Right before things got frisky between Vampy and Sue I had the Mini-Mes I put in charge of keeping an eye on them retreat from the room. I mean of course I did, not only am I not a peeping tom, but Vampy is basically like my kid by now, you know? My slightly estranged, rebellious, kid who I have a hard time connecting with, and who probably still thinks I don't care about her, but still. A parent has to take responsibility you know.
Um, what's that about some kids left in the labyrinth or something? I'm sure they are fine, they are big independent spider brats, yeah, let's go with that.
Now that I think about it, maybe I should've intervened back there with Vampy. It's not like she and the little princess are the healthiest of individuals. I can totally see this situation quickly becoming a ticking time bomb that will leave everyone involved in pain and probably worse off than they started off. I should probably do something to prevent that from happening now, but honestly that sounds like it'll require a lot of talking, and it might be fine really. I might just be getting worked up for nothing in the end.
It'll be fine, I'm sure, these things tend to sort themselves out. And if it does not, I'll deal with it when it becomes a problem. No, I'm not just making excuses to not just act like an actual parental figure for once, don't judge me ok.
"Did something happened?" The Demon Lord breaks me out of my train of thoughts. "Let me guess, it has to do with Sophia, and based on where you left her, probably that princess is involved."
Ah, leave it to Ariel of all people to be able to read my mood so well. I give her a small nod to confirm her suspicions. "We may need to save the princess as well."
By that I obviously meant we should make sure she'll survive the purge that is coming once we shut down the System. Orginally we didn't exactly care if she got caught up in that or not. By then we would've already gotten everything we needed from her anyways. It's not like it's our problem if she assumed she'll be safe. But now, knowing how fast Vampy can get attached, maybe we should make sure the little princess is alive by the end of all of this mess after all.
"I see, I thought something like this might happen." The Demon Lord sighs, ah, even that expression can be so cute when it comes from her. "Well, they both are at that age now I guess."
Ariel somehow managed to deduced all of that from my small statement. I wished communicating with everyone else was this easy. Having a partner who gets you like this is totally the best. 10/10, would recommend.
The demon lord gets a little smile on her face. It's totally adorable. It's like the best. I can even describe the things her smile does to my heart. "It feels like it was just yesterday that she was just a tiny toddler struggling to walk using webs. Then again, even back then she was much older than she appeared, not that she showed it much back then, but still."
I reach out to lay my hand on top of hers, and she grabs it in response, giving it a small squeeze. That's right, I did fantasized about the Demon Lord declaring her love for me once all of this was over. As it turned out, I didn't have to wait that long. Honestly, I'm glad she made the first move, if it was up to me, we would've been stuck in a state of eternal pining until the sun burnt itself out.
I could feel her slightly shaking. I knew it was about of a mix of nervousness and excitement. We were so close to our goal after all. We were going to save her mom, even if she didn't want to be save.
And as a bonus, soon she'll finally be able to kill that bastard elf after all these centuries. He has nowhere to run now that we have him cornered. This probably only means he'll fight harder, not that Ariel would mind. In fact, I'm sure she is looking forward to seeing the look in his eyes once she trashes all his defenses and crushes his sense of invulnerability. I am myself would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to smashing that annoying look os his to bits.
We still has to be careful of course. Potimas was a bastard, but he was a capable bastard. He hasn't stayed alive all these centuries just for nothing.
"You'll be with me until the very end, right?"
That was an uncharacteristically dumb question from the demon lord. The nerves must be getting to her.
I scoot closer to her and use my finger to tilt her head slightly upwards to meet my eyes. She always had such pretty eyes, they are like unbelievably pretty. I lean down slowly. As she closes her eyes our lips meet.
This is the only answer I can give her. One I know will make her understand that no matter what, no matter what stands between us, I will never abandon her. There is no place for me other than by her side.
