“Huh?” Those words from Malphas definitely took Ryuk by surprise, causing him to blink a few times while not understanding any of it.
First, a demon who appeared to be much stronger than him arrived with a delicate box containing aphrodisiac and gave it to him.
Second, the demon, who seemed not to even call Drishti “Lady” even after knowing her strength as Ascendancy, called him, an Early Legendary rank, a Lord, more specifically future Lord.
Exactly, what did all this sudden change of events mean?
“Is there anything you want to ask?” Malphas lifted his gaze, observing the young man looking at him with a blank gaze while holding the opened box that Demon Queen Morana had offered.
“…Why aphrodisiac?” Ryuk inquired, clearly hearing the laughter from behind him.
Though the distance was much larger but due to his enhanced senses, he could hear Drishti falling from her chair while laughing her lungs out.
‘it’s definitely embarrassing.’ Ryuk didn’t care about the standards of others judging him based on their perspectives, yet it seemed embarrassing, knowing how every Devereaux member, including the 188 battalion members and Regina Devereaux, observed this whole thing with hardly controlled laughter.
Though it was confusing how none of them had arrived here and attacked the demon infiltrating this land, making it clear that Drishti had big hand in this.
“Demon Queen wanted you to be strong enough,” Malphas nodded, placing his folded hands behind him with proud eyes looking towards the young man who would have the greatest honor of all time.
“….By drinking an aphrodisiac?” Closing the box, Ryuk’s eyes turned towards the demon who was spouting nonsense without giving any context to things.
“Indeed, humans and demons, both belonging to different races, have a very low birth rate, which could be a hindrance for Malevolia, which will need an heir soon,” Malphas explained the reason for giving the potion to him, citing the low fertility rate between demons and humans, resulting in very few childbirths from parents of both different races.
“And why would the Demon Queen want to marry me?” Indeed, it was clear where this devil was going with his words.
From Malphas’ words, Ryuk was aware that this whole conversation was devoid of any suspicion about him being the Host of the Nexus System but was about something else.
And that something else was, without any prior details, a marriage proposal—no, more like an already decided marriage deal where he needed to marry that woman regardless of his choices—evident from how he received the aphrodisiac without any say in the matter.
Marrying someone like the Demon Queen was out of the question.
The first reason was he didn’t know anything about her nor had he ever met her to even consider her a potential marriage partner.
Added to that, her straightforward approach without him knowing anything had just destroyed her image in his eyes.
Clearly, from her words, she is a dominant woman with so much pride to not care about his own decisions.
Another reason was her possessing the Void Matrix System.
Above all this, the most important factor was to know the reason for the Demon Queen to choose him, who was since birth in the Heindal Continent.
“You are the son of Alisia Devereaux, aren’t you?” Malphas inquired to reconfirm the identity of the young man who wasn’t even aware of his future wife.
“….So, this marriage thing was decided beforehand?” Ryuk, hearing those words from Malphas, could at least understand that this whole confusing plot was even before his birth. Though confusing, he felt things were going in the wrong direction.
Naturally, it should be the Demon Queen searching for the one who had the system and trying to kill him, not searching for a husband.
“Indeed, I think Alisia Devereaux hadn’t told you about the promise she was given by my queen,” Malphas shook his head, understanding the miscommunication between both of them, leading to this young man being unaware of things, prompting him to again tell the whole story…
A small story —
The time belonged to the span when the demon King had just decided to pass down his throne to his children.
A heir battle occurred with several of them dying at the hands of one another, and some also surviving and running away from Malevolia to more open ground for battles.
Being betrayed by one of her loyal subordinates who thought that his daughter’s ability to create a very unique soul-healing potion would be taken advantage of, he ran away from Malevolia while taking away his two daughters, with both having an age difference of two years.
Malphas also explained that after being betrayed and stabbed, Morana had to flee to the continent this far away, in this land called Titanora, where she was saved by a Flagbearer of that time holding the top three positions for contenders to the Head of Devereaux family.
And in exchange for the help that was provided, Demon Queen Morana promised to marry that woman’s unborn son once he reached the age of 20, just to show her gratefulness for being saved by her.
‘….Why does this seem similar?’ Ryuk glanced towards the box before turning again to Malphas, realizing that there was this similar background story for Esme too.
Last time, due to things disrupting their conversation, he came to know about her being the sister of Alia only at the last moment, after finally deciding to be with Esme.
Naturally, due to none of Esme’s facial features having a similarity to Alia’s, he had kept away from remembering that she was indeed the sister of the woman who tried to stab him.
No matter what the reason was.
From his point of view, if there was a need to save him, then he should be aware of what sacrifices someone is making for him. Yet, in reply to his hundreds of questions, he only received answers in form of wounds.
So, he wasn’t going to ignore the fact that he was bound with another woman even before his birth.
In Esme’s case, her father died due to involvement with the Devereaux family, leading to a chain reaction that appeared as if executed in a planned manner, from Alia’s falling in Heindal to Esme’s meeting him here.
Now, the System’s Host turns out to be someone who again had some relation with the Devereaux family.
In both cases, Alisia Devereaux was the catalyst for all reactions.
‘it can’t be a single thing, can it?’ Ryuk’s instincts were saying that there would be more mess which would follow him due to his mother, who seems to be lost somewhere for now.
He didn’t know where she was, or even had a contact to confirm if this devil was telling the truth or if they were already aware of him possessing the system and this was just a plan to lure him in.
But among all this confusion was a question lingering inside him, “And how did your queen even think of making decisions on behalf of me?”
“What?” Malphas raised his eyebrow, as if hearing something like this for the first time, even after being honored to be chosen as the Demon Queen’s partner, someone was asking him this.
“Indeed, you are Alisia Devereaux’s son,” Malphas nodded, looking at the young man who showed the same personality as Alisia Devereaux, with the same confidence and pride.
“Of course, I am. Unlike Morana, who was saved by someone and believes offering herself over would be a blessing for them who saved her,” Ryuk firmly stated with a mocking tone.
He moved forward, approaching Malphas, who stood calmly. Ryuk halted and meeting cold eyes with Malphas, adding in a firm tone, “Such arrogance definitely suits a pridefully blind woman like Morana.”
