In the afternoon of the following day, while I was thinking in my study, the wall of the study was suddenly blown off.
Two figures came out of the dust cloud, and one of them rushed towards me faster than it cleared.
The Demon King, Kaori.
The person who created the situation where I was holed up in my study thinking about things suddenly came to me.
“It’s been a long time, you know, I really wanted to meet you.”
“No, you wanted to meet me, you said, but you can come from the front door normally, you know, why destroy the wall ―― destroy?”
I looked at the destroyed wall with a gasp, but the wall was not even scratched.
That’s stupid, a “Dogooon!!” roared, and the mansion shook greatly.
The hole where Kaori should have entered is not there anymore, and on the contrary, the dust cloud that had been dancing earlier has disappeared completely.
Instead, a girl stood beside the wall in a frightened manner.
“You are?”
“Ni,ninice to meet you. I’m servant 1024.”
“Ha? Ah, you mean you’re a servant of the Demon King. By the way, what’s your name?”
“Se,se,servant 1024”
“As I said, what’s your name?”
“I am servant 1024, it’s the official name I was given.”
“What kind of name is that!?”
I couldn’t help but raise my voice.
The girl looks a little older than Kaori and just a little younger than Midea.
She is a timid, quite anxious girl who seems adorable to some people because of the way she is frightened in her responses.
For her …… to be named “Servant 1024”……
“You’re awful.”
“That’s not the case. This girl is useful, and I rely on her when I need her.”
“When you need her?”
“For example.”
Kaori waved her hand casually to the side.
Her movement is too random; it was a gesture like a hand waving in the air while saying “hey hey” or something like that.
And yet ―― the study was half destroyed.
She waved her hand and half of the room was blown off at the same time.
“What the hell are you doing!”
“It’s all fine.”
Kaori pointed to the wall she had blown up.
There was servant No. 1024 there.
She is repairing the study with tremendous momentum.
It took only less than five seconds for the half-blown-out study to be restored to its original state.
It’s like a magic trick.
“It’s like that.”
“So that’s why you are bringing her around, huh.”
“That’s right. Mother told me that I shouldn’t fight unless it was an opponent equal to me. But she didn’t say I shouldn’t break things.”
“……Ah”
So that’s kind of how it is.
I looked at the servant girl, my eyes met hers, and she gave me a complicated smile back.
I’m troubled in various ways, but I’ve gotten used to being pushed around, is it.
It was something like that, huh.
Relationships vary from person to person.
If that’s what she means, well, I won’t dig into it.
Just after I gave up trying to poke around, panicked footsteps came, and after a knock, a maid jumped in.
She came to report, but the maid was perturbed when she saw the wall that was supposed to have been blown away.
She had a face that looked like she didn’t know what had happened. I ordered her to leave, telling her to ignore all the commotion that was about to happen because it was too much trouble.
“Haa……”
“When you sigh, happiness escapes.”
“Whose fault is it you think?”
“Better yet, it’s time to fight. When is the fighting tournament?”
“Ah…… about that.”
I raggedly scratched my cheeks and thought about how to begin to talk about that.
I thought it over and decided it was better to tell it to her straight.
“I have a proposal.”
“Proposal? What is it?”
“How about we have a non-audience match?”
“Non-audyense match?”
Why are you a little tongue-tied there.
“Yeah, it’s a match where there are no spectators, just as the word implies, how’s that? You know, if there’s an audience, you’re going to bring out more collateral damage with your power, right? Isn’t that against your mother’s instructions?”
I tried to come up with a reason that sounds good, but frankly, I just don’t want to be seen.
If I was seen, it’ll become a “fact”.
If it’s a non-audience match, I can do some deception later by pulling some strings and saying I played dirty tricks on the Demon King or something like that.
Therefore, it’s better to have no guests.
That’s what the proposal I was thinking of, a bold proposal.
“It’s no problem”
“Is it okay?”
“Yeah! I want to fight you. Anything is fine if that can be done.”
Kaori readily accepted the proposal.
Hey…… that’s surprising.
No, well, it is not so surprising that she accepted this proposal, since she readily accepted the diplomatically lickety-split proposal to settle the issue by fighting tournament instead of war.
“When are we going to do it? Is it today? It’s good now.”
Kaori approaches me with a twinkle in her eyes.
She doesn’t look like a demon king, she looks like a little girl begging her father for a toy.
“Err…… that’s right”
“Let’s do it now”
“No, I still have various things to attend to, such as selecting a place that will not cause damage to the surroundings.”
“Then, it’s all right. I brought my servant for that reason.”
“Eh?”
“This servant of mine is the most useful servant I have ever had. He can fix anything but a living creature in an instant.”
“Ah…… so that’s why you brought her here.”
“Yes, for example――”
It was totally unexpected.
Kaori reached out her hand casually again.
At that moment, killing intent envelops my entire body.
Almost instinctively, I drew my sword and intercepted her.
My sword and Kaori’s left hand.
As a result of them meeting, a diffused shockwave blew the entire study away.
I could see the beautiful sky, leaving only us in the hypocenter―― for only a few seconds.
It wasn’t even ten seconds yet.
The girl moved in a hurry and quickly restored the study to its original state.
“And, just like that”
“Heeh…… it’s amazing alright”
“I know, right! My servant is the best servant in the world”
Kaori was sticking out her flat chest.
She has given it a silly name, “Servant No. 1024″, but I think she cares for her in her own way.
“That’s why, fight with me without worrying about anything”
“I see. Then let’s at least move to a place where there are no people. There are a lot of maids and such in this mansion, and if you get them involved, it will be troublesome.”
“Roger!”
For the time being, fighting is inevitable, but we can do it in an unobtrusive place.
I was relieved.
“Do you know a place where absolutely no one will get involved and no one can see us?”
“Leave it to me, with the power of the Demon King, I can create a barrier which would make people not attempt to enter it while we are fighting.”
“I see, please do that”
“Leave it to me!”
The demon king, who had been acting like a storm and causing all sorts of trouble, was dependable on this occasion.
That’s why, I inadvertently forgot.
I realized such a thing irreversibly ―― after our fight was over.
Strong “traces” remains in the mere suburbs where we fought.
It was said that I was the only human being in history to compete with the Demon King, and that would be engraved in the official histories of the two countries.
Until I was told so by Lina, who came as an inspector.