While exuding a dangerous aura, he never took his eyes off me. If anything happened, I had to deal with it immediately.
The other party, however, seemed entirely indifferent to my wariness and tension.
"How are you feeling? I believe your injuries are mostly healed, but if you feel unwell, please let me know right away."
His tone was slightly peculiar, like an eight-year-old child imitating an adult. Yet, it didn't feel unnatural—somehow strange. It gave me a mismatched impression, as if I were looking at a certain famous detective who appeared as a child but possessed an adult's intellect.
Honestly, my first impression was that he was an angel.
His golden hair, neatly styled with an elegant touch, swayed softly when he tilted his head. His eyes were a golden hue like the moon.
The gentle smile he showed whenever I intensified my gaze was decidedly unchildlike.
But no matter how much of an angel (tentative) he might be, violating human—no, fairy rights was unacceptable.
"First, do you have anything to say to me?"
"My apologies?"
"If a mere apology sufficed, the death penalty wouldn't exist."
The boy, observing me with a grin from outside the pure silver cage, deserved nothing less than crucifixion—no, even that would be too lenient.
Even if he was a character from this world—the renowned RPG The Demon King and the Hourglass.
That said, I only vaguely remembered whether this boy had actually appeared in the game. Had I seen him before…?
But I did know him from somewhere. His hair color, his eye color…
His beautiful voice resembled that of a certain famous voice actor—a female seiyuu known for voicing young boys in dubbed foreign films. Just listening to it was soothing, but that was beside the point. My own voice was borrowed directly from the game's voice actress, so if I sang a little, I could probably enchant any ordinary human. Eleanor had always ranked second in official popularity polls, and she even had character songs. I'd long forgotten what my own voice sounded like in my past life.
As my thoughts spiraled in an unfortunate direction, I continued glaring at him with hostility. The boy responded with a bitter smile.
He seemed aware that he'd done something to warrant my suspicion.
"May I introduce myself?" he asked. For the sake of assessing the situation, I nodded.
Alright, who are you? Someone's subordinate? A mid-boss? A disposable lackey? Or perhaps an event-exclusive key character to be rescued by the protagonist's party?
"This is my home. I am the court magician, Louis Stilas. Feel free to call me Stilas."
"Feel free?"
"Louis is fine too."
What kind of personality was this? Annoyed, I decided I wouldn't call him by his name.
—Wait, hold on a second.
Louis… I knew that name from somewhere.
Someone I shouldn't forget.
It was on the tip of my tongue.
"...Louis… Stilas…"
"Hm?"
"N-never mind. Just felt like I knew you."
The boy looked puzzled but didn't press further.
"I'm Eleanor. *Stilas*, you're the one who captured me, right? Do you have business with me?"
"Business… not particularly."
"...No business?"
"Ah, you don't need to worry about things like mana extraction or forced subjugation. I have no intention of that."
"Eh?"
Seriously?!
For a moment, I almost smiled—
"I was just thinking about how to eliminate future threats when I happened to find you, so I chased you down for the time being."
"Hah?"
I froze for a second—
"Don't worry. Truly, I have no plans to harm you. I just want you to stay here for, say, a few hundred years."
"Haah?!"
My mood plummeted instantly.
What was with this absurdly vague, semi-permanent time limit of "a few hundred years"? And "I caught you because I found a rare creature" wasn't the kind of answer I was looking for.
"Couldn't it have been anyone else?"
"Well… not exactly."
"Then what? I don't understand at all."
It felt like he was deliberately being obtuse.
Responding to my anger, my wings flared violently. Fairies were expressive with their emotions. The wings that would normally droop and rest when calm were now slashing through the air.
The cage was so large that even when I spread my wings, they didn't graze the bars. A birdcage. That fact alone displeased me.
As I irritably flapped my wings, Stilas stood up and looked down at me with a puzzled expression.
"Are you really Eleanor? You look the same, but something feels off."
"What kind of question is that supposed to be?"
"From what I know, Eleanor spoke much more politely."
"Excuse me?"
What do you know about me?
Sure, the Eleanor from the game used polite speech with everyone, but the current Eleanor didn't make a habit of it.
I didn't remember meeting him anywhere, so maybe he had the wrong person—no, the wrong fairy.
"I *am* Eleanor, and there weren't any other fairies in my dwelling with the same name. Have we met before? I don't remember at all. Are you thinking of a different Eleanor?"
"No, this is our genuine first meeting. But the Eleanor I know should be you."
So what the hell does that mean?
The boy trailed off with an "Ah—" and fell silent, scratching his cheek in apparent frustration.
For a while, I stared blankly while he wore a troubled expression.
After a sigh that sounded like he'd given up on something, he carefully spoke again. The faint expectation in his eyes couldn't have been my imagination.
"Well, then… The Demon King and the Hourglass."
"…!"
"You do know it, don't you?"
"H-how do you know about that?!"
"Please calm down."
Unfortunately, I wasn't the kind of fairy who could calm down just because someone told me to.
He seemed to be a reincarnator like me. After confirming that fact, I was taken—cage and all—to his bedroom.
The place we'd been in earlier was his study. When I asked about those eerie potions—
"They're medicines that require periodic observation, so I brought them to the study. I spend more time here than in the lab."
Apparently, I was under the same "periodic observation." While I was unconscious, he'd been reading by my side the whole time.
Placed on a bedside table, I didn't even flinch when he lit the lamp beside me. Fairy eyes were resilient to sudden light—we could even stare directly at the sun.
I perched on a branch inside the cage.
The boy sat on the bed, looking oddly pleased.
His face, destined to grow into a handsome man, was already too perfect. But with his cheeks flushed from excitement, he was unmistakably just a young boy. His soft, inadvertent chuckle made me narrow my eyes suspiciously.
"You look happy."
"I am happy. Very much so."
His frank admission and innocent, beaming smile drained the hostility out of me. My combative attitude now felt foolish.
"So there *is* someone else who knows the game."
"You just said that without any certainty? What if I wasn't the one? Wouldn't that have been dangerous?"
"Only someone who knows would recognize the title. If you hadn't reacted, I could've brushed it off. Anyway, since you do know, this makes things easier. I'm the character destined to become the Demon King in that game. If things proceed 'smoothly,' in about fifteen years, I'll be a ruin-seeking Demon King. Right now, I'm just a court official."
Ah, so he was the future Demon King. The one who topped the popularity polls.
It finally clicked—he was Louis Stilas, the world's top-tier archmage (and, as typical for romance sims, his looks were top-tier too). The final boss who infiltrated the protagonist's party, only to reveal his true identity with a maniacal laugh—a backstabbing yandere love interest.
The boy pierced me with curious eyes as I sat seiza-style inside the cage.
My heart ached at the thought of how twisted he'd become in the future.
"Uh…?"
"Pay no mind to someone like me. Go on, please."
"Ah, eh? Right… So, I decided to secure Eleanor—the one tasked with recruiting the Hero—now. Even if I become the Demon King, I absolutely don't want to die."
"Excuse me, sir, I have two questions."
"Yes, Miss Eleanor?"
He acknowledged me properly when I raised my hand. Good rapport.
"Even if you captured me, wouldn't another fairy just be chosen as a replacement? And more importantly, why not just *not* become the Demon King?"
"The answer to both is yes."
"I'll punch you, shota."
"Please don't say things like that with Eleanor's face. To explain, I was confused too. I only regained my memories this morning and went into the forest to be alone when I happened to find you. Think about it—if you suddenly remembered a future where you're beaten, kicked, burned, frozen, slashed, and crushed by a whole party of heroes, could you stay sane?"
"I'd refuse without a second thought."
"Exactly. Well, I only knew about the game because my sister loved it and wouldn't stop talking about it. The rest I picked up from commercials and promo videos. But Louis was her favorite, so I heard several times more about him than other characters. My future self is really messed up, huh?"
"Oh, extremely."
He'd annihilate entire towns the protagonist had visited while they slept at inns. The fact that someone like that was romanceable proved that dating games had no shame.
Still, this was a bizarre situation.
If the Demon King was male, this should be an otome game world.
But if the fairy was female, it should be a galge aimed at men.
What did that mean? I was skeptical about this world itself, but for now, there was nothing I could do about this inconsistency.
Ugh, I don't get it at all.