『Shirayukihime to 7 Nin no Koibito』to iu 18 kin Otomege Heroin ni Tenseishiteshimatta Ore ga Zenryoku de Oujitachi kara Nigeru Hanashi - CH 10

Once upon a time, there was a wicked demon who told lies all the time.

He would go down to human villages and seduce women, then lead them deep into the forest where he would gobble them up head first.

One day he met a witch in the forest.

When it came to appearance, the creature called a witch was not so different from a human being.

Mistaking the witch for a human, the demon tricked her with lies like he always did.

When the lies were exposed, the witch became furious.

“You’re telling me that all those sweet words you said and the love you proclaimed for me was a lie…!!”

The demon was thus sealed in a mirror by an angry witch.

―――The witch placed a certain curse on the lying demon.――…It made it so that he could only answer by telling the truth.

“Mirror, mirror, do you really not love me?”

“No, I don’t love you.”

Yet for whatever reason, living with the witch wasn’t that bad.

A demon is basically a solitary creature. This is because they will fight if their territory is shared by other members of the same genus.

Living with someone and talking to them every day was a new experience to the demon.

Apparently that was not exclusively demons, but it applied to witches as well.

The witch has lived alone in this small hut deep in the forest ever since she was a child.

Peaceful, gentle moments of time passed between the two of them.

―――Then one day, the witch reached the end of her life span.

The lifespan of a creature called a witch is not that long, only about three times as long as a human being.

From the point of view of a demon that lives for millennia, a witch is a fragile creature with a very fleeting life.

The witch, who was in the form of a young and beautiful maiden when they first met, has somehow turned into an old woman.

“Mirror, oh mirror. For goodness sake, can’t you just say you love me?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t love you.”

“It is strange, isn’t it? I am the one who put the curse on you that you can only answer with the truth, yet I want you to lie to me now.――…I really want you to say that you love me.”

With that, the witch passed away with a sorrowful smile on her face.

The witch died and the curse placed on the demon was lifted.

However, even after the curse was lifted and the demon was able to leave the mirror, he did not leave the witch’s house.

For many years, he lived there with the dead witch.

He simply went back to his original solitary life.

So why does it feel so sad?

So why is it so lonely and why does he miss her so much?

So why is it so painful?

So why does he still cry so much?

The demon contemplated the mirror placed next to the witch’s remains.

After years of thinking about it―― Finally, he found the answer.

“Well, it appears I did love her…”

But even if you realize such a thing now, even if you whisper your love clumsily from those lips, the witch, who has already become a skeleton, will not reply to you.

Why was he not aware of his feelings while the witch was still alive?

It was only a matter of time before the witch would have realized this while she was still alive.

Because of the curse, the witch should have been able to make the lying man himself believe her when she whispered her love to him.

If only he could whisper his love to her while the witch was still alive.――…Her last smile would not have been such a lonely one.

One day, a girl appeared to the demon, who was still living with the witch’s corpse.

The beautiful girl, who looked much like the witch when he first met her, was the daughter of a distant relative of the witch.

The demon then decided to become her servant, to act as her right hand.

The girl was a bit ruthless, but witches are by nature such creatures. It is rather rare to find a woman like that witch.

Living as her niece’s familiar was a bliss.

After a while, the demon noticed something strange.

―――Is it the power of the witch’s blood?

The curse should have been broken, but when she asked him a question, the demon was again only able to answer with the truth.

When she asks a question, even if it is something the demon does not know, the sight or knowledge comes to mind and he is able to answer.――Even if it’s about another world unknown to him, even if it’s an outlandish story about her previous life.

The witch, who had recently regained her memory of her previous life, was strangely similar to the witch the demon had fallen in love with.

“Aki-sama……”

Looking down at the witch, who continues to sleep in her bed, exhausted and languid, he vows.

He’ll do everything in his power to prevent this witch from suffering from that terrible future three months from now.