CH 1

It was a totally plain door, despite being right in the heart of Roland’s imperial capital of Reylude’s royal castle. It was also supposed to be the door to the king’s office, which just made it weirder.

Ryner Lute knocked loudly. “Sion, you in there?” He asked, though his voice lacked enthusiasm.

He waited there for a moment, standing without any motivation at all. His black hair was in the midst of a thousand year long bedhead. His eyes were the same dark color, and they currently stared at the door he’d just knocked on.

“Heey,” he said. “C’mon, rise and shine. It’s morniiiing.”

No answer.

Ryner knocked again. “Come on, you stupid king! Your beloved Ryner’s returned to the country after a whole monnnth. Come see himmm.”

Yeah, no answer.

“…Hey, Ferris. Looks like he’s not here?”

Ferris stood beside him, a cold atmosphere surrounding her. It was probably because of her emotionlessness. She had shiny blonde hair, blue eyes, and although her face was so beautiful, it entirely lacked amiability. She had a sword bigger than her arms strapped to her waist.

Ferris took a step forward, balled her hand into a fist, then punched the door as a knock. “Sion! What are you dawdling for!?  Hurry up and get the door and greet us! Roland’s true king has returned!”

“True king…?” Ryner repeated. He looked around to confirm that he and Ferris were the only ones there. They were. Who was the ‘true king’ supposed to be then? Ryner tilted his head. “Who’re you talking about? You can’t mean yourself, right?”

She shook her head furiously, instantly flustered. “D-d-don’t be stupid! How discourteous! I rule the whole world by divine right! You can’t begin to compareeeee!!” Ferris shouted, full of energy, just like she was an actor on stage.

Ryner was gloomy in comparison. “The hell’s with you… well, whatever. I guess it does feel good to shout sometimes. So, um, who’s the divine ruler of Roland, then? Pretty flashy name. You don’t mean me—”

“Of course not! There’s no way that you two could ever comparee!”

Ryner couldn’t help but flinch at the sound of her yelling. “R, really now… so what’s got you so energetic today?”

Ferris turned her pretty face to him to glare. “There’s no way you could compare to a king, now is there? You hardly work, do nothing but nap day in and day out, and have that attitude that you’ll ‘totally cause other people trouble if you go with them’ and—”

“Wait! I never said that!” Ryner argued.

That didn’t stop Ferris. “Then you clung to me, sobbing, saying ‘Is it really okay… if I live?’ and such, and—”

“Uwawawa, you’re seriously going there!? I, uh, I guess I did say that, but—”

“As you can see, you’re a weakling. You’re a billion years too early to compare yourself to the king!”

“…Uuuh…”

Ryner couldn’t argue anymore. A billion years? What kind of measurement was that!? And who the hell was the king even supposed to be? He didn’t even have the power to voice those objections…

He’d really said that line to Ferris back in Nelpha. When he thought about it now, he felt like he’d die of embarrassment. He’d even been crying. He knew in the moment he said it back then that his life was over. He’d given her enough fuel to ridicule him for the rest of his life. This was going to happen every single day now.

She didn’t ridicule him like this at the time. Instead, she said that she’d be lonely if he died. That was it. And that was all he needed. Those words saved him. They made him feel like he could face the future again.

And yet. And yet!

“‘…Is it really… okay if I live…?’” Ferris repeated.

“Uwaaaahhh pleeeeaaaassseee just stooop!! I can’t take anymore! I’ll run away from home! No, I’ll kill myself!”

Ryner tried to run, but Ferris grabbed him by the collar. “Heheheh. You fool. Do you think you’ll always be able to run away from me that easily? I will shame you for this for the rest of your life. Eeeveryoneee, this here man—”

“Gyaaahhhh a demon’s got meeee!!”

And so the two caused a scene right in front of the king’s office.

On the other end of the hall, some guards started talking. “Hey, do you hear something?”

“It sounds like it’s coming from the king’s office.”

“Think it’s an intruder!?”

Ryner and Ferris exchanged a look.

“Wh-what should we do?”

“Mm. I’d like to share the details of this embarrassing story with those two as w—”

“Rejected! Ugh, I’m just gonna go in,” Ryner said and pulled a wire from his pocket, then stuck it through the lock. It clicked in seconds, unlocking the door. They entered, then quickly shut it.

“Hm!? There’s no one here!”

“Don’t you think they might’ve gone inside already?”

“No, that’s impossible. I heard that the lock on this door is special. They probably just ran off somewhere else.”

“Alright, let’s search for them!”

And so they left.

“‘Heheheh. No matter the lock, getting inside is a piece of cake for me, the master panties thief Ryner Lute!’ Or something, right?” Ferris said.

“Or something…?” Ryner repeated, tired. Then he looked down at the lock. “So this thing’s special, huh? Any good thief could pick that… The king’s security isn’t actually that secure. Is Sion okay living like this…?”

“Mm. Well, my brother’s with him,” Ferris said. She sounded bored.

“Ah… okay.”

Right. The head of the Eris family was supposed to guard the king. They were a mysterious family of nobles said to guard the king generation after generation. They were all oddly strong. Ferris was a part of that family, too. Ryner glanced at the sword she kept at her waist. She could swing it way faster than anyone could ever expect, and always used that skill to whack Ryner over the head with it… She was even faster than Ryner when he was accelerated via magic.

It was stupid.

How strict was their training? How many died for it to make a young and thin girl like Ferris as strong as she was? Just imagining it felt horrible.

The guy who guarded the king had power even more monstrous than Ferris’. His name was Lucile Eris. He was the head of the Eris family and Ferris’ older brother, and Ferris was right - as long as he was here, it didn’t matter who broke in. No one would be able to harm the king.

Ryner grimaced against his will when he recalled his encounter with Lucile, the man who dragged him down into despair with a vague smile. He was too strong to be considered human. Too overwhelming. No…

“……”

He couldn’t even think of calling something like that human. Lucile had disappeared in the instant that he smiled. He didn’t erase his presence or move to fast to be seen or anything. He had literally disappeared, then reappeared to strangle Ryner and try to murder him. That wasn’t… something that a human could do. Ferris’ brother was not human.

So what was he?

Ryner thought back to what Lucile said while he strangled him.

“Ferris isn’t a monster, right? Ha, haha. Right. That’s right. Do you think I don’t know that? Ferris is different. A curse doesn’t run through her blood. She’s different from me… and from you…”

Cursed blood.

Ryner hadn’t thought too hard about it back when Lucile said it. Because they were words that he was so intimately used to hearing. Cursed blood, demon child, murderous Alpha Stigma bearer. Right. He was cursed. So? He already knew that. People had already told him plenty of times.

Lucile hadn’t stopped there, though.

“So don’t get the wrong idea. She doesn’t need you. She’s already freed of her cursed blood. Freed from mine. Freed from yours. So you can’t put it in her. I won’t allow it.”

What did he mean?

Ryner understood the part where he was cursed. He was an Alpha Stigma bearer, so he was a monster. And he could understand that Lucile was cursed too. It was impossible for someone to be that much of a monster without having some kind of secret. But what did he mean when he said that Ferris had already been freed of her cursed blood? Had Ferris also been cursed at some point?

“……”

Ryner looked at Ferris. She was ridiculously beautiful, just like always. More than a human could be, sure, to the point where it’d be hard to argue if she said she had fairy or goddess blood or something… but it didn’t sound like it was something fun like that.

Ryner was cursed. Lucile was also cursed. But Ferris had been released? What did it mean? Did Ferris and Lucile both have a curse like the Alpha Stigma, and then Ferris alone was released from it…?

Ryner crossed his arms in thought. “Hmmmm…”

He quirked an eyebrow to widen his right eye. A scarlet pentagram shone in the center of it. His eyes caused him to go berserk and kill the people he loved. They were cursed. He was cursed….

“……”

According to Lucile, Ferris had been freed from her curse. Didn’t that mean that there was a way for him to be freed from his curse too? No, that was too optimistic. But Lucile probably knew something about it, judging by how he’d been talking. At the very least he knew more than Ryner did. “So… what does it mean?” Ryner whispered.

The dojo that he met Lucile in had been odd, too. Nothingness had spread before him. It was like that place was isolated from reality itself, settling instead inside a deep darkness… a deep nothingness. But only Ryner’s eyes could see it. Ferris couldn’t, Iris couldn’t, and the Eris butler couldn’t.

Arua couldn’t, either. What was the difference between their eyes?

“……”

Ryner had wondered about it time and time again. It was the number one thing that he earnestly wanted to learn. And yet… he allowed Lucile’s words to torment him and lead him astray.

“What kind of impossible dreams do you ugly monsters have?”

Lucile said his dreams were impossible.

“You should already know. Monsters’ hands are already covered in blood. They can’t grasp anything… and they can’t make it anywhere.”

Right. That was right. His hands couldn’t reach anything. But his heart was always screaming at him anyway. It said that he was tired of being alone. It wanted someone to touch him. It wanted someone to be here with him. It wanted someone to smile at him… it was always, always screaming that inside his chest… but he ran away.

He ran away without even trying.

“…Ugh, why’d I ever leave Roland?” Ryner wondered out loud. “There’s all sorts of things I can only do here…”

Ryner held his head in his hands.

Of course Ferris couldn’t let him do that quietly. “‘Is it really okay… if I live?’”

“Gyaaaahhhh please just stooooppp!!”

“Oh? What’s wrong? Are you struggling because you’re going through puberty? Confide in your big sister.”

“P-puberty…? Aren’t you bullying me a little too much?” Ryner asked.

“Heheheh.”

“…Um, are you really mad? Because I ran away?”

“Mm. Naturally. My slave left without my permission, and didn’t even tell me where he went. Now your master is angry with you.”

Ryner smiled a little meanly. “I see. So that’s it. You got super lonely without m—”

Ferris unsheathed her sword with incredible speed, then slammed the blunt end to the back of Ryner’s head.

“Gyaaaaahhh!”

The impact slammed Ryner into a bookshelf. Numerous thick books fell down onto him.

“Whoa, I could’ve - whoa! I could have died! Hey!” Ryner sputtered as he rather skillfully caught the books before they could hit him - two in his left hand, and three in his right. But four still hit his head. “Gyagh!?”

And so Ryner still ended up on the floor.

“D, don’t die, Ryneeeerrr!!”

“Don’t say that so cheerfully!” Ryner yelled as he struggled to stand despite the thick books covering him. He rubbed the back of his head. “Uuh, it’s all swollen… what would you have done if I actually died from that…? Ugh, whatever. I should be used to this.”

With that, Ryner glanced around the room. It was the same plain office as it was the last time he was here. It was way more snug than one would expect a king to use. It had a bookshelf with tediously thick books and a wooden desk and chair. The desk was covered with stacks of papers. That was the whole room. There was another little room attached to it, a closet-sized place with nothing but a bed to sleep in. It was all no-frills, the kind of place someone poor might live in. Not the place the king of their whole country would live in.

But that was just the kind of man Sion Astal was.

He cared more about the country than anyone else, had more self-control than anyone else, and worked more than anyone else. He worked like mad for the people and for his subordinates. He was stupid. A stupid workaholic. All he ever said was ‘get to work!’ and worked them like slaves and Ryner swore he’d kill him once he was back in Roland!

“……”

Ryner looked over at the papers covering Sion’s desk.

“…Geez, has that idiot been getting enough sleep?”

Ferris looked over at the desk, too. “Hm. You two are both masochists. He must be getting off on the pain this causes him.”

“…Setting Sion aside, I’m not a masochist. I don’t like getting hit and actually wish you wouldn’t do that.”

“…Say so all you want. I know how this will end. ‘What’s happened to me…? Could I be a pervert?’”

“Whoa whoa whoa, what kind of story are you turning this into!?”

Ferris ignored him. “It doesn’t matter how you look at it. You’re definitely a pervert. You could search the whole world and never find someone as depraved as you are. That’s why you, through tears, asked me - ‘Is it really okay… if I live?’”

“Wait, you’re going back to that? Seriously?”

“Mm. It’s only natural. After all, I haven’t told Sion all the details about how much you cried—”

“You don’t have to tell him that!! Er, um, please, just keep that part as a secret? Between the two of us?”

“Hm? A secret between the two of us?” Ferris repeated.

“Y, yeah. Can you do that?”

From Ryner’s perspective, Ferris looked happy. “Heheh. You can buy my silence, but it won’t be cheap.”

“Ahh… I knew that was coming…”

“Mm. That’ll make negotiations much smoother. I am not a demon. My price the cost of just one hundred million boxes of dango.”

“Dango’s how you measure cost? Well, whatever… but how much even is that? Think my savings will cover it?”

Ferris made a face that said ‘you better start worrying.’ “If you use your life’s savings and sell two of your organs, that should cover it—”

“That’s scary!”

Ferris looked rather pleased with how well her bullying was going.

All Ryner could do was smile bitterly. “You can be a real pain in the ass.”

“Hm. Shall I harvest two of your organs for wholesale right this moment?”

Ryner watched Ferris raise her sword. His eyes narrowed, but he made no other move. “No, but… I’m really…”

The truth was that he was more grateful to her than he could say. One hundred million boxes of dango wouldn’t even pay off his debt of gratitude. She told him what he had needed to hear even though his life was worthless and brought him back here.

And then they made a promise, despite how selfish Ryner was for wanting it.

“…I want you to kill me. Kill me the next time I go berserk. Don’t hesitate like last time…”

Ferris wouldn’t get anything in return. It would only cause trouble for her.

But she promised.

“…If you come home.”

Even though he put so much effort into running away. Even though he’d betrayed her to run off. She still reached a hand out to him.

“……”

So…

“Why?”

Ferris tilted her head in confusion at his sudden question.

Ryner shrugged. “I mean, uh… it’s nothing. I’m just kinda sleepy…:

Ryner faked a yawn as proof. He always escaped hard conversations like that, so it came pretty naturally. He faked a lack of motivation, sleepiness, and pretended like the world had nothing to do with him. He ran from it all. He told himself that he was apathetic. That the world could end for all he cared.

But that wasn’t true. Being hurt was painful. Being alone was loney. But he still told himself that he didn’t have anything to do with anything because it was easier that way. He told himself that time and time again, as if repeating enough would make it the truth and stop his pain so he could feel the apathy he pretended to have.

“……”

That didn’t happen. And he didn’t realize that until he saw how the other Cursed Eyes lived with their backs turned to humanity. The face Tiir made when he thought of how much he hated humans, and the face Lafra made when he said that he was lonely and wanted to be saved through a smile, Sion’s pained expression when Ryner continued to run away, and Ferris’ face when she chased after him.

“I’d get lonely if you died…”

He finally realized it when she said that to him.

He did want to live. He was tired of being lonely. He wanted to smile with someone, protect the people who mean everything to him, and do his best. Like Lafra did.

He wanted to have a heart as strong as Lafra’s. He had asked for Ryner to save the Cursed Eyes until his dying breath.

“We Cursed Eye bearers who have fallen into despair at the hands of humans, who live our lives in sadness… we all want you to save us.”

Even though Ryner was a wimp who ran away from everything painful and couldn’t even save the Cursed Eye bearing children who were murdered before his eyes.

Lafra had looked relieved in the moment of his death.

“I’m glad I made it. Because I’m sure you’ll keep our promise…”

And so he died, entrusting everything to a weakling like Ryner. He never even agreed to anything.

“…Coward,” Ryner mumbled, scrunching up his nose.

“What!?”

“No, um, I didn’t mean you…”

“Then who did you mean?” Ferris asked.

Ryner almost laughed. Who was a coward, well, he knew the answer to that one! “Me!”

“Ohh! You’ve become self-aware! Yes, you’re a coward of a man who knocks women up and then gambles away their child support—”

And so on and so on. Ryner was tired of arguing with her incomprehensible claims and stories, so he just ignored it.

Still, though. He was a coward. He was the world’s biggest coward, always running from stuff the second he didn’t wanna deal with it. But he couldn’t escape from the memory of Lafra’s smile.

“You’re kind, so I’m sure you’ll keep our promise.”

Though he couldn’t help but complain, saying it’s a pain and that he wanted a break…

“Even though you really do want to be useful to others.”

All he did was sleep and wish that he was dead. Because everything was a pain. Because he was tired. He wanted to die so he’d stop troubling others.

“But you can’t do that.”

He could.

“You can’t. Because—”

He thought of Ferris, on the verge of tears.

“Idiot. I’d get lonely if you died…”

That again? Ryner wondered.

But really, it was all he needed. That was the only reason he needed to live.

He couldn’t die because Ferris would get lonely. She’d make that sad face.

So… he figured living was worth another try.

“…Not that dying would’ve been any easier,” Ryner whispered to himself.

Since Lafra went and pushed something unreasonable on him and then died, that made it a death wish, so now he had to do it. There was a mountain of stuff he had to think about.

“Man, what a pain… where do I even start?”

There were all sorts of things he had to do.

He had to save the Cursed Eyes, who despaired because of humans. That meant that he had to stand up against the Gastark Empire… and they were already targeting them. If he let the problem sit, then Gastark would murderer all the Cursed Eye bearers.

“It’s not like I can fight a whole country by myself, though…”

Basically, he needed to get Sion’s cooperation. People could fight people, but countries had to be fought by other countries.

He had a little list in his head of the things to do here.

Step 1: Win Sion over and get him involved somehow.

Step 2: Get Roland the power to fight Gastark.

Step 3: Protect the Cursed Eye bearers that were in the Central Continent by bringing them into Roland.

Step 4: Just bringing them to Roland should solve the issue. Sion’s sense of duty was way too strong for him to bring them in just to let them die.

Step 5: Live a relaxed, nap-filled life.

“Flawless strategy here.”

“Mm? Flawless strategy? Another strategy for kidnapping women?”

Ryner shook his head. “Nah. It’s a fun plan where I use Sion for my benefit.”

“Nngh!? What a wonderful plan it must be!”

“Right? You want in on it?”

“Yes! Please let me participate in your plan to use Sion and get have all-you-can-eat dango every day, Professor Ryner.”

“Man, you sure are fast to change my plan’s name… well, whatever…”

“So how do we start?” Ferris asked.

Ryner crossed his arms, then thought back to his Things You Gotta Do list.

He had to win Sion over and get him involved somehow.

“Hmm… This’d be a lot easier if we knew his weakness and took advantage of it… Any ideas?”

“Mm? Weakness, is it… I already take advantage of your weakness though,” Ferris said.

“I can’t help my weaknesses being taken advantage of,” Ryner said.

“‘Is it really okay… if I live…?’”

“Auugh, give that a rest already!”

Ferris nodded, satisfied. “Heheheh. So we need to find his weakness.”

Ryner glared. “Seriously, if you keep bullying me, then I’ve heard you say some embarrassing shit too! I’ll expose it! You said to me, on the verge of tears, ‘Idiot… I’d get lonely if you die—’ gyaaaahhhhhh!!!”

This time he died. That’s what he really thought.

He’d been sent flying, then rolled into the desk and chair and flipped them both over, and his life flashed before his eyes. But he remained concious.

“M, my whole body hurts… augh… I won’t say it again, so please don’t kill me…”

Ferris was bright red. “Y-y-you won’t get another chance.”

“Whoa, are you actually embar—gyaaahh!!”

His life flashed before his eyes… etcetera.

“S-seriously, I won’t say it again. So please put your sword away—”

“Y-y-you won’t get another chance.”

“Y, yes, ma’am. I don’t want to die, so, um, I take it back. Umm, anyway, uh, we were talking about Sion’s weakness…”

“R-right. So?”

Ryner looked around the room. It had been nice and organized when he and Ferris came in, but since then, it’d become a real mess. “How about we search this place? There might be something embarrassing hiding in here.”

“Hm. Like what?”

“Huh? Uh… I dunno. Porn?”

Ferris hit her palm with her fist in sudden understanding. “Ooh! I see! He plays the part of a pleasant young man and hero king, but on the inside he’s a pervert of your caliber!”

“…I hate being used as the lowest benchmark for this stuff, but… whatever…”

How many times has he said ‘whatever’ about this stuff by now?

“Anyway, let’s look for that kind of thing,” Ryner said.

“Let’s do it!”

Ferris immediately got to searching. She was really fast when she wanted to be, and she dug through the books carefully, then tossed the irrelevant ones aside, making the state of the room even worse. It looked like a burglar had come in… but he had something more important to worry about: his and Sion’s relationship. Taking advantage of weaknesses.

Things weren’t simple.

Sion had ordered Luke Stokkart to kill him.

“……”

It wasn’t betrayal or anything. Sion had just done what he felt was best.

And so he wrote that order—

Should the Alpha Stigma bearer Ryner Lute go berserk outside of Roland or show signs of betraying Roland, exterminate him.

“…Exterminate, huh,” Ryner whispered from his place buried under papers. He didn’t know how that order ended up in his hands. Maybe a noble who hated Sion sent it his way, or some kind of influential group…

“……”

Ryner shook his head.

No.

He recalled Sion’s face from back when they parted. He’d been suffering.

“…You’re wrong.”

That’s what Sion said.

Then Ryner betrayed him and let Tiir lead him away, despite how frantically Sion tried to stop him.

Just one look at Sion’s face then had been enough. That’s why it was okay even if Sion had ordered for Ryner to be exterminated. Sion was king of a whole country. He had a duty to protect his people first and foremost. So Ryner didn’t mind at all. The important part was what Sion thought of it all - how did he feel when he gave that order? When he realized that Ryner knew about it? And… what did he think of Ryner betraying Roland back then? Would Sion let him come back to be his ally again?

“……”

He had to. Ryner couldn’t protect the Cursed Eyes from Gastark without him. He had to let the Cursed Eye bearers come into Roland and protect them. But… what did Sion think about the other Cursed Eyes? The ones who weren’t Ryner?

Ryner recalled what Sion had yelled at Tiir.

“Don’t fuck with me! Ryner’s… Ryner’s different from you! He’s not a—”

He hadn’t finished his sentence, but… he didn’t need to. Because Ryner already knew how it’d finish. He was going to say ‘monster.’ A ‘murdering monster.’ A monster who would cause calamity to befall all who were near. A monster who was better off dead. Everyone would feel safer if they were dead.

He knew that Sion had to do what was best for the country. He had to prevent as many people from dying as possible. The people believed that their hero king, Sion Astal, would do everything he could to protect them as soon as he could.

“Even so…”

Even so, he needed Sion to accept the Cursed Eye bearers. He knew that taking them in would be dangerous. But he needed him to do it.

“That’s our biggest problem…”

How could he get Sion to let the Cursed Eyes into Roland, despite the danger they’d pose to Roland’s people?

“I gotta persuade him,” Ryner said to himself and got to thinking.

Actually, just persuading Sion wouldn’t be enough. It wouldn’t mean anything unless Roland’s people… no, the people of the whole world accepted the Cursed Eyes. They’d never get anywhere if everyone thought of them as monsters they’d better kill off rather than something they could coexist with, as two seperate kinds of ‘people.’

“Hmmmmmm.”

Ryner made a face as he considered it. This was gonna be tough. The discrimination, persecution, and contempt he’d endured until now… and the way people looked at him - a mix of hatred and fear… the way they screamed that monsters ought to be killed.

Cursed Eyes were abandoned in the dark to scream about how they wanted to die. Since humans made them feel that way… they eventually began to curse humans.

Ryner thought of what Tiir had said to Sion.

“You guys can’t understand how dark our hearts have gotten after being betrayed countless times by humans. Right, Ryner?”

Then the words Sion had said.

“Don’t fuck with me! Ryner’s… Ryner’s different from you! He’s not a—”

Their viewpoints were wholly incompatible. How could they meet halfway?

Sion worried about others to the point that it was stupid, and even he had said something horribly discriminatory about Cursed Eyes. What about other people, who were less considerate?

…He didn’t have to imagine that one…

“Augh, I’m getting a headache here… Lafra really saddled me with a real pain of a mission here…”

Ryner held his head in his hands.

What about himself? What could he do to make people accept him? How could he make someone declare that he wasn’t a monster, wasn’t dangerous, and could coexist with humans?

“…There’s no way… Even Ferris made that promise with me…”

Ryner sighed. She agreed because he asked her to kill him if he went berserk again. To top everything off, apparently he wasn’t even an Alpha Stigma bearer. He could hardly believe it himself, but… that spy from Gastark, Lir, had said it himself.

“Talk, you Alpha Stigma monster. No… perhaps I should call you the Solver of All Formulas…”

The Solver of All Formulas. That’s what he called Ryner.

What did it mean? Thinking about it made his head hurt.

Ryner had always thought of himself as an Alpha Stigma bearer, and now he was getting a new name for it all of a sudden. And Lir didn’t even explain it! Or ask Ryner if he even wanted a new name!

“Aren’t you a work of art. You seriously don’t know, huh? How about the gate, then?”

He didn’t know.

“…The key?”

He had no idea. He didn’t know the first thing about himself.

“…Who am I?”

He needed an answer to that before anything else. How was he supposed to close the gap between humans and Cursed Eyes if he didn’t know where he himself stood?

How was he able to regain his sense of self after going berserk? Why could his eyes see the nothingness spreading through the Eris property when Arua’s couldn’t? Were there other differences between himself and other Alpha Stigma bearers, too? And if he wasn’t a real Alpha Stigma bearer, then why did his abilities so closely mirror theirs?

“…Guess I gotta get Arua to help me research this. No, I should deal with the Sion issue first…”

It looked like another assassin wasn’t going to come for him now that Luke stepped off, but still… He couldn’t say that Sion had forgiven him for sure…

“I found it!!” Ferris suddenly yelled.

“Hm? Found what?”

“His weakness!” Ferris said. She sounded very sure of herself as she held an envelope up. Sion’s handwriting was on the back.

To my beloved Elena ♡

“…Huh? What? Th-that’s… it can’t be…”

“Y, yeah,” Ferris said and nodded stiffly.

Ryner looked back at the letter. No matter how he looked at it, that was Sion’s handwriting… But. But!

“…There’s a heart,” Ryner pointed out.

“M, mm.”

“Wh-who’s Elena?”

“No idea.”

“That’s gotta be a love letter, right?”

“Mm.”

They exchanged a look.

Then Ryner grinned. “Whoooa! This is great! We actually found his weakness! He’s gonna be my slave for life now!”

Ferris smiled meanly. “Hehehe. He’s going to buy me a billion dango sets.”

“Amazing!! How much is that?”

“Hm. The price of fifty of your organs!”

“…So your currency changed…”

That dampened Ryner’s excitement for a moment. But then he looked back down at the letter. At the heart. Sion’s life was gonna be over the second they read this.

A good person wouldn’t intrude on someone else’s private life like this. Yes, they were doing something bad. No matter how bad Sion might be, reading this would make them worse than him. They definitely shouldn’t do it. That’s what Ryner thought.

That was why he looked at Ferris, excited. “Let’s hurry up and read it! Let’s laugh at him!”

“Heheh. Let’s spread rumors, too.”

Ferris opened the love letter as they joked around with theatrics. It opened pretty easily considering the subject, and Ferris removed the stationary.

“My heart’s beating fast… what should we do if it’s so embarrassing that we can’t read it?” Ryner asked.

“Hm. Like, ‘Lady Elena, you’re my sun,’ and such?”

“Whoa, I’ll seriously die if that’s in there.”

Ferris unfolded the stationary. Sion’s careful handwriting covered the page.

Ahh ♡

You’re like my angel ♡

I can’t sleep at night because I’m too busy thinking of you ♡

Because, I mean… you’ve gone and searched through my room and decided to read my letters when I’m not there, right? I’ve been thinking about how to punish your crimes, which no normal person would ever commit… geez, my heart beats fast when I think about it. I can’t stop smiling ♡

How does the guilt of reading someone else’s letter make you feel? The guilt of stepping all over something that someone else finds precious? ‘Ahh, how could I do something so horrible? How could I hurt Lord Sion Astal like this? How can I repay him for everything he’s done for us now!?’

You must be thinking something like that, right?

But don’t worry ♡ Because I’ve already prepared something for you ♡

See, Luke told me that you guys would be coming back. But you’re late, so the work I left for you has piled up. You won’t have the time to eat or sleep for fifty years now. You’ll just be too busy ♡

I’m so glad you’re back home ♡

Welcome to hell ♡

Sion Astal ♡

They finished reading Sion’s warm and heart-littered letter.

“H, heeeeelpp!!” Ryner screamed in agony.

Ferris dropped the letter in shock. “Th-that stupid king knows that I’ll die the second I can no longer eat dango!” She said, shaking in anger.

“Wh, what should we do, Ferris? He’s serious. He’s gonna have fun making us work all day and night and he’ll never let us sleep again!”

This was the worst. They lived in the palm of Sion’s hands.

He knew they’d come back to Roland and come to his office to search for his weaknesses. He knew that they’d find that letter and read it. He predicted it all.

At this rate… at this rate, Sion was seriously gonna work them to death!!

“We’ve gotta run, Ferris! Coming back was a mistake! We’ve gotta run from this mad country where people work every single day and go to a country where they praise us for napping daily instead!”

“The very same legendary country where everyone makes dango every day?” Ferris asked.

“…Uhh, well… uh, yeah. That’s fine… anyway, let’s go there now!”

They looked at each other and nodded. They finally understood each other. All it took was a strong enemy.

“Anyway, we gotta leave this room. It’s in Sion’s domain.”

“A-alright. Let’s go to my house first to prepare.”

They moved fast, seeing as they were in agreement. Ryner flew to the door and twisted the knob. But it didn’t open. He tried it again and again, but it wouldn’t open. “Huh? It’s…”

“What are you doing? Hurry up,” Ferris said from his side.

“I-it’s locked…”

“Can’t you just pick it like you did before?”

Easier said than done. Because the necessary parts of the lock weren’t there. Ryner had locked the door behind them when he came in, but in that time… the lock itself vanished.

“Huh…? How am I supposed to open this?”

Just then, Ryner heard a voice from outside. A voice he recognized, speaking in a smartass tone like he was enjoying this. “Ah-ah, Ryner. Turn that knob all you want. Nothing will happen. You should already know that the lock to that room is special. I already told you so very politely, after all. ”

Ryner grimaced. “You… already told us?”

He thought back to earlier. To just after they came here. To what the guards who tried to chase them had said.

“Hm!? There’s no one here!”

“Don’t you think they might’ve gone inside already?”

“No, that’s impossible. I heard that the lock on this door is special. They probably just ran off somewhere else.”

“D-don’t tell me you were that third guard!?”

“Correct. It was your master, Sion Astal, all along~” Sion said in a sing-song voice. But he soon switched back to normal. “Really, you two sure are late. I was tired of waiting. Anyway, I have all the work you missed out on here, so how about you get it all done in one—”

“Fe-Ferris! Can you break the door down with your sword?” Ryner asked.

“Naturally. Time to break out!” Ferris said and raised her sword.

But Sion said the words of the world’s strongest curse before she had the chance! “I’ll buy you ten dango sets.”

Ferris’ sword instantly changed paths, instead settling on Ryner’s neck. “Sorry, Ryner… there’s nothing I can do.”

“The fuck, you can too do something! You damn traitor… Augh, w, wait, y-you’re cutting into my neck… o, okay, Ferris, I’ll buy you eleven sets!”

Ferris raised her sword again, pointing it towards the door. “Sion Astal, y, you bastard! Do you really think I’ll forgive your tyranny—”

“Wait, Ferris. Think about this. Even if Ryner sells everything that he owns to buy you dango, will it ever amount to the dango that I could buy you?”

“Forgive me, Ryneeeerrr!!”

That was all it took. It was so easy for her to swing her sword down on him.

“Gyaaaahh!” Ryner cried, then collapsed on the floor.

Demonic laughter echoed from the other side of the door. “Hahaha. Your commoner’s savings can’t compete against the wealth of a country, Ryner Lute.”

Ryner groaned. “Uuh… You tyrant… as usual, you’re 100% irritating…”

“Whoa, there. I’m a 100% refreshing and respectable young man. Where does the irritating part come in?”

“When you lie like you are now while sounding as cheery as could be!”

“Woooow, you think it’s that annoying?” Sion asked.

“Yep.”

“Haha. I see. But can I tell you something, Ryner?”

“What is it?”

Sion took a deep breath in… and then yelled. “You’re way more irritating for me than I am for you!”

Ryner jumped. “Huh? Oh, um… well—”

“Why did you even come back?” Sion asked. “Do you want me to take the Cursed Eyes into Roland and protect them? You betray me once, then come back all smiles just to use my power? Do you really think I’m just going to forgive you and agree?”

“……”

Ryner couldn’t argue. Because Sion was right.

“Hey, Sion,” Ferris said. “You could have said that bet—”

“No, it’s fine,” Ryner interrupted. “He’s right. I just… came back to use him. Of course he’d be mad.”

He heard Sion punch the door on the other side. “Mad? Me? What right do I have to be mad after using you first? Don’t fuck with me… What irritates me so much is how you keep insisting that it’s all your fault. Don’t you see that?”

Sion’s voice was shaking just so from a mix of anger and sadness.

“…You got too deep inside your head worrying about everything on your own, and then had the nerve to run away from me,” Sion continued. “Why didn’t you talk to me? If things got hard for you, why didn’t you tell me that you were having trouble? ‘You guys can’t understand how dark our hearts have gotten after being betrayed countless times by humans?’ You have a mouth, so tell me that yourself. If you want to cry, then cry. Or… what? Am I so far removed from you that you don’t think you can talk to me? We’re buddies, right…? Answer me, Ryner Lute.”

Ryner didn’t know what to say. How could he be so stupid? He’d gotten so wrapped up in believing that he should be isolated because he was a monster. Many people had held their hands out to him, but he ignored them all, hurt them all, and cried in his own loneliness.

He ran, ran, and ran. In doing so, he hurt people. Even Sion, who was always so annoyingly full of himself, couldn’t speak without his voice shaking in anger at him now.

What had he been thinking?

Could the other Cursed Eyes be accepted? By Sion? He was the hero king who always worried about others. So the answer was obvious.

Ryner looked up at the door and spoke. “Buddies…? Aren’t you embarrassed saying that?”

“Obviously!” Sion said, angry. “That’s why I locked the door! I can’t say something that uncool to your face.”

“…I mean, it’s really embarrassing, so we don’t actually have to have this conversation in the first place—”

“Yes!” Sion interrupted. “Normally this would be the kind of thing you don’t have to actually say because it’s embarrassing. But if you don’t have this conversation a certain Alpha Stigma bearer, he’ll soon say ‘I can’t keep being a burden to you too,’ and run away from home!”

“Noooo, don’t say thaaat!!”

“Mm,” Ferris said. “By the way, the other day he said to me, ‘Is it really okay—’”

“Hey! Whoa! Didn’t we make a promise? You said you wouldn’t tell him that!”

Ferris looked down at him. “Hm? A promise?”

“Y, you know, the one for one hundred million dango boxes.”

Ferris thought for a moment before hitting her fist to her palm in realization. “Aah, the one where you sell your organs?”

“Yeah! That one!”

“…I see. We did promise something like that, didn’t we. Sorry, Sion. I’ll tell you later.”

“What do you mean, ‘later!?’” Ryner yelled.

“Ah, I think I know what this is about,” Sion said. “Is this the part that Luke wrote about where you said, ‘Is it really okay… if I l—’”

Ryner let out a strangled scream and died. He was only nineteen…

But that didn’t stop the demon. “And the next part was so moving. I couldn’t believe Ferris could say something like that - ‘I’d get lonely if you d—’”

Ferris moved faster than the eye could see. The door was strips of wood on the floor in under a second. Then she thrust her sword through the door. “Say another word and I’ll kill you,” she said coldly.

“Get him! Get him!!” Ryner said.

He then looked up through the busted door. One man stood there: the king of the Roland Empire. His silver hair gave him a noble air, and he had unwavering golden eyes.

Sion Astal. The people called him their hero king, who dethroned the old, maddened king and took his place. He was the savior of their country who brought light back into their eyes. Everyone thought that things’d be okay since he became king.

Sion was born with all the qualities to make a king: intelligence, determination, charm, power, and looks. He was the best, most ideal king.

But that was a lie.

Ryner knew that their so-called ideal king was really a demon. He was a conceited guy who didn’t believe that there were things he couldn’t do. He pretended to be a refreshing guy, but then had way too much fun torturing Ryner.

Sion was smiling despite the sword not a finger’s width from his neck. “By the way, Ferris, I’ve decided to tear down ten of Roland’s dango shops. You hate dango so you don’t care, right?”

“What!?”

That was all it took for Ferris to lose her grip on her sword. It fell to the ground. But Sion didn’t stop with that. He walked into the room and looked down at Ryner, who was lying on the floor dead. “Well, I suppose it’s a good time for a nap. It’ll be your last one for a while - you’ll be so busy for the next five years that you won’t get the chance to sleep.”

“I’d die if I didn’t sleep for five years!!”

“Ahaha. My condolences ♪”

“That’s not something to laugh about!!”

Ryner’s yelling did nothing to dim Sion’s smiles. “I do intend on depriving you of sleep for the next five years. Just yelling won’t get you out of it. By the way, you looked through the papers that were on my desk, right? You need to take care of all of that by the end of the month. I put them there so you could get a head start today.”

But… there were thousands and thousands of papers there…

“Um, there’s no way I can—”

“No, you definitely can,” Sion interrupted. “I’ll destroy ten dango shops if you don’t, after all. Don’t you feel motivated to save them?”

Ferris suddenly became lively. “I’m all fired up!”

“That has nothing to do with meee!!” Ryner yelled. But his screams didn’t reach anyone.

Ahh, Sion was a real demon… How could anyone call him their hero king? Their flawless king? He was deceiving them all. He was… he was…

“…I’m glad,” the demon suddenly said.

Ryner looked up at Sion. He looked different from before. His smile was a little sad and lacked the confidence he was so used to seeing on Sion.

“…Welcome back, you two. I’m really glad that you came home…”

He sounded weak.

To think that he’d just cursed him in his mind, wondering what about him was supposed to be ideal. Sion was making a weak expression like he wanted to cry as he welcomed Ryner, an Alpha Stigma bearing monster who he was supposed to fear and loathe back, and said that he was really glad to see him…

Stupid. He was so stupid. So stupid that Ryner had to wonder how an idiot like him managed to govern a whole country.

“……”

So Ryner averted his eyes. Because he didn’t want Sion to see him making the same face back.

“…I caused you more troubl—”

“It’s okay,” Sion interrupted.

“……”

“It’s okay.”

That idiot said it twice.

“I’ll just… cause more trouble again,” Ryner said, continuing to look away.

“Yeah,” Sion said. He was back to his usual confident tone. “Welcome back to Roland.”