CH 39

“I’m so sorry for the disturbance.”

It was dawn when the commotion stopped due to the family reunion.

Even so, Tina, who had a tired look on her face after suddenly waking up, laid on the sofa of the living room and fell asleep.

She said herself that she hates him for being clingy to her, and then she’s the one who buried her head in her brother’s shoulder after the ruckus.

“It has been 12 years since the last time that you’ve seen each other, so it’s only natural for this kind of fuss to happen. It’s fine, Prince Kreus”

“Please feel free to call me Shud, Devil.”

“Really? So, would you like to call me Lucia as well?”

“Yeah? Oh, what I mean is, I’m fine! How dare I call the Devil…”

Shud continuously waved his hand saying that he shouldn’t. As for Lucia, she didn’t really care about it, but formality seemed very important to him.

It was the first time for her to meet someone who gave importance on how to address a person, either by title or name and she felt a bit uneasy about it.

Lucia slowly approached them and lightly stroked Tina’s cheek, who was sleeping soundly on his shoulder.

“Um, should I wake her up and take her to her room? She’s sleeping so deeply and to think that she’s not acting like a real princess, since she can even sleep anywhere.”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that, I can take her to her room.”

“Prince…. I mean Shud?”

Lucia almost started ask, ‘can you do it?’, but she managed to cut off her words.

Shud wasn’t short compared to the normal height of a guy but he was definitely thin.

The reason was because the first time that they met, he held the sword in a very awkward and inconsequential manner.

Seeing that, she already knew that he wouldn’t be a threat and would be easy to subdue.

Shud carefully picked up the sleeping Tina and carried her out of the room.

Contrary to her fear that he might stumble, he managed to put Tina into her bed safely.

“I still can’t believe it.”

Shud displayed a warm smile on his lips.

“To be able to meet again like this, I still can’t believe it…”

Then suddenly his eyes dimmed.

It seems that he remembered something very painful. Lucia watched his side profile, which revealed his pitiful face, and suddenly she felt like teasing him a bit.

“Really? But how come you kept yelling at me from the gate, earlier?”

“Ah, about that….”

“What did you just say? You naughty Devil, come out now and pay for your sins.”

“That was all a mistake!”

Shud hurriedly cut off Lucia’s words while waving his hands continuously. His face was dyed red from embarrassment.

“At that time, I didn’t know anything about it! But now that I’ve heard about it from Tina, she explained everything, from the time that she was sent here and on how the Devil took such good care of her. Once again, thank you very much.”

“Well, to be honest, I didn’t mean to do that, but it just kind of happened.”

Lucia said this because at the time that Tina was kidnapped, it was done by the former Devil, but the timing was good in that she was able to save Tina.

Since Lucia had possessed the body from the time that Tina was abducted, they were able to avoid a civil war and protect her within the castle wall.

“Even so, it’s been more than a decade already. It’s not that I’m judging you. But if you were going to risk your life to come here, then shouldn’t you have done it sooner?”

“The Devil is right. I came too late.”

After that, Shud let out a long sigh. While his kind and worried hand gently stroked Tina’s hair, she tossed and turned in the bed, as he continued to cover her body with a blanket.

The way he treated Tina, somehow reminded her of ‘him’.

“…Would you like to go out and I’ll tell you the rest of the story?”

“Yes, of course.”

Lucia was lost in thought for a moment, and then immediately shook her head.

As they quietly left Tina’s room, after passing the hallway, Lucia then decided to end the night.

“It’s already late, so why don’t you stay here for tonight. Is there anything else that you need?”

“Ah, no. I don’t need anything, I’m good…”

(Growl…)

Just before he could finish speaking, his stomach started rumbling.

Shud hurriedly grabbed his stomach to cover it up, but Lucia already heard it.

Then she suddenly coughed due to their awkward atmosphere.

“Well, then I’ll have you eat first.”

~*~

(Third Person’s POV)

[The Devil is cooking.]

[Devil, devil! Why are you cooking at dawn?]

[Are you hungry?]

“It’s not for me.”

Lucia skillfully moved her hand while holding out the frying pan.

While staying in the castle, she was only accompanied by the demons. It was also a hassle to travel back and forth from the village just to buy cooked food. That’s why she decided to learn how to cook simple dishes.

Even if she says that she does not need food, however, food with sufficient nutrients was very important to Tina.

[Devil, you’re burning your dishes.]

[Who will be eating your food, Devil?]

[Devil, are you cooking for your dog?]

“Be quiet, Titato.”

She murmured softly at the three slimes in her head.

They were called ‘Liquid Monsters,’ and she first met them during the barrier destruction incident.

At that time, when the incident happened, these monsters couldn’t speak properly and it took time for them to grow up.

All they did was laugh and fight with each other.

They gave each other names such as Ti, Ta, and To and since they’re always together, everyone in the castle called them Titato, without any distinction.

“Oh… Is it done?”

As soon as she finished cooking, she went directly to the dining hall. That’s when she saw Shud, sitting in front of the table with an uneasy look. In front of him, Lucia laid a plate of the omelette that she had just made.

“This is a special treatment, only for today. Next time, I don’t care whether you eat grass or do something else, just because you’re hungry.”

“I wish you had me do it from the beginning…!”

“Are you dissatisfied with my cooking?”

“No, it’s not like that!”

Shud’s hand was twitching as he grabbed the tableware, and it didn’t stop there when he prepared to eat, as his hands were now trembling with fear.

With a face full of tension and anticipation, he finally closed his eyes.

[Human, are you crying because you didn’t want to eat it?]

[Yeah, but the Devil worked hard for it, so just pretend that you like it.]

[Hey, that’s not good.]

“Be quiet, you three.”

Lucia mumbled in a low voice.

“If you guys don’t stop talking, I’ll hand you three over to Deran and Derakal.”

[That’s too much!]

[Ack! Stop spitting on me!]

[No, I don’t want to see Deran!]

Lucia’s threat was immediate. Titato jumped and ran away in an instant.

She clicked her tongue, while looking at the three slime demons who sped off.

“The next time that you guys are noisy again. I’m gonna stretch the three of you like clay, squeeze you all, and then bake you in fire.”

Lucia continued to mutter to herself, when she suddenly heard a low laugh from her side. The culprit was none other than Shud, of course.

“What, why are you laughing? Do you want me to roast you as well?”

“Oh no, it’s not like that, but…”

Since he already knew about the real situation of Tina and heard everything that had happened, Lucia then asked him.

“Even if you don’t have the right to succession, you’re still a prince. Is it really okay for you to leave the Kingdom alone?”

“Ah, yes. I’m currently in training right now, so that’s why I’m allowed to come here, since I’m on leave for a year anyway.”

“Are you training… here at the Devil’s Castle?”

“…It’s not that kind of mission.”

Shud’s expression suddenly darkened .

“If my father found out that I’m here at the Devil’s castle, he might faint.”

“Of course he would worry. After his youngest daughter, one of his sons suddenly volunteered to come here as well.”

It was a good thing that she didn’t attack right away.

Before she could be known as a vicious Devil that abruptly kidnapped two children from the Kingdom of Lochastin, this prince must be sent back quickly.

While Lucia was thinking on what should be the next step, she heard him say,

“You told me before that I came too late to find my sister.”

He licked his dry lips, as he continued to speak.

“Actually, I don’t know if this is the right time to say this, but the Lochastin Family have no intention of retrieving Tina from the Devil’s castle.

“What?”

Lucia was stunned, because this is a plotline that she didn’t expect to happen.

The Kingdom of Lochastin, the country who had been begging for years to bring back their Princess, suddenly had no intention of getting Tina back.

Before Lucia could react to the shocking story, Shud continued to speak.

“All the petitions that I’ve come up with and offered to my father, were repeatedly rejected by him. That’s why I was late, it’s because I came in secret.”

“… But that can’t be true, they said that if you brought the Princess back, you’ll get a huge reward. I’m sure that the King was looking forward to having Tina back”

“It’s only a word to stabilize the public sentiment. Since the civil war had ended, Tina was a Princess with a special ability that everyone loved and appreciated.”

“…”

“It is my main goal to pick her up, but I think it would be best to have her stay here and I could also see how happy she is living here.”

There was absolutely no lie found in Shud’s bitter smile. Lucia suddenly remembered what Tina said when they first met.

“I can’t go back to the Kingdom.”

An abandoned child, who was left all alone in a desolate place, said that.

‘That means if I hadn’t possessed this body on that day, I couldn’t imagine what would have happened to Tina.’

Shud kept his mouth shut, after seeing Lucia’s hardened face.

“There must be a reason…”

After a while, the voice that came out of her mouth subsided slowly.

“What’s the reason? Why? Why did they abandon their daughter?”

“I don’t know why, but maybe because my father is a devout believer in the temple.”

“What’s wrong then? Is there a connection with him being a devout believer?”

“That maybe…”

Shud, who had been answering her question so far, suddenly couldn’t answer this time and nimbled on his lips nervously.

It wasn’t until she kept looking at him fiercely, that he was forced to answer back.

“There is a saying in the temple, that the Devil is a corrupted person who betrayed the gods, and that it’s also cursed.”

“…”

“So the princess who was captured by the Devil and stayed in the castle for 10 years…”

“Ha!”

Even though she didn’t hear the rest of Shud’s words, Lucia laughed outrageously.

“What you’re telling me is that they thought that the Princess would also be corrupted? Or cursed?”

Lucia had never felt this angry before in her entire life, but only because she had too much on her plate right now, she stopped herself from exploding in anger.

“Even if they call her cursed or corrupted, the main point is that for Tina, they are still her family…”

She was so annoyed that she couldn’t help but grind her teeth.

‘If it were me, I would definitely miss my only daughter, who was forced to leave my side, when she was only five years old.’

‘After all, I know very well what it feels like because I had experienced it myself, to have no family and be forced to live on my own.’

After the continuous row of anger, she finally cooled down a bit.

She tried to calm down her rumbling stomach until it was soothed down completely.

“The truth is, I really don’t have any intention of giving Tina back to your family in the first place.”

She thought that Tina would want to go back to her real family. But at the same time, she was stopped by her own greed.

Because Tina is her only family both here in the novel and in her real life.

It was selfish, but that was really her true intention.

“But I changed my mind. I will return Tina to Lochastin someday. I’ll make sure of that.”

Lucia intended to show them how precious and beautiful the child that they abandoned was.

“There’s no use going back and regretting it. I’m going to ban any visit from anyone from now on. But of course, I’ll give you a special pass, so don’t worry about it.”

“You are really kind, just like what Tina said to me.”

“What?”

Lucia suddenly frowned and looked at Shud directly. She wouldn’t believe such words, because she knew that she’s far from being kind.

“Even if you flatter me like that, I still wouldn’t let Tina return to the Lochastin family.”

“It’s not like that, but what I’m saying is that I can see what Tina sees as well.”

“That’s all bullshit.”

Lucia chuckled from his words.

Those words that she always heard from Tina, that she was kind and sweet.

But she knew better than anyone else that she wasn’t. Those words were meant for someone like a mother.

‘Unfortunately, I don’t have any relatives to refer to.’

She closed her eyes and smiled.

Those cold eyes, cold tone, and those looks that were always indifferent, even to her own daughter. Born and raised by that person, she can’t possibly turn out to be a good person.

Of course, Shud wouldn’t be able to understand her words, since that came out of her own life from back then. He then looked at Lucia with a questioning gaze floating above his head.

“You wouldn’t understand. Look at your food, it’s getting colder.”

“Ah, yes.”

Showing an awkward smile, Shud continued eating the food that Lucia had cooked for him.

Then he immediately opened his eyes wide.

“…Huh”

“What is it?”

“This is too….!”

Too?

Lucia tilted her head, while waiting for his next words. Shud’s eyes looked at her and then trembled.

“…It doesn’t have any taste.”