Chapter 661: The Voice of Reason and Encouragement
The scent of medical herbs filled his nose as Asmodeus shifted in the large medical bed. He winced the moment he turned over, then slowly opened his eyes. “Ugh…” Asmodeus struggled to sit up, the thin white sheet dropping to the floor as he looked around with a dazed expression. “What happened?”
“A-Ah… Your Majesty?”
A cute beast girl held a small chart while wearing a fur nurse outfit.
‘She looks familiar…’
He looked her up and down before remembering what happened in the first month of his being here. “Saki, is that you?”
Saki was one of the many slaves and beastkin that he and Yumiko saved in the past. After they helped free her, they started helping other slaves and built a small school for them to learn. Now, many of them lived in the palace and learned professions from the brightest on the continent.
‘Though many chose to become doctors and nurses to help others…’
“Mmm… I have to take some of your blood and make you take some medicine, your majesty. The imperial knights have already checked everything…”
He leaned back with a smile, enjoying Saki’s growth, once a short girl chained to a sales booth. Not only was she taller than a few of his human wives, but her muscles also showed beneath her outfit, and from what he heard, she began dating a friend of his.
“Here, don’t worry.”
“Ah…”
With a nervous smile, she took his arm, but the size of his body had changed greatly after using his Abyssal sovereign form. Now he was closer to seven feet tall than six, and his body matched that with his muscles growing thicker and broader, arms longer.
However, compared to Saki, he was like a small giant.
“Don’t be nervous, we’ve known each other for years, you’re like a little sister to me, so stop worrying. Even if you make a mistake, haha.”
“Nn… thank you.”
She focused on the huge needle made with a giant hornet’s stinger. It slipped into his forearm before a thick amount of his almost black blood flowed back into the syringe.
“Wow, it’s so strange, like jelly.”
“Is that bad?” Asmodeus didn’t know if it was bad, but his blood definitely became thicker from the moment he activated that form.
“N-No, it’s just the doctor will need to analyse it, and her Majesty Alice will handle any research or issues.”
“Good.”
He didn’t care further, since Saki reported to Alice that he could rest easy. Then he remembered Ryo, the chef who once entered dungeons with him. “I heard that Alan set you up with a handsome boy.”
“Ah!?”
Saki’s hand, wiping his body with a warm cloth, shook as she looked up at him with teary eyes. “Mm~ at first he was a little boring, but after we started training together, he looks much better!”
“I see, so it was you who helped him recover?”
‘Good girl…’
Alan once contacted Asmodeus and apologised because he didn’t know that Akari was involved with Ryo at the start. He just got drunk one night, and they ended up getting along far better than he imagined.
‘Well, that’s why I love Alan, if he does something wrong, he tries to make it right.’
Because of this, making life harder for Ryo, Alan tried his best to support him, setting up meetings with nobles from Grigor, including Saki and helped him train his cooking to close to max level, and eventually he became a chef endorsed by the royal family itself.
‘To think Ryo is now a Count with three wives, not including Saki.’
“Ah… my husband is a cute man. We all did our best to help him overcome the past, hehe. He also made a meal plan, so I wonder if you could look it over, your majesty?”
‘A meal plan?’
Asmodeus took the list from the nervous wife. At first, he looked over it just to put her at ease, but the meals and plan he designed were something that shocked the young emperor.
‘Meals that help boost your muscles, and improve strength… all of them contain high-level monster meat…’
The menu clearly contained exactly what Asmodeus wanted right now… He closed his eyes and thought to himself for a moment.
‘How much has Ryo changed?’
“Can I meet your husband when he’s free?” Asmodeus respected people with high-level skills and the ability to use them well.
“O-Of course, your majesty!”
“Saki, you can just call me brother or Ryuji when we’re alone… don’t be so shy, without meeting you on that day. I would never have realised what I really am. I also regret suddenly vanishing for a long time after killing those knights.”
Because of his actions, they locked him up, so the burden fell on Yumiko to help Saki at first… Maybe she felt abandoned, and he couldn’t blame her at all.
Saki’s ears twitched slightly, and her eyes softened at his words. “You don’t need to apologise, Brother. You gave me a new life… a real one. That day you saved me and the others… it was the first time I ever felt like a person.”
“I’m not that great, I was just playing hero to ease my conscience.”
Her smile was bright but trembled slightly at the edges, as if she were holding back tears. She squeezed the cloth between her hands before continuing to wipe the blood and dried sweat from his chest. “Even if you vanished for a while, I always believed you’d come back. Everyone did.”
Saki didn’t let him speak again.
“Please don’t speak badly of yourself, look at the city… if not for you getting into this state. We would have all died. Every single person that saw what happened three days ago understood what you faced was beyond normal.”
Asmodeus let out a breath and leaned back against the bed frame, his muscles still aching under the weight of their own growth and stress. “Everyone…” he repeated quietly, his golden eyes drifting toward the large window at the far side of the infirmary. “But how many people did I fail to protect…?”
“Shut up!”
“Huh?”
It was shocking for her to scold him, her little tail puffed up, and her ‘fearsome’ look was just too cute.
“Failed to protect? Do you know how many people, you saved!? There might have been several hundred losses, but the thousands of people from ALL kingdoms were saved by you, we ALL saw what you endured from the safety of the castle, while you alone fought those fearsome monsters!”
Saki’s voice echoed in the private hospital room, but her intent and feelings lingered in his mind for several moments. Her voice wavered, but her words struck deeper than any blow from the Arbiter. “You stood alone against the will of the heavens, Brother… and you won! No matter what anyone says, they left first while you stood alone, tall and proud! Our Emperor!” Saki’s ears drooped slightly as her voice softened. “None of us could have done what you did. Not Serena, not Lumina, not even the gods we pray to.”
She looked deep into his eyes.
“You answered our prayers, not them.”
Asmodeus stared silently at her, her words echoing louder in his heart… and her words, belief and emotions resonated in his chest. He could feel his power grow slightly from her words.
A strange feeling, a tingle… but he could feel it.
‘Is this what being a God King means? My power comes from the belief my people hold in me?’
“I just…” He clenched his fists beneath the blanket, the muscles in his arms trembling. “I just wish it didn’t cost so much.”
“It’s because of the cost that people understand what you did.” Saki’s small hand rested on his forearm, dwarfed by his massive build but somehow steady and strong. “The children are alive. The families are alive. The nation still stands. That’s what you bought with your pain…. If you have regrets now, then next time they come, defeat them without getting hurt, without suffering damage!”
A silence followed as Saki blushed and trembled like a scared rabbit. Yet in the distance he could hear voices… the voices of the demon knights, orcs and even the goblins performing their daily training.
Asmodeus finally sighed and looked away from her earnest gaze, his golden eyes settling on the world beyond the window.
The capital stretched out below him, or what was left of it.
But that’s not what brought light to his eyes…
It was no longer the majestic crown of the demon empire. Vast sections still smoked and smouldered. Entire districts were gone, erased as if swallowed by the sky. The once-proud imperial banners were now just scorched threads clinging to broken towers. Streets had become rivers of rubble, and yet… amid the ruin, life moved.
Lines of civilians worked together to rebuild, their eyes carrying exhaustion but also hope. Demons and elves, beastkin and humans united by survival, no longer just by treaty.
His people, his knights and even his wives all helped… they carried broken stone, glass and other parts of ruin using magic, tools and various methods. Whether from the Demon Empire, Grigor or the elven and beast empires.
‘I didn’t fail?’
Saki followed his gaze and smiled softly. “Do you see? Even after that devastation, they haven’t given up. Because they believe in you. That you’ll stand for them again and again… no matter how much you suffer.”
Asmodeus leaned back and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. The scent of herbs, blood, and ash mixed as he covered his face. A strange emotion, vulnerability and regret… as he almost let tears slip from his eyes.
“To think it would be Saki that comforted me… hahahahaha….”
The frustration of losing.
“…I still hate losing,” he said finally.
He couldn’t stand it.
Saki giggled and shook her head. “Then next time, don’t lose.”
“Next time,” he echoed, a slow grin curling across his lips. “You’re right…! There will be a next time.”
The golden glow in his eyes sharpened, no longer clouded by exhaustion or despair but by a burning, defiant light. “If those bastards want to fight, I’ll fight. If they want war, I’ll wage war…. ready for them. Please go ahead with Ryo’s meal plan and tell him I want him as my personal chef if he’s available.”
Saki stepped back with a small bow, hiding the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. “Then I’ll make sure to prepare the best meal plan Ryo and I can think of.”
“Haha…” Asmodeus chuckled, his gaze never leaving the scarred horizon beyond the window. “Good. I’ll need every bit of strength I can get.”
He gazed at the sky where the two Arbiters vanished, and his lingering feeling that the female Arbiter might have been stronger… kept his heart cold, and his desire to become stronger started to surpass his other desires.
“I won’t lose again. Ein.”