Chapter XXIII: The Return... (Part II)

As Donovan closed the book he had finished writing in, he let out a sigh.

It had been a couple of days since he returned to the Demon King's Castle, and since then, he has mostly kept to himself. Of course, he would interact with those who would seek him out, but besides that, he didn't go out of his way to talk to people.

He had yet to speak to Lord Lucifer about the problems he was facing, which was something that bothered him slightly, for he did believe, to an extent, that she should know what is on his mind, but he did plan on speaking to her about it within the next two days. Unfortunately, he still had to figure out what he did and didn't want to tell her.

As for Camillia, he had spoken to her several times in the past few days, and although there were a few times he would be a little curt with her, he was kind most of the time when dealing with her.

This had come as a relief to Camillia, for on their journey back to the Demon King's Castle, he had pretty much avoided all contact to her, which was something she could understand to a certain degree for what she had done in Kal Vorum was what some would call a scummy move.

"I think that's enough writing for today." Is what Donovan told himself before getting up out of his seat.

Originally, the thought of having a journal never crossed his mind, but after speaking with Lord Arzakol, who had tried to find out what has been bothering him, he decided to take the man's advice, and started to write down how he was feeling in a small leather book.

What he wrote down at first wasn't much truth be told, but after a couple days of writing, Donovan began to write down about events that transpired and a few other things. Of course, his description of said events were pretty lousy, and definitely needed to be improved on, but he started to feel better.

He didn't know why, but when he wrote, he felt at peace.

"Enjoying yourself?" Came Lady Nyx's voice from behind, which caused him to turn around and see her approaching him with a small smirk.

"I was, yes." Donovan answered truthfully as his grip on his journal became a little firmer.

"Huh, that's good to hear." Lady Nyx said before coming to a stop in front of him. "It's also weird to hear, at least from you because you're usually all like, 'What is it, Lady Nyx?' or, 'I'm not in the mood, Lady Nyx.' or something relatively close to that."

Seeing no point in denying her claim, Donovan said, "Yeah, you're right, so what do you want?"

"Well, I heard from a couple of gossiping maids that you were in the garden, so I came to check you out, and see what you're up to. Unfortunately, it appears I was a little too late, but I had a matter to attend to first." Lady Nyx explained.

At this, Donovan's brow furrowed slightly, and he asked himself. "Is that really her reason?"

He wasn't sure if she was being honest here, so he had to ask her. "Are you being serious right now?"

To which, she responded with a, "Pfft, of course not. I am a very busy person, and only pay people visits when I have important business with them."

"I see." Was his response in a somewhat doubtful voice, which didn't go unnoticed by her.

"Why did you say it like that? Are you trying to say I'm not a busy person, huh?" She questioned as she crossed her arms under her bust. "I'll have you know-"

"Just tell me what you want from me." Donovan demanded in a somewhat tired and annoyed manner. He wasn't trying to be rude, but he also didn't want to play this game with her where they dance around the subject for several minutes.

After clicking her tongue, Lady Nyx replied in a pouty manner. "You're no fun."

Donovan said nothing, and even if he did want to say something in response he couldn't, for she quickly followed her statement up with her reasoning. "Anyways, the reason why I'm here is because I need you to do a favor for me. Now, before you say anything, I just wanna say it's nothing big or major, you're not going to die from it, okay? It's just all I need you to do is attend this little social gathering that I was invited to."

"Alright, but why?" He asked with traces of curiosity in his voice as he crossed his arms. "I mean, why do I have to attend something I wasn't invited to?"

"Well, for one I was asked to see if I could get you to come along, and before you ask why does the host want you to attend it's because you're the one and only Black Knight, so it should be obvious why." She answered in a slightly serious voice.

Donovan said nothing at first, but eventually, he broke his silence.

"I'll think about it, but if I'm being honest, I probably won't attend." Was what he said, which caused Lady Nyx's brows to furrow, and her lips to curve downwards a little.

"Why's that?" She questioned in response.

"I don't know, it just doesn't really interest me." He answered truthfully while shrugging.

Not exactly thrilled with his reply, Lady Nyx said, "Well, can you just do this for me? You'd really be helping me out here."

"Like I said, I will think about it, but I have no promises of attending, and besides, where is this even being held? I haven't heard anything about these social gatherings until now." Donovan declared in a somewhat firm tone.

"It's going to take place three days from now at the Phenex Manor, so we'll be using teleportation to get there." She answered.

"I see." Was his response before bidding his farewell and leaving.

As Angel returned to his room with an entourage of young women, Jacob looked at him with a bit of disgust.

They were currently in the Roseanian Kingdom celebrating the good work they did in Kal Vorum, which in all honesty wasn't much if one actually thought about it, but to His Highness, Maxwell Trevelyan it was a lot of work.

The celebration party had pretty much everything. It had women in skimpy clothes dancing in erotic manners, wonderful food, great alcohol, important people, and so much more.

It was, in Earth words, a lit party.

Unfortunately, so far the majority of the Hero Party didn't seem to be enjoying the party. The only one who had been enjoying it was now horribly drunk and was being escorted back to his room by multiple young ladies who planned on doing many things with him in bed.

The girls of the Hero Party did celebrate somewhat, but they weren't as outgoing as Angel. They did drink a little, and socialize with a lot of big named people, but they didn't go the extra miles like how he did.

No, they did nothing of that sort.

His Highness, who was being accompanied by his wife, which was a great beauty, had seen the look of disgust on Jacob's face, and couldn't help from talking to him.

"What's with that look?" His Highness question, which had earned Jacob's attention. "You look as if you saw something horrendous!"

His Highness' words were a bit slurred, but Jacob was able to comprehend each and every one of them with little to no effort.

"Your Highness," Jacob greeted with a nod of his head in a respectful manner before looking at his wife and giving her a respectful nod while saying, "Your Grace."

"Sir Jacob." Was Her Grace's response as she did a small and elegant curtsy.

"Hey!" His Highness said in a slightly serious tone. "Why you avoid my question? Dontcha know it's very disrespectful to ignore a king?"

"My King, Sir Jacob didn't avoid your question." Her Grace affirmed as she rubbed the wrist she was holding onto. "He was just using proper etiquette and greeting you."

At this, His Highness scrunched his face before speaking again.

"Bah, whatever, anyways why did you have a sour face at a party like this? It's not right."

Jacob remained silent at first, for he wasn't sure if he should be truthful or not, but after a few seconds of thinking, he shrugged his shoulders, and spoke about what he had been thinking. "Well, it was because I saw something I found to be a little, repulsive, so I just couldn't help myself from making a disgusted face."

"Is that it?" His Highness asked in a slurred way.

"Yeah, pretty much." He affirmed.

"Huh, was it one of those old hags trying to get with somebody young?" His Highness asked before chuckling.

"Maxwell!" Her Grace declared in a loud but also hushed manner as she slapped the wrist she had been holding onto to get his attention. "You shouldn't make comments like that!"

"Wha, what do you mean? I'm just having an honest talk with my friend Jack here." His Highness stated as he looked at his wife. "And why you hit me? Don't you know that I'm the king here? I'm the one in charge."

Ignoring the fact that he had called him Jack instead of Jacob, Jacob shifted his attention towards Her Grace and spoke to her. "Is he terrible with alcohol? Because he has done a complete one-eighty in character."

"Yes," She answered with a bit of shame in her voice. "His Highness has never been great with alcohol, so I usually monitor him at these types of events, and make sure he doesn't drink too much, but there were some people I hadn't spoken with in a long time, and I'm pretty sure you get the gist of what happened, yes?"

"Yeah, I understand." Jacob affirmed with a nod of his head before watching His Highness poke his wife's cheek and speak to her.

"Don't treat me like a child." He told her in a somewhat whiney manner. "I can handle my alcohol fine, and don't need a babysitter."

As Her Grace responded to His Highness, Noelle approached Jacob from his left, which was the opposite of where His Highness and Her Grace were standing, and tapped on his shoulder.

After he turned his head to look at her, Noelle said with tinged cheeks. "May I have a word in private with you, Jacob?"

At first, Jacob didn't say anything, but that wasn't because he didn't know what to say. No, the reason why he was silent was because he was surprised by how beautiful she looked at the moment.

She didn't wear her usual clothing, which was something he considered to be somewhat erotic, instead, she wore a simple but elegant blue and white dress. It wasn't anything fancy, but neither was it anything unbecoming of her stature either.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He answered after quickly recovering from his dumbstruck phase before turning his head back to the King and Queen of the Roseanian Kingdom. "Apologies, Your Highness and Your Grace, but Noelle would like to have a word with me in private, so I'll talk to you two later."

"It's fine, I already planned on taking His Highness back to his room in a little, and I'm certain whatever else my husband has to say isn't as important as what Lady Noelle has to say to you." Her Grace said with a wave of her hand and a smile.

As His Highness said something to his wife, Jacob got up from his seat and gestured for Noelle to lead the way, which she had no problem doing.

Once she had led him to a more secluded area, Noelle took a deep breath as Jacob spoke.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Is what he had asked her.

"I," She hesitantly started while keeping her back facing him. "I was wondering if you had anything planned this weekend."

"No, not really. I mean, there was this Duke's son who asked if I'd like to go hunting with him and his friends, but I didn't plan on going." He answered as he scratched the side of his head with traces of startlement in his voice. He had been caught off guard by her question, and was just in general surprised that she would ask him something like this.

"Really, well if you're not busy, then would you like to go to the theater with me? You know, just the two of us." Noelle stated after turning around to face him, traces of happiness could be heard in her voice.

"Sure, but uh, what brought this on?" He agreed before asking her why she was asking him out on a date. "Because if I'm kind of being honest here, then I gotta say that this is completely unexpected."

"Well, to be honest, it's more of just a thank you for everything." She told him with bits of shyness in her voice. "Unlike Angel, you usually are always at our side making sure no harm comes to us, and back in Kal Vorum you put up with a lot of stuff that you shouldn't have, so I just want to show you some of my gratitude and that I appreciate everything you have done so far."

"Oh, well, you know, I'm just what every guy should do in this situation really." Jacob declared as his ears became a little. There was some traces of embarrassment in his voice as well.

"And I appreciate that, I really do." Noelle affirmed with a smile, which caused his ears to become even redder than before.

After a couple seconds of silence passed, Jacob spoke in an uncertain manner. "We should uh, get back to the party before they start to miss us."

"Yeah, we probably should." She agreed thus ending their conversation.