“I hope you don’t mind me joining you here”

“Suit yourself”

‘Such a cold reply’ Lukalis thought. Considering both of them were naked in the water, she thought that he would at least react accordingly.

‘Not even a hint of embarrassment…is my body so mundane in his eyes?’

Elves are known for their fair and elegant looks, compared to human beings, elves definitely were more attractive ones.

Many men would either get aroused or get embarrassed to an exaggerated degree when they were next to a naked female.

But strangely, Dark Lord’s eyes did not have even the slightest hint of lust in them.

Even though his line of sight was directed at her, she could tell that she might as well be a see through wall. His gaze was always looking at something much further ahead, almost as if he was expecting something to happen.

Considering that Dark Lord currently was looking at her with a bored expression, Lukalis immediately realized the awkwardness of her situation.

She did mean to tease him a little, get him to act all mushy like a shy guy, but him finding her bare body to be boring sight was an unexpected outcome.

‘Now that I think about it. I am naked and alone in the hot springs with a man…’

Lukalis immediately lowered her body into the water, making only her head be above the water.

“You could avert your gaze, you know”

“Why? It’s just you”

‘Just me? What does he mean? Heck, instead of shaming him, why am I the one getting embarrassed?’

She might have been a bit of a tease, but the truth was that Lukalis had no experience with men. And Dark Lord was no simple man.

“Runfar, you really are a piece of work, all right” Lukalis sighed.

“I can say the same thing about you, Luka. Why did you follow me?”

“I wonder…” Lukalis scratched her cheek. “I simply wanted to have a talk with you, in private.”

“Is that all?”

“What other reason could there be?”

Dark Lord shrugged.

“Considering you have been following me for a while now, I thought that it was something crucial. But I guess that was not the case. By the way, thank you for saving us from that woman.”

“So you knew it was me, huh. How did you know?”

“You just told me. Besides, how ignorant do you think I am, Luka? Instead of stalking me everywhere I go, you could have just talked to me. It would have saved you so much time and effort”

“Hmm, that’s true. By our contract, you cannot utter a lie to me, lest you lose your life.” Lukalis chuckled a little. “How silly of me….But, there is a loophole to this contract. You can just choose not to speak and nothing will happen to you. And nothing reveals an unspoken truth better than what one does when one thinks none is looking.”

“Very clever” Dark Lord was clearly impressed by her train of thought, though he did find her logic to be slightly flawed.

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“If I were to question you, will you answer me without holding back the truth behind shut lips?”

“If answers are what you seek, then I shall try my best to answer you, though I don’t have all the answers, I am afraid.”

“You know enough to answer me”

“Is that so? In that case, ask me anything you want and I shall oblige each time, as per our contract”

“Splendid”

Both of them, an elven woman and a demon were enjoying the warmth of the hot springs. Such relaxing scenery and atmosphere were just divine.

“You maid servant, the girl named Alua. I simply don’t get it…I offered to become her sister, since she keeps visiting the graveyard every day; I thought it would cheer her up. Having me for sister should have been an honor, but instead she started to cry uncontrollably! Just a mention of her sister in front of her and she becomes some kind of a water fountain! What is wrong with her?”

“Wow, and I thought I was insensitive”

Alua Malekis, an elven woman who ended up being a victim to Augustus Sevilles, the former head of Sevilles Household.

After assuming the identity of Runfar Sevilles, the bastard son of Augustus Sevilles, Dark Lord inherited the former owner’s property and burdens.

One of them was the elven girl Augustus tortured along with many others, including her sister.

Augustus made lives of his slaves a living hell, torturing and starving them for his own amusement.

Many of the staff in Sevilles mansion feared him.

When Runfar showed up seemingly out of nowhere, they were terrified at the possibility that he might be same as his father.

Dark Lord worked hard in order to improve the image of Runfar Sevilles, slowly earning the trust, respect, and love of his subordinates.

He needed a cover and he had the time to get all the details right.

Of the demons Augustus used in his experiments, only one survived.

Among the elves, Alua was the one that lived, while her sister did not.

Desperate to avenge her sister, Alua tried to kill Runfar, but just with well-placed words, he managed to persuade her not only to abandon her goal, but also become his subordinate.

But among all the maids, Alua was easily the gloomiest one.

In simplest sense, she no longer had a reason to live, now existing like a bleak ghost of her former self.

Apparently, Lukalis, thinking of Alua as a fellow elf, tried to make her feel better, with mixed results.

Lukalis hated human beings.

That was an undeniable fact.

But to her own kind…it was a little more complicated feeling.

“…..I guess that is not very important.” Lukalis muttered

She locked eyes with Dark Lord.

“It seems that the mask Camilla and I made for you is to your liking”

“Indeed. It is very handy. Couldn’t have come here in my true form, could I?”

“Is this what you looked like before you were turned?”

“No, I changed my face a little to not be recognized, but it is close enough”

“I have been curious for a while what you might have looked like…but I am far more concerned with who you were.”

Her tone turned serious.

“I heard that dark armored hero’s words. ‘You could have been a hero’. I wonder, Dark Lord, did you ever want to be a hero?”

“Never. But my predecessor did.”

“I am not even going to ask what that is supposed to mean” Lukalis shook her head.

While Dark Lord did not utter falsehood in her presence, some of his answers were hard to decipher.

“…I suspected you of being many things. But the most likely scenario was that you are a former hero or a holy knight who had gone rogue. But seeing how weak you are and your poor fighting ability, that is unlikely. What I am sure of is that you are someone who completely lost his faith in this world. I don’t believe I am wrong on the last one”

“Think what you will, Luka. That is no concern of mine”

“Again dodging the question, aren’t you? Do you want me to spell it out? Who are you, damn it!”

“Fine. I am former servant of Shinigami, the Secondary Deity of Death. I have been cursed and stranded in this world by a certain goddess of time and I would want nothing more than bash her head into the ground. Is that sufficient?”

“That makes even less sense!”

“Luka, truth is a hard dish to swallow”

Lukalis ended up sulking a little.

‘Even when it’s clear he is telling the truth, why does it sound like a lie made up by a fool who never learned how to deceive anyone? If it were not for our contract, I would have dismissed his words as a blubbering of a buffoon….Hmmm, I am not very familiar with gods humans worship…’

Elves worshipped their own gods while human beings viewed the Primary Gods and King of Gods as their deities.

The different systems of worships contributed to Lukalis’s confusion along with Dark Lord’s seemingly nonsensical answers.

“Why did you even hire me?”

“Because you grandfather convinced me that you are of far more use to me alive than dead”

“There is no way you could know…”

“Liren Kreschen.”

Dark Lord uttering her grandfather’s name made Lukalis freeze on the spot.

Liren Kreschen, her beloved grandfather was dead for the last fifty years. What she could never imagine was the fact that Dark Lord, as a former servant of Reaper, could clearly see the ghost of her grandfather when he was around. Seeing ghosts was a passive ability he acquired as a servant of a Reaper.