The girl was instantly frozen by this sentence, turning her head to look at him, meeting his rippling red eyes, smiling yet cold.
“I’ve always been watching you, Nelly, always,” Karl’s words were like they’d been soaked in honey, sweet yet poisonous.
After speaking, he elegantly bowed and left as silently as he arrived.
The door was gently closed.
Nelly stared blankly at the stone door, slowly sitting down on the ground. She looked back at the chains connecting the high seat by the window, then lowered her eyes to the valuable robe she wore, and covered her face.
For the first time, she seriously considered killing Karl herself.
—God, please grant me a book: “How to Gently Kill a Neurotic Demon King”
★ Chapter 18: Glimmer
Having a thought is one thing, putting it into practice is another.
Nelly sat on the ground, pondering, but completely clueless: backstabbing had already been tried, and she lost miserably; with potions, she had no chance against the Demon King who could mix drugs; Karl could fly and teleport, so creating a falling accident would be futile…
Nelly couldn’t bring herself to do it. She always believed that good in human hearts outweighed evil and wanted to believe that even Karl could be transformed. However, she believed that even if she “transformed” the Demon King, she couldn’t go home. She sensed that the price of making him understand would be staying in this world forever. But this wasn’t what she wanted – even the love of an elegant, beautiful, and powerful Demon King couldn’t compare to the importance of her family and friends on Earth.
She had always wondered if the protagonists who were transported to another world would still be able to live in a strange world nonchalantly, even if the chances were slim and the obstacles were numerous and difficult – would they hesitate to abandon their adventure and set foot on the journey home?
For Nelly, the answer was affirmative. From her soul to her body, she felt completely incompatible with this world. Every cell in her body was screaming to leave, to go home.
She ultimately did not belong here.
Nelly rose and walked to the window, looking at the mountain range’s silhouette changing in the sunset, with the snow having receded significantly since her arrival.
She couldn’t help but drift into a daze: she had actually been in Shlos for so long, through spring and summer, and might even have to endure autumn and the harsh winter.
The mere thought made her tremble. Just a fleeting glimpse brought goosebumps to her arm.
The magic potion’s effects were intense. Initially, Naily had no self-awareness at all, could only be manipulated by Kalsas, dutifully playing the docile and cute doll he expected. But soon, during moments of physical weakness, she began to gain momentary consciousness. She felt herself floating outside her body, only able to watch Kalsas kiss her hair night after night, lingering on every inch of her skin, expressing his passion and love in the most direct way.
But perhaps due to Naily’s extraordinarily strong willpower gradually overcoming the potion’s effects, slight sensory perception slowly revived. In this state, maintaining clarity was excruciatingly painful.
This was beyond imaginable humiliation. Like repeated slaps, mocking that her persistence was nothing more than hypocritical moral doctrine.
What followed was even worse. She gradually returned to her body, forced to pretend nothing was amiss.
Even by Naily’s limited experience, Kalsas was an impeccable lover. But more than once, when the beautiful demon king slept beside her, she would secretly open her eyes, looking at him with a strong impulse to tear off his handsome facade and see how rotten and dirty his heart truly was.
He had said he was willing to open his heart for her to see. Even if it was filled entirely with her, she would only feel disgusted.
Disgusted with Kalsas’s presumptuous actions, disgusted with her own powerlessness to resist.
Naily felt she would break down if this continued.
She felt a chill throughout her body, crossed her arms and left the window, sitting back on the bed, watching the sunset reflecting on the bed curtains gradually darken, ultimately transforming into gently swaying shadows.
Night had arrived.
Naily didn’t know when she had fallen asleep by the bedside, but when she awoke, she was already wearing a nightgown and lying in the bedding.
She was startled, quickly turning over. Kalsas was lying on his side and immediately opened his eyes when she moved, meeting her gaze with a flat, emotionless look.
Naily was momentarily speechless, silently lowering her eyes. The young man’s cool fingers wordlessly climbed her shoulder, sliding down her arm’s exterior to her hand, then settling on her hair, gently caressing.
Naily’s face mask of ice suddenly shattered into pieces.
She stared blankly at the other person for a moment, while the Demon King simply turned his back, leaving her with a thin, slender silhouette.
She seemed to have been momentarily possessed, not knowing what she was thinking, acting so boldly.
Now, the logic from that moment of inspiration was impossible to trace. Unable to make sense of it, she decided not to think about it. She turned over, facing the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the moon sink down, descending into the mountain’s shadowy hollows, with only the sky remaining a dark blood-red.
In a daze, Naily had a dream.
She was locked in a golden cage, unable to see anything. Suddenly, a three-goddess altar appeared before her, with a beautiful yet dazzling stained glass window. Her vision became unclear due to the abrupt holy light, more precisely, everything around her blurred, as if hidden behind a black curtain.
Someone kept calling her name, but she felt relieved and had no intention of responding.
At the moment her consciousness thinned to nothingness, Naily woke up, directly facing Kalsas’s red eyes.
Her vision blurred as he pressed her down and their lips met.
This kiss was subtly different from previous ones. Naily couldn’t describe it in words, but she had never before felt so soft, trembling from the inside out, simply from their lips touching.
Kalsas’s eyes curved slightly: “You do like me a bit.”
The dim morning light half-submerged his face in a monotonous darkness, yet couldn’t hide the obvious, childlike joy. This happiness turned into a light blush on his cheeks, adding to the Demon King’s already youthful features.
Naily was speechless. She lowered her eyes, neither denying nor affirming, just staring blankly at the intricate patterns on the Demon King’s robe.
She did indeed like him a bit, no matter how absurd the conclusion or how many reasons she had to hate him. Liking and hating were not incompatible but intertwined emotions that choked her with their complexity.
She understood why she had been so bold earlier: she wanted to completely bid farewell to these unwanted emotions through such an action.
But Kalsas had seen through her intentions and stopped her.
The depth of his understanding of her was beyond imagination, making her feel a chill.
Naily shook her head: “I want to go home.”
The dawn was gloomy. Strands of light seeped into Kalsas’s eyes, giving that touch of red a captivating beauty. His fingers brushed her cheek, his tone soft: “I know. But I won’t let you leave.”
Naily’s lips tightened, glaring at him as she clenched her fist, gritting her teeth and whispering: “Madman.”
He laughed lightly, breathing into her ear: “Naily, it’s you who’s made me crazy.”
“You…” her retort cut off at the first syllable. She bit her lip tightly, her face turning bright red.
Kalsas’s laughter slid down her neck.
