Chapter 1: The Girl and the Snake

Dianna starred out the window, her long black hair waving behind her, she was pondering: "What to do? what to do?" Although she wasn't the type to talk to herself the demon would look into people's minds and talk to them. The three other girls were dead quiet until one of them spoke.

"Sumi had Suggested that we should go to the marketplace. " Emily reminded, tidying up all the books Hara had left behind.

"You trying to get us permanently banned from that place? We sell out all of their candy and chips and they say we stole." Hara scoffed.

Hara grabbed her hood, whip, sword and for the door.

"I'm, going out!" She said just before she walked past the door. Emily checked to make sure she was gone before speaking again.

"Do you ever wonder where she goes all the time?" Emily asked. "I mean we live together."

"Nope." Dianna said taking a cup of ale. Dianna never answers questions properly, so some think she is very unapproachable.

"Now your just being Insensitive!" Emily's sapphire blue eyes darted her like daggers, and Dianna looked away. "Well I'm going to find out, what if she has a boyfriend?" She grinned with her normal playful smile. Dianna laughed at the sight of her friend thinking Hara, the most introverted person that she knew would have a boyfriend, but the thought of it also made her feel uneasy, as she saw Emily start to leave.

"Do you wanna come?" She asked just before she reached the door.

"I might as well." Dianna stood up placing her mug of ale on the table in front of her.

"Sumi watch the house for us would'ya!" She said as she left the door.

She's going to the woods. Emily thought to herself. They followed her for a while until they came across a very big tree in the middle of a clearing. They saw Hara playing and training with her pet demon, Yuki. As she tackled and attacked, practicing her form. She saw a head sticking out of a bush and saw it was someone. Emily saw Hara hazel eyes staring right back at her, and ducked as quickly as she could.

"Oh shit." Emily whispered. But once they turned around to go back, they could see Hara smirking at them.

"Come on, let's go home. I finished training anyways." She said as she helped them both get off the ground. They walked all the way back home, usually one of them would open a portal to get there but, they thought that it would feel nice to go for a walk as they talked about which prince our parents would probably betroth us to. They were a few meters from the house when Hara could see 3 boys waiting in front of the bar counter. One with white hair and a black mask, one with yellow and orange messy hair, and the other with black kept hair and green eyes.

The girls giggled and panicked. Hara disgusted at the sight of Dianna laughing about a boy, though They've all had past relationships none seemed to last.

They walked up to them acting like they didn't notice the 3 boys until they got close to them.

"I'm sorry, we're closed." said Emily as she pointed to the sign on the bar door.

"Oh sorry, no we're not here for the bar actually--nevermind I think we got off on the wrong foot here." Said the boy with orange hair. "Zakuro Mizusaki, at your service." He did a deep bow at the waist.

"I am Damien Lucitor." Said the boy with white hair and a mask, trying fixing his shirt.

"Martin Ostinvein." Said the boy with black hair and green eyes, he didn't make eye contact with any of them, which made Hara feel uncomfortable since their usually greeted formally.

They looked at the girls, expecting them to introduce themselves.

"Hi. Emily, daughter of the Queen Deity." She curtsied.

"Diana Venin." She said, raising her head just a bit, showing that she looking down on them.

"Chizuru Harazama, Hara if you may." Hara curtsied but only slightly.

"Anyways, what's you business with us?" Emily asked the three boys.

"We're here from the imperial state. We're to escort you to the royal meet." Damien bowed at the waist, not as low this time.

Emily shivered from the cold of the night--

"Ok, i think that's enough for intros. May we go inside now?" Hara asked trying to take out a tiny key from her pocket.

As everyone walked in to the house, Hara went to the kitchen with Emily to see what we could eat.

why does Martin still have no wings? Maybe their undeveloped? If they are holy knights then why don't we Recognise them? Emily thought to herself as she chopped some fruit.

She froze realising Dianna had heard her say those things, as she turned to see her smirking at her from the living room.

"Why the hell would a demon follow the orders of the council?" Dianna hissed as she looked at Damien talking about how they were given orders.

"Dianna!" Sumi scolded, although she wasn't the type to speak aloud, she doesn't like it when Dianna does this.

"Ah, yes the royal meet. I forgot about it. Alright then! We'll go in the morning." Emily said as she entered the room. "You have a place to stay I presume?"

The boys looked at each other nervously.

"Did you honestly come here without a plan?" Hara scoffed, as she came into the room.

"It-it was short notice." Martin said as he rubbed the back of his head.

Hara sighed. "Find them a place to stay or they can sleep on the floor, whichever one you like!" She said as she walked through her portal.

A sadist at heart aren't you? Emily laughed quietly.

"Where's she going?" Mizusaki asked picking up his tea.

"She's heading for bed, speaking of which I have to sleep as well." Emily yawned, she looked at the clock on the wall as it chimed 11pm.

She stood up from her seat and whispered something to Sumi--

"Take them to the basement, There's spare cushions and stuff there." She whispered, as she and Dianna left to go upstairs. Sumi nodded quietly.

"Um--ok then, follow me." She said nervously, she led them to the basement, where she bid them goodnight and left them there. There was only one bed in sight so they all jumped for it knowing only one of them would fit, but Damien had freezed the other 2 boys and took the spot for himself. He grinned as he saw the 2 boys scowling at him from their frozen positions.

But, luckily, the 2 boys found things that they could use as well. Mizusaki found a kotatsu with Sakura patterns, behind one of the tables, and Martin figured he could just use one of the peapods he found behind the cabinet. He was surprised to see an empty peapods the the size of a hammock. All the boys fell asleep quite late since, they all still had to do something to their makeshift beds. Mizusaki had to assemble the top of the kotatsu, Martin still had to clean his pod and Damien had to dust off his bed. They all fell asleep not long after, it's clear they made quite the journey for them to reach the edge of Belrinya, where the girls were.

In the morning they found That Emily was already awake and making breakfast. "Better early than late and better late than not being there at all!" She would say.

"What's that smell?" Asked Martin as he climbed up the stairs from the basement.

"Eggs and bread?" Guessed Hara, as she came through a portal from her room. I've always been to lazy to use the stairs. She laughed.

"Yup!" Emily replied with her cute little smile

While Dianna and Damien were just sitting down, while everyone ate like it was their last meal. "Why aren't you eating?" Asked Emily. "Is the food not to your liking?"

"Demons don't need to eat" Said Damien proudly.

"Yet during the moon festival you ate till you had ingestion!" Marcus and Mizusaki laughed.

Suddenly someone's stomach rumbled and Damien's pride looked as if it had been stolen by the food in front of him. "Crap."

"Still don't wanna eat?" Emily asked with a cheeky smile.

Dianna didn't even turn before she ate a few crumpets and drank coffee, by accident.

"Ew." Dianna disgusted at the cup of coffee in her hand. "I thought this was ale."

Hangover. Thought the girls.

"Wait...what are your powers anyway? Chief wouldn't answer us." the boys asked looking as curious as mice to a trap.

"You'll know in time." Hara and Emily laughed.

The boys suddenly saw Hara's image ripple and that had already given the trick away.

"Anyways, can we have real Hara back now?" Emily sneered, the boys looked confused. Real Hara?

The girl they thought was Hara laughed and turned to dust.

"What the--" the boys choked on their drinks.

Emily and Dianna laughed.

"Hahahahahaha! That wasn't her! You didn't notice?" Emily laughed until she couldn't breath.

"Well, she's actually outside sleeping in her tree." She pointed to a girl sleeping in a tall tree a few meters away from the house.

As they all finished eating all the girls, except Hara, gathered behind the kitchen door as the boys talked about things in the living room.

As all the girls teased each other, Hara went upstairs to get some of her elixirs, as she cringed at the sight of them pairing with each other.

"Okay, guys prepare your stuff, we leave in an hour." Emily said putting out the fire. As everyone prepared to leave or the girls prepared, moreover, Emily received a totem that it might rain. Her clairvoyance has never been wrong. She thought that his was probably just a drizzle so she ignored it.

"Is everyone ready to leave?" Hara asked coming out of her portal.

"I'm bringing the beer!!!" Dianna shouted, as she dragged a few barrels of ale from the cellar.

"We're not drinking on the way there unless you're trying to fall from the sky Dianna." Sumi rolled her eyes, and laughed at the sight of Dianna sneaking some of her ale into her bag.

"We'll bring Shiro, 3 rides are better than 1." Emily smiled.

Who's Shiro? Damien thought, computing what Shiro meant in their language.

They saw a small cat come out from behind Emily and transform into a big cat, the size of a sabre at least.

"We will get there faster if we go with her, Climb on!" said Emily, as she got on her pet demon. "Are we all gonna fit?" Sumi asked, estimating who'll ride with who.

"of course not!" Emily replied speaking the obvious.

"Some of us will ride with Mizusaki and Hara." Emily said with a cheesy smile.

"How do we ride with them?" Dianna asked, as she was contemplating who should she ride with.

"We have ways." Mizusaki smirked.

Mizusaki explained while getting out a pen sized flute from his pocket and played a very high note all of a sudden, Hara did the same too except her flute was a rose gold and it had symbols on it.

"And... Here they are."

And suddenly a giant gold fox and a demon Cat came down out of the sky . "How do we ride on this?" Sumi asked.

"Just climb on!" They both shouted.

"okay, okay Jeez" Sumi said while trying to get on the fox.

"Its not an it by the way, her name is yuki."

But there was something odd. There was someone on Mizusaki's Fox.

"Who the heck is that?!" He screamed.

Kokoro? Emily asked herself

"Yup! That's him." Dianna confirmed. "Why's he there?"

"Honestly I wouldn't even know." Hara replied.

"Tokyo, last time we saw you, you still had peircings." Dianna laughed.

"Yup! I decided to live here and become a sage."

"But didn't you do street magic before?" Emily and Hara cringed.

"How the hell is that Tokyo?!" Sumi asked, placing the picture of a black haired guy with peircings

"I guess he got blonde-ish." Hara guessed.

Emily laughed recognizing the boy that used to run around the school with them.

"Anyway, Why are you on Haru?" Asked Hara, as she tried to help him up, after he fell, flat on his face, trying to get off.

"Who's Haru?" He asked.

"The demon you were sitting on." Said Mizusaki, glaring daggers at him.

"Why does he look so pissed?" Tokyo whispered.

"Still can't read the atmosphere, can you?" Dianna laughed. As he tried to scan their faces the only question he could read was "why are you on the fox?"

As Tokyo struggled to explain himself, they noticed it was nearly 9am and that they all had to start rushing since they were expected to join the king and queen of Belrinya for lunch.

"You wanna come? all our parents kinda know you already." Sumi asked cheerfully--Sumi had always loved the company. Although the girls often depend on her for some important reasons, Sumi was their trust detector. She was often needed when meeting new people since she could tell if the person was trustable or not.

Tokyo thought for a minute making faces like he didn't wanna come, but they wouldn't fall for that after growing up with him they knew almost everything about him--

"Sure! You never know when you need a guy like me around." Tokyo grinned as he watched all the boys but they hand on their faces.

"Okay, since we have 3 rides now, Martin, Damien, Iziel will ride on Haru, Tokyo and Hara will ride on Yuki, me and Dianna will ride with Shiro." Said Emily. They all went with their teams or buddies in Tokyo's case and left the are where the house used to be.

On their way they had to stop because a storm was coming ahead, but they didn't know if it was safe, because the forest below them had been reported to have demon sightings. So they had no choice but to stop and look for a place to sleep for the night. And that they found, a small area clear of trees.

"Great! we can grow the house here." Hara said sighing a breath of relief. Snap! The house appeared in the area.

They all rushed inside to seek shelter from the rain, each went to different spots, all of the boys had ran to the living room to start a fire, Hara and Sumi had run to the cabinet to dry their hair and Dianna had already run to cellar. Everyone laughed at the sight of her running back and forth to get a mug and drink. While as Emily tended to the kitchen.

"Guys, uh--we are out of food." Emily said from the kitchen, checking the cabinets.

"Great now we're gonna starve!" Dianna complained, Signalling that we were already out of ale since she's already being pessimistic.

"That's fine i could grow us some fruit." Sumi said as she touched the floor. Crack! A apple tree suddenly grew out of the ground.

"Hey watched where your growing trees, Sumi. The floors cracking." Emily scolded. Emily wasn't the type to scold it often meant something was up, but it started to get more recent, so they didn't think much of it.

"Just take a few I can shrink it back." Hara sighed.

Okay, okay." Sumi said getting a basket. As she picked the apples from the little tree, she felt something watching her, something that could kill her.

"Okay everyone take one!" Sumi said ignoring her bad feeling.

"I'll go clean up back at the kitchen!" She said as she walked towards the kitchen.

CLANG!!! A pot fell from the countertop.

Everyone rushed in to see what it was. They saw Sumi back at the wall, they saw a girl like figure that was around Hara's height holding a snake towards Sumi in one hand and holding her up by the neck in the other. "Remember me?" The girl asked. "Nice to see you again, Sumi." The girl laughed.

"W-who are you?" Sumi clasped for breath. Before the girl noticed that everyone was already drawing weapons while Dianna was telling them all in their minds to stand down first. But, Hara didn't listen and threw a fanged Dagger at the girl. The girl dodged it but it grazed her but, he graze healed like it was never there. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Still as impatient as ever are you?" She lifted her gaze to Hara until everyone could see her. Her blood red eyes, her pale white skin, and her thin pink lip. "Well, it would be no fun to get killed now wouldn't it?" The girl smiled. As a cloud of miasma emerged from under the girls feet, The demons covered their face and placed on their masks and hoods. "What the hell!" Dianna coughed though her sleeve. "It's Miasma!" Damien's voice muffled through his mask. Their power! It's weakening! Emily told her conscience as she could see their powers dropping. "All demons get out now!" Emily shouted. "This miasma is gonna suck out all of your essence!" Suddenly, Hara, Damien, Mizusaki, And Dianna ran out of the kitchen and in the protection of Sumi's Lotus Barrier. Her Lotus Barrier was one of the most effective shields they had, and in this case Sumi had rather protected her friends than try to fight back, with the snake around her neck. As Sumi smiled to her friends she said four words that made their hearts break.

"I'll find you guys."

וווווווווו•×•×•×

Author's note:

Hey guys! sorry if the chapters are a but messed up like chapter 1 ended up being episode 4 and chapter 2 became episode 1. Apologies, I am still an amateur at this so please forgive me for the confusion. Also shout-out to my friend Emeres (and no I don't mean the author EmeLi, if y'all are confused, but she's also a good author so check her out!) for reading some of these in advance before I posted them. And if some of you wanna give me author tips go ahead and place a comment and I'll read and reply to you. (unless my wifi dies. (• ▽ •;)

וווווווווו•×•×•×

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***