Chapter 36

"W-Were you here this whole time?!" Elen asked.

"N-" Just as Seal was about to respond, someone jumped into his embrace.

Looking down, Seal saw that someone was little Alice.

"*Sniff* *Sniff* Big brother! *hik* I miss you!" She said with a sobbing voice. She then looked up at Seal with tears in the corners of her eyes. Her eyes looked like those of a puppy who had just reunited with its owner.

Though Seal had a completely different thought.

'You... You're so cute, Alice!' Seal thought in his mind as he reached out to stretch Alice's soft cheeks.

"Brother! Owwie, that hurts, big brothher!" She complained, but she couldn't hide the joy of reuniting her brother on her face.

"Haha, she's happy to see you again." Yukina chuckled as she wiped the tears on the corner of her eyes.

Elenor, too, had tears on the corner of her eyes.

"Anyways, as I was saying, no, I have not been in this place or world all the time. In fact, I've been in a different world."

"A different world! Our prediction was actually true!" Yukina exclaimed.

Before finding Seal, they thought about the possibility of him being in a different world, but they had no way to travel to different worlds.

"So, what are you doing in the Demon King's castle, Seal?" Elenor asked.

"I'm a replacement for the Demon King until he recovers." Seal said nonchalantly.

"Huh? What happened to him?"

"Well, I accidentally injured him a little."

"Oh, I see."

"By the way, Big brother... *Sniff* Sniff* Why do you have the smell of multiple women on you?" Alice suddenly asked.

This caused Yukina and Elenor to raise their eyebrows. They then began to close in on Seal and surround him.

*Sniff* Sniff* *Sniffffff*

Then they started sniffing him like crazy.

"Otouto... Which women laid hands on you?" Elenor said with a cold voice.

"Seal-chan... maybe I should have put some more of my scent onto you," Yukina mumbled.

Seal started sweating like crazy. Sister, aren't you being too overprotective? And mom! Did you just mumbled something scary?!

∎ ∎ ∎

"What a lovely sight." A blonde woman watching from somewhere chuckled.

"Oh, how I wish I could sniff him as well!" A silver-haired woman said while wrapping her arms around herself.

"...Shupnikkurat, your perverted side is acting up." The blonde woman said.

"Oh... Ahem, my apologies. But who gave you the right to call me by my true name, King in Yellow, or should I say Hastur?" The silver-haired woman said amusingly.

"Oh, come on. Aren't we on the same side here? And I prefer it if you called me Assatur instead of Hastur."

"I suppose we are. What I said before was a joke. I don't mind it if we call each other by our true names."

"Anyway, did you sense the new changes in him?" The blonde-haired woman asked.

"Yes, it seems like he now has 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫. And I wonder, was it due to us making him come into contact with our diving energy or something else?" The silver-haired woman said as she tilted her head.

"I guess we will find out soon."

∎ ∎ ∎

Meanwhile...

"I'm sorry, stop pinching me!" Seal yelled out in injustice as he tries to withstand pinch attacks from his family members. Although it doesn't hurt him at all, he still went with it seeing their smile when they were pinching him.