They Say People Are Inherently Different on the Inside and Outside

Pastel slept in Lord Demon's bed.

She didn't sleep tightly hugging Lord Demon. Since Lord Demon didn't need sleep anyway, he just sat at the bedside and read a book, while Pastel proudly occupied someone else's bed and slept soundly.

Morning came, and it felt like a rooster would cluck at any moment.

Pink eyes opened blearily.

It was morning...

Pastel wiped the drool from her mouth and sat up. She turned her head this way and that.

An unfamiliar room.

Where am I, who am I?

Perhaps a kidnapping?!

She saw the back of Lord Demon looking out the window and drinking morning coffee.

Gasp, come to think of it, I came here yesterday.

"Lord Demon, good morning!"

Red eyes glancing sideways.

"Right."

Pastel raised one hand high.

"Morning cocoa, please!"

Morning Morning Cocoa!

"A sudden errand, I see."

The Demon placed his coffee on the windowsill and left the bedroom.

A moment later, Pastel was able to receive her Morning Morning Cocoa. Steam rose softly.

"Making Lord Demon run errands in Lord Demon's bedroom, wow."

"Yeah, right."

Lord Demon shook his head, lightly swirling his coffee as if mixing it.

"If you're going to drink, get out of bed. Eating something in bed is a bad habit."

"Ehh."

Unnecessary nagging.

Pastel slipped out of bed with sluggish movements. As she followed Lord Demon to the window sill, the Banjjakbanjjak sunlight woke her from her sleep.

Pink eyes looked down at the beautiful city that seemed to be just entering the modern era, soaking in the sentiment.

A pigeon flew around the city. It arrived above the head of a guild member commuting early in the morning, dropped a splat of something, and flew away.

Gasp.

"I feel like a super-super elite waking up at a hotel early in the morning to start business operations..."

Oing.

Come to think of it, I am a super-super elite.

Pink eyes rolled.

Then she glanced at Lord Demon next to her.

"Lord Demon, since you're already running errands, please go to my room and bring the Attempted Assassination Report too."

A super-super elite handles work from the morning.

Lord Demon drank his suitably cooled coffee in one gulp and brought the report without a word.

Pastel leisurely sipped her cocoa. Like a true Super-Super Elite, she tried to hold the report in one hand and elegantly skim through it, but realized page-turning was impossible because she was holding the cocoa in her other hand.

"Why don't I have a free hand?"

Well, because humans have two hands.

Gasp, an astonishing fact.

Realizing this, Pastel went to sit on a chair with short steps. Placing the cocoa on the table gave her a free hand.

Wow, I'm smart!

With a mind that felt twice as brilliant, she skimmed through the report again.

Last night was a sleepy time, and her mind had been trembling from the schemes of Mr. Penguin and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, so she needed to check if she had missed anything.

"Ppuu."

There was nothing she had missed, but that was exactly why Pastel's lips jutted out slightly.

"What is it?"

"Look at this."

Her finger pointed to a section of the document.

It stated that when a portion of the Hawks planned the Governor-General Assassination, it intended to cooperate with a faction of the Church.

"Hmm?"

Lord Demon narrowed his brow.

"Ppuppu."

Dad is a high-ranking person in the Church, so as his daughter, how should I interpret facing an assassination threat?

Uwaah!

Dad is trying to kill me...!

Pastel's judgment wasn't clouded enough to think that. Rather, she was currently in a state of being twice as brilliant.

Pink Eyes narrowed.

"This is a Power Struggle."

It was easy to guess.

Dad definitely pulled some still-unknown trick at the Holy Site in the Underground of Sky Island and then made an escape to the Demon Realm.

To put it differently, after he completed his mission, his assigned area was changed from Sky Island to the Demon Realm.

However, since the Church isn't a small shop, there must have been high-ranking officials of the Church who originally oversaw the Demon Realm. This was a complete newcomer displacing an old-timer situation.

It was highly likely that someone in the Church harbored dissatisfaction and tried to take it out on Dad's Daughter for no good reason. It was exemplary behavior fitting for a member of a criminal organization.

"Ppuppu! Ppuppu!"

Dissatisfaction welled up in Pastel before fear.

A situation where Dad, who sold off all the Kraft family assets to grab a fortune and run away, couldn't even do a proper job of managing affairs around him, thereby threatening his daughter's life.

"That pedant bastard can't do anything right."

"Right! Right!"

Strongly agree! Completely agree!

Pastel slammed the table and stood up.

The cocoa sloshed, but because Cocoa Friend wasn't the type of friend to needlessly spill over and ruin the mood, not a single drop spilled. Instead, Lord Demon simply took out a handkerchief and wiped away the unnameable black sugar water.

"If he thinks I'm the same Pastel from when we met at the Holy Site, he's sorely mistaken! I couldn't say anything back then, but it's different now!"

Pastel threw a flurry of playful punches into mid-air.

"Back then, back then! I hadn't even gotten my hands on the Sky Island Knights yet, so my power base was all flimsy, which is why I lacked the confidence to argue in front of Dad, but now I'm the great Governor-General Pastel!"

Right, right!

"A respectable head of household who has achieved self-reliance beyond just independence! Honestly, I'm a higher-ranking person than Dad! Now he needs to hand over the family decision-making authority and go sit in the back room!"

Right, right!

Now I can lock Dad up with just the snap of my fingers!

Yap, yap!

Besides, besides!

"Pink-Pink in a state of love bursting is super ultra fantastic invincible! Right to Dad's face!"

She directed pointing a finger at mid-air.

"I can demand, “Why do you live like that?!”"

Why do you live like that?!

Really, really curious!

Actually, I already heard it, so I'm not curious!

I think abandoning your daughter to revive a dead mom is defamation against mom...!

"And, and!"

Pastel put her hand into her pajama pocket. She grabbed a piece of paper and held it up high. The paper with hearts drawn all over it fluttered.

Ppyongppyong Heart Amulet.

Namely.

"Love Amulet~!"

Governor-General Pastel always looks ten steps ahead.

I never promised I would use it unconditionally on Lord Demon~!

They say a labor contract bound by debt is no different from that of a slave, but wouldn't it be perfectly fine for a Dad who sold his daughter's assets and ran away to become a slave?!

Pastel thought this with a mind that had gone off the deep end. But since she originally lived with a dizzy, off-the-deep-end mental state anyway, it was no different from her normal mental state.

"What is that?"

Lord Demon, who had been dumbfounded by the pouring filial impiety remarks, twitched his eyebrow upon seeing the amulet.

Gasp.

Pastel froze in the exact pose of holding up the amulet. Pink eyes rolled for a moment.

The amulet naturally came down and slipped right back into her pajama pocket. Pink eyes avoided his gaze.

"Melissa gave it to me."

Since the kind and exemplary Melissa gave it to me, it's absolutely not dangerous.

Pastel sold out her friend.

The Popular Person Pastel would never betray a friend, but making up an excuse using a friend in front of a guardian was perfectly natural best friend behavior, so it was permissible.

Yeah, yeah!

I admit it!

"Hmm?"

Lord Demon seemed suspicious of something but didn't resort to interrogation. The filial impiety remarks from just now seemed to be a more shocking experience than the suspicious Pastel's suspicious amulet.

Phew!

Thanks, Dad!

Seems like you helped Pastel for the first time!

Pastel sat on the chair. She took a sip of Cocoa Friend, whose volume somehow seemed to have decreased from spilling, and looked down at the report.

"More importantly, I think I do need to meet Dad once."

The Hawks' assassination plot had collapsed, and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor's fuse click-click wasn't something Pastel herself could do anything about right now.

However, an assassination that could happen at any time based on the emotions of a criminal organization member was an urgent problem to solve. A rational opponent could be controlled, but the actions of an irrational opponent were a truly massive variable.

"When we met at the Holy Site, Dad said to come to the Demon Realm if I had any intention of helping revive Mom. He must have left a channel for contact, so I just need to look for it."

I'll have to think about how to find it. It would probably be right to mobilize Renard and Friend Friend.

"Ppuu."

But what should I do if we really meet?

Should I start with greetings? How have you been all this time? Is there any progress on a way to revive Mom?

Or really, why do you live like that?

Are you happy then?

Ah, right.

I already asked this.

—Love is greater than anything else.

I still don't really know what kind of answer this is.

My mind just gets complicated whenever Dad is involved.

Suddenly, a palm pressed down on her pink hair.

Pastel raised her head and looked up at Lord Demon.

"If you want, I can hit that guy once as soon as we meet him."

Ehh?

Lord Demon clenched his fist and struck midair. It imitated Pastel's earlier action, but the sound was different. The air burst, and a faint shockwave arose.

Pastel watched that for a moment, then smiled softly.

"Only once?"

"Hmm."

A punch created a small shockwave.

"Twice isn't bad either."

Ahaha!

Pastel burst out laughing.

"Isn't Dad a scholar who doesn't even do physical training? If Lord Demon hits him twice, he'll croak instantly."

Total murder!

Lord Demon chuckled.

"That's true. Considering that frail body of his, twice would be troublesome. Once would be good."

"I like it! I like it! Please hit him fiercely just once!"

The girl's legs swung rapidly.

Just you wait, Dad!

Because Lord Demon is going to hit you with all his might!

Ppuu! Ppuu!