Chapter 9: On A Peaceful Morning, Or Not
"Good morning, world!"
Today, Louisanna woke up with peace in her heart. She couldn't stop smiling as she sat down on her bed, extended her arms to the ceiling, and gave herself a light stretch.
She felt peaceful and happy as she thought that today will be a great day for her, which is the exact opposite of her thoughts as everything that happened last night was full of disaster.
It was four o'clock in the morning. She had enough energy as she turned off her alarm clock and jumped out of her bed. It's been a while since she felt revitalized like this.
Maybe despite the demon king visiting her last night, her fate was able to convert that bad energy coming from him into a good one.
"Have a great day ahead, buddy," Louisanna told herself as she stopped in front of the full-sized mirror in her room.
She realized she looked like a mess because she wasn't able to even change her clothes or wash her face last night, but her body feels good. That's what matters the most.
After that, Louisanna did her morning ritual as she prepared herself to go to school.
"Good morning, dear neighbors!" Louisanna greeted some of her neighbors who were cleaning the front of their houses using a broom and a dustpan.
She's wearing her school uniform, which is a white blouse, black slacks, and black leather shoes partnered with her faded white socks, and her old black bag that she always used back when she was in her high school days.
"G-Good morning!" Some of the neighbors greeted her back just to avoid being rude.
Those neighbors had their lips parted because it was rare for Louisanna to greet them. She was always quiet and aloof.
Starting from when her mother was confined to the hospital, Louisanna even stopped playing with her friends as she needed to deal with a big responsibility at a young age.
"Have a great day ahead!" she could even hear one of her neighbors tell her.
She didn't know their names, and she wasn't planning on having a getting-to-know-you segment, anyway. She only knew them by their faces, and what kind of rumors they spread about the Lohengrin family.
They weren't the kind of neighbors everyone would think. Instead of helping them cope up with their situation, they even had them as the popular talk of the town.
"Same to you!" Louisanna smiled at them as an answer, and as soon as those people couldn't see her face anymore since she walked past them already, her smile immediately faded as it was changed into a frown.
"Plastic bitches," she muttered in a low tone as she rolled her eyes while waiting for the bus so she could go to school.
After that, when a bus stopped in front of her, she immediately went inside and sat on the edge of the bus, near the window.
It was her favorite spot because she loves looking at her surroundings, but as she was on her way to her school, the peaceful and lovely day she thought she'd have, suddenly went out of the drain as she saw Domhall, the guy from last night, standing in front of her.
Louisanna blinked her eyes— not twice, but thrice, as she slapped both of her cheeks to test if it was another set of her imagination or not.
"You weren't dreaming, if that's what you think," Domhall told her in an authoritative and seductive tone, as a smirk plastered onto his face. "Looks like you have a good day. Do you want me to ruin it for you, my lady?"
"What the fuck do you want?" Louisanna asked him without hesitation as she raised one of her brows.
Just as when she's trying to forget everything, the guy suddenly showed up in front of her.
With that, Louisanna couldn't help but check him out. She couldn't see his imperial horns— which she saw last night, but she could see how his blue polo shirt and faded jeans complimented his body built, messy black hair, and captivating red eyes.
Louisanna didn't notice that he was staring at him for a long time as her lips were parting. Meanwhile, Domhall was also doing the same.
His gaze stared at Louisanna's lips more than he expected, as he thought that those red and soft lips would be enjoyable to kiss. With that, he could feel the sudden heat traveling onto the different parts of his body.
There's something with this woman that captivates his attention a lot, even back from the time he was in the human world. He never knew why it was the case, but every time he was with her, or even just at a near distance from her, he could see himself going onto her even though he knew how painful it would be in the process.
It wasn't even helping him that Louisanna's scent lingers on his nose. It was so sweet, feminine, and delicate. He could even just smell her all day while laying his head on her legs.
He smiled at his thoughts, only to realize it was not the reason why he went to see her.
Louisanna keeps on messing up with his mind.
"What did you do to me, woman?" Domhall asked her in a threatening tone before his hand traveled onto his jaws, gripping them tightly as her lips parted.
She tried to shout and ask for help, but it seems like her voice can't be found out of nowhere.
In the blink of an eye, Louisanna found herself gasping in fear as she noticed how the people with her inside the bus had suddenly disappeared, and she was already in a different place.
Fire.
The fire was everywhere as Domhall was in front of her, and a wall was behind her. Louisanna's eyes even went wider as she thought the fire would already consume them.
She wondered how painful it was to have those fires buried in the depths of her skin.
'If I'm having a nightmare, please, let me wake up!' Louisanna exclaimed at the back of her mind.
They were surrounded by fire but she couldn't feel any heat, although sweat was forming on her forehead, she was certain that it was because of Domhall's presence, and it looked like he was ready to take her down.
Domhall took a step forward and placed both of his hands on both sides of her head. She couldn't move.
She even forgot how to breathe as she saw Domhall's face up close, and how his horns were showing while she was staring at his forehead.
"I'll ask you for the second time," Domhall told her as he placed his lips on her ear. "Who are you really, and what are you doing to me?"
"W-What?" Louisanna blinked her eyes twice as she heard that question. "I-I should be the one to ask you that, right?"
The fire went bigger as it formed into a circle surrounding them. Louisanna didn't know at that time what to feel. She always feels mesmerized by the scene like she saw all of it before, and as if she was a part of it before.
The fire looked like dancing waters in her eyes, and that expression almost made Domhall lose control.
"No." Instead, Domhall caressed her cheek before saying, "You won't be able to ask that because after this, you won't even remember me unless I give those pieces of your memory back."
With that, he snapped his fingers on his left hand as he summoned something above them. It was another ball of fire.
"I, Domhall Palmer, with the hell's power, command you to forget everything that happened since last night."
Chapter 10: The Reason His Power Is Deteriorating
"Hey, wake up…"
Louisanna moved her head a bit as she felt like someone was slapping her cheeks lightly. It didn't hurt, but it was enough for her to wake up from her peaceful slumber— If it could even be counted as a peaceful slumber despite her vivid nightmare.
"Hmm?" She opened her eyes lightly, but she immediately closed them again as the lights from the window of the bus started to hurt her eyes.
"Aw," she even complained as she placed her fingers on her forehead, massaging it a bit.
She attempted to open her eyes slowly so it wouldn't feel like the lights were attacking her sight, and it worked, although it felt like her head was getting pounded as she couldn't deal with the sudden noise on the bus, and the middle-aged woman who was talking to her as well.
"You're in front of your university," a woman told her as she pointed her index finger at the window.
"I based it on your uniform and thought that you would be late to school if I didn't wake you up. My daughter's always like that as well," she even added and laughed a bit.
That's the time she realized she has a class for today, and without the woman's help, she would need to cross the streets again dangerously as she would have an imaginary running competition with her professor.
"Oh, crap!" she cursed herself unconsciously as she looked at her wristwatch.
She sighed in relief as she saw that she still had ten minutes before the first subject started.
'Why did I nap while I'm on the bus? Crap, Louisanna!' she preached herself as she fixed her uniform and her bag on her back.
"Thank you, ma'am!" Louisanna told the woman as she bowed down a bit as a sign of gratitude and appreciation.
"No worries." The woman smiled back and gave her a thumbs up. "Good luck, Louisanna."
Louisanna raised an eyebrow as she called her name, but the woman pointed at her identification card, telling her indirectly that it was the reason why she knew her name.
"Ooh, I see."
Louisanna laughed at her stupidity as she turned her ID card so no one would be able to read it, and after that, she went out of the bus and carefully crossed the streets— legally this time as she waited for the traffic lights to turn red before walking.
Louisanna can still remember everything, from the moment she woke up earlier until she sat down on the bus, and also, she could remember Domhall who suddenly went in front of her and brought her to a different place.
She thought she'd feel the hairs on her skin go up because of that, but prior to what she thought, she sighed in relief.
She was glad that it was a dream, after all. Although everything that happened was mind-blowing, there's a part of her that wants to remember all of it.
Meanwhile, on Inferno, Domhall's face grimaced as he was watching Louisanna on the fire in front of him. It was like a mirror where he can see what was happening in the other world.
This is what he liked about his power. He could summon almost anything using fire, as it was the source of his strength. He can even make a fire comb on it, or a fire cake, which may look so weird yet satisfying.
He thought that he had made himself strong after all those years he spent in Inferno as the demon king, but because of Louisanna, an ordinary girl he just wanted to play with at first, his confidence drastically decreased.
He could also feel that his powers started to deteriorate, the same as the authority he once had.
He can say that Louisanna Lohengrin is an expert at making him doubt himself, especially on what happened today. Luckily, Louisanna thought that she was just dreaming when he took her on one of the dimensions going to hell.
He needed to bring her to one of his territories to make sure his power won't be drained, but Louisanna was something.
He wasn't able to erase her memory. In fact, he even had a permanent scar on his hand which he used to hold her cheek. His self-healing power doesn't even work, even in his own place.
It would take days to heal, and he would need to absorb more negative energies so he could make up for his lost powers.
"Are you sure of what you said, Ellaine?" As he stood up on her throne and waved his hand so he could see the moon and the stars shining brightly, he talked to Ellaine who was sitting on the couch while fixing her make-up.
"Hmm?" she answered as she took a glance at him, but it didn't last for a second as she focused her attention on her hand, putting eyeliners on the top of her right eye.
"Are you sure that I'm powerful?" Domhall asked her in a confused and low tone.
He didn't avoid his gaze on the moon, which Ellaine found strange because he knew Domhall for a long time— even back from where he was born, not as a multi-billionaire CEO, but in the previous generations and reincarnations, he couldn't even remember.
He hated the moon because he believed that the eclipse was the main reason why he became the demon king… which is right.
Now that Domhall was staring at it like the moon was giving him a sense of calmness he never had before, was enough for Ellaine to stop putting her make-up on as she folded her other hand to close her compact mirror.
"I'm certain," she answers in a convincing tone before looking at him. "Why do you ask?"
"Then…" Domhall stopped looking at the sky as he waved his hand for the second time. Now, the sky was now covered by a huge black roof. "Why are my memory manipulation skills not working?"
"What? Why did you use that?" Ellaine raised a brow as she placed her make-up in her small bag. "Did you eat someone's soul?" She even chucked as she asked that question.
"No," Domhall responded immediately before shaking his head as he walked in front of the mini-fire lake. "I used that on someone with white hair," he added as he didn't know that Ellaine was fully aware of Louisanna's existence.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment