Adeline smacked Theodore on the shoulder and playfully scolded him, “Bad Devil!”

And in response Theodore rubbed where he had been hit and pretended to be hurt by that delicate slap. And he whimpered as if he was in pain, “I thought you loved me!”

Adeline giggled when she saw how talented Theodore was in acting. Then she shifted her attention to other foods on the table and said, “It doesn’t matter if you stole that food from my mouth. There’s still plenty here.” She rubbed her hands and then began to dig in.

Theodore also joined her this time and he also had some of the foods from the table.

They finished everything that was on the dinner table in no time as they were competing with each other to see who eats more. And the one that ate more was  of course Adeline.

“Ah! That felt so satisfying. I don’t know if the food tasted good because I was extremely hungry or it tasted good because it was prepared by your talented maids, but I did enjoy eating everything.” Adeline expressed her satisfaction as she leaned on the wall.

Theodore was sincerely happy seeing Adeline back to being her usual self. And seeing her that happy just after eating some food, he offered, “I am glad you enjoyed it. If you want, I can ask them to prepare dishes for you every night.”

But Adeline did not want to burden the maids of Theodore by coming in daily and making them work for extra hours. So she politely rejected, “It won’t be special and memorable if I start eating here daily. And I don’t want that to happen.”

“As you wish”, Theodore then got up and held out his hand for Adeline to hold.

Adeline held onto his hand and got up from her seat.

Theodore still had another surprise that he had planned for Adeline. He tucked Adeline’s hair behind her ears and then said, “How about I take you out for some fresh air?”

“That would be lovely”, Adeline acted as if she melted from that request because she had ate too much and going out would be perfect to digest that food.

“Hold on to me then”, Theodore placed Adeline’s hands on his shoulders and then he placed his hands on her waist; and in the next moment they both teleported. 

Theodore brought Adeline to the top of a beautiful hill. There were several other hills in the surrounding and they were all covered with beautiful pine trees. The hill they were standing on was slightly taller than the others, and a clear view of the surrounding hills could be seen from there.

Cool breeze caressed Adeline’s body, making her feel refreshed in an instant. Adeline inhaled the fresh air and happily said, “This place is so beautiful. Do you come here often?”

Theodore looked around with a smile on his face and then replied, “I usually come here when I feel a little down. This place makes me forget all the troubles that I have.”

Adeline pouted her lips and then whispered, “Then I hope that you don’t have to come here that often.”

Theodore chuckled at that remark of Adeline and said, “I used to come here more often when I had to conceal myself from you. I would sit here for hours and would try to forget about the constant urge to see you. But I always ended up visiting you in secret anyway.”

Theodore stared far at the end of the hill range and felt a little melancholic as he remembered how painful those days were for him as well. But he did not regret it because that had given determination to Adeline and she has now become a better version of herself.

As it was dark, and as Theodore was lost in his own thoughts for some time, he failed to notice that Adeline was looking at him with eyes full of love and appreciation for him.

Her gaze was broken when Theodore clapped his hand and looked at her to say, “Come, I will show you something even more beautiful.”

Theodore walked ahead and Adeline obediently followed him. Soon they arrived to a part of the hill where soft grasses had covered a piece of the land. Theodore sat down and then lay down flat on his back, facing the clear sky.

Theodore patted by his side and invited her in his deep voice, “Lie down beside me little human. You are going to love it.”

Theodore had said that he would show her something beautiful but Adeline was not sure if lying down on the grass was what she would call beautiful. But she had never tried it so she thought that giving it a try would do no harm. Maybe she would like it.

She gathered her gown neatly and then sat down beside Theodore, and then she also lied down on the grass on her back.

And instantly her eyes and jaw were wide open in amazement. The sky was very clear so she was seeing countless stars shining brightly in the dark night. The view was so beautiful that her heart skipped a beat. She never knew that her heart was capable of doing that for something other than Theodore.

“Wow! Does the night sky always look this beautiful?” Adeline was still dazzled by the twinkling stars.

Theodore smirked and then asked, “Do you like the view?”

“I love the view!” Adeline replied merrily.

The reason why Adeline was being this excited about seeing the clear sky at night was because, well she had never done that before. And she definitely had not done that by lying down on the ground on top of the hill with the handsome Devil by her side.

All she cared about her whole life was training and getting stronger. She had a set routine and she never really had time for such small things. And she had no idea that such small thing like staring at the sky would bring her immense joy.

Adeline held out both of her hands as if she was trying to touch the shiny stars in the sky. She was happily wriggling her feet and making cute little noises in excitement.

Theodore grabbed Adeline’s hand and brought it close to his lips. Then he planted a kiss on her knuckles and whispered, “You are so easy to please, do you know that?”

Adeline giggled and then asked, “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Of course”, Theodore kept on holding her hand and then stared at the sky along with the cute little human by his side.

—

Back at the Palace, an evil was lurking outside in the dark after everyone had gone to their rooms to get some nice sleep. And that evil was none other than Queen Lillian.

Lillian was now hell-bent on harming not just Adeline but also the King himself. She somehow began to believe that the mystical being that was taunting her was controlled by Adeline and was using it to harm her.

She was so blinded by hatred towards Adeline that she did not even remember that Adeline was just a five year old kid when the mystical being had gave her the worse illusion for the first time and had embarrassed her. Though Theodore had acted on behalf of Adeline, Adeline had never used him to hurt Lillian. But Lillian’s strong hatred made her think that way and prompted her to act out.

Lillian was wearing a black gown and was also covering her face with a black hood. And in her hand she was carrying an urn that had the black ashes from an oak tree that had lived for over a thousand years.

If one was to draw the magic circles from the ashes of the oak tree then the circle would not be broken so easily. It would last for a long duration of time and would be hard to break even by the one who drew the magic circle in the first place.

And right now, Lillian was trying to draw the circle that would last for a long time. She was going to draw a huge magic circle around the whole Palace.

She was trying to do so, so that she would not need to draw new circles every day. And she was enclosing the whole Palace in the circle so that when she would summon something, it could move freely inside any corner of the Palace.

She had no idea if such cheating was allowed. But even if it did not work, then she was prepared to do what the book had said. She was prepared to sacrifice a human life on the circle to make easy mobility of the summoned possible.

She exited the Palace from the gate that would lead to the dungeon. And then she took out a fist full of the ash from the urn. She bent down and then began to draw the circle.

It almost took her an hour to finish drawing the magic circle around the Palace. She took a deep breath in and a sinister smile appeared on her face.

She was about to test whether the magic circle would work or not.. And if it did work, she had already chosen a victim.