CH 1.1

The Bet (1)

Demon Realm.

The sky here was always dim. Roaring phoenizes flew by in the distance, leaving behind ripples of death. In the middle of the endless plain, a tall and ghastly castle stood abruptly, and within ten miles of it, no creatures of the demon realm with intelligent life could be seen.　　

This was the castle of Rothgarr, Grand Lord Hubilis, one of the five Great Lords of The Abyss in the demon realm. No one dared to approach it. 　　

Suddenly, the silence was broken. A teleportation portal glowing with purple light spread out over the castle, and two embracing figures appeared from the teleportation portal.　　

Just with the appearance of the man and woman, dozens of black flames rushed out like arrows, with enough momentum to penetrate the intruders.

The shoulders of the double-horned man moved slightly, and the thin wings behind him suddenly embraced the two of them. Black flames rushed onto the thin layer of flesh, but were all bounced away and dissipated.

“Hey, Roth, is this how you welcome me?” The man spread his thin wings and exclaimed in dissatisfaction.　

In the castle, a tall figure flew out with large, fleshy wings. He had long black hair fluttering in the wind, with black curved horns on top of his head. Beneath the horns, his face was handsome and evil, pale and cold, and his slender eyes narrowed in displeasure. When he spoke, his ruby red eyes were full of sarcasm, the corners of his mouth lifted, and his white teeth were revealed: “Balan, when did I welcome you?”

“Aiya, we’ve been friends for over thousands of years already, why must you lie to yourself like that?” Balan didn’t mind Rothgarr’s attitude, and said with a smile, “I’m getting married, and personally came to give you an invitation!”　

With a flick of his hand, an exquisitely crafted invitation card fell into Rothgarr’s hands.　　

Rothgarr held the invitation card with two fingers in his right hand, and his eyes fell on the woman Balan was hugging.

With a single look, he already knew she was a human.

The human woman had rich golden long hair, with delicate and beautiful features, but her expression was like a timid elk in the woods. She was currently hugging Balan’s waist shyly, as if she was afraid of falling down.

Rothgarr was a demon. In fact, the five Great Lords of The Abyss were all demons who climbed up from The Abyss. And demons were natural ethicists who couldn’t stand other ethnicities, especially frail humans. In their eyes, humans were dirty, incompetent and hypocritical.　　

Everytime Rothgarr and Balan met up, they would ridicule the humans. But for thousands of years, he regarded Balan as a friend. At this moment, when he heard that Balan was getting married, and that the party in question was a human girl, he thought his friend was joking: “Are you crazy? Even touching a human woman sounds dirty, and you want to marry her?”

“Hey, don’t say that kind of thing in front of my fiancée. Catherine is different, she is a pure and beautiful unicorn*, and I have fallen in love with her.” Balan first stopped Rothgarr, then looked down at his future wife, lifted her chin, and kissed her tenderly.

[*The unicorn represents nobility, haughtiness, and purity. Unicorns describe people who are afraid to socialize and stay away from the world.]

Catherine blushed and put her arms around Balan’s neck, with an enchanted expression on her face.

Rothgarr frowned fiercely. He wanted these two eyesores to scram. 　　

After taking into account the mood of his friend, Balan quickly ended the kiss, looked at Rotgar in a very good mood, and smiled: “Roth, I was only addicted to the stimulation of the senses, and thought it was the best in the realm. It’s only now that I found out that the taste of love is the sweetest. Don’t you always stay hidden away in your castle? Wouldn’t it be great to go and experience the beauty of love?”　　

Rothgarr snorted: “Love? Your love is such a hypocritical and lowly creature like humans? Balan, you dishonor us demons. The way I see it, you’ll be destroyed in the hands of human women sooner or later.”　　

“Don’t speak so negatively, Roth.” Balan said, dissatisfied. “There are some hypocrites and annoying humans, but there are also lambs like Catherine.”

As he said this, he lowered his head and smiled softly at Catherine.　　

The blush on Catherine’s petite face has not disappeared, and Balan’s handsome face was reflected in her turquoise eyes.

Rothgarr couldn’t stand it anymore, he turned aside his eyes in disgust, and said indifferently: “It’s up to you, as for your wedding, I won’t be attending.”

A black flame ignited in his hand, and the invitation was instantly burnt to ashes.　　

Before Rothgarr flew back to the castle, Balan said, “Roth, let’s make a bet.”　　

Rothgarr halted and looked at Balan, his blood-red eyes holding some interest: “What bet?”

Balan said: “You look down on human women and think they are all narcissistic, don’t you? You still have half a year until the wedding. As long as you can get a hundred human women to agree to your marriage proposal within half a year, then you win. But if you can’t do it, you have to come to my wedding.”

“If I win, will you kill your lover?” Rotgar sneered. Although he thought this bet was ridiculous, he was indeed provoked by the competition.　　

Catherine shuddered when she heard Rothgarr’s words.

Balan quickly hugged her to soothe her, and stared at Rothgarr before saying: “If you win, I will give you the tree seed of The Abyss that I just got some time ago.”　　

Rothgarr’s expression changed. If his interest was only piqued by Balan’s words before, then right now, he was fully determined to win.

He had searched for the tree seed of The Abyss for thousands of years, and he had only found two of them so far. As for Balan’s seed, he was determined to own it!

“Deal,” Rothgarr raised his eyes and the corner of his mouth, “In these six months, you can just keep the seed safe for me.”

Seeing that Rothgarr agreed, Balan didn’t care that he spoke as if the tree seed of The Abyss was already his. Balan added maliciously: “But you can’t force them to agree to your marriage proposal, and you can’t bring them to the demon realm as captives. You have to be in the human realm and use your personal charm to conquer their hearts!”

“Mere human women, there is no need for me to force them.” Rotgar agreed indifferently.

“Then I’ll be waiting for your good news!” Balan smiled and expanded the teleportation portal. He gave Rothgar a meaningful look, and happily teleported away with Catherine.　　

Catherine waited for the light of the teleportation portal to disappear before whispering to Balan, “What if he wins?”

Her voice was soft and gentle like silk sliding across skin, and Balan’s heartstrings trembled slightly. This was the reason why he forbade her to speak in front of others. Only he can hear such a voice.

Balan hugged her and impatiently flew back to their bedroom, and said indifferently: “He’ll lose for sure. With that lousy mouth, he can’t even give a word of compliment, which woman would willingly marry him?”

“But…”

“Shhh, stop talking about him, I’ll get jealous. Call my name, baby.”

“…Ba—Balan…”　　

On the other side, Rothgarr returned to his castle, put away his thin wings, walked through the deserted corridor and came to the base of the castle.

Rothgarr knew very well the reason that Balan had used the tree seed of The Abyss as a bett. One was because Balan didn’t care about the tree seed of The Abyss as much as he did, and the other was because Balan thought he would lose.

As an old friend for thousands of years, Balan has said more than once that even if he really fell in love with a random woman, he wouldn’t be able to win her heart because he wasn’t able to say sweet words. It would take only his mouth to make a woman who loved him go from love to hate.

But even Balan, who was his good friend, didn’t know that his power of “Possession” allowed him to have access to the memory of the one that he possessed. 　

Every Great Lord of The Abyss had a special power, which was a gift from The Abyss to them when they climbed out.