Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was strangely quiet today.

Deon had left his room in the Demon King's castle because he was bored. He tried to find Ed but saw that he was nowhere to be found. The same was true was almost everyone else.

Not that Deon was looking for them! They were all so scary!

It's just that the places he would usually see certain people in were now vacant. Even the training hall of the 0^th Corps was deserted despite the fact that they would usually be there with the exception of lunchtime.

And whomever he did meet would try to evade him or not answer his questions on anyone's whereabouts properly.

Had he missed an announcement or something? He wasn't in trouble, was he?

Hopefully it wasn't anything important.

It couldn't be that they figured him out and were now holding a large scale discussion on how to get rid of him. Definitely not, Deon hadn't done anything to make them suspect him, so it had to be something else.

He gulped and headed towards the Demon King's office. If anyone knew what was going on it would be him and if Deon did miss something important the best way to get around it would be to apologize.

Since it was genuine mistake, they wouldn't bother with him, right? Deon hoped so.

He knocked on the heavy doors to the office, but there was no reply. He knocked again, yet the answer was still silence.

Deon was about to risk it and open the door anyway when someone suddenly came up behind him, “Ex- excuse me, Sir Demon...”

Deon bit his tongue to keep from screaming and slowly turned around. He hadn't heard him approach at all, “Yes?”

The demon jumped. He couldn't understand why, the one who should be frightened here was Deon, not the demon! Deon was the one who was suddenly sneaked up on.

“Uhm, that...” The demon pressed his eyes shut and gulped, then loudly continued, “You- your presence is requested at the- the... at the banquet hall!”

With those words, the demon took off. Even if they disliked him and how human he was, was there a need to run so fast? Deon was practically harmless.

It couldn't be that he stank, he had just taken a bath. He hadn't wanted to but Ben had wanted to see whether taking more might be beneficial for his health. As a result, Ben was gone when he was done and now he was nowhere to be found, just like everyone else.

No, more importantly! Was he really late to something? Shit, he was in trouble!

Where was the banquet hall again? He couldn't be even later!

Thankfully, he found it rather quickly. The doors were tightly shut and he could hear nothing from the other side. This wasn't some sort of trick to get him in trouble, right?

He gnashed his teeth and forcefully calmed himself down. At least to a degree where it didn't show on his face.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Anyway, there was nobody to announce him so he had to alert them to his presence somehow.

There was still no sound behind the door. Okay. Whatever. He could do this. He would apologize the moment he opened the door. Who could resist an earnest and early apology? Well, the demons might, but he still had to try. It wasn't like he could run, they would catch him right away.

With a furiously beating heart he opened the door, he tightly shut his eyes and lowered his head, “I'm sor-”

Bang! “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

His head snapped back upwards in astonishment as something gently landed on his head. Dumbfounded, he carded his fingers through his hair and pulled something thin and light out of his strands.

It was confetti.

Huh?

He was lost as he looked back in front of him and into the faces of the assembled demons. Everyone he had been looking for was here. Ed, Ben, his Corps' Members and a lot of the Castle servants he'd met before. Even the other Corps Commanders and the Demon King. Although the latter seemed content just standing on the side and watching.

Most of them had strangely excited looks on their faces as they watched him while others seemed nervous. They looked like Deon felt whenever he worried about whether he'd pissed someone off or not.

Someone grabbed his hand. He stopped himself from flinching and looked downwards. Ririnell was smiling brightly at him with shining eyes, “Sir Demon, do you like it?”

In that moment she really looked like an adorable child and he momentarily forgot she was a demon. He patted her head, “I do, thank you.”

“Hehe.” Her smile got brighter, and the atmosphere around them seemed to lighten a lot, “I'm so glad! Sir Demon, come here!” She pulled at the hand she'd grabbed earlier, leading him through the crowd into the centre of the room, “We specifically made something!”

When they arrived before a large table that had been placed in the hall, Deon was... stunned, “That is... a lot of cake.” There was basically not a single free space on that table and it was a pretty large one. Frankly, the amount of cake scared him.

“Yeah!” Ririnell proudly replied, “We heard humans eat cake with everyone on their birthday, so we made a lot! There's one for every one of us Commanders and His Majesty. Your aide, that doctor and your Corps can also have one each. The rest can share the remaining cakes.”

No, how was he supposed to eat an entire cake?

Ririnell couldn't help but share more, “It's chocolate cake!”

He could see that. He could see that all of them were chocolate. He didn't know demons even knew what chocolate was.

Despite the fact that he would have to eat and entire cake by himself, he couldn't reject their efforts, “That's great. Thank you all again.” He couldn't help but ask, “But where did you get the chocolate? I never saw it here before?”

Ririnell froze and looked lost. She looked into the crowd and towards Develania. Said demoness looked a bit embarrassed as she answered, “We got it from the Human World.” She paused, “We heard chocolate cakes were the best for such occasions.”

So they went to the Human World for that? And why were they looking up information on cakes? It couldn't have just been for his birthday, right?

By the way, “How did you know it was my birthday?” It was the 24^th of November now that he thought about it. He hadn't even paid attention to that himself.

A chuckle came from his side before a hand was on his head, pressing down and ruffling his hair with just enough force to make his upper body lightly bend downwards, “I told them.” It was the Demon King, “If I hadn't, would you have even remembered yourself?”

He certainly couldn't admit that he didn't right now.

The Demon King had a grin on his face, “Come on, take the first slice. That's how it goes, right? The Birthday kid eats first.”

“Okay.” Deon wasn't actually sure whether that was right. Before he cut into the first cake, he nervously glanced at Ben, who was unhappily observing the cake, “Is this... okay?”

“Well, it's not very healthy, but...” Ben sighed and pushed up his glasses, “I'll allow it for today.”

“You hear that?” The Demon King cheerfully said, “The doctor said it's fine, so you can eat without worry.”

What without worry? Ben had clearly just said it was unhealthy. Then again, it was his birthday. It must have been hard for Ben, who was usually so concerned about his health, to agree to this.

Not hesitating anymore, he cut the first slice and ate it. Doing so turned out to be incredibly uncomfortable, because the entire time he spent eating the cake, whether it was biting into it or chewing, everyone was quietly watching and staring at him.

It tasted really great, but the constant watch was... stifling. He swallowed the last bit down with great effort and smiled at the attendance, “It's really delicious.”

Everyone instantly looked elated and started to move and get themselves one. It almost made him feel like he was made to test whether it was poisonous. Almost.

As he was required to eat the whole thing anyway, he slowly cut another slice and looked at Ben who was still nearby and seemed to be deciding which cake he should take. To Deon they all looked identical so he didn't know why the doctor seemed to have so much trouble.

He asked Ben something he'd wondered about since seeing the doctor, “So making me take a bath was just buying time?”

Ben went bright red, “Yes.” The demon avoided his eyes, “We didn't want you accidentally walking in on us while we were preparing, so I came up with it.”

“Ah.” He nodded, “Got it.”

Now that it wasn't everyone anymore that was staring at him, he was a lot more relaxed and slowly ate away at his slice.

Chocolate... He hadn't had any since he was a child and Cruel snuck him some. He smiled sadly to himself at the memory. That had been a long time ago.

He gently closed his eyes and took a slow breath, then opened them again. This wasn't the time to think about that. Since everyone had put in so much effort, he should enjoy it.

Just then, the Demon King approached again. There was some chocolate stuck to the side of his mouth. He noticed Deon's gaze and wiped it off. He looked back at Deon, “Are you having fun?”

“Yes.” Deon smiled, “A lot.”

“That's good.” The Demon King smiled back at him, “Happy Birthday.”

Chapter Text

He'd been back in the Empire, or to be more specific his house, for a few hours now. Home really was great~

Even those mad dogs weren't bothering much today. He hadn't heard anything about them starting another fight with the estate knights since he arrived. So even they had days where they could behave.

Since he was in the office, Deon tried to grab one of the nearby snacks he always kept on his desk, but Remember just pulled it away from him. Again.

He'd been doing that ever since he returned. What's wrong with snacks? They weren't even the unhealthy kind!

Remember just smiled at him but offered nothing in way of an explanation. Fine! Just let Deon go without food!

...He would find an opening to snack later.

A commotion broke out behind the door and Remember's smile deepened as he turned towards his master, “My Lord, I believe the Lofty Knights and the Estate Knights have something that needs to be brought to your attention.”

Did he speak too soon earlier? “Yes? What is it?” Please don't have eaten all of the Estate Knight's rations again. Deon didn't want to deal with something food related right now, when Remember was keeping him from his snacks.

“I believe it would be best to see for yourself, my Lord.” The butler answered and kept smiling.

Deon sighed, “...Alright.” Seems he had to deal with it.

He stood up and went towards the door, swinging it open, “What is-” Two of each Knights faction were standing there, but they weren't fighting at all. In fact, they all looked very excited, “What is it?” He was confused.

Weren't they fighting?

“Hohoho.” Remember was laughing behind him, “Should we go see what the rest are up to?” The four knights excitedly nodded their heads in Deon's direction at the butler's suggestion.

Faced with both their excitement and Remember's silent encouragement, what choice did he have? “Alright, let's go.”

The destination was the mess hall. The rest of the Lofty Knights, as well as most of the Estate Knights, were there.

Seeing them so peacefully beside each other was incredibly out of place, “What happened?”

The two sides looked at each other and for a moment they seemed to quietly communicate with only their eyes, as if trying to put the task of telling on the respective other.

Finally, it was Cletter who answered, “Cap- I mean, Count. We all made something for you.” The others nodded and stepped aside, revealing a... something behind them.

It was numerous layers of chocolate bars held together by... a sort of... batter? of some sort. Numerous pieces of... something were also pressed into the sides of the chocolate bars, some of these things entirely covered in chocolate and others not.

These things looked like cut pieces of... mangos and... oranges? Deon wasn't sure. But he was sure that the juice of the uncovered ones had seeped into the batter-like substance, making it look weirdly squishy and... drenched. This was not a good combination visually.

“That is...” What was that?

“That's right!” One of the Estate Knight's exclaimed, “It's the birthday cake we made for you!” As if burned by the gazes of the Lofty Knights, he added, “The Lofty Knights and us.”

That was very... flattering.

But, no, seriously. That was a cake?

“Count, count.” One of the Lofty Knights excitedly called, “Happy Birthday, Count!”

“Yes, Happy Birthday!”

“Happy Birthday!”

Milan quickly put a 'slice' on a plate and offered it to him with both hands. There was an bright and excited smile on his face.

Deon received the plate that was handed to him and smiled, “Thank you.” He didn't want to eat it. Not at all. This looked like it would make him sick.

...But he couldn't let their effort go to waste, so he steeled his nerves and took a bite.

Several hours earlier:

The Lofty Knights and the Estate Knights not on duty were occupying the kitchen, having kicked out the cooks with Remember's help.

“You can't make a cake with whole chocolate bars, that's not how cakes are.” A member of the Estate Knights protested, “You can put one, or part of one, on top later, but it doesn't go into the base thing. You'll have to melt it down for that.”

“No way!” One of the Lofty's exclaimed, “That will take too long! Besides, the taste will be stronger if we don't melt it.”

“But we can't get it into the batter!”

“Psht!” The Lofty Knight laughed, “Then we'll just put the batter around it!”

“What else do we do?” Another Knight asked, “Cakes need more than batter and chocolate, right?”

“I heard something about fruit cakes recently.” Another one of the Estate Knights commented, “It's a whole thing in the noble circles right now.”

"Fruits are healthy, too!” A third Estate Knight exclaimed, “We should totally add some!”

A Lofty Knight raised his hand, “Where do the fruits go?”

“Into the batter and on top of the cake!” The Estate Knight from earlier proudly explained.

“What kind of fruits do we use?”

“Well, first of all they need to be tasty, then they need to be healthy.”

“We have a bunch of mangos and oranges here.” A Lofty Knight noticed, “Let's use these.”

“Great idea!”

“Should we cover them with chocolate?” Another Lofty Knight asked.

One of the Estate Knights raised his eyebrow and worried, “Will that work? Wouldn't that taste gross?”

“It works with apples, so it should work with Mangos and oranges, too!”

“...” The Estate Knight thought about it. Then he nodded, “That checks out.”

“Let's leave a few uncovered, then we can have a nice range of flavour.”

“Good idea!”

With the plan mapped out, the Knights began to assemble the cake. Chocolate bars were held together by the batter and they carefully put cut up pieces of fruit in-between and onto the side. The pieces on the side were squished into the bars until they were stuck around them.

The 'cake' was finished.

One of them was worried, “Why does it feel like we've forgotten something...?”

“Nonsense!” Another clarified, “We've done everything we've listed. Now we just need to call the Lord over.”

They took the still unbaked mass from the kitchen into the mess hall, sending two knights from each group to call the Count.

The Knights were proudly eyeing the cake, “The Captain will like it for sure!”

...It didn't taste good at all. But it was edible. He slowly took another bite, glad that the others were eating fast enough that he wouldn't have to brave another slice.

“I see you're nearly done eating.” Remember remarked, one hand behind his back as is customary, “Is it good? They all put so much effort into it.”

Deon swallowed the piece that was in his mouth. The whole chocolate bar pieces made it kinda hard to chew alongside the evidently still raw batter and fruit. He painstakingly formed his next words, “It's great.”

“That's a relief.” The butler let out a breath, “Look how fast they're eating, the whole cake is nearly gone.”

“It is.” Deon remarked, not at all unhappy about this.

Remember nodded and moved his hand from behind his back, revealing a plate with another slice, “Good thing I saved you another one, my Lord.”

Fuck.