The Demon King's Hero Of Light 159 Chapter 159 A Gentle Slumber

"Don't act so heartbroken," said Aella glancing over at her as they descended the mountain path. "Your brother will think I did something."

"But you did do something!" she cried, raising her arms into the sky.

"Save your life?" asked Aella, touching her chin thoughtfully.

"What?" she cried again, looking horrified. "You were the one who tried to poison me!"

"I distinctly remember helping Bob rub some kind of nasty concoction on your chest, so he didn't have to," pouted Aella with a wrinkled face. "It took four tries of was.h.i.+ng my hands before the smell went away."

"You only had to rub my chest because you tried to poison me!" she growled, crossing her arms.

"Where exactly did you rub my sister's chest?" asked the elven king, raising an eyebrow as they reached the trees at the base of the mountain.

"Hey!" cried Daefina, moving her arms down a fraction to cover herself. "That's none of your business!"

"At least she isn't in love with a dwarf," sighed the elf, turning to lead them back to a small clearing that had a table and chairs set up.

"Me?" cried his sister in disbelief. "Hah! They couldn't stand my tattoos! Anyway, why would I like a smelly dwarf? They have so much hair you can't even see their faces very well!"

"Daefina, I know how much you like to braid hair," said the king deadpan, his eyes flickering to the single braid she had on either side of her wild hair.

"Elalar, don't be so crude," she huffed, rolling her eyes and sitting on the chair that was obviously meant for her.

"Me? Crude?" he exclaimed. "I'm not the one moaning about someone rubbing their chest!"

"I was not moaning!" she pouted, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table. "I need a drink!"

"I would have thought you had enough to drink," said Aella, sitting carefully on the small stool that was set up for her.

Frederik and Alfred also sat on their seats, making sure to keep their mouths shut. There was no part of this conversation either of them wanted to get involved in.

"So, I am a.s.suming you were able to get everything taken care of with the dwarves?" Elalar asked, turning to Aella and ignoring his sister as she lay her head down on the table and promptly fell asleep.

"The dwarven king renegotiated with your sister in regards to the wood for them and the ore and rock for you. I think he was wanting her to return at some point next week to finalize things," said Aella. "Now what about your part of the bargain? I've dealt with the dwarves for you, surely you can give me what I want so I can be on my way. I do have a kingdom I need to get back to eventually."

"I was meaning to ask you about that. If your kingdom is no longer in the north, then where is it?" asked the elven king as his sister started to snore softly.

Aella's eyes narrowed. "I don't think the location of my kingdom is very important at this time."

"You see, I tried to ask Bob where it was, and he said that was a question for you," said the king, sitting back and shooting a glare at his sister.

"It is far away, across the ocean," said Aella. "Why is that so important?"

"If it is across the ocean, where is the boat you crossed on? Why did you approach my forest from the mountains?"

Aella tilted her head to the side. Why was he giving her all these hard questions? Was he trying to catch her in a lie?

"I don't lie, King Elalar," said Aella slowly. "What game are you at?"

"I'm just trying to figure out why you came yourself, if you are who you claim to be," said the king, eyeing her. "Never before in the history of the demons has the king managed to befriend a hero."

"Ah, so that is what is bothering you," said Aella, nodding to herself. "Alfred, would you care to explain?"

"If you want me to?" he said surprised, glancing at her. "Well, I was in charge of the hero group sent by the human church to kill the new demon king when we ran into her on the road. She helped us defeat some monsters on the demon side, that I was determined to kill on the way. We had a chance to talk, and figured out that the human church was corrupted, as was most of the demon court. They were working together to keep the war between the two kingdoms going in order to keep the people under control. Aella didn't like her people starving and dying, so we decided to end the war. However, it wasn't that easy. She ended up moving all of her people out of her kingdom, to the other side of the ocean, in order to blow up the demon capital. The resulting explosion has caused such a mana spike, anyone who goes there will die."

The elven king stared at him for a moment, before shaking his head.

"Why would you blow up your capital after moving all of your people away, and how could it cause a mana spike like that?" he asked confused.

"In the dungeon of the castle there were ma.s.sive crystals, where most of the magic in the entire realm had been stored. I did not want the human church to get their hands on it once I moved my people, but releasing so much magic had a negative effect on the area," explained Aella.

"That doesn't explain why you moved your people though," he argued. "That had to be a ma.s.sive undertaking with so many people!"

"Oh, it was! There were many who did not wish to be moved, but I had people who were loyal to me in charge of getting them where they needed to go," said Aella. "The human church had infiltrated my court to such an extent that I couldn't promise the safety of anyone in my kingdom. The entire capital had traps ready to be sprung that would have flooded and destroyed everything at the whim of the church. It was meant to control me, and as the king of my people, I didn't like that. By moving everyone to a new location, they are out of the reach of the church and by destroying the capital, the church was limited on what evil they could do next."

"And yet you were willing to leave those same people to run your kingdom and travel around the countryside yourself?" asked the elven king dumbfounded. "I would have thought that you wouldn't dare leave your court after everything you had just told me!"

Aella smiled. "King Elalar, why are you here, talking to me in person, instead of back in your court?"

He snorted. "That's not the same thing at all! I'm still less than a day from my court. If anything happens that needs my attention, I can return quickly enough. If your kingdom is so far away, I fail to see how that is similar."

"And I fail to see how that is important to you," said Aella, growing tired of going around and around with him. A nap with Daefina was looking more and more welcoming. When she couldn't kill what annoyed her, it became far more annoying.

"I will give you the tablet you originally requested," the king said finally, after a moment of thought. "And the lion you called refuses to answer to anyone else, so I suppose I have no choice but to give it to you as well. I would request you return with me to the capital though. Care of such a beast is not as simple as making sure it is fed."

"I appreciate that," said Aella, glancing around to see if the lion was around, but it wasn't in sight.

"I still want to know why you came from the mountains if you traveled across the ocean, and if your old kingdom is inhospitable."

"There was a storm on the coast. I couldn't get my boat closer," said Aella, thinking about the storm that had plagued the coast.

Elalar looked at her for a few more moments, obviously not believing her, but she didn't care anymore. If he kept this line of questioning up, she was going to kill him. The princess snorted again, sitting up and blinking, looking around to see that they were done talking.

"Then I suppose we should be off, instead of wasting time," he grumbled, standing and kicking his sisters chair. She bounced to her feet with a yawn, stretching.

"Time to go? I call flying with Aella!" she cried with far too much enthusiasm to have just been asleep.