historical

Suddenly, Roland bursted out laughing.

Harker blinked at this. "What the hell are you laughing about, man???"

Roland pushed Harker aside and fell to his bed, holding his stomach and laughing like a maniac.

"Hahaha! It's just—- Isn't it stupid!? We're being so serious and you said something as cheesy as that! Hahaha! I don't know why, but that just cracks me up for some reason!"

He giggled while kicking his feet like a kid, only wearing that lavender shirt and his wet boxers.

Harker's face turned red. "It's not something to laugh about, man!"

He sighed. "What the fuck... We're just arguing right now and you're laughing about me being sincere?!"

"No, no! I'm not laughing at you, just the whole situation. Hahaha... It's so strange, isn't it?" Roland wiped a tear from his eye. "You have to aggressively argue to me how I am a good person despite wanting to kill my dad.... That sounds like something from one of those old mafia movies we watch."

Harker was flabbergasted. "You mean the one where the girl orders her lover to kill her mob boss dad for her and he refuses? I didn't take it from that."

"Yeah, but it is pretty similar, right?" Roland chuckled. "That's why it's so silly... It sounds like something straight out of fiction. Like something a bad author would write."

"Well, forgive me for sounding like a 'stereotypical fictional protagonist'." Harker sat on the bed with him. "But you're right, this fight is dumb. I shouldn't have said anything if you're going to react this way."

"Heh..." Roland faltered and didn't say anything. Just smiling at Harker.

"What?" Harker asked.

"Something changed about you. I can feel it." He said. "It's like you finally broke out of that 'I don't want no trouble' kind of mentality."

Harker scoffed. "Dunno what you're talking about."

"Don't try to hide it. I actually like this change." Roland said. "It's a good change for you."

It may be weird to people how easily the tension gets lost between them. But this was how their friendship had always been. Their fights never last long and they don't hold grudges, even if no one apologized.

Because they don't have to. They have already forgiven each other and always will.

It was nice, but Harker still felt conflicted about Roland's statement. The changes of being this 'Demon Lord' really were becoming more noticeable. Even if he acted chill all the time, he had experienced things that would bring an irreversible change to anyone's attitude.

It may be a good change, but he doesn't want his friend to notice and get involved in this mess.

"I didn't change that much." He told Roland. "It's probably all that motivational crap I heard in the camp counseling I attended for the past three days."

Roland grinned. "Oh, is that where you went off to with my Marsedes-Bentz and clothes? I thought you wanted to impress a girlfriend in Quebec or something."

"Pfft. With my bad luck and my inability to speak French, how can I ever pull a Quebecois girlfriend out of nowhere? And if I did have one, I would have told you, Roly-poly."

"Hey, didn't I tell you that I don't like that nickname? I'm not even chubby or plump."

"Yeah, but you're pretty plump in some areas—"

They were interrupted by the girls calling out at the window, still playing around at the pool.

"Roland~ When are you coming back here? Are you still not done talking to your friend?"

"Don't you want to play with us more? It's getting pretty cold here, my tits could cut diamonds at this point! Wouldn't mind if someone's tongue warm them up~"

"You could invite your friend to swim with us too! He looks pretty hot~"

Harker sighed. "No thanks. I don't like swimming with plastics."

Roland covered his mouth before he could burst out laughing. He cleared his throat. "That's... That's pretty mean of you, Hark."

"Well, we're havin' a conversation here. I even forgot what I was gonna say, that shit was funny too." Harker rubbed his forehead. "Anyway, I'll just tell ya what happened to your clothes."

He made up a whole, detailed story about how he became a camp counselor for Junior Scouts. In spring. Apparently, the camp head counsellor was a tough man and made everyone catch fish with their bare hands, crawl through 20 meters of mud just to get water, yada yada yada..

"So I'll pay you back once I get my paycheck. It might not be enough, but you just have to give me the bill." Harker said.

Roland shook his head. "No need, I told you that you could keep it. It's nice that it fits, since you're 6 foot 3. I thought it might be too tight."

"Pft, you're 6 feet. It's not much of a difference." Harker said. "I'll still pay you back. You know me. How much were those anyway, is it 500 dollars—"

"It's 50,000 dollars."

Harker felt like he would get a heart attack just from hearing those words.

"O... Okay... 50,000.... right.... I'll pay that, maybe 500 dollars per month...."

Roland shook his head. "That would take you 100 months, then. How about this instead? You buy the new Chateauvania game and play with me sometime."

"That vampire game? Your dad doesn't like it when you play video games when exams are coming up, right? And you're doing so well to prove him wrong—"

"I can ace the exams without studying." Roland waved his hand. "And my dad's not around next month because he's off to Italy to meet some girl. He was invited to this party by Mr. Xi and some associates, but he'd rather toss some Italian salad, I suppose."

"Party?" Harker asked.

"Yes, in Vegas. They were having this party for Mr. Xi's 69th birthday 24 days from now." He explained. "Honestly, I didn't expect Mr. Xi to be that old. He looks more like in his 40s, but apparently Xi Hua's Mom and Dad really were 20+ years apart."

'It's the weird demon aging thing again. I bet he's more like having his 69,000th birthday.' Harker thought.

"So your dad declined the invitation?"

"Yep, but he planned to deliver a gift through a courier guy. It's a Tiger's Eye ring, since he thinks Mr. Xi's current ring was too tacky. It was a quartz or some kind of clear crystal sha—"

"Shard." Harker completed.

Roland raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Well, it can't have been shart now, can it?"

Roland chuckled. "God, Hark. You're on a roll today. You're too savage tonight."

Harker didn't even hear this comment as he was too busy digesting this information. That birthday party would have been the perfect moment to get the Shard from Xi Hua's father, and get 1/13 of what he needed.

However, there's one thing that bothered him.

At that time, the duration of Xi Hua's abilities would have already reached its end.