At night, the streetlights fueled by magic lit up one after another, illuminating the entire city brightly.

The main city of the Demon Realm had always been the liveliest place and where news spread the fastest.

The taverns along the streets were filled with demons looking for gossip and amusement. They had long lifespans, possessed powerful magic, and lacked strong ambitions.

Most demons disliked working; they’d muddle through work hours and then spend their time eating, drinking, and listening to gossip.

This was the state of the entire Demon Realm. Most were content with their current lives—leisurely and free.

In the centermost seat of a certain tavern sat a demon, his face flushed red from drinking. The most popular topic recently was the Demon King’s son. For this mysterious prince, even knowing the tiniest bit of information could instantly make one the center of attention.

“I once saw Prince Hilaire! It was when I was hunting demonic beasts on the outskirts of the Forest of Calamity; I happened to run into him,” the tipsy demon slammed down his cup, yelling loudly.

His words successfully captured everyone’s attention. A demon asked, “What does the Prince look like?”

“What does he look like? Let me think… he looks a lot like the Demon King.”

… Isn’t that obvious? They’re father and son; of course, they look alike.

“Right! He should be a bit taller than the Demon King, and looks, looks very burly! And he can kill a high-rank demonic beast with a single punch!”

“Wow! Truly worthy of being the Demon King’s heir! Just as formidable as the Demon King!” the demons exclaimed one after another.

In a corner of the tavern sat a demon noble.

The nobility now was different from before. The nobles under the previous Demon King were all his kin. After that war, those nobles were either purged or fled in panic.

Although their race had produced a Demon King of exceeding power, that King never revealed how he enhanced his strength to his kin. This led to a situation where those nobles held great power but remained mostly low-rank demons.

The current nobles, however, earned their status through their own abilities—either being intelligent, powerful, or having made outstanding contributions.

The requirements for nobility were strict and non-hereditary. Thus, demons nowadays were quite tolerant towards nobles, knowing these individuals had genuine skills.

This particular demon noble had also been in the Forest of Calamity and had personally witnessed Prince Hilaire’s demeanor.

The Prince was clearly an adorable cub! While he did resemble the Demon King, terms like “burly” had absolutely nothing to do with the cute Little Prince.

And when did the Little Prince ever subdue four Greater Demons? It was clearly His Majesty who acted.

Seeing the drunken demon still spouting rubbish, the demon noble felt it necessary to clarify some rumors about the Prince. He cleared his throat and raised his voice, “I just saw His Highness not long ago. It’s not at all like he described.”

His rebuttal drew the attention of many demons in the tavern. “Then tell us, what is the Prince like?”

The demon noble stated seriously, “His Highness is a very cute cub.”

…

“Hahahahaha!”

The laughter from the tavern could be heard even outside on the street. One demon said between laughs, “Isn’t His Highness exactly one thousand years old this year?”

That part was true. This noble demon hadn’t understood it at first either. However, he learned from a demon who had experienced that war and had a decent relationship with the Demon King that the Little Prince’s eggshell had cracked at birth, and he was nearly declared dead.

Later, the Demon King somehow managed to repair the eggshell, but it wasn’t until a thousand years later, just recently, that the Little Prince finally hatched.

Demon eggs usually only took a month to hatch, so age was calculated from leaving the mother’s body. The Little Prince, being a full thousand years late, meant that while his age was great, he was actually a very small cub.

He nodded, about to explain, but the drunken demon, seeing the attention shift away from him, slurred loudly, “Even the dragon race, with the longest childhood, reaches adulthood at one thousand! How could the Prince possibly be a cub? Can’t even lie properly! Besides, our information came from Constans himself! Was he lying too?”

Seeing nobody believed him, the noble rolled his eyes in exasperation. Nowadays, even telling the truth, no demon believed it.

The demons in the tavern continued chatting animatedly. Another demon claimed he had also seen the Prince, even drank with him, and declared the Prince’s alcohol tolerance was superb; he himself had ended up under the table.

Demon noble: … Let’s just see how much more you can make up.

He decided not to clarify anymore. He wanted to witness the scene when these demons eventually ate crow. Make it up, go on, make it up! The more outrageous the story, the harder the fall.

The little demon, unaware of whether his future alcohol tolerance would be superb, was currently drinking milk. His milk tolerance, however, was indeed excellent.

Now he drank milk punctually, eight times a day. Even when asleep, he would be woken up to drink milk. The cub would drink the bottle down, glug-glug-glug, with his eyes closed, then immediately fall back asleep.

When awake, he would also eat some snacks suitable for cubs. This feeding rate successfully fattened up the cub; his arms and legs became roly-poly, and holding him felt like holding a dense cotton ball.

Whenever Eris had no official duties, he would be with the cub, changing clothes, feeding milk, and playing. He progressed from initial awkwardness to proficiency.

The little demon also grew familiar with him; even when the four demons weren’t around, he would stay obediently with his Demon King Papa.

Baph, as the steward of the Demon King’s Palace, had learned various cub-rearing skills long ago. Back when the little demon was still an egg, with no telling when he might hatch, the perfectionist and work-loving black goat demon had already made extensive preparations.

His abilities in raising cubs far surpassed the four completely untrained demons. Moreover, he intentionally kept those four demons somewhat separate from the cub.

The Demon King raised the cub personally. Baph prepared all of Hilaire’s daily necessities.

The four demons, on the other hand, were often sent out on errands by Baph. They were powerful, and their racial abilities were diverse; many tasks previously handled by Baph and Constans could now be delegated to them.

This also conveniently created time for the Demon King and the Prince to bond.

Baph’s considerations were thorough. Even if the demons were idiots, they could see his intentions. However, they tacitly accepted this arrangement.

Setting aside the fact they had hidden in the Forest of Calamity for too long and weren’t accustomed to the outside world, unfamiliar with many new things, if they constantly stayed by the cub’s side, becoming the ones closest to him, the Demon King would likely find them increasingly unpleasant to look at.

The awakened little demon had just finished his milk and was sitting on his Demon King Papa’s lap, playing with a toy. He had many toys, sorted into boxes, with different ones to play with each day.

The little demon held a small, shiny box, picking at it with his finger, trying to open it. But after searching for a long time, he couldn’t figure out how.

He tilted his head back and let out an “ah.” His Demon King Papa reached out a finger and pointed at a gemstone embedded on the box.

He immediately poked the gemstone with his finger.

With a click, the box opened, and a toy bug jumped out.

The little demon jolted in fright, but he didn’t cry. He had gotten used to being startled during this period. Who knew what the demon toy designers were thinking; most toys were prankish and scary.

Ghosts floating out of model houses, flowers with eerie smiles, dolls whose eyes glowed at night, and crawled around on their own—initially, the little demon would get scared and burrow into the Demon King’s arms.

Now, having been scared repeatedly, he was used to it. He could even laugh after being startled.

It had to be said, courage was indeed cultivated this way.

The bug from the box jumped out and ran away. The little demon immediately tugged anxiously at his Papa’s clothes. Placed on the carpeted floor, he immediately started crawling, chasing the bug.

Finally, the bug escaped through a crack in the window. The little demon crawled back, pouting, reaching up for his Papa to hold him.

Held in arms, the cub, currently learning to walk, wrapped his arms around his Papa’s neck, using his hands to push off his Papa’s legs, practicing standing up. But he tired quickly, and then his wings behind him would flap vigorously to lessen the weight on his legs.

Eris felt like he was holding a chubby little butterfly; the wings were practically flapping in his face.

“I’m coming in.” Just as father and son were enjoying some warm parent-child time, Gorgon’s voice came from outside, and simultaneously, he pushed the door open and entered.

“Quite energetic, aren’t we?” Gorgon, dragging his snake tail, saw the cub upon entering, sized him up, then looked at the Demon King. “I’ve figured out that thing.”

The potion bottle Nick had produced from his shadow only had a drop or two left. Researching its full composition from such a small sample was difficult, but for Gorgon, he loved a challenge.

“What is it?” Unlike the gentle way he held the cub, the Demon King’s eyes held a trace of malice.

Gorgon didn’t speak but produced a full bottle of blue potion. He hadn’t just researched the components; he had perfectly replicated it.

Glancing around the floor, he casually picked up a toy. Gorgon placed a barrier layer over the toy—his skills in this area were relatively poor, but due to his high rank, the barrier was reasonably stable. Then, he dropped a single drop of the blue liquid onto it.

The barrier instantly dissolved.

A barrier could actually be dissolved by a potion? Eris had never heard of such a thing. He also placed a barrier on the toy, but when the blue potion was dropped on it, although the dissolution slowed, the result was the same.

So, the twelve layers of seals set up to protect the cub back then were all dissolved by this potion. The barriers, usually considered the most secure, were rendered completely useless by this potion.

“I figured this out a few days ago. However, while consulting materials these past few days, I discovered this substance appeared over ten thousand years ago, during the reign of the Demon King before the previous one. But because many demons used it for illicit purposes, its use was banned, and the formula destroyed.”

So why had it reappeared now? Who made the potion? Nobody knew.

Gorgon told the Demon King the raw ingredients for the potion. Several were extremely expensive, and their origins could usually be traced. This clue might help find the demon hiding in the shadows.

The Demon King assigned this task to be followed up. He looked with complex emotions at the happy Hilaire in his arms.

The little one still understood nothing, unaware that demons already had designs on him. He bounced in his Papa’s arms, laughing innocently.

One month after the little demon arrived at the Demon King’s Palace, the seal over the Desolate Lands in the Demon Realm loosened again.

That was the place where the previous Demon King was overthrown and sealed a thousand years ago. A loosening seal required the Demon King himself to go and reinforce it.

Eris didn’t feel at ease leaving the cub, even with several Greater Demons protecting Hilaire. He still worried.

In the end, he decided to take the cub with him to the Desolate Lands.

And this trip taken by the little demon Hilaire would cause his fearsome reputation for cruelty (the rumors) to spread even wider.

Making the Archangel, who knew the news (the rumors), so anxious that his wings were frantically shedding feathers.