Royal Secret: I'm a Princess!

"DON'T LET the elf die," Nikolai said to his Soul Beasts. "But you can rough him up a little bit more."

North, the Black Tortoise in his human form, laughed softly while putting the unconscious and bleeding elf on his shoulder like it was a sack of potatoes. "Your Majesty, you already took one of the elf's eyes, and you purified him until his insides were burned. And you still want us to rough him up?"

"Of course," he said without hesitation. "That's the bastard who hid like a roach in my daughter's soul for years. He must pay for his sin by suffering every moment of his worthless life."

"It's rare for Your Majesty to curse," Center, who was still in his snake form, said while crawling around North's leg. "I guess Princess Neoma's foul mouth has rubbed off on you. But you're cooler when you curse, Master. Please keep it up."

He just ignored the black snake.

But the Moon Priest shared commented on Center's remark.

"I don't think Nikolai de Moonasterio needs to curse to scare the living daylights out of anyone," Manu said bluntly while giving him a disapproving look. "Lord Yule showed mercy to humans by not blessing Nikolai de Moonasterio with a foul mouth. Imagine if he curses like his daughter on top of his horrible personality."

North and Center both stifled their laughter.

"Shut up," he scolded the three, then he gave them his orders. "North, Center, bring that elf to the old Light Temple."

The Light Temple was a temple dedicated to Lady Roxana in the past.

It was abolished during his great grandfather's reign because the Royal Family of the time didn't like the idea of their people worshipping a female. Yes, even if that woman was the one who saved the world from Absolute Darkness during the Ancient Period.

Still, the Light Temple was preserved as a national treasure.

[Only because the temple is practically made of pure gold and other precious gems.]

"As you wish, Your Majesty," North said. "We will also call West to guard the temple with us, just in case the God of Whatever Darkness decides to show up at the party."

Manu stifled his laughter. "God of Whatever Darkness..."

[This Moon Priest is easily amused, huh?]

"Alright, do that," he said to the Black Tortoise, then he turned to Manu, who was still laughing quietly beside him. "I'll prepare a room for you in the palace. You'll be staying here until the egg hatches, correct?"

"I'll show my face to the Sun Priestess first," Manu said while stretching his arms. "We need to report to the representative of the Sun Goddess about the movement of the God of Whatever Darkness anyway."

"We're working with them now?"

"Do we have a choice?" the Moon Priest asked while shaking his head. "Even though I was in the Dead World all this time, the Sun Priestess still found a way to create a link in my mind just to complain about how Ruston Stroganoff handed all his authority over to Neoma de Moonasterio. My ears almost fell off."

Ah.

So, the Moon Priest had been in contact with the Sun Priestess all this time.

"Now, half of the Sun Temple's power is in Neoma de Moonasterio's hands," Manu continued with his whining. "We cannot not work with the Sun people anymore."

He also knew that.

Working with the Sun Goddess and her people when the threat of Absolute Darkness returning to the world was only natural for them– the people of the Moon God. It was the duty of gods and people with Light attributes to work together if Darkness became a threat again.

[But I don't like the fact that it's Neoma and Ruston Stroganoff are the ones who are bringing the Sun and the Moon people together. It's as if…]

"It's as if I'm looking at the Sun King and the Moon Queen when I imagine Neoma de Moonasterio and Ruston Stroganoff working together," the Moon Priest said, casually saying the things in his mind that he didn't dare to say out loud. "The future is bright with those two being together."

"They're not together," he snarled at the Moon Priest. "Just leave the egg here and scram."

Manu laughed at his temper. "Alright, I'll leave the dragon egg to you, Nikolai de Moonasterio," he said. "I'll bring a souvenir for your daughter once I return from the East Continent."

"Bring one for Nero, too," Nikolai said, his mood brightening up. "My son is awake now."

***

"PRINCESS NEOMA, how did you know?"

[Yeah, that's what I want to know, too.]

Neoma believed it must have been her gut feeling that told her something was off about Trevor.

But she didn't know how she saw the faint image of a man when she touched the demon's eyebrow piercing. And the fact she could tell that it was the Devil right away even though she hadn't met him personally yet?

[Yeah, that's sus.]

"I think the Devil made his presence known to me on purpose," Neoma said, slightly squeezing Trevor's neck a little tighter. "It's as if the Devil wanted me to know he successfully tempted you to betray me."

Trevor laughed softly. "That sounds like something the Devil might do."

This demon boy's shamelessness really knew no bounds.

<"Neoma, shall I deal with Trevor for you?">

It was Nero.

Her brother must have woken up because of the noise and the bloodlust she was shooting at Trevor. Interestingly enough, Trevor remained calm and didn't try to deflect or fight her bloodlust.

She was distracted from her thoughts when the room suddenly turned icy cold.

Nero was probably attempting to summon Sev– his Soul Beast, and the real ice wolf with two tails.

"Nero, stop using your Mana and conserve your energy," she scolded her twin brother firmly. She turned to Nero with a frown, confident that Trevor wouldn't attack her even if she was busy talking to her brother. "Your noona is fine, so don't worry too much about me."

Thankfully, Nero listened to her.

The room's temperature returned to normal, but her baby brother released his own bloodlust directed at Trevor.

[My pitiful dongsaeng who can't even open his mouth to talk…]

"Finish your job," she said sternly to Trevor, then she let go of his neck. "Nero is awake, but he hasn't fully recovered yet."

Trevor looked "You still trust me, Princess Neoma?"

"You made a binding vow with Papa Boss– you'll die if you fail to cure Nero completely."

He beamed instantly. "You don't want me to die?"

"How did you even come up with that ridiculous conclusion?" she asked while shaking her head. "I'm saying I trust you to cure Nero because you will die if you don't. You're not the type who'd want to die in vain."

He just grinned at her.

[This punk will only believe what he wants to believe.]

"Anyway, I'm already here, so do what you need to do for Nero," she said, changing the topic. "You need my blood and my Moonglow, don't you?"

"Ah, yes, my Moon Princess," Trevor said while nodding. "I just created the magic device that could extract your Roseheart Blood and Moonglow safely."

Neoma tilted her head to one side. [Is creating magic devices easy?]

Trevor sure made it sound easy, after all.

***

[WOW, DAEBAK.]

Neoma was seriously amazed by the magic device that Trevor made.

He created two special syringes– and both were pink!

The second syringe that Trevor used to extract her blood was amazing. Her blood was in liquid form when he extracted it. But when he put the blood in a vial, her blood turned into red petals.

"When I said I needed your blood, I didn't mean your ordinary blood," Trevor, who was sitting on the chair next to her while pouring a healing potion on her arm to get rid of the needle mark, said. It was as if he could read her mind after seeing the amazed look on her face. "I need the Roseheart Blood in you."

"I figured that much," Neoma said while looking at the vial, the one filled with little red petals, on the table in front of them. "I didn't know it was possible to do it this way."

Right now, Neoma and Trevor were on the rooftop of the Spirit Queen's palace.

It was the spot that William could see directly from his room. The queen probably lent her the rooftop, thinking that the Grand Spirit would come and rescue her if Trevor decided to become a threat.

[William is now my master, but I can't say he's fond of me as much as he's fond of Nero. So, I don't think he'd come to my rescue.]

"I'm not sure if this process was already done in the past," Trevor said, distracting her from her thoughts. "But I thought we needed this kind of device since you and Prince Nero need each other's blood and divine energy for emergencies, so I made one. I didn't think it would work, but it did."

He said it so casually, as if creating such a very specific device that worked on de Moonasterios was an easy feat.

[Trevor… is amazing, huh?]

The second syringe was pretty good, too.

She didn't know how, but it sucked her Moonglow that took the form of a bluish light. When Trevor put the Moonglow in another vial, the Moonglow then turned to something like little blue light bulbs.

"I didn't know our Moonglow can take a solid form," she commented, amazed. "Paige already did a similar method when she gave me some of Dion's divine energy before."

"Oh, I've heard about a Divine Item that works that way," he said while pouring another healing potion on her second needle mark. "So, Paige Avery has it."

"Her collection of Divine Items and some Holy Relics is pretty impressive," she said. "You could have just borrowed it instead of creating one."

"Do you know the difference between a mage and a sorcerer?"

The random question threw her off a bit.

[But Trevor wouldn't brought it up without a proper reason.]

"Mages like Paige Avery study existing magic, and they use devices that are already available," he said while closing the vial of now an empty healing potion. "But do you know who created the magic and the devices they use?"

She tilted her head to one side. "The sorcerers?"

"My Moon Princess is truly smart."

"I know," she said bluntly. "So, are you a sorcerer, Trevor?"

Trevor gave her a lazy half-smile. "What do you think, Princess Neoma?"

[Damn this cheeky demon and his ridiculously handsome face.]

That lazy half-smile of his almost became the cause of her death.

"I'm the youngest sorcerer in the empire, Princess Neoma," Trevor said. "At least, I was before I was sacrificed to the Devil. Since I'm used to creating magic, I didn't think of borrowing a device that I could make."

"I see," she said, then she looked at him straight in the eye. "So, why did you join hands with the Devil?"

"Aww," he complained lightly. "You're so straightforward, my Moon Princess."

"I'm already being tolerant by allowing you to call me 'Moon Princess' without sucker punching you, Trevor," she warned him lightly. "Don't test my patience further."

He laughed softly, but his eyes were as serious as hers. "Princess Neoma, I remember the story you used to share with Byron Thompson and Harry Alberts– the fake children that House Thompson and House Alberts used in order to hide the Devil's Grimoire. Do you still remember them?"

"Of course, I still remember my homies even though they turned out to be your disguise," she said. "I created a Reading Book Club where I share stories with them."

More like anime and comics, but stories were still stories.

"I actually heard your stories back then," the demon confessed. "One story that stuck to me the most was the story about the Pirate Rubber Boy."

[Oh, he's talking about L*ffy from One P*ece.]

"You said that according to the Pirate Rubber Boy, he doesn't want to be a hero because heroes will share their chunk of meat with other people– and he wants to eat all the meat."

She nodded. "Yeah. But what about it?"

To be honest, she could see where this conversation was heading– and she could already hear her heart breaking with the possibility of losing a friend.

"I can totally relate with that Pirate Rubber Boy," Trevor said while looking at her with a look of seriousness that she had never seen in him before. "I want to be a decent man for you, but a decent man would be someone who will support you quietly while you engage yourself with different kinds of danger in order to help your people."

"I am not that heroic, Trevor."

"You are, you just don't notice it because you're used to sacrificing yourself for people you treasure," he said bitterly. "I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for anyone, Princess Neoma. I want to keep you all to myself in order to keep you safe."

"Do you think I'd say 'thank you' if you do that?"

"No, that's why I've already given up on becoming a "hero" for you," Trevor said, the smile on his face looking whimsical. "A hero will allow you to sacrifice yourself for the "greater good," but a villain will sacrifice the world for you." He put a hand over his chest. "And I'm willing to be that kind of villain to keep you safe, my Moon Princess."

That was so cheesy, but she didn't tease or mock Trevor.

More often than not, the demon's confessions were playful that she would just brush them off casually.

But she could tell he was being real and honest this time.

For the first time since Trevor confessed his love for her, his feelings finally reached her.

"Why do you look like that, Princess Neoma?"

"Look like what?"

"You look like you just realized I'm seriously in love with you."

Since Trevor allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of her, she did the same.

"Trevor, I know I'm often harsh to you," she said carefully. "But when I said you're my chingu, I mean it. You're really the first friend I made in this world."

Nero, Hanna, and Lewis were all family to her.

Jasper oppa was a brother figure to her as well.

But Trevor– he was her friend. That was the reason why she felt comfortable enough to bicker with him. And thinking back, she probably never took his confession seriously because she didn't want to lose him as a friend.

Perhaps, all this time, she was just pretending not to know Trevor's true feelings in order to protect their friendship.

But now, she couldn't deny it anymore.

"I only see you as a friend, but that doesn't make you any less precious to me," she said, her heart was being squeezed painfully at the moment. "Trevor, your betrayal is breaking my heart."

He laughed– a shallow, bitter laugh.

"I'll take that," Trevor said while smiling sadly at her. "At least, this time, you'll feel something in your heart when you think about me, my Moon Princess."

"What did the Devil offer to you, Trevor?" Neoma asked, her voice cracked. "What made you betray me?"

***

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