"That won't be necessary; I thank you for your concern and like I said, I'm getting used to this place," Henry said. It's not like he didn't want to escape, but he couldn't trust a couple of kids, with insincerity in their eyes to do the job.
And to make things worse, they are the children of the man who put him there; who knows? It might all be a test to see if he has any intention of leaving the place.
"I... I understand, I shall respect your choice." Riley replied with a sad tone. Her plan was to help him escape so she could take him to her secret lab and work with him.
Although it was definitely going to anger her father, she was willing to do it, for the devil's power.
"Ok then, as for my second question, how good are you with the swords?" Raphael continued diverting the awkwardness.
"You mean swordsmanship?" Henry asked. "I don't know. My teacher never gave me good remarks, he always said my skills suck.
'Come to think of it, none of my teachers ever complimented me in their class.' Henry remembers.
"Although I have basics and some low-ranked sword skills down, but nothing more than that. I keep finding it difficult to learn mid-ranked and higher sword skills."
'Figures, he has no magic after all.' Raphael thought. "Do you want your big brother to teach you?" Raphael suddenly asked
"I would love that, but wouldn't that be troublesome to you? I must say, I'm a very frustrating student, and I wouldn't like to waste your time," Henry replied
'Sly brat, you can't avoid me that easily.' Raphael thought as he continued. "Why would that be troublesome? You're my brother; we are family, are we not?" Henry could see the glint in his eyes.
"Thanks a lot, brother; let's schedule a time then." He said with a forced smile making Raphael smirk.
"Ah... before I train you, I would like to see what you are capable of. Let's go to the training ground and spar." Raphael offered.
'So that's what he's after, to know how good I am in combat ' Henry thought.
"Now?"
"What do you mean, of course!" Raphael said.
"I apologize in advance for my skills will be unqualified for you. I beg that you take it easy on me." Henry bowed.
"I Definitely will," Raphael replied, and at this moment, Riley was feeling left out of the whole conversation; she couldn't bear it, so she had to speak her mind.
"Hey, you both are leaving me out of the conversation!" She pouted.
"Oh, sorry big sister. I guess you will have to spectate our match, then judge the results" Henry suggested.
"That's no fun, but ok, I will do that. Let's go!" She says in excitement.
"I will lead the way." Henry stands up and starts leading them to the training ground.
Behind him, his two siblings stared at each other. They knew how to cast telepathic spells, so they were speaking to each other mentally.
'Hey, I thought you would have poisoned the cupcake; you're being surprisingly nice today.' Raphael asked Riley
'I did, I definitely did, that's why I feel something's off about him.' Riley answered
'You sure you didn't add sweetener to it thinking it was poison? He seemed like he enjoyed it and if you're certain you did, how long does it take effect?"
'At most twenty seconds, but he's completely fine even after more than five minutes.' Riley answered.
'So what do you suspect?' Raphael asked.
'The devil. I suspect the devil inside of him may have suppressed the poison, or he developed enough mana to resist my poison.' Riley said
'That's a good theory, but it's highly unlikely. The devil wants him to lose so why would he help him?' Raphael reasons
'He's a devil. Why do you believe the words of the devil? He's literally the father of lies; besides, we aren't sure if he's a devil.' Riley says with frustration.
'He wouldn't be lying. What would he gain from lying to us? You should know that the devil is also selfish, he wouldn't waste his time lying to us just for fun. He's probably stuck inside Henry and needs us to get him out.'
'Stuck? The devil stuck?' Riley said, trying to point out the nonsense in the sentence.
"Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either. Well, it's just a theory after all
'Yeah, it doesn't make sense even as a theory. There's definitely something we're missing.' Riley said firmly.
'Interesting, although Riley, I highly doubt that the devil has anything to do with this; it's either you made a mistake, or, for some reason, it was nullified. If it turns out to be the devil's doing, then your guess is probably right, he might be lying to us.' Raphael said
'How are we supposed to find out if the devil is involved or not, besides...those eyes..'
'Yh, they are the same eyes grandma had. The powerless purple eyes.' Raphael said. They didn't actually see his eyes as a child; what they had seen then were glowing crimson-red eyes.
'I don't know what to think about him, he is already pissing me off.' Riley said
'I kind of like him though.' Raphael smirked.
'Why wouldn't you? He's exactly like you.' Riley barked.
'Except he's more dangerous' Raphael sounded very serious.
'You mean the devil?' That was the only thing Riley could think of that could make Henry more dangerous than Raphael.
'No, I mean... aargh, just forget it, you're too dumb to understand, it's probably useless trying to explain to you.' Raphael said.
'Get the fuck out of my head now!' Riley yelled in annoyance.
'Hehe." Raphael laughed inwardly and he stopped the telepathy spell.
The results were satisfactory for Raphael; whenever he mistakenly spills information that he doesn't want to tell Riley during their conversation, he takes advantage of her anger issues to change the topic.
He couldn't tell her exactly how dangerous he sensed Henry was; even without the devil, she could become a potential enemy in the future, so he had to keep that part of the information to himself. Besides it wouldn't hurt if Henry was tested on her.
'I wish we actually met as real brothers in a different family. Too bad we're going to be against each other. He's going to be a tough nut to crack though. I look forward to our engagement in the future.' Raphael thought as he looked at Henry, hiding his bloodlust so as not to release it unintentionally.
....
"I thought my life was complicated, turns out it was a lot simpler then. To think, I was imprisoned by my family, what am I?"