The Prince From Another World

Adaptation

“T-This is delicious!” Zeel claimed as he stuffed more food into his mouth.

Yumeko, standing right beside Zeel, looked at him in disbelief. It was the last thing she thought he would say after tasting the food she made. After all, it was just an omelet with a bit of extra ingredients. She didn’t expect him to react like he just ate food made by a 5-star chef.

As quick as the shock washed over her, she recovered.

“I’m glad you are satisfied with the food, Master Zeel,” she said with a bit of a bow, still confused as to why he thought the food was delicious.

Yumeko stood there patiently, waiting for her Master to finish his meal. When he did, she immediately took the empty plate and washed them.

“Now, I want to take a walk outside.”

For a second, Yumeko could feel her heart stop beating. She gulped as numerous thoughts crossed her mind. She knew this would happen sooner or later, but she couldn’t come up with any excuses to make him stay inside. All she could do to keep her neck intact was to follow along with his whim.

“O-Of course Master Zeel. But I suggest we hide your demonic features to avoid attracting attention.”

“No need to worry about that. I have thought about how to deal with that,” Zeel said, followed by some rustling noise.

Yumeko turned her head around to see what the rustling noise was about. To her surprise, Zeel’s demonic features disappeared. His horns were nowhere to be seen, and his sharp ears turned normal. His armor was replaced by a blank black shirt and long blue jeans. And his fangs stopped poking out of his mouth. With his new look, he could easily pass as an average college student.

And the young girl just stood there, her heart skipping a beat as she realized how dashing Zeel actually was. Ever since their first meeting, Yumeko had been a bit scared of his horns and the likes because she thought he could use them to hurt her. But without those, she felt like the one standing before her was not the demon prince.

Setting that aside, despite the strength Zeel showed a couple times, his body was not as ripped as she thought. Her initial image of his body was the image of a buff bodybuilder whose muscle bulged like balloons.

“What are you staring at me for, human?!” Zeel snarled at her,  noticing her unbroken gaze on him. His voice derailed Yumeko’s line of thought.

“N-Nothing! I was just making sure nothing out of place was left out, Master.” Yumeko frantically turned back around and focused on cleaning the plates. It wasn’t really a lie. She was making sure nothing on him was out of the ordinary. It’s just that she got carried away admiring him.

“Hmph. I would never make such mistakes. My disguise is perfect,” Zeel huffed as he sat down on the couch in the living room.

“I will change my clothes as soon as I finish cleaning up, Master.”

After Yumeko finished washing the pan, she excused herself. She went to her room to change from her uniform into more appropriate clothes.

As she was considering which clothes she should wear, the realization hit her. If not for the master-slave relationship, this could be called a date.

But Yumeko shook her head furiously at the thought, reminding herself to not mess or joke around with the prince. The phrase ‘not a date’ kept repeating in her head as she kept rummaging through her wardrobe. She was simply showing him around the city. Nothing more.

Yumeko settled on wearing a plain white shirt with the picture of a cat on it and a red skirt that reached her knees. Then, after putting up a little bit of make-up, Yumeko left her room.

“Finally. Now let’s go-” Zeel froze when he saw Yume. Blood rushed up to his cheek, and his eyes locked onto her.

“M-Master?” she calmly called him.

“Y-Yes! Your way of dressing is certainly worthy of accompanying me. We shall leave at once,” Zeel hurriedly walked to the front door. He looked away from her to hide his red cheeks.

Of course, Yume saw him blushing, but she decided to pretend like she didn’t. After turning off the television and lights and making sure the gas was turned off, she met up with Zeel outside. She led him down to the end of the hallway and called the lift.

“What is this now?” Zeel asked while admiring the glowing lift button.

“This is called a lift, Master. It makes it easier to move between floors,” Yume explained. Not long after, the lift arrived, and the two walked in.

“Such machinery... I’m impressed.” The demon prince admired all sides of the lift like a child who just found a new toy to play with. She clicked the lobby button, and the lift started descending from the tenth floor. Zeel jolted a bit when they started dropping, but he managed to hide it from Yume.

“I’m sure there are other things that will fascinate you even more, Master.”

The two walked out of the lift and the apartment’s lobby. Zeel froze on his feet when he saw how many skyscraper buildings were surrounding them. How busy and filled the street was. And most of all, the mysterious metallic box that seemed to quickly move around without the help of any kind of animal.

“T-This world is much more advanced than I thought...” was all he could mutter in his amazement at the sight.

Yume proceeded to tell the demon lord about various things. About cars. About the buildings around them. While the information she fed him was only surface-level, it clearly blew his mind. And since many words couldn’t be translated, she had to go back and forth between his language and English when certain words came up.

For most of their conversation, they talked in his language. And Yumeko already had an excuse ready in case anyone asked what language the two were speaking in. She would just mention an obscure distant country. Though, she hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

“Who created all of this?! The man must be a prodigy!” Zeel said after Yume finished talking about the road and how they were built.

“They are created by different persons spanning thousands of years, Master. There is no one creator for them all. Everything you see around you is the result of either new innovation or improving previous ideas.”

“Hm... I see...” Zeel nodded his head at her explanation before turning to admire his surroundings again.

“Yumeko!” a voice suddenly called from behind them, startling the young girl. The last thing she wanted to happen was to meet someone she knew while the demon prince was around. Turning around, Yume found out the situation was not as bad as she thought. Her auburn-haired classmate and close friend, Kei, was running toward her.

“I knew it! It is you! Didn’t you tell us you were going to study?” Kei said as she hugged Yume.

“Y-Yeah, well-”

“And who is this guy?” Kei nudged Yume while looking at Zeel.

“I am-” the Demon Prince was about to explain himself, but Yumeko cut her off.

“He is my boyfriend, Zeel!” she blurted out. Kei’s eyes widened at the revelation while Zeel crossed his hands and stared at her in confusion. “I was planning to tell you, but...”

“So that’s why you go home early today... You want to go on a date with your secret boyfriend,” Kei said with a teasing grin.

“P-Please keep this a secret from my parents...”

“Oh! Don’t worry about that. Your secret is safe with me. I’m actually relieved to see that you have something outside of school, you know? Well, I shouldn’t be taking your precious dating time then. Call me later, ‘kay? I want to hear everything!” Kei teased her. Yume only smiled. Her friend hugged her before rushing off to continue on whatever she was doing.

“Boyfriend? What is that?” Zeel asked, oblivious as to what the word meant.

Yumeko gulped. She didn’t think things through and just blurted the first excuse that came into her mind.  If he knew what the word ‘boyfriend’ meant when she said it, he would probably immediately go berserk. But she couldn’t lie to him about what the word meant. The mark wouldn’t allow it.

As the demon prince would definitely make a scene, she pulled him into an alleyway before she started explaining to him.

“U-Uhm...  B-Boyfriend is used to call the male one in a relationship between lovers,” was the best explanation she could come up with. In his language, only the word lover existed. Other than that, the closest thing she could find was husband and wife.

“... WHAT?!”

“S-Sorry, Master Zeel! But Kei knew I don’t have any male relative that is older than me!”

Zeel grabbed her by the neck and lifted her. Her hands immediately wrapped around his, desperately trying to release his grip on her neck.

“I will not be the mate of a human. You are my slave, and I’m your Master. Don’t forget that,” Zeel gnarled. The overwhelming anger coursing through his body caused his fangs to slowly slide out his mouth and his horns to regrow.

“B-But there is no more.... s*****y in this world! There’s... no other explanation... that I can use!” Yumeko tried her best to explain between gasping for air. Zeel didn’t say anything. Instead, he responded by punching the wall right beside her head, creating a small crater.

“Fine. For now, I shall allow you to call me your lover. But nothing more. Do you understand?” Zeel said. Both his fangs and horn disappeared once more.

Yume could see in his eyes he was dead serious. She was replaceable to him. One more mistake, and he would get rid of her. After Yume frantically nodded, he let her go. She immediately took a deep breath., gasping for air. His grip was firm, almost strong enough to choke out all the air out of her body without even trying.

“We must continue our walk,” Zeel said as he walked out of the alleyway. Yumeko hurriedly stood up and caught up with him.

The two continued their walk until Zeel was satisfied. Yume was afraid he would anger him further, so she kept her mouth shut when she wasn’t answering his question. Only when she noticed the sun was sinking in the distance, she suggested returning to the apartment. He agreed, satisfied with the knowledge he gathered in a single day.

Luckily for her, the trip back went uneventful. She could only hope the following days would be smoother.