This Is Wrong

“Ugh… where am I?”

“Ihi… ihihihihihi… awake… you’re awake.”

“Oh, you came around rather quickly. But I suppose that is only to be expected of the Demon King-sama.”

A middle-aged man dressed like a priest was walking through the forest while carrying Konoha in his arms like a princess. Konoha’s head still felt hazy.

“Who are you?”

“My apologies for the discourtesy. My name is Janikoro. And this is October Festival, my Familiar. We are your loyal servants, Demon King-sama.”

“Demon King… me?”

“Indeed. We heard that you had revived, so we came to welcome you. Rest assured, we used illusion magic to fake your death.”

“I’m not the Demon King! Put me down!”

“What are you saying? Oh, I see that a form of illusion magic has been applied to your status screen as well. I understand now. That was how you deceived the Heroes.”

“I didn’t deceive anyone! I’m everyone’s friend, and…”

“Ha-ha! Surely you have noticed it yourself. Those pitch-black emotions swirling within you. That overwhelmingly deep darkness. No wonder you became the Demon King at such a young age. Welcome to our side of the world!”

“Stop it!”

The instant Konoha screamed, five enormous trees nearby creaked loudly and toppled over. Konoha froze at what she had done.

“What… was that?”

“How troublesome. You will have to sleep for a little while longer.”

“Ah—”

A knife-hand strike landed against Konoha’s neck. Konoha lost consciousness.

When she next opened her eyes, she was lying on a soft, fluffy sofa. There was a warm fireplace, an expensive carpet, and—

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

“W-Whoa! Please do not move! I am still applying your makeup!”

There was a woman dressed as a maid. Yet an overwhelming miasma radiated from her. Konoha instinctively realized that this woman was not human.

“Where am I!? Wait, why am I wearing clothes like this?”

“These are ceremonial formal garments. There, your makeup is complete as well. Demon King-sama, you look exceptionally beautiful.”

Konoha peered into the mirror.

“Huh? Is that… me?”

She wore a jet-black dress and a necklace adorned with purple gemstones, while a red spider lily ornament decorated her hair. Combined with the carefully applied makeup, Konoha had transformed into a mysterious yet divine beauty so striking that calling her an unparalleled beautiful girl would hardly have been an exaggeration.

“Wooooow! Amazing! Thank you, Onee-san! …Wait, something feels wrong.”

She felt as though she had forgotten something extremely important. This did not seem like the time to be happily enjoying having been made beautiful and dressed in adorable clothes. Konoha tilted her head and thought for several seconds.

Then she remembered.

“U-Uwaaaaaah!! What am I doing!? Where am I!?”

“Please calm yourself, Demon King-sama!”

“I’m not the Demon King! Why did you bring me here!? What do you want!?”

“I will explain.”

“Borghese-sama… Then I shall leave it to you.”

A man named Borghese suddenly entered the room, knelt before Konoha, and kissed her hand. …Kissed it?

“Hyaaaaaah!! W-What? What are you doing!?”

“My apologies. This is proper etiquette toward the Demon King-sama. And on top of that, the Demon King of this generation happens to be such a breathtakingly beautiful woman. Truly, I am glad to have been born in this era.”

“You’re making a really weird face… Are you… okay?”

“What!? You even possess a kind heart that worries for your retainers!? Ah, forgive me. I still have not explained the situation.”

“Y-Yeah. (This guy seems kind of dangerous.)”

Konoha began wondering whether he might be some kind of pervert. If it came down to it, she was even prepared to overpower him with the Demon King’s strength.

“This is one of the Witch’s Treasure Chests, the Respega Underground Labyrinth. We have not made contact with the witch who resides here, Roman Festival, but she will likely appear eventually.”

“…A Witch’s Treasure Chest. Why are we somewhere like this?”

“First, shall we head to the throne? I will explain as we walk.”

“Uh, um, okay. Borghese-san?”

“You remembered my name!! I am overwhelmed with emotion!!”

“Y-Yeah. You’re… welcome, I guess?”

Though suspicious, Konoha followed him and eventually arrived at a vast chamber containing a throne.

“Wooooow!! Amazing, amazing! It’s even fluffier than the last one!! A sofa this fluffy is something I’ve only ever experienced when visiting Ni○ri!! This is so nice!”

Konoha became extremely excited over the throne. Borghese continued his explanation while watching her.

“We are demons. We have continued our activities in preparation for the day when the Demon King-sama would return. Now that your revival has finally occurred, we came to welcome you.”

“Um, how did you know I was the Demon King? I thought I’d hidden it, at least.”

“My skill is called 《Sovereign Foresight》, the only ability among demonkind capable of identifying the Demon King-sama. The other demons probably do not even know that you are the Demon King yet.”

(So only the people here know right now. Hmm… how am I supposed to escape?)

“From this point onward, Demon King-sama, we ask that you call upon the demons across every continent and devote yourself to exterminating humanity. We will assist you in doing so.”

“I’m not going to be the Demon King. I don’t want to fight everyone.”

Konoha glared at Borghese with firm resolve. No matter what happened, she absolutely did not want to fight against her classmates.

(Maybe he’ll get angry and kill me for saying that? Ugh, I should’ve thought of a better way to put it…)

Konoha timidly watched Borghese for his reaction. Yet his response was nothing like she had expected.

“I see. Well, that is perfectly fine.”

“Huh!?”

She had fully expected some terrifying reaction, so his response completely caught her off guard. Konoha widened her eyes in surprise.

“Demon King-sama, you have no intention of destroying humanity?”

“Y-Yeah. I was thinking maybe we could solve things by talking instead. Why do we even have to fight in the first place? I really don’t want to fight humans…”

“…I see. Just as I thought.”

“Huh?”

“Demon King-sama, because you have lived among humans until now, you have grown attached to them. I understand. I understand completely.”

“Um… Borghese-san?”

“Well, that will be fine. Once our preparations are complete, I shall return. Please relax upon the throne for the time being.”

“Wait, um, I…”

“Until then.”

(What was that about? Huh… I’m getting sleepy again.)

An overwhelming drowsiness assaulted Konoha as she sat upon the throne. Without even trying to resist it, Konoha easily fell asleep.

“How was she? The Demon King of this generation.”

“She is a magnificent person. However, she is far too attached to humans. Her abilities, personality, and appearance are all perfect for ruling demonkind in the future, but she must relinquish that attachment to humanity.”

Janikoro, the man who had kidnapped Konoha, was speaking with Borghese. The two had conspired together to carry out this operation. In other words, they harbored the ambition of installing the Demon King before any other demons could and thereby gaining an absolute advantage within demon society. For that reason, many demons had sworn allegiance to them and gathered within this underground labyrinth. Preparations were also underway to complete their Demon King.

“Then we shall proceed as planned and have Demon King-sama become a ‘true Demon King.’ There is nothing to worry about. That is precisely why we gathered the blood.”

For the first time in a long while, she had an ordinary dream.

It was a dream from when she was little. Her grandmother had already been gone since before she was born, but her grandfather was still alive, and her mother and father were there, and so was her older sister.

At some point, the whole family had gone to an amusement park together. It had been her first amusement park, and she remembered being incredibly excited. Her favorite attraction had been the go-karts. She had still been too young to ride one alone, but her mother had driven while Konoha squealed with excitement. Her mother’s driving had been a little rough, Konoha had not particularly liked the smell of the engine, and every time they took a curve she had been terrified that they might crash, yet it had still been fun.

They had all eaten crepes together. She had loved the strawberry-and-whipped-cream one and remembered bursting into tears when she dropped it. If she remembered correctly, her grandfather had bought her another one.

She had gone through the haunted house with her father. Konoha had been scared too, but her father had been even more frightened. He had squeezed her hand tightly and trembled while telling her, “It’s okay.” He had seemed a little unreliable, but she still remembered how warm his hand had felt.

She had ridden the merry-go-round with her older sister. She had been afraid she might fall off the horse, but seeing her sister having so much fun had made Konoha enjoy herself too. Even when they were leaving the amusement park, they had raced each other to see who could reach the parking lot first.

Huh? Who had ended up winning that race?

If she remembered correctly, there had suddenly been the sound of screeching brakes…

“Mm… was I asleep?”

When she rubbed her eyes, she found herself still in the throne room. But before she knew it, a large group of hooded figures had lined up in front of her.

“You are awake, Demon King-sama.”

“Ah, yeah. Borghese-san, you could’ve just woken me up.”

“Your sleeping face was simply too adorable. Now that everyone has assembled, we shall begin.”

“Huh? Begin what?”

At that moment, a chilling sensation ran through Konoha.

This feeling was bad. This was the kind of thing she needed to run away from. No. No, no, no. This was wrong. She had to escape.

“Ah, I…”

“Do not worry, Demon King-sama.”

Borghese stepped away from Konoha as he spoke.

“With this, you shall finally be complete.”

“What does that…”

“Bring in the slaves. Now!”

At his command, horned demons brought in a group of beautiful girls. There appeared to be around thirty of them. Every single one was beautiful, but their faces were twisted in terror.

“Um… what are you…”

“Demon King-sama, you are already a magnificent person. And because you are such a magnificent Demon King-sama, we wish to make you even more magnificent.”

Konoha had a terrible feeling. No. This was wrong. She had been wrong to let her guard down around them. She had been foolish to relax. There was something fundamentally different between these people and humans.

“Begin.”

“Wait! Stop—ah, aaaaaaaaaah!”

Suddenly, a magic circle appeared beneath the throne. From within it emerged pitch-black hands, hands, hands, handshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshandshands!!!

They gradually began wrapping themselves around Konoha. At the same time, the girls before her began writhing in agony. Some kind of power had linked them together.

“Ah… aaah, nooo… noooo…”

“IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURRRRRTS!!”

“Gah… gaaah… aaaaah…”

“Stop it! What are you doing!? Let me go!! Kyaaaaaaaaah!”

The hands coiling around Konoha began releasing pitch-black miasma. Every time more of it emerged, the girls grew paler, as though their blood were being drained away.

(What is this!? No, no, no!! Something is getting inside me!! It’s disgusting, disgusting, disgusting!!)

The girls before her were already barely breathing. At the same time, Konoha’s own body was beginning to reach its limit.

(No. Something is taking ‘me’ away. It’s taking over my body! Stop it! Don’t come inside me!!)

“Now! Drown your heart in darkness and mature into the Demon King you were meant to be!! Come, come now!!”

“Stop… aaah… ah… aaaaah…”

(No… This is wrong… I have to save those girls too… I don’t care what happens to me! But those girls… those girls have nothing to do with any of this!!)

The darkness consuming Konoha’s heart gradually turned toward the demons before her. They were beside themselves with excitement as they celebrated the Demon King’s revival. And before them were innocent girls who had been dragged here despite having done nothing wrong. That realization filled Konoha with rage.

(Someone is going to die because of me ‘again.’ I won’t allow it! I have to save them. I absolutely have to save them!)

Her vision was swallowed by blackness. Desperately trying to hold on to herself, she squeezed her eyes shut, and then—

—I HAVE TO SAVE THEM.