Adalina was completely on edge for weeks since some of her memories had returned. How had she lived in the same house as a demon all this time? Why hadn't he just stolen her soul already?
Her heart hammered in her chest when she recalled the feeling of someone being in her room not too long ago. It had to have been Sebastian. No one else could move fast enough to get out of the room before she awoke.
He must have been coming in to steal her soul while she was asleep!
How could she possibly protect herself against that?
But then...if that was true...why did she feel so comforted by his presence all this time? Even the presence that lingered in her room when he had snuck in?
It just didn't make any sense...
She had spent a lot of time with Baldroy in the past few weeks. For the most part, if she was with him, Sebastian left her alone.
Of course, the reason Sebastian had to leave them alone was because each time he saw Baldroy and Adalina together, whether it was them cooking meals or they were simply casually talking as she gave him one of her small smiles, he had to keep himself from ripping the cook's arms and legs from his body.
The same went for whenever he saw her with Finnian out in the gardens.
Adalina liked being outside amongst all the flowers and away from Sebastian. And Finnian was such a bundle of joy and happiness that it was impossible for her to feel afraid when around him.
Sebastian wanted nothing more at the moment than to go to the Grim Reaper Dispatch and personally injure Lukas to the point where it would be centuries before he would even be able to walk again, much less go out and reap souls.
But it was nearly impossible for even him to secretly get inside the Dispatch. The Reapers had highly acute senses of smell, and it wouldn't take long for them to figure out a demon had infiltrated their headquarters. He could admit that he wouldn't fare so well against that many Reapers and Death Scythes.
After Lukas's infractions, the young Reaper was going to be kept under strict watch which meant that it would be even more impossible for Sebastian to get to him.
The fact that the Reaper was going physically unpunished for his crimes was not helping Sebastian's mood.
Ever since Adalina remembered he was a demon, he had had to exhibit more control than usual, and pretty much everyone noticed. The servants treaded on eggshells around him, and even Ciel was a bit wary around him despite knowing that Sebastian could not hurt him per their contract.
The only way Sebastian knew how to make it so that Adalina wasn't afraid of him anymore was if she either regained more of her memories or he saved her from something like last time. Normally, he wouldn't have any problem organizing some kind of kidnapping or something of the like for him to save her from so she would trust him again. But now it was different. He couldn't bring himself to willingly put her in any danger. If anything went wrong (unlikely, but possible), he would never be able to forgive himself.
Adalina was heading to Ciel's study when she heard her name called. She turned around to see Finnian approaching her.
A part of her prepared for the worst. Had he messed something else up yet again that she would have to fix?
Instead of any of that, Finnian looked down at the ground and held out a deep red rose for her. She noticed that he had already removed all of the thorns from the stem. "I know you've been kind of nervous lately since you lost your memories and I know that's probably kind of scary, so I thought I'd give you this, 'cause, you know, it's pretty, like you."
Even if Adalina could speak, she wouldn't know what to say. She was beyond touched at the small act of kindness.
Her hand slowly reached out and took the flower from him. Unable to say anything, she gave him a small hug.
A trace of a blush crossed Finnian's face since Adalina had never done anything like this before even when she did have all of her memories. He had no idea a rose would mean so much to her. If he had known that this would be her reaction, he would've given it to her much sooner.
Sebastian watched the interaction with fury. It should be him that Adalina hugged. But if he attempted to give her a flower of any kind, she would most likely burn it.
It was not fair that she was now comfortable with everyone in the household except him. It seemed as if she didn't remember why the servants had been hired in the first place.
Why couldn't she have remembered that instead of his true identity? He was supposed to be the one she was more comfortable with than anyone. And she had been before Lukas completely ruined everything.
A part of Sebastian knew that he was partly to blame for this whole mess. If he hadn't rejected her kiss before, he would be human by now and she would have nothing to fear. Then he could be close to her and easily get her to fall in love with him again.
Adalina knocked on the door to Ciel's study.
"Yes?" his voice called.
She slowly walked inside.
"Adalina? What is it?"
He handed her a piece of paper to write on. When she gave it back to him, he saw she had written 'Soma & Agni' on it. He hadn't even realized she remembered who they were.
"You want to go see them?"
Adalina nodded.
"Why?"
The head maid looked away from him for a moment. Ciel had a feeling that she simply just wanted to get out of the manor. Sebastian had told him that a few of her memories had returned, including the one where she had found out that he was really a demon. If this time was anything like last time, she must be terrified of him all over again. While he was furious that they were back to that point, getting angry with her wouldn't do any good especially since it wasn't her fault to begin with.
"I don't have a problem with you visiting them," he finally said to her. "I'm sure Sebastian can take over for you until you return. Take one of the carriages, but take Bard with you. And make sure you are back before nightfall."
Adalina smiled a little before she curtseyed and hurried out of the room. She headed towards the kitchen to find the blond cook.
"Hey, Adalina," Baldroy smiled. "Need somethin'?"
Adalina held out the piece of paper she had written on previously.
"Are they comin' here?"
She shook her head and pointed to the both of them before motioning outside.
"We're goin' to them? Why isn't Sebastian goin' with you?"
She shook her head several times which caused Baldroy to laugh a little.
"Okay, I get it, no Sebastian. That's odd, though, the two of you usually do all the travelin' together. Doesn't matter though. I suppose you've already told the young master this?"
She nodded again.
"All right. Then go to the townhouse it is."
Adalina smiled a little as the two of them headed out of the manor and got inside a carriage to see Soma and Agni.
"Mey-Rin?" Sebastian called.
Mey-Rin blushed. "Yes, Sebastian?"
"Have you seen Adalina and Bard? I cannot seem to find them."
"They went to the townhouse, they did. Something about seeing Prince Soma and Agni."
Sebastian turned on his heel and went straight towards Ciel's study. Because he was still a servant, he had to stop himself from barging in. Instead he knocked on the door doing his best to not pound on it.
"What is it now?" Ciel called.
Sebastian quickly walked inside. "Why are Bard and Adalina going to the townhouse?"
"Adalina wanted to go, and she needed someone to accompany her. I thought she could use a break from being around you since she's been having a lot of anxiety about you these past couple of weeks. The break will do her good and get her back to protecting the manor the way she should be."
"My lord, you cannot possibly trust that man to protect her."
"I trust him to protect me, don't I?"
"Well, yes, but that is when he is here and has access to the guns and weapons he needs."
"Bard won't let anything happen to her."
"The last two times she went into town, she has gotten caught in very bad situations, one even I couldn't prevent from happening."
"Well, the Grim Reaper has been taken care of, and Adalina now knows self-defense and is capable of protecting herself."
"She cannot remember learning any of that."
"Why do you care anyway?"
Sebastian fought to keep his eyes from glowing. "It is not important, my lord."
"Good. Now since Bard's gone, you're responsible for lunch and dinner. Shouldn't be too difficult since you usually do his job anyway."
"Yes, my young lord."
As Sebastian left the room, he gritted his teeth together, his fangs beginning to show as it got harder to maintain his human form. His whole body shook with anger and the feeling he got when someone tried to take his contracted soul.
If that brat didn't have such a delicious soul, he would be dead by now.
He knew that he had to get rid of this anger, or the next person who even looked at him was going to suffer greatly and that would ruin his butler aesthetics he worked so hard to follow.
He quickly exited the manor and leapt up into the air before taking off at a fast speed to a forest far from the manor so neither his young master nor any of the servants could hear any results of his anger.
Once he was sure he was secluded from the rest of the city, his eyes began to glow as black feathers dropped to the ground. Sebastian shed his human form and transformed into his hideous true form.
With a loud enraged shout to the sky, at least twenty trees experienced the wrath of the demon's fury. They fell to the forest floor completely covered in deep scratches that couldn't belong to any animal. The ground got torn up and mutilated in such a way that the next person who walked through the forest would believe that there was some kind of monster loose.
Once his tantrum had subsided, Sebastian composed himself and turned back into his human form. He took a few deep breaths as he surveyed the damage he had caused. It was pretty terrible, but he had done worse in the past.
If Baldroy let anything happen to Adalina, he wasn't so sure he would be able to control himself again.
Adalina smiled a little as the carriage pulled up to Ciel's townhouse. It stopped in front, and Baldroy stepped out first so he could help Adalina out. He may be a terrible cook, but he did know how to be polite.
Before they could even make it to the door, Prince Soma raced out and hugged Adalina. She lightly patted his arms in a rather pathetic return hug. Were they this close before?
"What are you doing here?" he practically yelled. "We were not expecting you for a long time! You just visited only a couple months ago."
Adalina furrowed her brows together. She hadn't seen Soma and Agni in almost a year...right?
"Adalina's lost some of her memories," Baldroy explained for her. "They're starting to come back a little at a time, but it's slow."
"My prince, I was wondering where you had run off to," Agni called as he stepped outside as well. He clapped his hands together and bowed at the two of them. "Namaste jī."
Baldroy clapped his hands together as well. "Yeah, namas...what you said."
Soma threw himself on Agni weeping hysterically like only he could do. "Oh, Agni, it is terrible! Adalina has lost her memory, and only some of it has come back!"
Tears formed in Agni's eyes also as he gently held the prince. "Prince Soma, please stay strong for her sake. We must pray that her memories will return in time."
Adalina looked up at Baldroy for a moment, wondering if this was really happening in front of her. She knew the two men could be rather emotional, but all this over something as trivial as her memory loss?
"Come inside," Agni said to them. "I just finished preparing lunch."
The four of them went inside the townhouse and headed to the dining room. Agni happily served them all even though two of them were servants. When they tried to help, he insisted that they were guests and that he should be the one serving them, not the other way around.
"Why did you decide to come here?" Soma asked.
"Bit of a social call this time," Baldroy answered for her. "I guess the young master thought Adalina needed a break or somethin', but he didn't want her going alone. I was elected to go with her this time."
"Wait a minute, why are you here instead of Sebastian?"
"You got me. I was told to bring her here, so I did."
"I do not mind. As I mentioned to Adalina, Sebastian is rather frightening."
Baldroy chuckled. "He can be, but he's human enough."
Adalina wanted to laugh at the sheer irony of that statement.
"I have never met a human who could be so intimidating."
"Ain't that the truth."
That was because he wasn't human. He was a demon. That was the whole reason she was here. She just needed to be away from him for a little while. Just for a couple hours.
She wondered if he could easily find her no matter where she went. Now that she was this connected to him, could she ever really escape him?
No need to think on those things now. Now she was visiting with two people she considered to be friends, even if she couldn't remember every encounter between them.
The four of them sat and talked (well, the three of them talked while Adalina listened and gave the occasional nod or shake of the head) for a while and for a few moments, Adalina actually felt really relaxed. The extreme tension and anxiety she had been feeling these past few weeks were lifted off her shoulders.
At one point, she gave just a tad more than her usual barely noticeable smile, and it almost made Soma have a heart attack seeing as he had never seen such a thing from her before.
Time went by too fast, and before she realized it, the sun had started to go down. She knew that they had to get going if they were to be back at the manor by nightfall. The last thing she wanted was to be in the same house as a demon and an angry master.
Soma tackled her in another hug. "I do not want you to leave yet!"
"She probably don't wanna leave either," Baldroy smiled. "But the young master ordered us to be back soon."
"Well, fine. But do not stay away too long. And please let us know if all of your memories come back!"
"Farewell, my friends," Agni smiled. "We look forward to your return."
Adalina curtseyed before she and Baldroy headed back to the carriage.
Baldroy noticed on the ride back that she looked just a bit happier than she had on the way there.