, those female warriors seemed to like macho stuff.”

“The illegitimate child, who called herself the Pope’s niece, said, “You talk so magnificently, but you don’t have much to say. You seem to have some strange knowledge, but you can’t even write a nice poem? Since you don’t have that kind of education, you’re just a lowly commoner.”

“Well, I suppose it’s a good thing there’s a practical use for the Demon King’s knowledge.”

The princess of the second Kingdom I conquered said, “You’re strong, but you’re so serious that you’re not even remotely interesting. Your face has no features at all, and there’s nothing attractive about you.”

“Well, it’s good to be serious! Yes, your face certainly doesn’t have any noticeable features, but on the contrary, it doesn’t have any drawbacks either, so I don’t think it’s bad…”

“As for the face, the princess of my birth country did not think it was bad. She thought the same as you. But she also thought, ‘But you know, he says he’s been a virgin for 400 years, so there’s something fishy about him, isn’t there?”

“Stop it! Your life is already zero! I’m sorry.”

I told her about the participants’ inner thoughts objectively and calmly, but for some reason, Suzuna’s expression became darker and darker, and in the end, she held her ears and screamed.

“What have I zeroed in on?”

“Oh, sorry. Life is like physical strength or vitality or something like that.”

“Well? It’s true that the wedding banquet did tire me out a bit, but I still have plenty of energy.”

“No, no, no, that was Internet slang, a kind of idiom. Does it mean, um, ‘beating the dead’ over here?”

“There is a similar expression, but …no, I see, zero strength or vitality means you are dead! Oh, I see, it means, “I’m already dead, so don’t attack me anymore.”

“Well, I guess that’s what it means. And it’s actually used to mean, ‘Don’t do anything worse.'”

“Oh, I see. That’s good. But why are you suffering? I am the one who was told those things.”

When I asked this, Suzuna looked a little bitter and began to blabber on about the reason.

“I’m sorry. I was just remembering the time when I was bullied. It was written all over the blogs behind the club activities. “Too tall” “Dull nerves”, “Too big face”, “Too thick legs”, “You’d be better off being a horse”,’ and other more vulgar things.”

…What should I say? I was at a loss for words. Hmmm, I’ve reminded Suzuna of her unpleasant past with an unintentional comment before, and I guess I did the same this time. I’ve done something wrong.

“Don’t worry, Suzuna, about baseless slanders. As the ruler of the world, I can assure you that you are a woman with a delicate heart.”

“Thank you. I appreciate your words. But weren’t they saying whatever they wanted about you?”

“Hmm. I read their minds on my own. They are free to think whatever they want, and I have no right to blame them.”

“But even just listening to you, I could feel it in my bones. If someone thinks like that about you, you must be really hurt, aren’t you? …My heart.”

When Suzuna asked with concern, I answered with a smile.

“It is a fact that I have no facial features, and that I am uneducated. There is no need to be hurt because they are facts. The fact that I am uninteresting is a relatively small matter. There is no need for me to be hurt by it.”

When Suzuna heard this, she looked at me carefully, and then she murmured to me.

“You’re amazing, Demon King. I envy your mental strength.”

Then she laughed and continued speaking.

“But that was kind of cool, Demon King.”

When I saw that smile, I became aware of a very puzzling physical phenomenon. Why was my heart rate increasing when I wasn’t exercising rapidly at all, or even moving my body?

Indeed, there is no end to the number of inexplicable phenomena in this world, even for someone who has lived for 400 years.