“Hmm... let’s just say we’re reted and nothing more”

  “Makes sense, you’re simir after all, I didn’t know they had more family~”

  The spider woman turned around after looking at me, and went to the two struggling men.

  “Be quite dearies, We’ll continue ter”

  She then grabbed them by their neck, and their struggle slowed down, until they went completely silent, they’re not dead, probably just asleep.

  “Are you here on behalf of the cult? What can I help you with sweetheart?”

  “I’m not part of the cult, as for why I’m here, well”

  Hmm, It feels a bit awkward to just barge in and ask her for a favor, but it’s pretty clear that she’s just making time to see me, so I can’t really stall.

  “I heard the elves asked for an ambassador, So I was told you could help me out by contacting them”

  “Hmm? Why would you want to go to Atrille?”

  “Let’s just say familiar affairs”

  Charlotte is pondering, rummaging through different cocoons of silk, as if she’s looking for something in particur.

  “Sorry I can’t, you’re a foreigner, how could I let you walk in and risk ruining our retionship with the elves”

  “Umm... saying that I’m half-elf won’t help?”

  “If you were reted to the elves, you wouldn’t need to ask for help, you’d just be with the rest of them to begin with”

  “Touché, let’s just say my situation is pretty peculiar, but I need to get into their country”

  “Tuche? Anyways, that’s still a no, I will go there personally as ambassador as always, they tend to look down on people so my frightening appearance helps with negotiations, besides, people of the cult cannot involve themselves, was it not the rules we set up? I’ll have a serious talk with Aaron and Hope ter”

  “I’m telling you, I’m not part of the cult”

  “I’m not angry at you sweetie, but you’re the redheaded hooded woman that went around helping in the fight, were you not wearing a cult hood then?”

  “How do you-”

  “I have ears everywhere, plus a lot of people talked about you. I'm grateful for what you did however, what do you need from the elves? maybe I can negotiate to get it”

  Hmm, I doubt she’ll be able to get the ring Maldi is after, actually forget even trying, didn’t he say that only I can open the seal of its resting pce or whatever.

  “Look, it’s a long story, let me expin”

  No point in hiding information, well, just keep Maldi under the rags, essentially expining the ring in the forest, and how only I can access it, given the nepotism of the whole situation, and that for certain reasons, I need to get my hands on it.

  “Say, when you say a ring, you mean something like this? Give me a second”

  She went to another room, the sound of her legs on the wooden floor was actually wild. She's probably heavier than what I’m imagining, I just hope she can’t read minds.

  “This?”

  She handed me an open ring box, with a rusty, bckened ring, it’s one of the other twelve!

  “Oh! Not exactly what I’m looking for, but I’m also gathering those!”

  I was gonna touch it, but Charlotte quickly closed the box and got it out of reach.

  “I can’t just hand it over, this ring is important for the people, at least for the ones that founded the town, how can you prove you’re who you cim to be, and not simply a thief?”

  “Well, it’s simple, let me just ‘touch’ the ring, nothing more”

  “Hmm...”

  “I won’t take it, promise”

  The ring is important, but not the priority, I need her on my good side, and fighting over a ring would be stupid, at the very least it’s convenient to prove my identity, in the end, Charlotte agreed and opened the box once again, I simply touched it with my finger, making it glow brightly like all the others, it was blinding given we were in pitch bck darkness, but once it was done, the silvery gleam returned, as well as the blue gem with a symbol on it.

  “Wow, you weren’t lying, amazing”

  She looked at the ring, picking it in her slender fingers, and pcing it back on the box.

  “Very well, if you do some work for me, I’ll let you tag alongside me with the elves~”

  “...Hmm...”

  I cross my arms while looking straight at her.

  “It won’t be much, I promise~”

  “I’m sure it’s not, but if there’s something that I really hate in life, is being lied to”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have no intention to let me tag along, why lie?”

  “But I’m telling the truth~”

  “...is that so, then there’s no way for me to get your help then, unfortunate”

  I was getting ready to leave, simply turning around, but Charlotte scuttled quickly to intercept me, cutting off the path to the exit.

  “Wait! Don’t just go sweetheart, you win, I would never let you come along, how could you tell?~”

  “I was born with the ability to tell when people lie, so don’t try to py me”

  “Oho~ Just what I needed! Look, let’s talk with honesty then”

  She continued moving around, beckoning me to a chair to take a seat.

  “No hard feelings sweetie, I’m just doing what’s best for the town, a stranger ruining things is not good for my image, plus I can’t trust you, so nothing you say will change my mind, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reach an agreement~”

  “I have one goal, if you can’t help me with it, there’s nothing to negotiate”

  “Don’t be like that, I’m sure there might be things I can offer you, like this ring perhaps?~”

  “I do want it, but it’s not a priority, I can just take it from your corpse if needed”

  Charlotte was taken aback, honestly, I get where she’s coming from, but that doesn’t mean I like her in the slightest, she has her own agenda, much like me, and if she’s willing to lie to my face to get what she wants, that’s not someone I can trust with something this important.

  “Well it seems your mind is already set, And I was hoping we could be friends, at least hear me out, you’re probably a great spellcaster no?”

  “Perhaps”

  “Then help me out with rebuilding some things in town, and I’ll give you the ring, depending on how you do, I ‘might’ reconsider my opinions, would that be acceptable”

  “Hmm, you’re just mincing words to not lie, but not telling the whole truth either”

  “I can’t deny nor confirm your cims, plus I’m not as stubborn to never change my mind, I have been surprised before~”

  “That doesn’t change much, you’re basically saying that there’s a minuscule almost nonexistent chance, that’s still not enough for me”

  If she thinks that I’m gonna accept blindly to her demands for crumbs, then she’s just pissing me off even more.

  “True, but you need me, if that were not the case, you wouldn’t seek me out, I will use my only bargain chip and stretch it as much as possible~”

  “Honestly, a smart choice, fine, the ring is fine, but 1 day, I can’t remain in town any longer, so the things you need me to do better be quick”

  “Very well, allow me to think about the things I need you to do, and send you on your merry way~”

  Charlotte then started writing letters at quite fast speeds within a small desk in the room, 4 in total, and held them in her hands.

  “If you complete these tasks in what’s left of the day, I’ll even let you be our ambassador, as well as give you the ring, would that be acceptable?”

  ...Well she’s not lying, what’s the trick? She’s doing her best to hide it, but there’s a certain aura around her, it almost feels like she’s grinning with a poker face.

  “First up, rebuilding of the entire town borders, we are quite unprotected, so give this letter to Daniel from the construction crew, and he has to give his thumbs up on the wall”

  Yikes, building the entire borders, that sounds quite hefty!

  “Next up, a lot of the crops were burned by the empire, they need to be repnted so show these letter to the farmers, and they have to be content with your work”

  “This is a bit excessive, no?”

  “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, next up, inspect the river that is our water source, we wouldn’t be surprised that the ground water was poisoned, so we just have to make sure it’s all ok to drink”

  Ok, that one sounds bad, would the empire go that far? I guess I did kinda do the same to them to a certain degree, did I give them the idea?

  “And finally, there’s a festival that was gonna occur tonight, help us see that it happens without a hitch, and that will be that”

  “You realize that there’s only like, 6 hours left of the day tops no?”

  “And? All of these things were tasks we would work slowly towards, and the reason we need the help from the neighboring elves, if you can supply for us, we wouldn’t have a need for their aid, plus you said you were in a hurry~”

  “So it’s like that huh? You give an impossible task, with unreasonable timeframes, because you never intended me to go”

  “Well, put yourself in my situation, the rough estimates indicate we lost 40% of our popution, our pce is in shambles, we are unprotected, without anything to eat or drink, then you, a complete stranger appears and make unreasonable demands, I find it fair wouldn’t you think so?”

  There’s a certain hint of anger in her voice, this certainly eroded completely, perhaps she can also sense my anger? Let’s just try to salvage the situation.

  “Hmm, I agree with your conditions, except with the timeframe, give me more days, and I’ll do your stupid jobs”

  “That won’t do, I have to depart to Atrille this instant, in fact I’m already running te, so I guess we’re at an impasse”

  She didn’t even look at me, she turned around and started crawling up the wall with his prisoners while turning her back towards me.

  “We are, thanks for your time”

  “Don’t take it like that sweetie, the festival will probably still happen, so stay at least for that, you’re always welcomed here”

  “Sure sure, get lost”

  “Love you too baby, and thanks for not disturbing my little friends, most visitors step on them accidentally~”

  “I’ll burn your house down”

  Sigh...

  Well that was a waste of time, honestly after hearing the situation I can’t bme her, plus it was never part of the pn, time to go by myself then, bringing Ceryse would be dangerous, and a liability, that just leaves us with the siblings, which honestly, sound even worse of an option, I think I would just have better luck trying to break through the border by myself.

  Man the town is in shambles, it’s actually quite a sad sight, houses demolished and broken down, blood stains remaining on the floor, and despite everything, the remaining demons are working nonstop, even as the sun is about to set, some even with quite gruesome injuries, helping with the rebuilding.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Hmm, ah! What can I help you with cutie?”

  “I’m looking for an inn”

  “Aww, did you lose your home as well baby? I-”

  “Oh, it’s not that, I’m looking for one in particur, the innkeeper is a woman named Jane, she took my friend for a moment, and I don’t know where that is”

  “Ah, I see, it’s straight through this street, then turn to the right after three blocks, can’t miss it”

  “Thanks”

  We are kinda in the center of town, so I’m not surprised it’s close, honestly were it not the smell of blood on the streets, I would’ve just tracked Ceryse myself.

  I’m guessing it’s this one, the only one that have a tattered ‘inn’ sign, the pce it’s in shambles, but then I saw Jane and a man I don’t know, working to patch up the holes in their property with the pnks, and her daughter helping by carrying things and passing them nails and the like, honestly it reminded me of the kids back when we were rebuilding orphanages.

  I wonder how many kids are orphaned here as well after all that happened.

  “Ah! Marisa, welcome, your friend passed out as soon as she hit the bed, she must’ve been exhausted”

  “Yeah, thank you for looking out for her”

  I was gonna offer her payment for her troubles and the like, but all that came out was the sound of my stomach rumbling, man how embarrassing, but honestly, I am very hungry and tired, I’m just trying to not let it show on my face, my meals have been scarce since Celestial left, and on this town as well, the only time I had a proper meal was in Maldi’s castle.

  “You must be starving baby, when was the st time you had anything to eat?”

  “I err, yesterday, but that’s ok I-”

  “Yesterday!? That’s no good, you’re still growing baby, come I’ll make you something to eat”

  “No it’s fine, given my physiology, I can only eat blood, anything else doesn’t actually fill my stomach”

  “Oh! Are you a dhampir baby? That’s ok, we serve vampires in the inn as well, allow me to fix you up”

  “Eh? I’m not a vampire or simir though, it’s... complicated to say the least”

  “But you need blood, no? We keep some stored for vampires and some other very specific dishes, let me get you some, don’t be shy”

  “Thanks...”

  I accompanied her into another tattered room, next to a dining hall that surprised me. It was filled with people, mostly children who were very shaken, having a somewhat decent meal.

  “This?...”

  “Oh, the poor dears lost their families or their parents are working helping rebuild, we’re offering them a meal in the meantime”

  She mentioned while continuing through some stairs into what looks to be a pantry, I say that but it’s quite empty.

  “Rough times?”

  “Haha, yeah, we may have troubles for our future patrons, but you know, letting people go hungry is never a good idea, I help them today and they’ll help me tomorrow, just a matter of perspective”

  “I see”

  “Here you go baby, It’s not much but take it”

  She handed me a rge gss container of blood, ok it’s not that rge, but will do nicely, I was thinking of going around gathering it from corpses, so this beats doing that, at least for the moment.

  You know, I actually expected demons to be, you know, closer to selfish monsters, simir to the mythology I knew about, but despite that, they seem quite chill people, if they’re willing to help each other like this. It’s more than what I’ve seen some humans do.

  Honestly, I might have abused of Jane’s hospitality. I went where Ceryse was and id on the bed with her to rest for a while, nothing lewd since she’s sleeping like a log, although her tears are still flowing even in her dreams.

  ...Dreams, shouldn’t dreams be happy and cheerful? Unless it’s a nightmare, I guess it’s a nuanced thing. I can’t help but wonder about it, things have been hectic and the more I rationalize, the less clear things are becoming.

  Night fell, and looking through the window of the room, I saw the main pza of town from the room we’re staying in. It’s still in a certain level of disrepair, but bustling with people, all chatting and holding candlelights, some of them are crying, others are overjoyed to see each other, is this meant to be a festival in the central pza? It’s quite barebones, but it’s what they could muster with what they had most likely.

  Closer to a meeting pce, in a sense it feels like a reunion, for those who still remain, well it’s true that there’s not a feeling better than seeing those people you hold dear to your heart, I know it better than anyone, I wonder why it’s making me feel nostalgic...

  “Greetings princess”

  “Aaron? And Hope?”

  “She’s busy, tonight’s festival have some activities that Hope wished to partake in, so scking off basically”

  “Is that so, sounds fitting with her”

  “She might be clumsy at times, but she’s reliable, let her take some loads off her”

  What a weird way to phrase things, honestly Aaron was always the odd one, he’s always acting serious and even now, he towers over people as he stands next to me, and approaches to look through the window as well.

  “You’re too nice to her, I see you two always bickering”

  “She’s my little sister, we bicker constantly, but I love her regardless”

  “I’m sure she feels the same”

  They’re extremely close, even I can tell that much. The few times we fought, they had impeccable coordination, not only that but they trust each other with their own lives, that’s not something feasible for strangers.

  “We still need to make up for our blunders, so if you have our next orders, give them away”

  “Blunders?”

  I averted my gaze from the pza and into Aaron’s stoic face, only for him to meet my gaze.

  “Did Milord never tell you? Surprising seeing how angry he was with us because of them”

  “No, care to eborate”

  “Our orders were simple, keep assisting Gwendal for his favor with the cult, which involved your kidnapping because that was his order”

  “Wait, you kidnapped me because of the piggy? I thought it was Maldi’s idea”

  “Yes, we got an earful from his majesty not long after that, we were meant to remain as anonymous as possible”

  “Well you didn’t do a good job, and the empire army you destroyed?”

  “It was my idea, the orders were to help keep the empire as a country, I assumed that given the massive loss, they would rethink their strategy, and the peace treaty was born, besides, I... I wanted to kill some of them off for all they have done”

  His gaze was mencholic, once again looking through the window into town.

  “Is that so?”

  “Yes, but Milord scolded us once again, saying that we intervened more than needed, and that we should’ve just stalled Celestial and nothing more”

  “And the orphanages?”

  “Hope’s idea, they were kidnaped by father Ecir without a sound, it was her pn to burn the empty orphanages to make a scene, and get the kingdom to antagonize the church, but it just so happened you were involved in all those instances, which was yet another earful from Lord Maldi”

  “I don’t get it, if you guys keep being complete fuck-ups at what you do, why do Maldi keep sending you with such vague orders?”

  “He believes that free will brings better results than puppets, if he wished for mindless servants, he would send the homunculus he creates, Milord is not as evil as everyone paint him out to be”

  “Yeah right, he almost killed Celestial”

  “Celestial attacked first, and he didn’t kill her in the end”

  “I still don’t buy it, he’s plotting something I know it, I can’t simply let my guard down”

  He’s not right, something about Maldi unsettles me, far more than anything in this dream, at first I thought it was his absurd power level, but now, I’m not so sure, there’s something unknown, something that awakens a primal fear in my heart.

  If I were to put it into words, fear of the unknown would be the closest answer, there’s too many questions floating around him.

  “So if you need anything princess, don’t hesitate to ask”

  “Are you trying to repay your mistakes to Maldi? Why? Sure he’s your father, but is he threatening you or something?”

  “What do you mean? He has helped me and Hope countless of times, and yet we have failed him so much, we just wish to repay our debt, because it’s the right thing to do”

  “Hmm... I see how it is”

  It just clicked in my mind, the true nature of us as demons, we are not showing compassion for the sake of it, we do things because it would be convenient for us, the only reason I helped people is because I get something out of it, same with Hope and Aaron, everyone in this town, see for their own selfish ideals, it just so happens that helping others is what brings the best results to oneself.

  I didn’t even think about it like that, but honestly I can’t say I feel bad about the concept itself.

  “Very well, I will depart to Atrille, by myself”

  “But, princess!”

  “Here are your orders”

  I handed him the four letters that Charlotte gave me with the impossible tasks, the moment he turned around with his incredulous face.

  “These, ah, I see what Charlotte is doing, we pnned on rebuilding town regardless, so we will continue our endeavors then”

  “Good, that’s all, wait for my return after I’m done with the elves”

  “A-As you wish princess”

  And so, Aaron left the room, how did he enter without me noticing anyways? They can be rather sneaky when they propose themselves to do so.

  For now I wrote two letters, one for the girls back home, and another one for Ceryse for whenever she wakes up, telling what happened, and what will I do, as well as asking her to remain in this inn while I go to the country of elves.

  I neatly folded the letter and pced it on the desk of the room they lended to us. Picking up my backpack and leaving the room quietly.

  Now I need to look for Jane, and ask her if she can take care of Ceryse while I’m gone, it shouldn’t be long hopefully.

  “Marisa?”

  “J-Jane!? What’s with the getup!?”

  She’s literally wearing a bikini so small, it barely leaves anything to the imagination. His husband is the same, wearing nothing but a thong, I’m gonna need eyebleach after seeing the middle aged guy junk!

  “Ah, you don’t know baby? I guess you’re not a kid anymore, every year we hold orgies to celebrate the festival of life! Although maybe it might be a bit more empty than usual...”

  “Orgy? Seriously?”

  “Un, after putting the kids to sleep, the adults in town participate, want to come along?”

  “I uh... pass, thanks for the offer”

  “That’s ok, where were you going dear?”

  “I’m... leaving town, at least for a while, there’s things that I need to do, and I wished to ask if you could look after Ceryse for a couple of days, I will pay you her stay of course”

  “Escaping in the middle of the night? Everything ok?”

  Jane’s face looked concerned for a moment, while she pced her palm on her face.

  “Yes, it’s something I have to do, by myself”

  “Very well, best of luck, and don’t do anything too reckless”

  “Heh, for a moment I’d thought you would try to stop me”

  “Why? You’re strong baby, be proud of your strength!”

  “Right, thanks... and see you around!”

  Not exactly the compliment I was expecting to get from a MILF dressed in lingerie in the middle of the night, but I appreciate it regardless, time to hit the road!

  I pull the straps of my backpack, and get ready to leave!

  Walking through the now empty streets, I can hear the sound of the people who are active in the pza, and also, a different set of sounds coming from another pce, mostly moans and grunts.

  Are they seriously having public orgies? I have to admit, curiosity got the best of me, so I headed to where the noises were coming from.

  Oh wow! They really are! It’s just a bunch of people fucking in public, left and right, most of them in set couples, but in the middle there’s people not in pairs, and-

  Hope!? Holy shit, she’s taking 3 guys at the same time, and-

  Wait a minute, the guy railing her from behind is Aaron!

  You know what, I think I saw enough, time for my retreat, at least the siblings get along more than what I expected, honestly, I feel a bit agitated, maybe sex in public would be fun, if this is a yearly thing, I would love to bring the girls here so we can have fun as well, hopefully in times of peace by then!

  I wonder what they’re all doing? I can’t help but remain feeling nostalgic while walking alone in this desote forest...

  Joanne_carper