My Secretly Hot Husband

Chapter 4

Boom!

The sound of an ear-splitting explosion resounded from the stake. The fiery wagon had exploded. The devils, who had been snickering in a frenzy just moments earlier, were blasted away by flames. Even the surrounding wagons were upended and sent flying.

“It worked!” Letitia sprang to her feet, her heart beating furiously in her chest. She felt an indescribable thrill. I did it! The butane was immensely powerful. More than half of the imps were gone in an instant.

“Ahhh!”

“What’s happening?! Help!”

Screams filled the air. Letitia’s nose was assaulted by a nauseating, charred odor. Even the imps who had been lucky enough to avoid the explosion were distraught because of what they saw.

“A m-mage?” uttered a terrified imp as it stared at Letitia.

But she was not a mage. She was a little girl who was unremarkable by any measure.

“What in the world did she do?”

The creatures were all shocked and terrified. Letitia suddenly snapped out of her stupor. This is no time to be idle! She found an opening in the chaos, an escape route leading to the rest of the wasteland, and ran for her life. There had to be another person somewhere.

With that hope, she yelled with all that she had, “Help! I need help!” Her young, high-pitched voice resonated across the wasteland.

“Get her!” the imps yelled immediately after. They could not afford to lose this valuable prey and went into hot pursuit. A twelve-year-old girl could only run so far. In contrast, the imps were capable runners. They were also familiar with the lay of the land, so the distance between them inevitably shrank.

“No!” Letitia yelled in panic. She kept running while repeatedly looking back and ended up tripping on a rock, then she rolled a long way down a slope, and slammed against a tree trunk. Stars danced in front of her eyes.

“Ouch!”

It hurt, but wallowing in pain was a luxury she couldn’t afford—she got back up immediately, but it was too late. The imps had already jumped down from the top of the slope and were blocking her way. They cornered her from the back as well, caging her in all directions.

Letitia was terrified, but she wasn’t going to roll over and die. “D-did you not see what I did?” she shouted through clenched teeth. “You let me go, or I’ll do it again!”

However, she was met with laughter. “I’d like to see you try!” an imp said and snickered as the group approached her. The imps weren’t unintelligent—they knew that Letitia’s hands were empty.

“Come here!” they yelled. Their yellow eyes glinted with madness. Dark blue tongues flickered out of their mouths, which parted all the way up to their ears. Strings of spittle dribbled from their maws.

Letitia’s mind went blank.

“Come here!” they screeched again and reached out to grab her hair.

Just then, there was a loud boom that shook the ground violently. It felt like something heavy had crashed to the ground.

“Huh?” The imps turned their gazes toward the origin of the sound.

Suddenly, something emerged from beyond the thick sand clouds and slowly rolled down the slope toward them—it was the head of a giant monster. The bloody head spun down the slope and slammed to a stop in front of them. They were confronted with its face, which was gruesomely contorted in pain.

“What is this?!” an imp demanded, terrified beyond belief.

Who could have slain such a dreadful monster? And had the monster slayer tossed the head at them to flaunt it in their faces? Letitia anxiously stared into the distance as the slayer appeared at last.

She drew a sharp breath and almost felt her heart stop. What was it? It was human in shape, but surely that could not be. She could not see a face in the black cloak that covered the figure. Its black armor was stained red with the monster’s blood and there was a tilted sword in one of its hands that was still dripping. There was a menacing, bloodcurdling air about it.

“Ahhh!” cried the imps. “F-forgive us! Help! Please!” The imps were seized with terror as soon as they saw the devil.

They forgot about the prey they had caught and hightailed it out of there, leaving Letitia behind. It was like watching a red cloud disperse. Letitia was sure of it now. That entity was something even demonic creatures feared—he was the Great Devil.

How am I this unlucky? Letitia was devastated. She didn’t even have the energy to flee anymore. Her legs gave out, and she sank to the ground. She simply stared, petrified as the Great Devil slowly approached.

Letitia had never seen anyone so imposing in her life. He was incredibly strong—when a dune got in his way, he stomped it flat, and when the wind blew, he swiped it away with a hand. It seemed his arrogance was even making the wasteland shrink away in fear. The wind avoided his forceful hands, instead opting to flap the hood of his cloak. The fabric swept back to reveal what was underneath.

Letitia could now see that he wasn’t missing a face, it just appeared as though he didn’t have one because he was wearing an unnatural black mask under his hood. Letitia froze in overwhelming fear at the sight.

I just hope it’s quick... But it seemed there was more in store for her as another development unfolded.

“Over here! He’s here!”

She heard shouting. A group of people hurriedly ran toward them through the sandstorm. They were soldiers wearing helmets.

The Great Devil turned to them and said, “It appears this child is lost.”

Letitia was thunderstruck. It was surprising enough that the Great Devil spoke a human language, but his voice was even more shocking. He sounded like a normal human boy, which made it even more creepy. Did he use that voice to lure his victims into lowering their guards? Because of that thought, she didn’t dare breathe as she looked up at the Great Devil and his underlings.

“You’ve got it wrong!” a soldier said while panting. “We saw a broken carriage not too far from here! It was Lord Grey’s!”

Huh? Letitia was surprised once again. How did these devils know about her family?

The soldiers scrutinized her. After whispering amongst themselves, one of them cautiously asked, “Are you Lord Grey’s daughter?”

Letitia nodded in fear. She started to realize something even through her confusion and dread. There was something strange about all this—these soldiers weren’t demonic creatures, they were humans. They didn’t even seem like bad people, seeing as they had spoken to her politely. Letitia wondered who they were.

Some of them were wearing shields on their backs, which she examined closely. Each was adorned by a four-winged dragon. That was a house’s coat of arms, which meant that these soldiers served a family. There was something familiar about them, so she racked her brain. She might have seen a similar dragon on the seal of a letter her uncle had received.

“May I ask something?” Letitia ventured, though hesitantly. “Are you soldiers from Halstead Castle?”

“We are indeed!” one shouted. The soldiers then surrounded the Great Devil and they jostled each other as they talked, “She’s not a lost child! The Greys kept the promise they made ten years ago!”

“You should introduce yourself! She’s to be your bride, my lord!”

Letitia was struck with horror. She could not believe what she was hearing. They said this fearsome Great Devil was their lord, the Lord of Halstead—the person she was to marry. He slaughtered giant monsters like it was nothing. He was an evil person that made even imps scramble away in fear. It appeared all the rumors were true.

What do I do? What am I to do now? She tried to pull herself together but failed. However, Letitia had to fulfill the job of standing in for her cousins. She had to behave like the daughter of a count.

“I-I’m positive my family sent a reply...” She could not think of what to say next. Her mind was blank. All she could feel was her hand trembling furiously out of control.

I have to stop, but I can’t! The monstrous lord of Halstead looked down at her hands but said nothing. A second after that, he turned his head sharply. It seemed he had instantly lost interest. Letitia was taken aback. I’m done for. He doesn’t like me.

The sandstorm buffeted them viciously at that moment. The soldiers had already been flustered, but this made them flounder even more. They held their cloaks wide open and quickly shielded Letitia from the wind.

The monstrous lord swiveled. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, my lord!”

The soldiers encircled Letitia as they walked. They whispered to one another as they headed to where their horses stood waiting.

“You know what’s strange? How did she manage to survive on her own when all of her servants ran away?”

“I know what you mean. Plus, I think I heard something explode.”

“Yes, so I’m not the only one who heard that!”

Letitia flinched but was relieved that they hadn’t seen anything and weren’t trying to interrogate her. She composed her face to look innocently clueless and followed them.