The field was littered with corpses. The place reeked of death, and Zich simply stared at the sight before him like he had lost his mind. Joachim Dracul was widening a pool of blood as if he was planning to not only bathe but swim in it. On the other side, Evelyn Rouge was weaving through her collection of handsome men’s heads for her plan to create the most handsome man in existence. Finally, Tim Platt was picking out the corpses of those who irritated him even slightly and ground them into ashes. Each of these subordinates contributed to Zich’s sky-high stress level.
‘No, can I even consider them my subordinates? What kind of underlings stress out their leader so much!’
They gave him such a headache that Zich even wondered about doing kind acts to better his karma.
‘Wait, but since those guys are bad guys, if I kill them, would I be doing a kind act?’ It sounded quite valid to him. ‘Yeah! I should just kill them! Then I will be doing a kind act and the origin of my stress will disappear! There are only positives to this!’ Zich gripped Tornium tighter. His faithful demon sword was already prepared to take in fresh blood.
“…Haaa!” Zich loosened his grip. Although he had given off murderous intent for a moment out of stress, he didn’t genuinely want to kill his subordinates. He was quite attached to them now. However, that also meant that he would have to continue to carry this stress, and this fact made his headache worse. Suddenly, he heard someone speak.
“Oh my! Our demon lord doesn’t seem to be in the best of moods.”
Zich felt a soft sensation around his arms as delicate arms wrapped around his.
“Marilyn?”
“Yes! It is I, your faithful servant, Marilyn Frill!”
She was Zich’s fourth subordinate, the one with the nickname ‘Witch.’ He saw her smile under her unique-looking wide-brimmed hat.
“Is something worrying you?” she asked.
“What else would I be worrying about except one thing?” Zich pointed in front of him with his chin. Marilyn turned to where Zich pointed.
“They are your pride and joy, my companions!”
“My pride and joy?”
‘Like I thought, this one is out of her mind too!’ The heavens had taken away his final hope, and Zich seriously fell into despair after a long time.
Marilyn laughed while looking at her companions’ mad behaviors but didn’t take off her arms around Zich. No, instead, she stuck more closely to him.
“This is uncomfortable.”
“Come on, why is the great Demon Lord of Strength acting like this?” Marilyn skillfully retorted back.
“I told you it’s uncomfortable!” Zich placed his hand on Marilyn’s forehead and pushed her.
“Urghhhhh!” Yet, Marilyn tried to stick onto Zich like she was some kind of human leech. “I’m…not…going to let go….!” She resisted Zich’s powerful push while shuddering. As the Witch and against the Demon Lord of Strength, she couldn’t beat Zich physically; of course, Zich didn’t give it his all, and Marilyn hung on with all she had. In the end, Zich gave up.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“Of course, heheh!” She rubbed her cheeks against Zich’s arm just like a dog rubbing against their owner’s legs.
‘Well, I suppose this is all right.’ Compared to the other three scavenging the field of corpses in front of him, Marilyn stressed him out the least. Moreover, unlike the others crushing everything in their path with brutal strength, she used her intelligence and took the role of his advisor.
“I am standing next to the Demon Lord I admire and love so much! Of course, I am satisfied!” They were touching words. Zich’s scrunched-up face relaxed a bit for the first time. However, it didn’t last long. “I am so happy. I couldn’t be happier! I hope this moment continues forever. I only need to stand by you, and I don’t need anything else,” she continued.
“…Hey.” Cold sweat began to flow down his back suddenly, and Zich tried to pull his arm away.
Grip! However, he couldn’t pull away. Perhaps, he was imagining it but Marilyn’s strength seemed stronger than before.
“That is…”
“So, we have to step on, rip, and crush everything that stands in our way from this happiness. Then the greatness of your name will ring across all lands, and anyone who fails to acknowledge it will be removed from this world!”
“Let go of my arm first…!”
“If the world is cleansed like that, it would truly be great. An ideal world where anyone who doesn’t follow you would be gone. No, actually, if you think about it, even your followers can betray you later on. We really can’t trust anyone else. I suppose we have to kill everyone.”
“If they aren’t in my way, I don’t necessarily need to kill—”
“The only one left would be the one who truly follows you. Since those guys might also betray you, we can kill them in the end. Then, the only ones remaining would be you, the Demon Lord, and your only true faithful servant: me.” Her eyes became teary. Calm madness swirled inside them, and it was Zich’s first time seeing such a bizarre look.
“What a dream-like world!”
“…Is that so?” Zich gave up on pulling his arm away.
‘Better, my ass,’ he thought. Zich realized in his core that none of his subordinates were normal.
“Mm, I need some more blood…” Joachim Dracul said after pulling out the blood vessels of the corpses near him and squeezing the blood out of them.
“Isn’t there a straighter nose?” Evelyn said while comparing all the heads that she had laid around her and looking for the nose that would fit her ideal male face.
“Try to resist! Try to resist again, you bastards!” Tim Platt said while dismembering the corpses.
“Hehehe, our fantastical future is in clear sight,” Marilyn Frill giggled as if she was high.
Zich looked up at the sky. Unlike the hell on earth, the sky couldn’t have been a clearer blue.
“Ahh, I just want to go somewhere and have some time alone.’
The sky remained silent as it looked down upon Zich’s cloudy eyes.
* * *
‘The Witch, Marilyn Frill…’
Lyla stared at Marilyn sitting across from her and was fervently moving her fork and knife. Her bright expression and cheerful tone gave off a very friendly impression. Her personality was also very forward and extroverted, so she was already comfortably talking with the others. It seemed as if she was full of curiosity, as she constantly asked the others all kinds of questions. However, there were a lot of stories they couldn’t tell other people, so they had to carefully craft their answers; Hans and Snoc had an especially hard time.
The person she was interested in the most was Zich of course. Therefore, Hans and Snoc were able to take a break.
“Now that I think about it, Sir Zich’s sword shape looks very strange.” Marilyn carefully looked at Windur, which Zich placed next to him. Her curiosity was only natural. The other companions also thought the same thing whenever they looked at Windur.
“It doesn’t look like an ordinary sword. Could you tell me where you got this sword from?”
“I can’t reveal that.”
“Sir Zich, you have a lot of secrets.” Marilyn pouted her lips in disappointment, but that was only for a short moment. She soon returned back to her cheery self. Marilyn asked Zich many different types of questions; most of them were small details like what he liked and his hobbies.
Zich’s hobby and what he liked was beating the crap out of his enemies, but since he wasn’t able to say that, he chose an appropriate hobby and preference to tell her. They were not lies. Even Zich had things that he liked other than fucking over his enemies; he certainly had foods and colors that he preferred.
“Wow! Really? That’s the same as me!” Marilyn clapped her hands and asked many other questions.
Lyla stared at this sight with a grim look. ‘I knew it.’
Yes, Lyla knew about this. Among the memories that became clearer after Finel’s interference, there were memories about Marilyn Frill—otherwise known as Zich Moore’s fanatic. She was the most loyal follower out of Zich Moore’s subordinates. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to describe her loyalty as extreme.
Moreover, out of all Zich’s subordinates, she had the least troublesome personality. Unlike the others—Vampire, Succubus, and Werewolf—who caused destruction wherever they were, the Witch wasn’t much of a threat to the world if left alone. There was only one reason why she had become a danger to the world. It was because the person she followed was Demon Lord of Strength, Zich Moore. If Zich Moore hadn’t existed, she might not have even done evil deeds.
‘But she always followed Zich Moore.’
Now that Lyla thought about it, this might have also been a ploy of the robed figures, but from what Lyla knew, there was another reason why Marilyn had always followed Zich—it was because Marilyn and Zich’s compatibility was way too good.
“Oh my, that’s also the same as me!” With great excitement, Marilyn found out more things she shared with Zich. Every time Zich said something, she exclaimed that it was also true for her. A random person passing by might think that she was sucking up to Zich to gain his favor, but that wasn’t it. If the knowledge that Lyla had was right, everything Marilyn said was true.
Zich replied, “This is really a coincidence.”
“Don’t you think it’s destiny at this rate?”
Lyla could clearly see that Marilyn’s favor towards Zich, which was already high, increased further as they continued talking. It was to such an extent that Hans and Snoc, who had almost zero sense in these matters, noticed that the signs Marilyn was sending out seemed beyond normal. It was basically fated that this would happen as soon as she met Zich.
According to Lyla’s memory, regardless of when they first met, Marilyn always chased after Zich after falling in love with him. Moreover, Zich was also oddly kind to her. Even though Zich was extremely soft to his former subordinates, this went way beyond his normal behavior.
‘It’s probably as a result of Tim Platt.’ Lyla recalled Tim Platt as he had fallen beyond redemption that Zich had to directly take care of him. Since Marilyn was a subordinate that he met after this event, the emotions in his heart must not be the same as before.
‘Yeah. I understand all that.’ Lyla didn’t know what kind of coincidence let their group meet Marilyn in Violuwin, but it was self-evident that due to her natural tendencies, Marilyn would eventually take a great liking to Zich. In a way, this could be destiny as Marilyn said.
But why?
“Ah, this is delicious. Sir Zich, try this one!”
A dark shadow cast over Lyla’s face as she saw Marilyn smile and move a tasty part of the dish to Zich’s plate.
Clutter!
“T-teacher?” Sitting next to her, Elena called out to Lyla.
Lyla regained her focus. She realized that she had put down her fork on an empty part of the plate.
“Um, is there something wrong?”
“No, nothing is wrong. I just thought about something else momentarily.” Then, Lyla properly stabbed her food with a fork and put it into her mouth. However, Elena felt a looming danger in Lyla’s appearance.
Something about Lyla’s gaze as she looked at Zich and Marilyn was frightening.