“Hey Kei, do you want me to cook you something?”

“…”

“How about a massage?”

“…”

“Maybe, I can help you bathe tonight?”

“…!”

I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at Zoel. I was standing in the grand hall, holding onto a mop in one hand, having cleaned a quarter of the place in an hour. I couldn’t help it. The place was just too damn big!

“Ara, does that interest you~?” Zoel gazed at me with a sly look, her arms held behind her back, pushing her moderately-sized chest towards me. She was wearing her gothic-lolita outfit, now in perfect condition as she had fixed it with her magic. “I didn’t know you were into those things, Kei... I mean, I can’t blame you after all, you’re a man—”

“Listen, Zoel.” I interrupted her before she got even more excited. “Thank you for your feelings, but I’m seriously not interested. Please, just leave me alone.”

Zoel’s face fell down, turning into a look of disappointment. “Why? Are you in love with someone else?”

“…!”

I shook my head, trying to regain my composure. “T-there’s no one else… I just don’t have time for romance… that’s all…”

“Don’t tell me you like Lilionel?”

Again, I was thrown off focus by Zoel’s words. “No way…” I laughed weakly. “That’s impossible… she’s making me do all this cleaning…”

“In that case, it should be fine then!” Zoel grabbed my arm, hugging it to her body. “I love you so much, Kei!!” Her eyes were closed, her cheeks blushing and she looked like she was enjoying herself, hugging me.

I sighed, squinting my eyes down at her. This girl… she was seriously an idiot…

At that moment, Lily’s voice boomed down from above the stairs, reaching to us on the lower floor.

“You’re going to spend the whole year cleaning just this room if you are that slow!”

Lily was standing at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed, and her face furrowed in annoyance. She was staring down at Zoel and me.

“Y-yes!” I called out to Lily, quickly pushing Zoel off me, and resumed mopping the floor.

Zoel fell off me, stepping back with a sigh. As Lily turned and walked back to her room, Zoel flashed her an angry look, glaring at her back.

“I don’t get why you have to do all this for her.” Zoel complained, turning back to me to watch me mop the floor. “You should just leave Lilionel and come live with me, Kei. I would never make you do something like this.”

“I can’t do that.” I replied, scrubbing at the floor. It was pretty much spotless anyways, so I was really just making it even more perfect. Lily demanded absolute perfection. “Lily and I made a Blood Pact.”

“Ah, that again…” Zoel followed me around, as I moved to another place to clean. “A Blood Pact bounds two people together completely by the terms of their contract at the highest level. It is an inseparable bond that is bound by Aere. What did you two ask for anyways?”

I stopped cleaning, wiping a sweat from my brow. “Lily wanted my soul, body and mind for eternity—”

“That’s…!”

“And I wanted Lily to help me with my revenge…” I stared down at the floor, my face darkening. “To avenge my family… to kill Balzard…”

The surprise on Zoel’s face turned to a look of sympathy. “Your family…”

“They’re all dead.” I quickly replied, then resumed scrubbing the floor. “Balzard killed them all.”

“…”

Zoel was staring at me with a worried look, hesitating. “Kei… it’s impossible to kill Balzard… he’s a demon god…”

“Tch.” I turned my eyes from the ground, and at Zoel with an angry look. “You don’t know that.”

“…”

Now that I was thinking about it, I had originally wanted to kill Zoel. The only reason I saved her in the first place was because I couldn’t kill someone that was begging on the floor.

I needed her to fight me. Maybe now I could finally do it.

I straightened myself up, placing the mop down on the ground, and faced Zoel.

“Hey Zoel.” I said to her. “Fight me.”

“Huh?” Zoel looked at me with confused look.

I pulled my sword out from behind me, but Zoel didn’t flinch. “Come on… you wanted to kill me before, right?” I stared at her bitterly. “Try to kill me now.”

“Kei…”

I swung the blade at Zoel’s side, hoping to make her angry.

She stepped backwards, dodging my attack with ease.

“Come on!” I said to her, irritated. “Fight me!”

I swung the blade again, but she kept dodging, easily outmanoeuvring me. My annoyance and anger kept building up, seeing her avoiding my attacks. Why couldn’t I land a single hit against her?!

“You...!” I clenched my teeth, as I stabbed my sword into thin air, Zoel sidestepping the attack.

I swung the sword again, and Zoel jumped backwards, creating a distance between us.

I stared at her, breathing heavily.

She was standing there, not doing anything. Her burning red eyes staring at me, and her black hair falling past her snow-white face. She was very pretty, her face enticing in a different manner to Lily's cuteness. Lily was cute, but Zoel had a certain seductive appearance about her, perhaps it was her gothic attire.

She was a demon…

Don’t be fooled by her appearance, Kei!

“Do you really want to kill me?” Zoel asked solemnly. “Would that make you feel better…?”

I stared at her, thinking about her question.

“…Yes.”

“…”

There was silence in the air.

“Go on then, kill me.”

“…!”

“I won’t resist.”

I was gazing at her, trying to tell if she was serious or not. I couldn’t tell.

“I’m really going to do it.” I breathed.

“I won’t stop you.”

…

I walked closer to Zoel, watching her reaction. She didn’t move. Walking faster, I raised my sword behind me, preparing to strike the blade down at her neck.

“HAAH—!”

I threw the sword across Zoel’s neck, aiming to chop her head off. I stopped the blade an inch away from actually cutting it.

…

She actually didn’t move. She was standing there, her arms down at her side, not doing anything.

“…Why aren’t you fighting back…?” I asked.

“I told you already…” Zoel said, then in a quieter tone. “…I love you…”

My face twisted with anger, hearing her words. “Y-you… don’t say that…”

“I love you.”

“Stop fucking saying that!”

I kicked her in the stomach, knocking her down on the ground. She clutched it painfully, looking up at me from the floor.

“You… you demons… you killed my family…”

The rage inside me was boiling to surface again, urging me to kill Zoel. I could feel my body trembling all over with anger. The temptation to kill her was calling at me, beckoning inside my mind.

“Kei…” Zoel looked up at me with a hurt look.

“I’ll never forgive you!” I yelled, then threw my sword down, stabbing it into the ground right next to Zoel’s head. The blade rammed itself inside the surface of the floor, barely missing her head. She again didn’t flinch.

I turned away from her, walking out to the grand door of the hall, pushing it open and leaving the castle. The feelings inside me were so intense, so strong, that I had to leave or I could feel myself losing control.

I went outside the castle, strolling as I looked out at the endless plain fields, trying to calm myself down with the evening air.

The next day came, and I awoke in the morning finding myself in Lily’s bed. She was still asleep, her body next to mine, turned towards me. For some reason, Lily insisted that I sleep with her even though her castle had loads of spare bedrooms.

I was calm now, having spent some time outside the castle yesterday to cool my mind, but I didn’t see Zoel when I had went back inside. She had locked herself in her room so I never got to apologise for lashing out at her. I knew inside that I shouldn’t had attacked Zoel like that, but I couldn’t control myself when she started talking about my family.

I sighed, turning to look at Lily. Lily had a really cute face, especially when she was sleeping like this and didn’t have her cold, deadpan expression on, or sprouting those rude things she always said. She actually looked at peace for once. Her azure hair falling over her long eyelashes, and her lips protruding outwards.

Well… it was time to wake her up. She had told me that we had an errand to run today.

“Hey, Lily…” I nudged her by the side.

She didn’t respond.

“Lily!” I nudged her again, this time hard.

Lily’s hand reached out from the covers of the bed, punching me in the face.

“Ugh!” I let out a short cry, falling backwards out of the bed, covering my nose. That hurt!

Lily snapped up from the bed. “Wh-what’s going on?!”

“It’s morning!” I said, pulling myself up grudgingly from the ground at the side of the bed. I was still holding onto my nose. “You told me we had an errand to run today!”

“Oh right…” Lily shook her head, her face regaining her usual look of coolness. “We have to get going then.”

She pulled herself out of the bed, stepping to the floor at the other side of the bed from where I was, then stretched her petite arms up in the air, yawning. After that, she headed to the bathroom, ignoring the fact that my nose was now bleeding, and that I was staring at her bitterly.

“Dammit.” I wiped the blood from my nose as best as I could, then got dressed, finding clothes in the giant wardrobe next to the bed. Lily had gotten me clothes from that time she took care of me.

I grabbed my father’s sword that was on my side of the bed where I slept. I couldn’t sleep without it next to me. Wrapping the sword at my back, I headed outside the room to go find Zoel. I had to wake her up… and apologise for yesterday.

Stopping at Zoel’s door, I took a deep breath, before knocking at it softly. I waited, hearing no response.

“Zoel?” I called out.

Nothing.

“Look, I’m really sorry about yes—”

I pushed open the door and found Zoel half-naked, pulling the ends of her black stocking up to her thigh. She looked up at me confused, then her face turned a bright shade of pink, and I quickly slammed the door shut. As I scuttled away as fast as I could, I heard her screaming inside the room, muffled behind the closed door.

That did not go as planned.

I came across Lily walking towards me across the hallway, and she squinted at me with a suspicious look. She was dressed in her usual outfit, light white armour with strange symbols running across them, hidden behind a dark cloak.

“What happened? Why is there someone screaming?”

“Uh, nothing.” I shook my head, then followed Lily as she headed to the grand hall.

Lily stopped when she arrived at the grand hall, and I stopped too.

“Uh, is there something wrong… Lily…?” I asked, trying to peer at her face.

Lily turned towards me slowly, her eyebrows twitching. “Why… why is there a hole… on the ground in the grand hall?” She pointed at a hole that could be easily seen on the lower floor of the grand hall. It was a pretty big hole. That was the sword mark I had left yesterday…

My lips opened and closed themselves repeatedly, staring at the hole, trying to think up of an excuse. I was too scared to look Lily in the eye. Holy shit. I had completely forgotten all about it.

“You… you wouldn’t have anything to do with it, would you…?”

“Um, no…” My voice was hoarse. She glared at me intensely. “A little bit…” I squeaked. The glare was turning murderous. “Maybe I might had… I think… yes…”

“You!”

After another vigorous beating by Lily, the three of us was sitting at the carriage, heading out for the errand that Lily had to run. She still hadn’t told us about what it actually was, and I knew that now wasn’t the right time to ask.

Zoel had returned to her normal self, ignoring yesterday’s events.

“If you just wanted to see me naked, all you had to do is ask!” Zoel said, squeezing up close to me. She was sitting next to my side, while Lily was sitting at the seat in front of us. “You don’t have to sneak into my room like that!” She teased.

“I… I wasn’t trying to see anything.” I sighed, facepalming. “I was just trying to wake you up…”

Zoel laughed, her cheeks blushing. “That’s so cute of you to make up an excuse like that!”

She was seriously a hopeless idiot.

Lily was reading another parchment, her face furrowed in concentration as she tried to ignore us.

Zoel leaned closer towards me, then whispered in my ear, her warm breath tickling my skin.

“So Kei… If you want to see me naked, you can visit my room anytime. I can let you see e-very-thing.”

“…!”

My cheeks got hot. I turned to her, whacking her on the top of her head. “Stop being an idiot!”

“Uwah!” Zoel flinched, then sat back away from me disappointed.

“So… what’s the errand for today?” I turned to Lily, trying to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Lily glanced up at me, her eyes still murderous. Ack! Was she still angry about the hole in the floor?

“We’re going to do a request for Lunthia’s King, seeing as the King of Rize isn’t paying up.” Lily said in an annoyed tone. “There’s a dragon called Bahamut they need slain. Something about needing its heart.”

“Bahamut?!” Zoel raised both her eyebrows. “The King of all Dragons? That’s the strongest dragon in all of Zenora! Its heart is said to grant the wielder immortality!”

“Uh… how do you wield a heart?” I asked.

“By eating it.”

“…!”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter to me.” Lily said, closing the parchment. “We will just do it to get the reward.”

Reward.

Lily seemed like she needed money pretty badly since she was running all these errands. She had probably ran out of money or something, judging from the contents of her wallet that I saw last time.

I decided to speak my thoughts.

“Uh… are you broke or something, Lily…?”

“…”

Lily glared at me, her hands tightening into fists. “Yes, I have no money.” She said between clenched teeth. “We need money if we are going to help you accomplish your revenge.”

“Ah I see.” I decided to hold my tongue from saying more. “…Thanks Lily.”

Lily’s face softened, but still cold. Her hands relaxed. “It’s okay.”

“You probably need to get Kei a new armour.” Zoel jumped in. “The one he wore last time was so crap, it broke apart after I hit him once.”

Lily’s face darkened again, remembering the armour she had spent all her money on. “T-that’s right…”

Shit, what the hell was Zoel saying? Was she purposely trying to make Lily mad?!

“I mean, honestly, the first time I saw Kei, I immediately felt sorry for him seeing the crappy armour he had on himself.” Zoel went on. “It was all rusty, and wasn’t fitted on properly, I had never seen anything like it! I thought I had gotten the wrong person at first, or that Paimon was playing a joke on me, telling me to kill someone like that!”

“…”

Lily’s hands balled up tightly into fists again, shaking.

“Where the hell did you get that crappy armour from anyways?” Zoel asked. “And who’s dumb idea was it to buy something like that?”

“M-mine…” Lily said.

Immediately, Zoel went quiet.

“Oh…”

I was quiet too, afraid to say anything that might make the situation worse.

I could tell this carriage ride was going to be a tough one.

Somehow, we made it to our destination without Lily killing anyone inside the carriage. I stepped out of the carriage, eager to escape the tense atmosphere and found myself at the bottom of a tall mountain, snow falling down on us. The peak of the mountain was way up in the air, and dark clouds shrouded the top, creating an ominous feeling.

“Is this the place?” I looked around us, then at Lily as she stepped out of the carriage. “This is where Bahamut is?”

Lily pointed up to the peak of the mountain. “Bahamut is up there, at the very top.”

“…”

I gazed back up at the top of the mountain. This… was going to be a long climb.

Zoel also stepped out of the carriage after Lily, quickly hurrying to my side to be with me. “Don’t worry, Kei! I’ll protect you if anything happens!” She said, stopping at my side.

“You can’t protect crap!” Lily said annoyed. “I could had killed you on that day without lifting a single finger!”

Zoel frowned, but edged away from Lily, hiding behind me. “That’s just because you’re too strong…” Zoel said to Lily.

“Come on guys! Let’s try to work as a team.” I forced a smile.

“If you try to do anything, or if I even think that you are about to do something.” Lily said to Zoel. “I’ll kill you straight away. So, don’t think about trying to escape while we’re fighting.”

“Wh-what?!” Zoel pouted at Lily. “I would never leave Kei in a fight! And I would absolutely not do anything that endangers him!”

I laughed weakly, as we started heading up the tracks of the mountain. It was cold, but we had worn the right outfit for today’s journey. All three of us were wearing heavy cloaks that kept us from freezing. Lily had prepared them for us. Although I doubted that Lily and Zoel actually needed them.

I still didn’t really trust Zoel. I mean, she had tried to kill me after all before. Who’s to say that she wasn’t putting up an elaborate act, waiting for the perfect opportunity to finish her mission?

Further ahead, we came across a group of warriors, hobbling down quickly from the mountain.

They were badly injured, some with broken arms, and blood covering their bodies.

They wore armour that signified themselves as mercenaries. No symbol of a kingdom that they belonged to, and equipment that was store bought individually, unlike the set that knights or soldiers from kingdoms wore.

“Don’t go up there!” One of the mercenaries, seemingly the leader of the pack, called out to us. “It’s dangerous! There’s a pack of snow trolls ahead! They got half of our group!”

Lily ignored him, continuing to walk past them. Her cloak was covering her head. Zoel and me had our hoods off, however.

“Don’t worry!” I responded to the mercenary with a determined look as I walked past him. “We will save as many people from your group as we can!”

“…”

The mercenaries stopped, watching us in disbelief as we continued ahead.

“B-be careful!” The mercenary called out to us, his voice echoing in the snowy mountains.

“That’s so courageous of you!” Zoel said to me. “As expected from my lover!”

“I-I’m not your lover…” I said with a weary look.

We trudged further ahead, eventually coming to the bloodbath that the mercenaries had warned us about.

Amidst all the white of the snow, blood was scattered everywhere, ripped limbs and body parts laying on the ground.

A group of snow trolls were in front of us, eating the mercenaries that were attacked. Some of them were still alive, but they were all on the edge of death. There was the top half of a body lying on the ground, his arms flailing, and his head screaming.

“T-Tch!”

I flinched seeing the scene in front of me, then glanced up angrily at the snow trolls. There were about ten of them. They were similar to normal trolls in appearance except their skin was white. They were twice as tall as a normal man, wearing ripped animal skin covering their hips. Their eyes were deep inside their head, their mouths agape, with their tongue hanging out grotesquely.

I ran up to the trolls without thinking. There was a guy that was held in one of the troll’s arm, his legs ripped off, and he was screaming. Maybe I could still save him!

“HAAH—!”

I swung my sword at the troll that was holding him, cutting at his leg.

Blood gushed out of the troll’s leg and the troll made a howling noise as he flung his giant hand out at me.

I dodged the hand, then slashed at it, chopping his fingers off and sending more blood flying.

My practice yesterday had helped me a lot with my swordwork, although Lily thought it was crap. Probably because she thinks everyone is weak, since she’s so strong.

“That’s so awesome, Kei!!” Zoel called out to me, her hands clutched together in front of her. “You’re so cool!!”

Lily was watching silently, her hood covering her eyes.

“ARGHH—!!” I leaped up from the ground, slicing at the troll’s eyes, blinding him.

The troll released his grip off the man he was holding, letting him fall down on the ground with a heavy thud. The man was still screaming, blood gushing from his legs that were missing.

“You! I will get you out of here!” I called out to the man. He was the only one that could still be saved. The others were too far gone to be helped.

The trolls surrounding me, started lunging all out towards me, their outstretched hand flinging to me.

I dodged their hands, moving quickly so that I wouldn’t be caught.

Behind me, a troll flung his hand out at me.

S-shit, I missed that one!

The troll’s hand rapidly approached, but before it could grasp onto me, Zoel dashed forward at an insane speed. She was significantly faster than me, and even moreso when compared to the troll. She leaped into the air at an inhumane height, flinging her arm out in a whirlwind motion at the troll that tried to reach out for me, then she landed in front of me gracefully.

Hidden under her cloak, I could see a glimpse of her right arm that had shifted into its demonic form. Pure black, claws at each finger, strange lines running up her arm. Her cloak fell down, covering her arm from view and I lost sight of it.

The troll that had reached out to me, was frozen, not moving for a second, until suddenly, diced lines appeared all across the troll and he exploded, sending a flood of blood all around him.

The trolls were staring in shock at their dead comrade, that was now just a pool of blood.

Zoel stood up straight, splatters of blood staining her black cloak and the skin of her flawless snow-white face. She turned to me, her burning red eyes were now a vivid blood red, seemingly alive and screaming inside my mind. An intense demonic aura was reeking from her, and I felt that strange paralysing sensation from when I first fought her running up my spine and spreading across the entirety of my mind.

“Are you okay, Kei...?” Zoel asked, turning to me. Her eyes were still in its demonic blood red form. “Did the troll hurt you?”

She walked up to me, trying to touch my face, and I slapped her hand out of the way.

“Don’t fucking touch me!”

I was gazing into Zoel’s eyes, consumed by an unspeakable rage that was begging to be released.

Those… those were the eyes of a demon...

“K-Kei…”

Zoel flinched away from me, her face hurt. The vividness of her blood red eyes gradually faded, returning back to its natural burning red colour.

“I-It’s a demon!”

The trolls cried, pointing at Zoel. Their voices were rough and sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“Let’s go—!”

The trolls quickly ran off, leaving the pieces of humans they had on them, and disappearing into a path on the mountain that led to a cave.

I felt the anger inside me lessening with Zoel’s eyes returning back to her human form. There was still something that was stinging my chest though.

I turned away from Zoel bitterly to look at the man that I had tried to save earlier.