Chapter 3
Little Wing
Princess Nora Ophilis stood wide-eyed and speechless before the towering demon.
Just the sight of him was enough—her mind immediately grasped his identity. She may not have been born early enough to witness him in person, but she had heard the stories. She had seen the grim faces of kings and nobles in Snowhaven as they pored over the “work” left behind by the crown prince of Diablo on the battlefield… through illustrations, through legend.
And she knew, without a shadow of doubt, that she had no chance against a war demon.
Her legs locked. Her body froze.
Prince Fury raised a hand, inspecting the frostbite damage that had once eaten away at his human skin.
But now, in his demon form, it would take far more than frostbite to hurt him.
Perhaps Snowhaven’s greatest warriors—or maybe Nora herself in a few more years—might be able to try.
“Ice of Snowhaven…”
He crushed one of her crystalline spears in his hand. It crumbled to snowdust.
Nora panted heavily, sweat soaking her pale face. She backed away in panic until she was cornered.
Freya slowly rose to her feet despite ice burns and bleeding skin.
Memories surged in Nora’s mind—every moment Dan had wandered through the academy, starting from that very first day at the statue of the Five Heroes.
Everything they'd ever said about the people of Diablo… they'd said right to his face.
The demon stepped forward.
Red lightning ran across Fury’s armor.
And Nora knew, the moment she saw it—there was no way she would survive.
She closed her eyes and bowed her head.
Visions of her parents, her siblings, her people, memories of her childhood, the days she read quietly in the library, her conversations with Dan—everything flashed before her eyes…
Until—
The demon’s hand gently grasped her injured arm.
He raised it to examine the wound she’d received in battle.
“!”
Nora slowly opened her eyes.
“Freya… heal her,” Fury said.
He was… showing her mercy?
They were sparing her life?
Fury turned and walked away, not leaving her long in her confusion. The jellyfish demon—Freya—slithered in to take his place and began applying her internal chemical compounds to treat the princess.
“Hold still. Don’t move.”
It worked like magic. Freya’s tentacles held millions of thread-like fibers, each releasing a different compound—cleaning, disinfecting, hydrating—like antiseptic, alcohol, and saline all at once.
After just a minute or two… Nora’s wounds began to close.
She turned to look at Fury.
The prince had stepped outside the hut. Red lightning surged through his body… then faded, as he transformed back into his human form.
And in the very next instant, the moment he reverted—
The damage from Nora’s earlier assault caught up with him.
Dan collapsed face-first into the dirt.
“If it weren’t for His Highness, I’d tear you to pieces,”
“!”
Nora trembled as Freya turned to snarl at her.
Then she bolted outside to tend to Fury’s human body.
She lifted Dan into her arms and began healing him.
“Your Highness… Your Highness! Stay with me!”
“I’m not dead.”
“Your Hiiiiighness!!! sob”
“Oh come on, not this again…”
By the time the clock passed midnight and crept toward four in the morning—soon to be sunrise—the entire camp was cloaked in an unshakeable tension.
And the weight of that tension rested squarely on the shoulders of Snowhaven’s first princess.
Everything about her demeanor had changed. After learning who Dan truly was—
That he was Prince Fury—
She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Her mind swirled with questions, disbelief carved into every glance.
Zeedee stood at the edge of camp, facing outward.
“I say we kill her and bury her in the woods.”
“You trying to start a war?”
“I don’t see another way, Your Highness.”
“Maybe try using your brain.”
Dan was no less troubled. He gnawed his thumbnail, shifting his gaze between the Ice Princess and the dark forest beyond.
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Princess Nora swallowed hard, gathered herself, and finally spoke.
“Your Highness… why did you do all of this?”
Dan Burn locked eyes with her, clearly weighing his response.
The princess seemed more composed than Zeedee, surprisingly.
“That…”
Zeedee interrupted: “It’s none of your business!”
“Zeedee… do me a favor.”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“Go stand by that oak tree over there.”
“That one...? It’s far.”
“Exactly.”
Pat
“Off you go.”
“Your Hiiiiiighness!!”
Zeedee gave Nora a side-eye glare, then trudged off.
Now it was just the two of them—sitting on opposite sides of the campfire.
“My fingers… the ice went deep,” Dan muttered.
Nora flinched, trembling again. Her hesitation was obvious—like a fawn cornered by a lion.
“Three quick questions. When will you heal?”
“Two weeks, Your Highness.”
“...Hold on, can the infirmary in the Golden Hall treat it?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“For free...?”
She blinked at the odd question, but nodded.
“Why are you shaking so badly? It’s just me—Dan, your quiet little classmate.”
“My rudeness… If I’d known who you were, I never would have—”
“It’s fine. No one to blame but me.”
“Your Highness… why did you do all this?”
“I figured… you not knowing wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“Then will you spare my life?”
“Still considering it.”
Nora stared at the ground. She clenched her hands tight in her lap, then looked back up at him.
“Your presence here violates the peace treaty.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then you also know that if you let me go… I can’t ignore what I’ve seen.”
“I’m aware of that too.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“I’m waiting to see how the princess plans to talk her way out of this.”
“!”
Was he… testing her? Or just toying with her before finishing the job?
If it was the latter…
“Then finish it,” she said, lowering her head in surrender.
“If I must break the law… then I’d rather die. Go ahead, Your Highness. My life is in your hands.”
“…Giving up already?”
“……”
“What’s this? You scored better than me in class, aced every spell exam, and this is how you negotiate?”
She didn’t answer his mockery.
But… wait a second…
Why did his tone suddenly sound so sincere… so oddly innocent?
She looked up.
And saw his confused face, brows furrowed, scratching his chin like he genuinely couldn’t make sense of her logic.
“You do know that knowing how to negotiate is essential to ruling, right? Why don’t you know this?”
“…I’ve never… been in this situation before. My ice has never… felt so meaningless.”
“Didn’t your royal education teach you that this stuff is more important than spell theory?”
“…”
“Snowhaven… honestly, that’s disappointing.”
Disappointing.
That word triggered something deep inside Nora Ophilis.
Her eyes gradually dimmed.
Disappointing.
Is that all you are, Nora?
Just disappointing?
You’re to be the next ruler after the Queen.
As the eldest, you must be perfect.
The ice magic that Snowhaven prides itself on—you must breathe it.
Father, Mother! I’ve done it! Look at my ice!
That’s all you’ve got? Not even worthy of royal standards. Disappointing, truly disappointing.
“If I could be born again… I’d rather be a demon… maybe it’d be better that way…”
“Huh? What are you—hey, wait, no—!”
Dan leapt over the fire just in time to knock aside the ice blade Nora had conjured to slit her own throat.
Barely in time.
They toppled to the ground—Nora flat on her back, Dan straddling her.
“Are you insane?! What the hell was that?!”
“Just trying to save us both some time.”
“!”
“…You’re right, Your Highness. I am a disappointment. So I’ll end this myself. Because I’ve had enough, too.”
So this is it…?
“Okay, okay… I think I see where this went wrong. Let’s get one thing straight—there was never any plan to bury you in the woods. Zeedee was just being… Zeedee.”
He sighed deeply.
“If I told you… would you even believe me?”
Nora slowly sat up beside him.
“I came here to find my wife.”
“…Your wife?”
She froze.
“Your Highness… there isn’t a single Diablo native here.”
“Who said my wife is from Diablo?”
“…Your wife is human?”
Her eyes widened.
Dan reached into his pocket… and pulled out a letter.
From Maximin.
He handed it to the princess.
She unfolded it, reading line by line…
“!!!”
Her eyes went wide as goose eggs.
She looked back at him, stunned.
“This can’t be… Your wife is…”
Casca Saint-Maximin. Missing for over a decade.
“You’re smart. Connect the dots yourself.”
“No… It can’t be… She was humanity’s greatest hope…”
For ten years, Maximin had vanished from the human world—only to be across the sea this entire time.
With him.
“I swore… once I found her, I’d return. I’m 150 million credits in debt for this human body—all for her.”
“150 million?!”
“…So, Your Highness… This is a bit awkward to say formally, but… if you swear on your family name that you won’t breathe a word of this, everything can still work out.”
“But that’s… breaking the treaty… it’s illegal.”
“Maybe… but laws are only sacred at the right time.”
He shrugged.
“Have you compromised enough? I know it’s rich coming from the guy who broke the rules first, but in the real world, war treaties get shredded like scrap paper.”
“…”
Nora was quiet for a long while.
“It’s hard to believe this is real…”
“It’s hard for me too, realizing how bad Diablo’s reputation really is… in every way.”
That hit her hard.
“You spared my life?”
“If I meant to kill you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“I used to think demons were all savage beasts… But I was wrong. We were wrong.”
“Yup.”
And if he wanted to conquer humanity, there were far easier ways to do it.
Nora was clever. She likely already understood—he wasn’t here to invade.
And Fury had one more question.
“Nora, what the hell were you doing out here anyway?”
She turned away, ashamed. He could see it in her eyes.
But now that she knew his true identity… there was no point in hiding it.
“I followed you… I wanted to know how you managed to beat the instructor.”
Back when Fury had taken down their combat instructor in front of the whole scholar competitors.
As the always-number-one student, she couldn’t accept it. She had to know how he did it.
Because Nora knew very well that beating instructor Soros was not an easy task. Not at all.
“Your ice wasn’t enough, huh?”
“No. It wasn’t. It’s not just numbers on paper. It’s everything to me.”
Fury sighed.
“That pressure must be intense… Being the crown princess.”
“You’re a firstborn too.”
“Exactly. That’s why I get it. Snowhaven is ruled by an Empress… and someday, you’ll rule it.”
“And I can’t afford to fail. The pressure I feel today is nothing compared to what’s coming. I can’t even imagine it.”
“You’re right.”
“…Your Highness.”
“But no matter how well you do… if you’re royalty, one slip-up erases all your good deeds. Trust me—that’s what the Demon King taught me.”
“…Your Highness?”
Dan inhaled deeply.
“I don’t have any uplifting words for you. That path—you walk it alone. That’s just how it is. We firstborns are born with this crushing weight. It’s a fate you can’t escape.”
“Then what do you do? How do you deal with it all…? I feel like I’m already breaking.”
“It’s our duty.”
He said it plainly.
“It’s our duty.”
“But I never asked for this…”
“Neither did I… but I ate my siblings inside the egg so I’d be the only one to hatch. In Diablo, only the naturally strong survive. We don’t have your nurseries or feeding tubes for the weak.”
“…Forgive my arrogance…”
“No, no. I’m not blaming you. I’m not saying Diablo is better. It’s just… what we are. Our way of life.”
He poked at the firewood.
“In the heart of every ruler, there’s a wish to not bear this burden. But if we don’t carry it, the kingdom collapses… and then what happens to the people?”
Nora stared into the firelight.
She couldn’t believe it. The one person who truly understood her burden…
Was a demon.
“So? After talking to me… do demons seem a little less scary now?”
“Would this count as a demonic illusion, Your Highness?”
“Fooled the whole academy, didn’t I?”
“You fought in the war alongside the Five Heroes… You must’ve learned so much…”
“Made tons of mistakes, did plenty of stupid things… Just because I punched a dragon through a wall doesn’t mean I’m smarter than a merchant. You get what I’m saying?”
“…Then teach me. Please… teach me.”
“You’re asking me to be your teacher?”
“Your experience is a treasure no classroom can offer. I want to be respected like you. I want soldiers to look at me with loyalty like they do to you… Please, help me…”
Princess Nora meant every word.
She would kneel if she had to.
Nora Ophilis was no fool.
She knew what Prince Fury had couldn’t be bought—not with all the gold in the world.
If she could learn from someone like him…
Then everything she learned at the academy might pale in comparison.
“You realize what you’re asking, right?”
“I do.”
“You know a princess can’t have a teacher.”
At most, she could have an instructor. The words were not the same.
“I know. Even punishments need a stand-in. Casca told me that.”
“It’s not a law, technically.”
“Then what if others found out?”
“Like they found out you’re Dan?”
Dan raised an eyebrow.
“Heh~ Are you threatening me now?”
“Your Highness… to live in peace, we must compromise… right?”
“…Hoho.”
This girl…
