Ah! Another day of grinding through principles of elements and magic as if they were literally nothing. Honestly, Marcel’s pretty impressive when it comes to the learning department. Claude gave Marcel books on elements and trust me; they were a lot. It was enough to keep an average hero busy for about two days before they finally understood what it was the books were trying to make out, but Marcel after getting all that books began to understand minutes after opening them, meaning that it was smooth sailing for him to grasp all the principles of the basic elements. He already to figure out the space elements principles on his own when he awakened it, thus explaining the reason why he could only create about a room’s worth of space even though he was a hero, but thanks to the material he’s got now, if he begins implementing what he learned into his magic, who knows how many more rooms or even mansions worth of space he could control. 

Claude, upon being impressed with Marcel’s progress in learning all the elements brought more and more materials to see the limits of Marcel’s comprehensive ability, but Marcel didn’t at all flinch when he saw the additional materials. Instead, he smiled at him and then continued to devour all the knowledge he could from the books in a short period of time.  

Come afternoon and Marcel was already done with both the principles of basic elements and also his space element and so Claude was now ready to see the limits of Marcel’s magic. You’re probably wondering, why does he have to do that? 

Upon heroes arriving in the demon realm and getting enlightened about the difference in primitive human magic and demonic magic, they spontaneously increase their magic capacity while they devour the knowledge from the books and spells they get. They do this unconsciously without placing any significance upon the fact, which is amazing in its own right and so, Claude is planning on making him cast magic and from what he’s thinking, a lot of it. He’s planning to make Marcel cast magic until his reserves are completely dry so to determine how to train Marcel in the future.  

Magic spells take different amounts of mana to cast, meaning that if he knows which grade of spells Marcel’s able to cast and how many are required to drain him completely; he can work on improving Marcel’s options and time for spells before he completely runs out of magic through either increasing a certain tier of magic and decreasing another. This way, Marcel can save a lot of mana depending on the spells he casts, so Claude wants to know his magic capacity limit through a test. 

Claude tells Marcel the whole process and then goes on to ask Marcel to cast a fire spell for him. Marcel went on to cast a fireball spell and honestly, Claude couldn’t control the disappointment he felt and so he went on to reprimand him.  

The spell Marcel cast was a fifth-tier fire spell in human standards. It has the power to scorch enemies, leaving them with almost incurable burns and once again, I mention. He’s talking about human standards again and that’s not much when compared it to demon realm’s standards. Here’s what Claude had to say about it; 

“Huh, what’s that? Are you trying to start a fire for cooking or something? I didn’t know that you were this disappointing?! No, even a cook wouldn’t be able to use this for cooking and it’s not even refined fire?! Just what did they teach you before coming here?!” Marcel knew that something like this was going to happen and so, he stood there with his head down. He’d occasionally take a look at Claude with an expression that said, “I know.” in embarrassment. When Claude finally noticed Marcel’s embarrassed expression, he sighed and then he decided to show Marcel what true fire actually looks like according to the demon realm. 

“Listen, your highness. This is what true fire meant for attacking looks like.” He said and then conjured up a fireball proportional to the same amount of fire Marcel used. This fire Claude conjured had a yellow, almost golden color compared to Marcel’s red fire.  

“This is refined fire and even though its size is proportional to yours, it’s enough to defeat a D-rank dungeon boss in one shot. It burns at about 800 degrees and it can cause severe damage to the skin of a dire wolf if used. From now on, you’re going to train in using spells like these and please try your best to not disappoint. His majesty’s been watching us since we began and I think he was laughing when he saw the fire you made.” Marcel blushed when he heard Claude talk about the demon lord watching him. Well, talk about embarrassing yourself on such a large scale in front of someone who’ll probably be your husband. Marcel once again, wanted to dig a hole and bury himself inside of it. He was suddenly reminded of how much he’d embarrassed himself in front of the demon lord since getting here. 

Yes, the demon lord, right. Let’s talk about him.  

The demon lord since the last time we saw him, was busy organizing a big party to welcome Marcel to the demon realm. He’d finished sending out all the invitations and so now, it was time to tell the main star of the show about the whole thing and so he went to find Marcel to tell him about it.  

As he was searching for Marcel, he noticed both of them in the courtyard. The courtyard was most of the time empty since almost no one lived in the castle, so it was the perfect place for training.  

When he first saw them, he paid extra attention to not disturb whatever the two of them were doing and slowly made his way to their location and while he was moving, he noticed Marcel conjured up some fire and honestly, he thought it was cute. He looked at the fire and soon, he couldn’t hold in his laughter anymore and used a spell to impede the sound he was making, turning himself mute, allowing any sound he made from getting heard.  

He continued walking till he was close enough to hear them and when he saw Marcel getting reprimanded by Claude about the fire made and him blushing in embarrassment, he once again thought that this hero was very cute, more down to earth than most of the ones he’s met. 

When Marcel turned to look at him, he had already rearranged the expression from being amused back into his casual one, making Marcel think that he didn’t see too much although the demon lord did. 

“Are you done with all your work? The papers, the preparations, and the bills.” Claude’s voice turned systematic as he talked to the demon lord. The demon lord nodded and then turned to Marcel to speak.  

“Um, Marcel. There’s something that I’d like to discuss with you. Could you come with me for a while?” He asked Marcel politely. Marcel, having gotten used to seeing the real demon lord after a few days, no longer thought that it was strange at all to see him being polite. He looked at Claude as if asking for permission and Claude nodded, telling him to find him when he was done and that he was going to see if he can find more work for the demon lord to do after he was done talking with Marcel. 

The demon lord grabbed Marcel and they teleported back into the bedroom where they had their first ‘interaction’ and he had Marcel sit on the bed.  

Marcel, although not at all a perverted person, had his mind wandering across those lines. He thought that something was going to happen again. But he hadn’t prepared himself. His heart wasn’t ready for that sort of thing, He thought. 

So, Marcel was flustered, the demon lord looked serious and the atmosphere in the room wasn’t exactly the best one. Marcel finally asked the demon lord why he called him here and when he did, something surprising happened. 

He went down on his knees, grabbed Marcel’s right hand and then asked him, “Will you marry me?” 

“Huh?” Marcel’s mind went blank for a second there after hearing the demon lord. Um, did the demon lord just ask for his hand in marriage?  

“Um, I don’t understand what’s going on, but the answer’s no.” Marcel rejected the demon lord. 

“But you have my title and also, I wish to take responsibility for what happened a few days ago.” He looked Marcel straight in the eye as he talked, almost throwing Marcel of his balance and into accepting his request.  

Poor Marcel. I mean the guy’s having it rough. Discovering a new side to yourself right after arriving in a different place and meeting a super-hot dude who makes you feel embarrassed at the sound of a heartbeat is something that’s definitely going to take a lot out of you. Marcel was almost mesmerized by the hotness of the demon lord that he almost said yes, but then something reminded him that he was the hero. His job was to slay this guy in front of him. He can’t fall for his hotness no matter what he does. Marcel shook his head to erase all thoughts of saying yes to the demon lord’s request and the demon lord took it as Marcel firmly rejecting him. 

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. The fact that you have my title means that you’re destined to become my wife no matter what you say against it.” The demon lord said to Marcel and then he stood up and pushed Marcel onto the bed and continued. 

“In a few days, there’s going to be something of a welcoming party for you here in the castle. I plan to declare you as my fiancé at this party, so you could also consider this our pre-engagement ceremony.”  

“But I haven’t agreed to marry you. You’re the demon lord, my sworn enemy.” Marcel said with a blush on his face. 

“Sworn enemy? I don’t see you as my sworn enemy at all. You’re my wife and that’s that. Show me your status holder, right now!” The demon lord forced Marcel to comply with his request and Marcel replied with an “Okay. Just get off of me.” after seeing the demon lord’s somewhat threatening but not so oppressive way that he looked at him at that moment. 

After the demon lord got off of him, sitting next to him instead, Marcel called out his status holder and decided to show it to the demon lord.  

‘What’s a status holder?’ One might ask. Well, a status holder, just like its name implies is something that keeps track of everything about its owner. Status, skills, titles and also other stuff like dirty and embarrassing secrets, you name it. All of it is recorded by the status holder, including memories of course.  

Status holders first appear at the beginning of a person’s life, then vanishes until it activates around the time when one receives their first life title and in Marcel’s case, the day he received his title as both the hero and the demon lord’s wife was when it first appeared. It records almost everything that has to do with its owner and its contents change depending on certain factors. Humans, in general, have their status holders in the form of a grimoire that they can summon up whenever they want and normal humans have different status holders compared to adventurers and nobles, no surprise there. Marcel’s guessing that the ones belonging to demons are probably also different compared to that of humans. 

Status holders also have one more quirk to them, that being that they’re stored inside of a person’s soul, meaning that they can’t be stolen or altered by a different party, for the most part at least. They are very important parts of one’s self, though nobody sees the relevance behind having them in the first place. After all, who would want to have something that also happens to hold all their embarrassing secrets inside it with them all the time, so except for adventurers, heroes and a few others, everyone pretends that they don’t exist although they use it in several situations without actually realizing it. 

The heroes have a special status holder compared to the other humans, the difference being that it can convert into a demon-like one when they arrive in the demon realm. Marcel’s status must have already been converted to demon standard by now, but he hasn’t gotten the time to look at it now that he thinks about it, so now’s about the perfect time to take a peek. 

As I said, Marcel called out his status holder and judging from the look on his face as he stared at it, the demon determined that it wasn’t the same status holder that he knew and decided to explain. 

Marcel just listened to everything and nodded occasionally and then when the demon lord was done, finally, the moment he’d been dreading had come. Would the status holder really show that he’s the demon lord’s wife and talking about demonic standards, will he be super weak like everyone says he is? The thoughts just kept coming and Marcel felt like he couldn’t hold his curiosity back anymore and so, he opened it for them both to see.  

“Oh, so your real name isn’t Marcel, huh? And you’re 16? I thought Frostbite was lying when he mentioned that earlier.” The demon lord stared at the contents in the book with a hint of surprise on his face, no wonder there. After all, he’s never seen a hero arrive in the demon realm at the age of sixteen, so I think he can be excused on that one. Could that also be the reason why he thought Marcel’s demeanor was quite cute, to say the least? The demon lord thought, but that’s a question he’ll have to answer himself.  

They continued looking and then the demon lord thought that something was weird about the content he was seeing, so he asked Marcel.  

“Um, aren’t you going to convert it into a demonic one. Judging from how it looks and content, nothing has been converted yet.” The demon lord said to Marcel who was pretty confused since he well, as usual, didn’t know anything.  

He stared at his grimoire for a while and then a new line of text came, obstructing the old and here’s what it said; 

< Would you like to convert grimoire to demonic standards? > 

The grimoire asked Marcel what to do and he, as usual, not knowing anything nodded and then the grimoire transformed right in front of him into a black orb. The pattern of the tattoo that was imprinted on his arm by that one dryad now covered the black orb. He looked at the pattern for a while and then touching it out of curiosity, what he saw afterward shocked him. 

The grimoire didn’t just get a makeover. How it operated and functioned was way different than the book that was literally inside of him not so long ago. After touching it, the ball began projecting the contents, startling Marcel. 

Marcel couldn’t believe it. His grimoire was no longer a grimoire and the look on Marcel’s face made the demon lord think that the guy really was naïve, but he didn’t dislike the naivety Marcel oozed off. He just thought it was cute once again and also wondered if it’s because Marcel’s so young. 

The demon lord told him a few more things to prevent him from being startled to death by his orb. He told him a bit about its functions for a while and then they came to the part Marcel didn’t want to believe but the title section of the orb that Marcel thought about, it said: 

< Titles: Demon Lord’s Wife, Hero. > 

“You see, the orb says that you’re my wife. And you’re probably aware that it wouldn’t possibly lie, right?” The demon lord looked eyes that said ‘I’m right and you’re not’ and then he told Marcel something Marcel found confusing. 

“I’m putting my life on the line and asking you to marry me. You can’t possibly want to see me die right?” Huh, the bastard. He was totally flaunting his looks in front of Marcel and it was totally working.  

He once again, almost said okay, snapped out of it and said, “Look. I’ll just tell you the truth. You’re a really nice guy and all and you aren’t evil, at least everyone thinks so, but I won’t. I’m going to expose your dark secret self to everyone and then I’ll slay you!” He looked the demon lord in the eye and for one second there, the demon lord was intimidated. Shivers run down his spine and then he thought that maybe the prophecy wasn’t just an excuse to get himself a wife. This person might really slay him. 

After being a bit shaken by Marcel’s somewhat intimidating gaze, the demon lord wasn’t going to give up that easily. He had one more card up his sleeve. 

“Then how about this? You just go with the engagement for now and I give you a deadline for a final answer. Forty years from now, I’ll ask you again the same question and if you still reject me then, then we’ll probably think of a way to get rid of the title, although there’s little chance of that happening since it’s already there. How does that sound?” The demon lord stated his request. 

“I accept. If you haven’t convinced me forty years from now, I’ll have the right to both reject and slay you at the same time. That’s totally acceptable.” Marcel accepted his request. More on that in a jiff. 

“Okay then, then I’ll leave you with your orb. Figure it out a bit more. I’m leaving.” He said and just before he left after getting up, he whispered into Marcel’s ear, “I’ll win and you already know it.” making Marcel turn red on the ears before running out the door. 

“Bastard!” Marcel said before the demon lord got away. He laughed at him as he left. 

Marcel sat there, flushed in the face with red ears as he gritted his teeth in annoyance. He just met the guy but it’s like he’s always finding new ways to embarrass him and he doesn’t like it, but who cares. He’s probably the one who’s going to win in the end. In forty years, he’ll be fifty-six, almost fifty-seven and no one would want to marry some fifty-seven-year-old guy who’s already past his prime. At least that’s what he thought. But little did he know that the demon lord knows about something that’s already ensured that he’ll get his answer sooner or later. He has basically ensured his victory against the hero who was currently sitting in the room and grinning like a fool who’s already won the fight before it started.  

 

First match: Marcel vs Demon Lord. Winner: Demon Lord. 

 

 

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Skit:

The Demon Lord and the Author (Marcel is cute.)

Demon Lord: Why do I think that Marcel's cute? Is it because he's 16?

Author: You fool (angry). That's what you're supposed to think. You're the demon lord.

Demon Lord: Um, what's being the demon lord have to do with this conversation? (confused)

Author: Shut your trap. I'm the author, I decide. It's my world, my rules. (enraged)

Demon Lord: Then I quit. (serious)

Author: No, no, please~. I didn't mean it. I'm sorry!! (placating demon lord)

Demon Lord: Hmph! Then make me an awesome character. (acting cheeky)

Author: Yes, your majesty. I won't let you down. (eager to please)

Demon Lord: And that's how you win over a bossy author, guys. (whispering to the one who's obviously reading)

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Hello. The author here, speaking. I'm thinking of updating on Wednesdays and Sundays, so if you look forward to my novel, please check then. If there isn't any then it probably means that there isn't any or that something else came up and I forgot to put it up. Please bear with me and I know, I hate people like me, so I'll try not to piss you off too much. Thank you all. That's a wrap.