Chapter 94
A faint twitch ran through her fingertips.
Slowly, she lifted her eyelids.
‘A cave?’
As her blurred vision cleared, a familiar face came into view.
Ariella parted her dry lips, her voice hoarse and cracked.
“…Ludwig.”
She tried to raise her upper body, and Ludwig quickly stretched out his arm to support her.
Her dazed mind gradually grew clear.
At the center of the cave, a fire was burning.
The fuel was wood, but the flames themselves were magical.
A soft warmth spread all around.
Ariella glanced down at her clothes. The fabric was wrinkled and shriveled, showing clear traces of being completely soaked before drying.
The only reason not a single drop of water remained now was thanks to Ludwig’s magic.
She tried to recall.
The moment someone had embraced her, the world had shaken and collapsed.
After that dizzying sensation of being swept away, she had only felt her entire body ache.
She had struggled to hold on, but in the end, Ariella had lost consciousness.
“…At that time, we were both swept away by the tidal wave, weren’t we?”
Ludwig nodded.
“That’s right.”
“And the others? What about Pi?”
“Richmond and Ulken were swept in another direction, but they managed to meet up with Pi and escape together.”
After that, they had tried to return for Ariella and Ludwig, but the storm and the waves must have made it impossible.
“In the end… we drifted apart.”
Ariella let out a faint sigh.
“Then they’re alive. …I’m glad.”
Finally able to relax, she looked around her surroundings.
The cave was bigger than she expected.
The flickering fire cast dancing shadows along the stone walls.
“To protect us from the tidal wave, I used up almost all of my remaining magic. Even after we got out of the storm zone, I couldn’t use flight magic anymore.”
Ludwig had kept her alive, maintaining just enough magic for her to breathe, while they were swept along the currents.
“The water’s flow was incredibly fast. I don’t even know how far we were carried. Eventually, I saw this island and barely managed to swim us here.”
Around the serpent’s island ran fierce currents.
The speed they had been carried along was probably faster than most flight spells.
And yet, while carrying her unconscious body, he had managed to fight against that current.
“…Thank you.”
Ludwig’s cheek turned faintly red.
Looking aside, he spoke gruffly.
“…Since you’re awake, eat something first.”
The firewood he used came from a strange plant—trees that grew even without sunlight.
A plant that existed only in the Demon Realm.
And where plants lived, an ecosystem must exist.
‘So there are monsters on this island too.’
It seemed Ludwig had gone hunting while she was unconscious.
The meat roasting over the fire was clearly monster flesh, but Ariella was in no position to be picky.
His movements as he cut and prepared the meat were skilled.
The soft warmth, the smell of roasted fat… Ariella couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of comfort.
‘If Ludwig wasn’t here…’
She hesitated for a moment.
Words tangled and scratched at her throat, but she forced them out.
“You’ve saved me again.”
“Hm?”
He lifted his gaze from the fire and looked at her blankly.
His brow twitched—his usual habit whenever he didn’t understand her words.
She knew him well enough to recognize it immediately.
“Saved you again? When else did I save you? I don’t remember pulling you out of the water before today.”
“No, not water before.”
Ariella let out a faint laugh.
“In the human world… you saved me then too. This is the second time.”
“…?”
Ludwig’s face only grew more confused.
So Ariella confessed honestly.
“If you hadn’t made that contract with me back then, my life would have collapsed. Completely.”
Not just a little hardship—her entire life would have been destroyed.
Falling endlessly into a bottomless abyss.
“Now that I think about it, I’ve never asked you before.”
Ludwig tilted his head slightly, curiosity in his eyes.
“You were a princess in the human world, right? I never saw it, but you must have been an extraordinary princess. So why did you come to the Demon Realm?”
Ariella smiled faintly.
“How do you know if I was extraordinary or not?”
“I’ve seen what you’ve done here in the Demon Realm.”
His ruby-colored eyes reflected the glow of the fire.
“You’ve accomplished things no one else could. Even demons who were born and raised here failed where you succeeded.”
“…”
“So in your homeland, you must have done even greater things. Even I’m not stupid enough to miss that. You must have been the most famous princess in the human world.”
“That’s a bit too much praise. In that world, the most famous princess was someone else.”
“Did she govern better than you?”
She thought of Princess Beatrice from the neighboring kingdom.
While Ariella had support mostly within her homeland of Oinos, Beatrice was famous across the entire continent.
The reason was simple…
“She wasn’t known for ruling. She was known for being beautiful.”
“Hm? That’s strange. Why would a princess’s looks matter? Isn’t it enough if she governs well?”
“…That may be true, but I don’t know what to say to that.”
She quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, things weren’t good for me in the human world.”
Then she told him everything—what had happened before the contract.
The more Ludwig listened, the darker his expression grew.
By the time she finished her explanation…
“…?”
Ariella was startled.
In Ludwig’s eyes burned a sharp hostility and anger.
“This is ridiculous.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
She panicked. She hadn’t expected him to react so strongly.
To her, she had simply answered honestly.
“…I don’t like it. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve heard in a long time.”
He wasn’t the type to speak empty words.
The fire reflected his true feelings—it flared higher and burned brighter.
Whoosh!
His face was bathed in red light.
“I was wrong about the human world.”
“Wrong?”
“I thought it was a more peaceful place than the Demon Realm. But now I see—it’s full of dark plots and schemes!”
His voice rose with anger.
“In this world, the rule is simple: the one with the strength to rule becomes king. That’s all!”
Ludwig had become a Demon King by killing the previous one.
He had proven he had the power to rule a domain.
In the Demon Realm, where strength decided everything, a ruler’s personal power mattered most.
“And in your world, that simple truth doesn’t apply?”
Ludwig firmly believed Ariella had the right to rule—just in a different way from him.
From what he had heard and what he had seen of her in the Demon Realm, her qualifications as a ruler were beyond doubt.
“To steal your throne in such a cowardly way…”
He clenched his teeth. He didn’t even fully understand why his anger burned so fiercely.
Their worlds were different, their paths unlike each other’s—but both had struggled in their own ways.
Ludwig had fought to survive alone in the Demon Realm.
Ariella had endured schemes, betrayal, and the cruelty of politics.
Her battles were of a kind Ludwig had never known, yet he could still feel the weight of them.
And because of that, his heart shook.
“Don’t you want revenge?”
The moment he spoke, the flames roared higher, licking the cave ceiling and scorching it black.
“Ludwig, stop! The meat will burn to ashes!”
“…Ah!”
He quickly pulled back his magic, and the fire shrank to its normal size.
Ariella flipped the skewered meat to check.
‘That hot temper of his…’
Luckily, it wasn’t ruined yet.
As she looked at the roasting meat, a strange feeling came over her.
‘This is such a strange situation.’
Back in the human world, she never could have imagined this.
‘Who would have thought I’d be stranded on an island in the Demon Realm, worried about monster meat getting burnt.’
She even forgot that she had nearly died only hours ago.
‘If someone had told me this last year, I would have laughed at them.’
The memory of her past contrasted with her present, but she didn’t feel self-pity.
She accepted both her successes and her failures—without denial, without escape.
She only thought her journey so far was strangely fascinating.
Life was unpredictable. And perhaps that made it even more interesting.
Ariella looked back on yesterday and thought ahead to tomorrow.
“We need to save our strength. If we want to escape this island tomorrow, both of us must recover.”
She was still only in her late teens. She had a long life ahead.
And not just for herself—for the Demon King’s Domain and its people, she had responsibilities.
“We can’t waste energy burning meat.”
Ludwig stayed silent for a while, still haunted by her words. Then, slowly, he spoke again.
“I’ll ask once more. If you do want revenge…”
“That’s enough.”
Ariella shook her head.
“It’s not mine to deal with anymore.”
“…I see.”
“I still care for the people of Oinos. That much is true. But now… there are others who need me more, aren’t there?”
She gazed toward the cave’s entrance.
“This world. Ludwig’s domain.”
“…I understand.”
Reaching out, Ludwig flipped the skewer again.
And then, almost casually, he added:
“In my eyes… maybe it was actually a good thing. Would you be angry if I said that?”
This time, a different kind of feeling stirred in his gaze.
