C25 ♱ Chapter • 25 ♱

♱ •⋅ 1750 B.C. ⋅• ♱

"How can he?" I asked myself more than Asmodeus, but the demon still shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe he didn’t like the way things work down here. In the end you have to remember... angels are still angels, even when they fall" he muttered and there was so much contempt in his voice that I wondered if Asmodeus had any past with angels. A past he couldn’t hide or forget.

"What do you mean?" I questioned even though I knew I shouldn’t, even when my words could bring bad memories to him, but the demon just denied it with his head.

"Nothing much, just that angels remain angels" he replied and even if his lips showed a half smile, he still could not hide his disgust "angels are treacherous, laden with jealousy, envy and a cruel and heartless loyalty. The truth..." he stopped and his eyes turned to the window of the chariot "the truth is that angels and demons have too different concepts of reality."

I settled.

When it came to this world, that was really true.

It was almost surreal. Angels were far from being angelic and docile, whereas demons - largely -, were like humans.

Humans stronger, gifted and often far less cruel.

"We arrived" the Coachman told us and I sighed heavily.

"Is it ready?"

Asmodeus smiled at me.

"I was born ready, little devil."

That was an exaggeration and, at the same time, no, but when the small door was opened and my feet stepped on that gray soil, I wondered if it had not been taken to another territory by mistake.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Ee-esse..." the guard who accompanied us seemed too nervous, as if questioning himself about having done the right thing "this was the place we told you about, madam, the last village from where the tribute was taken."

My body froze up.

It wasn’t right, it couldn’t be. That definitely wasn’t the place Elaine described in the book.

"What an ugly little place" Asmodeus muttered right behind me.

"Thomas" I called the little guard, a human who had been lucky enough to enter the guard of the capital of the third territory "are you sure of what you are saying? Is this really the place?"

He nodded, as soon as the words came out my lips the boy simply confirmed.

"Yes, ma'am. That’s the village of Noir. It is the third closest village to the capital" he spoke proudly, not because that horrible place is close to the capital, but for him - to know this information.

He was not wrong, much less could be lying, after all every mortal - however young he was -. He knew that it was useless to lie to a demon.

"What was it?" Asmodeus questioned me by placing himself beside me.

But how would I tell him that that dirty, gray village full of burnt houses and poor families that were clearly not fed for months - wasn’t that what I was expecting?

Elaine had said that there were less colourful houses and that some of the flowers were dead in her small gardens, but there were none.

If at any time there were flowers in the village of Noir, it was many, many months ago.

I bit my lower lip hard, so hard that Asra’s prey sank into the tender flesh and I felt the ferrous taste invade my mouth.

"This... this place" I grumbled "that’s not how they told me I would be" I lied.

Asmodeus raised one of his eyebrows.

"Is it... better or worse?"

"Worse..." I said in almost a whisper "much worse."

The prince of the third territory sighed heavily.

"What the fuck in?" he let go while carrying one hand to his hair "besides ugly and smelly is still disappointing."

"Asmodeus!" I rebuked him and my eyes rested on some hungry children who stared at him, at his golden hair and his extravagant robes.

Unlike me, he had not even made an effort not to draw attention - this was one of the things (one of the few) that did not differ from the original story.

"I’m not lying" the demon muttered "this place stinks. It stinks more than angel."

I snitched.

"Have you ever been told that you look beautiful quietly?"

He gasped.

"What an audacity!"

Smile.

"Thomas" I called the boy and he soon approached.

"Yes?"

"Return to the capital of the third territory and ask the king that I sent supplies for food, medical care and also magicians that can expedite the reconstruction of this place."

The boy continued there, standing looking at me as if I expected him to say it was a joke, but I just took a deep breath taking one hand to the face.

"Quick, Thomas. Now, preferably," I murmured feeling that the existing patience in me was again in conflict with that of Asra.

The nonexistent patience that coexisted with mine.

"Slow" Asmodeus hissed and the boy, who should not be more than 17 years old, practically jumped without leaving the place.

"I-I-I... I’m going!" He spoke and before I could look at him again, Thomas had already taken a horse from the driver’s hands and rode against the wind towards the capital.

"So what?" the blond asked me in a singing tone "what shall we do now?"

I smiled and extended my hands to him.

"Now? Well, now we’ll take care of the citizens and investigate."

Asmodeus blinked looking increasingly confused.

"What?"

Smile.

"TAKE CARE" I spoke slowly almost as if spelled for him.

"WHAT?"

He had already understood, but the unbelief in his face made it obvious that he did not want to do that.

"We need them to be alive to find out what happened," I said trying to make a good point, but Asmodeus volunteered to nullify it.

"NO! We don’t need it! I talk to the dead!"

I denied it with my head.

"We didn’t come here for that."

"No!" he immediately said "I didn’t come here for this, I refuse to touch... on..." he couldn’t finish, it was as if his tongue would fall if he finished the sentence.

"In humans?" I mocked and ironically he nodded looking as scared as he would look if I told him to clean the corpse of a cockroach.

I sighed.

That would be a long, long day.

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