I Just Wanted A Soft Life, Not A Demon Husband

Chapter 33: Apparently I Have the Balls to Threaten the Demon King and Become Nervous Soon After

Zorathys tilted his head the way cats do when they’re deciding whether you’re worth the effort of chasing. "Do you know what you’re doing?" he asked me.

"Yes," I said.

My arms were still stretched out in a ridiculous, dramatic barricade between Zorathys and the three demons who were now silent and just observing the interaction between me and Zorathys. He ignored my answer like I’d whispered it into a jar and set it on a shelf and labeled it unimportant. "You are protecting demons who left you to die," he said instead.

"Well... when you put it like that, it sounds absurd," I mumbled.

"That is because it is," he told me. "You do know you are human, right? The demons you are protecting could eat your kind for breakfast."

I nodded and swallowed audibly. "Well... yes. Yes, I know that," I said to him, but it was more like I was reassuring myself.

"And you still protect them?" he asked me.

"Yes. And I don’t care if they are demons," I told him honestly.

"You do not care?" Zorathys asked me with a frown like he couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. Well, that made two of us.

And it shocked the hell out of me, especially because it was the truth.

"I’m not going to have anyone die because of me whether they be human or demon," I told him firmly. "If you want to hurt them, then you’ll have to go through me first."

He watched me for a long beat. His gaze was a slow, deliberate thing, cataloguing me the same way the last jeweler who had brought jewels for the royal family in Aelthryn looked at me.

"You do realize I don’t even need to go through you to kill them," he pointed out, sounding mildly amused at my stubbornness.

"I know."

I did not know that. The thought didn’t even register, but I should have known.

He was the Demon King after all. He was merciless, and here I was in front of him protecting my flock like I was a shepherd.

My arms didn’t move an inch even with all that. "I don’t care how you do it or how you don’t do it, but if you hurt just a hair..." I paused when I realized there was only one person with what I could classify as hair. Rin’s hair had more of a feather-like texture after all.

But Zorathys just stared at me, waiting for me to finish my words.

"...um... if you touch one hair, or feather, or a piece of..." I turned to Marrok, who stared back at me, then turned back to Zorathys. "...whatever on their body, then you’d have to hurt me too."

For a moment Zorathys’s eyes flickered with curiosity, maybe? Or appreciation.

But I don’t know what he even appreciated in what I just said. I basically just threatened the King of the Demon Realm.

But while I was panicking inside, Zorathys just looked at me, and then the corner of his mouth tilted upward. The smile was dangerous and lazy at the same time, like someone offering a knife with an embroidered napkin... I’m not kidding.

I swallowed because that smile could literally be my death sentence.

Zorathys sighed. "You would really go through with your words, wouldn’t you?" he asked me.

"Yes. You don’t want to get on my bad side, Zorathys," I told him.

And the threats just keep on slipping out. What the hell is wrong with me?

Zorathys nodded. "Well... I wouldn’t want to face your wrath after all. I’d rather keep my peace instead."

Everyone in the room paused. Or perhaps it was just me who paused.

Marrok, Versha, and Rin released a sound that was a mix between relief, happiness, and awe. For the love of all things that existed, I could not understand how they were able to express all three emotions at once.

I could understand the relief and happiness, but what was with awe? Awe at what?

But I didn’t care... at least I didn’t care now.

I turned to them immediately. "Leave, now."

That should have been enough to make them go, right? But no. These three stood rooted to the ground. Versha’s fingers twitched. Marrok’s wing drooped. And Rin’s head tilted as if listening to music only she could hear.

They all turned to Zorathys, not minding the fact that I just told them to leave.

Zorathys let his gaze slide over them coldly. "Why are you looking at me," he said, mildly irritated, "when she told you to go? Do you perhaps wish to die after all?"

That was the nudge they needed. They bolted immediately, rushing out of the dining hall like someone had set fire to their tails.

And soon, it was just me and Zorathys in the dining hall, alone and staring at each other.

Zorathys smirked. "Now that I have saved people who I still think do not deserve saving," he said, like he was checking an item off a list, "shall we eat?"

"Eat?" I echoed.

"Yes, eat," he replied calmly. "That’s the reason why we are here after all, isn’t it?"

"Oh." I nodded quickly. "Yes, um, to eat. We are here to eat after all."

For someone who just threatened the Demon King, I had the balls to be nervous.

I angled for the farthest seat again — old habits die hard after all — but Zorathys’s expression narrowed and the air on the other side of the table seemed to change. Chairs around us shuddered, and then, every chair except his and the one immediately to his left dissolved into nothing. The only places to sit left were his and the one beside him.

He patted the chair to his left slowly. "Sit, firefly," he said. "We have established that I shall not kill you. Stop running and sit next to me."

I stared at him and then at the empty span of chairs. "Are you really, really certain you won’t kill me?" I asked him.