Dyrroth's small smile never fled his face.

---

As usual, Ruby simply tried to fall asleep the next day. It wasn't like she had anything else to do anyway. She couldn't stop thinking about her friends. Were Kagura and Harley worrying about her constantly? Harley probably didn't give a shit. But knowing Kagura and her wise personality, she'd be trying to come up with a plan to find Ruby and have all three of them escape together. Ruby felt bad for making her worried.

She wondered about Lesley. What was she most likely to be doing right now? Probably being very stressed, or screaming at the Moniyan Empire to hurry up and rescue her friends. Either that, or she'd decided to do the smart thing and not stress herself out. Ruby couldn't help wondering about Alucard as well, and whether he was concerned about her safety. She didn't really know whether she wanted him to care or not.

Just then, she heard people shouting on the other side of her door. Frowning, Ruby strained her ears to make out what they were saying.

'Selena, you're not supposed to go in, you're disobeying the prince's orders-'

'I don't freaking care! Leave me alone!' Ruby gritted her teeth in annoyance. She already knew exactly who that sickening voice belonged to.

Seconds later, the door banged open violently, and Selena stormed through it, looking enraged. Her scowl deepened when she laid her venom-filled pink eyes on Ruby. Moskov hurried through the door behind her in a panicky manner, shutting it so they wouldn't be overheard.

'Selena, I'm telling you, you can't be in here-'

'Shut it!' snarled Selena mercilessly, getting in the Abyssal Demon's face with a sneer. 'Get out of here.'

Moskov's eyes narrowed. After a while, he grudgingly replied, 'Only if you promise you're going to leave as soon as you're done with whatever you're planning to do.'

'Ugh, whatever!' Selena snapped viciously. 'Get out. Now.' With impatience radiating off her, she shoved an uncomfortable-looking Moskov out of the door.

Then she turned to Ruby.

As much as Ruby hated to admit it, a nearly imperceptible feeling of fear spiked through her. There was an anger, a hatred so genuine in Selena's face that Ruby had never seen before. She wasn't afraid of her, but in this situation, Selena had the power to hurt her, and Ruby wouldn't even be able to defend herself.

'What do you want?' Ruby asked sharply, gathering her courage.

Selena advanced towards her, sneering. She grabbed the bars of Ruby's cage, curling her fearsome claws around them, and fixed her hate-filled pink eyes on Ruby, who was intimidated but refused to cower. 'What do I want?' Selena hissed. 'I want to know why the Hell Dyrroth cares about you so much!'

Ruby stared at her.

'You know what he said to me? He asked me to not starve you or hurt you in any kind of way! He even told me I wasn't allowed to come in here anymore. Like, what kind of bullshit is that? What the hell did you say to him?'

Is she joking?

Ruby's jaw practically dropped to the floor in incredulity. She'd been expecting something much more important than that. She was in so much disbelief, she almost felt embarrassed for thinking Selena was mad over something more significant.

Her incredulity made her reckless. 'I overestimated you, Selena, I really did,' she said seriously. 'I thought you had at least some sense in you, but now I can see you clearly don't. Because you're angry at me over a matter as unimportant as this.'

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