Disclaimer: I don't own Beelzebub.

Chapter 8: Curse

Furuichi knew that Baby Beel's biological mother was a very important person to Hilda. She considered Mrs. Iris to be more of a sister than Yolda was.

And now, she was supposed to be dead.

The news had the same effect on his comrades than himself. Whereas Kunieda's shock was clearly written all over her face as she covered her mouth with her hands, Oga's eyes widened and he turned to the sleeping baby. "Iris died…?"

"H-Hold on a second…" Kunieda tried to arrange her thoughts and handle the tidings. "Beel-chan's mother is dead… and Oga… is to be her murderer…? That's why Hilda-san wanted to kill him?" she mumbled the last part, which was probably meant to be her kept for herself.

Oga gritted his teeth furiously and clutched the bed sheet. "The fuck is goin' on here?!" he straightened up his upper body and glared at Furuichi. Oga knew that his best friend also couldn't provide him the answers he desired but he just needed to vent his anger on someone. Thanks to Kunieda's exorcism, which was still working more or less, he was restrained to madly riot at the moment.

The silver-head remained silent. Neither did he know answers to the many questions, which he had already asked himself again and again, nor did he know how to calm his friend down. Labeled as the demons' enemy was one thing but killing Iris? A dear person to Beel and Hilda?

"There's one thing I don't understand though…" Furuichi spoke out his thoughts and grabbed the others attention. "Let's assume the story's true…" Oga's dark glare got more intensive and distracted Furuichi for a moment. "I'm talking hypothetically here… If Hilda really deemed Oga Iris' murderer, why wouldn't she kill him the other day?"

The question lingered in the room for a while. Furuichi and Kunieda learned it the hard way that Hilda had the mere intent to kill. Therefore, she wasn't simply pretending to be a merciless ice queen.

"You mean… Hilda-san spared especially Oga?" Kunieda speculated.

"No, she has very well intended to kill him."

Another voice replied to her question and the humans knew too well whom it belonged to. Lamia appeared with the aid of Yolda out of nowhere and was standing in the middle of the room. Before the others had the chance to react to the newcomers, the wet nurse put a binding spell on them. It was similar to freezing the time but instead, Yolda seemed to have frozen the space so that other than Lamia and herself, the others could only trail the two women with their eyes soundlessly and motionlessly.

With a bland expression, Lamia walked around the bed indifferently and inspected Oga's right hand. Her eyes barely twitched in surprise and she muttered to herself pensively. "Hilda-neesama was right. The Zebul Spell did vanish even before he's returned here…"

Lamia froze on her spot when a strong hand abruptly gripped her wrist. She let out a low sound and noticed that it was Oga's hand. "La-…mia…!" he hissed between clenched teeth.

The medic turned back to her escort. "Yolda! Why can he still move?"

The blonde frowned at Oga and formed a sign with her hands to strengthen her spell. She almost looked in pain and was overstraining herself. "It must be the exorcism that Forkas mentioned… it's interfering with my powers…!" It was nothing she couldn't handle though. In order to focus her spell on the man in bed, which posed a greater problem for them, she lessened the ban elsewhere. Indeed, her act was a success and Oga's grip loosened off of Lamia and he got mute again.

Lamia took the chance and made a step back, rubbing her sore wrist. "Let's go." she returned to Yolda's side. "We're done here."

"Lamia, wait!" Furuichi's voice made her jerk to a halt. Since Yolda was concentrating her powers more on Oga, Furuichi was able to talk again. "Why are you acting against your will for Hilda's sake? Are you fine with her being the way she is now?"

Her gaze was hidden behind her pink bangs. However, her clenched fists, which made her knuckles turn white, revealed the boiling anger within her. "I'll keep supporting her and respect her decisions no matter what…" She spoke in an almost inaudible voice.

Furuichi, who was still enchained on his spot, started yelling at her. "Then, why did you stop her back there?!" His words made her stiffen. "Why didn't you let Hilda strangle me?!"

The others could only watch silently as his rhetorical question clanged in the room. "In order to not repeat the events of three years ago." Lamia answered icily.

He wasn't expecting that and deliberated her statement for a while. "You want us to leave that badly…" It wasn't a question but he was rather stating a fact.

"Exactly."

"Alright, then help us."

Lamia and Yolda were puzzled after hearing that and turned to Furuichi.

The latter reasoned. "You can't expect us to leave at rest after what's happened so far. Help us to find answers to our questions and we'll leave immediately after that."

Yolda watched the girl next to her from the corner of her eyes. Although Lamia was younger than her, her position as the future royal doctor and closeness to Hilda outranked the wet nurse. "Lamia… don't do something that you're going to regret later." she whispered to the medic.

Lamia seemed to work the whole conversation as she stood speechless for a minute. Eventually, one word came out of her mouth. "Curse."

"Curse?" Furuichi repeated in confusion.

"You got your answer. Hilda-hime cursed Oga. Don't act on the assumption that she pitied him or spared his life on purpose." She briefly glanced at Oga and looked at Furuichi with a deadly serious gaze. "The Hilda you've seen today is the real deal."

Remembering his previous encounter with Hilda, Furuichi gulped unconsciously. The way Lamia called her showed her loyalty to the future Queen, thus claiming more answers from her and Yolda was futile. As she turned her back to him and wanted to leave, Furuichi called her anew to no avail. With Yolda's magic, they already started fading away while Lamia added some final words in a dangerous tone. "Now, you better leave for your own safety, humans." She shot a louring, demonic look at Furuichi. "Stop leaning on me already! I'm not your most reliable person here just because I spared your life at my whim." With that said, the two females disappeared and Yolda's spell was lifted instantly.

Kunieda fell on her knees and panted heavily. "I've never seen…Lamia like this before…" Well, the fact that she was from the demon race remained always in the background since Lamia had had a cute, childish appearance.

After Oga checked on the still sleeping baby by his side, he furiously turned to Furuichi. "What the hell are you doing, deciding things on your own, bastard?! No way I'm just leavin-…!"

"I get it." Furuichi interrupted him and sounded as if he was finally regaining consciousness after a long trauma. Lamia's unnatural behavior and more importantly, her last words suddenly made sense to him. "How long are you going to lie there, idiot?! We need to go." he looked at Oga triumphantly.

Oga wanted to protest when Kunieda was the faster one. "You mean to go back to our world?"

"No, to find our most reliable person."

A/N: I've decided to update this spontaneously and spent only one day on this chapter. It hasn't turned out to be so good in my opinion. I intended to solve one mystery with this chapter but it seems that I've created another two…!

The next two chapters will reveal answers to some of your questions (and arouse new ones, I guess)!

Any guesses who that 'reliable person' may be? Or any questions/comments about this chapter?

Review, please!?

PS: Excuse me that I don't have enough time to reply to your reviews. Nonetheless, be assured that I'm reading all of them and really appreciate it. Thanks a lot in advance.

~Illusion137 (17th August, 2015)