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 - The price of manipulating love—three days and three nights of vomiting blood, and the budding of a false romance.
The cave air was thick with the smell of rock and earth, laced with the faintest trace of blood.
At the southern foot of the Jörmungandr Mountains, there was a nameless cavern that had been erased from human maps entirely. Deep within it, in a darkness no light could reach, Teguneu stood before a shelf of rock that resembled an altar of obsidian.
The hem of his pitch-black robe stirred in the faint draft that whispered through the cave. On his shoulder, a single black lizard perched motionless, pressing close to its master's presence.
On the rock shelf lay several shed scales of deepest black, arranged in a row. Crystallized fragments of Teguneu's own life force. The price he paid each time he invoked his power to manipulate love.
Teguneu picked up one of the scales.
Cold. Though it was a part of his own body, it was cold as ice.
"...At last, the time has come."
His low voice was swallowed by the cave walls and faded into nothing.
Roughly two and a half months had passed since he burned that village. Even after he had sent the boy Adlet Mayer out from this cave, Teguneu had never once let him out of his sight. Swarms of black lizards constantly crawled around the boy, feeding his appearance, his voice, his every gesture back into Teguneu's awareness.
And then there was Fremy Speeddraw.
Teguneu's trump card. His black blossom. The girl who had once cut down would-be Braves wherever she found them now walked at Adlet's side.
Teguneu slowly closed his eyes.
(The power to manipulate love—now is the time.)
The swarm of black lizards began to stir. Countless small shadows crawled out from every corner of the cave. Dozens—no, more than a hundred black lizards gathered at Teguneu's feet, encircling his body.
Teguneu raised the scale before his chest with his left hand. He laid his right hand over it.
"Fremy Speeddraw."
He spoke her name. Through the swarm of black lizards, his voice reached the depths of the girl's consciousness, far to the south.
"Draw close to Adlet Mayer. Earn his trust. And—love him."
The command passed from the mouth of a single black lizard into Fremy's ear.
Days earlier, beside a campfire on a riverbank, Teguneu had already given Fremy her orders. Stay at Adlet's side, earn his trust, and draw out information about the other Braves.
But that alone was not enough.
Teguneu needed to bind Fremy's emotions at a far deeper level.
"You are in love with Adlet Mayer."
The words seeped through the black lizard into Fremy's consciousness.
"Your heart is drawn to him. When you hear his voice, your chest grows warm. When you see his smile, your lips loosen of their own accord. When you are beside him, you feel at ease. That is your true feeling."
The power to manipulate love. It interfered with a target's emotions, artificially implanting affection for a specific person. A delicate and dangerous power that only Teguneu possessed.
The instant it activated, the cave walls groaned and cracked.
From Teguneu's body, black scales peeled away—one after another after another.
There was no pain. No—there was no room left to feel pain.
The power tore his life force out by the roots. Deep in his chest, a searing heat. A sensation like his organs were being crushed in a fist. The taste of iron spread through his mouth.
The swarm of black lizards erupted in agitation all at once.
"—gh."
Teguneu collapsed where he stood.
He dropped to his knees, bracing a hand against the cold stone floor. His fingertips trembled. Strength drained from his entire body.
(So this is the price.)
His consciousness receded. His vision darkened and narrowed.
In the fading remnants of awareness, Teguneu thought:
(Why am I... in so much pain?)
No answer came.
Before one could, Teguneu's consciousness sank into the dark.
——
Day one after the invocation.
Teguneu was seized by violent fits of vomiting blood.
Deep in the cave, he clawed at the cold rock wall and writhed for three days and three nights.
"Guh—gh, gwaa—"
Blood spilled from his mouth. Black scales peeled away one after another, scattering across the stone floor. Beneath them, raw red-black skin showed through.
The swarm of black lizards crawled anxiously around him, flicking their tiny tongues in and out, peering up at their master's face.
Teguneu felt the cold touch of their scales from somewhere far away.
(Ah... I see.)
Day two.
In his exhaustion, Teguneu asked himself plainly for the first time.
(I can fabricate the love of others.)
With his back against the rock wall, breathing in ragged gasps, Teguneu looked inward at his own heart.
(But I cannot make my own love real.)
The fact drove into his chest like a sharp thorn.
The power to manipulate love. A power that twisted the emotions of others and planted false affection.
But Teguneu's own heart remained empty.
No one had ever loved him. He had never loved anyone. Three hundred and twelve years of life, and not once.
That fact deepened and thickened his hatred.
"...Love is such an unreasonable thing."
He murmured it in a hoarse voice.
"Why can you all love one another so easily?"
There was no answer.
There could not have been.
Teguneu clutched his shed scales in a trembling hand.
He gritted his teeth and endured the pain.
The swarm of black lizards pressed tightly against their master's body, as if to comfort him.
——
Night of the third day.
Teguneu was finally able to rise.
His body was still heavy as lead. His footing wavered, his vision blurred. But his mind was clear.
(The power should have activated.)
Teguneu exhaled slowly.
(I must confirm it.)
He closed his eyes. Sent his consciousness out through the swarm of black lizards.
Far to the south. The territory of humans. A campsite along the highway.
There were Adlet and Fremy.
The two of them were traveling side by side.
Beside the campfire, Adlet was saying something. His light brown hair swayed in the firelight. Around his left wrist, a strip of scorched cloth. His sister's keepsake.
Fremy sat beside him.
Her long, snow-white hair drifted gently in the night wind. One eye pink, one eye blue—heterochromia. Catching the firelight, those eyes glittered.
Adlet made a show of fussing over the wound on his shoulder.
Then Fremy laid her hand on it.
"...Don't move."
Fremy's voice flowed through the black lizard's ears into Teguneu's mind.
"The wound's opened. You have to treat it properly."
Adlet laughed, looking embarrassed.
"Heh... my bad. I keep making you take care of me."
"It's nothing. I'm not doing it for you."
Fremy spoke curtly. But her voice was somehow soft.
Through the lizard's eyes, Teguneu watched the scene intently.
(It's working.)
The false love was functioning, without question. Fremy wore a natural smile at Adlet's side. Adlet, too, showed concern for her.
(Just as planned.)
Teguneu smirked.
But the smirk twisted almost at once.
The expression Fremy wore beside Adlet—
It looked far too natural, somehow happy, to be the product of Teguneu's command.
A false affection planted by the power to manipulate love. That was what it was supposed to be—and yet Fremy's smile was far too soft, far too warm.
"...Why?"
Teguneu murmured quietly in the depths of the cave.
Deep in his chest, an inexplicable restlessness burned with a crackling sound.
(That is false love.)
(A false emotion that I planted.)
(And yet, why...)
Teguneu withdrew the black lizards.
In the depths of the cave, he gripped his shed scales once more.
Cold.
Though it was a part of his own body, it was cold as ice.
"Why..."
There was no answer.
——
Several days later.
Through the swarm of black lizards, Teguneu caught Fremy stopping alone at the edge of a spring.
A small spring in the forest. Moonlight laid a silver path across the water's surface.
Fremy sat at the water's edge, gazing up at the starry sky.
Her long white hair swayed in the night wind. Her pink right eye and blue left eye reflected countless stars.
To no one in particular, she murmured:
"...I don't like it."
Her voice flowed through the black lizard's ears into Teguneu's mind.
"That man... he's too kind."
Fremy said nothing more.
She simply sat in silence, staring at the surface of the spring.
Deep in the cave, Teguneu furrowed his brow.
(...What was that?)
The false love should have been working—so why did Fremy say she "didn't like it"?
(What did those words mean?)
Teguneu hid a black lizard in the bushes by the spring and waited for Fremy to continue.
But she said nothing more.
Beneath the moonlight, Fremy simply gazed quietly at the water.
For the first time, unease stirred in Teguneu's chest.
(My power should be perfect.)
(And yet, why...)
There was no answer.
——
Around the same time.
Adlet sat alone at the campsite, staring into the campfire.
Fremy was resting some distance away.
Adlet was thinking about her.
(When I talk to Fremy, my chest gets warm.)
The fire crackled and popped.
(When I hear her voice, I feel at ease. When I see her smile... I feel happy.)
Adlet pressed a hand to his chest.
His heart was pounding.
(Is this what they call love?)
Adlet shook his head slightly.
(But wait.)
He stared hard into the fire.
(Is this feeling really mine?)
The question welled up from somewhere deep inside him.
(Did it rise up naturally from within me?)
(Or did something... push it in from outside?)
Adlet tightened his grip on the strip of cloth around his left wrist—his sister's keepsake.
"...I'm the strongest man on the surface, after all."
As if to drown out his unease, he muttered under his breath.
But even those words didn't work the way they usually did.
An inexplicable sense of wrongness spread murkily through his chest.
(What is this...)
Staring into the campfire, Adlet carried a discomfort he couldn't explain even to himself.
——
Deep in the cave.
Through the black lizards' eyes, Teguneu observed Adlet.
The boy sat alone before the fire, lost in thought.
His expression was somehow different from the cheerful mask Teguneu had designed.
(That boy... is questioning his own feelings?)
Teguneu exhaled slowly.
(So the first crack has appeared in my scheme.)
Deep in his chest, restlessness burned with a crackling sound.
What that feeling was directed at, Teguneu did not yet understand.
But one thing was certain.
The power to manipulate love was not perfect.
False love does not end as false.
In Adlet's heart, in Fremy's heart, something had begun to move beyond Teguneu's calculations.
Teguneu gripped the shed black scales.
Cold.
Though it was a part of his own body, it was cold as ice.
"...Interesting."
In the darkness, Teguneu slowly twisted his lips into a smile.
"Then let us see how long it lasts."
Outside the cave, the autumn night wind swept across the mountainside.
Far below, from the depths of the earth, the heartbeat of the Evil God's resurrection was growing clearer and louder than any omen before it.
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