Chapter 365: The Worst Welcome Back

Elyn’s POV

You know, in novels—at least the romantic ones I read before coming to this world—whenever the main character was unconscious and finally regained consciousness, especially after the male lead had taken care of them throughout the night, or days, or weeks, or even months, there was always peace.

Always.

And when they opened their eyes, they would see the male lead first.

Or the female lead, depending on the story.

Their eyes would meet.

Soft.

Beautiful.

Filled with worry and concern.

Sometimes there would even be a tender smile.

It was always such a beautiful scene.

So why was my case different?

No, seriously.

Why?

Why was I staring at four eyes rather than the pair of eyes I should have been staring at?

Or rather, the pair of ruby eyes I had expected to see when I regained consciousness?

I blinked.

Four eyes stared back at me.

I blinked again as if they would disappear but they were still there.

I sighed internally.

Of course.

Of course this would happen to me.

“Your Majesty?”

Dracolthar called out, his voice echoing in my head as usual.

I stared at him.

I wondered if I should feign being unconscious again.

Perhaps if I closed my eyes and waited long enough, when I opened them again, I would be staring directly into Zorathys’s ruby orbs.

Yes.

That seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan.

I slowly began closing my eyes.

“Can you see?” Dracolthar asked and I opened my eyes again.

I really wished I couldn’t see at this moment.

I did not want to be staring at him.

I did not want to stare at his face.

I certainly did not want to hear his voice echoing inside my head.

“Wait.”

He suddenly raised his hands and yes showed me all ten fingers.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

I just stared.

Was he serious?

I had just survived what felt like being boiled alive from the inside, and this was the first thing he wanted to ask me?

I didn’t answer.

And just like that…Chaos ensued.

See what I meant when I said my case was always different?

And this chaos was coming from only one demon, a demonic pet, mind you.

“Your Majesty,” he said softly, his voice trembling.

“Surely you haven’t been…” He paused.

His four eyes widened.

“Can you not see me? Can you not speak?”

I was about to tell him that I could, in fact, speak.

But I didn’t even get the chance because he suddenly began weeping.

“No!” He cried. “No! How can this be?”

His tails started moving frantically behind him.

“We did everything!” He sobbed. “Everything!”

I stared at him wait what? I thought he had been pretending but he really was crying.

And when I say crying, I mean there was an unreasonable amount of liquid pouring from his eyes.

Black liquid.

It looked as though his tears couldn’t contain the shadows inside his body, so they had simply decided to spill out along with them.

And there were four eyes.

Four.

So naturally, there were four streams of black tears.

They poured down his face like miniature waterfalls. They hit the floor and continued spreading.

And spreading.

And spreading.

I stared at the floor.

There was already a small puddle forming.

At this rate, the bedroom was going to become a pool filled with Dracolthar’s tears.

I had to admit, though…it was touching.

He cared about me so much that he was crying like this simply because he thought I had lost my voice.

That was actually rather sweet.

“His Majesty will make sure none of us survives,” he sobbed.

I paused.

Oh.

Never mind.

He wiped his eyes.

Then he leaned closer to me.

“Your Majesty, can you really not see me?”

He raised his fingers again.

All ten of them.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

I continued staring.

I wasn’t answering him.

Not because I couldn’t.

I simply wanted to see how long he would continue doing this.

Apparently, not very long.

Because suddenly, he disappeared.

I turned my head and realised he had appeared in the corner near the door.

His knees were pulled up against his chest, his arms wrapped around them as he faced the wall.

Then he began wailing even louder.

“The King will have my head!” He sobbed loudly. “He will kill me! Then I’ll lose my voice and my form!”

He sniffled.

“I didn’t even do anything wrong! I watched her as instructed. I watched her, just as he said I should.”

The black tears continued flowing.

Remember when I said I was touched that he cared about me?

I take that back.

This demon didn’t care about me.

He only cared about what the king would do to him when he found.

Apparently, my death—or worse, my inability to speak and see according to him—was a matter that debated his full existence.

I was beginning to regret waking up.

I was tired of his wailing, and my head still felt heavy, so I tried to sit up.

My arms felt weak, but I managed it.

That was when I realised something else.

I was incredibly thirsty.

My throat felt dry.

I looked around.

There was a jug on the bedside table.

And beside it was a cup.

Perfect.

Water.

At least something could go right today.

I reached for the jug and poured some into the cup.

My hand trembled slightly as I brought the cup to my mouth.

I took a sip.

And immediately spat everything out.

“What is this?” I asked loudly.

I should have known, I really should have known. Nothing ever goes as planned in this curse world…not that I planned anything bit still.

Did I offend anyone in my past life–excluding Karen because she offended me too–to deserve this? I just regained consciousness after all. The universe is supposed to take pity on me.