Chapter 12: The lake
„Your highness, welcome back.“ The fox said, its voice sounding very similar to the one Xuan had already heard before.
Hon nodded and said: „Thank you for your warm welcome. You may all stand up now.“
Xuan never expected to see this serious and noble version of Hon, but since he was a demon king, a small change in his personality was predictable.
He still stood behind Hon and didn’t really know what to do or how to act, but then Hon glanced at him and gave him a big comforting smile. He turned back again and all the ghosts and demons present stood up.
No one was asking any questions and they waited for Hon to go in front of them to head to his palace.
And so, he did walk forward, with Xuan right behind his back, while more and more demons surrounded them at every step.
They must have felt his presence when he entered through the portal and didn’t hesitate to come and greet their monarch after 50 years.
Two animals followed right after them.
Even though they were surrounded by various people, they were all still respectful enough and kept their distance. It seemed as if they worked their entire lives just for this moment to be perfect.
Hon seemed like he knew exactly where he was going, but Xuan couldn’t see anything at all, because of the fog, only silhouettes of some demons.
He was a bit nervous and scared, but one thing making him feel safe was Hon in front of him.
Xuan was actually still a little red from before, his hands and back sweaty, but he tried not to think about it while they were followed by so many eyes.
Soon enough, a big building appeared in front of them. It looked a bit like a basic temple, like the one Xuan was used to seeing in the city he lived in, but, in reality, it was a church, or, better said, an actual gothic cathedral.
Xuan had never seen a building like this before and he was stunned by it’s glamorous architecture. He lifted his eyes up and saw a cross at the very top. He never understood the point of religion.
In just a few minutes, big wooden doors opened in front of them.
They entered with Hon leading the way and as the fox and coyote closed the doors, they could’ve seen all the souls outside bowing again.
There was a much bigger number of them now.
Hon waited until the doors closed completely and got locked and just then he deeply sighed, leaned against some table that reminded Xuan of an altar and ruffled through his hair.
„Have I done anything weird?“ He worried, but the two animals just shook their heads.
Xuan was standing close to Hon and watched as the two got close to them and their entire bodies started shining. They were shifting into their other, humanoid forms.
When Xuan saw the two women standing in front of him, his eyes widened.
Outfits of these two individuals changed to something that reminded him of uniforms, as well as their hairstyles and both of them had tails on their backs and pointy dog ears, but they were certainly Rika and Moka!
Xuan sighed in relief that he somehow knew both of them and didn’t have to explain himself anymore.
„So, you actually brought him here. Did you receive my message?“ Rika asked, but Hon just shook his head.
„We found the crow dead. It was killed by some Lust archer that later attacked us.“ He explained.
„Then, how did you find another way?“
„I met Florence. She told me about a way and I let her absorb that archer’s soul.“
„Why wasn’t I informed of this?“ Moka suddenly joined in. „Your highness, you know how serious matter it is when someone attacks a demon ruler, not even talking about the two of them!“
Hon sighed again: „Look, Moka, there’s no point in digging into it since his soul is no more. Anyways, what did you guys do with Cornelia?“
„I brought her into your palace together with Stroke. They are currently sealed in one of the basements.“ Moka informed and Hon nodded.
Xuan just stood there, silently, not trying to join the conversation he wasn‘t involved in, but he was eventually dragged in by Hon.
„So... How do you like the demon realm so far?“
„All I’ve seen so far was just fog...“
Hon laughed „And what about this cathedral?“
„Is that how it’s called? Then, I think this cathedral is fascinating. What is this building’s purpose?“ Xuan asked, but he wasn‘t looking at Hon. His eyes followed the floor instead.
He felt as if when he looked at Hon, he would get all red and crazy again, so he just tried his best to avoid it.
„It’s something like a shrine. People come here to pray, sometimes to even offer things...“ Hon replied and smiled a bit, but Xuan couldn’t really see it.
„I see.“
They stayed in silence for a while, Hon still leaning against the altar, looking as if he was rethinking something and his two assistants patiently waited for his next orders.
„Let’s continue our way to the palace then. There’s no point in waiting any longer.“ Hon said and stood up.
He rounded the altar and walked towards the entrance on the other side of the cathedral with the servants and Xuan following him.
When he opened the doors, what awaited them wasn’t another crowd of demons, but a narrow and high staircase.
First one who entered was Rika, then Hon, Xuan and finally Moka. This formation actually made a lot of sense.
When they get out, it’s most likely that they’ll appear right in front of other citizens of the Violence kingdom, so, the one introducing the king should be his most loyal and elegant servant.
Then the king himself, followed by his guests, and the last one should be the strongest servant in case someone tried to attack them from behind and they couldn’t protect themselves in time.
Even though Moka was also Hon’s loyal and elegant assistant, her power was still close to the power of a demon monarch. In other kingdoms she would've already been a general of an army or something. Ironically, the kingdom of Violence was the only one without an army.
It was mainly because this kingdom was the second strongest right after Limbo without even needing an army.
And the reason behind it? It’s very simple. Basically, all of the citizens were very strong and easily able to defend themselves.
And the population hasn’t changed much since Hon became the ruler here.
The entire kingdom was filtered during the lordship of one of the previous monarchs, leaving only the strongest ones to live in peace.
And, after the current treachery kingdom fell at some point, the population had only slightly increased.
Although, because everyone here was so strong, they didn’t have that much respect left for their king...
As they walked up the stairs, Xuan wasn’t really sure about what he was doing. And Hon changed a bit, which he didn’t really like.
This Hon was bigger, stronger and seemed to be more confident, which wasn’t bad, but it was rather unnatural, since the one he met before was quite the opposite.
Xuan was watching his steps carefully, since he had never walked such a staircase before, but even though he did his best not to trip, he did.
It wasn’t his fault at all. The staircase seemed very old, its design would make one’s head spin, and the main problem was the missing stair.
Rika and Hon, who walked in front of him, noticed it, or, better said, they seemed like they already knew about this hole and casually walked over it, but Xuan wasn’t warned and it ended as it did.
He fell right on Hon, accidentally pressed him to the stairs and Hon screamed a bit.
He was dead, but he could still feel pain and being pushed down the stairs wasn’t anything comfortable for him.
When Xuan noticed that he was actually lying on Hon‘s back, he quickly stood up, dusted his clothes and wanted to help Hon up, but Hon already stood up himself.
Moka and Rika just stood on the stairs and silently watched them.
Hon sighed and turned his head to Xuan. „You need to be more careful.“ He said with a smile on his face and turned around again.
Xuan stood still for a moment, but then followed him. Did he just... Touch him? He was able to touch his real form? And even though it was for just a moment, it felt so good. Lying on top of him...
He shook his head. He couldn’t think about something like that.
They walked up the stairs, for a bit longer than expected, because of the fall, but finally got to the wooden cover on top.
Rika uncovered it and walked out, being followed by Hon, Xuan and finally Moka, who closed the cover behind them.
When Hon looked in front of him, he was blinded by bright lights, but when he zoomed in, he found thousands of people bowing in front of him.
There wasn’t a fog anymore, their surroundings were actually very clear.
And the place in front of them was the actual kingdom, expanding so far that one couldn‘t see the end with a pure eye.
All of the buildings seemed rather odd. It weren’t just normal houses, shrines, churches and so on... It were big buildings, made out just of roofs and windows, some of them were painted in interesting and bright colors and all around the place could’ve been seen bright red lanterns with a symbol for dream(梦), which was a part of their ruler’s name.
Although Xuan was able to see only these things, other demons were able to see magic flowing all around them, keeping the demon realm a whole. This magic looked like colourful strings, bending and flowing into any direction they pleased.
This entire realm was actually built on pure magic and without any magic nor artificial lights, there would be just pure darkness, since they were surrounded by void.
Xuan got scared and backed up a bit upon seeing the crowd, but Hon stood straight and after some time he just nodded and everyone stood up as directed.
Multiple citizens started talking to each other, but most of it were just lines as:
„So our king is back! I wonder if something will change...“
„Man... I’ll miss Ethan. His way of ruling was much more interesting!“
„If you liked it so much, then move to the Heresy circle, you dumbass!“
„Oh, look! Who’s that? Did his highness bring a human pet??“
„Wow, that‘s amazing! I haven’t seen an actual living human in so long!“
„Poor thing, he’s probably not even able to see all the beauty here!“
„Oh! You’re right! I had no idea our king was such a cruel person to actually bring a living person to hell!“
„Well, he’s a king of Violence after all, isn’t he?“
„Well, obviously. We live in a kingdom of Violence, don’t we?“
„Surely we do, but, ironically, people here aren’t violent at all...“
„Well, screw that! At least we have a good reputation!“
„Yeah! Good reputation! Dream on! We became a matter of laughter because our king couldn’t keep his shit together and escaped for 50 years! Remember how the Greed‘s king laughed?“
„I’ll say it again... If you don’t like it here, then leave! And see for yourself how bad it is in other circles!“
Hon was fed up with all these screams and just wanted to turn around and go home, but then he remembered that his house is on the other side of the city.
„Hahaha cool.“ He thought.
Even his mind was rather ironic and nervous.
He expected some people to react like that when he comes back, but he didn’t expect them to tell it right into his face.
Xuan noticed that he’s nervous and that his hands were slightly trembling, but he stood still, because, if he did anything too familiar, there might be more topics for people to talk about and that wouldn’t be that great.
It would actually be very bad for Hon’s reputation and his lordship.
Suddenly, Moka came up to Hon and whispered something into his ear.
Hon sighed, looked at his people once again and then turned to leave, but he was stopped by one of many sentences:
„Your highness! Is it true that a human managed to cut off your mortal arm?! Was it this human?!“
There were many words coming from all of the people, but this one hurt the most.
He glanced into the direction where it came from, zoomed onto the exact person, but saw only a shadow running away.
He hoped that no one else heard it, because if more people found out that some human did such a thing, there might as well be a demon who would be able to do much more!
But, thankfully, after that one sentence, he couldn’t hear any more mentions of the topic.
He still wondered, how did that one certain person find out?
Was it even possible to find out if it wasn’t either Florence, Moka or Rika who told them?
But, he decided not to think about it anymore right now and appoint Rika with the matter later.
And so, they moved on and now came to the so-called „box on wheels“ which was a car.
It was a black Bentley S1, with its driving wheel surprisingly on the left side and with leather seats.
Xuan had no idea what he was just sitting in, but he thought that the seats were very comfortable.
He only thought that it’s probably some form of carriage.
The one who drove the car was Moka, Rika sat in the front seat next to her, leaving Hon and Xuan sitting together in the back.
Hon leaned his head against the black window and watched the people outside freeing the road for them.
„H-Hon, I’m sorry...“ Xuan said silently and nervously, not even looking at him at all.
„What?“ Hon asked and turned to Xuan.
„I- I heard all those comments and saw that you were getting nervous, yet, I didn’t do anything...“
„And what did you want to do? Tell them to stop? Xuan, it’s alright. Don’t apologize for something that doesn’t involve you.“
„But it involved me...“
Hon was a bit surprised, because he didn’t think that Xuan would actually listen to the crowd.
„Don’t care about it. It was just a bit uncomfortable, but I don’t care either.“
Xuan tried to ignore it, but it was really weird to hear Hon’s speech being so fluent and his voice was also a bit louder and piercing at some point.
It just didn’t feel like it was Hon at all.
Xuan felt like he sat next to a stranger right now, a really hot stranger, but he didn’t want to make any early conclusions.
He just nodded and looked out of the window. It was black, but he could still see through it, and the things he saw were some scary demons with horrifyingly pale and big bodies. Frightened, he quickly let go of the window and looked at Hon.
Xuan surely thought about him as more attractive now in his real form, but thinking about the fact that he might’ve looked just like them, he shivered.
And Hon noticed it.
„What’s wrong?“
„N-nothing...“ Xuan said and turned his head down again.
„...We’ll talk in the palace.“ Hon said and looked at Xuan closely. He was worried a bit, but then he noticed the ash on his forehead.
Of course no one made any comment about his aura! It was still covered by the ashes' magic! Same as Hon’s aura.
Because, if one wanted to cross the realms and break the seal, they must get their power in the total balance.
And if Hon wanted to bring Xuan along, he had to lend him some of his power through the ash, but he didn’t only give him some magic, this magic also covered his misfortune aura and so, the demons thought he was just a normal human.
Xuan didn’t know about this, but Hon thought that if he knew that thousands of demons thought of him as „normal“ it would make him happy.
He smiled and looked at Xuan again. Xuan was confused and had no idea why he just smiled like that, so he just listened to what he had to say.
„None of the people around us noticed your aura because of the ashen magic I used to get you here. They think you’re a normal human!“ Hon really thought that this would make him happy, but Xuan’s face turned grim.
„You... Don’t think about me as normal?“
Hon was stunned and felt his heart drop. That wasn’t what he meant by it at all! Xuan misunderstood him again and Hon felt really bad.
„No- I don’t- I mean- You are normal, but your aura-“ Hon had no idea what he just said and Xuan looked even sadder.
He thought it was kinda cute how Hon panicked, and he really didn’t care about being called „not normal“, but he just wanted to play with Hon a bit. He thought that a little teasing wouldn’t hurt.
Hon sighed. „Of course you are not normal!“
Xuan’s eyes widened and he slowly turned his head to face Hon again.
„Who, considered as „normal“, would risk their own life to save someone, cut off a demon king‘s arm, act so familiar with him afterwards, saw that demon king on his lowest, two times actually, and then went to the demon realm? And all of that in just a few days? You are much more than „normal“ Xuan, and that’s why I wanted to save you...“
Hon wasn’t even able to finish it and Xuan tightly hugged him. He was holding back his tears, because he waited for someone to say this his entire life. He never expected Hon to be the one.
Hon hugged him back and patted his head and back.
He smiled and leaned his head against the window again, since he was pressed against it by Xuan, who was actually lying on him at this point. Xuan was actually able to touch him.
Hon got a perfect chance to see how actually small and fragile Xuan’s body was compared to his demon one, and it made him want to protect him even more.
Rika and Moka just exchanged worried looks and already knew that this wouldn’t end well for either of them, but they decided to let it go for now, since seeing their king this happy and honest was really unusual.
„We’re getting closer to the palace.“ Hon said after some time and Xuan just nodded and let go of him.
He thought that Hon’s whole personality changed, but it was really only the tone of his voice.
Xuan lifted his head and looked at Hon. His face was a bit red, he wiped out the tears that eventually came out and smiled.
Hon smiled back and soon, the car stopped.
Moka was getting annoyed from the constant flirting of these two, so, when the car stopped, it wasn’t slow and elegant, but rather rushed and it nearly threw both of them into the front of the car.
Xuan had no idea how to get out, so Hon leaned above him and opened the doors for him.
In society, he acted like an actual king, but, privately, he was just Hon.
And Xuan really enjoyed seeing these two sides of one coin.
They left the car and walked up the big stairs leading right into the palace.
Hon’s palace was wide, but it had only two floors. The second floor had one big balcony around it and the roof was held by columns on every corner. Everything seemed gray or silver, but the entire building had a tint of red.
There were no observers anywhere, only Hon, Xuan, Rika and Moka.
Hon entered the palace first through a gate and made his way down the big hall, with a silver shining corridor, directly to his throne.
„Ethan left already?“ He asked and turned to Rika as he sat down.
„He left right after I came back the last time, saying that he’ll meet you at the banquet.“ Rika replied.
„So you actually planned a banquet...“
„Of course I did.“
„When is it starting?“ Hon asked after making himself comfortable on his throne and looked at her.
„In human time, tomorrow at 6pm in the Limbo banquet room.“
Hon nodded and sighed again.
He was sighing quite a lot since they entered the demon realm, but it was probably just out of stress since he didn’t have to breathe now.
Suddenly, something small fell into his lap from the chandelier above him, not leaving Hon surprised at all. The thing suddenly grew a bit bigger in size and there was a whole person, with two small brown goat horns, now lying in Hon’s lap.
At this sigh, Xuan got even redder and amazingly jealous.
„Welcome back.“ The person said, nearly in an annoyed voice and caught something that fell down right after them.
The fallen thing was a gaming console and the person started stretching out, when Hon threw them down from him without saying anything.
„Enjoyed your lil trip?“ The person asked, sounding almost ironically.
„I’m actually back now, so, if you keep on acting like this, I might just fire you.“ Hon said and kicked the person, who sat underneath his throne.
The person just grinned and made a way for Hon to stand up again. „Good to see you too.“ He said and continued on playing his game, leaning against Hon’s throne.
Hon sighed once again and ignoring the person, who just fell down from his chandelier, he stood up again and walked to Xuan. „Okay, thank you for your services today, but I’ll show Xuan his room now and then go rest in mine for a while.“
„Your highness, do you still remember the way?“ Rika asked.
„I guess. It’s been only 50 years and I spent 250 years walking around this place. It’s not something you forget that easily.“
„Then, enjoy your rest.“
Hon nodded and turned around, heading somewhere. Xuan followed him.
Right before they entered the big corridor in front of them and were far enough from the throne room, Xuan stopped and grabbed Hon by the sleeve to make him stop too.
Hon thought he wanted to ask some serious question about this realm, so he stopped and turned around. „Just wait with some serious questions until we get to your room, I can’t explain evr-“
Hon couldn’t continue because Xuan jumped into his speech: „Who was that?“ He was looking down with a sadness on his face and was still kinda red.
„That person who just fell down from the chandelier? That was Ortel, that good for nothing servant of mine I told you about. I might fire him soon, don’t worry about it.“
Hon was really annoyed with this certain little person and already regretted that he employed him 200 years ago.
Ortel was recommended to him by multiple people on one of the banquets 200 years ago and he saw that as a really good opportunity.
Ever since, this individual never acted like a servant, but rather as a cockroach. It was just one more reason for Hon to escape and never return, instead of firing him.
Hon noticed that ever since they entered, Xuan was getting more and more nervous by every step and with Ortel suddenly showing up like that, he almost seemed as if he was getting jealous.
Hon smiled, grabbed Xuan’s hand and started walking into the corridor in front of them. Xuan calmed down a bit and followed him.
They walked silently through some huge hallways that Xuan couldn’t even imagine before and he was amazed by it, completely forgetting about Ortel and his too familiar ways with Hon.
He was also amazed by paintings on the walls all around him and even stopped to look at some, letting go of Hon’s hand.
And then, he had to run to not lose Hon, who was too lost in thoughts to look back.
When Hon didn’t hear his footsteps for a while, he turned around and found Xuan observing one of the pictures on the wall.
He came to him and also looked at the painting.
It was a picture of a small pohutukawa tree, a red lake in front of it and a beautiful yellow bird landing on it.
„Do you like this painting?“ Hon asked.
Xuan nodded. „I wonder, what's this tree called?“
Hon smiled „It’s pohutukawa. The flower... or... The tree I told you about earlier.“
Xuan looked at it closely and laughed.
„You were right when you said I would like it. I really do like it. It’s just so...“
„Beautiful.“ Hon finished his sentence.
They looked at each other, both of them a bit red, and laughed.
„You can look at the pictures more closely whenever you want. Let me show you your room now.“ Hon said and Xuan nodded again. Hon seemed to be a bit rushed, even though he had literally an eternity.
They walked for a bit longer and finally arrived in front of a tall door, which were, surprisingly, easy to open.
They walked in and Hon showed Xuan around the big room, explaining what were some things for and how to use them.
The room itself was very wide. The walls were white, the bed too, the chandelier on the ceiling was quite a basic modern design that Xuan found very interesting, in front of the bed was a television, which‘s purpose Hon had to explain in detail, a bookshelf in the corner and three big wardrobes, completely covering one wall.
One of the walls was entirely made out of windows and behind the windows was a large balcony, that was connecting all the rooms on this side of the palace.
Under the television was a table with a few pens, pencils, papers and a bell.
There was also one very interesting thing that Hon showed Xuan. It were the walls. They were able to change its colour with a press of one of the colourful buttons.
Xuan was amazed by this and pressed multiple buttons, until finally finding a color he liked.
Of course he lighted it in the crimson colors and the entire room’s atmosphere changed.
With white walls, it looked very peaceful, but with crimson walls, it wasn’t ugly at all, but it felt strange.
Xuan looked around with sparkling eyes and threw himself on the soft bed.
„Well, I’ll be going now. If you need anything, just ring the bell on the table. Rika should get you anything you’ll need.“ Hon said and opened the doors, ready to leave.
„Wait! Don’t go yet...“ Xuan yelled at him. Hon turned his head and „hm?“ ed.
„I’m sorry if I acted strange today...“
„It’s okay, really. Switching realms can be difficult for one’s mind. You’ll get used to this soon.“
„It’s not that... I am just really... Confused.“ Xuan said. All this time, he didn’t even look at Hon.
„I just told you that-“
„I’m not confused about that. It’s just a new place.“
„Then, what is it?“
„Why did you take me here?“
Hon opened his mouth to say something, but he really didn’t know what to say, so he closed it again, closed the doors and walked to Xuan, who was sitting on the bed, still looking away.
Before he noticed, Hon had lain on the bed next to him, crossed his hands on his chest and closed his eyes.
„I don’t know. I feel... Happy and comfortable when I’m around you. I just wanted to have you by my side and you yourself wanted to come here with me anyways.“
Xuan finally looked at him and lay down too. He supported his head with his hand and after silently staring at Hon, he said:
„Your demon form is really... Beautiful.“
Hon didn’t reply, just smiled.
Xuan was still watching him, observing his body from the bottom to the top and, soon, he raised his hand to touch Hon’s horns.
He could’ve done so many things with resting Hon right now, but he wouldn‘t dare.
He somehow realised that the one lying next to him was the feared demon king and, after everything, he wasn’t sure if he could treat him as he did before anymore.
He actually touched one of the two big horns and ran his finger down it, closely observing it.
The horn suddenly moved and with it its entire owner.
Hon laughed: „That tickles!“
Xuan immediately let go of the horn and backed his hand. He was a bit red again, sat down and looked away.
Hon opened one eye and when he saw Xuan‘s reaction, he turned his entire body towards him and hugged his waist.
Xuan was stunned and really didn’t know what to do, so he just looked down at Hon, who was slowly crawling up and, finally, sat too and hugged him properly, leaning Xuan’s entire body against his and rested his head on Xuan’s.
„You don’t even realise it, but you’re so small and fragile...“ Hon whispered.
Xuan was surprised and, at some point, scared, but he wanted to remain like this forever.
They stayed like this, without a word, for a while, but, soon Hon started hugging Xuan with more force and Xuan felt like he was getting squeezed, started to choke and let out a silent gasp for air.
Hon immediately let go of him and stood up. He was panicking a bit and, for a moment, he forgot about his own words of how fragile Xuan’s body is.
He cleared his throat and looked at Xuan, who was still sitting on the bed, catching his breath.
„I-I’m sorry...“ Hon said, turned around and quickly left the room.
Xuan wanted to say something, but it was too late. His face was burning red and he just lay down and hugged one of the pillows.
He knew that Hon probably didn’t realise this, but the way he acted didn’t seem to be only friendly. At least for Xuan, since it made him feel even stronger feelings for him.
„I’m tired...“ Xuan thought and closed his eyes. All the thoughts flying through his head eventually fused and he was finally able to rest after everything.
He napped for a while, but couldn’t fully fall asleep. The thing that woke him up was a sound of a plate being put on a table and when he sat on the bed, he only saw the door getting closed.
Then, he looked at the table and saw a well made chicken with potatoes.
He thought that it must’ve been Hon and smiled a bit.
Hon was, obviously, worried about hurting Xuan, but what he didn’t realise was that Xuan actually didn’t mind it, if it was him.
Xuan also found it cute how he was worried about it.
He stood up and walked to the table, sat down on the floor and started eating.
While eating, he tried to not think about anything, but a thought came to his mind all of a sudden.
He’s in the demon realm now, the place where people go after they die, isn’t he? Doesn’t that mean that he can actually see his family?