The Demon’s Bride

The man who spoke with the couple appeared to be young, wearing a glasses and his hair in comparison to his bright green eyes were in the color of chocolate brown. As if knowing he was being watched the person then shifted his eyes at Elise, meeting briefly for a moment.

"What are you watching for?" Ian's voice resounded from her left side.

Surprised, she blinked her eyes, "Who is that man? The one who spoke with Lady Rachel and Lord Garfon."

Ian brushed his gaze away from her to take a brief look on who Elise had pointed out, replying with, "Must be a church member but I don't know who he is. I tend to remember people who I thought need to be remembered." And clearly the man did not. "What's wrong? Do you find him familiar?" With the lack of memories Elise had of her background, Ian decided to bring whoever she found close to her memory to his investigation. It was said that even if one had lost their memory, there are people who they know by instinct and it goes without saying how Ian trust Elise's premonition.

"No, he isn't familiar..." Elise tried to find words that could fit to what she was feeling, "He reminds me of someone but not in a sense of my memories. I can't tell what I am feeling."

"That's fine, we can keep an eye on him. Though Maroon isn't here," Ian hummed, reaching out his head he then pat Hallow's head, "But we have this dog."

"I-Woof!" Hallow managed to salvage his mistake of nearly speaking with a bark in fraction of second. Relieved that he didn't speak in human language, he then turn to look all over his surrounding, making sure no one had heard him before sending a glare to Ian in which was returned with more intensity and Hallow was the one to retreat his gaze. 

Ian let a small chuckle leave his grin, "Take a close look to him, okay. If you do well I will give you a good dog food tonight."

I don't need it! yelled Hallow in his head. He then shifted his gaze toward the man who spoke with the couple that had a very strange age difference. When his eyes meet the green eyes of the man, Hallow's eyes then narrowed.

With many things that had been going on, Elise hoped that the hunting game would be less threatening then the retreats they went to which only ends up with many twist and turn. "I didn't see Maroon in the house either. Did he leave the castle?"

"Under my order. I told him to go back to Hell and pick up some rumors so we might be able to find out whether Leviathan is your father and what Lucifer is planning to do," Ian answered her.

He had passed his order to Maroon last night, to search for all rumors in Hell. To find out what happened in Hell from the mortal world will be difficult and perhaps it would be easier if he was the one to leave to Hell, and force what he wanted to know out of people's mouth. But that would also mean leaving Elise alone and vulnerable to the attacks of the dark sorcerers as she was out of his line of sight. 

For once, last night he had strengthened the barrier on the White Mansion, to shoo away the high Demons who kept visiting his castle as if it was some kind of hotel for crows to rest. Whether it was completely foolproof against Lucifer was still unknown to Ian bit for the time being his crows and lackey won't be able to enter the White Mansion's gate.

Elise wondered if entering Hell was easy. Maroon was able to enter and it was because he had turned to hell. What about her though? "I have Demon's blood in me, will that allow me to enter Hell despite my angel's lineage?" she then questioned Ian who hummed.

"Good question. I have never seen anyone trying it before because having both Demon and Angel's blood is a very rare case, but we both have seen the living example, Lucifer who was able to enter and leave Hell at his wish," Ian answered her question, and Elise went to a brief silence again.

That would mean she would also be able to enter Heaven! But Elise decided not to go as she knew there was a traitor amongst Angel who had tampered her memory, causing her to hate her mother who had done nothing wrong. But knowing that she has a chance to go to Heaven, Elise decided to keep this fact as her trump card in case when she needed the access to Heaven.

The horses was then released, Elise and Hallow went to the horse while Ian was caught in a brief talk with Kyle. Looking around, Elise also finds some other church members, such as Dalton. And when she saw him, she went to his way. The man noticed her and put a smile to greet her, "Lady Elise. Thank you very much for helping my brother. I have heard of what had happened," sighed Dalton, speaking about Ernest who was caught up in the crossfire that happened during the loop forest.

"How is he doing? I hope he is not too deeply shocked by what happened," Elise said. Due to what she had experience, the incident didn't turn traumatic for her, but the same can't be say for Ernest who was a human. After seeing ghouls who bared its teeth against him, most people would be traumatized. Elise then was curious of what Ian and Beelzebub did to cover the story about ghouls because she wasn't sure if the Church would believe the existence of ghouls.

Dalton Lone suddenly let a small laugh, causing Elise to raise her brows. Despite being concerned about his brother, there was just one thing that kept Dalton to laugh when he remembered it. "Hardly," he answered, "Instead, he look very jolly than before. I questioned him along with other church members if he could once again explain what he saw during two nights ago, but instead he told me that he couldn't remember anything. He only said he came with late Sir Alfred. He was a great man," Dalton said with a small sigh.

"He must have been," Elise answered. Speaking about Alfred, Elise felt sympathy in the remembrance of the poor man. Barner was truly detestable and she hope in Hell he would be paying for all the sins that he made during he was alive.

In a thought, Dalton continue to speak, "In the Church, he actually hold a very high position who took care of matters about dark sorcerers, a senior before me. We often meet up at work and he was quite close with Ernest since about three years ago. He was killed in the loop forest and his lover was also found dead in an inn for some time."

Elise felt something hook in her head once the discussion was brought up. Why was it Mr. Alfred was the one Barner had chosen to kill? For what reason? And was it a coincidence that Barner had chosen Alfred when there were many others who he could disguise himself to be? 

Strange, Elise thought. Because from what Barner said, he had put disguise as Alfred's lover while waiting in the inn. If he only want to kill Alfred, he wouldn't need to bother himself by killing his lover too. Alfred was a human, killing him won't be hard. Was it purely for his own malice amusement?

After knowing that Alfred's work was to investigate dark sorcerers, Elise could feel it from her instinct that the reason for Barner to kill him was due to it. 

"In any case, I feel very thankful for your help, Lady Elise. Please do tell me if you ever need a help and I will be sure to come in time," promised Dalton who couldn't express his gratitude more than enough.

"Ian was the one who helped, I didn't do anything much to be thank for," Elise answered as humble as she had always been.

"This might come out as offensive," Dalton hesitate to speak and Elise nodded to let him continue, "I have a doubt in my heart that the Lord would save anyone from the forest. It must have been because you asked him for it. I can tell how deeply the Lord loves you, Lady Elise, and I hope it continues for eternity."

Elise couldn't express how she might had agreed with Dalton's assessment where Ian won't help people. But he wasn't as bad as other think he is either. If there was someone who reached out their hand when they were washed by a rough current, Ian was someone who wouldn't hesitate to reach out his hand, though at times he lack the motivation to do so. "Thank you for your wish, Dalton," Elise answered and the man bowed before he left.

Elise then looked at Ian who was still busy speaking with Kyle, seeming to be talking about something important as there was a faint frown on Kyle's forehead while Ian looked as relaxed as ever. Her stare lingers at him for a good five minutes, noticing other women flocking around him like how it often happen when Ian attend parties or events such as this. The scene ass almost similar to bees around flower, but with Ian's lack of interest to them, there were distance created between him and the rest of the women who resorted to only watch him from afar.

Elise decided to play with the horse and get to know better with it as soon she would be riding the horse when someone who she didn't expect appear behind her, "Elise, I have been wanting to meet you again."

Elise could tell who it was by the voice, turning to confirm her guess that it was the vampire, Edward Harland. The man stood before her with a flashing smile, his cunningness vanished when he speak with Elise as he knew that to speak with her one need to be good at making themselves to be a good person as Elise was quite sharper than others think she was. That sharpness often trouble Edward as he was a sly person since birth. He wondered what was left for him to do when the marriage between Elise and the Warine Lord was near due.

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A/N: Today update will only be a single chapter because I am terribly ill. I am sorry everyone, I will try to regain my health soon. Don't forget to support the author by power stones^^