'Yes, Master?'

The little girl who was still disoriented after waking up from her nap had accidentally called out the name of her etcher whom she had seen in her dream.

Right now, that very same etcher had spoken in Yvonne's mind, making her realize that she had initiated communication between them by calling out his name.

Demon had been resting in his stable when he heard his Master's sleepy voice, calling out to him.

Therefore, he did not waste another second and connected with her to ask if there was something she wished to say to him.

With the etcher waiting for her to respond, Yvonne wondered how she would answer.

She could not reveal that she had seen a part of the deleted scenes from Asmodeus's script which was based on the point of view of Yvonne St. Claire in the story.

Therefore, she remained silent for a short while.

Her mind was trying to comprehend what she had just watched.

If what she had seen in the dream was true then 'Yvonne' had met Demon only once in her life and it was during the incident that she had just witnessed.

Thus, it was safe to say that 'Yvonne' from the script and Demon had no connection to each other and were strangers who passed each other by in the journey of life.

However, as the little girl was able to feel every emotion that bubbled up inside the young lady in her dream, she had sensed both excitement and fear when she had seen the creature in the meadow.

Demon brought a sense of longing and a feeling of vigilance in her heart and the little girl had felt those emotions at that time.

In these dreams, the little girl was the spectator, watching certain events in the life of 'Yvonne' from the script with her as the main character.

She could hear her inner thoughts and also feel what she felt at that given point in time.

This was useful and exciting to the child as she was seeing things from a different perspective from what Asmodeus had written in his script which only had the point of view based on the female lead, Hilda.

'Master?' Demon called out again when he noticed that he did not get any answer from her even after waiting for long.

This voice shook Yvonne out of her thoughts regarding her counterpart, 'Yvonne' from the script.

Now that she was back to the present and was being nudged by Demon to speak up, the little girl did not conceal her thoughts before her etcher.

'Demon, how did you appear in our estate on the day we first met?' She interrogated, curious to know what had caused this change.

According to the dream, 'Yvonne' from the script met the etcher in that field for the first and last time.

Their brief encounter ended with the massive horse vanishing from its position while the former Earl, Rutherford continued to leer at it with vigilance evident in his eyes.

This showed that neither of them had met this horse before and they did not have a good impression of it.

Therefore, the little girl wished to know how she had come to meet the horse, not in some field when she was close to her adulthood but when she was still a child and in the backyard of their estate in Amarthea.

Unknown to his Master's knowledge, the etcher froze after hearing the question being posed at him.

The memory of a long time ago emerged into his mind but this was not something he wished to remember.

How he had been snatched away from his family where he was safe and tied up in chains, restricting his movements as he was moved from one place to another.

While he got food on time, everywhere he was dragged to, he had no intention of consuming that food.

If he gave in then he would be tamed and tossed to some man who did not deserve to be called his master.

The people who had captured him were high officials of some kingdom and to appease another King, they had shipped him off to that Kingdom.

Thus he had landed on the shores of the Rosenhyde Kingdom which was not his motherland.

He was separated from his family and taken to the Royal Palace and the first person he met in that place was a regal man with bright blonde hair who looked at him with sparkling eyes.

There was no greed in his eyes to make the etcher his, but the desire to send him to a new owner was something Demon had caught during their first interaction itself.

How could the etcher stay with someone who was not his fated master?

Therefore, one morning, when the stable boy was late, he had broken free from his restraints and rushed into the woods that surrounded the Royal Palace.

The woods weren't dense in the beginning but as he ventured further inside, the trees covered the entire area, making it hard for even the sunlight to pass through its branches.

Darkness surrounded him but Demon had no trouble as his eyes worked fine even when no light was around him.

After all, he came from a great clan of etchers and they were blessed by the gods but in this new land, he was being treated like a toy that could be tossed around from one person to another.

This thoroughly infuriated him and strengthened his resolve to stay away from those men and wander around until he could find his way back to his family.

The woods he traversed had predatory animals but they were of no match compared to the etcher who most certainly was higher than them on the food chain.

Even if he was a horse, he had the blood of an etcher which was more powerful than the species which sat on the top of the food chain.

The apex predator, tigers, could also not harm him as he was a league above those normal beasts.

However, the same could not be said if he had met an etcher of the predatory nature.

While his clan might be blessed by the gods, the predators were on a higher level than him and he would still need to steer clear from them.

This was especially necessary as his true potential was still sealed until he could awaken them after meeting his fated master.

Therefore, when Demon sensed the presence of an etcher who was an apex predator inside the Palace, he had remained inconspicuous at the beginning.

Only when he was sure that this etcher was away from him did he make his break and even managed to exit the premises of the Royal Palace.

However, he was weak after not eating for days and hence had taken a break in a grazing field that he had reached after leaving the Palace.

There, by fate's desires, he had chanced upon the child who had imprinted on him almost immediately, and thus, they became etcher and etched ever since.

This time Demon was lost in his thoughts so it was the Master's turn to wake him up.

Hearing his Master's voice, Demon returned to the present and was ready to answer the question that was placed before him.

"Master, before I met you… I met some bad people…" He muttered in a low voice.

Yvonne frowned as she sat on her bed, waiting for him to continue.

"They bound me up with thick chains and sold me to some rich people." He continued as he stared at the sky.

Of course, the bad people he was referring to were the high officials of the other Kingdom and the rich people were the Ruler of this Kingdom, King Ophire and his men.

Yvonne's frown only deepened after hearing his encounters in the past.

"Did they mistreat you, Demon?" She interrogated, fury bubbling up inside her heart for the sufferings her poor etcher might have endured in the hands of these miscreants.

While finding etchers was difficult in Rosenhyde, it was not the same for a few other Kingdoms.

The population of etchers there was high and thus sometimes, those etchers were sold to Kingdoms where there was a high demand for etchers.

Being a noble was already enough to gain reverence from commoners but having an etcher guaranteed them the same treatment from the rest of the nobles around them.

Thus, if their children could not find etchers by the time they turn an adult, some men crazed for the prestige of owning an etcher would pay a hefty sum to smuggle them across borders and claim to have found their fated beast.

This was what she had heard from her tutor who said that it was against his principles to do the same.

He could have done the same by purchasing an etcher and taming it but the Marquess refused such ideals as they went against what he stood for.

He would rather run around the Kingdom in search of his fated etcher than take part in such underhanded methods.

The etchers being sold might be separated from the ones whom they are truly fated to be with and that thought made him pity those who had fallen prey to this black market of etchers.

Yvonne's brows furrowed as based on her speculations, the ones who had received Demon might also have smuggled him to maintain their false sense of pride.

Before Demon could respond to the question he had been asked, his Master had more to say.

"Don't worry, Demon, I will keep you safe from those people now!" She comforted him for the sufferings he might have experienced due to some people's greed.

Her eyes flashed with determination as she would not let him experience anything bad anymore.

He was one of her people and it was her responsibility to make sure that he was fine.

Demon was not fated with 'Yvonne' from the script but with her.

Therefore, she would do everything in her power to keep him safe and happy while he remained with her.

"If I ever meet these bad people, I will teach them a good lesson!" She declared while clenching her fists in anger.

The people she wished to teach a lesson were members of the Rosenhyde Royal family but she had no clue about it and had already announced her stance on this matter.

On the other side of the estate, all Demon could do was remain silent as contentment blossomed in his heart for the care and protection he was receiving from his Master.

Thus, he forgot to correct the misunderstanding that had formed against the people who had received him.

They had neither tortured him nor mistreated him, other than restraining his movements, but in the eyes of his Master right now, those men were the scum of the earth and Yvonne's impression of them was at its lowest.