Waking up again, I find myself leaning on Dave once more back in the room with the crib.

It's starting to feel like this is just a respawn point…

"Ah~ Good morning, El-"

I fly out of his arms and sit down on the bars of the crib.

"This isn't a dream and you are really the Demon King aren't you?"

He smiles, "That is what I've been telling you~"

"Why am I here? Did you kidnap me?"

Rocking back and forth on his rocking chair, he answers, "Yup~"

"Why?"

"Because I'm your dad now~"

"Don't call yourself my dad. I only have one father and I love him a lot."

He shrugs, "Oh? Is is because we're not related~ If that's the-"

"No, I don't care about that. Whether you are related or not doesn't matter. What matters is love and you don't love me like a father would. I don't know what kind of game this is to you but I can't accept someone as a father that doesn't deeply love me, whether they're related to me or not."

Staring at me with a strange glimmer in his eyes, his mouth starts contorting into a grotesque grin, "Kekekeke, Hahahahaha!!!!" floating out of his chair, he gets closer to me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! He's really mad now! I don't have full control yet but I-I need to defend myself!

Covering my arm in black goo, I shoot tendrils of shadow out toward him. All of them seem to connect but none of them deal any damage.

Shoot! It's not working, let's use all my power in one attack and escape through the w-

Suddenly appearing right before me, he puts his hand on my chin. His eyes are like an endless abyss and his body gives off a paralyzing pressure.

"You are quite right, Elleanor. I do not have the same love for you that your other father does. But let me tell you one thing. I love all my children and if you think boldly announcing I am not worthy of you will make me quit you, you're wrong. All you're doing is proving that you were the right person to take in as my thirteenth," he pokes my chest, "Love has to be nurtured to grow and nurturing takes time. Those measly twenty six years he has over me won't even be a blink in the time that I will spend with you," he suddenly loses the pressure and his eyes and mouth go back to normal as he puts his hand on my cheek and smiles at me kindly, "I will earn your love, the same way I have earned it from all my children. Seeing as I intend to live forever, this should be easy to accomplish."

Giving me some space again, he backs off and holds out his hand, "Now, you must be hungry. You can come with us to eat dinner and meet your family under a newfound understanding of your situation or you can stay here until tomorrow when I return you home. In neither scenario will harm come to you, though one of them is a lot less boring than the other."

This is obviously some sort of test. If I stay here, he'll get bored and do who knows what. If I go, I can play along and gather intel that I can bring back to mama and daddy. Heh, yeah. I'll be a spy and impress them with all the things they don't know! Spy princess Elleanor, now in a theater near you!

He claps, "I'm sure that would be a great movie but I'm not testing you."

Shocked, my heart skips a beat.

Can you…Read my mind?

"Eyup~"

A feeling of dread fills me.

Fuck, I-I've been caught. What do I-

"There is no need to be worried. As part of the family you are of course allowed to know whatever you want and spread that knowledge to others. Ultimately all you would do by hurting your family is self sabotaging though~"

"You're not my family!"

"Yes we are~ You might not accept us yet but you are part of this family now~ Feel free to ask whatever questions you wish and I will answer."

"Then for starters, why do you really want me? What is your aim in 'adopting' me?"

He smiles, "That is quite simple to answer. I do what I want, whenever I want, unless I don't want to. You interested me when I met you so I corrupted you and spied on you. While spying on you, my interest eventually turned into infatuation and made me want you as a daughter, instead of a toy. My aim is to raise you with love and make you strong so you don't die. I also want for you to be happy, otherwise you can do whatever you want. Just stay alive, stay happy and be loved~"

I narrow my eyes, "I don't believe you. You can lie. So I don't trust you."

He chuckles, "You will understand… In time. Are there any more burning questions you wish to ask me?"

"No…Not right now. You can lie, so I…I'm unsure what to ask."

"Lovely! In that case shall we head to dinner?"

I look at his stretched out hand, think for a bit, then take it. Out of everything, it seems like the safest option.

Grabbing my hand, he gently but firmly pulls me in and puts me back in his arms.

"Shall we meet your siblings then?"

"Unless you're talking about Maggie, I don't have any siblings."

"Oho? Not even Bethany?"

"How- How do you know about her?"

He grins, "Isn't it normal for a father to be informed?"

"You're not my father, you're just a creep that's spying on me."

"Hahahaha, such venomous words! Despite how much I enjoy a good insult I am interested in your answer."

"..."

I look away from him, "No. Not even Beth. She abandoned us."

"I see~"

He opens the door and we step back outside into the granny-like hallway. I can hear some people talking in the distance, as well as the clinkering of tableware.

When the living room comes into view, I see a huge decked table with eleven people sitting around it. It seems to be all the people I met so far minus Dante, the boring guy who was weirdly sexual, and plus four people I haven't seen yet. One of them, is a small boy with silver hair that looks remarkably similar to Dave, wearing a sailor outfit, with two small ram horns, a tail with a heart shaped tip, blue eyes and pale, almost white skin. There are also two women, one of them has white skin similar to Pavel and the White Queen, with forward facing curved horns, a tail with a heart shaped tip, long brunette hair, golden eyes with slit pupils and a tight fitting blue pantsuit accentuating her thin yet curvy figure, with an aura of confidence around her. She also has a pair of black angel-like wings sprouting from her lower back that are wrapped around her belly. The other woman has skin black as oil, completely red eyes, long black hair with blood red tips, horns that resemble the glossy black pincer of a beetle, a tail with a heart shaped tip, a red dress similar to the one mama wore to visit grandma with very long and wide sleeves and she has a very intimidating presence. She seems stoic and very old, despite her youthful appearance.

The last person is a man with red skin, two very long and pointy horns, black hair, a full well groomed beard with a big styled moustache, fiery looking slightly glowing orange eyes, a tail with a heart shaped tip and a buff body. He is wearing a purple suit and despite his somewhat intimidating appearance seems mostly friendly and approachable.

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"Now then~ Let me introduce you to the rest of your siblings! The big red guy is Melchior, your oldest sibling. He is in charge of the plane of burning."

Giving me a smile, Melchior reveals some pointed animal-like teeth, "Nice to meet you, Sammy. I hear you do not like fire so, in the future, whenever you wish to visit me, just tell me and we can meet here."

"Kay…"

Pointing at the black lady, he continues, "This is your second oldest sibling, Arachne. She is in charge of the plane of biting."

Only slightly glancing in my direction, she answers coldly, "Do not come to my plane if you dislike spiders. Otherwise, implore the same advice Melchi gave."

"Alright."

Dave now points at the white skinned woman with the blue pantsuit, who has her legs crossed and is giving me a cocky smile.

"This is Dhana. She is in charge of the plane of ironic punishment."

"A pleasure to meet you sister~"

Dave claps his hands together, "Great! Now that everyone is acquainted-"

I interrupt him and point at the kid that looks a lot like Dave, "Wait, hold on, you haven't explained who the kid is, yet."

"Oh! That's Salazar, you met him right before your nap."

"Eh!? That writhing mass of flesh is actually such a cute kid!?"

Salazar seems to get a bit red in the face as he stutters, "C-Cute?"

Dave pats my head, "That is correct~ Do you have any other questions?"

I shake my head, "No,"

"Awesome in t-"

"But I have something to say," I look over to all of Dave's kids, "I do not accept any of you as my family. I only have one sister and I neither know you, nor care for you. I don't know why Dave is doing this but I do not acknowledge any of you as family."

Looking at them, I watch as…They start laughing?

Stacey, the blue skinned music demon answers, "So you finally figured it out, huh?"

Kiko the circus woman slams her fist on the table, "I like that moxxy!"

And Arachne now looks at me fully for the first time, smirking and only uttering a, "Heh" before minding her own business again and drinking something out of a cup.

This… Doesn't make any sense. Do they just not take me seriously? Or do they not care?

Dave pokes my cheek, "Probably a bit of both~"

"Hey! Stop reading my mind!"

He grins, "Nah, I prefer my conversations to be as honest and direct as possible."

"I can't read your mind though! So it's not!"

Kiko pretends to cough while saying, "Skill issue," to the amusement of everyone present.

Getting pissed, I unwillingly start getting clad in my shadowarmor.

Becky, the blonde cheerleading demon, starts to laugh and point at me, "Look, she's about to have a tantrum, hahahaha."

"Shut up! Don't treat me like I'm close!!! I'm not! I don't even know why I am here!!!"

Dave smiles, "Course you do~ We're going to eat dinner, right?"

Glaring at him, I ask, "Can I go home afterwards?"

"Of course, after dinner you will take a nap and I will bring you back to the Feyrealm."

I let out a sigh and cross my arms, "Fine, let's get this over with."

Dhana, the white demon with a pantsuit, chuckles, "Daaaw, she's pouting. How cute~"

"Am not!"

She grins, "Oh so you're not cute?"

"Shut up! I am very cute! But I'm not pouting!"

She laughs, "She already has the confidence of a full fledged succubus, fufufufu."

Gothmog, the middle aged man looking demon with red skin, boasts, "She's even more confident than Kiko was when she was little, gohahaha," he sighs, "I remember it as if it was yesterday."

Kiko throws a dagger at his forehead, hitting him with the butt end of the handle, "Shut up Moggy, I'm at least twice your age, you've never seen me when I was 'little'."

"But I have seen you considerably younger, Gohahahaha!"

Kiko rolls her eyes and buries her face in her hands.

Aghanmin, the yeti demon, lets out a very slow laugh, "Ha….Ha….Ha… Aghi remember……….Both when………Baby. Very………Cute!"

Arachne, the pitchblack demon with the insect horns sitting next to him, puts her arm around him and makes his head lean on her shoulder while gently petting him.

Putting on a cutesy voice as if talking to a young child, she answers, "Aggi was a very cute baby too and you even grew up into a cute adult."

He smiles widely, "Ha….Ha…Ha… Thank you…Big sis…"

Melchior, the oldest son of Dave with a buff appearance, red skin and a purple suit, now gets up from his seat and hugs both Arachne and Aghanim in his beefy arms, "And I...! Saw all of you grow up! You were all very cute 'babies', muhahahaha."

Zachary, the gentleman demon with purple skin, a tweed suit and curly hair, speaks up in a jolly way while looking at me and Salazar, "And some of us still are~"

Getting a bit red in the face, Salazar the demon kid that looks a lot like Dave, stutters, "I-I'm not a baby anymore! Sammy is the youngest now! Go tease her instead of me!"

Becky pokes his cheek, "Nah~ We'll tease both of you forever for being the youngest~"

Stacey pulls on her ear, "Said the third youngest~"

"Shut up! You are barely a few thousand years older than me!"

Stacey grins, "Yeah, so are you and Salazar."

Becky rolls her eyes, "Whatever."

Looking at them, all I can think is…

They're so weird. There is no way a bunch of demon princes and princesses act like a normal lovey dovey family. This has to be some sort of act to make me let my guard down. Though… They are pretty convincing. Maybe Dave planned this all in advance as some sort of play. I wonder how long they practiced to make it this convincing…

Maybe they don't need to practice. They're super old afterall. That might just be something they can do on a whim. Demons are often seen as naturally deceptive after all so per-

Suddenly feeling something blunt hit my head, I look up to everyone looking at me and Kiko holding a small knife in hand.

She grins, "You got your stereotypes mixed up, Demons are liars and Fey are the tricksters. If you're going to stereotype, at least do it right, you lying trickster."

"Were you reading my mind too!?"

She rolls her eyes, "Dad was right, you really are slow. Of course all of us can read minds. Telepathy is one of the earliest tricks you'll learn."

Looking over to me fully for the first time with her red eyes, Arachne adds, "You'd best relax a little. I understand your weariness but father does not joke on matters of family. You are already a lot more lucky than us when we first met him. Most of us are born from forced unions between him and our mothers or fathers and most of us are from Islands we have seen him conquer. All of us have gone through the rejection phase of him taking us in and all of us have come out of it as happier people. Ultimately, whether or not you accept us as your family doesn't matter. You already are part of this family and that will never change. The earlier you accept this fact the earlier you can enjoy being part of this family."

"I already have a family!"

"And now you have two. As someone who remembers their past life you should be quite familiar with that concept."

"What? How much do you know about me!?"

She answers bluntly, "You were Samuel Gardner, born on the third of March 2006 of the Gregorian calendar of your island. You and your older sister were born in a town called Pollok within the state of Lousianna of the country called the United States of America. Your parents moved when you were one year old to live with your grandfather on your mother's side after having a falling out with your paternal grandfather who was a 'Grand Magi' for an organization called the Ku Klux Klan."

"What!? I never heard of that before!"

She shrugs, "That is most likely because neither of your parents were fond of that organization, which is why they ran off and started raising you in a small village with your maternal grandfather until moving to the state of Montana where you went to school and were massively bullied for acting too femininely. You then began developing coping mechanisms like overeating and self isolation. When your father started abusing you, you began to try and overcorrect your behaviour while acting in a hyper masculine and abrasive manner, leading you to get bullied once more. You-"

Mortified, I start shaking slightly, "P-Please stop."

She raises an eyebrow, "Oh? But we're still at the superficial information, I haven't even gone into detail yet."

"H-How do you know all this?"

She interlocks her fingers and smiles, "It was just a bit of simple research.Your father wanted to make sure that once you wake up from your trauma induced coma and recover a little, he and by extension me and Melchior would have all the knowledge we would ever need about you."

My lips trembling I-I can't help but, "Waaaaaaagh. M-Mama! Uuuuuuuuuuuugh! I-I'm scared!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaagh."

Aghanim speaks up with a sad expression, "You……Made…….Her cry…….Big sis……"

Arachne gets a bit fidgety, "It…Wasn't my intention."

"Waaaaaaaaaaagh! Mama!!!!!!"

Dave pets my back, "Shhhh it's fi-"

I now suddenly feel myself get dragged by something hairy as everything goes silent and the air becomes cool. I seem to be in Aghanim's cave now being held by him.

Wiggling out of his grasp, I fly away towards the wall of ice, shivering and crying.

He doesn't seem to go after me, instead he just smiles at me, closes his eyes and silently sits down.

Breathing heavily while crying and coughing, I eventually also sit down in a corner.

Laying down on his side, Aghanim gently places his old and partially broken doll of himself on a piece of ice and glides it over to me before closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. Feeling alone and scared, I hesitantly grab it and give it a hug while I cry. It's old and it stinks but…It helps a little.

Once my crying has died down to sniffeling, Aghanim slowly opens his eyes, smiles at me and says, "You………Wanna………Eat alone…………With Aggy………Today?"

"..."

I nod.

Slowly moving his arm, a portal opens through which he takes out two bowls. Both have a jelly-like pure white ball in them, almost the size of a watermelon. Sliding one over to me, Aggy smiles as he puts the ball in his hand and takes a big bite out of it.

Picking the ball up from my bowl as well, I notice that it feels completely weightless yet it still has a firm jelly-like texture. Smelling it, it has no scent whatsoever.

Taking a small bi-

OH WOW THIS IS GOOD!!!

Ravenously biting into it, each bite fills my mouth with a new wonderful taste, constantly changing whenever I get bored with the previous-

"Uuuuuungh."

Feeling a sharp pain on my forehead, I can feel cool liquid pour down as I keep eating, unable to stop. Only once I have eaten the entire ball, do I regain control over myself as joy and energy fills me. Laughing maniacally, I roll around on the ground unable to contain my j-

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