Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

A terrible thought began to grow in Eri's mind.

But what if Novia really is the Demon King...?

If he really is the Demon King, then for the past six years—no, it should be all this time—he has been by my side, yet always with a different face and a different identity, observing everything I do.

Looking at herself tossing and turning, unable to sleep because of her longing for the "Demon King"; looking at her own undisguised and deep-seated disgust and contempt for "Novia," and wondering if Chitose had known all along? What exactly did that ambiguous phrase, "I'm like you," mean...?

Eri felt a wave of dizziness wash over her, and she clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug deep into her flesh.

She needs to know the final answer.

"One last question," the girl's voice, weakened by extreme tension and fear, yet carrying a resolute air of desperation, "In that relationship, you were... the dominant one, weren't you?"

This is Erise's last line of defense.

In Erise's relationship with the Demon King, Erise is always the passive one. Although she is always verbally abusive, Erise knows that she is powerless to resist.

Novia looked at Eri, whose face was as pale as paper and whose body was trembling slightly with tension, and sighed softly in her heart.

However, in Martha's training, he was not the dominant one.

So the silver-haired youth slowly shook his head.

But how should I put it, Novia was also pondering it.

After all, he had spent so much time with Erise from when she was four to eight years old, so he still had some reservations.

However, this negative answer brought Erise a tremendous sense of relief, like a warm tide washing over her entire body.

Great.

He's not a demon king.

The frivolous, promiscuous scumbag who she didn't particularly like, who juggled countless women, wasn't the unique, one-of-a-kind, hateful yet reliable devil who belonged only to her.

But then, a sense of emptiness and loss followed.

He's not a demon king.

Then,

For the first time in front of Novia, Eri's face showed a genuine smile from the bottom of her heart.

“Okay, I understand,” she said solemnly. “From now on, I will respect you as an elder, just like Chitose and Miss Kuonji.”

.......

As dusk fell, the trees in the front yard of the Kuonji residence were gilded with a melancholic yet warm golden edge, like that of an old photograph.

Eri leaned against a thick, ancient tree trunk that had witnessed countless years of history, wearing the outfit she thought had been given to her by her "Demon King Father"—that strange, mentally unstable guy who claimed to be a combination of Goethe and Schubert.

A gentle breeze rustled through the leaves, making a sound like a sigh from a distant past.

She didn't shed any tears, but Erise was wiping her eyes vigorously with the back of her hand again and again.

In reality, Eri has never shed a tear, not even when Chitose accidentally cut a large slit in her ear when she was four years old, or when she woke up at nine years old to find that the Demon King had disappeared.

right here.

It's this grove of trees.

Eri recalled the day she was eight years old, when she hadn't heard the Demon King's voice for several days, so she used the newly learned Magic Bullet Shooter.

That's when she discovered that he, who should have always been by her side, had gone to 'harass' Miss Kuonji, which was unbearable... Actually, she also had a fear of losing him.

That's why I went on my way regardless of everything.

We need to find him.

No matter where he is or what he is doing, we must find him.

then,

She found him.

"Would you like to use it again?"

This tempting thought instantly popped into Erise's mind.

During the six years that the Demon King was gone, she did try.

For the first two years, she was like a paranoid gambler who had lost all his chips but still refused to leave the gambling table, performing this almost self-harming ritual almost every month.

The Magic Shooter can fire seven shots in total, but only the last shot can hit the user's most important target.

In fact, every time Eri uses the Magic Bullet Shooter, she has to struggle on the edge of life and death in her hospital bed for a whole month.

After all, the price of using the Magic Bullet Shooter on Eri was the pain of having all the magic circuits in her body torn apart inch by inch and repeatedly burned by flames.

The crucial seventh bullet always exploded inside Erise's body just before it was about to leave.

This suffering lasted for two years.

In the end, Eri gave up.

The girl thought she had completely given up hope.

But now...

Luce's innocent "Sister," Chitose's strange "I'm like you," and Novia's denial that both pleased and disappointed her...

All her thoughts, all her emotions, all her hopes and despairs, ultimately converged into a single thought for Eri at this moment.

Eri's eyes gleamed with an almost obsessive, dazzling yet dangerous light, as if she wanted to burn everything she had, and she gritted her teeth.

"It's only a month... It's not like I didn't make it through!"

Eri raised her right hand with unwavering determination, her index and middle fingers joined together as if holding an invisible pistol, aimed at nothing in front of her.

With all his might, in a hoarse, trembling voice, he roared out his name—

"Freischütz the Magic Bullet Shooter!"

Magic, as always, surged wildly through the circuit like an out-of-control beast.

First shot!

"Well!"

The familiar, excruciating pain, as if it were tearing the soul out of the body, arrived as expected.

Eri let out a suppressed groan, her body trembling uncontrollably, cold sweat pouring down her face, instantly soaking through her brand-new, cherished garment.

Second shot!

The pain intensified, and the world before my eyes began to distort and blur. The golden sunset and the interlacing shadows of the trees turned into chaotic patches of color.

The third shot.....

The fourth shot.......

Eri clenched her teeth, letting the pain be branded onto every inch of her nerves again and again.

It's still the same as before...

In the midst of boundless agony, just before her consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness, Eri let out a sorrowful sigh.

Gluttony, you have disobeyed God's guidance; this is the definition of sin.

Just as the seventh bullet was about to take shape, the pain that would have caused Eri to completely faint and struggle on the edge of life and death for a whole month was about to erupt within her—

Eri, who was enduring everything with her eyes closed and waiting for the final judgment, suddenly felt a long-lost, unbelievable, and almost unbelievable strangeness.

That torrent of magical power, which was on the verge of self-destruction, actually... subsided?

The seventh bullet, which should have exploded within the girl's body, carrying all her longing and obsessions and destined to strike the user's most important target—fate—failed to detonate.

After many years, it has been reassembled and taken shape again!

It was as if all of Eri's radiance had burned away, and it bloomed dazzlingly at the girl's fingertips.

Then, with an unstoppable force, filled with longing and questioning, it roared out!

The bullet ripped through the twilight, leaving a brilliant yet fleeting trail in the air, like a shooting star.

Straight ahead.

Precisely.

It shot towards—

Eri Sei had just left not long ago.

Kuonji Residence.

The living room of that mansion!

“…Huh?”

578: You can punish me like before~ Me and Erise? (5k7)

When Erise hurried back to the Kuonji mansion's hall, only to take a deep breath at the door before returning, there were only two people inside—

One of them was Lilith, lying on the sofa with her legs crossed and pressed together.

On the other side was Novia, who sat calmly beside him.

So, who exactly is it?

Eri's pupils contracted sharply as she saw that the seventh Magic Bullet she had just fired was lying between Novia's fingers.

boom--

Although she had suspected something on the way here, when the facts were presented to her, it was as if a thunderbolt had struck her mind.

It was right here.

Novia is... the Demon King.

In an instant, Eri felt dizzy.

An indescribable feeling swept over her, and she couldn't help but stagger backward, instinctively reaching out to clutch her chest tightly.

It was terrifyingly empty there.

It's him.

Sure enough it was him.

He was the one who suddenly appeared when she was four years old, and who was always arguing with her.

He was the one who guided her when she was lost, giving her the courage to apologize.

That person who, all along, silently and humbly looked up to, longed for, and even... admired.

Novia slowly raised her eyelids and met Eri's gaze.

The reason why the Magic Shooter was able to hit Novia is actually quite simple.

According to the original Magic Shot, the deal between the devil and the hunter clearly states that the first six magic shots will hit the target without fail; while the crucial seventh shot will fly in the direction the devil desires.

There is only one thing the devil desires.

That is the existence that can plunge the user, the pathetic soul who transacts with it, into utter despair.

For the hunter back then, the greatest despair was killing his beloved fiancée with his own hands; that was an ending more terrifying than death itself.

Therefore, it's quite normal that Eri used the Magic Bullet Shooter when Novia was present, and the bullets tracked Novia.

but,

This leads to another question: why did it only self-destruct inside Eri's body before?

Normally, the seventh bullet should continue to travel through the world, after all, this is a deal with the devil, and what the devil needs is only the user's 'despair', not the user's physical death.

Despair can make people depressed and lose their determination to move forward.

When a person feels that nothing in this world can drive them forward anymore, their soul dies, and then, like a ripe fruit, it naturally falls into hell.

The devil's domain.

By the way, the devil in the magic bullet shooter is called Samiel.

This term might sound unfamiliar, but the name Samael is more familiar. The only difference between the two is the change between the vowel letters "i" and "a".

The complete German version of the Bible was translated by Martin Luther in 1534.