The Coward Duke

"Huh? She is a what?"

"A real daughter of the Demon King."

"... For real?"

"For real, honey."

Aeson dropped the cloth in his hand to the ground.

To give some more information, they arrived at the Dukedom and settled down at an inn near the Duke's castle. It was only a short rest before Alfred led Aeson to sneak inside the room of Luciel. Thankfully, no one was there as Alfred laid out different kinds of gems and herbs with some kind of scribbles in the corner of the wall that it was hard for Aeson to understand.

"What are all these things for?" With a look of curiosity, he tried to take a closer look but felt faintly dizzy as the words started moving around.

Seeing that the elf suddenly lost his balance, Alfred opened his arms and pulled the little guy into an embrace. With a soothing voice, he chanted a spell on his sweetheart's eyes.

"Be careful, you don't have magic so your eyes will have a hard time processing it. Especially when this spell is powerful, it's from that book after all." Taking this chance, he landed a kiss on the closed eyes before continuing. "This spell is to track her soul, this room should be filled with her breath and possessions. When she's asleep at night, I will activate this spell."

"Oh, is that so?" Aeson slowly opened his eyes while rubbing his forehead to alleviate his dizziness.

"Uh-huh, we're done for now. Our next action will depend on whether the identity of her soul." As soon as he finished that sentence, Aeson could feel that he lost his footing for a while before realizing that he was teleported to the inn room. A bubbling jealousy arose from his heart every once in a while, being a wizard was so convenient! Thank goodness that he had his lover spoiling him because, to be honest, he traveled through worlds and even the male leads of those worlds were not as blindsided as his lover. There were unconditional trust and unconditional love that he received every single day.

"Now, let's wait until tonight."

Before Aeson could respond, his legs were lifted off the ground. He speechlessly observed Alfred hug him to the bed and took off their clothes. This man...

"Shouldn't we be ready for tonight instead of doing this activity?" Aeson's eyes were seemingly dead as he saw the hungry look on the man's face.

"Don't worry, I prepare everything." Alfred leaned down and bit Aeson's pointy ear teasingly, his hot breath brushed the now-red ear. The red ears were so adorable that a mischievous glint passed through the wizard's eyes. His tongue stuck out and gave it a lick, making the elf shiver.

Even though Alfred had always been a horny dog, Aeson's trust had never diminished because he knew that whenever Alfred assured him about something, he actually did it. So Aeson just let go of his inhibition and started to enjoy the ride.

Feeling his neck being clung onto, Alfred smiled and started showering his kisses.

After the passionate time has passed, Aeson was drying Alfred's hair after their bath as Alfred worked on his spell. That was how Aeson learned the truth about Luciel.

So, the Demon King really did die at the last war but he had a daughter? Then how the heck did she get send to another world and why would she possess Luciel's body? Questions and questions quickly piled up in the little elf's head.

"Don't worry too much, honey. It's actually easier to deal with the Demon King's daughter than the Demon King anyway." Alfred accurately sensed the overactive mind of Aeson again as his hands stop wiping his hair. So he turned around, threw the towel away, and firmly held the small white hands.

Looking at the caring eyes, Aeson knew that he thought too much again but he couldn't help it. It was always nice to know everything than nothing. If he missed an important detail, everything could crumble apart without him knowing.

"Interestingly, the demon daughter out occupied Lucia Roth's body. I think I can call it out." Alfred took out a small note at the end table and drew a strange circle on it. The drawing was a little bit familiar to Aeson, he swore to have seen it somewhere before.

'Isn't this those kind of spell to switch souls that those celestial masters used?' Clearly, in one of his previous worlds, he was a ghost but his role was insignificant to the story, he remembered seeing this drawing when one of the leads had to call back the soul of the female lead to her original body when she was cursed to become a bird.

"... Is there any chance for the original Lucia Roth to come back?" Aeson blurted out, forgetting that she shouldn't have know what the drawing meant.

In Alfred's eyes, there was a flash of surprise but he did not question how Aeson obtained that knowledge, only admiration in his heart as he thought of this smart elf.

"If her soul still exists, it's possible for her to return... I will be back to the tower for a bit to prepare a vessel to trap her first." Alfred kissed Aeson's forehead and then disappeared into the night.

Aeson was then left alone in the room, pondering at the drawing that Alfred left behind. It was quite interesting to him that there seemed to be an overlapped in the worlds' knowledge. He never thought he would see celestial masters' techniques in a world of magic, the mechanical behind these powers seemed to be similar. It was a shame that he had no knowledge on both because he never got to learn when he was killed so early during those first few worlds.

Meanwhile.

"Why are you here alone?" Angus asked the wizard who suddenly appeared in his study. However, it was not actually 'sudden' when they agreed to meet up in this room beforehand.

"Well, I don't want to bother my darling with this kind of stuff." Alfred plopped down on a chair in front of the study desk then threw a stack of papers toward Angus.

"...what is this?" Angus reached for the documents as he questioned the wizard.

"The true identity of your wife and how we can solve it." Alfred answered nonchalantly.

Angus frowned and immediately flipped through the pages. The more he read, the deeper the frown became. After digesting those information, he could only pinched his forehead and let out a sigh.

"A fucking demon?"

"Woah there, a duke cursing?" Alfred slightly laughed amusingly.

"I don't have time for your criticism." Angus shot a glare at the man, his eyes seemed red, maybe it was from disbelief and anger.

"Well, it's true, but judging from my observation, she seemed to have no awareness regarding her true identity. But you have heard her drastic change in personality from her personal maids, surely?"

"..."

"Put this thing under her bed tomorrow night." Alfred slid a piece of paper towards Angus. If Aeson was there, he would have recognized that paper looking like a talisman.

"But... what if her soul is no longer here?" Angus's eyes lingered at the talisman, but not accepting it or denying it.

"Are you scared that she will be just a dead body after the soul switch?" Alfred leaned back and sighed. There was some mockery in his tone.

"... I do not want to damage the ducal reputation for a damn demon." Angus finally put his hand on the talisman and examined it by flipping it back and forth.

Alfred rolled his eyes and felt all of this was so ridiculous. If not for this stupid duke lack of investigations and carelessly accepted her conditions to become his wife then he would not have such a hard time to make a decision. He could not careless about any of them but his elf was so concerned that he had to do all of this work to find the most suitable solution but the one in front of him was still hesitant for who knew what.

"Only because of my darling that I am graciously helping you like this, your land or your reputation, choose one." The wizard stood up and looked condescendingly at the duke.

Finally, after hesitating for a while, he finally came to a conclusion.

"... fine, I will but this under her bed. I will take care of the aftermath."

Alfred snorted and disappeared with his magic.

When Alfred returned, he found a big lump on the bed. His love had already fallen asleep and curled up into a ball under the blanket. All of his irritation from talking to the duke was gone like it never appeared. The blanket was lifted up when he tried to invade the bed making a slight breeze touched Aeson' skin.

"Ugh..."

Hearing his groan, he quickly wrapped his arms around the elf and tucked the blanket in again. The frown on Aeson's face loosened and his head snuggled in Alfred's firm chest.

It was a warm and lovely night until the real battle began the next day.