By burning Mount Hiei. I made my name final.
"Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven."
He burns even the Buddha's mountain to the ground. He fears neither gods nor buddhas. No one can defy him. No one can come near him. As that kind of man, my name thundered across the realm.
Daimyo trembled at the mere sound of my name.
"Whatever you do, don't make an enemy of the man who burned Mount Hiei."
That's what they whispered to one another. Some even surrendered before fighting me. The world feared me on its own and cleared the way for me on its own. Thanks to that, my position grew ever more unshakable.
How ironic. I want nothing. I don't need the realm. I don't want to be feared. All I wanted was a night when I could sleep without worry. No one after my life. Hurting no one. Just a night I could spend quietly with Kicho.
That's all, and yet. What I got was always the exact opposite.
I just want to live peacefully, and yet. Every time I killed, every time I wept, the world feared me all the more. And the more they feared me, the higher I was pushed.
I want to get down. No one will let me down.
But—thinking back now. That the world feared me this much, back then. Would, much, much later. Turn out to save me.
The Demon King no one could come near. A monster whose true nature no one knew. Precisely because I'd become that. Even if someday I just quietly vanished. No one would come after me.
But for me to know that. Was still a long, long way off.
The me of that time was just about to be crushed. Under the weight of that huge sign, "Demon King." Every night, I had nightmares. Dreams of the gray scorched field, and the hushed mountain. Every time, I reached for Kicho's hand.
And at the very bottom of my heart. The one wish I'd said aloud for the first time that night. Quietly, quietly, began to grow.
I want to go back to being an ordinary man. Somewhere no one has to be afraid. I just want to live quietly with Kicho.
It was still only a wish. A distant dream, not yet given any shape.
But—the anguished weeping of that night. Was the very first seed. Of a certain plan, the grandest in the world, that I would later come up with.
The Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, whom no one could come near. That name would someday become the best cover there was for me to throw everything away and vanish.
But for me to know that. Was still a long, long way off.