In the dining hall, the Head Chef was placing steaming breakfast dishes onto the long table.
The freshly baked bread gave off a faint, wheaty aroma.
In the large pot nearby, the thick soup was bubbling continuously.
White steam slowly rose, warming the entire dining hall.
Baroque had already finished his breakfast.
Since he still had to check the border situation, he briefly thanked the Head Chef and hurriedly left the dining hall.
Leticia, urged by Danasuo, was also preparing to head back to the experimental field to help.
Watching the two of them leave one after another, the Head Chef placed the final plate of bread on the table.
Then, he glanced toward the dining hall entrance.
No one was there.
A little more time passed.
Still, no one appeared.
A trace of confusion gradually surfaced on the Head Chef's face.
It was already this time of day.
Miss Saintess, who had recently been showing up to the dining hall right on time—or even sitting at the table early, waiting for the meal to start—had surprisingly not appeared today.
This was highly unusual.
After all, everyone in the Demon King's Castle knew that if there was anything that could get Miss Saintess out of bed earlier than usual, it was definitely breakfast.
“Niya.”
The Head Chef looked over at Niya, who was organizing food nearby.
At the moment, Niya was placing several breakfast portions onto a tray.
“Did you deliver breakfast to Miss Saintess today?”
“Eh?”
Niya paused her movements.
She turned her head to look at Lin Ling's usual seat.
It was indeed empty.
“No, I didn't. This morning, the Demon King said Miss Saintess woke up very early.”
“She said she would probably come over here to eat by herself.”
Niya recalled what happened early this morning.
Lord Ivelia had come to the kitchen very early.
She had simply told her that Lin Ling was already awake, so there was no need for her to go help today, and that Miss Saintess would come to the dining hall on her own later.
So, Niya had focused on preparing the guests' breakfasts first.
But looking at things now...
Niya's expression gradually turned worried.
“Don't tell me...”
“Did Miss Saintess get lost again?”
The Head Chef: “...”
That sounded extremely likely.
Niya looked out into the corridor outside the dining hall.
But for Miss Saintess's convenience, hadn't the Demon King's Castle already hung signposts pointing to the dining hall at every major fork?
As long as she followed the signs, she shouldn't have been able to get lost.
But as facts had proven, the great Miss Saintess could never be judged by ordinary logic.
At this very moment, Lin Ling had not only failed to find the dining hall, but she had even run all the way to the clock tower.
“...”
Lin Ling stood at the very top of the clock tower, falling into silence as she looked at the scene before her.
“So that glowing door led to the clock tower, not the great dining hall!”
“Damn it!”
Three upside-down figures were currently tied to a thick rope.
As the high-altitude wind blew continuously, their bodies gently swayed in midair.
Every time the sway grew slightly larger, the head of the person in the very front would collide with the wall of the bell.
“Bong—!”
The heavy tolling of the bell echoed through the Demon King's Castle once again.
Lin Ling finally knew why the bell today sounded so heavy.
So today's tolling was because these three were using their bodies to strike the bell!
Lin Ling looked up.
An indescribable expression gradually appeared on her face.
“Is this some special little hobby of the Four Heavenly Kings?”
The three upside-down figures fell silent, embarrassed expressions on their faces.
Lin Ling stepped forward, reached out a finger, and gently poked the three hanging in midair.
Their bodies immediately began to spin along with the rope.
“Bong—!”
Another heavy toll of the bell rang out.
Cecil happened to be sandwiched between the other two, and his head slammed solidly against the wall of the bell.
“Bang!”
A smoking red mark instantly appeared on Cecil's forehead.
“Hey, hey.”
“Miss Saintess.”
Cecil hung upside down in midair.
His voice sounded exceptionally calm, but his constantly twitching scorpion tail had already betrayed his current mood.
“Doing this...”
“Is actually quite irritating, you know.”
Looking at the smoking red mark on his forehead, Lin Ling couldn't help but cover her mouth.
Yet her shoulders continued to shake uncontrollably.
“Pfft.”
“Sorry.”
The smile on Cecil's face turned dangerous.
“Lin Ling, once I get down, we can have a nice, long chat.”
Lin Ling wasn't intimidated by his threat at all.
Instead, she put her hands on her hips and looked up at Cecil and the others.
“Well, now I know where the Demon King took you last night.”
At the thought of the usually solemn Ivelia personally hanging two of the Four Heavenly Kings on the clock tower—though she didn't know why Phelan was here as well—the expression on Lin Ling's face became even more amused.
She could even picture Ivelia carrying Cecil in one hand and Aliviel in the other.
“If possible,” Phelan's calm voice drifted down from midair, “please let us down first.”
The rope binding the three of them slowly spun in the wind, rotating Phelan right in front of Lin Ling.
Phelan's current state couldn't be described as very good.
As the first person to be hung on the clock tower, he had been hanging upside down here for an entire night.
For an elf, sleeping upside down was truly not a pleasant experience.
His face had turned somewhat flushed from the prolonged inversion.
His originally neat long hair had also become messy from the night wind.
The recording stone was still gripped tightly in his hand, but his recording movements were obviously far less steady than usual.
After experiencing it for a whole night, Phelan finally fully understood just how miserable Aliviel must have been when she was hung upside down before.
“Uh... well...”
Looking at the state of the three, Lin Ling showed a hint of hesitation.
“Even though you guys being hung here is indeed a bit pitiful...”
Hearing the word “pitiful,” Aliviel immediately looked up.
She blinked her eyes, her face displaying an exceptionally pitiful expression, with a hint of tears perfectly welling up in the corners of her eyes.
“Little Lin Ling.”
“I've been blowing in the wind here for a whole night.”
“My wrists hurt so much.”
“And my head is so dizzy.”
“If this goes on, I might actually die.”
Her voice was incredibly weak and delicate.
If someone who didn't know the situation saw this, they might genuinely feel pity.
Unfortunately, Cecil was right next to her.
“Damn it, Aliviel.”
“You look absolutely disgusting like that.”
The weakness on Aliviel's face vanished instantly.
“Cecil, I—”
Her next string of words was entirely of the sort that would need to be completely bleeped out.
Watching the two of them start bickering again, the hesitation on Lin Ling's face vanished completely.
She put on an incredibly solemn expression.
“But, I refuse!”
Phelan: “...”
After saying that, Lin Ling didn't give the three of them a chance to speak further.
She immediately turned around and left the clock tower at her fastest speed.
“Miss Saintess still has breakfast to find!”
“Keep up the hard work, everyone!”
Her voice gradually faded away along with her footsteps, leaving only the three of them hanging high in the air, swaying gently in the wind.
As Lin Ling left the clock tower, she silently comforted herself in her heart.
It wasn't that Miss Saintess didn't want to save the three of them from their plight.
It was just that the Demon King was too terrifying.
That Demon King was definitely watching her through some method she didn't know about.
If she took it upon herself to cut the rope, Ivelia might suddenly appear behind her in the next second and hang all four of them neatly back on the clock tower.
At the thought of this, two silent tears fell from the corners of Lin Ling's eyes.
“I'm sorry.”
“Miss Saintess was also forced into this.”
To avoid becoming the fourth person on the clock tower, she could only continue her arduous journey to find the dining hall.
And as it turned out, Lin Ling's judgment was correct.
Not long after she left the clock tower, a strand of black magic slowly manifested in front of the three.
Ivelia's figure appeared at the top of the clock tower.
The moment they saw her, Cecil and Aliviel, who had still been bickering, instantly quieted down.
Phelan also silently put away the recording stone in his hand.
Ivelia didn't speak.
She raised her hand, and the rope binding the three snapped.
The three of them fell from midair.
Phelan used wind magic to stabilize his body before landing.
Aliviel spread her wings in midair.
As for Cecil, he was squashed at the very bottom by the other two, face-planting directly onto the floor of the clock tower.
“Bang!”
Cecil: “...”
Ivelia didn't even spare them a second glance.
After letting them down, her figure dissolved into black magic once more, quickly vanishing from the clock tower.
From her appearance to her departure, she hadn't left a single word.
Aliviel looked at the spot where Ivelia had disappeared.
Then, she gently nudged Cecil, who had just crawled up, with her elbow.
“Hey, do you think... the Demon King was really using observation magic to watch Lin Ling?”
Cecil's movements in tidying his hair paused slightly.
He actually wanted to answer this question too.
After all, the timing of Ivelia's appearance was far too coincidental.
Lin Ling had just left, and the Demon King immediately appeared to let them down.
However, his powerful senses as a member of the demon race were constantly sending danger warnings to him.
The feeling of being watched by a certain gaze hadn't completely disappeared.
If he continued to discuss this matter with this succubus, they might very well return to the position they had just left.
“These things,” Cecil pretended he hadn't heard anything, continuing to tidy his hair which had been messed up by the night wind, “are better left unsaid.”
Aliviel narrowed her eyes.
“Coward.”
“At least I don't want to continue being a clapper today.”
Cecil finished tidying his hair.
Just as he was about to leave the clock tower, he subconsciously glanced downward.
Then, his flying motion froze.
By a window not far away, a red-haired elf was leaning out.
Their gazes met across the distance.
“...”
Zona stood by the window, her expression completely freezing.
She had just been woken up by that incredibly heavy tolling of the bell.
Afterward, following her usual habit, she opened the window to let the first light of dawn start her beautiful day.
But... the moment she pushed open the window, she saw three upside-down figures.
Although those three were quickly let down, weren't two of those figures the very ones who had fought with knives and forks in the dining hall last night?
So that was it. Now she finally knew where that woman had taken those two after they vanished last night.
Zona silently gripped the window frame.
She stared blankly at Cecil on the clock tower, her face showing a completely dumbfounded expression, as if she had just seen something incredibly bizarre.
With demons like this, how could there not be something wrong with this race?!
Rate on N.U.
