In the demon realm

The king ordered Kazuki to try contact Ron to confirm the authenticity of the mail he had received.

After a few seconds, Ron finally answered the call sluggishly.

“What’s up?” Ron’s voice came from the other side of the phone.

“Ron, did you send me a text last night?” Kazuki asked straightforwardly.

Ron was about to ask him what text he was talking about, but his mouth moved on its own and said, “Yeah, I did.”

Seeing that his mouth was moving against his will made him freak out. He was about to explain that he didn’t want to say that but the words that came out were different, “Ellie had told me this personally so there’s no way it’s wrong.”

“Alright. I just needed to check in case the enemy hacked your phone.” Kazuki replied as he felt that nothing was suspicious.

Ron was really confused as to what was going on. Was this something like the enemy controlling his actions?

Thinking that the enemy had only controlled his mouth, Ron said, “I’ll text you later about something.”

He then hung up and quickly tried to type in that the enemy was controlling his mouth. However, just as he was about to type, his fingers couldn’t move at all, making him unable to type.

Ron quickly searched his brain for other ways. He then grabbed a piece of paper and tried to write but his hands couldn’t move as he wanted too.

“Damn it!” Ron shouted, feeling frustrated. How did he get controlled in the first place? Was it because yesterday he had entered Ellie’s house, which was also the house of the enemy too? Was there some kind of mind controlling magic being cast on the house? But then it wouldn’t make sense since he was outside of her house right now…

After thinking for some time, Ron tried to trace his memories as to what he did yesterday that was out of usual.

“I ate breakfast as per normal with coffee… no, it was tea… Wait! It was the tea! Was there something in the tea? No, but the tea was brewed by Ellie. There’s no way she would try to harm me, her fiancé.” Ron muttered to himself.

Ron quickly showered and got dressed to go to Kazuki to warn tell him personally that he was currently being controlled.

After about half an hour, Ron reached the royal palace and quickly called Kazuki that he was visiting. Kazuki had told him to wait in the living room.

A few minutes later, Kazuki entered the living room together with Lilienne.

“So, do you need something? Why were you in such a rush?” Kazuki asked as soon as he saw Ron’s appearance. One could tell that he was in a hurry from how his shirt was buttoned up wrongly and he seemed incredibly stressed.

“Kazuki! There’s something important I need to tell you!” Ron stood up as he looked at Kazuki seriously.

“What is it?” Kazuki asked curiously.

“I’ve been …!” Ron said but the words ‘controlled’ didn’t come out of his mouth. Was the enemy controlling him again? Damn it!

Feeling frustrated, Ron tried to use body language instead. He pointed at a tea cup, made a gesture as if he was drinking it, and then pointed at his head.

As expected, the couple couldn’t understand what he was doing.

“Pfft! What are you doing, Ron?” Lilienne laughed.

“Hey, I’m being serious here! I’ve been …!” Again, Ron couldn’t say the word ‘controlled’.

“You’ve been what?” Lilienne asked, still laughing.

“Urgh! Why won’t you guys understand? How about this then?” Ron said as he made some weird gestures.

However, to the two childhood friends of his, they knew what these gestures meant. This was the sign they had used when they were role playing zombies together when they were small.

The gestures he made was one of that those that had been zombified. When the couple saw Ron doing these gestures, their faces immediately became serious as they also asked him with another gesture that had the meaning of whether he had been zombified.

Ron nodded his head furiously, feeling relieved that the two finally knew what he meant.

The three of them then communicated in these weird gestures for a while until the couple understood what had happened.

“I understand the situation now. Don’t worry, we’ll handle everything.” Kazuki said after he understood the whole situation. It seems like he’ll need to be wary of this “tea”.

“Then I’ll go back and check up Ellie. I hope she’s fine…” Ron said as he walked out.

“It seems you’re starting to care about her.” Lilienne teased.

“I only care for her because I pity her for having a father like that.” Ron gave her an excuse.

“Oh, really?” Lilienne still continued teasing him.

“Really. I won’t bother you two anymore then. Bye.” Ron quickly escaped from her teasing.

“I really hope that it’s not out of pity that he’s caring for her. It would hurt her so much if she knew…” Lilienne murmured.

“If he really didn’t see her that way, he wouldn’t have allowed his mother to go forward with the engagement in the first place. He may be testing his feelings for her right now. We shouldn’t rush him or his feelings for her won’t be genuine.” Kazuki said as he placed his hand on her shoulder affectionately.

“I know…” Lilienne replied back as she snuggled closer in his arms.