She Belongs To The Devil

"Yes." Damien bowed his head to the Devil Prince and answered his question. "We did find the answers."

"Your Highness." Kenneth also came forward to stand by Damien's side and greeted Theodore by bowing his head.

Theodore gave a nod and stepped inside the room. He glanced at both the boys and then directed his question towards Kenneth. "Is your mother okay?"

Neither of the boys was surprised when Theodore assumed that they had found Kenneth's birthmother and had interacted with her.

'He must have foreseen us finding her and talking with her,' Damien quietly thought to himself.

Kenneth smiled a little and answered, "I hope she will be. She appeared to be drowning in regret after everything that happened in the past. But I hope she will be able to overcome her pain and hopefully forgive herself as well."

Theodore didn't want to pry on the matter any longer since the boys had just returned from the journey. Seeing that they safely returned from their journey was enough for him for the moment. "I will let the others know that you two are back. Get freshened up. If you hurry, you two might just make it in time to sit down for dinner with everyone."

Theodore was already out of the room and walking down the hallway when Damien peeked out the door and asked with a somewhat worried tone, "How's Ariel? Is she alright?"

Theodore smirked when he sensed the hint of restlessness in Damien's voice. Without stopping on his track or looking back, he answered, "She's alright." His face hardened when he further said resolutely, "I won't let Michael lay a single finger on my daughter again."

Damien let out a sigh of relief, knowing that as long as Theodore was around, Ariel would be safe. 'I should also train harder and be as strong as Prince Theodore. I don't want to be hopeless if we ever encounter Michael again.' Experience more on My Virtual Library Empire

Keeping that in mind, Damien looked back at Kenneth and then informed, "Alright, I will go to my room and freshen up. See you later."

Kenneth nodded his head, and just when Damien was about to step out of the room, Kenneth extended his gratitude. "Damien… thank you. If you weren't there with me, I probably would have left without properly talking with Scarlett." He gave an earnest smile to Damien and said, "I'm glad you convinced me to stay and listen to her."

Damien felt happy upon seeing the genuine smile on Kenneth's face. He firmly placed his hand on Kenneth's shoulder and replied with an equally sincere smile, "Happy to help, brother."

Kenneth was slightly taken aback by the sudden rush of a new kind of sensation in his chest. He kept on standing still for quite some time, pondering over his feelings. After a while, he smiled to himself and wondered, 'So, this is how it feels like to have a sibling?'

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As soon as Damien walked out of the bath–wrapped in nothing but a white towel–he almost got jumped by something that ran towards him at a blurring speed. Almost. And he was seconds away from instinctively attacking the invader, who turned out to be none other than Ariel.

"Ariel! You scared me!" Damien immediately lowered his fisted arm and exhaled deeply.

Ariel, feeling guilty for entering Damien's room without his permission, turned her head away and apologized. "I'm sorry… I heard that you were back from the journey. So, I came to talk to you. But um… I wouldn't have…" She took a deep breath before finishing her sentence. "…entered the room without your permission if I knew that you um… that you were taking a bath."

Damien choked on his laugh seeing Ariel getting flustered, and he couldn't help but tease her even more. "Liar." He closed in on Ariel and taunted her while towering in front of her. "I'm sure you heard the water splashing in the bathroom and then you snuck into my room to peek in."

"Hey! Don't make–" Ariel faced Damien to give him a glare and a good scolding. However, his face–which looked so fresh with the water droplets still trickling down from his wet hair–was so close to her face that she couldn't get mad at Damien even if she tried.

Damien smirked, knowing full well what kind of effect he was having on his dearest at the moment. He slightly lowered his head, bringing his face even closer to Ariel's. And he asked playfully, "Don't make what?"

Ariel drew her brows together and huffed, "D-Don't make such accusations." She quickly turned around to flee the room. She feared that Damien would notice the blush on her cheeks and tease her even more.

However, before she could leave the room, Damien grabbed her arm and swiftly turned her around. Her body clashed against Damien's body which felt like a hard brick wall to her. Before she could think why Damien had pulled her, she felt his soft and warm lips against hers.

"Mmm…" A satisfactory moan left her mouth before she could suppress it. She found herself closing her eyes and locking her arms around Damien's neck when Damien further deepened the kiss.

Damien pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. With every stroke of her lips which was so in tune with his, and with her in his arms, Damien felt as if he was finally home. The home he had foolishly abandoned as a child. He was glad that the homeowner, his first love, had allowed him in even though he was late in coming back.

After almost making Ariel breathless, Damien finally pulled back and cupped her face. He gazed into her amber eyes and whispered as he got lost in them, "I missed you, Ariel."

"I missed you too." Ariel gave him a soft smile and hugged him tightly.

After getting dressed in an appropriate attire to attend the dinner, Damien stepped out of the bathroom.

Ariel flashed a beautiful smile and asked as she pointed at the door, "Shall we? Everyone is waiting for us."

Damien closed the distance between him and Ariel and offered his arm like a gentleman. "Let's go."

When the two of them reached the dining hall, the others were already seated at their respective seats and enjoying their food.

"Please excuse us." Since they were late, Ariel gave a polite bow to the King and the Queen of Romania before hurrying towards the empty chairs beside Zach.

Damien tailed Ariel in a similar manner and took the seat by Ariel's side.

Without wasting a second, Zach cleared his throat to get those two's attention. He then lowered his head and gave Ariel and Damien a sidelong glance with a mocking smile on his face.

Ariel saw the look Zach was giving and before he could make any snarky comment, and embarrass her and Damien, she warningly narrowed her eyes at her cousin.

Zach smiled even broadly but refrained from passing any comment, despite itching to pass one.

As the maids swiftly began serving the two latecomers, Damien looked around the table to find Ariel's cousins looking at him and Ariel with a grin on their faces. He couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed because he could tell what they all were thinking when he arrived late with Ariel.

His embarrassment, however, turned into fear when his eyes met Theodore's death glare. If looks could kill, he swore he would already be dead. Not just dead, he would turn into dust.

'Is he angry at me or something? Did he find out I kissed Ariel?' Damien gulped in fear and blinked several times before looking back at Theodore again. However, instead of a death glare like before, Theodore was smiling at him.

Damien gave a short smile and looked down at his plate thinking, 'Did I imagine him getting angry earlier, or is he able to shift his mood that quickly?'

Before he could dwell further on the matter, he heard King Louis addressing him. "Lord Damien, I heard from the Prince Consort that you took a trip with Crown Prince Kenneth."

King Louis glanced at Kenneth and further added, "How was the trip?"

Since nobody had gotten a chance to question Kenneth or Damien about it yet, everyone focused their attention on the boys.

Damien simply nodded his head and mumbled, "It was good." He then glanced at Kenneth as if to pass the torch to him. He wanted Kenneth to answer since the trip–meeting his birthmother–was a sensitive matter to Kenneth. He wasn't sure if Kenneth was comfortable with revealing that information to everyone.

Understanding Damien's unspoken words, Kenneth looked at the King and replied, "As Damien said, it was a nice trip. I met my birthmother and also got to know the identity of my real father."

Everyone in the room widened their eyes at the revelation. Those who had known Kenneth since he was a child let out a soft gasp.

"Were they happy to see you?" Queen Helena asked in a soft voice when she couldn't quite read Kenneth's facial expression. Was he happy? Was he sad? Did they accept him? She wanted to know.

Not just her but everyone in the room wanted to know.

"I think it's safe to say that my mother was happy." Kenneth looked down at the fork in his hand and said rather bluntly, "As for my father, he's dead."

"Oh, dear…" Queen Helena covered her mouth with her palm while the others knitted their brows in sadness–until Kenneth spoke again.

"Besides that…" A small smile formed on Kenneth's lips as he looked at Damien and said with a happy tone, "I also got to know that Damien and I are half-brothers."

Everyone in the room, except for Theodore, let out an audible gasp upon learning that piece of information.

"King Reginald," King Louis said with a frown.

Queen Helen gave a sympathetic look to Kenneth and asked in her usual kind voice, "Are you okay, dear? I hope the fact that you are that man's blood is not bothering you."

"I'm okay." Kenneth nodded his head. "I mean I have a half-sibling now. I consider it a win for me because having a powerful demon as a brother doesn't sound half bad." He grinned at Damien once again and said in a slightly playful manner, "I'm going to extort your power for my gains."

Damien chuckled and replied whimsically, "Sure, sure. I will be at your service if you need to scare someone off."

Ariel was over the moon to see this playful side of the two of them.

Theodore, on the other hand, had a satisfied smirk on his face as he watched the playful banter between them. 'I'm glad I didn't go along with them. Things turned out better without my presence.'