The Princess And The Demon

Please read the note on this chapter

Landing on the patio of his room in his castle, Eren walked in while shifting back to his human form, he headed straight toward the bath, not only was he feeling dirty and sweaty but also tired, it felt as if life wasn't giving him any chances to catch his breath and kept on coming at him with one attack after the other...

On the bright side, his bath was already prepared for him, cold enough to be bearable , just the way he liked it, it always freshened his body up, he was already b.a.r.e to his skin with his clothes in his hands, leaving them on the bed, he stepped inside the large pool made of polished black marble, the water was mixed with scented oils that made it smell like the woods, like the earth and the soil and the trees and the bush and even the moss all together, he inhaled in content, there was only one scent he loved more than the forest's and it belonged to a certain girl he seemed to be unable, and unwilling, to take his mind of her...

Sara, the girl was going to be the end of him, Eren thought while throwing his head back and closing his eyes, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, it still felt surreal, she was alive, real, he touched and felt her, she wasn't an illusion that would fade away, she was real, and she hated him...

Eren sighed at his last thought before opening his eyes to stare at the old man who was standing at the edge of the pool with a glass of warm blood in his hand...

"You look troubled, My lord...", Joseph handed the glass to Eren who took it without hesitation, he needed to feed in order to strengthen his dark magic otherwise, he won't be able to balance the creation energy, he didn't want to think about the consequences of that so he gulped the entire cup in a single go before l.i.c.k.i.n.g his lips...

Not needing any instructions, Joseph went back to the room to bring the bottle of warm blood he prepared for the young lord as well as a chair, placing the chair infrnt of the pool, he poured Eren a second glass...

Not driven by thirst this time, Eren drank his cup slowly, savouring the smoothness of the blood as well as the sting of alcohol which was mixed with it...

"Something is troubling you, Young lord..." Joseph spoke in a very calm and slow tone, his voice matched his appearance perfectly, Old and wise, but there was more than wisdom into his voice as he stated the obvious fact for Eren, There was also that hidden concern...

Eren stared at the ceiling while his legs were crossed under the water and his arms spread on the pool's edge, he contemplated the question for a while, thinking back about the hardsh.i.p.s he is facing and the next step he should be making...

"Many things, Joseph...", That was the fact, Eren thought to himself, there wasn't just one thing at a time to worry about, there was an entire world, a world he, on his own twisted and cruel way, was trying to make better...

"Do you remember, Young Lord, the days back in the forest when you were young?" Joseph asked while pouring Eren another cup of the warm alcoholic blood while thinking back at the young boy he spotted in the dark forest many years ago, the boy was no more than two years old, suffering from deathly injuries, the human scent filled the air around him, indicating they were the ones responsible for his state, he tended to the boys wounds and even managed him a meal that would keep him alive for few weeks, Joseph kept on watching the boy from afar, until the Renaldy traitor and his daughter found him, the boy by then was able to survive on his own, that didn't take too much time though as the kid grew up to be a killing machine at the mere age of six, the same boy appeared not long after in the dying shadows empire and made his way up to be the lord of it, a ruthless cruel and strong lord, but sometimes, some rare times, the old man felt as if he was seeing the young boy who was tortured and chased by his own family, not the weak one, but the lost one, just like that moment in the bath, he looked lost, exhausted with the world's weight on his shoulders ..

"How can I forget?! " Eren said with a bitter smile, how can he forget, for weeks he was starved and tortured by the humans before he was discarded at the edge of the black forest, not to survive, but to face the worst possible death, to be devoured by the monstrous demons, Eren wondered how did humans have the audacity to call the demons bloodthirsty and monstrous while they tortured a boy who was no older than two, then through him to the demons, Eren may have been too young but the pain and horror were also too great to be forgotten, he remembered every hit, every whiplash, every cut, every pull, every burn, but mostly every word, and the scary part about it all was, they thought they were doing the right thing, the good thing...