Been pretty busy lately, but hoping it won"t affect my translating too much.

"Do you have any plans to have children?"

Sastina"s question caused me to choke a bit on the tea I was currently drinking.

"Oh my, maybe you really can"t drink human tea."

Was that maybe sarcasm? Although I could see that Sastina"s eyes, at least, weren"t laughing.

"You brought up children so suddenly……"

"That"s right, Mother, Galtau must have been as surprised as I was."

"Laetia, you"re a bit too loopy for your own good, you know."

And now Laetia was getting reprimanded.

So I did just get attacked… And it was quite harsh, at that…

"You need to think about it. I don"t know about couples who have been together for years, but you two only just got married again. It"s only natural that you"d want to have some nighttime fun under the sheets, right?"

Maybe, but you"re being way too indiscreet about it!

There was the sound of someone hacking and coughing, but it wasn"t from me. Two seats away from me, sitting next to Laetia, Angelica was choking. I know, right… For a teenage girl, this was quite an awkward conversation topic… I completely sympathized. It felt like we were drinking bitter medicine…

"From the way you"re acting, looks like you two haven"t done anything yet. Angelica"s there with you too, so I suppose that might give you some pause."

Sastina just really likes shooting her mouth off, doesn"t she… Her conversational skills were akin to a warrior who specialized only in attacks that ignored defense.

"Laetia, you listen well. The sooner you figure this stuff out, the better. It"s tough to talk about, after all."

You say that, but there"s still a limit to how straight this talk should be. Our HP over here was already critically low… Angelica glanced over at me. Why did it look like she was grimacing at pond slime? I may be the demon lord, but I was no criminal.

"If there weren"t any other children, then there wouldn"t be anything to worry about. Have as much s.e.x as you want. Laetia is also a fine adult, so I"m sure you would"ve figured it out, eventually. However, that"s not the case here."

This had already become Sastina"s one-woman show. I felt like I was slowly forgetting that I was actually a demon lord. Or rather, wasn"t Sastina much more demon lord-like right now?

"If you two were to have a child, then Angelica gets put in a tough spot. A child that shares blood with mister demon lord, and a child that came from the old husband. Can"t be helped if the way you treat them is different."

I understand now… She"s right, this really was a plausible concern…

"Furthermore, we have the demon lord and the hero here. The two of you are basically mortal enemies. To put it another way, it would be strange if the two of you didn"t fight."

Well, that was the hero"s and the demon lord"s relationship in a nutsh.e.l.l. Somehow, I hadn"t really thought about it that much recently. Maybe it was partially because I was getting used to my new life.

"Well, I think it would be fine~ After all, Galtau is a good person. He won"t change how he treats her~"

Laetia, your faith in me makes me so happy, but I think you"re taking this topic a bit too lightly! In order to convince Mother, I think you need to be more convincing…

"See here, Laetia. Angelica is going through p.u.b.erty now, you know. There"s no way she could stay calm wondering what you and your new hubby are doing night after night! If it were me, I"d be going crazy!"

This time, Angelica and I both spit out our drinks at the same time. What a ruthless person… We were being psychologically thrashed here… But at the same time, all this mental damage was proof that the subject matter really was meaningful.

I worked hard to get along better with Angelica. Compared to when we first met, I thought that Angelica was a little bit more accepting of me as of late. However, perhaps she and I both avoided topics that could be volatile. How things might change with kids certainly fell into that column.

"Angelica is my grandchild. I am intimately invested in her happiness, so I will not accept any compromise. I want to make that very clear, right here."

Wow, Sastina; was she a hero in a past life or something? She was simply ruthless. That grandchild of hers, though, seemed to be having trouble staying silent. My father-in-law, Bynedee, also wasn"t saying anything; maybe the couple had already agreed beforehand on who would do the brunt of the talking. I really needed to express my steadfast determination with words now. These opponents were strong, after all. But, before I could open my mouth—

"Grandma, you don"t need to worry."

—Angelica spoke up first. Everyone turned to look over at her.

"This demon lord is really beany, or like he"ll never do anything without thinking through every single possibility. By "beany," I mean like wimpy. I"ve been observing him as the hero, so I know already."

This girl is also just liked running her mouth. I guess maybe that trait skipped a generation?

"He"s really cringe-worthy sometimes, but I"m pretty sure he just wants to be friends with me."

I could sense a slight, faint warmth from her words.

"Even if I were to get a little brother or little sister, rather than picking sides, I think the demon lord is the type to lose sleep trying to make sure he"s fair to both of us. And this isn"t something I say lightly. Also, I should point out, any kid sibling of mine is going to be the kid sibling of the hero."

Angelica put her hand on her chest as she spoke, as though she were making a vow.

"The hero has a responsibility to raise that child to be an upstanding human being. Otherwise, they could turn into a demon lord."

Angelica, you"re finally coming around to my and Laetia"s relationship… I"m so happy! And Sastina was so moved as well that she"s crying now.

"Angelica, you"ve become such a splendid girl… Truly the embodiment of a hero. A hero among heroes……"

Yes, I definitely agreed.

"Well, that"s is certainly wonderful, but that"s also not really what we"re talking about…"

Angelica"s face reddened at my remark.

"You know, if you have to make comments like that, I"d really rather you made them somewhere I couldn"t hear… You always cramp my style. Seriously."

That"s… I guess she"s right…

"Heeheehee, you really do need to watch out~"

"The way you say it, Mama, it doesn"t sound like a proper warning! Listen up, demon lord, you really need to make sure you watch it! Understand?!"

"I-I understand… I have taken your words to heart…"

For the first time in my life, I conceded to a hero.

 —  — Chapter 19