The Demon's Lover (Meliodas)

Chapter 12

Whatever amount of time had passed Ayano's conscious finally came to. She couldn't see anything but she could hear voices.

"You've really aged Barta!" it sounds like Melliodas's voice

"And you haven't changed a bit" King Barta replies

"Captain" Merlin calls out and Meliodas looks at her "I hate to break it to you, but their's an ice sculpture over there that needs our attention"

"Ayano!" Meliodas runs over to her "Elizabeth what happened?"

Elizabeth goes over to him "Lady Ayano was frozen by the holy knight mage that kidnapped us, she was trying to protect me"

"Merlin can you unfreeze her?" Meliodas asks as he places his hand on Ayano's frozen hand

"Perhaps" Merlin walks over "I can raise her body temperature to an extreme magical level that might melt it"

"I-Isn't that dangerous?" Elizabeth asks worriedly

"For a normal human yes" Merlin replies 

"but for Ayano, no" Meliodas adds

Elizabeth whispers to Meliodas "Sir Meliodas, is it because Lady Ayano is a demon?"

"huh?" Meliodas looks at her surprised "hey how did you find out?"

"Well the Holy Knight mage mentioned it was a rumor and Lady Ayano then told me it was true" Elizabeth explains and waves her hands quickly "but I have nothing against her at all, I was just worried about her"

"I got it" Meliodas turns to Merlin "Well Merlin, if you could?"

Merlin snaps her fingers and slowly the ice begins to melt. Meliodas watches with worry until the ice is gone and Ayano's body falls forward. Meliodas puts his arms out and catches her with ease.

"Lady Ayano" Elizabeth says reaching out to her

"you might not want to touch her Elizabeth" Meliodas says as he picks up Ayano's body "her body temperature is starting to going down, but right now it's about at the level you'll burn yourself" he chuckles

"How come you can touch her?" Elizabeth asks concerned "aren't you burning yourself"

"..don't worry about me" Meliodas smiles "I'm perfectly fine"

"She'll wake up as soon as her temperature goes back to normal" Merlin informs him

"Thanks Merlin. Now, we defeated Henderickson in order to rescue Elizabeth. So much for his plans to revive the Demon Clan. All that's left is liberating the kingdom. So what'll be be Dreyfus?" Meli says and turns to the door where Dreyfus is standing

"You're the criminals who were conspiring to overthrow the kingdom! Everybody knows that you killed my older brother, Captain of the Holy Knights, Zaratras!" Dreyfus yells.

"You're wrong" Margaret speaks up "I saw it, ten years ago on the morning of the kingdoms birthday celebration... You and Henderickson worked together to kill Grandmaster Zaratras, I was so scared that I ran and told Gilthunder right away. We were discovered by Vivian, that's how she held us captive."

Dreyfus goes quiet after Margaret speaks. He looks at the ground, like he is fighting with himself over being found out.

"I admit defeat. Kill me" Dreyfus drops his sword and lowers to his knees

Ayano whines and opens her eyes

Meliodas looks down at her "morning"

"...can you put me down?" Ayano questions noticing that she was in Meliodas's arms