A New Vow

The moonlight shone down on the forest at night.

Having fulfilled my first goal of “creating an environment where we could survive,” I returned to our house in the forest together with Liricia.

We had built a comfortable home, and we had defeated the dungeon that threatened Kou.

The shop in the Royal Capital that served as the entrance leading to Kou’s dungeon had also been restored.

We had learned that we could make money as adventurers.

Our immediate objectives had been achieved.

Now that my worries about the future had been eased, I ate the delicious dinner Liricia had prepared and then made love to her in the quiet bedroom of our house.

We shared gentle kisses on the bed, and I held her soft body in my arms.

“I’m really glad you’re here with me, Liricia.”

Liricia’s cheeks flushed as she gasped in a sweet, aching voice.

“Ahh… Master… but, was this really all right?”

“What was?”

“You were given a chance to return as a hero.”

I kissed her abundant silver hair and held her close with all the affection I felt.

“I don’t need that. If I went back to being a hero, I’d have to let go of my slave. If it means giving up the most precious thing in this world, then I’d rather stay as I am now… no, I want things to stay exactly as they are.”

“Master… that makes me so happy.”

With a smile so radiant it hardly seemed of this world, Liricia’s cheeks reddened with joy as she hugged me tightly.

Of course, it didn’t end with just that—we made love even more deeply.

We made love again and again.

So many times that our warmth felt like it was melting together.

—I would never be separated from Liricia. I would stay with her forever.

As I drew out cries of happiness from her, I swore that in my heart.

But then—

Liricia, wearing not a single thread, arched her generous chest and spread her wings with a great flap, letting out a voice overcome with emotion.

“Ahhh…!”

It was at that moment.

Liricia’s body slipped from my hands and rose up into the air.

Her finely balanced, radiant naked body was laid bare as she floated near the ceiling, drifting softly.

At some point, the wings on Liricia’s back had turned pure white, without a single speck of cloudiness.

“Wha—?! Liricia!”

A sharp panic seized me.

It felt as if Liricia were about to ascend to the heavens.

Without thinking, I leapt up and clung to her floating body.

I buried my face against her flat belly and pleaded.

“Wait! Don’t go!”

Liricia looked down at me with a glowing, mercy-filled smile.

“Master… I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere yet. For now, my place is still at your side.”

“Liricia…!”

My face twisted as if I were about to cry, and I clung to her all the more.

Despite her words, it felt like her very existence was drifting farther away.

—So after all that Serâge I’ve poured into her every night, she’s finally turned back into an angel…!

Anxiety and relief washed over me in waves, and I felt like I would fall apart if I didn’t hold her.

Only the sensation of her smooth, bare skin against my cheek and the gentle warmth of her body soothed that fear.

—No way… Is she trying to return to heaven because her mission to help the hero is over!?

No. I don’t want that—I don’t want to let her go—I don’t want to lose her—I want her at my side forever!

When my thoughts reached that point, I realized there was something most important I hadn’t told her.

I had just assumed, on my own, that our hearts already understood each other.

I hadn’t put it into words.

Driven by panic, I looked up into her face and begged desperately.

“Liricia—I have a favor to ask!”

“What is it?”

“I love you.”

“What?”

“I love you more than anything!”

“M-Master!? Y-yes…! I love you too!”

“I’ll spend my whole life making you happy! Marry me! Stay by my side forever! I love you!”

Liricia stroked my head gently, even as a smile that was both joyful and lonely spread over her face.

The tips of her fingers felt so pleasant.

“…………”

But she didn’t give me an answer.

Even with tears of sorrow in her eyes and a smile of joy on her lips, she did not make that promise.

—So that’s how it is, after all…

She must have remembered everything.

After I had buried my face against her slender stomach for a while, I asked her.

“So… once you’ve fulfilled your mission, you’re going back to heaven, aren’t you, Liricia?”

“…I’m sorry, Master.”

“Stay with me, Liricia…”

At my weak, trembling words, Liricia smiled sadly.

“Once my true mission is complete, when that time comes… I cannot defy what God has decided.”

“Liricia…”

“I’m sorry… I’d stay with you if I could, too. I want to be with you forever. I don’t want to be separated from you, Master.”

“Liricia!”

I hugged her tight.

Tears glimmered at the corners of Liricia’s eyes as she clung to me just as strongly.

“For now, it’s still all right… for now.”

Even knowing it was a wish that could never come true, we still wanted to stay together forever…

We stayed like that, holding each other, for some time.

Then, at some unspoken cue, we let go of each other’s hands and sat down together on the edge of the bed, still side by side.

We stayed silent for a long time.

Liricia’s wings brushed my bare skin with a light, ticklish touch.

For some reason, even that sensation felt sad.

But we couldn’t stay silent forever.

I had no choice but to ask.

Whether it was out of resignation or clinging to a sliver of hope, I turned to Liricia.

“…Liricia, what exactly is your true mission?”

“It is to defeat the Demon King, Master.”

“The Demon King… So a Demon King that will destroy the world is going to appear…”

The Demon King itself didn’t frighten me.

What terrified me was the thought that defeating it would mean losing Liricia.

Liricia lowered her long lashes sadly and leaned against me.

“Yes… Twenty-five years ago, I was sent down to assist the hero who had just turned fourteen. It was so that he could defeat the Demon King who would resurrect five years later.”

“I see… Huh? When you say ‘five years later,’ do you mean five years from now, or five years after he turned fourteen—when he was nineteen?”

“It should have been when he was nineteen. That would be twenty years ago now… huh?”

We looked at each other.

Liricia blinked her large eyes in puzzlement.

“But in these twenty years since then, I’ve never heard anything about a Demon King appearing.”

“Not even you, hero that you are?”

“I’ve never heard a thing. If there were a Demon King, I’d be the first one they ordered to go defeat it.”

“Right…? That is strange, isn’t it?”

Liricia tilted her head, her silver hair sliding smoothly over her white skin.

An unpleasant thought flashed through my mind, and I grimaced.

“Don’t tell me… I already defeated it without even realizing it…? Like with those Goblins.”

“No, even you couldn’t do that. In terms of monster rank, the Demon King is equivalent to SS rank. It should be able to function normally even within your vast sea of Serâge. And if you had defeated it, I would have already returned to heaven before we ever met.”

“So that means… the Demon King exists, but is hiding.”

“That seems very likely.”

“And it hasn’t done anything remotely Demon King-like at all.”

“That would follow.”

“Hm.”

I put a hand to my mouth and thought.

—If it hasn’t done anything wrong, then is there really any need to defeat it?

As I was lost in thought, naked Liricia snuggled up against me, almost draping herself over me. Her great wings wrapped around me softly.

She brought her mouth close to my ear and whispered like she was sharing a wicked little secret.

“Master… I just thought of something very bad…”

“Don’t worry, my fallen angel. I’m probably thinking the same thing.”

When I looked at Liricia, she was smiling with a soft little chuckle, like a child who had just pulled a prank.

“Until the Demon King starts doing evil, is it not fine for things to stay as they are now?”

“That’s what I thought too. If it hasn’t done anything for twenty years, chances are it never will. …I want to stay with you forever, Liricia.”

I reached out and hugged Liricia’s slender body tight. Her large breasts pressed against my skin and flattened softly.

In my arms, her gentle cheeks flushed with color.

“Yes, Master. I feel the same.”

“Liricia—stay my fallen angel.”

I drew Liricia close and pressed my lips to hers.

Her violet eyes grew moist as she called my name in a voice full of joy.

“Mm… yes, Master! Forever together—ahh!”

As I loved Liricia with fierce passion, a thought occurred to me.

When you got down to it, I wasn’t even a hero anymore.

We could just leave the Demon King-slaying to some other hero.

There was only one thing I needed to do.

To stay with Liricia for even one second longer.

To do that—

I hugged Liricia’s slender naked body tight and shouted.

“Liricia! I’m going to save up two hundred fifty million! Liricia!”

“Ah—that’s… the rejuvenation—ahh!”

Her silver hair a wild mess, she clung to me, her thin arms tightening as her nails dug into my back.

“Yeah, so we can stay together forever! I’ll save up the money no matter what and get my youth back! As many times as it takes! So I can keep loving you as my wife!”

“Masterrr!”

Liricia cried out in a voice as cute as a scream, and she writhed more wildly than ever before.

And although I thought she had never been cuter than that, over the course of that night, the “cutest Liricia ever” kept getting surpassed again and again.

Meanwhile.

In the ominous Demon Realm, covered by a red sky and black earth.

The Demon King’s Castle at the center of the Demon Realm was half-ruined, but the interior had been perfectly repaired.

In the throne room, a sharp-eyed, sharp-toothed man with black hair and black eyes sat on the throne, wearing a black mantle.

He was reading a report that had been sent by the Evil Dragon King, sighing as he did so.

“Huh? Just getting close to an A-rank Evil Sea Dragon (Evil Serpent) left it half dead…? And then they confirmed sustained holy-element damage afterward as well, huh. …And the latest simulation of what would happen if I fought him is… the moment we meet, I take damage equal to eighty percent of my life force, and all magic tools and support spells lose their effects. For the next three minutes, I’m completely unable to move, and even once I can move, I’ll be lucky if I can attack once a minute. All the while, I keep taking massive holy-element damage and, with a ninety-nine percent probability, I get slaughtered within five minutes without being able to do a thing, huh.”

The Demon King stared blankly up at the ceiling and crushed the report in his hand.

“—What is with that strength? I’ve been training too, and I finally just managed to reach SSS rank the other day, you know? At this point, he’s gone past ‘broken’ and reached a level where he’s just plain insane, that hero Alec… What happens if he undergoes his true awakening on top of this…? And he’s only thirty-nine.”

The Demon King pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed again.

“It’s been twenty years since my resurrection. I’ve kept my existence completely hidden without doing anything Demon King-like at all… Humans live about fifty years, so am I supposed to keep hiding for another ten…? Can’t he just hurry up and die…”

He hadn’t spent those years just hiding away with his finger in his mouth.

Naturally, in the past, he had sent assassination squads.

He had tried to poison Alec as well.

But the squads had been erased just by getting close.

When he sent in stronger troops, they couldn’t even move properly before being instantly annihilated.

Even when they poured poison into rivers and wells, as soon as the hero came near, it was purified and turned into holy water.

At this point, there was nothing he could do but wait for Alec to die of old age.

The only thing that had gone well was what the Evil God had done—stripping the guiding angel of her memories so she would never meet the hero, thereby preventing his true awakening.

Just then, a small goblin wearing a mage’s robe came dashing into the throne room, tripping over his long hem.

“Lord Demon King! This is terrible!”

“What is it? Has hero Alec come here?”

“That Alec has been fired from his position as a hero!”

“What? Then that means he won’t be wandering all over the world anymore!”

“Yes, Lord Demon King! The chances of him ever coming to the Demon Realm are now infinitesimally small!”

The Demon King rose to his feet and laughed. It was his first triumphant laugh in twenty years.

“Fwahahaha! Twenty long years of hardship, and fortune finally smiles upon me! Once Alec dies of old age, that will be the moment I paint the world with my own hands! I’ll begin the preparations for that in secret—however, Great Archmage Gobe, don’t you dare let your guard down! Never let it be known that the Demon King has already resurrected! Order our subordinates never to harm humans under any circumstances! Just ten more years of patience! Fwahahaha!”

“Yes, Lord Demon King!”

The goblin mage called Gobe answered with a beaming face.

The Demon King’s laughter echoed not only through the throne room, but throughout every corner of the Demon King’s Castle.

—But he still didn’t know yet. About Alec’s new goal.

Or that the “Philosopher’s Stone,” the culmination of the Demon King’s alchemy, was a necessary ingredient for the rejuvenation potion.