Episode 25
“Teresia…!”
Arriving at the scene, what I saw was Teresia kneeling on the ground, her head hanging limply and powerlessly.
Though her sword lay nearby, it seemed nothing had happened yet.
That realization brought a brief wave of relief.
“Teresia, thank goodness… you’re safe…”
As I gently spoke to her, she looked up at me with lifeless eyes.
“Yurina, I… in the end, I couldn’t do anything.”
I knew what she had been trying to do.
I also understood that she had failed, that she had managed to pull back from the brink.
I knew how deeply she was hurting because of it, but above all else, the most important thing to me right now was that Teresia was still safe.
“I won’t ask what you were thinking or trying to do right now. Anyway, Teresia, let’s head home quickly.”
“H-Home?”
She echoed my words in a daze.
“I… I can’t go back. To defeat the demon lord and save you, this was the only way—”
“Teresia. About that.”
For now, I decided to counter what she had been thinking.
“Look, Teresia. I’m so grateful for how much you care about me, but even so, I can’t accept you sacrificing yourself.”
“B-But. This is the only way to defeat the demon lord.”
“That’s why… listen, Teresia.”
Interrupting her words, I pressed on.
“First of all, you need to talk to me. It doesn’t matter whether it turns out well or not, if you keep things a secret and try to do something behind my back, it hurts me, too.”
“…!”
Teresia gave a startled shudder.
Perhaps she had realized what she had nearly done and was feeling a pang of guilt.
I felt a slight pang of regret that my words had turned into something akin to an accusation.
Even so, I needed to say this.
“Teresia, I am always on your side. No matter what happens, I want to remain on your side.”
At the same time, I could imagine why she had been pushed this far.
It was undoubtedly all my fault.
And I didn’t just mean the power of the demon lord that had once resided in my body.
“Because I tried to kill myself right in front of you, you ended up feeling cornered too, didn’t you?”
“Th-That’s not… true. At that time, you made that decision because you were thinking of me. That’s why…”
“No. While I thought I was doing the right thing back then, it certainly wasn’t a righteous act, I can never justify an action that hurts someone precious to me, no matter the reason.”
Even now, it struck me.
Even as I thought how convenient my reasoning sounded, I still said it.
Choosing to die for Teresia’s sake back then was definitely not the right thing to do.
“I don’t know if there was another way, but… precisely because of that, I feel now that I should have talked to you first, Teresia.”
I couldn’t make the excuse that there hadn’t been time.
I knew how much anguish and suffering that choice had caused her.
“B-But… what are we supposed to do then…?! In the end, the demon lord is something that shouldn’t exist in this world—it has to be defeated!”
“Yes, you’re right. I agree with you completely on that point.”
“The demon lord is a conceptual power that attaches itself to something. Unless someone makes the ultimate sacrifice…”
“That’s why, Teresia.”
Gazing intently into her eyes, I steeled my resolve and spoke.
“I want you to give the power of the demon lord back to me.”
“—”
Hearing my words, she fell silent for a moment.
…How long did that moment last, I wondered?
Perhaps an eternity had flowed by.
“Again?”
She murmured softly.
Fighting back her tears, she still held my gaze.
Swallowing the words she had nearly blurted out once, she spoke.
“I believe… in you.”
“Yeah.”
“I believe in you.”
“Thank you.”
I offered words of gratitude.
I was thankful from the bottom of my heart that she still trusted me.
Since she trusted me like this, I now had to repay that trust with my actions.
“Well then—”
She smoothly reached out a hand toward me.
Then, a thought occurred to me, and I decided to ask her a question.
“Taking the demon lord’s power away from me seemed like it was a huge ordeal, but is giving it back easy?”
“…It originally belonged to you, after all. Returning it to where it belongs is relatively simple.”
“That’s a relief.”
I felt a sudden warmth spread through my body.
At the same time, I felt a chillingly cold power welling up from within.
It seemed the demon lord’s power had returned to my body.
Meeting Teresia’s worried gaze, I first offered her a reassuring smile.
Then, I picked up a small pebble from the ground.
Staring at it intently, I judged that this would work, and made my declaration.
“You are now the demon lord.”
Crack.
The moment I crushed the pebble, I felt the power of the demon lord scatter into mist.
Noticing the demon lord’s power rapidly draining away, Teresia stared in blank astonishment.
“Wh-What is the meaning of—”
“Well, the logic is simple. I made some random pebble into the demon lord and then crushed it. That’s all there is to it.”
In the end, perhaps I still had attachments left.
Or was it desire? Ambition, perhaps?
I wanted to stand beside Teresia and fight.
I was just an utterly ordinary person, yet I possessed something extraordinary.
I simply hated the thought of losing that, that was all there was to it.
And that was why, despite defeating the demon lord being such an absurdly simple task, things had dragged on this long.
“Well, with this, I’m back to being an ordinary civilian.”
I felt a tiny twinge of regret.
The omnipotent feeling of wielding the demon lord’s power—
It would be a lie to say it was easy to give up.
“No, Yurina…”
Before I knew it, Teresia had stood up, approached me, and timidly took my hand with a smile.
“An ordinary Yurina is the most precious thing in the world to me.”
“…I see.”
I gave a small nod.
Then, I spoke.
“Shall we get going, then?”
“Go? Where?”
She asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“We’re going home.”