Nora had already learned that news written about Fury was often exaggerated and sensationalized, so she no longer took it at face value.

  Still… there had to be something behind it for his name to be spoken of so widely. Raised from childhood to believe demons were evil, she couldn’t help but wonder—

  What exactly had Mr.Fury done?

  She wanted to step back and hear what the human side had to say for once.

  Paul exhaled slowly, looking at her with an understanding gaze.

  “When the Diablo first appeared… we thought they were just demons emerging from underground, exactly as foretold in the scriptures. Luminus wasted no time planning to wipe them out completely.”

  He made air quotes with his fingers.

  “According to the teachings.”

  “And what happened?”

  “They just kept killing them. Eighty years ago, the Diablo were still scattered across the world like beasts. They often crossed seas to reach our lands. We were lucky our freezing environment acted as a natural barrier. But for those down south—like Luminus or Velmount—being invaded was a daily reality.”

  “And they just kept hunting them down?”

  “Luminus even sailed to invade what is now their homeland.”

  “They went all the way to kill them in their own home?”

  “Luminus believed they had wiped every demon off that island… but fifty years later, a new kind of demon appeared on human soil. They crossed the sea as well, but this time, they weren’t Diablo…”

  “…They were Shadows.”

  Nora began piecing the timeline together. Yes—this was when the Shadows first appeared in the records.

  Their arrival—black, gas-like beings with intelligence beyond that of the Diablo—shocked the United Nations like alien invaders descending on Earth.

  But the Shadows had only one goal: to seize human lands and strip them of all resources.

  The rest was history.

  And in that history was a turning point—the most infamous one.

  The former military government of Velmount had betrayed all of humankind by siding with the Shadows, opening the way for them to attack Luminus from the south and Mathema from the north—creating a war on two fronts.

  The war dragged on for ten years. Then, in its tenth year, the tide shifted—when the strongest beings in the world emerged on opposite sides of the sea.

  One was a young woman from Luminus’s remote countryside, who twenty years later would become the strongest human alive—Casca Saint-Maximin.

  The other was a being created for one purpose only: to be a weapon for the Diablo kingdom, which had been quietly rebuilding, waiting for its return.

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  Many had thought the Diablo were annihilated, but they were wrong.

  For eighty years—reasons still unknown to humankind—the demons had not died out. They had been gathering strength, building systems, uniting their scattered population under one banner… and they returned as a nation no one had expected, stronger than ever, with Fury as their creation.

  What followed was history everyone knew.

  “Princess Nora, do you know why Velmount’s old military regime was overthrown?”

  “…Because of the Diablo?”

  “That’s right.”

  When Diablo first appeared on the world stage, it was in the middle of humanity’s war with the Shadows. They were neutral at first—until the Shadows decided to destroy Diablo, just as Luminus had once tried to do.

  But this time was different.

  The Diablo would not be wiped out again. The Shadows would be the ones exterminated.

  “In just one day—one day after their intelligence unit learned of the Shadows’ attack—Diablo leapt into the war as if they’d been waiting for it.”

  Nora’s eyes widened.

  “Prince Fury is the distilled vengeance of the Diablo people, Princess—born with the single purpose of killing anyone who threatens his country.”

  She thought back on Fury’s behavior—yes, Paul was right about one thing. Fury hated the Shadows enough to kill them on sight, and she’d seen him do it.

  “One day after joining the war, Prince Fury appeared in Velmount with his personal guard and wiped out the entire capital—leaving not even ashes.”

  “Wiped out, meaning…?”

  “Mass genocide, Princess.”

  Nora froze.

  “They say his rage was so great… Shadows, soldiers, civilians, women, children, the elderly—anything in Velmount’s capital…” Paul snapped his fingers.

  “…was gone, just like that.”

  “He came ashore and slaughtered our kind…?”

  But the most frightening part wasn’t that.

  “He could have ordered his soldiers to do it—but he didn’t. Every single death in that massacre was by his own hands.”

  The rage of that day had carved fear deep into everyone’s mind. Even now, Paul’s voice shook.

  “I went to Velmount after the incident. The forests were barren ground, scorched black. The only thing left were burning embers. Their proud army of dark magic users was gone—not even the letters on their sign remained. Human remains were scattered like minced meat in a slaughterhouse… and the black liquid that served as the Shadows’ lifeblood was splattered over everything.”

  “Princess, I don’t know how they created a demon like that, but what he did went far beyond the boundaries of war. To him, we were just ants to be crushed. If he wanted you dead, he’d do it himself—just like he did to the Shadows. One example was enough.”

  “Paul… and the heroes? What did they do?”

  “Without Casca, it would take four heroes at once to hold him off. And Luminus wasn’t about to send Casca—they needed her to protect themselves. Fury’s destruction of Velmount only benefited them.”

  “After that, as the records say, the only way out was for Sir Harry Kane to overthrow Velmount’s old regime and execute them all. That ended Velmount’s alliance with the Shadows—and stopped Diablo’s purge.”

  Paul added, “From there began the Shadow kingdom’s fall, as you’ve read.”

  This was only a fraction of what Fury had done.

  Even Sir Harry Kane’s method of execution was later used by Casca against the Luminus knights who had slaughtered Diablo—to spare them Fury’s wrath.

  “So when the day comes that you ascend the throne… always remember this: whatever you do, as long as that demon lives… never set foot in Diablo with an army.”

  If we did, our nation would be finished.

  Nora swallowed hard.

  That evening, Nora returned to the lodgings provided by the city with her delegation. Paul’s words had burrowed into her mind like roots into soil.

  She stepped down from the carriage, about to follow the others to her chambers, when she caught sight of a boy standing by the front gate, eating peanuts.

  Dan Burn.

  She stopped and stepped back to look again, while Paul turned in confusion.

  “Princess?”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  She jogged toward the young man at the gate.

  “Mr.Fury? I thought you’d gone back to your ship already.”

  “I’d like to, but I have work with Rafinya… remember?”

  Right—she’d forgotten.

  The prince had to live a double life. If he disappeared, it would raise suspicion.

  “I won’t be here tomorrow,” he said.

  “But we’re supposed to negotiate with you tomorrow.”

  “With my younger brother, actually.”

  He popped another peanut into his mouth.

  “But I want you to follow your mother inside.”

  “Why?”

  “Because tomorrow you’ll witness an important lesson.”

  “But you just said you won’t be there. How will you teach me, Mr.Fury?”

  “I don’t have to be there. The situation will teach you.”

  He added, “What you need to do tomorrow is sit quietly and listen. It will be the most important lesson of your life as a ruler.”

  Her skin prickled. Was it really that important?

  “Yes… Mr.Fury.”

  “I’d better go before your guards chase me off.”

  Dan glanced at her dress, then back up.

  “Meant to say it earlier, but your dress looks good.”

  “Thank you.”

  Nora stood awkwardly for a moment before he patted her shoulder and walked away.

  “Your Highness.”

  She froze as another young man passed her without her noticing—one of the Four Royal Guards, a boy with cropped hair, Roma.

  “Don’t be startled,” he said before following Fury. “I’ll be guarding the prince in Freya’s place for a while.”

  “…Understood.”