The Immortal Queen Cannot Escape the Lies and Obsession of the Demon — Not That She Wants To - Chapter 05

“You seem well.”

The night was quiet, as if the commotion of the coronation had been a lie. The boy appeared before Ariana once more.

However, since he had appeared silently and spoken to her in her darkened, solitary private chamber just before she went to sleep, she was utterly startled.

Flustered, she sat bolt upright, feeling ashamed of her reaction. Kneeling on the bed with both knees, she bowed her head deeply.

“Um… thank you for saving me. My God.”

The boy floating in the air gasped softly, then burst out laughing.

“…Ahahahaha! I had no idea humans called demons ‘God’.”

“…De…mons?”

Demons. The threat to humanity that Ariana’s grandparents had exterminated from the kingdom.

Timidly raising her bowed head, she saw the demon boy wearing a mocking, amused smile.

“That’s right. What’s in front of you isn’t any god. It’s a demon, one of the creatures your kind found filthy and slaughtered. How does it feel, Your Majesty, to have survived by borrowing such abhorrent power?”

His question dripped with malicious contempt. Moreover, rather than expecting a verbal answer, he leaned in close, observing her reaction as if studying her.

From his wide-open mouth, she could see beast-like sharp fangs. His deep green, glass-bead-like eyes lacked any discernible pupils, intuitively telling her that the boy before her was a completely different life form.

Ariana bowed her head once more.

“My apologies for the mistake. Thank you for saving me. Sir Demon.”

“…Huh? That’s your reaction?”

Hearing his astonished voice, she looked up to see the boy frowning with an expression that seemed to say he couldn’t believe it.

Ariana, not understanding what was wrong, tilted her head.

“Huh? I’m alive now thanks to you, right?”

“Well, yes, but aren’t you disgusted or something? You know, like, ‘Eww, I’m alive thanks to a demon’s power’?”

“Is this about psychological anthropology? Like preferring livestock meat over insect-based nutrition?”

“No, why are you overlaying this with your own knowledge and pointlessly deepening your understanding? I’m a demon, got it? A de-mon.”

His words and actions, reminiscent of patiently explaining something to a slow child, made Ariana feel less and less need to be afraid of him.

“Unlike my grandparents, this is my first time meeting a demon. So, I can’t feel anything towards you beyond gratitude for saving my life.”

“Ah. I guess I can understand that, but…”

Though he didn’t say it, for the demon boy too, while he had knowledge, this was his first direct contact with a human.

That’s why he understood.

He understood but it didn’t sit right with him.

The previously cheerful aura vanished. The boy, wearing a sour expression, lowered his floating body onto the bed. Sitting down as if tired, he looked no different from a human to Ariana.

“Um.”

“!?”

Afraid he might just vanish on a whim, Ariana instinctively reached out and grasped his hand with both of hers, holding him back.

The feel of his touch was close to human skin, just as it appeared; slightly cool and sinewy. She couldn’t tell any difference from a human boy’s hand.

“Huh? What, all of a sudden?”

“I can offer anything I have to give. So,”

Facing the bewildered boy, Ariana poured out her resolve.

She keenly felt the naivety of her own perceptions.

The royal family incurred more resentment from those around them than she had imagined. It was highly likely her life would continue to be targeted.

“Please lend me your strength. I still cannot die yet.”

Whether it was the whim of a spider-silk god or the whim of a demon, she had to cling on to fulfill her duty.

She must look utterly pathetic. Ariana was aware of this, so even if the boy looked at her with somewhat cold eyes, she continued to stare straight into his glass-like orbs.

“…Anything except your life, you say?”

“Yes. Anything that I can offer, I—”

Her grasped hand was seized in turn, and her vision spun around.

By the time she realized it, Ariana was lying on her back, her wrists pinned, with the boy whose name she didn’t know pressing down on top of her, having pushed her over.

“Heh? Well then, maybe I’ll just carry you off right here. A human woman caught by a demon thing, a breeding female animal. You know what she’s used for, right? As the queen of a nation, you must have that general knowledge.”

Magical beasts and monsters possessed high intelligence and ravaged human settlements, but they never stayed in one place.

They always took their prey, their food, back to their dens. And there were many reports of female bodies being impregnated before being butchered for meat.

Weaker individuals who couldn’t reach the Demon King’s domain kidnapped even weaker creatures to reproduce.

And demons like the boy before her, possessing intelligence enough to even hold conversations, were said to carry off their prey even more cunningly.

Unlike before, the boy wasn’t laughing at all.

His provocative words remained the same, but the gaze looking down at her was sharp enough to pierce through her.

Anything except my life.

She was being tested on the resolve she had declared, Ariana thought, swallowing hard.

“I am aware, but in that case, could you please tell me what level of inconvenience would be involved?”

“…Inconvenience?”

“My knowledge about the victim’s condition and matters related to pregnancy and childbirth is lacking, so it’s difficult for me to form a concrete image. But even with a magical beast, would my belly still swell?”

“…Huh?”

The boy’s dull reaction, his furrowed brow, seemed to indicate he hadn’t grasped the intent of her question.

Feeling a little embarrassed, she pictured the potentially troublesome scenarios and rephrased her question more specifically.

“Significant physical changes would be impossible to hide from those around me. Could something be done about that? I’d appreciate consideration, like perhaps choosing a smaller species if that would be easier to conceal. Also, is the gestation period the same as for humans? The shorter, the better for me. I’d also like to know if my diet can remain the same or not. And most importantly, depending on the situation, I might go on expeditions. I’ve heard rest is essential, but to what extent of recklessness would affect the child.”

“Listen, Your Majesty. This is the part where you’re supposed to cry and scream ‘I don’t want this!’. Also, did you not hear me say ‘carry you off’?”

“Yes. After everything is done, I’ll manage to return to the castle on my own. I have work to do.”

In exchange for offering anything, her life was guaranteed. Within the kingdom, if she tried hard, she could probably make it back to the castle on foot.

—In other words, as long as she didn’t die, she could manage somehow.

Ariana was serious.

The boy was speechless. He quickly pulled back his consciousness, which seemed to be drifting away.

“No, what are you thinking so seriously about? Hiding a pregnancy and continuing to work? Even foolishness has its limits.”

“I won’t take it back! I offer anything except my life!”

“You’re an unbelievably hopeless, colossal idiot.”

She had only shown the resolve she was being asked for. The result was him being completely put off.

A man and a woman alone in a bedroom at night. Pinned down on the bed, discussing matters beyond the bedchamber itself, yet the only atmosphere flowing between them was awkwardness.

“Um… so, what do you say? Will you accept my proposal?”

The boy let out a sigh as if giving up.

“…If you ‘can’t die yet‘, then how long is that ‘yet’?”

“At a minimum, six years. At most, about ten years.”

“That way of putting it… It really feels like it’s just out of a sense of duty, huh?”

“Is a long-term arrangement difficult?”

“I’m amazed it’s too short.”

A human’s lifespan was roughly fifty years. Whether six years or ten, it wasn’t too short.

But demons must be even longer-lived. True to his words, he looked utterly weary and listless.

“So, as long as it’s within the scope of you properly performing your queenly duties, you’ll offer anything, right? Yeah, yeah, fine. Extending the remainder of your life isn’t that much trouble for me.”

“Really…!?”

“Really. —Well then, reckless Queen. Shall we make a contract?”

A contract. For Ariana, that was a word that made her tense up.

It was something where you straightened your posture, discussed terms, and couldn’t relax until it was safely concluded.

It wasn’t something done by just two people, on a bed, at a distance close enough to whisper secrets forehead-to-forehead.

“Come on, confess your desires. Entrust your wishes to me, a demon, and state the price you offer in return. Speak it of your own will.”

His voice, echoing as if deep within her ears, sent shivers down her spine.

The inhuman eyes looking down at her shone fiercely, ferociously, as if intending to torment her. From his lips, curled up in delight, his fangs were visible.

Ariana felt, belatedly, the terror of having stepped into a quagmire of her own making.

—Even so. As long as her life was guaranteed, she could manage somehow.

“Please make my body absolutely incapable of dying! I’ll offer anything!”

“You said it, right? It’s too late for regrets now.”

With a full-faced smile, the boy raised his upper body.

Just the distance between their faces increased; the restraint wasn’t released, and she remained pinned down.

“Well then, it might be a short association, but let’s get along from now on, okay? Ariana.”

“Ah… yes. What should I call you?”

“Hmm. Then, just Rai.”

It sounded like a name he came up with on the spot.

“Um, so, Rai? Could we sit up normally now and talk.”

“Why? This is more comfortable, isn’t it? Humans have to sleep day or night or they’ll die. Don’t worry about appearances with a demon around; just laze about.”

His words pretended to be considerate, but his radiant smile was suspicious.

Ariana understood his words weren’t genuine, but being physically forced into a reclining position left her no choice. She could just give up and accept the comfort, but she just couldn’t feel at ease.

If she moved, the grip on her wrists tightened. It didn’t hurt.

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with your queenly duties, you’ll offer anything. Right?”

“That’s correct.”

She was breaking out in a weird sweat.

She couldn’t predict what was going to happen, but she had a bad feeling that wouldn’t stop.

Looking down contentedly at the flustered Ariana, the demon boy—Rai—smiled bewitchingly.

“Then, shall we seal it with a kiss of pledge?”

“Ah, that’s more peaceful than I thought.”

She had braced herself for being bitten again and having her blood sucked, or perhaps an even worse splatter-filled catastrophe, but the seemingly painless price made Ariana inadvertently sigh in relief.

Rai, looking down at her, deepened his smile. His eyes weren’t laughing at all.

“Ahahaha, you reckless fool. Should I make you hopeless right now?”

The mouth that had let slip that unnecessary remark was mercilessly sealed.