That Time I Got Reencarnated as a Demon Lord (English)

34 - No Hero can save the Demon King

"It's all your fault... IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, SATORU!!!"

A stab of pain shot through my chest when I heard those words, an ache in a different way than before. Seeing how the face of someone I care about was covered with tears and knowing that those tears were...my fault... The punches I had taken earlier lost their intensity in the face of this pain.

In the end, am I really... the culprit?

"Saara-chan... I-"

"Don't you dare say anything in your defense, Satoru! If I wasn't wasting my time trying to help you... If I wasn't by your side, as I always am!!! So..."

I couldn't say anything in response. Whether it was my fault or not I'm not sure, but what I do know is that Saara-chan was mad at me. And how to blame her? At the very least, a large part of what happened only had the chance to happen because of her being with me.

A simple attempt to help me... and your mother is now in a hospital bed.

A car accident while she was late returning to her job, a little too quickly than she should have. It could almost be said like the wrong place and the wrong time, pure and total chance is what happened, but... Can I really say it's not my fault?

I can't.

Me and Saara-chan were trying to get proof that a boy in our class was bullying. We followed him for a long time and recorded some things he did, we got the proofs, but Saara-chan's mother, who drove us for a long time, got late for work and had to hurry.

That's why she had the accident.

I could say that it was Saara-chan's idea, that she couldn't blame me, but did I really have that right?

Do not. I was the kid who got bullied.

Saara-chan was taking care of me, again, and...

"Excuse me..."

I apologized, cornered. There's nothing I can do. If Saara-chan says it's my fault, then it's my fault. I might even be considered innocent from a more general point of view, but it's Saara-chan's heart that matters right now.

Not that apologizing is going to help anything.

In fact, it only got worse.

Saara-chan's eyes, still shedding their smeared makeup in a river of tears, were staring at me with unending fury. They almost made me flinch, but I stood my ground, ready to take whatever Saara-chan had to take out on me.

Three seconds later I got slapped.

"Monster... I've done so much for you, and this is how you repay me...? I can't believe I liked someone like you..."

Another slap came, this time across the face, and I still couldn't resist. The slaps certainly hurt more than the bullying I've suffered so far, but I had to endure them.

Otherwise, would I have a chance to be friends with Saara-chan again?

"Get out of here. I never want to see you again... GET OUT OF HERE!!!" One thing flew into the wall before breaking into pieces. My cell phone, where Saara-chan had taken the photos, with the evidence of bullying. "I don't ever want to see you again! If I see you out here when I leave my mother's room... Then the bullying you've suffered so far will be nothing compared to what I'm going to do!"

And then, after saying that, Saara-chan... Manami Saara, turned her back on me, turned towards the room, and entered. I still caught one last thing she said though.

"Monster... Die at once..."

A part of me wanted to stay. Even if I had to suffer the fury that Saara had in store for me, I wanted to stay by her side, the same way she's been there for me all these years.