She Belongs To The Devil

There was a large bed and a few cushions on the carpet. As she was not going to have any dinner right now, she did not want to sit down on the cushion. But she did not want to head for the bed straight away and give the wrong impression either.

"Do you… need something Princess?" The maid asked Adeline seeing her standing by the door very awkwardly.

Adeline did not want to give out orders to someone else\'s maid so she just smiled and shook her head. Then she walked towards one of the cushions laid down on the carpet and settled down.

The maid kept on standing by the door and was avoiding any eye contact with the Princess. She was treating Adeline like she would treat the Devil Prince. It was apparent that the human maids were still scared of Theodore even though Theodore had given them a second life and let them stay inside the cave while serving him.

Adeline felt bad seeing the maid scared of her. So she decided to have a little chat with the maid and make her feel less scared of her. "Why don\'t you come and sit by my side? We can talk until Theodore returns back."

The maid reluctantly walked over to Adeline\'s side and stood there.

Adeline patted on the cushion by her side and said, "Sit down. You don\'t have to be scared of me."

The maid gave a quick glance at Adeline and smiled, "I am not scared, Your Highness."

"Then why aren\'t you sitting down?" Adeline asked in a polite voice.

"How can a mere maid like me sit beside a Princess? I wouldn\'t dare." The maid kept on staring down at the floor and replied to the Princess.

But Adeline insisted, or rather threatened politely, "Didn\'t Theodore ask you to do anything for me? I want you to sit down by my side and talk to me."

The maid immediately sat down and asked, "What would you like to talk about Princess?"

Adeline hummed and then spoke after a while, "Why don\'t you start by introducing yourself? I want to know more about you."

The maid had a surprised look on her face. Someone who was of such a high status just told her that she wanted to know more about her. And the maid felt something warm in her heart. She smiled enthusiastically and introduced herself, "My name is Peggy. I have been living here for almost 25 years."

"Peggy," Adeline repeated the maid\'s name and then nodded her head. "So how did you end up here Peggy?" Adeline was trying to break the ice with the maid in order to make her feel comfortable around her.

The maid started playing with the rim of her cloth. She was finding it difficult to answer this question because it had been a long time since someone had asked her about how she ended up being a maid of the Devil.

After a while, she finally spoke in a soft voice, "I don\'t remember much because I was very young when I came here. I just know that my parents left me in front of the cave. They might have thought that a child-eating monster lived here. So they left me here to be devoured by that same monster."

Peggy stole a quick glance of the Princess and smiled, "But lucky for me, our master was generous enough to take me in." She paused for a while and narrowed her eyes. Then she said in a grim voice, "Now, that I think about it, my parents were the real monsters."

Adeline furrowed her brows because she had also been in a similar situation to that maid. The difference was that she was not dropped outside the cave by her own parents. And she was returned back to the Palace by Theodore.

"Is it even possible for parents to abandon their child like that? Didn\'t Theodore take you back to your parents and tried to persuade them to keep you?" Adeline asked with curiosity. Her father loved her very dearly and she could not even imagine how any parents could abandon their child just like that.

The maid shook her head and replied, "What was the point in taking me back to my parents when they did not even want me? They wouldn\'t have left me here in the first place if they really loved me. Maybe they would have tossed me over to some another place even if our master had returned me. So I am glad that master did not take me back."

"After you grew up, didn\'t you go to visit your parents... maybe to confront them? Don\'t you ever feel like visiting your parents?" Adeline was asking question after question to the maid.

"No, they left me to die here so why would I go back to them? I am happy here. I will serve under our master until I die." Peggy replied without showing any sorrow or regret. She truly was grateful towards Theodore.

After hearing the maid\'s story, Adeline wondered what would have happened to her if Theodore had not returned her back to her own Palace. "Would he also have turned me into a maid? Would he still have the same affection towards me if I was his maid?" Adeline was lost in her own thoughts for a good while.

"Princess, are you alright?" Peggy asked in a concerned voice after seeing the Princess staring blankly at the wall for quite some time.

Adeline was brought back to reality by Peggy\'s question. She smiled and then asked another question again, "May I ask why all of you are so afraid of Theodore?"

Adeline wanted to know why the maids acted so stiff around Theodore. She had also seen them before while they brought food to her. And they were very cautious at that time as well.

That made Adeline wonder if Theodore was truly scary to the others. Adeline thought to herself, "Maybe he lashes out at them or scolds them? Or maybe he even abuses them?"

Adeline shook off that thought by flicking herself on the lap and thought, "Why would you even think such degrading things about Theo? What\'s wrong with you Adeline?" And she directed her focus towards Peggy.

Peggy was giving a \'Isn\'t it obvious?\' kind of look to Adeline. And then she even considered the possibility that maybe Adeline did not know that Theodore was a Devil Prince, the one who was feared by all three realms. Because, well, he is the Devil...

But Peggy dismissed that thought since Adeline had already seen the mystical creatures who resided in the cave. No sane person who did not know the identity of Theodore would have been able to withstand such creatures\' sight as most people are not accustomed to seeing them. Most thought of them to be just tales and myths. 

The maid then softly answered the Princess, "Master does not like undisciplined behavior from any one of us. He can get angry very easily. We are not afraid of our master but we are cautious when we are around him. Nobody wants to make their master angry." Peggy gave an honest answer and then smiled at the Princess.

Peggy didn\'t mention the parts like how Theodore would constantly give them the threat of beheading them when they would happen to mistakenly touch him. Being touched by others without his permission was Theodore\'s biggest pet peeve.

Adeline thought that the maids were just trying not to make Theodore angry. So she was somewhat relieved that Theodore was not being mean to them.

Peggy was beginning to feel somewhat comfortable around the Princess.. She was very friendly to her even though she was from a higher class, even though she was a Princess.