So, a few things have happened recently; 

Marcel awakened some new magics, the fact that he was disappointing was pointed out even more so, then his grimoire transforms into an orb which also happens to have the demon lord’s voice. He then meets another dangerous individual who wants him now, although he doesn’t know that, the demon lord officially asked for his hand in marriage, Marcel doesn’t know whether to say yes or no and so he gets a forty-year time limit, he thinks he’s won but then he finds out that he’s going to live for like 600 years and feels very cheated.  

It’s been a few days since all that happened and after a few more days of wallowing in regret for his life choices, it’s finally party time. 

Ah yes, the party. Where the biggest news that’s about to fall to the demon realm is going to take place? An event that could possibly change everything that’s going to happen in Marcel’s life. But where’s Marcel? Let’s check that out. 

It’s evening now and it’s time for the big event. Marcel’s currently busy getting ready for the party he doesn’t want to attend, but has to since well, he got tricked into it.  

Claude brought Marcel a black suit to wear for the party, although he initially wanted him to wear a white one, Marcel firmly insisted on not wearing a white suit since he’s extremely irritable and doesn’t want anyone to feel happy either. Claude agrees after a full hour of Marcel adamantly refusing to wear the white suit, gets him a black one instead, did his hair and fixed his face a little before sending him to the venue. 

Claude used a teleportation spell to get them to the location of the party. A flower garden was where they arrived at and Marcel recognized since he’d seen it before from above although never been in it. The place was surrounded by people, talking and laughing. They immediately pause everything that they were doing, staring at Marcel and Claude as they approached the door leading into the ballroom.  

 When they finally entered the and room, Marcel finds that it’s full of people, just like outside and all eyes were on him, like the star of the show has finally arrived, which he is, by the way. 

He hastily walked towards a part of the room where it was less crowded to avoid the attention he was getting, but little did he know that entering a no crowd zone was the same as declaring, “I’m lonely. Someone should come to talk to me.”  

Well, that was a bust, thought Marcel as he got overwhelmed by people in a heartbeat. People started gawking at him, especially the women, saying, “Ah! He’s so cute!” in excitement, then the men blatantly stared at him too with an agreeing expression on their faces. One man goes, “He’d be perfect for my daughter!” then another disagrees by saying, “No, he’d be perfect for my son!” and then it continued. It was utter chaos around him.  

Marcel gets that everyone is happy to see him and all, so even though he’s feeling extremely sour about being tricked, he smiled at them, trying his best not to ruin their moods. After all, just because your world is getting toppled by an unbeatable foe doesn’t mean that you’ve got to make all the other worlds feel the same pain that you do.  

He continued smiling as he listened to the people comment about how good he looked but then he heard one certain comment that put him back in a foul mood. 

“... and that white suit. Just lovely. It fits you quite well.” A man said, complementing his attire, but Marcel was pretty sure that he was currently wearing a black suit, not a white one. It was very confusing to him. 

“Um, what do you mean, sir? I’m pretty sure that I’m wearing a black suit.” He said politely to the man who complimented him just now. 

“Ah, such a polite young man, and no, you’re definitely wearing a white suit. Are you alright, young man?” The man next to the first said with a bit of worry on his face. 

“Yes, it’s white. You walked in here wearing a white suit.” Another woman implied strongly and that’s where Marcel figured that something was wrong. 

Marcel looked at the suit once more and just like they said, the black suit he thought he was wearing, was white. 

Wow, so Marcel realized that he’s been tricked, again and now he’s got a double dose of sourness. He wondered if Claude put an illusion on the suit before giving it to him to trick him. He looked around to see if he’d find Claude and when he took a look at the other side of the room, he sees Claude giving him a wink and he became fully aware that he was wearing a white suit afterward.  

Great, so now he got tricked by both the master and the servant. He’s going to be really angry tomorrow at the two of them, but for today, he isn’t going to make a big deal out of it. No, absolutely not. He’s going to be here and pretend that everything’s just peachy with him and that he’s having a great time, but when tomorrow comes, he’s going to get his revenge.  

And so, Marcel did just as he said he would. He looked like he was happy and having fun and totally not planning his revenge or anything for like two whole hours and everyone else around him looked like they were having a great evening as well. He was pretending so well that he’s having a great time that he managed to convince Claude with his acting. Huh, it looks like the saying that you get smarter just by being around smart people was true. If anything, you could say that he had a particular queen he met just a few days ago to thank for rubbing off her genius acting skills on him. 

So, Marcel continued with his flawless acting until Claude sent him a telepathic message that startled him. Claude said that the demon lord is looking for him and it looked like it was finally time for Marcel to see him. Marcel follows Claude’s to the demon lord whom he hadn’t seen in a while and man was he gorgeous.  

The demon lord wore a bright red robe with a golden outline along with a similar red and gold mantle covered in roses. His silky crimson red hair that carried a faint glow to it flowed freely across the ground like a steady stream of water and his normally pale lips had a bit of color on them. His sheen milky skin was looking perfect as always and honestly if Marcel didn’t know beforehand that he was the demon lord, he’d have thought that he was seeing something out of a fairy tale. Sure, the demon lord was usually brimming with hotness, but what Marcel saw was on a whole different level. It was like the handsome visage of demon lord’s that he was used to seeing was but a farce, his unpolished self and he was currently seeing the true brilliance that was the demon lord’s, the full polished gem. 

Upon seeing the demon lord’s beauty, Marcel forgot all about his anger towards him and walked up to him.  

“Um-um, you-you look really good.” Marcel sounded nervous like he was scared to offend the demon lord in front of him.  

“Thank you. You don’t look bad yourself. You look very good in white.” The demon lord complimented him with a smile on his face and Marcel as if it was second nature, begun blushing upon seeing that smile. Now, he was no longer angry about wearing white anymore, but he was definitely going to get his revenge on Claude later.  

He took a glance at the demon lord oozing off otherworldly beauty from every part of his body and then he felt very inferior to him once again. What was he going to do if he agreed to the demon lord’s proposal, then was always comparing or being compared to the demon lord? Marcel thought. He knows that he isn’t bad himself, but there’s just something about looking at the demon lord at that moment and feeling so inferior and average, although he clearly wasn’t according to everyone currently at that party.  

The demon lord noticed the unhappiness that was building up in his heart and felt like doing something about it and so he grabbed him by the waist and then that happened; 

He kissed Marcel on the lips and made sure that everyone was watching, including a bunch of people he’d already singled out, as if telling them, “This person is mine!” 

Right, that kiss. How would Marcel describe it? Well, he’d definitely say that it was like putting his lips on a soft fluffy cloud with a warm heat that made one feel alive. He felt like all the happiness he’d ever feel was compressed and put into the lips of the one person whom he shouldn’t be doing this with and let’s not forget, the everyone in the ballroom at that moment saw that magnificent once-in-a-lifetime event, including a certain woman who’d finally figured out whom a certain cute individual was talking about a few days ago. 

 “Stop comparing yourself to me. You aren’t me, so stop thinking about things like that and one more thing, I've been working on how to look like this since this afternoon.” He whispered into Marcel’s ear after the kiss was over, Marcel blushed like there was no tomorrow with his head hung low as to not anyone see it his meltdown, then the demon lord talked; 

“I’ve invited you all here today to celebrate the arrival of a new hero. But today isn’t just to celebrate the arrival of a new hero, it’s also to celebrate the arrival of my wife, Marcel!” The demon lord proclaimed and then the whole room went silent for about a minute or two. No one could believe what they were hearing. The man who they’d never seen interested in anything like relationships suddenly kissed someone and not only that, he also proclaimed that said person was his wife. And as if that wasn’t extraordinary enough, the person whom he claimed was his wife is a hero; an existence that they all considered superior, so you wouldn’t honestly expect them to not be dumbfounded everything that happened just now. 

They all applauded after that a minute or two of silence and then they offered them their congratulations. They were all ecstatic because not only did they experience something as once in a lifetime as the demon lord kissing someone in public, they also found out that this person they’d been talking to all night was a hero. Some wished them happiness in the future while other up and declared that they’d found a weakness in the demon lord’s perfect defense, but little did they know about the trouble they’d get themselves into later if they ever tried anything. 

The party continued after the demon lord’s announcement and amidst the crowd approached a pair. What do the approaching pair bring? Is it a happy blessing of goodwill or a curse that’ll send everything crashing before it’s even begun? Let’s wait to find out which.