How I Helped My Demon Princess Conquer Hell

Conrad

Conrad stared at the commoner. He didn’t bother to hide the disdain he felt for the man. This commoner had been obvious since the very first moment Conrad came out here to take what was rightfully his. Andrea had been all but promised to him from the day he was born.

Okay, maybe not promised to him from the day he was born, but she had all but been promised to his father from the day they’d both been born.

Her father obviously wanted to climb in the world just a little, or at the very least he wanted his grandchildren to climb in the world. And now he came to this.

The commoner had always been there, sniffing around Andrea. It was painfully obvious exactly what he wanted from her, and Conrad had always tried to make it abundantly clear what his place was.

And now here he was with a demon. It was too delicious.

The commoner was staring at him with an unreadable expression. One hand was still on Conrad’s shoulder. The other was down at that black sword. It couldn’t possibly be a felblade. He didn’t know anything the commoner had done to earn something like that. But it was still a sword, and he had to be careful. There was something about him. Something dangerous. Something that seemed off today.

His eyes darted to the shattered remains of his sword. That couldn’t be a felblade. Clearly the blacksmith his father commissioned to make that sword had used poor materials and cheated them. He would have words with his father about that and see that the maker faced consequences.

The commoner didn’t have an Ascension. He didn’t do that himself. There had to be another explanation.

He tried to pull away from the commoner. He opened his mana pathways and allowed the mana to flow out from his core. That should be…

Pain flared in his shoulder. The commoner cocked his head to the side as he stared at him. Impossible. He wasn’t that strong. Couldn’t be that strong. Something was wrong here.

He thought he heard voices. A smile came to his face that didn’t show the panic welling up inside him.

“What are you talking about, Conrad?” Andrea asked.

He tried pulling away again. Pain flared again. He told himself he wasn’t retreating. He was simply moving back to safety. Moving back to where the Inquisition would be able to take care of everything that needed taking care of here. They could solve his commoner problem for him.

“Conrad, what in the hells are you talking about?” Andrea asked, and her voice got a little louder.

“You would dare take this one’s side against me?” he said, his smile turning to a sneer. “He’s a commoner. How dare you side with him!”

“He’s been my friend since we were born. He was like a brother.”

“Like a brother,” Conrad said, looking over his shoulder to the door. He was so close. “I’ve heard that’s how you treat your relatives in some of these outlying areas, but I never thought I would see that kind of behavior from someone with your noble blood running through your veins. Even if it is noble blood that’s one step above a commoner’s.”

Her eyes went wide and she took a step forward. Only the commoner’s sword hand was there to stop her before she could do anything precipitous. She glared at him, her eyes narrowing.

“You dare,” she said.

“Oh, please,” the demoness said, holding up hands with dangerous claws. “I don’t know why all of you are treating this one so gently. We need to kill him now.”

“You dare address me,” he said. Maybe he couldn’t make it out the door, but that was okay. All he had to do was keep them occupied long enough for the Inquisition to come in here. They’d no doubt sensed the demoness.

Though he wondered what was taking them so long.

“You dare address me?” the demoness said, and her eyes flared. They filled with a glowing yellow power. It was a power that made him take a stumbling step back, but that merely ended with him losing his balance and falling to the floor. Pain flared again, and he thought he heard something snap in his shoulder since the commoner didn’t budge at all.

“Damnation!” he growled, glaring up at the commoner.

“Tell us what you meant,” the commoner said.

“You’re dead,” he said, a laugh breaking free. “You’re all dead, and you just don’t know it yet!”

He heard voices outside. This time he was sure of it. The commoner heard it too. His head shot up, though there was none of the worry there that Conrad had hoped for. No, he looked considering. Like he thought he could actually take on the Inquisition and win.

Madness.

He also finally let go of Conrad, which sent him tumbling to the floor. The wind was knocked out of him for a moment, but only a moment. He stared up at the commoner, then he turned around and tried to scramble out of the cottage.

Highly irregular, that, the baron allowing the help to have a cottage like this on his land. Conrad was going to have to have a conversation with his father about how the estate was being managed out here, because it was clear the baron was losing his touch. Or maybe he never had his touch to begin with.

Pain flared again as he pulled himself out into the light, though nobody followed him. He turned back to look in, but it was a gaping black maw with two glowing eyes in there now as his eyes adjusted to the bright light outside.

He felt at his side, more out of instinct than anything, and again he felt a chill run through him.

Right. He’d tried to use his sword against the commoner, and the commoner had smashed it. He was going to pay for that. The thought ran through Conrad’s head even before he could think about how ridiculous it was, how dangerous it was, that a commoner was able to shatter his sword.

“You dare address me?” two glowing yellow eyes said from inside the cottage. “I am a High Princess of the…”

She cut off. Her voice suddenly sounded muffled. Like somebody had covered her mouth with their hand. He heard the sounds of a struggle from inside.

Then finally there was that voice again.

“You will unhand me,” she said. “How dare you put your hands on me? I don’t care if you did save my life.”

He could only stare and wonder at what was happening there, and he could only stare and grin as what she said finally hit him.

She was a High Princess. She hadn’t finished to say she was a High Princess of the Demon Realms, but he’d heard enough about how their hierarchy worked that he knew exactly what she’d been about to say. He couldn’t believe his luck.

Being part of the capture of a High Princess of the Demon Realms would be enough to allow him to move at least a couple of steps up the nobility ladder. Maybe even more than that.

He would be far more than his father ever was. He wouldn’t have to marry the daughter of a common country squire living at the border of demon lands. He might even be able to resettle in the capital city where everything of consequence happened.

All those thoughts filled him as he turned to see the three inquisitors making their way to the cottage. Making their way at an entirely too leisurely pace in his opinion. Not that any of the Inquisitors had asked.

“I’m telling you, I can feel something in here,” the one in the front said. He kept sticking his nose up and sniffing at the air, and his nose and face would wrinkle after. As though he smelled something that was decidedly unpleasant.

Conrad turned to stare at them. The other two had swords at their sides and long beards. One of them was red. The one doing the sniffing was dark, with streaks of white going through it, and the other one had a close-cropped white beard.

All of them looked old, but it was a feeling where they had a sense of gravitas and authority about them. Not necessarily that they were actually old. Though he thought he could see wrinkles on some of their faces. But they were all at least Second Ascension by his estimation. Maybe even higher.

The one with the red beard, oddly enough, seemed to be a much higher Ascension than the rest. He had trouble even getting a feel for it when he felt his essence, though, of course, he hadn’t been stupid enough to actually try to brush that essence. That was as good as an appointment with the interrogators when you were dealing with the Inquisition, and that was something he desperately wanted to avoid.

One of them turned to look at him. He glanced at the cottage and then over to them, and he tried to make a subtle motion with his good hand to let them know they weren’t moving nearly as fast as they should be. The one with the streaks in his beard frowned, still sniffing at the air.

Conrad turned to the cottage and saw those yellow eyes moving towards him. They looked like death incarnate, and he thought of every story he’d ever heard of demons on the battlefield jumping on someone and ripping them to pieces.

He also thought of some of the stories he’d heard of a demoness on the battlefield taking out men in very interesting ways. The thought of that particular demoness trying to do away with him like that was definitely intriguing. He could almost understand the commoner betraying his people for her.

She was a pretty one, that was for sure, but he still didn’t want to die. Not when he was so close to achieving so much more than his father ever had.

Those eyes got closer. The one who was wrinkling his nose as he moved toward them seemed to be sniffing more and more, and every time he was looking more and more upset.

“Would you get over here already?” he finally growled, which had all three of them looking at him and narrowing their eyes. He pointed at the cottage. “There’s a demoness in there!”

A lot of things started to happen at once. Those yellow eyes leapt at him, but they seemed to come to a halt. As though she’d been running for him, but then something had grabbed her and stopped her. Though he couldn’t imagine what would be capable of stopping a High Princess of the Demon Realms if she wanted to come for him and kill him.

Maybe she wasn’t actually a High Princess at all. Maybe she was putting on airs. Maybe he wasn’t going to get the reward he hoped for, and he was going to go to the interrogators for his impertinence yelling at the Inquisition after all.

But then the commoner appeared outside the cottage. He turned to the inquisitors, and his eyes narrowed. They stopped and looked in confusion between Conrad and the commoner.

“This isn’t a demon, boy,” the red beard said, and Conrad’s sarcastic rejoinder that of course he knew the commoner wasn’t a demon died on his lips. The man was an inquisitor, after all. It was never good to cross an inquisitor.

“There is a demoness in there, I’m telling you,” he said.

And then all their eyes went wide as the demoness stepped out. The commoner turned to stare at her.

“I told you not to come out here.”

“A demoness!” one of the inquisitors shouted, and then they ran toward her.

Conrad grinned as Andrea appeared in the doorway glaring daggers at him. She could glare at him all she wanted. That didn’t change the fact that she was consorting with demons, or at least she was consorting with those who consorted with demons. He was definitely out of the marriage and the ridiculous need to linger in this small barony.

He turned to watch the show. The Inquisitors would be slicing and dicing the commoner, and he was going to enjoy watching his death.

The commoner brought his felblade out and up. That had them hesitating for a moment, but only for a moment, and then they were bringing their own blades out. Theirs were as black as the felblade in the commoner’s hands. The commoner was really going to get it now. Carrying around a false felblade was a crime

One of the Inquisitors brought his sword down, obviously intending to relieve the commoner of his head.

Only the commoner brought his own sword up and around and slammed it into the Inquisitor’s, and his sword went flying out of his hand. The next one stepped up and tried to stab at him, but the commoner dodged out of the way as though it was nothing. Conrad could only stare, wondering what was going on here. Wondering how the commoner was able to handle them so easily.

But finally, the third Inquisitor, the one whose Ascension he couldn’t even begin to fathom, came up to the commoner. He didn’t bother with any of the pleasantries with his sword. No, he merely pulled his fist back and tried to punch the commoner right in the face. A moment Conrad was going to enjoy greatly.

Only again, that was a moment that never came. No. The commoner reached up and he caught the hand that was coming for him with all the power of an Inquisitor who was at an Ascension so high that Conrad had no idea where it was. Yet the commoner held that fist as though it was nothing.

What in the hells was going on here?

Conrad suddenly felt very small, and he didn’t like that feeling.