The Daily Life of the Demon King

Chapter 122 - 122: Gloria's Quiet Day

Gloria stared at the front door, mentally bidding Alex farewell as he headed out on yet another mission. Once again, she found herself reflecting on how drastically her life had changed since that rainy night when she found him bleeding out in a dark alley. Back then, she hesitated, unsure whether she should get involved.

But something inside told her she had to help him. She couldn't quite grasp what this feeling was, but she decided to trust her instincts. Thoughts gnawed at her—maybe Alex was part of a gang or a corporate faction. Yet all doubts vanished when she cleaned his wounds and found not a single cyberimplant.

From the moment Alex woke up, her life began to change. She had saved a mage who, as it turned out, was a Demon King. In her eyes, it was just a small favor, but in reality, she had gained much more: Alex became a source of support, helping her cope with the loss of the most precious thing in her life. He didn't just comfort her—he promised to fulfill her most cherished dream: to go to the Moon and scatter her son's ashes there.

When Alex mentioned he needed work, she introduced him to some acquaintances who could help. Day by day, Gloria got to know Alex better and realized that he had become an irreplaceable part of her life. He was the only glimmer of light in this grim city steeped in blood and death. Unexpectedly, she noticed how their feelings began to evolve quickly.

At first, Gloria thought it was wrong—having feelings for a guy much younger than her. She was a widow who had lived through the death of her grown son. But everything changed when Alex introduced her to his family. She realized that age meant nothing to goddesses who were much older than her and far more experienced in the ways of life.

Freya once told her, «Don't hold back your feelings, or you'll regret it later.» Since then, Gloria decided to stop hiding her emotions and grow closer to Alex.

«Enough of this thinking,» she muttered under her breath, glancing again at the front door. «I need to find something useful to do while the house is quiet.»

Gloria returned to the living room and looked around for something to occupy herself with. Sitting down on the couch, she turned on the TV, hoping to find something interesting. As usual, there were only commercials on every channel—from new cyberimplants to tickets for a concert of some popular girl band.

Flipping through the channels, she stumbled upon more news about a mysterious attack on Arasaka by a group of people in masks, pretending to be corporate employees. Seeing this report, Gloria sighed. She had no idea how she would explain this to Hephaestus when Alex finally had the chance to return to his own world.

She recalled the conversation with Alex when he suggested taking her and the others with him. She had agreed immediately—there was nothing left for her in this world. A job? It could go to hell. Friends? All that remained were Maine and his crew, who had supported her after her losses.

Suddenly, Gloria remembered Lucy's question about what Alex would do if someone from the team refused to go with him. His answer had stunned her: 'I'd just kidnap them.' She chuckled, realizing how much her life had changed since Alex had entered it.

She wasn't watching the TV anymore—her thoughts had drifted into memories. Even meeting goddesses, which had once seemed strange and unreal, no longer surprised her. Gloria had learned to accept magic and miracles, though not long ago, it all seemed absurd to her. She smiled, recalling how Alex explained the principles behind the creation of their robotic dog, GIR. When she first found out that it contained a miniature sun inside, she had been scared, but eventually, she got used to it and even grew fond of the quirky, albeit strange, robo-dog.

«What should I do?» Gloria muttered, leaning back on the couch.

Usually, there was always someone at home. Either Valerie, who loved lounging on the couch watching series or anime, or Rebecca, who would stroll around the apartment in nothing but her underwear. Alex and Gloria had long battled against that habit, but to no avail. Not to mention Lucy, whose belongings were scattered across the apartment, and lazy Valerie, whose room always looked like a dump.

If not for Alex's magic, the house would have descended into chaos long ago. Gloria was grateful that Alex valued order, though his workshop was always a mess.

«That's it!» she exclaimed, suddenly realizing how she could keep herself busy. «I'll clean up Alex's workshop.»

Feeling inspired, she got up from the couch. Aside from cooking, Gloria rarely found anything to do at home. Rebecca often tinkered with things, Lucy worked on her tablet, while Valerie and GIR watched shows and recorded funny videos. Sometimes, Gloria felt a bit out of place. She was glad she had insisted on cooking; otherwise, Alex would have probably done that with magic too.

Shaking her head with a smile, she headed toward the workshop. Peeking inside, she noticed how the massive room had expanded even more since her last visit.

«It seems it's grown again,» Gloria murmured as she looked around.

Stepping into the workshop, she was surprised to see that the room had become even larger than she remembered. It used to take up an entire floor of the Megabuilding, but now it seemed like its size had doubled, with the ceiling towering impossibly high.

The first time she saw it, she had been so stunned that she couldn't utter a word—Alex had somehow managed to turn a small storage room into an enormous space. She, like the other girls, had been curious about how he did it.

But after yet another long explanation about how space and expansion runes worked, they all concluded that the workshop essentially existed in a separate dimension. This became especially clear after Rebecca complained about the complexity of the explanations.

Gloria made her way toward Alex's workbench, where he spent most of his time. Passing by Rebecca's table, cluttered with all sorts of weapon parts and ammunition, she decided not to touch anything.

The risk of something exploding at the slightest touch was too high, unlike Alex's items, which always had built-in safety mechanisms.

«Now I see why he needed so much space. It's probably because Rebecca needs a testing range,» she muttered, walking past the weapon testing stands.

Paying no further attention to the range, Gloria continued toward Alex's desk, passing by the weapon racks filled with various melee weapons—from medieval swords to modern blades. She stopped at one of the newer racks. It surprised her how Alex found the time to create all this weaponry without actually using it.

When she once asked him why he did it, his answer had left her speechless. He said it was for his collection or, in the future, to throw at enemies. Gloria couldn't help but picture Alex hurling all these weapons at some unlucky soul, and she shuddered. Calming herself, she resumed her path to the workbench.

On Alex's desk, various notes and blueprints were scattered around. Gloria had helped him sort through the mess many times before, remembering Hephaestus' advice: if you leave everything as it is, it will quickly turn into chaos.

Every time she asked Alex about the mess, he would always quote Einstein, which only made her sigh heavily. In the end, she would simply kick him out to tidy up in peace.

«Alright, let's get to it,» Gloria said, rolling up her sleeves.

She began sorting through the blueprints. Weapons in one pile, explosives in another, and anything that looked ridiculous went into the last one. The logic was simple: if the blueprints posed an obvious threat, they went into the weapons category, but if they had silly designs or strange annotations, they went into the folder for useless projects.

Humming along to music, Gloria felt like the secretary of a mad scientist. Though, she soon corrected herself: not a secretary, but the wife of a mad scientist.

When she reached the last blueprint, her attention was drawn to a peculiar project titled «MIMI.» She picked it up and started studying it. To her surprise, it was a version of their robo-dog GIR, but with a bow near its ear.

Apparently, Alex had decided to create a more stable model, naming it GIR's sister. Imagining yet another crazy robo-dog in their house, she involuntarily shuddered, realizing how noisy things could get.

However, as she examined the notes, Gloria saw that Alex had found a way to avoid the issues GIR had. Still, she hoped MIMI wouldn't start quoting Codexes and praising the Emperor.

Not knowing where to put the blueprint, Gloria decided to leave it on the desk. After finishing with the sorting, she glanced around to make sure nothing else needed to be cleaned. Checking the time, she realized that tidying up had taken her an entire hour.

«Well, that's done. What should I do now?» she muttered, looking around the workshop.

Her gaze fell on Rebecca's workstation again, and she immediately dismissed the idea. There was no way she was going to touch anything on Rebecca's desk. Ever since Alex gave her a workspace, things had exploded more than once, which was probably one of the reasons for the workshop's expansion and the installation of the weapon testing range.

Not finding anything else to do, Gloria decided to go shopping. With that thought, she left the workshop and headed to her room to change. As she walked in, her eyes landed on the bed where she and Alex had spent the previous night.

Before that, their relationship had been limited to kisses and hugs, but that night, after a date and with the others away, she had finally decided to take things to the next level. Gloria felt like a schoolgirl, in love for the first time.

«You're a grown woman, why are you still getting embarrassed about this?» she said to herself, pushing away the shy thoughts.

After changing, Gloria headed downstairs and looked around, trying to remember if she had forgotten anything. Making sure she had everything she needed, she left the apartment and headed toward the parking lot out of habit.

Lost in thought, she didn't notice when she reached the spot where Alex usually parked his motorcycle or car. Stopping in her tracks, she suddenly realized she had been acting on autopilot.

«Didn't he take his bike?» Gloria said in surprise, seeing the motorcycle still there.

Gloria thought about it and concluded that Alex had probably run to his meeting on foot instead of taking his bike. After a brief moment of reflection, she decided to use his bike to go grocery shopping.

When Gloria sat on the motorcycle, she was surprised at how much bigger it felt from the driver's seat. Settling in comfortably to avoid falling off, she started the engine and, leaving the underground parking, headed to the nearest supermarket.

Upon arrival, she parked the bike and walked into the store. Soon, the bike caught the attention of passersby, especially the children playing nearby. They curiously examined the bike, as they had never seen anything like it.

The inquisitive kids immediately started

Deciding to wait for Alex to find out everything from him, Gloria relaxed. She felt that the girl wasn't going to cause any harm, and so, calming down a bit, she turned on the television to pass the time while waiting for his return.

To be continued...