I Took the Demon King as My Wife

Two weeks had passed since Yeomje visited the mansion.
Eilena still headed to the imperial palace every day to discuss policies. From the moment she opened her eyes in the morning until late evening.
The time she spent at the imperial palace overwhelmingly exceeded the time she spent at the mansion.
Hans only routinely went out to greet Eilena whenever she came and went, with nothing particular to do otherwise.
From the beginning, he had no daily routine to speak of except for morning training, and since he always woke up at dawn, these idle days felt unbearably long.
“Haaah…”
Hans, sprawled on the office sofa, yawned so widely his mouth might tear.
Having eaten a hearty lunch and with warm sunlight shining in, the conditions were perfect for taking a nap.
He covered his face with the novel he had been reading for amusement and propped his head on his arm.
Thud, he hooked his leg over the armrest of the sofa and tried to sleep.
“……”
However, no matter how much he closed his eyes and laid his body comfortably, sleep wouldn’t come.
“Mmm…”
Hans, who had risen groggily, scratched his head vigorously.
“When I’m sleeping all day… of course I can’t fall asleep.”
With nothing particularly to do, he had spent half the day just sleeping.
Except for meal times, it could be said that he was almost always sleeping.
Having never had any hobbies or leisure time to develop them throughout his life, the sudden freedom felt more like torture.
He had tried everything he could do in the mansion, but most activities were unsatisfying.
Reading books managed to alleviate the boredom somewhat, but even that had its limits.
“…Tsk.”
Hans closed the half-read book and carelessly tossed it onto the desk. Stacks of novels were piled on both sides.
“What should I do now…”
He tilted his chair back and swayed his body listlessly.
As he was deliberating how to pass the time while basking in the languid sunlight,
“…!”
Suddenly, an intense pain began to flare up in his side.
“Sss…!”
Hans drew in a sharp breath through his teeth as the aching pain intensified.
With a grimace, he clutched the throbbing area.
He immediately turned his head to look at the calendar next to the bookshelf.
‘Ah, it’s already that time…’
After checking the date, Hans hastily grabbed his overcoat and headed for the entrance.
“Excuse me, Master… where are you rushing off to?”
Wesley, who spotted him at the door, asked. Hans slightly turned his head to look at Wesley.
His slightly contorted face clearly showed signs of discomfort.
“I’m going… to the church for a bit.”
“What…? But why the church…?”
When Wesley questioned with a perplexed expression, Hans barely managed to answer while enduring the pain.
“I have… something… to do.”
“Pardon…?”
Wesley looked at him with an even more confused expression.
Hans told the head butler, “I’ll be back before dinner,” and immediately left the mansion.
Wesley blankly stared at his retreating figure.
Wesley pulled out the silver cross hanging around his neck and stared at it thoughtfully.
“Was the Master… a believer…?”

-Ding~
When he pulled the thin string, a clear bell sound rang out.
Not long after the doorbell rang, movement could be heard from behind the tightly closed door.
“How may I help you…?”
Creak, as the door opened, an elderly nun appeared.
The nun, who poked her head through the small gap in the door, slightly lowered her glasses beneath her curved nose bridge.
“Oh, my goodness!”
And upon recognizing the man standing at the door, she was so startled that she dropped her glasses to the ground.
“H-Hero…?”
“Ah… yes…”
At her intense reaction, Hans greeted awkwardly with a forced smile.
The nun hurriedly straightened her crooked veil and picked up the dropped glasses.
“H-Hero, what brings you to our church…”
“Ah, is Lasia… perhaps inside?”
“Th-the Saint?”
At the name that sprang from Hans’s lips, the nun’s shoulders jumped again.
Muttering something like she is here, the nun glanced furtively inside and pulled the door close. Whether she was there or not, her attitude was somewhat strange.
“…?”
When Hans began to detect something suspicious about her reaction,
“Bellmeil, who has come?”
“Ah! S-Saint!”
A familiar voice was heard from inside.
The startled nun stuttered something and tried to close the door completely.
But before her hand could reach it, the owner of the voice threw the door wide open.
Finally, upon discovering Hans standing at the door, her eyes widened.
“He…ro?”
“Ah… yes. It’s been a while, Lasia.”
Hans greeted her with an awkward smile.
Lasia stared at Hans’s face with eyes that seemed to lack a sense of reality.
Still looking at him with a blank expression.
“…Hmm.”
Hans couldn’t continue speaking.
He merely slightly turned his head away from her gaze.
As the deep eyes moved away from him, Lasia finally came to her senses belatedly. Blinking her eyes busily, she gently parted her lips.
“What brings you here…”
“Ah… well, that…”
In the heavy awkwardness, Hans scratched his head needlessly and dragged out his words.
Lasia silently observed his face, which only allowed her to see his profile. Soon, after a short sigh, she opened her lips again.
“First… come in.”
“Ah, yes…”
Lasia, stroking one arm, slowly went inside. Hans nodded and followed behind her.
“……”
The nun who had opened the door watched the Hero following the Saint with disapproving eyes and let out a quiet sigh.
‘…Poor thing.’
The nun, who had long known the feelings of the Saint whom she regarded as her own daughter, resented the Hero who had suddenly married another woman, leaving behind such a decent girl.
The sound of her crying all day long, locked in a small room on the wedding day, was still vivid in her ears.
“Sigh…”
But what good would it do for her to meddle in someone else’s romance? She sighed, trying to suppress her feelings of regret.
“…?”
When Hans, whose ears were ticklish for no reason, suddenly turned around, the nun had already disappeared.
Hans rubbed his oddly stinging nape and headed for the Saint’s room located at the top.

-Creak. Thud.
Hans, who had entered the Saint’s room, closed the door.
Habitually reaching for the lock mounted above the door, he suddenly stopped.
Seeing this, Lasia said,
“Just leave it, no one will enter my room without permission anyway.”
“Ah… well, that’s true…”
Hans nodded and wiped his hands before coming inside to sit down.
He plopped down on the bare floor, and Lasia, who had been watching him intently, hastily removed her veil and slowly approached him.
“Take it off.”
“…Huh?”
“I said, take it off.”
“…?”
Hans blinked slowly with a bewildered expression, not understanding what she meant.
Lasia, who had removed her white gloves as well, knelt in front of him.
“You came for treatment, right? Take off your clothes and turn around to face this way.”
“Ah… y-yes…”
So that’s what she meant…
He thought she might have been too abrupt in skipping the subject, but there was nothing wrong with what she said. Hans immediately decided to follow her instructions.
Thud, thud, hastily unbuttoning his shirt, Hans completely removed it and hung it around his waist.
Eventually, his ghastly body, like a tattered rag, was revealed.
Upon seeing Hans’s body, Lasia’s expression instantly crumpled.
“……”
At her gaze that looked like tears might fall at any moment, Hans silently turned his back.
Lasia gently placed her hand on his back.
-Wooong.
With a resonating sound, bright light began to pour from Lasia’s fingertips.
“…Ugh!”
Simultaneously, Hans’s brow furrowed tightly. Seeing his reaction, Lasia whispered as if murmuring,
“…Endure it.”
“Y-yes…! Maybe because it’s been a while, it’s…! Hard to bear…”
With each wave of light, something seemed to be violently struggling to burst out from his side. It was the primal pain that always accompanied the “treatment.”
Hans pressed down hard on his thigh, trying his best to endure the pain.
“……”
Noticing his trembling hands, Lasia silently stroked his back gently.
The scars that were torn and ripped all over gave a bumpy sensation to her fingertips.
“…Mmm.”
The soft touch clearly felt on his back stirred up feelings of embarrassment.
To calm his flushed face, Hans casually brought up a topic.
“Well… you remembered well…”
“Of course…”
“My… seizure cycle… I mean.”
“Of course I remember, I’ve never missed it once until now…”
“That’s… true…”
With those words, the conversation broke off again. He wondered if he had been too casual with his attempt at conversation.
‘This… this isn’t right.’
He didn’t come here to make such useless small talk.
As she said, it was partly for treatment, but more than that, he had come after reflecting on Yeomje’s scolding.
With his visit purpose unintentionally misrepresented, Hans couldn’t continue with any dialogue, let alone convey what he had originally intended to say.
“……”
For Lasia, who was already riddled with various misunderstandings, there was naturally nothing to say, and so the two entered another awkward silence.
In the end, until the treatment was complete, neither of them spoke.
“It’s done.”
After a long while, Lasia said as she removed her hands from Hans’s back.
To this, Hans turned his head slightly and said,
“Ah… thank you.”
“……”
No response came to his awkward expression of gratitude.
Hans watched Lasia silently stand up and began to gather and put on his clothes.
‘This isn’t, this isn’t right…!’
He deliberately buttoned his shirt slowly, trying somehow to open up a conversation.
Though there were well-organized words floating neatly in his mind, they only circled within his head. His miserable mouth couldn’t utter a single word.
While dawdling like that, the buttons had already reached his neck, and even by then, Hans hadn’t managed to say anything.
“……”
Finally, fully dressed, Hans bit his fidgeting lips hard and slightly turned around.
He saw Lasia rummaging through something in the corner of the room and bringing it to him.
“…Here.”
“Huh…? What’s this?”
Lasia handed Hans a small glass vial.
“It’s holy water containing my divine power. If you drink it a day or two before your seizure, you should be able to avoid… situations like today.”
“Ah… th-thank you.”
“It’s nothing, since we can’t do this… every time in the future…”
Lasia said she would give him a few more since the opportunity presented itself and headed back to the box in the corner.
Hans stared intently at the sparkling glass vial that fit snugly in his hand.
Then, turning his head, he saw Lasia diligently selecting glass vials with her delicate hands.
‘Every time in the future.’
Thud, her single remark caught in a corner of his heart and wouldn’t go away.
‘Do you know how much she cried and wailed?’
At Yeomje’s words that suddenly came to mind, his gaze inadvertently turned to her face.
‘Could it be… even today…’
Had she been crying?
Her completely white face had reddened, puffy eyelids.
“……”
Hans silently lowered his head.
Though the treatment was complete, he still felt a throbbing pain.
Unlike before, it was now around his heart.
As he was lost in thought, feeling the pangs of conscience, the Saint slowly approached him.
“Hero… here…”
In her arms were cradled more than ten small glass vials.
All of them were recently made, and among them, she had selected only the best diluted ones to bring.
Even to his untrained eyes, it was obvious at a glance, making any question meaningless.
Hans stared at her with a somewhat uncomfortable expression.
After a moment, Hans gently placed the first vial he had received back on top of the ones in her arms.
“…Hero?”
As Lasia blinked and raised her head, Hans, as if having made a decision, looked at her and said,
“Since I’ll continue to rely on you in the future, there’s no need for these.”
“…Pardon?”
Lasia, with round eyes, kept blinking her eyelids.
Looking at such a Lasia, Hans uttered a determined statement.
“Lasia, shall we… talk for a moment?”
“…?”
And so Hans confessed everything to her.
From when he first received the proposal from the Emperor, to why he decided to bring Eilena, to why he chose marriage.
Without missing anything, he explained even more thoroughly than he had to Yeomje.
Knowing that he was sorry, he knelt before her, lowered his head, and spoke. After an hour-long explanation, Hans was finally able to raise his head.
“That’s how it happened.”
As he finished his concluding words, thick droplets began to fall from the Saint’s eyes.
“…La-Lasia?”
Hans looked at her with a startle as tears began to pour down more heavily.
Lasia barely parted her lips, speaking in a sobbing voice.
“Why… why… did you do it…”
“Why? What do you mean…”
“Why did you go to such lengths!”
Lasia, who had been endlessly shedding thick tears, suddenly raised her voice and shouted at him.
As Hans became flustered, Lasia, covering her deeply frowning face with both hands, forcibly opened her mouth.
“…Don’t you ever think about yourself? Why do you always only think about others?”
“…Lasia.”
“You’re a hero… a hero who saved the country… humanity’s savior… you deserve to be happy! But… but why…”
“……”
Lasia couldn’t continue and burst into tears again.
Hans could do nothing but sit quietly in front of her, waiting for the endless flow of tears to stop.
After a long while, her seemingly bottomless tear ducts finally revealed their end.
“Hic…! Ugh…”
Though Lasia’s shoulders still shook as she remained immersed in the aftereffects, she seemed somewhat calmer compared to before.
Hans tapped her knee gently and said,
“Are you okay…? Have you calmed down a bit now?”
“Yes…”
Lasia sniffled with her reddened nose tip and nodded. Hans sighed with a helpless smile and stood up.
Looking at the window, he noticed the sun was already beginning to set. Hans slightly turned around and said,
“Anyway… I’m sorry. I should have told you earlier…”
“…No.”
Thank you for telling me even now… Lasia said, her eyes welling up with tears again.
Hans deliberately ignored her reddened eyelids and hurriedly moved towards the door.
Then Lasia, who had been wiping her tears, belatedly rose from her seat and hurried to his side.
“Ah… are, are you leaving?”
“I have to, she’ll be coming back soon.”
“…Ah.”
Lasia let out a short sigh behind Hans, who was opening the door with his coat draped over his arm.
“He-Hero.”
She grabbed the hem of his coat as he was stepping outside, stopping him.
“…Hmm?”
As Hans turned his head, Lasia swallowed once and, with a somewhat meaningful expression, said,
“That marriage… how long will it last…?”
“What do you mean, how long…”
“You said it was for the continent’s peace… Then… then you don’t need to live together forever, right?”
“……”
At her words, Hans temporarily withheld his answer.
Eventually, after appearing to think deeply about something, he opened his mouth again after a while.
“You’re right. Well… I don’t intend to keep her tied to me forever either. It’s a relationship formed on mutual interests, and she probably wants to get away from me as soon as possible too.”
“Th-then…!”
“However.”
Hans abruptly cut off Lasia’s words, seeing her expression that was about to brighten.
“As you said, since it’s a marriage that began for peace, I should at least continue it until then.”
“Until when exactly?”
Like a child asking if that day would come after sleeping ten nights, Lasia’s question made Hans close his mouth again.
Then, after standing silently for a long time, he took a deep breath and told her,
“Until complete peace is established throughout the entire continent.”