'So it's settled then,' announced Dyrroth with an air of finality. 'We'll attack the City of the Dragon as soon as we're ready. Can't give those humans a chance to escape once word of the Black Forest village's downfall gets out.' He prodded the old, large map of the Land of Dawn that lay spread out on the table, his gaze flicking over his abyssal allies who were listening intently to him. 'Any questions?'
All along the table, the demons murmured 'no' or shook their heads. 'No, Your Highness,' replied Selena with a charming smile, ever the confident elf she was.
Dyrroth blatantly ignored her. He often found Selena extremely annoying. 'Right,' he said, folding the large map into a narrow square. 'The meeting's over. All of you can go get some rest.'
One by one, the demons stood up to leave. They all seemed to be pretty exhausted, and Dyrroth wondered if he was supposed to feel angry at them for that. He didn't. All he felt was a hint of sympathy.
Selena wiggled her fingers at him, a flirtatious smile plastered across her face. Dyrroth resisted the urge to roll his eyes to the skies and waved back at her lazily. Goddamn annoying.
'That went fairly well,' remarked a wry voice from behind him. Dyrroth turned around, momentarily surprised, and saw Alice appraising him from under half-closed eyelids, a sly smile gracing her lips. He'd forgotten she was there. 'You're getting better at conducting meetings. Only several days ago, you were getting bombarded with highly inappropriate questions.'
Dyrroth shrugged half-heartedly. 'Nah, they were just tired today. They were displaying it very clearly.' He ran his claws through his light blond hair with a ragged sigh.
'You seem tired too,' commented Alice, a subtle curiosity in her voice. 'Of what, I wonder?'
He leaned against the wall beside his mom - although she didn't act like one - and craned his head back, resting his head on the cold stone. 'Oh, well, kinda like everything,' he answered.
For a moment Alice was uncharacteristically quiet. Then, with an inquisitive glance, she said, 'You told me you would try to find the hunter girl and get rid of her so she couldn't defend her village? Did you get to kill her?'
Dyrroth briefly contemplated whether to lie to her, but decided not to. Alice nearly always could detect a bluff when one was present. 'I couldn't find her. She ran off when I least expected her to, and she was really fast,' he said, adding a hint of shame into his voice.
That was a lie, which sort of defeated the purpose of not saying he'd killed her. Idiot, he told himself silently.
Alice was scrutinizing him wordlessly. Dyrroth knew he was being seen through just by that faint prickle of discomfort at the back of his neck.
'If she's fast enough to outrun you, she must be skilled,' said Alice, quirking an eyebrow at him. 'What was her name?'
'Ru-' He practically bit his tongue to shut himself up. That one syllable had escaped his mouth before he could stop it.
Shit, shit, shit.
Something changed in Alice's eyes. Dyrroth didn't need to meet the sharp accusation in her gaze to know that he was in big trouble. Not that he particularly feared his mom. 'You seem to be very familiar with her,' said Alice wryly, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Perhaps she appeared to be taking it lightly, but Dyrroth knew her well. There was something hard and calculating in the stare she pinned on him that said otherwise.
'I - no, Mom. I'm not,' he responded with an indignant look at Alice. 'I just-'
'Somehow know her name?'
'No. I just thought she was pretty interesting for a human. That's it. Nothing more.' Dyrroth sounded defiant, and hopefully not at all guilty. He prided himself on his ability to lie smoothly.
Alice remained silent for a while, her eyes on the stone floor as she pondered. She was probably testing his explanation for loopholes, parts of his story that didn't make sense. Finally, just as the tension in the room was becoming too much too bear, she spoke.
'What you want to waste your time on isn't mine to decide,' she stated slowly, 'and I know you're a growing teenager, you'll naturally run into problems like these. But please.' Her expression deftly rearranged itself into a piercing, threatening glare. 'Don't get distracted by someone as lowly as a human girl. You know who you're betrothed to. As a prince, you should be responsible.'
This time Dyrroth couldn't hold back a scowl. He'd heard this shit countless times, from various people, and it seriously grated on his nerves. 'As if that stupid elf girl would ever let me forget we have to marry,' he snapped. 'Why can't I be with someone I actually like?'
'Because,' said Alice sharply, raising her voice a little, 'you are a prince.'
Dyrroth gritted his teeth. 'So what?' he bit out savagely. 'Shouldn't I have the right to decide for myself, then, if I'm someone of such high status?'
'I'm afraid not,' snapped Alice. 'I worked so hard to make you the Prince of the Abyss, so act like it. Otherwise I'll have no choice but to dethrone you.'
What happened to 'What you want to waste your time on isn't mine to decide'? Dyrroth hated talking to Alice when she was being unreasonable, which was most of the time. He knew, from experience, that when Alice acted this way, it was best to leave it or switch the topic. And he was feeling weary after all.
With an air of exasperation, Dyrroth pushed away from the stone wall, avoiding Alice's piercing gaze on him. 'Look, whatever. I'm gonna go get some sleep if you don't mind.'
'Remember what I told you,' warned Alice sternly as he turned his back on her and strode away.
As if I could ever forget.
Being the Prince of the Abyss was harder than it seemed. Not only were there tons of responsibilites and burdens he had to bear, but his freedom was also close to none. He knew there was a reason why he felt compelled to sneak out and watch the hunter girl - Ruby - almost every single day, though he didn't know why. The truth was buried somewhere so deep inside his heart, it was out of his reach. But he was sure the inexplicable and strange feeling he possessed for her that bound them together was genuine. He simply knew it.
---
Ruby was forced to settle down at Lesley's house for the night, because she clearly had nowhere else to stay. It was a bitter thought. She'd also borrowed some of Lesley's clothes, oversized as they were for her.
Harith and Harley had somewhat eagerly agreed to share the couch in the living room for a night. And Ruby would be sharing the only guest room with Kagura, since her friend had made it clear she wasn't going anywhere else. She'd clarified that, no matter what happened, she would be there to support Ruby and help her. Ruby had almost cried at her touching words. She didn't deserve a friend as kind-hearted as Kagura.
Ruby wasn't in a good mood. She felt tempted to collapse into her mattress and sleep for a thousand years. That was sort of what she tried to do, if Kagura hadn't stopped her with an unusually serious look.
'Ruby,' she said, deftly stopping Ruby before her head could hit the pillow beneath it, 'I need to talk to you.'
Ruby stilled noticeably. Although she totally didn't feel like talking, pushing Kagura away would've been a tad too tactless. 'What's up?' she asked.
Kagura still wasn't smiling, which Ruby found a little unsettling. 'Girl, I'm not a fool, okay?' she almost drawled, very uncharacteristically. 'Lesley, Harley and Harith may not have taken you seriously, but I know you better.'
'What?' Ruby remained dubious. 'Get to the point.'
For a good while Kagura just stared at her with uninterested eyes. Then she raised her right hand, curling two of her fingers into quotation marks, and said, ' 'Dyrroth'. You called him 'Dyrroth'. That's what I'm worried about. And there's no way I'm going to act like that's no big deal, the way the others did. Something is off, and I know it.'
Sometimes, Ruby just wished Kagura weren't such a smart-ass. She shifted uncomfortably where she sat, avoiding her friend's sapphire-blue eyes. 'What's off exactly?' she questioned.
Mild impatience flickered across Kagura's face. 'Let's see,' she started, squaring her shoulders. 'So, before, you were really intimidated by all those rumours of the Prince of the Abyss' cruelty, and you thought he was a horrible person. Or technically, demon. And then, once you've actually come face-to-face with him, you accidentally call him by his first name although nobody we know addresses him as 'Dyrroth'. And when we point that out, you act really shy although I expected you to be guilty, because it sort of seemed like you were on a first-name basis with our enemy.'
Ruby blinked twice. She was finding Kagura's words a bit hard to follow, but she understood enough to be defiant. 'In my defense, I was forced to call him Dyrroth, because he was trying to avoid my question and-'
'Ruby, I haven't finished talking. As I was saying, you were acting shy instead of guilty, and what increased my suspicion was the fact you were blushing when you realised your mistake.'
Ruby flushed in embarrassment. Her uncooperative cheeks often had a habit of unveiling her humiliation when she least wanted them to. 'Listen, whatever you think is going on between me and Dy- the Prince of the Abyss- 'she corrected herself hastily- 'I'm going to make it clear, I have absolutely no feelings towards him.' She didn't know whether or not that was true, but she desperately hoped she hadn't developed a crush on a demon prince.
Kagura opened her mouth as if to fire back an indignant rebuttal, but then decided not to. She quietened, appraising Ruby thoughtfully. Ruby tried not to be too transparent. Kagura was shockingly good at reading people.
Finally, Kagura let out a heavy sigh. 'Ah, fine. I'll let it go. Not that you've convinced me-' She shot Ruby a knowing look- 'but one day, you'll be ready to tell me the truth, and when you are, please do, okay?' She smiled at her friend a little sheepishly, rearranging her pillows. 'Goodnight, Ruby.'
Ruby was slightly startled. She'd been on such high alert during the conversation with Kagura that she'd nearly forgotten all about getting some rest. Kagura had dropped the topic unexpectedly fast, too. 'Goodnight,' she responded, a warm smile spreading across her face.
---
That night, Ruby lay awake in her heaping mound of pillows, unable to get even a wink of sleep. There were too many unavoidable thoughts crowding her mind, ones she couldn't simply push away. Too many answers she needed.
Why does he care so much about me?
The 'he' didn't require any interpretation. With an agitated grunt, Ruby sat up, running her hands through her unkempt hair. She was confused, and irritated because of that.
What on Earth does he want from me?
And what do I want from him?
Ruby absolutely hated feeling as though she owed someone she wasn't supposed to owe. It made her feel muddled, out of place. And she sort of owed the evil prince her life, for he'd prevented her from being discovered by Selena, and that had indirectly saved her.
She let out another incoherent grumble. Earlier during the day, she'd been stressing over Alucard and his stupid girlfriend. Now she was practically bursting her brain trying to have Dyrroth figured out. Why the Hell are boys so impossible? It seemed like she would never know the answer to that question.
Dyrroth was even further out of her reach than Alucard was - or had been. He was the Prince of the Abyss. And Ruby was nothing but an insignificant human being. Chasing after him wasn't going to result in anything other than complete disaster.
Ruby bit back yet another grumble and fell back onto her mound of pillows, trying to demolish all thought of Dyrroth. She probably wasn't going to succeed in falling asleep. But then again, she hadn't requisitioned so many pillows for nothing.
So she tried her best to sleep.