Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Side Story - The Love and Despair of Teguneu, Leader of the Evil Demons
A monster who has never known love. A boy who has lost everything to it.
For three hundred and twelve years, Teguneu has watched humanity from the shadows—cold, calculating, and utterly alone. Branded a heretic even among his own kind, the leader of the Evil Demons has long since abandoned any hope of warmth. Until the day his black lizard swarm carries him to a nameless village at the foot of the Jörmungandr Mountains, where he witnesses something that shatters his icy composure: a brother and
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Side Story - The Love and Despair of Teguneu, Leader of the Evil Demons - A night of planting cursed words—the Black Lizard's brainwashing, and the blood-vomiting of an evil demon who knows not love
Inside the cave, sound had died.
At the southern foot of the Jörmungand Mountains, an unnamed cavern erased entirely from human maps. Deep within it, Teguneu rested his back against the cold rock wall. The hem of his jet-black robe stirred in the faint draft that threaded through the cave. The fabric, woven with obsidian dust, drank in the light, merging his form into the darkness itself.
On his shoulder, a single black lizard shifted. Teguneu traced a finger along the old scar that ran from his left cheek down to his neck; the feel of dry scales lingered on his fingertips. Cold. His own body heat conjured the illusion of touching ice.
Seven days had passed since that night.
The night he burned the village. The night he took the sister. The night fire reflected in a boy's eyes. Since that night, Teguneu had commanded his swarm of black lizards to watch the scorched ruins. The village should have been nothing but a heap of ash and charcoal by now. No human could possibly have survived.
And yet, one had.
"...Well, well."
With his eyes closed, Teguneu observed the images sent to him by one of the black lizards. The wreckage of burned-out houses. Collapsed stone walls. Traces of daily life buried in ash. And through it all, a small shadow wandered unsteadily.
It was the boy. His light brown hair was soiled with soot, his bangs bouncing around his eyes. His clothes were scorched and torn in places. Around his left wrist was wrapped a strip of charred cloth. A keepsake from his sister, perhaps. The boy roamed the ruins as though searching for something.
Adlet Mayer.
The child who had stood frozen before the blazing barn that night. Teguneu observed him closely through the lizard's eyes.
Streaks of tears remained on the boy's face. His eyes were red and swollen. But he was no longer crying. He simply walked through the mountains of ash with a blank expression, lifting charred planks, picking up broken dishes and setting them down again. Was he searching for something, or confirming something?
Teguneu understood the meaning of those actions.
The boy was looking for his sister's body.
"You won't find it."
His voice was low, swallowed by the cave walls and vanishing as if absorbed. The heat of that fire had been enough to crumble even human bone. The body would have burned down until it was indistinguishable from the ash. The boy didn't know that. No—perhaps he simply didn't want to know.
Teguneu exhaled slowly. His breath clouded white and disappeared into the dark.
(So this is the frailty of humans.)
Losing someone beloved, wandering the scorched ruins, and still clinging to something. The sight was beyond pitiful—it was almost comical.
But at the same time, Teguneu felt another emotion rearing its head from deep within his chest.
Envy.
That boy, though he had lost her, had once truly been loved. His sister's hand had touched his hair; they had laughed together; he had been held close. Things that Teguneu, in three hundred and twelve years of life, had never once been given—those things had belonged to that small human as a matter of course.
That fact seared Teguneu from within.
"Bring him to me."
The command was relayed through the swarm of black lizards.
The lizards lurking in the burned village stirred all at once. From the gaps in the rubble, from beneath the ash, from the shadows of charred beams. Dozens of small black shapes crawled toward the boy.
The boy didn't notice.
One of the black lizards sank its teeth into his ankle.
"—!"
The boy cried out. He tried to shake it off, but the lizard wouldn't let go. Two more, then three, swarmed onto his body. Biting, injecting venom. The black lizard's poison clouded its prey's consciousness and sapped the strength to resist.
The boy's movements grew slowly, sluggishly dull.
"St... stop..."
A hoarse voice. His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the ash. Even so, the boy clutched the cloth around his left wrist—as though he would never let go of his sister's keepsake.
The swarm of black lizards dragged the boy's body along. Across the scorched ruins, past the edge of the village, into the forest. Toward the cave where Teguneu waited.
Teguneu opened his eyes.
Golden eyes glinted in the darkness of the cave. The vertical pupils slowly widened.
"This boy will be the trump card in the covenant."
The monologue dissolved into the cave air, addressed to no one.
The covenant of the three leaders. Whoever slew the most Braves of the Six Flowers would command the other two. Karguik and Dozzu were surely each preparing their own hunt for the Braves. Teguneu would mold this boy into a pawn for that purpose.
As an avenger. As a blade that hated the evil demons.
To that end, he would overwrite the boy's memories and reconstruct his personality. An application of the power to manipulate love. Delicate, dangerous work that only Teguneu could perform.
(Make him perfect.)
Teguneu thought it as though admonishing himself.
But deep in his chest, something else was crackling, making a faint, insistent sound.
The swarm of black lizards carried the boy to the cave entrance.
The boy had lost consciousness. His breathing came shallow, and occasionally his brow furrowed in pain. The cloth around his left wrist was still clenched tight.
Teguneu rose and walked to the boy's side. The hem of his jet-black robe crawled along the cave floor.
Seen up close, the boy looked even smaller. Barely ten years old, if that. Bony shoulders. Soot-stained cheeks. Dry lips. And eyes left vacantly half-open.
Teguneu peered into those eyes.
(He resembles me—the way I once was.)
The thought surfaced unbidden.
Uncared for by anyone, denounced as a heretic, living all alone. His former self. That solitude—despised even by his own kind for the monstrous form covered in jet-black scales.
Teguneu's brow furrowed slightly.
"...He couldn't possibly resemble me."
He denied it aloud. Yes—there was no resemblance. This boy had been loved. He had memories of his sister stroking his hair, of laughing together. He was different from Teguneu.
He had to be different.
Teguneu looked away from the boy and walked deeper into the cave.
"Carry him. To the inner chamber."
The black lizards dragged the boy's body deeper into the cave. Following behind, Teguneu reviewed the procedure for the brainwashing in his mind.
First, adjust the black lizard venom. Heighten its hallucinogenic effect and sink the boy's consciousness into the space between dream and waking. In that state, interfere with his memories. Show him the scene of the evil demon attack over and over, fixing his sister's death as hatred for the evil demons.
And then, imprint the words "strongest on earth."
So that it became the boy's verbal tic. So that whenever anxiety gripped him, he would recite it unconsciously. Like a curse—deep, deep.
"Let us begin."
The inner chamber of the cave. In the high-ceilinged space, countless black lizards swarmed. Along the walls were arranged the tools Teguneu had gathered over long years. Shards of magic stone. Medicinal herbs. Dried organs of evil demons. With these, Teguneu prepared the brainwashing.
The boy lay in the center of the chamber.
Teguneu knelt beside him and placed a hand on his forehead. A cold palm. The boy's forehead was hot. The poison was beginning to take effect.
"I am going to rewrite your memories now."
Whether the boy could hear him, he didn't know. Even so, Teguneu spoke.
"Evil demons destroyed your village. They killed your sister. Make that hatred alone your reason to live."
His voice seeped into the darkness of the cave.
"You are the strongest man on earth. Believe it. Recite it. It will make you strong."
Mana flowed from Teguneu's fingertips. Consuming his own life force, he carved the words deep into the boy's consciousness.
One of the black lizards bit into the boy's arm and injected venom. The hallucinogenic effect intensified, and the boy's consciousness began to waver.
The boy's eyelids twitched.
"...Shetra... big sis..."
It was delirium.
Teguneu's hand stopped for an instant.
"Big sis... where..."
Tears spilled from the corners of the boy's eyes. They traced down his soot-stained cheeks.
"Shetra... big sis... where... where are you..."
The moment Teguneu heard that voice, something burst deep in his chest.
It was envy.
A searing, blazing envy that ignited from within. This boy, even now, in this very moment, was reaching for his sister. As though it were the most natural thing in the world, he was calling the name of the one he loved.
Three hundred and twelve years. Teguneu had never once called anyone's name. There had been no one to call. And even if he had called, there had been no one anywhere to answer.
And yet this boy—
"Shetra... big sis..."
Shedding tears, over and over and over.
Teguneu's golden eyes darkened to deep crimson with rage and obsession.
"...Silence."
A low voice. Emotion laced through it like thorns.
"Silence. Do not speak that name."
The boy couldn't hear him. Even so, Teguneu couldn't help but speak.
"You have already lost that woman. Forever. No matter how you call her name, nothing will come back."
Teguneu pressed his hand hard against the boy's forehead.
"Your sister was killed by evil demons. Hate them. Hate the evil demons. That hatred alone will keep you alive."
The intensity of the brainwashing rose another notch. Teguneu's life force was drained even further. Jet-black scales peeled away from his forehead, one after another.
There was no pain.
No—he had no room to feel pain. Teguneu's consciousness was churned into chaos by envy and the self-loathing that came with it.
(This is the optimization of the plan.)
Teguneu told himself.
(This is not envy. I am not being swept away by emotion. This is a rational judgment to make that boy a stronger pawn.)
But even to his own ears, the excuse rang hollow.
On the night of the third day.
Deep in the cave, Teguneu vomited blood violently.
"—Gah...!"
Black blood spread across the stone floor. Jet-black scales sloughed off his shoulders and back in sheets. The swarm of black lizards stirred restlessly.
Teguneu slumped down against the cold rock wall, sliding until he sat. His breathing was ragged. His vision blurred white at intervals.
The cost of the brainwashing had exceeded its limits.
The application of the power to manipulate love. The alteration of memory. The reconstruction of personality. All of it directly consumed Teguneu's life force. Three days and nights without rest—how great a toll would that exact?
He had known. He had known, and yet Teguneu had not eased off.
"...Why?"
His voice was hoarse.
"Why do I go to such lengths, obsessing over that boy?"
There was no answer.
No—he knew the answer.
Envy. A searing envy toward those who loved each other. An unbearable hatred toward that boy for possessing what Teguneu could never obtain.
But that wasn't all.
Teguneu had realized there was another emotion at the very bottom of his heart.
(I have never truly tried to love anyone.)
He faced that fact head-on for the first time.
Three hundred and twelve years. Teguneu had pursued love endlessly. Believing love was the strongest power of all, he had craved it and hated it.
But he had never once tried to love.
He had only ever wished to be loved—he had never made the effort to love.
"...How absurd."
A self-mocking smile rose to his lips.
The power to manipulate love. The ability to fabricate others' love. To possess such a thing, and yet be unable to make his own love real.
The emptiness of it made Teguneu grind his teeth.
"I... for what purpose..."
The words wouldn't continue.
At that moment, he sensed a faint presence approaching from the direction of the cave entrance.
Not a black lizard. A larger presence—an evil demon.
Teguneu wiped his bloodied mouth and slowly rose. The scales that had peeled off lay scattered at his feet.
"...Who goes ther
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