Only then was I able to understand the situation.
This damn body! Even if you have to cough up blood, does it have to be here! Shit!
I saw documents splattered with blood. Plus, the Demon King who was catching my blood with his hands... Oh my god.
'It was a dirty life.'
I quickly covered my mouth and pushed away from the desk, leaving a short message in my mind.
Even so, it was already a dirty document and the hands of the Demon King were stained with blood. As expected, I heard the sound of teeth grinding together, probably because he was angry. I slowly opened my mouth, swallowing the scream that was about to burst out as the murderous pain pierced my entire body.
"Sorry. The documents..."
"That's not the problem now! Your doctor! Call the 0th Corps Commander's doctor!! The patient is sick right now. Where are you and what are you doing?"
...Huh?
My mind froze at the unexpected situation.
After a while, my mind could barely come up with another hypothesis.
Oh, you're angry at the doctor.
In short, it's like this. The reason I had this accident was because I was sick. It means that the doctor did not do his job properly, which means that the reason I had an accident was because of the doctor.
So, instead of kicking me, I guess he'll kick my doctor.
So, where will the resentment of the attending physician, who was suddenly struck by fire, go?
This is the demons' castle. After reminding myself that my doctor was also a demon, I sat down with an expression of liberation.
I was fucked.
***
"The patient is sick right now, where are you and what are you doing?"
Overwhelming demonic energy enveloped the entire castle. It was obvious even without looking who the owner of this thick and heavy magic energy is. The attending physician, Ben, was prepared to die today and hurriedly packed his visit bag.
Of course, the only subordinate whom the Demon King thinks this much about is Demon, the proud commander of the 0th Corps, his patient.
Sure enough, when he arrived at the Demon King's office, he saw Demon sitting on the bare floor with his mouth covered by his hands.
What was dripping down the hand is none other than blood.
As a result, the carpet in the office became dirty, but since the Demon Lord would not care about such a thing, he approached him without worrying about it.
He scolded himself as he quickly helped the person, who seemed to have lost strength in his legs and had no intention of getting up, and sat him down on the sofa.
Not being able to show up quickly when a patient is sick is a disqualification as an attending physician. Even if Demon gets angry and breaks his neck, he wouldn't have anything to say.
He'd have to heal him before that, though.
First, he extended three fingers.
First, check consciousness.
"Demon, can you hear me? How many of my fingers do you see?"
"There are three."
Consciousness was normal and visual field was normal.
Everyone in the Demon Castle knows why Demon was like this. There was no way he didn't know.
That's because everyone saw it clearly.
The image of him stopping a hero who was about to self-destruct with a mere human body. As if that weren't enough, everyone had seen how he had killed the hero like it was nothing.
Since he suffered the hero's self-destruction entirely on his own, it was natural that his body was damaged.
So is he looking down on him?
'No way.'
A weakened body and fighting ability are two different things. You might not know what other people are doing, but this person is different. He could probably take his life right away if he wanted to. Then he would know that he was dead only after he died.
Just looking at his vivid, alive eyes even though he was coughing up blood was like that.
The eyes are so red that he wondered what they would look like if fresh blood pooled in a circle. Those eyes, which stood out even more because of the pure white hair, contained a clear expression of 'death.'
'I can do this because I have killed countless people and seen countless deaths. How dare you look down on me?'
Ben, trying to suppress the fear and awe that surged through him, calmly opened his mouth.
"As you might expect, it's an aftereffect."
As if he had expected it, a look of resignation passed over the Demon King's face. He also closed his mouth for a moment out of bitterness. However, the person involved, Demon, was different.
An expression that doesn't even seem to matter. No, that's clearly an expression of boredom.
He saw it too much. He was already weary of it.
He placed the handkerchief given to him by the Demon King to his mouth and buried himself deeply in the sofa, as if he was saying something for nothing.
Ben and even the Demon King were left speechless by the attitude that was close to resignation or liberation.
'How can you be so resolute?'
If it had been other Corps Commanders, the chaos would have happened long ago.
Whether they would draw their sword, shake their fist, or sit quietly and threaten. Their murderous eyes would have shined brightly and he would have told Ben to fix it somehow.
Isn't that what he should do?
That's the reason for his existence.
As soon as he thought about it, he felt like he could sigh. A sigh closer to relief than frustration or anger.
Subconsciously, he thought that he was very fortunate to be the doctor of the 0th Corps Commander.
'No, now is not the time.'
Ben immediately shook off those thoughts, collected his emotions, and quickly searched through his visitation bag.
"As always, this is a medicine that helps with internal injuries. I'm sorry that I can only do this."
"Thank you."
After confirming that Demon received the medicine bottle and drank it, he slowly closed my eyes.
Well then, he'd finished his job. Now, the inevitable time had come.
The Demon King, who had been giving off a 'turn and face me' vibe since he just arrived here. Knowing full well that the price of ignoring him was death, he carefully stood up and faced the Demon King.
There were no complaints whatsoever. It's not unfair. It was clearly his fault for not being able to quickly respond to the patient's abnormality.
Perhaps Demon is also angry. If not angry, at least disapproving of this.
Therefore, once he received the Demon King's wrath, he was prepared to endure Demon's wrath if he survived. But Demon, who should be the most angry, came forward.
...Why?
***
The Demon King was trying to kill the doctor!
I reflexively jumped up from my seat and grabbed Ben's wrist.
Ben looked at me with wide eyes, probably surprised. Perhaps equally surprised, the Demon King was also looking at me with wide eyes.
Are you surprised? I was surprised too. But I couldn't help it.
If he beat up my doctor like this, wouldn't all the resentment be directed at me? No matter how gentle Ben was, he would naturally be upset if he was criticized for something that wasn't his fault.
By then it will be too late.
I have to stop now it in order to survive!
With that resolve, I was the first to open my mouth to the Demon King, who was still too stunned to speak.
"I'm not feeling well, so I'll just leave. Of course, my doctor should too. It's unfortunate, but I'll have to postpone the topic of resignation until later."
"Huh? Resignation...? No, I got it first. Go quickly and rest."
Perhaps because he doesn't want to talk about the resignation letter, he passed it off as expected.
I'll definitely talk about it next time! First of all, the timing was not good today, so I quickly walked out of the office, telling myself that.
And I don't know how long I walked.
When I stopped, I was standing halfway down a fairly long hallway.
Since there were only one or two hallways, I peeked out the window to figure out the location.
In the sunless Demon World, you could see a garden covered in the veil of night outside the hallway window. Instead of the sun, three moons took its place, softly illuminating the garden.
If you look at it up to this point, you might think the scenery is pretty nice, but look over there. What flower has teeth?
Was it a man-eating plant? The plant next to it even has eyeballs. Plus it blinks!
As I shuddered in disgust, I heard a faint voice next to me.
"Commander Demon...."
"Hmm? ...Ah."
Come to think of it, I was still holding Ben's wrist. I was so out of my mind that I couldn't even realize it.
I slowly let go of his hand and glanced at Ben's eyes. He's not offended, is he?
Fortunately, there was no sign of displeasure on his face.
Instead, what caught my eye was a complexion as pale as mine.
It seems like he's a bit restless...
"Does it hurt anywhere?"
"No. I just..."
A feeling of resignation appears on his face. As I looked at him with great concern, wondering if he was really in pain, he let out a small sigh.
Ben licked his pale lips, then bit his lips once as if he was preparing for something, and bowed his back.
"It may be presumptuous, but I dare ask you to let me go with as little pain as possible!"
"...Huh?"
For a moment, I even forgot to manage my facial expressions. A feeling of absurdity would probably have clearly appeared on my face by now. The goofy voice was a bonus.
I'm glad he's bending over. Seeing as he wasn't making any movement, it seemed like he couldn't hear my voice either.
I quickly managed my facial expression and cleared my throat.
I can't bear to ask out loud what kind of bullshit that is, so I'll change the subject a bit...
"What does that mean?"
"Ah... no. I made a mistake. I'm sorry!"
I tried to ask kindly, but he was shocked instead.
Is he really in pain? They say people can't cut their own hair, but what if the doctor is sick? That doctor is my doctor.
Feeling anxious that I might end up entrusting my body to a patient, I let out a small sigh and said, "I won't kill you."
I don't know what it is, but I won't kill you. No, I can't kill you.
If I had the ability to kill demons, I would have abandoned my role as Corps Commander and escaped a long time ago.
Why would I live here with such anxiety?
I could only sigh at the pitiful situation I am once again realizing.
With a depressed heart, I trudged to my room, leaving the dumbfounded Ben behind.
***
Contrary to appearances, Ben knew that Demon is the most generous of all the corps commanders. But who would have thought that e would protect even those who failed to fulfill their duties?
No, he seems to think that he didn't fail to do his duty in the first place.
Maybe it's because he was born as a human, but his thoughts are different from those of demons, so they didn't know his standards.
But how embarrassed he must have been when he suddenly asked him to kill him without pain. What's worse was that he had been startled and used impolite language.
But there was a reason for such an illusion. Other Corps Commanders, even if they had saved Ben, the reason would have been 'I had to kill him with my own hands to relieve my anger.'
Anyway, it would have been nice if he had stopped talking quickly. Unfortunately, he didn't notice and thought that his words made him feel very uncomfortable, so he even asked for forgiveness. It was a burden placed on him.
In a situation where he had nothing to say even if he was punched in the back of the head, Demon spoke with a faint sigh instead of raising his hand.
'I won't kill you.'
Honestly, he was shocked. Isn't this too generous?
Ben was always proud to be that person's doctor, but he had never been more proud than he was today. He supposed he'd have to grab a bottle of alcohol today and go see the official Corps Commander's personal doctor setter. The scene where they had to deal with bad-tempered Corps Commanders and grabbed his head out of envy was already eye-catching.
Of course, there was work to be done before that.
'So that the same thing will never happen again...'
Ben's eyes lit up slightly as he remembered the pitiful sight of his patient, Demon Arut, who was dripping blood.