Chapter XIV: The Princess And The Slums...

It wasn't long after Camillia told Donovan that they were going to pay the House of Shadows a visit did she return to her room to change into the armor she wore when they paid the All-seer a visit.

Of course, Donovan had accompanied her to her room via the secret passageway she uses to travel, but that was after he donned his armor. He wasn't allowed into her room, at least while she was changing, and even after that they didn't stay long, for all she did was summon and then tell her trusty maid that they were going out to investigate a few things and to inform her father about this if he comes to see her.

After all of that was said and done, the two of them then made their way out of the palace, and at the moment were about two-thirds of the way there from their destination.

The House of Shadows was, from what Donovan was told, in the quote on quote, slums, which was something that made little sense to Donovan, for the streets they were currently walking through didn't give him that feeling at all.

While the streets could be a little cleaner, they weren't being overflowed with poor people, nor did really any of the buildings look shabby. Sure, there was a handful that were pretty bad and appeared to be on the verge of collapsing, but that was only a handful.

"They must be calling this place the slums because of how people dress; I'm sure of it now." Donovan thought to himself with a frown as they passed some dwarves who were idling and wearing clothes that had holes and whatnot in them.

It was the only logical thing Donovan was able to think of, for this was practically the only difference between the dwarfs he was seeing at this moment, and the dwarfs who lived in the upper-class district. If this wasn't the case, then he didn't know what the reason was at all.

Not long after he reached this conclusion did he remember who exactly he was traveling with, which had given him the urge to facepalm for being an idiot.

"Hey," He said in a low tone as he glanced at Camillia, who happened to be a little closer to him than before. "do you mind if I ask a question?"

"No, what's up?" She said in response, while keeping her eyes ahead of them.

"Why do the um, nobles call this place the slums?" He questioned, traces of curiosity in his voice as he gestured to their surroundings. "It doesn't look like a dump, and the people don't look that poor, so what's the reason?"

"Because almost everything here is seen as inferior in the eyes of the rich." Camillia answered without missing a beat in her step. "The clothes, the jewelry, the armor, the weapons, the buildings, just everything about this district is looked down on by them."

"Really?" Donovan said with what sounded like genuine surprise.

"Yep." She affirmed with a nod of her head. "It's truly unfortunate, but it's how the world works."

"I see," Donovan replied hesitantly. "so what about you?"

"What about me?" She asked as she cast him a curious look.

"I mean, do you look down on them?" He asked in a slightly firm tone as he kept his attention forward.

"Of course not." She answered almost immediately in a stern manner. "I didn't spend my life cooped in my room all day. I've been here numerous times, and have seen some of the work created down here, and can tell you that there are some craftsmen, who are ten times better than the craftsmen in the upper-class's district."

"Huh, I guess I should have expected that." Donovan muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" Camillia asked with interest in her voice. She had heard him, but because he had practically whispered, she didn't know what he had said.

"Nothing of importance." He answered swiftly. "I just forgot that you weren't like most princesses."

"What do you mean, have you met others?" Camillia asked in a slightly demanding manner with nothing but curiosity in her voice. While she didn't spend a lot of her early years in her room, Camillia had not once ever left the city Kal Vorum, so she couldn't help herself from being curious about the surface and the princesses up there.

"No, but usually when you hear about a princess, you think of someone who is basically sweet, delicate, pure, and someone who can't defend themselves." He replied with a small chuckle.

"Oh, is that so?" She said in response with a tiny frown. She didn't know why, but for some reason, she felt like he wasn't happy that she wasn't any of that. Sure, she could act defenseless and pure if she wanted, but that was it, an act.

Sensing the bit of melancholy in her voice, Donovan quickly added. "However, it's okay for a princess to be outgoing like how you are. It may be a little rare, but I think a princess should be strong in certain aspects, and be able to handle herself a little. I mean, it's not like they can always rely on someone to defend them or come to their rescue, you know?"

At first, Camillia stayed quiet, she didn't know if he was trying to cheer her up or not, but after a while, her lips curved upwards into a smile. "Yeah, and thank you, Fane."

After that was said, the two of them continued their travels with little chatter.

The Demon King sat in her throne-like chair with a neutral expression written on her face as she listened to the leaders of the pureblood households express their opinions about what they should do.

Sitting on the Demon King's right in a chair similar to hers, but not as throne-like was Lord Arzakol of House Bael. In the past, he was the head of House Bael, but that was a long time ago, so right now his great-great-grandson, Borath Bael was present and the head of their family.

On her left was her sister, Katerea of House Beleth, who was once the Goddess of Winter. She had long icy blue hair, sapphire blue eyes, and icy blue eyebrows with light blue eyeshadow. Her skin was pale, and she had an hourglass figure with a cold atmosphere radiating from her. Her attire consisted of a pure white dress with light blue accents, silky white gloves to cover her slender hands, and a silver necklace of a snowflake.

Unlike her sisters, she didn't change her figure or any of her characteristics to that of the purebloods, but she did take on a last name like them. She was the only member of the House Beleth, and was one of the two Generals of the Demon King's army.

Next to Katerea was their brother, Azrael of House Belial, the former God of Storms. He was Arzakol's twin brother, and although he was younger than Lucifer, she saw him as an older brother. He was one of the first ones to go to her defense when her siblings wanted her stripped of her powers, and was considered to be one of the strongest Gods besides their mother, father, the God of War, and the God of Strength.

He had retained his human appearance throughout his years on the mortal plane, which was a young man with somewhat long black hair that reached his shoulders and a handsome face. His eyes were a dark brown, and he had a beard and mustache.

He wore armor that was very similar to the Dark Knights, but unlike theirs; his armor was black and gold with a golden cape. He was the second high ranking officer in the Demon King's army besides his sister and was the one who trains the Dark Knights in combat.

Like his twin brother, he was once the leader of House Belial, but now his great-great-granddaughter, Ingvild Belial was the one leading his household, and representing them in their interests.

Deciding she had heard enough, Lucifer raised her hand causing the Lords and Ladies to fall silent. Once they had all completely gone silent; she lowered her hand and spoke. "As much as we love listening to you all argue with one another, we feel you all are forgetting the reason why we summoned you all here, and that was to decide if we should go to war or not."

The human kingdoms may have united together and declared war on the Demon Kingdom, but the Demon King hadn't decided yet if they were going to go to war with them, as in gather their forces, and launch an attack of their own. Sure she had sent small armies compromising of different types of demon folk to keep them at bay, but these were, in the end, small armies, and nothing compared to her main army.

"It is obvious what we should do, My King." One of the nobles started as they stood up. "We should mobilize all our forces, and crush the pathetic humans and make them an example to those who did not join their alliance what happens when they go against us!"

As several nobles voiced their agreements with the man's thinking, another noble stood up, this one a woman that had black angel wings sprouting from her back with long and luscious black hair. "There is no need for us to go to a full out war with them; in fact, there is no reason for us to go to war with them at all. They are just simply afraid of us, and fear is something that can easily be controlled, but we need to talk to them."

"They have killed hundreds, if not thousands of us, and you want to talk to them!?" Another noble questioned as she if was a madman. "Are you an idiot or a fool, Lady Sitri?"

"I am neither of those things." She vehemently declared as she glared at the Lord who asked her this. "I just believe that going to war is unnecessary."

"I agree with Lady Sitri!" Another noble yelled as they stood up, this one being a very beautiful, and well-endowed woman with long flowing crimson red hair, and slitted yellow eyes. "Waging war with them isn't something we should do, at least not yet. We should at least try to negotiate with them and come to a peaceful resolution. Especially if they're misguided."

As the arguments with one another started to resume, Lucifer raised her hand for silence once again and had them all cease talking. "It seems we are all still divided on what we should do, which is sad, but understandable."

A man with golden hair shook his head disapprovingly at this as he crossed his arms. "It is not understandable. It is just sad."

"Lord Phenex!" A nobleman yelled as if he had been deeply insulted.

"What? It is that, and you can't deny it." The leader of House Phenex boldly stated as he looked at the other Lord. "In the past, we were all once united, but nowadays? Pfft, we can barely agree on anything, and that is because we are at war with ourselves."

Lord Phenex paused after saying this for a quick second to allow what he said to sink in before continuing. "You all can deny it if you want, but I know that there is bad blood between a vast majority of our Houses, and that blood will probably never go away, but you all need to understand that this is the time to put all of that aside and come together to fight the ones who want to do nothing more, but erase us from this world."

Upon hearing this, dozens of the nobles sent one another looks, for what Lord Phenex had stated was the truth. While most of them have prospered over the centuries, none of them could deny that there have been conflicts between some of the households; in fact, there had been a few families that had been destroyed because of these conflicts.

Proud of what Lord Phenex said, Lord Azrael rose from his chair, and spoke. "What Lord Phenex has said is the truth, and the truth hurts. Humanity wants us gone, and so do their Gods. It is unfortunate, but this is evolution, and what we do here may-"

"Lord Azrael, stop." Lucifer interrupted, which had caused her brother to immediately stop talking and shoot her a glance of surprise only to see her giving him a serious look.

"Understood, My King." He said after seeing this expression and before sitting back down.

Once he had sat down, Lucifer looked around the room before releasing a sigh. "We know that if we go to war, then this will attract the attention of their Gods, and if we start wiping the humans off the face of Atalan, then they will most definitely get involved, so we have reached a decision, and that decision is..."

She paused for a couple of seconds to add effect. "To build a wall."

At this, confusion broke out.

"A wall?"

"My King, what do you mean by that? What type of wall do you have in mind!?"

"Are you serious, my King? Why would we do that? What purpose would that serve?"

Lucifer listened to all of these questions they shot at her for about a minute before raising her hand for silence, which didn't come for a while, but eventually, it did. Once she had her silence, she spoke. "A wall that can keep the humans from entering our kingdom because at the moment we don't have anything like that, and that is because there has never been these types of problems before, but if we do this, we can avoid a pointless war."

"But My King, we could-"

"We know we could wipe them out, and we know what we'd be doing is seen as retaliation, but do think the other nations would stand by and watch if they heard we were destroying the human kingdoms?" She stated, which had made the nobleman fall silent. "Our kingdom may be one of the biggest, but if other factions get involved along with the Gods, then we could be the ones who would be wiped out, and not them."

After letting them think about this, Lucifer added, "We will not mobilize all of our forces, but about one-third of it will be mobilized and sent down to the South to protect the ones who will be building this wall, is that understood?"

"Yes, My King." The majority of the nobles declared except a few.

"Good, then this meeting is adjourned." She declared before rising out of her seat and walking away with Lord Arzakol and an escort of Dark Knights.

Upon arriving and entering the tavern, Camillia and Donovan made their way to one of the back doors. Of course, this hadn't gone unnoticed, for the Black Knight was a sight to behold, but no one dared to get in their way.

Once they had reached the back door, the two of them were welcomed to the sight of a heavily armored dwarf sitting on a stool with a double-bladed axe strapped to his back guarding what people could only assume was the hatch, for this was the only thing interesting in the room beside the man.

At first, he didn't react upon them entering the room, but the moment they approached the wooden hatch, he acted. "Nono, you no go unless I say so."

"We have business down there." Camillia revealed in hopes the armored dwarf would let them pass, but the response she got was the complete opposite.

"And I have business with one of the whores at the Kingsmen, what's your point lass?"

At this, Camillia frowned, but before she could say anything, Donovan spoke.

"What will it take to let us pass?" He demanded in a stern tone.

"Nothing, so piss off." He curtly answered.

"Look-" Camillia started as she took a step forward only to be stopped by Donovan, who had placed his hand on her shoulder as he thought about how this guy was an asshole.

As she turned to look at him, the armored dwarf let out a chuckle. "What lass? You going to nag and tell me that you have very important-auugh!"

Whatever he was going to say next came out as an incoherent mess, for within a second Donovan had not only covered the distance between him and the dwarf, but had sent a devasting uppercut to his face, which had caused him to go flying out of his stool and into the ceiling, and then back down on a couple large sacks of vegetables.

Taken back by his speed, Camillia couldn't stop herself from saying in an impressed tone. "Wow."

"Shouldn't have been an ass." Donovan said as he straightened himself. He had been told almost all of his life to keep his hands to himself, but this guy's behavior just pissed him off, and they didn't have time to waste with him, so he felt his reasons to hit him were reasonable.

As he turned back around, he saw that Camillia was still standing in almost the exact same spot before he attacked the man. The only difference now was that she was leaning back with her left shoulder and had her right foot forward.

Remembering that he had used her to move slightly faster, Donovan asked with concern in his voice. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I was just not expecting you to move that quickly." She answered after a second or two. When he had put his hand on her shoulder, she had felt a lot of weight on it, so she couldn't help from wondering how much it weighed, and how he was able to move in it so easily.

Donovan said nothing in response, at least at first, but he couldn't help from smiling a little. "Angel was taken back by that too."

Not even three seconds later after recalling the events between him and the Hero Party did a frown replace his grin. He knew he was kind of at fault for not telling them his name, but that didn't give Angel the right to attack him midsentence.

"Wait, why am I thinking like this is a video game?" Donovan asked himself after realizing that he was starting to compare what had happened to situations in video games. "This is the real thing, and it's best to attack someone in the middle of their monologuing."

Deciding it was best to stop thinking about what had happened, Donovan snapped back to reality and saw Camillia open the hatch.

"So, you ready to meet the House of Shadows?" She asked as she shot him a look.

"Yeah, or at least I'm ready as I'll ever be." Donovan answered with a nod of his head.

At this, Camillia smiled.

"Good."