Seven Devils and a Rose

Book 3: A Kingdom of Roses and Magic - Chapter 115

I met up with Aria, Leona, and Brenna along the corridor. We burst out laughing the moment we saw each other, since we happened to come out of our chambers at the same time.

Brenna rushed over to me and held my arm as she said, "Shall we pick up Lord Noah?"

I nodded, a grin on my face.

Aria said, "Then we'll see you two in the dining room."

With us nodding our heads, she and Leona went down the stairs first.

When Brenna and I popped our heads in through the door of Lord Noah's quarters a moment later, we noticed that, as predicted, the man was still consumed with his work.

"My lord?" Brenna called out.

He didn't reply. In fact, he was so focused on what he was reading that I was sure if there were an invasion of our airship, he wouldn't have noticed.

Brenna and I decided to go into the room to see if we'd get his attention that way. We didn't.

Up close, Brenna leaned across the desk that was scattered with papers and books, and said, "Lord Noah? Hello? Anyone home?"

I chuckled and called out as well. "Lord Noah, it's dinnertime."

The man finally raised his head, and his eyes zeroed in on me. And he continued to stare at me intensely.

"My lord?" I asked.

Lord Noah leaned toward me and then proceeded to sniff me. I was taken aback, wondering what he was up to. I said, "Err...Lord Noah?"

Suddenly, he grabbed my chin, his hand warm against my skin, and said darkly, "You smell too sweet for my liking. Have you been taking your medications properly?"

I blushed. I knew he was talking about the pink and purple pills. I nodded my head. "Yes."

He let go of me then and said, "Increase the dose to three tonight."

"Which one?" I asked. "The pink or the purple?"

"The purple ones."

I sighed. Now I had to take five pills every night before going to bed. How very inconvenient. Not that I minded that much, since the medicines were sweet, just like candy.

Brenna must have seen the sour expression on my face because she laughed. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and said, "Poor Alfie. But it can't be helped since you're our lords' beauty."

Sometimes I wondered what I had gotten myself into, becoming a mate to three demon lords with powerful, sinister dark qi. Because of that and our intimacy, I had to take two pink and now three purple pills a day just to prevent my body from producing this so-called qi nectar.

Lord Noah said, "Now then, dinner." He came around the desk and pulled me into his arms. "Come, little one, let's eat. I'm starving." He cocked his head to one side, his hazel eyes glinting with mischief. "Only problem is I'd prefer to eat you and not the food."

I snapped, "I'm not food, my lord."

Beside me, Brenna laughed again.

Lord Noah touched the tip of his finger under my chin and said, "You are to us demon lords, Alfie. Your pure qi is fucking enticing. And that sweet scent."

He gave out a big sigh, as if he had found something he desperately desired but couldn't obtain.

"Too fucking sweet for my liking."

I was curious as to what he was going on about and sniffed at myself. But I couldn't smell anything different.

Brenna took a little sniff of me too and then said, "You smell like you normally smell. Nothing different."

"Right?" I said.

Brenna nodded.

Lord Noah decided that he'd had enough chitchatting about me and my scent and led us out the door.

When later we entered the dining room on the second floor, Felix came over and stole me away from Lord Noah. Hence, dinner proceeded as normal, as I sat with Felix on my left and Aaron on my right. Caleb was opposite me, with Lord Ethan to his left and Leona to his right. Once again, Geoffrey was at the head of the table, with Lord Noah to his left and Aria to his right. Brenna and Lord Victor were at the other end of the table.

We were in the middle of our meal when Lord Victor asked, "How's the presentation going, Alfie? I heard you and Brenna are Noah's assistants."

"It's fine," I said. "And I'm not allowed to say any more than that because it's top secret."

Lord Noah said, "You will have to find out the details on the day. We're not spoiling anything."

Lord Ethan said, "It's not like we're desperate to know. I'm only coming to see your boring presentations because you have two beautiful assistants who'll make the talk more interesting."

Geoffrey burst out laughing, while Lord Noah waved Lord Ethan's rude comment aside. He didn't seem to care if others were interested in his research or not.

Across the table, Lord Victor drew my attention to him. "Alfie, your qi seems off today. Has Aaron been training you too hard?"

Aaron was offended. "What are you implying, Victor?"

I said, "I'm fine. The training is fine. Aaron is just teaching me how to use the sword and how to transfer my qi onto the sword properly."

That last time I had powered Aaron's curved sword with my pure qi, when the lords had gone berserk, had been beginner's luck. I hadn't been able to draw it again until Aaron had taught me the proper procedures. Maybe it was just the adrenaline at that time. That fight-or-flight mode. Although, qi manipulation was another story. I could do that just fine, even when my adrenaline wasn't running high.

Aaron said, "Alfie is an adept student. She's already mastered the basic skill that usually takes new recruits at least six months to learn."

I blushed. I didn't know I was an adept student. It was probably my strong pure qi that helped.

Looking at me, Felix said, "Then how about a mock battle to test your new skills?"

Suddenly, Leona put her hand up. "I would like to have a mock battle as well, please."

Brenna jumped in. "Me too."

Suddenly, I was excited, even though I didn't know what was involved in this mock battle. I said, "That would be awesome. But what's involved?"

Caleb said, "We have a magic door that'll lead us to a mock battlefield, and you'll fight with feral zombie dummies."

Ahh, I see. Something like that, eh? Like an online role-playing game of sorts. Only this one I got to fight for real.

"That sounds cool. I'm in," I said, chuckling.

Aria said, "I want to participate as well."

Geoffrey said, "Then we'll set up that for tomorrow morning."