When I opened my eyes I was in a large bed in a foreign room. It took quite a bit of effort but I managed to rise. There was considerable pain in my muscles. The room was quite nice and from the view in the nearby window it was somewhere near the coast. A familiar red head sat beside my bed,
"Varry you're finally awake," she smiled in relief but then grabbed my head and gave it a vigorous rub. "How dare you pull a fast one like that on me."
"It's not like I wanted to get hit," I pushed her away with a smile. "How long have I been out?"
"Almost a whole day." A lot shorter than I expected. I guess my constitution was better than I gave it credit for.
"I see… and the Heroes?"
"Don't worry they saw nothing. When you're illusions collapsed I took you away in order to 'quarantine' you. They still think you're human."
"That's a relief but how are their mental states?"
Lisanna frowned slightly, "Well they were certainly shocked and it took a lot of effort to calm them down. It would have been horrendous if you had died… for a lot of reasons."
"Ha," I laughed harshly, "As if I would die. There's only one way my family is allowed to die." I was trying to reassure her but instead she became quiet.
"I don't want you or your family to die like that. After all you do for us…."
"Hey, don't get all sentimental on me. If my plan with the Heroes works, none of us will have to die again."
She smirked, "Oh, so you actually had a plan?"
"Well, kind of. It's a work in progress. We have plenty of time," I stretched my arms. "By the way, what happened to the spear?"
"It's sealed for now. The curse is gone but we're taking precautions. The green crystal on its tip though, as you probably realised, it disrupts mana."
"Yeah, I felt that one first hand."
"More importantly what about the Miltis Empire?"
"Hmm honestly if the Heroes weren't with us, I would have burnt their boats to the ground. There's a bigger plan going on here. The information that I gathered from them, they aren't people we can take lightly. They're beyond ruthless in their methods and I feel like they've already taken hold of certain places within our home." It wasn't a coincidence that the curse was similar to the one I encountered in the Klerical Kingdom. "As for us demons, I'll send a message to increase security on any towns along the coast. I suggest you do the same."
"Way ahead of you. In fact I've already sent a message to your father."
"Thank you."
"What do you expect from your big sister, the Queen of Rentolt."
"For one, I wouldn't expect her to be talking to the enemy."
"Who you?" She attacked my sides and began to tickle them.
"Wait- stop!" I laughed and then my eyes caught sight of the door opening. Gilda, and behind her the Heroes. In front of them was me holding Lisanna away as she had her hands underneath my shirt. A blush across my face. A silence came across the room.
"S-sorry!" Sayuri screamed and ran off. Carl was stunned. Alicia more than anything was looking at me disappointedly. Gary just looked jealous.
"Apologies your majesty I should have knocked," Gilda bowed. Well this would take some explaining later….
Aside: The beach.
Gary:
"Well it took a while but we're finally here!" Dave declared as we set our feet on the soft sand. After the Miltis Empire retreated we spent a good few days helping the city get back on its feet. The Queen of Rentolt and her knights had departed this morning which finally gave us some time to mess around. After all that's happened it felt like ages since we had some time off. And now as a reward for all our work, finally before us, clear blue waters, untouched sand, waves washing towards the shore, it was the beach.
"Carl!" my sister yelled out, "Did you bring the items?" She had an ecstatic grin. Carl flinched from the excitement in her voice and when he looked at her a slight blush came over his face. Well it made sense, she was looking very lovely right now so I'd allow it.
"Y-yeah, they're right here," Carl pulled out the storage box the King had given us. "Some small shovels, a volley ball, two poles, a net, some towels, goggles, a large umbrella and a donut."
"Good job!" my sister gave him the thumbs up and snatched the donut from him.
Dave looked at the donut curiously, "What's that?"
"You blow it up and swim in it!" she started to blow it up and in between breaths explained, "It was really hard to make. Sayuri and I had to find a craftsman. It was expensive. Carl picked it up."
"Hmmm I see, so instead of learning to swim you use that instead." Usually a comment like that would make my sister indignant but she just laughed it off.
I grabbed on to Carl and Dave, "Let's go get changed!" and dragged them off. We came back in mock board shorts and thongs. The materials weren't exactly right but it was really starting to feel like home again. When we arrived the girls were already done. Over the past few days sis had dragged Sayuri around looking for bathing suits and in the end they had their own ones made.
"Looking good sis!" I gave her the thumbs up, "You too Sayuri."
"Right back at you Garr," she returned the gesture. "Also Carl, nice body. Those muscles are really glistening."
"Ah well… we do train a lot," Carl smiled with an awkward embarrassment.
"Dave why are you being so shy?" my sister smiled mischievously and edged closer. Dave leaned away.
"A-aren't you two revealing a bit too much of yourselves?" At his words Sayuri suddenly turned red in embarrassment.
"What? In our world this much is normal," sis teased and showed off her bikini before jumping behind Sayuri to show her off as well. "Well, what do you think?"
Dave's expression twisted for a second before releasing a gallant smile. He must have realised he was being teased. "You both look lovely."
I sighed inside, the way he could just turn over his expression like that. I'd love to find out what he was really thinking sometimes.
"Now that's done let's play!" my sister cheered. "What's first, swimming? Sand castles? Volley ball?"
Sayuri pulled on her arm, "Let's go in the water first."
"Alright!" she ran off with Sayuri in tow but just before hitting the water she sprinted back, "Dave the water is safe right? No monsters right?"
"Hmm monsters?" he scratched his chin. "If you go far enough yeah, but there shouldn't be any nearby."
"Great!" she started to run off again but after a single step turned back. "Almost forgot." She grabbed Carl and with boisterous laughter pulled him to the water as well. I couldn't help smiling at how much fun she was having.
Dave and I watched them happily as they splashed water on each other. A huge wave suddenly burst up and almost washed Carl out to sea. Oi, please don't get serious. Her physical strength had always been frightening even back at home but now it was just crazy.
Dave picked up one of the shovels, "So what are these for?"
"For building sand castles," I also picked one up.
"Sand castles?"
"You've never made one before?"
"Well I haven't really played on a beach before. The only times I ever went to one was for training." In a world full of monsters, it made sense that people wouldn't really play at the beach much.
"Sand castles are sand castles," I laughed. "You make sculptures of castles and other things in the sand."
"Why use a shovel then? Wouldn't magic be easier?"
"… Hey, we come from a world without mana or magic."
"Ah right, that would suck."
"It really does!" I shoved the shovel into the sand, "But the point of a sand castle is to do it by hand."
"That doesn't sound like fun…."
I leaned over and gave him a kick, "Just try it."
I left Dave to play in the sand as he surprisingly got into it. The sun was beginning to shine really hard on us. It was supposed to be winter but there were even days like this. It reminded me of home. I set up the umbrella and sat down on a towel. Not long after Sayuri plodded towards me and sat down with a relived breath.
"Done already?" I asked.
"Alicia doesn't know how to hold back," she let out a wry smile. "And besides I decided to give them some time alone."
"You realised?" I smiled slightly bitter.
"We girls have a sixth sense to things like this. I'm surprised you did."
"Please, when it comes to my sister I know everything." That's right, even if she didn't fully see it herself. "We are twins."
"You're twins!?" Sayuri said shocked.
"What, no one told you?" I swear we must have mentioned it at least once….
"No way… but it makes sense," she laughed.
I smiled and turned to Sayuri, "On the other hand, I was surprised that Dave had such a close relationship with the Queen."
Sayuri nodded, "Who would have guessed that they were friends since childhood? It would explain why Dave changed his appearance back when we first met her though."
"It's a relief isn't it?"
"Yeah…."
"Seeing the guy you like in bed with the Queen of another country, must have been a shock."
Sayuri jumped up, "It's not like that! I was just shocked. Normally shocked that's all."
"Sure that was all," I teased. "Don't worry I won't tell anyone."
"I'm starting to really feel the family resemblance between you and Alicia."
I let out a grin, "It's okay, Dave's a great guy. I mean even now he's-," I turned back to see how he was going. "Holy crap Dave!" I yelled involuntarily. I had only left him for ten minutes and now behind me was a literal sand castle.
He turned to us with a refreshed expression, "The shovel took too long so I started to use magic… then it just happened."
"It's not meant to be that big! Smaller, like a mini castle." Sayuri and I looked at it in awe.
"Haha," he just laughed, "You should have said that in the first place." No… this guy just lacked common sense.
"Heads!" the yell came from the water and suddenly a ball flying at frightening speeds flashed past us and into Dave's castle. It crumbled to pieces. "Oops, my bad." My sister stood there with an apologetic smile.
"Now you've done it," Dave glared back at her evilly. The ball hovered up from the wreckage and shot back towards her. Carl intercepted and punched it up high. Sayuri not missing a beat jumped up and kicked it back down. And that's how we started to play volley ball… or at least a really messed up version of it.
The sky had darkened and the sun was disappearing over the town. We spent the whole day just having fun on the beach. Swimming, volley ball, sand castles, hunting down sea serpents, eating and cooking giant crabs, running across the water… yeah it got a bit weird towards the end but it didn't change the fact that it was the most fun I'd had since… well ever. Standing on the sand with all our stuff packed up we watched the waves crash in.
Sis took a few steps forward and turned back to us all with a brilliant smile. It was the same smile she always showed me when times were hard. It was the smile that kept me going during our childhood, but now it wasn't forced at all. It was brighter than the sun.
"Thank you, all of you. This was the most fun I've ever had in my life," her eyes began to water. "I real- I really appreciate that you're my friends." The tears started to fall. The others were shocked at her sudden change. I walked forwards and she threw her arms around me in a hug.
"Come on sis, don't cry now."
"Shut up Garr."
"Is everything okay?" Carl asked.
"It's more than okay," I laughed. "It's just a bit overwhelming. See when we were kids, we used to always go to the beach but since the accident we never had the chance. The two of us made a promise to each other that one day, when we were finally free from it all, we'd go back. And now you guys have made it a reality. Thanks." I stared directly at Dave, "You especially Dave. Without you we would have never made it this far."
For a moment he just stared at us and then with a soft smile, "Don't worry about it." And thus our day at the beach ended. Unknown to us there had been quite a few on lookers from the city and from it a new line of swimwear was born as well as the popularization of playing at the beach.
Aside End:
Davarious First Born Light of the Autumn Wind:
To be honest seeing Gary and Alicia smile at me like that, let's just say there wasn't a small amount of guilt. I was still lying to them as the Demon Lord and worse despite all the fun we had so far, what I had said to Lisanna was true. I did have a plan for the Heroes and it wasn't something that would be entirely safe. In fact you could say it was downright dangerous, even for me. Still, that was a long way from now and as we spent those last few minutes watching the sun set I really had to admit that I enjoyed myself. Pretending to be a Hero, screwing over the King's plans, traveling the continent to places I had never been, saving my people… it was all more than I had expected. Sure I came pretty close to death from that spear but at least the Heroes were fine.
I heaved a deep content breath and looked across the waters, "So Alicia you've had your wish, Carl you got anything for me yet?"
He scratched his head in thought, "Well we've been kind of busy so I haven't really thought of anything…."
"How about a volcano!" Gary interjected.
Alicia pushed him aside, "You already used your turn. Carl ignore the moron and just choose whatever you like. Then again you can ask anything right? How about we do something more devious?" A cold sweat ran down my spine.
Carl just smiled, "Alicia we shouldn't be too mean to Dave." I had to thank Carl's parents for raising him to be such a nice guy. He held his chin in thought, "Hmmm what do I want from Dave… well there's nothing I really want from you that you haven't given us. Hmmm… actually there is something. I want to know more about this place, why the demon-side and human-side are fighting but not what's listed in the books. The actual reason. Is there somewhere we can go?"
Truth was I knew the reason why all this started but he wasn't asking for it directly so I didn't say anything.
"Why do you want to know that?" Alicia asked.
"It's because so far we haven't really seen any demons being evil right? I won't forgive the Demon Lord for what he did to Dave but what about the rest of them? The most evil we've seen are from other humans."
Sayuri nodded but remained stern, "You're right but we can't just assume they're all good. If the Demon Lord can be brutal enough to attack us in an innocent town his followers might just be as bad or worse."
I was really starting to regret my actions now… as for my followers. There were some warmongers but most were normal, although maybe a bit eccentric at times.
My gaze hardened on Carl, "But what will you all do if you learnt that it was the humans' who started the war and the demon-side is innocent."
"That… I…," Carl began to struggle but Alicia grabbed his head in her arm.
"We'll figure that out if it happens," she fearlessly grinned.
"Good," I smiled, "Then in that case there is a place we can go. It'll take a few days to get there and we'll have to back track a bit but it may have the answers you're looking for." That and I was also quite interested in visiting there but never had the chance.
Carl raised his eyebrows, "Where?"
"The ruins of an old kingdom." I stood up from the sand, "But for now I think we deserve a little bit more of a break. The city lord is holding a celebration for Sasren in the town square. As the guests of honour it would be a shame not to enjoy it."
As the Heroes stood up as well I couldn't help but smile. There was still a lot to do, a lot that I needed to tell them and even more that they'd discover themselves. Who knows what could happen. In the end they really might try to kill me and with the Miltis Empire we couldn't let our guard down either. Regardless I was sure I would enjoy myself. I had so far and seeing the Heroes own cheer, I could tell they had as well. This journey, although it started on a whim was really worth it. I had to wonder how it would all end but that for another day.