On Vivia's side.
"I need some answers, Clairette. What in the world is going on here!?"
The facade that Elvin had been keeping up all this time with every last strand of patience he could muster finally cracked. Dark clouds of indignation loomed over him as his impending shadow cornered Vivia from all sides.
"Are you that clueless or simply dumb? How could you do something so stupid that gets you engaged to a filthy demon!?" His voice crashed like sharp shards of broken glass that nipped past one's skin.
Xaviston stepped in to pacify his anger. "Your Highness, I urge you to calm down. Naturally, we won't agree to this engagement."
"Then tell this foolish sister of mine the magnitude of the blunder she just made!" He snapped. "To think that a royal princess proposed to the Demon Crown Prince? With what face are we supposed to return to Emberlain?"
In an irksome way, Vivia's heart pounded in her chest hard and fast. Uncomfortable and agonizing - a feeling that she despised. She looked small before Elvin's intimidating stature and cold voice. It wasn't the first time she had come across such men in her life, yet never once had she faltered before them. Her master's violent teachings in the past usually urged her to kick such men in their precious place, not cower in fear.
Yet here she was, chills seeping through every pores in her skin as if she stood weak and vulnerable, wanting to escape at a moment's notice. She knew she, as Vivia, wasn't afraid of Elvin, so the only conclusion left was Clairette reacting to his presence through her body.
Her piercing but unreadable gaze attempted to dissolve her body's tense, rising heartbeats.
"Won't you ask how I've been doing?"
"What?"
"Your sister was almost killed, but neither did you rise to hug me before, nor say even a few kind words of assurance to me."
Elvin blinked once, then twice as if her words sounded foreign to him.
"Kind words? You decide to go to the forest on your own, jeopardizing your safety, and then you've the audacity to expect kindness from me? For all I know, it would've been better if you had died. You would've regretted your foolishness at the very least. Also…"
He took a heavy step towards her, menace leaking through his expression as he peered into her eyes.
"I don't like your eyes. You're the same Clairette I've known for years, but why…do I now see a resistance in them? Why do you look and sound so different? Has living with the demons for the past few days changed you?"
Her heart climbed to her throat, which only served to be Clairette's body's physical reaction, not hers. It only imprinted Vivia's beliefs stronger than before - Clairette was fearful of the Emberlain Crown Prince. His gaze looked no different than a beast's, and with the kind of past that they shared, it didn't come as a surprise to her why her legs trembled at this time.
Her refusal to answer provoked his ire, and he forcefully grabbed her hand. "Answer me. Have they completely manipulated you into becoming their puppet!?"
Vivia inwardly winced. Elvin had happened to grab the same hand that was injured due to Astaroth's flames. It took all her strength and tolerance to not instinctively react to it, but her lips eventually began to quiver slightly.
If you think I'd be as docile as Clairette, then you're dead wrong.
She shook off her hand from his grasp which sent shockwaves of pain pulsating through her body, yet not even a single hair on her brows twitched even once. Though pain reflected nowhere in her eyes, a frosty chill did.
"That hurt. Do not grab my hand like that ever again."
Xaviston, Aeren and Elvin - all three couldn't recognize this new but icy light in her eyes.
"What the hell did you just say?" Elvin's head tilted slightly, darkness deepening the color of his eyes by several shades.
"I won't repeat myself."
"...How and when did you change so much? Your voice is very different. It feels rebellious and rude. I don't accept this at all."
"Your acceptance hardly matters to me. I'm more surprised to see Brother act so surprised. Is it so shocking to see me changed? I was at death's door, and you didn't even bother with a smile or a greeting. So, I thought I've had enough of this. Whether it's Emberlain or Rudaheim, I'm hated everywhere, am I not? So at the very least, I feel it's more tasteful to be hated by the demons because of my race rather than being scorned by my own family for absolutely no reason at all."
A crisp, cutting sound crackled in the air like thunder as a hard, vicious slap threw her face to the side.
"Your Highness…! What did you…" Xaviston's lips parted in disbelief, his ears still ringing with the deafening sound of that slap.
"I'm showing my sister her real place," Elvin's wintry voice rumbled akin to the tremors of an earthquake.
"How dare she forget it and show such disrespect to the Crown Prince? Living with the demons seems to have ignited some very unnecessary sentiments within her."
Elvin watched her gaze glued to the floor, unmoving and mute. She stood still as if time had stopped passing.
"Look at me and apologize to me. Right now."
No reaction twitched even a muscle of her body for a long, long time. At this point, outsiders would have confused her as a lifeless statue, not a living human.
The air then stirred just a little, quiet and pressing all at the same time. Her impassive emerald eyes stared dead straight at Elvin's dark irises. His heart skipped a long beat as if a blade was aimed right at his neck.
"You still have that nasty look-"
Nobody caught the exact moment when Elvin's head snapped to the side, just like how Vivia's had until moments ago. His eyes, which had been boring holes into her until now, were now locked onto the floor - just like how Vivia's were.
If Elvin's slap had shaken Aeren and Xaviston, then their sister's retaliation left them bewildered beyond recognition. The sound of her slap was loud enough to bring a tremble, yet it left behind an eerie silence.
Vivia closed the distance between them, Elvin's face being still tilted to the same side.
"Do not hit me again, Crown Prince Elvin Emberlain."
Dark madness illuminated every corner of her emerald irises. Her voice dropped even lower and crueler than Elvin's. Her cheek stung with the burn of his slap and so did her hand that reciprocated it down to its every last nauseating shiver.
"This time, I'll repeat myself so that your deaf ears get the message once and for all - Do not raise your hand against me ever again. That docile Clairette has long gone. I'm not your slave for you to trample upon."
Vivia bent further, relishing the same ugly, burning mark on his cheek.
"Accepting the new Clairette will be in your best interests, Crown Prince, not antagonizing me. Do you understand?"