#1 an impossible goal.
"Live a happy, normal life here without any trouble."
But he didn't want normal.
"Forget about Ente Isla and start afresh here."
He didn't want to forget Ente Isla.
"If you do that, I'll leave you alone."
He knew that.
If he did that or even just told her he would, she would leave him alone.
He didn't want that.
He didn't want her to leave him alone.
What would be the meaning of his existence if the Hero left the Demon Lord on his own and condemned him to a dull, uninspiring life of redundant normalcy?
He absolutely did not want that no matter what.
He could work hard at a normal life only because he dreamed of becoming great again.
And if she refused to show up now and then to disrupt the flow of his very 'regular' lifestyle, he was afraid he would fade away into nothingness and become utterly ordinary again.
He couldn't let that happen.
Not after how hard he had worked to gain all kinds of knowledge that would have normally been beyond the reach of a demon like him.
He absolutely couldn't let her leave. That was final.
She was key to maintaining his identity and unlocking his greatness.
"No way. I will definitely return to conquer Ente Isla again."
…
A world of 'things' had passed between then and now.
To start afresh had taken on a whole new meaning for him.
Neither of them knew how to define or maintain the boundaries of their identities anymore.
The lines between their roles were blurring and getting thinner day by day, and sometimes, they crisscrossed or disappeared altogether.
But he still wanted to conquer Ente Isla.
There would be no point to gaining all that knowledge from his encounter with the archangel Lailah, also Emi's mother, if he couldn't manage to civilize his kind and create a world where demons and humans could coexist peacefully.
That had to be done. And he was the only one who could do it.
But starting afresh held a definite and fresh kind of allure for him now.
Starting afresh meant having Emi by his side.
Starting afresh meant acquiring Emi's permission to let their worlds collide without crashing down.
Starting afresh meant Emi allowing him to show her a better world.
But Most of all though….
Starting afresh had become synonymous with wanting Emi.
Loving Emi.
Conquering Emi.
Body, Heart and Soul.
Even if it seemed as impossible as Emi herself.
She wanted nothing to do with him.
She had made that clear with every breath she took.
She would much rather order him to start afresh with other girls instead, though he wasn't entirely confident about this either.
In the beginning, she would try her hardest to warn Chiho and Suzuno away from him. But she hadn't behaved like that in a long time now. She seemed to have at least come to the conclusion that he wasn't dangerous in that regard and didn't have any harmful or inappropriate designs on either girl.
In that light, if it ever came to considering that there might be something between him and Emi, she might much rather push the other girls at him to ward him off.
Yes.
She would push him toward Chi-chan, the cheerful, naïve girl with hearts and flowers in her bright, innocent smile and aggressive, hopeful gaze.
Or toward Suzuno, the endearing shrewd girl with an awkward kinship and sensitivity in her serene smile and tempered gaze.
But he was never good at following orders anyway, especially when they came from Emi.
He supposed he should want to start afresh with Chiho Or Suzuno.
But he didn't.
Instead, he wanted to start afresh with Emi, the girl with the broken smile and a world of heartache in her raging, bottomless, peridot meadow globes.
He couldn't though.
He knew that.
It was a given that she would never have him.
Not yet.
He was the reason she walked around her broken world with a broken smile…
…and pretended to gaze around with expressive, sadwild orbs that glittered with curiosity, but broke when she locked eyes with him unable to help herself deflecting fragments of her aching world at him…
He was the reason she was like that after all….
She liked to pretend she was tough…
And hid her vulnerability from the rest of the world.
She shouldered the justice of the world with a fierceness that belied her inner turmoil.
She would do it all alone if she could.
She loathed to accept his help.
And he would watch her from the sidelines.
And charge ahead for reasons of his own, regardless of her temper tantrums.
And pretend he wasn't there for her sake too.
He would allow her this pretense because he knew she could never allow herself to accept any form of kindness from him.
She could never allow him to breach her world.
He had set himself an impossible goal.
Because that was what Emi was.
An impossible goal.
But he was Satan Jacob.
The Demon King who had conquered Ente Isla against impossible odds once upon a time.
He was Maou Sadao.
The human Demon King who mastered human-speak and lifestyle and became a model McRonald's crew member within the span of a year, and was currently in the patient process of steadily conquering McRonald's.
He was meant to achieve the impossible goals he set for himself.
He was the demon lord who didn't know how to give up.
Relentlessly chasing after an impossible goal was his demons lifeblood.
He had reached impossible goals before.
He would do it again.
Because Emi was entirely worth it.
He had tried to maintain the status quo.
He had tried to maintain the status quo that was precious to them before.
He had tried to maintain the status quo by playing along with her dutiful vigilance of him.
He had tried to maintain the status quo by being the bad guy for her sake.
He had tried to maintain the status quo because he had been just as afraid as her.
He didn't want to maintain the status quo anymore.
He wanted to start afresh.
"Lets start over. I'll prove it to you with my actions. I'm not the Demon Lord you think I am."
"We'll start from scratch. If you're still not satisfied with me, then we'll settle things as Hero and Demon Lord to the end."
He wanted to start afresh with her.
"So Hero Emilia, follow me so I can show you a new world."
"Y-you dense idiot."
He wanted this impossible goal more than he had wanted any other impossible goal before.