TBR CH215.2: Extra

The Demon King subtly shifted his gaze, and only the human knew he must be very happy. The world’s consciousness, described as cute for the first time, had just felt a little shy, then was immediately overwhelmed by the young couple’s public display of affection, vowing that it would not be swayed by human flattery and that its heart must be as hard as steel!

“It might be hard to use on that target.” It wrote in tiny script, annoyed for a second, then quickly erased it.

“Let’s not talk about that for now. I’m here to give you my blessing. Besides, the banquet is next, and I love lively scenes like this. At least this time I’ll be able to participate before leaving.”

“Of course,” Roland said, “have fun.”

He patted the black book’s spine again, knowing that the other party would face a more difficult battle in the next world. Although he didn’t know how the black book would participate in the banquet, it looked very excited, clearly having its own tricks. Between continuous tasks, a wild celebration would be perfect.

The time for the oath was nearly at its end.

Any longer and the demon’s cold hand would be warmed by the human’s.

“Alright,”

The human clapped his hands. “Thank you all for bearing witness. And now, the banquet officially begins. This banquet is entirely hosted by the Demon King’s City, and it has taken a great deal of effort. Please do not worry about your safety, and do not be reserved. Enjoy everything before you!”

The crystal-clear goblets before the guests were suddenly filled with fragrant wine.

On the walkway beside them, hellcats with fur as dark as night suddenly leaped, startling many guests.

But these terrifying monsters wore muzzles, wagging their fluffy tails, unusually gentle and harmless. They carried incomparably tempting dishes, swiftly and steadily delivering freshly cooked cuisine to every dining table.

Succulent grilled steaks dripping with fragrant fat, delicately pan-fried fish fillets, soup simmered for three days and three nights in huge vats with various rare ingredients, and the famous sulfur pepper of the Demon King’s City; rose desserts with petals as vibrant as rubies, each bite bringing both a cool sweetness and a warm, fragrant sensation…

No matter how discerning the palate, this banquet could satisfy it.

As the guests involuntarily swallowed and eagerly picked up their knives and forks to feast, the elven orchestra once again began to play. Their orchestra pit was in the higher firmament, where the river of stars constantly twinkled, gracefully and slowly changing its form, like a real shimmering silver river.

The black book, which had been placed perfectly still, suddenly leaped into the air, startling the guests.

However, it was only natural for a treasure to have a bit of personality.

At this point, the other races’ stereotypes about the newlyweds became apparent. Since the Archmage and the Demon King had chosen to formally unite in plain sight, it wasn’t surprising that the book they used for their vows would fly around.

The world’s consciousness joyfully darted around countless dining tables, flapping its pages to the cheerful music, dancing gracefully.

“What is that?” In a certain corner, the knight asked.

“Don’t let it fool you; it’s probably on the same level as a god…” the purple-haired witch said, trying to capture it in a photo frame. Then she put away her camera, satisfied with the material she had collected.

“Excellent.”

The witch turned to her loyal friend who had been by her side since her youth, “Shall we go down now? I think I just saw my python swallow a chicken whole, plate and all. Perhaps I shouldn’t have let it sit at the same table as Debbie. You should really see the King and Queen’s awful expressions.”

“I am loyal to the royal family,” the female knight calmly reminded her.

“But you are my friend first,” Hilda said, smiling arrogantly, then raised her camera. “I mean… um… I suddenly remembered we should—”

She reset the camera, then hurried to the flash, pulling the Knight-Captain’s hand. She only had time to say “smile” before the delayed shutter “click” sounded.

Two faces were reflected on the screen.

One was very young, the other already showed signs of age.

Many years ago, they used to drink tea together every afternoon. Now, they didn’t have many chances to meet. One day in the future, the Knight-Captain would forever become a name in history books. After all, she was just an ordinary human, and she dedicated her life without regret.

Hilda suddenly felt grateful that she could use the camera to capture this moment, so that her desire to leave something behind wouldn’t be too late.

The commotion of the banquet drifted into the purple-haired witch’s ears with the wind, and she couldn’t help but say:

“Today truly is the best day.”

“Just traveling in Lincheng, and incidentally brought my boyfriend back to visit,”

The familiar voice echoed again in the “Zero-Distance Internet Cafe.”

Roland smiled and nodded, “Because we just got married, and were wondering where to honeymoon, we finally decided on a world tour. Coincidentally, we had the chance to revisit an old place.”

A year had passed, but Shan Sheng still froze the moment he saw Roland.

Perhaps in his subconscious, when he saw the young man disappear into the rain that stormy night, he had prepared himself never to see him again.

Though, to this day, it was hard to recall the peculiar emotions from then.

The internet cafe was still the two-story shop near the university. The difference was that Shan Bin now helped out when he had time, and the father-son relationship had somehow inexplicably eased quite a bit.

“Little Roland, you look well today—”

Unexpectedly, they met again, and Shan Sheng was still very happy, but his gaze subtly stiffened as it shifted to the figure beside the young man. That person looked dangerous and strange, perhaps because he was a foreigner, with silver-gray long hair trailing to his waist, and he also had a pair of peculiar dark golden eyes, looking coldly in Roland’s direction.

“This must be Mr. Kriesmeier,” the internet cafe owner subconsciously used an honorific for some reason, then looked at their intertwined fingers. “You two seem very much in love, are you… m-married?”

“Since the wedding was quite far, we didn’t have the chance to invite you,” Roland’s eyes curved, looking like a newlywed couple, blissfully happy. “But it was a grand affair. Kris is a very good person, but we have other plans and may not be able to stay here for too long.”

These young people today—

Shan Sheng thought like any worried elder, but his thoughts quickly veered towards the man who looked anything but friendly.

Roland looked like a perfectly well-behaved student, and considering the other person’s foreign identity, he might be engaged in some dangerous profession. No, this man named “Kris” just gave him the creeps.

The somewhat overweight middle-aged man pondered for a long time, coming up with many absurd conclusions.

But fortunately, at this moment, the internet cafe’s door was roughly pushed open. A year later, Shan Bin’s hair color had changed to a vibrant purple. As soon as he saw him, Shan Sheng couldn’t help but frown, and those absurd thoughts were immediately interrupted.

“Where have you been again?” He grabbed Shan Bin’s collar to prevent him from running away. “You promised to watch the shop this afternoon, don’t run off then… Hey, where are you looking?”

The middle-aged man looked at his usually fearless son with suspicion.

Like a bolt of lightning, Shan Bin’s eyes widened, his body stiffened, and he stared incredulously at the two figures standing at the counter. Roland smiled and greeted him again.

“Didn’t you go back—” Shan Bin immediately closed his mouth, even stuttering when he spoke again, “Uh, so, is that, is that true? I mean, I updated Abyss Continent to the new version, and then—”

He vigilantly glanced back at his father, who was staring eagerly.

Then he pushed Shan Sheng out.

“This is between us young people,” the strangely colored haired teenager said, secretly glancing at Roland from time to time. His gaze was not like looking at someone he knew, but rather at a revered statue. “So please, give us some space, please. I’ll take good care of the shop this afternoon. But there’s something I absolutely must understand.”

He looked around like a wary little animal.

Once he confirmed no one was around, he lowered his voice and nervously looked at Roland. He didn’t look at Kriesmeier, which was entirely due to his instinct for self-preservation. Shan Bin cleared his throat:

“So, you’re really—”

“What?” Roland looked at him frankly, seeming to be in a good mood.

But Shan Bin clearly couldn’t calm down. Looking at those familiar amber eyes, he gritted his teeth, feeling that it didn’t matter even if he was considered mentally unstable, and shifted his gaze to the other side of the room.

Following his gaze, even Roland paused.

There used to be a poster hanging there. A year ago, the poster featured his boyfriend’s face, with a sharp sword light reflecting the so-called players. How to put it, even Kriesmeier on the poster looked dangerous and beautiful. If Roland had a chance to collect another one now, he was sure he would very much want it.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was that the poster on the wall had changed.

The time Abyss Continent announced the release of its “New World” version update, the servers ultimately suffered a major malfunction, and the game’s official operations went silent thereafter.

However, a year later, news of Abyss Continent‘s version update once again appeared in people’s vision.

And this time, the new version’s name was: “The Demon King’s Wedding.”

The poster unusually did not adopt the hero’s first-person perspective.

At a glance, what struck the eye was the large swathe of deep red smeared across the background, as if dried blood, but upon closer inspection, it was a flourishing, romantic sea of flowers. Kriesmeier stood at the center of the flower sea; this was probably the first time many players had seen the Demon King battle-damaged, yet the expression captured on the poster was certainly not merely looking at his archenemy.

Arrogant, powerful, and then… deep affection.

Another person on the poster reached out to the Demon King.

This person only showed their back.

However, players skilled in deduction had long since unearthed his identity from the game’s rich data: the legendary, deceased Archmage Roland Xavier.

This was just the game’s background setting, Roland didn’t even show his face on the poster. No one would really take the game seriously.

But the moment Shan Bin saw this poster, he felt an inexplicably familiar sensation from that back. When the forum players deduced who the main viewpoint character was, Shan Bin’s heart pounded in his throat.

The name Roland had given him a sense of familiarity from the start.

“It’s me.” The amber-eyed young man finally nodded.

Shan Bin felt like he was about to faint. To keep himself standing a little longer, he tremblingly averted his gaze, but his peripheral vision unintentionally caught sight of the person he was holding hands with. If his guess wasn’t wrong—

“That,” he asked dryly, “so this is…”

Kriesmeier seemed not to have noticed him until then, when he finally raised his eyes.

Facing the actual person was still too overwhelming. Even though the Demon King was now neatly dressed in a black suit fitting this world’s attire, subtly harmonizing with his demeanor, Shan Bin, a perfectly normal young man raised in the real world, still felt a chill seep into his bones.

He stared wide-eyed at Roland.

And Kriesmeier seemed to have misunderstood the other’s meaning, pressing his lips together coldly. Or rather, the Demon King simply wanted to make an issue of it, because some other presence was staring at the Archmage, and for too long.

Before their honeymoon, Roland had warned him not to use force.

So the dangerous and terrifying Demon King approached, and kissed Roland’s cheek in front of the other person.

“He’s my lover.”

Roland was suddenly kissed by the demon and felt it was no different from being bitten.

Anyway, Kriesmeier’s intention was always to mark him.

He slowly blinked. “Didn’t I already say? I only have one chosen partner in this life.”

Shan Bin started staring at the floor this time.

“No, no,” he shook his head wildly. “No, what I mean is, I’ve already witnessed your wedding in the game. That is to say, I’m very happy to see you again, and then, I want to congratulate you personally! I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon!”

Roland froze for a moment, then smiled genuinely.

“Thank you,” he said, subtly winking. “This is a private meeting, please keep it confidential for us. And, thank you for the blessings, though I’ve said it many times, we will.”

Half an hour later, the human walked out of the store with a stack of surplus internet cafe posters.

“I’m wondering if it’s appropriate to put these up in our room,” Roland mused. “But these posters are indeed very beautiful. Hmm, perhaps we could display them elsewhere. Like during the few months we stay at the Mage Tower each year…”

Kriesmeier seemed to have no objection.

This was actually quite convenient, as Abyss demons generally had no aesthetic requirements. The Demon King indulged his lover to the fullest extent.

Roland continued to ramble on about the topic: “So, where do we go next, my dear? Do you want to go to the beach, or try watching the starry sky from a snowy mountain peak? Oh, and I heard if you keep going north, you can see the shimmering aurora under the firmament.”

“Aurora?”

The Demon King pondered intently for a moment, then repeated the unfamiliar word.

“If you’re interested,” the human smiled, his amber eyes shining like stars, “we can leave right now, and might even arrive tonight. Of course, we’ll need a little magic. Or we could plan a perfect train trip, squeezing onto one berth and slowly watching the scenery outside the window; there’s no rush at all—”

He walked side by side with the Demon King, their voices gradually drifting into the distance.

Where to go?

No matter the destination, let’s go to those incredibly distant places.

To witness strange and moving landscapes, to listen to melodies so beautiful they could awe the soul, and perhaps encounter all sorts of people and events.

But the one he loved was by his side, staying within walking distance, within arm’s reach for an embrace and a kiss. There was no need to worry about gains and losses, because the other also yearned for kisses and embraces just as he did.

Melted into each other’s bones and blood, an indelible vow etched.

They would never be separated again.