The door is opened by the snake's tail, revealing a little girl in pajamas at the door.

"Alice?"

Merlin looked at the little Lori standing at the door with her head a little shy, her hands playing with the corners of her pajamas a little nervously, and her tone was a little puzzled.

"It's so late, haven't you slept yet?"

He looked up at the mechanical clock in the corner of the room, an old standing pendulum clock, like a small cabinet, made entirely of brass, with some of the edges of the exterior exposed with slowly spinning gears.

The dial of the clock shows that it is already early in the morning, which is quite early for a night owl otaku like him who is used to staying up late, and the cultivation of immortals has just begun, but for people in the era of lack of entertainment, it is long overdue to fall asleep.

"Mr. Merlin, I'm sorry to disturb your rest, I can't sleep."

Little Lori stood at the door with some guilt, and whispered, she seemed to be a little annoyed that she had just knocked on the door to disturb Merlin's rest.

Merlin got up from his bed, he turned on the light on the wall, and in a sound that sounded like a gas stove being turned on, the gas lamp in the room was lit, and a faint orange light illuminated the room.

"It's okay, come in."

He beckoned to little Lori kindly, he can understand Alice's situation, children always recognize the bed, and it is easy to lose sleep when changing an unfamiliar environment, and it was the same when he first arrived at the orphanage in his previous life, tossing and turning in the middle of the night and always unable to sleep.

At this time, children will always unconsciously "acquaintances" in person, and they will feel a little more at ease when they are around acquaintances, so Alice will come to him in the middle of the night.

Outside the door, little Lori hesitated for a while, but still walked in.

Seeing this, the snake rolled up its tail, closed the door again, then retracted its tail, continued to close its eyes, and lay on Merlin's shoulder to continue the previous dream.

"Do you still have the habit of living in your room, is there anything that needs to be adjusted, you can tell me or Vile, don't be embarrassed, after all, you are my important contractor."

Seeing that little Lori lowered her head and was a little shy, Merlin took the initiative to break the silence.

"No, no, it's all good, it's just too big, I've never lived in such a big room, and the bed is so soft, I used to sleep on a hardwood bed, and I'm not used to it."

The little girl waved her hand again and again to indicate that everything was fine, and then she was silent again, not knowing what to say.

She was a little embarrassed to say that it was actually because the room was too big, and after turning off the light, it was pitch black, and she was a little scared so she couldn't sleep.

Obviously, she wasn't afraid of the dark before, but after last night, when she saw the darkness now, she subconsciously reminded her of the scene of being surrounded by monsters last night, and she always felt that there were countless monsters in the darkness in the room looking at her again.

But sure enough, it was rude to come to Mr. Merlin in the middle of the night, for my mother had said before that a lady should not enter a boy's room in the middle of the night, and that it would disturb Mr. Merlin's rest too much.

"Otherwise, I'd better go back, sorry to bother you, Mr. Merlin."

The more the embarrassed little girl thought about it, the more she regretted it, she stood up and prepared to go back to her room.

Merlin looked at little Lori with some amusement, which reminded him of himself when he first arrived at the orphanage in his previous life, and he was like this at that time.

The shadow at the feet of the demon king spread over, grabbed the little girl who ran away, gently rubbed it and put it beside him, and intimately covered the little Lori for life, when the little girl's shy face was flushed, Merlin stretched out his hand, and an illusory book with a beautiful cover appeared in his hand.

"Alice, want to hear a bedtime story?"

Merlin smiled at the little girl, although his smile was definitely not kind when he was in the state of the demon king, and the other children were frightened and fainted.

But Alice is obviously not an ordinary child, she is lying on the bed, pulling the edge of the quilt to block the lower half of her face, only showing her big watery eyes and shining at Merlin, she thinks Mr. Monster's smile is really good-looking, and she is also looking forward to the story that Mr. Monster is going to tell, is it the same as the "bedtime stories" that her mother used to tell?

Alice remembered the "bedtime stories" her mother had told him about all kinds of demons and all kinds of ghosts, and she couldn't help but lean closer to Mr. Monster next to her.

Hmm... Fluffy and a little comfortable.

When the little Lori touched the surface fur of the demon king's body, she couldn't help but squint her eyes in comfort, which felt like holding an oversized plush doll, although Alice had only seen the kind of luxury toys that rich aristocratic girls could afford in the windows of toy stores in the city.

For Alice's closeness, Merlin didn't feel anything, after all, this was just a ten-year-old little radish head, he just felt a little hot, is the warmth of his fur so slippery, it's so hot in winter, what to do in summer, do you have to shed like cats and dogs?

He was a little nervous thinking about things out of tune, and then he shook his head and opened the fairy tale book in his hand.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful castle owned by a handsome prince, and one rainy night, a witch came to the castle of the prince who was enjoying himself in search of shelter from the rain....."

He held the fairy tale book he had extracted from his mind and read the fairy tale that was the prototype of his current identity.

Reading and reading Merlin himself felt a little funny, didn't he unlock the achievement of telling fairy tales to fairy tale characters in the fairy tale world?

"Finally, at the last moment of the curse, the beauty and the beast kissed, and the kiss of true love burst out with great power, and the curse was lifted, and the ugly beast was transformed back into a handsome prince, and from then on, the prince and the beautiful woman lived happily in the castle."

Merlin read the whole fairy tale in one go, anyway, he didn't know if Alice liked the whole story or not, and it was quite interesting for him to reread the fairy tale unexpectedly after a long time.

He was about to ask the little girl how she felt about the story, but he found that the insomniac little girl had fallen asleep with his thick tail in her arms.

"Okay, the abduction of little Lori tactics failed."

Merlin laughed and waved the book of memories in his hand, in order not to disturb the sleeping little girl in bed, he entered the shadow body state in an instant, and with the help of the virtual ability, he pulled out his tail sticking to Lori's saliva from the sleeping little girl, and carefully gave the little girl who didn't sleep well again, and the little girl who liked to kick the quilt covered the quilt, he walked lightly to the window.

Sitting on the large castle windowsill with his back against the wall, Merlin looked at the bright moon outside the window, a little distracted.

After a long time, he withdrew his gaze, ready to dive into the sea of consciousness once more to study, when he turned his head and noticed a snake beside his head looking at him with sparkling eyes.

"What are you looking at, it's scary."

Merlin looked at the leather snake a little speechlessly and asked angrily, is this snake itching again.

"Hiss..."

The snake spits out the snake letter and speaks snake language.

In Merlin's ears, this was a curious royal sister voice.

"There's still a story, it's good, let's have another one."

Merlin: "....."

Didn't you go to sleep? Why are you still addicted to listening to children's stories, and you don't want to think about your age, you are hundreds of years old eldest sister, is it really good to be so naïve?

"Didn't you wake me up, the food dream didn't continue."

As if to see Merlin's complaint, the snake rolled his eyes and said.

Merlin: "......"

Am I a snake?

Cut, what's the use of deceiving a snake, then it's not Beauty and the Beast, but the Prince and the Snake.

"No, I said goodbye and slipped away."

Not bothering to pay attention to the childish snake, Merlin escaped into the sea of consciousness and continued to indulge in learning.