Episode 22
I fell silent for a moment — my thoughts too, naturally — then scratched my cheek and asked Teresia:
“‘Take your power away’ — that’s not some figure of speech, is it.”
“No. Starting now, I’m going to take the demon lord’s power away from you.”
“Teresia, you’re not the type to joke around, so I’m guessing that means it’s actually possible. But I’ll ask anyway. Why?”
“Because it’s a power you don’t need.”
Teresia said it flatly, her expression unreadable.
*
“The demon lord’s power isn’t something that should be left as it is. Especially not something you should be the one holding onto, Yurina.”
“I see? I mean, if you’re telling me it’s a power beyond what I can handle, I really can’t argue with that. So — does that mean you’re going to hold onto the demon lord’s power for me instead?”
“Yes. That’s exactly right.”
A lie.
Teresia’s easy to read, so I could tell immediately that was a lie.
But even knowing that, figuring out exactly which part of what she’d just said was the lie — that, I couldn’t quite work out.
If Teresia’s going to hold my demon lord power for me, does that mean she’s planning to do something with it?
More to the point — her words, since she can’t actually lie.
She’d said “take away,” not “hold for me.”
At the very least, there’s no mistaking it — she’s planning to force the power out of me, one way or another.
“So then, concretely — how exactly are you planning to draw the power out of me?”
“Normally, it wouldn’t be possible. Ability-wise I could do it, but I don’t have enough mana to actually output it. Which is why, up until now, I’ve been using various methods to stockpile surplus mana inside my own body.”
She said “a lot” like it was nothing, and I found myself frowning.
“Didn’t you say before that stockpiling too much mana makes you feel sick?”
“Yes. So, frankly, right now I feel extremely sick. Like I might throw up.”
“Your face doesn’t look any different, but… actually, now that I look closer, you do look kind of nauseous.”
Looking more carefully, the color really did seem drained from her face.
Now that she’d said it, I was genuinely worried she might actually throw up.
“B-but once I use it all up in one go, it’ll be fine. I think it’ll clear right up afterward, so Yurina, all you need to do is entrust yourself to me.”
“I mean, if it clears up afterward, that’s obviously the best outcome. But Teresia — why keep this from me this whole time, and only now force it through like this?”
I could more or less guess why she’d kept it from me.
Probably — no, almost certainly — because I’d have fought her on it.
Knowing Teresia’s personality, if there’s something she absolutely wants to do, she’ll do it even if it means keeping me in the dark.
And the fact that she was telling me about it now, at this point, was probably because — again, knowing her — she didn’t want to steal the power from me through outright deception.
And beyond that.
“Well, I can more or less guess your reasons. But Teresia — you’re planning to deal with the demon lord’s power through some pretty brute-force method, aren’t you?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because on that front, I actually understand it better than you do, saint or not — I’m the demon lord, remember? The demon lord’s power doesn’t just vanish that easily. If anything, ‘the demon lord’s power’ isn’t really energy so much as it’s the power the demon lord itself wields — which means, to put it bluntly, even if I burned through every last bit of it right here, right now, it’d just recover over time.”
“…”
“So — what you’re planning to do is—”
I let the words out in one breath.
“You’re going to become the demon lord in my place. And then you’re planning to die.”
She—
Didn’t deny it.
“The logic behind it is complicated, so I’ll skip the explanation, but if I had to put it simply — it’s a kind of substitution magic.”
“…I thought I was already able to control the demon lord’s power properly, though. Isn’t that enough?”
“Whether we’re satisfied with the current situation is irrelevant. Yurina, as long as you continue being the demon lord, this world will treat you accordingly.”
“Even if that’s what I want?”
“I don’t want that.”
I wanted you to live an ordinary life, Yurina.
Teresia said it.
“The journey to defeat the demon lord is over, and you get to return to an ordinary life. This — is the final step to get you there.”
“You think I’m going to accept that?”
“I don’t need you to accept it.”
“…!”
In that instant, I noticed.
A small magic circle, just barely large enough to contain my shadow, had been carved into the ground beneath my feet.
And it was, at that very moment, activating.
I tried desperately to step outside it, but Teresia wasn’t going to wait for me to escape.
“Yurina. Your journey ends here. From now on, please — forget all about me, and go live an ordinary life.”
“Te— resia…!”
My strength was draining away.
The sensation of myself ceasing to be myself.
I couldn’t stay standing, and as I collapsed, my vision slowly bled into darkness.
I couldn’t hear anything.
I couldn’t see anything.
…And then, at the very last—
“I love you, Yurina.”
I thought I heard those words.