^^ Eve at 9 years old

We've been sitting in silence in the throne room for about an hour already. The rest of the court isn't here today since we're meeting with the Menda Empire, which is technically treason since they are an enemy country.

My father insisted we meet the Menda imperial family in the throne room for some reason, so it's just my father sitting in the throne next to me and my mother sitting on the other side of him.

The tall thrones made of a jet black stone may look majestic, but they're not the most comfortable. I mean would it kill them to put a few cushions on this thing?

Anyway that's besides the point. Any moment now I have to meet with the guy my father wants me to marry.

Luckily I'm not going to marry this guy since I plan to run away, but I might as well go along with this so I don't upset my crazy family. Plus if I just get engaged with this guy, then I won't have to get engaged with Jackson, the crown prince of the Amaria Empire. Then I'll have avoided one of my death flags!

A servant comes into the throne room, "Now entering is His Majesty, King Cornelius Fognod the Seventh, and His Highness, Crown Prince Daemion Fognod the Third!" he declares.

The doors part and a tall burly man dressed in furs comes bursting through. He has dark brown hair and a thick beard. His son looks nothing like him.

His son is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. He has white hair the color of freshly fallen snow and eyes that are the color of the sun's rays. He seems to be about my age.

Something about him seems weirdly familiar though. Nevertheless, I would've remembered someone this adorable.

He walks next to his father so gracefully it almost seems as though he never really touches the ground, but simply glides across it.

My father rises from his throne, and me and my mother follow suit. He steps down from the dais, walking toward them, with us trailing behind him.

"Cornelius! It's been too long!" declares my father.

"Indeed, with this bloody war we can only exchange letters in secret," replies King Cornelius with a gruff voice.

"So, shall we discuss things in my private office? The children can play amongst themselves. Eve can give the prince a tour of the castle," proposes my father.

"Yes, that sounds good. Hopefully by the end of this we'll have picked out a wedding date!" says King Cornelius trailing behind my father and mother as they head to my father's office.

"So... hi..." I say awkwardly, "Um, would you like to go on a tour of this place?"

"Alright, fine," he says, "Bit boring though."

Yeah, like I want to do this too. I roll my eyes.

I walk down the red carpet leading towards the door at the end of the throne room.

"Have we met before? I feel like I know you from somewhere," I ask.

"I'm a little hurt you don't remember me. They did introduce me," he replies. He smiles smugly as if he knows something I don't.

I feel like I know that obnoxious smile from somewhere...

What did he mean by they introduced him? I've never met anyone named Daemion before.

"Where did we meet?" I inquire.

"Who knows? Maybe we met in a dream? Maybe we're lovers from a different life reuniting once again... You never know what god plans for all of us," he replies.

Like that bastard of a god would do anything good, let alone romantic.

Wait a minute... THAT BASTARD!!!

"HAL?!?!" I say.

"Took you long enough. Seriously, how could you forget a beautiful face like this?" he pouts and wipes away a fake tear. He's such a drama queen.

"Why are you so young though?" I ask.

"I'm a god so changing my form is easy for me. Although I guess it would surprise a weak mortal like you. I forget how amazed you mortals get at my small tricks. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll listen to the little mortals praying to me at the temples. It's hilarious!" he laughs, "I once made a statue of me in the temple curse at a priest. He wet his pants! What an amusing day that was..."

"Yeah well if you ever see me praying to you, then you'll know that's when I've truly lost my mind," I mutter.

"I'm actually a bit surprised you haven't tried to beat me up yet," he says. He opens his arms, "Come on, here, give it your best shot."

"It's useless anyway. You're too powerful for me to beat right now," I grumble.

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me," he responds.

"Don't feel too touched because if I do find a way to kill you, I won't even hesitate for a moment to take your life away. After all, my sister won't truly be safe until you're dead," I say.

"You'd really dare to threaten a god? I've killed mortals for much less," he responds, his eyes turning a bright red. The room drops a few degrees cooler and I can almost feel an oppressive aura coming from him.

"You already know I want to kill you, and in fact have tried to kill you in the past. If you wanted to kill me now that wouldn't make a lot of sense," I reply calmly.

"Haven't they told you god can be fickle?" he says. I'm frozen in place, and black shadowy vines start to creep up my legs.

"I guess then this tour would really be boring as you said. Wouldn't it be much more interesting to kill me at some other time? It's such a waste to kill me now, and in such an uninteresting way," I answer.

"Really? And how and when should I kill you then?" he inquires, smirking. The vines creep further upward, and the tips of them shape into sharp barbs. With just the slightest movement, they will slice into my neck. I don't know what they are made of, but I am sure they can kill me.

"Well if I were you, I'd wait until the person were truly happy, when they finally have a glimmer of joy in their sad life. Then I'd take it all away. That's when I'd kill them, because although you can kill my body know, my spirit, my soul hasn't died yet. You'd have to break those first, for a truly satisfying death," I reply. The vines pause their retreat for a moment, and he stares at me for a moment.

The vines disappear and I fall on the ground.

"So shall we get on with the tour then? I want to see your room!" he exclaims, clapping his hands and jumping up and down.

"Ugh, fine let's go," I say.

I'm suddenly teleported to my room. For a second I feel disorientated, like the room is spinning.

I fall down, and crash into Hal. We go tumbling to the ground.

"Sorry!" I exclaim. I try to get up, but he also tries to get up at the same time, causing me to bump into him. He starts falling again, so I try to catch him, grabbing onto his sleeve.

Unfortunately, that causes his sleeve to rip. From under the ripped sleeve I see a golden gash on his arm.

"What in the world?" I say, reaching for his arm again. I lift the sleeve up more to see a large cut on his lower arm, and two medium sized cuts on his upper arm. A golden liquid drips down from the cut on his upper arm, and I assume it's his blood.

He quickly moves away from me, hiding his arm.

"It's nothing," he replies.

"No it's not," I respond, "Why do you have cuts on your arm?"

He doesn't answer, looking away from me.

"Why aren't you healing?" I ask.

He doesn't answer.

I sigh, "You've got to bandage this wound. Will you let me do it?"

He looks at me warily, then gives me a small nod.

I remove his shirt, and there are two more large cuts on his chest and abdomen. What could have injured him?

I'm tempted to ask, but I don't say anything as I get some fetch the first-aid kit I put together from in my closet. It can be pretty helpful whenever Finns gets hurt trying to protect me. I always tell him not to do so, but he never listens.

I take out a flask of water, bandages, a towel, and some rubbing alcohol I made with my mana. It takes my five months to make a cup of that stuff due to my very weak mana abilities, but it's worth it because of what a good disinfectant it can be.

I clean off his wounds with the water and towel. By the time I'm done, the towel has golden stains all over it.

For some reason his blood smells irresistibly sweet, which is odd since I did drink blood this morning, so I shouldn't be craving it right now. I try to avoid smelling it.

I put his rubbing alcohol on his cuts to disinfect them. He winces a little when I put it on the large laceration across his chest.

Finally I wrap bandages around his wounds. I thought about not healing him, since he is my enemy after all, but something about the sad look in his eyes made me be unable to turn him away.

Maybe it's because he looks too cute right now. That is a big weakness of mine.

Still, he definitely could have done this all himself. I don't know why he'd come here in such an injured state too.

"So, what's the real reason you came after all these years?" I ask him, finishing bandaging the last of his cuts.

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