Chapter 575
A terrible thought began to fester in Erice's mind.
But what if Novia really is the Demon King...?
If he really is the Demon King, then for the past six years—no, it should be all this time—he has been by my side, yet always with a different face and a different identity, observing everything I do.
Looking at herself tossing and turning, unable to sleep because of her longing for the "Demon King"; looking at her own undisguised and deep-seated disgust and contempt for "Novia," and wondering if Chitose had known all along? What exactly did that ambiguous phrase, "I'm like you," mean...?
Erice felt a wave of dizziness wash over her, and she clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug deep into her flesh.
She needs to know the final Answer.
"One last question," the girl's voice, weakened by extreme tension and fear, yet carrying a resolute determination, "In that relationship, you were... the dominant one, weren't you?"
This is Erice's last line of defense.
In Erice's relationship with the Demon King, Erice is always the passive one. Although she is always verbally abusive, Erice knows that she is powerless to resist.
Novia looked at Erice, whose face was as pale as paper and whose body was trembling slightly with tension, and sighed softly in her heart.
However, in Martha's training, he was not the dominant one.
So the silver-haired youth slowly shook his head.
But how should I put it? Novia was also pondering it.
After all, he had spent so much time with Erice was four to eight years old, so he still had some reservations.
However, this negative Answer brought Erice a tremendous sense of relief, like a warm tide washing over her entire body.
Very good.
He's not Demon King.
That frivolous, promiscuous scumbag who flirted with countless women was not the unique, one-of-a-kind, hateful yet reliable Demon King who belonged only to her.
But then, a sense of emptiness and loss followed.
He's not Demon King.
Immediately afterwards,
For the first time in front of Novia, Erice's face showed a genuine smile from the bottom of her heart.
"Okay, I understand," she said solemnly. "From now on, I will respect you as an elder, just like Chitose and Miss Kuonji."
Twilight, the trees in the front yard of the Kuonji residence were gilded with a melancholic yet warm golden edge, like that of an old photograph.
Erice leaned against a thick, Ancient Tree Trunk that had witnessed countless years, wearing the outfit she thought had been given to her by her "Demon King Father"—that strange, mentally unstable guy who claimed to be a combination of Goethe and Schubert.
A gentle breeze rustled through the Leaf, making a sound like a sigh from a distant past.
She didn't shed any tears, but Erice was wiping her eyes vigorously with the back of her hand again and again.
In reality, Erice has never shed a tear, not even when Chitose accidentally cut a large slit in her ear when she was four years old, or when she woke up at nine years old to find the Demon King gone.
This is it.
It's this grove of trees.
Erice recalled the day she was eight years old, when she hadn't heard the Demon King's voice for several days, so she used the newly learned Magic Bullet Shooter.
That's when she discovered that he, who should have always been by her side, had gone to 'harass' Miss Kuonji, which was simply unbearable... Actually, she also had a fear of losing him.
That's why I went on my way regardless of everything.
We need to find him.
No matter where he is, no matter what he is doing, we must find him.
Then,
She found him.
"Would you like to use it again?"
This tempting thought instantly popped into Erice's mind.
During the six years that the Demon King was gone, she did try.
For the first two years, she was like a paranoid gambler who had lost all his chips but still refused to leave the Gambling Table, performing this almost self-harming Ritual almost every month.
The Magic Bullet Shooter can fire seven shots in total, but only the last shot can hit the user's most important target.
In fact, every time Erice uses the Magic Bullet Shooter, she has to struggle between life and death on her sickbed for a whole month.
After all, the price of using the Magic Bullet Shooter on Erice was the excruciating pain of having all the Magic Circuits in her body torn apart inch by inch and repeatedly burned by flames.
The crucial Seventh Bullet always exploded inside Erice's body just before it was about to leave.
This suffering lasted for two years.
In the end, Erice gave up.
The girl thought she had completely given up hope.
But now...
Luce's innocent "Sister," Chitose's strange "I'm like you," Novia's denial that made her both happy and disappointed...
All her thoughts, all her emotions, all her hopes and despairs, ultimately coalesced into a single thought for Erice at this moment.
Erice's eyes gleamed with an almost obsessive, dazzling yet dangerous light, as if she wanted to burn everything she had, and she gritted her teeth.
"It's only a month... It's not like we didn't make it through!"
Erice raised her right hand with unwavering determination, her index and middle fingers joined together as if holding an invisible Pistol, aimed at nothing in front of her.
With all his might, in a hoarse, trembling voice, he roared out his name—
"Freischütz the Magic Bullet Shooter!"
Od, as always, surged wildly through the circuit like a wild beast out of control.
The first shot!
"Ugh!"
The familiar, excruciating pain, as if it were tearing the soul out of the Flesh, arrived as expected.
Erice let out a suppressed groan, her body trembling uncontrollably, cold sweat pouring down her face, instantly soaking through her brand-new, cherished garment.
The second shot!
The pain intensified, and the world before my eyes began to distort and blur. The golden sunset and the interlacing shadows of the trees turned into Chaos patches of color.
The third shot...
The fourth shot...
Erice clenched her teeth, letting the pain be branded onto every inch of her nerves again and again.
As expected...
In the midst of boundless agony, just before her consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness, Erice let out a sorrowful sigh.
Gluttony, you have disobeyed God's guidance; this is the definition of sin.
Just as the Seventh Bullet was about to materialize, the agony that would have caused Erice to completely faint and struggle on the edge of life and death for a whole month was about to erupt within her—
Erice was enduring everything with her eyes closed and waiting for the final Judgment, suddenly felt a long-lost, unbelievable, and almost unbelievable strangeness.
That raging torrent of Od, on the verge of self-destruction, actually... subsided?
The Seventh Bullet, which should have exploded within the girl's body, carrying all her longing and obsessions— Fate to strike the user's most important target—failed to detonate.
After many years, it has re-formed!
It was as if all the light that had burned away for Erice had burst forth in a dazzling display at the girl's fingertips.
Then, with an unstoppable force, carrying both longing and questioning, it roared out!
The bullet ripped through the Twilight, leaving a brilliant yet fleeting trail in the air, like a shooting star.
Straight ahead.
Precisely.
Shot at--
Erice had just left not long ago.
Kuonji Residence.
The living room of that mansion!
"... Eh?"
578: You can punish me like before~ Me and Erice? (5k7)
When Erice hurried back into the Kuonji mansion's Hall, only to take a deep breath at the door before returning, there were only two people Hall.
One of them was Lilith, lying on the Sofa with her legs crossed and pressed together.
On the other side was Novia, who sat calmly beside him.
So, who exactly is it?
Erice's pupils contracted sharply as she saw the seventh Magic Bullet Shooter she had just fired lying between Novia's fingers.
Boom--
Although she had suspected something on the way here, when the facts were presented to Erice, it was as if a thunderbolt had struck her mind.
It was indeed right here.
Novia is... the Demon King.
In an instant, Erice felt dizzy.
An indescribable feeling swept over her, and she couldn't help but stagger backward, instinctively reaching out to clutch her chest tightly.
It was terrifyingly empty there.
It was him.
It really was him.
He was the one who suddenly appeared when she was four years old, and who was always arguing with her.
He was the one who guided her when she was lost, giving her the courage to apologize.
That person who, all along, I have silently and humbly looked up to, longed for, and even... admired.
Novia slowly raised her eyelids and met Erice's gaze.
The reason why the Magic Bullet Shooter was able to hit Novia is actually quite simple.
According to the original Magic Bullet Shooter, the deal between the Devil and the Hunters clearly states that the first six Magic Bullets will hit the desired target without fail; while the crucial seventh shot will fly in the direction the Devil desires.
The Devil only ever desires one thing.
That is the existence that can plunge the user, the pathetic soul with whom it makes a deal, into utter despair.
For the Hunters back then, the greatest despair would have been to kill his beloved Fiancée with his own hands; that was an ending more terrifying than death itself.
Therefore, it's quite normal that Erice used the Magic Bullet Shooter when Novia was present, and the bullets tracked Novia.
But,
This leads to another question: why did it only self-destruct inside Erice's body before?
Normally, the Seventh Bullet should continue to travel through the world, after all, this is a deal with the Devil, and what the Devil needs is only the user's 'despair', not the user's Flesh death.
Despair can make people depressed and lose their determination to move forward.
When a person feels that nothing in this world can drive them forward anymore, their soul dies, and then, like a ripe fruit, it naturally falls into Hell.
The Devil's domain.
By the way, the Devil in the Magic Bullet Shooter is called Samiel.
This term might sound unfamiliar, but the name Samael is more familiar. The only difference between the two is the change between the vowel letters "i" and "a".
The complete German Bible was translated by Martin Luther Luther in 1534.