The Regressed Demon Lord is Kind

l strength into his body immediately, but the early confidence he had about his assured victory made his body sluggish.
Furthermore, although the injury Zich had inflicted on him was small, it obstructed his movements.

Thus, while crying out, “Uh, uh…!” Condel couldn’t move the way he wanted.
All he could do was cover his body with shadows in hopes of protecting himself for the worst-case scenario. However, Condel wasn’t very worried.
Zich had the upper hand for only a brief moment.
It was clear from their battle so far that Zich couldn’t land a critical hit in such a short amount of time. Condel felt ecstatic that he was finally able to land a critical attack on Zich’s body.
But that was his mistake.

Crassssh!

“Ugh!” Condel opened his mouth wide as his stomach was pierced.
The pain was so intense that he couldn’t even let out a scream; if he screamed, the pain would become more painful.

Blub!

Condel vomited blood and stared at the thing that pierced his stomach.
The thing that pierced his tough shadow armor was a hand.
It was an extremely lovely and elegant hand, which he could confidently say belonged to someone equally beautiful.
Condel’s gaze followed the hand; he looked past the hand that now covered in blood.
His eyes swept past the owner’s frail arms and pale neck and reached a familiar face… a most lovely face.

“…Condel?”

“Ugh!” Condel vomited more blood as he stared at Sia who tilted her head while looking at him.

Grab! Someone grabbed his shoulder.
Condel turned his head.

Zich stared at him with a very benevolent expression and said, “In the first place, what you have to be most careful about when fighting with a partner is your partner’s attack.
That’s why you need to practice and build up experience.
If not, your opponent can use that lack of experience to their advantage and use your own partner to make a critical hit just like now.”

Zich put more strength into his hand.
Condel’s body tilted, and his body moved away from Sia’s arm.
He collapsed onto the ground like that and rolled over.
There was a hole in his abdomen.

“Hmm, it seems like that thing automatically stops moving when you’re fatally injured.
Thank goodness.
I was worried that your shadows would continue moving even after you died.”

Zich took out a potion and poured it over his injuries.
New flesh began to appear on his side.
After roughly throwing his potion bottle away, Zich crouched down next to Condel.
Then, he spoke to Condel who was now drenched in blood.

Zich enunciated each word so that Condel wouldn’t have a hard time understanding him.
“Anyways, I saw how great you and your lover’s love was.
A love that completely drenches the other partner in blood.
It’s a very rare form of love in this world.
I’ll admit that.”

Zich cackled as if a demon was whispering to a human.
It was enough to turn Condel’s insides upside down.

“S…ia… Cough! Ki…ll thi…s bas…ta…rd…”

However, all Sia could now do was tilt her head.

‘It seems like he needs to have at least a certain amount of energy to control the shadows.’

As if to prove Zich’s thoughts, all of Condel’s forces that were attacking Lyla and the rest of his companions and Lara stopped moving.

“Too bad.
It looks like your lover plans to reject your request.”

“Da…mn it…” Condel clenched his fists.
Tears came out of his eyes.
Condel probably realized that his plan finally failed in the end.
His forces, including Sia, stopped moving, and he was dying after getting pierced in the stomach.
He raised his arm.
He grabbed onto the edge of Zich’s clothes with his trembling and bloody hand.
He put strength into it as if he was grabbing onto Zich’s neck.

Then, he said, “It’s… cau…se of yo…u.”

“Yep.
It’s because of me.” Zich eagerly nodded his head.

“I ju…st wan…ted to see Sia… on…ce more… I ju…st… wa…nted to see…the per…son I loved… Bec…ause you inter…fered…!” Condel’s hatefully glared at Zich.

Zich just snorted; his carefree attitude went beyond just ignoring Condel’s glare.
“Now that I think about it, there’s something I prepared for you.”

Zich took out his magic box and took out something from it—a bunch of paper.
They were all different sizes and fluttered weakly in Zich’s hand.
Zich read the paper on the very top out loud.
“Ned finally confessed to me.”

His voice was calm, and he read without any anger or mockery.
His calmness stressed the content of the writings in his hand.

“I’m so happy.
My love has finally come true.
God Karuna, thank you so much.
Ah, even while writing this, I can’t believe that this situation is real.
I have no idea at all what to write here.
My love and happiness are overflowing to the point where I feel that my heart will burst, but I have no idea how to transfer these feelings into writing.
I’m just, just so happy.”

Zich flipped to another piece of paper.
The sound of paper flipping rang loudly in the quiet space.

“I’m finally thinking about proposing to her tomorrow.
In order to prepare for that momentous day, I should quickly head off to bed, but I’m so nervous that I can’t fall asleep.
I wonder what kind of reaction she’ll show when I propose.
Will she smile brightly in happiness? Or will she be moved to tears? She won’t reject me, right? If I get rejected, how am I supposed to live from now on? Anyways, the only thing left is to carry out my plans into action.
Please, please let my proposal be successful…”

Zich flipped to another piece of paper.
“I’m a bit nervous because it’s my first time expressing my feelings in this way.
But I grabbed a pen and began writing because I think that writing is different from saying something out loud.
Do you know how special you are to me? No, you probably don’t know.
I don’t know how much you know I like you, but it’s probably tens, hundreds of times bigger than what you think.
I’m confident of this.
Therefore, I’m thankful for everything that brought you here on this earth.
But most importantly, I’m thankful to you who came into my life.
As we imagine our future together, I…”

Zich stopped reading.
The papers he was holding were the letters and diaries of the victims killed in this incident.
Zich pushed the thick pile of paper towards Condel and said, “Say it again.
Say that bullshit again about how you merely wanted to meet the person you loved in front of these letters and diary entries.”