The Demon King's Hero Of Light 216 Chapter 216 An Angry King

"Seifer," she responded, making a point of returning the favor.

"Are you here for your pet human?" he spat, dropping all pretense of respect.

"You know, you're only the king because I named you so," she growled, "and I'm not very impressed with the job you've done!"

"Gee, really? Could it be because you left me a mess with no direction?" he snapped.

"You knew perfectly well what I was trying to do!" she shouted.

Precious sighed and flew off her shoulder to the throne, to put some distance between him and her shouting. Aella ignored him.

"You would make changes then leave me in charge for weeks, expecting me to know what you wanted, or why you made the change!" he shouted back.

Frederik waved the guards away that were glancing at each other uncertain if they should jump in. All of the advisors had already fled the room.

"I worked hard to get the humans included in this kingdom!" she snarled.

"You were the DEMON KING, not the KING of the REALM!" he shouted. "You should have been looking out for DEMONS, not the humans! They have been our enemies for generations!"

"I was looking out for the demons! I ended the war, didn't I?"

"By throwing us all into a strange foreign place, with no apparent way to survive, and then by throwing other races and creatures at us to take care of! You took away everything everyone knew, and left us in the midst of a raging storm that would kill anyone who stepped outside. Then, the only person capable of doing us any good, the Earth Hero, you stole away as well!"

"I was trying to save the realm from a monster invasion! And then I got stuck trying to calm down a volcano that was going to destroy the countryside!"

The two of them glared at each other for a moment, as they both panted in anger.

"All of the effort I have made…" she started but he shook his head and interrupted her.

"All of the effort you did wasn't for the demon's sakes. If you really cared about the demons, you would have been here, using the powers you were given to help them. Instead you have been galivanting all over the realm, helping the other kingdoms while we struggled to survive."

"The other kingdoms were going to be destroyed if I didn't help them! I was the one who was responsible for the storms that raged all over the realm! I had to do something!"

"Then you should have let them be destroyed!" he exploded. "This kingdom was already on the brink of being destroyed because of you! We needed you! Instead of doing your job, you left me here to try and keep everything together!"

"You had more training than anyone else!" she countered.

"Not really! I was too busy trying to run a kingdom while you ran all over doing c.r.a.p! How many times were you told that someone else could do the job, yet you insisted it had to be you?! And I was supposed to have Frederik help me, yet you took him away to galivant all over the kingdom too!"

"I ended the war; the church is no longer a threat! The surrounding countryside is way better than what we had in the old lands, and there's no one to fight over who gets to settle where. You've already kicked out all of the humans, the lions, and all of the non-demons! Why are you doing this?"

"Just because you tell the people to not hate someone, that they've been told their whole lives to hate, doesn't get rid of that hate overnight!" he growled. "I sent those humans to the other city for their own good! Otherwise there would have been rioting and murders all over the place. Your d.a.m.n a.s.sa.s.sins would have killed everyone! I had to do something to placate those who hated to see the humans eating what little food we had when everyone was hungry. Did you ever think of that?"

"Well, then you will be pleased to know that I will be taking all of my a.s.sa.s.sins to my new trade town, and they shouldn't bother you again," said Aella, stepping back and straightening up.

"Ah, yes. Your new trade town. The one where you are going to connect all of the kingdoms in the realm for trade. And just how do you intend to do that? I don't think I will allow an active portal inside my city for just anyone to traipse through."

"Then I will make the portal be outside your city," she declared. It will go to a section of my town where the demons who wish to trade and buy may do so, with whichever other people they want. You will not be allowed to send troops through my portal, as they will be slaughtered or apprehended. I plan to do the same thing with the other kingdoms in the realm. You are not the only one who didn't like the idea of having an open portal for criminals to move back and forth through.

Seifer snarled and moved over to his throne to sit. Precious hopped out of the way before he was attacked. Aella bristled, but didn't say anything. Precious should have known better.

"So, you are the King of the Realm, eh? What exactly does that mean to me, other than you get to show up at your leisure and cause me more grief? Undermining my authority?"

Aella took a breath and fought for control. She was perilously close to killing him. But then, who would she put in charge? And what kind of a precedent would she be making, if she did that?

"Look, you are right. I wasn't a very good king for these people. I tried, as best as I could, but I had no experience being king. You have to admit that none of us candidates were trained to be actual kings."

He glared at the floor for several minutes before he responded. "No, we weren't. They expected us to die to the human heroes."

"I liked you, Seifer. I thought you would make a wonderful leader, and I failed you in that I didn't make it easy on you. But it pains me to see so much of what I was trying to do being ignored and undone."

"You were trying to do too much, too fast," he sighed. "Your ideas aren't bad, they're just not ready for these people."

"Can I have Curt? I will take him to the other city."

"Is that the only reason you came here today?" he asked, closing his eyes and resting his head on his fist.

"No, I wanted to talk to you about the portal to the trade town as well," said Aella, finding a calm finally.

"What will the people think if every time I throw someone into the prison, you come behind me and take them out?" he asked, still not opening his eyes.

Aella looked down at the floor and thought about that for a moment.

"What crime has he committed?" she asked.

"Trying to flee my guards," he said.

"I was told you were trying to throw all of the humans in jail," she said.

"The people in the city felt that sharing s.p.a.ce with them was c.u.mbersome and unfair."

"Not all of the people," she said. "I was told some of the demons relocated to the other city with the humans."

"I didn't want the healer to leave. That human you want, was with her, and I was hoping to get her to come back by keeping him locked up."

"Seifer," sighed Aella. "Josephine isn't just a healer. She's the Hero of Water. Healing is just a secondary ability she has."

"All of my healers that came from the old castle, lost their magic. None of them can heal, Aella. She was the only one who could still heal in an emergency."

"But you were having her heal anyone and everyone, Seifer. She wasn't just being used in an emergency!"

"You used her the same way!" he sneered.

"I know," Aella agreed. "And I was wrong."

"You're only saying that because you can heal without her. What am I to do if someone gets hurt? You always used magic to overcome your obstacles. That's not an option for me! You even took all of the royal treasury with you when you left!"

"You know fully well why I did that," she snapped. "There are those who would abuse those things!"

"Using something to overcome a problem isn't abusing it!" he shot back.

"It is if you don't try to overcome the problem any other way!"

"Are you going to leave me as king?" he asked, looking at her suddenly.

Aella took a breath and let it out slowly. She wanted to throw him off a cliff, but that wasn't an option right now. Whoever she put in place after him would be too afraid of their shadow to do anything that might upset her. At least he wasn't scared of her… yet.

"No."

He breathed a sigh of relief and stood back up. "Then if I told you I refuse to hand over a criminal?"

"You know that I could just go grab him," she said, looking at him from the corner of her eye.

"Will you?"

"No," she said again, shaking her head. "What condition do you have for his release?"

Seifer looked up to the ceiling as he thought her question over.

"You still plan to go forward with the trade town?"

"Yes. The town is finished, but I thought it best to wait until after the full moon to implement it. I still have to talk with the other kingdoms and get the portals made."

"We need trade. The people are struggling to make everything themselves, and have started coming to me demanding I get you to just give them what they want."

"How about I give you some of the goods the people want the most in exchange for Curt?" she offered. "Once I open the portal and the people can travel to the trade town to get what they want, things should calm down some."

Seifer turned to look at her. "I want you to refer to me as the king I am in front of others. I need them to respect me as king."

"And I want you to refer to me as the king I am," said Aella. "I am in charge of the entire realm, not just one city."

He shook his head and said, "I don't understand why you would even want that job."

"I didn't," she said. "The realm chose me for it, and I have been trying to figure out my responsibilities ever since."

"It must suck to be you," he said with the hint of a smile.

"Give me Curt and the list you have of demands, and I will get started on them. I have tons of other kings to deal with still."

"How have you managed to control your pheromones?" he asked, turning to sit back down.

"A really thick bubble of air keeps them from leaving me," she said.

"Yet, you're not acting overly h.o.r.n.y," he said, his eyes traveling over her body.

"That would be the steel willpower I've developed," she grinned at him. "Besides, I don't want kids right now, can you imagine how hard it would be to do this job and carry around a baby?"

Seifer winced and shook his head.

"So, we're good again?" he asked, waving between the two of them.

"I still think you're a jerk," she said.

"Well, I still think you're an impulsive little kid, but that's looking to change."

"We can talk some more later on what I think of your job as a king, but for now, let's get something done so the advisors cowering in the hall can get back to their jobs."

Seifer sighed, then nodded. "You can have the human, and I will have a list ready for you by the end of the day. Let me know if there's anything on it you can't get, so I can prepare for the indignation of the people."

Aella nodded, and turned to see Frederik sitting in his own thrown, petting Precious. Precious sighed and stood up slowly before flying up to her shoulder.

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