DKFTI 69

At that moment, Kkotdol’s eyes began to sparkle. It was a gaze full of admiration.

“Wow…! As expected, the Demon King is different!”

“The theory is perfect. Go and put it into practice.”

“Then, isn’t there something else?”

Once the door opened, all the random bits of knowledge he had picked up started pouring out of his head. Since it came to this, Sibel decided to show the Demon King’s authority clearly.

“Now, that’s not the end. This is only the basics.”

“The basics? Even such an amazing technique is just basics?”

“Of course. From here it’s the advanced course. Chapter 2, Push and Pull!”

Sibel raised two fingers and declared solemnly.

“If you treat a woman well every day, she thinks it’s natural. Sometimes you have to treat her coldly on purpose. Yesterday you act like you would give her the whole world, today you just walk past without a glance.”

“C-Can I really do that?”

“Of course! That way she’ll think, huh? Why is this orc acting like this? And she’ll spend the whole day thinking about you. It’s a high-level technique that completely controls the other person’s heart.”

Kkotdol gulped.

“But Kkotsun said she doesn’t like rude men.”

“Hey, this isn’t rude! It’s chic! It’s called being chic!”

“But…”

“Okay, fine. Then let’s go with something classic. A gift. You give her a gift.”

By this point, Sibel felt like he had become a real master of romance. Was this what they called Ripley syndrome? The more he lied, the more he even fooled himself…!

“What should I say when I give it? Kkotsun is really popular.”

“When you give the gift, don’t act like you’re reciting a line. Even if it’s just a stone you picked up on the road, toss it like it’s nothing.”

“Toss?”

“Yes. Hey. Take it. Look somewhere else while you say it. Like you don’t care. The point is to make it feel like it’s too much for her, but you’re granting it as something special.”

“Ah, can I really go that strong?”

When the orc sucked in his breath, Sibel crossed his arms with composure.

“Just trust me.”

“Then after the gift, is it… a date invitation?”

“How tacky. First you make her interested in you.”

Kkotdol was deeply impressed by Sibel’s bold approach. As expected, the Demon King’s method was different from ordinary people!

“The final secret. Inducing jealousy.”

“Secret…!”

“This isn’t something I tell just anyone… but I’ll tell you because it’s you. In front of Kkotsun, you deliberately talk kindly with another orc lady. Brush off the dust on her shoulder, joke with her.”

“With… another woman?”

“Oh wait, are there no women around here?”

Sibel casually said something rude.

Kkotdol’s face turned pale. Even talking to one woman made his heart feel like it would explode, but to act friendly with someone other than Kkotsun?

“That way Kkotsun will think, what? That huge orc isn’t only nice to me? And she’ll start to panic. She’ll feel the crisis that she doesn’t want to lose you.”

After finishing his lecture, Sibel crossed his arms with satisfaction. Kkotdol sat for a long time with a blank look, then clenched his fist solemnly.

“Demon King…! Thank you! I’ll become a cool bad guy, just like you taught me… and I’ll definitely make Kkotsun my woman!”

“Good. Go show the world your charm!”

“Yes, sir!”

Kkotdol ran off with a face full of hope. Watching his back, Sibel smiled in satisfaction.

Even as he ran, Kkotdol kept looking back and waving at Sibel. When he finally grew distant, Sibel put his hand to his forehead.

“What have I done?”

A wave of emptiness hit him late. He had given ridiculous romance advice. Kkotdol would probably… get dumped by Kkotsun. And badly.

“What if he can’t get married for life.”

Had he ruined an orc’s life?

Sibel’s legs started trembling.

From that day on, Sibel was tormented by nightmares. In them, Kkotdol, who lived his whole life as a virgin and grew old, came to resent him.

It wasn’t just the content. What made it worse was Kkotdol’s face, uglier with age, that tormented him.

For the past few days, Sibel had been avoiding Kkotdol, and at night he was plagued by nightmares, so his face looked terrible.

“Demon King, why do your eyes look so hollow?”

Ruru looked at Sibel’s ashen face with worry.

“I brought it on myself…”

“What trouble did you cause again?”

Sibel weakly shook his head. His mind was still full of Kkotdol.

Was that guy doing okay? Did he follow my advice and end up with a reputation as a stalker or crazy orc, getting kicked out of the village? Then would our castle gates be left unguarded?

While drowning in those worries, he sat slumped at the Demon Lord’s castle gate pillar, his head down.

Thud, Thud, Thud, the sound of confident footsteps approached along with a familiar shadow. Sibel cautiously lifted his head.

“Lord Demon King!”

It was Kkotdol.

At that moment, Sibel felt overwhelmed. That guy was still smiling! Even though he must have been humiliated, he was smiling! Just like a bright little toy that pops back up no matter what…!

Sibel jumped up from his seat. He did it to hug Kkotdol.

“Kkotdol-ah… I’m sorry. I ruined everything. If it’s hard for you to go back to the orc village… stay in the Demon King’s castle for now.”

Just as Sibel was thinking of giving him a room.

“No?”

The voice that came was surprisingly bright and clear. When Sibel lifted his head a little, the shy orc from before was gone. His shoulders were spread wide, his chin was lifted slightly, and even on his fierce face, there was a faint smile.

“Thanks to the Demon King, my life opened up!”

“Huh?”

What was that supposed to mean? Sibel’s arms, which had been wide open, suddenly felt embarrassing.

“Your life opened up? You… didn’t get kicked out of the village?”

“Kicked out? By who! I’m the most popular man in the village right now!”

Kkotdol proudly pounded his chest. He looked like a triumphant general.

What was this? Popular man?

“How?”

When Sibel asked with a look that he could not understand, Kkotdol explained what had happened so far with a flushed face. His voice was now full of pride instead of shyness.

“I did just like you said! From one to ten, everything!”

“Everything…?”

That wasn’t easy courage. Did he really do it all?

“Yes! First I approached Kkotsun and acted like a bad guy. I didn’t even talk to her like the other males, I just brushed past, bumping her shoulder without a care.”

A shoulder bump? Bold.

“And then?”

“At that moment, the other female orcs around started whispering! They said, ‘That’s the first time we’ve seen such a proud male!’”

Sibel’s eyes went round. The shoulder bump… worked?

“And! Just like you taught me, I tossed her the best boar hind leg I hunted. I just said, hey, take it. Just that one line!”

“……”

“And then suddenly the female orcs screamed out loud!”

Strange. Something was strange. What kind of village was that place?

“And last… the grand finale, the wall slam! Kkotsun was standing next to a hut, so I ran right up and slammed one hand on the wall!”

“The hut… was it okay?”

“It broke to pieces!”

“……”

If the hut broke, wasn’t that a failure?

“But then Kkotsun said she never knew I had that kind of strength!”

“…She really said that?”

“Yes! Kkotsun is completely crazy about me now. And the other orc women lined up too! They’re begging me to do a wall slam for them.”

What a bizarre village. Was that the orc taste?

‘My trashy romance knowledge actually worked in an orc village?’

Sibel could not say a word.

The cheap tricks full of clichés he had seen in <Succubus’s Secret Seduction> were actually accepted in orc society as the perfect courtship behavior of a top male. He could hardly believe it.

“Then I’ll be going! I have three wall slam appointments today!”

“H-huh? Oh. Okay.”

For a moment Sibel suspected maybe Kkotdol was lying out of pride, but his confident and gleaming face showed overflowing self-esteem.

It was the truth.

Kkotdol hummed a tune as he strolled away. Left alone, Sibel stood blankly for a long time, staring into the air.

“Demon King. What does that mean?”

Ruru asked Sibel. But Sibel could not bring himself to tell Ruru what had happened that day.

He would laugh if he heard. He didn’t even need to see it to know.

“Ruru, I think I might be a genius of romance.”

“Eh? Demon King, you?”

Ruru tilted his head with a look of disbelief.

“I’m even scared of my own talent.”

Why was a romance method that worked on orcs flowing through his veins?

Sibel’s eyes shimmered as he looked endlessly at the sky. Maybe those were tears of envy for the future that had opened wide for Kkotdol.