Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 41

Chapter 41

A man dressed in the standard-issue Demon Lord uniform stood silently outside the Dark Moon, his long black hair whipping wildly in the wind like ink strokes flung across the night. It had only been a few days since Ruiyin had last seen him, but his once healthy, wheat-colored skin had grown much paler, and the baby fat that used to form two dimples when he smiled was gone from his thin face. The handsome man stood there with a long sword in hand, his brows and eyes cold and grave. For one instant, Ruiyin almost thought this person was Holy Archmage Lars, crawled straight out of a mirror.

He stood there expressionlessly. As he looked around, his proud, indifferent gaze made him seem like the Demon Lord inspecting his own domain.

Those emerald eyes, practically labeled “Searching,” swept sharply over the entire scene. Then, the instant they spotted Ruiyin in the far distance, they blazed with brilliant “Get√!” light.

And then, the Demon Lord finally spoke his second line: “Ruiyin QAQ!!!!!!!!”

The Demon Lord showed no concern whatsoever for how wickedly charismatic and wildly arrogant he currently looked. He flailed his long limbs and hurled himself over like a fledgling bird. The Dark Elves beneath the tower only felt a gust of wind sweep past before the man landed, with perfect accuracy, face-first in front of Ruiyin. He lifted his head, his dusty, dirt-smeared face still handsome as tears streamed down it. “I finally found you! Are you all right? I’m sorry, this is all because I failed to protect you. I am willing to die in atonement!”

…There was no need to doubt it now. This kind of mental state, going from grand entrance to instant collapse, could only belong to Lars. There would never be a second person like him.

“You…” Ruiyin looked him up and down in disbelief. “Are you all right? How did you end up like this?”

“It’s fine. I’m sorry, it took me a little while to find you, but I can right away…” Lars smiled steadily and reached out to untie Ruiyin’s ropes. Then, as though he had suddenly remembered something, his hand stopped. He turned back to look at the silent audience behind him.

The noble and beautiful Queen Tio stood quietly behind him with her head lowered. Her posture was humble and devout, as if she had been waiting for him like this for hundreds of years.

When she saw Lars raise his head, she slowly took one step forward, her beautiful eyes shining with excitement. Her voice carried the faintest tremor. “The Dark Moon Gate has opened… Are you the emissary of Dark God Seres, descended in answer to our summons?”

Lars stared at her. After a long while, he smiled.

Before this, the only smile that ever appeared on that face had been sunny to the point of looking a little foolish. But now, that smile actually carried a different flavor.

“Yes,” Lars said slowly. “That’s right. I came because I heard your summons. In the name of slaughter, blood, and souls, I can grant every wish you have.”

The Queen stared fixedly at him. Even facing the savior of her race, she maintained her noble bearing as a Queen. She bent lightly at the waist and said respectfully, “Then, Lord Emissary, please allow me to present the Dark Elves’ sacrifice to you. May you help my people regain Lord Seres’s favor.”

“Wait,” Lars suddenly said. “If it is a sacrifice, I would like to offer it to Lord Seres with my own hands.”

Queen Tio hesitated. Lars looked at her with a gentle smile. The man’s lush emerald eyes carried a silent temptation, as if so long as he smiled faintly, anyone would hand him their life without question.

“In that case, I shall trouble you to do it personally.” The Queen held out the Dragonbone Blade in her hand.

“No. I would like to use this to take out the sacrifice’s heart myself.” Lars lightly raised the blood-colored longsword in his hand.

Ruiyin watched the exchange between the two of them in confusion. What exactly was going on? Had these elves not seen Lars’s entrance just now, or the part where he landed on his face? If they had seen it, why would they still believe him so unconditionally? And most importantly…

When had the fine young man she had painstakingly raised for over a year turned into this fraud of a charlatan?! “Came because I was summoned,” my foot. Did they not hear his entrance line? He had definitely gotten lost who knew how many times before stumbling into this place, okay!

And yet, it seemed Ruiyin was the only one who still thought Lars was an idiot. Even Vigia and Galahad looked terrified. Galahad struggled and shouted, “Lars! Are you insane? We’re your companions!”

Lars smiled faintly, indicating that he had absolutely no idea who this Little De from the Sea of Roses was. He raised the sword in his hand. When he spoke in that gentle, soft voice, the smile on his face could almost coax roses into bloom in the depths of winter. “Would you please close your eyes? I promise, it won’t hurt at all.”

The sword in his hand gave off an ominous blood-red glow. When he lifted it high, it looked like the scythe the God of Darkness used to reap lives. Ruiyin watched with a numb expression as Vigia cried, “No, no,” then closed her own eyes, feeling she had basically guessed how this would end.

“I’m sorry,” Lars said softly, almost in a murmur. The longsword in his hand traced a perfect arc, then drove into the woman’s left chest with a wet sound. Bright red blood splashed onto Lars’s face. He closed his eyes briefly, blood beading on his long lashes. Green eyes and red blood transformed his once righteous, handsome face into something almost dangerously bewitching.

Lars pulled the sword from the Dark Elf Queen’s chest, completely ignoring the uproar beneath the tower. He turned back to Ruiyin and smiled innocently. “All right, shall we go?”

…Yes. Exactly. That was the ending.

Galahad, who still had not recovered, stared blankly as Lars cut through the ropes and let them down. Dazed, he asked, “What happened? Lars, didn’t you say… you were the demon who was summoned here?”
“I was indeed summoned here,” Lars said lightly. With one hand, he wiped the blood from his face; with the other, he casually shoved the Queen’s corpse off the high tower. He turned to face the Dark Elves below, who were shouting in fury. His handsome face, stained red with blood, was filled with a cold, murderous intent.

“I was summoned by her wish, to bring you slaughter, blood, and souls.” Lars raised the blood-red longsword in his hand high overhead. His black hair, freed from its restraints, lifted though there was no wind. Arrogantly, he looked down upon all the dark creatures below. “In the name of War God Xisaluo, I grant you pain and despair. May you… enjoy your struggling.”

Halfway through his speech, a familiar sensation slammed down on his head with a clang.

“…Ruiyin…” With that familiar wounded pout, Demon Lord Lars held his struck head and looked at Ruiyin aggrievedly.

“Idiot! What is there to recite in such an embarrassingly edgy monologue? Didn’t I tell you to use every chance you get to run while people are making speeches?!” Ruiyin withdrew her fist and scolded him fiercely.

“We don’t need to run. How could I allow you to use the word ‘run’ in front of this pack of mongrels?” Lars smiled with steady composure. Looking at that certain smile, Ruiyin suddenly felt a shiver run through her for some reason.

“Now is the time for your revenge, Kandaru,” he said in a low voice.

On the night the Dark Moon descended, there were no stars and no purple moonlight. Under the horrified gazes of every living thing, a pair of fiery red eyes slowly opened in the night sky. There were no whites, no irises. Looking into those pupils, Ruiyin could clearly see lava and flame churning within them.

The roar she had once heard in the Orc King’s memories now rang beside her ears like real thunder.

“Traitors! Damned Dark Elves, damned Tio! You will bear the flames of the Orc King’s wrath!”

A gigantic fireball appeared without warning in the clear night sky and crashed heavily into the forest like a meteor. Amid the flames that spread in an instant, countless massive beasts emerged. They clashed with the Dark Elves, who had lost the protection of their barrier. Curses and roars shook the sky. The jungle that had been calm only a moment before became, in that instant, a graveyard of fire and blood.

“May you enjoy this gift,” Lars said with a leisurely smile. He turned around and, with utter naturalness, held out his hand to Ruiyin. “Let’s go back.”

But Ruiyin took a step back, avoiding the hand that had once been so familiar.

“…What exactly did you do?”

Because Ruiyin had dodged him, Lars looked hurt for a split second, but he quickly returned to his sunny smile. “I woke up Orc King Kandaru!”

…Could you please not say that in such a proud tone?!

“Do you know what you’re doing?!” Ruiyin’s face darkened terrifyingly. “You were the one who said what would happen if this guy was disturbed, weren’t you? It won’t just be the Dark Elves. Even the humans currently fighting the Orcs will suffer a catastrophic blow! As a knight, shouldn’t you understand that better than I do?!”

“I know.” Lars looked at her, his expression calm, with no sign at all that he had lost his mind.

“Then why would you do something like this? I had obviously already planned everything out! You idiot, you actually…”

“But Ruiyin was in their hands!” Lars interrupted her. “I was fighting those useless battles, while you were somewhere I couldn’t see you. No one respected you, loved you, protected you, or cared about you. Maybe someone was even bullying you, humiliating you, torturing you… Do you know? Whenever I thought of that, I felt like I was about to go mad…”

He stared fixedly at Ruiyin. Slowly, those green eyes actually filled with tears.

“I don’t know how long I stayed in that place. I watched you die in front of me again and again, and even if I gave my life, I still couldn’t wake you…”

Those trapped in nightmares would fall again and again into the thing they feared most in their hearts. War or death, endless battle or eternal darkness. He had once thought himself brave enough to face anything, but the weight of all those most terrifying things combined had somehow still been less than one hollow farewell.

“Please… don’t let me be unable to see you again.” Lars spoke in a low voice. He walked forward a few steps, and the tall man half-knelt, humbly clutching the hem of her clothes. “Even if I am destined to lose my life, I want… at the final moment, to die looking at your face.”

“So what if I awakened Kandaru? So what if every last Dark Elf dies? Ruiyin, that terrifying thing of leaving my side… could you please not let it happen again…” Tears slid one by one down his sharply defined face as he looked up at her like a child, his eyes full of hope.

Ruiyin stared at him silently, then suddenly asked, “Lars, what is your dream?”

“To be with Ruiyin forever.” His answer was impossibly smooth and loud!

“…” She stared at him in silence.

Lars froze for a moment, then suddenly reached up and scratched the back of his head. Somewhat uncertainly, he hesitated and said, “It seems like… I once dreamed of becoming a Golden Knight?”

“…” What a miracle that you still remember!!!!

He’d grown crooked… He’d grown crooked… Where exactly had things gone wrong? Why had the little seedling she had painstakingly nurtured still, inevitably, grown crooked like this?!

Give her back that pure young man, red through and through, who had sworn to serve humanity, you bastard!!!

Author’s Note:

Lars’s free switching between “Demon Lord to outsiders” mode and “idiot at home” mode has officially begun! Toss flowers~~