The Demon's Soul

"Ah, yes," she sat up with a smile. Feeling her phone vibrate, she opened the message Ace had sent.

Don’t panic, Lilly. It will be fine. Just go along.

How could she go along not knowing what was going on? It was a surprise that she wasn’t having a panic attack right now.

"Will you be getting married to this Tristan fellow?" Jack asked her and she sighed.

"I don’t know. I don’t want to," she said softly.

"That I am aware," she saw him give her knowing look, "I saw a boy jump out of your window last night," this only made her eyes widen. Had he told her parents and that is why they were rushing it now? "I didn’t get the glimpse of the boy but I believe that is where your heart lies. Am I right?" he asked her.

"Ah...."

"Do not fear, Ms. Lilly, I won’t tell it to your parents. It is your business after all," hearing this lightened her chest.

"Thank you, Jack. That means a lot," she said gratefully.

Reaching the house, her legs shook as she took steps inside her home. The closer she got to the hall, the more audible was the voices of her parents and Tristan. Seeing her, Tristan smiled and greeted her. She wondered when he arrived at the teacups were empty. It must have been quite some time, she thought to herself.

Taking a seat next to her mother awkwardly, she heard her mother speak, "Tristan thought today was a good day to go out as you didn’t have classes at noon. Do you want to freshen up before you go out?" she asked. Thinking it was better to be at her worst so that he could reject her quickly, she shook her head.

Her parents were eager to send them out to know each other and hence, Tristan took her out while telling he would bring her back home early and safe.

Tristan took her to a little cafe which was on the other side of the town. It was a quiet place with only music playing the background while the couples who were present were busy talking amongst themselves softly. Their order was taken by a brunette waitress who was trying to contain her anger and Lilly wondered if the waitress got scolded by the manager over something. Tristan was typing something on his phone and seeing Lilly look at him, he smiled before placing it in his pocket.

"How was school?" he asked her.

"It was okay," she replied, "What do you do?" she asked him curiously.

"I work in the subdivision of foreign affairs in the kingdom. I took a leave today to see you," he said with a polite smile.

"Oh, I see...How old are you, Tristan?"

"Close to hitting seventy," he replied casually as if it was no big deal. "Do you think age matters?" he questioned her, his chocolate eyes evaluating her expression.

"No, I think it’s alright," now that they were at the topic, she realized she hadn’t asked Ace of his, not that it mattered. The waitress came back with their orders, placing the drinks a little forcefully making Tristan frown. Was he going to report her to the manager? She didn’t want him doing that.

Both of them tried getting to know about each other, one asking the other questions. Having completed having her food in a few minutes, she wanted to go back home quickly. She wished Ace would come bursting through the cafe doors but no such things happened.

When Tristan was done with his food, he cleared his throat to speak to her,

"I wanted to meet you, to discuss few things before our parents get involved," Lilly nodded her head for him to continue, "You must have heard that my parents want me to marry you as they find you suitable," she did hear something like that.

"In the demon world, there are families where there is a tradition in which when a person reaches a certain point of age they prefer to have them married. Another reason being, most of the demons are being celibate. Frankly, I don’t want to marry," he said rubbing his temple, "I hadn’t found someone special before but I do now. My parents are unaware of it and that is why I wanted to tell you that I’ll be calling the whole thing off once I get back home. I’m sorry for the inconvenience," he apologized politely. Lilly couldn’t say how glad she was hearing this come out of his mouth.

"Why didn’t you refuse it in the beginning though?"

"My parents had already arranged our meeting and the king was in it too. It would be impolite to cancel when something is already fixed," he replied shrugging his shoulder.

"Thank you, for telling me this. It’s such a relief knowing it," she told him and saw him smile.

"Anytime," he said. Taking the glass of water in front of her, she took a sip as he continued, "Even if I didn’t have someone and had to marry you, I wouldn’t."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn’t know you were Ace’s girl. You should have told me that day at the wedding," he said and Lilly began to cough, the water coming out of her mouth.

"I’m so sorry," she took the issue which he handed for her Wiping her mouth, she asked, "How do you know each other."

"Who doesn’t know him? He’s a popular person in our world," he told raising a hand to justify, "No one likes to be on his bad side."

Therefore, this is why he told her to go along; he knew everything all along that Tristan held someone else’s heart.

"There was this one time when he caught someone gossiping about Cole in the kingdom-" he said but was cut off by the thud sound on the table when the bill was placed by the same waitress looking.

"Your bill," she said and turned around to leave but Tristan caught hold of her wrist that made her stumble towards him, "What are you doing?" she asked through her gritted teeth, straightening up.

"Lillian, this Violet, the love of my life," Tristan introduced and she gaped at them.

"Hello," Lilly waved at her awkwardly.

After Violet punched Tristan in his stomach and Tristan asking her to calm down as she turned around to serve other customers, Lilly was introduced to the brunette who was actually a nice person but she still seemed to be mad at her lover. Not wanting to be the third wheel, Lilly called up Jack and asked him to pick her from there. Like her, Tristan thanked her before she left in the car.

"You seem happy, Ms. Lilly," Jack noted, seeing Lilly who had lowered down the window to catch some breeze of air, "Did you decide to marry the boy?" he asked her to see her shake her head.

"Nope," she smiled widely. It didn’t care how stupid she looked right now.

"That’s good to hear," he nodded.

When she reached home, Lilly made up that Tristan was called for work suddenly due to which they had finished their meeting quickly. As they had spoken, Tristan had said he would break the news to his parents, therefore, she had nothing to worry about right now. It was hard to catch hold of Ace as his phone had been turned off. Before going to sleep that night, she received a text from Ace saying he wouldn’t be able to meet her the tomorrow as he had something to take care of.

On a Wednesday afternoon, Lilly sat on the bench, looking at the cheerleading squad practice their routine under the sun. Closing the book she was doing her homework on, she put it back inside her bag. Stretching her legs and neck. Remembering what took place in the morning during her breakfast she shook her head. As expected Tristan’s parents had called to call off the whole arrangement but what she didn’t expect was her father to not be fazed about. If it was possible he looked relaxed and maybe relieved? She wasn’t sure though.

"You knew this was going to happen," she confronted her father, "Why make me go then?" she asked him confused.

"Hmm, I knew the boy had someone he liked but your mom didn’t. Sometimes people need a little nudge to tell things, and he seemed perfect" he said humming a tune, "By the way I have guests coming home today. Do not be late. They are extremely important people," he said.

It felt like there was something going on, something she didn’t know and no matter how much she thought about it she didn’t come to any conclusion. Her parents were always good at keeping things hushed up and she brought her up as any human parent would with their child. To get a normal life. And then there was Ace, whose cell phone was unreachable again. Even after getting confessed things hadn’t got any better, instead, she found him distant sometimes. At times even though he was there sitting next to her, he would have a vacant expression which would be replaced by a sudden cockiness. When she asked Gwen, she had said that Cole hadn’t heard from Ace either. She hoped that he was alright.

Going home, she noticed they had guests. Her house always had guests but it seemed that today was an important day as there were too many dishes being set on their dining table. It was a feast to Lilly’s eyes. With the new China pattern plates placed on the table, she got curious thinking who it might be because even the demon king didn’t get such treatment. Not that the king ever stayed for a meal.

When her father entered the dining hall with Regorzil, the demon king, the man smiled at her brightly like the sun had descended down on the earth. Knowing that he was Cole’s father, she could catch the resemblance in their features as well as characteristics between the father and the son. It was only after a second did she realize that there were three other men who followed closely behind her father, each one tall and dressed to perfection. One of them looked at her curiously, cracking a small grin which vanished instantly as it had appeared.