The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

The Fear Kingdom's capital was a considerably large city.
Meanwhile, Heris's father, Flaman Agaras, lived in the manor located at the very center of the city as the Fear Kingdom's king.

After being on the road for one whole day, Heris and Alice finally arrived at their destination.
Although Alice felt a little stiff after riding in a car for such a long period, since she didn't know how to drive, she got to rest in the car when needed.
Thus, she didn't feel particularly tired after the long journey.
Heris, on the other hand, worried Alice.
After all, the demoness hadn't gotten a wink of sleep throughout the entire drive.
Even if she had magic to assist her, stressing her body for such a long time shouldn't be healthy.

“Don't worry.
Many capitalists have invested a ton of money into researching and improving this magic because of its popularity in various fields,” Heris gave a spirited reply when she heard Alice's worries.
“At this point, this magic has almost no side effects.
So long as you spend some time making up for sleep afterward, the magic is practically harmless to the body.”

Alice dryly laughed.
Indeed, if magic that could improve a person's work efficiency existed, capitalists would certainly love it and make it compulsory for all of their employees to learn.
Thus, they would naturally be willing to invest in the research of this magic.
So long as they could guarantee that this magic didn't have any serious side effects, they could request their employees to work overtime using this magic with a clear conscience.

After parking the car inside the manor, Heris brought Alice to the largest mansion located inside the manor.
Judging by appearances alone, Alice felt that this mansion was much more comfortable to live in than Demon King City's castle.
Though, that was to be expected since Demon King City had been shrouded in radiation for the past 300 years.
No matter how great the environment there used to be, the city had long since transformed into dead land.

After following Heris into the mansion, Alice immediately found a man in a suit standing inside the first-floor hall.
The man had long silver hair, a tall and slender body, and a heart-shaped tail behind him.
The man appeared to have been waiting here for some time now as he immediately bowed as soon as he saw Heris and Alice.

“Welcome back, Young Miss.
Lord Flaman is already expecting you.”

“Davis? What brings you here today? Aren't you usually by my dad's side handling those troublesome affairs?”

After hearing Heris calling out to the man, Alice roughly understood the other party's identity.
Although the man named Davis looked like a butler, he wasn't an actual butler.
Instead, he should be something like a minister that handled stately matters for Heris's father, the Heavenly King of Fire.

“Because there is something more important for me to take care of today,” Davis said with a light smile.
After answering Heris's question, he shifted his gaze onto Alice and asked, “Is this Lady Alice? The new Demon King.”

The important matter Davis spoke of probably referred to welcoming Alice, the new “Demon King.” After all, the birth of the Demon King was undoubtedly one of the most important matters in the demon realm.

“That's right; this is Alice, the new Demon King! She's very cute, right?!”

Before Alice could make a response, Heris had already gotten ahead of her and answered on her behalf.
Then, Heris pulled Alice to her front and started kneading Alice's face from behind.
The happy expression Heris made looked as if her pet dog had received praise.

Originally, Alice had prepared herself to act a little majestic to avoid having her fake identity exposed.
Yet, thanks to Heris's actions, she now had no majesty to speak of.
With her plan ruined, Alice sighed and resigned herself to fate.

“Y-Yes, she is quite cute…”

Davis felt his heart stopping for a moment when he saw Heris squeezing and pinching Alice's face.
After all, this was a Demon King they were talking about.
However, when Davis saw Alice's lack of reaction even after being toyed in such a manner, he couldn't help but recall Flaman's previous suggestion.
Looking at the current situation, marriage between Heris and Alice might be…possible?

As for Alice's worries that Davis would suspect her identity as the Demon King, that did not happen at all.
Although Davis could indeed sense that Alice's body didn't hold much strength, Heris had already stated on the phone that Alice still couldn't control the Demon King's Power perfectly.
Thus, Davis could understand the current situation.

Not to mention, even if Alice's identity was to be brought to suspicion, that was something for Flaman to do.
As a weak civil official, Davis had no right to question the identity of a Demon King, an existence that stood at the apex of the demon race.
He'd be stupid or tired of living if he did that.

“In any case, let me bring you to Lord Flaman first.”

When Davis saw that Alice started to feel uncomfortable from Heris's kneading, he decided to change the topic to stop Heris's actions.
Then, he turned around and led the way upstairs.

Seeing this, Heris let go of Alice's reddened cheeks and led Alice upstairs by the hand.
Meanwhile, Alice had no choice but to go along with the demoness's whims.
After all, her current setting was that of a Demon King who was incapable of perfectly manipulating the Demon King's Power.
Since that was the case, it didn't matter even if she acted weak for the moment.
Although there was no majesty to speak of in this situation, so long as she displayed her strength later on, she should be able to silence any dissidents.

I wonder if this will work… Alice wondered as she looked at the glove on her right hand.
It was something she bought when she shopped for snacks with Heris.
Her idea when buying the glove was simple—when she needed to put on a show of strength, all she needed to do was stuff a pair of panties into the glove and squeeze it.
Then, she would be able to use the panties' strength without suffering social death.

Of course, should Alice start fighting someone, whether she used her right hand's mana or used her panties' active skill to fight, the ordinary glove would be shredded, and she would run the risk of exposing her panties.
However, that was a problem that Alice had to worry about only if she was asked to participate in actual combat.
If she only needed to display her power, there shouldn't be any problems.

“Hm?” When Heris followed Davis into Flaman's office and saw two teacups on the office desk, she turned to Davis and asked, “Why are there two cups here? Did someone come here before us?”

“Yes.
It's His Highness Tver's butler.” Davis nodded, not bothering to hide this fact from Heris.

“You mean that diviner?” Heris quickly realized who Davis was talking about.
It was precisely because of this diviner's divination that she got to witness the birth of the new Demon King in person.
Thus, the trust she had for this diviner had increased even further.
“Where is he now?”

“Growing potatoes on the frontier.”