Next, I went to see Airi.
"Valier…"
Airi was sitting by the window in the guest room, staring outside.
Everyone seemed to be doing the same.
It was as if they couldn't bear not seeing the impact of the calamity that occurred today on the city. Everyone was watching the outside in their own way.
When I arrived, Airi, with a child in her arms, was blankly staring at a lizard monster, which was running towards her.
If Harriet had been even a little late, Airi might have died.
I'm not sure what happened that made Airi, who once hated humans, take such an action.
However, in the end, did Airi also realize that there is something worth protecting, regardless of race?
As I did for others, I explained to Airi.
What I had intended to do.
And what I plan to do in the future.
"You tried to stop this from happening…"
"I failed, but yeah, I did."
"It's amusing. It's surprising that you didn't actually care about the reconstruction of the demon realm, but in the end, you were forced into a situation where you had no choice but to do it."
Airi stared quietly out the window.
"If Darkland begins anew from here, the Darkland that will be reconstructed from now on would include humans, right?"
"Probably so."
While I can rule over the demons with my power, I cannot control humans in the same way.
I can suppress a kingdom, and I can rule over a single village.
But an entire nation. If all the land beyond the horizon that my eyes can see is mine, and humans whom I cannot see are under my rule, and if they reject me.
What should a king do? In what manner, with what logic, should humans be ruled?
I don't know.
"It's… romantic, in a way."
Airi looked out the window, perhaps imagining a Darkland that included humans, and then looked back at me.
"You know, Valier."
"What?"
"Romanticism comes from the fact that it's not easy."
"…"
A nation that includes all demons and humans.
It would be romantic but also nearly impossible.
That's why the term romanticism is used to describe something that is beautiful yet difficult to achieve.
"But I'm a succubus, right?"
Airi looked at me and smiled.
"Valier, if that's your dream."
"…"
"Since I've lost the ability to grant dreams now, I'll try to make that dream come true in reality."
A demon associated with dreams, the succubus.
A demon that makes someone dream and absorbs their energy, but now it's impossible to make someone dream.
So, she'll try to make that dream come true in reality.
Her words had a profound resonance.
Airi gazed quietly out the window.
The sight of soldiers moving with torches in their hands could be seen far below on the cliffside.
"Still… I wish I had that power today."
"…Yeah?"
The power to make dreams.
Why would she feel that power is missed in this situation?
"Many children must have lost their parents and siblings. They won't be able to sleep properly, and even if they do sleep, they won't be able to escape from that nightmare…"
"Ah."
"Even if I can't save someone's reality, I could have made them have comfortable dreams while they slept. Even if there's hell after waking up, just for the moments they sleep… I could have given them a brief happiness…"
Not to absorb their energy, but to let them have a peaceful dream.
Escaping the cruel nightmare of reality, even if only for a brief moment within a dream, they could find solace.
It seemed as though she desired to use her power not for her own sustenance, but to aid the suffering souls.
The ability to gift dreams, the power of a succubus, could it not be considered a demonic power?
While it couldn't redeem someone's reality, it would be dreadfully sweet.
But even with the intent to truly save someone, it remained a power incapable of salvation.
The human who receives a dream from a succubus, and the succubus who gifts the dream.
It becomes a truly sorrowful power when the succubus uses it not for their own energy, but for the happiness of another.
Neither demon nor human can give or receive true salvation.
However, believing that even a brief anesthesia is necessary for those who have experienced hell, Airi longed for her power.
Could it be?
Is it possible?
A feature he had never used before.
He uses the 'Setting Addition'.
The succubus's horns grow back.
[This feature cannot be used.]
As expected, it won't work.
[In order to add this setting, 'Common Sense Modification' must occur.]
[Such a level of setting addition cannot be performed.]
It seemed he understood the meaning.
It is common sense that severed horns of demons do not grow back.
However, if a setting is added that severed horns grow back, the common sense of all succubi and Airi, who believed that horns do not grow back, must change.
That's not just adding a setting; it's rewriting the world itself.
That's why it cannot be performed.
However, the important thing is that it doesn't merely say it cannot be done but adds an explanation.
Is it possible if I try?
Does that mean it can be done if used in a direction that doesn't cause a change in common sense?
This system function, which I can use, is never available during crucial moments.
As if I could not turn the tables with revision.
Still, in such situations and feelings, it seems possible to use it with certainty.
It must not be too broad in meaning but rather be considerably limited.
The more detailed, the more limited, the more likely it can be added.
An event that doesn't cause a change in common sense.
In that case, a sufficient reason must be attached.
Some rational reason for horns that shouldn't grow back to grow.
No, it doesn't even have to be rational; it can be something that should never happen under normal circumstances.
Any plausible basis.
Anyway, a basis for making it happen.
Ah.
I seem to know what to do.
I use the Setting Addition feature.
'With the power of the "Word Magic", I can "regrow" the "horns" of the "succubus race".'
A very limited and specific setting addition.
A power that makes anything possible, but even I don't know the extent of its possibilities.
The Word Magic can serve as the basis.
[Adding this setting requires 10,000 achievement points.]
It's possible.
It's not a small cost, but my held achievement points are over 100,000.
There is no reason not to use them.
[10,000 achievement points will be used.]
[The setting has been added.]
It's a feature I had used again after a very long time.
I gaze at Airi quietly.
"You have horns, don't you?"
"Ah... Why my horns?"
"They'll grow back."
"…?"
Airi tilted her head, as if questioning what I was saying.
She wouldn't know what had happened to her.
"Just know that."
"Uh... okay."
There was no point in explaining further; they wouldn't understand anyway.
Only after their horns grew back would they realize the meaning behind my words.
I should pass this message on to the other succubi as well.
There's no telling what help the power to make someone dream might be in the future.
Reina, the previous Succubus Queen, and mother of Airi, used the power of dreams to instill fear in humans and wither them to death.
But Airi uses it to save those who suffer.
"Thanks for at least doing that, Valier."
Airi, upon hearing my words which, depending on the listener, could sound like a cruel joke, smiled brightly.
"Since you said so, it feels like it'll definitely happen... It's a strange feeling."
I wonder what expression Airi will make when her horns truly grow back.
I became a little curious.
Harriet said there might be something we can do.
Olivia said there's no need to do anything, and to just not do anything.
Airi seemed to have changed her thoughts quite a bit from before.
I couldn't tell about her thoughts on humans, but she seemed to shower affection on the children.
Luvien and Gallarush were not in the palace, leaving only Eleris behind.
"Ah... Your Majesty."
Not "Your Highness," but "Your Majesty."
Eleris, who had been in the guest room, addressed me as such, perhaps because I had become king.
Becoming a king took only a single day, it seemed.
I became king not to rebuild the demon world but to address the gate incident that had occurred in the end.
Ultimately, I would not be able to escape the yoke of being the main culprit behind the gate incident.
Would the gate incident have happened in some way or another, no matter what?
If I had done nothing, would the gate incident still have occurred in some way?
I don't know.
However, Eleris is trying to do something as the person directly responsible for causing the gate incident.
Eleris was alone at the table, writing something on a piece of paper.
"What were you doing?"
"Ah... I was... thinking of a new spell."
"A spell?"
At my question, Eleris continued with a gloomy expression.
"There will be many people who have lost their homes... So there will be a need for a place to temporarily house refugees... I was thinking of creating a spell that could create such temporary shelters..."
"Ah."
I couldn't help but see the misery in Eleris's expression.
It was a bizarre act, trying to make amends for the disaster she had caused herself.
She would probably prefer death.
Her attempt to save people had ended up like this, and despite the pressure she was under, Eleris had activated Akasha with her own hands and by her own will, to save me.
I heard that the Akasha used had disappeared.
Since Akasha itself was practically another world, it had not disappeared but had become the gate incident itself.
The gate incident was not something that could be undone.
So the guilt Eleris was feeling now must have been unbearable for her.
Leaving Eleris to die might have been a better choice for her.
I can't imagine the miserable feelings and guilt Eleris must be experiencing as she struggles with the unbearable guilt and works on this task.
Eleris and I would be sinners.
Ellen seemed to think all of this was her fault, but I don't think so.
Even in this situation, I am grateful to the three who believed in me and followed me.
However, I do not blame Ellen and Charlotte for not trusting me. I think it was unbelievable and that there were many reasons to doubt.
Resentment and hatred cannot solve anything. In reality, my enemies are not Ellen or Charlotte, but the monsters of the gate.
Thus, the responsibility for this entire situation lies with Eleris and me.
Eleris seemed to be devising a kind of magic to provide temporary homes for those who had lost theirs.
It would be a small magic, but it is absolutely necessary in the current situation.
That would not be the end of it.
If I had not met Eleris, if I had not encountered the demon spy, the gate incident would not have occurred.
Nevertheless, I told Eleris at the crossroads leading to Akasha that I would not regret everything that had happened.
I decided not to regret, even if our meeting would be remembered as regrettable events.
Though everything became entangled and led us here, I decided not to regret, and so, I do not regret.
"I don't regret."
"..."
At those words, Eleris lowered her head with a disheartened expression.
"Because there must still be something we can do. I don't think the price we have to pay will only bring about bad things."
I placed my hand on Eleris's drooping shoulders.
"Let's try to do whatever we can."
There is nothing I can do about Eleris's guilt.
No matter how much pressure was applied from those around her, Eleris made the choice.
The world or me.
At the crossroads between the two, Eleris should have chosen the world.
She was definitely such a being.
Regretting the numerous massacres and trying to repay even a small sin, Eleris should have refused to activate Akasha, even if it meant abandoning me.
However, Eleris chose me over the world.
Everyone else may consider Eleris the greatest sinner, and everyone in the world may never forgive her for causing the gate incident.
But I cannot do that.
No matter how much responsibility she felt, no matter how much pressure those around her applied, Eleris made the choice with her own hands.
There is no need to listen to the reasons.
She must have done so because she loved me enough to trade the whole world, because she valued me so much.
Even though it destroyed the world.
To her, who had no choice but to do so because she loved me that much.
Why did you do that?
Shouldn't you have left me to die?
I cannot say such things.
Even if the whole world, and even my own people, come to hate Eleris, who is as good as the source of the tragedies they will face, I cannot.
I must love Eleris.
I must stand by Eleris.
"I'm so... so... sorry. I ruined everything... I ruined your wish..."
"No, it's okay."
It's not okay.
But I must say it's okay.
In Eleris's heart, in this love.
I am grateful.
"Losing you... no... you... I was so... so... scared... I was so sad that everything had to end like this... I was so sorry... so sad... you..."
Crying, Eleris embraced me.
"I didn't want to lose you... no matter what..."
Eleris hugged me and cried for a long time.
I also hugged Eleris.
As if I would never let go again.
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