A long time later, footsteps echoed from deep within the hallway.
Lonia leaned against the window frame in the hallway, her crimson slit pupils gazing toward the direction of the footsteps.
The blue glow of the phosphorescent flames illuminated the end of the hallway as a slender silhouette emerged from the corner.
Her crimson eyes, which had been somewhat lifeless and looked exhausted from overwork, lit up the instant she saw Lonia.
It was the kind of light that would appear in the eyes of a drowning person when they saw a hand reaching out from the shore.
“...Nia!”
“You're back quite late.”
Lonia straightened up from the window frame, crossed her arms over her chest, and swept her gaze up and down Rafina.
She looked from her increasingly beautiful silver hair down to the emblem on her chest symbolizing the Acting Demon King, and from the emblem to the tail wagging non-stop behind her.
“Let's go, keep me company.”
Lonia grabbed Rafina's wrist and dragged her toward her guest room.
“Wait a second, Nia. I still need to go back to my room to get...”
“Get what? Documents? Are those things more important than me? Get them tomorrow.”
Rafina shut her mouth, letting Lonia drag her into her guest room.
Lonia kicked the door shut with her foot. The door slammed closed with a bang, shutting out the cold wind of the hallway.
“Why are you kicking it again, Nia? You could easily break the door like that...”
“...Making a bit of noise makes me feel more secure.”
“Oh, I see.”
The phosphorescent flames in the guest room were warmer than those in the hallway. The orange light fell over the two of them, washing away most of the cold blue chill.
“Sit.”
Lonia sat down next to Rafina.
“How long did your meeting go today?”
“Twelve hours.”
“That long? You've been in a meeting since this afternoon?”
“Yes. A new issue arose regarding the mineral vein allocation between the Flame Demon Court and the Scavenger Court. Fema's father insisted on recalculating the previous output data...”
“Fine. I don't want to hear it.”
Lonia reached out and pinched Rafina's tail between her index and middle fingers.
“You've lost weight.”
“Ah, have I?”
“Your collarbones are sticking out so much you could hang clothes on them.”
“Well... that's probably because the collar of the robe is too wide?”
“Either way, you've lost weight.”
“If you put it that way, I suppose I really have gotten a bit thinner.”
The two of them fell silent for a moment.
“...Nia.”
“Yeah.”
“You waited in my room for a long time, didn't you?”
“...No, I just got there.”
“You waited for at least four hours. I cast a newly learned spell on the lamp in the room; it brightens slightly if it detects someone entering.”
The corner of Lonia's mouth twitched downward by a millimeter.
“And you still made me wait.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Don't apologize. Apologies are useless. Compensate me with action.”
“...What kind of action?”
“Tell me a story.”
Rafina's eyelashes fluttered.
“What story?”
“Whatever. Didn't you write something? That notebook on the desk.”
Lonia's tone was as casual as if she were talking about the weather.
Rafina fell silent for a moment.
“...You read it?”
“I took a glance. Didn't look closely. I just saw something about a giant robot or whatever.”
“...”
“What, I'm not allowed to look?”
“No. It's just... I haven't finished writing it yet.”
“It's fine if it's unfinished. Just tell me what you have.”
Rafina was silent for another moment, then she spoke.
“...Once upon a time, there was a blue slime.”
“Mhm.”
“It lived in a cave at the edge of a forest. Its daily life consisted of rolling around and eating the fruit that fell to the ground.”
“Sounds pretty nice.”
“One day, a little black bat flew in through the cave entrance. The bat was very small, with a wound on its wing. Unable to fly any further, it tumbled onto the slime.”
Lonia's fingers tightened slightly around the tip of Rafina's tail.
“The slime didn't know what a bat was. It had never seen a creature from outside the cave. But the bat was very warm, and when it huddled against the slime, the slime experienced warmth for the first time.”
“...And then?”
“After the bat's wound healed, it didn't fly away. It flew out of the cave every day and returned at night, bringing with it the scents of the outside world. The scent of soil, flowers, rain, and the sun. Sniffing those scents, the slime began to imagine what it was like outside the cave.”
Rafina's voice was very soft, almost like she was talking to herself. Her breath fell against Lonia's collarbone in rhythmic puffs, the warm drafts dispersing across her skin before being stolen away by the chill of the winter night.
“What happened next?”
“Later, the slime decided to go out and see the world with the bat. It rolled out of the cave and saw the sky for the first time.”
“What color was the sky?”
“Blue. The exact same blue as itself.”
Lonia's mouth curved upward slightly.
“...That's a nice ending.”
“It's not over yet.”
“Mhm.”
“They traveled a long way together. They met many things: a quick-tempered lizard, a sloth that loved to smoke, and a pair of goat sisters with completely opposite personalities. Both the slime and the bat were very happy, but everywhere they went, the slime would grow a little larger. This was because it was absorbing moisture and nutrients along the way.”
“Growing larger is a good thing, right?”
“It is a good thing. But the bat didn't change. The bat was still just as small, its wings still just as narrow. As the slime grew larger and larger, the space the bat occupied when huddling on it became smaller and smaller.”
Lonia's fingers stilled.
“...And the slime encountered some bad things. They wanted to hurt the slime, and in doing so, they hurt the bat resting on it. ...Eventually, the bat returned to the cave to wait for the slime's return. That's about as far as I've written.”
Rafina's voice sounded muffled.
“After the bat left, I didn't want to write any further.”
Lonia unconsciously clenched her hand.
“Why not just let the bat grow larger too?”
“...In the slime's world, bats don't grow larger.”
“Then let the slime shrink and go back to deal with simple things.”
“...If the slime shrinks, it will die.”
“Then...”
Lonia closed her mouth.
A slime wouldn't die from shrinking.
The guest room remained silent for a long time.
Lonia placed her hand on the back of Rafina's head. Her fingertips slid into the silver-white hair, her fingers gently stroking down the grain of her hair against her scalp.
“...Go to sleep.”
“Mhm...”
“Fina, I'll be here tomorrow too.”
Rafina's breathing settled into a slow, even rhythm. Her spade-tipped tail slipped from Lonia's palm, hanging limply over the edge of the bed, its tip touching the floor, motionless.
Lonia helped her lie down, pulling the blanket up to her shoulders. Her long silver-white hair spread across the pillow, her eyes closed, her eyelashes casting a small shadow over her face.
A seventeen-year-old face.
When she was asleep, all the composure, meticulousness, and flawless poise belonging to the Acting Demon King faded away.
Lonia sat on the edge of the bed for a while.
Then she stood up, opened the door, stepped into the hallway, and gently closed it behind her.
The click of the door closing echoed in the hallway for a second before vanishing.
Her footsteps faded down the hallway, growing lighter and more distant, until they were finally swallowed by the black stone walls.
In the guest room, Rafina's breathing remained steady.
About thirty seconds after the door closed, a minute distortion rippled through the air in the corner of the room, like a crumpled piece of cloth slowly unfolding.
Someone stepped out from the shadows.
He wore an old robe, his dark purple hair loosely tied back.
His face was pale, his lips bloodless, and the deep purple of his eyes carried a fatigue so heavy it had almost solidified.
The Demon King stood by the bedside, looking down at Rafina tucked under the blanket.
Rafina opened her eyes.
Under the orange glow of the phosphorescent flames, her eyes were so alert she didn't look like someone who had just been fast asleep.
She didn't sit up, only turning her head to look at the Demon King standing by the bed.
“...You shouldn't have left the sanatorium room.”
“And you shouldn't have pretended to sleep in front of her.”
Rafina's eyelashes fluttered.
The Demon King sat down on the chair by the bed.
“You didn't ask her why she lied in the first place.”
“She was just being petulant, blaming me for making her wait too long.”
“No, she has already seen it.”
“...”
Rafina didn't ask what Lonia had seen.
She sat up from beneath the blanket, her silver-white hair sliding off her shoulders and scattering over the covers.
“Rafina, she will tell her sister.”
Rafina clenched her fingers.
“Nia wouldn't.”
The Demon King's deep purple eyes stared at her.
“She won't today. But what about the future? You can't gamble on things like this.”
“Nia wouldn't...”
“Rafina Thun.”
He never called her by her full name—unless he was speaking of something truly important.
“You are to become the ruler of the demons.”
Rafina's eyelashes drooped.
“You must sacrifice something.”
“...”
“You've known her for over a decade. You are her best friend. But that is her sister. They grew up together. They are family. And what vampires value most is family ties. Blood ties cannot be severed. What lies between you and her—whether you call it friendship, a bond, or anything else—will always come second to family in the eyes of a vampire. She chose not to speak today because she hasn't been pushed to the point of having to choose yet. But once your proposal begins to take effect, Eliza will definitely notice. When that time comes, Lonia will be caught in the middle.”
“I know...”
“The proposal mentioned protecting her. I've read it.”
The corner of the Demon King's mouth twitched.
“But you cannot protect her stance. You can guarantee her safety, and you can ensure her interests are not harmed, but you cannot guarantee she won't have to choose between you and Eliza. And once she is forced to choose...”
“Are you saying Nia will choose her sister?”
Rafina's voice was very soft, like the rustling of turning pages.
“Not necessarily. But you cannot gamble on it.”
“This isn't a gamble.”
Rafina said resolutely.
“She will choose me.”
“Are you really that certain?”
“Teacher, even if you were to betray me, she would absolutely never betray me.”
“Saying that hurts my feelings a bit, you know. Fine, then let's make a hypothesis. What if—”
The Demon King sighed, speaking helplessly:
“—I'm just saying 'what if.' If she doesn't choose you, what will you do then?”
“...”
She was trembling.
Tears welled up in her eyes, her knuckles turned white from clenching her hands, and she bit down on her lip hard enough to leave a deep mark.
“Then I will... end it all with my own hands. Whether it is the feelings built over more than ten years, the covenant signed since childhood, or all the unspoken words held in my heart... All of it... will be ended by me.”
“Heh.”
The Demon King stood up from the chair. His movements were slow, his knees buckling unsteadily, and he had to prop his hand on the armrest to stand straight. The hem of his old robe dragged across the floor, the dust clinging to it resembling a thin layer of frost under the phosphorescent light.
“You will regret it, but this is also the path one must take to become King. I have regretted things more times than I can count, so I know you will too. —You will be more outstanding than any previous generation of Demon Kings. And because of that, you will be more pained and full of regret than any of them. Wait for tomorrow to arrive. Rafina, time will prove everything.”
The Demon King walked to the door and opened it. The cold wind of the hallway poured in through the gap, fluttering the hem of his old robe and his loose hair.
He didn't look back.
“At tomorrow's Ten Courts Joint Conference, the Vampire Court will submit their fourth proposal. This time, Eliza won't be gentle about it.”
The door closed.
Footsteps faded down the hallway, the interval between each step even longer than when Rafina had returned.
Silence returned to the guest room.
Rafina stood up,
and walked over to the desk beside the bed.
Her fingertips rested on the cover of the notebook, then slid off to touch the adjacent 《Slime Adventures》. The blue slime's round eyes stared up at the ceiling under the phosphorescent flames, its expression innocent.
She opened the notebook and flipped toward the back.
“As the slime grew larger and larger, the space the bat occupied when huddling on it became smaller and smaller.”
Rafina's finger stopped on this line of text.
Lonia had said: Why not just let the bat grow larger too?
In the slime's world, bats don't grow larger.
Lonia had said: Then let the slime shrink.
In the slime's world, if it shrinks, it will die.
Lonia hadn't spoken of the third option.
But Rafina knew what the third option was.
To let the bat leave entirely.
Because this was the slime's story.
The bat could have a lot of scenes, could be liked by the slime, and could be relied upon by the slime. But in the end, the bat would eventually be left far behind by the slime.
The protagonist of this story wasn't her, but Lonia.
...It could only be her.
She closed the notebook.
For the Rafina of the past, Lonia was the only one in her world.
She would make willful demands despite knowing the Demon King's difficulties, and she would constantly squeeze out her own time just to see Lonia.
But they had grown up.
The dream that had once been born for Lonia was now no longer something that existed solely for Lonia's sake.
“...”
But she didn't want to end it yet.
Just like a dream she was unwilling to wake up from.
Outside the window was the eternal dark sky of Abyss City. There were no stars, no moon, only the dull red glimmer of the Demon King's emblem atop the central spire of Gloom Castle in the distance, like a half-closed eye silently watching everything in the dark.
There was still 1 year before Rafina would become the Demon King.
There was still 1 year before Lonia would become the Hero.
There was still 1 day before the two would fall out.
————There were still -- days before Rafina would become --.
Rate on N.U.
