Chapter 380: A Demon Lord Under My Roof

Zilu stopped dead and fixed her eyes on Mary.

"Master... who is she?" Zilu asked, confused. "And why does she smell exactly like you?"

"..."

Nobody answered Zilu’s question.

Ely and Alice looked at Mark. Mark looked at Mary. And Mary, who seemed to be the only person in the room enjoying the moment, settled more comfortably on Mark’s lap and gave Zilu a charming smile.

"Pleased to meet you, little bunny. My name is Mary."

"Mary... Mary... doesn’t ring a bell," Zilu said, trying to place the name. "Are you a new maid?"

"Not exactly."

"A guest of Emperor Joseph’s?"

"Not that either."

Zilu frowned and looked at Mark for help. Mark cleared his throat, searching for the gentlest possible way to say it.

He didn’t find one.

"Zilu, she’s..." he finally said. "She’s the Demon Lord."

For a couple of seconds, nothing happened.

Zilu stood still, her smile half erased and her eyes fixed on Mary.

Then her rabbit ears, which until that moment had been standing tall, began to droop very slowly, one after the other, until they were completely flat against her head.

And then her eyes rolled back and she fell forward.

Mark was about to get up, but he didn’t need to. Alice had already moved.

With her good hand she caught the tray in midair before it touched the floor, without spilling a single drop of tea, while Ely grabbed Zilu by the shoulders just before she hit her head on the edge of the table.

"Well... I have to admit I didn’t see that coming," Mary confessed with amusement.

Ely and Mark lifted Zilu and laid her on the bed.

Alice set the tray on the table, poured herself a cup of tea, and drank it in one gulp without saying anything. Then she sat back down and stared at Mary.

"She can’t stay here," she said, frowning.

Mary arched an eyebrow.

"I’m pregnant, darling. I’m not going anywhere until I recover my mana."

"I don’t mean that," Alice replied with a sigh. "I mean nobody else can see you. If Zilu fainted just hearing who you are, imagine what will happen if anyone else finds out. It would be chaos."

"Besides, Emperor Joseph is still here," Ely added. "If he finds out the Demon Lord is living in the palace of the ally he just signed a pact with against the Church..."

Mark ran a hand over his face.

They were both right. Mary couldn’t go strolling through the hallways as if nothing were wrong. She couldn’t even leave this room without risking being seen.

Not to mention that most of his wives still knew nothing, and Mark preferred that they hear it from him.

"I agree," Mark said with a sigh. "Mary, while you’re here, you’ll stay in this room and you won’t leave it without my knowing."

"How dramatic everyone in this house is..."

"Mary."

"Yes, yes. I’ll stay hidden here like a secret mistress." She rested her head on Mark’s shoulder. "And here I thought I was your main wife..."

Hearing that obvious provocation, Ely’s eye twitched slightly, and just as she was about to say something, someone knocked on the door.

All four froze.

"Your Majesty?"

It was the elderly midwife, from the other side of the door.

"Sorry to bother you. You may come in now. Your wives and your children are waiting for you."

Ely was the first to react. She stood, walked to the door, and opened it just enough to poke her head out.

"Thank you," she told the midwife. "The emperor will be right there."

The midwife looked at her with some puzzlement, but nodded and left down the hallway.

Ely closed the door and turned to her master, who was already getting to his feet. Mary had to climb off his lap, which she did with a small grunt of protest.

"I’ll be back as soon as I can," Mark told her, holding her by the shoulders. "Please, don’t leave here."

"Yes, darling."

"I mean it."

"So do I." Mary gave him a little shove on the chest. "Go meet your children. I’ll wait for you here."

Mark looked at her a second longer, as if wanting to make sure she was serious. Then he nodded and headed for the door, with Ely and Alice behind him.

But before leaving, Alice turned to take one last look at the room.

Mary had gone over to the bed. She contemplated Zilu for a moment, lying right in the middle of the mattress, and without the slightest consideration pushed her with both hands to the edge.

Then she lay down in the space left free, settled on her side with her belly resting on the mattress, and buried her face in Mark’s pillow.

She breathed in deeply.

Then she stuck out the tip of her tongue and slowly licked the sheet, right where it was dampest with her juices and Mark’s cum.

Alice barely grimaced at the sight, though the expression vanished almost at once when she remembered she was hardly in a position to criticize.

As hard as it was to admit, she had done the same thing more times than she cared to acknowledge. In the end, she simply left the room and closed the door behind her.

In the hallway, Mark and Ely were waiting for her.

Just then, one of the palace guards turned the corner on his rounds.

He was a rock-skinned half-human nearly two meters tall, with a spear on his shoulder. Upon seeing the emperor, he stopped dead and stood at attention.

"Your Majesty."

"I need you to stay and guard this door," Mark ordered. "Nobody comes near my room. Not guards, not maids, nobody. If anyone asks, say it’s my orders."

"Nobody, Your Majesty?"

"Nobody."

The guard nodded, took up a position beside the door, and planted his spear on the ground.

Mark, Ely, and Alice walked down the hallway to the delivery room. But before reaching the door, Mark stopped.

"One more thing," he said in a low voice. "Don’t tell the others anything about Mary... at least for now."

"Are you sure about that, Master?" Alice said.

"Yeah... They’ve just given birth and will spend the next few days in bed recovering. It’s simply not the time." Mark ran a hand over the back of his neck. "When they’re better, I’ll tell them myself."

"That seems the most sensible."

Mark looked at Ely. She pursed her lips and seemed to wrestle with herself for a few seconds before agreeing with obvious reluctance.

"Fine. I won’t say anything."

"Ely."

"I said yes! I can keep secrets!"

Alice slowly turned her head toward her and was met with a withering glare.

Mark, for his part, took a deep breath and smoothed his clothes with his hands, though he didn’t need to. That was when he noticed his fingers were trembling slightly.

Without saying anything more, he opened the door.

The delivery room was much calmer than he had imagined.

The midwives were quietly cleaning up the remains of the day, Aria sat in a corner looking like she had survived a war, and Yuki stood by the window with her arm bandaged to the elbow.

The four beds in the center of the room were occupied by his wives, and each held a small bundle wrapped in blankets in her arms.

The babies barely moved, so tiny that for a moment Mark was afraid even to breathe too hard.

He stood still in the doorway.

After hours of anxiety, questions, and nerves, the moment he had been waiting for all day had finally arrived.

And yet, he didn’t know what to do.