“BUT I don’t like how they look,” Neoma complained while looking at the black dog with two heads. With its unusual size for a dog, plus the bloodshot eyes, it didn’t look cute. Well, it lived up to its name as “helldog” because it really looked intimidating. Still, that wasn’t her style. “Can’t you change its appearance and make them look like a Shiba Inu?”

Trevor raised a brow at her. “Excuse me?”

“I used to have a Shiba Inu back in my second life,” she said. “His name was Dal.”

“What do I get in return if I change the helldog’s appearance?” he asked with a smirk. “Demons don’t work for free.”

“I knew it,” she said while clicking her tongue. “You’re a demon.”

He shrugged. “That’s what they call beings who work for the Devil. I don’t really care what I’m called since I know what I am– and that’s the only thing that matters.”

Oh, she liked his confidence. She could clearly see that Trevor was comfortable with his own skin. Even though his face was annoying, this time, she wouldn’t call him arrogant. People who didn’t give a sh*t about other people’s wrong opinion about them were commendable.

“Fair enough,” she said, then she turned to Byron and Harry who were now sharing a helldog’s body. “Did Byron and Harry ever exist? Or are they really a helldog with two heads from the beginning?”

“The human children that you met never existed,” Trevor clarified. “The Devil split Kuro’s head– the helldog– into two and created a human-like doll out of them.”

Of course, she was sad to know that her homies weren’t real humans.

But unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury to mourn for her “friends.” After all, the fact that those kind of demons were able to enter the Royal Palace undetected was a huge problem for them. The lax in the security would definitely make the emperor mad. And crazy.

“For His Majesty not to feel that Byron and Harry aren’t humans…” She let out a deep sigh. “That Devil sure is going to be a big problem in the future.”

“Uh-huh,” he agreed. “If the emperor has the most divine power in the whole empire, then the Devil has the opposite. But I can assure you, Moon Princess. Your dear father and the Devil are equal in strength and Mana.”

She didn’t doubt it.

To hide the presence of the helldog from Papa Boss is a feat.

“Where is the Devil, Trevor?” she asked again. “And who are they working with aside from Duke Sloane?”

“Hell if I know,” he said with a laugh. “You see, after the Devil stole the page of how to steal a Fox’s Marble from me, they just left. If you didn’t pick up the scythe that serves as the room’s lock, I wouldn’t have been able to leave that hellhole.”

“Oh, so you owe me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You said it yourself,” she reminded him. “If I didn’t pick-up the scythe, you wouldn’t have been freed.”

He looked surprised by what she said, then he laughed. “Alright, I’ll change Kuro’s appearance to your liking.”

“Good, but not good enough,” she said with a smirk. “I practically saved you from that hellhole, Trevor. Changing the helldog’s appearance to my liking is too cheap as a reward.”

This time, he laughed heartily. “I’ll cure your twin brother.”

“You have to,” she said. “And I also want you to tell me the history of my parents with Commander Gavin Quinzel and the late empress. If I know what happened to the four of them in the past, then maybe I’ll find out the truth about my origin.”

“I may know the history among the four of them, but that doesn’t mean I have the license to share it with you, Moon Princess,” Trevor said. “Unless you offer me something of the same value, of course.”

“If you ask me to marry you again, I’ll sucker punch the hell out of you.”

He was about to say something when all of a sudden, the door opened and Emperor Nikolai entered the room angrily.

Without saying a word, her father drew his sword and pointed it at Trevor.

Uh-oh.

“The late empress’s body is really missing,” Emperor Nikolai said. “And I just received the report from my aide that Duke Sloane is already dead. He didn’t die from poisoning though. This time, the duke was found in his room with several stab wounds.”

She gasped at that. The duke was murdered!

“I didn’t kill Duke Sloane,” Trevor said casually as if he wasn’t talking to a grumpy emperor. “Even if you threaten me, I can’t tell you who killed the duke because I don’t really know.”

“Who stole the late empress’s body?”

The talking demon book shrugged. “The Devil is the only being in the empire who can steal the late empress’s body right under your nose, Your Majesty.”

Neoma flinched at that. Gosh, Trevor. You’re only making Papa Boss angrier!

“Where is the Devil?” the emperor snarled.

Trevor shrugged casually. “If I know where the Devil is, I would have gone to where they are and kill them with my own hands. So Your Majesty, if you want to kill them, get in the line.”

Oh.

Neoma could tell that Trevor was being serious. The words he uttered weren’t empty threats. She really felt his grudge for the Devil.

The plot is getting thicker once again.

It seemed like the emperor also felt how serious Trevor was because he put his sword back in sheathe.

“You’re useless,” Emperor Nikolai said. “If you don’t have any use, I might as well kick you back from where the royal princess picked you up.”

She nodded in agreement.

“You can’t kick me back to that hellhole,” Trevor said casually. “You still need me anyway. Your royal heir needs to be cured, doesn’t he? That’s more important than finding the body of a dead person, Your Majesty.”

Oh, shoot.

To be honest, Neoma wanted to side with the emperor this time.

I mean, I don’t want strangers to disrespect a deceased loved one of mine.

But she didn’t like how Emperor Nikolai acted like he cared for the late empress when he couldn’t do the same for her mother.

He always calls my mother a “lowly woman.”

“Can you really cure the royal prince’s curse?” Emperor Nikolai asked in a calm tone now. It seemed like his position as the emperor took over. After all, for an emperor, his duties had to be his top priority than his personal feelings. “What’s the price?”

“It has already been paid in advance,” Trevor said, then he looked at her with a knowing smirk. “The Moon Princess already paid the price for the royal prince’s cure when she freed me from the hellhole I was in.”

The emperor turned to her with a raised brow.

Neoma smiled brightly. Yep, you should be grateful to me, Papa Boss.

“I still can’t trust a demon like you,” Emperor Nikolai told Trevor. “Good thing the saint is on his way here.”

Trevor looked surprised by that. “The saint?”

Oh, that kind of surprised her, too.

Saint Macaroni is here?

“Let’s make a binding vow,” Emperor Nikolai declared. “I can only trust you if we make a binding vow.”

“Fine,” Trevor said. “But bring the real royal prince here. I need to talk to him first.”

Neoma flinched when she remembered the she “punished” Nero.

Gosh, I wonder if Nero and Lewis have made up by now.

***

NERO had to think fast.

He hated that Neoma took Lewis’s side but he had to acknowledge that he went overboard this time.

I hate the emperor for not treating Neoma and me as human beings. But before I know it, I’m going down the same path as our heartless father. I can’t hate His Majesty and act like how he does.

Duke Quinzel cleared his throat to get their attention.

Right now, the duke sat on the sofa across from him while having tea. On the other hand, Lewis stood behind Duke Quinzel.

“Boys, I won’t force you to apologize to each other because if I do, I’m pretty sure it won’t be sincere,” Duke Quinzel said carefully. “I’ll just give you an advice: you are not enemies. You have the same goal and it���s to protect Princess Neoma. If you join forces instead of trying to go after each other’s throat, don’t you think the royal princess will be more protected?” He glanced between him and Lewis back and forth. “Most of all, Princess Neoma will be happy if her twin brother and her “son” go along well, right? Don’t you want her to be happy?”

“Me want princess happy,” Lewis said in broken sentences. But the sincerity in his words was unmistakable. When the foxy boy turned to him, he bowed. “Sorry, prince.”

That was really casual but he knew that the fox boy wasn’t trying to be rude.

He just talks that way because of his terrible upbringing.

And he could feel Lewis’s sincerity in his apology despite the casual way it sounded.

Now Nero was kicked by his conscience even more.

He knew that Lewis was raised as a slave. And everyone in the empire knew that slaves were treated worse than animals. He deserved Neoma’s wrath.

I can’t stand beside Neoma if I become a terrible person like His Majesty.

Most of all, he wanted his precious twin sister to be proud of him.

With that resolve, he decided to work harder to become a better person for Neoma.

Nero stood up, then he bowed to Lewis. “I’m sorry, Lewis,” he said sincerely. “Please forgive me for being unnecessarily rude and mean to you.”

***

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