My Wives are Beautiful Demons

22  The truth behind the kidnapping...

At this moment, everything was truly calm, better than ever.

The silence inside the car was almost perfect. The radio played soft music quietly, the wind made the window vibrate, and the night road seemed endless.

Four people were crammed inside a small car that clearly wasn't made for this many people, but no one complained...

No one made any noise... just their calm breathing as they enjoyed the peace... For now.

Vergil kept his eyes on the road, focused, while Roxanne was sitting comfortably on his lap, something that made Katharina want to gouge her own eyes out in disgust.

After all, she should be the one sitting there! Not Roxanne!

But everything was going well until Ada decided to break the peace like a wrecking ball. Noticing that Vergil was focused on the road, she quickly made a comment:

"Okay, something's been bothering me for a while."

Vergil rolled his eyes but didn't take his focus off the road. "Here we go..." he muttered... He already imagined she would say something to provoke another and start another childish fight, but he pretended not to hear and stayed focused!

"Why were you pretending to be dying?" Ada shot directly at Roxanne, who suddenly opened her eyes, like a child caught stealing cookies.

Roxanne smiled nervously, trying to adjust herself on Vergil's lap. "Me? I don't know what you're talking about. I was captured, you know? Totally out of my control, we all know that."

Ada narrowed her eyes as if about to lay all her cards on the table. "Oh, yes... Interesting, isn't it?... Because, as far as I remember, you don't get captured that easily, right? And... you're not weak either..."

Vergil shrugged, uninterested. "Leave Rox alone, Ada. She's still recovering." He said this while keeping his attention on the road, but clearly not taking the conversation seriously.

The last thing he wanted was to lose control of the car because of a ridiculous argument.

'If I crash the car, do we actually die? Or with this whole being demons thing, do we come out unscathed like superheroes? Hmm... Better not test that.' He thought, an intrusive thought that left him a bit confused.

Katharina, who had been silent until then, leaned forward, sticking her head between the two front seats, her eyes blazing with anger. Well, she had plenty of reasons for that.

"Ada is right. Roxanne is blatantly lying, again." She commented, almost letting her demonic aura seep from her eyes as she stared at Roxanne.

Vergil laughed without taking his eyes off the road. "Even you, Katharina? Don't let her cute face fool you."

"She's a demon, remember?" Katharina replied coldly, her eyes practically boring into Vergil.

He raised one hand in a weak defense. "Hey, calm down, like, we're all demons, but... You guys are cute too, so you're not far off from her."

Katharina and Ada shot deadly glares, the kind that says, "One wrong move and you're dead."

"Do you also have this complex with the word 'cute'? Seriously?" Vergil asked, but of course, he was completely ignored.

"Roxanne, come on, just confess," Katharina said, visibly irritated. She was already at her limit with this whole situation and, honestly, was one step away from punching someone (probably Roxanne).

Roxanne turned her head to the window, clearly trying to avoid the line of fire. "I already told you, I don't know what you're talking about." She was trying to sound casual, but her voice was trembling.

Ada didn't care about the lame excuse. With a sinister smile, she pulled out her phone and said, while the sound of her typing echoed:

"Side B, Back Room, near the old desk, password: CutieNeverAgain22, inform Lady Sitri."

Roxanne nearly had a heart attack.

She turned so fast she almost knocked the phone out of Ada's hands.

"YOU WOULDN'T DARE!" She roared.

Ada waved the phone, threatening to send the fatal message. "Oh, I would. And you know what happens if I send this to your mom, right? She'll find out about your candy stash... And then, you know what happens."

Vergil, in the middle of all this, was trying to hold back his laughter. He clearly knew where this was going but was more focused on not crashing the car than stopping the sugary apocalypse about to unfold.

Roxanne, finally cornered, threw her hands up. "Alright, alright! I confess!" She took a deep breath, trying to maintain some dignity. "They... they stole my candy, okay?!"

The car erupted in simultaneous shouts. "WHAT?!" n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Vergil, startled, almost lost control of the steering wheel, causing the car to swerve dangerously on the road. "DAMN IT!!" He managed to regain control at the last second, breathing heavily.

"Explain this properly!" Ada practically shouted, holding the phone like it was a weapon. "You pretended to be dying because... they stole your candy?"

Roxanne squirmed nervously on Vergil's lap, who was clearly trying not to laugh. "They... they called me 'cute'... and... and... I couldn't handle it, okay?!"

Katharina let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Roxanne Sitri, please tell me you're not serious. Please tell me you didn't almost die just because someone called you 'cute'," Ada said.

Roxanne crossed her arms and shrugged, as if the fate of the world was irrelevant compared to this. "Glad you caught on quickly."

Katharina, visibly at a loss for words, muttered: "You... did this again?"

"Again?!" Vergil turned to them for a second, incredulous. "What do you mean 'again'?"

Ada let out a heavy sigh. "That's why we weren't even worried when they took her. We should've known it was drama over some dumb comment."

"Should've just let her die..." Katharina said, shaking her head, a cruel smile forming on her lips.

Roxanne, shamelessly, looked at them and just smiled. "You'll never understand."

"Wait... You..." Vergil said, now realizing what was happening. He rubbed his face with his hand and sighed. "What did I get myself into..." he muttered, slapping his palm on his forehead. "Explain yourself."

Roxanne, trying to maintain her composure, shrugged. "Where should I begin...?"

A day and a half ago... before being kidnapped...

"Hi! I'd like two bags of raspberry candy, acai, sprinkles, a chocolate bar, and, oh, some gummy cats," Roxanne said casually while speaking to a server at a themed Coffe, all dressed in Maid style.

The clerk, a girl who barely seemed out of her teens, blinked several times, confused and clearly impressed. She looked Roxanne up and down, observing her absurdly perfect body. It was as if everything defied human logic. "J-just this, miss?" The clerk stammered, the shock of how someone apparently in their twenties could eat so many sweets and still have a body like that was palpable.

Roxanne smiled, leaning slightly over the counter, tossing her hair back as if she were about to reveal some great cosmic secret. "Yes, dear, just this. Unless you have something special hidden back there... a secret offer, perhaps?"

The clerk turned completely red, her brain trying to process what was happening as she looked back at the candy stock.

"So, you were at a themed café buying more sugar than needed for an entire party?" Vergil interrupted, clearly incredulous, while Roxanne seemed to be mentally reliving the moment with a satisfied smile.

"Yes, exactly," Roxanne replied with the utmost nonchalance.

"And does this have anything to do with you being captured?" Vergil continued, raising an eyebrow.

She shrugged again. "It all started there. A customer next to me said something. And that... changed the course of things."

Vergil sighed, now completely exasperated. "Tell me what he said wasn't—"

"Yes." Roxanne interrupted him with a forced smile. "He called me cute."

Roxanne dramatically sighed and began to recount her story. "So, after he called me cute, I got furious. I couldn't help it, you know? I let out a bit of my demonic aura. Not much, just enough to make him rethink his life."

Vergil raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering where this absurd story was going. "Just a little?"

"Yes, just enough to turn the table next to us into ashes, but of course, that didn't happen. I stopped quickly when I saw the clerk coming back with all the candy I had ordered. After all, priorities, right?" Roxanne shrugged as if she were telling something trivial, not a nearly demonic outburst.

"Okay, and up to that point, it still doesn't explain why you were kidnapped, Roxanne!" Ada cut in, crossing her arms impatiently.

Roxanne made a face, clearly annoyed at being interrupted. "Calm down, calm down, I'm getting there." She continued: "I left the Maid Café with my bags of candy when, out of nowhere, that idiot who called me cute shows up again. And before I could react, he caught me off guard with a divine chain. You know, the kind that even a demon like me can't move through."

Vergil shook his head, already tired of the story. "He paralyzed you... with a divine chain? And he... stole your candy?"

Roxanne looked at him as if it were obvious. "Yes! He stole my candy and kidnapped me. I was vulnerable!" She dramatically turned to Vergil as if expecting a supportive reaction, but the silence in the car was deafening.

Ada sighed deeply. "So, all of this started... because someone called you cute and stole your candy?"

"Exactly!" Roxanne replied, now sounding like she was justifying the greatest crime in history. "I couldn't let that go."

Katharina, who had been listening from the back, finally couldn't take it anymore. "I swear, Roxanne... every time you open your mouth, I lose more faith in our collective sanity. You almost died over... candy?"

"You'd die for it, and I'm not holding that against you, right?" Roxanne said, pointing her finger at Vergil, and Katharina lost her argument completely. So she decided to continue explaining:

"Ugh, he started eating the candy in front of me... So I decided not to do anything he wanted, he had tried to hurt my pride." She said.

"Roxanne... weren't you tortured?" Vergil asked, concerned.

"Hm? Since when does torture hurt?" She shrugged, and Vergil looked at Ada and Katharina...

"Problems with the Father..." They said...

Vergil fell silent... He couldn't even think or process what he had just heard...

"I'm going to see a therapist when I get home..." He said, tired, as he refocused on driving, before he went crazy with these women.

-------

<Author's Note>

Hey, remember to use your Golden Tickets and Power Stones to help the work reach new heights!