She Belongs To The Devil

3Theodore was restlessly tapping his foot on the ground when Damien appeared a few feet away from him.      1

"Y-Your Highness," Damien stuttered and immediately hung his head in shame as though he had committed some great sin of the century.     

Theodore folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at Damien. And although he tried to stop himself from running his mouth, he couldn't help but make a passive-aggressive threat to Damien, "If only you weren't someone who my daughter adored then I would have already separated your head from your body!"     

Needless to say, Damien's already trembling knees gave up and he fell down on his knees. Although Theodore didn't sound enraged and wasn't showing any signs of aggression, Damien was terrified as though he was going to be beheaded that instant.     

He immediately kowtowed to the Devil Prince and begged for forgiveness, "Please forgive my impudence, Your Highness. I… I will–"     

"Can you do me a favor and be a little more discreet about it?" Theodore cut him off in the middle and asked, already feeling bad about scaring that poor kid like that.     

Damien slightly lifted his head and gave a questioning look to Theodore, not knowing what he was asking of him when he said to be more discreet. "You don't want me to apologize like this?" he asked.     

Theodore gritted his teeth and shouted, "I meant the k-kiss, you fool! Try not to do that in front of me."     

"Oh!" Damien held his breath, dumbfounded by that unexpected reply from Theodore. He then bowed again and said, "Umm… Ssssure… I'm sorry. I will try and maintain some distance with–" He suddenly noticed a wave of red aura trying to engulf him whole. He inhaled sharply and instantly corrected himself, "I will stop meeting her from now on, Your Highness."     

"Ugh!" Theodore face-palmed himself and then said in a chilling voice, "I don't mean that you should completely stop meeting her, you idiot!"     

He turned to look at Ariel, who was standing a few feet away from the two of them with her arms crossed in front of her chest. She was angrily glaring at Theodore, thinking that he was making Damien bow and apologize to him.     

Theodore turned to look back at Damien again and snapped, "And stop trying to make me look like an evil father and get up on your feet already! You are embarrassing me in front of my daughter."     

Damien turned his head to the side and saw that the red aura that he was seeing was coming off from her and not the Devil Prince. He let out a deep sigh of relief and then finally got back up on his feet. However, he still hung his head low, unable to see Theodore in the eyes.     

Theodore looked at his daughter. She was still giving him an angry glare. "Tsk!" He looked at the demon in front of him and asked, "Damien, do me a favor and absorb her unnecessary aura."     

"Yes, Your Highness," Damien instantly spread his palms and gave a nervous short smile to Ariel before absorbing all the red aura in the vicinity.     

Ariel suddenly felt her head getting clearer. She went and quietly stood by Damien's side. And while waiting for her father to break the silence, she didn't realize that she was glaring at him.     

Theodore frowned a little and defensively asked his daughter, "Why are you still glaring at me? I just called him to ask about the whereabouts of Kenneth. I heard that these two boys weren't in the castle, and you went looking for them."     

The frown lines on Ariel's forehead slowly disappeared. "Ah! I see…" she mumbled and subtly smiled.     

Damien, on the other hand, finally lifted his head to look at Theodore's face as he answered, "I left Kenneth in a carriage. We were on our way to the village called Stormford."     

"Stormford?" Theodore knitted his brows together and asked, "Isn't that a village in Aberdeen? Why were you going there?"     

Damien cleared his throat and stood more confidently than before. Then he replied, "A lady told us that there was someone there who resembled Kenneth. And Kenneth thought that it could be his mother. So, we were going to see if that's true."     

"And you left him alone in the carriage and came here to…" Theodore shifted his gaze from Damien to Ariel.     

Before Theodore could complete his sentence, Damien hastily replied, "I came here to pick up clothes for Kenneth because he is still wearing his bedrobe. And I also wanted to take some food for him… for us."     

"Hmm…" Theodore nodded his head and asked, "Why didn't you two come to me for help then?"     

"Ah!" Damien suddenly felt like a fool for not going to Theodore. He furrowed his brows and mumbled to himself, "Kenneth would have probably reached there by now…"     

"Exactly!" Theodore sighed and rolled his eyes. He then gestured for Damien to come closer to him. When Damien stood a foot away from him, Theodore put his arm around Damien's shoulder and led him away from his daughter while asking a question, "Who was that lady you were talking about? Take me to her."     

Damien awkwardly stiffened his back as he felt somewhat embarrassed when Theodore suddenly began treating him like a boy from years ago. "It feels oddly nice though," he thought to himself and subtly smiled.     

He heaved a deep sigh and said while walking side by side with the Devil Prince, "That lady was Joy's guest. She must know where– Er…" Damien suddenly lost his words when he saw how Theodore was giving him a piercing glare. "I-I-Is something w-wrong?" he stuttered.     

Theodore rolled his eyes and said in a disgruntled voice, "Wipe off the color from your face."     

"Color?" Damien quickly brushed his cheeks thinking that he was blushing.     

Theodore narrowed his eyes and grumbled after turning his head to look straight ahead, "I wasn't talking about your cheeks! Wipe your darn lips, for hell's sake! It looks like the butt of a monkey."     

Damien felt his blood rushing to his ears when he heard the humiliating things Theodore said to him. He desperately started to wipe his lips with the back of his palm.     

Theodore, on the other hand, was subtly smirking. He was secretly enjoying taunting Damien and was trying his best not to laugh out loud.     

The two of them were close to Joyce's chambers by now. Theodore took a deep breath in to control his laugh inside, and asked Damien, "By the way, how is your mother taking the news about Joyce? I heard you told her that she was the reincarnation of Mackenzie."     

Damien pursed his lips and answered in a somewhat gloomy voice, "She is happy that Joy got a second chance at life. But she was also crying a lot. I bet she is doing that even now."     

"Hmm…" Theodore nodded and then asked again, "And what about you? I hope your relationship with Joy won't be hampered by that new information."     

"Of course not!" Damien looked at Theodore and said with a smile on his face, "If anything, I believe that it will strengthen our bond."     

"Damien! Where were you?"     

They suddenly heard Joyce shouting from behind them.     

"Ah! Speak of the devil!" Theodore turned to look at Joyce and gave a warm smile to her. And he taunted Damien once more, "Somewhere he shouldn't have been, doing something he shouldn't have."     

Joyce knitted her brows and gave a confused look to Damien as if to ask him to decode what Theodore had just said.     

Damien gave a nervous smile and brushed off the matter, "Umm… Joy, we were actually here to find that lady who you were with in the morning."     

Theodore added to what Damien said, "It would be faster if I could look into her memory and find out the exact location of her hometown. Kenneth might be dying to know–"     

Theodore suddenly stopped speaking. He looked like he had entered into some kind of a trance state.     

"Your High–" Damien was about to shake Theodore when Joyce abruptly grabbed his hand and shook her head, gesturing him to not speak.     

She then looked at Theodore and waited for him to come out of his trance on his own.     

After a while, Theodore sighed and looked at Damien. A subtle smile appeared on his face.     

"Did you see something, Uncle Theodore?" Joyce curiously asked.     

Theodore pursed his lips and replied while recalling what he saw in his vision, "I did." He didn't reveal what he saw, but he looked at Damien and said, "I think you should continue your journey with Kenneth just like how you two had originally planned."     

Damien blinked twice and gave a nod, although he didn't understand why Theodore was asking him to do so.     

Theodore then stretched his back and said while looking towards the garden, "It's a wonderful day today, isn't it? I should probably take a stroll."     

Before Damien or Joyce could ask further questions, he swiftly started walking back to where he came from. And while he walked down the corridor, he shouted at the confused Damien, "Oh! And don't forget to take some coins with you."