The Demon King's First General
Chapter 193: Taking A Wing

Chapter 193: Taking A Wing

Zeno accepted the druid’s invitation as he sat down in the seat woven from branches and roots and stared straight at his eyes.

The old man caressed his braided beard, and with his free hand, he tapped his forefinger twice on the wooden table. Then, a creature so tiny flew towards him.

With a size only a finger tall and transparent little wings on its back, it encircled the druid.

"Could you please make us some tea?" The old man asked, his voice filled with courtesy.

"Oh! And bring us some fruits as well. Anything will do," he added.

Upon receiving his request, the creature went away without leaving any trails. Then, the old man diverted his focus back to the silver-haired demon.

"Those fairies are so gentle, though quite mischievous sometimes," he uttered, smiling.

"Indeed, they are," Zeno agreed.

Then the demon let his body rest on the chair’s back and placed his right leg over the other before adding another statement.

"This place is still the same as I remembered, though the treants and the person who welcomed me are different," Zeno said, shaking his head.

"Oh? I would like to hear more about it," the old man replied, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Upon hearing his words, the demon racked his brain as he tried to remember the scenes from that particular time.

"That was almost a millennia ago, but the fairy I met from that encounter left a deep impression on me that I still know her name until now," Zeno answered.

"Does Niz’tella Evergeen ring a bell?" Zeno asked.

The old man nodded, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, you know her! The Queen of Fairies," he exclaimed with excitement.

And then, it was the demon’s turn to be stunned in shock.

"Are you implying that that woman became the Fairy Queen?" Zeno asked, still trying to digest the old man’s declaration.

The druid’s laughter echoed throughout the place upon hearing the soul devourer’s question.

He caressed his beard before giving out a reply.

"Yes, she certainly is. Though one of her wings is crippled, she crawled her way towards the peak. Despite losing her ability to wield magic, she didn’t let herself be eaten by helplessness," he said.

Then he looked straight at the demon’s eyes and spoke again.

"She learned the way of the cold weapons and even earned the nickname, Magicless Titania," the druid added.

Zeno couldn’t help but shake his head; though the corners of his lips turned into upward curls, he still thought about how that person managed to become the queen, and a memory from that time resurfaced in his mind.

. . . . .

It was a peaceful and silent day; the sun was burning up above the clouds, its scorching rays giving light somewhere inside the thick forest located in the Garden of Dreams.

Though, despite the extreme brilliance, there was a demon dressed in a maroon-colored coat, lying under the shade of a towering tree. With his arms as the cushion for his head, he slept without any sense of worry.

However, his slumber was interrupted when a small buzzing sound echoed next to one of his ears. At first, the man thought that it was just an insect, so he swatted it like a fly without bothering himself to give it a glance.

"Ouch!" The small creature exclaimed while caressing a part of her head.

Upon hearing the tiny, painful cry, the man came to the realization that what he hit was not just some kind of bug.

Thus, he opened his eyes and diverted his gaze to the creature.

"A fairy?" He uttered, his brows knitted from shock.

"Watch where your hands are going! You almost killed me with that slap!" The creature voiced out, letting her concern be known.

Her eyes were burning with rage. She stared at the demon as if wanting to rip him apart.

"You’re too hotheaded for your size," he said, teasing the tiny creature.

And in that split second, the fairy’s body turned bigger and matched his height. Due to this sudden turn of events, the demon had a better look at the fairy’s features.

Her hair was black in color, but there were some strands of green present on it. The pair of wings on her back were like a transparent curtain made of tiny scales, which radiated a greenish hue.

However, it was her eyes that the demon found interesting. Glowing with a viridescent color, the pupils inside them had a shape like a four-leaf clover.

"Now! Do I still look small in your sight?" The woman asked, her voice laced with unprecedented anger.

The silver-haired man shook his head and sat up without averting his gaze from the woman. A yawn escaped from his mouth while having a staring contest against the fairy.

"Are you going to apologize or what? If you don’t, I’ll be tying you up in there!" The woman pointed her finger above and threatened the demon.

However, the next set of words that the man uttered made her eyes widen in shock.

"Niz’Tella Evergreen, that sounds pretty nice," he said the fairy’s name in full.

This caused her to stand up and leap backwards. She maintained a distance away from the man.

"H-How did you know my name?" She asked, stuttering in disbelief.

However, the man kept his silence, and the smirk on the edges of his lips gave the woman chills. Thus, she extended her right hand, and vines hanging from the tree grew longer and wrapped the man around.

Afterward, Niz’Tella raised her finger, and the vine pulled the captured demon up, suspending him in the air. Aside from this, the woman snapped her hand, and the roots underneath began to move, tying the demon’s feet.

"Just for some precautions," she said.

Then, Niz’Tella stepped forward and looked at the man hanging above.

"Now! Do tell me! How did you know my name?" She repeated her previous question, but the silver-haired demon didn’t speak; he just stared at her as if looking straight at her soul.

His strange action scared the fairy out of her wits; though she chose to remain calm, she shook her head and stood her ground. By using another set of vines, she made them wrap around the silver-haired demon’s neck.

"If you don’t answer right away, I’ll make it tighter until words slip from your mouth or your body turns into a lifeless corpse, whichever comes first!" The fairy exclaimed, annoyed by the man’s tenacity not to speak.

Seconds passed until they became minutes, but nothing happened; the demon still kept his silence, which caused extreme irritation to the fairy.

"Do you think I’m not serious?" She asked again, but like her past few questions, she received no reply.

"You push me to do this!" She exclaimed and clenched her fingers.

The vines and roots wrapping around the demon’s body started to become more constricted.

However, to the fairy’s surprise, there was not a single change in the man’s expression, as if he couldn’t feel even a bit of pain.

’Is he resisting it, or is he really that strong to endure this far?’ Niz asked inside her thoughts.

Meanwhile, the demon let out a smirk and summoned a bit of force to destroy the vines and roots wrapping around him. The fairy failed to notice him escaping from her clutch due to her mind being occupied, busy contemplating the demon’s identity.

"Don’t think too much; it’s a thing that only those with brains do," the demon stated, mocking the woman’s intelligence.

"What? What do you thin—" Niz exclaimed, and the rest of her words came to a halt upon realizing that the demon had already managed to free himself.

"Y-You, who really are you?" She asked, her mind wandering; curiosity could be seen present in her eyes.

The time continued to tick, and her questions were still left unanswered, which caused anxiety to come knocking in her line of thoughts.

She stared at the destroyed vines and roots scattered a few inches away from the demon. They were thick, thicker than the man’s limbs, and yet, he still managed to break free.

’His strength is the real deal,’ Niz conveyed inside her mind.

Thus, she made her resolve to run and let her body shrink into its previous state. Then, she turned around and flapped her wings to escape from the man’s line of sight. She didn’t even dare to look behind; she focused all of her attention on fleeing.

However, despite the sudden change in her size and her desperate retreat, the demon still had a proper view of her current position.

"So the bedtime stories about fairies are true after all; they are really mischievous and benevolent in nature," he stated before pulling out a black dice from his coat’s pocket.

He fidgeted the cube between his fingers and aimed it in the fairy’s direction.

"I’ll be taking a wing as compensation for disturbing my nap," he said and flicked the dice forward.

. . . . .