The Short Demon King

Chapter 34

"Watch where you're going, asshole!" an old lady shouted at me.

I recognized that cranky voice. It was the neighbor Eiling!

I brushed myself off slightly before looking up to apologize, "Sorry about that, wasn't paying enough attention I guess."

I tried to laugh it off, but she kept glaring at me, refusing to drop it. I watched her expression, hoping that her face would soften and she'd just leave. Instead, her eyes narrowed further.

"Why do you..." she started mumbling to herself.

"Hm?"

Eiling raised an eyebrow as an idea came to her. She leaned back with a hand on her bony hip and asked, "Now what kind of apology is that? Kids these days, they don't even smile afterwards!"

I blinked a couple of times, completely confused. "What do you me-"

But before I could finish my question, she lunged forward and lifted the side of my mouth with her thumb. Sure enough, that made my fangs fully visible.

I leaned back, trying to avoid her, but she wouldn't let go of my face. Satisfied with her findings, she smiled wickedly to herself and leaned even closer, her long wavy hair brushing against my shoulder.

"Found you, demon."

She snatched my arm, digging her nails into it. I was so taken aback by shock that I didn't even know how to respond. As she started dragging me away, Kevin finally finished putting on his shoes and noticed what was going on.

"Uh... what's happening?" he asked, rushing to follow behind us.

Eiling glanced back at him briefly before pulling even harder on my arm. She completely ignored him and picked up her pace, almost running at this point.

I finally recovered from the shock and was about to try and pull my arm free, but stopped when remembering Eiling was still an old lady. If I pulled too hard and she fell over, that could do a lot of damage. There weren't many options left, plus I had to deal with the fact she now knew I wasn't human.

I tried my best to deescalate the situation, "Hold on, Eiling. I don't know what you're talking about! How about you stop for a second and we can all figure this out together?"

"Really? Together? Do you really want that human figuring out what you truly are? Just follow me silently," she hissed in my ear. The bitterness in her voice made it very clear there would be no reasoning with her. Her mind was already set.

I couldn't escape by force and I couldn't get her to listen to me. The best I could do in this situation was keep Kevin safe and out of the whole mess.

Straining to turn around, I yelled back at him, "Don't worry about it! I'll meet you back at the house!"

He didn't seem convinced, but stopped chasing after us. His face was coated with concern, but he decided to trust me. After reluctantly nodding in return, he actually listened and headed back to the house.

Satisfied, I focused once more on the problem at hand.

We were already outside Eiling's house, so she stopped to unlock it before pushing me inside. After locking the door behind herself, she finally turned back to look at me.

Those pale eyes glared at me as she slowly circled around me, clearly checking for anything else demonic. When she finished her examination, she stood tall and scoffed at me.

"Pretty short for a demon, huh? Wonder where you even got that from."

I sighed. "How many times do I need to tell you I'm not a demon? Those aren't even real."