The Crown Prince In Hiding

Chapter 20

From The Start

Diablo Land Mass, twenty years ago.

It was not too early in the morning, the sky already bright with sunlight, glowing evenly across the heavens.

The sound of waves rolled in from the mouth of the cove. A clatter of metal pots and spoons rattled inside a cloth bag as a caramel-skinned young woman stepped out of the cave mouth and onto the white sand beach, a toothbrush between her lips, her golden eyes squinting against the light as though freshly woken.

But when she came out, she saw him.

A demon over two meters tall, red and black, stood watching her from afar. Still as a tree. He had been there since the night before—or perhaps even longer.

He seemed to think himself a tree, something Casca need not pay attention to. He said nothing, only stared. But how could she ignore something of that size?

Casca narrowed her eyes and walked beneath the shade of an ancient pine, tilting her head back to meet his gaze.

“Your Highness… it’s been four days now.”

“I’m counting.”

“You do nothing else?”

“I am doing something.”

“In human society, what you’re doing would be considered… deranged, you know?”

“Then it’s fortunate this isn’t human society.”

Casca squinted harder.

“Prince… it’s oppressive.”

“I feel oppressed too.”

“Not like that. I told you, I’m not doing anything.”

“Good.”

“You’re really going to stand there forever?”

“I won’t risk sending a servant to watch you.”

“You really don’t trust me?”

Casca gave him her best sparkling eyes.

“No.”

“Cruel…”

She hunched her shoulders and walked away.

That evening.

Fury was still there. The reflection of the sun across the water painted everything in shades of orange.

Then he heard it again—

Casca’s pots and pans clanking as she carried them this way. She walked back and forth hauling wood, lit a fire, set a bowl of rice atop it, and laid out the fish she had caught, roasting them right in front of him.

Fury felt mocked.

“Lighting a fire to drive me off, General?”

“No, Your Highness.”

Even as smoke drifted straight into his face, forcing him to step aside?

“Haha~ You moved, Your Highness. Finally, you moved.”

“And so?”

“I thought you were made of stone. Stand there longer and birds might nest on your head.”

“How many humans dare mock a prince of the royal line?”

“More than you think.”

“You forget your station?”

“I only speak the truth.”

Casca spread her hands, raising her brows.

“And the one who gave me leave to stay here is the Demon King, not you.”

“Your provocations are unnatural. They sound forced, General.”

He saw through her.

“That won’t provoke me.”

“I thought provoking you might at least get you to say something. Hmph. Doesn’t work.”

“I can speak without it.”

“But you don’t.”

“I don’t like to chatter.”

“Like you’re doing now?”

“I’m only answering your irritating questions.”

“Which means you are chattering… starting to sound provoked.”

“I might be if you keep interfering with my work.”

“So if I keep pestering you, you’ll keep talking to me, right?”

She made a cheeky little sound.

“What do you want from me, General?”

“Lonely… there’s no one else to talk to but you.”

“I’m your only option?”

“Shrimps, crabs, fish—they don’t talk back.”

“Because you ate them all.”

Casca gave him a glare.

“No wonder no one talks to you.”

“Seems someone’s provoked now, General.”

“So you’re not just muscle after all, Prince.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

But Casca only left him to think.

“A strange human indeed.”

“And you’re a strange demon.”

“How am I strange? Don’t speak carelessly, General.”

“I don’t know. Just dragging you down here with me.”

“A new tactic, General?”

“Stop calling me General.”

Fury was silent for a time.

“…Then what should I call you?”

“Call me Casca.”

“Fine then, General Casca.”

“I mean drop the ‘General.’ Just Casca.”

“I don’t care to be close with humans… especially one of Luminus…”

Demons could not show expression, but Casca sensed that if Fury could, he would be narrowing his eyes at her in suspicion.

She tore a strip of fish skin with her teeth, chewing as she looked at his left arm, at the asymmetrical armor grown anew from his battle in the Salawan fields.

“Your arm and leg healed, Your Highness?”

“What do you gain by knowing?”

“Can’t I ask out of concern?”

“You? What reason would you have to worry for me?”

“Because you’re not a demon.”

Casca’s answer made the air turn serious.

“What? I’m not a demon?”

“Not as the scriptures describe.”

“But your people call us demons.”

“What do they know? They twist the holy texts however they like.”

“You mean to say you disagree with the Luminus crown?”

Fury’s voice held interest.

“It’s complicated… but I have reason to believe you’re not demons.”

“Why waste time arguing over fables?”

“They’re not fables.”

…

Fury stopped himself. Instinct told him pushing further would cross a line. He knew well enough that “belief” was not a subject to debate with humans.

“Then what am I, if not a demon, Casca?”

“I don’t know. But the people of Diablo aren’t demons.”

She sounded utterly certain.

Fury thought, whatever you say. He didn’t care either way.

“So you’ve been away to heal yourself, haven’t you?”

She knew.

“Provoking me won’t work. Why go against your nature, General?”

“My punch was heavy, wasn’t it~”

“We have no magic healers like yours.”

“Hey.”

“What now…”

Still respectful, but he was getting a little exasperated. How lonely was this woman? And he happened to be the only thing around that could talk.

And yet, that only made Fury more curious.

“What should I call you, then, if not Prince?”

“Did you even ask if I agreed?”

“Just agree.”

“You’re desperate, Casca.”

“…Yeah.”

“Call me whatever. I don’t care.”

“Fury, plain and simple?”

“Fine.”

“Want some fish?”

“….”

“Normally do you eat fish raw or cooked, Fury?”

“Hey, I’m not your dinner companion.”

“So do you eat fish or not?”

“…I do.”

“Mr.Fury, were you won over just because she wouldn’t quit?”

“Back then, I wasn’t ‘won over’!”

“Didn’t take long, though.”

Casca clasped her hands, resting her chin on them, waggling her brows.

“Because deep down, you were just as lonely as me.”

“Diablo doesn’t have a word for loneliness.”

“Then I coined it for you.”

Nora watched the reflection of Casca and Dan ripple in her golden goblet. Her blue eyes dropped as she pulled out her notebook.

“Mr.Fury… what did you have to be lonely about back then?”

“He liked to drift about on his own, doing everything alone. Like you. An indie type.”

“Hey, Casca…”

“Looking back, I’m not surprised he chose you. That’s the law of attraction, isn’t it!”

“Stop spouting nonsense. You’re supposed to act like the adult.”

“Oh, hush~”

Dan shook his head, dodging Casca’s attempt to ruffle his hair.

“But at that time no one trusted you yet, right, Lady Casca?”

“That’s right.”

“So what did you do to make them start trusting you?”

“That—”

“Not long after she stripped me of my rank.”

Dan peeled an apple and popped it into his wife’s mouth to shut her up. He’d tell Nora himself. But sorry—Casca wasn’t Zeedee, she couldn’t be silenced.

Casca pulled the apple back out and stuffed it into his mouth instead.

“Mphh?!”

And then she began telling of that day…