The Demon’s Bride

 Esther had brought Dominic into another room. She didn't know what room it was but the place was better than nothing. She needed a room to speak with Beelzebub alone.

"What do you think of her?" Esther questioned, her voice lowered as she realized that the house itself must have been made by using magic. She wasn't sure when would they use their magic to eavesdropped to their conversation.

"I don't know," Beelzebub answered honestly. "She isn't lying but I can tell she's hiding a big chunk from her words. I was thinking whether I can face her at once in a fight."

Esther raised her eyebrows, "And what did you found out?"

"It won't be an easy fight," he answered and this was enough for Esther to determined the woman's power. Beelzebub was a strong high demon and being a high demon there was only a few people who could go against him. 

If he had weighed the power of the demoness to be even leveled or maybe higher than him, it would only mean rejecting the woman would be troublesome. 

But Esther had no fear of going against the woman if she decided this offer was as dangerous as how fishy it sounded to her ears.

Esther looked over her shoulders, "You are not planning to agree, are you?"

Beelzebub offered her a cheeky smile. He went and took her wrist, bringing her to take a seat toward the nearest coach. Holding her hands together he then said, "I honestly think that the possibility she serve isn't that small. There is still, in the end, success in her experiments."

"Beel—" she whispered in the lowest voice possible that only her mouth can be seen opened for a split of second.

"But," he stopped her first, "I have no plan to die either, darling. I do stand by your guess as well. There's something fishy— very fishy from that woman. No fish and yet she stinks."

Esther can't help but chuckle, "What could be her plan?"

"One thing I can make sure in her top priority plan is to leave this mansion," Beelzebub answered her instead and Esther who saw this as an unexpected guess raised both her eyebrows. 

"Why this mansion?"

"I noticed. She seem to be unable to move right now. She didn't welcome us and perhaps as the head of the house, she doesn't need to do that. Her servant could attend her need, but what about the time we talked to her? She used her mirror instead," Beelzebub pointed out.

Esther also thought it was strange but she didn't know it was also strange for demons as most demons were strange in their behavior, "I thought she liked to present herself that way."

"I don't think so," Beelzebub answered to her, "Yet no matter how strong she is, she wasn't able to leave the mirror or the mansion— mansion, I say— because even though she was able to make this phenomenon of an icy mountain she never stepped out of her mansion. I suspect the person that those men from the bar met wasn't her but her maids who she had possessed."

"Empty heart curse," whispered Esther who suddenly felt the idea popping inside her mind.

"True," Beelzebub snapped his fingers, "That should be her secret, her curse, but I don't sense her missing heart which is strange."

"Let's stay here and observe," suggested Esther which Beelzebub agreed to.

When the supper time arrived, the time in which Esther had been waiting for, she awaited for the demoness's appearance but she didn't come at all. 

Curiously, Esther who barely ate the food served on the table to her own guard, looked at the same maid who had showed her the way inside earlier, "Where is the lady?"

"Due to the wound on her face, she is uncomfortable to be seated in front of a person and eat together with them," the maid replied smoothly as if she had learned what to say to the question that was asked.

But Esther knows that the woman wasn't afraid, shy, nor upset to show her wounded face.

Beelzebub also noticed this and nodded to hear once she had asked the maid the question.

After the supper ended, Esther stopped the maid, "I want to look around the house, will that be alright to your lady?"

The maid didn't reply at once before nodding her head, "I am certain the lady would not mind but please keep in mind that inside the room that could be danger and I advise you not to enter the room recklessly."

Esther hadn't finished her questioned to interrogate the maid but as if knowing this, the maid had left and walked off, making her way far from them.

"It's an idea that is both far-fetched and not," Esther said to Beelzebub when she stood beside him. "Do you think it's possible this woman isn't the same woman from that tale?"

She had the same mansion, the same beautiful face and aloof characteristic; she spoke about Ariel and even sounded so believable to Esther's ears and Beelzebub who could detect lies, but Esther knows something wasn't right here.

"For certain, that's possible," Beelzebub didn't seem to be surprised by her sudden idea and she suspect he also thought it was possible for the woman to pretend to be the demoness in the children's tale.

"Let's observe the house together. I don't want them to take a chance and harm you in any way," Beelzebub said to Esther, holding her hands. Esther agreed firmly and they both made their way outside the hallway.

From behind, one of the same maid whose face mirrored each other stood in the silence, appearing at the end of the hallway which Esther and Beelzebub had just walked out from.

In another part of the room, the demoness at red at her wounded hands, her finger rubbed the coarse part of her skin and she could hear the sound of footsteps from behind her.

"It won't take long but certainly they are very perceptive children," said the woman, "You will give me what you promised, won't you?"

The person standing behind her didn't answer but disappear in a thin air.

Yet despite not receiving any reply, the demoness clutched her hand so tightly over the hairbrush in a deep resentment as though the person from behind her had insulted her.

Back in the garden where Esther and Beelzebub had decided to investigate, they looked around the place, stomping the part of the road that were thinly covered by the snow.

"I thought there would be at least one or two graves here," Esther whispered.

"That's not always the case. We don't need a tombstone to make a grave," reminded Beelzebub which Esther almost forgotten about.

Walking away from the south part of the garden to the west part which was made to be the opposite of the south part, Esther grunted when she couldn't find anything strange out of sight.

"Maybe it would have been better to search inside the house as you said, Beel," Esther told him.

Beelzebub shook his head. They had stopped at a gazebo, and Esther decided to take a sit when they stopped by the place.

"I can feel it, something is off with his garden as well. Do you saw it?" Beelzebub questioned but Esther couldn't understand it. He noticed this and said, "When we go around this garden from south to the east, didn't you see the same flower in the corner of the pathway having the same exact form to the north and the west?"

Esther didn't see it well and she stood up to go around the garden, this time keeping her focus on the flower which Beelzebub mentioned. She was taken aback to see how Beelzebub was correct.

The same flower, no, it wasn't only the flower but the entire design of the garden was the same exact as the opposite side of the garden.

"Are we repeating place?" Esther asked.

"I noticed her twin maids and thought it would be foolish if this was her house concept but if I am correct then it explained this garden," Beelzebub's explanation only cause Esther to be more confused. "This garden is divided into half, Esther. From the start of the garden to the end which is the gazebo.. One half is taken and the same way as the mirror work, it is reflected to form the other half."