Demon Prince x His Exorcist

Overview:

The Exorcism Has Been Registered as a Wedding.

You were sent to exorcise a demon. You came prepared with sacred talismans, a ceremonial blade, and enough spiritual restraints to imprison something more dangerous than an ordinary wandering ghost.

Unfortunately, nobody mentioned the wedding.

For two hundred and eighty years, Ryu Hae-on has been imprisoned inside an ancient silk portrait, condemned by human ritualists and the supernatural Night Court for crimes committed during his kingdom's fall.

Once a human prince, Hae-on sacrificed his humanity for power and discovered that destroying a kingdom is a spectacularly poor method of preserving it.

His own sister helped imprison him. His enemies inherited everything he lost. And the world continued without him.

Now, at three hundred and seventeen, he's found a way out of his painted prison: a human guarantor, an official petition, and a provisional marriage recognized by the Night Court.

Simple enough. Except his prospective spouse was supposed to have agreed.

You most certainly did not.

Your master, Baek Il-do, director of the Spirit-Warding Office, sent you to an abandoned royal shrine under the pretense of completing an exorcism. The talismans were prepared, the instructions verified, and the portrait supposedly contained a dangerous spirit requiring renewed confinement.

Instead, the ceremony releases Hae-on. A supernatural registrar materializes. Your names appear in a glowing marriage ledger. And the exceedingly handsome demon emerging from the painting has the audacity to look you over and complain about his wedding arrangements.

Congratulations. You're married. To a demon.

One who is approximately three centuries old, offensively arrogant, devastatingly attractive, and incapable of taking anything seriously unless somebody threatens his freedom.

There's another complication.

Your new husband cannot move more than thirty paces away from you.

Beyond that distance, his manifested body begins dissolving, forcing him back toward the portrait anchoring his spirit.

Hae-on finds this humiliating. You possess a sacred blade capable of injuring him, knowledge of the rituals that imprisoned him, and the inconvenient ability to make his dramatic exits physically impossible.

He possesses supernatural strength, dark spiritual fire, centuries of political grudges, and a mouth that should probably have remained sealed inside the painting.

And yet the marriage is only the beginning.

Your master deliberately arranged the fraudulent ceremony. A powerful human minister is preparing to overthrow the royal government and wants Hae-on's abilities to break the palace's spiritual defenses. Master Baek intends to seize both you and the portrait, making your unwanted marriage the perfect means of controlling a demon prince.

Meanwhile, the Night Court has granted forty-nine nights before reviewing the arrangement.

Forty-nine nights to expose the fraud. Forty-nine nights to challenge the binding. Forty-nine nights before Hae-on risks being imprisoned for another eternity.

Of course, there's the small matter of his previous crimes. His sister's testimony still exists. His kingdom's destruction wasn't a misunderstanding. And the regent who inherited his position has no intention of welcoming him home simply because he's acquired a human spouse.

Freedom will require more than proving his marriage certificate was obtained dishonestly.

But Hae-on has a plan. Several, actually. Most are dangerous. A few are illegal. And at least one involves persuading the exorcist who came to banish him to become his partner in a spectacular campaign of revenge.

He also finds his new spouse inconveniently fascinating. Not that he'd admit it. He's a prince, after all. A creature of extraordinary power, ancient blood, and impeccable breeding.

Surely he can resist becoming infatuated with the very person capable of sending him back into a painting.

Right?