The next day, I went out and loaded my arms with food from one of
the stalls before wandering the back alleys for a bit. The food was all roasted
and skewered. There were some scallops similar to the ones we had in Japan,
a fish similar to horse mackerel, and a few other sea creatures I couldn't
identify. The stall owner didn't clarify what his wares were, and the street
stalls had a variety of them. So I decided to buy whatever was easiest to
carry.
I overthought things the last time the Man-God gave me advice. Just as
an amateur cook adds too many ingredients to a dish, overthinking had
landed me in a figurative shit pile. This time I was going to follow his advice
exactly. I would brainlessly heed his instructions, buy the food he told me to,
then just as brainlessly navigate my way through whatever event was going
to happen in the back alley. This was roleplaying. Whatever occurred from
here on would be completely unplanned. I wouldn't overthink anything; I
would act as simple-mindedly as possible. That jerk liked entertainment. He
was counting on me to overthink things again. As long as I didn't do that, he
wouldn't be entertained.
Those thoughts preoccupied me as I wandered aimlessly for several
minutes before suddenly realizing something. "Wait, this is exactly what he's
expecting, isn't it?"
I'd been deceived! He led me on with his impressive smooth talk and
now I was about to do exactly what he wanted me to do. When I realized that,
it pissed me off. I was dancing right in the palm of his hand.
Remember his original intention, I told myself. Remember how you felt
the first time you met. The Man-God wasn't someone I could trust.
All right then, this would be the last time I did as he told me. I would
follow his advice and see how things turned out this time, but there was no
way I would obey him next time. There was no way I was going to become
his puppet and let him string me along! Period!
***
I marched down the alleyway. By myself, of course.
Why did I have to be alone, anyway? That was the key part of his
advice this time. It must be something that Ruijerd and Eris wouldn't approve
of. No, don't overthink it, I told myself. If you want to think about something,
then just think about how happy you'll be if it turns out to be something sexy.
I had told Ruijerd and Eris that I would be off on my own for the day.
It was dangerous to leave Eris to her own devices, so I entrusted Ruijerd with
her protection. Maybe the two of them were off to see the beach right now.
"Wait…isn't that a date?" In my mind I saw the two of them together
on the beach just before their silhouettes disappeared behind the shade of a
large rock.
No, no, no! There's no freakin' way! J-just, just calm down, okay? This
is Eris and Ruijerd we're talking about, right? This isn't some kind of sexual
fantasy. It's nothing more than babysitting. Baby. Sitting!
Ah! But Ruijerd was really strong after all, and Eris seemed to respect
him a lot! Lately she had been treating me like nothing more than a Kennel
Master.
No, no, what the hell are you panicking over? I berated myself. Deep
breaths, everything is okay. Mister Ruijerd, you wouldn't steal her away from
me, right? I have nothing to worry about, right? When I go back the two of
you won't have mysteriously gotten closer to one another right? I-I trust you
guys, okay?!
In my head I simulated a fight between Ruijerd and myself. There was
no way I could win in close-range combat. If I wanted to deal with him, I
needed to start somewhere outside of his range of detection. Then I would
have to use water to finish him off. He got in the way of our seaside fun, after
all. I would attack him with water as retribution for that. If I produced a
massive amount of water, I could sweep him all the way into the ocean. The
end! He could drift at sea until he drowned. Mwahaha!
Wait, don't misunderstand me. I did trust Ruijerd. It was just that, well, you know that saying. Love is a battlefield, right?
***
It was quiet in the back alleys. Even the words "back alley" conjured
the negative image of a bunch of unscrupulous characters gathering in one
place. In reality, tender and innocent boys like me were liable to get
kidnapped for walking around a place like this. In this world, kidnapping was
one of the most common forms of crime for earning money. Of course, if
anyone was stupid enough to kidnap me, I would crush their arms and legs to
torture their address out of them, then I would take everything of value in
their homes before finally turning them in to the authorities.
"Heh heh heh. Little girl, if you come with me I'll give you enough
food to fill you up."
As in on cue, a voice came filtering through one of the alleyways. I
quickly peeked in its direction and spotted a shady-looking man pulling at the
hand of a girl who was slumped against the side of a building.
It was easy to deduce what was going on. The one who moves first
wins, however, so I readied my staff. Then I created a modified stone cannon
with the speed and power of a boxer's jab and aimed it at the man's back.
I had gotten good at limiting the power of my spells this past year.
"Yowch!!"
When he looked over his shoulder, I fired off another round. This time
I strengthened it a bit.
"Gah!"
The spell rammed into his face with a violent thud, where it
fragmented and crumbled to the ground. The man staggered and stumbled
before collapsing. I was sure he wasn't dead. I had done a good job of
restricting my power.
"Are you okay, young lady?" I tried to look as cool and collected as
possible as I reached out to the girl who had almost been kidnapped.
"Y-yeah…" She was young and clad in a revealing black leather outfit: knee-high boots, hot pants, and a tube top. The pale skin of her clavicle,
slender waist, belly button and thighs were all exposed. On top of all that, she
had horns like a goat and voluminous, wavy purple hair.
With just one look I knew: She was a succubus. A young one at that.
There was no question that she was younger than me. Perhaps this was the
Man-God's way of rewarding me for my hard work. Maybe he had some
sense in him after all.
No, wait, this wasn't a succubus. As far as I knew, there were no
succubi among the demon races. If I remembered correctly, succubi inhabited
the Begaritt Continent. Paul had had an unusually tense look on his face
when he told me, "Our race has no chance against them." Even I would
surely be powerless in the face of a succubus if I actually met one. Succubi
were the natural enemy of the Greyrat family.
That aside, there were no monsters within the city. In other words, she
was no succubus. She was just some demon kid in skimpy clothing.
"Y-you…you there, what have you…?" She was trembling like a fawn.
"Th-this man is… He's…!" She had a look of utter disbelief on her face. A
look of oh gosh golly mister, what have you done?!
"Ah, sorry. Did you know him?" I asked, tilting my head. The look on
that middle-aged man's face didn't give me the impression that he was
acquainted with this kid. If I were to describe it, it was more like the look of a
man past his prime getting aroused by a little girl. Look at him, ruddy face
contorted into a smile even though he was unconscious. I had no doubt he'd
take her home and provide a lavish meal and put her in bed, but in return he'd
expect a long, hot night.
"My belly aches from the hunger…and this man was going to provide
me with a meal." A noisy, gurgling rumble punctuated her sentence, loud
enough that it could have been the foreshadowing of an earthquake. When the
noise stopped, the girl's knees gave out from beneath her and she crumpled.
"A-are you okay?" I knelt down and lifted her into my arms. I wasn't
about to overlook a perfect opportunity to touch her. She wasn't getting
away. Don't get me wrong, though, the only reason I was there was to follow
the Man-God's advice and save her. I wasn't of the same ilk as that pervert
from a moment ago.
"Guh…urgh…it's been three hundred years since I revived. Passing
out in a place like this is inconceivable. Laplace can never know about this."
It felt like I'd stumbled onto the set of some mini-drama. Was this
getup actually a cosplay or something?
"A-anyway, eat this and get some of your strength back." I crammed
three of the fried skewers I'd bought into her mouth.
Munch, munch. The moment they entered her mouth, her eyes snapped
open and stayed that way as she devoured the meat in seconds. Then she
snatched the other skewers from me. I had a total of twelve, but in a snap of
the fingers she had already eaten ten of them.
"Wh-whoa! Delicious! The first thing I've had in a year and it's so
tasty!" The girl seemed to have recovered. She leaped into the air from her
prone position, making a single rotation before landing on her feet. She was
unexpectedly fit.
"A year? I don't know what your circumstances are, but that's a bit
extreme." It wasn't as if she were a giant isopod that could live years without
eating and not starve to death.
"Hm? Well, it's not like I counted the rise and fall of the sun, but with
how empty my stomach was, it should be a close estimate."
Uh-huh. So she probably hadn't eaten in two days, then.
"Regardless, you saved me! You! I can surely last another year on
this!" The young girl finally met my gaze. She had mismatched eyes, one
purple and one green. This had to be another aspect of her cosplay. No,
colored contacts didn't exist in this world, so maybe that was her natural eye
color.
"Oh?" Her right eye spun around and turned blue. G-gross! "Whoa!
Whoa! What's wrong with you, you're horrifically disgusting! What is this,
what is it?! Ahahaha! I've never seen this before!" she shouted with far too
much excitement as she looked at my face.
Uh yeah, needless to say that was a shock. It had been a long time
since I last had someone look me in the face and call me disgusting. Then
again, I'd just thought the same thing when I looked at her. So at least we
were even.
"Could that be it? Were you a twin in the womb, but the other one died
when you were born, is that it?"
…Huh? What the heck was she talking about? "No, I don't think
anything like that happened."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah."
"But your mana pool… It's larger than Laplace's."
My what was bigger than who? I had no idea what she was talking
about. From her weird way of speaking, to her freaky eyes, this kid was quite
the disappointment.
"That aside, state your name!"
"Rudeus Greyrat."
"Very good! I am Kishirika Kishirisu! People call me the Great Emperor of the Demon World!" She proudly thrust her hips forward with her
hands perched on her waist.
Her thighs appeared in front of me so suddenly that I stuck my tongue
out without thinking.
"Aaaaah! What are you doing?! That's filthy!" She turned her toes
inward and vigorously scrubbed her thighs together where I'd licked her,
before glaring at me.
Still, now I understood. The Demon World's Great Emperor Kishirika
Kishirisu was a name I'd heard before: the immortal Demon Emperor who
led the demons in the Great Human-Demon War, only to meet a crushing
defeat.
Was she the real thing? I had come here on the Man-God's advice,
after all. There was a possibility that she really was who she claimed. Still,
how could the real thing be here in a back alley of a city on the edge of the
Demon Continent, on the brink of death from starvation? It just didn't seem
likely, no matter how you spun it.
Ah, that's probably it, I realized. Children on this continent loved to
pretend they were one of the great heroes of the past. The most popular of
these figures was the Demon God Laplace. That was nauseating for me since
I knew the truth about him, but he was popular. Even though he lost the war,
he successfully subjugated all the tribes on the continent and gave the people
a fixed place to call home, thereby bringing them peace. He was regarded as
one of the greatest demons in history. Children often played out his stories,
particularly the episode where he fought with an immortal Demon King. That
was the one I had seen numerous times on the way to Wind Port.
I supposed that the Great Emperor of the Demon World, Kishirika, was
another one of the great people in history, but I'd never seen any children
pretending to be her before. This girl had to be one passionate fan of the
Great Emperor. And she had no friends to play with, which was why she was
here by herself in a back alleyway like this. That was the most logical way to
interpret the situation.
Hm. It was lonely, being all by yourself. I had no other choice, then. I
had to play along. "A-ah, yes! How rude of me, Your Majesty!" I responded
to her introduction with great exaggeration and took a knee as if I were one of
her retainers.
"Oh? Ooh, yes! Very good, very good! This is the reaction I have been
waiting for! Young people these days don't have any manners anymore, you
see!" She nodded her head in satisfaction.
Yeah, knew it. She really wanted someone to play this out with.
"What a fool I was for not realizing you had revived. Please forgive me
for my poor manners!"
"Very well. You saved my life. I will grant whatever wish you have,
just one."
Her life? All I did was give her some food because she was hungry.
"Um…how about an abundance of wealth!"
"Fool! You can see I'm penniless!"
But she said I could ask for anything! No, wait, maybe that was part of
the act. Maybe there was some episode where someone asked the Great
Emperor for money only for her to respond that she had none. "All right then,
please give me half of the world."
"What?! Half of the world, you say?! That's enormous! Still, that's
half-hearted. Why only half?"
"Oh, that's because I don't need the men." Oh crap, accidentally let my
real feelings slip there. That wasn't something she was supposed to hear.
"I see, so that's it. You may be young, but you're a lecherous one. Still,
my apologies. Even I haven't managed to take the world for myself."
True enough, Kishirika had lost every battle for the demons that she
led. "All right, then I'm fine with your body. Please pay me with your body."
"Ohh? My body? For you to be that full of lust at your age gives me
concern for your future."
"Ha ha, of course I'm just jok—"
As I tried to tell her that I was joking, she reached for her hot pants.
"Oh well, I guess there's no help for it. This is my first time since I revived,
so be gentle with me, all right?" Kishirika's cheeks burned bright as she
slowly started to pull her pants down.
Huh? Seriously? I was just saying that as a joke. No, wait! Now it was
too late to tell her that I'd only been joking. I would have to just observe as she revealed herself, and then afterward refuse by claiming that I was
unworthy of Her Majesty.
"Ah, no, I mustn't do this." Before I could do that, Kishirika stopped
herself. "I already have a fiancé. So sorry, but I can't do this." The skin she
had exposed vanished as she pulled her pants up. It felt like she'd been toying
with my poor, pure heart.
Anyway, so it was a no to money, no to the world, and no to her body.
"All right, then what can you do?" I asked.
"Fool! I am Kishirika, Great Emperor of the Demon World! It's
obvious what I can bestow upon you! Demon eyes!"
So that was it. Well, I wasn't well-versed in the heroic mythology of
this world. Come to think of it though, didn't Ghislaine also have a demon
eye?
"By 'demon eyes,' do you mean eyes that can see a person's lifeline?
A line that, if cut, will kill the person with absolute certainty?"
"How horrific! What in the world is that power?! I don't have anything
as terrifying as that!"
So that wasn't it. The only other sort of demon eye I knew of was the
kind that turned the person you looked at to stone. I figured eyes which shot
beams or lasers couldn't be considered demon eyes.
"For you to covet such a dangerous power… Tell me, do you hold that
deep a grudge against someone?" she asked.
"No, not really."
"Nothing good comes of revenge. I've been killed twice, but I don't
begrudge those who killed me now. A grudge is a chain that weighs you
down. That's what started the Great Human-Demon War."
I was getting lectured by a little girl! Oh well, it's not like I had plans
to target some vampire somewhere and slice them up. "To be honest, I don't
really know much about demon eyes," I said. "What types are there?"
"Hm, as I've only recently revived myself, I don't possess any that
significant, but there are Eyes of Magical Power, Eyes of Identification, Eyes
of X-ray Vision, Eyes of Distant Sight, Eyes of Foresight and Eyes of Absorption… Things like that."
Those were just names. "Can you explain to me what each of them
do?"
"Hm? You mean you don't know? Honestly, young people these days
don't spend enough time on their studies…" Despite these complaints, she
proceeded to explain. "First, you have Eyes of Magical Power. With these
you can see mana directly. These are the most common. One in ten thousand
people possess one of these."
"Ah, the most popular then, huh."
"Eyes of Identification. You can use these to identify objects and their
details. However, they can only give you information that I know. Anything I
don't know will come up as unknown."
"I get it. Kind of like a dictionary, then."
She continued. "Eyes of X-ray Vision. These eyes can see straight
through objects like walls. You can't see through living creatures or places
with high mana concentration. But you could have your fill of seeing every
girl naked. Perfect for a pervert like you, no?"
"As long as I'm not just seeing bones," I deadpanned.
"Eyes of Distant Sight. These can see things a great distance away. It's
difficult to focus on things, though. While you can see things far away, you
can't actually do anything to influence what's happening, so I wouldn't
recommend these for you."
"No point in looking if you can't touch," I agreed.
"Eyes of Foresight. These can see things that will happen moments in
advance. These are also difficult to focus, but these I would recommend."
"Businesses that like to stay one step ahead would love something like
that."
"Eyes of Absorption. These eyes can consume mana. This includes
mana that you use, so I don't really recommend them."
"Rinse and repeat, eh?"
Kishirika was very knowledgeable. She must have learned all of this
somewhere. Perhaps her parents were well-educated. Or maybe there was a book about all the types of demon eyes out there.
"All right, then I'll take two so both my eyes can be demon eyes."
"You want two right from the start?" she asked. "You're greedier than
you look."
"Come on, I'll give you another meat skewer."
I held out my last two skewers and she took them with a wide grin.
"Yaay! Nom, nom…. You know, I don't mind giving you two demon eyes,
but I don't recommend it."
"Why not?" I asked.
"You won't want to use them constantly. Most people generally cover
their demon eye with an eyepatch. If you have two demon eyes, you won't be
able to see at all."
"Ahh, now that you mention it, I know someone who uses an
eyepatch." My sword master Ghislaine wore one. I later found out it wasn't
because she had lost an eye, but because she had a demon eye.
"Also, a person who lives several hundred years might be able to
control two demon eyes at once, but a child like you would lose your mind
trying."
Lose my mind? So using them did have an impact on your brain.
Scary. "All right, then let's not do two after all."
"That's for the best. Well, which will it be? I do recommend the
foresight eye."
Demon eyes, huh? If I really were to obtain one, which would I rather
have? I thought hard about each one of them, but they all had their uses. An
eye for magical power seemed like a bit of a waste. It might come in handy,
but then again, quite a few people seemed to have them. If I was going to get
one, I wanted one that felt more unique.
I didn't really need an eye of identification. Not knowing what things
are wasn't such a great inconvenience. Besides, anything the Great Demon
Emperor didn't know would be listed as unknown, anyway. I could imagine
it being useless just when I really needed it.
I didn't really need an Eye of X-ray Vision, either. It would take a while until I could properly control it, and I imagined having to see Ruijerd
naked all that time.
The Eye of Distant Sight might be beneficial, but at the moment I had
no desire for one. I could already guess what Ruijerd and Eris were up to
without an Eye of Distant Sight, but if I had one I would probably see Eris
threatening someone while Ruijerd tried to stop her.
As for the Eye of Foresight, I could certainly see why she
recommended it. It was true that I couldn't beat Eris or Ruijerd in close
combat right now. The creatures (and people) of this world were quick, after
all. Being able to see into the future even for a few seconds would be a huge
advantage to me.
The Eye of Absorption was completely out of the question. That would
just kill the advantages I had as a magician. Still, it was good to know that
such a demon eye existed. Otherwise I would have panicked if I came up
against someone who could render my magic completely ineffective.
Oh well, it didn't matter which one I picked. We were just playing
around, anyway. "All right, give me the one you recommended, the Eye of
Foresight."
"Are you sure? Most people ignore my recommendations and choose
something else for themselves, saying 'what's so great about being able to
see a few moments into the future?'"
"If you can see even one second into the future, you can control the
world." Even so, the swordsmen in this world were quick. I might not be able
to beat them even with the power of foresight. There was the Longsword of
Light, after all.
"Not the Eye of X-ray Vision, hm? No to seeing all the naked girls you
want?"
This little girl sure didn't get it, did she? Sure, I could see the naked
body of any beautiful girl or woman who walked by on the street and it
would probably turn me on. But that was it. I would get fed up with that
quickly. The process of imagining them undressing was what I enjoyed,
anyway. You couldn't enjoy the way a shirt outlined those stiff protrusions
on a girl's breasts if she wasn't wearing any clothes to begin with, right?
"I see, I see. All right, bring your face over here."
"All right."
"Here goes!" Squelch. She jammed her finger into my right eye.
A sharp jolt of pain shot through me. "Gyaaah!"
Instinctively I tried to retreat, but Kishirika caught hold of me. I
couldn't move. She was stronger than I expected.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, my brain screamed. "Gaaaah! Wh-what the
hell are you doing, you brat?!"
"Oh shut up. You're a man, aren't you? Bear with the pain a little!"
She ground her fingers around in my eye socket as if she were tinkering with
it, then pulled them out with a pop! I was left completely blind in that eye.
"The iris of the Eye of Foresight is a bit different than your normal
color, but people won't be able to tell the difference from afar."
"You absolute moron! There's a difference between what is and what
is not okay to do when you're playing around!"
"I'm the Demon World's Great Emperor. I wouldn't 'play around'
about giving you a demon eye."
Dammit, my eye… My eye is… Aaaaaaah—wait, what? I paused in
confusion. I could see. Everything looked like it was doubled, though…?
What the heck was going on? It was nauseating.
"Depending on how you supply mana to it, you should be able to make
it as thin as possible. Well, do your best to learn how to use it."
"Huh? What? What are you talking about?"
"I'm saying it all depends on you." Kishirika seemed pleased with
herself, no matter how confused her words left me. I saw an afterimage of her
nodding, and within that afterimage was a thick shadow. What was it?
"Very good—so you can see it after all. Well then, I'll be on my way. I
need to search out Badigadi. Much appreciation for the food."
Once she finished talking, she leaped through the air and landed on the
roof above with a thud. "Fare thee well, Rudeus! Bwahahaha! Bwahahahah—
gah!"
There was a doppler effect as she left, the sound of her high laughter
gradually fading. I listened to it in blank amazement.
"Wait… She was the real thing?"
And that was how I obtained the Eye of Foresight.