When A Ghoul Falls In Love

In another part of the Mansion, Devil feels lost.

He’s been walking for a long time, unimpressed by the ancient style of the mansion. There is not a single comfortable place for his nap. Little Marshmallow’s lap is the best. Whenever Little Marshmallow strokes his fur, he falls asleep easily.

“I forgive this place since this is where he grew up.”

Devil resists the urge to burn the mansion to the ground. Honestly, he doesn’t like Duke Balthier Sanguine. How are they going to survive for three days? If anyone tries to eat Nell, he’s going to eat that ghoul.

“Can I digest a ghoul?” Devil worries about indigestion. Ingesting the moon’s wrath has given him a bad case of indigestion. If he can swallow the wrath of the moon, a ghoul shouldn’t be too much.

When he turns around the corner, he comes across a tall boy who seems to be in his early twenties.

The boy has curly copper-brown hair and flamboyant pink eyes.

“What’s this?” The boy bends down on his knees with stars in his eyes. “A cat spirit wandered into our mansion?”

Devil hates a lot of things, being called a cat spirit is climbing up on the list. He snaps at the boy, “I am not a cat spirit.”

“But you smell and look like a cat.” The boy furrows his brows, and then he leans closer to sniff on the cat. Does he smell the moon on this cat? But their world doesn’t have a moon.

The cat raises its paw and strikes the boy’s cheek.

Three dark-red lines appear in the boy’s cheek. Blood oozes out of his smooth skin, dripping on the floor. The cat wipes his paw on the boy’s white shirt. When his claw is crystal clean, he walks past the boy.

“This little shit!” The boy grasps the cat’s tail and pulls him back as the cat digs his claws on the carpet. “Who do you think that you are?”

Devil turns his head toward him. “Not someone you should offend.”

“Ha!” The boy snorts. Cat spirits are nothing compared to a ghoul. What can they do? Hiss at him? “I haven’t eaten a cat spirit for a while. I wonder how you –”

He closes his mouth when he realizes that the cat is inflating like a balloon. Soon, Devil’s tiny tail becomes so big that it doesn’t fit in his grasp. The boy lets go of it, awestruck by the gigantic calico cat in the hallway. “You aren’t an ordinary cat spirit!”

The cat opens its mouth, showing him colossal darkness. Voss, the ninth son of Duke Balthier Sanguine, doesn’t bother to stay there for a moment and observe. He sprints in the opposite direction before Devil unleashes the wrath of the moon.

“What is this thing?” Voss howls as he conjures the dark energy around himself to repel the silver-blue fire. The massive waves of dark energy explode in the air as soon as it comes in contact with the wrathful flames.

Voss lets out a curse before he’s thrown backwards. His back hits the wall as the furious flames approach him. With the smell alone, he figures that the flames are cursed. He can’t let it hit him.

“I only touched his tail,” He mutters as he folds his fingers into a first, summoning his mana into his knuckles as he smashes the wall behind him. Lowering his head as it breaks down into pieces, the cursed flames pass over his head only by a few inches into the room on the other side of the broken wall.

When he raises his head, he sees charred walls. The portraits, shelves of books, and the cabinet are burned down to ashes. There’s not a single spot that is not black and ashen except for the gold sculpture of his father.

“Still alive.” He raises his arms and congratulates himself, forgetting the fact that his father’s office is nothing but a pile of ash.

Devil, who isn’t over the humiliation yet, presses down its paw on Voss’ back. “Not for long.”

***

“Sister-in-law, you don’t have to worry much,” Belinda assures Nell with a cheery voice. “If Fourth Brother has decided to marry you, nobody in the world can stop it.”

Nell doesn’t reply. Her head is still full of the thoughts that Eli is being coveted by a man and a woman. Usually, she can’t care less about Eli’s admirers since it’s normal to have admirers if one is beautiful.

“Hmm.”

Her low response puzzles everyone in the hall. Drace watches her like a hawk as if she’s a rare item in the showcase of an auction. He is hoping to get a taste — maybe a finger or a toe. His brother can share that much, right?

Eli feels Nell’s grip turn loose. He glances at her, finding her deep in thoughts. She seems to be in a different world. He can’t guess what’s going on inside her head. How is he going to explain it to her? The reason why he didn’t tell her about Carmine is that he didn’t give any importance to that woman. In his eyes, she’s just a little fly who keeps hovering around him.

Since she’s the prime minister’s adored daughter, it’s a tad bit difficult to get rid of the woman. But if Nell finds her that annoying, should he make Carmine disappear? Shadows won’t be enough and he doesn’t want to use darkness.

He leans closer to Nell and whispers, “Don’t put your head full of other people’s thoughts.”

But Nell isn’t thinking about Eli’s ‘lovers’. Her mind senses Devil draining something hot and strong from her. She blinks her eyes as her vision turns blurry. “Devil is causing trouble.”

Devil… Julianne pales. Devils are dark creatures, but they are the epitome of chaos. If a devil is in their country, then… What will Fourth Brother do? Last time, Fourth Brother nearly turned into a devil when he used Darkness when those creatures tried to take over this kingdom.

“I guess he picked up the attitude of ‘eating his problems’ from you,” Nell trails off as she loses the strength in her legs.

‘”Nell!” Eli grabs her, calling her name in trepidation. “What happened? Why are you like this?”

Just then, a loud blast occurs in the eastern part of the mansion.