The magic cards I made are absolutely flawless!

Taking a bite of the salty taro that has absorbed the fat from the bacon, the wonderful flavor spreads in your mouth.

To avoid burning her tongue, she blew on it while finishing her main dish.

Then, quite naturally, he reached for the sausage sprinkled with cheese.

While chewing his food, Talomatti would occasionally glance into the kitchen, where he could see pots clattering, frying pans whistling, and ingredients flashing.

Not long after, Atalia served the last dish of vegetable potato cakes and placed them on the table closer to Talomatti.

She then wiped her hands with her apron and sat down opposite her.

"I can only make some simple dishes from the Holy Kingdom; I'm not very good at cooking from the Demon Realm."

Ataliyah said with a hint of helplessness.

Atalia, who had never even tried cooking in the Demon Realm, seemed to never have imagined that one day she would use her human culinary skills, which she had somehow learned, to entertain her fellow humans.

Talomatti continued chewing silently as usual, until he had swallowed all the food in his mouth, before finally answering:

"No, I really like the food from the Holy Kingdom, and I think your dishes are delicious."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"..."

Talomatti and Ataliyah didn't seem to be very talkative demons, so they quickly settled into a quiet routine of eating their own food.

"If other demons see us like this, they'll laugh at us."

Ataliyah didn't eat as quickly as Taromati. After slowly cutting a small piece of taro, she muttered to herself.

"If only the Demon King were like us."

Talomatti answered matter-of-factly.

My brother once said that heresy is always relative.

Talomatti didn't dislike talking to Atalia, and having received such thoughtful hospitality, he felt he should express his gratitude afterwards.

Atalia paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Too."

……

They ignored the two people who weren't at the table.

Because they knew that the two men would talk for a while longer.

Behind them was the study, separated by a glass door.

Dekan sat beside Morpuse in his wheelchair, listening to what he was saying.

"The only thing I can confirm for you is that Ray really wanted to kill Lenn, and Lenn almost died. If it weren't for the Thorn Crown you gave Lenn, Ray might have killed Lenn when he was completely unprepared from the start."

Morpheus seemed to perk up considerably upon seeing Dekan, though his face was sallow, a color that exuded signs of age, and his cloudy eyes had lost all their former sparkle. He still made a concerted effort to converse with Dekan.

“This is what Milia told me. She probably guessed that you would come to me to ask about it... If she and Ludwig hadn’t rushed to the palace and stopped Ray, Ray would have fought Lenn to the last moment, even if he died.”

Morpuse continued.

Although the Holy Kingdom has done its best to suppress the news of Lenn's assassination, the rumors are impossible to keep secret from some powerful figures.

However, only a handful of people truly knew the details of that turmoil at the time.

Milia was one of them, being at the scene.

Currently, as Lunn is recovering from his injuries, the only people who can contact him are Milia, the Dark Saintess of the former Holy Ritual Church and now the Church of the Sun God, and Ludwig, the Light Saintess.

It seems that because of Ray's betrayal, Lenn no longer trusts anyone for the time being. Only the two saintesses who are also blessed by the goddess can he trust at this critical moment.

No other ninth-tier powerhouse, royal noble, or other member of the elite class has the right to meet with Lunn.

So, without Milia and Ludwig mentioning it, people didn't know how well Lenn had recovered from his injuries, or whether he would die.

Whether they are caring, loyal, or have ulterior motives, everyone is extremely concerned about this issue.

"How is Lenn's injury?"

Dekan couldn't hide his concern and asked.

Morpuse gave a wry smile and sighed softly.

“Milia didn’t tell me that she thought the answer to this question was too complicated. After all, there might be some guys hiding behind the scenes who also want to know the answer, but I no longer have the ability to keep this information to myself.”

A few years ago, no one, no matter how powerful or influential, would have dared to lay a hand on Prince Morpes within the Holy Kingdom.

Now, Morpurse's fortune is almost gone, he is nearly half-dead, and his biggest backer, Lenn, is also in an unknown state.

Perhaps if Milia rashly tells Morps this information, it will directly lead to the loss of the overall situation.

“However, Milia told me not to worry. There shouldn’t be any problems. And the specifics of Lenn’s situation will be made public soon.”

Morpuse added.

Until three days ago, the Holy Kingdom announced that Holy Emperor Lunn would personally attend the trial of the great traitor Ray a week later.

This was also Lenn's first public appearance since his assassination.

His exact condition could be ascertained by anyone present in the courtroom, whether friend or foe.

Dekan nodded upon hearing this.

Anyway, his final destination is the Holy City, so he can go there and make his own judgment.

"What exactly is Lei trying to do..."

Dekan finally covered his forehead in pain.

He had initially suspected that Len and Ray might be putting on an act to lure out some enemy.

However, according to Morpurse's intelligence, Ray was willing to risk his life and leave no room for compromise in order to kill Lenn.

Even if they manage to lure the enemy out, they will both be captured, allowing the enemy to reap the benefits.

No matter how much Milia asked Ray, he refused to tell her anything.

Dekan couldn't understand it at all for a while.

There's too much missing information, and the situation spirals out of Dekan's control whenever Ray appears.

Ultimately, Morps noticed the way he glanced at him unintentionally.

It was a pleading look, a look of dependence on teammates.

Dekan's success to date is largely due to his reliable teammates, especially when he is in difficult situations that even he finds hard to handle.

However, Morpheus simply smiled with a complicated expression.

"Delois. If it were ten years earlier, or if I were still healthy, I could have gone to the Holy Capital with you to cause trouble again. But now I have no value to you anymore, and I can't help you."

For a moment, Dekan looked at Morpurse and thought he seemed to have aged a lot.

Or perhaps you've only just realized how old he is.

After all, in the real world, the two shadow worlds are only half a year apart.

Is this dulled sense of time what the demons perceive the world as?

It seems like only a year has passed for Delois, but for the Holy Kingdom, it has been twenty-four years.

Dekan lowered his head.

"Yes, you're no longer useful, so just live out your life like an ordinary person."

He spoke in a tone as indifferent as Doloice's.

This matter is no longer your concern; forget about it.

It's not that you couldn't do your best in the crisis; it's just that even heroes grow old, and nothing can defy the laws of nature.

Dekan murmured to himself.

Morpuse opened his eyes, seemingly somewhat surprised by Dekan's words.

There was a moment of silence between them.

Then Morpheus surprisingly smiled.

He closed his eyes, leaned back comfortably in his chair, and began to speak:

"To be honest, the thing I least expected in my life is being able to have such a peaceful conversation with you. I was planning to screw you over the first time I met you..."

"Of course, it's possible that during our feigned collaboration, we both felt a bit interested in each other, so we each compromised, and in the end, it didn't escalate into a life-or-death struggle; it was a peaceful parting of ways..."

Morpheus murmured to himself as if reminiscing about the past.

Meanwhile, Dekan listened silently as Morpes recounted his story with Delois.

"When I saw you again in the Demon Realm prison, you had changed. And when we met again in the northern border territory of Kran, you seemed to have become a real human. Perhaps it was just a plain reunion after a long separation, but those were the two moments that moved me the most so far... So you don't need to pretend to be a demon king anymore, just be a human, that's the real you."

Morpuse smiled and then looked at Dekan again after he finished speaking.

"I do not have."

Dekan blurted it out unconsciously.

He seems to have unknowingly developed some kind of habit that he can't break.

However, Morpuse had no intention of continuing the argument with Decan.

He simply stated firmly:

"You used to pretend to be human, now you pretend to be a demon."

"My acting skills haven't declined at all."

"But now your acting skills can't capture the feeling of the Demon King at all."

After he finished speaking, there was another moment of silence.

Morpes knew that Deloitte simply didn't want to squeeze every last drop of value out of him, his insignificant, flickering life, by risking taking him to the Holy City.

And so, it seemed that Dekan had silently admitted something.

After a long silence, he finally spoke again and asked: