Black Demon King
547 Lover (1)
“Aah…”
Beyond the thin wooden door, was the sound that resembled the roaring of a beast.
No, it was a man’s sorrowful cry. A painful, frustrating, and empty cry.
“Kurono… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
Clinging to the door was a deceased in white robe.
No, it was a woman. A pitiful woman whose mind had snapped after her hope became despair.
Such was the fate of fools who didn’t even know the difference between love and lust.
“I’m sorry… Kurono…”
“Excuse me, Your Highness Nell.”
Without hesitation, Sariel called out to Nell, who was clinging to the door, desperately calling out to the man she loved while spewing meaningless apologies.
“Fiona is looking for you. Can you please come to the lounge?”
“Sorry…”
Nell couldn’t hear it. She couldn’t register any sound. She was experiencing despair in its purest form. As such, there was no way she’d catch the maid’s call.
“Your Highness Nell—”
Sariel repeated the same line three times like a broken record.
Nell kept on apologizing, while Sariel kept on calling.
No matter how doll-like she was, after three times, she knew it was pointless.
“Excuse me, Your Highness Nell.”
Removal by force. Despite asking for permission, without any fear or respect, she grabbed the princess of the country by the scruff of her neck and forcibly dragged her down the hallway.
“Aah! No! Let go of me, Kurono—!”
“Master wants you gone. Never again shall you come near him.”
Even a master of ancient magic would act like a child after losing her mind. Under normal circumstances, if Nell had been grabbed by the scruff of her neck, she’d be able to smack her down in an instant. She was also capable of unleashing as many devastating counters as possible, rendering recovery impossible.
But as it was, Nell could only flail around awkwardly. The ever-expanding distance between her and Kurono only made her despair.
“—Kyaa!?”
Just like that, Nell was dragged down the hallway for what felt like eternity. Upon arriving at the lounge, Sariel casually threw Nell inside as if she was a bag of trash.
Nell let out a small, girlish yelp, before noticing a presence in front of her.
“Your Highness Nell, I’m disappointed in you.”
“Fiona Soleil…”
The witch, clad in black, stood there, looking as intimidating as an impregnable fortress.
“Looks like you’ve made Kurono angry.”
“Wh—no, I…”
“No, it would’ve been better if you made him angry. You hurt him. You did it in the worst way possible, triggering his trauma.”
The coldness of her shining, golden eyes was below the freezing point. The witch looked down on the princess, who was crawling on the floor.
“You’re the absolute worst. I thought that because Kurono had somewhat opened up to you, everything would be fine. How wrong I was.”
“N-no, I-I was thinking about Kurono…”
“Stop making excuses. All you want to do is have sex with Kurono.”
Fiona’s words struck deep. Nell’s heart, which was riddled with falsehoods that she’d concealed under a superficial veil called ‘love,’ was shattered.
It was found out. Exposed. A desire called love that Nell hid deep within her heart.
“H-how… how did you know?”
“The door to this dormitory is thin, isn’t it?”
Even if they didn’t want to, they could still hear everything.
But how was that a valid reason?
“Were you eavesdropping…?”
“No, don’t say that? I just happened to hear it.”
“You set me up, didn’t you?”
A dark flame of resentment dwelled in Nell’s red, swollen eyes as she shed tears. She looked up at Fiona with the grudge of a mighty undead rising from the depths of the underground tomb.
“Haa… Your stupidity is beyond words.”
However, Fiona’s golden eyes were brimming with a powerful glow that could purify any evil spirit with a single glance. Or perhaps, it was something even more intense, an impurity that surpassed even a grudge.
“Do you still not understand that your twisted desire hurts Kurono?”
“No! I love Kurono!”
“Then why did Kurono reject you?”
As soon as she said that, she recalled a certain nightmarish scene as if it was yesterday.
“You love him so much, and yet he still rejected you… Doesn’t that mean you get dumped?”
“No! That’s not true… Kurono did it for my sake!”
Distort. Her thoughts were becoming jumbled. She couldn’t even comprehend anything.
Go home. Go home. Please go home.
Nell’s thought process halted as her mind was filled with only the heartbreaking images of Kurono vehemently refusing her.
“Do you even know how he truly feels?”
“I-I do, I do understand… I love him so much, so of course I’d know, how Kurono feels…”
With such a messy head, there was no way she could understand.
“Do you? Can’t you use telepathy?”
There’s no way she’d understand.
Until the moment she was kicked out of the room, Kurono held onto Nell’s wrist tightly. Despite being in such a state, he kept his strength under control. Despite his superhuman grip strength, her wrist was unblemished afterwards.
But the current Nell couldn’t even notice the last-minute proof of his kindness.
That was because Nell could only read the strongest emotions that Kurono was feeling at the time.
“He doesn’t want to see you anymore.”
A hopeless, bleak, absolute rejection.
“I don’t think so. After hearing my story, you must’ve felt jealous, right?”
“…Eh?”
Nell jolted slightly. Her reaction was dull and immature, like a child who was caught red-handed.
“After hearing that Sariel and I were held by Kurono.”
It’s not like that.
Nell felt sure that she’d uttered the words of denial, but in reality, all she could do was sputter.
“You let your lustful desires cloud your eyes and didn’t even consider Kurono’s feelings. How exactly do you think he felt when he embraced Sariel?”
“Aah… ah…”
Nell couldn’t even think of an answer. After all, she was basically made to think about how her beloved felt when embracing another woman.
It was far too cruel for the innocent Nell. Too difficult for her, who longed for the act of love.
“After worrying to the brink of insanity, Kurono made a really difficult decision, which was to embrace Sariel. It was a necessary act for his own survival, and also for keeping Sariel alive. That’s why, even though he was tormented by guilt, Kurono held her. It was just a one-time mistake.”
“J-just once…”
That wasn’t how Nell expected it to go.
Nell’s head, completely blank due to despair, became even more frazzled. She didn’t understand anything.
“No way, did you honestly think that Kurono, consumed with desire, raped Sariel many times after that? And even tried to put his hands on me after returning to Sparda? Isn’t that just disrespectful towards him?”
Lie. No way. That’s a lie.
Kurono wasn’t blinded with lust. He wasn’t so pathetic as to force himself on a woman out of sheer desperation.
How could she not notice that? Nell went over her memories one by one.
When they reunited again for the first time in a while, he smiled broadly, the joy seemingly emanating from the bottom of his heart. As they spoke and lost track of time in his room, he looked like he was genuinely having fun… Nothing suggested that he harbored any ill wills or perverted thoughts.
Nell, who was right in front of him, captivated by him, should’ve noticed just that.
“Ah, aah, uuh…”
Nell didn’t even doubt for a moment that Kurono would pounce on her. Hopelessly, she’d confused her lewd, sweet fantasy with the painfully tender reality.
All of that, because of this witch.
“UuUh, UUUuuUrghhh! How dareeee you deceive meeeeee, FionaaaAAAAaaaaaaAAA!!”
Nimble than a cat, Nell quickly turned around and stood up from the floor. Her appearance was exactly that of a beast. A ferocious demonic beast wielding frightening ancient jujutsu techniques.
“Sariel.”
“—Yes, Mistress Fiona.”
However, even in the face of Nell, who exuded terrifying aura and murderous intent comparable to Rank 5 monster, Fiona and Sariel were visibly unfazed. Both of their expressions were blank.
Faced against a witch and a doll, Nell attacked with a fury that came from a woman’s passion, which was infinitely human.
“Death is too good for youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”
She unleashed the first offensive technique in traditional jujutsu, [Complete Set].
The turbulent flow of magical power that resided in the bottom of Nell’s palm would penetrate deep into the opponent’s body from the spot where it was struck, before exploding from within. A merciless blow that completely ignored defense.
Her first target was the pure white doll who crossed paths with Kurono, even if only once. Nell pictured that adorable, expressionless face blown into bits and chunks.
“Huff…”
A brief intake of breath. However, Nell’s keen intuition could tell how much magical power had manifested within her body with just that small, faint breath.
Nevertheless, the anger that made her see red clouded her sense of crisis.
“—Ah!”
Before she knew it, her right arm was entangled with something, and her back was hitting the floor, hard. A powerful counter—one that was so fast that her reflex was rendered useless.
“Gah…”
At the moment when her body reflexively moved to unleash a counterattack, Sariel coiled her arm around Nell’s slender neck like a white snake. Then, without mercy, Sariel tightened her arm around her neck.
“How dangerous. If not for Sariel, I would have died.”
Nell’s consciousness was rapidly diminishing, with Sariel’s arm ever-present around neck.
As Sariel coldly looked down at her, the doll’s face began to look blurry.
“Her fist had an extremely lethal destructive power. An amazing blow with impeccable speed and power.”
“And that’s how you managed to suppress it easily.”
“While I can’t use it, it’s a technique I’ve seen before.”
In the midst of all that, Fiona was exchanging a banter with Sariel like nothing.
“I’ll leave the rest to you. She has company, so please return her to them.”
“Understood, Mistress Fiona.”
Losing all interest in Nell, Fiona turned on her heels and trotted away.
“Ugh, hah—bas… tard…”
There was no way her restrained voice would reach anyone.
Yet, Fiona stopped and turned around.
“Come to think of it. I didn’t say it clearly, so maybe that’s why you misunderstood. Sorry.”
Strangely, the witch’s curt apology permeated her ears even in her hazy consciousness.
“Lily is gone. Sariel is just a slave. You got dumped. In other words…”
In the final moment when Nell’s consciousness faded, what she saw was the ruthless and wicked smile of a beautiful maiden, just like the fairy girl of yesteryear.
“—Kurono is mine.”