Unemployed (GXG) (GIRLXGIRL) (GL)

62

A black beam shoots out from the castle and pierces the sky.

Its power is terrifying, Dorothy cheers as she feels the energy befitting a Demon King. “Look! That horrific blackness! The Demon King is Evil, after all!”

Eliza became even more disgusted as she saw Dorothy’s eyes shining like the heroes of legend. The beam is undoubtedly alarming; however, Eliza was more concerned about the city surrounding the castle than it.

It’s strange. Since Dorothy attacked the people, they should have expected retaliation against her the next time she came.

Eliza was suspicious of the tranquility, already prepared to assault the city and meet the people head-on as she was. Even if the dragons shot fireballs, there were no screams; even if the wingless dragons rampaged through the streets, no one tries to escape.

“Something is wrong,” Eliza said.

“Are you kidding me?!” Dorothy yelled. “What’s wrong?”

“There are no people.”

“Right, do you think they’ve turned it into a trap?” Dorothy asked. “Dragons! Demolish the city!”

At her order, the dragons begin destroying everything in sight. However, they couldn’t hear any screams from the wreckage, no signs of traps.

“There were no people after all?” Eliza asked as she rode a flying dragon and circled over the city. She pulled on its reigns and prepared for a landing.

“Hey, Eliza! What were you so worried about when I just have to defeat the Demon King in the castle?!” Dorothy yelled.

Eliza ignores her as she starts walking through the wreckage.

“Eliza…!” Maria cried as she rushed behind Eliza, the two of them looked around the city.

With the fires set by the dragons, the homes and the stores have all been destroyed. Eliza looks left and right as she investigates each ruin and notices something. “I knew it… the people have all evacuated.”

“It looks like it,” Maria said. “Then, is the Demon King the only one here?”

“Perhaps,” Eliza said. “Something about this makes me uneasy. Look, that house is ablaze but something is off.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no traces of food or clothes. They would only take their daily necessities if they were forced to run without any preparations.”

“So they were expecting this to happen.”

“Ah!”

Eliza gasps as she notices a picture on the wall of the burning house.

Is it a child’s drawing? It’s depicting a girl holding a sword facing multiple human opponents. Below the picture was a message from the artist, Eliza gasped as she read it.

“Do your best, Demon King! Don’t surrender to the Heroes!”

The penmanship is so messy it looks like crawling earthworms but it’s trying to inspire a depressed Demon King to face the Heroes coming after her. As the wall burns, so do the picture and its message turn to ash.

“I’m certain… the people didn’t evacuate on their own volition,” Eliza said. “Perhaps the Demon King forced them to.”

“But why…?” Maria asked.

“The Demon King has been helping the people so far; naturally, the Demon King would try to help them again. She persuaded the people not to take arms and evacuated the rest herself, it seems.”

“She’s… alone, all while knowing that our party and a flock of dragons were coming after her?”

“Yes, or this child wouldn’t have left such a picture,” Eliza said. “The demons and the Demon King are not evil. The Hero is not for Justice. The desire to protect, the heart to help others, that’s Justice. And selfish desires and prejudiced titles are what’s Evil.”

“Eliza, you’re not saying that–”

“Yes. We’re the Evil ones here.”