I Was Supposed to Be Feeding the Pigeons, But Somehow I Ended Up Feeding a Beautiful Demon Lord Instead - 24

Chapter 24

We left the crowds behind and sat down on the riverbank embankment. From here, the noise of the festival grounds sounded only like distant waves. Next to me sat Bel, hugging the giant bear plush she had won at the shooting gallery earlier. She stared up at the night sky with the kind of serious look someone might give their sworn enemy.

“…It’s coming.”

The moment Bel whispered that, a whirring *hyurururu* sound rose through the darkness, and light exploded overhead.

*BOOM!* A deep bass that thumped in the gut. Brilliant specks of color spread across the entire field of vision. Golden sparks hung down like willow branches, reflected and swaying on the river surface.

“Wow…”

Bel caught her breath. Tiny fireworks bloomed inside her eyes too.

“This is… different from magic. I don’t sense any magical structure.”

“It’s gunpowder. They burn metal powder to make the colors.”

“Gunpowder… That mere humans can control such intense heat.”

Still gripping the bear’s head tightly, she pointed at the night sky.

“It’s so fleeting.”

“Yeah. It disappears in an instant.”

“It’s just like life.”

All of a sudden she started saying something poetic. Probably because the stress from her government job had worn her down and put her in a sentimental mood. I opened a bottle of ramune and gave a casual nod.

“Well, maybe it’s beautiful precisely because it’s so short?”

“…Maybe so.”

Bel lifted the ramune bottle to her lips and let the marble inside clink. Then she began to speak quietly.

“Kazuya. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”

Her voice carried a deep heaviness, completely at odds with the lively festival atmosphere.

“This world has grown just a little too old.”

“Ah, I get that.”

I answered right away. The royal capital’s streets had charm, but the infrastructure was falling apart. The sewers clogged constantly, the roads were narrow and barely let carriages pass each other, and the stone buildings looked questionable when it came to earthquake resistance.

“It really is starting to show its age everywhere.”

“Indeed. It’s stagnant, rotting, warped beyond any hope of salvation.”

“Right. The city planning is a total mess, and sanitation issues are piling up like crazy.”

Bel turned toward me with a dead-serious expression.

“That’s why… I once thought of leveling everything to bare ground.”

“Bare ground?”

“Yes. Burn it all down, reduce it to nothing… and from there build a new order. I believed that was my mission.”

I see. So she was talking about a massive redevelopment project. Typical for someone working at the royal castle—the scale of her thinking was on another level. Whether to preserve the old townscape or go for convenience with scrap-and-build. It was the same debate that happened all the time in modern Japan.

“That’s a bold plan. But I’m in favor.”

When I said that, Bel’s eyes widened.

“You’re… in favor?”

“Yeah. Sure, old things have value, but there’s a limit, right? Resetting once to create a more livable environment seems necessary for the future.”

From a disaster-prevention standpoint, widening roads and rebuilding with fire-resistant structures was essential. Bel looked at me as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Kazuya… you…”

Her voice trembled.

“Are you saying… you also wish for the end of this rotten world?”

“Not the end so much as a refresh. For a better way of living.”

“Renewal…”

Bel rolled the word around in her mouth, then her expression softened. It was the calmest, most peaceful smile I had ever seen from her—like something that had been possessing her had finally left.

“I see. So you were looking at the same view I was.”

“Well, once you live here long enough, the inconvenient parts become pretty obvious.”

“Heh… Ahahaha!”

Suddenly Bel burst out laughing. Her bright, clear laughter rivaled the star mine exploding in the night sky.

“Outstanding! I never imagined there would be a human who would affirm my vision!”

She laughed so hard that tears gathered in her eyes, then slapped my shoulder with a loud *bang*.

“I like you, Kazuya! In that case, I won’t hesitate anymore. The ‘livable new world’ you want… I’ll take full responsibility and create it for you!”

“Oh, that’s reassuring. Looking forward to it.”

I was genuinely impressed by how dedicated she was to her work. If anyone could do it, Bel surely would turn this royal capital into a modern, barrier-free city. In high spirits, she finished off the ramune and held the empty bottle up toward the night sky.

“Look, Kazuya. Just like those fireworks… the old order bursts apart, and new light fills the dark night.”

“Yeah. …Oh, that willow one just now was really pretty.”

“Mm. Even flames of destruction can be art, depending on how you look at them.”

We sat side by side, gazing up at the fireworks that kept rising one after another.

In the light that lit her profile, Bel looked so happy that I thought it was fine just like this.

◆

On the way home. The crowds had passed their peak, and the unique loneliness that comes at the end of a festival hung in the air. Bel walked half a step behind me, carefully cradling the bear plush.

“Kazuya.”

“Yes?”

“…Today wasn’t bad.”

She muttered it quietly. The sleeve of her yukata swayed in the breeze.

“That secret to the shooting game… the part about ‘aiming carefully and knocking it down.’”

“Yeah, you really got the hang of it.”

“Mm. Could that… also be used when trying to make a man fall?”

“Huh?”

I turned around. Bel was hiding her mouth behind the bear’s face and looking up at me through her lashes.

“N-no, never mind! Just talking to myself! Forget I said anything!”

She quickly turned her face away and started walking fast. The sound of her geta clacked *clack-clack* along the path. Her ears were bright red all the way to the tips—probably just the light from the festival lanterns.

“…Make a man fall, huh.”

Was she talking about physically shooting a guy down using shooting-gallery technique? If so, any man in her sights would be in serious trouble. While I was thinking such carefree thoughts, I hurried to catch up with her back.