The jester does a cartwheel, followed by a backflip, then losing their footing falling into a tub full of water for a different act up next for the King. Everyone laughs boastfully, the embassy from the east was very pleased about how good the acts have been.

“That’s the best jester in the land, Igar.” He holds up his large mug and declares his love for this country's entertainment. The whole room is bursting with excitement and joy. The long tables are full of nobles and knights. The staff join in the party after all the food is served and big production is done. Another big success for the Kingdom of Alabaster. Known for being the best in every way imaginable to man.

Taking a long look around the room, the jester smiles. After all these years as the Shadow King, I think being the jester has been the most fun of the positions I have hidden myself in. The jester goes and sits down thinking about their times as the advisor in the early days, generals in the great wars, and one time as the Queen. This peace is because of this demon's love for this kingdom. They tried to convince these people long ago that an immortal hell spawn would be the best King but being as they can make themselves look however they want and have the power to do whatever they want, the collective fear outweighed the trust of the First puppet king.

But that fun was about to come to an end. A plucky young historian that loves to go over the history of kings and all the different changes and rulings over the last several centuries was coming to an awfully large realization. All the kings after the demon wars, had the exact same policies, ruled in similar ways, and were described as being loyal to the previous Kings ideologies. Not just a couple but the last 15 Kings had all acted and behaved as if they were the exact same king. She would write about her suspicion of a Shadow Demon King in secret notebooks at night. Everyone knows that the Demons could no longer dwell in this realm. The war ended with that being the agreement. But what if not all of them left. These thoughts plagued her mind and journal entries and over the months she would spend time after her daily duties as the Head Historian's apprentice researching this. Looking for any proof of her Shadow King. She was even suspicious that it could be him.

She quickly walked down the halls with a book that she found deep within the library that looks to not have been open for ages. The title was something she couldn’t ignore, “Tales of Demons”. She was so excited about what could be in here, nearly all the information was destroyed during the great wars, after the Kingdom of Celist to the west came through and sought to wipe them off the planet. This was only a few short years after the demon wars. It's why the castle commissioned historians and preservationists, so much was lost, that they didn’t want it to happen again. Just another thing that all the King’s believed was important. However, caught up in her thoughts she didn’t notice the jester walking down hallways backwards with the King and ran directly into the jester's back knocking herself down to the floor with the book.

“Oh!” The Jester shrieked and dramatically fell to the floor as well. The King laughed. “I have been slain.” reaching their hands into the air and then playing dead for a second, before helping her up. However the Jester picked up the book first then handed it to her. She was mortified. Did he read the title? Thoughts raced through her head. It was known that the King did not much care for demon talk. What if he tells the king, I could get fired. She quickly grabbed the book and hugged it closely. “Sorry. Excuse me.” she managed to muster out and do a quick bow of respect to the King. Moving quickly and out of sight. Before it dawned on her. It's the middle of night, Why would the Jester be with the King at this hour? She turned around and peeped down the hall but they were no longer there.

“That was close.” The King stated as he started to get undressed. His large and luxurious room, filled with things made of gold, bones, and pearls. If it was expensive and rare, it might as well be here.

“Maybe we shouldn’t meet for a while, my liege, that historian girl was carrying the oldest book from the library. A book about demons. I’m rarely wrong with my reading of people. She is definitely suspicious of something involving demons.” the Shadow King suggested as he materialized a chair to relax in.

“That’s why I don’t like talking about that type of history, look too close and it's troublesome for this kingdom. You know I respect that you do this but eventually you gonna get found out.”

“Oh please after 15 Kings, doubtful. Plus,” the Shadow King held out their hand and sparks crackles from their growing claw of a hand “ I think I can take care of them.”

“Even after nearly a thousand years, people can find out the truth.” The King made a point that the Shadow King could not argue with just sigh as if the whole thing was exhausting.

“Sometimes I wish I never became a Shadow King. But with humans' disdain towards Demons this was the only way to create peace between the two realms. If I step down the demons will start another war, as long as I am at least a Shadow King they are happy and you are happy. However my ambassador said that some believe that it shouldn’t be necessary to hide any more and we should work on integrating to the realms once more.” He looked around and gestured vaguely before continuing “I don’t think humans have that ability yet, we’ve barely managed to keep peace between the human nations.”

The King nodded his head and then laid down in his bed. “I wish I wasn’t born as the successor of a puppet king. But it is what it is. However it is nice to at least be a King.” Crawling into bed with the King, the Shadow King playfully turns themselves into a woman with piercing blue eyes and fiery red hair.

“But aren’t I just the best?” The Shadow King smiled. Mocking the King who just angrily turned away.

“I told you not to do that, I would prefer a human wife. Also aren’t you technically family. Filthy old demon.” The Shadow demon gasped as if shocked by the words.

“Hey, He died like 300 years ago. Plus it wasn’t me that had the children, he had lots of bastard children. That's why there are so many noble families now.” The king just looked disapprovingly of this conversation lasting any longer. “Alright, goodnight, and hopefully all is well in the morning. We did good with the east, now back to work with the west. After what we heard today, it seems as if they are back to no longer being happy with us.” Then they dissipated into black smoke.