"Do you want to talk about it?" That was the question Mellisa asked me as she and Aurora escorted me from my bedroom to the dining room for breakfast and in all honesty, I didn't. I didn't want to be reminded anymore of the life I once lived in that world. I knew that Mellisa was just trying to help but even the slightest thought about my one-room apartment and the past, was enough for me to feel sick to my stomach.

 

"No." I answered softly.

 

I hoped that my rejection of her kind offer to hear me out wouldn't make her feel upset and it seemed that it didn't because she simply just smiled and said okay.

 

"It's alright not to tell me about it." She began.

"After all, everybody each has their own way of dealing with things they don't like—things there're scared of, so to say. I know I certainly have mine. I'm sure you've already heard from Big Sister Elv—I mean Ms. Elvira that I wasn't the best child back then. I was always causing trouble in one way or another. That was because I was still a little irresponsible and didn't really know how to communicate my problems with others. So I coped with it by doing silly things like putting rocks in Astrid's pillowcase before she went to sleep or slacking off." She let out a little laugh. "In retrospect, I probably could have handled it better.”

 

I didn't know Mellisa could talk so earnest about something. She always struck me as the playful type but now, she almost sounded like Iris, who always serious.

 

"You don't have be vocal to tell someone something anyway." Mellisa continued. "Take Aurora for example. She's mute so all she does is make weird facial expressions like this." She stopped and turned around towards me, revealing a silly looking frown she made by bending the corners of her mouth with her fingers. Once Aurora saw it, she pouted and smacked the back of Mellisa’s head.

 

"Ow, ow, ow. See?" Mellisa told me while rubbing the spot where Aurora hit her.

 

To my own surprise, I let out a laugh. I couldn't remember the last time I did. Ever since I found myself here, I was either crying or slumbering in my thoughts.

 

"There it is! There's that smile I've been waiting for!" Mellisa exclaimed. She bent down and gently tapped me on the nose and smiled. "You look better when you're happy Princess. So laugh a little more."

 

 

 

When we reached the dining hall, I thought the King would be there waiting for me like he was last night, but he wasn't. Instead, the only person inside was Astrid.

 

"Good Morning Princess." She told me while pulling out a seat at the black table.

 

I returned the greeting and sat down. She must've saw me looking at the grand chair located at the head of the table where the King was supposed to be sitting because she then told me where he was.

 

 

"It's still pretty early in the morning so I don't think he'll be here just yet." Astrid told me while laying out a fork and knife in front of me. "You can go ahead and start eating since you're leaving soon to pick up some things with Akano."

 

"Yes, yes! Eat up, Princess!" Mellisa told me as she and Aurora placed the silver platters full of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, strawberries, and other various fruits onto the table. "Eat lots so you can get grow up and get strong like me!"

 

————————————————————————————————————————————

 

By the time I finished eating, he still wasn't here.

 

"It's not like I was waiting for him."

 

I told myself that though it was obvious to me that I wasn't telling myself the truth.

 

"Why do I care so much?"

 

I shouldn't have considering that I've only met the King literally a day ago and on top of that, haven't spent more than an hour with him but I couldn't control how I felt about him not showing up. Maybe it was because I had already accepted him as my father because of the way he treated me and how nice and easygoing he seemed. I'm not sure if it was the feeling of love per se but, there was definitely a feeling of attachment there. If one phrase could sum up how I was felt, it was the one constantly replaying in my head.

 

"I want to see him."

 

"Akano should be arriving at the castle shortly so shall we get you dressed princess?" Astrid asked me, snapping me out of thoughts. I nodded my head and stood up, following Astrid towards the door.

 

As soon as Astrid was about to open it, both of the double doors swung open, revealing the King with Elvira and Iris on either side of him. It looked like he had just woke up because under his purple cloak, he was wearing a plain black shirt and black silk pants to match. His blackish-blue hair which was already messy by itself, was now sticking up in different directions, a sign of a mean case of bed head. He was also wearing black fuzzy slippers that had the words "Kool King" stitched with red flaming letters on top. He almost looked like regular dad, the type you see in cliché family movies. I say "almost" because regular fathers don't have devil horns sprouting from their head. It was comical, seeing the Ruler of Demons in such a fashion.

 

 

Astrid stepped to the side of him and bowed. "Good Morning King Valfar."

 

He yawned and wiped a tear from his eye. "Good Morning." He replied. "Breakfast?"

 

"Already served."

 

"Eggs?"

 

"Scrambled. Just the way you like them."

 

"Bread?"

 

"Toasted to perfection your Highness."

 

Valfar cracked a wide grin and laughed. "Like the back of my hand. You all know me so well."

He turned his black polished eyes towards me and showed me the same warm smile he gave me the day before. "And Good Morning to you, Yukina."

 

"G-Good Morning....Father."

 

Father. It was first time that I had called him that (with the exception of when I said it accidentally yesterday). Even though it was my first time addressing him in that manner, it felt natural. Almost like it belonged to him. More so then it did to my other father.

 

"Are you joining me for breakfast? Or did you eat already?" He asked me.

 

"The Princess has already eaten." Astrid answered in my stead. "She's going into the capital today so I thought that she should eat as soon as she woke up and told her to do so. Should I not have?"

 

He unearthed his right hand from under his cloak and raised it. "No, no, it's fine. I'm actually glad you did. What kind of father I be if I kept my daughter waiting?"

 

So he said but it sounded like he was a little disappointed. He walked past me but not before placing his hand on my head and letting drag through my white hair, letting it naturally drop, returning it to his side.

 

Elvira handed Astrid a slip of paper and whispered something into her ear. Astrid folded the paper and put it in her apron pocket. She then turned towards me.

 

"Let's get you dressed shall we?"

 

We left the hall and headed back upstairs into my room. After entering my room, Astrid wasted no time in heading over to what I thought was a regular closet door, until she opened it. Turns out that it was a walk-in closet that was a little less than a quarter of the size of my room (which is still pretty big for a closet). I can't really say I was surprised anymore because every room in this place is way larger than it needed to be so it's a given that even a closet would be more than twice the normal size of one.

 

The closet was circular space that had numerous and various types clothing spanning from elegant dresses and skirts, to t-shirts and sleepwear, racked up in every direction you looked and extending from the ground to high up towards the purple ceiling.

 

“Where would somebody even find the time to wear all of these?"

 

In my past, after I stopped being a functioning member of society, I didn't really own too many clothes. The only things I owned were a few shirts and a hoodie that I wore religiously. Just by looking at this swamp of clothing in the closet made me feel tired.

 

While Astrid started to look through the endless apparel, I sat down on a red cushion stool watched. She seemed to be trying to find the perfect thing for me to wear because she'd pick up two shirts and stare at both of them for a while as if she was comparing them, before eventually putting them both back on their racks and picking up something else, thus repeating the process. I'm sure we would've been there forever if I didn't speak up and tell her that anything was fine.

 

She eventually settled on a button-up red and black plaid shirt that covered my arms and hazel skirt that well revealed my kneecaps. Along with the black socks that crept up my calves and brown boots that stopped right at my ankles, it was a relatively simple outfit, exactly what I had been hoping for. Even if it was normal for a princess to wear a dress, I wouldn't be able to stand the embarrassment of wearing one in public.

 

After I finished changing, Astrid and I went back down the stairs and began to walk towards the enormous black gothic-looking double doors that rested at the end of one of the several hallways that connected to the grand hall. I assumed that they were the entrance and exit to this castle because there were two people suited in crimson red armor from head-to-toe, each standing in front of their respective doors, a matte black sword in hand. I couldn’t make out their faces since the helmet covered it entirely.

 

Without us saying anything, they both reached for the circular door handle behind them and started to open the doors, stepping to the side. Through the cracks of the doors, slivers of light began slip through, enough to make me hold a hand to my eyes and shield them, subsequent to the fact that I never stepped foot outside since I've been here and was too used to the gloomy interior of the castle.

 

When I saw the outside, it wasn't what I had been expecting. I thought that the sky would be a starless one, full of black with no sun to illuminate it because well, where else would demons live? Instead, the sky was a light blue with a bountiful amount of white clouds residing in it, complementing the bright yellow sun that stood preeminent above it. It looked like a normal city sky. In front of me were white steps that went downwards leading to a cobblestone walkway surrounded by green grass. At the end of the walkway was a black fence, accompanied by three people. I couldn't really make out their appearances because they were some thirty feet away.

 

Astrid and I walked down the steps and approached the black entrance gate. Upon doing so, I was able to see who the people were standing at the gate. Two of them looked like the guards I saw not too long ago inside, armor and everything. The other, was a girl who looked my age with short and wild midnight black hair. She was wearing a coal colored button-up dress shirt that was untucked into her black skirt. Dangling around her neck was a golden emblem that was attached by a silver chain. On her feet were black socks that were hidden under her black boots. Attached to the right side of her skirt was a sword sheathed into a purple scabbard.

 

"Akano"

 

Like the others, her name materialized in my mind. When she noticed that we were approaching, she stopped talking with the guards and gave me a small wave.

 

I closed the distance between us and got a better look at her. She was about two or three inches taller than me. She must've exercised often because through the black shirt, I could see that her arms were well defined. Same with her legs.

 

Akano nodded at Astrid then turned to me.

 

"Good Morning, Yuki."

 

"Yuki?"

 

The King and the others never referred to me as that before. It was always Princess or Yukina, or a combination of the two. However even that being the case, it didn't feel weird or strange when she called me that. Actually, it felt familiar, like I was used to being called that by her.

 

".......Good Morning." I returned.

 

Astrid pulled out the slip of paper that Elvira gave her from her apron pocket and handed it off to Akano who took a quick glance at it before shoving it in her pocket.

 

Akano gave the signal to the guards to open up the gate and they did. After, she turned her attention back towards me.

 

"Well, we have a lot things to get before our first day at the academy tomorrow so let's get going shall we?"

 

I followed her through the black gate, stepping onto the streets of the Demon Capital.