Chapter Text
After some confusion, protests (arguments from Melheis), and a lot of explaining, they finally began to understand why Anos would suggest that Lay be his bodyguard. It would help ensure his safety against the assassins (they all knew he could take care of himself, but the Demon Emperors were still prepared to set up a protection detail just in case). More importantly, it would help other come to trust Lay instead of judging him for being The Hero.
First, being his bodyguard would mean that Lay would be with Anos almost all the time. So, those who were afraid of The Hero could rest easy knowing that Anos was watching him at all times.
Second, this would show others that Anos’ trusts Lay with his life.
And third, it showed that Lay was loyal to Anos. After all, he was willing to put his own life at risk in order to protect Anos. Demonstrating that he holds no grudges against demon-kind and views himself as one of them, an ally.
- The Next Night -
Anos had spent much of the day renovating the Demon Palace, Delsigade. In the past few centuries, it had been used as a testing ground for the Demon King Academy (1), so monster roamed the halls, and many sections fell into ruin. Some sections were intact, such as the room where they all had a celebratory dinner (see chapter 1), but it still needed work if he was gonna turn it into a proper palace once again. After all, he couldn’t continue to rule as Demon King from his parent’s home.
He stands in his remodeled room, putting down the finishing touches when he feels a breeze from the open window and a familiar magic signature. Lay hugs Anos from behind and rests his chin on his shoulder. “I found them.”
“Found who?”
“The nobles that tried to have you killed obviously.”
“Oh? And how did you find them so quickly?” He hadn’t even been gone for three full hours.
“I’m good at hunting demons.” Lay replied with a dark tone.
Anos chuckles. “We should probably leave that part out when we tell the others... For now, we’ll just let them believe you are a devoted bodyguard. Shall we go then?” Kanon doesn’t need him for this. He could have wiped out the entire group by himself, but Anos wanted to see exactly who orchestrated this whole thing. And find out why they did it.
Sure, they got an explanation from Melheis, but it didn’t quite seem right. Did they seriously think that assassin could have killed him? He stopped a freakin war, fought again The Hero himself (who they are all scared of). And yet they think throwing a knife (not even imbued with magic) will kill him? Are they so insanely desperate to be rid of him that they stopped thinking clearly?
“Yeah, let’s go.”
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This was just sad. Anos expected them to be disorganized, they obviously were not expecting the Demon King and The Hero to literally walk through the front door, but still… for a secret meeting about trying to assassinate the one of the most powerful beings in history, they were really sloppy. Still, they were both smiling. It was an amazing feeling, Kanon’s back against his. Them, fighting together. On the same side.
He wishes he could say they are in prefect sync. They’re not. That would still take some time. But they fought each other enough to know how the other moves, and they had full trust in each other, it was great.
Not a great day for the traitorous nobles though. Some of them are alive, they needed someone to question and confirm that everyone involved in this plot had been taken care of. The rest hardly had time to react before they were all dead.
“Kanon,” Anos says as they now stand in the middle of a quit room, surrounded by dead or unconscious nobles. “We never set a time limit for our competition.”
“Hmm? Oh,” Suddenly Lay was very close to his face, and then they were kissing. Because of course their first kiss in the middle of a battlefield, surrounded by blood and bodies. One of them moaned. Anos wrapped his arms around Lay’s neck, the kiss deepened. They pulled apart, “How much time are you going to give me? I will still be your bodyguard after this mess is cleared up, so I have plenty of chances.” True. A few days and one incident handling a group of nobles wasn’t going to magically make everyone trust Lay.
Anos’ eyes were red, but there was no familiar pattern. He hadn’t lost the bet yet. “I don’t know, how about two or three weeks?”
“That long? You’re so generous.” Lay smirks. That was plenty of time. He would not be losing this one. It seems they are both very competitive with one another, probably due to their previous encounters and battles. They weren’t enemies anymore, but they still competed with one another. Maybe they should train together? Now that Lay reveal his identity, he doesn’t need to hold back anymore. It would be nice for both of them to have someone close to their level in battle.
The adrenaline (mostly from the kiss, honestly the fight wasn’t even enough to get their hearts pumping) starts to fade. “We should contact the others.” Anos sighs, but doesn’t move. He places his forehead against Lay’s and they stand there for a moment. Resting in each other’s arms, calm and content… except for the scenery.
Lay stood silently. It was nice, but the longer they stood there, the more his mind wandered to the nobles. He concealed his emotions well, but honestly, just thinking about them bothered him.
Anos broke the silence. “Did you know that your hand twitches when you’re upset or angry?” He could feel every move with Lay’s arms around his waist. It made sense. At the end of the day, Lay is truly a swordsman at heart. And right now he was probably itching to destroy the nobles, despite having already kicked their asses once tonight. They laugh.
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“Well, this is not good.” Anos remarks as he stares into the mirror. He’s back at the palace, the sun is rising, Lay is asleep on his bed. He stands in the bathroom with two mirrors lined up so he could see his back.
He sees strange magical patterned, foreign letters etching into his back, beginning at the base of his neck, trailing all the way to the line of his pants. It seemed to almost wrap around his spine with a red glow.
He recognized the pattern. One he hadn’t seen since the mythical age. Kanon was going to throw a fit.
Special Preview of the Sequel!
Lay and Anos stood in their bedroom in silence. Lay glared at the red markings on Anos’ back and reaches up to trace the foreign letters, almost as if he is hoping that it was just red ink that would smear and be wiped away. It remains. He rubs harder. Lay uses both hands. He gets more frantic.
“Kanon,” Anos breaks the silence. It seems to snap Lay out of his panic. Lay’ hands are shaking, he wraps his arms around Anos and places his forehead on the base of his neck, right were the marking begin.
Anos feels hot tears run down his back. He reaches up and places a hand over Lay’s. He should say something. ‘We will fix this’ or ‘don’t panic yet’ or ‘don’t forget my magical prowess, I can handle this.’
He doesn’t say anything.
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Of course, they all worked hard, but it was only now that the horror and futility of the situation began to settle in.
Lay, on the other hand, was… he has seen exactly what this spell is capable of and takes it far more seriously than the others from the very beginning. He has hardly left the library. The girls bring him food and water. They brought pillows and blankets for them once they realized they wouldn’t even go back to their room to sleep. Had Lay even slept?
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“If these event are connected, then I assume the hit and run tactics was just as distraction to kidnap some demons. They probably wanted to test it out in secret before using it on a large scale battle.” Anos said, looking at Lay questioningly as his friend seemed to deflate. “What’s wrong? Does it not fit?”
“Uhhh, no, no, it fits. This is it, it has to be.”
“But…?”
“I vaguely remember Jerga mentioning a research facility just inside our borders, but I was never told exactly where. And this map doesn’t seem to match up. I don’t see any place nearby that the humans could have set up that would be close enough to kidnap demons and transport them on foot.”
This information was useless without the research facility. Even if they knew where the demons were kidnapped from, there would be nothing left after 2,000 years. They needed to find a place where the humans would have safely stored their information. Hopefully, whatever safeguards they put in place would be enough to preserve some of the information.
There were so close. This could be the only lead they will ever find. If there is more information, then it’s lost in piles and piles of documents, and they don’t have time for that. Damn it.