### Arc II: Pele’s Curse

  She took a breath and jumped from the window. Luna looked from the window, waving her hand a little sadly, saying goodbye. Pele did not stop and kept moving. With her immense powers, the palace that was made by the lord served as a barrier to control her power under a certain radius. The environment within the Demon Lord’s kingdom decreased in temperature to -100 degrees. Everything was frozen other than the demons that were inside the castle.

  The Demon Lord, sitting in the throne, suddenly twitched his eyes toward Malphas, ordering him to find out what was happening. Malphas quickly moved and in an instant he came back and explained the situation. “Looks like she was repenting for her mistakes, Sire. Perhaps this was your plan from the beginning?” Malphas asked.

  “Well, I was expecting another secret attack from her, but I never expected this,” the Demon Lord said. “Sire, should I stop her?”

  “No, let her be,” the Demon Lord replied.

  Malphas was shocked. “But Sire…”

  “Do you know the specifics of her curse?” the Demon Lord explained. “She helped the demons and then the humans, so she was cursed by the heavens that from then on, whichever side she chooses dies first. She can’t truly be with anyone—everyone near her freezes. I also want to see how the Hero deals with her, so stop her when the Hero is on the brink of death.”

  “But Sire,” Malphas spoke, “if she loses, there is a high chance we will also die from him.”

  The Demon Lord interrupted, “If he is so powerful as to defeat her curse, then it will be difficult for us to win even with the whole army.”

  “I understand, Sire,” he said, fixing his glasses.

  Pele’s curse started affecting the village…

  Haruto woke up. Meena was sitting near him, looking at him with a smile.

  “Achoo!” Haruto sneezed. He got down from the bed; as soon as his foot touched the floor he started shivering. He quickly wore his slippers. “What happened, Master?” Meena asked.

  “No, it’s just the floor feels really cold today… Achoo! The air too.” He quickly moved into his blanket. “Meena, can you give me my heavy clothes from the bag? Thank God I already bought some winter clothes, although the whole set was on discount.”

  Meena brought his clothes. He started wearing them from inside the blanket. Seeing him struggle, Meena said, “Master, should I help?”

  “No! No need, I can wear them myself,” Haruto said, embarrassed with a red face.

  After dressing, “Hun! You look different suddenly, Master,” she asked.

  “What! Ohh, is it because of my dress? Well, we always change clothes based on seasons.” Suddenly her stomach growled. She covered her stomach with her hands.

  “Ah, you are hungry. Just wait a bit, let me cook.” They started eating breakfast. Suddenly Haruto noticed. “Meena, you are in your usual clothes. Aren’t you cold?”

  “No, Master,” she replied.

  Haruto, with a serious expression, said, “But you have to put on heavy dress.”

  “But why, Master?”

  “Because it’s winter,” he replied.

  She looked at herself and her dress and didn’t understand, then said, “Okay, Master…”

  They finished breakfast and started moving to the market in the nearby city. “Let’s go to this shop.” They entered the shop. Everything looked colourful, dresses from left to right.

  The receptionist appeared. “Sir, you need clothes?”

  “No, I need clothes for her.”

  “For her? My! For such a beautiful young lady, here I have these clothes. This entire section is filled with beautiful sweaters. Hmm! How about this one? With your blue hair this blue sweater will look nice. Meena, do you like it?”

  Meena, without saying anything, walked away.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  She bought a black jacket with a stars design in it. Haruto laughed. “You sure do like stars.”

  Meena nodded. But actually, Haruto was wearing almost the same black-coloured jacket, that’s why she bought it.

  “Okay then, pack it.”

  The receptionist packed it. “That will be 30 gold.”

  Haruto was shocked, his jaw dropped. “Hun! 30 gold? That’s too much.”

  The receptionist explained, “Sir, we are the only ones in the village and currently we are low on stocks.”

  “But I am not seeing anyone here,” he asked.

  “Sir, it’s because everyone ordered from home and we also need extra money to express order stocks to get them tomorrow.”

  Looking at Haruto’s displeased face, Meena got angry. Through her mind she messaged her servants, De and Blade: Do something. I will allow you to move freely, but I am watching you.

  They didn’t understand but made a plan.

  The Oracle Lady had changed her profession to a cloth shop. “I can’t believe I have to stay here in the village. Good thing I changed profession.” Luna ordered her to stay in the village for a while to get info on how things in this village were going.

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  Suddenly De (Dracula) and Blade in his original form appeared. The lady got scared and panicked. “What are those creatures? Why do all the weird people always come to my place?”

  “Sir, how can I help you?” she greeted them.

  De tried to hypnotize her, but before that, Blade struck her head and made her unconscious.

  De’s eyes shrank. “Why, you fool!”

  Blade, confused, “Hun! What? I made her unconscious as planned.”

  De put his hand on his head. “You just attacked a civilian, you fool.”

  “So what?” Blade asked.

  “Idiot, what if she wakes up and tells everyone about us? Then Sir Haruto will know about us.”

  They tied her and put her in a corner. They changed their appearance by wearing mustaches and joker-like outfits, then told Meena about their location.

  While Haruto was bargaining, she grabbed his hand and started pulling.

  “Wait, Meena!” But she hadn’t stopped and took him to the Oracle Lady’s shop.

  De and Blade were there. “Sir, welcome! By entering you have chosen the best decision of your life, Sir. What kind of clothes are you looking for?”

  “Hmm! Actually you look kind of familiar,” he looked at Blade.

  De struck his head. “Sir, don’t mind him. Maybe it’s because he ditches work and often roams around the village, but forget about it. Sir, we are on our last stock so we are giving everything at heavy discount.”

  “What, really?” he got excited.

  “Yes Sir, look at our collection. You just choose clothes and get heavy discount,” De replied.

  “Master, how are we doing?” Blade asked.

  Meena glared with wide eyes. She whispered, “If he finds out, you would be dead…”

  “Meena!” Haru called.

  “Yes, Master,” she replied and went near him.

  “Have you selected any clothes?”

  “My, what a beautiful angel you have, madam. Look, I have the entire collection of clothes. How about this one? A white-coloured sweatshirt.”

  Meena shook her head.

  “Then how about this one?”

  Meena shook her head.

  “Then how about this?” Haruto became awkward.

  De: “Madam, perhaps do you have any preferences in your mind?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” She put her finger at Haruto. “I want this one.”

  “Hun! So she wanted a black dress with pattern because I have one.” He blushed, his face red. His body, even in the cold, suddenly felt warm. “Then!…”

  De: “Wait, we currently don’t have black like these here but we are sure in the godown there are some. Blade, we are doomed if we don’t find clothes for Master.”

  “But what should we do?” Blade replied through telepathy.

  “Let’s wake up the owner and then ask, but make sure to delete her memories.”

  “Okay,” Blade replied.

  “Sir, can you wait here? We have to go down to look in the stock.”

  “Okay! But it’s okay, we can buy any other of same pair.”

  “No Sir, customers are…” De looked at Meena, “…deities. We can never make them angry or else we will be doomed.”

  They rushed at the Oracle Lady. Both surrounded her then woke her up.

  “Hey, wake up, you low-life mortal.”

  She woke up… saw two massive giant joker figures with massive aura. She got scared, teary eyes. “Mummm…”

  Tried to shout but her face was covered. Blade put a finger to his lips. “Shuuu! We are on an important mission. Just tell us where can I find a black-coloured jacket for women.”

  “Mummm,” she said with closed mouth.

  De came closer. Her face turned white. She started struggling more.

  With red big eyes, “Shuuu! As soon as you shout you die. You understand?”

  She nodded.

  “Just tell us where black colour clothes are.”

  And opened her mouth. “There in the 3rd shelf.”

  They took all black clothes and left her with mouth covered.

  “Sir, here is the whole collection of male and female black dresses we have.” With Blade’s eyes big and red as if he was saying “Sir please buy it Sir.”

  “But we don’t need this much,” Haruto said.

  “But Sir, those are last stock. If you buy these we will finish our business today and I heard the cold will be increasing from tomorrow.”

  “But even if you say, we can’t afford this much,” Haruto said.

  “Sir, all these clothes with only 20 gold. The best offer in the entire market.”

  “What! 20 gold?” His eyes widened.

  Meena twitched her eyes at De.

  De interrupted. He struck Blade’s head. “What are you doing, you fool? These are our last customers.”

  “Sir, here those clothes with only 5 gold.”

  “What! But won’t it loss your business?”

  “Absolutely not Sir. They say customer is deity and we treat our first and last customer with extra care and discount. So Sir please accept this. And it will be too costly to break her heart.” While looking at Meena and sweating.

  “Okay.”

  And they left… “Let’s go.”

  Before going they left 100 gold for her from their treasury. But they forgot about her and left her in the dark, tied.

  As all of them left, Malphas came and freed her.

  “Thank you Sir. Are you a hero?”

  “No, but I want to know what they did and did they give you anything.”

  She rushed to the shop from the godown and saw everything was fine, just the black clothes they took, and explained everything. She found a bag of gold. She understood that they left them.

  “Yeah!” she said after counting 100 gold.

  “Are those coins left by them?” Malphas asked.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  Malphas came and took the coins. “Sorry mam, I have to analyze them so I am taking them.”

  “What!” she asked.

  He grew in size, aura increased, eyes big and brighter. “If you have any problem, come to the Demon Lord to get the coins.” And gave the address with a note and disappeared.

  She dropped. Saw the note. It said: “Sir this is Malphas. Note: she owes me 100 gold coins.”

  “Wait.” Her eyes shrank. She turned white. “So I have to go to the Demon Lord to take my coins.”

  She blinked and then jumped. “Haha! Good thing I separated some coins from it.” She separated 5 gold. “And black clothes are cheap so this much is worth it.” She giggled… but teary eyes. “Why all the time I always get encountered with the weird people out there. I have to tell Master Luna and perhaps I get my coins back.”

  She packed and left.

  The next day… Haruto woke up. “Achoo!”

  Meena rushed from near the window. “What happened, Master?”

  “Looks like I got cold and fever!”

  “What! It’s a human disease that humans get. Master, are you okay?”

  He smiled. “I will be fine after a sleep.”

  She was worried so she called De and Blade to check on him.

  De put his hand. “Master looks like he has fever. He needs to be treated with medicine which can be found in the market nearby.”

  “Master please allow us to go and take the medicine.”

  “No, I will also go. Blade stay here.”

  Meena and De went and checked the whole market and found no one. They checked further and found someone leaving the town.

  “Sir, where are all the people and why are all shops closed? Sir, can you help us? There is someone in our home who caught fever.”

  “Then I will suggest you all leave this place.”

  “Hun, why!”

  “Haven’t you heard that the Apocalypse of Winter that hit millions years ago is going to hit again? It killed millions that time, so it was advised to leave the village at once.”

  Then Meena went home.

  “Master, what do we do now?” she asked.

  “Let’s pack bags,” she replied.

  But after packing, when it was time they leave, Haruto’s condition became worse. He was coughing continuously.

  “Master, at this condition it will not be wise to leave this place. The only solution is to find the source of cold and stop it.”

  Meena took a deep breath, held hands with Haru and told him, “Master please forgive me. I am going to use my powers to save you.”

  Blade and De both got scared.

  “What is she going to use her powers for?”

  “Master, can I ask you a question?” De asked.

  “Okay,” Meena replied.

  “Master, what exactly are you planning on using your powers for?”

  “Well…” she replied. A dark gloomy aura scattered in the environment. Her face became dark.

  “It can be anything so I just took permission beforehand.”

  Blade asked, “What? But you never did that before.”

  De struck Blade’s head. “Hey, why did you do that?”

  “Cause you should be knowing. Unlike other times, this time the sudden weather change from winter to summer will definitely be suspicious.” de replied

  But its really concerning...

  He stared at Meena’s shadowed face.

  based on how she use her powers either the cold will and or this world ,he murmured to himself