Demon King – Chapter 22 – The Demon Lord Got a New Phone

“Wake up, wake up! It’s almost lunchtime! All you ever do is sleep!” Eiru’s mother’s voice rang from outside the room, accompanied by the sound of knocking.

Rubbing her eyes, the half-asleep little demon lord sat up in bed and yawned.

So sleepy… She really slept too late last night. Drying long hair is such a hassle… Thinking about that, she lost any and all desire to get out of bed.

After her bath the night before, Eiru had stayed up late waiting for her hair to dry. She had a feeling that if her mom hadn’t woken her up, she would’ve easily slept until dinnertime.

Still yawning, the little demon lord used her tail to grab the hair tie from the nightstand. After tying her hair into a ponytail with practiced ease, she reluctantly got out of bed.

“Are you up yet? Lunch is ready!” Another round of urgent knocking followed. Hearing no movement inside, Eiru’s mother rattled the doorknob a few times. The locked door groaned under the pressure.

“I’m up, I’m up. Got it.” Pressing her fingers against her throat, Eiru used magic to alter her voice to reply, then sat down in the chair in her room.

“Hurry up…” After one last comment, with the sound of fading footsteps, Eiru’s mother returned to the kitchen.

It wasn’t the weekend, so Eiya should already be at school by now… Wait, then why is Mom home? Is today her day off?

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Ugh, so there’s still someone at home, meaning she still had to waste magic on maintaining her disguise… The thought made Eiru a bit grumpy.

Oh well. This was a good opportunity to ask Mom to get her a new phone, and then stop by the store downstairs to get a new SIM card.

Still… her head felt fuzzy, and maybe a bit feverish… Was it from spending too long on the roadside that night and catching a cold? So the dizziness in the car wasn’t just from her being carsick, huh?

Eiru didn’t really care about being a little bit sick. Even though her constitution wasn’t great and her immune system was weak, her recovery rate was surprisingly fast. Minor illnesses were nothing more than annoying, and she’d bounce back in a few days.

Shaking her head to regain focus, the demon lord took an electronic thermometer out of the drawer and tucked it under her arm.

Eiru’s body temperature was bizarrely low—usually around 20°C. But when she got sick, it spiked in ridiculous ways. One time, it hit 45°C and nearly gave her a heart attack.

In a sense, she really was like a giant bat. Even when her body temperature rose to 40 or 50 degrees, she was still mostly fine—just a little weak.

Maybe her rapid recovery from illness was thanks to her weird body temperature?

“40 degrees… Yep, definitely a fever.” After checking, she put the thermometer back in the drawer and stretched.

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Her mom was in the kitchen, and Dad definitely wasn’t home… Feeling safe, the little demon lord opened her door and quickly slipped into the bathroom.

What? You’re wondering about Grandma? Well, after that grocery trip, Eiru knew that her Grandma could recognize her even in her real form, so hiding it or not made no difference. TLN: Interesting logic…

“Eiru… don’t run so fast, you’ll trip,” Grandma’s voice rang out as the silver-haired girl darted through the hallway.

Locking the door behind her, Eiru stood at the sink, pulling out her towel while her tail deftly grabbed her toothbrush and cup from another rack and set them down.

Honestly, having a tail was pretty handy. It worked like a third arm in many situations…

Sure, it couldn’t do complex things like writing, but it was much longer than her arms. If she couldn’t reach something with her hands, her tail probably could.

Right now, her towel was even hanging off her tail…

After brushing her teeth, Eiru took the damp towel off her tail and washed her face with cold water.

The chill refreshed her instantly, even if she was still a bit dizzy.

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With her wings and tail retracted, she transformed back into her male disguise and stepped out. Just as he entered the living room, he saw his mother setting the last dish on the table.

“Drink some water, then eat. I’ve got a few things to talk to you about afterwards,” Eiru’s mother said, removing her apron with a somewhat serious tone.

“Okay…”

After drinking some water, Eiru sat down at the table and started picking at the food. He was a bit hungry, but his fever made it hard to eat a lot.

Seeing her like this, Eiru’s mother assumed her son was sulking because he was afraid of getting scolded.

“I’m not planning to scold you, you know. Strictly speaking, this incident wasn’t entirely your fault…” She smiled a bit helplessly, sitting down with a sincere tone.

“Okay, tell me whatever it is.”

“First, I heard about your phone being broken. Your cousin had a spare, so I asked if you could have it. Here, take it.” She handed over a phone box from a nearby cabinet.

“Thanks, Mom!” Eiru beamed, eagerly opening the box.

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It wasn’t top-of-the-line, but it wasn’t bad either—the model was about a year old. However, in today’s lightning-fast upgrade cycle, it was a bit outdated and not quite what Eiru had hoped for.

Still, it was miles better than his old one… Normally his parents had a “raise boys poor, raise girls rich” mindset. All the good stuff went to Eiya, and they pinched pennies with him. Getting a phone at all was already a luxury.

Watching Eiru’s delighted reaction, her mother smiled and continued.

“Because of what happened, and for your safety, your father and I talked to the school. From now on, you’ll be living in the school dorms on weekdays.”

“Mmhmm!” Caught up in his joy over the new phone, Eiru nodded enthusiastically without really processing what was said.

“Wait, Mom, what did you just say?” A few seconds later, he realized that his mom had said something very, very dangerous.

Translator Note

Should I release chapters as soon as I’m done, or release both chapters at the same time?