She Belongs To The Devil

It was 6 in the morning and was already time for everyone to wake up. The personal servants and maids of the Princes and Princesses came and knocked on the respective doors of their masters.

In the end, most of them didn't even get a good three hours of sleep.

The Princes and Princesses of Wyverndale were going to have breakfast at 7:30 with the dignitaries of Brenalia. So, they needed to groom themselves before attending the breakfast.

"Osanna, you're already here?" Ariel unlocked the door for Osanna from her bed and mumbled in a little rough morning voice.

Osanna merrily walked inside the room and greeted the Princess. And she asked the Princess in a cheerful voice, "I hope you had a wonderful night, Ariel."

"No... Can't I sleep for 5 more minutes?" Ariel asked for more sleep because she was still feeling way too sleepy.

Osanna smiled and agreed. "Sure. 5 more minutes won't hurt. I will prepare the bath for you by then."

"Thanks!" Ariel covered her face with the blanket and then went back to sleep again.

In the room that was opposite to Ariel's, Kenneth was already up and about. His servant was preparing a warm bath for him. While waiting for the bath, he was sitting down and was going through the schedule for the morning that he had discussed with the King's advisor yesterday night.

When he was still busy looking at the schedules, he heard a knock on the door.

"Yes, come in," he said without taking his eyes off of the file that he was holding.

A servant walked in and bowed to the Crown Prince. He was there with a complaint. "Your Highness, Lord Damien isn't opening the door. I think he is still asleep. He is going to be late for breakfast if he doesn't get up soon."

Kenneth stopped going through the file and thought for a few seconds before saying, "Let him be then. Maybe he doesn't want to be disturbed."

The servant bowed and then left the room.

Kenneth, on the other hand, tried to convince himself that he wasn't deliberately trying to exclude Damien. He was simply allowing his guest to do whatever the hell he wanted to do.

"Your Highness, the bath is ready," his servant came to him and said with a slight bow.

Kenneth put the file aside and then got up on his feet. However, he couldn't just leave Damien alone. He didn't want to postpone the breakfast if the others insisted on waiting for Damien to get ready.

"Argh! This damn demon!" Kenneth whispered irately.

He went and stood close to the wall that he and Damien shared. He stuck his ear on the thick stone walls and tried to listen to any sound coming from Damien's room. He could hear light footsteps.

"He is already awake!" Kenneth let out a sigh of frustration and thought to himself, "So why isn't he opening the door? Doesn't he have any manners? Or is he not used to having servants?"

"Whatever the reason, I don't want him to slow us all down," he thought to himself and then stormed out of his room.

He knocked on Damien's door and called, "Excuse me! Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Kenneth didn't get an answer but he did hear the footstep getting closer to the door. So he waited for Damien to come and open the door while thinking to himself, "Just talk calmly with him. Remember that he is a guest here."

Soon, Damien opened the door and Kenneth could see that he was fresh out of the bath. He still had water droplets dripping down his hair. And he had wrapped a towel around his waist.

Damien kept on staring at Kenneth without speaking a word.

And Kenneth gave an emotionless smile and said to Damien, "Oh, you've already finished bathing. That's great. But you could have let the servant prepare and give you a bath."

Damien nonchalantly replied, "I don't trust anyone else in my room except my own servants and maids."

"Ah!' Kenneth nodded his head and then asked in as polite a voice as he could, "Well then, I trust that you won't be needing any assistance in getting dressed as well?"

"Yes. I won't be needing any servants during my stay here," Damien gave a dismissing smile and walked past Kenneth and out of his room.

Kenneth's gaze followed Damien. And he furrowed his brows when Damien kept on walking towards Ariel's room. He suddenly asked Damien in a surprised voice, "Where are you going?"

"I don't have a change of clothes." Damien glanced at Ariel's room door and said without even looking back at Kenneth, "I wanted to inform Ariel before I went back to my mansion to get some clean clothes."

Before Damien could reach Ariel's door, Kenneth swiftly sprinted and stood in front of Damien like a tall wall. He scoffed at Damien's audacity to walk around half naked. And he pointed at Damien's chest and asked while raising his brows, "Umm… Are you going to show your bare body to a maiden?"

Damien glared at Kenneth and replied in a low growl, "She has already seen me like this. So what's your problem?"

"Excuse me?" Kenneth also challengingly glared back and Damien and asked, "She's already seen you like this? Don't lie to my face! You do realize that you are slandering Ariel's reputation by saying that, right?"

Damien sneered at that man and said in a low voice, "And you do realize that you are being awfully annoying and nosy, right? Just leave me alone."

However, Kenneth was not going to let Damien do everything he wished for. Kenneth kept on glaring at Damien and tried to assert his authority, "You might be used to shamelessly walking around half naked back in Hell. But this is not your domain. This is my castle. And you play by my rules while you are here."

"Rules, my arse!" Damien rolled his eyes at Kenneth. And he tried to walk past him.

However, right at that moment, Ariel flung open her door and shouted, "What the hell is wrong with you two?"

Kenneth immediately turned around and stepped in front of Damien in an attempt to cover Damien's 'shameful' appearance from Ariel.

Ariel could, however, see Damien from the gaps. She coughed softly and mumbled while looking away, "Stop arguing first thing in the morning!"

Ariel had been listening in to their verbal fight from her room. And before things escalated any further, she thought she had to interfere.

Damien furrowed his brows and tried to poke Kenneth away from him. But Kenneth kept on holding his ground like a stubborn child.

Kenneth then smiled at Ariel and said in a rather softer tone, "I was just trying to lay out some ground rules for Damien. That's it. We weren't arguing about anything."

Damien, on the other hand, leaned to the side and gave a sweet smile to Ariel.

However, Ariel looked away from the boys and said, "Okay, but keep it down, please." And she shut the door to her room again, leaving those two alone.

Ariel pressed her back against the door and closed her eyes. Her heart was beating faster so she pressed her palm over her heart and thought to herself, "Ah! That fool is going to get me caught. How can he confidently say that I have already seen him in his stupid towel? Thank the light that he didn't say I had also seen him without the towel!"

She lightly banged her head on the door and cursed herself inwardly. "I should have just come clean. I shouldn't have lied to the others in the first place, regarding how I had met him days before."