The Demon’s Bride

"Do you know what mistake you just did?" A sharp cold voice came through the mask. Elise's eyes shook with horror that her knees grew limp. She collapsed down to the floor. She had heard many of curses coming out from her aunt's mouth, but it was her first time to ever heard such a horrifyingly vacant tone reverberating without a single good emotion. The man was angry!

"Yes! You stupid slave did you forgot what they teach you as a slave? You should forever abide by your master's order!" Turisk shouted to the girl to see the man part his hand with the girl and snapped his Crimson eyes to them.

"I'm not saying it to her. You two. Did you know what in the hell's name you have done?" Following his words, Elise saw the fresh flower in the vases grew dull in color before eventually turning black and crisp as it wilted. Across the room, the cup of tea, table, and the frames on the wall shook along with his word. The preserved animal's heads were far frightening than the other things to Elise. As it shook as though it was alive without the rest of the body.

An uncontrollable rage has filled Ian. Someone had harmed his belonging in a way that he detested the most. He wasn't a kind person who would ignore someone harming the little puppy that he had just bought and made her cry. A wound, a wound that was enough to frighten his puppy down to the core, making her to spare tears for damned hooligans.

Alex had his eyes on Ian, "Shit!" He murmured, he forgot that Ian had immense hate to whip wounds! Why does it have to be today when he had just found something amusing? Shit! He cursed again in his thought and ran to take the girl and shield her in case his anger would burst out.

Turisk and the slave guard couldn't understand what mistake they did, the only thing they knew was Lord Ian's anger and instantly plead for their lives.

"F- Forgive us, my lor...d We-"

"Silence." Ian cut in between before running his hand across the guardsman's eyes who shouted on his belonging. "The eyes you used for making her cry and the arm which whipped her. Should I make you cripple for the rest of your life? But surely that's too merciful for you. I should take care of your soul before the grim reaper took it." He whispered with a dark humor rippling.

A shrilling scream was about to ring aloud when he heard Alex's clear voice halting him. "Ian! The girl is here! Stop your damned madness now!"

Ian's hand froze stiffly and the shaking on the whole room also stopped. He turned his eyes to the girl whose face had paled and clicked his tongue.

"Alex. Give them the money-" Ian said as he retracted back his hand to his waist. Alex had a little bewildered expression. He was deeply angered a moment ago and yet now, he had a rather calmed voice. Alex didn't know why but roughly he guessed it must've because the little girl was too frightened by what happened before and he didn't want to make her even more frightened. "-Cut it by three thousand." Suddenly Ian spoke again.

"Huh?" The two men who had been cowering his face exclaimed aloud after knowing the man had cut three thousand gold, leaving them with only a thousand.

"B- But... you said four thousand."

Ian swept his eyes toward Alex and hint him to bring back the girl to the carriage ahead. Alex nodded and coaxed the girl who had been trembling like a leaf to exit the room.

After the loud thud of the door, Ian took off his mask, dropping it off to the rounded desk and pulled his malicious grin as he whispered. "You should be grateful that I would give you a thousand coins for your family to hold a funeral, but greediness truly knows no bound."

Turisk hands moved to back to crawl and saw Ian placing his hand on the guardsman's neck that dared to raise its volume, he clenched and hoisted his body to the air before the man itself could grasp his surroundings.

"Whipping and then screaming to my puppy is enough offense for you to pay with your lives." Turisk heard his sentence ended along with a cold crack from his subordinate's neck. Ian felt it wasn't enough to let him die peacefully and made the man broke only a few bones on his neck.

Ian narrowed his red eyes, pushing his fingers deep to the slave guard's rib cage. He continued to push further, piercing the flesh and nerves until he felt a thumping heart between his flesh. With an unchanging smile, he pulled the heart out giving it a pressuring grip as it burst. The man was still alive for a moment ago, seeing his own heart on Ian's hand his face grew bluer before all the light from his eyes disappeared by the time his heart burst.

Putting aside the corpse under his feet, Ian shifted his murderous eyes toward Turisk.

"I... I have made a grave mistake... please forgive me, my lord!" Although Turisk couldn't understand why the lord suddenly became angry, he immediately cast all his pride aside, crawling to the floor near Ian's shoe sole.

"Mistake? Forgive? That's funny. My little puppy had been wounded. I would only forgive you in two ways. Make her wound disappear in a blink of an eye or your life. I doubt you could do the first one. So I will collect your soul now. Let's see-" his words trailed as he explored the room with his eyes.

Tear stream down over Turisk's ugly expression that always looked over people like money and lust objects. In the corner of the room, the previous servant with a wounded face was also one of his creations after venting his anger to the ill-looking female servant.

"That wound," Ian who spotted the servant on the floor spoke. "Was made by him, am I right?"

The servant nodded as she opened her sunk in cheek to show her mouth which was absent from the tongue.

"He also cut your tongue out?" To this, the servant replied with tears. Just a stream of tears and Ian could see all her suffering under Turisk's violent assaults.

"Huh... How amusing." Ian praised as he walked glanced over his shoulder where a long thin dagger was placed on top of the cabinet. unsheathing the dagger, he slid his fingers across the sharp area to inspect whether it was sharp enough to cut off a tongue.

Turisk who had been peeking under his face saw the frightening smile that twisted the corners of his lips.

"I have found my idea." He smiled like a child who had gotten a very exciting game. "Let's test whether this dagger is sharp enough to cut a tongue, shall we?"

"N- N- No!! Please I beg your mercy.... spare my life, Lord Ian!"

"How funny, when you took that servant's tongue, she also begged for your mercy didn't she? "

Tursik's eyes widened, the teeth he grounded clicked from the lower jaw as Ian pulled his chin up and haul his tongue with the dagger. What came the next after the icy dagger was the burning feeling tearing apart his tongue. Fresh red liquid stream down from Turisk's jaw, lining his neck and coloring the navy color into black.

Ian who usually was efficient in doing his service, took his time with patience, making the man felt torture as he dug his fingernails unto the cushioned chair.

When he was done with his punishment, Ian threw the bloodied tongue across the floor slanting his chin to the servant behind him and walked to place his index finger on the collar to destroy it into small particles like snow. "I helped you with your revenge, now it's your turn to do so."

Ian tossed the dagger for the servant to catch on before shutting the room that echoed with gibberish pleading and shout of death as someone lost their life. Grinning for a moment, he wore his mask once again.