"Hmmm..."
I sat on top of a tree while secretly watching the situation below. Seriously though! Why the hell is he overreacting after seeing that someone who wasn't even his biological sister, suddenly had her grave uprooted?! It's not like I would have ever done anything like that if I were in his place!
He was weeping on the ground while actually, he was frustrated. Should I feel sad or resentment towards him? He may have been my adoptive brother, however... I can't forgive him for trying to kill me twice before, when I was newly living in the palace.
Just when I thought the situation was going to calm down, he simply withdrew his sword and held it out in front of his throat. And this was enough to make my mask snap, as I immediately changed back my appearance and hoped down from the tree.
Rustle... Thud!
He looked towards my direction—horror filling his eyes. He immediately dropped his sword and came to stand up right in front of me. I folded my arms and glared with my crimson eyes at him to just scare him.
"Hey! No slaughtering in front of my grave! Go do it somewhere else!" I shouted at him with a different attitude of a spoiled child. "I don't even know who you are and what sort of relationship you had with the true owner of the body. However, that person you are crying for is no longer. So don't waste such emotions on trivial matters like this. It's not worth it anymore."
"Aefia...?!" He was trembling in confusion as he tried to reach out and place a hand on my shoulder. "You are alive?"
"Pfft! Oh don't get me started on that!" I laughed it out. It should have at least sparked some sort of a retreat order inside his mind. Yet, he was being stubborn as always. He just stared while shocked at my face.
"I am a devil who was given this body. Do you need more explanation? My eyes should have given it away. And I don't think that the person you call Aefia would have liked it if you didn't just start crying in front of her grave like this. Why do you humans not have something called 'respect for the dead'?!"
As I had just said right now, I always had story prepared, so that no one can quite think about using me the way they did when I was 'human' Aefia. So saying that I was a devil having taken over this dead body, must have been believable enough.
"A devil?" He asked while clenching his fist at his sides.
"Yes. Now get lost."
"But Aefia–"
"Aefia is the name of the owner of this body. However... Neither my master nor my own name is Aefia. I prefer you erase such name in case we meet ever again." I sternly cut him off. By now, he must have retaliated. Just how stubborn was he?!
"Then what is your name?"
"Daphne. Anything else you want to know?"
He hesitated for some time, until he gritted his teeth and spoke it out.
"Then what is your master's name? Who gave you my sister's body?"
The proximity of the question itself felt unapproachable, so I decided to cut it off, although it had precisely cut me off completely.
"That... I can't say unless you are my master. A devil contracted to a human can only be the master's material. Therefore, the master and the devil's relationship can never be exposed to the normal humans. If I am a tool to the master, only the master can control me. And only under the Master's command can I tell you their name. I am sorry that I can't aid you that information."
I had to answer it in a way that would seem the most convincing right? So this was the most convincing. Now back off you pest! You all just used me and wanted to dispose of me anyways! So why when you are all in a political problem again, that you need my help again?
Afterall, a tool who has been broken can't be of better use once repaired. There will be multiple flaws with the tool that will force you to get a new one anyhow.
However, I will stop this family from destroying more experimental lives—although it isn't really true. However... I am still scared that many people may even end up like me.
Like how they did to me...
"I understand." He answered while letting his head droop forward. "But can't you at least ask your master for an audience for me? I would like to discuss whether the body can be changed? We can give away another body if your master would like it and if it is agreeable by you.
"However... Leave my sister's body alone."
I placed a hand to which I leaned my face onto. "I can't do that. You see... My master is very strict when her devil decides to show face to anyone else. In order to save myself, I can't even carry out your request of asking for an audience. And about your sister's body though..."
I decided to stop to make it seem like I was thinking, but I was clearly checking my own glowing eyes from the reflection on his eyes. They were bright red, and two slit pupils had been replaced onto them.
"When you say Aefia was your sister's name... Do you mean the Princess Aefia in specific?"
"Yes! You must know why you should leave her body alone then... Right?" His face beamed up as if he had finally found a way to make a contract with a 'devil'. However... I wasn't a devil.
"But I was going to say something else..." I added while using my index finger to scratch my head.
"Huh?"
"Your sister seemed to be such a powerful and strong person that her body doesn't even break when I exert the maximum output of my devil powers. And unlike any other bodies that my master tried to fit me in... It seems that this body is to my most liking." I flashed a smile. "My master also happened to know Princess Aefia pretty well. They said that she was a close ally to them before she died."
Don't worry... I just love to indirectly brag about myself in front of him. A sibling thing though...
"Wha–Wait..."
"What?"
"Close ally you said?" He repeated while approaching my standing place to maybe confirm my expression. Although I know who I was framing here, I knew that he will never be able to find out about Lady Elanor's relationship to me.
"Yes. That is what they said. However... I can't expose more information. Now please... If you may... Leave this grave alone and I will have to return to my Master's side by dawn."
"And what were you here for?" He glared my way. It reminded me of my first days back at the palace.
"I am a devil... I have to feed on human souls to survive right?" I answered flawlessly. One thing that I was most good at everywhere I go... Was that I was a good actor and a double-faced hypocrite. I secretly flashed a grin for myself.
"Right... Thank you for the information." He spoke while turning away. I knew what he was probably thinking.
Who is this very enemy that they won't stop mendling with my sister's dead body?!
But who really cared about what he thought now? At least he was busy with such matters while I was busy secretly saving the empire for the very person I was currently trying to frame. Just when I was about to turn and walk away, I decided to add a few more things as the true 'human' Aefia.
"By the way." I said while turning half-way to face him. "Since I have chosen your sister's body, I think I should pay a price for doing such thing. For that repayment, since I am a devil, I can help you in situations that you can't really control. Just mutter the name of your sister and I should be able to track you down." That was definitely a lie. But what wasn't a lie would be that... I would have my illusion do it for me.
"Well then. I should get going." I added while turning away fully and walking towards the end of the cemetry. Which was simply muscle memory until I decided to change to stealth and hire my illusion to do the rest—An image of Daphne who dissolved into ashes and then flew away.
That was how I thought devils moved, based on reading enough fantasy action novels back on Earth. Thanks to all the things that I hated back on Earth, I have finally been able to deceive, manipulate and control the situation the way I want it to.
As I reappeared from my stealth while standing with the remaining of the guard group, I grinned to myself as I watched Lewis appear with a more desperate and furious face then the one I had first seen.
There was a reason as to why I chose to rewrite his name as the heir instead of mine. Afterall... He had this one twisted personality that neither George nor Henry had. And this twisted personality helped him seek revenge very easily. And revengeful people always succeeded somehow.
Just as he was commanded his people, a sudden thought crossed my mind and I decided to think deeper into it right there and right that second.
Thinking of the situation that I was about to solve not so long later... Won't be better to pay a visit to the empress?
I then instantly hooked my gaze up at Lewis, who was ordering the guards to stop the search and that they were going to move back to the capital by tomorrow morning.
I guess I made a good decision by putting him next on the throne. I smiled to myself without even giving it a second to die down inside my head.
"I guess that is all for the night..." He spoke while yawning. Well he looked like he didn't sleep for two nights or so. And then, I also heard that sometimes, people feel sleepy after they cry for a long time. He had been crying over my uprooted grave for at least fifteen minutes straight? And that too as a guy.
I don't usually stand against men crying, however... My parents always brutally tortured my younger brother and taught him not to ever drop a tear. So seeing my adoptive brother also felt like he was breaking some sort of a rule. And there was this part of me who wanted to walk over and knock this into his skull.
I turned towards the edge of the woods again. I didn't dissapear or stealth there, I walked there with complete silence. Thinking of my days back in Earth was something I really enjoyed recalling when I was bored. And this certain rule, made me realize something.
I had always been an overprotective sister my whole life, and sometimes, seeing my younger brother's brutal tortures, would lead me to doing somethings that sometimes harmed me. If he burned himself and couldn't cry over it, I would have to burn myself a bit more and then comfort him by laughing about that pain. I just hated seeing my baby brother suffer the same way I did.
When my parents forbid him from crying, I would sometimes be silent as he watched me get beaten up. He soon grew accustomed to it, and managed to avoid crying over things, however... I had never been able to recover from my own actions and will. I continued being deadpan even as I bled and suffered with a broken bone.
The only hope that I had to keep me alive while in that state, was that I had two brothers to take care of, and many people who had high expectations from me. Including the person who was my biological father, but whom I called uncle out of disgust. Because when I was a kid... He used me to do risky things that could have killed me. So I never got the courage to call him a true father. I could have died... At that age! And he handed me a literal gun!
I let out a sigh while knocking the side of my head and then using my core memories to lead me to the body that I had buried in the pile of leaves.
"The Mides family..." I muttered while seeing the hand sticking out of the bush of dried leaves. I then kicked a few more over the fingers. "Oh well! I need to get back to work!"
My hand reached to my side where Spectrum rested, and I used my illusion to make it look like the dead guard. Then I completely transformed myself to match the reflection of the guard. Now that I know everything, I needed to set my trap and escape route.
But suddenly, my brain wrecked on itself and I felt a memory come flashing back to my eyes with a vivid picture.
"Huh? What?"
It was nothing related to my current situation... However...
[Master... You said you made yourself into a sort who wouldn't cry... But what is this memory I found Master? Are you secretly a betrayer?]
So this was all Spectrum's doing... The cursed sword who had the control over my mind. I wanted to hate it for doing this, mendling with my mind.
The memory that flashed before my eyes was the time that Brittany had died.
I could feel my knees go weak and my entire mind go null. And based on the atmosphere... My skills were all deactivated.
Spectrum did whatever it wanted with my mind... And I couldn't do interject or complain. Otherwise... It would chew on my veins and get me possesed to just punish me.
The memory was when I somehow managed to break down while hugging George. That was also the first time in a long while that I wasted my tears on such trivial stuff. What kind of a person had I turned into back then...
I clenched my fist at my side and gritted my teeth in dissapointment.
[Master... Don't tell me this was before you took your life?]
It was speaking to me in a tone of voice that caused me to get goosebumps and fear.
"Yes..."
[Master... You are so weak. My previous owners were much stronger then you.]