No to Being the Suffering Heroine!

The words from the demon girl’s mother that simultaneously stopped my and Friede’s brains and Friede’s incredulous glare that followed.

Thanks to that, the suffocating tension and sense of crisis flew away completely, but if I thought about it, the situation itself hadn’t changed at all.

Before me stood a demon with a peculiar presence, and we had failed to eliminate it before it awakened. And it happened to call me “mom.”

If it was an intentional remark, it was truly a sly move. So demonic of her, indeed.

“Mommy… hehehe…”

However, it was too natural a sight, with her looking at me and smiling brightly, to simply brush off as a mere trick.

Perhaps it was because of her lack of features typical of demons. If not for the knightly instinct endlessly ringing alarm bells, I might have mistaken her for an ordinary human girl.

“Mommy, I’m hungry….”

The demon pouted as she leaned forward. The hungry, yearning spark in her eyes was fixated on the cleavage glaring through her breastplate.

…What, does she want milk or something?

With a hesitant face, I subtly turned away, as if to say “don’t expect that.”

“I’m so hungry….”

The demon girl clad in a human guise whined again.

“So what?”

You can wish all you want. Even if I had something to give, I wouldn’t offer it to a demon. Not a chance.

“Mommy….”

Whining with that face won’t do you any good, you know? You’re a demon.

I raised Edelmut, aiming it at the demon’s face, my expression hardening.

Realigning my previously shaken hostility back to a sharp point.

“Hey, I’m not your mommy, you know?”

I told her that as if I was throwing it at her. I don’t know who your real mother is, but in any case, I’m not.

“Mommy…?”

Was that single word not enough? The demon tilted her head, puzzled.

“Your mom’s probably been dead for ages. From the looks of it, it’s been hundreds of years since you were trapped here. Do you really think someone like that would still be alive?”

Your mother’s dead, and that’s not just a crude jab, but a neutral and straightforward fact.

There are eight kinds of intelligent demons in total.

Among them, the ones that are closest in appearance to humans are Dark Elves, Dwarves, and one other species…

‘From the skin tone and ears, it’s definitely not a Dark Elf, and the lifespan of Dwarves is at most two hundred years. So that leaves only one answer.’

Undead. It was almost certain that she was a high-ranking undead who preserved her sanity unlike monsters.

Most undead have the unpleasant looks of corpse monsters, but not all of them look that way, so it’s probably safe to assume.

Thus, the probability of this demon’s mother still being alive was nearly zero… no, just zero.

Going by appearances, this demon had clearly been human in life. So her parents must have been human too, right?

While she’s been undead and lived without aging for hundreds of years, her parents would have aged and died unless they too became undead.

In other words, this girl is an orphan demon with no mother or father.

Besides, despite looking like a girl, she’d be at least several hundred years old.

What a world. To get called “mom” by a hundred-year-old old lady, I’ve really experienced some bizarre things in life.

“Not mommy…?”

The demon frowned and mumbled. I wondered if she understood my meaning properly with that dubious reaction.

“Yeah, no!”

I yelled as I thrust my sword. A jab that concentrated all my power into the tip of the blade. It was as fast as light.

– Guuuuung…!

…But of course, it just got blocked like it’s expected.

“Hah… are you kidding me? Even that got blocked…?”

I murmured to myself, suppressing my heavy breaths.

If this could be blocked, it meant my attacks were unlikely to get through whatsoever.

“Hmm….”

The demon, having created another red disc to block my sword, tilted her head slightly.

With a gaze like a corpse, she observed me. Her crimson eyes reminded one of blood pooling on the floor.

“Mommy, is that you?”

With a voice that felt as chilling as a centipede crawling from within a shoe, devoid of any joy.

“Ugh…!”

I instinctively stepped back to create distance. It was a reaction not of rational judgment, but pure instinct.

That saved my life.

– Scritch.

A red line.

It was the only way I could explain it – something wiped through the space where my neck had been just a moment ago and vanished.

Strands of hair brushed against the trajectory and scattered like fine debris in the air.

‘…Did I just almost die?’

My heart pounded afterward.

Whether it was a cutting blow or magic, or something else entirely, before I could even identify it, that red line had disappeared.

Had I not reacted instinctively, it wouldn’t have been just my hair getting cut but my whole head.

“Ha…! Hilde!”

At that moment, Friede snapped out of her daze and charged at the demon, swinging her Holy Sword.

The sword of the goddess that slays demons.

She must have deemed the swing as too severe to underestimate it; the demon turned on Friede with her back to me, creating a defense barrier several times thicker and larger than mine.

The blade of the Holy Sword struck the crimson barrier at an angle.

– Kwaaaazizzzz!

The divine power of the Holy Sword clashed against the demon’s force. Golden holy light and crimson blood light swirled violently, engulfing the surroundings.

The turbulent flow of power ripped apart everything it touched, regardless of material – walls, floors, corpses, and bodies….

– Cardedek!

…Even graves and chains.

“Friede! Get back!”

I grabbed Friede’s waist with my arm and pulled her back with force.

If we maintained our stance like this, all the restraints surrounding the demon would surely shatter.

“Eek?!”

The surprised Friede let out a cute scream.

Just as I expected, once the Holy Sword moved away, the red lightning tearing through the restraints that bound the demon vanished without a trace.

A couple of broken chains clattered down weakly as their fragments fell and, glancing at them, the demon obediently withdrew her red barrier.

Good, just stay bound like that. Forever.

“Hilde, why suddenly….”

“Those chains. If they’d stick around a little longer, they would’ve all broken.”

When Friede looked at me, asking why I had interfered, I explained to her the reason I had to.

I was worried about the chains and restraints that held the monster’s entire body fixed in the coffin.

I didn’t know why the demon, who could likely break free of them all with ease, remained bound, but anyhow, there was no reason for us to free her.

She nearly killed us while bound; I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if she got loose.

– Kwaaaaaaa!

“…Like this?”

Yeah, like this.

I nodded with a dazed expression.

Staring at the girl who had ripped through the chains and restraints like paper and staggered out from the coffin.

“No, could she even do that in the first place…!”

My complaint came out mixed with intense emotion. Half disbelief and the other half frustration.

Isn’t this a sort of art in misfortune?

Seriously, can’t I help but complain? If she could break free so easily, she should have done it long before and escaped.

Why the hell did she wait until we showed up to break free and step out…?!

Frustration welled up inside me.

Of course, the demon girl, being a demon, didn’t care about my feelings and remained calm.

“…Not so?”

She approached me and murmured softly.

Unsteady as if it were her first time standing upright, her steps quickly steadied within mere steps and transformed into a normal stride.

“Mommy, is it not…?”

…Is that all you can say?

Right when I was about to sneer at the repeating question as I shot her a sharp look.

– Kwaaaazizzzz!

Once more, a red line shot up like a small tempest, and in the blink of an eye, everything around her was torn to pieces and scattered like dust.

“Spear…?”

Was it because I was staring at her? This time, I was able to barely discern what was happening.

I could see, albeit vaguely.

A red spear.

As it flowed from the fingertips of the demon, the blood-colored spear ripped apart and crushed everything around her with almost invisible speed.

…Ah, I see. It’s a ‘blood spear.’

Cold sweat trickled down my back.

‘What insane speed…?’

I can’t win.

At least not now. There’s nothing I can do to overcome it.

That thought, a sense of despair, settled in my mind.

The power that could tear through metal as if it were paper. It outpaced anyone I had ever seen… even my own mother’s power.

This demon possessed the physical abilities of a creature at least the level of a high-ranking knight.

It was a monster that should’ve been trapped deep in the depths of a high-level dungeon. I couldn’t imagine a way to win.

– Slurp.

In the next moment, the demon absorbed the spear she held back into her fingers, looking directly at me with a grin.

The smile of a predator staring down its prey.

The murderous aura was so thick it felt as if I couldn’t breathe, filling the cell with rich blood scent.

“If that’s the case….”

A strange, overwhelming weight pressed down on my head like an enormous, unfathomable object.

“Ugh…!”

My knees threatened to buckle under the pressure. I gritted my teeth to endure it.

Beside me, Friede was grinding her teeth to the point of breaking, an almost beastly growl escaping her lips.

Not so much out of fury or hatred, but more like a beast wary of its natural predator. She must’ve realized it as well.

“This is… this monster is…!”

In front of us stood an overwhelmingly powerful monster that, even if a miracle occurred, we couldn’t hope to defeat.

The demon raised her hand towards me.

In an instant, her finger sent forth a wave that obliterated everything within a few meters. The fingertip aimed at me was like a gun.

“Is it mommy, or…?”

I reflexively shouted at the top of my lungs.

“Y-yeah! Yes, it’s mommy! Our daughter!”

Survival instinct prompted my desperate appeal.

“…….”

I couldn’t worry about Friede’s astonished expression as she turned to me. I had to focus on living first.

To survive from this monstrous, strong, dementia-ridden undead girl, I could bear the burden of playing the role of a mom despite it not being in my fate.

“Yeah, I’m your mommy! Our daughter, you’ve missed mommy, haven’t you? Come here…!”

I opened my arms wide toward the demon, trying my best to look warm and welcoming, all while being fully prepared to summon a holy barrier should anything go awry.

“…Hehe, mommy… mommy….”

With a look that seemed to dispel the murderous intent like an illusion, the demon’s expression shifted into a beaming smile as she joyfully dashed into my embrace.

“……!”

I had to exert literally superhuman patience to suppress the urge to shove her away.

It felt like being hugged by a man-eating dinosaur.

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