Rivers of the Night

Chapter 816: A Problem

Jun fixed his sleeves, pulling on them slightly and sweeping a palm over their bodies to smooth out any wrinkles. He had a calmness to his face that was impossible to read, and if not for his powerful soul, Theron wouldn’t have even sensed his intention to attack at all.

He was quite the dangerous man, there was no denying that at all.

Theron chuckled. "I’m not sure what I did to deserve such an attack."

Gione raised an eyebrow, his interest in Theron going from casual to far more focused. This young man...

Was a problem.

He looked to be only 17 or 18 years old at the very most. He definitely wasn’t more than a year or so outside of those ranges.

For him to already be a King at that age was asinine. Part of Ayame’s great fame was exactly because she had managed to do exactly that at such a young age.

But to have such cultivation at that age was one matter; to have such strength at that age was a different matter entirely.

"Today, I would like to announce that I will be getting married," Jun said calmly. "The woman is someone you all know quite well."

Jun looked over to Ayame, who seemed about as surprised as anyone.

She did her research before jumping into anything wild. While there were some restrictions on the Demon Prince she could go to based on which Demon Duke she was under, if she had wanted a different Demon Prince, then she would have just joined under another.

From her assessment, the DiBarr Clan was the least likely for something like this to occur, and the most likely to do it was Jung, who was already dead.

Jun had never shown a propensity to take or claim women. In fact, as far as her information went, he might very well be a virgin who had never touched a woman. He was obsessed with the idea of proving his father wrong and had poured everything he had into it.

As for Demon Prince DiBarr himself, he had only ever taken one wife, and since her death, he had never taken another. Compared to the other Demon Princes who all had dozens of heirs and potential heirs, the fact Demon Prince DiBarr only had two spoke for itself.

There were some rumors that the Body Refinement Technique of the DiBarr caused impotence because of its poison aspects, but these matters had never been confirmed. Though, it would make sense that the least successful of the DiBarr men would be the most likely to chase women if this was the case.

According to Ayame’s calculations, her most dangerous stop would certainly be at the Demon King that Demon Prince DiBarr served. However, it was a necessary evil because that Demon King was the very one she wanted revenge against.

This, however... was completely out of her expectations. And clearly, it wasn’t something others had been aware of, with the exception of Gione who had learned of it moments ago.

Ayame looked over at Theron subconsciously, only to find that he was still smiling. There was a dangerous light in his eyes that made her heart skip a beat, but she could tell that that light didn’t come from surprise.

With Theron’s senses, he had heard Jun’s conversation with Gione long ago. He already knew what was going to happen, but he also didn’t have as much context about everything as Ayame either.

Because of that, he had been probing Jun to figure him out, and what he found was interesting.

Jun didn’t seem to have any real interest in marrying Ayame at all. He was using her for something, and that something was certainly the empty throne at the head of the hall.

Jun wanted to hold a banquet to slap his father’s face, but he didn’t want to have to deal with the potential backlash that might come with it, so he needed a way for his father to understand the face slap, while giving himself plausible deniability.

There was a limit to how far he could push his father without expecting it to fire back at him, and that was why he had reacted like he had when Theron said the line about the throne.

But, if he had a convenient enough excuse... like the wedding of the heir to the DiBarr Clan, then that would certainly cover all of his bases, now wouldn’t it?

The cloud of clapping filled the room.

"Congratulations, young heir!"

"Congratulations!"

The Demon Dukes fawned, but they had secretly broken out into a cold sweat. Not a single one of them had brought proper engagement gifts, so they were scouring their spatial rings in hopes of finding something that would fit for the occasion.

However, long after the claps should have faded, there was still a set remaining.

Theron slowly walked out from the pond of lava, his feet in perfect condition as though he had been standing on solid land.

"You know, Jung, this is kind of cute. I didn’t think your daddy issues would push you so far."

Jun’s eyes turned as cold as ice. This time, he couldn’t ignore Theron even if he wanted to. But Theron was already right in front of him moments later, having shifted there as though he had long been there the entire time.

Theron looked right up at Jun, their chests barely separated by half a foot.

"But you see, I have this thing. I really, really don’t like Spirit Mancers. I guess they’re fine overall, and I can ignore them if they don’t bother me, but if I never ran into another one, it would be too soon.

"You can also say I have this other thing. I probably haven’t been truly angry in more than a year. Almost a year and a half. It’s been quite peaceful for me.

"But you’ve done a good job of touching on both my bottom lines. I think I would feel far less annoyed if you were dead."