She Belongs To The Devil

All this while, Ariel was biting the inside of her lower lip so that she wouldn't open her mouth and start scolding both Damien and Kenneth.

She was awkwardly standing in between those two grown-ups who would turn into toddlers as soon they were in each other's vicinity. They would lose their sense of rationality and then they would fight over anything and everything instead of keeping their mouths shut.

Ariel turned her head towards the direction where Kenneth had come from earlier. And she thought to herself, "Where are the horses? I want to get out of here soon."

The other three, Zach, Niylah, and Ramon, were standing a little further away from Ariel and her open admirers.

Niylah could sense the awkwardness that Ariel was feeling for a while now. So she looked at her brothers and asked, "Shall I go and save Ariel? It doesn't sound like they are having some friendly chat there."

"No!" Zach frowned and then immediately said with a grin on his face, "Let them fight for her. We are out in the open, so they won't break anything." He excitedly clapped his hands and said, "I would love to see Damien and Kenneth fighting, like physically fighting. I wonder who would win."

Ramon scoffed and replied with confidence, "Damien would win without a doubt. There's no need to 'wonder'."

However, Niylah gave a corner-eyed glance to her brother and said, "I wouldn't be so sure."

Ramon gave a serious look to his sister and confidently put forth his logical argument, "Haven't you seen Ariel literally tossing Kenneth around like a rag doll? He is no way as powerful as Damien."

However, Niylah also gave her own argument, "You cannot see Ariel as the standard! Her powers are on god-level. Of course, everyone else would look frail in her comparison. I bet she can do the same to Damien as well, break his bones like some dried twigs."

"What? I bet Damien is a lot stronger considering how he is a demon who…"

Zach folded his arms and excitedly turned to face the twins and observe them getting riled up. As he watched the twins, he was thinking to himself, "Oh, this fight also looks fun for now. Damien and Kenneth can wait."

The twins kept on arguing with each other until they saw a line of horses heading towards them.

Niylah immediately headed towards Ariel. She was angry with her brother for arguing and didn't want to stay by his side at the moment.

Zach punched his fist on his palm and sighed. And he mumbled, "The verbal fight was about to turn into a physical one. Damn! If only the horses came a bit later… I would have gotten to see them beating the soul out of each other."

"Er… did you say something, Zach?" Ramon stood in front of Zach while crossing his arms and glaring at him with angry eyes.

Zach gave a nervous laugh because he didn't realize that he was mumbling instead of thinking. And he quickly said, "I just wanted to see the two of you sparring. It's been a while since the two of you did that. I bet you both miss fighting to your full capacity out in the open. Sparring in that ship was constricting, wasn't it?"

Ramon's anger suddenly subsided. He nodded and said while looking at his sister in distance, "Yes, I miss the sparring sessions. I think we should do that today. I feel like my joints have jammed."

"See. That's what I'm saying," Zach innocently grinned at Ramon.

The Princes and Princess gathered together, along with Damien.

Kenneth then pointed at the horses and asked his guests, "Why don't you all walk around and see which horse suits you the most? You can choose any horses to your liking and then our guards will take one from the remaining horses."

Zach had his eye on the white horse. "That one's mine." So he immediately ran towards it before anyone else would approach it. He got up on the horse and then tried to command it. The horse was pretty obedient, so he was satisfied with the one he chose.

Ariel chose an all-black horse because it reminded her of Arion.

Likewise, when the others also chose their horses, the Royal Guards also grabbed the reins of one horse each and got ready to follow after their Princes and Princesses.

Damien was the only one who didn't have any guards, not that he needed one though. The Royals were also equally capable of defending themselves from any harm. However, the Royal protocol didn't allow them to walk unguarded because of their status.

After everyone sat on their horses, Kenneth walked his horse by Ariel's side. "Are you comfortable in that one?" he asked to make sure that she wasn't having any issues controlling that horse.

"Yes, I like her."

Kenneth gave a nod and then turned around to brief the plan to everyone, "Okay, we will ride the horse till the entrance of Murkymber Town. And there, half of the guards can look after the horses, and the rest of us will go on foot. We will gather too much attention if all 16 of us ride the horses through the town."

"Is it okay by all of you?" Kenneth asked for an opinion.

Everyone agreed with the Crown Prince since it was true that they would attract unwanted attention if they were to march in a huge group.

Kenneth glanced at Ariel and she also gave a nod to him. And Kenneth shouted, "Let's go ahead then."

They all commanded their horses to move forward. The horses neighed and started to run towards the gate of the castle. The guards caught up with their respective Princes and Princesses and they rode on either side of the Princes and Princesses they were guarding.

Kenneth and his guards were taking the lead while Ariel was riding right behind him, and Damien was right after her.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Everything was going smoothly and in an orderly fashion until they crossed the drawbridge of the castle.

Zach rode ahead and caught up with Damien since he was riding alone in the middle of the group. And he asked Damien in a loud voice so that the others would also hear him, "Damien, how about a race? If you win then the rest of us will shave our heads. If you lose then you are showing us your horns."

"Hey! We never agreed to that, you arse!" Ramon shouted at Zach from behind.

And Damien also shouted, "I told you I don't have any horns! How can I show you something that I don't have."

However, Zach ran forward while shouting, "That's your problem if you don't have horns, not mine. And everyone else, you better start racing if you love your hair."

He pumped his fist in the air when he surpassed the confused Ariel and Kenneth. And he kept on racing forward while cheering, "Woo-hoo! If I win, then also you all are going bald."

"You little shit!" Ramon screamed at that eccentric cousin of his. "No one has agreed to your stupid bet."

However, Damien also started to race forward because he didn't know how he was supposed to grow horns overnight.

And seeing Damien racing forward, all the others also rushed ahead since no one wanted to go bald.

"Your Highnesses, wait for us!" the guards were panicking and trying to find their Princes and Princesses amidst that dust-covered air, but to no avail.