So she was cosplaying as Gray’s Loli Mama when her direct superior suddenly paid a home visit?
It felt like the despair and awkwardness of a forensic pathologist who receives the corpse of a steroid-abusing androgyne only to find it has your brother’s face — that was exactly how she felt now.
Looking at the purple figure at the door with an ambiguous smile, Katy felt like her soul was floating out of her mouth.
Panicking, she quickly waved her hands.
“Your Majesty, please listen to my explanation!”
“You have to believe me! I absolutely, absolutely cannot possibly like this small fry human! Putting on a show of taking good care of him, even letting him sleep on my lap — it’s all part of the plan! A strategy to lower his guard!”
“Please rest assured, my loyalty to the Demon Race is as clear as day. Everything is under my control. I have my own pace!”
“Ah la~”
The purple eyes behind the Demon King’s veil curved into beautiful crescents.
She raised a long, fair finger and gently pressed it to her lips.
“We haven’t said anything yet, Minister Noctiluca. If you’re so eager to launch into a long-winded argument, be careful not to wake the beloved toy in your arms.”
Katy sucked in a sharp breath and quickly lowered her head.
Sure enough, Gray in his sleep seemed to have been disturbed by her earlier commotion.
His eyelids twitched slightly, as if he was about to wake up.
‘Bro, don’t wake up now. If you do, I’ll really die of shame!’
Katy was sweating profusely, her hands turning into blurs in the air as she frantically cast spells over Gray’s head.
“Sleep Well spell,” “Have Good Dreams spell,” and then set up two perception-blocking magic arrays beside his head.
A series of spells like stacking mille-feuille crashed onto Gray’s head, completely cutting off his connection to the outside world.
After doing all that, Katy let out a long sigh, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, coughed twice, and tried to regain her dignity as a Calamity Pillar.
“Ahem, please excuse my rudeness, Your Majesty.”
Although a man was still lying on her legs, Noctiluca sat up straight, her expression barely regaining seriousness.
“Your Majesty’s personal visit this time should not be just to tease your subordinate, right?”
The Demon King nodded noncommittally, walked to the armchair by the sofa, and sat down gracefully, crossing her long legs.
“Report your progress, Noctiluca.”
“Yes.”
Katy took a deep breath, reached out her small hand, gently lifted Gray’s right arm, and showed the dark red mark on the back of his hand to the Demon King.
“Your Majesty, as you can see. After the Third Calamity Pillar, Mammon—uh—was killed by Gray, not only did he not suffer from the Demon Element Curse, but it seems he was chosen and acquired Mammon’s Authority.”
She hesitated and didn’t mention that she had actually manipulated Gray into killing Mammon.
Although Her Majesty probably knew that, confessing to killing a fellow demon in front of her still felt strange.
“Although his current power hasn’t reached the level of Mammon’s true body, the Vault of the Void, which could mimic Divine Weapons, this ability to freely change conventional weapons has been inherited almost unchanged.”
Katy looked up and asked tentatively, “Is this the ‘Opportunity for Demon Revival’ you mentioned before?”
The Demon King did not speak.
She quietly looked at the cautious blonde girl and the black-haired youth sleeping soundly in her arms, a mysterious smile curling at the corners of her lips.
She didn’t directly answer Katy’s question, but lightly threw back a fatal choice.
“Minister Noctiluca, if I were to tell you now—this Righteous One can indeed absorb the authorities of Great Demons, but he is not our ally.”
The Demon King’s voice was quiet, but it felt like an explosion in Katy’s ear.
“The true key to our race’s revival is to take advantage of the fact that his wings are not yet full, and utterly kill him here and now?”
Katy’s pupils contracted sharply.
She swallowed hard.
The air in the room seemed to freeze in that instant.
She stared intently at the curve of the woman’s eyes, utterly unable to tell whether the Demon King was joking or issuing an irreversible execution order.
After all, based on Katy’s understanding of this supreme ruler, she was the kind of terrifying existence who could smile while uprooting an entire rebellious clan!
In past Calamity Pillar meetings, Katy had witnessed with her own eyes: a certain unlucky Great Demon had unknowingly offended Her Majesty with some words, and before even a scream could escape, in the blink of an eye, his body was blasted apart, with his head and limbs scattered like rags beneath the throne.
‘Logically, as the 13th Calamity Pillar, as a direct subordinate of the Demon King, at this moment she should unconditionally support the Demon Lord’s choice, like the fanatics of the Kingdom of Light obeying the sun—unconditionally carry out the Demon King’s order, and directly snap the neck of the man on her legs. Do it, Noctiluca! Just a quick twist, and this foolish small fry hero will die Your undercover mission will be over. Then whether you return to being a Calamity Pillar or retire, it’s your freedom!’
The demonic rationality screamed in her mind, but listening to the steady, warm breathing of the guy in her arms, feeling his body heat through the fabric, Katy only felt her throat go dry.
She opened her mouth, but found she couldn’t utter a single word.
She couldn’t even move a finger to hurt him, as if the soul hiding in this body was resisting betraying Gray here with an unprecedented intensity.
“Hmm? What’s wrong, Minister Noctiluca?”
Seeing the girl’s lack of action, the Demon King slowly stood up and took a step forward.
As that step fell, the warm and cozy air in the small room instantly dropped to freezing point.
Katy felt her vision blur, as if she had been teleported by Spatial Magic to the endless ice fields of the far north.
The bone-chilling cold accompanied by substantive, suffocatingly terrifying killing intent came crashing down like an avalanche.
As the woman drew closer, Katy could even clearly see her own stiff reflection in those bright purple slit pupils.
“As my most valued subordinate, at a time like this, you choose to be silent?”
The Demon King’s voice lost its warmth.
Katy even felt that the next second she would say ‘A corpse is talking.’
‘Say something! Hurry!’
The girl felt her facial muscles twitching wildly.
Her brain, driven by survival instinct, overclocked and ran at full speed, sparks flying.
The simplest and safest answer was clearly right at the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn’t say it.
At that moment, cold and slender fingers gently pinched Katy’s chin.
The Demon King’s fingertips slowly traced along the girl’s elegant jawline, as gently as caressing a precious work of art, but Katy knew that this woman could crush her head into pieces in an instant if she wanted to.
The woman didn’t utter the word ‘traitor’, but the terrifying atmosphere that would make an ordinary demon die of fright on the spot was already all too obvious.
At the same time, Gray, lying on Katy’s lap, seemed to sense something.
Although several layers of perception-blocking spells were stacked on him, the Hero instinct engraved in his bones still allowed him to perceive this undisguised killing intent.
The youth in his dream frowned deeply, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
His right hand instinctively clenched loosely, as if trying to draw a weapon.
Looking at the Demon King’s deep purple eyes and feeling the fatal touch on her chin, Katy’s crazy brain finally clicked and broke through its limits.
She didn’t even know which strange channel her neural circuits had connected to, but her mouth had already opened uncontrollably.
“If… if we must kill Gray here…”
The girl took a deep breath and said loudly with a tone of death-defying determination, “Then I, as your subordinate, first mourn for Your Majesty, and second, congratulate Your Majesty!”
The Demon King’s hand paused slightly.
Behind the veil, a flash of surprise passed through her purple eyes, which was then replaced by deep interest.
“Oh? Are you so scared that you’ve started talking nonsense, Minister Noctiluca?”
Katy gritted her teeth, deciding to trust her survival instincts.
“It’s not nonsense. In misfortune lies fortune, in fortune lies misfortune. Fortune and misfortune depend on each other. The great cause of the Demon Race can be expected, Your Majesty!”
“Oh? I can see the misfortune. But what is the fortune?”
Faced with the Demon King’s question, the girl swallowed her saliva and started making up a story at full speed.
“Killing Gray might bring temporary satisfaction and solve a potential threat, but it is actually a great misfortune.”
“First, the current situation is extremely tense.
Just a few hours ago, that big-breasted, brainless newborn Demon of Greed ran over Knox City to show off his power, and was finally driven back by the Church.
“Now, the various human forces—especially the Military Department and the Church—their nerves are definitely stretched to the limit, in a state of stress that could trigger a hissing response at any moment.”
“If at this time, Gray—a former member of the Dawn Blade and a Hero who just conquered the Third Labyrinth—suddenly dies in the city, it would be no different from the Demon Race unilaterally tearing up the treaty and declaring all-out war on humanity again.”
At this point, Katy’s tone turned solemn.
“And from what I know, our Demon Race’s various legions and Calamity Pillars are clearly not prepared for a full-scale war.”
The Demon King nodded slightly, not interrupting her.
Seeing that her top boss seemed to be listening, the girl’s spirits lifted, and she continued her bluffs.
“And as for the ‘fortune’, it lies in not killing him. Keeping this special existence who ‘killed Mammon and absorbed his Authority’ is simply the best catfish for our Demon Race!”
“Catfish?”
The Demon King raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised by the metaphor.
“It means a disruptor!”
Katy gestured excitedly as she explained.
“Your Majesty, think about it. Those Great Demon colleagues of mine, relying on the existence of Soul Box Crystals, are almost unkillable. They slack off and sleep in the Labyrinth every day, neglecting battle preparations. They are truly incompetent.”
“If they know that a terrifying existence has appeared among humans—one that can truly kill Calamity Pillars and even seize their Authorities—it will definitely stir their sense of crisis.”
“In this way, without Your Majesty having to worry, the overall military power of the Demon Race will be greatly enhanced in a short time!”
Katy talked until her mouth was dry, and finally she didn’t forget to pat her chest and promise.
“As for Gray himself, Your Majesty, please rest assured! With me personally lurking by his side, using the gentle bed to corrode his will, to grasp his weaknesses, sooner or later, he will definitely become the sharpest sword in our Demon Race’s hand!”
After saying all this, Katy nervously pursed her lips, worried that her improvised argument would definitely get her scolded harshly by Her Majesty.
However, one second passed.
Two seconds passed.
The expected attack didn’t come.
Instead, the Demon King gently clapped her hands.
“Brilliant argument, Minister Noctiluca. No wonder you are the one I’ve set my sights on.”
She nodded in satisfaction, her eyes behind the veil curving into crescent moons.
And the cold killing intent that seemed to freeze souls in the living room receded like a tide, disappearing without a trace.
The air became warm and comfortable again, as if the hellish atmosphere just now was just an illusion.
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