77. Nectar Gland (4)
77. Nectar Gland (4)
"Wow, you're so tempting. Enough to make me want to devour you right now."
Lilith casually opened the coat draped over me.
My breasts, now larger than before, gave even the coat slung over my shoulders a voluptuous shape, and my hips, which had now fully become childbearing-type, made the coat flutter with each step, clearly revealing the leather straps concealing my pussy.
"Wouldn't the Demon King like it too?"
Though it seemed more like Lilith's taste was heavily infused rather than the Demon King's.
"Let's go now. We must go welcome the Demon King."
It had finally come.
The Resurrection of the Demon King.
Had I truly fulfilled my mission well enough to delay the Demon King's resurrection for the empire?
Had my sacrifice been a useful one?
With such trivial thoughts, I followed Lilith to the deepest core of the Demon King's castle.
"....Ugh."
An eerie atmosphere hung in the air, as if to say this was no place for a mere human.
Naturally sensing something amiss, my body instinctively shrank back.
Centered around a spherical sealing orb, all the Legion Commanders were kneeling.
As Lilith went to her spot and knelt, I too, swept up by the atmosphere, had no choice but to kneel beside her.
Meanwhile, Ertus, leaning on his staff, stood up and held aloft a pitch-black pearl.
Then, countless souls began to pour out from within the pearl and seep into the black sphere.
'....Tsk.'
They were probably human souls.
I couldn't even begin to fathom how many tens or hundreds of thousands of humans had been slaughtered to gather them.
Everyone here was part of the Demon King's army.
I was the only one who could mourn and bid them farewell, so I closed my eyes briefly to pay my respects.
-GRRRRUMBLE....!
"Ooooh, finally....!"
Once all the souls were absorbed, the black sphere began to vibrate noisily.
Then, after a moment, the vibration stopped, and cracks began to form on the black sphere until,
-KWA-A-AAANG!
"....!"
A shockwave powerful enough to wake everyone in the empire shook the air.
Even my Imperial Father in the capital, or ordinary people like Dorothy, must have felt it clearly.
As the sphere tore apart, someone walked out from within.
"....We greet the King!"
""We greet the King-!""
All the Legion Commanders and demon beast soldiers bowed their heads before him.
But I couldn't bow my head.
Because the man who emerged from the fissure,
'........A person?'
had an appearance that was far too human-like.
"....It has been a long time, everyone."
"....!"
An extremely deep voice, the kind that felt like it could tear one's mind apart just by hearing it, echoed through the cavern.
"Hah, hahk, huuuuk."
Lilith, who was bowing right next to me, already seemed to be gone just from hearing his voice.
"It took 700 years, an excessively long time. We are deeply sorry, Your Majesty."
Ertus apologized, pressing his head completely against the floor with a thud.
"Enough. I do not intend to blame you for that."
As the Demon King showed mercy, his eyes met those of the one person not bowing before him here.
It was none other than me.
"Lilith, it has been a long time."
"Wa, Your Majesty..., you remember me...."
"I am sorry I could not protect Lilliana."
"Ah, aah! That is too gracious! My mother would have been overjoyed to hear those words!"
While a version of Lilith I'd never seen before, flushed with emotion, meticulously and devotedly replied to the Demon King's words, his gaze remained fixed on me.
"....."
"...Ugh."
"....Your Majesty?"
Under his relentlessly persistent gaze, I was finally the first to avert my eyes.
Noticing that something was between us, Lilith linked her arm with mine and introduced me.
"-Ah, this is the girl who will become Your Majesty's bride. Among the women I've seen, she is the most suitable for-"
"Have you gone and chosen a spouse on your own again this time?"
In that instant,
as if the surroundings had frozen, the entire cavern turned icy cold.
While everyone, realizing the Demon King was displeased, fidgeted uneasily,
"Enough. Everyone, withdraw."
After uttering those words, the Demon King gestured, and
"Kyaak?!"
my body was lifted into the air and pulled right into the Demon King's embrace.
Then, ignoring all the Demon King's army executives behind him, the Demon King took me somewhere.
####
I had legs of my own and wanted to ask to be put down, but the atmosphere felt like I shouldn't provoke anything, so I kept my mouth firmly shut. The Demon King brought me to a certain room and carefully placed me on the bed.
As the Demon King set me down, his gaze fell upon what I held in my arms.
I hugged Yune protectively, shielding her just in case, and he asked.
"....Is she your child?"
"Huh? Ah, yes."
Fortunately, the situation I feared did not come to pass.
He didn't suddenly snatch Yune away, nor did he try to rape me immediately.
He just looked back and forth between me and Yune, then,
"The child is the spitting image of her mother."
he suddenly began praising Yune.
With such a serious expression, I thought he was going to say something grave, but...
The questions he actually asked me were things like where I was from, what food I liked, whether Lilith had done any strange things, and so on.
Honestly, I was a bit dazed by his objectively quite handsome looks and the questions I never would have imagined from a Demon King, when,
"Then, that is to say...."
"....?"
What question was he going to ask that he was hesitating so much?
Just as I was getting a little curious, he opened his mouth.
"....What became of your lover?"
"...Lover?"
What was a 'lover' again?
After a brief moment of thought, it came to me.
'....Husband?'
"...Pfft."
Perhaps it was because I had a child.
Given Lilith's personality, did he think she killed my lover and brought me here?
I found the Demon King's demeanor, asking so cautiously, to be just a tiny bit cute.
"Umm..., to be precise, there is the father of the child, but he's not exactly my husband or lover."
I could have lied to him if I wanted, but I didn't feel like going that far.
While Yune was now my most precious daughter and a blessing, the fact that I had her wasn't by my will, so I explained all of that too.
"Then I take it you still have no husband."
"Huh?"
Perhaps it was because the Demon King's stance wasn't aggressive.
Unconsciously, I judged him to be non-threatening.
So, I inadvertently felt like teasing him.
"Unfortunately, I do have a husband."
"....? But you just said you didn't..."
"Although it was forced."
How should I put it.
I felt a bit sorry for him, the king of a faction, but there was a fun taste to teasing him.
Seeing his reactions made me want to play a trick without realizing it.
I thought of Dorothy, who was probably in the Imperial Palace right now.
"I was kidnapped and forced into marriage for my daughter's sake, so my own will wasn't included in the slightest, but I suppose this still counts as a married couple."
"........My apologies."
Finally realizing that person was himself, the Demon King offered an apology, but I didn't accept it.
I wasn't particularly angry, and any sense of injustice had long since faded.
If I were to accept an apology, it would be from Lilith, not an unrelated apology from the Demon King.
"I could summon Lilith immediately and make her apologize. However-"
The Demon King's gaze sharpened as he looked at me.
"You do not seem to desire that."
"....."
He was exactly right.
Did the Demon King have some kind of mind-reading ability?
As I was slightly surprised, feeling like my inner thoughts had been exposed, the Demon King approached me and opened my clothes himself.
Literally parting the coat I was wearing to the sides.
Then, my pale skin and the leather straps that precariously failed to cover my important parts came into his view.
"....Ugh."
Had I carelessly provoked him?
Or was he, after all, just a demon who was the Demon King?
The moment I was about to obediently offer my body to protect Yune, as I had learned from Lilith,
"Is this attire also Lilith's idea?"
"....."
Yet, his touch stopped at the hem of the coat.
But as I remained silent, his hand began to reach out again.
He pulled the coat behind my shoulders and slowly untied the leather straps Lilith had put on me.
My pure white skin was exposed, and my pink nipples and pussy were fully revealed before him.
But the body that had been modified by Lilith and developed by Bloodius and his maids began to heat up instead.
All I could do was hold back my heated breaths to hide my lewdness.
-Swish....
After the last strap was completely removed, the Demon King burned those garments in black fire so they could never be worn again.
Was it a message to never drape such vulgar clothing over my body again?
Just as the mood that had been rising was about to crash straight back down-
-FZZZZZT!
"........?!"
Black lightning began to crackle from his hand, tearing through space as if creating a pocket dimension, and he pulled something out from within.
Long, large.... and cozy....?
-Whoosh!
And soft and warm.
As the black something wrapped around my shoulders, an inexplicable sense of sturdiness and security filled me.
"Its name is the Black Dragon Robe. It is yours from now on, you may use it as you wish. With this, even all under my command will kneel."
The Black Dragon Robe wrapped around my body as if it were alive.
....Even though I was clearly naked underneath, for some reason, it was incredibly comfortable, to a deeply satisfying degree.