The Reincarnated Demon King Can’t Escape~ When I Reincarnated 1000 Years Later, My Yandere Heroines Were Waiting for Me~ - Chapter 11

The Tsundere Hero’s Declaration of War (2)

Let’s talk a little bit about the past.

A thousand years ago. My meeting with the Hero Clarissa.

Back then, humans and demons were still fighting each other.

Wherever there is a fight, people find a way to make money off it.

For humans, hunting demons was a huge business.

If you got the title of “Hero,” the country would pay you. You got a reward for killing one demon. You got fame for killing ten. You got land for killing a hundred. Being a Hero was a solid job where you would never go hungry, as long as you were good with a sword.

Because of that, most Heroes had absolutely no intention of defeating the Demon King. They would just hunt weak small-fry to get their rewards and keep putting off the final battle, saying, “I’ll defeat the Demon King someday.”

As long as the Demon King was alive and well, there would always be a demand for the Hero profession.

In other words—it was actually better for them if the Demon King stayed alive.

Among all of them, Clarissa was different.

She was seriously trying to defeat the Demon King. She had the skill, she had the results, and more than anything, she had the drive. She did not hunt demons for personal gain; she swung her sword out of a pure sense of justice to protect human beings.

I guess she was just in everyone else’s way.

The more Clarissa’s military achievements went up, the more the other Heroes panicked. If she actually went ahead and defeated the Demon King, the Hero business itself would come to an end. Their fountain of rewards would dry up.

One day, on her way back from a mission, she was surrounded.

The ones surrounding her were not demons. They were humans who held the exact same title of “Hero.”

They knew all about Clarissa’s good conscience.

No matter how strong the Hero Clarissa was, she could never point her sword at another human being.

There was no way a girl who had fought to protect humans could ever bring herself to cut one down.

They took full advantage of that kindness.

While a confused Clarissa stood there unable to fight back, a blade was thrust right into her from behind.

Getting killed by the very people you were supposed to protect. There was no bigger irony for a Hero than that.

I was the one who happened to find Clarissa as she lay dying in a pool of blood.

It was at the edge of the battlefield. A Hero with her blonde hair stained with blood and her armor completely shattered.

The weapon lying next to her was a human sword. It did not belong to a demon.

I understood the situation instantly.

So this is what humans do. They act way more like demons than actual demons.

The thought made me want to spit. It was not anger, just pure disgust.

I am the Demon King. I am the enemy of humanity.

But at the very least, I have never stabbed my own subordinates in the back for personal gain.

The dying Clarissa opened her eyes just a tiny bit.

The face of the Demon King, who was supposed to be her enemy, appeared in her blurry vision.

“If you have nowhere else to go, come with me.”

Clarissa rejected me on the spot. She said she would rather die than accept help from an enemy.

I did not care and picked her up anyway. Since she did not even have the energy to struggle, I carried her back to my castle and treated her wounds.

After she recovered, these were the very first words that came out of Clarissa’s mouth:

“Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m only staying until I pay back my debt. And—someday, I will defeat you.”

Ever since then, Clarissa kept declaring that she would defeat me every chance she got.

I heard it hundreds, even thousands of times. But she never carried it out even once. No matter how much I let my guard down—even if I turned my back to her, or if she had a perfect chance to cut my throat while I was sleeping—Clarissa never attacked me. It was completely all talk.

I noticed it halfway through.

Clarissa’s talk about “defeating me” was just her own stubborn pride. It was a painful excuse to justify the fact that she had betrayed humans to join the Demon King. “I am only here to defeat this man”—continuing to say that was probably the only way she could deal with the guilt of her betrayal.

By the way, because I shared my demon blood with her when we made our master-servant contract, Clarissa’s lifespan in her past life far exceeded that of a normal human.

Since she used every bit of those five hundred years to survive, and then followed me all the way into the future just to say she would defeat me, she really is quite a Hero.

Well, even if it is all talk.

—

And Clarissa—for the sake of her own honor, I will purposely call her Clara instead of the Hero Clarissa—has one secret that she cannot tell anyone.

This is how it got found out.

One day in our past life. Clara was making way more noise than usual, shouting things like “I’ll defeat you!” and “I hate you!” Since she was being way too loud, I decided to discipline her by smacking her on the rear half-joking.

A chastisement. A light punishment.

Clara said, “You’re the worst! You perverted Demon King!” and stomped off somewhere.

The very next day.

I don’t know what she was thinking, but Clara came right back and started repeating the exact same lines to me.

“I’m definitely going to defeat you today!” and “I totally hate someone like you!”

When I ignored her this time—

“Why aren’t you going to punish me?”

She had a totally obvious look of dissatisfaction on her face, as if she was demanding that I pay attention to her.

I held my head in my hands. This girl is a total closet masochist, isn’t she?

But the annoying part was that if I left her alone without punishing her, Clara’s performance would drop noticeably. Her sword strokes would get sloppy, her decisions would get slow, and her concentration would go all over the place. Since it affected the morale of my subordinates, I could not just leave her like that.

Maintaining the fighting power of the Demon King’s army depends entirely on my right hand. What am I even talking about?

Ever since then, I started giving her punishments every now and then.

The details stayed strictly within a wholesome range, but for some reason, the day after a punishment, Clara’s skin would look totally radiant, she would stand way closer to me, and she would be in a great mood.

When my subordinates said, “Clarissa looks like she’s in a great mood today,” she would hum a tune while replying, “Huh? I’m just acting normal?”

I don’t know if she was trying to hide it or not. It seemed like she honestly thought she was hiding it perfectly.

In other words, from some point onward—both “I’ll defeat you” and “I hate you” stopped being declarations of war.

They were her way of begging.

She would absolutely never admit it herself, but those words were her way of asking for attention. It worked on the exact same principle as a dog barking when it wants you to play with it.

Though that is the kind of comparison that would probably make Lyco mad if she heard it.

—

Clara still had her face buried in my chest. The grip of her arms did not loosen at all.

Just when I was starting to think the sun was going to go down like this—

With a loud clunk.

The student council room door swung open.

The door that was supposed to have a cognitive disruption spell on it was broken right through.

The ones who showed up were—silver and pitch-black.

Lycolegis and Asmeia.

Both of them had lost the highlights in their eyes.

Cognitive disruption does not work on opponents who are at the same level or stronger.

It was enough to keep ordinary students away, but it did not work on them.

Clara’s reaction was fast, just as expected.

The exact moment the door opened, she was already pulling away from my chest.

She took a step back, straightened her posture, and smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt with her hands. She fixed her hair, tucked in her chin, and put her hands on her hips. The standard position for the student council vice president. She stood there as if absolutely nothing had happened.

Time taken: one and a half seconds. An amazing opening move. The reflexes of a former Hero are no joke.

The only thing was, her face was bright red. She was blushing all the way to the tips of her ears.

Her cool-down time was catastrophically late.

Lyco’s amber eyes shot straight through Clarissa.

“Clara, your face is red.”

Short. Low. A statement of fact.

But the emotion carried in that voice was definitely not a routine check.

It was the classic yandere interrogation time for someone trying to steal a march.

“What were you doing?”

Asmeia also took a step forward. Her smile was terrifying.

“Would you mind explaining things to your big sister?”

Clarissa flinched for a split second—but she covered it up.

She straightened her posture, tucked in her chin, and ran a hand through her blonde hair.

“I was making a declaration to defeat the Demon King Erdrain. Don’t mind me.”

A magnificent answer. It was truly an excuse backed by five hundred years of experience.

Normally, neither Lyco nor Asmeia would show any mercy to anyone who talked about “defeating” me.

But—they had been together for a long time. It was a five-hundred-year relationship. Both of them knew exactly what her “defeating me” actually meant.

“Clara, that’s all talk.”

Lyco cut her right down. The way too blunt comment pierced right through her weak spot.

“Hmm, so you’re trying to get him to punish you again like that. What a naughty little Clara.”

Asmeia also followed up with a slice as sharp as a knife.

“Wha-What!? I’m not thinking about anything like that!?”

Clara’s voice cracked. It was probably echoing all the way down the hallway. If the cognitive disruption wasn’t working, that volume would have made every single passing student turn around.

“I am simply, as a Hero—making a proper declaration of war to the Demon King—I mean, well, you see—”

She stumbled over her words. Her eyes darted all over the place. Trying to push that excuse any further was just impossible.

Lyco silently grabbed Clarissa’s right arm.

Asmeia kept her smile as she took hold of her left arm.

“Wait… what are you…”

“We’re recovering the home-wrecking cat. You like punishments, don’t you?”

“Whaaaat!? I never said anything like that!? This is completely uncalled for!”

“Clara, that’s enough for today. Let’s go home together with your big sisters, okay? ♪”

Clara was dragged out into the hallway, practically held up by both sides. Her feet were tripping over each other. The former Hero was hauled away, sliding along without even being able to care that her school uniform skirt was getting messed up.

“Let go of me! I am the student council vice president, you know!? Treating me like this—”

“Let’s put the naughty vice president away now.”

“We have to take the girl who sneaked off back home to give her a good lesson ♪”

The backs of the three girls disappeared into the far end of the hallway. Only Clara’s protesting voice kept echoing back, but eventually, even that faded away, and everything went completely quiet.

…Clara, my condolences.