“Bunny, no taking back the promise to get married, okay?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Roel laughed brightly and scooped Bunny up, pulling her close. Though it looked a bit strenuous for a nine-year-old to be hauling around a four-year-old, he didn’t seem to mind.
“Mm. Bunny doesn’t go back on her word. A wonderful…”
Bunny gulped.
“…human. Big Boss is Bunny’s.”
Having safely lied about being human, Bunny wiped her nose.
“Yeah, you’re mine. And I’m Roel. Call me Roel from now on.”
“Noel.”
“No. Ro-el.”
“Mm. No-el.”
“Hmm, is the pronunciation unfamiliar? It’ll get better once you hear it more.”
And yet, the language that had sounded like the Demon tongue back then had been so clear.
*‘Is Bunny really a demon, after all?’*
Her speech was strangely slurred, her grammar incorrect, and her word order scrambled. Above all, there was that unique language she had spoken. However, it was curious that she possessed none of the inherent traits of a demon.
There were other strange things, too. To summon a divine beast meant one possessed divine power; how could she be capable of such a thing?
Black hair and red eyes. Every demon carried those ominous colors. Furthermore, they were infinitely vulnerable to divine power. Yet, the fact that she was staying in the Judia Dukedom—which was surrounded by a barrier of divine power—meant the energy had absolutely no effect on Bunny.
*‘Doesn’t matter.’*
He had already decided to become Bunny’s, after all.
He had wished for it dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. If only someone would liberate him from that hellish agony, he would do anything. The day Bunny appeared was his salvation. Whether she was a demon or not mattered little. The only thing that mattered was the singular fact that Bunny had saved him.
He had been saved.
He had been wandering a cold, chilling, terrifying abyss—an endless void where he didn’t know his location or even that his legs were aching. When he slept, that place was hell; when he opened his eyes, reality was just another kind of hell.
People shunned him for being cursed, having lost the blonde hair and golden eyes that symbolized the Imperial family. They avoided him like a plague, their gazes cold and averted.
He knew. He knew everyone considered him a terminal patient. He knew his father, the Emperor, had already brought his cousin into the Imperial Palace as a replacement.
The Emperor was an emperor. He could not exist solely as a father. Roel knew it was a proper measure. Nevertheless… it felt as if they were treating him like a dead man while he was still breathing, and his insides turned over at the thought.
He knew everything. Because even Roel had been living while waiting only for death.
But the moment that small, warm hand touched him, the pain of the past vanished like a dream. Or, to be precise, he felt as if he were being pulled elsewhere.
At the end of that hellish abyss, Roel had seen her. A woman stood proudly in the middle of the dark, empty void, as if she held all the loneliness, despair, and the chill of hell within her.
Jet-black hair.
Bizarre, twisted horns of dark red protruding from her head.
Massive wings spread out behind her back.
And gleaming, deep pink eyes.
Was this what the Demon King, whom he had only heard about in rumors, looked like? Roel had no choice but to let his gaze be stolen by that beauty, the only thing shining in the darkness.
*‘Who is she?’*
The moment he thought that, the woman’s gaze met Roel’s. She reached out, and Roel felt the sensation of a hole opening in the ground, plummeting him downward.
As he fell into that deep, deep pit, Roel saw a girl, looking to be about ten years old, standing alone in a ruined place. With a blank face, she shed tears from dead eyes.
Her hair was half-dyed in a pitch-black, watery blue; her pink eyes were half-dyed in a shimmering red. That empty gaze looked exactly like the woman he had met above…
*‘I don’t want to see you crying…’*
The thought had come quite suddenly.
He didn’t know if it was a dream, a manifestation of his subconscious, or a future yet to come. It was said in folklore that the Loti Empire was founded by a Golden Dragon, and that the blood of the dragon still flowed through the Imperial family. Because of that, some were occasionally born with *Time-Sights*—the ability to see things that hadn’t happened yet through dreams, or to glimpse things that had already occurred.
He didn’t know if that *Time-Sight* had manifested in him. It might simply have been a dream born from fatigue. Nevertheless, Roel wanted to go to the side of that woman standing alone in that hollow place. He wanted to comfort the crying girl, and he wanted to watch over that same girl as she cheered and laughed brightly.
Therefore… if what he saw was a future that would one day come to pass… Roel wanted to be by her side.
Even if this little child was a demon, so what?
The pain and suffering that no one else acknowledged no matter how much he begged—Bunny, at the very least, had understood. The prayers he had shouted to gods he didn’t believe in had never been answered, but Bunny had listened.
“It’s okay now.”
She had granted the wish that had never come true. If it weren’t for Bunny, he would certainly have died. Unless a miracle occurred, that was certain.
“Bunny.”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
At Roel’s words, Bunny blinked her clear eyes twice before breaking into a wide grin. It was an adorable smile, her chubby cheeks particularly striking.
* * *
“Daddy!”
“Bunny, let’s go now. It’s getting too late.”
Kiriel said, walking into the room with a tired look. His face was dark, as if something hadn’t gone well. His neatly kept hair was a complete mess.
“Daddy, not sparkly-sparkly.”
At Bunny’s assessment of his disheveled state, he paused and gave a wry smile. His daughter really had a talent for making him laugh. His mood, which had been buried in the abyss, shot back up just from holding this soft, baby-smelling thing in his arms.
*‘So this is why people raise children.’*
Thinking this, he patted the child’s back.
“Daddy. Bunny decided to get married.”
At the sudden, earth-shattering news, Kiriel’s face stiffened completely.
“…Married? With whom?”
“With the human Big Boss.”
When Bunny pointed her finger at the Crown Prince, Roel—who had been talking to the Emperor who had arrived with Kiriel—laughed brightly.
“The human Big Boss says he’s Bunny’s.”
“…Our daughter has quite a sense of humor.”
“Eh?”
Kiriel looked at Roel and the Emperor. The Emperor, as if he had already heard, wore a pleased smile.
“Enough jokes, let’s go now.”
Kiriel turned his body, as if deciding to pretend he hadn’t heard a word.
“Ah, Young Lady. I haven’t had the chance to say this yet. I would like to give you something you want as a token of my gratitude for saving Roel. Is there anything you’d like to have? Anything is fine.”
Bunny’s eyes went round at the Emperor’s words.
*‘The Human World!’*
Since Bunny was destined to become the giant, great Demon King who would conquer the human world, it seemed like a good idea to accept something in advance.
“Bunny wants the hu—!”
Wait.
Wouldn’t it be dangerous to say “the human world” right now? If the human Big Boss realized that Bunny was a giant demon dreaming of becoming the Demon King, he might turn Bunny into dust.
Bunny pressed her lips together and focused, narrowing her eyes.
“Hu…?”
The Emperor tilted his head.
Bunny, rolling her eyes, paused when she met Kiriel’s gaze.
*‘Bunny, show your filial piety.’*
*Hehehe.*
Bunny grinned.
“A mommy as pretty as a doll!!”
Bunny shouted, giving a big thumbs-up toward Kiriel.
*CRACK.*
The air froze instantly.