In the early morning, the bell inside the Demon King's Castle rang right on time.
“Bong—!”
The long, deep sound echoed from the direction of the clock tower, though for some reason, the tolling today sounded exceptionally heavy.
It was as if the sound itself carried a deep, weighty resentment.
Even Lin Ling, who usually slept through almost anything, was jolted awake by the racket.
“Mgh...”
Lin Ling frowned, squirming slightly under the blanket.
She tried her best to bury her head deeper into her "pillow."
It was as if she could escape the relentless tolling of the bell this way.
But before she could drift back to sleep, she felt a slight movement beside her.
Lin Ling opened her eyes blearily.
Then, she saw Ivelia lying beside her, eyes open, watching her every move.
Lin Ling: “...”
After all the unexpected incidents during this period of time...
Waking up to find the Demon King right next to her was something she had completely grown used to—ignoring the fact that she had just been nuzzling into a certain forbidden, wicked softness.
“Good morning, Lord Demon King~”
With her long hair a messy nest, she greeted Ivelia, her voice thick with sleep.
Ivelia looked at Lin Ling, who could barely keep her eyes open.
Then she glanced at Lin Ling's hair, which had become a wild, tangled mess from her sleeping posture.
She recalled a passage recorded in the Hero's romance handbook regarding such a situation.
【When the other party is not yet fully awake in the morning, appropriate intimate care can be given.】
【This will effectively increase mutual trust and dependency.】
Ivelia fell silent for a moment.
Lin Ling, still sitting on the bed, suddenly felt a slight sensation of weightlessness.
“Eh?”
In the next second, Lin Ling was airborne!
At least, in her half-asleep consciousness, she was definitely flying.
The sudden weightlessness made Lin Ling instinctively grab the only thing within reach.
She wrapped her arms directly around Ivelia's neck.
Her legs also curled up slightly out of sheer tension.
“Today's Demon King's Castle... feels slightly weightless.”
Leaning against Ivelia's chest, Lin Ling's eyes snapped wide awake.
“Right, Lord Demon King...?”
The moment the words left her mouth, Lin Ling's rebooting brain finally realized something.
Since she had been picked up by the Demon King, that meant the only support she had to maintain her balance was the Demon King herself!
Lin Ling glanced at her hands looped around Ivelia's neck.
Then she slowly looked up, meeting those close-up purple eyes.
“...”
She silently turned her face away.
As long as she didn't look, nothing happened.
Ivelia paid no mind to Lin Ling's occasional nonsensical remarks.
Holding Lin Ling, she walked straight over to the vanity table in the room.
Lin Ling stared at her messy reflection in the mirror, which also showed Ivelia standing right behind her.
“W-What is this for?”
Ivelia didn't answer, but her subsequent actions spoke for themselves.
She reached out and picked up the comb on the vanity table.
Then, she gently gathered Lin Ling's messy white hair behind her back.
The teeth of the comb slid slowly through the strands.
Ivelia's movements were far from practiced; she even accidentally snagged a knot in Lin Ling's hair.
“Eek!”
Lin Ling's shoulders flinched slightly.
Ivelia stopped instantly.
After carefully untangling the snagged strand, her movements became much gentler.
Normally, this task was always left to Niya.
Every morning, Niya would help Lin Ling tidy her hair.
Sometimes, she would even braid a few simple little plaits according to her own preferences.
But after yesterday's kiss...
Ivelia suddenly didn't want to leave this task to anyone else.
The romance handbook seemed to refer to this feeling as—possessiveness?
She simply felt that the first words Lin Ling spoke upon waking should be addressed to her, and that Lin Ling's messy morning hair should be tidied by her own hands.
As the comb ran down again and again, the originally messy white hair gradually became neat and smooth.
Finally, Ivelia gently pressed down on a stubborn cowlick sticking up at the crown of Lin Ling's head.
But the moment she let go, the strand sprang right back up.
Ivelia: “...”
She pressed it down again.
Released.
The strand of hair stubbornly bounced back once more.
Watching this play out in the mirror, Lin Ling's lips twitched slightly.
“Lord Demon King, that is Miss Saintess's dignity.”
“It won't be pressed down so easily.”
Looking at the stubborn strand that refused to yield, Ivelia finally decided to give up.
She placed the comb back in its place.
After confirming that the rest of Lin Ling's hair was neat, she silently turned and walked out of the room.
Click.
The door closed gently.
The instant she felt the door behind her shut completely, Lin Ling, who had been sitting so elegantly before the vanity table, instantly seemed to melt.
She slumped limply into the chair.
“This morning in the Demon King's Castle...” Lin Ling looked at her slightly flushed cheeks in the mirror. “...feels incredibly weightless.”
But just then, her stomach let out a soft rumble.
Grumble~
Lin Ling's thoughts about having her hair brushed were instantly replaced by her appetite.
Breakfast!
Now was the grand and sacred time for breakfast!
Though her steps still resembled those of someone who had just gotten drunk, her obsession with a delicious breakfast firmly drove the great Miss Saintess forward.
Supporting herself against the wall, she slowly walked out of the room.
Meanwhile, in Zona's room—
Kainster stood by the bed.
Looking at the soundly sleeping Zona, a look of speechlessness crossed his face.
This usually incredibly meticulous aide had immediately collapsed into bed and fallen asleep upon returning to her room after the series of events in the Demon King's Castle yesterday.
Even the thunderous tolling of the bell this morning had failed to wake the sharp-eared elf.
Bong—
The bell rang again.
The windows rattled slightly from the sound.
Yet, Zona remained unresponsive on the bed.
Watching this, Kainster couldn't help but shake his head.
“Even such a loud bell can't wake you, Zona?”
As he spoke, he brushed the hair away from his forehead, raised a hand to point at Zona still lying in bed, and struck an extremely exaggerated, mocking pose. “You are far too lazy!”
Kainster said this with immense dramatic flair.
However, the exact instant Kainster completed his pose, Zona seemed to sense something on the bed.
Her hand suddenly grabbed the blanket.
Then, she flung it aside!
“Whoa!”
Scared out of his wits by the sudden movement, Kainster shuddered and immediately bolted out of the room at top speed.
Bam!
He slammed the door shut behind him.
Leaning against the corridor wall, Kainster panted heavily.
“Whew.”
“Scared the life out of this prince.”
He wiped the sweat from his forehead that had broken out from his sudden sprint.
“Confound you, Zona, pretending to sleep just to trick me.”
Kainster cast a wary glance at the door behind him.
Only after confirming that Zona wasn't chasing after him did he finally relax.
But very quickly, he encountered a problem far more terrifying than Zona.
Kainster looked up.
He stared at the several almost identical corridors in front of him.
Then, he looked back at the room he had just run out of.
“...”
Which way did he just come from?
Kainster stood in the middle of the corridor.
The expression on his face gradually stiffened.
He was... lost?!
In reality, Zona hadn't woken up at all.
After flinging the blanket aside, she rolled over and continued to sleep soundly.
“D-Damn demons...” Zona mumbled in her sleep, hugging her pillow. “Even if you get my body... you'll never get...”
Shifting back to Lin Ling—
“Damn it, where on earth did I end up? Is this even still the Demon King's Castle?!”
Lin Ling stood in an unfamiliar corridor.
Looking at the walls and doors she had absolutely no memory of, she let out a question from the depths of her soul.
Even though she had lived in the Demon King's Castle for so long, the great Miss Saintess was still—lost!
“Confound this Demon King's Castle.”
“How dare you stand in the way of the great Miss Saintess's sacred and noble quest for breakfast!”
Lin Ling gritted her teeth.
She pointed at the three-way fork that had suddenly appeared before her.
“Hey, hey, hey.”
“Are you seriously underestimating Miss Saintess?!”
Lin Ling stood before the three paths.
A light of pure confidence gleamed in her blue eyes.
“Will I find it?”
“Of course I will.”
“Miss Saintess is the strongest, after all.”
Was Miss Saintess really declaring victory in a conversation with herself?!
“Toward breakfast, charge!”
Lin Ling took off.
She dashed down the rightmost path.
Not long after Lin Ling charged into the right fork, a few demon soldiers on morning patrol happened to walk over from the other side.
One of them looked down and noticed a wooden signpost lying on the floor.
“Hm?”
The soldier picked up the signpost.
The sign clearly showed the icon for the dining hall.
The arrow, however, pointed in another direction.
“Did the wind blow it down?”
Another soldier looked at the hook on the wall.
He then took the signpost and hung it back up.
The arrow pointing to the dining hall now pointed steadily toward the left fork.
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