I Was Supposed to Be Feeding the Pigeons, But Somehow I Ended Up Feeding a Beautiful Demon Lord Instead - 17

Chapter 17

A few days had passed since I finished every last bite of Bel’s special porridge. My physical condition had reached the peak of my entire life.

I woke up in the morning feeling explosively refreshed. I didn’t just take the stairs two at a time—I skipped three steps each time. Even heavy bags of flour, I could lift with a single finger.

My skin glowed. My vision was crystal clear. The body that had won its battle against the virus now overflowed with almost excessive energy.

“…Being too healthy is kind of a problem in itself.”

I walked toward the park with light steps. The sky was perfectly clear today—the ideal weather for feeding pigeons. But despite my bouncy mood, there was one small thing bothering me.
It was Bel’s “overprotectiveness.”

Ever since the cold incident, the frequency of her worried comments had skyrocketed.

“Are you running a temperature?”

“Do you have an appetite?”

“Did you just cough?”

She sounded exactly like an anxious mother—or perhaps a very strict head nurse.

Even today’s park visit only happened because she had insisted with terrifying seriousness: “You must not push yourself under any circumstances. Even if you have to crawl, come.”

◆

At the deepest part of the park, Bel was sitting on our usual bench.

But today’s atmosphere around her felt completely different.

She wasn’t reading a paperback. She wasn’t playing with the pigeons.

Arms crossed, she waited for me with the grim, statue-like expression of a guardian deity.

“…So you’ve come, Kazuya.”

“Hello, Bel-san. As you can see, I’m completely recovered.”

I gave a small jump right there on the spot. A light, gravity-defying hop.

Look at this picture of health.

But Bel’s expression didn’t brighten.
She slowly scanned my whole body with narrowed eyes, then let out a deep sigh.

“…You’re too naive. Have you never heard of the term ‘relapse’?”

“No, really, I’m fine. If anything, I have too much energy.”

“That is exactly what makes it dangerous… ‘Relapse from the illness demon’ comes to take your life the moment you let your guard down. That buoyant way you walk looks to me like a march toward death.”

She was being way too dramatic.

In her mind, it seemed I was still being treated as a critically ill patient who had only just been discharged from the ICU.

“Enough. Sit down… I will not permit it today.”

“Huh? Permit what?”

“Feeding the pigeons. Moving around while standing is out of the question… You are ordered to observe absolute bed rest—here, today.”

Bel shifted to the edge of the bench and patted the empty space right beside her.

“Sit here. And… lie down.”

“Lie down… on the bench?”

“Correct… However, lying on a hard wooden board would surely hurt your body.”

Bel’s cheeks flushed slightly. Her eyes darted away as she muttered under her breath.

“…As a special exception… I will… become your pillow.”

She patted her own thighs a few times.
The legendary lap pillow.

“Eh—wait, no, that’s way too much…!”

“You do not have the right to refuse! This is… um… part of the treatment!”

Bel grabbed my arm forcefully and sat me down on the bench.

Then, with undeniable pressure, she began pushing my upper body backward.

I tried to resist, but there was no way an ordinary human could win against her strength.
In the end, I helplessly let my head rest on top of her thighs.

Pof.

The back of my head met… not just softness, but a surprisingly firm, resilient elasticity.

“…How is it? More comfortable?”

Her voice came from above.

In my upside-down field of vision, Bel’s face hovered. Beneath her hood, her cheeks were bright red as she looked down at me.

Very close. Close enough to feel her breath.

“Ah—thank you… But I feel kind of bad about this…”

“Don’t worry about it… As long as you get better, that’s enough.”

Bel placed her hand on my forehead as if checking my temperature.

Her palm felt pleasantly cool.

Somewhere in the background, I could swear the pigeons were glaring at us like “Ugh, look at these two showing off,” but I decided to ignore them.

However… after a few minutes, I started to notice something strange.

…It was hard.

Bel-san’s thighs were surprisingly firm.

Of course there was still the feminine softness, but beneath it, her muscles were tensed rock-solid.

She herself was probably extremely nervous.

The muscles of her thighs had contracted like stone, completely ruining any pillow function.
At this rate, it felt less like a high-resilience pillow and more like a literal wooden block.

Without thinking, I let my honest impression slip out.

“…Bel-san. Um… it’s a little hard.”

“!?”

Her whole body jerked violently.

A shockwave like an earthquake ran through my head.

“H-hard… you say…?”

“Ah—no! I don’t mean it in a bad way! I just thought maybe you’re so tense that your muscles are all stiff…”

Bel’s face steadily drained of color from shame and shock.

“Hard.”

That word might have just climbed into the top ranks of forbidden phrases you must never say to a woman.

“…My lap… is hard…? No… it can’t be…”

She muttered to herself, pupils dilated, staring blankly at the sky.

“…I failed. No matter the situation, I must provide perfect ‘comfort’…! At this rate I’ll damage Kazuya’s neck…!”

“No, you really don’t have to take it that seriously—”

“Wait. I will improve it immediately.”

A dangerous glint flashed in Bel’s eyes.

Vrrrrrm!

With a low humming sound, magical light began pouring from her thighs.

“W-wait, Bel-san!? Magic here!?”

“Be quiet… Parameter adjustment. Increase muscle fiber flexibility by 300%. Reconstruct subcutaneous fat thickness down to the millimeter. Set resilience coefficient to top-grade down comforter level…!”

Right under the back of my head, a geological event that ignored the laws of physics took place.
The rock-hard thighs rippled and transformed, gently expanding with a soft whoosh.

“…There. How is it now, Kazuya?”

I cautiously rested my head again.

Munyuuu…

“…!”

It sank.

Like bottomless quicksand, yet tenderly enveloping me—my head slowly submerged into her thighs.

Soft.
And not just soft.

There was perfect resilient pushback, fitting the curve of my neck flawlessly.

This was… a divine realm of low-resilience material that humanity could never hope to achieve.

“…Incredible. It feels like I’m lying on a cloud.”

“Fufu. Of course. I applied the cutting-edge biotechnology of the demon world.”

Bel gave a proud little snort.

The level of magical overkill here was insane, but I had to respect her sheer determination.
Or rather… she went this far just to let me sleep?

“…Now you have no complaints. Go on, sleep.”

Bel gently placed her hand over my eyes.

My vision darkened. A pleasant darkness wrapped around me.

The ultimate pillow, gentle sunlight, and Bel’s body warmth.

With all these conditions met, there was no way I could stay awake.

“…Good night, Bel-san.”

“Mm… Sweet dreams.”

My consciousness quickly melted into drowsiness.

The last thing I felt was the gentle sensation of Bel’s fingers combing through my hair, and her quiet, heavy murmur:

“…I will never let you go again.”

◆

About an hour later.

Deep in the park bushes, two shadows were whispering to each other.

One was Zest, the silver-haired woman in a suit.

The other was her subordinate, the Orc General.

“…Did you see that, Lady Zest?”

“Yes. I saw it clearly.”

Through binoculars, the two were watching Kazuya sleeping soundly on the bench, and the Demon King Verzaria gazing down at him with an expression full of tender affection—and unmistakable possessiveness.

They were completely in “their own little world.”

Bel had unconsciously deployed a barrier around them; not even pigeons could approach within a five-meter radius.

“Sleeping so happily on the Demon King’s lap… It’s enviable… It’s outrageous!”

The Orc General grumbled while glaring.

“For the Demon King to open her heart to this extent… And to even modify her own body with magic just to protect Kazuya-dono’s peaceful sleep…”

Zest adjusted her glasses and let out an admiring sigh.

“As expected, Kazuya-dono possesses a ‘demonic charm’ far beyond our imagination… With such a defenseless sleeping face, he has completely wrapped the ruler of the demon world around his finger.”

“Amazing…”

“Yes. I’m starting to feel that, in order to protect the time those two share, I wouldn’t mind destroying one or two worlds… No, that was just a figure of speech.”

◆

I woke up when the sun had already started to slant low.
When I sat up, Bel subtly shifted her legs—probably numb—and looked at me without changing her expression.

“…Awake?”

“Yes. Sorry, I slept really deeply… Your legs aren’t numb? And it’s already this late…”

“It’s fine. I took the day off. Besides, my body is sturdy.”

That was a lie.
When she stood up, I didn’t miss the tiny moment when her face twisted with a soft “kgh.”
She had supported an adult man’s head for hours. It would have been strange if her blood circulation hadn’t been cut off.

“Thank you, Bel-san. Thanks to you, I’m completely rested.”

“…Good… Then, um… again…”

Bel mumbled hesitantly, then looked straight at me as if she had made up her mind.

“If you ever feel tired again, tell me. …This pillow is reserved exclusively for you.”

“Exclusive… haha, I’m honored.”

We left the park dyed in the colors of sunset.
On the walk home, my body felt light—but more than that, my heart felt warm.

Bel’s awkward kindness might have been the strongest nourishment of all.

Though I had no way of knowing that, starting the very next day, Bel would begin mobilizing estheticians under the name of “thigh maintenance” to obsessively care for them.