Interlude: Rinnefiela's Dream
The rubble shook. Tiny pebbles rolled off the heap of stone, and Rinnefiela rose from the pile, dusting herself off. She rubbed her eyes slowly, coughing from the dust. What had happened? After shamelessly negotiating her hand in marriage – how could the Demon Lord have agreed to such a thing!? – the Hero had thrown his medal at her father as the bride price, and it had, for some reason, exploded. It had been powerful enough to destroy Dark Wall, Demon Lord Kimari’s strongest defensive spell. Rinnefiela shuddered. Without that spell, without her father’s protection, she would have been killed.
Gathering her wits, she took a look around. This was… the armory on the ground floor. Or at least what remaind of it. It looks like the explosion had leveled most of the castle. Her dead people, no doubt left behind in the Hero’s wake, could be seen lying around. Mostly in pieces. And there was… Rinnefiela’s expression hardened. Master Volnic, one of her tutors. He taught her the art of the axe from a young age. How to keep her balance. How to strike swift and strike hard. And how to whirl it around in a frenzy of destruction. Never had he raised his voice against her, but he managed to keep strict discipline all the same. He was tall, strong, devilishly handsome and as a child she was vaguely aware of her fledgling crush on him. But now he was dead. Briefly wondering if it was the Hero or his companions that did the deed, or if it was the explosion, before finally concluding that it was of no consequence – humans did it – Rinnefiela cloaked herself in shadow and reformed her armor.
The entire castle began to shake alarmingly. Rinnefiela did not know what was going on, but she knew what she had to do: return to the throne room… or wherever it was the Demon Lord and the Hero were. A fizzling noise came from her hands; there was not enough shadow in her wings left to form a weapon. Sighing, Rinnefiela quickly grabbed a dented sword from a rack that had survived and headed out.
As she sprinted down a crumbling corridor, she spotted two people heading towards her.
Humans.
“Damn it, can’t believe that bitch left us and teleported on her own… Hold on, another demon… a black knight?” exclaimed one of them, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed knight.
“Are you the Hero’s companions?” asked Rinnefiela.
“Companions?” The very word seemed to anger the knight. “I am no companion. I am the Hero.”
Unless the explosion had changed his face, Rin thought, that seemed unlikely. “Bullshit,” she said. “The Hero looks lazier.”
“Master Kyle is indeed the Hero,” said his companion, a non-descript black-haired man in the holy armor and robes of a cleric. Though his face was bland, his eyes glittered with faith. “There is no doubt about that.”
“I fought the Hero before. You are merely his companions, are you not?” Rinnefiela left out the part where she was unceremoniously stripped. It did not matter to her much whether they were the Hero or just companions, though. She would cut them down all the same.
“I am not merely his companion,” growled the knight through gritted teeth. Rinnefiela’s words agitated him. “I am the third son of the Emperor, a born prince, raised to be a leader of my people! I was trained by the finest swordsmasters, drilled by the best knights, and the one most suitable be the Hero by virtue of birth and hard work!”
Rinnefiela shrugged. His anger was slightly amusing. Perhaps she could bait him into showing weakness in combat. “But you aren’t?”
“Master Theseon, we need to leave,” warned his companion quietly.
“I could have been, but the Goddesses saw fit to bestow that fate upon him first. Of course, it all rightfully came back to me in the end. You have no idea, demon, how much it hurt seeing him take the credit for saving people. How much it hurt seeing him smile and treat me like I was on his level. How much it hurt seeing him talk to me-“ The knight’s face twisted, and for a while Rinnefiela thought he would vomit. Then, he calmed down, and continued, “Despite being a useless, lazy pervert, he managed to become an existence that shone brightly; a man that I wanted to reach. The Hero. But now I see the Goddesses’ plan all along. Now I am finally the Hero.” The knight began to laugh.
“Ah.” Something clicked in Rinnefiela’s mind. She read about this before, in one of the books the Mistress of Pain had given her. “You idolized and adored the Hero so much that you were filled with self-pity at your inability to be like him. That became jealousy, to such a extent that you begrudged him everything while at the same time being bitter that he would not look at you, and you decided to actually take his place. If you could not have him, you would have everything he had…”
She nodded, fully satisfied with her own brilliant powers of deduction. “So, you’re gay.”
The knight’s face turned into a terrible scowl, dreadful enough to be called a demon of terror. “No! What is wrong with your ears!?”
“Master Theseon, we need to go, now!” emphasized the priest. He took a stance, ready to fight past Rinnefiela if that was what it took.
Rinnefiela laughed fiendishly. “Hey, don’t get angry about not being able to spread your butt-“ She stopped. A powerful burst of magical energy drew her attention. Something was wrong, but she could not identify it. All that she could tell was that it involved her father.
There was no longer any time to waste here. Ignoring the two humans, she leapt over them and ran off, deeper into the ruins of the Demon Lord’s castle…
***
Rinnefiela opened her eyes. Sunlight filtered in through the windows. She could hear the goblin children playing outside, and the chatter of the womenfolk drying meat and fruit in the sun. That dream... She knew how it ended. She had been sent here through unknown means, and she had met the Hero again. Erdrick Mercant. He had told her his side of the story.
Ah. A cog turned in Rinnefiela’s mind, fresh from waking up. That knight, Kyle Theseon, had said that it hurt to see him talk to 'me'. It was not 'me', but 'Mi'. Mieren. That must be it: the fighter girl that he killed. A love triangle! Another thing she read from those books in the Boudoir of Agony. She had seen Erdrick visit the chamber of ice he had created just to preserve the girl’s body.
It was all clear to her now: Kyle was in love with Erdrick, who in turn was in love with Mieren, and those spurned feelings caused him to ultimately betray Erdrick…
She blushed.
Despite being a demon, Rinnefiela was a maiden after all.
***
And now, she watched on as Erdrick made a deal with the dashing young prince. “You can’t be serious,” muttered the demon princess. Why would he waste time helping these humans?
Ah. A bell rang in Rinnefiela’s mind, and then it all became clear to her. The prince was not Kyle Theseon, but being royalty, with his blonde hair and blue eyes… he was definitely an existence similar to that man. That must be it. She quickly revised her theory of the love triangle at an astonishing speed.
It was not Kyle -> Erdrick <-> Mieren.
It was Kyle <-> Erdrick <- Mieren, but unfortunately the jealous Kyle misunderstood Erdrick’s close friendship with the girl! This was even more tragic than she had first thought. More tragic… but also more romantic.
“Well, if I get to hone my skills on some humans, I suppose it doesn’t matter much…” she continued, maintaining her outward calm. She would not spoil this alliance proposed by Erdrick. After all, did he not gaze at the prince intensely, as if reminded of his former lover? She was reminded of a very old book she had found, a tragedy where a demon had fallen in love with a human, but were unable to be together because of their differing races. It had stoked in her feelings of both disgust and intrigue - why would any demon like a human?
Still, something like that was now playing out before her eyes: now that Erdrick was no longer human, would the prince accept him? Would love be able to surpass the boundaries between races? That would be an interesting thing to see… and she felt a bit sorry for Erdrick. Just a bit. There were so many hurdles to overcome for him to find love. Indeed, now she understood that his perversion was clearly just an overcompensating pretense: all to hide the burning feelings for other men nestling in his heart.
Rinnefiela felt a twinge of curiosity in her chest. She wondered if she would ever be able to fall in love like that one day…
But for now, there was battle ahead. That was all that mattered at the moment.
