A true warrior never betrays his companion. Therefore, Jaquer's teammates, Alys and Eres, tagged along with Jaquer to his exile.
"Are you two fools?" Jaquer's intense glare fell towards his best friends as he listened to their reasoning.
"Did you two really threaten the Crown Prince to exile along with me?"
Alys, leaning against the windowsill, shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Not a big deal. The royal shits owes us too much anyway. Threatening him with a few words wouldn't have sent us to be executed. "
Jaquer took a deep breath and glanced at Eres.
With Alys's personality, it was condemnable to believe that he did it, but Eres was a quiet one. And he never began a conflict nor participated in it himself.
Dealing with his business and never minding others.
The guilt under Jaquer's guts burned brighter as he looked at them. He was grateful to have them alongside, but at the same time, he was not.
"7 years," He said. "How can you misspend all these years, to be just a mere servant?"
He couldn't sleep the previous night; his mind was restless thinking of the upcoming seven years of his life.
Being born to a noble family, he never did menial work in his entire life.
At the age of 5, he was introduced to scholars, and at the age of 10, his initial training on demon hunting started.
At the age of 16, he slayed his first demon, and by the age of 20, he became the youngest elite demon hunter.
But now, at the age of 22, he was being exiled to the Demon Realm.
Being the enemy of the demons since the day he was born, he couldn't reassure himself to become the servant of that place.
"The exile is just for seven years, not till our death." Eres spoke. His voice was strangely calm, despite of dark future ahead of him.
"In those seven years, we could have made a plan to destroy Venor. Or you two could have done anything but exile yourself."
"We are not as bright as you to make an accomplishable plan."
Jaquer chose to stay silent. Whether or not the deed has been done. Jaquer had no choice but to be grateful and guilty at the same time.
***
Jaquer noticed Princess Hader inside the crimson palanquin, carried by four demons, and his heart sank at the sight of her sad face.
While Venor sat himself on the throne palanquin, painted in gold, with a demon statue erected by its side.
Jaquer, Eres, and Alys were not allowed to bring any belongings. Not even their clothes.
Swords and knives were stashed back at the kingdom along with their horses, and their hands were shackled with an iron barricade in order to prevent inconvenience.
They were powerful demon hunters; it was a measure against danger towards the docile demon servants.
For the trio, it set their mind at ease with the fact that the demons still feared them. A smirk appeared on Alys's lips as he noticed the shivering demon next to him.
However, they were still bound by the shackles, alongside they didn't know the number of days it would take to reach the Demon Realm because a direct road to the Demon Realm doesn't exist.
The reason being, Demons were never supposed to be in the Mortal Realm.
But they created an illegal formation to travel from the Demon Realm to the Mortal Realm, tw centuries ago, and initially started chaos in the land of the Wisteria Kingdom, the Southern Empire of the Mortal Realm.
As years passed by, many formations formed over the Mortal Realm, and a total ruckus occurred in this realm.
The demon hunter bore a magical power to close the formation. And successfully, they indeed closed many, but their efforts turned to zero when Venor reopened them with a single snap.
Jaquer decamped from his thoughts when the throne palanquin was pulled, and he nearly stumbled forward.
He looked ahead with agony but turned away with disappointment when he noticed Venor looking at him with a lingering gaze.
But soon, officially, the journey began, and Venor turned away.
****
The sun had reached its western destination, and the decided crowd settled on an unknown hill before twilight drew in.
Demons started collecting dry twigs while the trio sat in confusion, along with a trembling demon servant.
They were provided a butcher knife and a healthy chicken before them.
Crows flew away cawing above their head, as they looked at the knife, then back at the chicken.
"The Lord has ordered his human subject to prepare food for him and the princess," The docile demon said with a trembling voice while bowing towards them.
Jaquer rolled his eyes and pointed the knife towards the servant before he threatened, "Do you want to get butchered before I butcher this chicken?"
The poor demon dared to look at Jaquer, but the single glance from the latter sent him flying away, with a whimper.
Now with three of them left, the trio looked at each other before Eres reassured, "It will definitely be easier to butcher a chicken than our 'butchering demon job', right?"
"Fine, do it." Jaquer tossed the knife towards Eres and gave him a challenging look with his chin.
The chicken in the cage looked at them while being quiet all the time, as if he could sense the little life he lived was coming to an end.
"Who will take out this thing?" Alys pointed out the chicken and asked.
"You are near the cage, do it." Again, it was Jaquer who commanded his companion.
"That isn't logical."
"It is!"
"Hey, you two, we are shackled with each other, all of us have to—" Eres's speech halted midway with the concerning footsteps nearing them.
Venor.
The three of them glanced at the huge man with menial interest before resuming their fight.
"..."
Feeling ignored by the three brand-new human servants of his, the former couldn't help but feel agitated. A twitch appeared near his eyes as the fight grew from holding the chicken to the topic of their beauty comparison.
Finally, Venor interrupted. His heavy voice rang like a dark melody with the purple sky, "Did you two come along just to create menace?"
His red eyes glanced annoyingly at the two unwanted creatures before he spoke, "You two, make dinner."
He ordered Alys and Eres. Compelled by his demonic power, their eyes turned crimson, while they mechanically began to ready the chicken.
Still, in his conscious state, Jaquer witnessed the scene unfolding with confusion before he raged out, "What did you do to them?"
His concerning voice rose with his iron shackles, which stopped him from approaching Venor.
But before he could register, he too was compelled by a different command.
"And you, make my bed." Venor compelled, while gently pulling out shackles from Jaquer's hand.