She Belongs To The Devil

Crash!     

A loud explosion sound resounded throughout the garden. And then it all went silent. There was dust everywhere in the air and it was hard for Joyce and Sybil to see what happened to Ariel.     

Joyce was extending her arm in Ariel's direction and her eyes were left wide open. She was too stunned to even blink or utter a single word, leave alone move a single muscle.     

And a single terrifying thought ran inside Joyce's mind… that she killed her cousin.     

Sybil's heart also left its place and for a second there, she was unable to react. Her legs were trembling like never before. Her throat was parched and her eye rims were filled with tears.     

Just like Joyce, Sybil also thought that the Princess, the only heir of Adeline and Theodore, had bitten the dust.     

However, she quickly regained her footing and her composure. She didn't think that the Devil's daughter was going to die that easily. She ran past Joyce so that she could check what had actually happened to Ariel.     

And as she got closer and closer, the thick dust in the air slowly began settling down. Sybil's eyes widened even further upon seeing the scene in front of her.     

She saw a thick wall made out of earth right where Ariel should have been standing at.     

She was glad that Ariel wasn't standing there anymore because that wall had a huge dent in the middle and several cracks. The wall was still standing but it was clear that the force with which Joyce had thrown that log was enough to smash anyone and badly injure them if not kill them instantly.     

Sybil ran past that wall wishing that Ariel was safe and unhurt.     

And to her greatest relief, Ariel was still on her feet. She was covered in dust but she didn't have any visible wounds.     

However, even though Ariel was unhurt physically, she was still stunned and scared. She remembered seeing that huge stump swing at her and after that, all she remembered was not being able to see anything because of the dust.     

She was staring at the wall in front of her. She didn't know how that wall got there. She didn't know if she was hit or not. She didn't know anything. Her little mind couldn't grasp the situation properly.     

And the moment she saw Sybil standing next to her with a terrified look in her eyes, she instantly broke down into tears.     

Sybil wanted to console the Princess. But if only she could speak…     

So she picked the petrified girl in her arms and tightly hugged her. She lightly stroked Ariel's back so that she would know that she was out of danger.     

It finally settled in Ariel's mind that she had dodged a terrible accident from happening to her. And she felt safe in Sybil's arms. She put her arms around Sybil's neck but kept on crying.     

Joyce also came and stood by their side. She painfully gulped while panting loudly. And then she asked Sybil, "Is she hurt anywhere?"     

Sybil shook her head and then signed to Joyce. She asked if Joyce was the one who had erected the wall in between Ariel and the tree.     

It would have been an amazing feat for a young witch to be able to control soil like that. Even the most experienced sorcerers wouldn't be able to create a solid and thick wall, that also in a perfect rectangle shape.     

"No. I thought it was you who did that," Joyce answered looking very confused.     

Both Joyce and Sybil exchanged a confused glance with each other and then looked around to see if there were other witches in the vicinity.     

However, they didn't see anyone around except a few of the guards who had heard the loud bang sound. They were casually walking towards the garden thinking that it was just a normal training exercise for Joyce and nothing more.     

It was already a piece of news among the witches that Ariel was able to produce water out of her bare hand. It was clear that she was already able to wield magic.     

And the only possible explanation that Sybil could come up with was that it was Ariel herself who created that wall.     

However, she still had her reservation, "But is it even possible to create such a perfectly tall and thick wall without knowing anything about magic?" She sighed and thought, "Well… let's think about that later."     

Without wasting any more time, Sybil started to run toward the court so that she could inform the Queen about the accident.     

Also, Ariel wasn't taking the name of stopping to cry and she wasn't really sure what to do to make Ariel feel that she was out of danger. So, she wanted to hand Ariel over to the expert, her mother.     

"Is something wrong?" one of the guards asked when he saw Princess Ariel crying her eyes out in Sybil's arms.     

Joyce, who was running after Sybil, answered the guards, "It was about to go wrong. But I guess… it's alright."     

The three of them reached the court in no time. The guards who were standing outside Adeline's room didn't ask a question when they saw Ariel crying hysterically. They announced Ariel's presence and opened the door for them.     

"Oh dear!" Adeline jumped out of her chair and ran towards the door when she saw her daughter all dusty and wailing. "What happened? Why is she crying?"     

The moment she saw her mother, Ariel held out her hands while still crying.     

"Oh, baby." Adeline took Ariel in her arms and asked her, "What happened?"     

Bennett also came rushing at the same time. And when he saw Ariel crying and the witches standing there at the door, he felt a sting in his heart.     

"Did something happen?" he asked, already feeling guilty for having let Ariel run out of the study room yet again.     

Joyce looked down at the floor and answered in a trembling voice, "I was practicing to throw the log. But I didn't see Ariel running towards me until after I threw it. And…"     

"What?" Adeline looked down at Joyce and screamed in an astonished voice.     

Bennett covered his mouth with his palm and the only thing he could do was curse himself inwardly. He didn't even have the courage to apologize to Adeline because he didn't know what she would do to him if he uttered a word at the moment.     

Adeline restlessly looked at Ariel and searched for any wounds or scratches on her precious child's body. But to her relief, she didn't find any.     

Sybil was looking at Adeline and was trying to say something in sign language. However, Adeline's mind was too disturbed to be able to decipher what she was saying.     

So Adeline looked at Joyce, who was looking terrified, and asked her in a softer voice, "What happened after that, Joy? I don't see any… You saved her, yeah?"     

"Umm… th-there was a wall in front of Ariel somehow." Joyce glanced at Sybil and then added, "But neither of us put it up. And there was no one else around."     

Adeline's heart skipped a beat when she heard that.     

The first thing that came to her mind was that someone invisible was watching over Ariel and they protected her from getting into an accident.     

But who? A friend? Or a foe?