"I understand. You're angry."
Looking into those eyes — so plainly, so nakedly full of fury — Fíliya still needed several long seconds to sort out what she was seeing.
Those words made something in Solitär's chest drop a little further.
Because the Fíliya from before would never have needed those seconds. No matter what was going on in Solitär's heart, that girl had always read it instantly — and always answered it with something warm, something reassuring, something that made the tension dissolve.
But now, all of that — all of those emotions — had clearly dulled.
Solitär found it almost impossible to picture. The word slow — the concept of being slow to feel — applied to the person standing in front of her.
Is this... the price of becoming a member of the Demon Race? Of becoming the Demon King?
Just as Solitär stood there, not quite knowing what to do with herself, Fíliya slowly raised her hand — and touched her cheek.
"I'm sorry, Solitär. I don't know why, but it always feels like there's a layer of fog over my thoughts. Anything to do with feeling — with emotion — always arrives one beat too late... It might be the effects of the transformation, or it might be something else entirely..."
She paused.
"But what I am completely certain of is this: my feelings for you haven't changed."
Solitär's head snapped up. Her expression was one of disbelief.
But then she saw it — the familiar smile curving at the corner of Fíliya's lips — and just like that, the knot in her chest loosened.
Is that so... Is that really how it is?
Yes... yes, of course. She only just became a demon. And demons... they've always been an emotionally distant race, by nature. But that doesn't mean they can't change.
Even Solitär herself — even Aura and Linie — had all, somewhere along the way, caught a trace of something human just from living alongside Fíliya.
So... Fíliya can find her way back too. She just needs a little time.
With that thought, Solitär finally managed to breathe again. She stepped back slowly — though not too far, because she couldn't quite bring herself to move too far — and settled into place at Fíliya's side.
"..."
Meanwhile, the girl who had so recently announced her intention to sleep — the Saint of the End, Tot, with her brown skin and golden eyes — was watching Fíliya and Solitär with open, uncomplicated curiosity, her gaze moving back and forth between them.
To Tot, after all, this was the first time she had ever witnessed two members of the Demon Race forge something as strange as this between each other.
At that moment, a set of clothes landed squarely on top of her.
Tot instinctively grabbed the bundle, then looked up at the one who had thrown it — Miss Aura — with an expression of pure puzzlement.
"Aura, what's this?"
Since they were all Great Demons, they naturally all knew each other by reputation.
"Heh... it's a family tradition. The newcomer spends a few months as a — well, what do you call it? A slave? A servant? Oh wait, no — a maid. That's it. A few months as a maid first, then we can talk about everything else. And you, Tot, you lazy thing — if you can't even do that right, you'll answer to me, Lady Aura."
Miss Aura was positively beaming. And for good reason: Tot, as it turned out, filled very nearly the same structural role as Aura in this little group — oh, not that role, she was a demon — and moreover, Tot's raw combat ability was, if anything, slightly below Aura's own. The only reason she held the august title of [Saint] was that terrifying ability of hers, the curse that could be unleashed upon the entire world.
Finally having found someone she could look down on, Miss Aura's spirits had never been higher.
But faced with Aura's insufferably imperious expression, Tot showed no particular resistance whatsoever. She simply tilted her head up, blinked with an expression of total innocence, and asked in the most guileless tone imaginable:
"Is there any food?"
---
The group spent some time after that renovating the Demon King's Castle, and used illumination magic to light up the long-abandoned halls.
Looking at the now-bright interior — no longer carrying that oppressive, gloomy air it had worn before — Fíliya felt a quiet satisfaction settle over her.
"This is so much better. We should do a proper renovation at some point — actual décor and everything. Do you think we could get some humans in to handle that?"
Fíliya floated the suggestion with an exploratory air.
"Do I need to remind you that we're supposed to be humanity's greatest enemies right now?" Solitär fixed her with a deeply unimpressed look. "Don't tell me you've forgotten what you just did. How could we possibly have any contact with humans at a time like this?"
"Mm..."
Fíliya gave a hasty nod of acknowledgment, then turned her gaze to the demon nearby who was currently inhaling food at an alarming rate.
"Tot. Nobody's going to steal it from you. You are, at minimum, a girl — could you possibly eat with a little less... ferocity?"
But Miss Tot, having fully transformed into a creature of pure gluttony, had completely lost the ability to hear anything addressed to her, and continued eating with single-minded, unstoppable purpose.
For a demon who had spent nearly a century foraging alone underground, the particular destructive power of Solitär's cooking was something Tot's current reaction communicated more eloquently than any words ever could.
"Well... she spent close to a hundred years hiding underground alone. She probably hasn't had anything decent to eat in all that time."
Seeing that Tot wasn't going to respond to her, Fíliya let it go without further comment and turned back to Solitär.
"While I was unconscious — those few months — was there any news from the human side?"
"...You've already started referring to yourself as something outside of 'humans' without even thinking about it."
Miss Solitär's mood was clearly somewhat better than usual, and she had apparently taken over the role of delivering dry observations — a role that, historically, Fíliya had always handled herself.
"Isn't that only natural? I'm not human anymore."
Fíliya said it lightly, and even raised a hand to idly touch the twin horns on her forehead.
She was genuinely grateful that what she'd ended up with were the same compact, petite horns as Solitär's.
If she'd grown something like Aura's enormous bull-horns, she privately thought, that might have gotten exhausting very quickly.
"No news whatsoever... Aura, Linie, and I took turns passing through quite a few cities in the Southern Nations, but we couldn't pick up even a whisper about anything like 'magic that can transform humans into demons' or 'the Emperor of the northern Empire being turned into a demon.'"
"I see... Is it just that three months isn't long enough? News can't possibly travel that fast — and besides... the Empire is probably throwing everything it has into suppressing the story."
Fíliya said it casually, but a smile crept across her face — thin, and not particularly kind.
"But even if they're trying to bury it — how long can they really keep that up? The Emperor can't exactly hide from the public forever... Ah, well. I'm not a patient person at the best of times. May as well give them a small push."
As she spoke, Fíliya rose slowly to her feet and began to gather a magic into being.
At that same moment — across the entire continent, in the mind of every human being whose body held even a trace of mana, even those no further along than an apprentice — a single voice rang out.
[ Those of you who hunger for power and for years beyond your allotted span — come to the Demon King's Castle at the far northern edge of the continent. Offer your loyalty, and receive what you have always dreamed of. The newborn Demon King will welcome you as kin among the Demon Race. The chance at eternal life stands before you now. I shall await your answer. ]
[ I am Demon King Fíliya. The Emperor of the Empire has already been transformed into a demon by my hand. Let that be proof enough. ]
____
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