Despite my hesitation and anguish, I reached out my hand as quickly as I could, but it only brushed the air.

I had no time to think. Just when I thought that he would disappear, my body moved on its own.

But I was too late. My tears continued to fall without stopping. I didn’t even know why I reached out my hand, but nothing was left on it.

—The Shal I loved was not the benefactor I sought.

I swallowed down the saliva that had stuck to my parched throat.

Then, in my blurred vision that was beginning to take in reality, I saw Azel bewildered on the other side of the hero.

“A…zel…”

“Ah… Shal, you…”

Our eyes met, and I called his name.

Uneasiness stirred in me, and I thought I had to get out of the room quickly.

The hero was stronger than I had expected. Even if the summoning happened too soon, I thought he wouldn’t have had the time to train.

The moment the hero became suspicious of Azel’s lack of pursuit was about the same time I stepped out to get away from him.

It didn’t take long for us to get from his office to the throne room.

Nothing particular happened on our way there, and of course, the same went for me.

I would’ve walked in, calm and collected, but Azel, standing in front of the door to the throne room, looked at me restlessly.

Doing a poker face was one of my strong points. But the fact that he looked at me like that meant that he must have sensed my unease.

—The door to the peaceful office suddenly slammed opened, and a cupbat jumped in.

“My lord! My lord! In throne room! Waiting! Please!”

“Hah? I’ve already given my audience this morning. I don’t wanna go back to that place until I’ve spent every last second of my precious time with Shal. What’s this all about?”

The cupbat, the Demon Lord’s underling and personal caretaker, fluttered around Azel and called out to him hurriedly.

The door was slammed shut. I guess that pretty much wrapped up the paperwork for today.

Reisen seemed to have a hard time wrapping his head around Azel’s behavior. Still, when I reported our relationship to him, he congratulated us so much, you know?

He was surprised to see us so close to each other when we returned after he sent us to do an inspection, but I found later that he had prepared a feast. He held my hand and told me to take care of the Demon Lord.

When I handed him his souvenir, he gave me a crystal with his own tail feathers in it as a gift.

So this is the famous phoenix tail…!