Marcel was at home, in a foul mood after what happened yesterday with the Demon Lord after his return, still wondering what the hell all of that was about when suddenly, he had to deal with someone else’s heart falling apart. 

He was about to head for the library to absorb knowledge like a sponge and forget yesterday’s events when suddenly,  

“You have a visitor, young master! He’s waiting for you in one of the reception rooms.” Edgar informed him. 

Visitor? He just returned yesterday. Surely, it’s just someone he knows who heard of his return. He went to meet them, and who was it? Who else but the Oni he advised some time ago who sort of called him a homewrecker: Devin! 

“Yoo! How are you doing?” Marcel greeted, trying to be as casual as possible. He found Devin in a crouching position, though he sat on the sofa.  

And there it came, loudly, “Terrible! Kenny rejected me~!!!” He cried. 

Oh... this again! This is surely going to take a while. 

“Wow, did that happen today?” Marcel wondered. 

“No... sob...! Three years ago~.” He answered, crying harder, “I saved all my tears for this very moment! After all, this is all your fault, so you have to listen...sob!!!” Loud as always, I see. Demanding too! 

So, how did he know that Marcel had returned so soon?  

Well, he heard from Kenny’s Oni Leader dad, who predicted his return two days ago. Devin thought that he’d be a bother if he came on the same day as Marcel’s return with this news to ruin the day, so he decided to come in like a week from now. He, however, woke up this morning feeling distraught, because he’s been holding in a lot for the past three years, and just thought, I can’t wait anymore! Let’s just ruin today for him because I am incredibly sad~  

Yes, that’s how he ended up here! As for how he made it into the Demon Lord’s castle without anyone suspecting that anything was wrong, well, we have Alverona declaring that she’d turn anyone who harmed deary Dave and their race into an endangered species to thank for his nonchalant manner of trotting into the castle to seek an audience with his supposed friend. Apparently, that made it completely normal for the burly moron to find Dave who came in and out of the Demon Lord’s castle because he was apparently the Demon Lord’s wife’s 'best friend’. 

He isn’t just the only one who just knows Marcel as just Dave and is completely fooled thanks to Alverona disciplining her grandson. Except for the Rulers and Guardians, no one else suspects anything beyond the ‘established facts’, which means that Marcel doesn’t have to deal with the crushing attention that he’ll receive from his probable engagement to the Demon Lord in the future just yet.  

Enough about the future and back to the present. Now, let’s focus on this poor, crying man who can’t seem to hold his feelings back anymore. 

 

After Marcel took a seat opposite him on another long sofa, Devin moved to sit on the same sofa and put his head on the lad’s lap without even asking. 

Marcel didn’t mind, “Tell me... you said Kenny rejected you! How did that happen?” 

“K-Ke-Ke-Kenny~~ Dave, it was horrible, sob!" He continued to cry. 

“There-there!" Dave patted his head gently, “Take your time and explain...” His calm and gentle tone soothed the heartbroken fellow who was about to dig deep into the memories of three years ago. He went in to pursue Kenny, knowing that this was a possibility, but it still caught him by surprise nonetheless. 

It was three years ago, when Kenny had returned home... 

 

Devin’s POV

We were drinking together during the night when he broke my heart. I hadn’t had the chance to drink with him in a long while and thought it a good time to pry any information I could out of him; you know, to know how to move forward. After some time of pestering, he agreed and I sat him down to have some wine and talk, but... he was silent! I had to pry all I could out of him, and how was I to do that when he still had the mind to shut up. 

“Wow, you’re boring~!" I said to him when I noticed that he’d been drinking everything I handed him but still remained stuck-up. 

“I’m sorry!” He apologized. You could hear it in his tone, even if his face revealed nothing. I poured him some more wine, and he drank it, but still, silent as usual. The wine wasn’t really getting to him as it did before. 

Shit, I had forgotten! Kenny had grown since the last time I did this. He was much closer to me now in terms of strength compared to when we last met. He was only a lightweight in the past because his body wasn’t built to handle the wine. Now, however, he was just two steps away from me evolution-wise. I've completed the 4/5 needed steps to become a High-Oni, by the way. I’d certainly need more wine to get him to spill any secrets. So, I let him drink!  

Unfortunately, the mood was too good. It was a full moon and we sat under the moonlight, drinking the night away. I let myself get immersed in the moment. I too was drinking and we were going through those wine jugs like never before. That's when I did something stupid.  

Getting just as drunk as Kenny had become, I somehow decided that it was the perfect time to let myself go and confess my feelings. I’m pretty sure that though I say it was a mistake, I did that on purpose. I’d actually decided to tell Kenny about my feelings way earlier, like two days ago, but somehow, I’d never noticed how hard it would be to tell him until alcohol flooded my system and I just let nature take its course.  

I confessed my feelings, seeing that I was there, together with him, in that moment, but since I’m here and crying, you can guess how it pretty much went. Now comfort me! 

Dave patted my head gently again as I cried some more and said, “It’s alright!” I liked how it seems like he always knew just what to say.  

I continued to tell him about it, but then suddenly, I just burst out, “This is all your fault, sob!" 

 

Narrator’s POV

“This is all your fault, sob!" Devin cried loudly, “I-I-I don’t know~!” 

Dave patted his head gently again and silently took on the blame, though how that confession failing to bring Devin the desired outcome was his fault is beyond him. 

Devin continued to explain,  

“Kenny, though drunk, very politely told me that he couldn’t accept my feelings because he’s in love with someone else~.” His words began to stretch. He looked to be experiencing immense anguish.  

Devin blamed Dave even more, “You’re too pretty and a homewrecker~! This is surely your fault.” His words were all things Dave had heard before. He said nothing, except for patting the giant Oni on the head, a sight that left Dave’s maids feeling strange. 

“Wow, the master tamed another Oni!” They thought. They were happy that he had more friends visiting, especially harmless ones, but this one just seems to have so much emotional baggage to unpack on their master. Just what will Marcel/Dave do? 

“Hm? I wonder what more he told you.” Marcel asked. 

Devin elaborated,  

“Kenny, after I confessed, apologized again. He told me that he wished he’d noticed my feelings sooner because then maybe, he wouldn’t have caused so much damage. He spilled so much! Apparently, he thought it was his fault that many people around him ended up with broken hearts and felt unhappy when really... I was the one working against him by stealing the attention of anyone who got close to him away, dumping them after making sure they didn’t catch his eye. That stoic bastard had nothing to do but apologize for stuff I did.” Devin wanted to take a breather to clear his mind of some of the guilt he felt from Kensuke apologizing to him. 

Marcel, unfortunately, pushed further, “Like what?” 

Devin breathed out a long, dead sigh, his guilt spiking through the roof, “The lovely, drunken bastard indirectly apologized to his parents for being completely useless for almost a millennium, then for his unapproachability stemming from his stoic face. He also said a lot of other, ahem... stuff related to things being ‘too big’. Lastly, drunk, cute Kenny apologized to me for my catching feelings for himmm~.” He uttered suspiciously, his face and ears flushed an unusually brighter red than the hue of his skin. Aww, he was blushing! 

Seeing him blush, Marcel wondered what else happened after that. He wanted Devin to just tell him. As if knowing exactly what he was thinking, Devin, resting his head on Marcel’s lap, answered. 

“He said that his new life saved him in more ways than one, that he was happy and thankful to you and the rest of us before he sincerely apologized for stealing my heart, though, really~, that guy’s face didn’t change by much. His eyes were filled with nothing but guilt. He told me... that he already had feelings for another, then he... um...” Devin really didn’t want to be out with it, but here goes nothing, “...kissed me on the lips!” 

Marcel was shocked! He didn’t know that Kenny was so bold. There really is a side to everyone that they don’t show to some people, it seems. Now he wanted to see a drunken Kenny and compare it to regular Kenny, like some kind of ‘spot the difference’ game. Marcel wanted more details. He really lived for tales in a story format, didn’t he, “And?” 

“And?! You don’t get it! That was my first kiss! He took it and told me that although he may be unable to repay me for the heartbreak he caused, he can at least gift to me something precious to him that he’ll never be able to have back. That bastard then drank some more after that and fell asleep under the moonlight. He really didn’t understand at all... He’d taken something else from me without realizing~. I’ll never recoverrrr!!!” 

Ha, this guy seems to be nothing but dramatic~. He always imagined that when Kenny and he kissed in his dreams, it’d be the perfect ending to a love confession from him and the start of their relationship, not the end. Kenny had shattered his beautiful dream, making it more realistic, but also just as fantastical.  

Now that he’d told Marcel the full scope of what happened, he left the job of comforting him, Devin, to Dave. He felt like this confession and subsequent failure to have things his way was Dave’s fault in the first place, so the mission of comforting him after it went bad had to fall on him as well.  

“You have to take responsibility~ Sob...!” Devin said crying once more. Basically, Marcel had to dedicate the remaining of the day to him. Just great! 

Unfortunately, Marcel had the tools to deliver on what Devin wanted of him. Adult Marcel peeked out his head the moment he heard ‘take responsibility’. A shame~! 

After listening to Kenny cry for a while, Marcel gave him some hope for the future. 

“You know~, this is not the end for you, right?” He said, patting Devin’s head gently in the same rhythmic manner he had been from the start. 

Devin snorted, his nose clogged, “Huh? What do you mean? Kenny doesn’t like me!” He asked whimpering and crying. 

“Kenny may be unable to give you his heart, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be someone else who will. Someone else will love you just as much as you liked Kenny. Maybe that person already exists. You simply have to find them... though, I’d advise you to look far from the ones closest to you. That could end in a disaster, again!” He advised. 

Devin listened, and as Dave reassured him that this truly wasn’t the end of his love life, he couldn’t help but cry harder, releasing all the feelings he’d kept locked up inside; the special part of his heart that he’d given to Kenny. He let it all pour out and with his cries came some relief. He took the first steps to say goodbye to his feelings for Kensuke. It felt great! This truly had been a good idea; coming to Marcel, I mean—not the ‘holding him responsible’ part. 

Speaking of feelings, Devin said that Kenny seems to have already caught feelings for someone else. Dave wondered about the identity of this other person that caught Kenny’s interest. 

For now, all he was sure about was that it was certainly not him. Kenny was his training partner, friend, and fiancé-in-name-only. There was nothing going on between them. They were especially cordial with each other; good friends really, who just happen to have been partially forced into an informal marriage agreement with each, and that was all. For some reason, he was very sure that Kenny didn’t have feelings for him, and he trusted his intuition on that.  

As for the other potential candidates for Kenny’s love interest.  

“Hey, did he tell you more about the person he liked? Anything extra that might help us narrow them down?” He asked Devin. 

“…Sob… No… I mean, not really~! I only asked him if it was some other guy, and he apologized and nodded. Some guy… probably you…sob… stole my Kenny~!!!” He blamed Devin again. 

Okay, so if it’s another guy, then that would make narrowing them down extremely tough because… um… almost everyone who hangs around Kenny IS A GUY!  

If it had been a girl, then the considerable targets would have been easier, because there’s just Shalia, Silva, and Valeria. They are, quite certainly, the only girls around him not scared of his menacing appearance and aura, especially Shalia, who was regularly found with the person Kenny seems to always be right behind: Allan. He believed that Kenny would really value falling in love with someone who wasn’t scared of his menacing looks. 

If it’s a guy then, it could be anyone, even the people Kenny may have met while he was away at Kardia’s. Who the heck knows when exactly that guy fell for this mysterious person? He… had no clue!  

And that concludes Marcel pondering over Kenny’s possible love interest for the day. Now, onward to comforting Devin for the rest of the day!   

This Devin really needs to go out into the world, explore, meet people and go on several dates. If only Marcel/Dave was good at stuff like this, then he’d be able to give way more advice than ‘This is not the end’. He, however, has his own problems to deal with in the same department, more on that later. For now, it’s just relaxing and meeting friends for him, again!