Kuro no Maou

A nearby uprooted tree made for a perfect seat where Fiona elegantly rested her laurels and Lily bounced in to sit next to her.

“So, how was it?”

They looked like a pair of affectionate sisters as they sat leaning shoulder to shoulder, but the words Lily used to break the ice contained trace amounts of venom. She wasn’t directing hostility at the witch, but rather a strong frustration at herself to have failed so badly.

“It was good. So good in fact that I ended up sleeping in.”

Fiona said in her usual monotone, which seemed to also carry a tinge of self-resentment.

“Right, that thing showed us a dream so perfect that we didn’t even want to resist.”

Lily sighed, exhaling a small puff of white breath. Fiona kept silent.

A moment of further silence passed. Lily once again muttered,

“... Care to tell me about it?”

“... I will say this first: I am very sorry.”

Fiona said as if she’d committed a crime. She subconsciously reached up to her hat, wanting to hide her face―― only to find that the three-cornered head attire was missing.

“Wait, why are you apologizing?”

“Lily-san, you died in my dream.”

“HUH!?”

Lily briskly stood up, utterly shocked at having learned of her unfortunate state within Fiona’s scenario.

“This is why I apologized first.”

“That’s not the problem here! What’s with that, why am I dead!? I can’t believe you’d be so heartless!”

“Then what about you, Lily-san, how did I turn out in your dream?”

“Uh, well...”

Lily was visibly stuck on words. But she soon mustered up enough courage to speak honestly as well.

“In mine, Kurono and I got married, and you were there congratulating us.”

“I’d rather you kill me off than have me say that.”

Fiona stated crossly.

“It’s better than being dead. You were even a rank 5 Adventurer, you know? While Kurono and I were still at rank 2.”

“Wait just a moment, are you implying that I was still solo adventuring?”

“Why wouldn’t you be?”

Lily was full of energy again, giving Fiona a big helping of her cutesy fairy smile.

“You could’ve made Element Masters with me, couldn’t you?”

“Eh~, no way, if I did that, I couldn’t spend my forever and ever after living happily married with Kurono in our nice little house in the Fairy Garden.”

“And what’s this about marriage? Lily-san, weren’t you getting ahead of yourself? I myself had only started as lovers, a much more modest approach in my opinion.”

The witch proclaimed, proudly puffing out her chest, to which the fairy retorted valiantly.

“Modest? I can’t believe you Fiona. There’s no way you didn’t spend all day with Kurono, holding hands, kissing, having lots of――”

Lily, who at first had an admonishing face, had suddenly gotten her cheeks dyed a burning pink.

On the other hand, Fiona’s own face had also blushed red all over. She tried to hide it by facing away but it was plainly obvious.

“――K-kyaah!! H-how could you do such dirty things with Kurono!”

Lily, with her telepathic abilities, had caught a glimpse.

A glimpse into exactly how Fiona and Kurono had spent their lives together as lovers. That very moment, the scenes that rose up inside Fiona’s mind were those of her hot and passionate days as she and her boyfriend lived under the same roof.

It is important to note that Fiona, as she was a genuine maiden witch with no previous experience with men, didn’t quite have the appropriate know-how to correctly imagine such actions. But the Lust Rose had the ability to take her vague mental picture and turn it into a satisfactory dream. The rank 5 monster could provide full guidance to any lady or gentleman with their virginity still intact.

As proof, even the blurred image that Fiona saw during her liaison with Kurono happened to be too overpowering for the still innocent and pure of heart (32 year old) Fairy Lily.

“I-I can’t believe this! Kurono a-and, yo-you――”

“K-keep your voice down, Lily-san. He might hear you if you’re too loud.”

Some more brouhaha later, the two of them finally settled down.

They went and checked inside the tent and found Kurono asleep. They concluded that he must not have heard the commotion or its contents.

“Haah... haah... Fine, let’s just forget about the dreams.”

“I wholeheartedly agree.”

The two girls calmed their breathing and sat back down on the uprooted tree. Once the spat was over, they only felt empty.

After all, it was all just dreams, fantasies, figments of their imagination. All of it were only illusions that had no influence on reality.

Most importantly, both of them didn’t actually want a Kurono that was made to be convenient to their desires. They couldn’t pass away their time wading in their fantasies when the real Kurono was waiting to be conquered in reality.

“Lily-san, by the way, um...”

“W-what. You’re still planning on asking more awkward questions?”

Lily didn’t want any more embarrassment, and showed Fiona the wry version of her fairy smile.

“I wanted to know what kind of dream Kurono-san saw.”

Fiona was implicitly asking whether Lily had read into his mind when they were talking just now.

Lily stared at her seriously for a moment, but afterwards, she gave an answer.

“Ah that, I saw only a glimpse of it, but I have a general idea.”

“And? What was it like?”

“Let’s see, Kurono and I were living together happily married. That kind of nice dream.”

“Yes that’s funny, but please tell me the truth now.”

Lily pouted at how Fiona just wrote it off like that but―― she then sighed in resignation and told her the truth.

“He dreamed of his home.”

Fiona might’ve been expecting that, as she showed no surprise and simply answered, “I see.”

But from how she sighed deeply right afterwards, it could be assumed that she was more conflicted than she let on.

“Did Kurono-san, perhaps have――”

“Stop!”

Fiona’s words were cut off by Lily’s sharp, but with an almost desperate sounding, outcry.

“Stop, please just, don’t... say that.”

“I apologize. I misspoke.”

Lily held her head, her expression distraught to the point of tears welling up. Fiona was close to crying herself, despite coming out with the idea.

Did Kurono-san perhaps have a desire to return home―― no, that wasn’t it. What Fiona had attempted to say had much worse implications.

Did Kurono-san perhaps have... the continuation would’ve gone as follows:

“―― a girl he loved, back home?”

They’d already learned from Kurono himself that he had not been married. But on the matter of lovers, a girl that he may have loved, they hadn’t asked him.

Out of simple fear, both Lily and Fiona, just couldn’t dare to ask him.

“... It’s alright. Kurono-san said that he won’t return home.”

“Mm.”

“I’m sure that he’d never leave us and go away.”

“Yes... you’re, right...”

Thank you, said Lily in a tiny voice, but her sentiment had reached Fiona.

Leaning shoulder to shoulder, the two girls spent the rest of the night in mutual silence. A silence that they used to strengthen their hearts, embolden their resolve.

They didn’t want to go against Kurono’s desires, so they wouldn’t stop him if he wanted to return home. But what they could do was make him feel as if he’d never need to.

They would absolutely make him look their way―― no, that wasn’t enough. They could do better.

Because Lily, and because Fiona, was right there, with him, for him. Because you (Kurono) cannot choose anyone but me (Lily/Fiona).

But on the way to that, first they had to――

“Hokay, let’s have another good day, for Kurono.”

“Yes, for Kurono-san.”

The sun began rising up in the horizon.

And within the day, the Element Masters had descended the Asbel Mountain Range of snow, ice and illusion.