Within a grand eting room, a very, very handso boy and a woman sat face to face. Both of them had a polite and pleasant smile on their faces... but only they knew what was really going on behind those smiles.
Yeah, that’s exactly how a third person might have described the scene.
But I knew better. I knew what was running through my head, obviously and I also knew what was running through hers.
Still, why the fuck did she drag here like that?
I couldn’t help but curse, staring at my clothes drenched in that slimy, dripping ss.
I felt filthy... but I didn’t react because I had to stay composed.
I an, sure, I was the one who said that wasn’t a proper place to talk and yeah, I did suggest we go sowhere else...
...but the way she decided to do it didn’t sit right with .
After our little "chat" in the open space where I landed, she summoned her pet monster, the sa frog abomination from the entrance test.
That breed was a family signature passed down the Maltherion family long before the Demon Realm was even founded... when they were just a tribe.
And the beast was still used after its formation, a nice and friendly family heirloom passed to every Maltherion matriarch for traumatizing students in orientation ceremony.
But I knew there was more to it.
According to Noah’s lore book, the one he oh-so-generously provided when I created the ga, this particular monster wasn’t just so random mob.
Nope. It was a beast of one of the Kings back when they still road the world.
Honestly, I knew jack shit about these so-called "Kings." Noah never explained them properly and they never even appeared in the novel directly except so traces like this monster.
But one thing I did know, this frog abomination had to be connected to that goat freak from the Forest of Unmasked. Both of them had that lovely little ability to teleport things using their stomachs.
Which ant the Goat Monster was probably related to the Kings too and that the whole twisted forest had sothing to do with them.
Hell, I would bet my right arm Ashavar himself knew sothing about it and that was probably why he assigned her family as Noxvalen’s guardians.
Or maybe there was so other reason altogether.
But that wasn’t even the problem.
The real problem was how she dragged after our little conversation.
She could have asked nicely to follow her but no... she had to ask that damn thing to swallow whole.
And unlike before, when it teleported straight to the orientation hall, this ti it just... kept jumping with in its stomach until we finally arrived here.
And only then did it decide to spit out.
I an, seriously, this had to be deliberate and I knew exactly why.
That woman wanted to feel anxious and nervous... she wanted to lose my composure.
All of this, all this slimy and disgusting nonsense was her cheap way of testing .
Well guess what, lady, I don’t break that easy and one day... I swear, I’ll pay this back.
I looked at her as the sa calm smile was plastered on her face... making her seem unreadable.
People always say understanding a woman is difficult... but that’s only because they keep looking for the wrong thing.
A great philosopher once said, if you think you can’t understand soone, if you think you can’t read their thoughts, then give them sothing to think about... That way, you will always know where their mind will go next.
Naturally, I never bothered to rember the na of the philosopher. I care more about the teaching than the usual bravado of quoting so ancient philosopher for bragging or sounding wise.
His na was sothing... Crimson?
Or maybe sothing else entirely.
But who cares.
So, the point was simple. I needed sothing.
Sothing that would make her think but more importantly, make her think about sothing that would work to my advantage.
And I already knew that "sothing."
But if I said it out loud... there was about a fifty percent chance she would try to kill or at least, that used to be the case before that bastard Ashavar decided to na his successor.
Now, I knew for a fact she couldn’t kill . At least, not imdiately and definitely not directly.
The reason was simple.
She was the mother of another successor, Arza.
And if she killed here, in her own office of all places, it would an a lot of things... None of them were good for her.
It would make her look cowardly, pathetic and worse, it would drag Arza’s na through the mud.
And even if Arza herself didn’t care about any of this political nonsense,
Morvana definitely did.
This woman would rather die than let her trump card’s reputation be stained.
So, I didn’t have to worry about dying for now but that didn’t an I could afford to make her my enemy.
She had countless other ways to kill without ever getting her hands dirty and from the way the Demon King phrased that oh-so-gracious "succession,"
she would know exactly what I knew... that Ashavar had no intention of interfering in the academy.
So, I had to take my steps carefully.
But the word carefully just didn’t sit well with .
I an, if she did beco my enemy... that would be her loss and not mine.
Worst case, I could always disappear into the Forest of Unmasked for a few years.
Sure, it was dangerous, full of horrors beyond reason, but at least the monsters there were reasonable unlike the whimsical living beings outside it.
Still, that was my last resort. I had four other plans lined up in case "Operation Morvana" went sideways and the Forest of Unmasked was only if everything else failed.
It had been approximately a minute or two since we got here and finally, the plan I had been piecing together from the mont I saw Morvana today, was fully ford.
I took a deep breath and well, I didn’t even need to smile because at this point it was my default setting now. My resting face was basically always smiling.
"So, Ms. Morvana... I would like to negotiate my death with you."
Yeah. That’s how you start a negotiation, by taking full control before the other person even realises they have lost it.
It’s the sa trick I pulled with Astravore... except this ti, the stakes were a little different.
"What do you an?" Morvana raised an eyebrow,
that sa calm smile was still on her face but I could see it.
The faint shift behind her eyes. Her brain was starting to move.
Perfect.
This was the first step.
Make her curious.
Once curiosity takes the bait, logic follows right behind it... and that’s when you start pulling the strings.
"What I an is very simple, Ms. Morvana..." I took a small deliberate pause, just enough to make her blink. "Make your son-in-law."
As soon as the words left my mouth, an imnse wave of aura exploded around us, so heavy it felt like even ti itself had stopped or maybe that was just my imagination because I could see the dust... floating midair.
Ah, yes.
Here it cos... the motherly show of love.
Here we go again.
With those thoughts my smile deepened because the mont to strike was here.
—
anwhile, sowhere else within Noxvalen Academy, the students had already scattered to their accommodations, still reeling from the Demon King’s shocking announcent.
In one of the upper dorms of the second-year division, a handso boy with snow-white hair and crimson eyes sat leisurely on a luxurious couch, a soft smile curving his lips.
Around him, several students sat stiffly with their heads lowered and the air heavy with unspoken fear.
Father selected a human as his successor?
Why?
He was Varek Ashen Noctharion, twentieth son of the Demon King Ashavar and a second-year student of Noxvalen.
He just couldn’t understand the reasoning behind such an absurd decision.
"How interesting," he murmured, and that smile of his deepened just for a mont.
The students around him trembled.
"Hey, Rio," Varek said casually, his tone light. "You’re a human, aren’t you? You must know sothing about him, don’t you?"
The boy he addressed sat at the far end of the group, his clothes torn and his face marked with fading bruises.
"Y–yes, Your Highness," Rio stamred, imdiately standing up.
"Good."
Varek’s smile didn’t waver, if anything, it grew a bit softer, kinder and infinitely more terrifying.
"Tell everything you know about him."
He leaned back into the couch, crossing one leg over the other.
"And in the anti..." his crimson eyes shone with quiet amusent, "soone send him a small present from ."
The students around him trembled, each of them knowing what it ans to catch Varek’s attention.
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