Chapter 18 - Aura Of Revenge
"I'm going to kill you!"
Lillian glared at Ida with furious dark eyes and started to flick her fingers around while chanting a spell. However, before she could complete her spell, Theodore waved his hand towards Ida and made her look like a fire-breathing dragon, but only the Queen could see the dragon instead of Ida.
The Queen was greatly shocked at the sight of a deadly dragon. She instinctively took several steps back while shouting at the top of her lungs. While doing so, she stumbled upon her bed and almost fell down.
The other maids had no idea why the Queen was acting this way but they were even more scared by this strange behavior of the Queen. They kept their gaze low and waited for their chance to run out of this dangerous room.
Lillian closed her eyes and put her hand on her chest to calm herself down. The Queen murmured to herself, "Whatever is inside my room, it appears to be very powerful. I better get out of here and stop embarrassing myself in front of these maids."
Then Lillian pretended to regain her composure and said, "Maids, clean my room. I'll be outside till then." Then she gathered the long gown that she was wearing with her hands and walked out of her room in a hurry.
Theodore stretched his arms and thought, "Okay, my job here is done for now. I should go back to Adeline's room and wait for her. I would love to play with her before I go."
He languidly walked out of the Queen's room and started to walk towards Adeline's room. "But how will I introduce myself to her? She might have already forgotten me." He contemplated for a while and then came up with an answer, "I will just tell her that I am her guardian angel. That might work."
After he reached inside the Princess's room, he slowly inspected everything that was in her room. He went through the expensive decorations which were most probably gifts from the King.
Then Theodore came across a notebook that was sitting on a small desk. On top of that notebook a name was written - Adeline. The handwriting looked like it was written by the Princess herself. Theodore grabbed the notebook and mumbled to himself, "Look at that… She already knows how to write. Back then she didn't even know how to use a knife and fork."
He sat on Adeline's bed comfortably and went through the pages of Adeline's notebook. Some pages had scribbling of her name and some had drawings on them. After going through a few pages, he suddenly stopped.
His brows were lifted and a smirk appeared on his face. There was a drawing of a matchstick man and on top of that a name was written - Theodore. And by the side of that man there was a drawing of a smiling girl and on top of that was written - Adeline.
"She still remembers me… And here I was, worried about how to introduce myself to her."
He carefully tore that piece of drawing from the notebook and kept it safely inside his pocket. "This masterpiece deserved to be framed in my room. I wonder if there are some more." Then he resumed flipping through the pages of the notebook one by one.
There was another drawing that caught his eyes. A man and a child were sleeping on a bed. He noticed that the design of the bed in that drawing looked very similar to that of his own bed. And even though no names were written on this sheet of paper, he recognized that it was him and Adeline.
Theodore thought of tearing this drawing as well but decided to leave it for the Princess. He got up from the bed and looked around for something to write with. He found a quill and ink on the table and sat down to write. He wrote his name as well as Adeline's name on that drawing.
"This is for you to remember me with, my little human." He put down the quill and stared at the drawing with their names on it. A genuine smile appeared on Theodore's perfectly proportioned lips.
Sounds of footsteps could be heard outside Adeline's room. Theodore quickly put back the notebook in its place and waited in one corner for the Princess to enter the room.
The door to the room was unlocked and opened. Princess Adeline entered the room along with Hawisa and Osanna. "Princess Adeline, would you like to eat first or would you like to take a bath first?" Hawisa asked the Princess as she walked in.
Theodore rolled his eyes and thought, "Why does she always have to be with other people? At this rate, I will have to return back without even getting a chance to talk to her."
"I am tired. I would like to sleep first. I will eat and bath later. Please close the door behind." Princess Adeline took a long breath and walked towards her bed.
"Of course, Your Highness." Hawisa and Osanna thought that after a long day of training the Princess must have been really tired. So they bowed to the Princess and closed the door behind as they walked out of the room.
As soon as the door to her room was locked, Princess Adeline walked towards the corner where Theodore was quietly standing. She looked up and smiled, "Hello! Prince Theodore."
Theodore was surprised by those words of Adeline. He raised his brows and asked, "You can see me?"
Princess Adeline gave her sweet smile to Theodore and innocently replied, "Of course I can. You came to visit me in the training ground, didn't you?"
Theodore gave the Princess a smoldering look and asked, "So you could see me all along huh? Then why didn't you say anything in the ground?" Theodore didn't understand why Adeline didn't say anything when he did so many weird things when he was on the training ground.
"I wanted to talk to you but I was too sad at first and after some time I realized that the others could not see you. So I stayed quiet." Adeline grinned and kept on staring at the handsome Devil who was standing in front of her.
Theodore raised one of his brows and smiled in admiration. Then he asked again, "Did you send your maids out because you saw me in here and you wanted to talk to me?"
Adeline nodded her head and started to sway her body.
Theodore got down on one of his knees to see Adeline's beautiful face and tousled her silver hair, "How can someone so small think so big? You never cease to amaze me."
Their eyes met for a fraction of seconds and Adeline jumped forward to give Theodore a tight hug.
Theodore was startled when he was hugged out of nowhere. "Oh! We hug each other now. Well this is a step up from before." He nervously chuckled and tried to brush off his nervousness with a joke.
But Adeline complained in a sad voice, "Why didn't you visit me for so long? I had started to believe that I saw you in my dreams and that you were not real."
Theodore finally hugged her back. Her words made him feel sad as well. Why didn't he visit her? It was maybe because he never had someone who cared enough about him visiting them and the thought of visiting someone just never occurred to him.
Theodore picked Adeline up in his arms and apologized to her, "I am sorry my little Princess. But I came now, didn't I? You know now that I am real and not just a dream."
Adeline looked into Theodore's eyes and said, "Promise me that you will visit me frequently."
A playful smirk appeared on Theodore's face. He stared back into Adeline's sapphire eyes and said, "I promise."
Adeline gave a wide smile and hugged Theodore again. Theodore patted Adeline lovingly and he felt that the bond between them was growing deeper.
"I wish I could keep you with me forever, my little human." Theodore silently whispered under his breath.
"Theodore, tell me a story." Adeline glanced at Theodore with a wide puppy eyes. "I would love to hear about what you do."
Theodore placed Adeline on her bed and he also sat down beside her in a relaxed posture. "You always want to know more about me, don't you? Sorry to disappoint you but I don't think you will like what I do."
But Adeline kept on glancing at Theodore with expecting look. So he hummed for quite some time contemplating whether or not to tell Adeline about his work. But he finally gave in and said, "I look after the gambling houses in the court of Hell."
Adeline blinked her eyes and then asked, "What is a gambling house?"
Theodore mumbled to himself, "Of course you don't know what that is. It does not make sense for a child to know about such places." He pursed his lips and said in an audible voice, "It is a place where people play games by placing money."
Adeline's eyes twinkled when she heard the word 'game'. Then she excitedly said, "Play games? I also want to go there."
He declined the Princess with a smile. "It is a bad place where only bad people go. A small girl like you cannot go there."
"Then why do you work in such a bad place?" Adeline did not buy what he said and looked at him with questioning eyes.
The Devil gave a devilish smirk and said in a deep and low voice, "Because the gambling houses are filled with people who emit just the aura that I desire… the aura of revenge."