Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 1 Epilogue

What he wants to protect

Part 1

After the battle at the park at midnight--- Toujou Basara was confined to bed for a while.

After all, he overdid it even though his wound from the rooftop wasn't healed yet and suffered a grave wound from having his stomach pierced.

Even so, he could avoid going to the hospital, because Yuki gave them a special recovery medicine from the Tribe.

They told the school that he had a summer cold. Same for Mio, so that she could nurse Basara.

It had been five days since the incident--- Basara finally recovered and could safely attend school again.

---And then. Basara was slowly going up the stairs in school right now. He was heading for the rooftop.

Currently it was right in the middle of the fourth period. In other words, he was skipping. It was possible that he was found by someone and above all, Mio was back to school from today on too. Originally he wasn't supposed to take her eyes off her, but

"Well, it should be okay…"

The enemy didn't attack again after the battle at the park. First Basara, then Mio and Yuki were injured and took a couple of days to recover, which should have been a perfect chance for the enemy to strike. Despite that, nothing happened at all, so apparently the case was settled for now.

…Mio's "certain Power" still remained gone.

Agitated by seeing Basara nearly dying, Mio ended up letting the power she inherited from Wilbert go out of control, but a full awakening--- didn't happen. Afterwards she tried to use the gravity magic numerous times, but it never worked. In the end, she was back to how she was before.

---Back then. Basara's <Banishing Shift> succeeded and completely erased Mio's rampaging power.

Maybe it erased the inherited power along with it--- was what Mio speculated. Mio's feelings to get revenge for her parents still remained, but the reason for the current Devil Lord to go after Mio was gone. Likewise it eliminated the need for the Hero Tribe to be wary of Mio and have Yuki observe her.

The situation was developing favourably. But,

…I'm afraid that's too good to be true.

At best, Basara's <Banishing Shift> only erased the torrent of Mio's power that had leaked to the outside.

Most likely, if he had tried to erase even the power inside her, she herself would have gotten erased. But that alone, he didn't want to do.

Therefore Basara betted on the most difficult, but ideal possibility.

Thus, not everything was over now. Even so, it was peaceful for now.

Right now, he should be happy for at least that.

---And finishing climbing up the stairs, Basara got onto the rooftop. First his vision fell onto a clear blue color. The beautiful sky. A transparent blue sky that could only be witnessed in the summer. A bright sunlight was shining down, but it wasn't an unpleasant humidity. At times a cool and refreshing wind was blowing like gently caressing his body.

There Basara noticed that someone else was already present in the corner of the rooftop. It was a boy that looked up at the blue sky like Basara with both arms on the fence that prevented people from falling off--- Takigawa. When Takigawa noticed him,

"Hey--- Basacchi. Back to school and skipping already?"

He said with a teasing voice. While making a wry smile, Basara approached Takigawa.

"You're one to say. You boldly skipped before me."

"Got over your cold? Guess you really caught it from Naruse the other day?"

"Well, could be… Anyway, were you alright?"

"…Mh? Ah, you mean from the school store?"

Right, Takigawa remembered.

"That was too much, Basacchi. Suddenly ramming your elbow into my solar plexus and leaving me behind like that. Do you know how miserable I felt when I woke up all alone?"

"My bad… But I didn't mean that."

A wry smile. Then Toujou Basara said.

"At the park, I messed you up quite bad--- I'm impressed you didn't die."

In that moment, a cold silence spread on rooftop in the middle of summer.

"…….What're you talking about?"

"You wanna play dumb? Fine--- but don't regret it later."

Basara leaned over to Takigawa, who didn't change his expression despite that.

"Hey Basacchi…"

In response to the confused Takigawa, Basara flared up his eyes and swung his arm with Godspeed.

With a sword it would have been a side-slash. Indeed--- Brynhildr wasn't in his hand. But,

"------"

Instantly, Takigawa was far away. That--- wasn’t something feasible to a normal human. All emotions had already vanished from Takigawa’s face, whereas Basara laughed abruptly.

“Don’t blame yourself, Takigawa, that’s a natural reaction. After you didn’t die from my consecutive attacks, you should have seen how I erased Mio’s power… Anyone would absolutely chose to dodge when I give it killing intent, if only for show.”

To Basara’s words, Takigawa remained silent for a while.

But--- before long he made a big sigh, then resigning scratched his head.

“Aww, and I here thought I had you fooled.”

After saying so, Takigawa came over to him.

“--- When did you notice?”

“After everything was over. Thanks to you I was bedridden… While I lay in my bed covered in bandages, I had time to think about a lot of stuff.”

Basara shrugged his shoulders.

“I got the clue after I defeated the white mask--- you at the park. When I tried to approach Mio, your subordinator “Shadow” pierced my stomach with a small sword… But that’s the strange point. It tried to continue the fight even though it’s commanding superior was defeated.”

After all,

“You guys were ordered to retrieve Wilbert’s power from Mio because you serve the current Devil Lord. Normally, one would retreat at once and report the situation.”

“What about the possibility that it feared punishment for failing the mission and tried to save face at least?”

“Sure, that’s possible--- But, there’s another possibility.”

Basara declared to Takigawa’s words.

“That the ‘Shadow’ wasn’t the subordinator of the white mask, but was a puppet created by magic.”

Then it would explain why the “Shadow” remained there. The “Shadow” wasn’t all too powerful. Most likely it was a type of puppet that could only execute simple commands. The “Shadow” probably just obeyed Takigawa’s order and attacked Basara.

“…But when the ‘Shadow’ is a magic puppet, then it brings up new questions. You were surprised at the “Shadows” in the school store during the black-out at night. But you know, Devils might intentionally reveal their appearances, but puppets made by magic shouldn’t be visible to normal humans.”

“I see. But wouldn’t you normally think then that the ‘Shadows’ aren’t magic puppets?”

“But it was worth testing out. If you had been a normal human, you wouldn’t have reacted to my killing intent. A safe method to get confirmation, isn’t it?”

“For that, your argumentation sounded like you were already sure of it…”

Tokigawa still wasn’t convinced, whereas Basara said “Kind of”.

“…Remember how you told me at school store in that night that Mio looked flushed and embarrassed when she collapsed?”

That had been a fact. Because the activated curse of the Master and Servant Contract was giving her pleasure.

Therefore Basara naturally didn’t question Takigawa’s words at that time.

“But when I thought about it, it was strange. Sure, Mio is strict with me and might have gotten embarrassed about it, but lately she had been going to the infirmary under the pretext of health problems. When you see her with a red face then, you normally would first think of a fever.”

“…..So that‘s the reason.”

Oops, Takigawa face-palmed.

“I screwed up… After seeing her strange reactions numerous times, I understood at once that her attendant succubus was involved. So it was harder to hold back my laughter than to pretend not to notice it. I tried to behave naturally, but… to think that lead me to a slip of words instead.”

A disappointed wry smile. Then,

“---So? What now, Basacchi?”

Putting on a gruesome smile, Takigawa asked.

“I don’t really mind if you want to continue from the park.”

Upon that, the air around Basara and Takigawa suddenly became tense. Like the peaceful rooftop had suddenly turned into a battlefield.

For a while they confronted each other wordless. Basara made the first move. Relaxing his shoulders, he laughed.

“…Not today. As I’m right now, I have no chance against you alone. Besides--- Rather than fighting, I would like to negotiate with you.”

“Negotiate…?”

Takigawa asked puzzled, whereas Basara nodded with “Yeah”.

“I guess you’re got dispatched from the current Devil Lord faction to observe Mio. I’m sure you were ordered to stimulate the awakening of Wilbert’s power if possible, but seeing as you went out of your way to pretend to be human and attend the same school as Mio, I can only imagine that you are to observe her.”

Takigawa responded with silence. Taking it as an affirmation, Basara continued.

“The reason you chose a forceful method this time is that Mio got a new family that protects her--- My existence. Mio’s magic powers were triggered by the death of her foster parents. You surely plotted that next Wilbert’s power might awaken from the shock of seeing me in the same predicament. I was ideal for that, since you wanted to end your mission quickly, so you approached me, right?”

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