Chapter 223 Yamato Hina and the Demon King Medinilla ㉖
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The desert night was biting.
I (Yamato Hina) had taken over the night watch, partly because I was being allowed to ride in Sieben’s vehicle, and partly as an apology for Ise Maya’s earlier slip of the tongue. But the cold was hard to bear.
As the fire dwindled, I added more wood to keep warm. I was glad I’d asked the senior members of the Hunter Guild¹ about the necessities of camping.
”Haa… it’s freezing.”
I huddled into my cloak and endured the chill, blowing air onto my frozen hands. My breath came out in white puffs, a vivid testament to how much the temperature had dropped.
”Ojou-sama, you don’t need to go that far. I’ll handle the rest, so please go back and get some sleep.”
”No, I’m not particularly sleepy, so it’s fine. Besides, the sun hasn’t been down that long.”
Ise Maya protested, but we had eaten just as the sun dipped below the horizon. Only about three hours had passed since then. In Japan time, it would have been around nine or ten o’clock.
”But, Ojou-sama…”
”More importantly, Maya… that remark was uncalled for. I understand you dislike Sieben, but disparaging his wife was out of line.”
”T-that… you’re right. I went too far.”
”Your hatred of men is ironclad, I know. But he’s an exception, isn’t he?”
”Yes… he is my benefactor, after all.”
”Heh. ‘Benefactor,’ huh?”
””–!?””
A sudden voice that didn’t belong to either of us startled us. I spun toward the sound to find the masked man, Sieben, standing there before we’d even noticed him.
”What are you doing here?” I asked.
”What does it look like? I brought refreshments. Do you drink coffee? I made it black to wake you up, but do you need milk and sugar?”
Looking closely, the tray he held had two cups on it. Steam rose from them, the distinct scent of coffee tickling my nose.
”Ah… thank you. I’ll have some,” I said.
I took the cup and sipped. It was hot, bitter, and acidic – the classic taste of coffee. It felt like my drowsiness would vanish instantly. Normally, Maya would have insisted on a “poison test” sip, but the surprise seemed to have made her forget her routine.
”Ojou-sama! How can you drink that so calmly when it might be poisoned!?” Maya cried.
”I wouldn’t bother,” Sieben replied. “If I wanted to kill you, a knife to the throat is a lot faster than waiting for poison to work. Especially while you were completely defenseless just now.”
”That… I suppose that’s true,” I muttered.
With Sieben’s skill, he really could have decapitated Maya and me while we were chatting.
”More importantly, you said ‘benefactor,’ right? I’m more curious about that,” Sieben said.
”Him… if he hadn’t been there, I’d be the one who died. My life was saved by him. By Sasaki,” I said.
I remembered that day. When we were being hunted by the pack led by the Great Wolf, I had been paralyzed with fear. Maya had been so terrified she hadn’t even noticed me. Sasaki was the one who pulled my hand and forced me to my feet. I explained this to Sieben. It wasn’t something I needed to hide.
”I vowed to protect Sasaki. And yet, I was the one who was saved. To make matters worse, Sugita kicked him and pushed him into the pack afterward. It made my blood boil.”
”That is why Sasaki-sama is the only exception,” Maya added. “I showed a pathetic side of myself back then. It’s a source of constant shame.”
”Hmm. I see…” Sieben muttered.
He gave a noncommittal nod. It was a bit irritating that he brushed off our regrets so lightly, but stories like ours were a dime a dozen in this world. Even so, I felt Sieben’s aura soften for just a fleeting second.
”So, what kind of guy was this Sasaki?” Sieben asked.
”Sasaki was… he was always being bullied,” I said. “Actually, Maya, I, and Hina – along with the Hero – all came from another world. We were classmates. Before the summoning, Sasaki was treated horribly by Sugita and Tenkouin.”
”Is that so? And did you help him every time?”
”No… I didn’t. Or rather, I turned a blind eye.”
The atmosphere shifted. The momentary relaxation vanished, replaced by a sudden, suffocating tension.
”Why?” Sieben asked.
”…Because he didn’t ask for help. Besides, he was a man. I thought he could endure it.”
”Ha! What kind of logic is that? So, you’ll help a woman, but a man is on his own? And then you claim you were going to ‘protect’ him? I don’t get you at all.”
”That’s because this world isn’t at peace!” I snapped. “I decided I would protect the weak Sasaki here! What’s wrong with that!?”
I found myself shouting. Protecting the weak was the duty of the strong. That was my justice.
”Nothing’s ‘wrong’ with it,” Sieben said. “But why didn’t you help him from the start? Long before the summoning? ‘Because he’s a man’ or ‘because he didn’t ask’ aren’t even excuses.”
”That… is…”
”It was because we were being threatened!” Maya interjected.
”Maya!?” I barked.
She was bringing up our greatest stain – the shame we had been forced to bear.
”We aren’t in Japan anymore, Ojou-sama. That scum doesn’t have that kind of power here. It doesn’t matter,” Maya said.
”Scum, huh? I’d love to hear what happened,” Sieben said.
He sat cross-legged on the dirt, resting his chin on his fist with a distorted smirk. He looked genuinely intrigued. Maya was right; this wasn’t Japan. There were no police here who would blindly believe Sugita’s lies. I began to recount the events.
It had happened about a year before the summoning. It started when we tried to stop Sugita and his group from assaulting a girl we didn’t know. We used force to save her. Normally, it would have been self-defense. But Sugita struck first, lying to the police that he had been the victim of unprovoked violence. The police believed him without ever listening to our side or the victim’s. Sugita filed a report and blackmailed us.
”If you don’t want to get arrested, stay out of our business.”
As a result, we couldn’t stop his cruelty anymore. we had to watch and do nothing.
”…So, to save your own skins, you ignored what Sugita was doing. That’s the gist of it, right?”
Sieben let out an exasperated sigh.
”Ugh… I have no words to counter that,” I admitted.
”But Ojou-sama is a daughter of the Yamato house!” Maya cried. “We couldn’t afford a scandal, even a false one. A bad reputation would have been ruinous!”
”Kuhahaha! So you ignored crimes to protect your family name? Man, I can’t do anything but laugh!”
Sieben threw his head back and laughed. He was mocking us. It was pure, unfiltered ridicule.
”You…! I won’t forgive you for mocking Ojou-sama!”
Maya half-rose, reaching for the knife at her waist.
”Why not? It’s the truth,” Sieben said. “Using your status as an excuse to do nothing while you watched Sugita run wild… in a way, you’re worse than he is. The fact that you don’t even realize how pathetic you are is hilarious. Ah-hahahahaha!”
Grrrrk. I ground my teeth. I didn’t need Sieben to tell me that. I knew it. But everyone else in class had either joined Sugita or ignored him to avoid trouble. Our actions weren’t noble, but being looked down upon by him made me seethe.
”Ah, that was funny. As thanks, I’ll tell you a ‘pleasant’ story of my own.”
After he finishes laughing, Sieben began to speak.
”Once upon a time – though not that long ago – there was a boy in a certain village. He was constantly beaten by kids his age. Who knows why? It was probably for some trivial reason. But bullying doesn’t need a reason. There were kids who could have stopped it, but they were indifferent. Eventually, the boy couldn’t take it and went to the village head. ‘I’m being hurt, please make it stop,’ he said. How do you think that went?”
”I… I assume he stopped it?” I asked.
”No way! It got worse. The whole village ignored him. Some even started joining in. A culture was born where it was okay to do anything to this kid. He was worthless.”
”…That’s horrible.”
”How can people be so ugly?” Maya muttered.
”Right? So, the boy gave up on calling for help. The whole village took part in the torment. It’s a pleasant story, right?”
I didn’t know what Sieben was trying to achieve. It wasn’t pleasant; it was sickening.
”…That is a disgusting story. Those villagers deserve to die,” Maya said.
I agreed with her. I asked Sieben if there was more to the story.
”There’s a sequel,” he said. “One day, a pack of monsters approached the village. They couldn’t fight them off, so they had to run. But they knew they’d be caught. So, they decided to use the boy as a decoy. They slashed his legs so he couldn’t walk and left him behind. Just as he gave up on living, a girl saved him. She wasn’t human, but she rescued him. He traveled with her, and now, he’s someone everyone looks up to.”
”I see! Thank goodness… I’m glad,” I said. “So, what happened to the villagers?”
Sieben smirked, looking genuinely pleased.
”Oh, they got what they deserved. Some became Hunters but kept their habit of running away; they abandoned their squads and were slaughtered, or ended up as Orc seedbeds². One made a fortune, let it go to his head, went bankrupt, and was sold into servitude. Another claimed he’d be a ‘Hero,’ messed with the wrong monsters, and got several villages wiped out before becoming monster bait. Recently, one was branded a criminal, pelted with stones by the public, and faced an execution³.”
It was poetic justice. I felt my expression soften. Since he was a married man, he’d probably married the girl who saved him and found happiness. But Sieben’s face was twisted in a grimace of pure exasperation.
”At this **particular** point in time, the story ends right here,” he said.
”…Whatever. I’ll send a replacement for you in a bit. Until then, keep watch.”
With that, Sieben walked back to the vehicle. It would be a long time before I understood the look on his face in that final moment.
—
Summary:
During a cold desert night watch, Hina and Maya discuss their past guilt regarding Sasaki’s bullying. Sieben interrupts, mocks their excuses of ‘family reputation,’ and tells a grim story about a boy betrayed by his village. The chapter highlights the disconnect between Hina’s ‘justice’ and the reality of their past cowardice.
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Trivia:
- Hina and Maya were blackmailed by Sugita in Japan.
- Sasaki (Sieben) was the one who actually saved Hina from wolves, despite her ‘vow’ to protect him.
- Sieben explicitly emphasizes the phrase ‘at this particular point in time.’
- The villagers in Sieben’s story suffered horrific fates, including becoming Orc seedbeds
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Character Insight:
Hina shows a massive blind spot in her morality, believing that protecting the ‘weak’ Sasaki in this world makes up for abandoning him in Japan. Sieben (Sasaki) is clearly testing them, his exasperation growing as Hina fails to recognize the boy from his story as him.
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Behind the Scenes:
The author contrasts Hina’s ‘high-and-mighty’ attitude with her past actions to emphasize the hypocrisy often found in ‘justice’ archetypes.
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TL Notes:
Notes:
• Sieben – Young man with black hair and a mask covering his eyes. He purchased Honoka and Ria.
• Yamato – Yamato Hina. Student council vice-president. Serious, beautiful, with long straight hair and sharp eyes.
• Hina – Yamato Hina. Student council vice-president. Serious, beautiful, with long straight hair and sharp eyes.
• Maya – Ise Maya. Yamato’s attendant/maid. Short hair, cold gaze, wears a maid outfit.
• Sasaki – The protagonist, 168–171 cm and 57–59 kg, with a baby face hidden by black bangs. Once bullied and thought dead by the Sugita gang, he now fights as the gladiator Seven. Wielder of Snatch and Time Compression, he’s the hidden source of many curses and a shapeshifter. Dressed in green scale armor with a blood‑red muffler, he wields dual longswords.
• Sugita – Leader of the Sugita gang and main bully of Natsumi Sasaki, born into heavy police privilege—his grandfather is the Superintendent General, his father a Superintendent—so every mess he causes gets buried. Lean build, sharp features, that cold, arrogant “I can get away with it” stare. Wields the unique skill Steal (窃盗), which he uses to manipulate minds and control women. Once impersonated the hero Sieben with a mask and greatsword, but lost everything and dropped to Level 7. He’s a “Hero” cursed to die and resurrect endlessly—turned into a Lesser Vampire, executed, and ultimately erased from existence.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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