ALL NOVEL Chapter 82: Disarming You
"Finally!"
After stamping his approval on a document related to internet culture management, Chris stretched his body and yawned. As the king with the highest approval rating in the Gryffin Kingdom's history, Chris might look glorious on the surface, but the burden he had to shoulder behind the scenes was not something that most people could imagine.
This situation was made worse by the "Demon King's Power" inside his body. Recently, it was growing more and more restless, constantly trying to corrupt his mind and making him mentally unstable. As a result, he would sometimes make some wrong decisions, and it would take a lot of work to make up for these mistakes later, which, in turn, distressed him even further.
"It's already half-past five? Hah..."
Chris massaged his temples after glancing at the wall clock in the office. Although he felt frustrated by his busy work schedule, there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't shrug off his work to the ministers helping him even if he wanted to since many important documents needed his approval. This was also why he was still working even when everyone in the palace had already gone home. He could only rejoice that he had no work scheduled for tomorrow.
However, not all was bad news. Firstly, the Hero had finally appeared. Moreover, according to the Hero's close friend, the Hero was even planning to receive education in Holl City's March Royal School of Magic.
Chris was naturally elated by this wonderful news. Nothing could be better than having a Hero living in his country's capital city. He could already foresee that Holl City's economy would take off in the next few years. Countless companies would fight desperately to establish their businesses in the city that the Hero resided in.
For this reason, Chris had even personally helped Alice handle her admission into the Royal Academy. The day Alice finished her education and no longer needed to conceal her identity would be the day when Holl City greeted its most rapid phase of development in history.
Apart from that, the Hero's appearance also meant that he would, perhaps, finally have a solution to the Demon King's Power residing in his body. Although there had not been any precedents of the Demon King being forcibly stripped of the Demon King's Power, all of the past Demon Kings were filled with thoughts of invasion. There was no way any of them would be willing to part with the Demon King's Power.
However, Chris was different from these past Demon Kings. The Demon King's Power was nothing but a hassle to him. Meanwhile, he felt that if he could receive God's help, he might be able to remove the Demon King's Power in his body and survive the process.
Standing up from his seat, Chris stretched his body again. Then, he walked up to the nearby window and opened it.
Despite their similar titles, the kings of the human and demon realms were vastly different from each other. The demon realm's harsh environment had caused the demons to take on a natural instinct of judging a person's success or failure based on strength. As a result, their kings were also chosen based on strength.
In contrast, humans chose their kings based on whether their kings possessed the wisdom to lead the people to a prosperous life. Meanwhile, Chris felt that he had done a good job in this regard.
Just look outside the window. Shrouded in the dazzling white light in the distance, the kingdom for which he had been striving for was becoming more and more...prosperous...
Huh?
Amidst his emotional moment, Chris suddenly noticed that something was amiss. Hurriedly, he took two steps back and glanced at the wall clock—5:30. There was no mistaking it. It was currently 5:30 in the morning. Although he had stayed up late dealing with documents, his mind was still clear. Moreover, his experience as a mind magician also told him that the Demon King's Power within his body wasn't influencing his mind right now, so it was unlikely that he was hallucinating right now.
However, if it was only 5:30 in the morning, there should only be a glimmer of sunrise on the horizon. So, why was there such a blinding white light in the distance?
"Isn't that where the Hero is staying?!"
Chris's expression grew uglier and uglier as he took a closer look at the location of the second sun. He naturally knew where Alice lived since he was responsible for arranging her living quarters. Meanwhile, that blinding white light originated from none other than the mansion district Alice resided in. After connecting this situation with Alice's identity as the Hero, Chris could roughly guess where that dazzling radiance had originated from.
The Hero was attacked in the capital of his kingdom? Could this situation be any more preposterous? The other four kings would definitely laugh at him without mercy if they were to find out about this. Then, they would extend an invitation to Alice to move to their respective kingdoms.
He absolutely could not allow such a thing to happen!
The drowsiness in his mind vanishing completely, Chris hurriedly walked up to his desk, picked up the phone, and dialed a number:
"Hello? Catherine? Take your guards and head to the Gem District immediately! Go there and protect a blonde little girl named Alice at all costs!"
Although Chris wasn't strong in combat, as the country's king, he naturally had powerful warriors at his service. And while he didn't think that the soldiers under his command could be of significant help to the Hero in battle, they could at least play a supportive role and deal with the aftermath of the battle.
…
On the other side, Alice naturally did not know that Chris had already discovered the Holy Cross Slash's radiance and had dispatched troops to help her. Right now, she was busy thinking about how she could launch a counterattack on Luna.
Alice did not know where Luna's seal had originated from. She did not find any magic circles on the ground, nor did she find any obvious sealing tools nearby. According to Luna's statement, this seal was something she had prepared long ago, so it was only natural that she wouldn't let Alice break it easily.
Since breaking the seal was impossible, all Alice needed to do was circumvent it.
The Hero's Sword wasn't Alice's only weapon. Since Luna didn't allow Alice to use the Hero's Sword, the silver-haired maid only had herself to blame for forcing Alice's hand.
After stabbing the Hero's Sword into the ground to hide its appearance from Luna, Alice removed her right hand from the hilt and reached under her nightdress—it couldn't be helped. Her pouch holding her weapon arsenal had already been buried in the ruins. So, if she wanted to launch a counterattack using panties, she had no choice but to use the pair she wore.
Alice also realized how careless she had been because of this situation. Originally, she thought that since she had tied the Hero's Sword to her right hand, she should be able to deal with most problems by relying on the huge stat bonuses and the active skill Holy Cross Slash. Thus, she had left the pouch holding her stockpile of panties on the bedside table, which, in turn, caused the pouch to become buried in the rubble because of Luna's spiked club.
I must never let my ammunition depot leave me in the future.
After admonishing herself, Alice touched her butt and made an awkward discovery—she wasn't wearing any panties under her dress.
It would seem that she had kicked off her panties when she was asleep--as embarrassing and unbelievable as it might sound, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Alice had experienced such a situation several times, even before she had transmigrated. She would sometimes find that she had kicked her pajama trousers and panties off her body and onto the floor when waking up. Most people probably wouldn't be capable of such a feat in their sleep.
Meanwhile, due to the intense fight she had with Luna just now, Alice had actually failed to realize that she had been going commando all this time.
Goddammit, why now of all times... Am I really going to bite the dust here?
With such thoughts in her mind, Alice looked at Luna standing some distance away from her. Then, she suddenly made a huge discovery.
Apart from her Hero's Sword, buried ammunition depot, and vanished panties, was there really no other weapon she could use on this battlefield?
No, there was. Alice had already discovered the only weapon that could help her make a comeback in this situation. Although acquiring this weapon might be a challenge, she had no choice but to risk it for the biscuit.
Alice's Holy Cross Slash had previously shredded Luna's maid uniform, so the silver-haired maid no longer had anything to show for her temporary profession. Fortunately, though, she wasn't entirely naked.
On Luna's body, there remained a slightly slanted black lace bra, half of a white sleeve, a pair of tattered black stockings...
...and a pair of black lace panties in Luna's absolute territory.
TL Notes:
-26th November 2021
I made some changes to Chapter 81:
(Original) Apart from a trickle of blood dripping down from her forehead, it didn't seem like she had suffered any other injuries. Even the maid uniform she wore was virtually undamaged.
Changed to:
(Edited) Apart from a trickle of blood dripping down from her forehead and her vanished maid uniform, it didn't seem like she had suffered any other injuries.
This was a translation mistake.