I Took the Demon King as My Wife

The carriage traveled a long distance and had already stepped foot in the borderlands.
“My lord~ We’re almost there!”
At the coachman’s voice, Hans slightly poked his head out the window.
The gray castle walls towering in the distance were gradually getting closer.
“So we’ve arrived!”
Hans’s face showed evident delight at the sight. He leaned his body further out the window to take in the nostalgic scenery at once.
The carriage began to tilt slightly to the left. A voice came from inside.
“Come back in.”
“Leave me alone for a bit! I’m just happy to see this!”
“If the carriage overturns because of you, I will hold you entirely responsible. Let’s see if you can still say the same thing then.”
“Really… seriously…”
Hans glanced inside with a displeased expression, then reluctantly pulled his body back into the carriage.
“As if the carriage would overturn… talk about an overreaction.”
Hans muttered grumpily to himself, as if intending for Eilena to hear.
At this, Eilena, who had been sitting serenely across from him, slightly raised her eyelids.
“Try it then, see if it happens or not. I’d like to see it too. If it topples over dramatically and you break an arm or something, that would be quite a sight to see.”
“Let me ask you one thing: do all demons talk like this, or is it just you?”
“Anyone would speak this way to someone who acts as recklessly as you.”
With that bold response, Eilena turned her head decisively.
Looking at her like that… regardless of the Emperor’s orders, the desire to give her a good smack rose to the top of his head.
“…Sigh, let’s just stop talking.”
“That’s the most welcome thing I’ve heard.”
“You, I’m talking about you. Please, I beg you, just keep your mouth shut.”
Only after he said that did Eilena close her mouth.
Somehow, it seemed like her attitude had become even more unbearable since receiving the Emperor’s orders.
“Do you remember what His Majesty said?”
“I remember every single word, without missing a single syllable.”
“Then why are you behaving this way?”
At his somewhat irritable remark, Eilena slightly turned her head.
Her face now directly facing his. Her thin, long eyebrows began to draw together slightly.
“You should worry about yourself. I can maintain it perfectly in front of others.”
“So since it’s just the two of us now, there’s no need to maintain it… is that what you mean?”
“Since you already know the answer, I truly don’t understand why you’re asking.”
“Seriously…”
Hans looked at her with a dissatisfied expression.
She turned her head again decisively.
The Emperor had previously commanded him to do two things.
First was the purely official business assigned to him.
“First, I want you to take charge of inspecting the territory. After all, you know those people better than anyone. I’ve already sent a letter to the lord, so the territory’s residents should have been somewhat informed. So go there and see their practical reactions for me. And…”
Second was.
“Show that you two are in love.”
“Pardon…?”
“Why, isn’t that right? You’re newlyweds who just got married… who would act like you do?”
“B-but what did I do wrong…”
“Oh, you exasperating person, the problem is what you didn’t do. Look, for starters, the way you address each other… Before the marriage, that might have been understandable, but afterwards, who would still call their wife ‘Demon King’?”
“That… that is…”
“The Sovereign is the same, Your Majesty. It’s a well-known fact that this man is lacking, but… why do you continue to show such a sharp attitude? I don’t know the details about demonkind, but… humans generally prefer wives who are friendly to their husbands.”
“If that’s what you say… I will correct it immediately.”
“Anyway! What I want to say to both of you is!”
.
.
.

“Act like a loving wife and a caring husband.”
That was it.
Despite Hans’s words, Eilena still kept her eyes closed.
However, her long ears, which had perked up, had apparently heard all his words, as her neatly sealed lips soon parted.
“There’s no need to repeat it. I remember everything.”
“Then why can’t you act like that normally…”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to. This is how I naturally am. If you wanted a loving wife, you should have looked for someone else from the beginning.”
“If there were another Demon King besides you, I would have.”
At Hans’s sharp retort, Eilena slightly raised her eyelids that had been closed all along.
With her forehead now visibly wrinkled without any attempt to hide it, Eilena glared at him slightly and said,
“The same goes for me. If my husband had been a wise and intelligent hero instead of a stupid and dull one like you, being a loving wife might not have been entirely impossible.”
“Good grief…”
When the word ‘loving’ came out of her lips, Hans couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Just, something funny suddenly came to mind.”
Of course, that was a lie. It was funny, but nothing had actually come to mind.
A Demon King turning into a loving wife… it was simply impossible to imagine.
Perhaps he had gotten used to her unique manner of provoking him, as now he didn’t get as angry as before.
Not that he felt good about her saying such things to his face… but there was a strange sense of victory in seeing that irritated expression of hers, so it wasn’t all bad.
“Hmph.”
Eilena, who had been glaring at him intently, snorted as if she had lost interest and moved to sit in a corner.
Hans, thinking there was no point in saying anything more, naturally shifted to the opposite window.
“……”
“……”
And so, a deep silence settled between them once again.
Just as they were starting to feel uncomfortable with the silence that now visited like a habit.
“Hero!”
Clank. As the carriage stopped, a hearty man’s voice erupted from not far away.
At the familiar voice, Hans flung open the carriage door.
“H-hey…!”
Before Eilena’s surprised voice could reach him, he had already jumped out of the carriage and looked in the direction of the voice.
“Haha! Hero Hans!”
A man with impressive dark brown beard was running towards him, letting out a hearty laugh.
Hans, who had gone to meet him with an unmistakably delighted expression, clenched his fist slightly and raised it.
Seeing him clench his fist, Kavern did not stop his accelerating pace, but also clenched his fist with a grin.
-Kwang!
“Argh!”
“Excellent!”
Eventually, the two men’s fists collided forcefully, creating a tremendous sound.
With a sound like lightning striking, the guard knights who had been following the lord were overwhelmed by the spirit of the two and fell backwards.
Regardless, the two men who had violently clashed fists looked at each other’s faces and grinned.
“You haven’t rusted at all, Hero… I heard you became a baron… thought you might have become weak like those hunched dukes…”
“Ha, what a disappointing thing to say… I actually heard Lord Kavern turned sixty this year and thought you’d become an old man sitting in the back room, just watching over the children…?”
Sparks flew in the eyes of the two men who were smiling brightly.
“My, my lord…!”
“N-no, what on earth is this…”
Just as the guard knights, who had barely adjusted their armor and rushed to the lord’s side, were at a loss about the two’s aggressive atmosphere.
“Gwahaha!”
Kavern opened his mouth wide with laughter and boldly withdrew his aggressive fist.
“Well, I’ll be! You got me there! How did you know about the birth of my granddaughter?”
“I have my ways of knowing.”
Hans said with an uncharacteristically sly smile.
The two men, who had been silently staring at each other for a while, simultaneously burst into hearty laughter. Then they clashed hands and gripped each other firmly.
“Welcome, Hero!”
“Coming all the way out here to greet me… thank you, Kavern!”
The lord’s knights could only stare blankly at their intense greeting.
And in that chaotic atmosphere, Eilena belatedly appeared slowly.
“Ooooh…!”
“No way…!”
“Holy…”!
At the sight of her approaching gradually, the men of the borderlands could only utter dumbfounded exclamations of admiration.
Eilena, receiving all the gazes directed at her, moved with elegant steps and walked towards the lord.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Kavern. I am Eilena Elbain, serving as the Emperor’s proxy and the mistress of the House of Elbain.”
Eilena covered her chest with one hand and bowed properly to the lord with a modest bend at the waist.
The lord, who had been staring at her, entranced by her beauty, soon began poking Hans’s side.
“Wow… Hero, you’ve got some skills. Really?”
“Ah, haha… well…”
“To get such a beautiful wife, I’m truly jealous. Yes, indeed, haha!”
Kavern laughed heartily and patted Hans’s back vigorously. Hans responded with an awkward smile while gently rubbing the back of his neck.
‘If you lived with her for just one day, you wouldn’t say that…’
He swallowed the bitter remark he could never utter and laughed emptily.