Her voice echoed in the silent forest.
It sounded like nonsense even to her own ears, but hey, she had already kicked the evidence far away. And she could explain the flame in her hand as her way of lighting the way. And hence, Elynora reassured herself that her excuse was totally plausible.
The demon king didn't say anything, he just looked at her with languid eyes, as if telling her to amuse him more. So she did. If she could stay alive, she would even dance ballet.
"I won't ask how you got here. You must already be traumatized, facing such dense demonic energy. I can take you into the Duchy. You see, I'm a family member of the Veritas Duchy and a demon hunter too. I can get you out of here safely."
No, she couldn't. Her combat ability was in every way worse than the injured demon king. She was currently stalling for time so that the person who was supposed to find the demon king in the original timeline appeared.
She assumed that it must have been the patrol team. As long as they arrived, she could at least get out of here alive.
The pink flame in her hand flickered. It was pretty harmless against humans, it only purged evil, so it hurt the demon kind only, who were inherently 'evil' by the world's standards.
As she saw the demon king's eyes glance at the flame, she put it out hastily, thinking he might discover that she knew he was the demon king and kill her.
He sat up slowly, and Nora flinched.
'My life is over. Truly.'
Just as she was about to close her eyes, preparing to die, she heard a low chuckle. She looked at the Demon King with wide eyes.
"Okay." His voice was as otherworldly as his looks. A small smile graced his handsome face.
Nora questioned her ears. Did he just say okay?
Was it the method of giving the victim hope to torture them before killing them?
She stood there dazed, contemplating every possibility.
"Could you help me up?" The demon king asked sweetly, the smile still on his face. Nora felt chills go down her spine. Why did it feel like the demon king was about to scam her and not the other way around?
But right now, he was her boss, so she quickly helped him up. It felt like he purposefully made it hard for her since she was out of breath by the time she pulled the heavy man up.
'Damn you demon king, go on a diet.'
"Diet?" The demon king asked her with a raised eyebrow.
Nora stared at him in embarrassment. Had she… spoken out loud instead of in her mind?
Fuck.
But she didn't seem to have said the demon king part. Since the system alert wasn't blaring, she assumed she was safe for now.
She looked up at the dark clouds in the sky. She wouldn't be safe for long if she stayed here, though. Despite her senses not being fully developed as a demon hunter, she could now sense a high condensed demonic energy nearing their location.
Immediately Nora brightened up. She had an idea.
How about she just leave the demon king here and leave him to fend off the beasts by himself? He would definitely get badly injured, right? Unfortunately, this level of demons couldn't really kill him. He would remember her and try to take revenge, but hey, it was better than letting him join the protagonist party.
So she opened her mouth to scam the demon king and hoped it would work.
"You must be a demon hunter too, right? I can sense the approach of demons and don't think we can fight those now in your condition. I'm also injured and just recovered."
"So?" He asked, slightly tilting his head to one side.
"Don't worry, I'm confident I can run and bring back reinforcements! But it would be hard to run with you…" She trailed off.
The look in his eyes made her want to take a step backwards.
"I'll definitely not abandon you!" Nora lied shamelessly. She definitely was gonna abandon him. That was the plan, after all.
Although there was a slight setback, she was finally going to achieve her plans.
Suddenly, in the near distance, a loud scream erupted. Soon, a group of people emerged from the darkness. One of them shined brightly in the dark, her protagonist's halo activating.
The character supposed to find the demon king in the original timeline was the female lead?
'Fuck, how did me not mentioning who found the demon king become such a huge plot hole? AHHHHH!'
Nora sobbed internally as the female lead Arabella fully came into view.
There was a look of confusion on Arabella's face as she caught sight of Nora. Nora awkwardly waved at Bella.
"See? I told you reinforcements would be here!" She said confidently to the demon king, taking advantage of the situation to lie harder and crying over her ruined plans in her mind.
The demon king looked at her as if she was crazy.
"What are you doing here?" Arabella asked in confusion.
Nora tried to avoid the question by pushing the demon king to the front. Arabella's eyes widened once she caught sight of him.
"A mana sealing curse? What kind of malicious person did this to you?"
The demon king coughed weakly. Arabella rushed forward to catch the 'weak' looking person who 'suddenly' stumbled. Nora sideyed the acting skills of the demon king and the naïve Arabella, who fell for them.
But it was valid. Mana was the energy of the world that was consumed in exchange for using the powers bestowed upon the 'Awakened'. So a sealing curse... It was almost the same as sealing the powers themselves.
"I saved a few people from a mid grade demon and barely escaped alive. But for some reason, demons and beasts alike have been chasing me for the past few days, so I came to the Veritas Duchy, where expert demon hunters reside, to have them take a look at my curse and seek help," he said, 'pitifully'.
Elynora looked at him in admiration.
His acting skills were worthy of an Oscar. He would have made it big in the modern world, truly.