Well, now that the two main troublemakers were gone, Konrad could kick back and relax—not.
Damn it.
He had this whole situation to sort out, the logistics alone scaring him.
Oh, and the diplomatic fallout that would follow—
How was he to pacify both the nomads, the nobles, and the warrior tribes?
Enemies didn't become friends overnight on this scale.
If only Eyna were here—
But thinking about her, only that surprise kiss came to mind, and—yeah.
That didn't help.
Well, he had Stella instead, and she wasn't about to kiss him.
She still pointed that ominous staff at his chest instead.
"Y-you sure?" she muttered, her tone changed. "I've joked about it, but—I'd hate to hurt you."
How cute, but—
"You've done worse," Konrad pointed out.
"B-but that was before," she snapped, her voice trailing off.
"Before what?" Konrad scoffed. "Before you fell for me?"
It was a joke. He didn't mean it.
But that face she made—
She blushed hard.
"You serious?! How? Why? For what?!"
And sometimes he even forgot she was a woman.
Yuki-san giggled in the corner, making a sport of poking at Lily's soft cheeks. Since the little ginger fell unconscious, she wouldn't leave her alone.
"A real rock star, Kon-chan. Making girls fall left and right, and you don't even know."
Konrad grunted.
"I'm not kidding, I've no idea," he said, shooting a glance. "And please stop molesting my wife."
Not that she did anything bad, but he was jealous.
Meanwhile, Stella's face turned crimson.
"I-it's that—you. Me, um," she stuttered, the staff trembling in her hands. "Despite everything, you've always been gentle."
That gave him a pause.
Gentle was the last word coming to mind about their relationship, but Stella shivered.
"You gonna make me say it?" she moaned, something akin to a pout appearing on her androgynous face. "Like, after I tortured you and you escaped—you took me with you."
"As a hostage," Konrad pointed out.
"The intensity when you poured into me to take that bracelet off—"
"Wording," he yelled, seeing Yuki's growing smirk in the corner. "She'll think we did something else." His eyes bounced between them. "Stella's talking about pouring mana, okay?"
But the blonde kept on going.
"And when the panic and the spirits took over—you could've killed me, but you protected me instead. Calmed me down, and kept me safe even knowing of my curse," she said.
No, she sang all that. Embarrassing.
"And, and now, you even made peace with the Demon Lord," Stella claimed. "They call you a Prodigy for a reason. You're too kind. And yet, I'm about to hurt you."
"Ugh, you already do," Konrad mumbled to himself.
His face heated up, too.
"What's this about anyway?" Yuki asked when the Demon Lord finally dragged her away from Konrad's resting wives. "Curse? And what's that staff? Hurt him how?"
Rather than poking her fingers with curiosity, she was all questions now.
"If I had to guess, she's about to perform a forced prayer on him," Maou said.
"A what?" Konrad blinked.
"More or less," Stella nodded. "The way the spirits described it is—deities gain their powers from prayers. Transforming their worshippers' emotions into raw life essence or mana."
"That sounds an awful lot like the bard magic thing we did on Earth," he noted.
Why wasn't that an option now?!
"But different emotions create different forces," the Church girl explained. "Flavors, if you will. And Lucifer seems to have attuned this artifact to yours in particular."
"How d'you even know that?"
Konrad had only pieced the puzzle together not that long ago.
She waved the skull-topped staff around. Right.
The voices in her head must have gone crazy from that thing.
"So I harvested his suffering to rejuvenate during our battle," Maou concluded.
"Yeah. Well, good thing I'm full of dread about your whole nomadic situation, too," Konrad mumbled. "So go ahead and take my suffering away."
"It's not that simple." Stella shook her head. "It's not harvesting, as in—"
"As in what?"
That dread was about to grow tenfold.
"You might've missed the worst of it in the heat of battle," Stella said. "And I was there to shield you, too. Like, I even replenished your life essence from mine back then. But now—"
"Harvesting your suffering doesn't mean taking it away," the Demon Lord explained.
The former executioner nodded along.
"It's more like burning it in. Prolonging it to flavor your essence as I drain it with this staff."
Yeah. That didn't sound like a great time.
In fact, did he need to know all this?
That long table was already full of shit to deal with.
"Um, well, that will turn this old fart into a schoolboy again, right?" Konrad asked. "And I won't, like, die from it or anything. You can, um, keep me alive as you did before. Right?!"
Maou Midori smirked.
"I appreciate the pain you're willing to go through to keep your word. You don't have to turn me into a child, but easing my back pain would help a lot. Aim for, like, a thirty year old body."
Yeah, if he appreciated it that much, he could have backed off, too.
And that last part was for Stella, gripping her staff tighter.
"I won't lie. It'll hurt. You'll feel terrible. But it won't kill you," she said. "Ready when you are."
Very motivational.
"Like my life in a nutshell," Konrad groaned. "Do it before I lose my nerve."
If they wanted negative emotions, he had plenty right now, anyway.
But when the harvesting finally started, there was no warning. No light effects. No sound.
Only pain and despair for no clear reason, which somehow made it even worse.
This must have been what chronic depression felt like. His body became heavy, his joints burning. He felt old, and no matter what he tried to think about, he only saw downsides.
Like, this tiny emo girl hugged his sides for no reason.
Personal space, damn it. Why did he have to deal with her in the first place?!
And how could the love of his life leave him alone in a situation like this?
Not a second of hesitation. Abandoned, again.
Could he even call that love when she admitted to ruining his previous life on purpose?
And she must have been ruining this one, too.
How could he be so stupid?! All that suffering for what? A pat on the head?
And the nomads? Babysitting the Demon Lord?! Why?!
Because an angel who was so shit at his job, he'd only enjoy failing, and causing suffering—
But right as he had it the worst, a soothing, fresh wind caressed his face.
It didn't come from outside of the pavilion but from Stella's palm. And the hug that annoyed him earlier felt warmer, cozier now. His back would still hurt, but—
"Hey, I told you not to make me a child again," Midori-kun complained.
He looked tiny and ridiculous in those old-man mage robes now, and no more than sixteen.
No, make that twelve; the same as he remembered him from Earth.
"Sorry, his emotions were way too strong," Stella muttered, the staff gone. "I'll fix it right away."
But her fix was not another spell or the reverse of her previous one.
No. And her kissing Konrad was not on his bingo card for the day.