{Late Evening, Garden of the Barbatos Estate}
We had been walking for at least ten minutes, and neither of us spoke a word. Both of us were just enjoying the newly built garden since neither had the time to really appreciate it until now.
She walked ahead of me, her hands swinging freely, while I followed with mine tucked behind my back.
"Lavender has always been the flower of your house, right?" she asked, taking in the soft, pleasant smell of the lavender around us.
"Lavender and purple tulips," I said, recalling childhood memories. "Apparently purple tulips were the true symbol, but Father added lavender to the garden because they were Mother's favorite."
Faustus Barbatos was a man who truly fell in love with his wife, and I liked that about him. He didn't just marry my mother for convenience. Even in an age where marriages were purely political, he married for love.
"Lord Faustus was a respected man," Serafall said, looking at the flowers that seemed to glow under the artificial moon. "Sirzechs, Ajuka, and Falbium looked up to him almost as much as they did their own fathers. Maybe more at times. They shared things with him they couldn't share at home."
Walking behind her, I finally decided to tell her something.
"Back then, when I was in the Barbatos family treasury… I found a diary written by Father."
Her steps stopped almost instantly, though she didn't look back.
"What did it say?" she asked in a softer voice.
I didn't mention that it was originally written by my great-grandfather. That wasn't necessary.
"It talked about how much he loved my mother, and what he did to win her over." It was both lovely and sad. "There wasn't much beyond that, though. A little about how much he cared for the other three Satans, and how much he respected you."
It was true. My father, Faustus Barbatos, cared about Sirzechs and the others, proud of how strong they were becoming.
He didn't seem like the jealous type, even though he never achieved what Sirzechs did—despite being centuries older.
She glanced back slightly, and I caught the faintest smile. "Your father was like that. Caring, appreciative. That's what your mother fell in love with."
My mother, Isolde Valefar. I knew so little of her. Even in the treasury, all I found were her words reassuring me that I would become stronger. Other than that, I had nothing. Even my memories were only of her kindness and care. A loving mother, yes—but I knew nothing of her life. Not even a fraction.
"I know my father taught the other three Satans, but you studied under my mother." I frowned. "Why? Sirzechs always said my father was a genius as a teacher, so why her and not him?"
It couldn't have been just because she was a woman. Serafall wasn't the type to think that way.
By the time we reached the third and final fountain, she turned around, smiling softly.
"Because your mother was the one I looked up to the most as a child," she said. "Your father was a genius, no doubt. But your mother—I wanted to be taught by her ever since I was little."
We stood facing each other, only a few feet apart, each holding emotions neither of us could put into words.
I didn't know what she felt, and she couldn't understand what I felt.
Confused, conflicted.
That's what I felt.
"Why?" I asked. "I know very little about my mother's past. Why did you look up to her?"
She crossed her hands behind her back and looked up at the fake stars. "Because she was Isolde Valefar. A woman I wished I could be like."
I stared at her, not understanding what she meant. I wasn't as good at reading people as I wanted to be.
She noticed my confusion and giggled.
"Lady Isolde—your mother. I first saw her when I was five," she said, walking closer. "And she had the same face as you. Pretty."
She looked at the fountain. "Why don't we sit, Faiser?"
The fountain was built so people could sit or even have a picnic around it. It was wide, and comfortable.
"And are those your familiar bees?" she asked, pointing up at the night sky where a few of them flew.
"They are," I said. "I'm using them for surveillance."
She nodded. "Happy with them?"
We walked to the fountain and sat close to it, on the elevated marble.
"They are amazing."
She pressed her palms against the marble and leaned back, letting the droplets of water fall on her face and hair.
"Do you know why I was both surprised and happy when you got the Bee Hivemind as your familiar?" she asked. I couldn't answer.
She inhaled sharply before speaking. "Your mother also had the same familiar—the Bee Hivemind."
Now, that was news to me. I never knew about that.
"Those bees were also the reason I met your mother when I was five," she said, looking up at the sky.
"When I was five, I was probably one of the most mischievous devils out there." I could believe that. "I would run away from home and enter other devils' territories without permission. I'd steal grapes or oranges they grew for wine and eat them without asking."
That was new to me.
"And once, while doing that, I ended up in the Valefar territory. It was much bigger back then, since the vineyards were still under the Valefar pillar," she said. "A guard saw me stealing grapes and flew at me to catch me. I tried to escape, but I was slower and had to hide."
A five-year-old, even if a devil, was still just a five-year-old.
"I hid in a dried-up well, but in the process I injured my wings," she said with an awkward laugh. "That meant I couldn't fly out, and as a five-year-old I wasn't good at teleportation circles either. I was terrible at them."
"Oh?" That meant she was trapped in the well. Pretty terrifying for a five-year-old.
"I cried a lot, hoping someone would find me. But the well was at the edge of the territory where no one really went, so there was no hope. I really thought I was going to die down there." She sighed.
Funny when you think about it. A devil who could one day erase countries was once scared of dying alone in a well.
"And that's when I saw one of them." She pointed at a bee flying above our heads. "The same black bee with no markings."
A scout.
"Your mother had them spread around the territory just like you do. One of them saw me, and through it, your mother noticed too."
The bees really were some of the best, if not the best, scouting familiars out there.
"She came right away and pulled me out of the well. Even gave me grapes while I cried, terrified of being scolded by my parents and shaken by the whole thing. But to my surprise, she didn't say a word to them. Instead, she told them I had visited because she invited me and that I had simply forgotten to tell them out of excitement."
I smiled while listening and let her go on.
"She was a sweet woman, wasn't she?" I asked.
Serafall nodded. "Sweetest. After that day, she would take me to the vineyard from time to time, and even to the little strawberry garden she had planted herself. It wasn't big, just a few square feet, but she always let me pick my own strawberries. She never scolded me even when I picked raw ones. Instead, she taught me how to find the sweetest ones and pluck them properly."
Strawberries… I wonder if Ingvild could bake something out of them?
"With time, I started visiting the Valefar mansion almost every day. That's how I met your uncles and grandparents. They were lovely people, but even among them, no one was like your mother, Lady Isolde. She was the only one who always made time for me, even when she was busy. She never got annoyed, and she taught me about magic, gardening, fruits, flowers, and so much more."
She looked down, softly kicking her feet. "In a way, she became my mentor without me even realizing it. I learned more from her than from my own parents."
That made me wonder. "Serafall… you're not much older than me in devil terms, are you? At least, not if you ignore that I was frozen in time."
She nodded. "We aren't. There's less than forty years between us, which for devils… is nothing."
Then…
"How is it that mother was at the Valefar estate and not with father?" I asked. "Weren't they married?"
That caught her off guard. "You don't know?" She seemed almost shocked, maybe even confused. "You didn't know that your parents were probably the luckiest with childbirth?"
Huh?
"Why do you think the fertility potion you brought up back then was believed by others so quickly?" she asked. "It was because your parents had you barely a few years after their marriage. Before your birth, it was almost unheard of for devils to have children so quickly."
This… this I didn't know.
But to be fair, I was a failure of a son back then.
"You were considered a miracle even then, and your growth was seen as no less. The speed at which your demonic power grew even without training—most devils were jealous." She sighed. "Which is why so many were disappointed when you said you wouldn't continue training or fight in the war."
That made me a little awkward. I was quite the shitty devil, wasn't I?
"I… am sorry," I said, squeezing the back of my neck.
Surprisingly, she didn't mind. "It's alright. You've changed, you've improved a lot. You train now, you're an Ultimate-class, and you're actively trying to rebuild everything. Your parents would be proud."
Would they be?
When I wasn't even their actual son?
The thought left a sour taste in my mouth. I was getting used to being Faiser, but at times like this, I was reminded that I wasn't really him. I wasn't even sure who exactly I was.
Was I Sevastian? Was I Faiser? Was I both? Or neither?
"Don't worry about it," she said softly, pulling her legs up and hugging them tight. "You're doing amazing."
Her head rested on her knees as she looked at me.
She was pretty. So very pretty.
"So," I asked. "Continue, please?"
She smiled and chuckled, lifting her head.
"Well, under her, I learned a lot. How to control my demonic power, how to use it creatively, and how to be more strategic as a devil," she explained. "Other than that, she also taught me music, literature, art, cooking, gardening… basically every skill you could think of. She became a major part of my life, even before I realized it."
Then her face shifted with guilt. "Which is why I'm embarrassed to admit that I was angry when you were born."
Huh?
"When you were born, I saw your mother carrying you around, loving you and caring for you. That made me jealous. I wanted to be hugged like that, loved like you were. In a way, as much as I love my mother, I wanted your mother… to be my mother too." She hesitated, almost awkward. "I didn't want to give up my mother either, call me selfish. But I wanted both. I wanted your mother to be my mother as well."
That… that's so cute…
"But as I grew, I realized your mother never showed me any less love than she showed you. That made me respect her more than I ever thought possible." She laughed softly. "She had become my mother before I even noticed. And that's when I felt so embarrassed for ever being jealous of you."
She looked at me, her expression almost childlike.
"You'll forgive me for being jealous, right?"
"I don't know," I teased. "Maybe, maybe not."
She puffed her cheek. "Meanie."
We both chuckled before I asked, "Is that why you chose to study under my mother?"
"Yes," she answered without hesitation. "While the boys trained under your father, Lord Faustus, I trained under her. The boys were impressed by how skilled your father was at fighting other devils. They looked at him with awe, as an inspiration. I looked at your mother the same way. She was my inspiration. That's why we all trained under your parents."
"So, what happened afterwards?"
I didn't realize how casually I asked it until I saw her face. And then I understood—I had hurt her with that question.
"We… we failed them," she said, lowering her legs again and staring at the ground, her voice heavy with guilt and pain. "During the war… I failed your mother."
I stayed quiet.
"We were fighting the major devils of the Old Satan Faction—Rizevim, Katerea, and the others. But because we were tied up with them, our other devils were suffering. We couldn't guide them, couldn't lead, because we were stuck fighting. That caused a lot of deaths on our side." She swallowed. "And that's… that's when your parents stepped in."
Her fingers clenched against her skirt. "They told us to handle the rest while they held back Rizevim and the others."
That… they weren't strong enough for that.
"We… we had begun to idolize your parents so much that we forgot they had limits too. They weren't omnipotent, all-powerful. Against Rizevim and the rest, they couldn't win." Her breathing was unsteady. "We still did what they asked and ran away, going to command the rest of the legions."
She bit her lip, eyes trembling. "And that's when we heard the news…"
I knew what was coming, and it hurt more than I wanted to admit.
"We heard… we heard that your parents had fallen against Rizevim," she said, her power leaking out slightly. "We should have known your father was already exhausted from fighting so many enemies earlier, and your mother was busy saving the injured devils. They weren't in their best condition. We should have never left."
She looked at me with dewy eyes. "And we failed them not once, but twice. We couldn't protect you either, something they asked of us at the very start of the war. The only condition they joined under was your safety, and we failed at that too."
She was on the verge of tears, and still, being a Devil King—a Satan—she held herself back.
"We thought we lost you too. We failed your parents twice and couldn't even keep our word," she said. "We were failures. I was a failure."
She paused, then spoke again, her voice softer. "That's why… that's why when I saw you again, I couldn't help but feel both happy and sad. Happy that at least Lady Isolde's blood survived, and sad that you had to suffer for over half a millennium because of my failure."
I got up from my seat and walked toward her. "You did your best, Serafall. You did what you could. You're still doing everything you can—and maybe even too much now." I gave her a comforting smile. "But I know my parents don't blame you. They'd be glad you're helping me find a footing in this changed devil society. I'm grateful to you."
She kept her head down as I stood a few inches away from her.
"So please, don't beat yourself up for the past. You did what you had to do. If you hadn't, thousands of devils would have died. That's something my parents would have been disappointed about. So please… don't cry." I knelt down slightly. "Please?"
A Satan, one of the strongest in the underworld, was crying by my fountain. And it was affecting me, making me sad too.
For reasons I couldn't fully explain. I knew what I felt, but it wasn't something I could say out loud.
She lifted her head and stared into my eyes. "Really?"
"Yes," I said. "I believe they're proud of you."
Our eyes stayed locked. She didn't move an inch.
For a solid minute and a half, we just stood there—until she suddenly wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her body against mine and hugging me tightly.
"Thank you…" she said—no, she sobbed. "Thank you, Faiser. Thank you for staying alive, thank you for keeping a part of Lady Isolde alive. And… and thank you for growing up kind."
At that point, I couldn't hold back either. My arms wrapped around her, hugging her just as tightly.
"And thank you, Sera…" I didn't even bother with the fall. "For everything. For making sure I didn't lose the Valefar name."
Her arms tightened around me. "Sera…" she repeated softly. "That's what your mother used to call me."
"I… didn't know that. Sorry."
"No." She pressed her face into my shoulder. "Please call me Sera." I felt her tears soaking into my clothes. "I'd love that."
Without realizing it, I had gotten close to a Satan.
Maybe closer than what was socially acceptable.
"Then… Thank you, Sera."
Fuck society.
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{A/N: Got a pat reon named RedLamp01 with 30+ chapters. }