Catch The Soul

"W-what do I have to do?" A poor beautiful girl with platinum hair was shaking while holding a piece of paper. Her eyes shifted back and forth crazily to the point she could feel herself getting dizzy.

"Just transmit your holy energy into that paper." The red-haired man nonchalantly answered.

"L-like this?"

Liliana shut her eyes tight and squeezed her brows together. Her mouth was mumbling something when her hands holding the talisman started to glow with white light.

'Wow~ she really looks holy.' Aeson looked in fascination. He never got the chance to witness all these holy powers up close when he traveled to these Western fantasy worlds before. 

At this moment, Alfred had said that he needed to reveal the true soul of the daughter of the Demon King and it required a little bit of holy power. He planned to just bring Liliana with him to Luciel but Aeson stopped him because he felt it would be too dangerous. Even in the original "original" plot, Liliana got to train and discovered her potential as a saintess before facing the villains. Looking at the current flustering and trembling saintess, Aeson could not bare to let her out to face dangers. 

That was the reason Alfred brought her to the inn to start transmitting her holy power to the talisman as storage. 

A message from Angus was sent to Alfred and let them know Luciel was deep asleep from the sleeping potion in her dinner, and the time for their operation had begun.

"That's enough. You can stop."

Alfred took the talisman from Liliana, who was panting and sweating after pouring a large amount of holy power out. She collapsed onto the floor with her beautiful platinum hair sticking on her face. 

Aeson felt that he was very useless in all this but at the same time, he felt relieved. After working so hard in one thousand worlds, he finally could relax and rely on someone else. Aeson's sight moved to the handsome red-haired man that was inspecting the talismans.

Feeling his gaze, the cold calculating eyes turned soft as Alfred averted his gaze to meet those sparkling eyes.

Alfred walked toward and grabbed the elf's hands. His thumbs started massaging the back of those pale small hands.

"Don't worry, it will be over soon... Just a few more..." 

"Hm? What did you say?"

The mumbling was so low that even at such a short distance, Aeson could not hear it at all. There was something strange about Alfred right then but Aeson could not tell what was different. It was as if his aura got a little darker and a little more domineering.

"I said that we should go on a honeymoon after this is over~"

Alfred lifted his head to show his charming cheeky smile again and gave Aeson a kiss on the cheek. They totally forgot about the little saintess that was still on the floor, and she was too exhausted to express any excitement over this interaction.

Seeing the normal Alfred's expression, Aeson put those questions behind the back of his head and rushed him to go to the Duke's place quickly. To be honest, Aeson felt that he was not necessary to be there at all, he would not offer much help but to be a spiritual support for Alfred. And that was exactly what Alfred wanted Aeson to be, not being out of the wizard's sight.

Out in the dark street, a particular window was flashed with bright red light for a few seconds before the silence returned.

In the middle of a large room filled with books and illuminated by the candles' light, three people were sitting in a tense atmosphere.

"It's not like I care but... how will you handle the empty body of the Duchess? She's still a noble after all. Anyway, just don't drag me in if anything happens." Alfred crossed his arms and leaned back with a haughty expression like his nose almost pointed up to the sky. Aeson had to elbow Alfred to at least preserve some respect and decency in front of their partner-in-crime. 

It had to be said that Aeson was quite surprised with this side of his lover in previous worlds, his lover would usually maintain a colder side to other people besides himself and his family. No matter what, his attitude toward Aeson never changed.

"You think I'm a Duke for nothing?" Angus also crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows looking at the wizard provocatively. An electric buzz could be heard when they started battling with their gazes.

"Yeah, you're a Duke that married a woman at a drop of a hat."

Angus: "..." That was actually his only mistake in the past couple of years.

"Alright, stop! Aren't we in a hurry?" Aeson could not take it anymore, he started having black lines all over his face from their childish provocation of each other. He wondered why they seemed to be against each other every time.

Seeing the tired face of Aeson, Alfred decided to "make peace" with the Duke and began to go over the plan again.

"... Let's go over the plan again. You wizard will activate the soul calling circle and after the soul is pulled out, you will entrap her. If there are any mishaps, use holy power from the saintess to at least keep the soul under control. And I, well, declare the duchess's passing." Angus explained the details quite perfunctorily like it was not even his business, his eyes were half-closed already.

Aeson: "..." These men... were they even serious about catching the Demon King's daughter?!

Seeing Aeson's strange expression, Angus finally decided to add that he would preserve her body to fake a sickness, and finally passed away after so much pain. It was still quite vague but Aeson was only curious and quite indifferent about that Duchess.

Since Aeson was only an assassin elf, there was no duty that he had to carry. However, he claimed that he would be responsible so he would guard the door for unwanted entry. He had not forgotten about Gaius, maybe one of her only fish left in the pond.

The two tall men entered the bedroom. On the enormous luxurious red bed, a beautiful woman was sleeping peacefully. It would have been a beautiful picture if it was not for the white magic circle slowly appearing underneath the bed. It was riddled with ancient words creating an ominous illusion.

Angus stood beside the door with his hand on the sword handle, ready to fight at any moment. Alfred walked toward the bed while mumbling inaudible words. Alfred then took something out as he was walking closer and closer.

Then, the white circle started glowing and the words slowly floated in the air. It then spun around the bed as if it had located a prey and was ready to snap at it any time.

As it spun faster around and around, a cloud of black smoke was rising from the center of it all, the smoke leaked from Liliana's open mouth.

"I'm not saying I'm a good person or anything but I have never seen such a dark color in a soul." Alfred's mouth twitched as he looked disdainfully at the smoke slowly gathering into the crystal ball he was holding. "How did you even meet her?"

Angus: "..." Actually, he had been questioning if he was bewitched into entering a marriage contract with her because he had never been such a rash person. He had better choices for arranged marriage rather than this girl.

---

"Hm... It's taking a while."

It has been one hour since they entered the bedroom. Aeson has been waiting outside all that time. It would be a lie to say that he was not worried but Alfred gave him some kind of magic paper that indicated their life force and it had been stable at all times. So he decided to trust Alfred and patiently guarded the door.

However, taking more time than he expected, he started to zone out so he did not notice immediately that, around 500 meters away, someone was walking toward him.

"Huh?"

That sound immediately brought back his caution. His head whipped in a direction to see a boy dressed in black looking up.

'Gaius? Damn! I forgot about this one!"

Even though Gaius might have been just a servant of Luciel, he had been a champion in the illegal arena and never lost once ever since he appeared. His senses were sharp and his intuition had always helped Luicel during dangerous situations. It seemed that it was working.

Aeson tried to move back to hide in the shadow but Gaius already sensed something.

"Mr. Elf?"

Surprisingly, Aeson did not sense any hostility, making him a little dumbfounded for a second. Maybe he even zoned out for too long because he could also see somehow those eyes sparkled calling him.

Even so, this was the only fish left that was on Luciel's side from the beginning. He squinted his eyes and reached for his dagger. 

Seeing that movement, Gaius's eyes opened wide and quickly dodged the flash of metal coming his way. 

Aeson felt like he was hallucinating. Was that... a flash of pain in his eyes?? 

Even if Gaius's strength was formidable, their techniques were essentially different, Aeson was about stealth, and Gaius was a physical fight. 

He was an assassin after all. Even if he had been lying around due to Alfred, he still brought quite an amount of tools that could help him protect himself, such as poison powder.

With Aeson's high immunity to poison, he was unaffected so he threw the powder at Gaius that could make people unconscious in seconds.

Such a sneak attack was successful, Gaius eyes started closing and his body fell to the ground. Aeson then tied him up and looked curiously at the sleeping face.

When they were having hand-to-hand combat, Gaius was definitely having the upper hand but he held back... 

"Ah!"

A pair of hands suddenly wrap him from behind making him startled. At that moment, he thought that he should quit his assassin title because he kept getting caught off-guard. Until he realized those warm arms belong to someone he never put a defense against.

Alfred had just finished capturing the ugly dark soul into the crystal ball when he came out to see his lovely elf focusing on a man so much that the elf did not notice him at all.

"Why are you looking at him? Is he more handsome than me?"

"No, you're the most handsome." Aeson answered almost immediately. Before Alfred took advantage of this opportunity to get more compliments, Aeson tried to change the subject. "Are you done? Is it possible to ask her any questions?"

"Why would you want to talk to her? Let's just destroy her soul."

"I'm curious about her purpose. Does she even know that she was the daughter of the Demon King?... Is it just me or are you literally glowing?" 

When Aeson prepared to return the hug, he finally noticed Alfred seemed to be full of vitality and there was literal light coming out of his body, even his red hair looked even brighter.

"Oh, I think it's because of the saintess's power, that soul was quite stubborn so we had to use her power. I guess it affected us." He cocked his head back at the equally shining Angus behind, looking disgusted at their interaction.

No one noticed the wincing Gaius being tied up muttering in a very low voice.

"Aeson..."