Demon Girl ~Tale of a Lax Demon~

for this [Skill Contract] without gathering sufficient information about it.

Various things were in motion, and as long as this suspicious girl died, it could all go well.

Up until this point, Kyoji was unable to do so thanks to the bindings of his own social position, and all of those annoyingly powerful Hero-class attendants of hers were supporting her.

It was unexpected that Yurushia could come to this place where only Heroes were supposed to be able to, but here, it would be possible for him to dispose of her without being obstructed by anyone.

Even if she had the ability of a [Hero-class], she was still the [Saint].
In a straight-up battle, there was no way she could stand against him, a [Hero].

“Oh, my, Keiji.
You sure got up suddenly.
Aren’t you tired from releasing all that magic?”

“……No, it’s not much of a problem if it’s just this much.”

“As expected of a Hero.
But…… Are you really sure you have that much leeway?”

“What……?”

And in that instant, an outcry reached Kyoji’s ears as if it had come from a long distance away.

“Well, I’m not sure.
We’ll see soon.”

“What? Oi!”

As Yurushia suddenly spoke in a monotone, she skipped away, back through the long corridor.

Kyoji chased after her, but it seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t reach her.

There was a strange sense of incongruity as he ran down the passage, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was.

As he emerged out of the passage and squinted at the sudden light of the room, something terrifying entered his view.

“………Demon………”

There were his subordinates being overrun by dozens of [Greater Demons].

’

Jared, who was the only one left, was clutching his sword with both hands while he looked worn under the strain of fighting, but the sight of Kyoji’s return brought light back to his eyes.

“Kyoji?сω…σσρ…The…landμ…… “

“What…… what are you saying, Jared?”

He could understand a little, but most of what Jared was saying was incomprehensible to him.

It seemed true for Jared too, and as he heard Kyoji, his face stiffened, and his giant body was blown away handily by a small stuffed rabbit.

“Jared!”

“My, my, Keiji.
Would you like some pudding? Touka’s handiwork is surprisingly delicious, you know?”

“Don’t fuck with me!”

As Kyoji tried to assist Jared, Yurushia cut in, disturbing his concentration about some unknown new factor.

Despite being a pretty little girl who he should have immediately been able to blow away, Kyoji’s instinct instantly drew his attention to that unknown hindrance.

“Well, because the people of earth who came here were all excessive and absurd, there’s a lot of food.
Dried cuttlefish?”

“You……”

The feeling of incongruity grew stronger still.
While he tried to uncover what it was, Jared let out a death cry of agony.

“Jared!”

Jared fell bloodily, while the little stuffed rabbit proudly lifted its chin and crossed its arms across its chest.

And as he watched, the giant figure of one of the [Greater Demons] bent low, offering the little stuffed rabbit something that looked like a cheap bottle of sake and kelp boiled in soy sauce.

“Well done, Onzada-kun! But you can’t drink too much, okay~”

As he heard Yurushia speak, Kyoji suddenly remembered the soft toy as the [Independent Magic Tool] that she was carrying when they’d met.

But was it really a magic tool at all? Why were the Demons with her? Had Yurushia really been released from the curse of the [Demon Lord]?

The number of questions he had were overflowing.
And the sense of incongruity only grew.

“Thanks for all your hard work, Keiji.
Because you worked so hard, Onzada-kun here doesn’t need to be needlessly injured.”

“What are you even talking about!”

“Hey…… haven’t you noticed? We’re currently speaking Japanese, you know?”

“……… what?”

Kyoji had indeed been speaking in Japanese.
Even if he tried to use the vocabulary that he’d gained in Tess in his mind, the words were merely familiar to him, and he couldn’t gel them together into a sentence.

“The language skills……”

“That’s right.
Those things don’t exist anymore.”

’

Yurushia’s smile sent Kyoji’s already-fragile mental state into even greater shock.

“Didn’t you notice at all? I rewrote the lettering on the stone stele.
I couldn’t quite adjust it right with my magic power, but thanks to yours, I managed to get it activated.”

“An inability to use skills…… huh.”

“Oh, that’s not quite right.
I have rewritten the stone stele, so actually, all [Skills] have been removed from this land.”

That initial discomfort.
That none of the writing of the stone stele could be read.

It was possible for him to replicate the effects of the skills he used frequently, but he couldn’t do anything at all that had previously relied on skills to achieve.

“You…… who are you, Yurushia!”

“Oh my, my, and here I was, giving you various hints, Keiji.”

“That name……”

He had finally noticed the difference in intonation in what Yurushia had been calling him.
It was not “Kyoji” like the rest of this world had pronounced it, but rather the native Japanese pronunciation of “Keiji”.

“Are you going to swim back to Earth this time? There’s no air at all, but you seem pretty confident in your lung capacity, yeah?”

Keiji began to sweat profusely as she spoke, the words bringing up the memory of the name of a little girl that had traumatized him.

“………Yuzu………”

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it.
……Keiji.”

Her hair and pupil colors were different.
But, ever-so-slowly…… Yurushia’s irises began to quietly fill with crimson red, and her sclera turned black, and as the presence of a supreme Demon began to emanate out, Keiji’s face paled and his teeth rattled.

“Ah, that stone stele’s a replica, so you can’t quite control the [Skills], you know? Oh, and by the way, the previous hero of wind sends his “regards”.”

“………UAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Knowing fully now that he had been dancing on the palm of someone else’s hand this whole time, Keiji was overcome with both fear and the memory of his trauma.
He tried to draw his blade, but without the skills to wield it, he dropped it, trying to strike at Yurushia with his bare hands.

*SMACK*!!!

He could hear the sound of his bones shattering under his flesh, and Keiji, who had taken Onzada’s right straight directly, was punted across the hall, bouncing several times as he did so, finally slamming into the wall before collapsing in a pile.

“Thank you, Onzada-kun.”

[………(sip)]

“Well, it’s time to end it.”

Author’s Notes:

Next time, the end to the world’s troubles.