Tragedy of the Demon Lord

Section One - Those Who Are Born to Die

Part One - Demon Lord

Rin was dead. Well, all things considered, having a hole the size of a baseball made through one's chest is generally considered unhealthy; it's not exactly the kind of thing she could fix with a band-aid. Or even a whole box of them. Her heart was most definitely destroyed, a fact of which she was certain.

It was a stupid way to die. What kind of person gets summoned to another world just to die? Wouldn't that mean the entire purpose of her life was to die here, in a fantasy world, with adventure and intrigue just out of her reach? What a stupid death. What would it even accomplish? Nothing. They were sacrifices for the heroes. Maybe it would be a simple plot point to drive the heroes to get stronger? Yet, somehow that prospect annoyed Rin.

So that's all my life amounts to...?!

Thinking back, she realized that her entire life had been meaningless and empty, that she had been nobody. She has been an NPC in her own life. She had been born, and then then next most significant thing she had done was die. Meaninglessly.

She had always just accepted life. Her mother, sick since before Rin had been born, had died when Rin was 5. She had been alone at the funeral, yet hadn't cried. Regardless of what others told her she should do to express her emotions, she had followed her mother's sentiments of emotion being separate from action. Most relatives, who had seen her display of outward coldness, had turned their backs towards her. With nowhere else to go, Rin was forced onto her biological father, who had no affection towards or previous connections with her. It wasn't as if he hated her, but he was never father-like. He never even acted as family towards her. He was more like a sponsor - giving money and accommodations to Rin, but rarely, if ever, seeing her. She wasn't overly demanding, and had stopped trying to gain praise from him only weeks after being taken into his care. He cared not for her existence, as long as she didn't interfere with his work. Which was essentially his life. A few short years later, he had gotten married to Kana's mother, a marriage for no purpose other than for the benefit of his business ventures. Kana's mother herself found no issue with being added to Rin's father's collection, so long as she could use his wealth at her pleasure, of course. She wasn't a bad person, and it had been her own family's decision to sell her off, and Rin always saw her attitude towards her father as Kana's mother's way of making the most of her lot in life. The one thing that had always irked Rin, though, was the fact that she actively chose to ignore her existence. The main reason had probably been that she had feared Rin becoming the inheritor of her father's vast company, despite having given up her own freedom to love as a sacrifice to preserve her family's honour. Though she found the behaviour annoying, Rin tried her best to never show her irritation towards it.

School had been even more lonely than her home life. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried to make friends, but even as a child she was easily overlooked and forgotten. Children were even worse at noticing and remembering her than adults and teenagers were. So, from a young age she had taken to watching others, both for her own pleasure and to fill the loneliness in her heart. She knew even at that age that she would never be able to interact with people so naturally. She had lived vicariously through the people around her in order to experience such a simple thing as having a place to belong.

...

Kana...

...

Kana was the exception.

Kana had seen her. Her entire life, Kana had seen her. She had given Rin a place, even if it was within only herself. That had been was had saved Rin from the pain of being alone. Kana had been the one to shatter the glass box keeping Rin locked away from the world. She had held out her hand to Rin and had dragged her into a world that had been both beautiful and painful. She had forced Rin to stop watching with suppressed emotion, and lead her through life in a way that Rin had long since lost hope in ever being able to. Most importantly, it had never been out of pity.