31 Chapter 29
"Hey, there." Raizel, who walked out of the Meeting Room, smiled at the girls, and Shirone immediately walked up to him to jump into his embrace. "Missed me?"
"Yes." She answered and smiled when she received a kiss on her head. "Happy Birthday!"
"There are still two days, but thank you." He chuckled.
"But you won't be here." She said and met his eyes, still smiling but not smiling at the same time.
"Ah, yes." He nodded. "I will be back sooner this time." He promised.
"Welcome back, Lord Raizel." Akeno stepped forward and courteously bowed to him, and the Darcaedes Prince was amused at the blush on her face.
"You are beautiful as ever, Akeno." He complimented, teasing her, and sure enough, she blushed some more.
However, someone was, as always, ready to spoil his fun.
"Is everything okay?" Mito asked. "Diehauser Belial did not look pleased before he left."
"Everything is fine. It's just a political issue." He refused to give them any details and then smiled at the place where Tosca and Kiba were sitting. "She possesses a very interesting Sacred Gear, just as powerful as the one that Gasper has." He told them, distracting their thoughts.
And it worked like a charm.
"Rias will be happy to hear that." Akeno smiled.
The rest of them greeted him one by one, and after chatting for a while, he excused himself, stating that he needed to deal with a few things since he had just returned to the Devildom.
Though they were reluctant to see him leaving, they did not stop him, and they smiled when Moka suggested that they should hold an early birthday celebration in the evening.
Raizel agreed and then created a Magical Circle to leave the Laboratory.
He arrived inside a Dungeon in his Territory, where the worst criminals of Devildom were held, and he slowly walked towards a cell at the end of the aisle.
Without stopping, he opened the door of the cell and entered, and frowned when he found the grey-haired girl sitting in the corner, hugging her knees and sobbing.
"I am surprised you haven't killed yourself." He cruelly said, and her shivering body froze at his words. "The Great King Faction is asking for your death, and considering the gravity of your crimes, your actions do warrant death. A King who killed her own Peerage..."
"Shut up!" The coldness in her voice reverberated in the room.
"Is it not the truth?" He smiled. "Tell me, dear Cleria, do you hate me for killing that pathetic lover of yours? What was his name again? Ah yes, Masaomi Yaegaki..."
"Shut up!" She hoarsely said and raised her head to glare at him with all the hate she could muster up in her heart.
"Ah, the Devil's pride?" He smiled. "Where was it when you decided to get into a relationship with a human? And an Exorcist at that? Did Princess Cleria forget the rules of the Devildom or simply did not put them in her eyes?"
He kept verbally attacking her, and despite herself, she could not stop shedding her tears.
In the end, she just lowered her head and sobbed again.
"Shut up, please..." This time, it was more of a request than a threat, albeit wrongly worded.
"Your cousin has begged me to save you." He revealed, and her body started shaking again.
Even though he could not see her face, he knew that a fresh wave of tears was streaming down her cheeks.
"Just kill me." She whispered, and Raizel took a step forward.
Cleria closed her eyes, waiting for her death, but then she felt herself being taken away through a Magical Circle, and when she raised her head, she found herself inside a bedroom.
"Death is not enough of a punishment for your crimes. Your punishment is to live with the guilt in your heart." He told her and took a seat at the coffee table.
Cleria stared at him, and then her eyes dropped when she saw him take out something from his pocket and place it on the table.
She knew what it was. It was the cause of everything.
The King Piece.
How she now wished that she never tried to investigate the matter, was truly heart-wrenching.
"Aradia is alive."
The words thundered in her mind, and she froze again.
Some hope returned to her, but it was followed by another wave of guilt.
"You have quite a tenacious Bishop. Her head was nearly chopped, but she managed to activate a forbidden spell in time. She is blind in one eye now, but she will live. Everyone else is dead."
Raizel did not speak again, and it took nearly half an hour for Cleria to stand up and approach the table.
She took her seat across him, wiped away her tears, and looked at him with misty eyes.
For a moment, Raizel could not take his eyes off her. She was that beautiful. And the blush on her fair skin after all the crying, made her appear even more beautiful in his eyes.
She was not old, only a girl of 18, three years his senior, but she was already stunning enough to put those who were considered gorgeous to shame.
"I don't want to live." She stated, and he smiled at her, looking into her grey eyes.
"I know." He smiled. "Tell me, Princess. What did that human have that you could not find in any Devil in the Devildom? What was so great about him that you paid no heed to the Laws? What about him made him worth more than Pride of your Noble Blood? And what made you trust him so much that you revealed things to him that have put the entire Devil Race into jeopardy?"
Cleria had no answer to his questions, and she lowered her head in shame and guilt.
"I thought Devils were supposed to be the Charmers. Never knew that a Human could charm a Devil as well." He chuckled, and then to her horror, he summoned the severed head of her lover and placed it on the table. "He could barely be considered handsome even by Human standards." He playfully said, gauging her reaction.
She wanted to shout at him, cry, and he sensed the fluctuations in the Seal that was locking her Demonic Power. However, in the end, she just lowered her head and did not say a word.
Cleria knew that she was wrong. She knew that she was responsible for the deaths of Peerage, and also the deaths of the two members of the Bael Clan.
And more than anything, she regretted falling for a liar, who crushed her trust and sold the information about the King Piece and even tried to steal this Evil Piece that was sitting right next to his head.
This was the very Evil Piece that she had gotten her hands on after risking her life. It was her biggest evidence against the crimes of the Great King Faction, but in her silliness, she never considered hiding the details from her boyfriend, who had remained part of the Church.
She was naive to think that their love transcended their duties and allegiances.
Cleria's face paled as she imagined the consequences of this Evil Piece falling into the hands of the Church, and she was even more ashamed of her selfishness.
Yes, she knew that Masaomi loved her, but he was just as much of a fool as she had been.
He was tricked by the Church, who promised to let him live his life as he pleased if he made enough of a contribution as an Exorcist. And the fool revealed the information about the King Piece and even told them more secrets of the Devil Race that he had learned from her.
In the end, both the Great King's Faction and the Exorcists came after her, and the hateful man stepped in to stop her from harming his Exorcist Friends, even going as far as to harm her Peerage.
It was then that she realised how much Masaomi hated Devils, even though he claimed to be in love with her.
And it was then that she started doubting everything.
Was she just an achievement for him? Was she an object he wanted to conquer so that he could belittle her race?
Cleria hated herself for not listening to Aradia's warnings, who kept telling her that she was being selfish and a shame to her Clan for falling for a human. Especially a human who was clearly an enemy.
Her Bishop had repeatedly warned her to not dishonour her Blood.
Her Aradia, who was a Reincarnated Devil and had human heritage, had more pride as a Devil than her, who was born into the Noble Belial Family.
She raised her eyes and coldly looked at the severed head of the man she once loved.
"Burn it." She said, and Raizel grinned at her before summoning a flame and setting the head on fire, not giving her a chance to rethink her words.
He stayed seated as he watched her coldly looking at the ashes that now remained of Masaomi. And there was an amused smile on his lips.
She was a silly girl, a fool, who was too kind-hearted, but she was not going to be the same from this point onwards.
He could see the hatred for the Humans now burning in her eyes, and she was likely never going to trust anyone from that pathetic race again.
"You have become a beautiful Devil, Princess." He commented, and chuckled at the glare she sent his way.
Cleria frowned when he got up on his feet and walked over to her. She looked at the hand he drew to her, but refused it and stood up on her own.
However, as soon as she was up on her feet, he hugged her waist and sealed her mouth with his lips.
Her grey eyes widened in disbelief and she struggled, but he was physically too strong for her, leaving her completely helpless.
With her Demonic Power sealed, the only thing she could do was bite his lips, but then the image of her dear Bishop flashed in her mind, and she did not dare.
A tear slipped out of her eyes when she felt him proceed to undress her, and before she knew it, she was on the bed, pressed under his naked torso, being taken advantage of by him.
His hands roamed all over her skin, making her feel restless and sick, but the sweet taste of his mouth soon had her attention.
Cleria did not even know when it happened but she started seeking more under his caresses.
She replied to his kiss, started enjoying the sensations that spread through her body, and scratched him in agitation when his fingers brushed against her lower lips.
Panic flashed in her eyes when she realised where the waves of pleasure were coming from, but there was nothing she could do right now.
She could feel him painfully hard under the confines of his pants, pressing against her thigh, and soon her mind was filled with some very wild and depraved thoughts.
There was a fire in her loins unlike any she had experienced before.
The Belial Princess moaned in his mouth when he made her orgasm, which was more thrilling than anything she had managed by herself since entering adolescence. And then everything just overwhelmed her when he suddenly sank his teeth into her neck.
She did not realise how long the numbing pleasure lasted, but when he finally separated from her, she managed to take a look at his nakedness with her misty gaze.
He was so perfect...
The thought crossed her mind before she lost consciousness out of tiredness.
As for Raizel, as much as he wanted to ravage her right now, he controlled his lust and cleared up his mind.
He sat down on the couch and then leaned back to stare at the ceiling, lost in some thoughts.
Eventually, he picked up a pen and paper and wrote down a letter, which he placed by the bedside before covering her nakedness under the sheets and leaving the room.
