A few beams of sunlight, filtered through the dark clouds outside the window, occasionally filtered in. They cast a pale, liquid gold across the desk chair, lending the solitary figure at the far end of the office a peculiar warmth.
After a brief silence, Pranay spoke, every syllable laden with caution.
"May I ask if Mr. Luoqi McCarthy knows the three of us were coming?"
Although Pranay was both surprised and delighted to meet Luoqi McCarthy so smoothly, he needed to make sense of their current situation first.
If—just in case—the New King intended to cooperate with Luoqi McCarthy, but McCarthy wanted to pull a fast one by having the three of them brought to his office ahead of time to separate them from the New King, then speaking carelessly and laying out their bargaining chips might put their monarch at a severe disadvantage in the negotiations to follow.
"Don't be nervous, Pranay."
Lanqi had a feeling Pranay was overthinking things.
Prudence was certainly a virtue, but there was no need for unnecessary misunderstandings between them right now.
Lanqi slowly rose from his chair, turned around with a helpless smile, and looked toward the three great demons.
"..."
The sight of a young man with black hair and emerald-green eyes left both Pranay and Antanas frozen in their tracks.
With her eyes shut, Sinora could sense the sudden shift in the atmosphere, completely at a loss as to what had happened.
Pranay and Antanas stiffly turned their necks to look at each other, confirming each other's thoughts.
Even though Pranay and Antanas had never seen this male face before...
His colors were far too familiar!
And that motherly, gentle gaze immediately made them feel from the bottom of their hearts, without a shred of proof, that the man before them was their New King.
"Y-You... who on earth are you?"
Pranay's brain was practically overclocking. He stumbled two steps back, entirely unable to analyze the situation.
Why had the New King turned into a man again?
And why did she say she was Luoqi McCarthy?
While Antanas possessed far less computational power than Pranay, her mind was plunged into an even more chaotic super-brainstorm!
"..."
Only Sinora remained thoroughly bewildered, adamantly refusing to open her eyes.
She had no idea what was so unusual about Luoqi McCarthy's appearance that both her brother and Antanas had fallen dead silent.
"I'm the true person you were looking to meet."
Lanqi could see that Pranay and Antanas were trapped in utter agony. Unable to accept reality all at once, they yearned to ask questions yet dared not speak.
They feared being tricked and compromising their King, yet also feared that the man before them truly was their King and that doubting him would cause offense.
"*Sigh.*"
Lanqi knew it would turn out this way. After all, he had failed to explain everything clearly to Antanas back in Herrom Prison.
However, there was an effortless solution—far more convincing than any drawn-out verbal defense.
Lanqi took out the [Polymorph: Demon] card he had obtained back in the Purgatory Corridor Academy.
By activating this card to assume demon form, he could openly display his demonic guise and the traits of a great demon. And the six-mark great demon with whom the three of them shared a soul contract could only be him; all three would sense it immediately.
Beyond the curtains of the Headmaster's Office, dark clouds gathered and thunder rumbled, heralding an imminent tempest.
Inside, during those few brief moments when no one uttered a word, the room fell into absolute stillness.
Standing beneath the window with measured grace, Lanqi's silhouette appeared increasingly tall and profound.
The instant Lanqi triggered [Polymorph: Demon], a deafening crash of thunder exploded outside. An abrupt flash of blinding white light burst through the window, illuminating the entire room for a fraction of a second.
This dazzling radiance caught Lanqi, highlighting half of his face.
As the thunder rolled away into the distance, the light in the room settled into quiet once more.
"..."
Pranay and Antanas stared in wide-eyed astonishment, completely rooted to the spot.
At the far end of the Headmaster's Office, framed against the hazy backdrop of storm clouds and distant lightning beyond the curtain, stood a figure resembling a sovereign presiding over the firmament. Only the shimmering radiance upon him and the eerie emerald glow swaying within the dark mist of his eyes were exceptionally distinct.
In that single instant, the aura of a six-mark great demon radiated from him without reservation. Even though the three great demons could not fully comprehend what was happening, their instincts took over, and they dropped to one knee before him without hesitation.
That soul aura belonged beyond all doubt to the great redeemer they had encountered not long ago in Herrom Prison.
"My King!"
Pranay felt as if his head were about to burst into flames.
How could the New King possibly be Luoqi McCarthy...
How could this be...
Could it be that a male form was the New King's true self all along, and the King's identity in the Protos Empire was none other than Luoqi McCarthy?!
Antanas kept her head pinned to the ground as well.
Wasn't the New King's demon form supposed to be a gray-haired demon once the black-and-green palette was shed? Could that really have been just a surrogate summon, while the King's true self summoned Warden Bakas to the Protos Royal Academy, orchestrating both fronts simultaneously to bust them out?
*Holy shit... He really is a guy...*
Just as Pranay and Antanas felt their hearts were about to beat straight out of their chests, Sinora remained utterly lost.
She had no idea why both Pranay and Antanas seemed to have lost the ability to speak.
Yet she too had just grasped the earth-shattering revelation that the New King's false identity in the Protos Empire was Luoqi McCarthy.
*Wait... Could the New King's true self really be male?*
Suddenly, Antanas seemed to sense Sinora's thought.
"Sinora... don't open your eyes... don't look... whatever you do, do NOT open your eyes..."
Antanas's voice was strained to an urgent, crushed whisper. She desperately warned her friend not to look right now, urging her to accept the truth gradually rather than taking such an overwhelming shock all at once.
The New King's male looks were in no way inferior to his black-haired, green-eyed female persona!
The King might not know the terrifying extent of Sinora's obsession with handsome men, but she had zero resistance against them—so much so that it could affect her judgment even in a life-or-death battle.
Given Sinora's fanatical devotion to the New King, Antanas didn't dare imagine what would happen.
Yet it was already too late.
Now that she knew the person before them was indeed the New King, Sinora finally could not resist stealing a peek upward.
At that exact instant, her eyes fell upon a face she had never even dared envision in her wildest dreams. Those cool, emerald-green eyes held an unmistakable touch of dazed drowsiness.
It gave him an aura of distant detachment, yet he somehow looked entirely harmless to all living things.
*The New King... is a stunning, black-haired, green-eyed youth?!*
"Urgh..."
Sinora collapsed straight onto the floor, blacking out on the spot.
"Sinora, don't die on me!"
Antanas scrambled frantically to revive her.
As a demon physician, she could tell that Sinora's cardiovascular and nervous systems had just suffered a catastrophic blow!
Lanqi stood behind his desk, entirely dumbfounded, unable to fathom how he could have possibly terrified Sinora to such an extreme.
Chapter 459