When Gabriela regained consciousness, the first thing she heard was Dracula’s voice.
“Qiaolin, why hasn’t Lina woken up yet? Does your Healing Magic even work?”
The girl’s tone sounded quite anxious, and the sound of her stomping could be heard in the room.
A gentle, helpless male voice responded to her.
“Rest assured, basically all of her injuries have healed. It’s likely just excessive consumption of magic power. Gabriela needs to rest now.”
“No way.”
“Huh?”
“I have to take her back to my palace. I’ll replenish Lina’s magic power myself!”
“Aren’t you afraid she’ll eat your entire Vampire clan out of house and home? Forget it, you should leave first. I’ll watch over her here.”
“Oh…”
The sound of Demigula’s footsteps gradually faded until the door clicked shut.
Only then did Gabriela’s eyelids flicker.
“Stop pretending to be asleep, Gabriela. There are only the two of us here.”
At Qiaolin’s reminder, Gabriela opened her eyes.
As soon as she opened them, she saw the man sitting by her bed, fiddling with a slime plushie.
“Eek?!”
Gabriela scrambled up, snatched the plushie from Qiaolin’s hand with lightning speed, and stuffed it under her skirt, attempting to hide it.
Even Qiaolin was surprised by her speed.
“Yo, your hands are pretty fast. It looks like your injuries are all better,” Qiaolin teased with a smile.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep the secret that the Demon King likes to sleep with plushies.”
“I just… I just happen to put them by my pillow sometimes!”
“Oh? By your pillow, I see.”
Seeing the playful smirk on Qiaolin’s face, Gabriela realized she was being teased.
“You’re so annoying!”
“Stop worrying about whether I’m annoying or not, Gabriela.”
Qiaolin’s expression turned serious.
“You’re quite bold, aren’t you? Daring to go head-to-head with a Saint-level powerhouse. Even though you’re just one step away from that level, the gap between the peak of the King Rank and the Saint Rank is much larger than the gap between a Five-Crown Peak and the early King Rank!”
“I know that, of course,” Gabriela muttered, pouting her small lips.
“Don’t be stubborn. It was lucky that it was that reckless girl Fafna today. If it had been any other Saint-level powerhouse…”
“Hmph, why did that member of the Dragon Race have to be the one to become a Saint? It made me so angry just seeing her acting all high and mighty in my territory.”
Looking at the jealousy flickering between Gabriela’s brows, Qiaolin couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
‘When did this girl become so competitive?’
“Alright, alright. Didn’t she take a hit from you for nothing? That magic was actually quite interesting, though. You must have used your Gluttony Magic Power’s absorption ability in reverse to create a repulsive effect. You’re actually quite impressive.”
“Is… Is that so?”
Facing Qiaolin’s praise, a faint blush brushed across Gabriela’s cheeks, but his criticism followed immediately after.
“The next time I use my magic power to interrupt you, don’t force your own strength to resist. 70% of your injuries were caused by that.”
“It’s only because your magic power is too strong. Every time you stop me like that, it hurts…”
Gabriela grumbled, leaving Qiaolin without a rebuttal.
Regarding the collision of magic power between Fafna and Gabriela earlier, the resulting explosion would have been enough to affect the citizens and buildings below the Demon King’s Castle.
Qiaolin had stepped in to stop those two as soon as he teleported over.
It seemed Gabriela was indeed very dissatisfied with the outcome of the battle.
Having no other choice, Qiaolin changed the subject.
He scanned the room, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.
“Come to think of it, so this is the Demon King’s boudoir.”
Aside from the slime plushies piled in the corners, the walls of the entire room were painted pink.
The materials used were very special, emitting an indescribable sweetness and a fresh floral fragrance.
A round wooden desk sat near the window.
Besides the usual quills and notebooks, there was a vase filled with roses.
Qiaolin had noticed earlier that there were always two sets of bedding on Gabriela’s bed; he guessed Demigula often stayed in her room, and the roses were likely her handiwork as well.
This was Qiaolin’s first time in Gabriela’s room.
Even though she was the Demon King, seeing a room so full of a young girl’s charm made him feel happy for her.
The responsibilities of the Demon King were heavy and the road was long.
Since Gabriela could endure such pressure while still maintaining her girlish heart, Qiaolin could finally feel at ease.
“This… This was all arranged by Demigula! I don’t understand any of that fancy stuff.”
Gabriela tried to explain, but Qiaolin leaned closer to her flushed face with a wide grin.
“Is that so? If your spirit was broken by work, I’d actually be worried. It seems Demigula has taken good care of you all these years.”
“Ugh…”
Gabriela lowered her head, blushing.
Since she was on her own turf, she had been trying her best to show off her power and dignity as the Demon King in front of Qiaolin, but as soon as he praised her or smiled, her resolve crumbled.
At that moment, Gabriela noticed Qiaolin’s arm resting on the edge of the bed.
A cluster of black shadows was faintly visible beneath his skin.
“What’s that?”
Following her prompt, Qiaolin lifted his hand and noticed the abnormality as well.
“Oh, it’s that Terror Dragon Venom. When I was helping Aurora with the detoxification earlier, I transferred the poison from her body into mine to speed things up.”
“Terror Dragon Venom?”
Seeing Gabriela’s bewildered expression, Qiaolin continued, “It’s the poison from the Nine-Headed Black Venom Dragon-Serpent.”
Upon hearing that name, Gabriela froze for a moment before crying out in shock.
“Eh?! Isn’t that a legendary Level 10 magic beast? It’s a being that even Saint-level powerhouses find difficult to kill. I heard it was sealed by the Demon God Emperor.”
“Exactly. Even a guy that the Demon God Emperor couldn’t kill left his poison behind,” Qiaolin said with a laugh.
The Demon God Emperor was a powerhouse born in the same era as the Dragon Race’s strongest Black Dragon Emperor.
She was the previous ruler of the Demon Race, and both Gabriela and Archimondia were her descendants.
Under her rule, the Demon Race once enjoyed an unprecedented era of prosperity, but she was eventually killed by Archimondia, who usurped the throne.
Qiaolin shared the events that had occurred in Lin City over the past few days with Gabriela—specifically, the outcome of the Black Fang’s failed attempt to seize the city.
He also told her about Wiggins, the “traitor” within the Black Fang Legion who had ordered the attack on Lin City, and asked for her perspective.
“Being hostile toward the Demon Race is never a good thing. Based on that alone, this Wiggins person shouldn’t be from the Balta Kingdom,” Gabriela said.
“Perhaps he’s from their rival power, the Kingdom of Nolan? Maybe they wanted to use this opportunity to spark a conflict between us and the Balta Kingdom, then reap the rewards as a third party?”
“You’re right, but a common spy couldn’t climb to the rank of a legion’s staff officer. There might be too many things involved in this.”
Qiaolin pondered. Fortunately, the crisis had been settled in time.
“However, this poison is a bit troublesome. Although my body has adapted to it and it can’t affect me anymore, I can’t absorb it either. I’ll have to find a place to extract it later.”
Gabriela leaned closer to his arm, carefully examining the area where the toxin had accumulated.
Under the resistance of Qiaolin’s body, the Nine-Headed Black Venom Dragon-Serpent’s poison had been concentrated in one spot.
It wouldn’t be hard to discharge; he just needed to make a small cut.
He didn’t even need to use detoxification magic to slowly eliminate it.
Suddenly, Gabriela opened her mouth and bit down with a *chomp*.
Qiaolin felt a sharp sting in his arm, and then the toxin was sucked away by the girl.
“Hey! You idiot, are you going to eat poison too?”
“Just testing the flavor.”
With his flesh still in her mouth, Gabriela’s words were muffled and indistinct, leaving Qiaolin between laughter and tears.
Given the potency of the residual poison from the Nine-Headed Black Venom Dragon-Serpent, it shouldn’t cause Gabriela any harm.
It was just that this girl had lunged and bitten him without a word of warning; anyone would feel overwhelmed.
“You’re not a Vampire. Did you learn this from Demigula?”
“If it were her, she wouldn’t do it like this.”
Gabriela finished consuming the poison in Qiaolin’s body a moment later.
Black bloodstains remained at the corners of her mouth.
She exhaled softly and slowly wiped them away with her thumb, a hint of charm showing in her every movement.
“You cleaned it out quite well,” Qiaolin remarked, looking at his arm.
Then, like a chef waiting for a critic’s review, he asked Gabriela, “Well? Was it to your taste?”
“It was okay. A bit sweet.”
“That’s the taste of my blood. I think you’re turning into a vampire yourself!”
“Hehe, are there any other places on your body with that stuff? I can help you check~”
“No thanks. If you have that much free time, you’d be better off visiting Aurora. I still need to check on her soon to make sure there’s no residual toxin.”
A look of concern appeared in Gabriela’s eyes.
She asked, “Is that child, Aurora, alright?”
“She was poisoned and almost died. It’s a good thing I was there.”
Qiaolin thought back to the “reward” Gabriela had promised him after the mission was over.
“The crisis in Lin City is over. It’s time for you to tell me why you care so much about that half-blood named Aurora.”