Haha, such a cute chapter.

As I remarked on the progress tracker, Deer B is pretty busy this weekend so SS18 may take a few extra days.

Three days after my runaway step-daughter, the hero Angelica, came back home.

Along with a number of bodyguards, I was in the royal capital of the human-ruled Masgenia Kingdom.

There was really no point in having bodyguards. I was more powerful than all of them, after all. I was perfectly capable of defending myself. That said, it would look rather odd if I just came all by myself, so maybe it was better to bring a bunch of people.

In fact, the ones who needed to stay vigilant were the humans. They probably gathered a bunch of well-known adventurers and royal mages. To be perfectly honest, if we decided to slaughter all the people here, the humans would have no choice other than to surrender to us. Not that we would do that.

"I present to you the demon lord, His Majesty Galtau Leuzen."

My secretary Toralina was standing before me and announced me to the kingdom"s officials. She was different from usual, probably because this was foreign relations work; each of her actions exuded respect.

"I am the demon lord Galtau Leuzen. I would like to ask your king to come forth. There is a need for a display of faith in order to consummate into this peace treaty."

At those words, the elderly-looking king came forward. He wasn"t frail or anything, though, so I"m sure he still had a long life ahead of him.

"Sir demon lord, was the notice you sent to us before about this peace treaty sincere?" the king asked.

"Of course. There"s no point in engaging in foul play at this high of a level. Everything is exactly as written."

"Including how you married the hero"s mother and have no intention of attacking her people or her kingdom—all of that as well?"

Some people on the human side still didn"t believe it and others just stood there, shocked.

"It"s all true. As proof, I have brought my wife and step-daughter along as well."

Behind me, Laetia waved at them. Angelica"s face was completely red and she just looked down at the ground. Just a bit ago, she was saying how she wouldn"t come out, but somehow Laetia managed to calm her down and get her to come as well.

A human priest wanted to ask Laetia some questions. "Umm, could you tell us how your relationship with the demon lord began…?"

"The other day, Galtau had just fought with my daughter, Angelica, and he was bringing her home. That was when he proposed to me. I fell for his earnest feelings and decided to marry him~"

As expected, the venue began to get noisy. Some of my bodyguards also started whispering to each other.

"Did you know that he was the demon lord?"

"Yes. But the most important thing is how you feel about your partner. In that regard, I felt that I could completely trust in Galtau~"

"Did you consider the fact that your decision could end the hostilities with the demons?"

"Ah~, he mentioned something about that at first as well, but, in the end, he simply told me that he fell in love with me at first sight. I didn"t doubt him at all. Galtau is a very honest person, after all."

I heard the humans start saying stuff like "What a cute couple" and "She"s just showing off now." Far from embarra.s.sment, I felt honored to hear those comments, but Angelica just kept staring at the floor.

"O King, you will find no traces of control or manipulation in Laetia whatsoever! She is expressing only her true feelings!"

Who would use magic to brainwash someone for something like this? In the first place, if such a haphazard method were used to forcefully coerce someone, there would definitely be changes in their behavior. It"s impossible to brainwash someone so perfectly with magic that no one could tell that they"d been brainwashed.

"I would like to question the hero Angelica next. Your mother suddenly got married again, and to the demon lord, of all people. How did you feel about this?"

"I thought I was living in h.e.l.l."

I would really prefer it if she considered her words more carefully.

"She had just gotten remarried, and now there were so many things that would change in the future that I couldn"t grasp. However, when I tried to talk to him, the demon lord seemed like a decent person, and it didn"t feel like he would ever make Mama sad. So I thought he might be fine."

Phew… that was a pretty good follow-up.

"In that case, hero, do you trust the demon lord as well?"

"That"s a completely separate issue. For a hero like me to have a demon lord in my home, it almost feels like torture."

There"s nothing I can really do about that, though…!

"Even still, I at least get that Mama looks happy. As long as it brings her happiness and improves her life, I think I could accept her marriage."

"I understand. Thank you very much. That is all I have to ask the hero and her esteemed mother!"

The human ministers all nodded, satisfied with the responses. The king spoke again.

"Hero Angelica and her honorable mother, Laetia! Because of your bravery, the war has ended! As king, I thank you both from the bottom of my heart."

"If you say bravery, then you can"t leave out Galtau for having the courage to confess his feelings to me."

"I think you"re even braver for accepting so quickly, Mama… More like, I didn"t even do anything."

"Angelica, because you are the hero, and you made it all the way to Galtau, that led to us meeting. We would never have gotten here without you."

In other words, her recklessly charging straight for me then getting taken out in record time had meaning. Although that wouldn"t exactly make for a heroic tale or anything.

"I understand. As the ruler of this kingdom, I will now sign the peace treaty."

The king signed his name. I followed after, signing my own name.

"As of this moment, the kingdom is officially at peace with the demons! All requests at the guild regarding the defeat of demons will be withdrawn."

"All bosses across the land will lay down their arms return to our lands! Any humans who were kidnapped will be set free at once!"

The king and I brought the signed parchment over to the journalists to show them together.

Now, that was one task complete. Ending hostilities with the humans turned out to be a pretty special day.

Since we were at peace now, I could convert to a family man completely! My first goal was to get along better with my step-daughter! I"ll show her that I can become a proper father!

Our family didn"t consist of only me and Laetia, after all. It included Angelica, too. If Angelica and I were still this stiff around each other, then I couldn"t very well say we had a good relationship.

Even in families that were related by blood, awkward parent-child relationships were usually indicative of a crumbling family structure, so, as a family formed through a second marriage, I wanted to expel the awkwardness as soon as possible.

In that case, what should I do to raise her impression of me as a father? It would probably be good to show that I was strong or reliable.

While considering these important topics, that night, I went into the changing room and saw a note on one of the clothing baskets.

The demon lord"s clothes go in this basket! I swear I"ll defeat you if you put your clothes in my basket!
-Angelica

Waaaaah! Here it is, that problem where she didn"t want her clothes washed along with her father"s! On the other side of the basket, there was yet another note.

The demon lord can"t take a bath before me!
-Angelica

I guess since she already took a bath, she decided the second note wasn"t necessary anymore and stuck it on the back.

This had less to do with step-daughters and more just that she was a teenager now, so I"ll let it slide this time…

 —  — Chapter 12