5.General Deon Hart (3)

Fortunately, my hands were holding on for dear life in this ridiculous situation.

The torch burned brightly, clutched tightly in my hand. Without thinking, too afraid to acknowledge its presence, I swung it toward the trunk that held my leg.

"Keeeeeeeeeeee!"

The stem breaks off at the ankle with an eardrum-tearing crunch.

Great! I'm glad I carried my own torch after all! I never thought I'd have to use it, but....

"But... why is my back cool?

That ugly flower seems to be getting farther away... No, farther away is good, but something....

"Wait, it's falling!

What's the height here? He covers a 10-meter radius, so it's probably closer to 10 meters.

"...Haha, shit."

Help! Help!

Even as his heart was pounding out of his mouth, his body, which had been rolled around on the battlefield, was preparing for the fall.

Sure, it's going to break a bone or two, but yeah... it's better than breaking your neck.

I'm mentally preparing myself and trying to get my timing right, when someone catches me.

"De, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de! Are you hurt, are you hurt, are you hurt?"

I'm the one who should be surprised, but why are you stuttering. Are you even chewing your tongue?

I wanted to shove this bastard, the cause of everything, into the snout of that carnivorous plant right now, but I held back.

It's not because he's stronger than me. At the feel of an arm holding me firmly, I lifted my head to look at Hien.

"... caught you, so I'm letting you off the hook this time.

No matter how light I am, I'm still within the normal adult weight range, and a demon is a demon.

"Daemon?"

"... is fine..."

Gently, I pushed him off my chest.

Taking my survivalist refusal as a sign to get off, Hien gently sets me down on the ground.

When I hit the ground, the world spun around me.

I stood with my eyes closed for a moment, letting the wobbly goal settle into place, then lowered the hand covering my face and looked back at Hien. And....

"...."

I had no choice but to be silent.

Behind Hien's back, the background that should have been the silver of the moonlight and the black of the night was stained red.

The acrid odor stings your nose, and the heat burns your skin.

A trickle of cold sweat ran down my back.

Not because it's hot....

"Is this... about me?

The garden was burning because of the torch, my lifeline that I missed when I fell.

***.

I will die today.

"No, you're definitely going to die.

Hien bowed his head helplessly at the searing heat against his skin.

The plant he was tending was trying to eat him. Of course, the Daemon didn't like the plant, because he wouldn't be defeated by a mere plant. Otherwise, there would be no reason for it to be broken by such an insignificant attack.

He was looking for an excuse to burn it down because he didn't like that plant, no, he didn't like this garden.

Maybe it's just that I don't like Hien itself.

The plant's fault is the gardener's fault.

That's what you're doing. In the end, it was my plants that attacked first, and you were attacked and forced to fight back.

Not only could she not blame him for the garden burning down, but she was in a position to take responsibility for it.

I hadn't even considered holding the daemon responsible for the burned garden, let alone put it on the list of options.

"If I don't like it, it must be my fault.

Normally, he's a pretty generous guy. His doctor, Ben, bragged about it.

So if you're upset, you've probably done something to offend them.

I've prepared myself, but I'm still afraid of death. He smacked his face, which must have gone white, bit his lip, and stared at the Daemon's back.

I don't know if it's because it's from the back or because I can't read his expression, but he seems to be in a different mood from the usual daemon.

"No, no, no. This is not the time to read the mood.

It's time to lay flat.

She bowed toward him, not looking back, only at the flames consuming the garden.

"I'm sorry."

His foot, which was showing its heel, slowly turns around.

Hien narrowed his eyes at the sight of his opponent's shoes pointed at him.

***.

Yay, it's a glide path.

Is this what it looked like when the Hwajeon people, fleeing the excessive taxation of their lords, set themselves on fire to farm in the mountains?

The only problem is, this is a planet, not a mountain, and there's no farming to be done.

"What should I do...?

Rides well, but too well.

The nasty cannibalistic plant that had attacked me had already been consumed by the flames and no longer emitted its horrible screams, and the other nasty plants around it disappeared into the fire without a sound.

It had already consumed half the garden here, in the west, and as if the fire wasn't enough, it was greedily expanding its reach to consume the remaining plants.

I feel an icy gaze on the back of my head. It must be Pilci Hien's gaze.

I didn't have the heart to turn around to see what his expression was, so I stared at the reddening garden in broken, half-fascinated silence.

Oh, yeah. I'm not going to deny it. It's an escape.

This is the Garden of the Demon King, and the gardener is, of course, a demon. Demons, that is.

'Someone turn off this light. Anyone, please.'

As I was praying for rain, I heard a faint voice behind me.

"I'm sorry."

"...?"

I thought I misheard him. Clearly this is a situation where I should be apologizing, but why is he apologizing.

My ears insisted I heard it right, my head insisted I heard it wrong, and I hesitantly turned around to see if it was true.

Luckily, it's not an angry looking Hien that comes into view, but a hunched over Hien.

When I remained silent, half relieved and half confused, he took it upon himself to explain.

"I didn't realize you didn't like that plant, or this garden."

"...."

"Or maybe, just maybe, you're mad at me...."

"No, that's not it."

Do I look like such an unconscionable person? I wiped my face and looked at Hien again.

So what you're saying is that you think I set the fire because I don't like that cannibalistic plant or this garden in general, and you didn't get mad at me, but you apologized.

"Aren't you crazy?"

"I'm sorry."

"Not that...."

Now I realize what a jerk this guy was.

Anyway, given the circumstances, I don't think he's going to be mad at me for this. I think I'd have a better chance of survival this way than if I'd been stupid and accidentally dropped the torch.

So what do we say now?

"I don't love the garden at ..., but I don't hate it either."

No, honestly, I hate it. I hate it. It's gross!

But I can't ask a gardener in a demon kingdom to grow roses, lilies, and other mundane flowers of the human realm, so I'll have to put up with it.

"Then...."

"Well, I just need you to refrain from growing that plant I showed you earlier."

"Ah, yes! Okay, I'll just throw the seeds away."

I'm not going to get involved in what you're growing in your house.

I nodded, happy that it had worked out, but a shadow fell across Hien's back as he looked determined.

A figure that looked human, or rather, demonic. As he squinted at it, wondering who it could be, a voice spoke from the shadows.

A very familiar voice said.

"What kind of fire is this?"

Hien's body stiffened. It didn't show, but I froze too.

He's right, that voice is definitely....

"Who did this, and did they do it on purpose?"

It belonged to the one and only King of the Demon Realm, the most powerful man who ever lived.

"Ma, what's the devil doing here...."

"So, my castle is on fire and you want me to stand still?"

Cutting off Hien's question once and for all, the demon turns his head. He glances at the flames, then at Hien and me with an eerie glint in his eye.

When I looked at Hien, his eyes, which had been so lethargic before, glowed in a way that made me afraid to look at him.

"Why is there a fire and no one is putting it out...."

He ran a hand through his hair and smirked. Apparently, toward me.

Oh, this is it, right?

Today is the day of your sacrifice, same.

As expected, the demon spoke my name. Not by my real name, but by a name known to the demonic world, perhaps because there were others around.

"There you are, daemon."

With a sweep of my hand, the smoke around me dissipated into the distance. Now I could see clearly.

Demons littered the ground around him. They stared at him in confusion, unable to do anything about it.

If you were here, you'd put out the fire. Why are you standing there watching? You've brought the devil with you.

"So, what didn't you like?"

"...?"

"Is he angry at the gardener, or does he not like the garden? I could kill him if I wanted to, but what would I do?"

No wait, that gardener, I thought I heard you brought him here yourself, what makes you say kill so easily?

There was no hint of laughter in her eyes, not even a hint of a joke. He glanced back at Hien in confusion, but even he, who should have been pleading and defending himself, was meekly bowing his head as if he would accept whatever decision was made.

I blurted out, feeling like the devil was going to kill Hien at this point.

"It's not that I'm mad at the gardener, it's that I don't like the garden."

"Then why? ...No, before that. So that light, can I turn it off?"

"What?"

He nods, and they rush forward to cast the spell.

From nothing, huge droplets of water form in the sky, raining down in unison. One or two people, but with so many people doing this, it's a matter of seconds before the lights go out.

What the hell, you could have done it quickly and well, but why....

"Then why did you set the garden on fire?"

Here I pause for a moment.

There's no reason to put Hien's misconceptions out there for the world to see. So should I tell the truth?

"I wonder how they would react if I told them that a plant almost killed them.

They might say, "You're so weak that you can't fight a plant, you've been fooling me all this time, die!" Or they might say, "You burned my garden for that?" and try to kill you.

But that doesn't mean I can't answer the demon's question. He pauses for a moment to consider his answer, but Hien interrupts him and explains.

"The plant I brought in attacked him, so he got angry and set it on fire."

"...."

Oh, no. He's a spy. Who sent him, the Revolutionary Army or the Empire's aristocracy?

I'm wondering how I'm going to screw this thing so it's rumored to be well screwed," he said after a pause to make sure he wasn't finished. His voice was faintly trembling.

"It's my fault. I didn't train them properly."

The word education doesn't seem to go hand in hand with plants, but no one here seemed to feel out of place.

Well, that was more like an animal than a plant, considering what it looked like a moment ago.

"Kuck."

A short groan pierced his ears. His head snapped up, and all he could see was the demon lifting him up, one hand clutching at his throat... and Hien, his face contorted by his disconnected breathing, offering no resistance.

'Oh, this is so crazy. I could have ended it so well, why....'

The air is different. It's so heavy and serious that you could squeeze a human being to death.

As he stammers, the demon holding Hien by the throat turns his head to look this way, and his face, which had been grim until he saw Hien, softens. No, it was smiling.

"What should I do?"

"Is that ...?"

"Kill?"