When Xing Yue opened her eyes again, the first sensation was dizziness.
The ceiling was spinning.
The room was spinning.
The whole world seemed to be slowly revolving around her.
She blinked again, and the vertigo gradually began to subside.
Then she heard the sound of a page turning.
Soft, faint, right beside her.
Xing Yue turned her head with difficulty toward the source of the sound.
Emily was sitting by the bed, holding a book, quietly flipping through it. Sunlight streamed in through the window, casting a soft halo on her side profile and dyeing her pink long hair in a gentle luster.
She was absorbed in reading and hadn’t noticed that Xing Yue was awake.
It wasn’t until Xing Yue’s gaze fell on her that she seemed to sense it and turned her head.
“Princess Xingyue?”
Emily paused, then closed the book, her eyes curving into a gentle smile.
“You’re awake?”
Xing Yue looked at her smiling face, her mind still a complete mess. She opened her mouth, her voice still hoarse from just waking up. “…How long was I asleep?”
Emily glanced at the clock on the wall, then looked back at her, the corners of her mouth lifting with a faint smile.
“It’s almost noon already.”
She paused, covering half her face with the book, and added in a small voice, “I didn’t know Your Highness was such a sleepyhead~!”
Xing Yue: “…”
Sleepyhead?
Her?
Xing Yue slowly sat up, propping herself on the bed, one hand covering her still-aching head.
‘I have a vague memory of waking up once… and seeing Phyllis here?’
But she wasn’t sure.
That memory was hazy, like looking through a layer of mist. She only remembered making some wish to Phyllis… and then… what happened after?
She couldn’t remember.
So… had she really just slept in?
Xing Yue fell into brief self-doubt.
“Your Highness, is something wrong?” Emily tilted her head, looking at her.
“…No.”
Xing Yue thought for a while, then decided not to dwell on it. She threw off the covers and got out of bed.
The moment her feet touched the floor, she swayed, but quickly steadied herself.
‘Not bad. My body’s fine.’
“I’m going to wash up first. What about you? Do you need my help today?”
Emily waved her hand. “N-no, that’s all right, Princess Xingyue. I’ve recovered quite a bit now. While you were still sleeping, I went to wash up on my own.”
“Alright.”
—
When the cold water hit her face, Xing Yue’s mind finally cleared up a lot.
She looked at her own face in the mirror, still dotted with water droplets, and that familiar sensation rose up again.
This feeling made Xing Yue suspicious that her nerves had been acting up lately—she felt an inexplicable familiarity with everything she saw.
‘It must be because I haven’t been resting well…’
Xing Yue promptly shifted the blame onto Emily and the Jet Black Forbidden Book.
After all, one of them had been draining her for ten nights straight, and the other had split off most of her consciousness to cause trouble elsewhere.
Now, being so neurotic was definitely a combined status effect from those two.
Letting out a light sigh, Xing Yue recalled Emily’s earlier words.
In just one day, the pink-haired girl had recovered enough to go to the restroom by herself, without any help from Xing Yue.
‘As Wei Anna and I guessed, this girl is actually healthy—she just needs time. A slow recovery will do the trick.’
Xing Yue dried her face and stepped out of the washroom.
—
By then, Emily was no longer reading. She was standing by the window, looking outside.
When she heard footsteps, she turned around. Her pink eyes held a trace of… nervousness?
She spoke softly, asking, “Princess Xingyue, we’re still going to the dungeon today… right?”
Xing Yue nodded. “Mm, of course. But since you can move on your own now, I’m planning to take you to the cafeteria together.”
Emily’s eyes lit up, but she quickly caught the second half of Xing Yue’s sentence.
“The cafeteria? I have to go too?”
“That’s right. I’ll take you to eat, and after that we’ll head straight to the dungeon. Saves us from going back and forth.”
Hearing this, a hint of hesitation and shrinking appeared on Emily’s face.
“Th-then… Princess Xingyue… will there be… a lot of demons in the cafeteria?”
“Probably.”
“Th-then… will we run into… the Demon King…”
Xing Yue was silent for a second.
To be honest, she didn’t know either.
That woman Phyllis came and went without a trace, going wherever she wanted, appearing whenever she pleased. Nobody knew where she would spawn.
But as far as she could tell, she had never seen Phyllis in the cafeteria.
Yang Dazhuang had mentioned before that Phyllis seemed to only need water—she didn’t need to eat. Maybe that was why Phyllis seldom showed up in the cafeteria…
Thinking about it, Xing Yue couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
‘As expected of the Lord Demon King—she’s no longer a carbon-based life-form. She doesn’t need to replenish energy through eating.’
So the probability of them running into Phyllis in the cafeteria should be quite low.
“I don’t think so.”
“I-I see…”
Seeing Emily still hesitating, Xing Yue immediately realized that this little pink-haired girl probably wanted to stay holed up in her room and just count on Xing Yue to bring her food.
No way!
Running errands once or twice was fine, but if it happened every day, what would she be? This girl’s personal maid?
She was a proud princess of the Demon Race! How embarrassing would that be?
Besides, Xing Yue actually wanted to have the pink-haired girl run errands for her in the future.
“Emily.”
“Huh?”
“Listen to me.”
Xing Yue walked up to her, using the tone of someone who had been through it all, and prevaricated earnestly.
“Even though Phyllis won’t appear in the cafeteria, from what I know about my mother, there’s a high probability you’ll never leave Demon King Castle.”
Emily’s face turned pale instantly.
“You should accept that the Brave Squad has been defeated. Adapt. Learn how to live here.”
Xing Yue continued, her expression as serious as a senior.
“Get familiar with Demon King Castle now. Know which places you can go and which you can’t. Know what tasty food is in the cafeteria, which route back is the shortest—”
“Of course, I’ll teach you all of this. They’re essential skills you’ll need from now on.”
Emily listened, stunned, a hint of… confusion appearing in her pink eyes.
“Essential skills…”
Xing Yue nodded seriously without changing her expression.
Though she herself had only just woken up and lived a three-point-one-line life—only knowing the routes “room → cafeteria → dungeon → treasure room”—and was completely unfamiliar with everywhere else in Demon King Castle.
But that didn’t matter.
“So—”
Xing Yue patted Emily on the shoulder, using the tone of an experienced senior to say that famous line: “If you can’t resist, just lie down and accept it.”
Emily: “”
She lowered her head and was silent for a few seconds.
Then she raised her bitter little face and said weakly, “I… I’ll try my best…”
Xing Yue looked at her pitiful expression and suddenly felt like laughing.
But she held it in.
“Let’s go, then.”
She took the pink-haired girl’s hand and led her out of the room. “Lesson one—the way to the cafeteria.”
“Mm… w-wait… P-Princess Xingyue… p-please walk a little slower… (>.<)”
And so the two girls left the room together.
One walked in front, head high and chest puffed out.
The other followed behind, cautious and timid.
Like a mother cat bringing her kitten to explore this strange and dangerous world for the very first time.