Chapter 298 – So Long As You Accept This Setting…

Eventually, Hatter still managed to resolve the problem with Little Death's lack of identification.
After much deliberation, he gave her the identity of a severe anemia patient, which would serve as an excuse for her seemingly bloodless skin.
It had been thousands of years since anyone last saw a real undead, so it was unlikely that anyone would suspect Little Death to be an undead so long as she said she suffered from a severe case of anemia.

As for the lack of a beating heart, it was honestly quite a big problem.
The average civilian might not be able to notice Little Death's lack of a heartbeat, but it would be a different story if she was dealing with professional magicians.
Whether it be research magicians or combat magicians, both were sensitive to their surrounding circumstances.
It was especially true when they were in a quiet research environment.
If they were put in the same room as Little Death, there was a high chance they would notice Little Death's peculiarity.

However, Hatter was the Gryffin Kingdom's king.
So long as he wanted, he could find a solution to most problems.
So, in the afternoon after Alice had returned to the Gryffin Kingdom, Hatter had sent someone to deliver her a magic device.

“A portable mana pacemaker… I see.
So, this thing can be used to mimic a beating heart?”

Alice didn't know whether she should laugh or cry when she looked at the chest pad-like object after reading the instruction manual for it.
Of course, this object wasn't actually a chest pad meant to artificially enhance a person's chest size.
Instead, it was a portable pacemaker made to assist patients with heart problems.
The device used mana to stimulate the heart, causing it to contract.

In other words, so long as Little Death had this device, she could stimulate her motionless heart into action.
Of course, her heart beating wouldn't do anything for her.
After all, Little Death didn't have any blood in her body.
Rather than blood, mana filled her veins and arteries instead, and this mana was used to prevent her body from deteriorating.

However, adding this artificial heartbeat would reduce the chances of Little Death getting exposed as an undead.
Although the people of the modern era no longer thought much about the undead, the undead was a race that involved a lot of problems.
If possible, Alice would prefer to avoid letting others know that one of her companions was an undead.

“How do you feel?”

After returning to her dormitory, Alice handed the pad-shaped pacemaker to Little Death.
Alice had decided to have Little Death stay in her and Zauna's room for the time being.
The March Academy's dormitory rules were quite lax due to the many nobles studying here, so it wasn't a problem for her to have guests stay in her room.
Her room was also big enough to add an additional bed for Little Death.

“It feels strange… It's been thousands of years since I last experienced what it felt like to have a heartbeat, so it feels a little uncomfortable.”

After slipping the pacemaker into her bra, Little Death put on her shirt and walked around the room.
However, her movements looked a little awkward, probably because she still hadn't gotten used to having her heart beating.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for her to get used to this change and her movements to return to normal.
After all, it was only her heart that had started to beat.
Other than that, the pacemaker didn't have any other effect on her body.

“By the way, what made you decide to follow Alice, Little Death?” Zauna, who sat on her own bed, asked curiously as she looked at the undead girl walking around the room.

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Previously, Zauna had been given quite the fright when Alice had returned to Flaman's mansion while holding a severed head.
However, after learning about Little Death's identity, she quickly adapted to the situation and calmed down.
Even so, she still couldn't help but grow curious about why Little Death had decided to follow Alice to the human realm.
After all, history books had never described the undead in a good light.
Yet, Little Death had chosen to follow and obey Alice the Hero.
This was a very confusing situation.

“Because I'm curious about the Hero's deeds,” Little Death frankly answered.

Before returning to the human realm, Alice had told Little Death that she was “pretending” to be the Hero in the human realm.
As Little Death was now taking all of Alice's words at face value, she did not doubt Alice's excuse and accepted this setting without hesitation.

To Little Death, it didn't matter what other identities Alice had.
It was fine so long as Alice had the “Demon King” identity.
She was honestly quite fond of being around Alice.
At the very least, Alice wasn't treating her like a minion to be ordered around like the other Demon Kings.
She would naturally choose to remain by Alice's side if she had a choice.
As for other factors, such as Alice's “Hero” identity, none of them mattered.

Although Little Death's answer was crude and straightforward, Zauna quickly bought into it.

Based on her conversations with Heris in the past two days, Zauna had learned that the human realm's Hero novels were secretly being smuggled into the demon realm and successfully influenced part of the demon realm's culture.
Hence, it wasn't particularly strange to see an inhabitant of the demon realm take an interest in the Hero.

Tsk…

Because Zauna was present, Andusia had no choice but to resume roleplaying as a figurine.
So, when she saw that Little Death managed to get Zauna to accept her identity so quickly, she couldn't help but mentally click her tongue in annoyance.
However, it couldn't be helped.
Compared to an undead, a Demon King's threat was magnitudes greater.
An ordinary person like Zauna might be able to accept an undead, but there was no way she could accept a Demon King.

After seeing this situation, Andusia started thinking if she should come up with a fake identity for herself, such as an elf who had been turned into a figurine… Otherwise, she'd have to remain motionless whenever Zauna was in the room.
This was an incredibly frustrating situation.
It was especially true after she had received a sympathetic gaze from Little Death when the latter noticed her predicament.

This damned undead! I'm a Demon King, so why must I receive sympathy from my former subordinate?!

Andusia's pride as a Demon King continued doing exemplary work even today.