Marcel has been quite busy these past few months ever since he got those materials from Claude. He’s been training, training, training, and he’s shown no sign of stopping. He’s getting more powerful by the day, but although the progress is considered impressive by human standards, he’s still very slow by demon standards. He’s been training diligently because of something that’s going to take place some and he’s very excited about it. That’s right. Marcel was told a yesterday that he’d soon be going to a dungeon, and with this being the first time he’s heard of one since coming to the demon realm, he’s been ecstatic ever since. 

Okay, okay. Enough about Marcel. So, what’s the demon lord being up to these past few months? Well, the answer isn’t very pleasant. Guilt. He’s been feeling guilty because of a particular something that he was going to have to do soon and the thought doing such an action isn’t very good. It’s something that we’ve talked about earlier and like all things, it’s about Marcel. He doesn’t have much time left, so he has to do it soon. He decided that today was the day he was going to tell Marcel about it, but then his courage wavered and two whole days passed. 

After two whole days had passed, the demon lord finally decided to tell Marcel everything. He invited Marcel to his room first, locked it with magic, and then made Marcel take a seat, then began. 

“Marcel... there’s something I’d like to talk to you about. It’s very important.” He looked serious, unlike the normal nonchalant and joking expression that he carried around Marcel. Marcel’s attention was fully drawn to him when he saw the demon lord’s expression. 

“Um, what is it?” He felt extremely nervous. The demon lord’s serious expression was something he’d only seen twice; the first when the demon lord told him that he was his wife and the second on the day he proposed to him. The expression made him think that he was about to be scolded for doing something wrong, but what came out of the demon lord’s mouth was totally different and shocking. 

“You see... there’s been something happening around you recently, putting your life in danger. If nothing is done about it, your life will be ruled by the fact that you’re my wife. I consulted a friend of mine who said they’d help and the solution my friend came up with was to change your appearance, permanently. I’m very sorry, but this is the only you can go out---” He was interrupted by a big “I’ll do it!” from Marcel. 

“Wait, what?!” The demon lord almost screamed, surprised at what Marcel had said. He was expecting something different, something like Marcel blaming him or saying that he hated him for it, but what he heard was the answer he was most unprepared for. This answer intensified that feeling of guilt deep inside him. 

The demon lord carried this complicated expression on his face that seemed like he wanted to ask why Marcel said what he did and Marcel didn’t leave him wondering. When the demon lord’s expression went back to normal, Marcel gave him an explanation. 

“You may not believe me when I say this, but I prepared myself for something like this happening when I came to the demon realm. I was even prepared to potentially become a monster and abandoning my humanity to defeat you when I walked through that rift that day. I mentally prepared myself to make a lot of sacrifices, even giving up my humanity, so this is nothing at all. Besides, what are the chances of something like this happening on its own in the future if it weren’t for my current situation? I’m guessing it’s really high.” Hearing Marcel says that with a smile on his face without any hesitation, even though it might hurt, he made that feeling of guilt inside of him increase even more than it was previously. Yes, Marcel had said things that are supposed to make him feel a lot less guilty about making him change his appearance, hearing that Marcel was prepared to sacrifice a lot of things for him took his guilt to a whole new level. The feeling that Marcel was making all this sacrifice for him was now the top thought trending in his mind. He thought about how if Marcel had at least shown some signs of resisting or blamed him or said that he hated him for it, he'd wouldn’t feel as bad as he was feeling at that moment, but the fact is that Marcel didn’t. 

“But you’ll never look the same again! That’s how cruel this is. Your appearance is one of your main pieces of evidence pertaining to your identity. If you give that up, you’ll never be the current you again. Do you really think that you can handle that?!” The demon lord was nothing like his usual self, making Marcel very worried about him, even though he didn’t want to be. His current identity as Marcel, the blond-haired, blue-eyed hero was currently at risk, but here he was worried about the man who’d deflowered him and forced him to become his wife.  

“Um, I’ll do it. There’s something I’ve learned since coming here and that’s is that everything changes eventually. Changes are bound to happen, even if nothing is done to cause them. Am I going to have a say in what I look like...” Marcel asked the demon lord and he nodded, then Marcel continued, “If I have a choice regarding this change about to happen to me, then I have nothing against it. I really hate not been given a choice to decide about certain things.” Wow, Marcel. Talk about hitting the demon lord where it hurts. Even though Marcel was by no means implying that he was not fine, the thought that he was just taking it like a man didn’t make him feel any better. Every positive word that came out of Marcel’s mouth just promoted his guilt to an even higher level.  

“Once again, I’m very sorry! It was stupid of me to announce to the demon realms that you were my wife without your permission.” The demon lord looked apologetic and unlike his usual self that Marcel just had to do something about it. The demon lord looked like he wanted to be blamed and so, Marcel did. 

“Yeah, it’s your fault! You put a title on me without my knowledge, then deflowered me the moment I got here, also without my consent. You made fun of me afterward, took my first kiss, then announced to the whole world that I was your wife, also without my permission. Honestly, you’ve given me more than even reason to hate you, but strangely enough, I don’t hate you. Sure, this is your fault and because you acted without thinking about the consequences of your actions, I’m about to lose my appearance, and that’s not the worst thing. The worst thing is that I’ve been stuck in this castle the whole time, totally bored out of my mind and you haven’t talked to me ever since that explosion incident a while ago.” Marcel said blushing. Honestly blurting out whatever he thought on the spot without having filtering it made him want to dig a hole and hide in it after all of this is over, but for now, he was going to say whatever he wanted, then regret it later. 

“Um, speaking of which, I’ve noticed that I still don’t fully understand the consequences of your actions and why I need to change my appearance permanently. Could you please elaborate for me, dear rash husband of mine?” Marcel said in a commanding tone that made the demon lord flinch for a moment. 

“Yes, I’ll explain now...” he talked like he was being bullied, “... You see, I’m the demon lord. Adored by my citizens and even revered as a god by them. Just a word from me is enough to shake the decisions of others, regardless of if what I speak of is good or bad. Almost similar to me are the heroes. They have the power to shake the decisions of others with their oddly hypnotic convictions and the power to accomplish incredible feats that make them admired by all. They get a lot of attention from people but still, it’s nothing close to mine. You’re a hero, meaning that in the future, you’re going to be showered with all that attention I mentioned that heroes get, but yours is going to be on a whole different level compared to the other heroes. You’re, in the eyes of everyone out there, engaged to me, the person who gets the most attention out of everyone, so how much attention do you think you’re going to get?” 

“More than the average hero,” Marcel answered. 

“Exactly, but not quite right. You’re going to get even more attention than average hero. Your attention is going to be on par with mine or maybe even higher. Now that you’ve agreed to be my partner and I’ve announced it to everyone, people will want to see and meet you. People will surround you everywhere you go. They’ll try to kidnap you and some of these people will not have good intentions for Marcel. After all, I wouldn’t dare say that there isn’t someone who hates me and there are also those who’d wish for me to stay single, so the thought of eliminating you permanently wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. If I’d let you leave the castle with your current appearance after I announced that you were my wife and even now, you would have been possibly assassinated or even kidnapped. That’s the reason why you’re still cooped up in my castle and not outside like everyone. I’d thought of you using transformation magic to disguise yourself but it costs a lot of magic power to transform and maintain it and wouldn’t be the best way to solve the problem. What if you slept and it came undone or got shocked that it came undone or someone who’d already seen you before sensed your presence? That would make the transformation magic useless and so, after multiple other solutions like that transformation magic, which all turned out useless in the end, I called a friend of mine and she offered to help. She promised to help me keep you safe but I’d never thought that this was what she meant. One again, I’m sorry.” The demon lord showed this sad expression that reminded Marcel of someone he knew and he laughed. 

“Yeah, you should be sorry for being rash, but blaming you won’t solve anything. Besides, Claude told me that he’d be taking Allan and me to a dungeon soon and so, I’m not angry for being forced to stay in the castle for all this time. This time by myself has helped me improve my skills and magic abilities and I’m looking forward to using them, so don’t feel too bad about that.” Marcel said seriously to the demon lord. 

“But-but...” He tried to say something. Marcel scolded him, “No buts, I said I’m fine with it, so let’s do as you said. Don’t think of this as me making a sacrifice for you but rather doing the inevitable. I’ve noticed that I’m been followed recently when I’m alone and that at night, there’s a barrier around me. I won’t ask about those, but thanks anyway...” Marcel said then grabbed the demon lord’s sad face and looked directly into his gorgeous red eyes and said to him, “Now enough with the sad expression and go back to being your usual self that makes me feel inadequate and insecure and mocks me when I embarrass myself. That’s the you that I want to see, not this sorry excuse for the all-terrifying-to-humans-but-all-loved-by-the-demon-realms demon lord that I’m supposed to defeat. This transformation is going to happen and so, I'm planning to get the most out of it, so stop beating yourself about it.” 

The demon lord’s usual dazzling smile appeared on his gorgeous face and he said, “Thanks, Marcel. You can be surprisingly mature when you choose to be. It seems like I didn’t make the wrong choice after all.” He said the last sentence in a low voice and Marcel grabbed him by the collar of his attire and said, “You jerk! Give me back all the nice things I said about you! I really will kill you someday!” Marcel went on yelling at the demon lord who laughed the whole time. 

“Are you really still planning to kill me?” He asked laughing. 

“I don’t know, but at this rate, I really will.” He answered truthfully and the demon lord gave himself an extra pat on the back. It hasn’t been an entire year and he’s already made his destined killer give up to some extent. He also thought of how it’s almost been a year since Marcel came here and how everything has been so far. He couldn’t help but smile at how good his progress on his ‘take the next hero and make him my wife’ plan has been. He really might avoid getting killed at this rate and let’s just say that he wasn’t disliking his wife either.