Lin Xingyun, the Demon King of Desire of the Morningstar Continent, commander of countless monsters, and master of the demon realm.

At a single word from him, the entire Morningstar Continent could drown in blood, and hundreds of millions of lives would be lost.

And yet this man, with power on such a scale, was sitting right in front of Hathaway, earnestly warning her not to make him an outlaw on the run—Lin the Third.

Did Lin Xingyun actually want to hold a life sciences symposium?

—Absolutely. Who wouldn’t… No, nobody would want that.

Honestly, Lin Xingyun absolutely did not want one.

He could even swear it on his incomparably noble status as Demon King. (Laughs)

But objectively speaking, did the life sciences symposium take place?

—Obviously, it didn’t.

Fortunately, Hathaway hadn’t welded the car doors shut. Lin Xingyun, sitting in the instructor’s seat, slammed on the brakes—and in less than three seconds, he’d brought the whole car to a halt before anyone could even hit the gas.

Ah~~ That’s the problem with newbie drivers. They don’t weld the car doors shut before setting off.

So, thanks to our suspect Lin the Third’s impressive self-awareness, he didn’t get the car moving, either subjectively or objectively. That makes him innocent. It’s called the unity of subjective and objective factors.

He was still the same upstanding young man, and his precious chastity had made it through unscathed instead of ending up shattered all over that room.

…But our car didn’t see it that way.

What’s a car’s purpose?

—To drive, obviously! Racing down the highway on a Dayun motorcycle, feeling that rush of hormones—who wouldn’t get excited thinking about it?

Besides, our comrade Lin Xingyun wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes. In fact, to the natives of the Morningstar Continent, he was kind of handsome.

Black hair, black eyes, and an Eastern face nobody on the Morningstar Continent had ever seen before. Add the aura of a Demon King, and he had an air of mystery no one could get a read on.

That confidence radiating from him, together with a mysteriousness that drew people in like the Abyss, had a powerful effect on everyone around him. Even Hathaway had fallen for it when they first met.

So when Hathaway told the ladies to break it up and get back to whatever they were supposed to be doing, they were all a little dejected… even our steady, dependable head maid.

Come on, be honest… Hathaway was a little—just a tiny bit—unhappy too.

—Yeah. Just a little.

(Makes a gesture. black hole.jpg)

“…So, Hathaway, you can’t just jump straight into the dirty jokes.”

“If I start making those jokes right away, what will the audience think of me? What will the readers think? What will my editor think? That’s obviously no good. It’d completely ruin my dignity as a Demon King.”

Sitting beside Hathaway, Lin Xingyun gave her a long, earnest lecture.

That’s more or less what he meant. You can fill in the details yourselves.

Lin Xingyun knew that as a Demon King, he absolutely couldn’t discuss Windows XP with his subordinates.

…A Demon King shouldn’t. At the very least, he really shouldn’t.

Hathaway had started out a little temperamental, but after Lin Xingyun’s lecture, she was now being perfectly well-behaved (at least, that was how Lin Xingyun saw it). She even promised again and again that she’d never make such a rookie mistake again. Only then could Lin Xingyun finally relax.

As for what kind of rookie mistake she’d made, only our young lady Hathaway knew for sure.

…In the end, it all came down to the fact that the car doors hadn’t been welded shut and could still be opened.

After talking for so long, Lin Xingyun was feeling thirsty and drinking some water when his heart suddenly tightened. His Demon King’s instincts had sounded the alarm: danger was closing in.

When Lin Xingyun finally dropped the subject, Hathaway knew the little scene from earlier was well and truly behind them. He wasn’t angry about it, either, which gave her a general sense of what her master was like.

Don’t forget: before she fell into darkness and became a Witch, Hathaway’s favorite thing was keeping everything under her control.

And that hadn’t changed.

“Lin, would you like to take a break first? After that, I’d like to talk with you about what happened yesterday. Would that be all right?”

Hathaway had chosen her words carefully.

After getting to know Lin Xingyun a little, she’d unexpectedly discovered that this being, powerful enough to make an entire continent tremble, had no airs at all. He even seemed especially tired of the endless formalities of the noble circles.

So Hathaway had thrown caution to the wind and dared to address Lin Xingyun as an equal. The result had shocked her:

The Demon King, who stood above everyone else, didn’t actually mind being spoken to that way.

That gave Hathaway the confidence to open up and get closer to Lin Xingyun in conversation. But she wasn’t foolish; there was still a note of reverence in her voice.

Smart people lived longer. Thanks to her older brothers and sisters, Hathaway understood that all too well.

“Mm, that sounds good.” Lin Xingyun thought it over, then smiled. “The sooner we finish our objective, the sooner we can relax.”

Of course, completing the Book of the Demon King’s task was Lin Xingyun’s priority.

At his words, Hathaway’s expression paused for a moment. Then the look she gave Lin Xingyun softened.

Even after what had just happened, Lin Xingyun wasn’t some seasoned internet crusader. He wasn’t about to immediately obsess over why people on the Morningstar Continent thought Demon Kings were such lechers, until he was shaking with rage, drenched in cold sweat despite the summer heat, his hands and feet freezing as he lamented bitterly: Could this continent get any worse?

What was a Demon King supposed to do to make everyone happy? At the thought, his tears just wouldn’t stop—

—Forget it, forget it. That’s enough punching for now. Any more and the intensity’ll get too high. Time to take a breather.

At Hathaway’s signal, the head maid led the maids inside, pushing a food trolley. Before leaving after completing their task, several of them made a point of shooting Lin Xingyun resentful looks.

Naturally, our head maid was among them.

Hathaway saw all of it, but only smiled and said nothing. At the same time, she began making plans.

And so, surrounded by fine pastries and drinks, Hathaway began her story.

The Hainerna Chamber of Commerce was a colossal, nation-level trading organization—the kind of behemoth that could shift the very bedrock beneath an entire country by a few centimeters with so much as a twitch of its foot.

Hathaway was one of the candidates to become the Chamber’s next president. You could imagine how high her status was.

—But in the end, candidate was just a title. Once the next president took office, that status would naturally mean nothing.

So whatever their reasons, all the candidates had just one goal: secure the presidency and become the one truly in charge of the Hainerna Chamber of Commerce.

The main battleground for the election was in the imperial capital. But the web of connections there was so complicated that it would be hard to make progress in a short time. Hathaway had wisely chosen another route: she’d come to the border of the Weius Kingdom to gain a foothold and establish a reliable base of operations.

Rulvis wasn’t right on the border, but it was still a key stop on the road to the imperial capital. Its strategic location made it the perfect bargaining chip in the race for the Chamber’s presidency.

“…When the final tally comes, the people responsible for this will take stock of everything we own, quantify it, and then announce the final results.”

After finishing her detailed explanation, Hathaway set down her knife and fork with practiced elegance. Her blue eyes remained on Lin Xingyun, who was deep in thought.

…So it’s an isekai version of Monopoly!

After thinking it over for a moment, Lin Xingyun’s eyes lit up. He immediately understood the rules of the game:

Isn’t this just like those web games that promise some kind of “start with this and that,” only with a different name?~

—But a game is still a game, with rules of its own. It’s best not to break them. Lin Xingyun knew that very well.

After all, what’s the point of a game if you break the rules?

Think about it. If you’re handed a pile of god-tier gear right from the start and can steamroll every enemy you meet, would that be any fun?

Obviously not!

So Lin Xingyun wasn’t going to use brute force to make Hathaway president. That wouldn’t just be boring—it would also feel like he was belittling Hathaway’s final wish. Giving her a reasonable cheat code, though, would be fine. It might even make the game more fun.

But just as Lin Xingyun was about to bring it up with Hathaway, she did something rare: she interrupted him.

“Lin, there’s something… could I ask you for a favor?”

Hathaway pressed her lips together. She’d only made up her mind after thinking it over all night.

“I don’t want you to use force and put me in the president’s seat outright.”

“I want to defeat the person who did this to me through my own efforts.”

She wasn’t giving up on revenge. She wanted to carry it out herself.

As she spoke, a glint of determination flashed in Hathaway’s beautiful eyes. It seemed she’d already learned something from the assassin—like who was behind the attempt on her life.

Lin Xingyun was taken aback for a moment. Then he laughed and nodded in agreement.

Only then did Hathaway finally let out a breath and smile at Lin Xingyun.

—She really had worried that Lin Xingyun might deny her the chance. After all, it would take time and effort.

Lin Xingyun was a Demon King, after all. Why would a mysterious, unfathomable Demon King want to spend time on such a small matter?

If he’d refused, there would’ve been nothing Hathaway could do. She was Lin Xingyun’s Witch now; her soul and body would serve him forever. Betrayal was impossible.

Lin Xingyun knew that, and Hathaway understood it too.

…So the kind of plot the Gongba bros love could never happen.

With that knot in her heart finally undone, Hathaway accepted her identity as a Witch at last. She said goodbye for good to the Hathaway who had died the night before.

At the same time, Lin Xingyun felt the Book of the Demon King stir strangely in the void.

It meant Lin Xingyun had finally gained the right to read and use the Book of the Demon King—though only part of it.

Don’t be fooled by “only part.” There was too much written in the Book of the Demon King to count. Even one hundredth of a trillion would still be a huge number—and the Book of the Demon King couldn’t be measured in numbers at all.

Lin Xingyun smiled to himself but didn’t immediately check what had changed in the Book of the Demon King. Instead, he turned his attention to the Witch sitting across from him. Hathaway was the important matter here.

“Hathaway, I think it’s time we talked about you.”

“…About the changes being a ‘Witch’ has brought to you.”