She Belongs To The Devil

Irene gave a nod and agreed, "Yes, I need answers. I cannot believe that our mother would treat her own granddaughter like that. I need to hear her reasons."     

Michael now looked very uncomfortable. If Irene was to visit their mother, then she would get to know how he had been lying to her and manipulating her. She would know everything. His plan to use Irene as a scapegoat would fail miserably.     

So, naturally, Michael was against that idea. "No! Are you mad? Our father doesn't like it when we even bring up the topic of Theodore and his family. And if he gets the air that you had been asking around about them or worse, you had been wanting to meet them, then he will definitely get furious with you."     

Irene, however, emphasized with the same resoluteness in her eyes, "But I am not going to our father. I will be talking to our mother. Besides, you know very well that father won't interfere with our lives unless we do something very drastic. And I don't think trying to talk to mother about Ariel is drastic enough to anger him."      

"You don't understand, Irene. Our parents–" Michael was now even more desperate to talk Irene out of what she was thinking of doing.     

However, Irene cut his sentence off in the middle and asked rather assertively, "What don't I understand? Do you want me to leave that poor child just like that even after knowing her situation? I need to find–"     

"You haven't been around, so you might not know this." Michael pinched the bridge of his nose and tried his best to put up his act, "Our parents haven't been on good terms these decades, Irene. They started looking each other in the eyes only a few years ago. And I don't think it would be right of you to give them more reasons to fight each other. Heaven will collapse if that were to happen."     

Irene suddenly recalled Lavera briefly mentioning how their parents had fought when their father almost killed two of his sons. She also recalled her mentioning how heaven was in ruins after their mother didn't return to the Heaven realm for a long time.     

She definitely didn't want that to happen again; she didn't want to be the reason for the fight between her parents. Countless souls would be affected if that were to happen again.     

So she politely asked her manipulative brother for his opinion, "Then what do you suggest we do? Shall I try to talk to Ariel directly and ask her if I could help her in any way? I was able to see and hear her from outside the barrier. The only problem was that I couldn't get too close to her. So, if I manage to get her attention, I believe that I can have a proper conversation with her."     

Michael's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard that Irene was able to see and hear Ariel from outside the barrier.     

Until now, he had thought that when Nathaniel saw Ariel, their mother hadn't put up the barrier yet. And when Irene mentioned that there was a barrier around Ariel, he assumed that Irene wasn't able to see anything inside the barrier, just like how he couldn't see anything inside the barrier that covered the Wyverndale Palace.     

But now that he knew it wasn't the case, he quickly asked Irene, "So you did see Ariel! What did she look like?" He tried his best to sound a little excited when he further asked, "Does she look like our brother?"     

Irene was a little confused when Michael's worries suddenly disappeared from his face. But she respected his excitement. She gave a soft smile to her brother even though her mind was filled with a lot of unanswered questions and several concerns.     

And she answered him first, "Well, she resembles Theodore to some extent. And like you had said, she indeed looks like a grown-up." She smiled to herself and said softly, "If we were to walk side by side, she could easily pass as my younger sister."     

"Oh! That's impressive!" Michael wasn't happy to hear that Ariel had grown up that fast. But he didn't let it show on his face.     

Instead, he asked Irene what he really wanted to know, "And… did you get to witness her using her powers? I bet she is a quick learner like Theodore."     

Michael wanted to gauge whether Ariel would be able to defend herself if he was to 'test' her.     

However, he was disappointed when Irene replied, "No, I only saw her happily talking with her friends. And when she teleported away somewhere, I was chased by the boys."     

Michael had wished to get some more information from Irene, but unfortunately for him, he knew that he wouldn't be able to ask Irene to do his bidding anymore. He had already told a lot of lies to Irene. It would all come to light if she spoke with Ariel or with the Goddess.     

"Hmm… that's unfortunate…" Michael mumbled to himself.     

"What was that?" Irene looked at Michael and furrowed her brows.     

Michael gave a nervous laugh and shook his head. "It's unfortunate that things didn't work very well for you today."     

Irene took a deep breath in and asked with concern, "So… what do we do next?"     

A new thought had already entered Michael's mind, "Why don't I go to the Earth realm myself? I can observe Ariel for a few days myself. And if things turn out to be how I suspected, I can decide then and there regarding what actions to take next."     

Michael thought that it was now time to take things into his own hand. So he said to Irene, "I will think of something. You don't have to worry about that. I will make sure our niece isn't kept as a prisoner anymore."     

"And how are you going to do that? What can I do to help?" Irene genuinely wanted to help Ariel as she believed everything that Michael had said to her.     

Michael, however, subtly suggested Irene step away, "No, I think I will have to handle this myself. Now that I know that our mother is also involved, this has become a sensitive topic. I don't want to put you in a difficult situation."     

Irene still hadn't gotten the answer to what Michael was going to do to solve the issue related to Ariel. She was about to ask again, but Michael had already pulled them both out of the beach.     

Irene was now back in her body. And all she could do was look at Michael with eyes full of questions.