Chapter 21 Thank you

Luna's laughter continued to ring throughout my room for a while.

"It's not my fault I was bewitched." I grumbled.

The man on the floor nodded. "You can't control your tastes. It's alright, don't let her kink shame you."

I pat his shoulder in appreciation. "Thanks man, you're not so bad after all."

"You too, you guys may have cut off my leg, but you're a cute couple, I hope you two are happy."

Aww, what a sweetheart.

"Thanks. I'll make this as painless as possible." I replied with a smile.

"Thanks… wait, what?" He asked.

I replied by widening my smile and closing my eyes.

"Y-you're not gonna let me go?" He nervously confirmed.

"Nope."

"...Fuck."

I chuckled. "Haha, well, who sent you here? Ah, don't say my step mom, I already know about her, which information guild recommended you?"

"I-I don't know." He looked away from me.

I instantly snapped back his finger and shattered the bone.

"Make this easy on yourself and just tell me now. I do have a demon on my side after all, I'm sure she would love to use you for some 'magic experiments'." I threatened with a devilish smile.

He gulped.

"The Red Rockets! It was the red rockets!" He instantly caved.

Wow, that was easy.

I grabbed a knife he had dropped to the ground and slit his throat. Quickly killing him. What an idiot, didn't he know that people who use auras can't have high magic power and can only cast extremely low level spells without the help of magic circles? You can't be a magician and a swordmaster, it's one or the other.

"Ahaha, hahaha." Luna was still laughing at me, that's how short my little torture session was. What a pathetic man… at least he was a bro at the end.

I walked over to Luna and picked her up by grabbing her horn.

She held her sides and took a few deep breaths as I held her face to face with me. She was at eye level with me but because she was only 5 foot 6 her feet couldn't touch the ground so she was hovering mid air.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want later, princess, I have something for you to do." I told Luna.

She finally calmed down. So I set her back on the floor and released her horn.

She took a moment as she analyzed me curiously, she looked deeply into my eyes as if searching for something.

"...n't change." She mumbled something.

"What?"

"They didn't change."

"Who's they?" I asked as I looked around for more possible assassins.

"You're eyes. They didn't change at all when you learned I was a demon."

"Are they supposed to? Should I get colour contacts or something? Maybe develop heterochromia?" I tilted my head as if confused.

She giggled.

"Ehehe. No, you idiot, I'm glad they didn't change."

Well, it's not like I don't get it, people treat you differently when something like this happens. Even if they don't hate demons like that guy earlier did, they still subconsciously treat you differently.

"Whatever, anyway, here you go. This is important to you right. You should take better care of it." I said while scratching my cheek with my left hand. I was still a little embarrassed form before...

I placed her ring in her hand and curled her fingers shut with my hand that just finished scratching my cheek.

She looked down longingly and smiled. "Thanks, I will."

She moved to put it back on her finger but I unconsciously grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

She looked at me confused.

"I… uhhh, do you have to put it back on right now?" I asked.

"... Why?" She tilted her head and lightly furrowed her brow in confusion.

"I just, umm. To be honest, I think you look better like this. That's what I was trying to say earlier. I was actually just speechless. You're breathtaking beauty bewitched me and I couldn't say anything." I said, accidently sounding poetic.

I really was just trying to be sincere but sometimes alliteration just happens by chance.

"Hmmm? Is that so? Are you sure you didn't mean to say handlebars?" Luna smirked.

I felt my eyebrow twitch.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Then what about sexy fangs?" She leaned in.

My other eyebrow twitched.

"That was also a mistake."

She leaned in closer.

"Then what about domm-"

I put my hand over her mouth to cover it up.

"And we are done here!" I called out to shut down the topic.

Then she started licking my hand with her tongue and spelt out two words.

D-o-m-m-y m-o-m-m-y

I quickly retracted my hand and looked away.

"Ahem, anyway. Literally anything else sounds good right about now." I could feel my cheeks flush red.

"Ahaha! I'm just messing with you, I'm actually really happy." She smiled genuinely.

"It's not something to be that happy about." I muttered, unwilling to accept praise for doing nothing.

"I'm really happy you didn't reject me after finding out. I was actually really scared back there." She said nervously while looking slightly down and to the left. She twirled her thumbs.

"Why? You saw me with Claude." I asked as I observed her cute actions.

"This is different. I hid it from you." She still didn't meet my eyes.

"...Yeah, so did Claude."

"But this was me. I was like your bodyguard, you need to trust me right?" She finally looked me in the eyes as she asked.

"...Well, I kinda already guessed who you were, if you look back at it, it's pretty obvious. You dropped a lot of hints." I averted my eyes... even I'm not sure why.

"But still, didn't I lie to you?" She earnestly asked.

"Meh. I still trust you. I actually think you're the most trustworthy person I know." I finally looked back at her eyes when I answered.

I was trying to be sincere. But...

"You don't know a lot of people…" She said.

"Shut it. I can still fire your ass for this." I grumbled.

"It was merely a joke my lord!" She pretended to beg while clasping her in hands in prayer.

I waver her off. "Whatever."

She fixed her posture and asked. "...Seriously thought, why don't you have any prejudice against demons? It's weird."

I took a moment and thought it over, I already knew what my answer would be, I just confirmed it.

"I actually don't know, I used to when I was a kid, but after those 7 years. I changed."

"You mean when you went missing?" She rubbed her chin in thought. It was kinda cute...

"Yeah." I nodded, holding back from calling her cute.

"What even happened back then?" She continued to ask more questions.

This was a bit of a weird subject for me.

"I honestly don't know, I don't remember. But I do remember, it feels like I only remember half of what happened back then. But not really... I just know that after those 7 years, I was the way I am now. I don't know why or what happened really."

"That's REALLY concerning." She commented.

"No shit sherlock."

She paused for a moment.

"You know, you say these weird things sometimes. Where did you learn… wait, let me guess. You don't know."

I nodded.

I mean, to me it seems normal, who doesn't know about Sherlock Holmes? But then I think for a moment, how do I know Sherlock Holmes? Where did I learn it? Why does nobody else know it? I don't know, and it scares me. I've had many sleepless nights wondering about my preposterous life, what happened to me? Perhaps I would never know.

"Then, can you tell me?" Luna asked.

"What?"

"Can you tell me about those things? Just because you don't know where you learned them doesn't mean you don't remember what they are. I wanna hear about these references you make. Maybe I can help you find the answer."

What was she saying right now?

No one has ever even taken me slightly seriously. When I was younger I would talk to some people about this, but they all laughed in my face or tried to 'fix my delusions' by treating me like I was mentally challenged. It only further cemented my role as the idiot prince. 'He's so dumb he doesn't even remember 7 years of his life'. No one cared about my problems, I realized this very soon after I came back to this castle, so I pretended it didn't matter. No one knew how scared I was about this, no one knew how much this affected me, and no one offered me salvation.

Until now...

She was the first, no, she was the only one who WOULD reach out a hand of salvation to someone like me.

I'm a prick who looks down on others and deflects all emotion to hide the pain and fear I have felt since I was a kid. First my mom died, then immediately after I blacked out for 7 years. I don't even know what my life was like as a child, the only thing I remember well in my first 14 years of life is the sorrow of my mothers death.

I don't have many happy memories from my first 7 years of life. Then the next 7 years I don't even remember. The last real memory I have was being bullied by Selena and running away.

My eyes started to feel really weird. I can't even remember the last time they felt like this. Why are they wet? Why can I feel it on my cheeks now? Is it raining?

It must be.

Because otherwise, it would mean I was crying.

I felt two arms wrap around my back and a soft warm body, against my chest. What is this? Why is my chest so warm, why is it comfortable?

I haven't felt like this since…

Since I was with mom.

Has it really been that long? I really haven't had anyone care for me in 13 years? Is this what I was missing?

I see.

I didn't even realize how hurt I was, how much I was missing this. How badly I needed someone, anyone, to care about me. I let it out, my tears started to fall from my eyes.

"Thank you."