"We demons can be friends with humans. But we can't coexist with humans!
　The former demon king with eyes more compassionate than anyone else's.　
　The young man, who to Rinoa had the impression of being a sweet and gentle grandfather to her grandchildren, had at some point come to speak that way as if it were a habit.
　Even though he had turned into a scary face, Rinoa could still recall his gentle smile first and foremost in her mind.

　It was more than two thousand years in the past now.
　When the Yorno Forest was still a small forest and a territory owned by a certain nobleman, the demon tribe was trying to unite in front of a single being.
　Sometimes it was their own kind, sometimes it was foreign enemies, sometimes it was human beings, but the demons who had spent long years and experienced various battles had evolved their bodies, and all those who became demons were proud and confident in their own power.
　Therefore, it was impossible for them to be clothed under someone else.
　This is because each of them only saw their own kindred as prey for their own sustenance.
　Of course, they don't even recognize the fictitious status of a nobleman. The only thing that existed was an order of the law of the jungle, backed by immense power.

　But even such a demon tribe is ridiculous to challenge a fight, to the point that it seems so

　It's overwhelming.

　Absolute.

　The owner of the power had been born again.

　The first and only Demon King, Range Sinohara, was said to be a boy with a divine single horn and twin eyes that burned like a blazing fire.
　To Rinoa, he was a grandfather, but he was only a young man with a fresh skin on his face.

　Drawn by his power, high-ranking demons built an order, and little by little, demons living by instinct, demons, demons clans, and nations came to be united.
　However, the gathering of too much power gave the multispecies a sense of crisis.
　In particular, the impact on the humans who practically ruled the continent was immeasurable.
　It is said that even a single demon tribe can cause a city or even a nation to respond to a single demon tribe, but now they are uniting to form a nation.
　Countries began to become impatient with this trend.
　The war between nations stopped in an instant, and cooperation was built across multiple tribes, which is inevitable but ironic.

　However, the demon tribe still maintained a neutral diplomacy, not siding with any one country in wars or fighting for supremacy. They would build a place where they could live normally, peacefully, and simply in peace. It's not hard to imagine how difficult that would be, but that was the kind of person Rinoa knew as a range.
　Humanity would maintain cooperation in each country and create an equilibrium against the demon race.
　There was a time when such a dangerous balance was barely maintained.
　However, that stability, like a board on a needle, was quickly shattered by the emergence of an entity.

　The religion of the Election of God, a religion that spread across the continent in the blink of an eye.
　The belief was that God's chosen beings were human beings, and the proof of this was that we had a certain intelligence.
　The demons were an extension of the demons and their ugly, man-eating, unreasonable forms were their evil nature, they said.
　Their words were stolen from men, and their power was taken from God and man.
　How dare they deceive, Rinoa thought.　
　The demons are in a daily struggle for their own lives, and this is the power they have gained from that struggle. Hence, they are proud of it. The teachings of the Election Religion were too much to enrage the demon race.

　Human supremacy.
　To say it was a baseless delusion would be an understatement, but their teachings of imposing insecurity on the demon race and favoring people were easily spread to humans.
　Many countries embraced such a religion, imposing all the reasons for misrule, poverty, and exploitation on a convenient existence.
　In this way, the demon race and humans became incompatible.
　In the background of such a religion's power, there was one person, a brave man.
　The elective religion half-heartedly designated the young man who had appeared at some point in time as a brave man.
　It was never binding, and as the hope of the people - they only feted the hero on the front stage. At some point, people naturally began to speak the word hero.
　Its immense power was sometimes directed at the demons that attacked the villages, or to save the village girls, or to protect the nation. Such small good deeds have been forced to intervene in quarrels with the demon tribe.
　The small conflicts created a chain of hatred and bound the brave men's power.
　At some point, the war spread around the heroes and the demon king, and many people were trapped in misery.

　To Rinoa, the human was the avenger of her grandfather and parents, a coward who had distorted the way of power that was the pride of the demon race.
　Suffering defeat by such an existence, losing his kind grandfather, losing his parents, depriving him of his territory, and not being strong enough to do so, were all sublimated into hatred.
　Such hatred gave him a reason to take revenge.
　The ideal of a place where the demon race could live in peace, which my grandfather who was once kind to me, is now being created, and that was the reason for my revenge.



'The brave Lord had a beloved. That girl who worked in the small church - the one she tried to protect was the most important thing to him, and that's why he fought against his grandfather.
　Crying and hugging Sakura, Rinoa continued to talk about the past after a few moments of calm. Nacht just kept listening to Rinoa's words as she talked about the past, sometimes happily, sometimes sadly, sometimes resentfully.

　Before he knew it, his tone was not vain and cocky, nor was it that of a child of his age, but rather he spoke like a well-educated nobleman.
　The impression was so different that Nacht felt uncomfortable with the girl who shunned him.

''Hero-sama?''
　Why do you want to designate an enemy, a grudge enemy that you may hate the most? Nacht asks Rinoa, "The hero and the demon king were friends in battle.

It's a good thing that you have a good idea of what you're talking about. They often fought each other, but they also drank wine with each other. They clashed, or rather, I think the main reason they had to clash was the ego of the people. Of course, I think that it was our fault, as noblemen, that the demons were not well governed.
　Nacht couldn't endure the uncomfortable feeling while listening to Rinoa's explanation.
　It's a very good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for.

'Will you stop using that tone of voice?　I'm getting a little chills...　

'What!　Excuse me!　You beat me, and I'm talking to you like this, all washed up and polite!
　That being said, the sassy girl was going to be out of tune if she was suddenly mature.
　After all, the tone here was more comfortable.

It's a good thing that you're not the only one. He took care of me and gave me a cherry tree for my fifteenth birthday. Did he give me my equipment when I was about 20 years old?　I refrained from doing so because it was expensive - I'm pretty sure he gave me a lot of stuff, saying he'd be more grateful to use it than to fertilize the warehouse or something. That's just a lot of stuff.
　Rinoa said, her cheeks loosening slightly as she remembered the old days.

''I see--''
　The Demon King Shinohara Range was undoubtedly Japanese, and like Nahat, he was probably a Real World Online player. However, Nahato can't even guess which one it was, given the fact that he mentions a real (real) name.
　But at least it wouldn't be Gil-In.
　There are only two members of the Otherworld Café (Outer Cafeteria) who are demons. One is Toru's main character and the other is a lazy efficiency guy. Although I say this, I can't help but think he's not the kind of person who wishes for peace.

''They say the Demon King was defeated by the brave, but do the brave still exist?''
　If there are brave men who have triumphed over the Demon King, then they might be a threat to Nacht.
　That's what I asked Rinoa, but she opened her mouth with a blink of an eye.

'No way. There's no way a human could live for thousands of years. It's been more than two thousand years since I was put to sleep, so I'm long gone. The reason why he asked my grandfather to fight me one-on-one is because I'm sure that if he died, no human would be able to compete with us. I'm rather unexpected to have a being like you!　That's a foul, you're....
　Thinking back, I had the impression that Rinoa was a child from the beginning.
　Rinoa probably didn't even expect to be defeated. That's why he forgot about the preparations for battle and gave himself over to hatred and went for revenge.

　On the other hand, Nacht was certainly unexpected.
　Nacht once again realized that there were once people like Nacht in this world as well.
　He could also learn of the equipment that that person had left behind, and that the cherry blossoms still existed like this today.
　Nacht thought that he had personally achieved a satisfactory outcome.
　And then he suddenly looked at Sakura, who had lost one arm.

Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
　Nacht took out two advanced recovery potions (high potions) from storage and sprinkled them on Rinoa's hand and Sakura's arm.
　Then particles of light gathered, and Rinoa's wound and Sakura's arm were enveloped in light.
　It wouldn't take more than a second.
　Their wounds had disappeared as if they had never existed.


　Even Sakura's arm, which was missing parts, had returned to normal after being exposed to the light.
　Of course, from the common sense of this world, that is an impossible event, but in the common sense of the game era, it can be said to be a matter of course.

''Magic doll, I believe it's officially called a magic control doll (automata)?　Well, of course recovery works for NPCs too, so they'll be affected by the recovery potion (potions).
　Even though he had lost one arm, he would certainly still have more than half of his HP left.
　The effect of the Primordial Deep Darkness (Darkness)'s special ability of sustained damage to targets in close proximity had now been elevated to an automatic and flexible interception ability to attack the enemy. But no matter how good the equipment of the ancient class (Ancient Class (Ancient)) was, a mere sustained damage would still be able to shave off 20% per minute when the target was a fifty level opponent.
　When he tore off his arm in an instant, it was obvious that it was much enhanced, just like Nacht's skills (skills). It is a piece of equipment that has many weaknesses in return for its powerful effects, but Nahat had grown attached to this extremely attack-focused equipment. He shook his head that it was too dreamy to think that such an attachment was reciprocated.

''Thank you.''
　With that, Sakura bowed her head.　
　Was it to Nacht, who had healed her own arm, or to Nacht for letting the Lord's life go unnoticed?
　At the very least, Sakura's eyes had a clear intention in them.
　Nacht couldn't say that it was an NPC.
　If anything, it was closer to a person with a heart.
　As he was chewing on such a change with pleasure, Rinoa looked straight at Nacht.

''I lose........do what you want.......''

Hmm?　But my purpose has already been accomplished. What more do you want from me, though?
　Nacht says it as a matter of course, but Rinoa's expression twists as if she doesn't understand what it means.

''Huh?　Are you sure?　What did I miss?　You know what you might do to the humans again?
　My grandfather used to say that you can't coexist with humans.
　I thought so too. We can never get along with those trash who justified everything from deception to annihilationist warfare in a matter-of-fact manner, calling us evil!
　If you don't do something about me here, you could be in big trouble later, okay?

　Rinoa said so, but Nacht's concerns were different.
　She didn't avoid or prevent Nacht's magic during the battle - she slashed it.
　It was a skill that Nacht's main character had excelled in during the game's time.
　That was why, when this girl grew up in the future, she could become Nacht's natural enemy.
　That was one of Nacht's concerns, and he wasn't really interested in what she would do in the future.

'If you say you hate humans, I won't stop you. If you mean to start a fight, that's fine too. This time it was just an accidental entry into the fray on my whim. I have no intention of taking the side of the people. War is the way of the world. Sometimes we are caught up in hatred. And there are things we cannot compromise on. But when you have to do something, remember slowly what's important to you.
　Rinoa laughed a little bit at Nacht's voice, which was all over the place, and Nacht's voice was so supercilious.

''Well I think I understand a little bit of the meaning of your grandfather's words--''
　As soon as the girl said that, a strange change occurred in the northern sky.
　The huge body that seemed to steal the light of the sky could be reflected in the eyes from this forest several tens of kilometers away. It was a sign of nostalgia, even a sign of nostalgia.
　Nacht's perception had detected it before anyone else.

''--Hey--you wouldn't say that was your secret weapon, would you?
　Rinoa was stunned by Nacht's words and shook her head as if she had suddenly come to herself.

''.........No way, no matter how much I say I'm a demon race, there's no way I can control that thing.......... ...

'I'm sorry, but we don't seem to have time for fluent conversation.
　Nacht removed the curse tool from his own arm.

'Nah...'
　Seeing Nacht's increasingly intimidated Nacht, Rinoa made a barefaced noise.
　But Nacht didn't respond to that.
　Nacht was after already running with a small uneasiness in its chest.
　Even the sound of crushing air was on its back, and Nacht ran out at a glance.