Delia stared at her cousin. He lay on the ground and took a bite of a pizza slice someone had brought him. Then he offered his demon a piece of his pizza.

The demon's name was Carpy or something.

"At least they weren't insensitive enough to bring a tuna pizza," Kon nudged at his fish and smiled. Carpy shook his body in response, which was either a sign of him nodding, shaking, or laughing. Maybe it was all three at the same time?

She and the other exorcists only stared at him from the sidelines as Kon acted like the world around him didn't even exist.

"You don't need to tell me about it. Have you seen the strong exorcists? I don't know one strong exorcist who is sane." Kon shrugged as if he was talking to his fish. They seemed to be having a casual conversation despite the lack of response from the eel-fish thing.

Anika, the girl from the Raion Clan, approached him slowly and asked. "Are you… okay?"

"Never been better,” Kon smiled. “There ain't an injury on my body. I feel so damn happy that I could cry."

Delia approached her cousin and whispered. "C'mon, everyone is looking at you. You're the hero of the day, don't act like a slob."

In response, Kon wrapped his arm protectively around the pizza box and brought it closer to his body, squinting his eyes. "You're not taking my pizza. This is only for Carpy and me."

"I don't fucking want your pizza!" Delia felt like her blood pressure was going through the roof. She was too damn young to be having problems like this!

But her father put a hand on her shoulder and turned to address the crowd. "Everyone! Please back off! My nephew might not walk again because of the injuries. It seems like the wounds he suffered from the attack were too severe."

Immediately, exorcists looked at him with pity in their eyes.

"What a shame."

"The kid was a hero."

"Holding back the Demonic Exorcist at his age isn’t easy."

Kon raised a questioning brow but continued eating. Then he whispered to Carpy. "Damn. They're really good at manipulating the public perception."

Despite Kon acting like he didn't care, he had helped the clan.

When rumors of Kon fighting the Demonic Exorcist to stalemate had spread, many exorcists assumed it was bullshit fabricated by the Dark Sword Clan. Which they were, but her cousin had somehow gone and done it; he battled the Demonic Exorcist to such an overwhelming stalemate that none could doubt his power any longer.

If the Clan didn't already have other plans for Kon, he would undoubtedly have overthrown Delia as the successor with these feats alone.

Kon was lacking in ambition, and if he were greedier… Now that she thought about it, Delia never saw Kon as unambitious. She made an assumption based on his actions because he never tried to become the clan head.

Her gut told her Kon was not as greedless as he appeared to be.

The Clan Head’s eyes, however, glistened with greed, even as he tried putting up a friendly face.

"As expected of my son," Uncle came forward and crouched beside his young son. "I always had high hopes for you. But I never thought my son could defeat the Demonic Exorcist with such ease."

"What?" Kon seemed confused. "Defeat? With ease? He could have easily won if he hadn't been arrogant and summoned the army before I flooded the battlefield. Also, this isn't a feat I can replicate as I had to do a lot of preparation, and thankfully because of the sea being so close-"

"Son, let me teach you a life lesson," Uncle sighed and explained. "People don't care about the truth. They want an interesting story, and we will give them one."

"Of course, this interesting 'story' benefiting the reputation of the Dark Sword Clan has nothing to do with it, right?" Kon added, with a sharpness in his gaze that reminded Delia he wasn’t as naïve as he liked to think. But such a frosty look disappeared as soon as it came.

With how he usually acted, many assumed he was just another clueless kid. But Delia knew Kon didn't care enough to get involved in the political side of things, which was good for her, as she didn’t want to lose her right as the clan's heir.

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There were already enough problems with her being the next clan head because she was a woman. If her cousin wanted, he could overtake her quickly.

..

After the fiasco and making everyone else leave, help with the city's relief. The stadium had the Dark Sword Clan members in it and the Lover Exorcist staring at them like a hawk.

She stood over Kon, who was still lying down and chowing down on a third pizza. He continued sharing his food with his tamed demon, which was a bit weird.

"I didn't know you were so strong. Perfect Me really is something else," said Ellen.

Also, what did she mean by Perfect Me?

Delia knew she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but she got the general gist that they were talking about Kon's special ability. It annoyed her that he might have told some stranger about his ability but not his family, but she couldn’t make too much of a fuss about it.

"It's more Carpy lending me his power than me actually growing strong," he shrugged. Then he stared at Ellen’s eyes and kept his gaze there. "Also, from this position, I can see your panties. Have some decency, woman."

Ellen, the 6th strongest exorcist in the world, pouted and blushed.

Delia immediately tensed, preparing in case it escalated into a fight! It seemed like her cousin had suffered brain damage!

But instead of fighting, she stormed off. From what Delia had deduced, Ellen seemed a brash person who would pick a fight for anything.

So why the hell was she acting like a teenage pervert?

"Ellen," Kon called out. "I never called you teacher, did I?"

"Are you gonna start calling me that now?"

"No, not really." He said without an ounce of hesitation. "But thank you for coming here. Without you, everything could have gone wrong. Also, it was because of my request that teacher Oda died."

"So you call him teacher, but not me," Ellen sighed. She didn't seem to mind his rudeness. "Don't feel guilty about it. This was how he would have wanted to go. He died of old age when he was alive, so he returned as a zombie. I was just some stray he picked up on his way while searching for a worthy end to his legacy."

By the way Ellen clenched her fist, she wasn't over Oda's death.

Delia did not know who Oda was, but it must have been someone close to The Lover Exorcist.

"Thanks. Also, please don't act around other kids my age like you do with me," Kon warned the Special Rank Exorcist. Delia was curious about what he meant by that and planned to ask him later.

"Why, you jealous?" Ellen smirked teasingly. "Age is just a number for people of power like me."

"And a jail cell is just a room," Kon added. "Also, that was a fucking creepy thing to say. Please never say that again."

Ellen waved him off dismissively as she walked away. "Whatever, brat. I'm going on a journey to find demons to tame. Maybe I will find some that can cover my weaknesses."

Strangely, Delia wasn't entirely sure if he had a good relationship with The Lover Exorcist. Maybe they were having an affair or maybe they were just friends with benefits?

Though Delia would assume nothing for now. It wasn't like she knew much about these things; she would rather kill people than make love to them.

Kon returned to looking at the sky and sharing his pizza with the fish.

…

A couple of days later, Kon was leaning on a rocking chair and eating grapes. Every now and then, he used a spoon to catapult grapes at Carpy.

Delia had been observing her cousin and concluded he was weird. He did nothing except physical training for an hour-thirty, and then he would laze around the rest of the day.

The guy the entire world talked about had become a freeloader on the clan compound. Having had enough of him, Delia approached him and tried to entice him. “Your exam results came in the mail.”

“Oh? Is that so? What’s my nickname?” He asked.

Delia frowned; she had expected more of a reaction from him. But maybe she had been hoping for a bit too much. It was obvious that he wouldn’t fail the Expert Exams after what he had shown. “Your epithet is The Cursed Exorcist. It sounds kinda cool.”

“The Cursed Exorcist?” He raised a questioning brow.

“It was probably because of your cursed sword,” she clarified.

"The broken one?" He narrowed his eyes. “The same one you promised to find a replacement for?”

Delia coughed in her hand and didn’t meet his gaze. Finding a Cursed Magical Item at that level was challenging, and despite having some of the grunts in the clan looking, they had had only found some possible leads.

“If you don’t like the name, Dad could pull some strings and change it to The Water Exorcist,” she said, trying to steer the conversation away from the Cursed Magic Weapon.

“That name is already taken,” Kon shook his head and stared at a grape in his hand. Delia was about to suggest another name, but he stopped her by saying. “I like the epithet I already have. It implies nothing about my real abilities.”

‘It feels weird knowing that the cousin I used to bully when we were young is now stronger than me and seems so calm.’ Delia felt sad. 40% of her joy in life came from bullying her cousin; that was the second-best thing she liked to do.

Then an idea came to her. Per her father's orders, she wasn’t supposed to tell him yet. But seeing the cousin she enjoyed teasing, acting so cooly, and not engaging bothered Delia to her core.

“By the way, did you know you’re getting married to a princess?” As soon as Delia said that, she came to her senses as her sadistic instincts settled down.

‘Ah, I shouldn’t have said that.’