Demon King – Chapter 74 – Aquaphobia

After leaving the Lolita store, the two went to a regular women’s clothing store and bought several sets of everyday clothes for her.

The little demon lord stuffed her changed school uniform into a bag and walked ahead of Yuki, backpack in tow. Yuki carried the several sets of women’s clothing he bought for her and followed behind. The two walked one after the other toward Eiru’s apartment.

Originally, after buying several sets of everyday women’s clothing, Eiru wanted to change out of the military Lolita outfit. But her buddy suddenly went crazy for some reason and wouldn’t let her change…

“No, you can’t change. I want to see you wear this.”

Since it was expensive and Yuki bought it for her, Her Majesty the Demon Lord felt somewhat guilty, so she went along with it and continued wearing this outfit, enduring the stares of people passing by.

It was a pretty dress, and the fabric quality was comfortable to wear, but she felt pretty uncomfortable in it.

On one hand, it was because it attracted too much attention, but the main problem was still the price of this outfit. It was really too expensive! Yuki did her a big favour, so how was she ever supposed to repay it?!

The rainy ground inevitably had some puddles and mud. The little demon lord walked carefully, avoiding puddles on the road, afraid of dirtying her outfit.

Seeing the girl being cautious about where she walked, Yuki couldn’t help but laugh. Hanging the bags of clothes over his shoulder, Yuki quickened his pace to catch up with the girl and picked her up from behind.

“Eh? Weh!” Eiru was startled but quickly realized that it was just Yuki being silly, so she didn’t really take it seriously.

“Afraid of getting dirty, right? I’ll carry you…” Taking the bag from the girl’s hands and hanging it on his shoulder, Yuki turned her around to face him.

“Mmm…” The little demon lord didn’t refuse it either, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder.

After all, walking at her previous pace meant that they probably wouldn’t get back even by nightfall. Since that was the case, she might as well take it easy. Besides, her body still ached from the rain, and she didn’t want to walk much anyway.

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While a certain loli thought that she was taking advantage of him, Yuki wasn’t as calm as he appeared on the surface. Even though he had held the girl many times before, everytime they made contact, his heart raced.

“Stupid Yuki… in the future, when others encourage you to crossdress, just ignore them, okay?” After being carried for quite a distance, Eiru suddenly spoke up.

“Hmm? Do you hate the idea of me crossdressing?” He asked half-jokingly. The way the girl protected him today still made Yuki happy.

“Not really, I’d actually quite like to see you crossdress…” After all, crossdressing was basically blackmail material. Whether it was just because she wanted to tease him or other things, who would complain about having too much dirt on their buddy?

Friends were meant to be tricked… As brothers, everyone would love to know more about their embarrassing history, right?

“?” The girl’s answer made Yuki slowly question her.

“After all, we’re brothers. I’d still be unhappy if you crossdressed for others to see. Besides, while crossdressing as blackmail material doesn’t matter to me… if it got out and those girls found out, you might never be able to get married…”

“So before you get a girlfriend, I won’t encourage you to crossdress, and I won’t let others encourage you either.” Her Majesty the Demon Lord was really worried sick about whether her friend would remain single for life…

Sorry, I don’t want to marry anyone—I only want to marry you… Yuki complained internally. Her reasoning made him feel both exasperated and amused.

However, the fact that the girl still only saw him as a friend was still quite depressing for Yuki. But she was intimate with him thanks to this relationship, right?

Although the girl being so clingy to him made him quite happy, Yuki felt he should still find time to talk to her about it. If she got hurt outside while being naively unaware, he would really cry.

But before that, staying like this isn’t bad either… Thinking this, Yuki silently held the girl in his arms tighter.

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“Speaking of which, do you think I look a lot like Lu from that game?” The girl in his arms suddenly spoke up, making Yuki pause.

“Yeah, you do look similar, but I know you’re not some game character. You’re you—a living, breathing person who exists here.”

“Mm, thank you…” Out of emotion and shyness, the little demon lord embarrassedly rubbed her face against his shoulder.

“Also…” Her Majesty the Demon Lord suddenly lifted her face and looked at Yuki seriously. “Do you want to know my name?”

“Yes!” Without needing extra thought—they’d known each other for over two years, and he still didn’t know her name.

“Nope, I won’t tell you. You said you’d find out yourself.” The girl playfully made a face, and Yuki immediately had the urge to put her down and punish her.

“But you can call me Lu…” Her Majesty the Demon Lord rested her head sideways on Yuki’s shoulder. “Although it’s weird to say this after knowing each other so long, it’s really inconvenient not having something to call me, isn’t it?”

“Alright… this should be one of the characters in your name, right?” Yuki was helpless—he couldn’t bear actually trying to hit her. At least now he had something to call her, so at least he got something out of it.

“Mm… Also, try touching my ears.”

“Hmm? What about your ears?” Hearing the girl suddenly say this, Yuki puzzledly brushed aside the hair by her ears, revealing what appeared to be normal ears.

“Touch them first…” The girl’s tone sounded somewhat shy, but since she said so, Yuki still reached out to touch her ears.

With this touch, Yuki found that her ears felt completely different from how they looked. Gently pinching them, he discovered they were actually triangular… They felt just like the elf ears from those anime and novel works.

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“Don’t pinch them—they’re very sensitive…” Having her sensitive ears pinched like that, Eiru’s whole body trembled, and she complained.

“This is… how do you do it? Same as your horns? And your wings and tail too?” Yuki was somewhat curious about how she hid those. Could there really be magic in this world?

“Like the horns, it’s a type of illusion. The wings and tail aren’t magic though—they can be retracted.” While explaining, the little demon lord suddenly felt water drops falling on her head.

“It’s raining! It’s raining!” As raindrops fell, Eiru immediately covered her head, curled up into a ball, and started shaking.

Seeing this, Yuki immediately protected the girl in his arms. Holding her, he quickly ran to an abandoned phone booth by the roadside.

Just as the two squeezed in, it started raining heavily. Fortunately, this phone booth hadn’t been demolished yet, or the two without umbrellas would have been soaked.

“Are you afraid of rain?” The girl’s reaction was quite abnormal—just a few raindrops on her head and she was this scared. Rather than normal people’s fear of getting wet, she seemed to fear rain itself.

“Don’t you know? I’m afraid of water…” Her Majesty the Demon Lord crouched in place, holding her head, her voice trembling.

“Sorry, but this really is the first time I’ve learned this…” Answering somewhat embarrassedly, in the two years they’d known each other, this really was the first time Yuki knew the girl had this side to her.

“Oh right, you don’t know now…” The girl’s tone seemed somewhat resentful, her inexplicable words left Yuki completely confused.

“But you’re too similar to Eiru… He’s afraid of water because he nearly drowned once. Now except for bathing, he’s quite afraid of water.”

When Eiru was small, while playing by the river in her hometown, she somehow fell into the water. Being young and unable to swim at the time, the rushing water nearly took her life.

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Afterward, she couldn’t remember at all whether she had been pushed in or had fallen in accidentally. Even more mysteriously, she didn’t even know how she was saved. Vaguely, Eiru felt there had been something even more frightening in the rainwater, but she couldn’t remember what.

Moreover, her family had no idea such a thing had ever happened. Except for that one time when Yuki asked about her aquaphobia and she told him, she had never mentioned this to anyone.

After all, this incident was too bizarre—sometimes even Eiru herself wondered if it had really happened…

The impact of this incident was that she developed aquaphobia afterward. As the name suggests, it was a psychological fear of water. Due to that, she was pretty scared of the rain.

However, the aquaphobia wasn’t really that serious. At least bathing, drinking water, and washing her face were fine. Eiru also didn’t go out on rainy days, so it didn’t greatly impact her daily life.

As for things like playing at hot springs, in relatively still water environments like pools, she could still go in for a bit if someone accompanied her.

Hot springs and such—at least you didn’t need to move while inside, and having any person nearby was enough. But places like swimming pools and water parks for playing around, just having someone present couldn’t alleviate her fear. Without someone she was familiar with to look after her, she absolutely wouldn’t go in.

Moreover, thanks to this aquaphobia, the little demon lord still didn’t know how to swim. When she was a guy, she couldn’t bring herself to ask for someone else to help her… When going to beaches or swimming pools with family, she absolutely wouldn’t get in the water. Her family, completely unaware of the specific situation, had given her plenty of sarcastic looks over this.

“Honestly, if it weren’t so ridiculous, I’d almost think you might be Eiru who disguised himself. Tell me honestly—are you Eiru?” Even though he said that, Yuki completely sounded like he was joking, since he just wanted to lighten the mood and ease the girl’s fear.

“Y-y-you… what are you saying? We don’t have any similarities in appearance…” Her Majesty the Demon Lord guiltily looked away, not daring to look directly at Yuki.