She Belongs To The Devil

"The sky looks closer from here," Ariel said in a soft voice while looking at the night sky.

She not only noticed how they appeared to be closer to the cliff where the castle stood, but she also noticed how she was seeing different constellations of the stars than the ones she saw from back at her Palace.

"Right… it looks closer."

Ariel pursed her lips as she looked at the aura of Kenneth and the twins. And she thought to herself, "Argh! Why did today's dinner go the way it did. Now all of them are sad."

She was thinking about things that she could possibly do to uplift their mood.

Right then, Zach ran forward and took the matter into his own hand.

"Ken, don't look so sad…"

Ariel smiled while gazing at Zach and Kenneth. And her eyes trailed to the far end of an alley between the tower and the building of the castle. She turned to look at those who were walking in front of her. But then she widened her eyes and gave another look at that alley.

"Damien?" She furrowed her brows and thought to herself, "What is he doing out here? I specifically told him not to get out of the room!"

She was going to let him be but the presence of his aura was weak. She was so worried about him that she forgot she was with the others. And without giving them an excuse, she instantly ran towards the alley to check on Damien.

Ariel slowed down and carefully walked forward once she was near the area where the aura was concentrated the most.

She looked around. There weren't any guards patrolling that area at the moment. Nor was there anyone else.

So she looked up in front of her and softly called him, "Damien? Are you alright?"

However, she heard a soft moan coming from the ground. "Hmm… Ary?"

Ariel was shocked. She instantly crouched down and then tried to touch Damien. Her fingertips touched his face. She tapped him lightly on his forehead and asked in a whisper, "Damien? What happened? Did you collapse?

I told you not to leave the room."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to trouble you. So I…" Damien grunted as if he was in physical pain.

Ariel felt a sharp pain in her heart. She worriedly tapped on his forehead again and asked him, "Damien, remove your spell, quick. It's draining you even more. I will pass you some energy."

Damien was already feeling too weak. He was feeling as if he would pass out due to extreme exhaustion of his energy. So he thought that accepting Ariel's help at the moment would put her in less trouble.

He pressed his palm on his chest, and almost instantly, he came into Ariel's view.

Ariel's heart clenched upon seeing his pale face and purple lips. "Oh, Damien! I should have found you sooner…"

She instantly held his palm and began to pour her energy into his body.

Soon, Damien's lips turned back to being light red, and the colors on his face also returned.

Now that Damien was rejuvenating, he gazed at Ariel's face. She looked utterly troubled and sorry.

She also looked into his eyes. And she said in a whisper, "Dame, I'm so sorry!"

Damien smiled and whispered back, "It's not your fault that I can't handle some silly spells." And he added somewhat sadly, "I wonder if I can ever be as powerful as my mother."

"Don't look so sad." Ariel grabbed Damien's jaw and gently shook his head as if to shake off that sadness. "Your mother has lived for eons. You cannot expect to be at her level when you're just twenty-one!"

Damien held Ariel's wrist and shifted her palm to his cheek. He smiled at her and said, "Thanks! And I think I will be fine now. I don't want you to drain your energy."

Ariel felt her heart skip a beat when she saw his smile. So she gently slapped him and offered her hand. "Okay, then. Get up."

Damien grabbed her hand and then got up on his feet. He could feel his body back to its full potential.

"Look at you! You're covered in dirt," Ariel dusted his bare arm, and then slowly moved back and began dusting his vest.

She was so immersed in that moment that she didn't even realize she had left everyone a while ago.

On the other side, everyone waited for a while for Ariel to show up on her own. Kenneth and Niylah could smell her. So they assumed that she was somewhere near, probably fixing her gown or something.

However, when she didn't return for quite a while, Niylah volunteered to go and look for her. She followed Ariel's smell and stood at the entrance of the alley.

But she quickly turned on her heels and went to reunite with the group. Her eyes had deceived her into thinking that some man and a woman were having their private time there in that alley. And before she even had time to clearly see Ariel and Damien, she ran away feeling flustered.

"What happened?" Ramon asked Niylah.

To which, she replied shyly, "It was someone else."

Zach sighed loudly and asked, "What? Then where did she go? Did she go back to her room?"

Kenneth was now a little worried since he knew that she didn't have a great relationship with her paternal side. And if she was to disappear from his castle, he wouldn't be able to show his face to Ariel's parents for life.

"I'll go look for her," he mumbled and was about to rush away when suddenly, the King's advisor called him.

"Your Highness, I was looking for you," he came up to the Crown Prince and bowed. And he asked, "I had a few things to discuss for tomorrow."

Kenneth, however, tried to chase him away for now. "I'm a little occupied. Can we talk later in the meeting room?"

But the advisor insisted, "It won't take much time."

Kenneth sighed and asked the others, "Will you all look for Ariel? I will join you soon."

The others agreed with Kenneth.

"Why don't we look for her separately?" Ramon suggested the others. And when they agreed, he pointed in the direction of the alley and the residence and said, "I will look if she has already gone to her room. You two search for her outside."

They then dispersed while the Crown Prince talked with the advisor.

Ramon then walked in the opposite direction from where they were standing. When he reached the alley, even though Niylah had said earlier that there was someone else there in the alley, his head involuntarily turned.

He saw the silhouette of a man and a woman standing a little further away. His eyes weren't as sharp as his sister's. But the silhouette of that woman looked very familiar. "Why is she beating that man?"

"Isn't that Ariel? But Niylah told us it was not. But she looks so similar." Ramon squinted his eyes and tried to see that woman's face. But she was too far and the alley was dark.

So he turned to face the alley and shouted, "Ariel! Is that you?"

Both Ariel and Damien were startled to their core when they heard Ramon's voice all of a sudden.