Chapter 419: Curse
Kouhei and the others had just finished listening to the news Yuuna brought back.
"I was... chosen as one of the candidates to become the next Demon Lord?"
Kouhei could only stare at her with wide eyes after hearing those words.
The whole thing honestly sounded so unbelievable that it took him a few seconds just to process what she had said. Becoming a Demon Lord candidate was never something that had even crossed his mind. If someone had told him about something like this a few months ago, he probably would have laughed and asked if they had hit their head on the way over.
"This... is a pretty huge problem, isn’t it?" Yumi said as she let out a quiet sigh.
"Honestly, calling it a problem almost feels like an understatement," Misuzu replied while folding her arms. "Kouhei-kun has already been attracting far more attention than he ever wanted because he’s the Child of Anti-Prophecy. Now this gets added on top of everything else, and suddenly the situation becomes even messier than it already was."
"I guess that means the real question is... what do we do now?" Nagisa asked while looking around at everyone gathered in the room.
Silence naturally settled over the group.
Nobody spoke right away because none of them actually had an answer.
After quietly thinking about it for a few moments, Hina turned toward Kouhei.
"What do you think, Kouhei?" she asked gently.
"I..."
He stopped for a moment before letting out a quiet breath.
"I honestly have no idea what we’re supposed to do right now."
That wasn’t him trying to avoid the question.
He genuinely didn’t know.
The truth was that Kouhei wanted absolutely nothing to do with becoming the next Demon Lord.
To begin with, he wasn’t even born as a demon.
Long before all of this started, he had lived an ordinary life as a human before eventually being resurrected into his current body. Compared to everyone else who had spent their entire lives living in demon society, he still felt like an outsider in more ways than one.
Adding to that, he had only learned that demons even existed a few months ago.
Someone with that little knowledge couldn’t honestly convince himself that he deserved to stand alongside people who had spent their entire lives preparing for leadership. He barely understood how demon society functioned, let alone what becoming a Demon Lord actually required.
Looking at the situation from the perspective of a game, though, he couldn’t deny that the title sounded pretty cool.
Calling yourself the Demon Lord definitely had a certain charm to it. It was the kind of title that sounded powerful enough to make people immediately pay attention. His younger self probably would have thought it was the greatest thing ever and bragged about it to absolutely nobody because nobody would have believed him anyway.
Reality, however, wasn’t nearly that simple.
Once he actually started thinking about the responsibilities attached to that title, the political pressure, the expectations from countless demons, and the number of people who would probably want him dead simply because of his position, the excitement disappeared almost immediately. A cool title lost most of its appeal once it came packaged with enough problems to give anyone a permanent headache.
That was exactly why Kouhei couldn’t come up with a proper answer.
"I’m going back to my family’s estate and demand that Father changes this decision," Yuuna said without the slightest hesitation.
If anyone had the authority to put an end to this entire issue before it spiraled even further out of control, it would be the head of House Sarushima himself.
Unfortunately, Yuuna wasn’t exactly optimistic about her chances.
Knowing her father, there was a very good possibility that he wouldn’t even consider changing his decision, no matter how strongly she argued against it.
"Would it be alright if I came with you?" Kouhei asked.
Yuuna quietly looked at him for a few seconds.
Objectively speaking, bringing Kouhei along didn’t create any real problems.
The discussion revolved around him in the first place, so it only made sense that he would want to hear everything directly instead of waiting for someone else to explain it afterward.
Even so, she couldn’t completely ignore the uneasy feeling lingering in her chest.
"If you would allow me, Yuuna-sama, may I accompany you as well?" Aria asked politely. "I haven’t been able to assist Kouhei-sama very much lately, so I’d like to be useful while we’re there."
Yuuna remained silent for another brief moment before giving a small nod.
Although bringing too many people wasn’t the ideal approach, having Aria there would certainly be reassuring if something unexpected happened during the visit.
With that decided, the three of them agreed to travel together to Hell and head straight for House Sarushima.
***
Kozue suddenly woke up sometime in the middle of the night.
She wasn’t startled awake by a nightmare.
Something felt wrong.
The moment she opened her eyes, she realized she couldn’t breathe properly.
The symptoms closely resembled what humans called asthma.
Even so, that explanation never really made sense.
Human illnesses weren’t supposed to affect demons, especially someone like her. Their bodies simply didn’t work that way.
Calling it asthma had always been nothing more than a convenient excuse.
Whenever someone asked about her condition, that answer usually satisfied their curiosity well enough that they stopped asking questions. It was simple, believable, and saved her from having to explain something she didn’t fully understand herself.
The reality was much crueler.
This wasn’t asthma.
It wasn’t even an ordinary illness.
It was something much closer to a curse, or perhaps a disease unlike anything recorded by either humans or demons.
More importantly, it reminded her of the same condition that had slowly claimed her mother’s life.
Without warning, another violent coughing fit struck.
She bent forward as the coughing grew harsher with every passing second.
One cough followed another without giving her any chance to catch her breath, making it feel as though her lungs were slowly being squeezed tighter and tighter from the inside. The fit lasted long enough for her chest to start aching, and by the end of it she could barely draw in a proper breath.
Then she felt something warm splash against the hand covering her mouth.
Slowly, she lowered it and looked at her palm.
Blood.
Fresh crimson blood stained her trembling fingers.
Seeing it didn’t make her panic.
Instead, a small smile quietly formed across her face.
It wasn’t the smile of someone who had accepted her fate.
It was the lonely smile of someone who had expected this day to come eventually.
"So... you really didn’t leave this curse to Mother alone..."
Her voice was barely louder than a whisper.
The person she was talking about was the man she despised more than anyone else.
Her own father.
"I swear... before this curse takes me too, I’ll kill him for you, Mother."
***
It was finally the day they were supposed to leave.
"Well then, everyone, it’s about time for us to head out," Yuuna said. "We’ll definitely be back by tomorrow morning, so don’t worry too much."
While Aria was busy making the final preparations, including getting the car ready for the trip to the nearest portal leading to Hell, which happened to be located at the school, Hina took the opportunity to walk over to Kouhei so they could talk for a moment before leaving.
"You really have to be a lot more careful from now on, Kouhei," she said with a serious expression. "At this point, practically every demon knows who you are. On top of that, you’ve officially been announced as one of the candidates to become the next Demon Lord, so you’ve ended up in a much more exposed position than before. That means there’s a much higher chance you’ll become a target, not just for the different demon factions, but possibly for other races as well. Please be extremely careful from now on."
She repeated the last part once again, making it clear that she genuinely wanted him to take her warning seriously instead of brushing it aside.
"I’ll definitely keep that in mind," Kouhei replied with a firm nod. "Thanks for worrying about me."
"Good."
Hina smiled softly before leaning forward and gently kissing him on the lips. It was only a brief kiss, but it carried enough affection to leave Kouhei smiling without even realizing it.
"Ah, Hina! How could you do that when it wasn’t even your turn yet?" Nagisa complained with an exaggerated pout after seeing Hina steal the first kiss. She immediately turned toward Kouhei and raised her hand excitedly. "Kou-kun, me too! I want one too!"
"M-Me too, Kouhei-kun~," Misuzu said shyly, her face turning slightly red as she quietly stepped forward.
Yumi looked at the others for a moment before giving a small laugh and joining them as well, clearly deciding there was no reason for her to stay out of it now.
The atmosphere instantly became lively despite it still being early in the morning. Their playful bickering, cheerful voices, and the way everyone smiled at one another made the scene feel surprisingly warm. It was honestly one of those simple moments that reminded Kouhei how lucky he was to have everyone around him. Even Yuuna looked like she wanted to sigh at the chaos, although she was probably already used to seeing things like this happen.
"Alright, that’s enough with the kissing. We really have to get going now," Yuuna said, shaking her head with a small, amused smile. "We’ll see all of you tomorrow morning. Take care until then."
Everyone else said their goodbyes one after another, waving as the three prepared to leave.
With everything finally ready, Yuuna, Kouhei, and Aria climbed into the waiting car. After one last wave toward everyone standing outside, the vehicle slowly pulled away before picking up speed, heading straight toward the school, where the portal leading to Hell was waiting for them.