Spring's mist gave a nice atmosphere to the fertile lands of Azarya, where some demons had grouped theirselves to help each other and quickly earn resources together. They were all quite young, with an average age of one thousand and five-hundred years; that age for demons, who had an average life span of around five thousand years, was similar to puberty for humans.
Between the group, made of five people, one truly stood out because of his particular appearance: he had a gorgeous face, similar to the one of a girl despite being a boy, beautiful white hair and enchanting sapphire-colored eyes. His name was Leran. While all the other demons had their faces covered by scars, his face was completely clear. That was because, in this group of five, that demon, considered the weakest between the five, refused to kill humans; by only scaring them, he'd never have consequences such as them trying in vain to hurt a demon's immortal body.
To be fair, though, it was not even necessary for demons to kill humans to get their emotions and they didn't really have to, but killing worked nicely if they were gathering fear because it would make the other humans all the more scared. The other four demons, which had known Leran since a young age, didn't mind partaking in such a brutal action and, one could say, even liked it to an extent, but the white-haired boy simply couldn't understand their bloodlust and decided to only take what could be restored, without also ransacking the lives of people who didn't deserve to die. Still, the group seemed to appreciate his presence either way.
"I've heard there is a family of humans around here, near that forest." Said the oldest one out of the five, Hena, pointing at a small forest on the right of the group that was travelling together, one that they hadn't previously bothered visiting. It'd be a lie to say they didn't enjoy walking in such a different world than their homeland, the Spirit Realm, but they had no reason to go in isolated places such as forests where they'd not find any prey. The person who had spoken had blonde hair and green eyes, he was a male and looked way more athletic than all the ones in the group, showing he wasn't just a mage but he also was very strong on the physical side. He had been the mentor to the four people who had decided to travel with him and he didn't want to betray anyone -- still, his eyes twitched in a way which wasn't natural that day. Leran didn't notice such a small thing.
"Alright, let's head towards there, then!" Said a black-haired girl happily as she opened in delight her chestnut-colored eyes. Immediately, Leran's decreasing focus on the situation increased suddenly. That was because, first of all, he needed resources to cast the spells he had learned some time before which he wanted to master, but in second place he also had a liking towards the girl who had just spoken. Still, relationships like these were the type that never worked between two demons, as it's impossible for them to feed on the emotions of other demons and it is way easier in their immortal life to have a few wives or husbands that can give them love, which is an incredibly constant and strong fuel that can fill them up in a way which, if compared to negative emotions such as fear, anger and anxiety, would be considered overpowered because of how easy and harmless it is to get.
"But I have a problem with that," whispered Leran to himself, talking to his mind. No matter what his looks were, he could never conquer a girl's heart because he was never honest in loving her, so he wasn't able to fake any emotion. He knew of people, like the charming boy behind him who had white hair and white eyes and looked like a precious angel, who could fake their feelings perfectly and get their emotions in easier ways, but even that wasn't always a guaranteed. Otherwise Larya, one of the cutest demons to be born, wouldn't be trying to get measly fear with a group of demons.
Despite all these conflicts in Leran's mind which the other members didn't seem to have, he was happy. As long as the girl he loved, Ylenia, the people he considered as friends, Larya, Hena and Visiom and even the one person in the group he simply couldn't get along with, were all by his side as he explored the world, he was happy. But things change very fast and in unexpected ways and nothing lasts forever.
The first thing which would not last forever was their walk towards the family's house. It was soon in the line of sight of everyone; Leran yawned for a second, mesmerized by the flowers that grew idyllically, then he shook his head and shook off the sleepiness and watched his surroundings with attention. It was almost a place from a dream, with a beautiful forest full of trees and birds chirping happily in it, hills full of grass and flowers and plains that one could run in and sleep on forever. "If there was the chance, I'd like to stay here for the rest of my life, I guess." He thought to himself after watching his friends have the same reaction of happiness and preparation.
At some point, a very short girl with black hair and amethyst-colored eyes talked. "It's this one!" She said, looking excited. "The fact everyone's so excited just shows how much we've searched for people in these almost abandoned places." Hena, the mentor, explained why the words of Visiom were said with such emotion, making Leran nod unconsciously. "Why does he have to explain that?" That was a question in the demon's mind for a second, but it soon went away.
"Alright, who wants to go in first?" Asked Ylenia, then smiled cutely. Usually everyone wanted to go first, mainly because they'd be the people to grab the most fear. Yet this time nobody asked for such a role, leaving Leran to say it himself. "I will." He simply said, smiling as well, to which he swore he saw Ylenia smile even wider. "Today's my lucky day." He thought after seeing such a reaction, then opened the creaky door that showed a pathway to the inside of the house.
The outside of the house didn't look like anything special. It was a simple residence of one floor made in marble; it was a structure easy to find in the plains, but only a few of these houses weren't actually abandoned. "So, if this one isn't, it's pretty much a blessing." That's how Hena had explained the fact that there was still a family living in such a place. But when Leran entered, he didn't feel as if there was a single soul inside the house.
The place looked completely lifeless, with no decorations and just a wooden table, a painting, no lights, a sofa, all divided in two rooms, a living room and a kitchen; it was dark in it because the windows were closed and dust was everywhere, along with broken plates, a furnace that no longer worked and some coal on the floor. If Leran had been careful, he'd soon have realized there was no room to sleep in this house. Still, he didn't pay attention to such a detail and kept thinking that the family was hidden somewhere as they had seen the demons coming. He had no reason not to trust the people who had given him that information.
"Hmm, I guess they'll be downstairs." Said Larya, pointing at some stairs from the outside of the house. The white-haired demon nodded and started his path to the room under the living room through a pathway of stairs that was completely dark. At the end of it there was a door, which was closed and looked impossible to open without force. It was rusty and probably hadn't been used much, which had caused this. Leran just used his magic to make the door fall down, but what he saw after surprised him to no end.
There was a coffin in the inside of the room, which gave light to the entirety of the house after the door was opened. The coffin was open and there was magic which flowed from down the coffin to the outside, looking bright and beautiful. The pure magic seemed like letters of an unknown alphabet; Leran was enchanted by such a beautiful coffin, but he couldn't understand why it was there, so he said: "hm?" While he expected an answer from everyone else, he remembered he was the first to go. Still, his reflexes took over.
He looked behind himself and saw his biggest enemy in the group of friends he had, who was smiling proudly. With a voice similar to the Leran's, this person said: "Do you like it? We made it while you were sleeping." Immediately after that confession the person summoned chains which held Leran's entire body captive, making him unable to move. "Ugh!" He said, struggling against the restraints that had just appeared, in vain. "You know, I was looking a solution to the problem that's the fact that us demons can't kill each other. This spell is my best try. It should keep you locked for around... forever. You can't escape this on this planet, but good luck at trying to get back to the Spirit Realm with magic-blockers." That enemy explained. Leran could only scream: "Help me!" He was helpless against such a stronger opponent, but he also was careless because he didn't expect to be betrayed by this person, despite how much they could hate each other.
"The others won't help you. They prefer me. You were always an outcast, after all." His enemy concluded, to which the chained demon could only beg for the one person he believed in the most: "Ylenia! Please, please help me!" It was then that the black-haired and black-eyed girl arrived in that basement, then looked at Leran's enemy with an expression that was hard to decipher
"Wait, he's right! Stop." The chains that were trying to bring Leran into the coffin suddenly stopped as his expression gradually calmed down. "T-thanks." He said to the girl as she had managed to bring reason to his enemy, but those words didn't reach her.
"You promised me you'd let me have them." She said, pointing to the chained demon's face.
-=-
"N-no! P-pleas-se! Stop, it's hurting m-me!" Said a desperate voice in his dreams, without being able to wake up. As Sae realized it was the demon king who had spoken with this voice, she immediately got up from the hard ground, complained a bit in her mind about how sore she felt and reached Leran's bed.
When she found that place in the opposite part of the cave, she was immediately reassured by the fact he hadn't left, hadn't been killed and hadn't been kidnapped either. "He's just having a nightmare." She thought to herself, then shaked off much of her worry. Still, she had to act to make him feel better, so she bent down to the level of his sleeping face, which would normally be way out of her view with him being more than thirty centimetres taller than her. But right now, he was defenseless and lying down.
As her eyes gazed deep into his sleeping face which looked tormented, just as if something was killing him inside, she could only feel pained and relate. "I feel you." She simply whispered and put her hand on his cheek, trying to wake him up in the easiest way possible without it being too sudden. Sae then started stroking the white-haired man's cheek in a very slow way. As soon as she did that, the Ice Mage could feel his body calming down from the nightmare, so she decided to continue for a bit. "Maybe I won't even have to wake him up." She thought to herself.
It was only a minute after that, after having completely calmed down, Leran opened his eyes. In front of him stood a person he had thought he mostly understood, but he realized exactly then that all his thoughts, all his opinions about the Ice Mage, an insufferable girl that only liked to annoy people and to exploit their weaknesses, went to dust. In front of him, in fact, there was that same girl with a gentle expression on her face, as she was barely smiling in a pained way watching the demon king. Yet, once Leran blinked, just a frame after, enough for him to see it but not enough to say anything about it, she went back to normal.
Her expression itself was back to cold as she muttered: "Good morning, princess. I thought I already said I wasn't a big fan of noise, didn't I?" Yet those words didn't matter at all. Because now he knew that behind that facade, behind every word that seemed to be said out of spite, there was something else that the Ice Mage didn't want to show. And maybe, just maybe, he could actually beat her in the mental battle they were having if there was such a secret to be kept and he was able to grasp the truth behind it. Still, the coldness of her words had translated to something completely different in his mind. It was as if she wanted to replace with something certain his expression full of insecurities and lack of trust, as if she had said: "I'll stay, don't worry."
Thinking about such a thing, the demon king could only smile. Baffled by his reaction to her words, Sae said: "What?" But Leran was prepared for such an answer and immediately said: "Oh sorry, did my thoughts leak? I was just thinking about how beautiful you looked today." The expectations of such a powerful move thrown by Leran were big and, indeed, he wasn't disappointed by the outcome.
Sae deeply blushed, again only for a second, before restoring her normal self.
"Let's get you something to eat, shall we?" She said in that same condescending tone she always held when she was not being herself, which he was starting to get more curious about.
~
