Chapter 3: Devil

Chapter 3: Devil

Raimere Celeste’s POV

“Ugh…”

“Cough…cough...”

How did it come to this?

How did I land in the hands of this devil?

“You look so weak and flimsy, but you managed to worm your way to be my bride. I don’t know if I can call you scheming or just plain stupid?”

A smirk full of derision did nothing to abate the murderous glint on those terrifying beastly red pupils.

Long slender fingers curled on my thin neck and the weakest grip of this devil almost shattered the living daylights out of me.

The warmth coming from those fingers brought forth chills colder than the year-round snow of the north mountains.

My feet flailed helplessly as I tried to keep the edges of my toes touching the ground. My hands clutched at his strangling arm, but my weak strength only sported whitened nail marks on his skin.

“L-Let me…ugh…g-go!”

He humorlessly laughed at my plight, probably finding my struggle as something amusing.

If not for the silver seal runes acting like a piece of paper separating his hand from the skin of my neck, then I’m pretty sure that my life would have been forfeited from the moment he took hold of me.

This devil, why of all people would I be given as a tribute, and a marriage tribute at that, to one of the known devils of the Rogue kingdom and the entire Elden continent.

Does the moon god despise my existence as a half-breed, so much so that my life is always full of sufferings?

“I-I did not…hah…w-want to m-marry you…”

Looking straight into those pupils that seems to command hell itself, I managed to breath out the words that I’ve been trying to say from the start.

His expression did not change in the slightest, as if what I just said was a plain lie that he would not deign to believe.

“Do you really think that I would believe you?” His low voice teeming with coldness rang in my ears as I blankly looked up at him.

Varyan Ley Valerius, the third grandson of the current Valerius king, and the grand heir chosen once his father sits on the throne.

I have heard countless stories about him, and about his reputation as one of the devils that you would never want to oppose in the Rogue kingdom.

I have imagined his menacing and monstrous appearance, but I never thought that he would look like this.

How can a devil known across the continent have such a face?

A face befitting of the deities itself.

But it seems like I was not wrong that he was a menacing and monstrous being.

The moment her highness, Lyra Valerius, his mother left his quarters, his amiable appearance as if he accepted being duped by her, morphed into this monstrosity.

Remembering how I ended up in this situation, even the thought of my clan fills me with hate.

Everything started three hours ago, when I was presented to her highness Lyra by Celine.

The tribute carriages stopped next to a parked carriage next to a three-story clothing store. The luxuriously designed carriage was proudly showing the swaying flag embroidered with the Valerius crest.

Her highness Lyra Valerius stood outside the carriage along with her two ladies-in-waiting.

Celine must have felt that it was a good opportunity, so she hurriedly appealed to her highness to apologize and presented me while I was still reeling from the shock of the events that have happened since the day that I was attacked by the Void hound.

My shock only escalated at hearing from Celine’s own mouth that I am not just a servant tribute, but a marriage tribute.

A marriage tribute given to the Valerius king clan.

And not just any marriage tribute, but a marriage tribute to the grand heir of the Valerius king.

What have I gotten myself into? Are these people sane in the head? How could the noble and powerful grand heir of the Valerius need a marriage tribute?

There are thousands of noble ladies just inside the Rogue kingdom waiting to claim the spot of the grand heir’s bride.

It was exactly a situation of a devilish reputation that cannot stop the ambition of most noble ladies to climb on the hierarchy ladder.

Thinking of thousands of hostile eyes looking down on me once I was given to the grand heir as his marriage tribute brought shivers down my spine.

It has been three years since the grand heir’s coming of age ceremony, and there hasn’t been any news of his nuptial.

I heard from the gossipers in the clan that the reason was that the grand heir does not wish to marry any of the noble ladies in the kingdom.

But has it really come to the point that they would need a marriage tribute to force him to marry?

Why would it be okay if it was a marriage tribute?

The answer to my own question was answered as soon as her highness Lyra accepted Celine’s offer and brought me to the grand heir himself.

My eyes trailed on the shining silver seal runes separating me from death.

Her highness Lyra resorted to asking a witch to create a marriage seal.

A marriage seal that she forcefully used on her son, and a marriage seal that binds me to this devil for a year.

No noble lady would want to be tied with a marriage seal, because they see it as a form of possession, of being beneath their husband, and not on equal standing.

Marriage seals have different restrictions, and the one used by her highness Lyra only restricts this devil from killing me, while he could order me to do what he wants, wherever and whenever he wanted to, and if I did not obey him, then I will be punished by the power in the seal.

It is even worse than a slave seal.

My eyes moved back to stare at those dreadful rubies filled with the intent to kill.

Indignation and anger surged up my chest, but the hand on my neck prevented my shouts from lashing out.

“Hah…the look in your eyes makes me want to gouge them out.” A chuckle devoid of any humor came out of those thin lips.

The devil lowered his head and stopped at my eye level.

The distance between us is only half a finger’s length.

A cool breath brushed past my cheeks and intermingled with the harsh gasps of air that I could barely muster from his stranglehold.

His ruby-red pupils peered into mine.

The lack of emotion inside them makes it seem like I’m looking inside a black abyss with no end in sight.

“Hey…you stooped so low to get married to me…what did my mother promise you?”

Varyan tilted his head to the side, his cool breath hitting the crook of my neck, but his indifferent voice is what sent shivers raining down my body.

His hand on my neck lightened its hold, and my legs instantly weakened as the rough pulp of his fingers slowly caressed my skin, moving them up and down, enticing but full of danger.

In my twenty years of life, this is the first time that I have been close with a man.

And it’s a man that I can’t push away no matter how much I want to.

“Or…did you want something else?”

A devilish smile lit up the corners of his eyes.

“Hey…”

His hand reached up and held my chin.

“Open your lips.”