Yaika’s eyes were way too wide and way too fixated on me. “You want to look at mom’s stuff?” she asked.

“I mean…” I paused. “Yeah?”

Was she... mad? I hadn’t seen her angry yet, but it kind of seemed like it was just a matter of time. Someone who had to deal with the king and Minzfel on a daily basis and remained this calm had to be fucking timebomb. I had only known them for a few days and I was already going to need anger counseling.

Hadria tapped her on the shoulder. “My dad told him about the notebook your mom used to write in. You know, the one with all the weird scribbles in it. I guess Ryley likes scribbles. He said he can read them. Heh.” She blew a puff of air out of her nose. “Isn’t that weird?”

“Heh.” Yaika laughed through her nose in the exact same way, but caused herself to break out into a string of tiny coughs. When she finally caught her breath, she looked back up to Hadria and nodded. “Ryley is so weird.”

Yeah. Me. I was weird.

Okay.

Sure.

I wondered if there was some kind of insane asylum here where they locked up level headed, normal thinking demons. Yeah, no way. They were cheap as fuck. If they were confused about prisons, there was no way they would have something like that. Come to think of it, did they even have hospitals? Seriously, how did this society not just fall apart?

Oh god, I was going to fall down an endless rabbit hole of stupidity if I didn’t stop myself.

I sighed. “So can I look at the notebook or what?”

“Look at it?” Yaika echoed. Was this really that complicated of an issue?

“Just for a minute. I’ll give it back when I’m finished with it.”

“Oh wow,” Yaika said. “You found it? You really are a law expert.”

“...What?” I narrowed my eyes. “What does me being a law expert have to do with this?” I was totally a law expert, by the way. A totally real one.

“Because you found my mom’s notebooks.” Yaika clapped her hands. “No wonder my aunt wants to meet you.”

“His Majesty’s sister?” Violetta looked up at me, her mouth wide open. “What an honor!”

“Slow down a second.” I felt a cold sweat forming on my back. “I haven’t found anything. I came here because I thought you’d have it.”

Yaika tilted her horned head. “Why would you think that?” Yeah. I wasn’t even going to acknowledge that.

“I take it... you don’t know where it is then.”

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“Nope.”

My stomach dropped. “No idea at all?”

“Nope.”

“Do you have any idea what she wrote about?”

“Not really.”

“Did she, uh, did she have other notebooks?”

“I don’t know.”

Great. Just great.

“There has to be something…” I felt the words fall out of my mouth. “Isn’t there anything else of hers sitting around?”

“I think it probably got lost in the fire,” Yaika said. “A lot of stuff did.” Fire? What, did Lyili melt someone?

“Was that here at the castle?” I asked.

“No.” Yaika’s eyes slowly drifted to the floor. “It was at a resort up in the mountains. That was... the day mom died.”

An immediate silence set in. Hadria put her arm around Yaika and just stood there.

Violetta lifted up her arms slightly, apparently very conflicted if hugging the princess would be appropriate. “I-I’m very sorry for your l-l-loss…”

Well… this was a downer.

Conversations between demons tended to end with me annoyed out of my mind or with them sad about the queen. Jeez. How could being alone in a room with three cute girls suck so much? Two of them hardly even had clothes on. This should have been sexy as fuck.

“Wait a minute…” I said. “What was that about the king’s sister wanting to meet me?”

“Ryley!” Violetta whispered as loudly as she could, slapping me on the arm. Too soon to bring it back on topic?

“Oh yeah, she totally does.” Yaika perked back up. Well, as much as someone with dead eyes accented by the darkest bags of all time could perk up anyway. “We’re going to go to a dinner tonight. You can meet her there.”

“This is so exciting!” Violetta yelled.

“Wait, we’re going to a dinner tonight?” I asked. If I hadn’t come here, how would I have even known that?

“Who else would be going to dinner? My father’s too busy to go, so we have to go in his place.” Yaika coughed without opening her mouth, her little smile staying perfectly in place. “Jeez Ryley, you’re so weird.”

Hadria and Yaika exchanged a high five. I guess I just got roasted.

In any case, this actually wasn’t that bad. In fact, it could be the perfect situation to find out something else about the queen.

“Was your aunt close with your mom?” I asked.

“Are you going to ship them?” Hadria jumped forward, looking up at me with her square eyepatch. “Her husband’s sister. A forbidden love filled with guilt and passion. And sex.” She spun around on her heels. “I should have the guys back home write that shit.”

“I remember they used to talk a lot,” Yaika said, still smiling. “She might know something.”

Seriously? No reaction to what Hadria just said? Talking about the notebook brought the whole room down, but a fanfiction describing an affair between her mom and aunt? Yeah, no problem. Business as usual.

Speaking of which, I would have to ask Hadria for a copy of that after it was written. To see if I could learn something new about the queen, of course.

Definitely not for the sex.

“Is the dinner at your aunt’s house, Princess?” Violetta asked. “I’ll have to change into something nice!”

“No, it’s at the Lich’s house.” The what’s house now?

“Oh my gosh!” Violetta gasped so intensely I thought she might pull something. “The Lich? As in… the Lich!?”

Yaika looked totally unaffected. “Yeah.”

“Is ‘the Lich’ a big deal or something?” I asked.

“Of course he is!” Violetta was practically foaming at the mouth. “He almost never makes public appearances, you know. This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

“...Cool.”

“Well if you’re going to change clothes, you should probably hurry up,” Yaika continued. “The boat’s leaving soon.”

“Boat?”

“How else would we get to his island?” Yaika put an open palm to her side . “Jeez Ryley, you’re so weird.”

Hadria slapped Yaika’s hand. “Hell yeah.” I was right. These two in the same room was a mistake.

“Come on, Ryley.” Violetta clenched her fists. “We have to get home so I can grab a dress. And a swimsuit.”

“Ooo, good idea,” Hadria said. “I have a bikini that looks exactly like underwear. You can’t even tell the difference.”

Swimsuits? Was this seriously about to get sexy? Maybe an island wasn’t so bad afterall.

“Okay.” Yaika started a slow advance to the door. “I’d better go tell Minzfel to get ready too.”

No…

Please no.