Chapter 229: Welcome Back, Demon Lord
Mark smiled faintly, too tired to respond beyond that.
His eyelids, which he had been struggling to keep open, started growing heavier and heavier, and the warmth of the bed was slowly pulling him toward sleep.
But then...
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Three knocks at the door yanked him abruptly from the edge of sleep.
"...Huh?" he murmured, his voice hoarse from sleep. "Who is it?"
But there was no answer, only the knocks sounding once more from the other side of the door.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Mark let out a groan and rubbed his face with one hand.
The last thing he wanted in that moment was to get up from the most comfortable bed he had felt in days.
But whoever was on the other side didn’t seem willing to give up.
"Coming, coming..." he said, getting up from the bed.
And the moment he stood up, Mark felt something wasn’t right.
He couldn’t say exactly what it was, but the atmosphere felt heavier than when he had lain down.
However, he was too drowsy to pay it any real attention, so he dismissed it almost immediately.
’Probably just exhaustion playing tricks on me...’ he thought, shuffling toward the door.
As he walked, he tried to guess who could be knocking.
’Probably Luna wanting to talk about something,’ he thought wearily. ’Though it could also be her assistant Emi with some message... Or maybe just a servant asking if I need anything before bed.’
When he finally opened the door after turning the handle with minimal enthusiasm, the first thing he found was a pair of tits right at eye level.
’...wow,’ he thought, his mind going blank.
Mark stared at them for a couple of seconds, blinking with his mind still half-asleep, not quite processing what he was looking at or why it was there.
And then his brain finished waking up slowly... because those breasts looked familiar.
’Wait...’ he thought, feeling a chill run down his spine. ’No... that can’t be possible.’
Mark swallowed and slowly raised his gaze, up from the neckline, past the throat, until he reached the face, where he found a smile he recognized instantly.
"Hello, darling," the Demon Lord said with a mischievous smile, leaning one arm against the doorframe. "Did you miss me?"
Mark’s body reacted before his mind.
"Bone Wall!"
Nothing happened.
Mark frowned and tried again.
"Bone Shard!"
Absolutely nothing happened... not the slightest trace of magic, as if his skills didn’t exist.
’Ely! Yuki!’ he called through the mental link, urgently.
Silence.
Neither of them responded.
The link, which normally connected his mind to his subordinates’ instantly, was completely dead.
It was like shouting into a bottomless well.
The Demon Lord watched him try all of this with an increasingly amused expression, and in the end she couldn’t contain a loud laugh.
"Are you done?" she asked, tilting her head. "Or do you want to try summoning something else? I don’t want to interrupt your little tantrum."
"...", he clenched his teeth, still on guard.
"Can I come in?" she asked, nodding toward the room’s interior. "I promise I don’t bite... At least not for a while."
Mark let out a long, resigned sigh, letting his shoulders drop.
"...If I say no, would you listen?" he asked in a tired tone.
The Demon Lord smiled mockingly, clearly delighted by the question.
"Obviously not."
And without waiting for any kind of permission, she stepped into the room, brushing past him and closing the door behind her with a casual wave of her hand.
Mark watched her walk into his room as if it were her own.
"Sure... make yourself comfortable."
The Demon Lord ignored him completely.
She walked calmly to the center of the room and looked around with curiosity, as if she were a guest evaluating the décor.
"You know, I’ve been quite entertained watching everything you’ve done up to now," she said finally. "Taking the elven kingdom, managing those two rulers who came to kiss your boots, all that drama with your women... it’s been fascinating."
"..."
"Much more entertaining than anything I’ve seen in a very, very long time."
"Glad to have been a good show," he said without moving from where he stood.
"But... I think it’s time you and I had a little chat," she continued, turning toward him.
The Demon Lord walked to the bed and sat on it.
Then, with a gentle pat on the mattress beside her, she indicated for Mark to sit next to her.
Mark looked at the space she was offering and, after a sigh, decided there was no point in resisting.
So, grudgingly, he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, leaving a reasonable distance between them.
"Can I at least try to convince you not to kill me?"
The Demon Lord looked at him with an expression somewhere between amusement and disbelief.
"Please... if I had really wanted to kill you, I would have done it a very long time ago," she said, rolling her eyes. "I had countless opportunities. Don’t you think you’d already be six feet under if that were my intention?"
"...I suppose you have a point," Mark admitted. "So if you didn’t come to kill me, what the hell are you doing here?"
"I came to clear up the little misunderstanding between us."
Mark let out a dry laugh.
"Misunderstanding?" he repeated with sarcasm. "In my world, try to kill someone more than once wasn’t exactly a ’misunderstanding’... it was attempted homicide. Several counts, actually."
"In my defense, I didn’t order Rudolf to attack you," the Demon Lord said, raising a finger. "My guardians are sometimes... overly enthusiastic, let’s say."
"And why should I believe you?" Mark asked, narrowing his eyes.
"For starters, because you’re still alive, aren’t you?"
"..."
"And also because you and I aren’t as different as you think," she continued. "In fact, we’re much more alike than you could imagine."
"What’s that supposed to mean?" he asked, frowning.
The Demon Lord didn’t respond immediately.
Instead, she raised a hand and, with a flick of her fingers, made a screen appear in front of her.
A translucent, glowing screen, identical in style to the ones Mark constantly saw floating in his own vision.
She slowly turned the screen toward Mark so he could clearly see what was on it.
"Take a look and you’ll understand what I mean."
