Chapter VII

03/01/41

I have just finished speaking to the two members of Hanko that were sent: Akuma and Sao. When I first saw them, hitchhiking one of our wagons, I thought them as bandits and was originally going to have them arrested. It was only when I heard the boy say the man's name that I realised why they had come.

Akuma, a sprightly boy, the first thing he did was look at my paintings. I had them commissioned not long after my Father had passed away. They are of me, before I knew of my future and my fate.

I was that bruised boy, beaten by the expectations my court had placed on me; I was that man, succumbing to the pressure; the final painting was of me, holding my younger self in my arms, thinking I was all I had at the time. Wrong I was to an extent. Antoinette and Rose would prove those paintings wrong until Antoinette passed, and Rose grew mature.

Never would I expect a boy, around Rose's age, enthralled by such bleak artwork. Rose wasn't, asking me to take down the paintings on many occasions because they were to morbid for such a happy family. The boy, Akuma, he was a human; a curious one; but it was Sao who interested me most. Being human myself, I can understand a human's want to help their kind; Sao is not human, he is a demon; a kind demon. When he walked over to speak with me, I felt tremors in my limbs. I had never seen, let alone spoken with a demon. During my religious practice when I was young, I imagined demons to bare horns and coal textured skin, fire spurting out from their creases. Sao was nothing of the sort. He looked as human as I.

Demons look like humans. Was it a disguise? I don't think so, but if it was, anyone could have been a demon. Plutus is their usual living quarters – what a dreadful place to live – but it would not be unnatural for them to travel to different lands, blending in with the community, leaving us none the wiser.

I thought it best to examine Sao without Akuma. I do not know how long they have known each other. Sao is older than Akuma, by a decade at least; residing in the generation between Rose and I, unless demons age slower than us and he has accumulated far more wisdom than I could after ten lifetimes. I sent Akuma to fuel his curiosity, I admired his adventurous nature.

Speaking with Sao made the secrets of the demons no clearer; he spoke to respectfully to me. I detailed my plan to send Rose off to some distant ball to get married while I stayed behind to allow Fajr to kill me as payment for my injustice to Marcus. The rebellion to me was a chance for me to atone for my sins, to allow Rose to live a life separated from my misdeeds. Sao allowed me to finish before he so much as spoke in agreement with a, 'I understand' or, 'okay'. He sat, and he listened. Once I had finished, he simply asked, 'are you sure?' I responded yes, then he nodded and left.

A strange demon indeed. I told him my plan, and my eyes may have deceived me, but I swear I saw a tear trickle down his cheek; just one, but enough to trick me into thinking a demon could understand human emotions.

Rose came to speak with me once Akuma and Sao had left. Apparently, she too had an encounter with Akuma during his investigation of the palace. She came to me with waterfalls falling from her eyes. Fatherly instinct told me to kill the adolescent; she must have suspected my rage as she clung to me, begging me to listen. Of course, I would listen to my only child, so I tempered myself and we sat together, on the bottom of the stairs. What broke her heart was her own tone. For the first time her anger released itself and she petrified herself, staring out the window as the door closed.

I consoled her as well as I could. She had only now discovered the hatred I had harboured for so long. It has taken me my entire life to tame my emotions; she has a long way to go, no matter how wise she may be.

With the tears halted, I decided to tell Rose my plans for her. At the start of the word, 'ball' her anger forced its way back out. I understand why she was so terrified of it now. Not since I was just an heir has anyone spoken to me so directly. Its directness warmed me. I felt human. Over my years of kingship, I felt myself drifting further away from humanity; I became a part of a different class, my attachment to my family ripped apart.

While her resentment towards me was expected, her opinion had no say in the matter. She had to leave, no matter how much it pained me to cause pain to her. I have pained my child, now I will die as planned. Now all I can do is wait for everything to fall into place.