Episode 10
—And then it happened, all at once.
Or perhaps it had already been decided from the very beginning.
I don’t know. Either way.
From outside the window — an explosion.
A sound like something bursting apart.
Or maybe closer to lightning striking down from the sky?
A sound that had no business belonging to a peaceful town like Flower Lake.
And it came from — probably — somewhere outside the town, though close by.
“…Eh?”
My body jolted, and I turned to look at Teresia.
Teresia’s expression had hardened.
I supposed that was only to be expected from a saint who’d spent so long journeying to defeat a demon lord.
Either way, Teresia looked back at me and said, “Yurina, I’m going to see what’s happening,” and started for the door.
“O-okay. I’ll—”
“Please stay here and wait, Yurina. You’re still recovering.”
“But—”
“…I’m sorry. I don’t want to put it this way, but until we know what’s happened, I can’t bring someone who might become a liability.”
“…Understood.”
“Thank you. I’ll be back.”
I nodded obediently, and Teresia hurried out of the room.
Alone in the quiet room, I couldn’t suppress the anxiety welling up in my chest.
But I had to bear it.
I was worried about Teresia too, but if I pushed myself and went out anyway, only to end up getting in her way — that would be even worse.
Still.
“What on earth…?”
Monsters presumably still existed even in a world without a demon lord, so an attack by monsters would at least make sense.
But could monsters exist, in a world without a demon lord, capable of producing a blast like that?
I didn’t know — even with a reincarnator’s knowledge, I had no idea what was happening right now.
That very fact made the anxiety swell by the second, and I felt the urge to burst out of the room and run after Teresia.
But I had to bear it.
If I went to Teresia now, I’d only be a liability — exactly as she’d said.
I was, after all, still recovering from having driven a sword through my own body to kill the demon lord within me.
My strength and stamina hadn’t recovered.
So—
“…!”
And then.
That, too, happened all at once.
Or perhaps that, too, had already been decided from the very beginning.
I don’t know. Either way.
“Gh— guh, ah…!”
Suddenly, my head split with pain.
My vision spun, drowning in red.
I heard a heavy thud.
By the time I realized I’d collapsed, my consciousness was already sinking into darkness—
—Time to wake up.
I thought I heard someone’s voice, and my eyes snapped open with a start.
“…”
I sat up in a field of total darkness.
Far off at the horizon’s edge, a faint dim glow, but everywhere else, an all-consuming black.
“Where… am I?”
I muttered it without thinking, though there was no reason to expect an answer.
At least, that’s what I believed as I said it.
—This is your spiritual world.
I nearly jumped when an answer came back to my muttering.
“W-who’s there?!”
I looked around wildly toward where the voice had come from, but there was only darkness.
Or — should I even call it darkness?
Straining my eyes, I could make out, within the dark, something like a black condensed even darker than the dark around it.
Had that answered me?
“No, wait — this is clearly something supernatural. What are you?”
I doubted I’d get much of an answer.
If anything, I braced for the worst.
—I am the will of the demon lord.
So when the answer came, it didn’t shock me much — if anything, I found myself thinking, “Ah, of course,” with something close to acceptance.
Maybe some part of me had already suspected as much.
Was it really possible for something so convenient to happen — that I survived while only the demon lord had died?
—Ah, you can relax. I won’t hurt you. Or rather, I should say — I’m incapable of hurting you.
“And I’m supposed to believe that?”
—It’s true that I was the will meant to take up residence ‘there.’ But now, I exist only as something able to speak to you weakly, like this.
“…The will meant to take up residence ‘there’?”
At my puzzled tilt of the head, the self-proclaimed “will of the demon lord” kindly explained further.
—The moment you awakened as demon lord, I was meant to enter you and seize your will for my own.
“…So you were planning to take it over.”
—But before that could happen, memories from a different world, sleeping within you, stirred back to life and blocked my entry. Or, to put it more precisely — there was no room left for me to enter.
“Huh?”
Memories from a different world.
Well — it’s true that at that exact moment, I did recover my memories as a reincarnator.
“…Wait, before that — what even is ‘the will of the demon lord’?”
—The will to destroy the world. Nothing more, nothing less. No malice, no benevolence — that is simply what I am.
“Ah, like some kind of built-in setting.”
—And you, upon awakening as demon lord, by whatever coincidence — or perhaps by fate — rejected me, the will of the demon lord.
“…Was that a good thing?”
—Depends how you look at it.
“Then from my perspective, was it good?”
At my question, the “will of the demon lord” fell silent for a moment, then answered.
—At the very least, you currently retain your will as a human, while still housing the demon lord’s power within your body.
“…That still affects the world somehow, doesn’t it.”
If that’s the case.
Then, after all…
—That would be up to your control.
But at the “will of the demon lord’s” next words, my thoughts froze for a moment.
“Control… is that even something I can do?”
—You’ve become able to, it seems. By nature, a demon lord is one who destroys the world through power beyond reason. And yet you possess that power while still retaining a human’s will.
“It’s true I’m not thinking like a demon lord right now, but—”
—So, as for your question, the answer would have to be: it’s up to you. If you wish it, the demon lord’s power will be ‘as you will it.’
Even the fact that I was a reincarnator had been unplanned.
And because of that unplanned event, I now understood, the whole concept of “demon lord” had gone strange.
If this “will of the demon lord” wasn’t lying to me, then I could control the demon lord’s power and wield it as I chose.
“…How do I even operate that power?”
The “will of the demon lord” answered my question.
—Try asking yourself. I am nothing more than a will; ownership of that power belongs to you.
Figure it out myself, huh — I thought, somewhat exasperatedly, but did as told and tried reaching for the demon lord’s power by feel.
And it turned out to be — surprisingly simple.
Once I became aware of it, it was almost absurdly easy, and I found myself wondering why I hadn’t understood this sooner.
Whatever the case—
“Hah!”
By my own will.
I exercise the demon lord’s power——!