Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The king visits one morning.

This is common, once or twice a week to check that he, that no one, has let Viole leave.

Viole has been here long enough to not react to him anymore. Or at least, not to react until he says anything or does something. Everything is too much outside of the tower beyond the courtyard, and in it there was very little. At least there were flowers and the monsters were nice. So were the servants.

Demons made their home here. Not in this castle, but there were a few, as leverage.

Still, this one feels more so. The king is always perfectly dressed. He could walk in dirt and come out spotless. Now he's in regalia, draped in golds and reds. The man looks at him. It's never like Viole is dirt, but calculating his value in the moment for a potential buyer, or decently useful situation.

His jailer was predictable. He didn't typically leave Viole alone, per say, but he was very determined to remind him how pointless rebellion would be anyway. Not that Viole knew where he would go or what rebellion would cause. There was more incentive for him to stay put, even if everyone here didn't seem to understand personal space.

Now, Jahad stalks over (he's sure the man is just walking but he feels like prey pinned to his chair) and lifts his chin with a finger. Viole used to resist and Jahad liked that, so he doesn't now. He seems satisfied either way. There's no winning with monsters.

Those gold eyes meet his own. "There will be a contract weaving today, a betrothal of one of my princes with another. You are to bear witness and record the contract."

He'd borne witness to contracts before, mostly to parade the half-demon that no one wanted and everyone felt they were owed. But it was also a threat. Demons were better contractors than humans, and recorded them in case of oathbreakers. They were not always fair, and many who relied on them were usually putting loopholes into everything to ensure their terms came through but not the human's.

For a moment, Viole considers saying no. Saying yes would only bring misfortune to someone else again, as it always did. It would be nice if the King was less of a storybook villain.

Instead, because he is a bystander, and his hands are tied, Viole says. "What am I to record?"

The man doesn't smile. He never does. His eyes express for him, the strength of his hands, the brutal efficiency of it all, as he explains.

Homesickness and nausea fill Viole's esophagus like bile and he nods, writing it down.

"See it done and you will be rewarded."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

There is no reward for Viole and they both know it. The reward is the king's pleasure and amusement at victory.

*A Khun and a Prince of Jahad." Not a princess, it couldn't be more mocking if he'd tried. Still, the power in the contract was all Viole's.

After all, Viole was a half-demon, and that gave him an incredible power as a contractor: he could lie.

He wasn't an accomplished liar, but the information on the contracts he recorded could appear true, as long as the ones who are listed on the contract didn't know all the details.

A rare but valuable weapon. He at this point, mostly used them for brothel terms, or times like this, when the king wanted him to pull a power play on someone.

"Don't disappoint me," Jahad continues. "They will arrive tonight."

Evening, because the twilight of dusk and nightfall brought out the best magic for a half-creature like him.

Supposedly.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Viole hates for just a moment, before the energy fades.

In video games, you could fast travel to where you watned to go, and the most you suffered was the indignity of an overly detailed loading screen. Some of them were neat. Aguero had always liked the maps of each location he had gotten in the last game he'd played.

Demon's Sun just went through all your unlocked CGs. Jerks.

Unfortunately, this is currently the real world, and aside from the teleportation circles to make it closer to the Prism Tower, they still had to well, get there. Maria chatters away for a while, not about the engagement. Not about what she does for the emperor. Everything but that. She complains about Alexi too, and how rudely she shuns everyone around her.

At this, Aguero snorts. "If you wanted her to be sociable you should let her talk first."

She'd given him an odd look for that and he'd looked away to avoid how awkwardly (in another world, seductively) her dress showed her thigh.

He's glad she doesn't have a model in-game. Chat would have never let him hear the end of it. They'd have dumped and cursed the emperor more than they already did in the chat for being useless.

"You know how she is," Maria huffs eventually. "You Agnis are all the same though. So independent. What if there's someone who can help?"

"They usually don't," he replies, because that was a sentiment from many of his friends. He answered well with deals, worked with bargains. Naive offering assistance always had strings later, so he never accepted them.

Maria rolls her eyes. "You're too stiff, A.A. A husband will help."

Did she think he was just a modestly dressed girl or something? He hoped not.

"Anyway, you get to see the contractor's face!" Maria beams. "His Majesty never lets us that close anymore. They say he's too tempting."

Too tempting. "Is he that attractive?"

"Oh yes." Maria giggles. "Yuri-unnie said so. That's why he's always wearing a hood."

You have got to be kidding me. He actually remembers that description from the chat. Wait, how did you even start that questline? The heroine doesn't even show up for another three years! Does it start with the villainess and the heroine steals him from her? No wonder she hates them."If you're thirsty, just go after him."

"Father would be upset."

It takes Aguero a much longer moment than he wants to admit to tell the two apart. He can almost hear Novick laughing outside. "Hasn't stopped you before."

"You're no fun."

He ignores her. So he's going to meet the final boss after all, in real time. And not pixels.

Great. He has no expectations.

Eventually the carriage slows and Aguero risks poking his head out the window.

Prism Tower was a place close to Constellation Academy but far from the general territories of the nobles who go there. It demanded independence and self reliance and building factions of your own without parental influence.

People just brought more lavish displays of wealth and money. The villainess wasn't immune to this, but it was how she used it that turned heads. She turned it to the community of her village. She turned to find those with power, both noble and commoner alike, to fulfill her whims.

Brainwashed would whisper across the school, but she merely laughed with her head held high on screen.

"What do I have to be ashamed of," she asks the protagonist with a haughty laugh. "You think because you have the blood and spent of a baron in your veins, that you are noble, and that because you scrubbed a few sheets that you're common and understand them? You could never. How dare you? I will go and learn and see with my own eyes, my own hands."

It had fallen on deaf ears, of course, but Khun still remembers saying to the chat, "She's got a point."

The protagonist defenders were on his ass for hours after that. He'd only not cut the stream early out of spite.

He wonders where he stands now, at thirteen. She had to have started before the academy days, if Novick was a good example.

Aguero watches the Tower grow closer. Though it was a misnomer, as there was a small area around it (he said small, it was more of a market town), the Tower looms, rainbows of color coming off of the walls and windows. Magic dances from the base to the ceiling, unhindered by the way the walls were built.

"The seal's as strong as ever," Maria muses.

The seal was weakening actually, but that was not Aguero's problem. His goal was to get the game onto a proper route, even if it meant releasing the final boss to ensure a successful route end. He's not sure about how it starts to weaken or even why, but it was a standard part of the game and therefore set in stone.

It breaks outward, Aguero remembers, not inward. "There's not exactly a lot of demons there to keep sealed. They're mostly dead."

"The Demon Queen is there," Maria says in her most ominous tone of voice. "That is enough of a concern. If she ever gets free, she could destroy the whole continent in a matter of hours."

Aguero watches the coach slow. The Demon Queen wasn't the final boss, and she was definitely not that powerful. He'd found her in her cell, chained to her bed with a sword sticking out of her gut. It had been a very gory CG. She'd begged them to save her son with her last breath. They'd never found him. Even the final boss never found peace, dying screaming like a child.

Aguero decides not to think about the implications as Novick meets the guard at the gate. "That sounds like it'd do us a favor."

Maria looks at him curiously. "You think so, A.A?"

God why did he open his mouth? "Countries are strongest during wartime." His voice is steady. "Or they can pretend to be. Since we're no longer allowed to to fight as nations, economically, we have other ways. So we're stuck conquering territories, exploring to other continents and colonizing them. If the Demon Queen and whoever else is freed, we have an excuse to go to war. It'll hide the fact that the economy is starting to stagnate and that the commonfolk are restless for revolt. A common enemy to find a solution."

He shrugs at the look on Maria's face. She quickly slides her open mouth into a smile and leans forward. This would be fine if she wasn't shoving her chest in his face. He has no idea if incest is legal in this world and he doesn't want to know.

The carriage picks up once more.

"You should be more careful who you say that to, A.A." She leans back with a harmless little smile. "People might think you're gunning for a revolution."

"Why would I do something like that?" he says immediately. "I'm going to be tied to the royal family. Why would I need to?"

The answer is the villainess, losing the only love she'd thought she had.

Sex was common. As long as it didn't produce children (there were spells for that, no matter the gender), it could happen all the time. It could happen to anyone.

Khun tries not to think of the mercenary route, of the prince's route, and many of the bad endings.

In this society, with a father who had many mistresses, and the mistresses fought for a scrap of sex and power, the villainess was a pariah for avoiding it due to the sheer respect and admiration she had for her mother. Her mother didn't need to seduce Khun Eduan a second time, he can see it in her memories. Like she did every time, she just showed her worth through her children. If Gabriel was healthier, he knows, mother would have become a true favored concubine. And that would have been the end of it.

Aguero pinches his nose. He can feel her rage, her fury and desperation. No wonder she agreed to marry a prince who wasn't even a man. She must have thought they were the same, with the same expectations, the same failure.

She was wrong. The prince wanted to be true to herself and damn the world for it. Marrying the Moonlight Queen was a punishment and the prince blamed her, as kids do.

The one benefit of going to college was a lot of re-contextualizing bullshit. He hated that.

Aguero leans back as Maria says, "Well, you've always aimed high for areas with little struggle."

"Rude." He's not going to argue it though.

"We've arrived," Novick calls as they roll to a stop.

Finally.

Novick helps them down, which Aguero tolerates for the sake of his clothes. Inside, the area is quiet. There aren't any servants in view. At most, there are creatures, walking around and fulfilling those duties, or magic sprites passing by. If Aguero looks left, he can hear the bustle of the market even from the distance.

Maria taps her feet excitedly, hopping in place just a little. "Oh, it's time! It's time!"

Aguero sighs. "Maybe you should marry the prince."

She pauses in place and turns, lifting her skirts with ease. "Why would I do that, when I have the king in my hands?"

Aguero tries very hard not to roll his eyes.

They're guided to the courtyard and told to wait, as the prince has a longer route of arrival. Not a great first impression, but whatever.

Aguero settles on one of the planter edges. Maria is on the other side of the garden, scrutinizing the dark flowers mixing with pinks and yellows. All the blooms over there looked so delicate, as opposed to where the tree roots grow by his hands. It seems incapable of dying, brilliant rainbow leaves that glow violet and darken to black when fallen or plucked. Aguero traces one with his finger pads. It's oddly soft, like the thin plastic of sequins.

There's a strange sound overhead, he noticed. It's a couple trees over, high and warbly. It's a little familiar too.

Then it meows and Aguero looks up. There's a black kitten sitting on a tree branch. It doesn't look frantic yet, but is letting out puzzled mewls likely for its mother, the warbly sound noises of "where's mom? how did i get up here?" that Aguero knows from the neighbors downstairs and their four cats. How they managed that in their one bedroom apartment he doesn't remember.

This one looks a few shades off from a regular cat. The purple eyes, yes, but it's the thinness of the hair, the gems running down its spine, little blue-violet dots of light. The tufts of fur are almost cartoonish.

Those had to be hatchlings of the feral cat enemies that came out in late game, pure fur and magical spirit. So they could look less likely to kill you.

It continues to meow plaintively. It was a cat so it could probably get down on its own. Aguero also doesn't know the reaction the prince(ss) and their entourage would have to see him covered in dirt stains.

There's footsteps to his right. Broken in leather boots and crushing of grass. Aguero turns his head to see someone pressing their hands and feet to the trunk of the grown tree. Brown hair in a little ponytail, a robe with its hood down. They have almost elfin features, barring the dull golden eyes. They're sliding oddly into pink, like a sunset.

Their clothes aren't suited for climbing but they do so anyway, hands and feet well practiced as they reach the branches and tug the kitten down. It climbs up their shoulders as they sit down on the branch for a moment of rest. Crisp, clean clothing, a quiet frown on their face until they scratch the cat under the chin.

"Be careful up there," Aguero calls before remembering he is a child and not a babysitter.

They blink, look down and promptly lose their balance. Aguero gets to his feet, ready to dive forward. But they flick their free hand and their descent slows. It's so easy, watching them land on their feet in the grass.

Their gazes meet: blue-violet and pink-gold. Tiny red and blue nubs of horns poke out of the messy hair, barely held in place by a ponytail.

Aguero's heart thumps. Its rapid percussive beat turns the tips of his ears pink and makes panic hot in his belly.

Fuck you chat, he thinks spitefully as a status window opens to the side of the boy's face.

'Final Boss: Demon Heir Jyu Viole Grace met! Stats: unknown. Profile: unknown. Rank: 0.'

Fucking chat was right.

For once, Aguero is grateful to Maria for coming and being nosy. She sees them staring at each other, one panicking inside, the other confused and blank, and skips over to intervene.

Though there's also a bit of hunger too, and he doesn't want to think about that much. She's ambitious and willing to struggle. But she's also willing to cheat, and sex was a valuable mechanic to cheat in like, most of the routes. It was a requirement to unlock the prince too.

Great.

Maria slides in front of them so smoothly Aguero can almost pretend she didn't sprint in heels. At least her corset held her together. The last thing they needed was to bury the last boss in some stranger's chest, especially when he was clearly not here for it.

"Greetings, heir of the Country of Thorns," she says, as if she's not being the most insulting bitch ever. "I am Khun Maria Jahad, here escorting Khun Aguero Agnis for his contract."

Aguero keeps his face carefully blank because she's smart enough to not use gender but dumb enough to not use their home's name. How can you insult a demon like that? It's one thing to not know the name of their creator, or the magic they grew from, but this, he did know this. The rulers of the Demon Realm didn't bother with gender, but had used it for humans. Aguero is pretty sure it's because, in a spoiler he read, the heroine uses a spell to pretend to be a man to break into the Prism Tower and is caught by the last love interest - of course you seduce the final boss, you go through the whole game without really understanding him. He seemed untouchable, unbreakable, only to be killed, but not bent.

Aguero thinks as he straightens, meets that gold-pink gaze again. The easiest route to set to rights would be the prince's route. Give the heroine what was best and easiest, and let his own life processs from there.

On the other hand, the villainess usually died. Awfully. In the prince's route, it'd been exile to an "unnamed land". In the mercenary route, she'd tried to kill the love interest directly and was sentenced to death for attempting to kill a war hero.

It'd been the only route where her desperation had been true. She was still the prince's fiancee, blue and black makeup running on her face in bruised rivulets, howling as she stabbed and stole water and air from the man's lungs. When they'd pulled her away, she'd cried-

"The only person who ever saw me, you failed him. You always failed him! And now he's gone."

There'd been no reaction or reveal in game. It had come up in a side story, where the mercenary had agreed with the villainess. There's regret in his eyes, warm and dark and bitter.

The heroine, in her perfect purity, says, "You can't change it now. You just have to do better with your next person to protect. I'm sure he'll forgive you."

It had felt trite then, and staring at the demon child, half-human and clearly broken, it feels so now.

Perhaps this moment had belonged to her. A little teenage girl, scared about going through a marriage, meeting a lonely boy who had shown kindness to a cat with another girl escorting her like she was a trading card. Those gold-pink eyes stare at him, glancing briefly at Maria. There's something frightening there, a depth of fear contained by being watched.

So Aguero thinks back to the lore books scattered through the library, used to buff the INT stat.

He's wearing pants, so he bows politely instead. "I greet the future light of the Starless Sky."

To enter the realm of demons was a willingness to trust the darkness of the world. Humans craved the light demons stole, sure, but demons are beautiful and appreciated the darkness for what it was. The stereotypical light and darkness argument was as trite as ever.

But the villainess also went after the final boss when he appeared in the background … why? What's he missing?

"My name is Khun Aguero Agnis. I look forward to the constellations you draw for me and mine."

God he hopes he phrased that right.

The brief pause and the way his hair stands on end makes Aguero's blood pressure bolt up.

Then they (he?) bows just as low and murmurs. "It's a pleasure to meet the future jewel of the next crown. My name is Jue Viole Grace."

A carefully phrased sentence, promising a polite relationship and no greeting or indication of disobedience. Would he be the responsibility of the prince or him?

Aguero already hates it.

Maria beams. "Excellent work A.A! I'll go check for the prince."

She's gone before he can stop her, leaving the two of them alone.

They both stare. Viole looks away first, scratching under the chin of the kitten instead of interacting. It's awful. They're teenagers.

Aguero breaks first. "Sorry about that. She was pretty rude."

Viole blinks once, then twice. He (he'll go with he, that's what was in the game) doesn't speak. He looks pitiful, like a rabbit in a cage.

He hesitates but continues anyway. "You don't have to be formal with me. Actually, don't. Ever. Just call me Khun. Or Aguero. I'll call you VIole, and I promise to not be weird about you ever again."

Viole blinks again. Then he nods uneasily. "Khun-ssi?"

Close. "That'll do." For now. "You've written the contract?"

Viole's shoulders, which had loosened a little, tense up once more. He nods. "You will be able to review it when your bonded-to-be arrives."

Shit. "I can guess what it says anyway. Demons don't waste time with lies and prefer loopholes. You were likely commissioned to do both, so no one wins in this scenario."

Viole's eyes flicker, a little brighter in shade. "I am not allowed to divulge anything."

Aguero waves his hand. "You don't need to. I get it. So, do you live here? At this tower."

Viole nods. The kitten winds to his lap, purring. His blank face loosens just a little. "As long as I can remember."

"Why?" He didn't see this from the routes he'd completed. The mercenary had cried finding that tiny body, broken in places and forbidden to take adulthood steps on his own, silent weeping sobs the heroine had kissed away, so strong for those powerful but thin shoulders.

Viole blinks, mouth opening and closing. Then he looks down at his hands. His nails are a softer black, purple energy sparkling over his fingers.

"If I stay in the Starless Sky too long," Viole murmurs. "The Sky will brighten and my home will go to war for its beloved ruler. That's forbidden. And it is punishment for our ruler, for straying to one human and not another."

He scratches the side of his neck. Something burns near his fingernails, too angry and fresh to identify what it is.

Aguero looks at him for moments too long. "I see. Do you miss it?"

Viole doesn't answer for a long time. Then he says. "I miss home."

And Aguero thinks of his little apartment, the black blinds and half dead egg pan, the sheets he'd gotten from his own money. The cafe a few streets down from his university where the baker made it all from scratch with two other staff members, smiling as he was covered in flour and frosting, giving him an extra bread for good luck at a game.

Long hours with his friends studying and practicing for games, speeches, meets. Volunteering for debate and cutting his opponents down.

Even his computer and bright overlay would be comfortable now.

Me too, he thinks, soft like a child and full of pity. Viole looks so broken and young, younger than what has to be thirteen.

"Will you make a contract with me?" Aguero says, watching those eyes widen with something he refuses to define. "I will lay out the terms after today, I know you can't make two contracts in a day, but it will be a secret between us."

Viole stares at him. He looks not hopeful, but terrified and Aguero cannot blame him.

Sorry, npc, he thinks, trying to ignore the thumping of his heart. I need to use you to make it out of this alive, and to be a jewel on multiple crowns is the best way.

Viole opens his mouth to answer, likely to refuse, ask for elaboration, but then a trumpet echoes across the courtyard and Aguero glimpses the trail of Maria's dress. Viole stiffens into oddly fragile stillness and the kitten burrows against him as he quickly throws up his hood. With it on, those gold-pink eyes flicker and glow in the dark.

A voice calls them down and Aguero smooths the creases in his clothes.

"Showtime," he mutters.

Prince Elliot, like all of the royalty with Jahad's name, were not his by blood. If he had actual children, Aguero had never seen them. The rumor was that he couldn't have children. It was never said loud enough to hear, but everyone thought so.

His hair was long and the forest green, tied to fall gently down his back. Cold eyes, like the tundra. There could be warmth there, but unlike the villainess, Khun knows what isn't meant for him.

He's dressed from head to toe. The clothes are erotic purely in a "I want to rip them off/take you apart piece by piece/devour you" way, and the sharp jawline was effective. But his expression was like a mask, too stiff to be inviting.

Beside him is a girl, librarian stiff and with a fox at her side. The wolf that belonged with the prince was nowhere to be found.

Aguero had been around enough football players. He knew attractive men. The prince was, but not the type he'd go for.

So he keeps his smile on out of politeness and bows. "Fiancee." The word sticks like caramel, and all the sweeter for how the prince's nostril's flared.

"It seems our fathers are mocking us." The yet to be revealed princess' voice is sufficiently low enough that you could wonder either way. "Regardless, you and I will make this a successful partnership despite our family's mischief."

Duty and honor made idiots out of so many. Though it was confusing. By game rules, shouldn't he have been seen as a woman? Was it a glitch due to the game being broken?

A screen pops into view and away, laughing it seemed.

Aguero smiles away the frustration and says. "By your leave, Elliot."

Another successful flare of annoyance and the prince turns away, walking up the stairs to the altar as nonchalantly as he can muster. It's very little and Aguero bites back a laugh.

Viole stands quietly in front of the glass stained window. The painted glass made him look like a fallen, cursed monster, glass wings carved and shattered in endless fractals. It matches the roundness of his face.

Really, if their families were smart, the nearly three years of difference in age did the relationship no favors. Neither of them knew how to people, and Aguero's over twenty-one years of age sure didn't have a master course in it.

Viole offers them both a single sheet of paper. The contract was written so each word settled into your brain and sealed into your magic. You didn't need to read it properly, only be prepared for the consequences of signing it.

Aguero had to be better than that.

They took it and red-hot something courses through his veins worse than any fever, more than an illness or pain or a broken limb. It centers on the base of his skull, knowing and promises and concepts and punishment all given room where his brain couldn't register it.

Beside him, Prince Elliot sweats. His already light skin has gone clammy, hands shaking and almost bloodless.

"Do you swear?"

Despite bearing witness, Viole's voice is composed. Surely he must be bearing it too, the consequences of making the damn thing. But he is quiet and still. Nothing will move him.

And so Aguero knows, he must be the same way. He forces himself upright through the pain, feeling Maria's curious gaze on him. Maybe there's a little concern there but it's unlikely.

"I swear," he says with more certainty than he feels.

"I swear," grunts the prince, not to be outdone.

A quill floats over Viole's fingers and he nods. "And so it will be."

The world clatters into clarity, pain fading into a horrid clarity of purpose. Beside him, Prince Elliot (Elaine, his body reminds him, even if she may never use the name willingly towards him) straightens, dignity of purpose the only thing keeping him (her) upright.

"And so it has been sealed," Viole says. His voice is water, sliding into cracks and locked doors through gaps. He steps away from them, as if aware a demon would not go unpunished for closeness to the light.

Aguero summons the contract in his mind. Then he smiles after a few moments.

"I think everything is in order," he says, as if there is no pain. He bows to Viole and Viole alone, continuing to smile.

Yes, if he wrote this contract, Khun can and will make him write another one.

One that will give him everything he wants.