Hadyan smiled faintly seeing the three girls get confused. But still, he focused his gaze on one of the girls who was standing on the left in a thin yellow t-shirt with a cartoon picture and hot pants.
"Maybe her friends will think she is crazy." He thought amused.
He remained standing next to the room he had used as a fake room to trick Tasia last night. Because of his supernatural powers, he can make his form invisible to normal human eyes.
Hadyan immediately changed his form back into a snake demon after that three girls went back to the beach.
They ride a giant banana boat game that was often ridden by tourists visiting the beach. Hadyan knew what would happen when the banana ride reaches the middle of the sea.
He immediately swam into the deep sea and waited in the dark. Until he could see water foam on the surface of the water, a sign that the boat was passing above his head. He waited, unable to hold back a smile on his lips. And what he had been waiting for, had finally happened. The banana boat toppled over and dropped all the passengers who rode it into the open sea. At that moment, he shot up and pulled down the pair of legs of his target girl quickly without anyone noticing.
Tasia widened her eyes when she felt someone pulling her legs into the deep sea. She struggled, because she was afraid and couldn't breathe, moreover it turned out that the life jacket she was wearing had been torn for some time.
Quickly, she looked down at what was pulling her leg so strongly. How surprised she was, when she realized that her legs were coiled up by a tail of a large black snake.
"Snake? Snake demon?!" Tasia thought the worst.
But she could not see the head of the snake as she was pulled deeper, down into the darkness of the deep ocean.
She struggled to escape from that snake coil with all her strength but it seemed useless. And how surprised and relieved she felt, when she saw there was a man swimming and holding her hand.
"Oh.. thank you, God. Someone saved me!" She shouted gratitude in her heart.
Tasia caught the man's hand back, but strangely, the man smirked. In the seawater. Until she thought, how could someone dive so deep and still be able to grin?
Then Tasia turned her eyes to the man's body. He was shirtless, and... he was not human. Because from the waist down his body was in the form of a snake body.
Tasia almost fainted. And then, quickly Hadyan wrapped his snake body around the girl's body more and positioned himself behind Tasia's back and covered her face with both hands. At that moment, Tasia was able to breathe underwater. But, because she was too shocked by what she had seen, she ended up fainting anyway.
Hadyan didn't wrap himself around her too tightly, but was strong enough to keep Tasia from slipping away from him. He swam deeper into the seabed until he reached the back gate of the palace which faced directly into the dark open sea.
The gate opened and Hadyan immediately changed his form back into a human and stepped inside with Tasia in his arms. The kingdom had a magical portal that made its air separate from seawater.
"Your highness." Greet the ladies-in-waiting, surrounded to him.
"Prepare my room." He ordered.
"All right, My Lord!" They bowed and immediately carried out the order.
Hadyan laid Tasia's limp body on his master bedroom decorated with jewels.
"Madam swallowed a lot of water, My Lord. Her human body is very weak." Said the royal physician who was standing beside the bed.
Hadyan put his ear on Tasia's chest to hear the sound of water and her heartbeat. Then he quickly sucked out the water through Tasia's mouth.
Not long after, Tasia started coughing but she was still unable to come to her senses. Meanwhile, the ladies-in-waiting dried Tasia's body and changed her clothes.
***
"Ah.. Please!" Tasia muttered, still half-conscious.
She felt very bad pain in her head and chest. She vaguely tried to remember what she had experienced while playing the banana boat earlier.
She struggled to open her heavy eyes. Slowly her hands, feet, and whole-body began to regain their sense of feeling. And she felt someone holding her left hand.
"Is this.. a bed? Guys?" Tasia mumbled, thinking that she was most likely in the hospital by now.
Tasia squinted her eyes so that she could see more clearly the figure of a man who was sitting on the left side of her bed and was the one who had been holding her hand.
"Pa.. Patra?" She guessed in blurred vision.
"Don't mention any other men's names in front of me, beautiful." Tasia immediately jumped to hear the deep voice that she had never heard before.
Slowly her vision began to recover and she immediately forced herself to sit, "Who are you? Where am I?"
"Calm down Tasia. You are safe here. This is my palace. Someday, this place will be your home too." Hadyan replied.
"I.. Palace? Akh! My chest hurts so bad. Where are my friends, Sir?" She clutched her chest which felt tight and very cold.
"Take this medicine first, you will feel better." Hadyan handed a small glass of black medicine liquid from the table. Leading Tasia to drink it while holding her back. He was worried and felt guilty that he had to take Tasia in this way. Honestly, he didn't want to see Tasia hurt at all.
Tasia took the glass and gulped down its contents. Slowly she felt the warmth in her chest and the tightness she felt slowly began to disappear.
Hadyan smiled, "How are you feeling now? Are you feeling better? You swallowed too much seawater. That's why your chest is tight."
Tasia nodded, "Yes, thank you very much, Sir.". And then her eyes got bigger in a second, "Ah! Sir!" Tasia glared with a panicked face.
"Yes?" Hadyan answered.
"I drowned because I was pulled by a snake demon, Ser! He wanted to kill me! I was playing a banana boat, and then when I fell he grabbed my leg and coiled up my body! I was so scared! Lucky, you saved me. Otherwise, I would have died now! Thank you very much, Sir." She told the story in passion while shaking the man hand thankfully.
Hadyan laughed by hearing Tasia's chatter, "I won't kill you, Anastasia."
Tasia frowned and stared intently at Hadyan's face, "Wait... you, you look like that snake demon!" She exclaimed after a glimpse of the demons' face that dragged her into the sea earlier began to appear in her mind.
Hadyan changed his form into a child last night and turned back to his normal form again, "I am Hadyan. I am the demon snake that dragged you to the bottom of the sea."
"What?!" Tasia immediately looked around, and then she just realized that she was in a huge room that felt strange with lots of big windows showing the dark wide ocean with several big fish swimming past it.
At that moment, Tasia realized her folly. Everything that Hadyan had said, that she was in the palace. How Hadyan changed his figure into a child last night. The myth of a mystical kingdom and a popular snake demon that told by the locals. Everything was starting to make sense now.
Knock! Knock!
Someone knocked on the bedroom door.
"Enter," Hadyan said.
Then the bedroom door opened and a tall black demon with big red eyes, fangs with a tongue between them that sticking out long enough to reach the floor, walked in.
"Aaaaaaaa!!!" Tasia immediately screamed in fear, taking cover on Hadyan's dashing back when she saw the scary monster-like figure.
Hadyan and the black demon were shocked to see Tasia's reaction and just remembered that she was a human who was not used to seeing their form.
"Get out! She's afraid to see your form. I'll see you later." Hadyan ordered quickly by hugging Tasia who was still crying in fear.
"I'm scared! I want to go home! Help me, Mom! I'm scared!" She screamed in panic, but still, she was hiding in Hadyan's arms.
"Shh! Calm down, Tasia. He's gone. Don't be afraid, I'm here." He whispered as stroking Tasia's head.
"I'm scared! I want to go home, the ghost is so scary, it will eat me alive!"
"No, he's not as bad as you think. Look, he's gone now.." Hadyan released his arms to prove his words.
"Aaaaaa!! Don't!" Tasia pulled Hadyan's body back, so she could still hide inside the man's chest.
Hadyan sighed. Didn't think that liking humans would be this difficult. Tasia was more coward than he had imagined before.
"Anastasia.. please calm down. He is gone. Look, I won't leave you. Trust me." He slowly shifted his position to the side and still embraced Tasia's trembling body.
Tasia held onto Hadyan's hand tightly and she used the other hand to close her own eyes.
"I'm afraid, don't go!" She cried.
"I'm not leaving you. I'm here to take care of you. They're afraid of me. This is my palace." He said again by gently pulling Tasia's hand which was used to cover her eyes.
Tasia started to calm down, so she complied to open her eyes. Then she looked around, and it was true that there were only the two of them in the room.
"Am I right? I'm not lying.." He whispered softly.
Tasia looked at Hadyan who smiled kindly at her. Then tears started to well up in her eyes again, "I want to go home. I don't want to be here. I'm sorry if I was rude, so you caught me here. Please send me home. I'm begging you!"
Hadyan massaged his forehead slowly, "You didn't do anything wrong, Tasia. I brought you here because I have chosen you to be my empress in this kingdom."
"What? Empress?" Tasia repeated.
Hadyan nodded, "Yes, I have chosen you as my consort. So, from now on you will live here with me."
Tasia shook her head quickly, "No! I don't want to! I don't know you! Besides, I have a home. Also, my grandmother and my friends are waiting for me there. I don't want to be your empress. I want to go home!"