#m!lk

Happy birthday to Kiriwo! I’m back to posting my Iruma fanart, I have a couple works finished already that I’ll just slowly start posting until I catch up to my twitter. Otherwise I might just start posting more of my sketches and wips, but we’ll seeeeeee.

Idk, demons are explicitly stated to be hierarchical, and value power, while the Ranking system equates power with becoming an active participant in improving people's lives.

Children seem to be entirely unranked- you gain your rank once you enter school as a teen, and given demons seem to age differently to humans given their longer lifespans, there seems to be a bit of wiggle room as to when you can choose to enroll- some as young as Chima, others closer to 18-ish. Enrollment seems to be based on when you are 'ready'- that is able to go through the entrance exam. You move from child (a 'treasure' to be protected) into a ranked demon, ready to participate in society.

Ranks 1-5 seem to be fairly squishy and flexible- teachers are given free reign to scale you up or down as they please within the microcosm of the school. Good grades, music performance, hunting ability, extracurricular activities all affect your grade and can let you rank up or down. Babyls and other schools serve as these microcosms, setting young demons up to actively embrace participating in society. New ideas (eg keroris beast kingdom) and cooperation (gaap and agares' castle) are rewarded.

Really, ranks are fully contingent on actively participating in society. Demons like Beem, who was unmotivated and disillusioned, and Kiriwo, who kept to himself, had their ranks stall despite their seniority.

On the flip side, this raises the question, how do demons who cannot participate within this society/set-up fare? The Many-Ears are either unable to, or just tend not to go to schools like Babyls, meaning they do not get to participate in this ranking system. They are displaced, living in their own individual tribes apart from the rest of demon society. Despite their many specialised skills, they are placed into positions of subordinacy, used exclusively as servants by other demons. We KNOW ranks are not exclusively based on physical strength!!!!! Within the system, there is no reason Many-Ears could not be rewarded for intelligence, cultural enrichment, new discoveries etc. The issue is, the system exclusively rewards participation in society. It fails to account for Many-Ears, who are marginalised, live outside this society and when they do enter it, enter it as servants, whos achievements will always be credited to another.

Which is sadly to be expected. As much as I love the love trio calling each other soulmates, shinyuu more closely means best friends and it was to be expected. Especially when you calculate the Ameri stuff following it. It sucks, and tbh I don’t think it fully encapsulates the way Azz and Iruma react afterwards (especially how they use it following this chapter) but this is the nature of the beast. The fan translation used a looser definition and with how slow the translations are for Iruma, of course the word soulmates has become so engrained in the fandom that it’s weird to see something else. And yes, that means it’s even more likely that the episode tomorrow will say best friends.

But tbh, I don’t care. I always knew that it was unlikely to be translated officially to soulmates. And that was, and still isn’t, going to stop me from calling them soulmates. Because while the fan translation did make me ship the love trio (platonically, romantically, and queer platonically) it was never what made them true soulmates to begin with.

It’s the way they can truly be themselves around each other. The way that they were all each other’s first friend. It’s the way they interact with each other, always wanting to cuddle or ready to defend the other. It’s the way that they talk to and about each other. The way that they’ve literally said I love you!! None of that can be taken from us even if the translation says best friends.

And yes, some people will be assholes about it now that the volume is out. They’ll be like “you KNOW that was a mistranslation right” and guess what? I don’t care! Because soulmates will always capture what they are to each other. And it’s too ingrained in the fandom to stop being used anyway.

It's been a minute since I did something Iruma-related, who better to get back into it with than -

Our favourite resident security devil, unlike the guard dogs, is completely fine with having feelings towards you.

Well, they have a slight initial freak out when they figure out that the warm, cosy feelings they get from serving and being around you are vastly different from the warm feelings they get working for Sullivan or even Iruma.

Because oh. They're having emotions, romantic emotions.

Honestly, their only hang-up might be the fact that you’re technically their master, but they get over that quickly enough.

Their initial courting gift was going to be food of some kind, after all, humans are a bit gluttonous, especially where Opera's cooking is involved, but they decide to do something a bit different.

Something along the lines of proclaiming that they are always going to look after you, they just want to do it from a different position in your life.

So they have a weapon fashioned for you.

One day during your afternoon tea, Opera brings you a box.

It's beautifully carved and made of a deep red wood so dark it's almost black, but it gleams red in the light. They kneel before you and present the box,

They have a nice short little speech about how they've never known the taste of defeat until they met you. You who somehow managed to break down their walls and thoroughly ravaged their heart until they could have none other but you.

They slowly up the box and inside it gleams a beautiful silver dagger

Once you accept, they’re rather surprisingly touchy.

Not in an overt way, they’re too polished for that, but their fingers linger a little too long on your wrist when offering you tea. Their tail brushes your ankle as they pass behind you.

You’d almost think it was incidental, if it weren’t for the fact that Opera doesn’t do accidents.

When you accepted the dagger, a thing clearly designed not just to defend, but to fit you, weight and balance made precisely for your hand, they smile with something like satisfaction, like they’ve just checked something off a very long to-do list.

From then on, Opera’s gestures of affection only grow more… peculiar.

You’re no stranger to being cared for, of course — Opera has always looked after you in that watchful, efficient, almost unsettlingly competent way of theirs. But now? Now you find that they’ve installed warding spells on your clothes. You never quite reach the point of fatigue anymore. Opera has already “gently encouraged” you to rest, or sleep, or take a moment to breathe.

Usually, by curling up around you, with their head resting on your lap, their body lightly vibrating in purrs, they'll lull you to sleep. Then, they'll linger a little before getting back to work, ensuring everything is perfect for you and the rest of the Sullivan family.

It’s devotion, yes, but laced with something fiercer.

Protective doesn’t quite cover it. Possessive is closer, but still not quite right. It’s more like: You are theirs. You always were. They simply hadn’t claimed it yet.

And now that they have?

Opera does not share.

They don’t announce it to the world. There’s no public declaration, no change in demeanour around others, but the way they look at you now is different.

Sharper. Softer. Something between reverence and hunger.

Hunger for you, their lovely master and partner.