Chapter 35: Rose! I’m here!

Deep in the forest, a violent boom and the deafening crash of trees being snapped in half made Angela’s heart jolt.

He hurriedly rushed back to the woods where Rest and Rose had been. The scene of utter devastation before him made him suck in a sharp breath.

Thick trees lay snapped at the waist and tilted at odd angles. The ground was covered in crisscrossing giant claw marks and deep trenches.

Dust filled the air, along with an extremely dense and oppressive residual dragon might. The entire area looked as if it had just gone through a life-and-death battle.

Angela’s heart leaped into his throat. He searched anxiously.

Finally, atop a pile of shattered boulders that formed a small mountain, he spotted a familiar yet strangely unfamiliar figure.

The man sat quietly on the highest rock, broad shoulders slightly hunched, head lowered. One arm rested on his knee while the other hung limply. His black hair fell messily, covering most of his face.

The pale moonlight outlined his strong yet endlessly desolate silhouette, like a living sculpture named “The Thinker in Despair.”

Except the background of this sculpture was a devastated forest battlefield after a dragon’s rampage.

The corner of Angela’s eye twitched violently. He barely suppressed the urge to facepalm. With a few nimble leaps, he climbed the rubble pile and cautiously approached.

“Lord Rest.” Angela’s voice carried a hint of helplessness and caution. His eyes swept complexly between his boss’s muscular but currently rather miserable body and the hellish scene around them.

“…It’s the middle of the night. No matter how much you want to sit here pondering the philosophy of life in pain, at least put on some clothes first.”

The night wind carried a chill, brushing across Rest’s skin and raising a layer of fine goosebumps, adding even more desolation.

Rest did not respond. Only heavy breathing could be heard.

Angela’s heart sank. He tentatively asked the most crucial question:

“Where is Miss Rose?”

Silence.

It lasted so long that Angela thought Rest would not answer. Then a hoarse voice, like sandpaper scraping, sounded low:

“…She left.”

The pain and loss contained in that voice made the surrounding air feel stagnant.

Angela silently scratched his head. As expected.

Combining the occasional fragments Rose had let slip while Rest was pretending to be unconscious, plus his boss’s domineering style and unique understanding of “courting,” he could guess the general direction of events with his toes. It was one hundred percent certain that Rest’s “primordial force” had scared the girl away.

“Sigh…”

Angela let out a heavy sigh, his tone full of “I knew this would happen” helplessness, even carrying a touch of恨铁不成钢 (frustration at iron that refuses to become steel).

He had no intention of beating around the bush. Relying on his understanding of Rest, he said seriously:

“Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but the main reason for the current situation is probably that you were too rough.”

“Rough?” Rest suddenly raised his head. His originally dazed dark red eyes flashed with surprise and confusion, like a high-ranking child who had done something wrong but didn’t know where he had gone wrong.

His usually majestic and cold face actually showed a rare look of bewilderment.

“Was I?”

Angela looked at his Demon King’s “emotional idiot” appearance and wailed inwardly.

He knew very well that this boss had stood high above others in the Demon Realm for so long, accustomed to taking whatever he wanted. His understanding of “romance” probably still remained at the most primitive level of conquest. How could he possibly understand what “gentle care” meant?

He suppressed the urge to complain and, like analyzing a love history for a clueless best friend, spoke in as calm a tone as possible:

“The social rules between humans and demons are vastly different. Miss Rose grew up in human society. How could she possibly accept the domineering, direct, and even somewhat barbaric way demons express themselves all at once?”

He paused, observed Rest’s expression, and continued earnestly:

“Moreover, with your noble status and having stayed cooped up in the Demon King City for so long, you rarely interact with normal members of the opposite sex. You simply don’t know how to cherish and care for a woman. You only act according to instinct and your own strong preferences. Anyone would feel scared, even disgusted, by such willful behavior.”

“Dis…gusted?” Rest murmured the word, pressing his slender fingers hard against his forehead as if that could dispel the sudden, unfamiliar dull pain.

“She hates me…”

His eyes were filled with incredulous blankness, as if still recalling some warm moments. “But when I kissed her, when I tangled with her, I could clearly feel her reactions were pleasurable. She was willing.”

He stubbornly clung to this piece of evidence, trying to prove she had not completely rejected him.

Angela felt like he was trying to reason with a stubborn rock. “That might also be your powerful dragon bloodline inducing or forcibly amplifying her sensory reactions. It may not be her true inner will.”

“I’m going to find her.” Rest stood up abruptly. The huge boulder beneath his feet creaked, and shattered stone fragments rustled down.

His dark red eyes burned with urgency and determination. He wanted to set off immediately.

“Find her?” Angela was not intimidated by his aura. Instead, he calmly poured a bucket of cold water. “And then what? What do you plan to do? Pin her down without a word again and forcibly ‘express your feelings’? The result will be the same. She’ll still run, and she’ll run even faster and farther than this time.”

He looked straight into Rest’s eyes and spoke the cruel reality word by word:

“You haven’t even learned how to love someone yet, and you’ve already personally pushed away your treasure.”

The sentence hit Rest’s heart like a heavy hammer.

Angela looked at Rest’s instantly stiffened back and felt a trace of sympathy.

He almost wanted to reach out and pat the other’s shoulder, comforting him with, “Forget it, boss. It’s your first love after all. Just treat it as gaining experience. Be more careful next time.”

However, Rest’s next words instantly blew all of Angela’s comfort and “next time” into pieces.

Rest paused, his voice low and carrying an unprecedented heaviness and anxiety.

“She might be carrying my child.”

Angela: “……”

The world fell silent.

Only the occasional timid cries of unknown night birds broke the suffocating silence, making the atmosphere even more awkward.

“Cough cough!” Angela choked on his own saliva and coughed violently, trying to cover up his shock.

He blinked his purple eyes hard and forced out an extremely stiff “calm” expression that looked worse than crying. In a dry voice he said:

“As expected of our Demon King. Truly decisive and swift. Your efficiency is fast, accurate, and ruthless—straight to the point in one go. Heh…”

He now felt like a worried old nanny.

He had just finished teaching basic demon common sense to the clueless newborn little dragon, and now he had to clean up the emotional mess of another, even more powerful yet more childish “older problem child.” It was utterly exhausting.

“It’s not too late to go now!” Rest declared firmly. Magic power surged violently around him, rippling the air.

As long as Rose had used magic or dragon power, no matter how faint the trace, as long as the distance wasn’t too great, he was confident he could capture it.

He closed his eyes and focused, seriously tracing back the spatial teleportation magic fluctuation he had last sensed from Rose’s departure.

Although she had modified it, as long as he analyzed the core frequency, he could get close to her.

“Wait!!!” Seeing Rest about to activate teleportation, Angela jumped in panic and pointed at him with a trembling finger:

“Even if you miss her that much, can you please put away that full-male-charm scent of yours first? With your current aura, you could scare a dragon away from ten miles away!”

He was practically roaring. “Also, clothes! You can’t possibly go see a fiancée you just scared away—who might even be carrying your child—completely naked, right?!”

Angela even imagined the scene: a man radiating wild aura suddenly appearing in front of the terrified Rose.

That was definitely not a surprise. It was a second fucking scare. The kind that could make someone faint on the spot.

“Time is tight! No time to waste!” Rest growled impatiently, but his movements still stopped. He clearly realized Angela had a point. Irritated, he waved his hand. “Go! Find me some clothes!”

“…Fuck me!” Veins bulged on Angela’s forehead. His fists clenched so hard they cracked. Inside he screamed madly: Serves you right! Serves you right for getting dumped! You totally deserve it! Your emotional intelligence is negative infinity!

In this desolate wilderness, where the hell was he supposed to find decent clothes?! Angela felt like he was about to explode on the spot!

He roared inwardly through gritted teeth: A man with zero gentlemanly manners will never win a woman in his life. Serves you right to stay single forever!

Despite the vicious cursing in his heart, Angela still resigned himself and started moving. He quickly searched along the edge of the devastated battlefield and finally, beneath a bush that had been blown away by an energy shockwave, dug out a set of coarse cloth jacket and pants left behind by some unlucky human soldier during retreat. They were still relatively clean and sturdy.

“Hurry up and put them on!” He irritably threw the set of clothes, which smelled of dust and human scent, hard toward the guy on top of the boulder who had made him worry himself sick.

Rest sensed Rose’s faint magic fluctuation and was about to begin his pursuit.

His dark red eyes radiated firm conviction.

Wait for me, Rose. I’m coming!