Chapter 3: Their Circumstances
1
After watching Nanaka’s figure disappear into the crowd, Aima turned around.
"Both of you, come out. I know you're there."
From the store, Yui and Yuri stepped outside.
As usual, Yui wore a sullen expression. Yuri, perhaps because of Yui’s presence, had a similarly curt look—just like she did in class.
"Yui, how much did you hear?"
"Something about a death game or whatever. Were you talking about a drama?"
Instead of answering, Aima raised his palm to Yui’s forehead.
A magic circle appeared, and ,<Oblivion> activated.
"Huh? What was I doing here…? Wait, Onii-chan!?"
"What a coincidence. What’s up?"
"I was just spacing out. I’m heading home."
With that, Yui briskly walked away.
Once she was out of sight, Aima spoke to Yuri.
"Yuri, I told you there's no need for a personal attendant."
"I’m doing this because I want to, so please don’t mind me. The investigation is proceeding smoothly as well. Incidents like today’s are exactly why I’d like to continue serving you."
"…You mean Yui."
"Yes. That girl—excuse me, your sister—was using magic to erase her presence. She claimed it was to follow Nanaka Okishima, but the fact that she can use magic at all… Who exactly is she? You should be cautious."
"Of course she can use magic. She’s the reincarnation of the Hero, Sharin."
Aima stated it casually, but Yuri’s face twisted in shock.
So she really hadn’t noticed. Yui had been careful to hide it—so much so that no one but Aima had figured it out.
"Th-that arch-nemesis!? Reincarnated as Lord Gent’s sister!?"
"Technically, my stepsister."
Yes—
Shiranami Yui was none other than the Hero Sharin Rose, who had once fought a desperate battle against Aima and the demon race for the fate of another world.
"Why would you keep such a dangerous person by your side!? Even if you did call a truce, she’s still the hated enemy who tormented you! You have no idea what she might do!"
"It’s fine. Just like me, she’s living a peaceful life in this world. If anything, there’s barely any trace of her using magic. Something out of the ordinary must’ve happened this time."
"…Does she know who you are?"
"Who knows? She hasn’t said anything, and I haven’t brought it up either. We leave each other alone. That’s what a truce is, isn’t it?"
"I suppose that’s true, but… Oh, right, earlier you cast <Oblivion>on her, didn’t you? What was that about?"
"I didn’t want to disrupt her peaceful life. I made sure she forgot all about this death game business. Knowing her, if she realized this world was in danger, she wouldn’t be able to sit still."
Considering Hero Sharin’s personality, she’d probably throw herself into the fight for humanity’s sake all over again. In this life, at least, Aima wanted her to take it easy.
"To be so considerate of someone you fought against for so long… Lord Gent, you’re far too soft! Though… that kindness of yours is part of what makes you so wonderful!!"
Yuri spoke with frustration, making Aima chuckle.
"Sorry for making you worry."
"Not at all. I serve you fully aware of that part of you…"
Around the same time—
While Demon King Gent and his familiar, Lily, were having a conversation in front of a manga café…
Hero Sharin—now known as Yui Shiranami in this world—was walking alone through the crowded streets.
She turned into an empty alley, made sure no one was around, and then—
“Aaaaahhhhhhh!!”
She crouched down, screaming into her hands.
She had done it again.
Why did she always act like that around him!?
She must have come off as incredibly unpleasant! He definitely thought she hated him!
This was a disaster! A complete and utter disaster!!
She never meant for it to happen, but for some reason, she always ended up acting cold toward Aima. The reason was simple—she got nervous.
It had been three years since they reunited in this world.
And she still wasn’t used to it.
Their meeting had been a complete ambush. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that the Demon King had also reincarnated here. And to meet again in that way, of all things…
Their reunion had taken place in a restaurant, where her mother had taken her to introduce her to her new husband and his child.
The moment Yui saw Aima, she knew.
He was the reincarnation of Demon King Gent.
He had hidden it well, but his overwhelming magical presence was impossible to suppress. Someone like Yui—who had been obsessed with the Demon King—could recognize him instantly.
She had completely frozen. She hadn’t even managed a proper greeting.
—B-but still, meeting him again like this must be fate!
That was what she had thought at the time.
Because Yui—no, Hero Sharin—had always kept a secret deep in her heart.
Yes—
She had been in love with Demon King Gent.
The Demon King was her enemy. A being she was supposed to hate. If anyone had found out she harbored feelings for him, it wouldn’t have ended with just being torn limb from limb. So she had never said a word.
Not to anyone.
Not even to him.
She had made sure he never found out—by treating him horribly, acting as if she loathed him with every fiber of her being. He probably thought Hero Sharin had despised him to her core.
But that wasn’t true.
Sharin had loved Demon King Gent.
Yes, he was her enemy. But as she observed him over time, she realized something—he never committed meaningless slaughter. Every instance of senseless killing had been the result of his subordinates running wild, and once he found out, he had always delivered punishment.
And besides, the humans were the ones who had started the war in the first place.
Sharin had tried to move on.
A hero and a demon king could never be together.
So she had attempted to give up on him—to find a human lover instead.
But no matter how hard she tried, no human man had ever been enough.
Not after knowing him.
For one thing, there was no one stronger than her.
Sharin had been the strongest human alive.
But deep down, all she had ever wanted was to become a princess.
She never told anyone, of course. They would have laughed at her. But in truth, she was the type who wanted to be protected—who longed for her knight in shining armor.
She had never chosen to be a hero.
She had simply been thrust into the role because she happened to be the strongest.
In reality, she saw herself as a gentle, reserved woman—someone who just wanted to wait at home for her husband’s return.
But unfortunately, there was no human man stronger than her.
And among the demons, only one exception existed.
In other words—
The only person Sharin could ever fall in love with was Demon King Gent.
Her dream back then had been to end the war, make peace with the demons, confess her feelings to the Demon King, and become his wife.
And yet—
For the sake of ending the war, she had to kill him with her own hands.
It had been truly, truly painful.
He had called her kind when he saw her in tears.
She had never forgotten the sound of his voice.
And now—
They had both reincarnated and reunited.
In this world, they were both human. There was no reason for them to be enemies anymore.
Yes—this had to be fate…!
As the family introduction meeting progressed, Yui had managed to pull herself together. She had resolved to talk to Aima.
But then—
A sudden realization struck her like a bolt of lightning.
Wait a second.
If Gent is here, then…?
Does that mean he and I… are siblings now?
Which meant—
We can’t get married!!
Boom.
The shock was so overwhelming that she could barely speak for the rest of the meeting.
As a result, Aima seemed to have come away with the impression that she hated him.
That was a problem.
A huge misunderstanding.
After some research, she discovered that as long as they weren’t blood-related, marriage was still possible.
Alright, then! Time to make a move!
But…
How exactly was she supposed to do that…?
Yui Shiranami.
Former hero.
Zero experience with romance, since she had spent her past life locked in constant battle with demons.
And even after reincarnating, she had never met anyone who could compare to Demon King Gent.
Which meant—still zero experience.
She had no idea what to do.
And so, three years had slipped by as she fumbled through her feelings.
Then, as if things weren’t complicated enough, the whole death game ordeal had surfaced.
She wanted to resolve it—but she didn’t want to involve Aima.
And in order to keep him from getting too involved, she had to work in secret.
In that sense, having Aima believe she was his “little sister who hates him” helped keep some distance between them.
It was complicated, but it worked in her favor.
One way or another, she had to put an end to the death game.
People like her and Aima were endangering the lives of this world’s inhabitants.
And as a former hero, there was no way she could overlook that.
For now, she would put her feelings for Aima on hold.
Once the death game was resolved, she would finally focus on making progress in their relationship.
At least—that had been the plan.
And yet—
“Why did you have to get involved too!? Ugh, you idiot! Big stupid Onii-chan!!”
Yui screamed again.
In the end, Aima had gotten caught up in the death game as well.
That man was always putting others first and neglecting himself.
He was the most powerful demon to have ever lived—the one who had once driven humanity into terror and despair.
And yet, he was absurdly kind.
It was almost laughable.
If only the Demon King had truly been cruel and ruthless.
She had lost count of how many times she had wished for that.
If he had been someone she could have genuinely hated, things would have been so much easier.
It was infuriating.
Once again, he had thrown himself into trouble of his own volition.
This was entirely his fault.
And to top it all off, he had cast Oblivion on her.
Acting all high and mighty, as if he were some big brother looking out for his little sister.
What a joke.
Not that it mattered—
Because Yui had anticipated he might do something like that.
She had suspected he would use Oblivion to keep his secret.
Which was why—
Right before leaving the manga café, she had stored several hours' worth of her memories in this alleyway’s trash bin.
Using a spell that allowed one to imprint their thoughts and memories onto objects—
A magic known as Residual Imprint.
Whether Aima had realized Yui’s true identity remained unclear.
But since he hadn’t brought it up, she saw no reason to do so either.
For now—
The priority was to solve the issue as quickly as possible before Aima could get any more involved.
After finishing her investigation on Nanaka Okinoshima, Yui headed to her next destination.
It was an abandoned park near the station.
Someone was waiting for her there.
A lanky man with silver-framed glasses.
Takahide Shiroshita.
He was Aima’s English teacher—but in reality, he was a reincarnator, just like Yui.
In their previous world, he had gone by the name Roup.
Yui had only met him a few times as a child, so she couldn’t exactly say they were well-acquainted.
Roup had died in battle early on.
However, she had heard from their comrades that he had been exceptionally skilled.
After his death, Roup had reincarnated into this world ahead of Yui and Aima, adapting to his new life long before they did.
Despite looking like a man in his mid-forties, he was actually younger than he appeared.
Apparently, he had several different faces he used depending on the situation, and this was simply the one he adopted for his role as a teacher.
“The girl—Nanaka Okishima. What did you find?”
Shiroshita got straight to the point the moment Yui arrived.
“Her family’s in massive debt. She said she joined the death game Hate Breeder to pay it off.”
“Then it’s safe to say they’re deliberately targeting people in financial distress.”
Shiroshita nodded.
—Yui’s first encounter with Shiroshita in this world had been at their high school entrance ceremony.
When she first set foot on campus, she had sensed traces of magic.
Since she lived with Aima, she initially thought they might belong to him.
However, Aima always kept his magical presence completely suppressed.
It was hard to believe he would slip up like that, so the anomaly had caught her attention.
Once the ceremony began, she quickly realized that one of the teachers possessed magic.
Later, she waited for an opportunity to approach him when he was alone.
She caught up to him in the hallway leading to the faculty room.
“Got a minute?”
She infused her voice with a faint trace of magic.
“Oh? You noticed my magic?”
Shiroshita responded in kind, his voice carrying the same subtle magical undertone.
"Isn't that dangerous? People in this world don’t know about magic. If they notice, it could cause problems."
When Yui asked, Shiroshita nodded as if to say there was no issue.
"I let out just enough for someone like you to pick up on it. I already knew there were others from our world here, but I hadn’t been able to make contact with any of them."
"...This magic—could it be Roup’s?"
"You can tell?"
"When I was studying magic, I used some of the grimoires you left behind. Your magical remnants were in them."
"To think you’d even notice something like that... You really are the Hero, Shalin."
"And you recognized me in an instant. Just like our comrades said—you really are brilliant."
They had both identified each other through the unique qualities of their magic.
For a while, they kept their distance, only exchanging information from time to time.
Even if they were both reincarnators, in this world, they were nothing more than a teacher and a student.
It wasn’t until two weeks ago that they formally decided to work together.
That was when the existence of the death game Hate Breeder came to light.
"...As for Nanaka Okisima, I’m thinking of letting her roam free for a while."
"Oh?"
Shiroshita narrowed his eyes, signaling for her to continue.
"There’s something off about her—she doesn’t seem like just another participant. She’ll probably join the next death game, so I plan to tail her... ideally, all the way to the game’s location."
"Be careful. The organizers are definitely using magic."
"I can use magic too."
"Have you forgotten? Reincarnators can only use about one percent of their original magic power at the start."
"I know. It’s because our bodies are native to this world, right? I’ve been training—I’ll be fine."
"Training does raise your output, but at best, you can probably use five or six percent of your original strength. Meanwhile, the enemy has been using magic here for years. For all we know, they might be at full power."
"My original magic reserves were high to begin with, so I can still hold my own. But... thanks for worrying about me."
"You’re confident, I’ll give you that."
Shiroshita shrugged.
"I'm just assessing my abilities objectively. Don’t worry, I won’t overdo it."
"Understood."
"There’s one more thing that concerns me."
Yui decided to bring up the most important issue.
"What is it?"
"Shiranami Aima… the Demon King, Gent, has made contact with Nanaka Okishima."
"What? Is he investigating the death game too?"
"Seems like it."
"That’s bad. If he sides with the death game organizers, we won’t be able to handle him."
So he thinks that too.
Yui sighed internally.
To the people of Domuspatria, "demon" was synonymous with "evil." That idea was ingrained in them.
But at least when it came to the Demon King Gent, that assumption didn’t hold true.
And Shiroshita didn’t understand that yet.
"That won’t happen," Yui said firmly.
"That kind of game is exactly the sort of thing he despises most."
"Oh? You’re awfully quick to defend the Demon King. Did becoming family change your perspective?"
"I—I still hate him, okay? But… if it weren’t for him, our world would’ve been destroyed in a war where both humanity and demons wiped each other out."
Yui’s gaze drifted into the distance.
"He was the one who stopped it from happening."
*
A memory Yui still recalled vividly.
A scene that haunted her dreams.
The Demon King’s castle—the throne room.
Aima sat upon the throne.
Yui stood before him.
"This should complete everything. It took much longer than expected."
Aima spoke with a faint smile on his lips.
But the one sitting before Yui was not the high school student she knew.
It was the Demon King, Gent.
"It couldn’t be helped. There were sixty-six Summoned Beasts to seal, after all."
Yui, too, was no longer her current self.
She was Hero Sharin.
Sealing all sixty-six Summoned Beasts.
Erecting the Barrier of Lamentation.
A reckless, absurdly grand scheme—one that was clearly impossible.
And yet, Sharin and Gent had accomplished it.
Now, the moment had finally come.
"Hero Sharin. I am grateful for your cooperation. Without your efforts behind the scenes, this feat would never have been possible."
Gaining the full support of humanity and demons alike had been impossible.
That was why only Sharin, Gent, and a handful of their most trusted allies had carried out the plan.
"Are you really sure about this? Even if it means your death?"
"Yes. I have no regrets. I was blessed. I had loyal subordinates I could trust. I chased a dream alongside my kin. And—"
Gent smiled.
"I had a worthy rival in you."
"──!"
A sharp pain stabbed at her chest.
Sharin had always wondered—
If they had been of the same race, would they still have been enemies?
Throughout their battles, she had seen his actions, witnessed his choices.
She knew, beyond a doubt, that he was not a monster.
Through Gent, she had realized that demons had hearts.
That they, too, had their own sense of justice.
She had understood that in theory, but he had made her truly feel it.
That was why she had been drawn to him.
"You’re kind, Hero."
"What are you talking about…"
"Anyone who can cry for their enemy must be kind, don’t you think?"
"……!"
Even in his final moments, he called her kind.
Even now, he thought of her.
But—if anyone was kind, it was him.
Sharin bit her lip, fighting back the tears threatening to spill.
She could not let herself break down.
"Sharin. Do it."
"…I will."
All she had to do was activate the spell.
She expanded the magic circle before her.
And then—
"Farewell, Hero Sharin. Protect Domuspatria!"
With a smile on his face, the Demon King, Gent, disappeared into the light.
*
"He may be a demon, but he’s not the kind of guy who kills humans without reason. He fought humans because they were at war—that was all. But if there’s no reason to fight, he’d rather live a quiet, ordinary life. In that sense, he’s straightforward. And that’s why I trust him."
"Hmm. Well, we’re both human now. So, should we recruit him? A man like that would be a powerful ally."
Yui shook her head.
"I’d rather die than fight alongside someone like him."
Her words were the same as always—the hero who hated the Demon King.
But in truth, she really didn’t want to fight with him.
She didn’t want to drag Aima into this.
More than anything, she wanted him to finally have a peaceful life.
That was how she truly felt.
"Hah, fair enough."
Joka chuckled at her response.
It was only natural—wanting to fight alongside a former enemy was the stranger sentiment.
3
Saturday.
The weekend had arrived.
Since there was no school, Aima was sitting at his desk, working on his homework.
Just then, his phone vibrated.
It was a message from Yuri.
Yuri: [I’ve compiled the information on the death game Hate Breeder. Can we call?]
Aima: [Thanks. I’m good.]
Almost immediately, his phone started ringing.
"Hello, Lord Gent. Sorry to disturb you on your day off."
"No, I appreciate it."
"We’ve learned quite a bit. To start, the organization running the death game is the Genesis Brigade."
"What?"
Aima furrowed his brows.
Genesis Brigade... So those bastards had made it to this world too?
He could hear Yuri sigh on the other end of the line.
"I can imagine how you feel. I was just as sick of hearing their name here as I was in the other world."
The Genesis Brigade was an organization from their previous world—an extremist human faction, to put it simply.
The war between humans and demons had raged on, but not everyone on the human side had been calling for an all-out war.
Some groups had been more moderate, seeking a way to negotiate peace.
Even among those who wanted victory, most had drawn a line somewhere—whether it was reclaiming land lost to the demons or simply stopping further invasions.
The majority of people had viewed the war in practical terms.
But the Genesis Brigade was different.
Their goal was complete extermination of the demons, and they advocated for a relentless, never-ending war until that goal was achieved.
They were ruthless—even towards fellow humans who didn’t agree with them.
Because of that, they had taken countless human lives alongside the demons’.
The war had dragged on far longer than it should have, in part because of factions like theirs.
Naturally, their treatment of demons had been nothing short of brutal, and dealing with them had been one of Aima’s greatest struggles.
To make matters worse, they were highly skilled in magic, forcing Aima to constantly fight to protect his people.
"The Genesis Brigade running a death game… I don’t quite see the connection."
Their goal in the other world had been “the complete extermination of demons and the unification of the world under humanity.”
But how did that connect to a death game where humans were forced to kill each other?
*"I thought the same thing and double- and triple-checked in case there was some mistake. But at the very least, it’s certain that members of the Genesis Brigade are involved in running the game. They’ve always been erratic, doing things that make no sense to us. I have a feeling they have yet another terrible reason behind this."*
"So we need to keep investigating to find out.
If the Genesis Brigade is involved, this might not be a problem limited to this world."
"Yes. It’s a very grave situation."
"Understood. We’ll continue the investigation."
"Understood. Also, I have a report on Nanaka Okihima’s parents."
Aima had spoken with Nanaka a few days prior, and something about her story had nagged at him.
He understood that debt collectors had come after her because her parents had fallen into debt with no way to repay it.
But she had described them as serious and responsible people—so how had they suddenly become addicted to gambling?
That inconsistency had bothered him, so he had asked Yuri to look into their background.
"Let’s hear it."
"From what I found, I can’t imagine two people who better fit the word ‘prudent.’bThey studied hard, worked diligently, and built a stable family. Neither of them had any history of gambling—no pachinko, no horse racing, nothing."*
"Yet those very people suddenly fell into gambling debt… That is suspicious."
Aima had a gut feeling that the Genesis Brigade had some kind of hand in this as well.
"Good work on the investigation. I’m going to make my move. I’ll enter the death game again and investigate from the inside. Can you make the arrangements?"
There was a brief hesitation on Yuri’s end before she spoke.
"I thought you might say that, so I reached out to a coordinator. But we have a problem."
"What is it?"
After a short pause, as if choosing her words carefully, Yuri finally answered.
"The truth is… Lord Gent, you’ve been blacklisted. You can’t enter the death game."
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