“Wait,” Duchess Rose said. “The target stopped moving. Head south.”

“South?” Anaheim asked. “Didn’t you say she went north?”

“She went so far north that it became south,” Duchess Rose said. “The world’s round, you know?”

Khrx exhaled, his body deflating like a balloon. He had been pumping himself up to actually fly at his top speed, but since Fufu stopped moving, the metal egg should be enough. He smiled at Anaheim. “Okay. Looks like I don’t have to exert any strength. Besides, I waited two days for you to finish torturing Luke to ride on this egg. It would’ve been a massive waste of time if I left it now.”

“That’s the sunk-cost fallacy,” Luke said. “Just because you’ve invested time already doesn’t mean you should continue investing more time. You should leave.”

“It sounds like you don’t want Khrx here?” Duchess Rose asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why is that?”

Luke glanced at Anaheim. “I just want some alone time with my lover.”

“Khrx,” Anaheim said as the top of the egg split open. Duchess Rose’s eyes widened as she dove away, donning her hood before the sunlight could touch her. “Get out.”

Before Khrx could react, Luke leapt through the opening in the egg with a laugh. “She fell for it!”

Anaheim sighed and made a tugging motion. Luke flew back inside of the flight craft, his arms and legs suspended in the air. “I thought you changed, dear,” Anaheim said with a sigh as she cracked her knuckles. “Here I was, testing your loyalty. You failed.”

“These are demon-binding shackles!” Luke said as his eyes widened. Manacles appeared on his ankles and wrists with chains on them leading to Anaheim’s hand. “How do you have these!?”

“I have an anti-demon artifact for every conceivable situation. It’s what happens when a family that exists to kill a demon lord has a thousand years of idle time.” Anaheim gave the chains a tug, causing Luke’s expression to contort in pain. “These were made by the seventeenth descendant of the hero. She had a thing for cuffs and whips. Do you want to see the whip?” A wry smile appeared on her lips. “No? Then behave.”

Khrx shivered before shaking his head. It was a good thing he had excellent karma unlike Luke. There was no sadistic woman trying to ruin his life. He turned his head away from the sight of his pitiful best friend and peered out the projection on the wall. A creature flying a few clouds away caught his eye. “Oh!”

“Hmm?” Duchess Rose asked, appearing by his side. She removed the hood from her head as Anaheim shut the egg’s opening. “Did you see another one of your friends?”

“No,” Khrx said as he swallowed his saliva. “It’s Fenfen, a phoenix. I haven’t eaten her in so long. Her eggs are especially delicious.”

Duchess Rose hesitated, her face flushing. “Eaten her…? In, in that way?”

“What other way can you eat people?” Khrx asked, tilting his head as he tore his gaze away from the phoenix. He had to catch Fufu before she decided to move again. It wouldn’t be smart to waste time on a snack. Unknowingly, the majestic red bird in the distance avoided a disaster. “She’s a phoenix, so it’s okay to eat her over and over again. She went missing a while ago, but I’m glad to see she’s back now.”

“Oh! Oh. Oh…,” Duchess Rose said as she furrowed her brow. Poor phoenix. She turned towards Anaheim and Luke to gauge their reactions to Khrx’s words, but the demon lord was being force-fed a green object by the hero’s descendant. “W-what did you just put in him?”

Anaheim made sure Luke swallowed before smiling at Duchess Rose. “A specialized food pod,” Anaheim said. “The Amirecan spy agencies love this kind of item. As long as he eats food that I personally cook, nothing will happen to him. But if he eats something that I didn’t make….” Anaheim shrugged. “He won’t die at least, but there are many fates worse than death.”

Luke sent a despairing look towards Khrx. His eyes pleaded at the dragon-turned-beastkin, but Khrx coughed and turned his head. Just what exactly did Luke do to provoke someone like the hero? Luke had been around since a little after he had been born, but there wasn’t anyone trying to actively ruin the demon lord’s life back then. “Anaheim,” Khrx said. “You said the hero was born with plot armor to defeat Luke, right? Who gave her that plot armor?”

Anaheim scratched her head. “I don’t know. The heavens, I guess? Why? Were you hoping for some plot armor too?”

“No,” Khrx said and shook his head. “I just wanted to know what I had to do to avoid being chased by an unkillable monstrosity like your ancestor.”

“Isn’t that too late?” Anaheim asked. “There’s Lorin and Theda.”

“I don’t think they’re unkillable?” Khrx asked. “Right?”

“Mm, no, my god is pretty much immortal,” Duchess Rose said. “She was born when the universe was created. As long as there is death, she’ll always exist.”

Khrx scratched his nose. “And before, you said there was a possibility she might be madly in love with me because she claimed me as her property.”

“That’s right.”

Khrx’s expression darkened. Wasn’t he in an even worse situation than Luke? Once he found Fufu, he was going to hide inside of his cavern and enter another sleeping cycle. By the time he woke up again, all his problems would be solved. He had planned on robbing the world of its treasures and feeding cloud pushers to Fufu, but his and Fufu’s safety was his greatest priority. After all, if Theda fed something like that specialized food pod to him, then how was he going to indulge in his gluttony? Right, staying low after rescuing Fufu was the smartest choice.

“We’re getting awfully close to Tanarctica,” Anaheim said with a frown as she checked the projection of the map. “Fufu’s still further south?”

“Mhm.” Duchess Rose nodded. “But we’re getting close. It seems like the target is running around in small circles, but she’s staying in a confined space.”

“Why would Fufu run around Tanarctica?” Anaheim asked. “There’s nothing there except for the penguins and Theda’s home.”

Khrx’s ears perked up. Theda lived there? What happened to laying low? Khrx bent down and rubbed his foot, silently praying to himself. He hoped the only reason Fufu was spending so much time in Tanarctica was to eat the penguins.