He looks a little hurt she even considered that interpretation. Though on him that mostly just looks like 'alarm.'

"I didn't mean like that! I wouldn't ever! I just meant that... you feel like you can let your guard down around me?"

He hopes he isn't assuming too much himself, saying that. Maybe he has nothing to do with it. But he'd protect any of his guests if anything happened!

"I... I would. Yeah." Is that what he meant? Mostly. He is the Demon King, after all, who would make trouble with him around?

Besides, well, literally anyone who's followed his career here and noted he's run away from every potential fight he's encountered. It would, in fact, be entirely reasonable on available evidence to assume he'd need to hide behind Evangeline if anything truly serious went down.

He just. Isn't quite aware of that right now.

"Oh. You... did want to duel me?"

It's not like he doesn't enjoy sparring! He battles Hades often enough. Sometimes even a little too enthusiastically. But for some reason thinking about fighting Evangeline feels... dissonant.

"I told you I'm the demon king, didn't I?"

He does mention it... constantly... but he clearly is used to the name carrying its own weight in matters of power... even if that doesn't stop people from questioning his competence. Protests aside, it does seem like she cares about strength, and he can't help but puff up a little, physically and verbally. Gotta impress her!

"Well, I guess there's no reason I can't show you, if you're okay with it. Some time when there aren't other people around."

He's spent his time here thinking he shouldn't really show off like that - worried that he'd inspire more fear than admiration. But that aversion doesn't apply when he's more comfortable - or rather, he has his own swaggering bravado at heart. So the more she talks about it the more eager he gets.

"Haha." The laugh of someone trying to play it cool when he's actually getting a bit hype. "If you're that into it we could go after dinner? After that curse I could use the exercise."

Magically speaking.

Twilight... does not know that... but maybe she'll show him the truth!

"More impressive than the wings?" Those had already struck him an advanced spell, but he hasn't seen a huge amount of seasonal magic yet. Something to look forward to.

"Flight's really useful though! I mean, for the person who has it, it causes so many balance problems if adventurers get it..."

Professional dungeon designers hate this one simple trick!

"Traps, monsters, even the aesthetics - I love putting in chasms where you can see deeper parts of the dungeon, they make great vistas and let people appreciate the work, you can even use them to give explorers clues, but they aren't supposed to let you skip entire levels."

"There are ways to deal with it. Wind traps, powerful flying monsters, invisible walls. But designing around it makes everything more complicated."

It's not that easy to hire a full-time dragon just to keep people out of a vertical area...

"Oh, I watch the Hero's party really closely, and I control everything they find!"

In theory, at least...

"So I can design around what they can do. But if I wanted to open something here it'd be a lot more work to try to make it a challenge for everyone."