NOVEL WEB Chapter 396: Oh No
So he still wants to take revenge on me…
Alice couldn't help but scratch her head at Gunst's response. Honestly, Gunst's overly straightforward character gave him quite an airheaded appearance. However, Alice also felt a little relieved when she heard Gunst's answer since this meant the man wouldn't be trying to take revenge on her immediately. Meanwhile, by the time Gunst was ready to take revenge, she would have probably left this world already. At that time, he wouldn't even be able to find her, let alone exact revenge on her.
Moreover, it wouldn't matter even if Gunst did find her. While Gunst might be a frighteningly powerful individual in the eyes of the average person, he still wasn't strong enough to beat her.
"Good luck, then."
After getting the answer she wanted, Alice no longer continued her conversation with Gunst. Instead, she tightened the restraints binding Gunst's body, chuckled a little when she saw the pained expression he made, and left the study.
Meanwhile, after seeing Alice's behavior, Gunst could more or less guess that Alice had already acquired evidence of Haydn's wrongdoings. When he linked Alice's behavior with the maid who had previously cast spirit magic on him, he was certain that Alice had already seen all of the memories in his head. So, Alice should have also found out about the key holding a record of Haydn's commands and retrieved it from the ruins.
Unfortunately, there was nothing Gunst could do about this situation. Alice had already sealed the strength he relied on the most, so all he could do now was pray that Haydn could survive against the Hero and figure out how he should help the kingdom's new ruler stabilize their position after Haydn's fall.
...
Unaware of Gunst's thoughts, Alice saw Luna resting on the living room sofa with her eyes closed after leaving the study.
This situation surprised Alice a little. With Luna's current strength, she should be able to stay energized the entire day with only one or two hours of sleep. It was unlikely Luna had been suffering from insomnia recently, either. This was because any capable spirit magician could instantly put themselves into a deep sleep. With Luna's mastery over spirit magic, she could instantly fall asleep even on an active battlefield.
Not to mention, Luna had always been very strict with herself when she was in front of Alice. So, never once had she done anything unbefitting of a maid in front of Alice. According to Alice's understanding of Luna, the other party should be cleaning up around the house right about now.
After all, the first thing Luna did after arriving at Alice's rented apartment was to help Alice inspect and organize Gunst's memories. She never had any time to do the tasks. Only now did Luna find some free time for herself. And with the requirements Luna had put on herself, this would be the perfect time for her to carry out her duties as a maid.
Maybe she tired herself from using spirit magic all morning, Alice guessed.
Although Luna's strength was comparable to Alice's, she wasn't a full-fledged Demon King. So, using a spirit taboo continuously for several hours should still be a taxing task for her mind and body. Honestly, even Alice doubted she could take on such a task without exhausting herself.
So, in Alice's opinion, Luna must have exhausted herself after using spirit magic for too long and chosen to fall asleep on the sofa, even if such behavior might make her look unceremonious in front of her master.
"Seriously… You should have at least slept on the bed…"
After muttering a small complaint, Alice walked up to Luna and extended her hands to pick Luna up. Alice wasn't worried that her actions would wake Luna, either. After interacting with Luna for the past several months, Alice knew that once Luna fell asleep, small movements weren't enough to wake her up.
However, as soon as Alice extended her hands to Luna, she immediately noticed something was amiss. Originally, she thought that Luna had simply exhausted her energy and chosen to enter a state of deep sleep. However, after getting close to Luna, Alice noticed that Luna wasn't making the usual expression she made when sleeping.
Normally, Luna would wear a peaceful expression when sleeping. Moreover, she would retain that peaceful expression throughout her slumber, and not once had Alice seen her sleeping maid's expression changing. It also didn't seem like Luna would dream in her sleep.
Now, though, Luna wore an uncomfortable expression on her face. Her complexion also looked pale, and there were drops of cold sweat flowing down her forehead. No matter how Alice looked at this situation, it didn't seem normal. At the very least, Alice had never seen Luna making such an uncomfortable expression.
If it wasn't for the fact that Demon Kings, even immature ones, were immune to viruses and temperature changes, Alice would have assumed that Luna had caught a cold. However, considering Luna's strength, a big problem must have occurred if she had turned into such a state.
"Andusia!"
In her panic, Alice shouted at one of the rooms in the apartment. Then, Andusia, holding a miniaturized phone, came flying out of the room with an annoyed expression on her face.
"What happened? What made you so anxious?"
After flying out of the room, Andusia arrived next to Alice and saw Alice laying Luna to rest on the couch. Naturally, she had already learned about Luna's situation from Alice, so she couldn't help but be surprised when she saw the pseudo-Demon King's terrible state:
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know, that's why I called you," Alice said as she briefly glanced at Andusia before turning back to look at Luna anxiously. "What's going on with Luna? Have you seen such a situation before?"
"No, I've never seen this before. I know what you're thinking, but this isn't standard for Demon Kings. I've never experienced this situation when I was the Demon King," Andusia said, frowning. Then, after carefully observing Luna's expression, she suddenly thought of something as she said, "Wait, although I've never been in such a state, I have seen other people be in this state and make this uncomfortable expression."
"Other people?"
Andusia's statement confused Alice.
"You've also seen this state before, but you probably didn't think of it right away since you haven't seen it as often as I have," Andusia said, shaking her head. After saying so, she flew up to Luna in her small body, touched Luna's face with her hand, and injected some mana into Luna. Then, after retracting her mana, she nodded and said, "There's no mistaking it. Luna is currently experiencing a mana-deprived state. All of the mana in her body has been drained."
"All of her mana has been drained?"
Alice was stunned. Then, she quickly remembered where she had seen Luna's expression before—the demons in Demon King Castle. When Andusia had drained all mana in Demon King Castle's vicinity, the demons who got their mana drained revealed uncomfortable expressions similar to Luna's current expression. In other words, Luna was feeling uncomfortable because her body lacked mana.
However, this realization only served to confuse Alice even more. The reason those ordinary demons would feel uncomfortable and fall unconscious after Andusia drained their mana was that their bodies created mana at an incredibly low rate. Their bodies might only produce one unit of mana every second, and they would need dozens of minutes before their bodies generated enough mana for them to wake up.
However, Luna's mana production rate was far beyond that of the average person. Even if she was completely drained of her mana, she could recover everything in minutes.
"Something is actively draining her mana, and it is doing a very good job at it. Any mana her body produces will get sucked away immediately," Andusia said, frowning. "But this is strange. We were also in the living room just now, but we never noticed any signs of magic being activated nearby. Even if we did fail to notice it, why is Luna the only one getting her mana drained while your mana and mine are fine? Is there a difference between our mana and Luna's?"
"Indeed there is..." Alice said, seemingly having thought of something. Then, her expression sank as she continued, "The dark mana in my body is a little special, and it will only appear under special circumstances. In your case, the property of your mana has changed since it is now being stored and processed by your Living Wood body. Only Luna's mana is subjected to the Demon King's Power's conversion. In other words, she is the only one with demon mana..."
Meanwhile, it didn't take a genius to figure out who would be targeting demon mana at this time...