Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord

Chapter 23 - Questions and Answers

I think that technically, being one second away from death makes my fight with "A Giant Dave" the closest I got to dying for real during my adventures related to our grand quest.

Honestly, I should have realized that daves are terrifying enough. There was no need to make a boss out of them.

---

I wasn't sure how long I sat there, letting Megan hold me. I do know that when I finally managed to pull enough of myself together to function, the rest of the party wasn't around. It was just the two of us alone in the boss room.

I gently pulled out of her embrace. "Thank you," I said. "I really needed that."

"I would say any time, but I would rather you not become an inconsolable mess regularly," she said with a wry expression.

I chuckled dryly. "Yeah, that's fair."

We stood up.

"I... Don't think I can continue with the plan," I said.

"Yeah," Megan sighed. "I think we can safely say that this job has gone bad. If every dungeon is going to be that dangerous for you, I can't ask you to continue." Megan thought for a second. "So, you're going to tell the party you're the [Demon Lord]? I guess I should get my 'completely shocked that Titus was the [Demon Lord] all along' face ready."

"I haven't decided yet," I answered.

Megan raised an eyebrow. "But you have to tell them. Otherwise, we're headed right off to the ice dungeon."

"It should be fine. The dungeon monsters and traps don't really exist until I set them up."

"What." It should have been a question, but Megan's voice was incredibly flat. And intimidating.

When I next spoke, my voice came out a bit faster and higher pitched than I would have wanted. "I had to set the dungeon up. That's how I was able to clear it in an hour."

Megan's voice was strained. "And that included the traps? All of them?"

I was tempted to lie, but I figured that she would be able to tell. "Yes?"

She started hitting me to punctuate each of her words. "You stupid.. idiotic.. imbecillic.. moronic.."

Though a part of me was curious how expansive her vocabulary was for telling me I was dumb, I cut her off by grabbing her hands.

"As much as I deserve it, you were doing damage," I said. "I would rather you not have to explain to the party that I survived the boss only to die to what they would assume is domestic violence."

She pulled her hands out of mine and stalked off. "Well, if you're good enough to joke, I guess my work here is done."

"Wait! Megan!" I called after her.

She made it out of the boss room and rounded the corner. By the time I made it there, she was gone.

"Hey, he's up!" Jake stood up from where he had been seated and came to the door. "Are you okay, Titus?"

"I'm just dandy," I snapped. Jake didn't even have to warn me before I sighed and pulled my aura back in. "Let's just... Get out of here."

---

Megan was once again grateful for [Sneak's] social utility. In other words, its ability to let her avoid talking with the rest of the party.

She had a mess of emotions to deal with, and she was glad that no one could see her trying to deal with them. Though, she really wished she had somewhere that she could just go and scream.