I looked at the amorphous demon squirming before my eyes.
Twitch, twitch.
Everywhere my gaze touched, the demon’s body trembled and shifted.
As if it were frightened.
The sight of it made it look like a puppy that had done something wrong and was gauging its master’s mood, so I chuckled and said,
“Why are you so scared? It’s not like anyone’s going to eat you.”
“...Scared?”
“Yeah. What are you, a dog that did something wrong and is watching its owner’s reaction? You’re acting like you’re just asking to be bitten.”
“...I, a demon, am scared?”
Grit.
At that moment, the sound of teeth grinding came from the demon’s body.
How was it making a sound like grinding teeth when it didn’t even have a mouth?
“Do not get arrogant just because my authority does not work on you! Human!!”
“No, then what exactly can you do in this situation besides this black mist?”
“Ha! You know one thing, but not the other! This place is a mystical space born from the combination of Abiyan’s authority and mine! Without my permission, you cannot leave this place!”
“Oh...”
“So all I have to do is keep you trapped here until the body you have outside stops breathing, and victory will be mine!”
The demon glared at me with the same confidence as a blond vampire getting punched and sent flying while shouting, “This is my escape route!!”
“Humans are ultimately mortal! Lowly beings compared to immortal demons! Be swept away by the flow of time!”
“You’re making it sound grand, but in the end, you’re just saying you can’t do anything to me, so you’re going to hold me here?”
“Shut up!”
“Wow, you’re a demon who’s fun to bully with words.”
“Eeeek!!”
This time, it showed wariness toward me like a cat arching its back after someone invaded its territory without permission.
Were demons originally beings that acted like this?
It had better reactions than Rin Edinburgh.
I liked it.
“Hmm... What should I do? Like you said, if time passes like this, I’ll end up losing.”
“Have you only realized that now? You have no ending left but to become my sacrifice and offer up everything!”
“How despairing.”
“Put some emotion into your words! Who would be fooled by such a half-hearted expression?!”
“Hoho.”
For some reason, I smiled like a child who had found a toy he wanted to keep teasing and looked at the demon before me.
“...Wh-what is it? Why are you looking at me with eyes like Abiyan’s?”
“No, you told me not to say that being’s name, but isn’t it unfair that you’ve been saying it all this time?”
“It is fine for me, a demon, to speak a demon’s name! The problem is that you, a human, are speaking a demon’s name!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes!”
Why was it a problem for a human to say a demon’s name?
Was there some special condition possessed only by humans?
Or were demons exempt from that rule among themselves?
I continued thinking this and that, but since I still had no knowledge of such mysteries, there was nothing I could really conclude.
“Ugh, my head hurts.”
Thud.
My head spun, and because of the throbbing heat rising through it, I leaned back and collapsed.
“Wh-what is this? Could it be that my authority is finally working?”
“No, I just lay back because I was dizzy.”
“Do not confuse me, human!”
“What do I care?”
“Eek!”
When I flipped the demon off while lying on my back, it seemed not to know what my finger meant, but still flew into a rage, saying it somehow pissed it off.
But the demon only raged in place and never approached me.
It was astonishingly cautious.
And there was something even more annoying than that attitude of the demon’s.
I hadn’t noticed while standing, but now that I was lying down, this floor.
“Haa, the floor is too hard. Can you make it soft, by any chance?”
“...Are you asking me to do that for you right now?”
“Yeah. You said you were the master of this space, right? Then can’t you change the place and turn this into a bed?”
“My authority is not something to be used for your convenience!”
“Too bad. I thought if I gently poked at you, since you’re stupid, you’d do it, but I guess you’re not that stupid.”
“Human!!”
“Ugh, loud. At the very least, if you could support my head with just a pillow, I could sleep comfortably... huh?”
Fluffy.
The moment I thought of the white, soft pillow in the dormitory, I felt the touch of a fluffy pillow behind my head.
Rustle.
“...What is this?”
“...”
“Ah, did you use your authority for my convenience even though you talked like that?”
“Th-that is right, human. In truth, for your sake—”
“What a load of crap. I’ve been feeling this since earlier, but you’re filthy bad at lying.”
“...”
I grinned at the demon, who was staring blankly at the white pillow in my right hand.
The demon had no expression, but if this place were a comic, it looked so flustered that two or three huge drops of cold sweat would have been drawn on its back.
“That’s strange. I’m pretty sure I heard this was your space, under your control...”
“Ha! Just because you created a single pillow in this space, do not get so arrogant—”
“But it seems like this pillow was created because I wanted it, doesn’t it? Then couldn’t I make other things too?”
Tap, tap.
I raised my body back up from where I had been lying and faced the demon.
“Demon.”
“...What?”
“Hmm, there’s something I want to ask before this pillow in my hand turns into something else.”
“What a grand dream. To think you become arrogant just because you managed to create one object within my authority. This is why humans are ignorant.”
Even I, the master of this authority, took decades to become accustomed to it. And you, who have not even been here for a few hours, think you can make whatever you want just like that!! The demon got worked up all on its own again, and after quietly watching it, I tossed out a question.
“What’s your name?”
Was it a question it had never expected at all?
The demon, who had been angry until just now, stopped its amorphous body from squirming as if someone had pressed the pause button on a video, then asked again.
“...My name?”
“Yeah, your name.”
I looked at the demon, feeling certain that the pillow in my hand could change into something else as well.
“For some reason, I feel like I’m going to be spending a very long, very sticky time with you.”
“Ha! A human, nothing more than a mortal, says he will spend a ‘long time’ with an immortal demon? Hahaha! How amusing.”
“Come on, don’t react so coldly. A name should be fine, shouldn’t it? Between us.”
“...What are we?”
“What else? A slave and master.”
At my definitive answer, the demon seemed pleased, shaking the part that was its head greatly—though it was hard to tell because of its amorphous form—and smiled in satisfaction.
“Ha! It seems you at least know your place!”
“Mm, mm. No matter how much you may have the form of a book called a grimoire, calling a living creature an object feels a bit much.”
“Yes, yes. No matter what, a living creature is... what?”
“Hm? Or should I just treat you like an object, demon? Is that your preference?”
At my counterquestion, the demon became certain it had not misheard, but still asked again just in case.
“Do you think of me as a slave right now...?”
“Yeah. Abiyan gave you to me, so ownership belongs to me. And under imperial law, only human slaves are forbidden, but demon slaves are allowed, aren’t they? On top of that, I’m the only person who knows about you, so I don’t even have to pay taxes. What a dreamlike situation.”
“Heh... heheheh!”
“Right, you’re moved after seeing the nature of your newly acquired master? I understand. Among the people in this medieval fantasy world, I’m probably the only conscientious master. Your life just got better.”
“You human bastard!!! You must be desperate to die!!!!”
Shaaaaaak!!
Black mist that seemed capable of covering the world burst out from the demon’s body in an instant.
Even the amorphous mass that had been the demon’s body turned into black mist and surrounded me completely.
Front, back, left, and right.
Now, even the space that had been imitating the dormitory collapsed, leaving behind only a world of black.
In that twisted, corrupt, prickling space that seemed like it would appear in a nightmare, the demon’s message spread through my head.
—Just die!! Human!!!
“My name is Jin Prach. Though you probably already know that.”
—I was limiting my power because I considered you a sacrifice!! But now, none of that matters!!! I will melt you away and erase you, if it is the last thing I do!!!
“Mm, the line is cliché, but well, it’s fine... I like it. It sounds like something the weakest of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings would say when blowing himself up with the protagonist.”
—Shaaaaaak!!!
No questions asked.
As if it no longer wanted to hear my voice, the black mist the demon had turned its body into rushed at me from every direction.
I watched the black waves closing in by the second, then confirmed that the pillow in my hand had changed into the object I wanted and nodded.
“Mm, I’ll look forward to you telling me your name next time, slave.”
Before the black waves completely covered my body, I pulled the safety pin on what I held in my hand.
Ping—!
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!!!
Along with the refreshing sound of the safety pin being pulled, a pure white flash and explosion erupted, wiping away the black waves all at once and filling this space with a white roar.
Wow, I thought of the nuclear bombs I saw in movies, and it actually worked?
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!!!!
Feeling the tremors of a nuclear explosion for the first time, I lost consciousness.
Explosion is art.