TS Reincarnated As The Sub Heroine Chapter 28

“Solitude”
The demon gently stroked the children’s heads as they were entranced tucking into the sweets. The children smiled with glee as they were stroked, and leant up against the demon’s arms, but before long their eyes came to paint a vacant look as they slowly stood up.
 
As if still in a dream, the two siblings tottered off back into the town holding hands. It seemed like the rumor that the demon Warltrip  could manipulate people’s memories was true.
 
There are apparently cases of adventurous children in town who wander into the forest, and having got lost and pa.s.sed through the barrier to ward off humans, end up wandering into the demon’s hideout. In most cases, the children are scared and run away as soon as they see demon Warltrip . Warltrip  doesn’t want his existence to be known to the country, so he always captures people and erases their memories before sending them back into town like this.
 
Warltrip  actually respects children who aren’t frightened of him and gives them handmade sweets. This boy was apparently one of said children, boldly going to Warltrip  to protect his younger sister, and receiving sweets from him.
 
...He’s seriously got too much time on his hands.
 
We, on the other hand, were guided to his hideout by a man. Being called a hideout, I imagined it being a really plain house.
 
“This garden... you’ve taken really good care of it.”
“It’s one of my few daily routines. If I take my hands off it, I don’t really know what to do myself.”
 
Having been led by the man, where we ended up was an open hill with the fantastic scenery of flower fields and vegetable fields around, and an old atmospheric mansion towering at the top of the hill. It was a majestic house that made you wonder if there was even a “hideout” at all.
 
Going into this open s.p.a.ce, I felt the pressure and tingle of a magic barrier of sorts. Until touching the barrier, I didn’t notice that there was any magic at all. It was apparently quite high-level magic.
 
“Is this... the boundary?”
“Yes. If you’re not careful in making a human barrier, this place could be found really easily.”
“Then you should just live somewhere deeper in the woods, or somewhere a bit more obscure.”
“I can’t.”
 
The demon Warltrip replied to my light-hearted comment with a strange expression on his face. It seems he has some kind of reason for being there.
 
“Well, you should come in. It’s been a long time since someone’s come into our home. Most people run away the second they see me.”
“Alright, in we go.”
 
Warltrip opened the door to his mansion in good spirits. It was an old worn-out house, but no matter where you looked, it was spotless. The worn-out parts of the house created an indescribable aura. The furniture also seemed to be of high quality. The house was of an old design and the building felt dated, but everything still looked in good enough condition.
 
My eyes wandered over to the figure painting on the wall. The person was wearing waitress’ clothes. Or at least, it was probably a woman.
 
 
 
“... is this a picture of Root?”
“Huh? Wh-what’s this?”
 
 
The woman in the photo somehow looked just like Root. She was a carbon copy of him. That was why I couldn’t be sure if it was a woman in the picture or not.
 
“Hehe. It surprised you, right? I’d disappeared, and this is the reason I’m back here beside you talking to you.”
“... are you my gay stalker or something...?”
“What the h.e.l.l!!”
 
That’s a relief. Root just got scared and hid behind me. Stop trying to confuse me.
 
“She was my daughter and my wife... of the human race”
“Root, you...”
“That picture isn’t me! I’m a man, and I’m not married either!”
 
Yeah, I know. For a minute I couldn’t tell her and Root apart, but this woman’s eyes were blue. After I while I started to notice she wasn’t Root.
 
Warltrip took our two cups and poured some bright orange-colored tea for us. It smelled like the black tea I’d drank in j.a.pan. I wonder if they’d grow it in the garden outside.
 
“Ok, then. Shall I answer your question, your immature human. You want to know the details of how I betrayed people, right?”
“Yes. I’m quite interested. Sorry for being rude.”
“I don’t mind. Talking to someone is a great enjoyment of mine. I’ll sum it up. The only reason I ever betrayed the demon race and sided with the humans was because my wife, Reine. Giving in to my feelings for my wife, I betrayed the former demon king and fought together with the humans against the demon king. Due to my accomplishments then, I was honored with a t.i.tle. That happened 200 years ago.”
“So, you never intended to betray the dynasty, but you were truly on the side of the humans?”
“... no. The only one whose side I was truly ever on was Reine’s. The truth is I didn’t want to ruin the former kingdom either.”
 
Then, the demon began to talk. He talked about 200 years ago, the details of the night the country fell.
 
 
Warltrip  apparently received Reine, who was then a young child as a present from the demon king. He says that Reine was the princess of a certain kingdom. The demon race apparently had a tradition of treating kidnapping human royalty as a tool for their pleasure. Warltrip  had no interest in humans and thought that the effort required to take care of them was troublesome, so he originally intended to starve Reine of food, close her up indoors and kill her.
 
The only reason he didn’t kill her was because he didn’t feel like it at the time. The sudden words and actions of a young child filled with a desire for revenge filled him with enjoyment, so he decided to keep her. She just kept on growing, however, and while looking after her, Warltrip ’s feelings began to change.
 
Before he knew it, Warltrip had come to love Reine. Once he became aware of his feelings, he began to seriously pursue her as a love interest. Reine was reluctant at first, but eventually gave in to his sheer pa.s.sion and they ended up together. Reine had also come to have strong feelings of love rather than a desire for revenge for Warltrip , who she had lived with from a very young age.
 
The former demon king found out about their relations.h.i.+p. As would be expected, he nearly killed her immediately. The demon king was worried that Warltrip might grow fond of humans.
 
That was the deciding factor.
 
That very day, Warltrip betrayed the demon king and fled to the human country. During the war, Warltrip had consistently made great achievements as a leading warlord for the demon race and was seen as a threat by the humans. No-one believed that this sworn enemy would then become an ally to them.
 
Following him over, Reine, now his wife, managed to convince her fellow humans of Warltrip . The n.o.bles, the military generals, the king, all of them. Thanks to her efforts, he was allowed to fight on the human side under the condition that he must fight alone in solitude.
 
The humans’ thinking was obvious- they wouldn’t treat him as a true ally. Warltrip was sent out to the most dangerous battlefields in areas not even considered worthy of protecting.
 
He was treated as nothing more than a conveniently expendable p.a.w.n. Warltrip, man of the demon race and former sworn enemy. With any luck, he’d be killed "by mistake” by an ally, they hoped.
 
Warltrip, however, didn’t mind at all. If anything, he understood why they thought that way. He was an enemy who once killed countless humans. Just by fighting for Reine, he wouldn’t be able to blend in with the humans. There was no sense in worrying about how he was treated or thought of by humans he had no interest in.
 
What was important was Reine being safe. In the human country, even if a someone from the demon race like Warltrip were to be harmed, Reine would probably still be safe. That was all that mattered. Warltrip was prepared a house in a village on the outskirts of the kingdom’s capital. His only duty was to follow orders given by the king who would occasionally visit. Warltrip lived there together with Reine and was finally able to live peacefully with her.
 
What surprised the humans most was the Warltrip was the strongest warrior of the demon race’s army. No matter where he was sent to fight, he would return with outstanding results, with the demon race’s army being increasingly fought back by Warltrip’s power and retreating.
 
It wasn’t that much of a surprise. Warltrip  had a stoic-like personality, rare among the demon race. Unlike others of the race, he would not torment the weak or treat them cruelly. He generously dedicated time to his own discipline, and eventually made a name for himself as the strongest militant in the demon race’s army.
 
The strength of Warltrip, the possessor of such standout ability in the demon race’s army, far exceeded the expectations of the humans, with the humans then going from victory to victory. The humans had to admit his efforts for them, and with the help of n.o.bles keen on Warltrip , he was finally recognized as n.o.ble in human society, even being honored with a t.i.tle despite being of the demon race.
 
This would signal the beginning of the end.
 
One of the demon race gaining the rank of a n.o.ble. There were many who simply couldn’t accept this fact. What was unfortunate was that most of the n.o.bles that were fond of Warltrip  were militants serving in the army. It was precisely because they had shared a battlefield with him that they were able to respect him.
 
To the civil officers who worked in government and politics, he was seen as troublesome- an existence that symbolized rebellion, and the idea of forgiving him was absolutely unthinkable.
 
 
The only word for them was foolish.
 
 
It was because of Warltrip ’s efforts that the humans were winning the war. The civil officers really couldn’t see the bigger picture. Their conclusion of sorts was that “if we’re experiencing unfavorable conditions, we understand, but if we’re winning anyway, he’s not necessary”.
 
Their failed plans, however, did not stop here.
 
They didn’t come up with any ideas to give them a reason to a.s.sa.s.sinate Warltrip either. To them, all that was important about the a.s.sa.s.sination was “how well the commander of the a.s.sa.s.sination could be hidden”.
 
When the best a.s.sa.s.sination unit in the country -that owned by the royal family- is dispatched, they always achieve their goal of killing. That was their reasoning even if their target was a monster that could turn the tides of a war singlehandedly. They sent out the a.s.sa.s.sination unit without thinking any further.
 
 
 
There was no way they’d be able to kill Warltrip. He was a traitor to the demon race; a race whose army were far stronger than humans, and yet even they couldn’t kill him when mobilized in full force. When they attacked him on his way back from the battlefield, not a single one of them returned home to their master alive.
 
 
 
Even after this, Warltrip was still not angry. It didn’t matter to him, having something as trivial as an a.s.sa.s.sination unit sent out for him. If mosquitoes like these flew at him, he swatted them down. To him, it was that minor a level of displeasure. Facing murderous intent was bothersome, but he didn’t feel threatened by humans at all.
 
 
In short, the civil officer’s last and worst failed plan was met with Warltrip ’s wrath.
 
 
 
 
 
Warltrip came home having killed all of the a.s.sa.s.sination unit only to find his wife Reine laid out on the floor completely naked and her body cold.
 
 
 
 
The foolish civil officers had never even dreamed that Warltrip ’s a.s.sa.s.sination would end in failure; they’d never even seen a battlefield before. They piled into Warltrip ’s house attempting to take the property of the probably dead demon for themselves as soon as they could, arguing with each other as they stole, and then stole again from each other. Reine stood before them defiantly trying to protect their home, but to them she too was nothing more than property. They grew tired of her incessant protesting and resilience, but what they did to stop her was nothing short of barbaric.
 
That day, Warltrip went on a rampage, killing n.o.bles around the country. The panicked civil officers begged the military for help, but the military knew all too well of Warltrip ’s strength. Upon hearing the work of the civil officers, they abandoned their country and ran.
 
There was no-one left to protect the country, let alone the civil officers.
 
 
 
 
The country fell to ruin that day. All the civil officers that controlled the politics were slaughtered without exception, and the military who had protected the country had all abandoned and fled the country. It was only a matter of time before the country was void of order entirely. The king and those close to him were forced to take responsibility for the country falling into ruin, and they were executed accordingly. The dynasty had ended.
 
 
Warltrip, however, had no interest in what became of the country. He wailed and screamed, endlessly calling out his wife’s name until her remains decayed. The shrieking continued without constantly for years. Eventually, everyone that lived near him had moved away, and he was left alone. Warltrip shut himself up in his home.
 
Even after his years of intense emotion had calmed, he continued to think of Reine, and continued to live together with her corpse. He always made meals for two, and always slept next to Reine’s body.
 
Eventually, years later when Reine no longer looked human anymore, he made the decision to bury her for her own sake. Forever exposing her in this state wasn’t good, so he finally gave much thought to his late wife’s feelings.
 
He buried her in the ground and knowing he would never be able to see her again; he began to wail once more.
 
 
 
 
After burying her, Warltrip became something of an empty vessel. He didn’t feel like doing anything, he just continued to exist without purpose or meaning.
 
When it was light, he performed daily ch.o.r.es like cleaning and was.h.i.+ng in a machine-like fas.h.i.+on, and at night he relived the days together with his late wife in his dreams. To him, the time he spent asleep may have been his true reality.
 
 
One day, Warltrip found himself in shocked. He realized the image of Reine’s face had begun to become hazy in his mind. Many years had pa.s.sed since her death and he could only meet her in his dreams, but even in them the vividness of her image had begun to fade.
 
 
 
On that day, he began to paint a picture to keep the memory of his wife alive forever.
 
Even more years pa.s.sed and Warltrip ’s house was now full of pictures of his wife. They were all painted based solely on the memories he had of Reine when she was still alive, but each and every one of them was a masterpiece in a collection.
 
It was around this time that Warltrip ’s feelings also began to change. He became more positive, no longer wis.h.i.+ng to lead a life void of meaning, but instead living for his wife even after she pa.s.sed.
 
He first began by working on mending the clothes Reine had left behind and the house itself, eventually actively devoting time to creative activities such as composing a book of the times he spent with Reine and even a composing requiem dedicated to her.
 
From that point on, you could no longer hear any wailing around the residence. Eventually, the generations that told the story of the demon ruler Warltrip would die off, and humans who didn’t even know of the existence of the demon Warltrip would wander off into the grounds of his residence.
 
Warltrip  didn’t think kindly of humans setting foot into his residence grounds. He later put up a barrier around it to ward off humans, and he stayed shut up in his house continuing his creative activities.
 
Nevertheless, children with a thirst for exploration still stumbled upon the house from time to time. The problem with the warding off magic was that while it could hide the existence of the residence from people who came looking for it, it had no effect on humans who stumbled upon it by chance.
 
Warltrip thought about doing something to improve the effects of the magic but seeing children who had wandered in by chance getting excited reminded him of a very young Reine. Warltrip was kind to the little lost children, then simply erased their memory of the place and sent them back to the human village.
 
Children would continue to wander in lost once every few years, and Warltrip began to take care of them each and every time one of these little customers wandered in. These encounters would come to brighten up his every day and give him a rare bit of inspiration. It was just the right amount of little pleasure for him.
 
Warltrip developed a new hobby in making sweets, too. In this house very much still full of Reine’s presence, he had decided to enjoy the rest of his life alone.
 
That was the reason that the demon ruler Warltrip had decided to live here. Even now he still lives in this house and grows food and flowers for the children who visit from time to time.