“Where do I go next?” Luke muttered to himself as he looked at his map. On the projection, nearly half of the landmass was red, the color he marked as his own territory. “Would going north or east be faster?”

Ring, ring.

Luke furrowed his brow. He answered the phone and asked, “What’s up, Khrx? Did you find Fufu?”

Khrx’s voice crackled through the interface accompanied by the whispering of feminine voices. “I’m outside your home. Open the door.”

“Huh?” Luke asked. “I’m not at the guild hall.”

“I meant in reality,” Khrx said. “If you don’t open it soon, Anaheim’s going to raze your house.”

Luke’s eyes widened. “What? Anaheim? Why did tracking down Fufu turn into tracking down me!?” He whirled around and faced the elder of the city-state he had just conquered. “Take me to your residence. I’m going to rest. No one is allowed to bother me.”

The elder trembled as he led the way to a partially scorched building. Luke went in, cast a few spells to ensure his safety, and logged out of the game. He removed the metal helmet from his head after leaving his personal room. He fiddled with his phone, projecting a screen of the view outside his front door. Anaheim was staring into the camera which, in turn, made it seem like she was glaring directly at him. Behind the angry-looking hero, Khrx was suspended off the ground by a figure dressed in black curtains. Anaheim raised a glowing white fist, and Luke cursed before pressing a button, causing his front door to slide open.

Luke exhaled as he stood up, casting a spell to freshen himself up as he strode over to his closet. He donned a fancy suit meant for a dinner party and stepped outside his study, entering his living room where he came face to face with a glaring woman. Luke flashed her a smile as he stuck his chest out and placed his hands behind his back. “Ms. Miehana,” he said. “If I knew you’d hold a grudge, I wouldn’t have removed you from the guild and killed you.”

“I know you’re the demon lord,” Anaheim said, her eyes frosty.

Luke glanced at Khrx, but the dragon-turned-beastkin was busy pocketing a priceless antique made of gold that was on display in a crystalline cabinet. So instead, Luke raised an eyebrow and asked, “I thought I told you that was roleplay? The demon lord was slain a long, long time ago.”

“And he’s about to be slain again today if you don’t stop playing dumb,” Anaheim said, reaching into the top of her shirt to pull out the blood-red necklace. “This necklace is a congealed drop of the demon lord’s blood. My friend there”—she gestured towards Duchess Rose who was stripping off her curtains—“happens to be a vampire proficient in tracking people via their blood. Guess where we ended up after doing a search for the demon lord?”

“A tomb, perhaps?” Luke asked.

“You!” Anaheim raised her hand and smacked Luke’s face. Her palm collided against a blue barrier and bounced off harmlessly. Luke didn’t even flinch. “Don’t think I’m as weak in reality as I am in game. Remove my curse at once!”

“I can’t do that,” Luke said. His expression darkened as Khrx wandered to the other side of the living room, breaking into a display that had a person-sized emerald as the centerpiece. He wasn’t sure where it went, but it disappeared after Khrx lifted it and shoved it down the neck of his onesie. It was probably some kind of transportation magic. “Khrx. What are you doing?”

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“Collecting interest,” Khrx said as his gaze wandered all over the room. His eyes lit up upon seeing a chandelier made of diamonds and sunstones.

“We canceled out our debts! What interest? You’re the one who owes me!” Luke said. He tried to walk past Anaheim, but she grabbed his bicep, preventing him from moving any further.

“Hmm?” Khrx pocketed the chandelier before tilting his head at Luke. “What’s debt have anything to do with this? I’m collecting the things I’m interested in.”

“Stealing. I like it,” Duchess Rose said with a nod. “Are you going to turn them into mimics? I can help.”

“Why can’t you dispel this curse?” Anaheim asked, ignoring Khrx and Duchess Rose. Her hand exerted more pressure on Luke’s arm, causing the blue barrier surrounding it to break. “If you can’t dispel it, then I’ll just kill you. That’ll get rid of it.”

Luke sighed. “Unhand me,” he said. “Let’s sit down and talk about this over a cup of tea, shall we? This era is quite modern. We don’t have to resort to barbaric mannerisms like in the dark ages.” He brushed away Anaheim’s arm, easily breaking free from her grip.

Anaheim glared at Luke as he took a seat on the couch, motioning for her to sit across from him on the other side of the coffee table. Luke pressed a button, and a robotic servant waltzed into the room with a tea set held up on a platter. As the servant poured the tea, Luke folded his hands across his lap and leaned back into the couch, sinking into the plush cushions. “Let’s get one thing straight before we start,” Luke said. “All those years ago, your ancestor, the hero, killed me. Yet that didn’t dispel the curse. Even if you were to kill me right now, you’ll still give birth spontaneously in ten years and die in twenty-five.”

“So you’re finally admitting your identity, huh?” Anaheim muttered. She pushed away the teacup offered to her, maintaining her gaze on Luke.

“That’s right,” Luke said. “I’m the demon lord of yore.”

“Dispel my curse.”

“I already told you, I can’t,” Luke said with a shrug. “I apologize.”

“Explain why you can’t!”

“I’m not the one who placed that curse on that drop of blood,” Luke said. “It was the hero.” He took a sip of tea and let out a content sigh, causing Anaheim’s veins to bulge on her forehead. He smiled at her before continuing. “Let’s face it. I am a handsome man. Even you think so, I’ve seen you try to hide it in game, don’t deny it.”

“Narcissist,” Duchess Rose muttered from the corner of the room. She was holding Khrx up to help him reach the top shelf of a closet.

Luke ignored the vampire. “Your ancestor was bewitched by me. When I rejected her advances, she cursed my blood. I’ll reincarnate over and over and forever be hunted down by her descendants. If you kill me now, then I’ll have died six times over the past thousand years. So, yes, you’re fated to kill me. That’s literally what you were born to do as decreed by your ancestor.”

“I don’t believe you,” Anaheim said.

“That’s unfortunate,” Luke said and shrugged. He finished drinking his tea and passed the empty cup to the robotic servant. “Well, there is a way for you to break the curse. You can eat that necklace. But you’ll die.”

Anaheim’s gaze lowered to the necklace resting on her palm. She sighed. “You know, turning into a vampire doesn’t sound so bad right about now.”

“That won’t dispel the curse,” Luke said. “You think your ancestor was weaker than a vampire? She had heaven-defying powers, and she consolidated all that power into cursing me.”

“I have heaven-defying powers too,” Anaheim said. “You don’t have a way to use my powers to break the curse?”

“I tried doing that with your great-great-great-great-etc.-grandmother a long time ago. It didn’t work, and she was much, much smarter than you,” Luke said with a nod. “It won’t work.”

“Other than eating the necklace, is there another way to break the curse?” Anaheim asked.

“None.”

Anaheim’s eyes narrowed into slits. “You’re lying.”

“Did you inherit the eye of truth? How inconvenient,” Luke said with a sigh. “Well, there is another method, but I’m not going to tell you. I’d rather die.”

Anaheim cracked her knuckles as she stood up. “I always wondered why my mom taught me how to torture people. Her foresight was pretty good.”

***

Awakening Cycle 1,072,362: Day 45.

Dear Diary,

I love visiting Luke. I always find new shiny things. And I learn new things about him too. Like, before, I didn’t know he cried like a girl. I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t bring Anaheim along. Anyways, the day I can see Fufu is not far from here!

Love,

Khrx