The Devil’s Cursed Witch

Draven stepped towards him with anger in his eyes and clutched his throat in his hand.

“Answer me.”

It was a command from the King, or rather, the Devil. His red eyes were burning with flames of anger.

However, this didn’t affect Morpheus, nor did he try to escape Draven’s hold. In fact, he seemed more curious about the King’s reaction as he replied, “The answer depends on whether you want her alive or dead.”

The rising power in the air thickened, and an ordinary person would have suffocated due to the pulsating magic that seemed to echo the King’s anger.

“Sire?”

Just then, there was a knock on the door and it opened despite the lack of response.

As expected, a young silver-haired elf entered the chamber, only to witness the sight of the King clutching the neck of a half-naked warrior.

Morpheus grinned at Erlos despite his neck being strangled, and said in a choking voice, “Hey, kid.”

Erlos sighed as he awkwardly scratched his head. The troublemaker had returned, and it was nothing new that the eagle was butting heads with his master. What mattered to him was the mess in the chamber that he needed to clean up as part of his servant duties.

To his surprise, it was in a better state than Morpheus’ last visit. Nothing was broken, and only several small items were misplaced or had fallen on the floor. He gave out a sigh of relief and turned to leave as if what was happening didn’t concern him.

“You two carry on.” With that, he left and closed the door behind.

Only then did Draven let go of Morpheus.

The shapeshifter coughed as he massaged his throat. “You are lacking in strength, Your Majesty. Seems like you are getting old now.”

The fire in his eyes was extinguished, and he gazed at him flatly. “Are you not answering—”

“Fine,” he tsk-ed. “She is safe. I reached there on time to save her.”

Morpheus decided to answer him as he didn’t wish to prolong this silly topic. He had more important things to talk about.

Draven fell into deep thought. If the human’s life was put in danger, how come he was not summoned to save her this time? He looked back at the shapeshifter. “Reached? How?”

Morpheus stared at him for a brief moment and answered, “It just happened like that…?”

Was he truly asking how a person from the feathered race saved a falling human? That couldn’t be it. He felt like it was a stupid question, coming from the King, but he knew Draven was a person who wouldn’t say nonsensical things. He wished to know what was in Draven’s mind. His displeased-looking red eyes told him that something was troubling him.

“Were you summoned to save her?” Draven clarified.

As if Morpheus heard the funniest thing, he scoffed with a strange face, as if he was holding back laughter. “Summoned? Me? To save a human?”

Seeing Draven’s serious face, he could no longer hold it in and laughed.

“Are you serious? Is this also you learning humour due to your old age?” He waved his hands in the air as if he could not believe it. “Am I her branded slave to get summoned to save her? I thought only a witch’s familiar does that. I am a descendant of an ancient bloodline! My destiny is not that pathetic to become anyone’s slave and a mere human at that. Summoned? Pfft. Instead of living such a pathetic life, I would have killed the summoner rather than save her.”

Draven could not say a word as he was the one to have that pathetic destiny. With a strange power, that frail human could summon him whenever her life was in danger, but…the question was why was he not summoned this time.

Morpheus once again stared at the Devil King who had fallen into deep thought once more. Knowing Draven, with his intelligence, it was easy for him to connect the dots.

“Don’t tell me you are the one with that pathetic destiny?”

Draven’s cold eyes flickered at what Morpheus asked.

The Divine Eagle could not help but gape. He already found it intriguing that this human could shake the emotions inside the King who had long buried his feelings deep within his heart. He would have never guessed there would be a much more surprising discovery..

“So I said the right thing?” Morpheus studied his face. “I get it now. You were summoned to save her, and that’s why you brought her here to Agartha.”

There was no response from Draven, and his old friend took that as a ‘yes’. Morpheus felt proud at having an unexpected gain from this visit. The surprising thing was that Draven could not control or hide his shaken emotions, allowing Morpheus to easily guess the truth. He was just silent like a lost one who didn’t know what to say or do, nor did he know how to handle the questions coming his way. His smart brain seemed to freeze at this moment.

‘Does she affect him that much?’ Morpheus thought. To lighten the situation, he decided to talk about something else.  “Just to let you know, after saving her, I sent her back home. She is safe now. Anyways, what are you going to do in tomorrow’s council meeting?”

“Doesn’t concern you,” Draven replied and went to sit on his armchair before closing his eyes. After knowing that the human was safe, there was nothing more left that he wished to talk with this annoying uninvited guest.

“It sure concerns me more than it did before,” Morpheus said as he went to sit on the window sill with his one leg folded up and another one leisurely swaying back and forth as he made himself comfortable, resting his back against one side of the window.

“After meeting her today, I found that human female interesting. Her eyes… there is something about her eyes that makes it hard for me to look away from them. I think we can become good friends. She liked me enough to tell me her name—”

“She talked to you?” Draven interrupted him.