The Hero’s Brother Is Bound To Be Depressed

481 – Convenience store chair

“Roel! “I prepared the worst deck in the world to beat you!”

At Ross’s declaration, Roel wrinkled his face and shouted.

“… You really have an aggro demon ping pong deck?! You b*stard! “Did you sell your soul to the devil?”

“There’s nothing I won’t do to beat you! “I will summon a 1-cost demon minion to the field and end my turn!”

As I was looking through the door, I slowly turned my head and looked at the Demon King, whose face was swollen and swollen as if he had been stung by a bee, and asked.

“What kind of world is this?”

“Maybe it’s something like ‘a world that is serious about dueling’? “Do you think it’s influenced by Hearthstone, which I used to play in the past?”

“… “I don’t think this is the place, right?”

“Well, this isn’t even the second half of the novel to begin with. “How about this place next door?”

They happily put their faces together in the place where the demon king opened the door. I saw the hallway of Transcendence Academy, which I hadn’t seen in a long time, and saw myself confronting an unknown student.

“How dare you trust your older brother and tease your senior, I will take action against arrogant juniors like you-”

“You talk a lot.”

bang—!

“Oh, no?! How can a wand make that sound?! Wait, wait, there’s a hole in my clothes… !”

“Ah, you don’t know? “This is called a gun.”

“gun… ?!”

“It was a long, long time of humiliation. Today, I will prove once again that the end of discrimination against juniors is gun violence. “I will personally punish those of you who laugh at inferior students and make them a laughing stock!”

Bang bang bang―――!

“Ugh! “Ross is crazy!”

This time the Demon King looked towards me and spoke.

“Hey, I don’t think it’s here either.”

“… okay.”

We nodded, closed the door again, and decided to move on to the next floor. Before I started walking, I looked around, feeling somewhat empty, and realized that Ellie had disappeared.

“What about Ellie?”

In response to my question, the demon king, who was desperately looking for Ellie while turning his head like a mother who had lost her child, saw Ellie sticking out her face through the door in the distance.

“There it is!”

I approached Ellie with the Demon King and followed the Demon King to check the records about Ross from the other world that Ellie was seeing.

“I’m going crazy because of you. It’s me… “Do you think I’m your brother’s younger brother?”

In the dark classroom, another me was holding Roel by the collar. When the Demon King and I were nodding our heads at each other with our eyes shining as if we were about to fight, we heard Roel’s voice.

“… “I never wanted you to be my little brother either.”

“what?”

Ross’s eyes are shaking at the unexpected words. Roel looked directly at Ross and gently wrapped Ross’s hand holding his collar, and said with a pained expression.

“I never thought of you as my younger brother. I am… Actually you… .”

In a strange atmosphere, both the Demon King and I turned our heads and shouted at the same time.

“”kid-!””

“why?”

The Demon King spoke on behalf of me, who was at a loss for words at the sight of Ellie, whose cheeks were slightly turning red as she concentrated on the ridiculous thing happening in front of her.

“No matter how much the 21st century is called the world of LGBT people… “This has gone too far.”

I agreed with the Demon King’s opinion.

“As expected, variants are everywhere.”

What is certain is that Roel and I are clearly heteros*xual. A variant that pops up with a probability of 0.1% cannot be helped. At the sound of a school uniform button falling to the floor, she didn’t even turn her head for fear of seeing her disgusted face, but she opened her mouth slightly and forced out Ellie, who was looking in front of her, and immediately closed the door.

“I am… It was good. “I’m rooting for you two.”

“… “Never cheer.”

The Demon King nodded eagerly as if he strongly agreed with my opinion.

*

After checking the records for a while, we were finally able to find a record about Ross from another world heading to the 9th floor.

“Okay, now I know the way. “Just follow me.”

I was suspicious because he had multiple records, but when I saw him confidently open the door and go inside, Ellie and I had no choice but to follow him. When I crossed the door, what I saw was a huge world. Unusually, it was a place full of huge stones instead of mountains… When I looked closely, I saw that all the stones were in the shape of a human face.

“That was created by Jin Xian’s subconscious.”

I nodded at the Demon King’s explanation. Somehow the face looked a little familiar. Should I say that it’s a face that I don’t usually remember, but comes to mind occasionally?

“The way to the 9th floor is through the mouth of the face over there.”

The face the Demon King pointed to was a familiar yet unfamiliar face.

“That… .”

“Our damn mother.”

Did your mom look like this? I was confused because it looked a little different from what I remembered before. She seems to be the same as when we last saw her. Her mother also appears to be much older than she remembers.

Anyway, it seems the time has come to part ways with the devil. The reason was not told, but the Demon King had declared in advance that he would never go to the 9th floor. This is the end of our companionship.

It’s something I think about all the time, but saying goodbye is something I can never get used to. Perhaps awkwardness is the default for goodbyes. As she rolled her tongue in her mouth, not knowing what to say, Ellie spoke first.

“I think we need time to talk separately. I’ll be there first. I’ll be resting comfortably… “Talk slowly.”

Ellie, who was quick-witted, made way for me. She said something out of the blue as the Demon King watched Ellie walk away.

“You know. “I always liked that back view.”

“… “Is it the back that is moving away from you?”

“Yeah, I didn’t like it at first either… “As I kept looking at it, I started to like that look too.”

I burst out laughing at the awkward confession. I see. It looks like this guy didn’t give up on Ellie until the end. With an awkward smile, the Demon King snapped his fingers and summoned two chairs. Plastic chairs were commonly seen in front of convenience stores.

“It’s a magical chair that makes you lose track of time when you sit here.”

“Well, we didn’t have any friends, so we just sat alone and watched YouTube.”

Saying that, he sat down on the chair with the Demon King. Although it was a cheap chair, she felt familiar comfort.

“To be honest, I wanted to stop you from going to the 9th floor.”

I turned my head to the Demon King who began with those words.

“why?”

“It’s a very difficult place for us. No, it should be called hell.”

“Do you know what the 9th floor is?”

In response to my question, the Demon King tapped his temple and said,

“I told you. Information was updated arbitrarily in my head. “It’s called the 9th floor, but it’s actually a straight passage leading to the 10th floor.”

“Then how far do I have to walk to get to the 10th floor?”

“Well, it’s different for everyone. But you will definitely take longer than Ellie. “Because I lost a lot.”

“… “What does that have to do with it?”

As I looked at him with incomprehensible eyes, the Demon King rubbed his eyebrows and sighed.

“Ross from other worlds each have their own special abilities. “Then what are my abilities?”

It didn’t seem like a particularly difficult question. I answered without much hesitation.

“Talent in magic?”

“No, it was a combination of my hard work and luck.”

“Did you ask because you wanted to brag?”

“Kuk, there are things like that, but… My true ability is similar to Roel’s ability to convey his true feelings. You don’t create a serious atmosphere around you. “I have the ability to lighten any atmosphere by my presence.”

I could understand that right away. Because while I was with this guy, I felt joy before sadness. It was thanks to this guy that Ellie’s depressed expression brightened.

“That’s a great ability.”

I truly thought so. The ability to approach someone without hesitation and become friends with them right away would be great for someone like me who always creates uncomfortable interpersonal relationships.

“Yes, I was able to receive a lot of love thanks to this ability. That’s why he was able to easily become the disciple of many people and become a great wizard with a lot of help.”

“… But why did you suddenly bring that up? “If this is the last time and you want to reveal the secret you’ve been hiding, I think it’s enough that I’ve already passed on the memories to you.”

The Demon King laughed at my joke. The Demon King turned his head and looked at Ellie leaning against her mother’s face in the distance and opened his mouth.

“Up until now, I have been able to protect you. But it will be different from the 9th floor. “The 9th floor will bring back everything you’ve forgotten.”

“… “Then isn’t that a good thing?”

“Have you ever heard the saying, “Forgetting is a blessing for a person?” The 9th floor will force you to take back everything you have forgotten. “And then we’ll have them head to the 10th floor again, losing everything.”

The Demon King looked at me. The blue eyes were full of sincere concern.

“The 9th floor will show you what you did not know or realize in order to destroy you.”

“Why do you do that?”

“We know very well that there are many things in the world that we should not know.”

“… “That’s right.”

Of course I know it well. Because I am a being born from my mother’s lies. Now I think I understand why the Demon King is so worried. But I wasn’t particularly scared. I don’t know if this is due to the Demon King’s abilities, or if the anticipation of Luna, whom he will soon meet on the 10th floor, is dulling his emotions… What I would do was already decided.

“But I will never give up. I want to meet Luna again somehow. For me now, bringing Luna back to life is everything in her life.”

Instead of answering, the Demon King put his hand on my shoulder with an understanding smile. Although our time together was short, I had a strange feeling of being supported by a friend I had been close with for a long time.