After Ten Millennia in Hell

"Ah…"

He relaxed on the bed and sunk into the soft mattress. It was as if he\'d become one with the bed, unmoving and unbreathing. He was so stuck to the bed that he might as well have used the Authority of Immobility.

He pulled the blanket right up to his neck, relaxing in the warmth of the custom-made duck-feather blanket he\'d specially ordered for this very day.

"Aaah," he let out a short exclamation. "This must be what they call happiness."

A slow smile crept onto his face while he mumbled nonsense. It wasn\'t that he was falling asleep, but he felt happy beyond belief while lying in bed doing nothing.

\'Yeah, this is the life of a wealthy bum.\'

The seat of a demon king who ruled over the Nine Hells and the seat of an overlord who ruled the entire world were both meaningless.

While they got up early to have meetings and a bunch of other shit, he could stay in bed and roll around while scratching his balls. Being a king was nothing compared to being a bum.

\'I\'m so fucking happy. This is what you call the good life.\'

He squirmed around his sheets while shivering in excitement.

Slam!

"Kang-Woo."

At that moment, someone interrupted his rest. It was a black-haired little girl—no, she was on the verge of becoming a fine lady. She trotted toward the bed and shook him.

"You\'re gonna have the whole day off, right?"

"…"

He didn\'t answer.

"You\'ve been having it hard all this time, right, Kang-Woo? I\'ll play with you for the whole day."

Hm! Hm!

She shook his body while snorting.

Kang-Woo closed his eyes as if he were deeply asleep. He\'d just managed to get a free day, so he refused to get out of bed. He kept his eyes closed, just like a father trying to hide from his daughter who wanted to ask him to play with her on a Sunday.

"Kang-Woo. I know you\'re not sleeping."

Echidna pulled his arm, raised the blanket, and tickled his side. That was not working, so she even jumped on top of him and bit his earlobe.

"Urrrrgggghhhh." He could not endure her biting his earlobe, so he rose from the bed while sounding like a zombie.

"Hehe."

Echidna made a victory smile.

Kang-Woo\'s eyes widened.

"Why are you bothering me so much?! I\'m not stepping one foot off this bed today!" he desperately cried.

Echidna turned her head to the side and spoke in a sad voice.

"But…" She trembled as if she were a heartbroken heroine. "If I don\'t go this far… you won\'t ever be interested in me!"

"…"

Kang-Woo wondered what in the world Echidna was talking about. As he was looking up at her in disbelief, she smiled and made a V-sign with both her hands.

"It\'s from a popular meme[1]."

"What\'s a meme?"

"A buzzword. You don\'t know about memes when you\'ve been on Earth for so long?"

"There\'s a bit of a generational gap."

A gap of about ten millennia.

Kang-Woo quickly reached out to Echidna, who was on his chest. He hugged her and tickled her sides.

"Ahn! Wh-What are you doing, Kang-Woo?!"

It was rare to see Echidna flustered. Kang-Woo smiled and tickled her armpits. "You dared to interrupt the king\'s rest, so you must be prepared to face the consequences."

Although it was so cringe that he would vomit despite having said it himself, the words casually left his mouth so that he could play along with the situation.

Echidna narrowed her eyes.

"Kang-Woo, that\'s cringe."

"…"

"I didn\'t know you were that kind of person."

"Come on, shouldn\'t you be playing along…?"

"I\'m disappointed."

Echidna snorted.

Kang-Woo\'s eyes trembled as if he were a protagonist who had just been betrayed.

Then… both Echidna and Kang-Woo burst into laughter.

"Urgh."

Kang-Woo got up from bed.

"Kang-Woo, are you… feeling okay?" Echidna carefully asked while pulling on his clothes.

She had been trying her best to be fine, but her expression was soon dyed with sorrow and worry. She probably wondered if he had died or something.

Kang-Woo smirked.

"I\'m completely fine. I gained a lot too."

"Kang-Woo, promise m—"

"Okay. I won\'t use it again unless it\'s absolutely necessary."

Kang-Woo patted her head. Echidna nodded while crying a bit.

Molting was definitely a high-risk, high-return gamble; it was as insane as going all in consecutively in a casino. He would definitely die if he kept spamming it.

"Promise?"

"Yeah, promise."

Kang-Woo went out to the living room with Echidna.

Halcyon came running when he saw Kang-Woo.

"Master Kang-Woo! You\'re up!"

Halcyon embraced Kang-Woo, his eyes shining like a beast.

"You\'re already up?" Han Seol-Ah asked, worried. "You could have rested a bit longer…"

"Because of this little troublemaker." Kang-Woo pinched Echidna\'s cheek.

Seol-Ah glared at her.

Echidna flinched and hid behind Kang-Woo.

"Well, I can\'t stay in bed all day." Kang-Woo smiled and sat on the couch. Even a bum had a daily schedule. Since the sun was up in the sky, he had to fill his stomach with warm stew. It was more than worth giving up on becoming one with the bed.

"Darling." Kang-Woo looked at Seol-Ah with shining eyes.

Seol-Ah laughed. She already knew what he wanted without him saying another word.

"Just a few minutes. I\'ll have it ready in a flash."

"Oh, I\'ll help."

"It\'s okay. You can stay resting." Seol-Ah shook her head. "I heard you underwent some harsh training for the past twenty days, so you can leave everything to me for today."

She hadn\'t heard the details of the training, but it had been so brutal that Echidna had bawled her eyes out in Seol-Ah\'s arms. She wanted to let Kang-Woo get some good rest for today.

"Well… if you insist."

Kang-Woo smiled awkwardly and nodded. Being taken care of by someone else still felt awkward.

"Then Kang-Woo, let\'s watch anime while we wait." Echidna pulled his arm.

"N-No. Master Kang-Woo is g-going to stay with m-me."

As if he didn\'t intend to lose, Halcyon pulled the other arm.

"…"

Although he had flowers in both arms, one had yet to bloom, and the other had both a pistil and a stamen.

\'What is this?\'

It didn\'t feel right. He should be happy to be put in such a situation, but he was not for some reason.

Kang-Woo\'s arms were being pulled around.

"Kang-Woo\'s mine."

"Y-Yours? Th-There you go again with your n-nonsense. D-Don\'t lie. I-I don\'t like liars."

"…"

Seol-Ah remained silent while looking at Halcyon and Echidna. She narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, her eyes gleamed.

"Kang-Woo."

"Yeah?"

Seol-Ah spread out her arms. Although she was wearing a baggy sweater, a certain area was heavily emphasized.

Kang-Woo\'s eyes widened. It was not hard to imagine what she wanted from him.

"W-We\'re in front of the children…"

Kang-Woo had remained a virgin, at least with humans, for ten millennia. He averted his eyes from her gaze, thinking that this was a bit too much.

Seol-Ah\'s eyes narrowed.

"Kang-Woo?"

"M-Mhmm."

He looked around. Echidna and Halcyon had stopped pulling his arms and were tilting their heads.

"You\'re not… going to come?" Seol-Ah asked in a low voice. For some reason, her voice was scary.

He felt chills running through his skin. Kang-Woo couldn\'t resist anymore and approached Seol-Ah. As he lowered his head and adjusted his height, Seol-Ah hugged his head.

"Good boy."

"…"

It felt very weird for his head to be caressed. After she had nursed him in the past, her attitude had changed a bit. He could feel some sort of big sister energy coming from her. Such a feeling should be weird since he was almost four hundred times her age, but it did not feel that way for some reason.

It was as if Seol-Ah was older than him.

\'In terms of age, Echidna is way older than Seol-Ah.\'

Purely in terms of age, Halcyon was actually the oldest one here. Ancient demonic beasts have been alive for a very long time.

"Mm."

"Fufu. Do you feel good?"

Seol-Ah patted his back.

There was no need to even ask. Kang-Woo enjoyed the soft sensation spreading through his cheeks.

Seol-Ah raised her head and looked at the other two girls, whose facial expressions had hardened.

"Heh."

"Urgh!"

She was making a smug smile.

Halcyon\'s face went red. He flapped his wings in a fit and bit his lip.

"H-How dare y-you… t-treat Master Kang-Woo like a child…"

He clacked his teeth while glaring at Seol-Ah.

"H-How e-envi—I-I mean, the insolence…"

He ground his teeth, and extended his nails to scratch the wall in a fit, cutting the walls as if it were tofu.

"Urghh."

Still, he couldn\'t attack Seol-Ah because he knew that Seol-Ah was important to Kang-Woo. Halcyon stomped on the ground in frustration and groaned.

Seol-Ah smiled and clapped her hands together. "Oh, right. Why don\'t we go to the supermarket together, Kang-Woo?"

"The supermarket?"

"We\'re out of pork, so we need to go buy some."

"Hmm? I checked yesterday, and there were still a ton lef—"

"We\'re out."

Seol-Ah smiled.

Kang-Woo gulped and nodded.

"Right. Let\'s go, Kang-Woo. In the meantime, you two can look over the house," she said firmly to Echidna and Halcyon.

Seol-Ah slightly pulled Kang-Woo\'s clothes and walked toward the door, humming.

"…"

"Urghhh."

The two left behind glared at them as Seol-Ah and Kang-Woo left.

* * *

"… Wouldn\'t it have been better if we had brought them as well?"

"It\'s been a while since we\'ve been alone together." Seol-Ah smiled while slightly sticking her tongue out.

Kang-Woo smirked at her attitude, which wasn\'t like her usual self.

\'It\'s probably because…\'

It seemed he\'d made her worry.

It was no wonder. Although she had not been told the details of the molting process, she likely had an idea of how serious it was from seeing Echidna and Halcyon.

"Alright. Since we\'re here, let\'s take our time looking ar—"

As he grabbed Seol-Ah\'s hand and was about to go, he stopped in his tracks. His eyes narrowed.

"It has been a while." The silver-haired angel, Shalgiel, was blocking his path. He stared at Seol-Ah with an intense gaze and said, "There is something I must tell you."

1. It\'s from a gag post in 2018 about what seemed to be a guy venting about their little sister who hates him, but slowly turns into a weeb post about a tsundere little sister who had been acting that way to get his attention all this time. The phrase that Echidna used was widely spread across many forms of Korean media. ☜