She Belongs To The Devil

Ariel waved her hand and asked Tobias, "Let's not talk about powers and such. Why don't you tell me about what your Palace looks like? You live in a Palace, right?"

"Well, it is decent." Tobias ended his answer with those few words.

Ariel squinted her eyes and whined, "Oh come on! Why are you so grumpy? Aren't you excited to be here?"

"I am excited," he answered in a flat voice.

Ariel scoffed and said, "That's not how an excited person sounds like, cousin."

"Trust me, I am very excited." Tobias even tried to smile like Ariel but it just looked very weird.

Ariel sighed and shook her head. "Nevermind."

They both turned silent for a while. Ariel was waiting to see if Tobias would try to strike up a conversation with her. But it looked like he was very bad at starting conversations.

So she took the charge again. "Has granny ever told you? I used to be so obsessed with clouds when I was young. And I once demanded that I wanted to pack the clouds in my bag so that I could gift it to my friend."

Tobias smiled and asked, "How old were you to be so stupid?"

"I was just three years old." Ariel chuckled and continued, "So yeah, I was pretty stupid and did dumb things back then. I still do. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I was so obsessed with the clouds that one day, the chef prepared cotton candies for me."

"What's cotton candies?" Tobias showed interest in the conversation.

Ariel began to laugh just by recalling what she had done that day. And Ramon and Niylah, who were also listening to their conversation, also burst into laughter.

"What?" Tobias lightly chuckled after seeing them laugh and asked interestedly, "Why are you laughing before even saying what was so funny?"

Ariel began to recount the story to Tobias to keep him entertained.

On the other corner, the Goddess and Kenneth were having some serious talks with each other.

"Grandma, may I ask you a question if you don't mind it?" Kenneth had a melancholic look on his face when he asked that.

The Goddess gave a nod to him.

And he asked, "If I am not wrong then you can look into the past, present, as well as the future. Nothing can be hidden from you. So… I wanted to ask… who my real birth parents are? I wanted to find them."

She gently caressed Kenneth's blond hair. She obviously knew who his real parents were. But she asked him in a soft voice, "Are you not happy with your adoptive parents?"

Kenneth looked down at his hands and replied while pinching his fingers, "I love my adoptive mother."

The Goddess then replied, "Sometimes, it is better to let go of the past, Kenneth. Digging into them might uncover things that might hurt you even more. Had your real parents really wanted you then they would have never pushed you into the ocean to float and fight for your life?"

Kenneth became gloomy after hearing that reply from the Goddess. However, he understood her point of view. He knew that she was right. He knew that he would get hurt even more if his real parents denied to acknowledge him.

"It's better to remain oblivious," he consoled himself.

The tea finally arrived.

The servants served the tea to everyone in the room.

Tobias was the most amused one. "Tea! I've always wanted to try this."

"You're telling me you've never had tea even when you frequent Earth?" Ariel asked in disbelief.

Tobias held the teacup and nodded. "I don't roam around or come in contact with the humans. I simply do my job and return back to Heaven."

"Ugh!" Ariel sighed and complained again, "You're really boring! You don't always have to be so uptight, Tobias. Enjoy your life a little. Live a little."

"Live a little." Those words of Ariel kept on ringing in his ears.

He gave a sad smile and thought, "All these years and I've never really lived, have I? All I ever did was tried to impress father and grandfather; tried to be the best in what I did."

He glanced at Ariel and took a deep breath in. He took a sip of the calming tea and thought, "And when a challenger was born, I got worked up thinking that she would snatch everything away from me. But I had nothing, to begin with."

Ariel also took a sip of her tea and shot some questions at her cousin who looked lost in his thoughts, "You like the tea? Does it meet your imagination? I bet you had imagined its taste before."

Tobias laughed and replied, "Yes, I had indeed imagined its taste based on a few times I had had the chance to inhale its aroma. And I have to say that it tastes better than what I had imagined."

Ariel was finally happy to see a genuine smile on her cousin's face. "I am really glad to hear that," she said with a wide grin.

After finishing her tea, the Goddess put her cup on the table and said to Kenneth while looking around the room, "I will look around the ship for a bit. It looks really interesting on the inside."

"I can give you a tour," Kenneth abruptly put his half-full cup on the table and got up.

However, the Goddess politely denied, "We will be leaving in a while. So instead, why don't you talk with Tobias until I return?"

"Sure," Kenneth gave a gentle nod.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Goddess then got up and headed towards the door of the living room. And before leaving the room, she glanced at the corner where she had sensed Damien as if asking him to follow her.

She went to a deserted corner of the ship and waited for a while.

And when she felt the presence of Damien behind her, she put on the noise shield and said, "It's been quite a while, Damien."

Damien lifted his invisibility spell and then bowed to the Goddess, "Greetings, Holy Goddess." He lifted his head and said with an apologetic smile on his lips, "Yes, it has been a few years."

The Goddess gave a soft smile to Damien and then embraced him. She gently stroked his back and pulled away to say, "All of us missed you, child. But I am happy that you have finally decided to come out of your hiding."

"I also missed everyone." Damien took a deep breath in and replied, "I have yet to completely come out of the hiding. But I will do that soon. I promise."

"I'm happy to hear that." She lightly tapped on his cheek. And she said, "I will have to leave for now. But I will sit down and have a long chat with you when I meet you the next time."

She playfully narrowed her eyes and said in a little stern voice, "I have yet to scold you for making my granddaughter cry."

Damien held his palms together and looked down. He knew that she didn't mean it but he also couldn't deny that whatever she said wasn't true.

He then said to her in a soft voice, "I won't make her cry, ever again."