The Demon Lord And The Maid

“—Rinne-ojou-sama, I have brought you some tea.”

“…Hm?”

When I glanced toward the voice, I saw a woman who looked to be around twenty, dressed in a Victorian-style maid uniform, her long, glossy black hair tied back neatly—Reinerrude, or rather, Kotono Shinomiya.

She had a well-proportioned figure, a small face, and a chest that was neither too large nor too small. Combined with her slightly upturned eyes, which carried a faintly cold impression, she gave off an air that seemed to keep others at a distance.

“…Hmm.”

“…Um…?”

Perhaps unable to endure the way I had been staring at her as though inspecting her, Reine shifted slightly, looking faintly embarrassed.

When I looked at her face, I could see that her pale cheeks had taken on a slight reddish tint, as though warmth had bloomed beneath her skin.

“Sorry, sorry.”

“No… Is something the matter?”

“No, I was just thinking that you look exactly the same as you did in your previous life.”

“…If you say that, Rinne-ojou-sama, then I believe the same applies to you.”

“True.”

At her words, I once again stretched out an arm toward the full-length mirror standing in the corner of the room and curled my upturned finger slightly, causing the mirror to turn toward me.

It was simple magic, but in this world, I supposed it might look more like telekinesis or some other kind of superpower.

Maybe I could even become one of those world-famous comic-book superheroes.

Not that I wanted to.

Anyway, reflected in the mirror was me, dressed in casual clothes.

In this island nation called Japan, tucked away in one corner of the world, black hair and black eyes—the same colors Reine had—were the norm, but I had silver hair and golden eyes.

You could say I looked distinctly unlike a typical Japanese person, but those colors were exactly the same as the ones I had possessed in my previous life—the version of me Reine had known.

The differences were… probably just that my ears were no longer pointed?

Ah, and my canine teeth were a little less noticeable too.

“They said the soul chooses the vessel best suited to it… but even so, for both me and Reine to end up with bodies in the same era that look exactly like our previous selves…”

“…It is somewhat difficult to dismiss that as mere coincidence.”

“Well, maybe it was an apology, or compensation, or something along those lines. A gift from the gods, I suppose. ……..Reine, your face. Your face is scary. Really scary.”

“…My apologies.”

To Reine, the gods were basically the ones responsible—or perhaps the root cause—for my disappearance from that world.

So it seemed her dislike of the gods remained as strong as ever.

It was true that the gods could be said to be the reason I had been forced to disappear, but I had understood the situation and chosen to do so of my own accord.

It had been unavoidable, and at the time, that world could not have been protected without sacrificing me.

I had explained that part to her several times… but then again, if she had been able to accept it just because I explained it, Reine probably would not have reincarnated too.

“Now that we can spend our time together peacefully like this, I actually think reincarnating turned out to be a good thing.”

When I smiled as I said that, Reine gave a difficult-to-describe smile in return—somewhat disarmed, yet also a little embarrassed—and let out a faintly wry laugh.

Even seeing Reine make expressions like this had become something I had completely stopped seeing in my previous life. I was glad I reincarnated. It was peaceful here too.

“Mm, delicious.”

“I thought you might be somewhat tired, so I made it slightly sweeter than usual.”

“Thanks. It’s just right.”

I had spent the last few days shut away in my room, concentrating entirely on finishing Reine’s model, after all.

While looping the animation of Reine’s model on the monitor atop my desk to check whether there was anything unnatural about the movement of her body, hair, or clothes, I took another sip of tea.

“…This is technology that would have been unimaginable in our previous world. Though representing a living body is one thing, using an additional artificial model as a medium is something else entirely.”

“Mm, yeah. Back in that world, we didn’t have anything like this. Communication magic had developed pretty far, but there wasn’t really a culture of producing programs and broadcasting them.”

There certainly had been magic capable of displaying images from distant places, but that had only worked by showing what a familiar saw.

There had been nothing like putting together television-style programs and broadcasting or streaming them the way people did in this world.

Because the version of 『me』 who had been born and raised in this world was the one who later recovered the memories of my previous life, I understood that there were differences, but still treated the things of this world as perfectly normal.

But in Reine’s case, it seemed she had remained the same Reine from her previous life from the moment she was born, so in that sense, perhaps the difference had been even more shocking for her than it had been for me.

Though honestly, I definitely would not have wanted to retain all my memories as a baby or toddler.

If that had happened, I probably would have been a seriously creepy child.

Or maybe I would have stayed exactly like I had been during my Demon Lord days and shouted things like, “We demand milk!”

…Actually, Mom probably would have found that adorable too.

Yeah, I could see it happening.

“Come to think of it… you called it a 3D model, did you not? Is that something even you could create, Rinne-ojou-sama?”

“I probably could, but I wouldn’t really have any use for it.”

To begin with, if you wanted to move around using a 3D model and broadcast those movements, you needed to prepare the proper environment and equipment before you could finally make it work.

Apparently, there were tools these days that let you attach sensors to several parts of your body and move a 3D model at home for simple motions, but in practice, accurately reproducing precise movements was still difficult.

“…I see. So it is not something one can easily dabble in.”

“Yeah.”

Apparently, dedicated studios capable of full 3D streaming had become more common lately, but an independent Vtuber like me would rarely have reason to use one. Maybe for some kind of anniversary, or if an independent Vtuber was putting a huge amount of effort into a special project, it could be worthwhile.

“Well, maybe someday. It could be fun if I got the chance.”

“I see… In that case, perhaps it might be interesting for me to try that.”

“Hm? Are you planning something?”

“No, I merely thought of an idea. I believe it will take some time to prepare, so I shall tell you once there has been some progress.”

“…? This again?”

It was one of Reine’s habits—or maybe simply part of her personality. She refused to speak about uncertain matters and would only report something once it was already settled. And because she was so capable on her own, even without running things by me beforehand, she could still handle everything cleanly, right through to tying up any loose ends afterward.

That meant I was stuck waiting until things reached the point where she actually needed to report them, even though I wanted her to tell me now. But at times like this, Reine rarely gave anything away.

Even when I gave her a long, suspicious stare, she remained completely unfazed and showed no sign of yielding.

“…Sigh. Fine, whatever.”

“Yes. Please look forward to it.”

“Muu… If you’re going to say it like that, then I want to get involved too. Or at least take part somehow.”

“Fufufu. I cannot deny the possibility that it may all end in wasted effort.”

“Muuuun… Yeah, okay, I’ll leave it to you. More importantly, Reine, could you try a little test run for me?”

“A test run?”

“Yeah. I want to test the model.”

If everything went well, I might even be able to unveil it tonight.