She Belongs To The Devil

Theodore noticed the drastic change in her facial expression after hearing about Azriel. So in order to bring her back to her jolly self, he began telling the story about him and Arion. "So, you were asking how I met Arion, right? It is a very interesting story, so I will share it with you."

Adeline\'s eyes and ears perked up when he said that. She really wanted to know more about the whole \'familiar\' thing and \'sacred oath\' and everything about the two of them. So she listened very carefully.

And Theodore continued with his explanation about how and when the two of them met. "When we, the children of God, reach the age of a thousand years then a special ceremony is held for us. And in that ceremony, we are allowed to choose our familiar from the vast number of magical beasts in the Heaven realm."

Adeline was already excited. She clasped her palms together and asked, "So the ceremony is like a grand birthday celebration and the familiars are your gifts?"

Theodore tilted his head and hummed, "Mmmm… more or less. But there is a catch when I say we can choose our familiar. We cannot force any beasts to become our familiar. We should reach a mutual understanding before forming a contract with each other. We are bound to each other for lifetime after all. Thus, when both the parties are satisfied with each other, then only we can form the contract."

"So the sacred oath is a contract?" Adeline asked as though she had cracked a huge mystery.

Theodore smirked seeing how immersed she was in their story. He nodded his head and replied, "Yes, the sacred oath is more like a binding contract. If you break it then you die."

"Oh!" Adeline was stunned to hear the severity of the oath. She stole a quick glance of Arion. She understood why he had to obey Theodore.

Before Adeline became sad again, Theodore quickly added a few more details, "And a ritual will be held in that birthday ceremony where that beast will take a sacred oath saying that they will serve us forever. And we take the oath saying that we will take care of them and treat them like they are a part of us."

"Aww… Isn\'t that sweet!" Adeline gave a loving gaze to both of them.

Theodore glanced at Arion and smiled. He felt somewhat nostalgic as he remembered the first meeting with Arion.

And he emphasized how important Arion was to him. "That ceremony was held in place by our father so that we would at least have one loyal follower for the rest of our eternal lives. With time, I gained 72 more followers but Arion is and will always hold the highest place among all of my followers because of that ritual… and because I hate him the most."

"And I hate you too." Arion was pleased to hear that praise from Theodore. So he went closer to him and rubbed his head against his arm while Theodore lovingly stroked his crest.

Adeline felt something warm in her heart seeing the love-hate relationship between the two of them. She couldn\'t handle the cuteness they were exuding right now. She smiled ear to ear while placing her palm over her chest.

Theodore then cleared his throat and quickly put his hands behind his back. "Alright, that\'s enough… for a few weeks."

Arion also swiftly stepped back and said, "Yes, I was going to say the same."

Adeline kept on staring at the two of them and kept on laughing because of the way they showed sudden awkwardness.

And to make her stop teasing them, Theodore asked her, "Stop laughing like that. Don\'t you want to know more regarding how we used to select our familiars?"

Adeline nodded her head while covering her mouth to try and control her laughter.

Without waiting for her to stop, Theodore further explained how they had to select their familiar. "Most of the beasts only agree to become our familiar after we challenge them to a one-on-one fight and win that fight. Everyone wants to follow someone who is stronger than them. But even though we are the children of God, we aren\'t that powerful when we are just a thousand years old. So the fight used to be quite fair."

He flicked his fingers and continued, "Interesting fact, some of the beasts would even be more powerful than us. It would be quite a challenge to conquer them."

And without him realizing it, he began talking about Azriel again. "They say that Azriel was the one to conquer one of the most powerful beasts of the Heaven realm. I didn\'t get to see the fight because I was not born yet but I remember hearing the stories that went around."

"Who is Azriel\'s familiar? What did he conquer?" Though Adeline didn\'t want to talk about Azriel, her curiosity took the best of her and she ended up inquiring about him.

Theodore had realized by now that he had mentioned about Azriel again. But Adeline didn\'t seem to mind it now so he revealed the information to her. "Being born with the power of transforming into a Dragon, he obviously went for a dragon. And not just any Dragon, he went for the most powerful Dragon of that time. Her name is Mimi."

A soft smile appeared on his lips as he thought of that delicate but powerful beast. He used to play with her a lot when he used to be a child. "Mimi is really sweet though. She is not an arrogant beast even when she knows how powerful she is."

"Oh!" Adeline remembered that she was the one who had dropped her back at the Palace after the test. "So she is his familiar. I have also met her. She is indeed a gentle beast."

"So, you\'ve met her as well huh…" Theodore nodded his head.

"And what about the Devil King\'s familiar?" Adeline was curious to know that as well.

Theodore took a deep breath in as though he was not that fond of Lucifer\'s familiar. And then he spoke with a little less enthusiasm, "Lucifer\'s familiar is a hound with three heads. He is extremely gigantic than normal dogs though. And he is quite ferocious. His name is Cerberus. But I hear humans referring to him as the Hellhound… Fits him though…"

Theodore then puckered his lips and kept quiet.

There was a silence for some time. Adeline suddenly remembered that Theodore had yet to tell her how the two of them formed the contract. "How did the two of you agree to take the sacred oath then? Did you tame Arion?"

And almost as on cue, Theodore and Arion glanced at each other and began to laugh like they just heard the funniest joke of the century.

"What?" Adeline also joined them in their laughter as though it was contagious. But she still managed to question Theodore, "Why are you two laughing? Did I say something wrong?"

"A-are you going to tell her how we came to an agreement?" Theodore asked Arion while still laughing hysterically.

Arion shook his head and replied while laughing, "No… it is too embarrassing. You tell her."

Adeline was already dying to know what was so funny that they were laughing so hard. She grabbed Theodore by his arm and shook him. "Just tell me already! Please!"

Theodore took a few deep breaths in and tried to control his laughter. After some minute, he finally said, "Well I was flying around among the beasts, looking for the one that I could challenge for a fight. And then my eyes fell on Arion. He also had similar black wings like mine."

He chuckled again but bit his lower lip to stop himself from bursting into laughter again. And he revealed, "And I said to him that I liked his wings because they look like mine. He also said that he liked my wings. And I asked if he would like to be my familiar. He instantly said he would love to be my familiar. That\'s it."

Both of them burst into laughter again.

Adeline face-palmed herself and began to chuckle. She was expecting some great battle between the two of them.. She had not imagined it being so simple and easy.