When I came across The Demon King’s Public Defender, I snorted and said what the hell. It’s the kind of outlandish idea that it’s bound to be amusing whether it turns out to be really good or really poor, and I can’t say that I was disappointed.

In the beginning, we’re introduced to the lead character who fairly quickly gets iseikai’d into another world. The demon king in chains and people expecting the summoned hero to behead them, only god or whoever furfilled the summoning spell sure had a sense of humor. Instead of a sword swinging hero they end up with an exhausted and battered public defender, and he promptly pronounces said demon his client, because reasons that should be obvious. When it turns out that the demon king is a young woman who inherited the power from the fallen king, and promptly used that newfound power to try and put an end to twenty years of brutal war, things quite rapidly snowball from there. That they’re named Johannes Faust and Mephistopheles is just extra icing on the sundae if you’re familiar with classic literature at all.

Having a soft spot for both romanic comedies and iseikai in general, it’s not especially a surprise that things go very, very off the rails with a side of ice cream. A stay of execution is bartered on not the decency of Mephistopheles or punishment for the previous demon king’s campaigns, but on the cold hard fact that ten thousand humans are crying for demon blood. Much fuckery goes into keeping Meph’s head on her shoulders, and for much of the book we’re left with a hero-healer princess, a demon king, and poor Faust in the middle 😂. It checks more than a few boxes. Eventually we’re treated to a lunchbox competition judged by Faust and a perky seven year old, because of course, there is no defeating the judgment of a hungry child, and it it can never be so simple.

Towards the end however, there’s one piece that sticks out far more strongly than most, what really made me feel like adding a note to my journal for it. After what largely constitutes a national emergency, bucking five hundred years of expectation, and likely their first real date, Faust and Meph have a quiet moment between scenes and it is just beautiful.

“Tonight on the marble floor,” Meph murmured, leaning her head forward until the warm curve of her brow nearly brushed mine, “you called our dance by a word from your world. In the high tongue of the Dominion, we have no word for a date, or for a courtship conducted in silk rooms.”

“What do you have?” I asked.

She lifted her right hand from my wrist and touched two fingertips lightly against the side of my jaw, her calloused thumb resting just below my cheekbone.

“Khari-teth,” she said, in a low, resonant cadence that didn’t use a drop of the signet’s magic and still sent a shiver straight down my spine. “What does that translate to when my amulet isn’t guessing at the grammar?” I asked, turning my cheek into the warmth of her palm.

“When two vanguard scouts fight back-to-back in the ash fog, where you can’t see more than a few paces ahead,” Meph murmured, her breath warm against my lips, “it’s the oath spoken before the visors come down. The literal roots mean, ‘Where the smoke clears, my eyes return to you first.’”

She held my eyes from four inches away, utterly unguarded in the tiny room.

“In the guild studio and in the rain under the arch,” Meph said. “And again tonight, in front of six hundred strangers. Khari-teth, Johanns.”

I didn’t have a single statute in my pocket that could beat that. I reached up with my right hand to cup the back of her neck just below the warm silk of her amber ribbon, and I leaned forward until my forehead rested squarely against hers between the smooth black curves of her horns. “Khari-teth, Meph,” I murmured back. “Every room we walk into.”

— Locke, Wolfe; Caliban, Mike. The Demon King’s Public Defender: A Cozy Fantasy Rom-com (The Princess, The Lawyer & The Demon Lord, a Duology Book 1) (pp. 444-446). (Function). Kindle Edition.

IMHO, this is a truly great scene. Meph’s description of Kari-teth in many ways define a key aspect of what a partner is, and quite frankly, I think the literal root offered says so much in so simple a scene.

Yes, I think this book turned out far better than I expected. At least, I’ve enjoyed it so far!