The Demon King’s Castle
Arkaz feels panic as he rushes through his castle before stopping in the medical ward and placing Scarlet directly on a bed. Then he begins looking over her body himself as all of the healers in the castle rush over there without even needing to be told. Regardless of if they were in the tournament universe or not.
And the results he finds while searching leave him feeling conflicted. Very conflicted.
The physical wounds from the battle are all healed thanks to the System’s automated healing post-competition round. But the damage to her reality is still there.
Which is why she is still out cold right now.
However, at the same time, the damage is slowly being healed. Something that shouldn’t be possible when entire chunks of your reality, your very soul are burn to cinders.
And while that’s good, Arkaz doesn’t know if the method that she seems to be naturally healing it is good. Because the source of the healing doesn’t appear to be her own body. But rather, the Red Plague itself.
Not to mention the core she absorbed that seems to be nourishing her reality.
“She’ll survive, and stronger than ever as well,” Oberon states, but Arkaz just glares at the Fae King the moment he appears in the air. And for the first time since Arkaz can remember, he raises his voice.
“Don’t you ever do something like that again,” he roars, frightening every last demon within one hundred kilometers of the castle. “Or I will erase our contract.”
What pisses Arkaz off even more is the sight of his contracted fae acting like he had already expected his reaction.
“I’m sorry old friend, but I will do what must be done for the universe’s survival,” the Fae King says while bowing his head once and vanishing again.
Arkaz glares at where the Fae King vanished from, only to immediately turn all of his attention to his granddaughter when she lets out a light groan, just lightly brushing some of her hair out of her face. He doesn’t even notice when both Amelia and his son barge into the room and join them. Nor when the adoptive family members of his granddaughter enter the room as well, all clearly showing terror at the sight of the Demon King himself.
He ignores all of it.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
And if he’s being honest, the sight of the core in his granddaughter’s body making her stronger pisses him off even further.
Because it’s a sign that Oberon was right in some sick and twisted way.
Arkaz drops down to his knees and leans over the bed, just holding his granddaughter’s hand as he has flashbacks of the last time she was injured like this.
Although the last time wasn’t as bad, and she didn’t have ways to heal herself.
He can tell that she’ll most likely be unconscious for a couple of weeks. Meaning she’ll be missing the first four teamwork competitions of the tournament.
And she won’t be very happy about that when she wakes up. But with the points she got from that dragon, she won’t have to worry about it. Since they more than make up for not participating in four competitions.
Time passes in silence as Arkaz refuses to leave his granddaughter. First one day. Then two. Then a full week, followed by a second week. And he’s not the only one who won’t leave her side as both Amelia and Leonidas skip the tournament competitions as well to stay with their daughter’s.
Even the adoptive parents that Arkaz has been annoyed with for a long while now stay, making him irritated by them a little less for the loyalty they’ve shown to her.
From what Arkaz can hear, seeing as the tournament is still being broadcast live high above the castle, Oberon ended up leaving the tournament’s commentary to his sister entirely. Simply because neither the demons nor the humans wanted to hear a word he was saying after what happened with Scarlet.
Meanwhile Scarlet’s contracted fae – Tarankar if Arkaz remembers correctly – left after the second missed competition to go participate on his own in the second two.
Which Arkaz understands, since he knows Scarlet would be a little upset if he didn’t compete in any of them.
A faint smile stretches across Arkaz’s face as he reaches over to play with some of his granddaughter’s hair, wondering when the last time he’d done something like this was. If he’d ever done something like this.
Normally Scarlet still avoids making physical contact with others as if on instinct. It’s just when she’s conscious of it that she lets people touch her and isn’t very bothered by it.
Like an instinctive reaction based on past pain.
Arkaz looks up to find Amelia doing the exact same thing that he’s doing on the other side of the bed, surprising him for a second. But after staring at the woman for a few seconds, he lets out a sigh and glances at his son, who is currently staring intently at his daughter from beside Amelia.
Meanwhile the two adoptive parents are sitting at the end of the bed staring, simply because the space on either side of Scarlet is filled right now.
Eventually Arkaz lets out another sigh and begins to get up, prepared to give up his spot to them just for a little while. Since they did spend all this time worried about her.
But as he’s getting up, he sees Scarlet’s eyelid twitch out of the corner of his eye and he stops immediately.
And judging by the others’ reaction, he’s not the only one who saw it.
Then she lets out a groan and her entire face twitches this time, making everyone lean forwards, holding their breath.
And, as if waking up from a long nap, her eyes slowly flutter open and she sits up in the bed, revealing the nightgown Amelia had put her in at some point without the others watching.
Arkaz feels a tear building up in the corner of his eye as he says, “Good morning, sleepyhead.”
She just tilts her head, seemingly confused for a second before muttering, “Morning…”
Then Universal Notifications begin to ring out to everyone.