## Chapter 217 – Clara’s Melancholy (4)
Even during lunch, Clara now naturally occupied the seat next to Ryu instead of across from him, wiping food from his mouth and generally acting much closer than before, which irritated Acer.
Acer didn’t even put food in his mouth, tapping the edge of his silverware against the dishes, unable to hide his discomfort. Clara, oblivious to Acer’s feelings, tilted her head with an innocent expression.
“Acer? Are you not hungry?”
“No… it’s not that….”
They had spent enough time together. Ryu could now roughly tell what Acer was thinking just by looking at his eyes. Now that he was close to Clara, he spent less time with Acer. Since they were on vacation, he didn’t want Acer to feel bad.
Ryu picked up a piece of bread in front of him and brought it to Acer’s mouth.
“Acer-nim, would you like to try this?”
Acer, who would normally have happily accepted it with thanks, stared at the bread with a sulky face. Annoyed that Ryu was always sticking close to Clara even in their normal lives, he bit down hard on Ryu’s finger along with the bread.
Ryu winced slightly at the manageable pain, but Acer chewed on the bread and his finger in his mouth. Ryu, realizing that this was Acer’s cute way of expressing his dissatisfaction, couldn’t say anything about it. Rather, he saw a cute side of Acer that he didn’t normally see in his jealousy, which made him smile.
Clara swallowed the food in her mouth and clapped her hands as if suddenly remembering something.
“Oh, if Ryu’s okay with it, could we take him to our village later?”
“There’s a village in District 5?”
Ryu’s voice was noticeably brighter than before. Ryu liked to look around the villages in each district. He felt like his small world was expanding as he saw the slightly different appearances of the buildings and the ways they lived in each district.
“Don’t you think our district is too rural? Of course, there are places where people can live.”
Come to think of it, Saruk had once mentioned that he had a lover in District 5 to whom he had promised a future. Ryu couldn’t hide his desire to see the city of District 5 with his own eyes. Clara, reading his expression, smiled contentedly and opened her mouth.
“It seems like Ryu is okay with it?”
Acer said in a blunt voice.
“Why don’t you go? I’ll just rest here with Charlotte.”
Ryu noticed Acer putting extra emphasis on the word “둘 (two)”, but this level of sulking was common. A simple gift would easily fix it. With that thought, Ryu was already ready to go out.
Clara, with Ryu tucked under her arm again, headed outside.
“I’ll be back. I feel bad for leaving you here again.”
“I’ll be back. I’ll buy you a gift.”
After they left, Ryu thought about it and realized something was strange. Either of them could have asked Acer to come along. Both Clara and Ryu had unconsciously excluded Acer. It was as if they were anticipating what was waiting for them in the future.
Only after the two had left the mansion again did Acer see Charlotte waking up, and he burst into a fit of anger.
“Why are you waking up now! Ryu and Clara are getting too close!”
Charlotte, despite Acer’s outburst, merely yawned as if it were nothing.
“…Could I have stopped it if I had been awake? And is there a problem? It’s not bad to build relationships with multiple Demon Lords.”
Acer slumped back into his chair, stirring the food with his fork and said in a weak voice.
“You’re amazing. I allowed Ryu to have relationships with other women, and even though I know he only looks at me, I still get jealous sometimes….”
Charlotte naturally took out tea from the cupboard, sat down in front of Acer, and said in a calm voice.
“It’s not like I don’t get jealous either. It’s just… I’m enduring it with the confidence that Ryu will eventually have no choice but to return to me.”
Acer felt a sense of defeat at Charlotte’s smile as she finished speaking and picked up her teacup.
●
Ryu, following Clara to the center of District 5, was starting to get tired of the endless meadows, which was different from what he had expected.
“We’re almost there.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Ryu saw houses made of tents and several people raising cattle without fences in the wide meadow. Most of them were middle-aged women with graying hair, and they greeted Clara with bows or waves.
With their greetings, they walked a little further inside, and a more developed village appeared. Unlike the other districts he had seen so far, the buildings were quite far apart, and each house had a spacious yard, where they raised livestock such as horses, cows, and sheep.
“How is it? Not bad, right?”
It wasn’t as developed as District 1 or District 3, but it had everything they needed for life. Looking at the butcher shop with meat that looked fresher than anywhere else, butchered on the same day, and the various desserts made with freshly squeezed cow’s milk, his mouth watered.
As he leisurely walked through the village, looking at the various shops, a youthful voice greeted them.
“Clara Ajumma!”
At the voice that dared to call a Demon Lord “아줌마 (Ajumma)”, numerous children with dirt or snot on their faces clung to Clara’s legs or clothes, their eyes shining. Clara, used to this situation, didn’t panic and called each of them by name, stroking their heads.
“Have you all been doing well?”
Clara, willingly offering her large body as a playground for the children, gave them piggyback rides or spun around in place with two or three children in her arms, filling the surroundings with their joyful sounds.
Clara, who had been watching the scene, smiled brightly as she turned her gaze to Ryu.
“Ryu, do you want a ride too?”
Ryu shook his head instead of answering, and a girl nearby pointed at Ryu and asked Clara.
“Who is this 오빠 (Oppa)? A new Beholder-nim?”
Clara didn’t answer right away, but bent her knees to match the girl’s eye level and playfully opened her mouth.
“Hmm, who could it be?”
Then, Clara reached out like a demon and put her hands under the child’s armpits, wearing a mischievous smile unlike her usual self.
“I’ll tell you if you can hold it in~”
Clara began to tickle the child’s armpits with dazzling hand movements, and soon laughter that seemed to take her breath away began to spread.
Ryu was quite shocked as he watched the scene. He had seen quite a few Demon Lords who were on good terms with the residents, starting with Jane, but he had never seen anyone playing with them in such a friendly way, like a neighborhood older sister without any authority. He wasn’t unaware of Acer’s efforts, but Ryu thought that Clara might be the most ideal Demon Lord he had been hoping for.
He couldn’t imagine any other Demon Lords getting along with the residents so casually.
After playing with the children for a while, Clara waved her hand at the children, who quickly left at the sound of their parents telling them to come home and eat. Then, wiping the sweat from her forehead, she turned her gaze to Ryu.
“Did you wait long? It seems like the kids are finally satisfied.”
“Clara-nim is amazing. This is the first time I’ve seen a Demon Lord approach people so friendly.”
“Really? I thought this was normal. And these are the people who trusted me and settled here, right? I want to do everything I can for them.”
As she finished speaking, Clara’s eyes were overflowing with affection as she looked at the residents walking down the street. She wanted to introduce each of them and the village, but Clara spoke in a small voice at the sight of the village, which didn’t have any special features other than the people living there and a few shops.
“Um… I want to look around more, but there aren’t many places to play. Ah! Do you want to try milking a cow?”
At the word “젖소 (cow)”, Ryu’s gaze naturally turned to Clara’s chest. It was because the woman in front of him was more suitable for the name “젖소 (cow)” than the invisible livestock. Clara, noticing his gaze, blushed and quickly covered her chest with one hand.
“H-Hey…! I’m not a cow….”
Clara’s stuttering was strange. She hadn’t reacted at all when Heart shamelessly groped her chest, but she reacted strangely sensitively to Ryu’s gaze. The reaction was clear evidence that she recognized Ryu as a man.
At the same time, the fact that he was interested in her chest brought a wave of emotions she had never felt before. Clara still clearly remembered the sensation of Ryu’s touching her penis. The hot, mind-numbing sensation, and conversely, what would it feel like if he touched her body?
Her mouth was dry. After much deliberation, Clara carefully suggested to him.
“W-Well… if you’re okay with it… I… I’m not a cow, so milk won’t come out, but….”
It was the first time she had said such a thing to anyone. When she opened her mouth to that point with a voice trembling severely with shame, a gentle voice called her from behind.
“Clara-nim?”
Clara, startled, trembled and carefully turned her head to look back. And the moment she confirmed the identity of the voice, she erased the blush from her face and returned to her original expression.
“Alexa!”
The woman named Alexa was a beauty with impressive blue hair that resembled the sea. Her calm eyes and snow-white skin, which made people feel at peace, and her slender figure, which wasn’t as curvy as other women, made her look like a well-made doll.
“Say hello. This is the first Beholder, the child I’ve known the longest. I’m entrusting her with this place because it’s where people live.”
Alexa bowed politely to Ryu.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Alexa.”
Before Ryu could introduce himself, she tilted her head and suddenly brought her face close to Ryu’s, then opened her mouth as if slurring her words with an uncertain voice.
“Are you perhaps Ryu…?”
“Yes… that’s me?”
The moment her suspicion turned into certainty, her expression, which had been blunt, instantly brightened and she grabbed Ryu’s hand tightly. Her smiling face looked like a different person than before.
“I heard the story from Saruk! He said he had a friend he made for the first time at the academy, and that he enjoyed going to the academy thanks to that friend… I wanted to repay him someday, but the opportunity came sooner than I thought.”
If you heard the story up to that point, even a fool would know. The woman in front of him was the fiancée that Saruk had praised so much.
