Whether it was their past of relying on each other or their current actions, the two of them were practically tied together like grasshoppers on the same rope, and even though he understood that Aura was an extremely unstable factor who might expose his situation, and directly driving her away might be the best option… that would definitely leave quite a few hidden risks. After all, as long as she showed up, it was basically enough to make people suspicious.
Maybe at this point, even if it were exposed, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It would just be poking through a layer of paper that everyone already knew about.
Probably something like that? He wasn't entirely sure himself.
If he had to make an analogy, it would be like when a husband cheats. If the family itself is happy and complete, with children and all, the wife might still pretend not to know for the sake of the family and the surface harmony.
But at that point, even if she knows the truth, as long as it isn't exposed, things can still go on. If it's directly exposed, the family will definitely fall apart.
The current situation might be something like that. Well, he wasn't very sure either. He was just covering his face and thinking while complaining, but Aura, on the other hand, seemed to have actually been stung by what he said. That faint, provocative smile on her face gradually froze, the corners of her lips drooping slightly, revealing clear dissatisfaction and anger.
But this time, Ash sighed, reached out, and gently patted Aura's head, "Alright… don't be mad. Maybe I did go a bit too far. You're not that much of a small fry… sorry."
"Huh… that's rare. You actually apologized to me? Did I hear wrong?", This apology, which didn't seem all that sincere, instead made the arrogant and willful Aura feel a bit surprised.
Frieren, however, had already returned to the dining table. As she put pudding into her mouth and kept nodding, she finally couldn't help it. Still pretending to be casual, she asked in a flat tone, "So in the end, what exactly is your relationship? Are you planning to explain it now?"
"Mm… well? This is… a bit troublesome to explain," On this matter, Ash always seemed somewhat hesitant.
Aura stared at Ash with interest, the corner of her lips lifting into a malicious smile, "Ash, if you still don't plan to come clean with everyone, isn't that a bit inappropriate?"
"..."
"No answer? Hmph! Then I'll take that as neither agreeing nor disagreeing," Feeling displeased with his silence, just as he was hesitating whether to stop her, Aura's voice suddenly rose a few notches. Without much buildup, she directly dropped a shocking secret:
"Then let me tell you, actually, Ash isn't human at all. He's a demon."
Those words were like a heavy bomb, plunging the scene into a deathly silence. Frieren in particular froze, her hand holding the spoon trembling as she stared at Ash in shock, her face full of disbelief.
Meanwhile, Ash acted as if it had nothing to do with him, quietly stirring the jam in his otherworldly sundae. At least from his expression, there was no visible change in emotion, not even any intention to argue or explain.
But Aura wasn't satisfied with the current atmosphere. Just like how Ash used to treat her, she looked at him with a "disappointed in your lack of ambition" expression.
"You always say I'm ignorant, but the truly foolish one is you. I told you long ago there was no need to do this. When the truth comes out, who will still stand on your side? What's the point of raising humans? In the end, it just leads to betrayal."
Those cold, merciless words were like sharp blades, further intensifying the atmosphere.
"Ash, you…", Frieren's voice trembled. She wanted to say something but didn't know how to begin.
This sudden revelation threw her into deep confusion. She even began to doubt her own judgment.
Fern, however, took a deep breath, trying to steady her emotions.
A suspicion she had long held was confirmed, yet she showed no panic. Instead, she recalled the time they had spent together.
Those warm memories gradually calmed her down. She softly called his name, "Lord Ash…"
"I know this is hard to accept, but Fern, if you…", Ash looked back at her calmly, only to find that the expected shock and fear weren't there. Instead, Fern's eyes were filled with deep concern, causing his unfinished words to come to an abrupt stop.
Because that concern wasn't for herself, but for him. Though Ash couldn't understand what there was about him to worry about.
But at that moment, Fern, just as usual, took his hand and showed a faint smile that hadn't changed at all.
"Although I was indeed a bit startled, I said it before, didn't I? Lord Ash is Lord Ash."
"I always felt you were a strange child," Ash stared at Fern in a daze, a complicated feeling rising in his heart. But Fern smiled brightly at this moment and even declared without hesitation, "Whether it's good or bad, it must have been influenced by Lord Ash."
Once again, the situation completely exceeded Aura's expectations. Fern's reaction felt like a ruthless slap across her face, making her expression particularly ugly.
But the other girl, Frieren, after Aura's revelation, had originally wanted to seek Fern's opinion. Now, she still wore that stunned expression, even muttering,
"Does that mean we… all of us… were completely played by you, deceived entirely?"
"No, actually Heiter and the others already knew," That incredulous murmur made Ash correct her, "Although what exactly they knew was never confirmed, but it was definitely not the same as you."
"What about Fern? You must have—"
"I could sense something to some extent. It's not like I'm as hopelessly slow as Lady Frieren," While instinctively answering, Fern unconsciously added another jab.
"No! Wait! Hold on! I'm a bit confused right now… so what? I'm the only one who knew nothing? Is that what you mean?", At this point, even Frieren was about to lose her composure.
Ash spread his hands helplessly, "No need to get so worked up. I don't think I said it to that extent."
"E-even though a human living this long is rare, but…", Frieren felt a confusion she had never experienced before.
She wanted to believe in Ash, in his kindness and integrity, but her heart kept raising doubts, 'Ah, no, when I first met him, he didn't seem particularly kind, and integrity didn't quite apply either... but he definitely wasn't a bad person.'
Precisely because of that, the pain and struggle in her heart became even more pronounced.
She had known before that Ash must be hiding something, and she had been waiting for the day he would confess to her.
But, this kind of truth was far beyond what she could have imagined.
At the very least, she had never considered this possibility. After all, Ash's behavior was completely different from what she thought demons were like.
With her thoughts in chaos, Frieren didn't even know what to say anymore.
A friend she had known for a thousand years turning out to be a demon… she had never once imagined such a thing. Yet now that the truth was right in front of her, she couldn't say a word, only…
That feeling, like being betrayed by someone closest to her, made her bite her lower lip unconsciously, glaring at him fiercely. At some point, without even realizing it, tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes.
"Ash, you… you lied to me!"
"Mm, I lied to you."
"And?"
"I am indeed a demon," This time, he nodded and admitted it very straightforwardly.
But that answer wasn't what Frieren wanted, "Other than that!"
"Sorry."
"And?"
"Sorry… I really can't think of anything else to say."
"If… if I say… that right now, I'm going to drive you out from here?", As she spoke, a staff appeared in Frieren's hand.
"Lady Frieren!", Fern instinctively stood up to stop her, but Ash remained where he was, reaching out to press her shoulder, pushing Fern back down. Then he looked at Frieren and calmly replied, "From a result standpoint, Frieren, you can't kill me."
"Are you underestimating me?"
"Not really. I just think it's simply impossible."
"At a time like this, shouldn't you willingly accept death for atonement or something?"
"That's in stories. In the end, I also have my own dreams, maybe not exactly, but anyway, I have reasons I can't die."
"At a time like this, even if you're lying, shouldn't you at least comfort me and say something nice?", His overly blunt answer almost made Frieren laugh in anger.
But he only lowered his gaze and said helplessly, "Even if I look like this, I'm actually quite troubled inside too. But just like you, I don't know what to say right now, so for now, this is all I can do."
"For now… what do you mean for now! Aren't you doing nothing at all?"
"Let's set that aside for now," Even if he was troubled, it wouldn't lead to a result. Ash silently pushed another dessert in front of her, "How about we finish eating first, and then slowly discuss the rest?"
"Now is not the time for that! You should have something to say to me!"
"But I don't know what I should say. How about you tell me what you want me to say first?"
"I don't know either!"
"How can you say something so unreasonable so confidently?"
Facing such an unreasonable response, although Ash could understand her feelings, he didn't know how to sort things out either.
After all, he himself found this situation troublesome. Otherwise, he wouldn't have hidden it for so long.
As someone who had depended on him since childhood or rather, as a demon, Aura had from the very beginning found Fern and Frieren to be very unpleasant to look at.
Because she believed that these two would one day suddenly betray Ash. But now, the situation was somewhat different from what she had imagined. The child he raised didn't care about this at all.
"So strange… did this one get hit by some weird magic?", Completely not considering Ash's current complicated feelings, Aura, purely out of curiosity, stared at Fern. She couldn't help but plop down beside him and jab his waist with her elbow.
"Did you use some kind of mind-controlling magic to completely control her?"
"If you could shut up at a time like this and not ruin the atmosphere, I'd be very happy," Her words, which were even stranger than usual and almost rivaled Frieren's, gave him an instant headache.
"What? Wasn't I worried you might suddenly die?"
"Thanks, but please shut up for now. My head already hurts," Although Ash was annoyed with her at this moment, the atmosphere really shouldn't be like this.
But Aura's ability to read the room was practically on the same level as Frieren.
And the possibility of some unknown mental magic, maybe even mind-control magic, was exactly her area of interest.
That made her not care for the moment about the fact that she had just exposed Ash. She simply kept smiling, watching his troubled profile, showing a gentle smile.
"Ash, what kind of magic was that? Teach me too, I'm very interested."
"I already said there's no such magic. Can you go play somewhere else right now?"
"Eh~ don't be so stingy! Aren't we siblings?"
Having been used to being bullied by him since childhood, even now Aura had no sense of shame in front of him. She directly went into a clingy mode, clearly ready to keep pestering him until she got what she wanted.
But…
"Go away. If there's none, there's none. What do you want me to give you? And bringing up being siblings now is too late," Without giving her any face, he pressed his hand against her face and pushed this troublesome person away.
However… the things revealed in their conversation left Fern, and even Frieren, who was already in turmoil, completely stunned.
"Wait a second!", At this point, Frieren couldn't help it either. She slammed both hands on the table and exclaimed, "You're not only a demon, you even have a younger sister? This one is the… the sister you once mentioned who had high expectations of you? This one?"
"I didn't expect you to remember that," He covered his face and shook his head, but still had to admit it, "But yes, that's actually the case."
"But demons don't have family relationships, right?"
Precisely because she knew that, Frieren felt like she had just heard something absurd, even wondering if he was messing with her.
"They don't. So I actually picked her up. We just grew up together in the same cave. But I did raise her, so she's kind of like a younger sister… even though I don't really want to admit it."
"You actually managed to raise a demon into something like… well, I mean… lively?"
Frieren carefully chose her words, finally landing on something that seemed somewhat fitting yet also not quite, while looking at him as if he were something unbelievable.
"That's why I don't really want to admit it."
"How did you do it?"
"Can you not bring up exactly the thing I don't want to talk about?"
"Why are you the one getting angry? Shouldn't I be the one angry right now?"
Seeing the displeasure on his face, Frieren bit her lower lip again, unconsciously tightening her grip on her staff, looking as if she might start a fight with him at any moment if things escalated.
Although the issue of education was a lifelong pain for him, Ash, seeing Frieren's expression, refocused on the situation at hand.
Even though Aura had stirred things up, the situation was still very serious.
But precisely because Aura had stirred things up, he reorganized his thoughts and, under the gaze of the girl across from him, slowly said, "Actually, if you think about it carefully, this isn't such a big deal."
"This isn't big? What could be bigger than this?"
"Uh, well…"
'For example, the Demon King you suspect behind everything is me? But better not say that now. Let this matter settle first, then think about the rest. After all, you eat one bite at a time, and handle things step by step. Too much stimulation at once isn't good,' He pondered, but suppressed the instinctive rebuttal, choosing to hide what hadn't been exposed yet.
Just as he was about to organize his words and speak again… Frieren suddenly slammed the table and said angrily, though her tone remained calm, "Thinking carefully! So many things happened all of a sudden, I almost forgot to call you out! You're clearly the king, yet you didn't mention it the whole way? You made me worry for so long? I even specifically came all the way to the royal capital?"
"But I'm really not the king. I'm just giving guidance, and my position is a bit higher… that's about it."
"When the kingdom is already at war?"
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