"Good night, Prince Idel." A sweet feminine voice resounded in the room before reaching the young demon lying on the bed.
The room was quite dark, making it hard for Idel to discern the exact position of his personal servant, Sagi.
He wanted to return the gesture… that is what everyone considers normal, right?
But he was too tired to lift his head, let alone move his lips. So he remained silent, waiting for her to leave and put an end to the awkward moment that seemed to occur every night.
'Sigh...' He wondered why Sagi always bothered bidding him good night despite knowing that he would never respond.
Even stranger, despite being sent away the moment she was placed under his care, she returned the following morning with the same cheerful smile, unwavering in her resolve to remain.
'Is coming to terms with my nature so hard?'
No, that did not seem to be the case. Everyone in the demon realm knew Prince Idel's persona: he was slow, always tired, and a demon of few words… in short, a lazy antisocial brat.
Well, this was how every low-ranked demon referred to him behind his back. He was pretty sure of that. He needed no special ability to see the disgust on everyone's faces when he appeared; even his own father disliked him for being the fragile demon he was.
But this Sagi was different; her affection for him was almost tangible.
'Maybe her blindness is the core reason; she might think of me as some Prince Charming.
Hmmm.
No... probably not. Not with this voice.'
'Huh…' Perhaps her being a low-ranked demon that was stereotyped by her family had something to do with it… after all, people—demons in this case—all want a sense of belonging.
So, in her perspective, according to Idel's point of view, the two were weaklings who needed to stick together in this strength-driven reality.
Deep into his thoughts, he heard the door open and close, indicating the departure of Sagi.
'Weakling, me?' He almost chuckled at the line of thought.
Slow, ungenial, listless, and, of course, lazy brat was "candidly" him, but referring to Idel as anything close to weak was an insult to the demon with the sin affinity of sloth, the only demon to ever possess it, for that matter.
He slightly opened his eyes and stared blankly at the murky ceiling.
"They are just apparitions…
"They are not real…
"The humans, all of them…
"It's nothing more than a long continuous dream. Do not get attached." He repeated his nightly ritual three times, each time his voice becoming more dreary.
At the same instant, his barely visible crescent pupils glowed with a deep green radiance as an invisible field slowly spread from his forehead, causing the doors and windows to seal shut. However, they were merely the first layer of protection, as anyone who dared force their way inside would be caught within the unseen field, fall into a deep slumber, and, just like Idel, be drawn into the Dream Realm.
Crack! Crack!
With layered fractures steadily and creepily crawling through the air, reality shattered, and drowened Idel in an endless layer of black matter.
Soon, his body, resembling a meteor descending through the heavens, ignited, blazing as he continued his endless fall.
Despite this, Idel remained rather calm. Simply put, he was used to this.
Ray by ray, wisp by wisp, the darkness receded, consumed by crimson fog and light.
The light, radiating from a crescent moon, bathed his entire being in a thick red before he hit a hard surface with thunderous force, breaking several limbs and bones in the process.
With a grunt and pain surging through his body, the young demon, accustomed to the sequence of events, languidly turned and lay on the surface tainted by the blood pouring from his wounds and gazed at the starless, foggy void.
Not paying much attention to his sad state, Idel begun to recall the contents of the day,
'Using your seductive nature to have me nominated as class rep, knowing full well that I have fallen head over heels for you. Which, in a sense, makes it easier for you to control me and, at the same time, ensures that you gain a major role in deciding matters in class.
Emily, today, you made great calculations, but, as my four tenets say,
too much preparation leads to imperfection.
Perfection can only be attained by chance, and thus, chasing it is futile.
He who cares too much and expects too much will always be a griever.
The happiest souls are those crazy enough not to care.'
Idel's mind was as clear as ever, possessing immeasurable understanding.
'Hehe, to be frank, you of all people should have realised that the only reason your plan worked was because someone allowed it to. For a class including three members of the Royal family, that should have been obvious.
'Sigh, I just wish my siblings had used other methods to beat her. Cause what do you mean you make your brother fail the exam he had spent the entire year studying, rendering me unfit to be the class rep?
In the end, the position was given to Elsa, a naive girl whose as Pretentious as they come.'
Idel, without a doubt, knew that his results were edited prior to being announced, and either his brother or sister was responsible.
At the time, he could not say anything.
What's even worse, he had to bear the embarrassment, as well as the fake consoling words from his siblings.
Just thinking about their faces made him quite furious.
'Those three...those two. Using me as a pedestal upon which they can stand and shine before the clans, gaining praise in the manner, and I, at the end of the day, end up looking like some irresponsible, careless loser.
'If you wish to succeed, why must you disregard the feelings of others? Truly disgusting, these people are.'
With his entire body now drenched in the cold blood, he smirked.
'Hehe, can't believe, for the first time in a very long time, I'm relieved to enter the Dream Realm. At least this world, though grotesque and twisted in its own way, does not hide its ugliness.
'Everyone hates each other, and they live like that. No lies, no pretence, just beautiful... imperfection.'
Following this, he slightly squinted his eyes, trying to come up with a name that perfectly fit his last two words.
'Sagi, yes, Sagi. Imperfectly... beautiful, seriously?' Though he had recalled the name, he could not truly put together the image of this imperfectly beautiful character.
Trying a bit harder, his heart, loud and thumping, suddenly skipped a beat. Something strange and monstrous had entered the area.
Alarmed, Idel got up as his blood flowed back to his body, returning to their respective blood vessels before clotting and bone regeneration occurred at an abnormal rate.
With a certain seriousness, he surveyed his surroundings.
Standing on the highest hill of the crimson-fogged hill terrain, his glowing green eyes and swaying hooded-black cloak made him seem like a mercenary waiting to hunt down a target.
But, in actuality, he was the target.
The Dream Realm, despite being "imperfectly beautiful," had its own share of troubles.
Prominent among these were the residents, Emontarions.
Coming in different sizes and shapes, a lot of these species shared one feeling when it came to Idel: hatred. To them, he might have been an anomaly, a being who should not exist in their world… and so, some sought to kill him at any opportunity they got.
Just like now, Idel could spot a disfigured lump of black flesh that was slowly, with its tiny, different-sized arms, scaling a hill twenty meters away from him.
His brow furrowed. This was a rare sight!
Under normalcy, a grade 4 nightmare was incapable of sensing his presence, let alone pinning down his location in a matter of minutes, and, for that matter, daring to attack him alone.
This was odd, but thinking about it would only strain his mind. This damn lump of flesh was here and needed to be dealt with immediately.
At that moment, the grade 4 nightmare, looking at Idel with a good number of eyes that dotted its body, opened its several mouths and let out a jarring screech.
The screech echoed across the terrain, sending ripples through the crimson mist that would render lesser beings inert, and at the mercy of the blood thirsty nightmares.
But Idel was no lesser being, and most stupidly, the nightmare dared to attack him in his pocket universe: the Labyrinth, an extension of his will!
The oblivious nightmare lunged, hopping from one hill to another with terrifying speed and a burning rage in its eyes.
It was going for the kill!
But just before it reached him…
Just before it opened its mouth to strike his neck…
Idel blinked slowly, and, in the next second, thick black blood poured on his body in a torrent.
The nightmare hung before him in a lifeless haze, its body pierced by long crimson thorns that manifested out of thin air by Idel's will.
"Must... kill… kill…" The nightmare let out a hoarse sound as its eyes looked at the swaying black-cloaked figure with fear and pain. "…The lone dreamer."