Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 3 - Intermission 4 (Patreon)

                                                       The Demon King’s Throne Room

Arkaz repeatedly taps the armrest of his throne as he glares ahead, ignoring the talks of the various Dukes and Duchesses around him. Instead focusing all of his attention on his inner clock that comes with the System. Something most people don’t realize exist until they ask about it.

The moment the succubi finally got a connection with Scarlet through their divining, he immediately knew the mission in the Class V Fracture was a success, even if the Class V Fracture itself was stopped and the Nobles sent there killed. But the absolute joy and excitement he felt at it was immediately crushed when the divination was cut off before they could find her. The only thing they could see was that she was somewhere on Tartarus, which could’ve meant anywhere.

He of course considered his son’s palace, but it would’ve been extremely difficult for his son to have found her immediately after she passed through the Fracture unless he was the one to send her through himself. Which he knew wasn’t possible unless he paid the set mana price required to connect to his domination seed in another world. And he wouldn’t do that unless it was an emergency, since doing it across worlds would lock him out of using that mana for several months.

So he started searching elsewhere, hoping that his granddaughter was safe, only sending a cursory letter to his son in case he did find her.

A letter he only bothered to answer after the divination barrier covering his granddaughter was finally shattered by the succubi clan, exposing his son’s actions.

Arkaz slowly watches the timer tick until it finally strikes seventeen hundred, at which point he stands up from the throne, silencing all of the Dukes and Duchesses in the process, before announcing, “I will be meeting with my granddaughter. Carry on.” Then he vanishes in a swirl of blood before any of them can react, shortly appearing on an outer court high up on a palace in the Bloody Duchy where he finds his son doing paperwork.

“Leonidas,” Arkaz coldly states as his son’s gaze rises to look at him. “You have some explaining to do.”

“She only woke up earlier today, and I wanted to meet with her before you did,” Leonidas answers in a blunt manner that has Arkaz’s eyes narrowing ever so slightly. “We both know you would’ve rushed over here the moment you learned she was here, regardless of if she was awake and recovered or not.”

Before Arkaz can say anything, he continues, “And what do you think she would’ve done if she had woken up to find the Demon King watching over her as she slept? It was bad enough to wake up to find one of the Demon Lords – people she was raised to believe were evil – watching over her, even if she already knew I was her father. But for both a Demon Lord and the Demon King?” He shakes his head. “I didn’t want to risk overwhelming her right away.”

Arkaz feels a lot of his rage die down at the explanation.

He… has a point.

“But,” Arkaz says, something coming to mind, “if she was asleep, you could’ve just mentioned that to me when I arrived instead of hiding her from me and making me worry instead.”

Leonidas looks down at his paperwork, clearly using it to avoid the statement.

The Demon King snorts and lightly shakes his head at that, understanding very well that he just wanted alone time with his daughter when she woke up.

I guess I can’t really blame him for that.

“And her armor?” Arkaz asks while walking over and sitting down on a chair in the rather large court, the blood moon hanging high in the sky.

“I will start working on it after the ball tonight,” Leonidas states as he continues going over documents.

Good. If her new armor is made by him, then I won’t have to worry about it not being good enough.

“In that case, it sounds like she’s almost here,” Arkaz says while glancing towards one of the entrances to the court in particular. “And she doesn’t sound very happy.”

Arkaz notices his son wincing slightly at that, which isn’t a common occurrence.

Intriguing. I wonder what happened?

“She… isn’t a fan of dresses, as it would appear,” Leonidas eventually explains, reaching back to scratch his neck in an awkward display.

Arkaz glances at him with a single brow raised.

“You know as well as I do that it could damage the respect the Nobles have in her if they saw her in anything but a dress or armor befitting her status,” Leonidas continues with a sigh. “I wanted to complete the armor sooner, but with she almost slept past the date of the ball in the first place. A ball I had made to introduce her even if others don’t know that’s the purpose of it. And-”

“You needed her awake to work on the armor, I get it,” Arkaz mutters, making his son lean back in his seat with a sigh. “I can see how that would be an issue.”

While I could threaten everyone into submission, that wouldn’t help her very much in the long run. And I want to help her as much as I can in any way possible. Although I get the feeling the Nobles would only think her eccentric or some such nonsense if she didn’t wear the proper attire, and that Leon is overthinking things. She is still my granddaughter after all. And that places her far above any of them.

A few seconds pass in silence, during which Leonidas finally puts down his enchanted quill. The two of them then spend a few minutes simply listening to the sound of Scarlet’s footsteps as she approaches the outer court. And the moment Leonidas’s head maid opens the door for her and she passes into the outer court, Arkaz’s eyes lock onto her and he disappears from his seat, reappearing right in front of her before lifting the startled girl up by her arm pits and smiling the widest smile he’s ever shown in the past millennia.

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