The Demon’s Bride

Jiterry with glazed eyes, Elise nodded very slowly and heard Ian tapping his fingers to thread his thoughts. "Why are you scared of me?" Ian asked with a gentle tone that he rarely used for at least a decade in human's life. Yet it was still frightening.

"The pweople in the place before told me that sorcerer would use me as a sacrifice-" her tongue slipped in nervousness. "-Mister, you are a sorcerer aren't you? Will you be using me as a sacrifice?" The small hands on her laps trembled between the silence created after her question.

Hearing no answer, her heartbeat accelerated loudly, loud enough for Ian to pick up the sound. She peeked under her head which was still bending down to read Ian's expression. But as expected with the mask in the way, she couldn't read the change in his face and feared that her words had gotten a large amount of displeasure to him.

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm a sorcerer but a different kind from the one who would want to use you as a sacrifice. Also, don't call me mister. Call me master Ian from now on." Ian softly ordered to which the girl responded by calling his name in a whisper. "Master Ian..."

Her heart had gotten more secure with Ian's confirmation that he wouldn't use her as a sacrifice. In her eyes, he was a rather kind person who healed her from her wound. Although his masquerade mask was very out of place, at the least he wasn't an evil person.

The road has slowly gotten quieter after the time passing to midnight and Elise who had been watching the street from time to time noticed the figure of families holding hands to reach their home with a warm smile. Shifting her glance aside to the bread vendor closing the shop, her stomach grumbled loudly, bringing Ian's eyes to her.

"I'm sorry..." She apologized, thinking that the sound of her stomach must have made Ian uncomfortable.

"Don't be. Hungry is normal for a human. You haven't eaten yet, puppy?" Ian's question brought a stop to the carriage who finally arrived at the inn. As the inn was near the outskirt of the city, they finally arrived after a great distance.

Elise replied with a shook of her head and saw Ian opening the carriage to walk down first. He saw his aide, Maroon also stepping down and ordered. "Bring me some food in my room."

It was rather rare for Ian to order food as he never ate anything outside of his house. Since he was first hired to Ian's mansion, he and the other servant had never seen him eat as he always chooses to eat inside his room. It made him wonder to himself what kind of food he should prepare so the lord wouldn't be offended by a commoner's dishes.

Ian who picked up Maroon's puzzled look replied while pointing his brows at Elise. "It isn't for me, but the girl. Prepare what you need, a normal dish should do fine."

Elise trotted to the door of the carriage, exiting it with the help of Ian. "Wait." Ian said, stopping Elise who was about to go down. "I didn't see it before, but you don't have shoes?"

He saw the girl stayed silent, not knowing what she should give as a response. "Come here."

In the end, he carried the slave on one of his arms, making Maroon's face nearly dropped to the ground. Due to the fact that he rode the front seat of the carriage first, he didn't saw Ian bringing Elise to enter the carriage before. But now seeing Elise with her dirty clothes next to the lord, he could almost feel his blood drained from his face. "My lord, you shouldn't do that!" Maroon raised his hand to the air in act of halt his lord's kind behavior to the slave.

"What shouldn't I do?" Ian looked at Maroon whose eyes stayed on Elise's dirty clothes.

"She's a slave, my lord. Please let me take care of her for you." Maroon reminded but was quick to reject by his lord.

"She's my slave. It is my responsibility to take care of her. And she's the chosen one, Maroon. Just like you, she is not a slave anymore, treat her like how you treat me." To those words, Maroon deeply bowed down. Elise looked at the red-haired young man who nearly glued his head to the ground and hear him talking. "My apologies."

"Forget it. Prepare some shoes for her while you are at it." Maroon received the order and marched to the inn to book Ian's room.

Following his aide, Ian proceeded to enter the inn with Elise. Inside the room, which had become Ian's and Elise's, the man took off his masquerade mask, revealing his handsome features. The man had a high nose bridge, sharp red eyes redder than blazing fire that remind the little girl like the jewels used in an expensive necklace, and silky long back black hair with a short tampered cut at the back.

All the time due to wearing the mask, she couldn't see his face but now that she saw, she wondered whether all the time he had been using such a whimsical grin to his face. His eyes had an inffeable laziness like someone who likes to do what he wished, free from the rules of the world, an untamed wildness. The way he composed himself was very relaxing yet he still had the air of an inexplicable, omniscient composure. It was as though he knew everything yet kept himself on the middle line.

But what had the little girl's eyes and mouth drolling at the moment wasn't him and rather the sight of the beautiful looking dishes in porcelain plates along with the silver utensils that she had never seen before. Her stomach grumbled in the empty room, although the food was only a few inches in front of her, she didn't want to act impudent in front of Master Ian and only gazed at it.

"Pfft-" Ian chuckled and saw the girl turning her head to him. He was sitting on the couch, crossing his legs to read some paper that was passed by his red-headed aide. "You don't need to wait for my permission, you could eat." Ian ordered before moving his eyes back on his paper to read some more.

Elise gulped and took a bite out of the ham sandwich with eyes staying on the steak beside the sandwich plate. She had seen the steak before and saw the silver utensil which was called as knife and fork. But she had never had the opportunity to use it before and was afraid to do mistake. After finishing a slice of sandwich and fruits, she took the glass of water in extra carefulness with both hands and tilted it so the liquid inside could stream down to her lips.

Ian had finished reading his paper from a moment ago and noticed the little girl doing her best at eating. He also noticed that the girl's eyes were staring at the meat beside her plate but didn't do anything. With a small stride, he stood beside the girl at the table and asked. "Is only a single sandwich enough for you?" he sat beside her and propped his head on his arm.

Elise responded with a nod but was quickly betrayed by her own stomach that had cried out again. "You don't need to hold back. Eat more." he continued to wait for Elise to eat the rest of the sandwich and heard Elise mumbled with her little voice. "But, miste-... Master Ian, are you not going to eat?"

"I don't need food to substance for living, I'm different from human you see." He replied to take the fork in the right hand and knife on the other one. " Do you don't know how to use the utensil?"

"No..." Elise replied carefully, afraid that Ian would be irritated at her inability to do most of the things her age could have done perfectly. Since her aunts and uncles always ordered her to work in the field and house care, she only knew how to clean the house or plant things. She had seen another child at her age eating with utensils, by the only utensil she could use was fork and spoon. And most of the time, she ate bread which eventually use only her hand.

"I should hire a teacher for you then." Ian replied leisurely and cut off the meat into bite pieces that were small enough for the girl to eat. After passing the plate to the girl, he sat there looking at her making small bites on her food with a rather livelier face than before.

As Elise was done with her food, she lightly caressed her stomach which for the first time filled to the brim. After being fed by Ian, her evaluation of the man who had become her master ascended to a far better point than before. The man healed her, give her food and didn't beat her. He also didn't shout at her for eating too much and let her eat everything on the table.

"You're done, let's sleep then." Ian spoke with a yawn to stroll at his bed. Elise also trotted to the nearest corner of the room and slumped to the spot to sleep while hugging her knees. "What are you doing there?" She raised her head to Ian and cocked it to the side. He said sleep didn't he?

"Sleep...?" She replied unsurely which the man responded with a long sigh that made her nervous again. Did she do any mistake? Her head drooped down in guilt. He had just given her delicious food and felt bad to make a mistake that offended him, but she couldn't understand what mistake she did and could only apologize meekly. "I'm sorry."

"Come here. We can't have you sick by sleeping on the cold floor could we?" Ian patted the empty side of his bed and saw the girl hesitatingly walked which he once again responded. "You don't have to worry, I will not do anything to you and I don't bite."

Elise made a small circle on his left with a warm blanket that she noted to be very not as warm as what she imagined. As she had stayed beside him now, Ian blew the candle beside him and shut off the little girl closed her eyes to sleep.