Demon Lord's Reincarnation

I thought we\'d have a couple of hours of peace and serenity but my phone buzzed right at the same time June\'s did. Experience tales at m v|l e\'-NovelBin.net

Eden turned to us, "Are those your phones?"

I answered first, "Alarm—"

June nodded, "Y-Yeah, me too."

At that point, Eden put more logs to fuel the flame but June and I shared a glance and we both knew what was up. Kaley already had an inkling of the reason our phones buzzed, of course, so she took it upon herself to let June and me have some private time to talk with our resident hacker, Ilana.

"Hey, Eden… I kind of wanna check on the other areas, see if we could help for a bit—"

"Oh. Lunch is awfully close but June—"

"He\'ll stay with her, right?" Kaley said as she turned to me.

I nodded, "Of course, I don\'t wanna say this now but it\'s umm… pretty close."

June commented, "You\'ve burned people—"

"Cremated."

"I know the term but I can\'t just keep mementos like this, I just can\'t… don\'t ask."

"Then I won\'t."

"..."

Eden looked at us weirdly, "Okay? Then…" she trailed as she turned to Kaley, "Come on then, we\'ll help in the kitchen!"

Kaley chuckled, "He\'s a better pick but I\'m still learning the ropes, take it easy on me."

"Nah, I think you\'re much better than me. I\'m only in charge of washing the dishes!"

"Oh! Ahaha! I\'ll ask him to include cooking as part of your curriculum then!"

"What?! No way!"

As the two walked back to the main building, June and I shared a brief look at each other before we looked at our phones. And surprisingly, Ilana just dropped us the same message and dipped out:

[He\'s one of us, play nice :)/They— She\'s one of us, play nice :)]

"..."

"..."

I shook my head as I decided to break the ice:

"So… should I call you June or do you have an IGN I should refer to—"

She rolled her eyes, "Doesn\'t matter now, does it? Look… don\'t tell my parents or my siblings, alright? Does your girlfriend know?"

I nodded, "She knows, my wife knows—"

"Ah—"

"No worries. We aren\'t technically married and I don\'t know what you know about me at this point. It\'s been a while since I met Ilana and—"

"What?! You\'ve met Ana71 in person?! Dude! What does she look like?!"

I was taken aback by the sudden 180, "I did meet her when she came to my place with an escort. She looks like a typical Asian woman who acts sheepish with a crowd and like a spy in intimate settings and she had a certain adoration of knives… a lot of knives… and she likes hiding random shit in her body—"

June grabbed on her forehead and sat down on a log, "H-Hold up, that\'s too much information at once… Wait— Oh! I get it now! You\'re the guy!"

"The what?"

"The guy! T-The— The videos in the umm— What was it called? At South! Even in the whatchamacallit~ T-The cartel one— Cuervo Heights! I\'ve seen all of them! Y-You\'re the guy— FUCK!

I need to take a picture with you! L-Like right now— Please?!"

"Okay?"

"T-Thank you! Dude! I owe you a lot for this! I-I\'m a huge fan!"

"T-Thank you?"

With that said, June quickly inched towards me and snapped several photos of me while I was posing awkwardly. But yeah, thinking that this was one way to take her mind off Mrs. Rose, we did a photoset doing anime poses in between the incinerator and the garden, and she couldn\'t stop smiling as she looked at each of them.

"Thank you so much for this! You\'re the best!" Eden exclaimed as she gave me another hug.

"Anything, I— June?"

Even if it was for a short moment, June did forget for a while and it all just came back at her the moment she saw the incinerator running on fumes. But at that point, she just solemnly looked at the incinerator—more like the person we put in there—before bowing deeply and mouthing "Thank you, Mrs. Rose" for the final time.

We shared another moment of silence for the departed but June brought up something she heard her sister say before they left:

"Hold up, what did Kaley mean by curriculum?"

"Oh. Your dad granted her and your two other siblings, Jeremy and Cindy, was it?"

"A what?"

"A two-week vacation at my place—"

"Oh! Can I come too?! Will Ilana be there?!"

"Ah— I don\'t know if I should tell you this but yeah… She\'s not living with us but she just told me that she\'ll come visit— I don\'t know if it\'s within those two weeks they\'ll be staying—"

"I gotta tell Dad! And Mom! W-Will you help me ask them?! Is it scummy if I use Mrs. Rose as an excuse?"

"Hold up— It is VERY scummy and a little disrespectful—"

"But Mrs. Rose would be in on it! She\'ll gladly cover for me!"

"Let me ask you this…"

"Go on…"

"Is there a reason they wouldn\'t allow you to come if you ask the regular way?"

"Umm… Do you have eyes?"

"What?"

"Look at me hotshot, I\'m tr— I\'m the definition of a kid in her rebellious phase. Blue hair, piercings all over, spiky clothing, black nails, thick eyeliners, you name it. They wouldn\'t even consider it…"

"Have you tried though?"

"Were you even listening?!"

"I am. But have you tried asking or is that what you think they\'re gonna say?"