DKIE CH39: Short Story

The sound of explosions continued for some time.

Luka really wanted to sing a line for them: “If you are willing to peel back my heart, layer by layer, your nose will sting, you will shed tears…” Unfortunately, after being blown to smithereens, there was only bloodshed, no tears.

The soft parts of his eyes had been covered by the dark patterns condensed by the Quill, so Luka couldn’t see the situation outside clearly yet.

After a long while, the world finally fell silent.

Berlanie suddenly said, “Don’t open your eyes yet.”

The actual scene was very bloody: shattered flesh and blood were everywhere, and the surrounding yellow sand was filled with the stench of dried blood, making the area look like a demon’s cave. To prevent Luka from unnecessary shock, Berlanie transformed into a long dragon and began to move them to a new location.

“You’re still young, don’t look at this messy stuff.”

The giant baby Luka, clad in heavy armor: “…”

The great dragon soared at a speed of a thousand miles a day. When Luka was finally told he could take off the armor, he opened his eyes to the sight of the sea.

“Well, since we’re here.” He spread his arms, facing the sea.

The Quill gave him a cool glance, thinking the explosions might have had some effect on his brain after all.

As Luka was praising the warm spring and blooming flowers, Berlanie took out a communication stone. The person on the other end seemed to be in a hurry, not even using the continent’s common language. Noticing Luka’s gaze, Berlanie said, “It’s Grover.”

After the teleportation array activated and then dimmed again, anyone could tell there was a problem. Grover had been trying to contact them ever since. Berlanie walked to one side, his face grim as he talked. Luka vaguely overheard some of it—something about cutting off all transactions, putting a bounty on demon spies hidden among the various races, a head for ten thousand gold pieces.

Hearing this, he sucked in a cold breath. At that price, even one’s own people might betray each other.

When Berlanie walked back, Luka said, “Actually…”

Berlanie raised a hand to interrupt him. “You continue looking at the sea.”

Not long ago, they were saying no one could pull off an assassination under the Dragon Clan’s nose, and today they had a chain of self-detonations. This matter absolutely could not be taken lightly.

“…”

“Actually, we just need to confirm the spies in Red Banyan City,” Luka finally said. “As for the other measures, the mastermind will at most just be angry for a moment.”

Berlanie left no room for negotiation on this matter. “The Demon Clan is in the wrong first. They must provide an explanation.”

A problem with a central city’s teleportation array was a colossal joke. The Dragon Clan’s investments were spread across the continent. A complete halt to all cooperation would be a devastating blow to the Demon Clan’s economic lifeline. If the Demon King was smart, the benefits of this “explanation” should fall upon Luka.

Amidst the sound of the waves, Luka said softly, “An explanation?”

It wasn’t hard to see that Berlanie wanted the Demon King to give an explanation for the assassination. While every injustice has its perpetrator, he was more inclined to find some ‘fun’ for Princess Mary himself.

…

The area outside the Demon Realm, unprotected by its rules, was ultimately too dangerous. Luka returned to Red Banyan City that same day.

The Lord of Red Banyan City had his displeasure written all over his face. With such a mess, he would definitely have to bear the responsibility in the end. “I have already ordered my personal guards to launch an investigation. We will discuss the relevant compensation later.”

The heavy troops near the teleportation point had been completely replaced.

Luka withdrew his gaze. “We need to wait?”

Interrogations by the various races usually involved direct soul-searching. Coupled with the fact that there were usually recording stones for monitoring near teleportation arrays, it shouldn’t take long at all. There must be a result by now.

The Lord of Red Banyan City did not respond.

“You don’t need to prepare a ‘true culprit’ for me,” Luka’s voice became almost inaudible after a moment. “I only ask one thing, is this matter related to Princess Mary? I guarantee the remaining trouble will have nothing to do with Red Banyan City.”

After a short silence, the Lord of Red Banyan City discreetly slipped him a recording stone. “The other participants self-detonated immediately. I only managed to keep one alive, but he died of his severe injuries.”

The implication was that, apart from some incomplete confessions in the recording stone, there was no other evidence now.

“No matter.”

The Lord of Red Banyan City had been worried that he would explode with anger after watching it. After all, she was a blood relative; being set up by his own grandmother would likely make anyone want to go on a rampage. Who knew that Luka would remain surprisingly calm, crushing the recording stone after watching it and destroying the only piece of insufficient evidence.

The Lord of Red Banyan City couldn’t help but feel a little grateful. This matter would most likely be handled quietly in the end, but with the recording stone, it could sooner or later expose his failure in supervision. He had been a bit hesitant before, but now he decided he would vote for Luka this year.

“One vote is harmless,” he thought to himself.

Luka didn’t make an issue of the recording stone. After a brief greeting, he returned to the guesthouse where he was staying.

The annex was very quiet today.

After resting for a while upon his return, Luka gently rubbed his temples and said, “Princess Mary should have the surname Alex. Their style of doing things is the same.” They gave their enemies no chance to grow.

Speaking of which, he suddenly paused. In terms of winning chances, Alec had a much greater advantage than Alicia. The former’s biological father had been injured in battle and lacked top-tier support. Investing in him was clearly more promising.

Recalling everything about Princess Mary, Luka’s focus was peculiar. “Why does Princess Mary support Alicia so much?”

Although both were born in the same great clan, they were separated by several generations, and Princess Mary didn’t seem to care much about blood ties.

The Quill didn’t have a diary with Princess Mary, so it knew even less. “The rhombus crystal the dwarves used to monitor you last time could be useful.” Monitoring her daily life might lead to some discoveries.

“So troublesome.” One would have to consider how to install it, and whether it would be discovered after installation.

Luka gave a perfunctory wave of his hand. “Forget it, I’ll just make up a reason.”

The Quill: “…”

Make up what reason? Why did he need to make up a reason?

Many times, Luka’s thoughts were even harder to guess than the Quill’s. Leaving behind an ambiguous sentence, he sat quietly by the window for an afternoon and began to show off his writing skills.

“I have a father and a mother, I can’t favor one over the other. I’m going to write a story about my fierce grandmother.”

The sound of the pen rustled as the Quill watched quietly from the side. Luka was always completely absorbed when he worked. It wasn’t until dusk that he looked up again.

Outside the window, the evening mist was thick, filled with a splendid silence. Luka stretched and moved his body.

“Let’s go,” he said, in a good mood after completing a piece of writing. “Accompany me to the newspaper office.”

The Quill didn’t move immediately. For the first time, it took the initiative to read Luka’s work more than twice, a thoughtful look on its face. Finally, it said with a meaningful smile, “A good story.”

Red Banyan City was dominated by three major newspaper offices. After leaving, Luka met with all of them in turn. His purpose was simple: he wanted to publish his first short story in a prominent section.

“I made my name writing novels,” Luka said with a sincere face. “I need to maintain my popularity with some works to build up hype for my upcoming new book.”

The chief editors of the major newspapers had a strict requirement: they must have cultivated the Eye of True Knowledge to better distinguish true news from false. While Luka was speaking, the editor stared at him to ensure he was being truthful, especially when he mentioned pre-heating for his new book; not a single word could be false.

“However, my work will not be published exclusively in your esteemed paper,” Luka emphasized.

The editor gave the manuscript a quick scan. It was just a story about a protagonist becoming a nouveau riche. Because of the heavy atmospheric descriptions, the story’s pacing was very average. He didn’t care about that. Recently, the newspaper headlines were all about the movie of the true and false young masters. Even academic lecturers who normally didn’t like reading newspapers were voluntarily submitting articles analyzing the inscriptions in the movie.

If they accepted the creator’s work at this time and promoted it a little, they wouldn’t have to worry about sales at all. As for whether the public would continue to curse the creator for being trash after it was published, that was none of the newspaper’s business.

“Deal.”

The two sides happily sealed the cooperation.

Luka didn’t specifically request a publication date, believing that these newspapers would rush to be the first to publish in order to beat their competitors.

His thinking was correct. If not for the lack of time, the chief editor would have wanted to publish it in the evening edition.

The same thing happened at the other two major newspaper offices. After a quick scan without much review, the papers, eager to seize the opportunity, rushed to insert it into the next day’s content. They were more conservative, only giving it a decent print run.

The chief editor who first contacted Luka, however, gritted his teeth and decided to take a risk. “Keep printing. Print as many as you can. Send a copy of the manuscript to our branch offices in other cities as well.”

Since discovering that many demons were rewatching The True and False Young Masters, he felt that the public’s tolerance was simply limitless.

The next morning, under the promotional efforts of the three major newspapers, the sales scene was exceptionally explosive. The largest audience for newspapers was still the common populace. Just as the editor had predicted, they were driven by a masochistic curiosity to see what other heaven-defying creation the director could come up with.

“He just got assassinated, and he still has the mood to write an article?”

The Lord of Red Banyan City was astonished when he heard the news and immediately ordered his subordinates to buy the papers. The incident with the teleportation array was known to almost every high-ranking official in Red Banyan City, and the lords of other cities had also heard whispers. The Dragon Clan’s sudden announcement to halt all trade with the Demon Clan had led to a flood of inquiries directed at Red Banyan City once the source was known. The overwhelming questions made the Lord of Red Banyan City want to curse Princess Mary ten thousand times in his heart.

“Please don’t let him publish the assassination incident.”

If he did, the matter couldn’t be suppressed. Publicly attacking Princess Mary in the newspaper was also a terrible move. Many of Princess Mary’s old subordinates were still around and would not accept baseless ‘slander,’ and he could be held accountable.

Seeing the word ‘Grandmother’ in the title, the Lord of Red Banyan City’s head began to ache. But as he read on, his expression slowly began to change.

At the same time, the Dragon Clan was also reading. They didn’t have many thoughts; they simply bought a few copies because it was Luka’s creation. The Green Crystal Dragons and others only cared for three-and-a-half-year-old literature and went straight to the gladiatorial arena after buying the paper. Grover and Berlanie, both patient and good-tempered, chose to sit down and read.

Foolish kinsmen. Berlanie shook his head. Having breakfast with the cub, reading the paper, and drinking tea was infinitely better than violent competitions.

The two dragons started reading right in front of Luka.

The story began simply. The protagonist suddenly received a letter from someone claiming to be her grandmother, who was now bedridden and near death, wishing to see her one last time. The protagonist vaguely remembered a grandmother she rarely saw. She didn’t want to go, but the letter mentioned a large inheritance, so she finally decided to make the trip.

Luka used a traditional power-fantasy novel opening: a sudden windfall. He also embellished the protagonist’s identity: she was humiliated and fired by her boss because her magic skills were average. The beginning was captivating enough, but for the dragons who weren’t short on money, the appeal was average.

The following content was mainly in the healing genre. The scenery of the small town was beautiful, and everything was slow-paced. Unfortunately, the protagonist, who was used to a fast-paced life, couldn’t bring herself to like it there. When she finally met her grandmother, she acted resistant and annoyed due to the generational gap in their lifestyles.

However, the grandmother was always tolerant of her. Upon learning that the protagonist had been humiliated and fired, she was heartbroken and said, “Don’t be sad. Grandma will make everyone who has ever bullied you pay the price.”

The protagonist scoffed, “Stop bragging!”

But the grandmother wasn’t lying. It turned out she was once a magician skilled in forbidden arts. To fulfill her promise, the grandmother taught her some powerful dark magic for free. Gradually, the barrier between the grandmother and granddaughter disappeared, and they spent a wonderful time together.

On the first day of spring, the grandmother passed away. The protagonist left with her suitcase, grief-stricken.

Upon her return, she began to cherish every day of her life. With her rapidly advancing magical abilities, she狠狠 slapped her former boss in the face and even got a very good new job.

Unlike Luka’s previous works, the structure of this piece was very elegant. Every word and phrase was carefully chosen, like a gentle prose essay.

Luka asked Grover for his feelings after reading it.

Grover smiled tolerantly and encouraged him, “It’s quite good.”

He couldn’t say the story was bad, it just lacked any real ups and downs. And he didn’t like the story’s environmental descriptions, which were always dominated by overcast skies, creating a constant sense of oppressive gloom.

Everyone started chatting and laughing again over flower tea.

As breakfast was about to end, Grover, who was sipping his tea, froze and picked up the newspaper again. On the other side, Berlanie did the same. Gradually, their brows furrowed.

The story, which had seemed as calm as stagnant water to the dragons, felt more and more wrong the more they looked at it. The grandmother, who had only a few breaths left, gradually got better after her granddaughter arrived, yet she died suddenly on the first day of spring.

When the protagonist was learning magic, her dominant hand was her right, but the description of her standing under the overcast sky with her suitcase was: [Clutching the bag tightly with her left hand, tears unconsciously fell from the corners of the girl’s eyes. Recalling the experiences of these days, a faint, happy smile appeared on her lips.]

Grover couldn’t help but think of the grandmother’s identity: an inheritor of dark magic.

[Cherish every day of her life.]

This plain line at the end was inexplicably glaring.

A thought suddenly rose in his heart: was the protagonist who returned still the original person?

Grover looked at Luka.

Luka was looking down, praising today’s breakfast for its ‘lingering aftertaste.’

The first time he watched a work about soul-swapping and returning to youth, he was deeply shaken. He later specifically sought out similar suspense films to binge-watch, with Grandma and The Skeleton Key leaving the deepest impressions on him. Both works had the same treatment: until the end, the author never explicitly stated whether the swap was successful, leaving only clues for the audience to judge for themselves. That’s why, for decades, audiences have continued to argue about the ambiguous parts.

Luka adopted this format and wrote a story set in the context of their era. Using a windfall as a hook, interspersing magic inscriptions during the teaching process as a highlight (just like in the movie), and leaving a suspenseful ending.

So far, the effect seemed very good.

Grover’s brow hadn’t relaxed. “This story gives me a very uncomfortable feeling.”

The image of the grandmother and granddaughter studying together under the overcast sky in the story made him more and more uneasy the more he thought about it, like a splinter under his skin.

He finally couldn’t resist asking, “Did the grandmother swap bodies with the granddaughter in the end?”

Luka asked back, “It’s a story that’s terrifying when you think about it, right?”

Among all the works currently circulating on the continent, there had never been a genre with suspenseful twists and lingering horror. The narrative tricks of classic detective stories are inimitable; the reader’s shock reaches its peak during the first reading. From the dragons’ reaction, it was clear that even the powerful would feel the horrifying effect after reading it.

The usually gentle Grover became a little anxious. “Quick, tell me the ending.”

Luka told the truth. “I don’t know either.”

He didn’t have a fixed answer in his own mind.

The expressions on Grover’s and Berlanie’s faces instantly became exceptionally colorful. This was more like having a fishbone stuck in their throats than watching The True and False Young Masters. At least the other one had a clear answer. If even they felt this way, one could only imagine how other readers felt!

An ending that even the author wasn’t sure about—what was the point of creating this story? Just to annoy people?

Before he could voice his confusion, Grover’s gaze suddenly fixed on the upper part of the newspaper. The setting of the true and false young masters could be a metaphor for the Demon King, so the grandmother and granddaughter… couldn’t that be…

At this moment, Luka put down his knife and fork and said with a half-smile, “Yesterday, I was suddenly curious why Princess Mary is not good to me but good to Alicia, so I just made up a story to comfort myself.”

As for what butterfly effect this fabricated story might cause, he had no idea. After all, body-snatching was a real thing in the Holy Demon Continent. When he first met the Quill, it had wanted to steal his body. It wasn’t his fault if people made random connections after reading the story.

First, he would cultivate the public’s reading comprehension skills, making it easier for them to later ponder My Demon King Father in detail. When the physical book was released, readers would surely interpret all sorts of conspiracy theories! The demons were one thing, but how would everyone view the Holy Court, a power known for its sanctity, by then?

Thinking of this, Luka glanced at the mechanical clock on the wall. “By now, the newspapers should be almost sold out.” He suddenly clasped his hands together.

The Quill, who had been quiet all this time, asked, “What are you doing?”

Luka: “Praying.”

Dear readers, you must, absolutely must, over-interpret this!

Author’s Note:

Excerpt from Luka’s diary:
Who is writing graffiti in my diary? Show yourself!

Alex: A little story for you.

Luka read it with suspicion. The protagonist’s family was destroyed, and he endured for thirty years for revenge, finally making the enemy pay in blood.

Luka: …

Luka: !!!

Thirty years! Why endure for thirty years! Shouldn’t all revenge be taken immediately!

Alex [smiles] [mutes the world] [listens to the sound of Luka breaking down].