The Demon King's Hero Of Light 185 Chapter 185 Too Much Of A Good Thing

"You've sure caused a lot of trouble," came a voice out of the darkness around her.

Aella groaned and rolled over in her bed. She couldn't remember ever feeling this bad before. Even after the demon children had cornered her and beaten her until she could barely breathe, she hadn't felt this bad.

"Watch it!" mewed a tiny voice, and Aella's eyes snapped open. "Can you blame her? She's so busy trying to do what everyone else thinks she needs to do; she doesn't have any time to heal!"

"She's the one who wanted to be king so bad. I offered to take the job from her," said the voice.

"At what cost?" asked the tiny voice again.

The kitten was laying on the edge of the bed, where Aella had almost rolled in her exhaustion, and it was talking with Firion who was leaning against the wall beside her bed.

"Firion?" asked Aella. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, everyone was freaking out after you told that Sage you might not come back. I promised to find you."

"How did you find me?" she asked, wondering what he would have done if she really had died at the world tree. It was a good thing the realm stepped in and stopped her. Scrunching her brow, she thought about how she had almost ended herself and shuddered.

"There's been talk about whether or not you're fit to be king. Not out loud, mind you, and never in a way that would allow me to kill anyone, but still. Risking yourself like this doesn't seem like the Aella I knew in the pits."

"It's not. I've changed," she admitted, leaning back on her bed with a groan and taking several deep breaths.

"I don't like it," he grumbled.

"In the pits, my only concern was staying alive. Nothing else mattered. They wanted me to kill people, so I did, and I got to live another day. The whole reason I became king was so I didn't have to live that way. I don't want anyone to have to live that way."

"You almost died for humans you didn't even know were there, Aella."

"No, I knew I wouldn't die," she said, shaking her head. "The realm won't let me."

"I don't understand all of this realm c.r.a.p. What I do know is that the entire kingdom is in an uproar because the world outside is tearing itself apart, and the strong king who brought them here has been missing, running all over the place helping other kingdoms instead of ours."

"The outside may be crazy, but I made Rupert protect the city with a dome," she defended herself.

"Rupert had already protected the city, before you asked him to," corrected Firion. "We just didn't tell you he had already planned to form the dome."

"Still, everyone is safe, despite the weather, and the animals are safe, there's food and water, and no one will starve before winter is over. I warned the other kingdoms of the impending disaster, since my decision is the one that caused the storms, and I probably need to go back and make sure they are all alright," said Aella, thinking about the elves and how they were the least prepared for the duration of the storm.

"Why? Why spend more time helping someone other than your own people? Aella, these people need to see you to know that things are alright. They are scared, and my amus.e.m.e.nts can only go so far to convince them they will be fine. You fought so hard to get to be king, and now you have an opportunity to sit back and enjoy it, and you insist on finding more things to try and 'fix'," argued Firion.

"I owe Bob several more bar locations for the help he has given me," she said, thinking about what would happen if she didn't get those for him. "I will sit back and rest, as you've stated I need to do, once I have those taken care of."

"Can we eat, yet?" asked Precious, stretching and yawning. "I'm hungry."

"Alright," said Aella, sitting up and holding out a hand to the cat.

It flapped its wings and pounced on her hand, digging claws into the leather of her bracers to steady itself, before sauntering up her arm to her shoulder. Any scratches she got, healed almost as fast as they arrived.

"Where did you find a cat with wings?" asked Firion, putting his dagger up and approaching the bed.

"He is the result of an elf dabbling in demonic things," she said, reaching up to scratch Precious under the chin, but the kitten closed his eyes and turned his head away, as if she wasn't important at the moment. Aella grinned in amus.e.m.e.nt before climbing to her feet and grabbing Firion's shoulder and teleporting them to the dining room.

"Aella!" cried Seifer, glancing at her in worry. "There was talk that you were doing things that were dangerous, and I can see it must be true. What happened?"

She shook her head, sitting in her chair and reaching for a slice of bread. It was warm, having just been cooked, and Precious jumped down from her shoulder to s.n.a.t.c.h a quail off the stack of them in front of her.

"Mana poisoning is nothing to joke about," she said, taking a bite of the dark bread. "What of the humans I brought back?"

"Josephine healed them as best she could, but they've all suffered quite a bit of poisoning. Alfred took them all down to the human city, as they were having trouble dealing with so many demons around them. Will you be taking Alfred to the humans that didn't come the other day?"

"I want to. Firion tells me that the people are struggling with feeling safe with the storms," she said, watching Seifer wince.

"He's right. Everyone is pretty freaked out. There're holes in the dome, to let light and air into the city, and the sounds of the wind, and the rain that seems to pour through them, has everyone riled up. I tried to send people out to search for those who left to form their own towns, but they had to turn back before they got twenty feet from the gates. The hail had beaten them half to death. Josephine had to heal them, or they would still be bed ridden."

Aella nodded thoughtfully, taking the bowl of soup that Edgar placed before her, she took a slurp and savored the way the hot broth warmed her on its way down to her stomach. The flavor wasn't as important to her as the temperature. She felt cold, for some reason. Glancing over at the fire, she saw that it was dying down from lack of wood.

"Throw some more wood on the fire," she said, and servants scrambled to obey.

Seifer frowned, pulling on the collar of his s.h.i.+rt as the temperature in the room quickly climbed.

"You should let Josephine see you," said Firion, glancing at the fire and raising an eyebrow.

"Fine, is she around?" asked Aella, picking some meat from one of the quails as she watched Precious eat. The cat was vicious, not leaving any meat on the bones at all. "Once she's seen me, I need to go back with Alfred to get the rest of the humans, and then I need to check on the elves, to make sure they are doing alright. After that, I need to stop by the gnomes and halflings to see about getting bars set up for Bob. While I'm at the gnomes, I want to check and see how long it will take for the communication devices to be ready. I don't even know if they are still able to work with this weather, but I want to see. It would be so much nice to be able to just talk to someone on the other side of the city without having to go across the city to see them."

"I think you need to rest," said Alfred, entering the room and studying her as he approached the table. "You have this room burning hot, and still seem to be shaking. I think you might be sick."

"I'm not capable of getting sick. I'm a hero, remember?"

"I didn't say you were sick from disease. I think you're sick from mana poisoning. Just because you can't die, doesn't mean you will be comfortable in your pain," he said, shaking his head.

"I tried to tell her she needed to slow down and just be our king for a while," said Firion with a shrug. "I'm leaving. It's too hot in here for me."

Aella watched him fade from view before heading out of the room as Josephine entered. She paused and took a breath before wiping her forehead and approaching the table.

"You must have a fever, for it to be this hot in here," said Josephine, glancing at Alfred who was inching away from the table.

Aella glanced at Precious, and saw he was laid out on the table, panting hard from the heat. Was she doing it? The fire in the fireplace was roaring from the new wood, but she knew that it shouldn't be raging as much as it was. It had to be her. It didn't feel like her fire was particularly active though.

"I'll… I'll wait outside to hear what's wrong," said Seifer, rus.h.i.+ng out of the room.

Edgar waved at the servants who were about to pa.s.s out from the heat, and they all left as well. She was going to have to do something soon. This was getting out of hand. Why did magic have to be so annoying!?