CH 38

Lucia received an urgent call from the gatekeeper and was forced to leave the castle for a while.

It was in the middle of the night when Tina and the others were all in bed.

“Are you scared, Devil?! Come out and fight with me! Return Princess Christina back to her own kingdom!”

A blonde haired man stood in front of the gate, yelling out loud.

“I think you’re just scared to face me.”

Lucia and the others watched the scene outside the gate until Deran carefully said.

[….Even though I chased him out multiple times already, he still came back and asked for you, Devil, by any chance, are you familiar with him?]

“No, I’ve never seen him before.”

[Maybe, he’s a newly chosen Warrior. Do you think so?]

“That’s not possible.”

‘There’s no way that a new hero would appear out of nowhere. Haron would never give up his position as a Warrior.’

As she looked down at the man who was continuously shouting, she suddenly turned around and went down the tower.

[Are you going to open the gate, Demon King?]

“If I leave him like this, it will disturb the others as well.”

[Then let’s just kick him out.]

“Then he will continue to come back and bother us again. Well, let’s just hear his story, and then we will know why he keeps coming back here without fear. Especially at this late hour.”

With each step, a creaking sound echoed throughout the brick hallway.

As she approached the castle gate, the demon who was guarding the gate greeted her.

“You go back first, I’ll go and find out what he wants from me.”

[All right.]

The demon that was guarding Lucia gently stepped down and went back to the gate of the castle.

“You awful Demon King! Come out and make up for all of your sins….!”

Creak-

The huge gate of the Demon King’s castle slowly opened up and almost cut off the man’s shouting.

“Huh.”

Since he shouted multiple times for the Devil to come out, he never expected for the gate to really open up, which made the man run backwards screaming.

Lucia slowly walked towards the man through the open gate.

He looked at Lucia full of shock, as he never expected for the Devil to come out herself. As she looked down at him, she said.

“What did you come here for, human?”

The man saw that the Devil’s expression seemed calmer than he expected.

He was quite surprised at her appearance, which looked more docile and tidy. Unlike the other demon, who always messed around with him every time he came to the castle at night.

“Are you really the Devil?”

The man asked with a trembling voice.

‘Did he think that I wouldn’t come out after all the shouting that he just did?’

She could feel that the man changed his manner of speaking as he was now more careful in addition to his fear. Then Lucia answered with a smile.

“Yes. But if you don’t believe me, then I can show it to you by force.”

“Oh no! No need, that’s fine!”

“If you don’t mind, then.”

Lucia turned around and looked back at the man behind her.

“Are you going to just stay there?”

“Yes, yes?!”

“If you’re not going to fight me, then you can go back now, but if you have something to say, then you can come with me.”

~*~

(Lucia’s POV)

I brought the teacup towards my mouth and began to sip on it.

Despite the fact that we almost fought earlier, we were now sitting side by side inside the castle’s drawing room as I tried to talk peacefully with the man.

Even though he was still acting restless like a desperate puppy.

I thought that he would run away immediately after his initial shock, especially since I personally went out to meet him. But unexpectedly, he followed me inside the Demon King’s castle to talk.

After taking another drink of the tea, I started speaking.

“So what’s the reason for you to come this far? It doesn’t look like you’re a knight as well.”

“Well, about that. It’s that…”

He lowered his head and bit his lip.

Suddenly, I had a feeling that I had seen his blonde hair before.

His cheeks were slightly warmed up, and his blonde hair was smeared with the color of honey. His beautiful appearance somehow seemed very familiar to me.

Feeling a subtle sense of déjà vu, I started looking at his face.

When he noticed me observing him, he wiggled his hands a little and he said.

“…Let her go.”

“What?”

“Please give her back.”

What?

Even though he was scared, his words and eyes were resolute. He appeared so determined to the point that I almost said ‘yes’ to his words.

As Lucia tried to clear her head while closing her eyes, the man suddenly shouted.

“Please return my sister!”

“Sister?”

Lucia unconsciously repeated the last word that he said.

Yes, that’s it, someone who looks like him is…

At that moment, the person that Lucia thought of suddenly entered the drawing room.

“Devil, whose this guest of yours that you need to attend to in the middle of the night?”

“Oh, Tina.”

Tina trudged towards me while she was still asleep, rubbing her eyes and walking around with her pajamas on.

At the sound of her voice, the man suddenly opened his eyes.

“Tina…?…? Is it Christina?!”

Then he turned his head towards the door where Tina entered. Tina also looked up at the man who was sitting besides Lucia.

“And you are?”

The two looked into each other’s faces.

A long silence filled the living room. Soon, a bewildered voice came out one after another.

“Is it really Christina…?”

“Are you really my brother?”

It was a miraculous sibling reunion that took place after 10 to 12 years.

~*~

It’s been 12 years now since I possessed this body. Tina has been with me for that long. She’s like my only family now, aside from the demons in the castle.

In my mind, I always had to remind myself that unlike me, Tina has a real family that was waiting for her in this world.

However, even though I was always with Tina, I could only count a handful of stories that she seldom told me about her family.

Like the fact that she has six more siblings or that she was the only one who was born with special abilities.

We’ve been together for over 10 years now, but that’s all I know about her. When we asked about anything related to family matters, she always kept her mouth shut with an ambiguous expression on her face.

Since I could see that she didn’t want to talk about it, I wouldn’t bring up that topic anymore. But now as I see it…

“Tina, are you okay? You’re not sick or anything?”

“How many times have I told you that I’m fine!”

“Yeah, but seeing you after such a long time, I couldn’t help but become happy. My little sister grew up and became so pretty and…!”

“That’s enough. Get away from me!”

…He was being a nuisance and quite annoying.

Tina, who’s a little awkward at first, became used to it as time passed and she also started talking about her childhood.

I nodded as I looked at the two of them clashing over the table.

Surprisingly, the blonde man who came to see Tina was really one of her older brothers and was truly the Prince of Rochestine.

Her sixth brother, the fourth Prince, was named Kreus de Rocheisten.

In the original story, he was a character who only appeared at the Princess’s wedding, which was the ending of the game.

But I didn’t expect him to have a sister-complex towards Tina.

Soft blonde hair and blue eyes filled with tears.

The Prince looked completely different from when he was shouting outside, as he now continued to chase after Tina.

“I’m so glad to know that you’re safe. I just didn’t know what to do if something serious happened to you…”

“Ah, right. After that, everything happened so fast.”

“Do you have any pain? Or any injuries?”

“No, so please let go of my hand.”

On the other hand, Tina’s reaction was very cold.

Tina was very suspicious of her brother’s actions from the beginning and up to now, continued to look annoyed, even after she confirmed that he’s really her older brother.

“Why did you come here?

“…”

“Why are you doing useless things that I didn’t even ask you to do? You’re not even a Warrior? You’re not strong enough, so why did you want to save me?”

“Uh, how could you say that…”

Tina clicked her tongue while looking at him. The Prince staggered with a shocked expression on his face.

As if he saw the world collapse, his complexion was white and pale with fatigue. He tried to reach out to Tina with his trembling fingers.

“It’s also disrespectful to our Devil for you to come so late at night! You are causing a lot of trouble to our Devil…!”

“Wait, Tina.”

Since it seems like the talk was getting quite serious, I decided to interrupt them.

“Tina, I’m fine, so don’t be too hard on him, plus…”

I pointed slightly towards the Prince with the tip of my chin.

“…He looks like he might faint at any moment now.”

His appearance that seemed to be shocked out of his senses due to Tina’s reaction, came into view.

When Tina finally noticed it, she groaned briefly. Even so, even though she might have been too cold towards her older brother, she still came around to help him.

Even though I often took her to the village so that she could socialize with other people, she was still used to only communicating with me since we’re all alone ever since she was a child.

But I knew that she smiled easily for people that she didn’t care about, but for those that she did care about, she spoke harshly to hide her true feelings, except for me. To put it simply, she has a tsundere personality.

It’s always been like that for Derakal and Deran. They’ve been together since they were young, so they didn’t really care about her fickle nature.

Tina scratched the back of her head and muttered while looking at the Prince, who was depressed.

“Well… it took you many years, but thank you for not forgetting me to the point of coming here personally.”

Her last word of ‘thank you’ only came out as a mumble. But the Prince was able to pick that out and raised his head immediately.

“Really? Are you really thankful to me?”

“…Since you’re changing your expression so quickly, I might change my mind again.”

“You said thank you for coming in person, right Tina?”

“Stay away from me, don’t be so clingy!”

Suddenly the atmosphere inside the room changed like a game of catch.

Even though I already knew the truth, I can still see how similar they were as siblings.

Seeing the two of them argue all the time, that was how I came to that conclusion.