The Demon Prince Wants His Wife Back |BossNoeul|FortPeat|

3: The Deal

***
Howls of pain and agony echoed in the depths of a place no mortal can survive. Souls being treated the same way as the creator's son was punished and guardians reading every soul's misdeeds could be seen on the grounds of hell.

In the territory ruled by the second prince, only the royal castle stood firm in the ocean of lava and bones.

"What the fuck happened?" Payu asked as soon as he opened the door to where the hell's overseer was staying.

"Your Highness, you're back." The man in glasses asked as he stood to greet the man.

"I'm asking what happened. You said I can stay for at least three days!" Payu exclaimed as the man closed his eyes.

"Your Highness, do calm down. I said at most, not at least. The barrier is too strong and if you stayed longer, they would've noticed it." The man reminded as Payu let out a sigh before having a seat on the couch, placing his feet over the coffee table.

"Damn it." Payu cursed out making the latter let out a sigh.

"I'm guessing you weren't able to seal the deal." The man assumed as he started preparing tea.

"You think I'd be here if I did?" Payu said as his head fell back, closing his eyes and trying to remember Rain's face.

"Your Highness." The man called with two cups of tea in hand and Payu sat properly before pulling his hair in irritation.

"How can I go back?" Payu asked, turning to the man in front of him.

"You can't." The man answered making Payu glare at him.

"Cerberus." Payu called, unamused at how the latter answered him.

Cerberus, the current overseer of hell, let out a sigh before meeting Payu's deadly glare. The prince's obviously not in the mood for jokes but unfortunately, Cerberus wasn't playing around. Being able to break the barrier that protected Rain's soul took almost half of hell's impurity and another attempt would cause immediate scarcity.

***

Impurity is a major substance needed for hell to function. It is produced through a cleansing method wherein a hundred souls -punished for six thousand years-are thrown into the pit. Being burned to nothingness, the souls' essence is collected and kept in crystals. These crystals are then processed to produce an ounce of impurity.

An ounce of impurity being equivalent to a hundred six-thousand-year-old sinners' souls, it's not an easy substance to acquire especially today.

***

"We already used half of our supposed yearly supply, Your Highness. If you were to go back, we will have to use premature souls and you know how difficult it is to process those." Cerberus reminded as Payu let out a sigh of defeat.

"I should've just forced him." Payu mumbled as Cerberus looked at the man who rarely showed any emotions.

This human that Payu's been dying to see, Cerberus cannot help but be curious. Was it a lover? Or a relative? Payu's never acted this eager in the years since Cerberus worked for him.

Cerberus only came to hell when his father passed away and has been working for the prince for a hundred and five years. Cerberus has no knowledge of what had happened before he came to hell but seeing how Payu's acting, it probably had something to do with that moment.

The moment when hell was put into complete turmoil. The events of that moment were too dreadful that even the demons working in the archive decided to destroy all records relating to what they referred as a catastrophe. Only one scroll remained and even Cerberus was confused since the only word on that scroll was the title of the document itself- Berserk.