I’d Rather Be Healed by a Pure-Hearted, Beautiful Demon Lord Than by a Yandere Saintess! ~Even if I Run Away, the Yandere Saintess Keeps Coming After Me. If I Get Caught, It Seems Like I’ll Be Forced Into an Engagement!?~ - Chapter 16 & 17

The Mastermind Behind the Demon King’s Army

“Throw them into the dungeon!”

“Yes! …Or so I’d like to say, but Your Majesty, half of them are throwing tantrums about their ‘tea getting cold’…”

“Mmm… Then lock them in an empty room somewhere. Give them some tea cakes too.”

The “battle” with the advance party ended in a crushing victory for the Demon King’s army. Crushing victory, that was—more like the enemy had self-destructed on their own…

The captured Holy Knights were hauled back to the castle by Borgannon and the others, but their appearances were utterly pitiful.

Some were caked in slime mucus, others were covered in feathers and sweet scents with vacant eyes and blissful smiles, and yet others muttered, “When’s the next round of scones coming?”

They bore no resemblance whatsoever to the famed elite Holy Knights.

Amid all that, the only one who had kept his wits about him—the knight commander with the splendid mustache—was dragged before Lady Lucilphia.

He desperately tried to maintain his dignity, but having lost one boot and with a single pink feather stuck in his prized mustache, he exuded none at all.

“Well then, human. What is your name?”

Lady Lucilphia asked intimidatingly from her throne.

“…I am Gideon Folk, captain of the Third Company of the Holy Knights. Demon King, no matter how many despicable traps you used, we will never abandon our pride!”

“Hoh, you have spirit. I’ll get straight to the point. Why did you invade my territory?”

A flame of anger flared in Captain Gideon’s eyes. He glared at me and shouted.

“Isn’t it obvious! To free that poor soul over there, Lord Yukina, from your demonic curse! We came at the command of Saint Erixia to rescue the captive and deliver him!”

…Huh?

The throne room fell into a momentary silence.

The executives exchanged glances, I tilted my head in confusion, and Lady Lucilphia looked back and forth between me and Captain Gideon with a baffled expression.

“…The captive Yukina?”

“That’s right! You forcibly dragged him into this castle and brainwashed him with your evil magic! But as long as the Holy Knights stand, we won’t let you!”

That was when Captain Gideon declared it, burning with a sense of justice.

I happened to be carrying freshly brewed tea for Lady Lucilphia, who had just said she was thirsty.

“Lady Lucilphia, your tea is ready. Be careful not to burn yourself.”

“Yes, how thoughtful of you, Yukina.”

I naturally offered the tea, and Lady Lucilphia accepted it. Captain Gideon, witnessing the scene, gaped and froze.

“…Eh?”

His gaze darted back and forth between me and Lady Lucilphia multiple times.

There I stood, the picture of health in clean clothes, brewing tea with care for my lord.

No matter how you looked at it, I did not appear to be a “poor captive soul.”

“Wh… Wh… Brainwashed…? Cursed and controlled…?”

“No, nothing of the sort. I’m here of my own free will.”

As I answered with a smile, Captain Gideon’s face rapidly paled.

“Th-That can’t be… Then, those utterly insane traps in the forest…!? Who devised that devilish scheme that shredded the pride and dignity of my Holy Knights!”

In response to his anguished cry, Borgannon puffed out his chest proudly.

“Fuhahaha! Glad you asked! The brilliant victory that led us there, every last bit of that grand strategy—it was all devised by our proud grand marshal, Lord Yukina himself!”

“”””Wha–!?””””

Captain Gideon and the knights present harmonized in stunned exclamation. Every gaze pierced me as I held my teacup.

“Th-That… Impossible…”

Captain Gideon wore an expression of utter despair, as if the world had ended.

“You…? All those insidious, demonic, cunning traps that make one question humanity…? You weren’t a captive saint after all…!? You’re the mastermind behind the Demon King’s army…!?”

The man he thought was the rescue target had been the very one who hurled them into hell.

One could only imagine his turmoil.

I could only muster a strained smile. The misunderstanding had finally spread to the enemy ranks. There was no taking it back now.

Lady Lucilphia paid no heed to Captain Gideon’s despair and nodded in satisfaction.

“Indeed. Yukina is my sharpest blade.”

She took a sip of tea and looked up at me with sparkling eyes.

“Well, Yukina. We repelled the advance party handily, but the real threat is yet to come. Saint Erixia herself will appear soon. …You’ve already thought up the next plan, haven’t you?”

At those words, the expectant and awed gazes of everyone in the throne room—Lady Lucilphia, the executives, and even the captives teetering on the brink of despair—focused once more on me alone.

(The next plan!? As if I have one!)

Grandpa’s handed-down pest control measures were all tapped out.

A sharp pain stabbed through my stomach.

This situation, where the Demon King, her subordinates, and even the enemy saw me as a “formidable grand marshal.”

I was just an ordinary villager who had fled from the Saint. What do I do now!?

No one in the castle understood my anguish.

**

The Saint’s Miscalculation, Reaffirmation of Twisted Love

Saint Erixia waited quietly for that moment inside the lavish tent she had set up at the border of the Demon King’s territory.

With her fingertips, she embroidered the name of her beloved one letter at a time onto pure white silk with golden thread.

“YUKINA.”

Her heart brimmed with the anticipation of victory.

Her stalwart Holy Knights. By now, their advance party would be purifying the monster-infested forest and prying open the gates of the Demon King’s castle.

All that remained was for her to charge in at the perfect moment, slay the evil Demon King, and rescue her captive lover.

(Ah, what a dramatic reunion it will be. Surely Yukina will weep tears of joy in my arms!)

As Erixia immersed herself in such sweet imaginings, hurried footsteps approached from outside the tent.

“Report! The scouts have recovered one survivor from the advance party!”

“Oh my.”

Erixia paused her embroidery and summoned a flawless smile.

“Let him in. We shall hear the report on our victory.”

The one who tumbled into the tent was a single young knight.

But his appearance was far removed from Erixia’s expectations. His armor was smeared with mud and some mysterious mucus, feathers clung to his hair, and his eyes stared vacantly.

A faint, sweet aroma of tea and scones wafted from his entire body.

“…What in the world happened? What is that wretched state you’re in?”

Erixia’s voice remained gentle, but the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

The knight began his disjointed report, trembling all the while.

“S-Saint… The forest… The forest is strange…”

“Strange how?”

“The ground… it slips and slides… or sticks and traps the feet… Even Captain Gideon fell three times…”

“…Pardon?”

“Fall into a pit, and it’s a hell of feathers… The sweet scent clouds the mind, and comrades one after another drift off to sleep with happy faces…”

“…………”

“And the tea party… it never ends, the tea party… Beautiful girls, with tea and scones, endlessly…”

Upon hearing the report to its end, Erixia maintained her flawless smile as she snapped the embroidery needle in her hand clean in two.

(Slippery? Feathers? A tea party?)

The report sounded like nothing so much as childish pranks, fitting neither military strategy nor tactics.

Under normal circumstances, one might question the subordinate’s mental state. But Erixia’s thoughts followed circuits unlike those of ordinary people.

At that moment, the knight uttered the final, and most crucial, piece of information.

“And… just before Captain Gideon was taken captive, he confirmed… The one who devised this devilish scheme that could only be the work of demons… was none other than Lord Yukina himself, who is supposed to be imprisoned by the Demon King’s army…!”

A profound silence fell over the tent.

The knight, convinced he had touched the saint’s ire, bowed his head like a condemned man awaiting death.

But a few seconds later.

What escaped Erixia’s lips was not anger, but a rapturous sigh.

“…Ah, yes. So that’s how it is…”

A brilliant flash of insight raced through Erixia’s mind, like puzzle pieces slotting into place.

(A sticky floor? A feather pit? A tea party? …How childish and kind these traps are.)

He had not killed a single one of her knights.

He had not even wounded them, merely sought to delay them. How merciful. What a gentle soul he must have.

(That’s it…! This is no betrayal!)

Erixia understood everything.

This was a message from him.

A desperate SOS from him.

(“Erixia, look. The Demon King’s army can only resort to these childish tricks; they’re not truly frightening people. So please, no needless killing. Just come save me”…! That’s what you mean, isn’t it, my Yukina!)

What noble spirit. He worried even for his monstrous enemies and indirectly urged her to minimize harm.

And that little girl—the Demon King—must have forced him into it. Compelled him to carry out this ridiculous plan.

(Ah, my Yukina. How pitiful… That filthy Demon King is exploiting your pure heart.)

Erixia’s misunderstanding solidified into certainty.

Her affection for him, now laced with pity and a fierce protectiveness, blazed even hotter. And all that love transmuted into pure murderous intent directed at the Demon King.

“…I understand. Everything you mean to say.”

Erixia rose quietly. Her eyes gleamed with a divine light bordering on fanaticism.

“My Yukina. I have received your gentle test loud and clear.”

She stepped out of the tent and declared to the remaining knights.

“Everyone, do not falter. The sacrifice of our advance party has shown us the path forward. That was a desperate message from our captive Lord Yukina himself.”

“”””Ooooooh!!””””

“Now, prepare to advance. From this moment, Saint Erixia herself will lead from the front.”

She stared straight into the miasma-shrouded forest of the Demon King’s territory.

“Yukina, wait for me. I’ll end this foolish charade right now. I’ll purify that monstrous little girl who made you suffer until not a trace remains… And I will surely come to save you♡”

Thus, the saint’s love, a million light-years removed from Yukina’s intentions, twisted and surged with powerful resolve toward the final battle.