"Annex building?", Hearing that term, Fern couldn't help but show some curiosity. She even set aside the doubts about the matter she hadn't planned to discuss for now, and asked with a hint of barely hidden anticipation, "Isn't that for receiving distinguished guests? Can we go there too?"
"Of course," Ash nodded lightly with a smile, then waved his hand to summon two maids, "Take them to the annex building. Treat them according to the standards for foreign envoys."
"Understood, Lord Ash."
The two maids had no questions and quickly stepped forward to lead the two away.
Frieren was still thinking about something. Fern, on the other hand, kept turning back to look at him, wanting to call him along. But he only brushed it off, saying he had something to deal with first, and told her to have fun at the annex.
———
Inside the royal palace—
Not very tall, yet with an impressive bust, and an unexpectedly good-looking face. A pink-haired girl who carried a bit of a queen-like air while also giving off a delinquent vibe, Aura, was lying lazily on a rocking chair, staring at the ceiling and swaying it now and then out of sheer boredom.
Even though she was in Ash's study, judging from that posture… she was basically no different from a useless slacker.
Ash took one look and immediately wanted to leave the room, to avoid getting entangled by this person who practically had the word "bored" written all over her face.
But thinking about the issues he had to face next, he still rubbed his throbbing temples. While wondering why his younger sister turned out like this, he put on a smile and walked forward.
"Aura, aren't you going to get up and see who's here?"
"That voice… Ash?"
"That's right, your dear older brother has come back to see you!"
"Stop flattering yourself, bastard," Aura finally moved and sat up, but her gaze was full of dissatisfaction, "You still remember to come back?"
"There was a war, wasn't there?"
"Heh, a war? So what? It's just a war. Even if it drags on for a few days or even months, it's whatever, right? And that Linie actually ran off with you too. Really taking someone else's side. I was the one who picked her up back then, and now she's running over to you!"
Usually she wasn't that willing, but after being used to it by Ash, celebrating a birthday together and arguing a bit, it at least made things less boring. But after spending a birthday that felt like going back to the days when Ash wasn't around, Aura directly started throwing a tantrum.
Especially the fact that the child she raised sided more with someone else made the dissatisfaction in her heart keep rising. She crossed her arms and stared up at him, clearly giving off the feeling that if she didn't get a reasonable explanation, this wouldn't end.
Seeing this, Ash understood that when Linie went to the magic city, Aura must have already been sulking. Otherwise Linie wouldn't have said that if Aura didn't show up on her birthday, things would become "even" more troublesome.
'Why does a demon have such big emotional swings? I'm definitely partly responsible, but… why didn't it develop in a good direction? Why not learn some of my strengths?', Looking at the girl in front of him, staring up at him with a face full of complaints, Ash felt a headache. He reached out and patted Aura's head.
"There, there~ I actually brought you a gift."
"A gift? What is it?", Though Aura slapped his hand away in annoyance, she still showed some interest in the gift he mentioned.
"Here, what do you think of this?"
He didn't keep her in suspense. He directly took out the combat golem he had obtained from Lernen before leaving the magic city, after visiting Serie.
He had no use for it himself, but for Aura it could be something to play with. Inside the small bottle was a miniature combat golem, essentially the crystallization of a lifetime of techniques from Lernen, one of humanity's top mages.
Given Lernen's age, already halfway into the grave, there was probably no hope of further improvement. So calling it the greatest masterpiece among contemporary human mages wouldn't be an exaggeration. For a mage, it was quite a useful item.
After all, throw it out, and a giant warrior with decent combat power would appear instantly. If you had money, you could even get several and throw them all at once, but, Aura casually took the bottle, gave it a shake in front of her, and immediately showed a look of disgust.
"Did you forget what my magic is? I can have as many warriors as I want. What would I do with something like this?"
"But at critical moments, if there's no one around to protect you, you can just throw it out to stall for a bit, right?"
"That… makes sense?", After a second thought, she casually put it away. Seeing this, Ash smiled and stretched out his hand toward her, "So, what are you going to give me in return?"
"What are you talking about? Are you even a man?"
"Uh… what do you mean?"
"I've heard that not returning a gift is a woman's privilege," Aura tilted her mouth smugly, showing a rather arrogant smile, "Especially if it's a younger sister, the position is even more different. You should dote on me, spoil me, love me, and then obey me unconditionally."
"What you're describing is a slave, isn't it?"
"That's right! An older brother is born to be ruled by his younger sister! Stop resisting your fate and hurry up and kneel down to lick my feet!"
"..."
'Has it been too long since I beat her up, and now she's getting restless again? What should I do? If I hit her now, will she keep sulking? Cause trouble for me later?', Ash turned his back, squatted down, and covered his head, trying hard to think of a peaceful way to deal with this troublemaker who gets out of hand if not disciplined for three days.
But he had just squatted down when Aura sat right on his shoulders, smiling as she reached out to pat his head.
"What's wrong? Are you ready already?"
"Anyway, why don't you tell me first, who exactly told you this kind of nonsense?"
"I saw people in the royal capital square paying for women before, insisting on not letting them pay. And there were older brothers who would agree to anything their younger sisters asked. Then I just flexibly interpreted it myself."
"So you just twisted already questionable statements however you wanted, right?"
He silently stood up, causing Aura, who refused to get down, to rise along with him.
Not only did she refuse to get down, she even looked quite excited, nodding nonstop while sitting on his shoulders, "This is nice! This is fun! Want to go out for a walk?"
"Are you my daughter?"
"Daughter? Speaking of which," Aura tapped his head twice, showing a thoughtful expression, "Earlier at the square, I saw a lot of daughters and sons sitting on their fathers' shoulders. So in human family relationships, children are in a higher position?"
"I know, you're trying to say you're in the higher position, right?"
"That's right~ Can I change positions and sit properly on both your shoulders? Can I? I want to try!"
"Sigh!"
'I really want to hit her. Should I hold back a bit longer, or just do it now?', Feeling the softness and weight on his shoulders, Ash covered his face and let out a long sigh, once again falling into the dilemma of whether to hit her or not.
———
Having just returned to the royal capital, Ash had already lost count of how many times he had sighed.
But he still held himself back, deciding that at least before Frieren and Fern left, he wouldn't "discipline" this annoying brat.
After his return, Aura seemed oddly energetic, completely different from her earlier lazy, useless self.
Of course, with Aura's lazy personality, this state wouldn't last long. Once Ash stayed around for a while, she would revert to that useless state again.
Now that she heard the child Ash had "raised for a while" had also arrived, Aura was quite excited and wanted to take a look.
Although he didn't allow them to meet, Aura still happily ran to the outer walls of the palace. Through a one-way observation barrier and a long-distance magic tool, she began watching the purple-haired girl who was marveling at and fiddling with various decorations in the guest room.
"Not short, big hips, big chest too. Just looks a bit dumb. But is this the so-called easy-to-bear-children body? Though if you used her yourself, she'd probably break in no time, right?"
"Since when did you learn to talk like that?", Ash turned his head in disbelief toward the pink-haired girl leaning over the railing and smacked her on the head.
"Last time, among the spies sent to a neighboring country, there was a baron, the one who knelt and begged you to spare him when he first met you. With our help, he's now a count. He wanted to send you a well-trained human woman."
Aura brushed off his hand and continued as if talking about something interesting, "That woman kept crying, saying that being a demon warrior's lover would definitely break her. I specifically asked, and while crying she said her body wouldn't be able to take it, couldn't withstand that kind of strength? Since human bodies aren't as strong as magic-type demons, right? And even without using magic, a demon's relaxed strength is much greater than a human male's?"
"Compared to that weird stuff, why haven't I ever seen that woman?"
"Because she refused to come no matter what, so that count killed her."
"I see."
After all, to maintain secrecy, refusal meant death. And to nobles, the lives of commoners weren't really lives.
So Ash didn't say anything, only shook his head slightly in displeasure. Not sure whether to comment on that, he turned back to Aura with a serious expression.
"I didn't raise Fern with that kind of intention."
"Then you don't eat people, so why raise her? It's not like human traditions where she'll take care of you in old age, right? She'll die in the blink of an eye. Or is she a toy? But such a fragile toy would break with a little handling. Even as a pet, her lifespan is too short. You might as well raise a monster."
"For a moment, I don't even know how to communicate with someone whose mouth is full of this kind of talk. Let me have a moment of peace."
He covered his face, trying hard to think of how to deal with her.
"What's the big deal? If you have any troubles, just tell me, Ash~ I've read quite a few books about humans recently. I can basically solve any human problem."
"And this is what you learned?", Aura's oddly proud declaration made him glance sideways at her, "You'd have been better off not learning anything. You were already useless, now you're completely hopeless."
"What are you even saying? You've been strange all along. Aren't you just judging everything from a human perspective now?", Aura looked completely justified, even finding him troublesome instead.
"Humans don't just think with their lower half, okay? And anyway…"
After becoming a demon, he felt that in terms of emotions, many aspects had been suppressed. It wasn't that he had no interest at all. After all, demons also had reproductive needs, and he liked beautiful women. It was just… the people around him weren't suitable targets.
Even Linie, who had once kissed him, was Aura's adopted daughter whom he had raised since childhood. That made things feel complicated.
Also, no one knew how long demons lived. Because of that, while their desires were somewhat stronger than elves, they still weren't that strong. Otherwise, if demons reproduced more, they would have already conquered the world.
Low fertility was another factor, aside from low desire, that prevented their numbers from exploding.
"No, no… this topic is getting weird," Halfway through, he couldn't help but shake his head repeatedly.
After all, he didn't understand why, after what wasn't even a long separation, he was discussing reproduction with Aura. No matter how you looked at it, that was strange.
"What now?"
"Speaking of which, Aura, I'm suddenly curious. What are the titles of the books you've been reading?"
"'The Secrets the Pope and Monk Must Tell,' 'The Possibility of Dragon-Human Breeding,' 'Decoding the Pure Love Classics of Duke Lorenzo and His Children,' 'On the Limits of Humans,' 'The Legendary Noble,' 'The Thirty-Nine Love Affairs of Count Louis,' 'The Wife of the Prince Loved Most by the Unified Emperor,' and…"
Aura counted them on her fingers as she listed them. Before she could finish, he suddenly grabbed her horns and started shaking her hard, as if trying to shake the knowledge out of her head. His face turned pale as he barked, "Where on earth did you get those books?"
"F-from the former king's private library? And stop grabbing my horns!", Dizzy from being shaken, Aura complained innocently,."You keep saying it every day, and you keep grabbing my horns. You have no manners at all!"
"What manners do you need? What kind of garbage have you been reading, you idiot?"
"Garbage? Those were the former king's treasured collection. He never let anyone else see them!"
"You mean the first king when we arrived, right?"
"What's the problem? Wasn't he a standard noble?", Aura only felt his reaction was inexplicable.
But he almost couldn't hold himself back from knocking her out.
"Exactly! That's why he spent every day chasing women, and even men, thinking only with his lower half, a pure pervert. What do you think you could learn from his books?"
"Humans really are fascinating. It was only after reading those books that I realized… they really have a lot of ways to play."
Aura didn't take his lecture seriously at all. Instead, she nodded as if she had gained insight.
"I'm going to burn those books later. And you, forget everything in them. That's definitely not something normal people should read."
"But I'm not a normal person?", Aura spread her hands innocently, making his eye twitch as he blurted out, "That's true… you're just a stupid demon."
At this point, Ash had completely lost the will to seriously deal with her. He just kept grabbing her horns and shaking her, letting out yet another sigh. He didn't even know how many times he had sighed today.
———
After scolding Aura for a while, and instructing Fern and the others not to speak, not to move around, and preferably not to appear when meeting the king, Ash finally headed to the annex.
But before he even entered, the two had already come out.
"I still think I should meet that king immediately," Frieren, walking in front, said seriously, "Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep peacefully here."
As for Frieren's concerns, Ash could understand them.
After all, under Flamme's teachings, she had basically been made to firmly believe that demons must have ill intentions.
At the same time, she regarded demons as thinking beasts that possessed no emotions at all.
But that was completely wrong from the very beginning. Setting aside himself and Aura, who had been raised by him, as exceptions, every demon possessed pride, confidence, and trust in their own magic.
And this was widely known. Even Flamme constantly emphasized that this could be used against demons.
But putting everything else aside, the very existence of pride is itself an emotion. So fundamentally, that belief was already flawed.
As for being unable to communicate, among demons not influenced by Ash, there were still friendships. For example, the Sage of Corruption Qual and the Golden Land's Macht had been friends long ago. But when it came to humans… normal demons had never truly engaged in normal conversations with them.
Rarely, there were also unexpected, peculiar friendships, like Macht and Gluck.
Flamme's insistence that demons had no emotions and couldn't communicate was, besides making it easier to kill demons decisively, also a way to protect her own heart. After all, killing beasts and killing humanoid beings felt completely different.
Under Flamme's teachings, demons were extremely harmful, which naturally made Frieren harbor strong hostility toward them. There was no way she could feel at ease staying in a royal capital that seemed to house quite a few demons.
This situation made Ash feel a bit regretful, but he could only shake his head helplessly. Then he turned to the maid guarding the annex.
"Go inform the king. Say that there are important foreign guests who need to be received."
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