The Demon’s Bride

"You would be fired from the castle," said Ian when he moved a step away and his eyes peered down at Vella who didn't meet his eyes. "You will know that this isn't even a half of the punishment that I want to bestow on you, and your neck is still attached thankfully to Elise who you and your friend almost killed because of your naivety and unneeded kindness."

The words only had Vella in silence. She knew she was wrong. If she had reported Carmen instead of trying to talk or perhaps brought someone as the third person, she could avoid herself getting wounded which only lead Elise to be wounded.

Ian then stepped away from the place he stood at and walked toward the large closet before opening the door. His eyes fell on the clothes, and with his hand, he pulled the clothes away, letting them fall.

Finding the back of the wardrobe, his eyes fell at the small parchment of papers. Each of them holding the same pentagram of magic circles with blood placed in it.

"What's that?" Vella gasped when she saw what had been stuck to the back of her wardrobe. She had never seen that before even after spending her time inside the room, using the wardrobe.

"This must be the reason for your pain Maroon, the illusion magic circle," Ian commented. He began to pull the parchment when a sound of sizzling came from his skin. Regardless of how red his hand had turned and the blood that came out from the contact, Ian continued to rip the parchments. From his hands, vapors came as if his hand had come in contact directly with fire. He threw the parchment that had turned black like coal to the ground.

When he was done, Ian walked away from the door giving one last look to Vella who was confused by what she saw, "Your talk will never work from the beginning. She had been planning to kill me and Elise even longer than when the letter was sent."

Walking passed by the room, Ian turned his face to Maroon, "How's your wound."

"They are not worth to mention," the butler then got on his knees, bowing down behind Ian. "I apologize milord for my shortcomings. This shouldn't have worked on me."

"Yes it shouldn't if it was a normal magic circle," Ian had stopped his walk to look at his butler who knelt in front of him. "This one is made from black magic, using a living sacrifice to draw each circle and they created more than twenty inside the room. It would affect even if it's you," said Ian to Maroon. "The illusion magic would work only if you stepped inside the room and this magic, in particular, is designed especially for Demons which explains why it worked horribly for you. What illusion were you given?"

"Pain," Maroon replied, the man continues to be passive with his expression and words, "I didn't receive an internal or external wound, but I felt my heart crutched by invisible hands and my head dizzy."

"Isn't that a troublesome magic then? To affect Maroon who is stronger than a lesser Demons," chimed Beelzebub who had been walking beside them. "Which mean if a lesser demon had walked in there, they could have died from the illusion."

Which was correct, thought Ian internally. Lesser demons would have been affected by the illusion that would turn them mad. Seeing how Maroon describes the illusion of pain, it was easy to take that the illusion magic's effect was to inflict pain. If a demon had been careless they would suffer from wounds that never happened to them.

It was possible that Carmen had been working with the person in question who sent her the instruction letter even before she entered the castle. This means she must have known the previous maid Tracey who had also cursed Elise. If his deduction was correct. This proof that someone had been aiming for Elise's life that they baited both Carmen and Tracey to work under them.

"We'll have a talk later Beel. Prepare your answers if I find just one thing amiss from you. I'll not hesitate," Ian warned before leaving the place to go back toward where Elise was.

Far from the castle, a person walked out of her house. She tied her apron, sighing before wiping away the sweats that covered her head. When seeing from afar people had gathered, the woman raised her brows.

"What's going on?" asked the woman.

"Oh Angelica!" her neighbor, Welly chimed when seeing her, "Nothing big just a warning about wolves and the possible snowstorm. At least that's what my husband said, you know that I can't read."

"Not everyone here knows to read," Angelica said. She stepped out from the fence of her house where she had talked with Welly and left toward the place where people had gathered. Pushing herself to the front circle of people, her eyes squint to read the writings on the parchment stuck on the village's notice board.

Reading what was written, the woman frowned. She can't find any words regarding wolves or possible snowstorm mentioned in any paragraph of the letter. How weird. Instead, it talked about families whose family members went missing.

In a sense, the parchment talked of the possibility that the family disappeared because of the attack from wild lives. But it didn't directly mention wolves.

"...I heard..." Angelica turned her head when she heard people whispering. Stepping closer her ears overheard the conversation the people had, "Yes, you mean the Sister that lived in our village before?"

"Was her name Blythe?" asked another and at this Angela knit her frown.

"Yes, that was her name! My family who lives in Rumpspariga sent a letter about her funerals being held. It seems she died from an attack last night," said the other woman whose dressed were looking better than the other women around her.

"Did you mean Sister Blythe Remore?" asked Angelica when arriving next to the women who talked.

"Yes, that Blythe," said the wealthy woman, "You must be shocked Angelica, you've been close to her when she was still living here after all. But it's understandable how dangerous it was for her to wait for people to confess late at night. It seemed that the guard didn't see anything."

"So it was an insider's work?" questioned Angelica.

"So it seemed, but the guard fell asleep so it was not sure whether the killer was someone from the village or outside the village. The magistrate is still in search of the killer," Angelica kept a frown on her brows whilst hearing each word from the woman. Blythe was killed? There should be no human able to kill her. 

"How did she die?" asked Welly who had come beside Angelica. The woman appeared to be curious.

"A dagger was pierced to her heart, the dagger was left at the scene. That tells me, I heard this but the magistrate tried to keep it down," the woman lowered her voice when she reached this point of the story. "There seemed to be a beggar who slept at the church, hiding at one corner near the corner of the top floor of the church where he witnesses something between his sleep at the moment where Blythe was killed."

Unable to stop her curiosity, Angelica moved closer, "What did he saw?"

"An angel! The man said that he saw an angel and a red-haired woman standing before Blythe at the moment of her death. They called him now like a madman, but for Blythe who had been religious the angels must have taken her life and stayed there in honor for her kind acts," the woman continued to speak while Angelica had left from the place.

When entering her house, she quickly locked the door. Her face was marred with worry and confusion. Angels? Were the angels on the move to hunt Blythe who was a child of corrupted angels?

"But that shouldn't work, Blythe's horns had been clipped," whispered Angelica, "They shouldn't be able to smell or find her."

What was more concerning for Angelica was the red-haired woman that was mentioned to be standing beside the angel. It couldn't be her niece, is it? 

Angelica assured herself by thinking that Elise had been sold off to the slave market. She had received the payment and for a girl of her age, she wouldn't last longer than three years after being bought by others. Her niece wouldn't be alive.

But Blythe's death was a concern. Angelica stood from the chair, taking the parchment from the drawer, she wrote a few words before rolling the paper into a small piece. The woman then led the house to the backyard. 

Placing her thumb and index finger inside her mouth, she whistled for a black dove to come over her arm. Angelica tied the put the paper she rolled to the small thin hanged on the dove's feet before pushing the dove to fly over the sky.

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