Chapter • 41

♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱

There was something different when I woke up, it was hard to say exactly what, but something had changed. Whether this was good or not, I was still trying to decide.

"Are you ready, ma'am?"

One of the maids asked and I could only grumble and raise one of my hands.

"I just woke up, do you really think I'm ready?"

It was obvious, but still the woman laughed and without delay stood beside me.

"Then you'd better get up, ma'am."

I didn't want to get up, actually the room seemed more comfortable than usual.

"Hummmm..." grunted and the maid pulled me by the arm.

"Ma'am, I would... Today is the day where you will accompany the king to the village of Noir, you cannot lie down..." she spoke while trying to talk to me, but... I could leave Callisto waiting a little, right? How about a few hours? Am? I think it's a great idea.

"I know what you're thinking," she said, "and no, she can't."

Grunhi.

Frustrating.

Dealing with my maids had begun to be frustrating.

"You have no heart," I grumbled trying to sink deeper into my pillows, but she soon pulled me hard and pulled me out of bed.

"No, no, ma'am, no. I have no heart, I'm a succubus, after all" she said with a smile "we don't need one, after all... we have a collection of the ones we destroy."

I laughed, but a part of me didn't know if it was out of desperation or because I thought it was funny.

I was hoping for the second.

Keep mumbling, but to no avail. She kept insisting until she finally took me to the bath and dressed me. They were getting used to my "new style" as they called it and none of the maids suggested me one of those flashy dresses.

I liked those dresses, they were beautiful - but not practical to visit villages and not comfortable to stay in bed. So I wore them, but only when I wanted to feel great.

"So much better, don't you think?" She was smiling from corner to corner and all I wanted was to go back to bed, but I had to admit, she had done a good job.

Hair caught in a braid, eyes highlighted with eyeliner, black clothes - completely black -, distributed in shirt, cosert, tights and boots. High boots.

I took the pair of gloves left on the couch and sighed.

"Thank you" I said as I stared at the succubus "but still preferred my bed" I provoked.

"And I'd rather not serve the future substitute for the next little prince of sloth, but we can't have what we want, can we, ma'am?" She returned it and I couldn't help but wonder: why didn't Asra talk to those people?

They were all... quirky, fun and somehow - full of life.

I sighed, maybe it was better not to know, because I still remembered that dream lived and honestly... did not want another of it.

When I reached the ground floor, Callisto was there, waiting for me in front of the carriage that would be pulled by black horses with crimson eyes.

"Are you ready?" he asked me, as if somehow I was going to give up at the last moment.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You're asking the wrong question" I said, "I should be asking if the supplies, the mages and the guards we sent, really got there."

Calisto smiled, a brief but beautiful smile.

"Azrael said that everything is going well, everything is in order in the village and that we will see it when we get there."

Those words seemed to me more a threat than a certainty, but still I nodded.

He did not trust Azrael and sincerely knew he was right in that regard, but... would he be able to do something when the king was around?

There was a limit you couldn't cross when you had a double image role, but... Azrael didn't have that role.

He was an agent of heaven and Callisto saw him as his faithful man. Would he have the benefit of doubt even if he did something stupid?

My head was spinning after that, but smiles, a faint smile.

"Great, but... could you give me a moment?" I asked and before hearing Callisto's response, I returned to my room practically running.

Left, left, under the cushion on the third chair.

There it was! A crimson blade, laden with cursed magic.

When Asmodeus suggested that I carry her with me - I refused without thinking twice and he insisted.

"You never know, right?" That's what he told me as he put it there.

If Asmodeus were in front of me now, I'd kiss him.

I hid the gun inside the corset and took the pair of earrings that had been on my bedside since the moment I arrived at the third territory, it had also been Asmodeus who left them there - a gift he said, but I would recognize them anywhere -Calisto was still waiting for me, but now it seemed confused.

"Is everything all right?"

I settled.

"I had forgotten my favorite earrings" I said tapping my ears and making more obvious the pair of earrings that Asmodeus had given to Asra on her 500th birthday as duchess.

That was expected of Asra, of the ancient Asra and maybe that's why he just ignored it.

Sometimes it would be nice to be someone seen as futile.

We entered the carriage before he had time for more questions and on the way, the king did not take his eyes off me.

"I thought I had refused this gift," he said as if he was pulling something and instinctively touched my ears.

The earrings of Asmodeus.

They were made of crimson stones, an ancient crystal that was born only in the ninth territory and could only be collected by the power of a dragon.

Those earrings were made by Asmodeus for Asra, he forged them himself - but as Asra loved Callisto, she refused them in front of everyone present at her celebration, to accept the black diamond earrings that Callisto sent her.

Callisto was not present that day, but still she refused Asmodeus' gift.

My jaw is stuck.

"Well, in the end I prefer red to black stones, so I accepted them," I said and a part of me, wanted him to touch himself, to understand how stupid it had been.

He had no right to say anything about that gift. It was precious, it was a gift from Asmodeus.

"These are my favorite earrings."

⋅• ♱ •⋅