“Hm? Who’s Vera?” the woman asked.

  Arden looked over her body. She looked the exact same as she had back on earth.

  ‘Actually, she looks even better now. She actually survived her trial and became a Starborn. But why is she here? How is she here?’

  Arden looked back at her eyes looking back at him with mild confusion.

  His mind was reeling, but he forced himself to calm down. This wasn't Vera. It couldn't be. It looked like her, and even the air about her was identical, but he knew that it wasn't her.

  Arden remembered his stand-in, who already looked like a carbon copy of Arden. He also had a sister, just like Arden. Was it really just a coincidence that he looked so much like his stand-in? The woman in front of him with Vera’s appearance proved to him that it wasn’t.

  “...No one,” Arden said quietly.

  She sat down on the fountain next to him and slid to his side.

  “It doesn't sound like no one.” A teasing smile pulled at the edges of her lips. “A lost love, perhaps?”

  Arden shook his head slowly and didn't say anything.

  “Seems she broke your heart pretty bad. What'd she do? Hook up with another man?”

  Arden shook his head again and tried to tune the woman out.

  ‘It's not her. Just ignore her.’

  “Well whatever she did, she left you in a state where you need to use illusion magic to hide your face at a social gathering.”

  That was something that Arden couldn't ignore. His head whipped around to look at the look-alike of his saviour.

  He glanced at Nux and Bellum, both too absorbed in their respective mating rituals to notice what was happening with him.

  “How do you know?” He whispered.

  She smiled a dazzling smile that threatened to infatuate Arden. Despite his best efforts to deny who this woman was, he could feel it in his heart.

  “The most important trait in a fight is a cool mentality. After that comes perception. My perception is good enough that I could see through some magic.”

  Her words thundered in Arden’s ears. The familiarity of them haunted him. They weren’t exactly the same as when Vera first began to train him and Sya, but they were close enough.

  ‘That's not her,’ he repeated. ‘Not my Vera.’

  She grabbed Arden’s hand and pulled him to his feet, causing him to drop his empty plate of food. It landed on the soft grass, so it didn't shatter.

  “Come with me. I'm not like other girls. I can show you a good time, free of charge. I'll make you forget all about that other girl.”

  Before Arden could respond, the Vera look-alike ran through Silverbrook Garden dragging him behind. Arden kept pace with her so that he wouldn't fall, and he continued with her until they were far away from the party.

  When they finally stopped, Arden looked around. They were in a wooded area far away from the crowded inner area of Silverbrook Garden. This outer area was dense with trees and barren of light. The only thing lighting Arden’s way was the starlight peeking through the leaves and reflecting off of Vera's beautiful hair.

  ‘No. Not Vera's hair,’ Arden corrected. ‘This isn't her. It can't be.’

  Arden looked around the area on edge. In this trial, every shadow represented danger in an unspecified way. At least back in the Mausoleum of the Maverick he had access to a weapon. Here, he had only his sharp tongue, and arguably not even that.

  The girl turned around with a smile and let go of Arden’s hand only to wrap her arms around Arden, embracing him in a tight hug. She put her face to his chest and muttered softly.

  “I’ve waited so long for you, Arden. I’ve missed you so much.”

  ***

  Bellum was standing a little behind Nux as the latter was shaking hands with a man who looked to be in his 50’s and was wishing for this part of the party to be over. As Bellum expected, a good chunk of the nobles didn’t heed his advice about leaving their status behind if they attended the banquet, which led to Bellum and Nux being interrupted many times over the course of the night.

  Each time they were interrupted from wooing the wovewy wadies, Nux had to pull his best fake smile and greet each of the high society members of Silverbrook’s Barony. It was a good thing that the prince was a prince, and thus trained in the manners of etiquette, otherwise half of the nobles would be ignored and the other half would be missing teeth.

  Bellum on the other hand knew his role well. Protect his liege from danger and look stoic. Honestly, even though he was ripped from the side of the brunette of his dreams to do his duty, it probably only increased his chances of hooking up. Women liked capable men, after all. But until his duty was finished, getting back together with that woman would be a pipe dream.

  Despite his own misgivings about it, he didn’t slack on guard detail. His eyes scanned over the crowd to look out for any potential threats. The servants who ate with the demon earlier were all amusing themselves in various ways with various people.

  The woman Bellum was dancing with winked at him. He smiled and winked back and continued looking around when he saw a potential threat, causing the smile to fall from his face.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  A woman with two-tone hair of black and pale blue grabbed the demon’s hand and pulled him away from the party.

  Bellum approached Nux who was finally backing away from the noble, still with the fake smile plastered on his face.

  “If I keep this up, my face is gonna get stuck like this,” Nux muttered, rubbing his jaw. “Shall we return to the ladies, Bellum?”

  “Sir, I have a report.”

  Like with Bellum, the happiness fell from Nux’s face. A serious expression replaced it and he turned to look at the fountain where the demon was previously and saw that he was gone.

  “Damn it,” Nux muttered. “Did you see where he went?”

  “He’s heading to the west edge of the garden with a woman with silverish hair.”

  Rage clouded Nux’s face for a moment.

  “He’s taken a woman? How vile. We have to stop him before she’s hurt.”

  “Actually sir, the woman took him. I think they know each other.”

  “Two demons, then. Let’s go.”

  The immediate problem the pair were faced with was the public setting. They couldn’t draw any suspicion that something was wrong, but they also needed to make haste to prevent the pair of demons from getting discovered by a third party. They slowly made their way to the end of the crowd and picked up the pace from there.

  ***

  Arden’s heart was beating out of his chest and his breathing was shallow. He lifted his trembling arms and wrapped them around the woman, returning the hug.

  “Vera?” he repeated.

  “Yeah. It’s me. Kind of.”

  Arden didn’t want to unpack whatever was hidden in those final words. He just wanted to stay here in the moment with Vera. He didn’t want to let go of her. It had only been a few days since he last saw her, but it felt much longer.

  “You survived,” he said.

  In that moment, all of the danger and uneasiness he felt went away as he felt her warmth. Neither said anything as they just held each other. The only thing Arden heard was the beating of his own heart.

  He felt a hand on his cheek and the illusion spell flickered and faded away into purple sparks. With his true appearance restored, Arden and Vera stared at each other with happy smiles.

  “I walked a thousand years across the dark to see you one more time, Arden.”

  “Vera?” he asked worriedly.

  She broke away from the hug and shook her head. Tears started to fill her big blue eyes.

  “I’m not your Vera. She’s from your world, and I’m from mine. Here, I am an outworlder too.”

  The tears started flowing and Arden brought her in for another hug as she began to weep into his shoulder as he rubbed her back. He didn’t know how to comfort someone, so he just moved on instinct. Her muffled sobs cried out into the woods. He felt tremendous heartache from having someone that he believed was stronger than anyone crying into him.

  For a few minutes Arden held Vera to comfort her. After a bit she turned her eyes upward to look into his. Arden’s heart was in his throat when he saw her wet eyes.

  “Can’t you stay here with me? In this world?”

  Arden’s breath got caught in his throat.

  ‘What?’

  “...I,” he began, but was quickly cut off by Vera’s fingers against his lips, shushing him.

  “Don’t answer. I don’t think my heart can handle it. It’s alright. It’s not in your nature to stay where you don’t belong. Just promise me one thing; don’t forget about me. Because I never forgot about you.”

  Arden tried to speak but was once again shushed by Vera.

  “I can't come with you, either.”

  Arden had no words left. He closed his eyes and continued to hold her in his embrace, like she was about to break.

  ‘Damn it. What the hell is going on? Is there anything I can do for her?’

  He stood there contemplating as he felt Vera’s warmth. Her body felt like a dying flame. No answer came to him.

  Blinding pain filled Arden’s chest and opened his eyes wide. A pained groan emerged from his lips as the scene was revealed to him.

  He saw Vera standing in front of him with her sad eyes. Her lips quivered as blood began leaking from her mouth.

  Behind Vera, Nux Valtorin stood, with his sword piercing both Vera and Arden. He planted his foot on Vera’s back and pushed, knocking the pair of them down with Vera on top.

  “The fact that someone would willingly side with a monster sickens me. It seems that this 'StarFall' has already begun.”

  Arden didn't hear the prince’s remark. He was focusing all of his attention on Vera. It wasn't long before he was covered in her warm blood spilling over him, and mixing with his own.

  Vera placed her hands on his cheeks, and pressed her lips to Arden’s for a kiss.

  It tasted of blood.

  “I feel...cold…,” she whispered.

  Arden held her tightly, trying in vain to warm her. He knew in his head that it was hopeless to save her, but he just wanted to make her a little more comfortable.

  She let her head fall next to Arden’s ears and continued whispering to him. He barely heard the words. All of his attention was on the fear in her eyes.

  “Stay strong… Don’t cry…”

  Arden didn't realize he was crying. His tears mixed with their blood and didn't stop flowing. Her heartbeat started to get weaker, and her body colder.

  “Just…don't let me go.”

  Arden hugged her tighter. He didn't want to let go. Even if she told him to let go with her last breath, he doubted he would be able to let go.

  “I… I'm scared.”

  Arden felt her pulse cease and knew that those were her last words. They betrayed that for all of her knowledge and all of her power, Vera was still human. She was still a young woman in a world that wasn’t even her own. Still afraid of death.

  Her body went completely limp, succumbing to the grievous stab injury. Agony burst from Arden as he sobbed into Vera's corpse.

  ‘Not fair…It's not fair!’

  Through his tears, he saw Nux and Bellum standing nearby talking.

  ‘I'll fucking kill them!’

  A small swarm of red sparks flew from Vera’s body into Arden. When the sparks disappeared, a Status window appeared for Arden to read.

  You have obtained a red-tier Protostar Satellite, Oath of Blood.

  Then the Status disappeared.

  Nux approached Arden and looked down at the crying vengeful man. The prince gave a small smile of satisfaction

  “This is what happens to demons.”

  Arden couldn't hold back. He forced himself up to do something, anything to the prince. But as soon as he leaned forward, Bellum grabbed his hair and slammed it back to the ground.

  “Bellum, bring them both back to the carriage. I need to teach him what it means to oppose the world.”

  Then Arden’s consciousness faded. He only had a single thought as everything went black.

  ‘Vera…’