Chapter Text
It was a beautiful morning, perhaps even more than usual; the sun was up, birds were chirping, and the roses in Elizabetta's bedside vase were wafting with a pleasant fragrance. Ah yes, that was truly the perfect way to wake up.
It was rather early for her biological clock to have already started dictating her to begin her day. She always let the body decide on the hours of sleep it would receive, it was hardly predictable, but it did wonders for her skin.
The demoness begun her usual routine, allowing herself to spend as much time as she very well pleased to get herself in proper order. In her humble opinion, rushing very rarely yielded satisfying results.
And a bow to complete the look.
She smiled into her reflection, just a little action that took no time at all. And yet, it automatically gave her all the confidence she would need to tackle whatever the day could throw at her.
Finally she turned her phone on, immediately getting bombarded by a plethora of loud pings in quick succession.
The last ones were from the class group chat; at first glance she could tell most were from Lied who had likely stayed up and a few other early risers debating on what Iruma and Asmodeus meant.What?She scrolled up, but couldn't see any messages that would clear up the confusion.
Eventually she made an effort to check her official communications, figuring that if Asmodeus had anything to do with it, that's where she should look. Low and behold, sitting there under a red urgent marking, was a memo about an additional important matter on today's agenda. It had been written by the righthand man- as she had suspected- he requested specifically that everyone should be present as the matter was of grave importance to the future of the demon realm.
Which... Sounded over the top, but knowing her ex-classmate as well as she did, just might have been an exaggeration. Then again that man did consider terrorists mild annoyances, yet devi forbid the king runs out of his favourite pastries, then it's a national emergency. In other words she was none the wiser as to what the matter could be.
The woman re-opened the chat, now with some context she could finally at least partially understand what the fuss was about. Lied ranted about how he got zero sleep the night prior, and that they "couldn't do this to him". Ix wondered if he genuinely thought anyone would fall for that, given that everyone knew he regularly went through days without a wink of sleep. It was far more likely that he was actually dealing with a serious case of hangover and didn't want to admit it in writing. Whatever the case, she had a hunch that he'll come anyway, he had expressed far too much curiosity to now skip it out.
Meanwhile, Goemon and Sabnock had begun arguing whether it was about a threat or something important yet still incredibly boring- as most politics unfortunately were.
It is rather unusual for Asmodeus to be this vague.The demoness pursed her lips in thought. She had heard about a certain rumor from a friend of hers that worked at the castle, but surely there was no truth to it. She would’ve figured it out herself if there were.
Should I bring it up anyways?Eventually she decided against it, merely tapping away a short nonspecific reply to calm the discourse down.
LilithTheSecond: I'm sure that if itwasan imminent threat, Alice would have called us. ;)
The woman turned her phone on silent again. She may as well properly enjoy some breakfast before whipping the crowns in the line again.
They weren't here yet, good.Elizabetta did a quick headcount. It seemed that the only ones missing were the news bearers. She made a metal note that Sabnock was here too, despite not being a crown. Yet. The conversation was in full swing, some were catching up on what they'd been up to since the last meeting, others were scrolling down their phones or, in Purson and Allocer’s case, pretended to be busy reading some documents as they tried their best to ignore the cacophony of voices that made it impossible to actually focus. Red eyes travelled up the wall studying the giant goldleaf clock.Fifteen till nine.
She took her designated seat between Lied and Clara. They both looked far older than their real age. Really it was only thanks to Ix's incredible skin routine that shewasn't in the "stress lines club" yet. Truthfully it was quite surreal to see all of her classmates here in this room.
A lot had happened in an incredibly short amount of time. It's how the misfit class was able to take up most of the highest positions in the mere five years since their graduation from Babylis in the reformation the scale of which hadn't been seen in the demon world since the crowns' very formation.
Some drool rolled down Lied's face, as he tried to take advantage of the last peaceful minutes before he'd have to at least pretend to be awake.Ix turned her head toward the bubbly greenette sitting on her left. As usual the girl was bouncing up and down, unable to stand still.
"Do you know what this is about?" the blonde asked. She figured if anyone knew, it was certainly the third member of the so called “love trio”.
The greenette's eyes sparkled with excitement, her mouth widening into a toothy smile before immediately dulling as she put a hand over her mouth.
"Sorry Liz, I'm not allowed to tell you," the short woman mumbled into her hand.
"Can you tell me at least if it's good or bad news?"
The twinkle in her green eyes returned: "It's super, duper quacky-doodle amazing news."
And with that statement Ix was able to calm down not only herself, but also those who had the most trouble keeping their voices down.
Minutes ticked by as conversations sprung up again, this time in form of quiet whispers that quieted down the second Purson announced he could hear footsteps approaching. The demons sat themselves straight, and the more disorganized demons made sure their phones were actually on silent as unnoticeably as possible.
"Ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Iruma stifled a laugh as Alice retied his hair for the twentieth time that day. He could hardly blame him though, theywereabout to announce a very spontaneous wedding and there were really only a few ways things could go; most of them consisted of a lot of screaming, some included broken inventory and absolutely none suggested a short, calm and rational discussion.
The couple intertwined their arms, took a deep breath and each pushed the door wing closer to them open. The air inside was stiff as twelve pairs of eyes immediately fixated on the pair.
A couple demons immediately begun not so discreetly staring at their enveloped arms, while others started glancing around as if dying to say something.
For a few moments Iruma allowed himself to just look around at all the faces he had grown to trust with his life. So many memories tied them together, both good and bad, historical and mundane. These were his friends, his advisors. This would not be the first secret he would keep from them, but it just might strain their relationships in a way his humanity never could. The warmth around his arm offered comfort, a light squeeze the anchor necessary to ground his thoughts. Surely they'll be happy for him just like they were for Kurori.
Alright, best not to beat around the bush. Get it over with quickly. Like ripping off a band-aid. Easy.
"Sooo, did you break a leg?" Thirteen pairs of eyes turned toward Goemon. He was probably just trying to break the uncomfortable silence with a best guess. Even if that guess had very little evidence for back-up.
"You seem like you have trouble walking." He gestured toward their intertwined arms, his blush well hidden by white hair.
"I assure you I'm perfectly healthy." The king smiled reassuringly as he gripped Azz's hand tighter. Scarlet eyes met blue and a silent conversation unfolded in mere seconds before the bluenette once more directed his attention to the audience before him.
"Actually, you might even say I'm more than well."
He lifted his right hand up to show off his ruby ring: "We are here to announce our engagement!" the king smiled that smile that was just so Iruma- all happy and innocent. It had been getting easier for him to fake that smile in the past years, yet it still retained that the same effect it had when he was still a doe-eyed child. That effect being momentarily blindsiding the recipient from registering what was happening around them.
It gave him a few precious moments to brace for impact as realization struck the crowns once the word "engagement" finally registered in their brains.
Then, as anticipated, all hell broke loose. Questions were thrown in every direction as each demon tried to out scream the others, the constructed facades well forgotten as the supposedly prim and proper officers of state reverted to what they truly were deep down- tea spilling young adults.
Even Ix had to reign herself, her attempt to compete with Sabnock's loud voice box slowly proving itself to be a match she could not win. She glanced toward the oldest crown only to see Bachiko's pocky fall out of her openmouth.
Theolder woman's silence grounded her enough to realize screaming chaos will do nothing but delay them in getting the answers they seek. And oh boy, did she seek someanswers.
The blonde coughed to get everyone's attention without much success.
"Guys!" She raised her voice. Her words were drowned in the noise. The woman rested her palms on the table, the skidding noise of her chair completely unnoticeable as pandemonium heightened.
That's enough.
Ix stood up to her full height: "QUIET DOWN!" The sound of her palms hitting the table finally brought fourth the silence she desired. Well, that and her peremptory figure. Even as adults, Ix towered over most of her ex-classmates. An excellent trait for drawing attention if her voice couldn't do the trick.
The demons quieted down, some quite reluctantly returning to the normal sitting position.
Well, minus Lied who was still splayed on the table, his brain seemingly working against him as far a basic speech comprehension was concerned.
Ix fixed a crease in her dress before calmly settling herself back down, with her hands crossed in front of her chest.
"I suppose as a member of the thirteen crowns, I ought to congratulate you." Elizabetta narrowed her eyes.
The second Iruma bashfully bowed his head, she leaned forward with a dramatically betrayed expression: "But as a friend, I am very upset I didn't know you were even in a relationship."
How embarrassing…
Ix, the crown oflove,prided herself on being able to detect blooming love with deadly accuracy. That she couldn't see a relationship between two of her best friends? This was shocking. Well, she could see Azz's love for the king, but she had always assumed it was a one side thing.
"I'm sorry Liz, we kept it secret-" By devi she felt bad seeing how upset her words made him.
She waved her hand: "It’s fine. I guess-“ Darn it… She took another breath to calm herself down.
“There’s no need for excuses, your decision is valid no matter what your reasoning was, even if there was no reason at all besides you wanting to keep it private. I'm really happy you found your match!" She smiled happily, it was the right thing to do and say, even if she was actually still very much perplexed.
Maybe you do need something extreme to happen to connect the signs and give them a name.
Clearly their relationship had ever so slightly changed sometime in the past, but she couldn't remember when it happened. There was yet another possibility; It might've been a gradual thing, in which case she could have given the signs a wrong attribution, or hadn't noticed them at all. Just like a frog wouldn't notice the water slowly rising in temperature before it was cooked.
By now others had at least partially recovered as well and were all expressing their opinions in a way that, while a little less chaotic, was still unbefitting for high members of court. She'd let her thoughts simmer for now, see what others thought first.
Iwouldsay you could do better-" Lied spoke up, earning himself a glare from Asmodeus-" But I don't think that's physically possible without like- time travel or something." The blonde grinned, always in the mood to thread the line, when he knew Iruma would prevent Azz from retaliating in any shape or form.
“Excellent, two less competitors-” Someone, somewhere hit Caim on the head before he could finish his thought.
"I mean, we kind of figured it out from the hints Clara had been dropping." Kerori examined her blue-painted nails, clawing absentmindedly at a small snowflake decoration that had begun peeling off. This action was the only indication she had been at all taken aback by the announcement.
The greenette tilted back so far she nearly fell back in her chair, but just before she was sent tumbling down she leaned forward again looking at the blue haired girl in surprise: "Me???"
"Now that is an exaggeration. We may have noticed something was off, but none of us actuallyanticipatedsomething as grand as aweddingannouncement." Elizabetta attempted to calm the upset woman down by gently rubbing her shoulder. Clara bit her lip, still upset at the prospect she might've accidentally spilled the secret she had been entrusted with.
A thump alerted everyone to Bachiko's presence as she stomped her foot on the table.
"Don't put your feet on the table." Lied lazily turned his head toward her, still fully splayed on the table.
"Y'all forget I'm here, how else am I supposed ta get my say?" The woman surprisingly elected to not call him out for his pot calling kettle black moment.
She turned her hand toward the pair: "Don’t act so recklessly. Feelings -especially love- change overtime. Take my advice and wait a while. Marriage is not a commitment one should take lightly."
The "I'd hate for you to make a mistake you'll regret until you die"went unsaid, but was heavily implied.
Iruma understood where she was coming from, crushes could cloud one's judgement so that they cannot discern what their partner is really like until the rose tinted glasses come off. His friend circle developed crushes rather easily, so he could see the trend for himself. But that wasn't applicable for his situation, since he never had a crush on Azz at all. Iruma knew exactly who Alice was and while it was true that both demons and human alike change with age, he knew his friend had a clear set of values he was loyal to. That loyalty had been tested multiple times and had proven itself to be unshakeable. So even when the demon will eventually change as he grows wiser, the king was certain that his core will remain ultimately good and unable to be corrupted.
Neither of them were by any means perfect, but whenever either of them did something wrong, they were not afraid to call each other out, whether that be Alice’s first instinct to use violence in order to deal with annoying people or Iruma’s habit to barely think things through before doing them. When they worked together, they could cancel out each other’s worst tendencies. So in a way, they were already each other’s bettering halves, no ceremony necessary. Or was the expression just "the better half"? Iruma forgets.
Instead of the long speech he just found himself saying: “I understand your concern Bachiko,” he squeezed Azz’s hand, pulling him just a tad closer “But I know what I want.”
The older woman stepped off the table and approached the unwavering pair with a confident stride. For a few moments they just looked at each other, neither backing down.
“You really are perfect for each other,” she whispered. Iruma nearly doubled over in surprise. “Y-you think so?” He subconsciously leaned down, to hear her better. Huh, it really didn’t matter how much time passed, he was still overjoyed whenever his mentor said something positive.
“Yes,-“ the woman hit him on the head “-you’re both complete morons.” She crossed her arms, yet a small, barely noticeable smile tugging at her lips revealed her true feelings. At least to Iruma, one look at Azz’s face revealed he was still puzzled by the entire exchange and equally torn between the need to retain proper etiquette and his instinct to lunge at the crown, because she just hit the king.
Maybe it was Bachiko’s action in itself, maybe it was the lack of fiery retaliation. Either way the vaguely threatening exchange broke down the last barriers that kept others in line as they now all shamelessly flocked closer.
"Dude-" Lied paled "-you're getting married, everyone’s going to go wild." The man extended his arms wide nearly hitting Gaap in the face.
“I know, it’s why I’m already dreading the announcement,” the king admitted.
Iruma nervously laughed as the rest of the crowns gathered around him, once more asking questions and competing who could be louder. Attempts were made to reign them back in, with some limited success. The new couple focused on the questions, first answering those they had pre-rehearsed and after a bit got comfortable enough to start making things up on the spot to questions no one could rightfully anticipate.
Like if they would still love each other if they were worms. While the answer was obviously yes, one had to wonder how that would ever be relevant.
But of course, it was Clara who asked the most random questions; Like what type of string cheese they would serve at the wedding. First of all, who has string cheese on their wedding menu, second of all, there is more than one???
Azz was more than glad to let Iruma answer that one. Apparently that was the right call, given how Clara’s face illuminated when the bluenette answered with “smoked mossarella”. If they were alone, Azz would’ve commented how convenient it was that Alice’s and Iruma’s knowledge complimented each other so well they could cover practically anything. The observation caused a giddy feeling to stir somewhere deep inside of his belly. He would make sure to share the observation with his fiancé later.
Speaking of observations…
"Where has Lied disappeared to?" Alice suddenly asked. Indeed the blonde had vanished somewhere into the ether while the commotion unfolded. Which kind of tracked given that he and Purson had begun sharing tips and tricks pretty early into their schooling, so much so that now they could both be as evasive as a gust of wind whenever they chose to do so.
Iruma glanced up at the demon's wary expression, his scarlet eyes squinting and a frown marred his beautiful face as he continuously scanned their surroundings. The king squeezed his fiancé's shoulder: "I'm sure he's not up to anything-"
"Listen up dear viewers, you heard it here first and straight from the kelbie's mouth!"
The demon in question had decided to pick that very moment to barge in, his hellphone very much open and turned toward the gathering, presumably recording an impromptu news report much to the horror of the majority of the officials present.
"Are you out of your mind? You can't just record in here!" Asmodeus made a move to free himself out of the sea of demons surrounding him.
"Oh it's not recording," Lied smiled deviously as he stepped just a little bit further away "I'm streaming it live."
He pressed the phone closer to Iruma's face as the king did his best to not go into panic mode because he just got put under a spotlight with zero warning.
"My best friend is officiallyoffthe bachelor list!"
"I mean, it’s true, but Shax-“ Iruma stepped back as Azz reached for the camera, only to be blinded at the last second so the troublemaker could step out of his reach without even breaking a sweat.
"Wanna tell our esteemed audience something?" Lied smiled as he somehow mannaged to evade Asmodeusagain.
"Lied, this is really not a good idea," the bluenette stared right into the camera, wondering why Azz was the only one trying to get him to stop, while the rest just stood there frozen.
Judging by their faces... Because everyone else clearly found it amusing.
"Well yeah, the camerawork will be a tad shaky, but otherwise this'll be gold."
Iruma let out an exasperated sigh, forcing himself not to instinctively facepalm.
"Yes, it's true, I'm getting married to Alice Asmodeus." Mercifully Lied now finally refocused the camera onto himself again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it, I called it, and the poll-''
"There was a poll?!?"
Lied turned around, as if he were explaining something that was common knowledge: ''We had a poll on who you'd end up with, 30 k responses, and they all said you'd end up with Ameri, but I kept telling them it'll be Azz or no one." If there appeared a flood of comments calling him out for lying, none of the demons present had to know.
The blonde once again refocused the camera onto himself as he went on a spiel about a ship turning cannon and something about a ship war ending the king didn’t quite catch. All while successfully evading a now truly pissed off Asmodeus in an unanticipated game of tag.
"I guess that is one way of making an announcement..." Ix moved a hand before her lips as she struggled to contain her giggles. It must've been surreal for anyone watching the transmission to see two grown men chasing each other down like children. Thigs got interesting after Azz figured out that the now miraculously fast demon was keeping track of him by always making sure the pinkette was at least partially in view of the camera.
Alice unexpectedly moved to the side, lowering himself to the floor. By the time Shax could follow his movement, the blonde got his path cut by a wall of fire. All it took was that one moment of surprise and the blonde found himself pressed hard down into the floor, as the now quite disheveled demon victoriously ended the video.
"You're not supposed to set conference rooms on fire," Lied wheezed out as Asmodeus' not insignificant weight pressed his torso harder into the ground.
"You can't just break this sort of news for views and then reasonably expect there to be no consequences,” Asmodeus pouted as he collected the loose strands of pink hair in order to redo his ponytail.
"Well excuse me for trying to help out, everyone knows that when you dread something it’s better to just get it over with quickly.” Lied looked toward Iruma for help and someone actually burst out in full on laughter.
The king facepalmed.I can't believe Lied could possibly think this was a good tacti-
Actually, never mind. Yes, Lied was an intelligent fighter. But when it came to judging official business he could be excruciatingly dense. Of course the man would think the easy solution was appropriate, no matter how untactful it actually was.
Asmodeus finally relented, lifting the man up effortlessly while still making sure to keep the demon’s phone confiscated as punishment.
“OH!” Ix exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “We need to organize your bachelor parties!”
“Aw, that’s really not necessary!” Iruma rubbed the back of his head, neither he nor Azz particularly liked parties and he’d honestly be the happiest if there was the least amount of fuss possible over the wedding. In his humble opinion it was a great shame demons didn’t just have a magistrate that would give them a piece of paper to sign and let them be done with it.
“No offense Iruma-“ Clara rested her hand on his shoulder -“but I now for a fact you have no friends besides us.” She rubbed his shoulder as if to offer consolation.
“What I meant, is that I don’t need a bachelor party,” the king clarified.
“Nonsense,” Lied tutted. “This is your last taste of freedom before you willingly tie yourself to another man forever.” The blonde dramatically rested the back of his hand on his forehead.
“You don’t know what marriage is like; he’ll follow you around everywhere, always debate your choices and you’ll never get a waking moment of peace when he is not in earshot.”
“That’s not how marriages work,” the snow-haired demoness snapped, agitated by the fact that this moron was trying to skew the meaning of a sacred bond that, need she remind him, he had no experience in.
“You do know you just described the current state of our relationship right?” Iruma leaned his head to the side, a small smile tugging at his lips.
Ix cooed as Iruma reassuringly patted Azz’s shoulder. “You know I like it this way though.”
“Oh, oh! Maybe we could separate into the girl and guy’s group, I call dibs on Iruma,” Lied’s head was already swarming with ideas on how to make the night unforgettable.
“Well count me out,” Bachiko called out, standing in the doorway. “I’ll let you kids handle this, call me if you eventually decide to start acting productive again.”
The doors slammed behind her, temporarily silencing the group who had in large part forgotten she was even present at all. Mere seconds later they continued discussing as if nothing had happened.
I am going with the guys," Azz stated matter-of-factly. Iruma lurched for his elbow, turning him away from the mass of ex classmates that were in a full on planning mode. If they noticed, they didn't acknowledge it.
"I don't think so," Iruma pouted, there was no way he would force Azz to go with the guys, he knew for a fact Azz would not have a good time with them.
"What if they get you into trouble, don't you remember how I always had to bail you guys out when something went wrong?" It was mostly Lied who caused the issues, but they did somehow manage to get themselves arrested nearly every time there wasn't someone responsible with them to keep an eye on their surroundings.
Lied tried to turn anything into gambling, even if it was just a coin flip for the perk of calling shotgun. Sabnock loved to drink, but caused full fledged brawls when he was drunk. And Jazz! Jazz may be an important public figure, and a wealthy one at that but that didn't stop him from stealing the most random stuff just for the giggles.
Seriously, no one needed a collection of other people’s keychains, he did it just to mess with everyone. So yes, just the mere presence of those three alone made the possibility of something going awry skyrocket. Theywerecalled the misfit class for a reason.
"That's exactly why I want you to go with the girls! You should be having fun, not babysitting a group of unhinged adults," the bluenette pointed out.
"That goes both ways, if I don't go,you'llhave to babysit them," Asmodeus pouted again, still displeased by the prospect of having to hang out with anyone beside the king at all.
"Azz, you don't actually think anyone's got the guts to arrest the king." Besides, whether the demon liked it or not, Iruma was a troublemaker by design. While it was rarely his fault intentionally, but rather a mix of unfortunate circ*mstance, the man was perfectly capable of getting himself into trouble without assistance.
The pinkette thought for a bit, but had to reluctantly agree. Truthfully, his largest issue was being away from his king at all, but he trusted him enough that he’d be able to keep the guys in check.
He supposed a quiet night with the girls would at least better be for his stress levels.
So it was decided, Azz would have a quiet night with the girls and Iruma would let the guys have fun without his shadow dampening the mood. Only Clara pouted a bit, wanting to go with Iruma instead, but realized it probably wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. It also helped that Elizabetta knew exactly what to promise to win her over.
It's always an interesting occurrence to see gossip get its confirmation. Though admittedly no one quite expected that the devi-tubber turned crown would be their news source. Though stranger things had happened before, so the community decided to focus on the delightful news instead.
"Granny, Granny!" A small child ran into the old kitchen, excitedly waving her phone around.
The demoness looked at her granddaughter over her glasses, her calloused hands frozen mid movement as she rested her knitting needle on the table.
"My my, little Thalia, why the rush?" The woman finished knitting the current line before setting the unfinished blanket down in order to free her arms. The little girl bounced on the balls of her feet, squeezing her deviphone tight in her hand with the screen flashing on and off each time she unknowingly squeezed the buttons.
The woman patted the seat next to her as the girl excitedly leapt closer, showing her phone to the woman. On the screen was a news article that stated in big bold letters that spelled: LATEST BUZZ: RUMORS CONFIRMED, SHOTGUN ROYAL WEDDING
"Isn't this exciting? A real royal wedding," Thalia sighed dreamily, her blue eyes unfocused, as she drifted away into her own little fantasy world. “I wonder if it’s going to be a public thing, I’d love to see the pretty dresses and the pretty flowers, and hear the morningale-” She was brought back to reality when a scrawny hand brushed through the girl's silky chestnut hair, evading the girls ram horns.
"I'm glad," Mnemosyne whispered cryptically. The news lifted a heavy weight of worry from her shoulders. She was glad her grandchildren would never have to know the anarchy that had ruled in Delkira’s absence. Peraps it was a vain thought, but the old woman liked to imagine she was a catalyst for the development. Good, it seemed like some external pressure was all that was necessary for the king to find his happy end. She was glad for both him and his betrothed.
