88 – The Child Who is More Horrifying Than the Demon King…….

Nepon—her real name was Nemoto, if I remembered right. She always used to put herself down, saying “I’m the mobbiest of mobs,” repeating the word “mob” over and over. In that case, the nickname “Nemo” fit her.

“I… I wouldn’t taste good even if you ate me… and I don’t think it would feel good if you assaulted me either…”

From the way she was trembling, she must have overheard the guards’ rumors about me. She was completely convinced I was the Demon King. But contrary to the rumors, I actually couldn’t use much real magic at all and that’s probably why people mocked me as the “stupid prince.”

I wasn’t a Demon King so much as a King of Strength.

I gripped the iron bars of the cell holding Nemo. The moment I touched them, I felt a little dumber—but as the “stupid prince,” that was no problem for me.

They must have mixed anti-magic stone into the bars to keep magical prisoners from breaking them with spells.

I wrapped both arms around two bars and moved to tear them apart. At the gym, I’d used a butterfly machine to train my pecs efficiently by pressing inward, but there was no machine to train the opposite motion—pulling outward.

So, anticipating just such a situation, I’d taken discarded iron bars and trained my lats by practicing spreading my arms wide.

Giii—!

Crrrack, crack, crack!!!

“Eeeeeek!?”

The bars let out a scream-like groan, then snapped under the force of my pull. Thinking I was about to do something horrible to her, Nemo let out a scream like Munch’s The Scream.

She was that terrified of me…

Maybe I shouldn’t have used my hands at all?

If I went through my full workout routine, the heat radiating from my body would melt the bars without even touching them, but if Nemo got caught in it and melted too, that would defeat the purpose.

“I-I-I’ll do anything, please just spare my life… there’s someone I absolutely have to see…”

Once inside the cell, Nemo scrambled into the corner, making herself small, but now she was looking me straight in the eyes.

“Someone you absolutely have to see?”

Could she mean Ares?

According to Megumi, Nemo had been doted on by Ares, but Ookin had later told me Ares cheated with Yokota and betrayed her.

What a pitiful girl.

To be bullied by classmates and then have your boyfriend stolen away by one of them…

Having had my own girlfriend stolen before, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Nemo. But then she said something unexpected:

“Yes! I want to properly meet Megumi-chan… and apologize to her. Megumi-chan made me a Saint, but I couldn’t do anything. No, not just that, I helped create the situation where Yokota could do whatever she wanted.”

“Oh… so you’d choose friendship over your boyfriend.”

“I don’t really understand… but Megumi-chan is my precious, precious friend!”

Her words struck my chest with a crash like the wrecking ball of an old crane smashing into me.

Ahh… this feeling I’d forgotten.

I don’t think getting older makes you numb exactly, but something about this—this fierce, high-school-girl kind of friendship—made my eyes sting.

“Your admirable resolve… it moves me… I…”

“The Demon King… is crying?”

“I am not crying! At any rate, there’s no time to sit in a place like this. We’re going to see Megumi right now.”

“D-Demon King-sama, what are you…!? You know Megumi-chan?”

Know her? I knew Megumi far better than Nemo did.

Because she’d been my little sister in my previous life.

“Nemo, I understand you’re Megumi’s soul friend. I’m her soul friend too.”

“N-Ne…mo??? Soul friend??? Demon King-sama, what are you talking about…”

“We can talk later. If we dawdle, Megumi will be in danger.”

“Megumi-chan!?”

Strictly speaking, it was the girls who’d picked a fight with Megumi who were in danger…

Nemo probably didn’t know.

Back when Megumi was in first grade, she’d been on rabbit-care duty for the class pet. Some jealous girls and boys frustrated that she ignored them had banded together and done something awful.

When Megumi came to school one morning, planning to greet the rabbit, she found it dead, horribly mutilated in its hutch.

The teacher and other staff tried to dismiss it as the work of a stray dog, but Megumi, like a certain famous “child detective with an adult’s brain” quickly deduced the real culprits. (TL: detective Conan)

I thought she’d report them to the teachers, but she didn’t.

And then something strange began to happen.

One after another, the students involved in the rabbit incident transferred to other schools, and some even went missing. Teachers and parents called it “the rabbit’s curse” and imposed a gag order so no one would talk about it.

Megumi never exploded in anger. But whenever something precious to her was hurt, something inexplicable always happened to the ones responsible.

“Let’s go, Nemo! Hold on to me tight! If you let go, you’ll fall straight down!”

“Y-Yes. W-wait, under your clothes I couldn’t tell but… what a powerful body! And even though you’re holding me so firmly, it’s not suffocating at all. Your touch is so gentle it’s almost soothing… D-Demon King-sama…♡”

She was muttering something in my arms, but she was probably just excited at the thought of seeing Megumi again.

According to Megumi, the girls had bullied Nemo because they were afraid of her awakening. But I thought her glasses-girl look would be a perfect hit for guys who liked that type.

“Here we go—Rabbit Uppercut!!!”

According to the map Ookin had given me, the throne room was directly above the dungeon. So without a moment’s delay, I crouched.

Cradling Nemo in my left arm, I drove my right fist upward. Releasing the energy stored in my crouched muscles, I blasted through layer after layer of ceiling, so much momentum that I even overshot the throne room…