# The Hero Party's First Demon King Subjugation (1)
A nightmare.
A dream you desperately hope won't become reality.
Within it, unimaginably cruel things unfold, sometimes making you mistake it for real life.
And right now.
Hare was experiencing such a nightmare.
*Slurp- Slurp-*
"Ah, ahhh...!! M-Mister...!!"
Before her eyes, illusions of me and Aina were deeply kissing, their tongues intertwining.
Hare was screaming in agony as she watched.
Judging by how her face was covered in tears, quite some time must have already passed.
Had she been watching this continuously without even turning her head away?
*'More importantly, I do remember accidentally kissing Aina once in the past, but it wasn't anything like that...'*
A kiss that happened by accident.
Ours ended briefly—we didn't do anything as vulgar and desire-driven as that.
This scene was probably formed based on Lust's memories, not mine.
That lower-class succubus must have devoured quite a few men before rising to the position of Demon King.
*'Damn bitch.'*
Seeing the illusions of Aina and me kissing directly left a bad taste in my mouth.
*'I'll have to take out this unpleasant feeling on Lust. But first, rescuing the kids is the priority.'*
Before their minds are completely devoured, I need to wake them from this terrible nightmare.
I approached Hare, who was kneeling and crying.
She hadn't noticed our presence even though Estia and I had come near.
She looked half out of her mind.
"M-Mister... Please, please look at me... I-I'm going to die... If you don't look at me, I'll die... W-Without you, Mister... I-I have no reason to live... P-Please stop kissing her... and... l-look at me, Mister..."
My illusion cruelly refused to give her even a glance.
Hare begged for attention from my illusion, who ignored her words and pursued only his own desires.
But the reaction she desperately wanted never came.
Hare seemed to fall into despair once more.
Perhaps that's why.
Hare pulled out the wooden dagger from her waist.
And then...
"I-If I die... then you'll finally react, won't you...? My heart hurts so much, Mister... I want to carve it out... I-I can't bear this pain anymore, Mister..."
*Drip drip-*
Hare gripped the dagger in reverse while crying.
The sharp point of the blade was aimed at her heart.
The next action was predictable.
*'This is insane.'*
Was there something like this in the answer key about being scorched by black flames?
Though it's a wooden dagger that can't pierce the heart, it's still an action that could cause pain to her real body.
And the heart is an even more dangerous area.
I immediately approached Hare and grabbed her arm.
*Thud-*
"Hare. What do you think you're doing?"
"M-Mister...? You're looking at me...? F-Finally...? Y-You're looking at me because I'm trying to die...?"
A voice where sadness and ecstasy seemed to coexist.
Tears flowed from her eyes, but a bright smile spread across her lips.
As I expected, she wasn't in her right mind.
"I-I was going to die without you, Mister... B-But thank goodness..."
"..."
...It must be a temporary behavior.
This probably happened because she mistook that illusion for me.
So I need to help Hare come to her senses.
So she can wake from this dream.
I spoke to her firmly.
"Hare, you've been having a nightmare until just now."
"Huh...? What do you mean, Mister...? Y-You abandoned me and kissed another woman..."
"...Look over there. That's not me."
Hare turned her head at my words.
There, the illusions had stopped kissing and were glaring at us with what seemed like regret.
Having lost the appearance they were imitating, they now looked like evil spirits.
—*You could have stayed in the dream forever—!!*
—*Such a shame... It would have been nice with us...*
The illusions' faces collapsed like mud.
As if their task was complete, they melted away and disappeared.
Seeing this, Hare spoke to me in a surprised voice.
"I-I thought it was a dream...? Th-That wasn't you, Mister...? You kissing another woman in front of me...?"
"That's right, you were seeing illusions. The me from before was an illusion, and that woman... was also an illusion."
"I-Is that so...? Th-Thank goodness..."
*Phew-*
Relaxing her tense shoulders, Hare let out a sigh of relief.
Then she made eye contact with the reverse-gripped dagger she was holding.
"Uh, uwahhh...!!"
She immediately dropped the dagger on the ground and screamed.
*Clang-*
"N-No...! Mister...! P-Please forget everything I just said...!! I-I didn't say anything...!! I-I was just... just threatening as an experiment...! F-For testing purposes...!!"
That wasn't me just now!
I just said it as an experiment!
I'm serious!
Hare began making excuses, afraid she'd be scolded.
"I-I'm...! I'm t-trying to erase my feelings for you, Mister...! I-I wasn't trying to die...!!"
Hare began making desperate excuses.
Probably because she knows my personality.
The act of giving up on one's own life.
That's an action the Hero Party must never choose.
I quietly murmured to Hare.
"Hare."
"Hic-!"
"I won't scold you. But remember just this one thing."
Don't give up your own life from now on.
If you end your life, thousands of people will die.
*'That's the weight of the Hero Party.'*
For the Hero Party that must save the world to take their own lives.
That must never happen.
"Do you understand, Hare? Don't make such foolish choices from now on."
"I-I don't really understand about the party... b-but I understand about life...! I won't do such things again... I'm sorry, Mister..."
Well, she wouldn't understand the term Hero Party yet.
Hare never received such education in the first place.
After we defeat this Demon King, I'll need to properly explain what the party means.
*'Until now, she couldn't understand because she hadn't experienced it directly.'*
Estia, who had been holding my hand, also agreed with my words.
Quite vehemently.
Madness lurked in her golden eyes.
"Even though I hate Oppa! Those words are right! You can't kill yourself! How many children wanted to live more than to die!"
"Huh...?"
"Those children are all dead so they can't speak... but they all wanted to live! Surely, they didn't want to die! They wanted to live!"
"Uh, uhh...?"
"So... we have to live for those children... Got it...? We have to be super happy in their place."
"..."
Is it because of aftereffects?
Estia looks abnormal too.
Hare was trembling in fear.
I should probably stop Estia.
"Estia, that's enough. Hare understands now. Right, Hare?"
"Y-Yes...! I-I understand...! I-I think I don't need to hear anymore...!"
"I'm glad you understand!"
Having directly witnessed Estia's madness, Hare seemed to have instantly come to her senses.
Though she wasn't exactly sane to begin with...
At least she's moved a bit away from abnormality.
*'In a way, she picked a fight with Estia, who could be considered the most abnormal in the party, so she must be regretting it.'*
Anyway, as we were having that conversation.
As if signaling that Hare had awakened from her dream.
A door leading to someone else's dream appeared in the air.
I looked down at the two people who seemed like they'd never let go of my hands.
"For now, let's quickly move to another place. The other kids are also trapped in nightmares."
"Th-The others too...?"
"That's right. Luna and Saten are probably still in nightmares."
I don't know what nightmares they're having.
But since Hare just tried to take her own life.
They're probably 100% not in good condition.
So we need to quickly wake from these dreams and, as written in the answer key, eliminate the Demon King.
I held the hands of the children who seemed to rely on me and opened the door.
*Creeeeak-*
"This is..."
The door opened to reveal a shabby cabin.
The house where Saten used to live.
Since I've read about Saten's past, it comes back vividly.
Saten's bleak and lonely upbringing.
Looking at that shabby cabin, Hare and Estia whispered quietly.
"It's much better than my house..."
"I was an orphan so I didn't have a house! As expected of a noble!"
"Be quiet, kids."
No matter how much better someone's upbringing was than yours.
The emotional deficiency that person feels cannot be measured in words.
Only someone like me who directly experienced Saten's past can know.
The past where she gradually lost her emotions and became a puppet.
Whether her last survival instinct activated, Saten eventually ran away from there, but...
"...I can sense a presence inside. Though it's getting fainter."
The presence is fading.
Why would it be fading?
The moment I thought about it.
*'Don't tell me...'*
I ran toward the cabin.
"M-Mister...! L-Let's go together...! P-Please take us with you...!"
"Oppa...! D-Don't go! I'm scared! Save me!"
Leaving the kids chasing after me like penguins.
I urgently opened the cabin door.
*BANG-!*
Saten was sitting in a chair.
And.
There was a reason why the presence was felt but fading.
"Finally, my first visitor. Welcome, Mister."
"...Saten, what are you doing right now?"
"Ah, you mean this?"
Saten showed me what she was holding.
It was food I'd eaten once in the past.
Food that had caused her considerable pain.
"...Why are you eating poisonous mushrooms, Saten?"
Saten was chewing and eating poisonous mushrooms with an expressionless face as if she felt no pain.
It was behavior beyond my common sense.
Something must have happened.
"Why are you eating poisonous mushrooms? You shouldn't feel hunger here. Were you tricked by an illusion?"
"No. Of my own will. I ate them myself. No illusions appeared."
"Then why on earth—"
"That's exactly why I ate them."
"What?"
No illusions or auditory hallucinations appeared.
I was just alone, like when I was young.
But.
"My chest kept stinging. So I ate mushrooms. I thought maybe I was sick somewhere. When I was young, if my chest hurt or anything, eating mushrooms made it stop hurting."
"...The reason eating mushrooms stopped your chest from hurting wasn't because your body was in pain."
"Yes, back then my body was in pain. Now I can't feel pain so my body doesn't hurt. But I tried eating them just in case. Yet the pain in my chest still remains."
Saying this, Saten drooled blood from her mouth.
If left like this, the poison would soon spread through her body and she'd lose her life.
I immediately approached Saten and pressed on her blood vessels.
"...First, I'll use magic to prevent the poison from spreading. It's a dream anyway, so when you wake up, you won't feel anything in your real body."
"Yes, thank you, Mister. But you know, when you came, Mister. Strangely, the pain stopped."
"...I see, Saten."
Looking into Saten's black eyes as she expressed her gratitude.
I thought to myself.
Why didn't Saten see auditory hallucinations or illusions?
Was it possible to show her despair without needing to show her those things?
Because the experience of being alone in the past was the most despairing?
*'...I can't know for certain.'*
But.
I can know one thing.
What Saten's pain is.
What emotion she's begun to feel.
*'Loneliness.'*
An emotion that had always been with her since childhood.
An emotion she hadn't felt since being kidnapped by me.
As the tightly closed door began to open little by little.
*Creeeeak-*
Like touching a jewel she cherishes, she gently stroked my hand and whispered.
"It's strange. When I'm with you, Mister, it doesn't hurt."
It looked like Saten's emotional cells were beginning to stir.