I Took the Demon King as My Wife

Hans, who had rushed to Eilena’s room in one stride, stopped abruptly in front of the door.
“De-!”
Just as he was about to knock on the door while calling her name, his bent knuckles froze before touching the door.
His lips, which had taken in a deep breath, were slightly parted but couldn’t utter any words.
The hand hovering at the door fell limply. His head drooped along with it.
‘What should I say…?’
His parted lips remained awkwardly frozen. His twitching hand couldn’t grab the doorknob or knock.
Though he simply needed to knock and explain the situation, his body just wouldn’t move.
His mind went blank, and he didn’t even know how to start the conversation.
While he was standing there motionless in front of the door, suddenly the door swung open from inside.
“Whoa!”
“…What is it?”
Hans was startled and reflexively backed away.
In front of him stood Eilena, looking up at him with a contorted expression.
Eilena glared at him with sharp eyes.
“I asked what business you have.”
“Ah… w-well….”
Hans hurriedly searched inside his garment and handed the Emperor’s letter to her.
Eilena, who had been staring at the paper he offered, snatched the letter.
With concise hand movements, she unwrapped the letter and began reading it in front of him.
Her red eyes moved busily, scanning through the densely written text.
“……”
Having instantly read the letter, Eilena quickly folded it back with strange hand movements and handed it back to Hans as if throwing it at his chest.
“Wait a moment, I’ll change and come out soon.”
“Ah… alright.”
Eilena whispered those words as she gently closed the door and went inside.
Hans, with the returned letter carefully held in both hands, stared blankly at the spot where she had left, standing in front of the door.
.
.
.
Much later.
-Creak.
The firmly closed door moved again.
Hans had been waiting in front of the door, strictly following her words.
After leaning against the wall and going over the Emperor’s letter many times, he couldn’t hide his irritation when the door finally opened after reading it twenty-four times.
“Hey, how is this considered ‘soon’…?”
He slightly turned his body toward the creaking door. By now, he should give her a warning…
“…Huh?”
However, contrary to his intention, his ill-mannered mouth froze once again.
A woman slowly revealing herself through the door gap captured his gaze as if kidnapping it.
“…Can’t you even wait this much?”
The lips that appeared first chattered venomously.
The face those small lips were attached to wore an expression just as unpleasant as when they had met in the morning, but her external appearance was quite different.
The shabby black dress was gone, replaced by a modest crimson dress that traced a curve below her slightly protruding chest and draped down long.
Whether she had applied makeup or not, her jade-like skin shone smoothly, and her lips with a faint pink tinge brought life to her face, which might otherwise have looked pale.
“……”
Hans could only move his mouth like someone who had lost all vocabulary. He couldn’t utter any words or sounds.
Eilena, her brow slightly furrowed, rolled her eyes and stared at him.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
“Um… no… that….”
Hans trailed off awkwardly, turning his head away from her sharp gaze.
But even though his head turned, his fixed gaze showed no sign of following along.
What his fixed eyes captured was such an unfamiliar sight.
With her long hair slightly tied up, her thin, white nape was fully exposed.
The bangs she had left slightly in front hung over the curve of her round forehead, tucked behind her ears, and the curved sideburns in front of her pointed ears were beautifully disheveled like earrings.
“Just changing a woman’s image can completely transform her impression!”
Suddenly, Lasia’s words came to mind.
‘This is more than just a transformation…?’
She looked like a completely different person.
“……”
Had he turned to stone? Hans froze in front of the door.
“…Huh.”
Eilena closed her eyes gently and sighed. Then she moved with confident steps, passing by Hans who was standing stupidly.
“Huh…? No, wait!”
Thud, as Eilena brushed past his arm with her shoulder, Hans finally broke free from his petrification and came to his senses.
So he followed her to the study.
As soon as Eilena entered the study, she headed straight for the bookshelf.
“……”
Hans, who had closed the door and followed her belatedly, could only watch her blankly.
Standing in front of the tall bookshelf, Eilena picked out a thick book and examined it carefully. After briefly flipping through a few pages and checking thoroughly, she gently cradled it in one hand.
Brownish sunlight poured over her side through the large window.
Her red hair shone brilliantly, gradually dyeing the surroundings with her color.
Each time she pulled out a book from the high shelf, the rustling of her clothes revealed her slender arms.
Whenever this happened, Hans’s gaze automatically shifted as if observing her delicate arms.
‘Why do I keep…!’
Hans shook his face vigorously at the sight of her that kept capturing his gaze.
“…?”
At this, Eilena, who had been thoroughly examining the books, slowly blinked and shifted her gaze to Hans.
Hans flinched and raised his shoulders when he met her red eyes again.
“A-ahem!”
He coughed loudly out of embarrassment.
This only made Eilena stare at him more intently with puzzled eyes.
Hans’s face began to turn red under her gaze, which seemed to penetrate his innermost thoughts.
He felt a sense of guilt, as if he had instinctively done something he shouldn’t.
Eventually, unable to overcome his embarrassment, Hans strode past her toward the desk.
-Scrape!
He roughly pulled out the chair and turned it toward the window.
“……”
Eilena’s brow naturally narrowed as her eyes followed him.
Though she strongly wanted to ask what he was doing, she didn’t want to open her mouth.
In the end, she kept her lips tightly sealed and finished by shooting a look full of displeasure.
She continued examining the tall bookshelf, gathering books in her arms. More than ten books were carefully cradled in her arms.

Then, she approached Hans, who had turned his back, with her selected books.
-Thud.
As she placed the rather heavy stack of books on the desk, Hans slightly turned around.
“W-what is that…?”
To his timid question, Eilena immediately replied.
“Novels.”
“Novels…?”
Hans looked at the high stack of books with a confused expression. He slowly turned his chair back around.
Eilena stood across from him, staring at Hans who was peering at the pile of books.
When Hans slightly extended his hand toward the books, she picked up the one on top and threw it, thud, in front of him.
Plop. With a dull sound, dust settled on the desk spread out with a whoosh.
Hans glared at Eilena with somewhat displeased eyes, then picked up the book.
“How to… Capture the Princess…?”
It was a strange title. Hans’s brow furrowed involuntarily.
On the cover was an illustration of the profile of a woman with splendid blonde hair that reached the floor.
The woman, who appeared to be a princess, had eyes so large they occupied half her face.
“What on earth is this….”
“Finish reading it by morning.”
“What…?”
Eilena tapped the pile of accumulated books and spoke matter-of-factly to Hans, who was slightly turning the pages.
“N-no, wait…! Why should I…!”
Hans roughly overturned the book with the monster-like woman drawn on it onto the desk and rose from his seat.
He frowned and exhaled heavily.
“……”
At this, Eilena shot him a cold glance. She snatched the Emperor’s letter from his front pocket.
With a whoosh, she extracted the letter with hand movements that automatically made one’s mouth open in amazement and thrust it in front of his eyes.
Hans raised his eyebrows and slightly pulled his head back. A thin, long finger firmly pointed to the middle of the letter and closely followed his eyes.
“What… what!”
“……”
At Hans’s repeated questioning, Eilena kept her mouth tightly closed and once again firmly pushed the letter with her fingertip as if piercing it.
At this, Hans deeply furrowed his brow and carefully looked at the word she was pointing to.
“Melodrama.”
“……”
Hans’s eyes narrowed significantly as he slightly withdrew his head. It was a clearly dissatisfied gesture.
“Are you telling me to imitate the male protagonist from this or something?”
He asked with an obviously irritated tone. In response, Eilena again pointed to another part of the letter instead of answering.
“Acting.”
“……”
After checking the word, Hans completely closed his mouth.
‘Has she suddenly become mute or something… jeez.’
Eilena was openly emitting an aura that said, ‘I don’t even want to exchange words with someone like you.’ Feeling a sense of defiance, Hans decided to keep his mouth shut too.
He roughly placed “How to Something Princess” on top of the remaining pile of books with a thud, picked them up with one hand, and walked out toward the door with large strides.
“……”
Eilena silently watched Hans pass by her briskly, still keeping her lips firmly sealed.
-Bang!
The study door closed roughly.
Eilena, who had been staring at the door that made a loud noise, eventually turned her head and stared at the place he had left.
She lowered her eyes as if lost in thought for a moment, then moved her steps back to the bookshelf. She began selecting and choosing her own share of books one by one.
*
Late evening.

Hans was reading a book by the light of a small oil lamp, having skipped dinner.
Leonard the Duke roughly seized Hazel’s wrist.
“Ahh…!”
The princess let out a painful moan and tried to break free from his hand, but the more she struggled, the more roughly the Duke pushed her against the wall.
His eyes, full of lust, slowly flowed over her body, exploring every corner, penetrating through the gaps in her torn dress.
“Huk…! Huk…!”
“Hehehe…!”
Large droplets fell from Hazel’s eyes. The more this happened, the more excited the Duke seemed to be, raising his curved mustache and smiling unpleasantly.
Leonard the Duke extended his lecherous hand toward her slightly protruding chest.
It was then.
A hand in a black glove seized the Duke’s wrist.
“Wh-what!”
The Duke flinched like a mouse caught in a trap and pulled his body back. At the sight of the man he faced, his face turned pale.
It was Crowell, the Grand Duke of the North, his natural enemy.
Crowell tore the Duke away from Hazel and threw him to the floor.
Bang! As the Duke fell, landing on his bottom, Crowell gently grabbed Hazel’s wrist and embraced her in his arms, saying,
“Touching what is mine… you must be prepared… Duke…?”
Hans, who had been reading the book silently, closed it with a snap, along with an irritated lament of “What is this!”
“What am I doing right now….”
He sighed heavily and clutched his forehead with both hands.
Then he glanced sideways and scanned the books messily scattered on the desk.
“Is there a demand for this kind of thing…?”
The more than ten books were all female-oriented romance novels with princesses or noblewomen as protagonists.
For Hans, who had kept his distance from books, reading itself was a hardship, but what was more perplexing was the content of the books.
A tragic female protagonist, a male protagonist with incredible abilities, two people falling in love.
All with the same repertoire and the same developments.
Moreover, the characters were just as bizarre.
“What’s the difference between that Duke and the male protagonist….”
When the male protagonist roughly pushes the female protagonist against the wall, she falls in love.
Conversely, when the villain Duke pushes the female protagonist against the wall, she falls into fear.
“What on earth is this….”
No matter how much he read, it was difficult to understand why the female protagonist and male protagonist fall in love.
Because he saved her from danger? By that logic, the knights patrolling the city at night should rightly have ten wives each.
Because the male protagonist, known to be cold-blooded in public, is a warm person only to her? Isn’t this just a mentally ill, incomplete personality?
Hans thought these aspects should rather cause affection to fade.
“No matter how I look at it….”
It was simply because the male protagonist was an outstanding wealthy person, capable, with a tall and sturdy physique.
Because he possessed incredible good looks that made all the noble ladies faint with just one smile.
Because he, who was outwardly only kind, became a beast(?) in bed, a man of great prowess.
There was no other explanation.
‘Why on earth was I told to read this….’
Only after reading more than half the book did he belatedly think this.
Hans let out another deep sigh drawn from the depths of his lungs.
“……”
After staring blankly at the floor for a while, he slightly raised his head.
“…Hmm.”
Swallowing a long internal cough, he stared at the book he had overturned earlier.
“The Northern Grand Duke’s Method of Training the Princess.”
It was a vulgar book from the title.
The “How to Capture the Princess” he had read first was at the level of a children’s fairy tale.
The descriptions were much more provocative, and the level was higher.
The pure female protagonist’s gradual transformation was strangely frown-inducing but also compelling to continue reading.
Despite the predictable development that made the future predictable, for some reason, he kept wanting to know what came next.
“……”
Gulp, Hans swallowed unnecessarily and picked up the book again.
‘W-well, I’ve already read half….’
Wouldn’t it be a waste not to finish?
Having read just one book so far… he thought he should at least read this one too.
Only then could he compare and judge what was good and what wasn’t.
And so, Hans stayed up all night until early dawn, reading all of the top 10 most popular romance novels in the royal capital.
As for whether they were helpful… he wasn’t sure.