Chapter 103: There May Never Be Any Rest For Naviel and Ignivar After All
Chapter 103: There May Never Be Any Rest For Naviel and Ignivar After All
"What do you mean the children were returned to their families?" Elyn asked Zorathys.
The office was quiet. Naviel and Ignivar stared at each other, then back at Zorathys.
Actually, everyone was looking at Zorathys right now to see if he would offer any explanation. Ignivar and Naviel doubted he would, because Zorathys was not one to tell his future spouses about his work.
Zorathys stood with his hand still holding the paper he had picked up. He looked like he was thinking about what to say, but Ignivar wasn’t sure.
For all the claims he had about knowing who Zorathys was, there were times when he could hardly read the expression on Zorathys’s face and understand why it was there too. This was one of those times.
He and Naviel exchanged a look again, because there were few things they knew about Zorathys that were accurate.
One was the fact that Zorathys was the definition of lazy, and he wouldn’t do any work if he wasn’t willing to do it—not even if someone forced him.
Two was the fact that Zorathys was a ruthless demon and was feared, revered, and even served as a role model for most demons, because as much as they feared him, they loved him too for being so ruthless and being the epitome of what a perfect demon would be like.
Three, Zorathys never told his spouse about his work. Yes, Elyn wasn’t his first fiancée. He had one before, that is until he killed her...a story for another day.
But Ignivar and Naviel had been there when Zorathys’s ex would ask him about work—things like this—and he always gave her the same answer: that it was none of her business.
Now Elyn stood in front of him, eyes sharp, expression demanding clarity, and waiting for an answer that Naviel and Ignivar had never once heard him give.
Zorathys looked at her for a long moment—it was only a few minutes, by the way.
Naviel was about to speak up, to spare Elyn the shame of being turned down, when Zorathys spoke, his voice washing around the office like he deemed the space worthy of hearing him.
"There were traffickers...child traffickers in the realm. Hence why I told you that the children were returned to their families."
Naviel’s head whipped toward Zorathys as he gave him a look. He had no idea if this was the same demon king who had specifically told his ex, coldly by the way, that his work was none of her business.
Elyn gave him a look, seemingly waiting for Zorathys to just smile and say, Ha! Got you. That was a joke—a pretty bad one—but a joke nonetheless. But there was nothing.
"You’re serious?" she asked him.
Zorathys nodded. "It’s the reason why Ignivar and Naviel are working so late."
Elyn’s eyes widened.
Child traffickers.
The words felt wrong just existing in the same space.
"In the Demon Realm?" she repeated slowly.
"Yes."
"One of the major laws of the Demon Realm," Zorathys continued, "is that no demon offspring is to be sold. Ever. For any reason."
His eyes darkened.
"It doesn’t matter if the child is weak. It doesn’t matter if they’re unwanted. It doesn’t matter if their family is poor or disgraced. Offspring are not commodities."
The air grew colder.
"We’ve been tracking them for a while now," he said. "They were not amateurs and knew how to hide well, but we found them."
Elyn listened without interrupting, her shock slowly giving way to something sharper.
Anger.
"We caught them yesterday," Zorathys said. "Which is why the work had to be done quickly and efficiently."
He glanced briefly at Ignivar and Naviel.
"I killed every demon directly involved."
Elyn’s fingers curled slightly at her side. She nodded as the realization settled over her.
"The children have been returned to their families," she said.
Zorathys nodded. "And that’s why Naviel and Ignivar have been working since yesterday. I did the killing, and all they had to do was the identification of the families, the buyers, and also the cleanup. They had the easy work because I killed a lot of demons. I’m only one person, and they were thousands."
Ignivar shot Zorathys a look that could only be described as suffocated to someone watching from the outside, but deep inside, he was disgusted with Zorathys.
"Wipe that expression off your face," Zorathys told him. "I pay you well for the work."
Ignivar immediately wiped the expression off his face because he wasn’t sure what Zorathys would do to him if he let it remain.
But easy work? Naviel gave him a look, then sighed.
The work wasn’t easy at all. They had more work to do, and what thousands of demons? Even if there were thousands of demons, that wasn’t work for Zorathys. He’d make quick work of them without even breaking a sweat.
But apart from that, there was something else that both Naviel and Ignivar realized.
Something far more unsettling.
Zorathys had told her.
He had actually told her.
Fully. Clearly. Without dismissing her.
And that realization sat like a crack in reality itself.
If he had told Elyn, that meant Zorathys liked her. He liked the queen. And that explained why she was able to enter his room without permission and not be harmed. That explained why he always made an effort when she asked him to do things he’d normally never do.
Naviel and Ignivar exchanged a look as the realization dawned on them while the others in the room were unaware of what was going through their heads.
Elyn took a step closer to Zorathys.
"...Are you sure," she asked slowly, "that all of them are gone?"
Zorathys paused. "I do not understand."
Her next words came carefully.
"Did you verify that the culprits you caught were the only ones involved? Or could there be a larger network?"
The room went very, very still.
Zorathys turned his head.
Slowly.
His gaze shifted to Ignivar.
Then to Naviel.
Both demons stiffened because they hadn’t thought that far. Zorathys hadn’t thought that far either, but it was more their fault than his.