A round table with a snowy tablecloth was laden with tea and cookies. I took a seat immediately, silently encouraging the others to sit as well. I didn’t want people standing on formality around me. That attitude wasn’t conducive to the meeting I wanted to hold.
Still, one person hesitated before sitting. Lila kept staring at me oddly, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of things. I pulled the seat out on my left side, encouraging her.
“Sit, Lila. I’ll explain.”
“This is going to be a doozy of an explanation,” she muttered, taking the seat. “I thought I knew why I was here, but now I’m no longer sure.”
“It’s more complicated than I said in my note,” Edwin said, a tone of apology in the words. “I thought it best to explain later. I didn’t expect Priest Edes to know.”
Priest Edes regarded Edwin very carefully. “But you clearly know.”
“Yes, James told me. I don’t remember it for myself.”
Lila put her hands into prayer fashion. “Someone start from the beginning, please?”
I obliged, starting from when I was first made king in my previous life, keeping to the broader strokes, as I didn’t have time to do a full deep dive into the story. Nor did they need every single detail. Edwin had, but few other people deserved to know everything, nor did they even require such information. An hour flew by as I talked, and I had to stop and drink some tea, wetting my throat, in order to finish.
Fortunately, Edwin picked up the story while I drank, explaining the rest, and doing a very nice job. Only then did I realize tears were standing in Lila’s eyes.
Was she sad? No, that didn’t seem right, but I couldn’t decipher the emotion on her face.
Edwin clearly could, because he offered his sister a handkerchief. “Yes, sister mine, he loves me that much. Vuheia herself confirmed he really refused Paradise if I couldn’t go with him. It is part of the reason why I married him.”
I shouldn’t tease, but… “What’s the other reason?”
He eyed me up and down and gave me a sultry little smirk. “You have other amazing attributes as well.”
This audacious little flirt. I snickered.
Lila used the handkerchief, but she also grinned at us. “I can tell you’re newlyweds. All right, I feel like I need to sleep for a week to let the story sink in, but you obviously told us all of this for a reason. Is the Demon King still set to return in this life?”
“Rather, I want to take precautions against it.” I sighed. “I suspect he might, because Vuheia said there’s demonic energy about—”
Everyone in earshot except Edwin and Priest Edes sucked in a startled breath.
“—and Nimus gave us a tome on how to defeat the Demon King, which I think is a big enough hint on its own. Priest Edes, I come to you with two requests.”
Priest Edes immediately bowed his head. “Name them and they shall be done.”
“First, I am giving you the tome. Lila, I understand, is an expert in Old Tongue and can help you translate, but we’ve been told by Nimus himself a spell I need to seal the Demon King is in the book. Translate and copy the spell as quickly as you can.”
Edwin took the book from his bag and handed it to his sister. She took the tome with reverent hands, the look on her face eerily similar to when Edwin got handed a new book he was very excited about. Those two were definitely siblings.
“I’ll get right on this,” she promised gleefully.
“I believe you,” I answered dryly, which got her cackling. Lila and I had always gotten along well, and sitting here with her feltlike stepping back into our comfortable friendship once more. I refocused. “Priest Edes, as you know, I need you and your priests to develop tracking spells. I also need you to work with the other temples and share whatever information you receive, as we’re doomed otherwise. The ability to detect and trace demonic energy will come in handy very shortly if things go to shit like I suspect. I can give you only a little guidance, I’m afraid. It was explained to me how you did it in my first life, but admittedly, most of the explanation went over my head.”
“Any hints will help,” he promised me.
Edwin promptly pulled another notebook out of his bag and handed it over.
I looked on in confusion. “Er, dearest?”
“I wrote it all down,” he said, giving me his speaking look. “Not only what you could remember but how the spells were used, so he has context to work from as well.”
I blinked. “When did you do this?”
“Here and there, as you mentioned things to me.”
