Not wanting Hiro to notice that I was the one who summoned the skeleton, I returned to the house as I suppressed the urge to confront him about what he just did. 

"I'm back." Accompanied by the creaking of the door, he entered the room. He cracked his neck as he grumbled about how heavy the basket of wood was. 

As much as I wanted to ask him about it, I swallowed the questions as I watched him walk past me towards the room. My mind was still in a blur, probably from being exposed to the holy light. 

That night, I ended up not bringing the topic up. I couldn't wrap my head around what he's thinking at all. There's no reason for him to pretend that he couldn't use magic. Where did he learn that spell in the first place? What is he really up to? 

My head hurts, I can't sleep. 

I pushed myself up from the mattress as I rubbed my temple. Looking to my left, Hiro seemed to be sleeping soundly. With a soft huff, I stood up and quietly stepped out of the house, gently closing the doors behind me. 

The moon hung high up in the sky, with only the noises from the insects accompanying the view. Cool night breeze blew past me as I stepped towards the forest, hoping that a walk would help clear my head, even though I knew this unsettling feeling wouldn't go away until I had confronted Hiro. 

As I wandered deeper into the forest, the scene from before replayed in my mind. He was so poised and unfazed, as if he already knew that the skill was going to work. On top of that, with how much damage it dealt to me, it didn't seem like it's his first time casting that skill. 

I was deep in thoughts, until a voice croaked at me. 

"Human!" I looked down at the source of the voice. It was a green toad-like monster which was walking on two legs. "S-surrender yourself-!" 

I blinked. 

Ah, right. My shapeshifting skill was still active. 

"It's me." I replied as I turned the skill off. At this timing and location, there shouldn't be anyone else around. The toad upon seeing my demon form, jumped in a dramatic manner. 

"M-m-my lord! What are you doing here?" It asked frantically. "Didn't you head to the town to kill the king?" 

"Eh, that was the plan…" I started, but realized that I don't have any excuses besides the fact that I'm actually helping the humans now. "But… Some stuff changed, so I'm thinking of a new plan now."

"My lord… I know it's not my place to say, b-but… Do you require any assistance? I can leap back and get the rest if you need more manpower!" It hopped on the spot as it spoke. 

"No, I don't. Anyway, I--" 

Just then, the sound of a twig snapping came from the bushes behind. 

"... I don't need any help." I finished my sentence, pretending for the moment that I didn't hear anything. "Just go back and don't come near the human's territory yet. Tell the others too."

"But-"

"I'm not asking you to do it, I'm ordering you." 

The toad let out an "eep" before bowing and hopping away. I watched as its figure disappeared into the darkness, before turning towards where I heard the noise coming from previously. 

"... Come out." 

It's definitely a human, most likely from the village. Whoever they are, they still haven't moved from that spot ever since just now. In the worst case scenario, they're going to snitch on me to the rest of the village and maybe even the town, and chaos will follow once the fake king hears about it. They must be trying to find an excuse to start an attack on the demon kingdom and here it is. Yet I can't kill whoever that is, it's going to be too suspicious especially when the villagers had seen part of my power before. 

Then, rustling sounds were heard and the person who had been hiding decided to show himself.

At the sight of him, I felt like everything was crashing down on me. 

"H-... Hiro." I couldn't stop myself from stuttering. Like as if that holy light incident wasn't bad enough, he's now seeing me in my original form. 

With the shadow casted over him, I couldn't tell what kind of face he was making from where I was. Yet I could feel a pair of eyes staring straight at me. Hiro didn't speak a word. The air around us felt colder as he took a step towards me. 

Is this it? Is this how my side of the story is going to end? 

As he got closer with each step, his face had also become clearer. It wasn't the face of surprise, anger, or fear. But instead, it felt just like the time when he witnessed me using the Dark Lightning - he was looking at me in awe. 

"Nico. You're Nico, right?" He finally spoke, yet as he stood before me, his focus wasn't on my face anymore, but instead the pair of horns on my head. "You're not human…"

"I'm not." I mumbled my response, unsure of what else to do or say in this situation. 

"I… I saw you leaving the room just now and I was kinda worried, so I-..." He paused, just realizing that he was about to admit to following me. 

"... Aren't you scared?" I found myself asking. As for me, I guess I could say that I'm so terrified that I've become calm. 

"I… Well, I was surprised. But now that I think of it, it makes sense. How you tried to lie about your past and how powerful you were…" His glance finally met mine. "But, if you're a demon, why did you help us?" 

I wasn't sure what to say to that. It felt like the right thing to do, since I used to be a human. But with this appearance and how the story was, I couldn't say that. I took a deep breath as I tried to think of something to say. 

"Those guys were annoying," Wait, no, that kind of sounded like I'm acting cool and edgy. "And… Your aunt was worried because of them."

Hiro frowned slightly. Did I say something wrong? 

"My aunt is a married woman, you know?" 

Oh, what the heck. 

"That's not what I meant- geez, what even makes you think of that?" I sighed, unsure if I should laugh or cry at his misunderstanding. "She just reminds me of family, that's all." Even though I could hardly remember my own ones. 

"Oh… I see." A soft huff of relief escaped him. With anticipation written all over his face, he peered up at me again. "Then, what about me? What do I remind you of?" 

Death, I guess. You’re my personal grim reaper, after all. 

"... Um," I paused, there's no way I could answer this sincerely. If I can't answer, I'll just have to change the topic. I had been curious, after all. "Oh, that reminds me… I have something to ask you."

"Hm? What is it?" 

"Hiro, you…" Ugh, I'll just get straight to the point. "You can use magic, can't you?" 

The small smile he had slowly faded away the moment he heard the question. His eyes glanced away, then back, before looking down at the floor. He bit his lips, a frown forming on his face once again as he nodded. 

"I can… It happened on the second day of you teaching me." He mumbled, losing his usual cheerful tone. Twisting his ankle, he dug the heel of his shoe into the dirt. "If you recall, I had to go chop wood after training that day too. During that, I heard a voice in my head. It was rambling on and on about stuff like potential and mana and being the chosen one… I don't really get it, but once the voice had gone away, I just had the feeling… It felt like I had known how to use magic my whole life. All the skills and spells appeared in my head without me ever learning them, and… yeah, that's when I realized."

So it's the plot armor activating, probably because I was trying to make him regain his role as the hero. 

"But why did you pretend to not know? For the past few days, you had been acting like you couldn't do it, and you even apologized earlier-" 

"That's… I… You mentioned before that you'll leave once I can protect the village." Huh? What kind of a reason is that? Did he expect me to stay here and protect the village for the rest of my life? Maybe he wasn’t confident in his skills yet? But if that’s the case, he should’ve at least shown me what he could do. Or that’s what I thought until I heard what he said next. “... I just wanted you to stay longer.” 

Hiro seemed almost bashful as he muttered that last part. I really wished that I’m misinterpreting this, but the look on his face told me that I didn’t - unless he’s a good actor. At the sight of that face, I felt my chest clenching slightly. Being good looking is indeed a crime.

“Nnno, no.” Luckily, I managed to get myself together. “I mean, I can’t stay any longer. Especially after you’ve seen me like this…”

“But… As long as no one else finds out, it’s okay, right?” Hiro asked. 

“To say the truth, I saw you using magic earlier today… You’re definitely strong enough to protect the village.” I added, though the thoughts of the holy light made me take a small step back.

"Oh…" Hiro fell silent for a moment, twiddling with his fingers. "So… You're really going to leave? Where will you go? Or rather… What were you doing in the human's nation in the first place…?"

Like hell if I can tell him that! 

"It's… A long story." I looked away. "Well, my plans have changed completely, so it doesn't matter."

He just stared at me with pursed lips. It should've been pretty obvious what the demon king is doing at the human's nation even without telling. 

"So you're planning to go back to the demon's nation?" He asked in a smaller voice. 

"Actually, I'm not sure yet. But with the king being controlled by the nobles, I might have to go take a look at the situation myself. You know, just in case they're really planning to start a war."

"But that's dangerous- What if they found out that you're-- a demon…" 

"Mm… Well, I don't think I'll lose to them, anyway, so it's fine."

"Ah, right, you're the demon king who took on an army as a baby, huh?" 

Eugh, now it sounds bad on my part, being the one who caused the human nation to be like this…

“I… I want to go with you.” Hiro added before I could say anything. 

“What?”

"I'll go into town with you-! I have to do something to stop them from taking over the villages too instead of just waiting for more armies to come."

“... No.” I replied, then took a step back as I let out a sigh. “Our goals are different, there’s no use in traveling together.”