“It looks like he sent a full report,” Arel said in confusion.

“That’s what happens when one makes a fool pray to the gods!” Lis grinned.

“Here Vil managed to white a whole book, but there is still no news from the idiot Tol!” Arel said indignantly. “He’s definitely an idiot!”

“Well, don't you know Tol? He will send his report, I'm sure,” Lis reassured him.

“Come on, I'll try to read it,” volunteered Karina, seeing that none of her friends were eager to do this.

Arel readily thrust a sheaf of sheets into her.

She took the first page:

“Sooo… Arel, well, here he describes on a whole page how happy he is that we are alive and well. And how he loves us all. And… he calls you his big brother!”

“Then don't read it,” Arel said. “Look further.”

Karina began to read. Vil described in detail how he arrived at the Castle that ill-fated day and didn’t find anyone in the main hall. How he read Arel's note, how he found the will.

“Pass it,” Arel said quickly. “I don't want to listen to this!”

“And I'm already wondering,” said Lis.

“It's too personal, Lis,” Arel retorted. “It's none of your business.”

Karina dutifully skipped Vil’s outpourings on the topic of brotherly love and moved on to the story of how Vil found Enriki unconscious in the room. Vil described what happened in bright colors, and the friends froze, listening to how he injected water into Enriki’s vein to dilute the concentration of the poison, how he took him to the doctor and how Enriki survived thanks to Vil’s feat and the fact that he was not taken aback at a critical moment.

“And Kors lied to me that Enriki had overdosed,” Arel said quietly.

“I don't think he knew,” Karina tried to protect her father. “Vil writes that Caspar Janti kept everything a secret.”

Then Vil told how he met Zara. And Lis laughed:

“Zara! I remember that stripper whore!”

“Here he writes that they fell in love at first sight,” said Karina. She also remembered Zara, but was not sure what to tell about it.

“I don't want to hear anything about Zara!” Arel said too nervously, according to Karina, and she didn’t understand him. She wanted to answer him:

“Yes, Arel, I don’t want to hear anything about Zara either.” But she said:

“Arel, you tell me to skip everything. What then is the point of reading? How do we get news from the city? There is a lot about Zara and more…”

Then Vil told how Zara helped him and introduced him to very good people. How Morgan Talas began to help him and how they hold the Castle and Upper. And all the time he noted how great he was and how Arel can be proud of him.

At some point, looking up from reading, Karina looked at her friends and, seeing their bored faces, could not stand it, laughed:

“Arel, there are ten pages of layouts: all regulations, payments, income, expenses and accounting. Should I read?”

Arel, who was sitting with his hand on his cheek, shuddered:

“Eh? Of course not! Let it all go to hell! All this shit!”

Nikto held out his hand:

“Give it here, Karina, I'll figure it out. And I'll write Las what to do next.”

“Will you write it yourself?” Arel asked hopefully.

“Myself. Take it easy.”

“Right here, at the end,” said Karina, and her voice trembled:

“The lies about Enriki's death were revealed, and he, his sister Mily, doctor Caspar Janti and other accomplices were arrested and will be brought to trial. This was done by Leonardo, who now took over as Vitor Kors, and we could not do anything…”

“What?” Arel barely uttered, he put his hand on his throat, as if something prevented him from speaking, and looked questioningly at Nikto.

“Are you sure, Nik, that everything is going according to plan?” He asked carefully and with excitement.

And Nikto smiled torturedly:

“Yes.”

“It was easier to pretend to be a lamb, wasn't it, Nik?” Lis said, looking closely at the upset Nikto. “No expectations from you. And now we've put everything on you. And we are waiting for the results. Don't let us down!”

“Don’t be afraid of anything!” Nikto said firmly. “You are just people, and your fear will get you nowhere.”

“Are these the words of a Demon or a human?” Lis asked and smiled as he had not smiled for a long time. And, opening his mouth, showed them the tip of his tongue, which was now bifurcated, like the sting of a snake.

And Nikto turned away.

“Enriki’ss girl, Agatha, turned out to be alive, she served Caspar Janti in the hospital until his arrest, and later was sent to an orphanage in the “Lower City”. Agatha escaped from the shelter and returned to our Castle. Zara likes her a lot and allowed her to pick up a kitten. The kitty has grown up and has now brought three kittens,” Karina read, but, looking up and seeing the expression on their faces, stopped short.

Nikto had studied Vil’s report for a couple of hours and wrote a response to him and Morgan Talas. And Prince Arel was lying on the bed, unable to fall asleep, and now he drank, then smoked, then admired his Nik, then tossed and turned from side to side. Finally, he could not resist:

“Nik?”

“Yes. What? Arel, I'm a little busy, you see. I'll fuck you later. Be patient.”

“I am not talking about that…”

“Come on! And what about then?” Nikto spoke distantly, without taking his eyes off the notes.

“Will you… will you take revenge on Leonardo? He… he… did a lot of harm to me. And Enriki and Mily, and this favorite doctor of yours. So? The one who saved you from death and from whom you studied. Is that so?”

Nikto looked up, looking up from the papers:

“Everyone will get what they deserve,” he said very seriously. “Don't worry, Arel.”

He looked down at the papers again.

And Arel sighed, he lay on the bed and looked at the ceiling. And his face was sad, as if he was remembering or thinking about something bad.

“The devil is perfectly aware of his weakness and impotence. He understands that he has no real power to influence people. That is why he tries to persuade them to cooperate, to assist. Having found a weak point in a person, he tries to influence him in one way or another, and often he succeeds. First of all, the devil wants us to fear him, thinking that he has real power. And if a person falls for this bait, he becomes vulnerable and susceptible to “demonic arrows”, that is, those arrows that the devil and demons shoot into the soul of a person.

Mily looked gratefully at Vil, Zara, Morgan Talas and his friends who stood next to her in the Temple of the Gods.

“How can I thank you?! For saving me from prison and finding laws that made me innocent!”

Vil looked at her with an affectionate smile.

“Mily, don't thank us. Thank our Gods, they saved you!”

“Yes, yes!” Mily warmly supported, folding her hands in a prayer gesture. “I, too, will go to the Temple now, like you, and thank the Gods, and pray to them for the salvation of my precious Enriki!”

She looked with benevolent lust at the preacher, who continued his sermon to the audience.

“The entrance of the devil into the soul of a person is opened, as I said, by magic, witchcraft, drugs, alcoholic addiction. Sexual, mental and other forms of addiction pose a tremendous spiritual danger. We must take care not to be dependent on anything in life, in order to be spiritually and physically as free as possible. A person who controls his mind, his heart, his actions can always resist the devil. The one who turns out to be a slave to some passion or vice becomes unable to repel the onslaught of the devil.”

You may ask: to what extent is the devil able to influence our thought at all? How much does he even know what is happening in our thoughts, in our heart? How competent is he in matters of spiritual life? I have formed the conviction, on the basis of the holy scriptures and my personal observations, that the devil has no direct knowledge of our internal processes. At the same time, being very experienced, he dealt with many people, and worked with each one individually, he uses these skills and recognizes what is going on inside a person by external signs. And looking for the most vulnerable spots. For example, when a person is in pride, it is very easy for the devil to influence him. But the only thing that the devil is capable of is to throw some sinful thought into a person. For example, the thought of even greater power, the crown. And he does this not because the inner world of a person, his heart is open to him, but only focusing on external signs. Having instilled in a person some thoughts, the devil is not able to control what will happen to him next. And if a person knows how to distinguish which thought came from the Gods, and which – from the demons, and reject sinful thoughts at their very appearance, the devil cannot do anything. The devil grows stronger as a sinful or passionate thought enters the human mind. There is a teaching about the gradual, step-by-step penetration of sinful thoughts into the soul of a person. The essence of this teaching is that if a person is on guard of his mind, he can reject this thought, “blow and spit” on it, and the devil will disappear. If a person becomes interested in a thought, begins to consider it, to talk with it, he conquers more and more territories in a person's mind until he embraces his whole nature, soul, heart and body!