TERNLF Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Part 4

“Are you all right?!”

A voice that sounded almost like a scream rang in my ears.

As though guided by that voice, my consciousness rose back to the surface.

“Mm… where am I…?”

“Thank goodness. You’re conscious.”

The girl peering down at my face let out a relieved sigh.

Who was she? I had never seen her before.

Judging by the uniform she was wearing, she had to be a high school student.

If I remembered right, it was the uniform of that ultra-prestigious school in the next town over.

With my thoughts still hazy, I looked around.

The only thing lighting the town, now fully wrapped in the curtain of night, was the LED lamps fixed to the utility poles.

I recognized it as the familiar backstreet of a quiet bedroom community, with hardly any cars passing through.

“Sorry. I’ve just been a little sleep-deprived…”

“Even if you’re sleep-deprived, don’t go falling asleep on the side of the road! You scared me so badly I thought my heart was going to stop!”

The girl helped me sit up by the shoulders as she scolded me, tears and a smile mixed together on her face.

“But I’m glad you’re okay…”

With her helping me, I slowly rose to my feet.

I was still a little unsteady, but it seemed like I could somehow walk on my own.

Once I had confirmed that, I bowed my head to her again.

“I’m really sorry.”

“It’s fine as long as you’re okay. More importantly, look at you, you’re covered in dirt.”

Pat, pat.

The girl brushed the dust off my clothes.

She was treating me like a child.

To be fair, for a third-year middle schooler, I really was short, and my face looked young too. Because of that, even girls my own age teased me about it all the time.

So maybe I had looked like a child to a high school girl like her.

Especially since I was wearing casual clothes after cram school.

There was even a chance she had mistaken me for an elementary schooler.

“U-Um. It’s okay now. You’ll get dirty too.”

“A child doesn’t need to worry about things like that.”

“I-I may not look it, but I’m in my third year of middle school! I’m not a child…”

“Huh?”

Her hands stopped.

“S-Sorry.”

She hurriedly pulled her hands away from me.

Then she fluttered both hands about in a fluster, her eyes darting everywhere as though trying to come up with an excuse.

“No, it’s fine. People make that mistake a lot, so I don’t mind.”

That was a lie.

In truth, I had a serious complex about both my short height and my childish appearance.

But she had helped me when I collapsed, and the last thing I wanted was to make her feel even more awkward.

And besides—

“I’m studying like crazy so I can get into the high school you go to next year…”

The uniform she was wearing belonged to the very school at the top of my list.

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes. My teacher told me I’d have to study like my life depended on it if I wanted to get in… I was on my way back from cram school just now, and all of a sudden I got so sleepy…”

There were less than two months left until the entrance exams.

Driven on by anxiety and desperation, I had been studying every day, literally cutting back on sleep.

And even then, my practice exam results still put me only barely in passing range.

I needed to study more, and more, and I panicked so much that…

“What were you going to do if you really died?!”

“…”

“And not just that. What if you wrecked your health before the actual exam and couldn’t perform at your best? Then everything would’ve been over.”

“But there are still two months left… It’s not like everything would’ve been over…”

“It almost was. If you’d been sleeping out here in winter, it wouldn’t have been strange if you froze to death.”

I had absolutely no comeback to that.

All I could do was hang my head and listen to her.

“Ah, sorry. I got a little preachy, didn’t I?”

“No, not at all. You’re absolutely right, miss.”

“Miss… huh.”

She tilted her head as though thinking something over, then touched two fingers of her right hand to her cheek.

I would later learn that it was just one of her little habits.

“That’s right. Can you tell me your name?”

After a while, she asked me that.

“—Yamazaki… Toa. I go to Amasaki Middle School nearby.”

And then, not content with giving only my name, I started rattling on at top speed about my family, my dreams for the future, and how I absolutely had to attend her famous prep school if I wanted to make those dreams come true, even though she had not asked about any of it.

Maybe it was because it was the dead of night.

Maybe it was because, beneath the one lone light in that otherwise empty darkness, the girl I had met seemed almost too mysterious to be real.

Maybe it was because she had saved my life, or because she was a senior from the high school I admired so much.

All of it together might have made her seem almost like a goddess to me.

“Ah, sorry. I’ve been talking only about myself.”

Coming back to my senses, I dropped my gaze in embarrassment.

But she simply told me not to worry about it, placed a hand to her chest, and as if to say it was her turn now, began to tell me her name.

“My name is—”

That was as far as it went.

All at once, every sound around me vanished, and I jerked my head up in alarm.

“What…?”

Before I knew it, the scenery around me had changed from a dark street corner with only a few lights into a pure white void.

And that was not all.

“Miss?”

The girl who had been smiling gently at me just a moment ago had turned into a pitch-black silhouette.

“M-Miss…”

Its mouth slowly opened and closed, again and again.

“I… me… to…”

That was all I could make out from the mouth that was spreading wider and wider into nothing more than a mass of blackness.

“Uwaaaaah!”

The black darkness that had once been her suddenly surged toward me, trying to swallow me up from my feet.

“S-Someone! Is anyone there?! Help me!!”

Consumed by the darkness, I screamed desperately.

From my legs to my waist, from my waist to my chest—

“No! There are still things I want to do! Things I still haven’t—”

I got that far before my face too was swallowed by the darkness.

I struggled desperately to get back out, stretching out my hand, but all it grasped was empty air, and just as even that hand was about to be swallowed—

“To… a… Mr. Toa…!”

“Toa!”

“Get a hold of yourself, Toa!”

Someone grabbed my hand, and at the same time, the voices of three people, my companions, reached me clearly.

◆　◇　◆　◇　◆

Light streamed in through the narrow gap in my slightly open eyelids.

As though letting my eyes adjust to that light, I slowly opened them.

“So… it was a dream.”

The moment I murmured that, the faces of three girls peering down at me in concern came into view.

Nikka, Grassa, and Faura.

“Mr. Toa, can you hear me?”

“Y-Yeah. I can hear you.”

When I answered the worried Nikka, Grassa spoke next.

“Thank goodness. No matter how many times we called you just now, you didn’t react at all.”

“I see. Sorry for worrying you.”

“You suddenly ran off and then collapsed out of nowhere. If Faura and the Demon King hadn’t stepped in for us, we’d probably be in jail right now!”

“I merely repaid a debt. That makes us even now.”

Beside Grassa, who was angrily scolding me with tears in the corners of her eyes, Faura turned her face away in embarrassment.

“Thanks, Faura.”

I thanked her as I pushed myself upright.

“And I need to apologize to the Demon King too…”

“I shall pass it along to the Demon King, so rest easy.”

“No… but… Ah, right.”

My head gradually cleared.

At last, I remembered what had happened before I collapsed, and realized how meaningless it was to say I would apologize to the Demon King.

I realized it.

“Thank you. Really.”

“If you keep thanking me, you will only make me embarrassed.”

“No, that one was on the Demon King’s behalf.”

“Hm?”

She clearly did not understand what I meant, and as I gave the puzzled Faura a wry smile, I looked around to confirm where I was.

Apparently, this was one of the bedrooms in the room that had been prepared for us.

But inside the room, there were only four of us, myself included. Cheki, who had been with us before, was nowhere to be seen.

“By the way, where did Cheki go?”

I asked Nikka.

“She went to report to the dwarves that the Demon King had awakened.”

“I see.”

I swung my legs down over the side of the bed.

Then I lowered my head deeply toward the three of them once again.

“I’m sorry for causing all of you so much trouble.”

“We already told you, that’s enough.”

“If you keep apologizing, it just makes things awkward for us.”

“Indeed. Besides, thanks to you, we were able to awaken the Demon King, so I already told you that leaves us even.”

It seemed that if I apologized any further, I would only make them feel guilty instead.

I decided I would apologize only to Cheki later, and left it at that.

“Um…”

After a brief silence, Nikka spoke hesitantly.

“Hm?”

“May I ask why you suddenly ran off back then?”

“…Ah. You mean in front of the Demon King’s Chamber.”

“Yes.”

Back then, I should have stayed calmer.

But I had desperately wanted to confirm the Demon King’s true identity, the one connected to the memories that had suddenly resurfaced, and I had not been able to stop myself from running ahead and leaving Nikka and the others behind.

“About that. Faura, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

“What is it?”

“Just once is enough. Could you let me speak to the Demon King alone?”

As I looked straight into Faura’s eyes, I earnestly made that request.

—

“It really was a lot easier with Faura’s 【Invisible】, wasn’t it?”

“That barrier magic tool was originally meant for one person, so it couldn’t be helped.”

After the uproar I had caused, there was no way a proper request for an audience with the Demon King would ever have been approved.

So, just as when we had infiltrated the Demon King’s Castle before, we ended up heading for the Demon King under the cover of Faura’s 【Invisible】.

“Only this once.”

“I know.”

Faura led the way.

Nikka followed behind her, and I was at the very back.

We had left Grassa in the room and entrusted her with creating a cover story and informing Cheki.

Apparently, Nikka had come along because she was worried I might collapse again.

“We’re almost there.”

Our destination was a hidden passage that only Faura knew about.

Apparently, it was in her private room.

“Even so, is it really all right to show something like a secret passage to us?”

“I thought you could be trusted.”

As she answered, Faura stopped in front of a door along the corridor.

Then she held out her small hand toward it, and with a click, the sound of the lock opening rang out.

It was probably secured with some kind of magical authentication lock.

“This is a maiden’s room, you know. Don’t go staring all over the place. Just follow me.”

“I know.”

Faura’s room was not especially large for the room of the Demon King’s personal maid… no, if anything, it was rather small.

“It’s a tidy room.”

“It really is. It looks like there’s only the bare minimum of furniture.”

In the somewhat spacious first room beyond the entrance stood only a desk and a small sofa. There was a bookshelf and something like a dresser against the wall, but aside from that, there was nothing at all, like the room of a minimalist.

There were three other doors in the room besides the one we had entered through.

I could easily imagine that the rooms beyond them were not much different from this one.

“This way.”

Out of the three doors, Faura headed for the one on the far right.

Apparently, that room held the hidden passage.

“Hurry up and come along.”

“Ah, right.”

“So it’s in here?”

That room seemed to be her bedroom, and all it contained was a single small bed against the wall.

It almost felt devoid of any sign of daily life.

“It’s simple… or rather, a bare room. Do you really live here?”

“I told you not to go staring all over.”

“Sorry. It just slipped out.”

After being scolded by Faura, I stopped prying any further.

Climbing onto the bed in her bedroom, she held out her palm toward the wall this time, just like she had done outside earlier.

“Open Sesame.”

At the words that came out of Faura’s mouth, I nearly burst out laughing.

This was not some old folktale. “Open Sesame” was a bit much.

For that matter, did she even know what those words meant? Then again, I did not know the details myself.

Swoosh.

While I was thinking that, the wall in front of her suddenly vanished.

Yes, it literally vanished.

“Wh-What?”

Beside me, Nikka let out a flustered sound.

“The wall just…”

“Disappeared.”

We had been expecting some sort of mechanism where the wall would slide aside and reveal a passage, so we ended up glancing at one another and confirming the same shock on each other’s faces.

“What are you gawking for? Hurry up and follow me.”

“O-Okay.”

“Is it really all right to climb onto the bed?”

“You may keep your shoes on.”

A gaping hole about two meters high and two meters wide had opened in the wall.

Faura vanished into it as if diving straight in.

Startled, we scrambled onto the bed after her and peered into the opening.

“It’s a staircase.”

Beyond the hole was a staircase leading downward, and we could see Faura’s back as she descended.

“So this is what leads all the way to the Demon King, right?”

“Looks like it.”

After following Faura down the stairs for several meters, we came out into a straight stone passage.

“Do you always use this route, Faura?”

As we walked through the hidden passage, we spoke to her.

“If I go by the front, people keep stopping me to ask that I pass messages to the Demon King and all sorts of other nonsense. It’s troublesome. But if I stay hidden, they won’t open the doors for me either.”

From her weary tone, it was easy to tell that being the Demon King’s personal maid brought her no shortage of pointless trouble.

There were probably plenty of people who thought the quickest way to gain favor with the Demon King was to win over the maid who served him directly.

As a matter of fact, even we had ended up being able to meet the Demon King thanks to her, even if that had not been our intention.

“Even so, this passage is really solidly built. Even the magic lights turn on automatically.”

“Yeah. It was clearly planned from the time the castle was built, not added on later.”

The passage was more than wide enough for people to walk through without feeling cramped.

That was especially true for someone as small as Faura.

“It seems a bit too small to be an emergency escape route for the Demon King.”

“…Well, I can’t imagine that ‘Demon King’ ever needing to flee in the first place.”

“True. I heard he’s fought countless demons and never lost even once, right?”

If you were going to unite the demon race, with all its diversity and individual strength, then at some point you would have needed to subdue them by force.

And if you were trying to gather them into a nation, it could not all have been one-on-one fights.

Even for me, facing multiple powerful demons at once, even if they were not on Luchimada’s level, would have been extremely difficult. Yet the “Demon King” had accomplished exactly that.

Given that level of combat ability, there was no reason he would ever need to run.

“Even so, he shouldn’t have been able to come through this world’s magic completely unharmed.”

I murmured that so softly that no one else could hear.

Even if the Demon King really was the MPPRD I knew, the magic and monsters of this world were overwhelmingly powerful.

And yet I found it hard to believe that machine possessed enough force to suppress even that.

Perhaps when it arrived in this other world, it had gained some kind of cheat-like power… but could that really happen even to a machine?

“If you go up those stairs, you’ll come out behind the throne.”

While I was turning those thoughts over, it seemed we had reached our destination.

“The confusion within the castle still hasn’t fully settled, so the Demon King has ordered that your audience be kept as brief as possible.”

“I know. I intend to finish as quickly as I can.”

There was no point in thinking about it on my own.

What had happened to the MPPRD, what kind of changes it had undergone.

Those were things I would learn once I investigated directly.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

With that, I followed Faura, and together with Nikka, I ran up the stairs.