Chapter 1 - Unbound Part 4

Rarely would you find someone capable of sleeping soundly with stress, and she was no exception to that, considering whatever horror she must've gone through. It was just a short nap to destress and correct body functions, so she woke up quite soon, after around 20 minutes.

However, since I wasn't expecting her to wake up, yet again I frightened her by having her first sight be that of a pale, ferocious demon looming over her.

"Woah there! Relax, I'm not going to hurt you," I tried to calm her and seem as amiable as possible. It worked, as her breathing settled down.

"Wh- Who are you?" she asked, even the small tremble couldn't mask her sweet silvery voice.

"Me? I'm just a wanderer. As I was walking around the forest, I sighted smoke rising into the air and came upon this little village."

"And what about the werewolves? Are they gone?" she asked, fearfully glancing over my shoulder.

"Aa, well, they're gone... I killed them," Answering honestly and straightforwardly is best if you don't have an ulterior motive and just want to befriend someone.

"Really?!" Her face brightened, she was relieved, however, it then turned into disbelief. "Wasn't there a pack of them? Even a demon shouldn't be able to handle them alone..."

"Well, what can I say, I am strong."

"..."

Since whether she believed me or not was irrelevant, I changed the subject. I was new to this world and had many things to inquire about.

"Anyway, I'm in sort of a predicament right now. You see, I just recently woke up from my slumber and I'm rather unfamiliar with the current world." Earlier I had said it was good to be honest, and I still was, however, it wasn't the whole truth either. I didn't lie at least. Continuing, "Let's see, how about this – become my retainer and I will protect you, follow me and you will become powerful."

It was a bizarre thing to say, out of the blue and unsuitable for the situation, as she blinked her eyes in befuddlement. However, there was certainly a reason for that.

"Well?" I prompted, waiting for her response.

"Aa-, well..." What was she hesitant about? When she averted her eyes, her gaze fixed on something behind me. It was a person, one of the dead. And as she looked upon the person, seeing their face, tears started streaking down her cheeks that had lost their color.

It was a delicate mood, and I fathomed what the reason was. Being tactful, I left the sobbing girl by herself for a moment and went to check out a few books that were lying on the ground.

I returned when she quieted down and recollected herself. I had found nothing of significance amongst the books. There were just some diaries and recordings about the village life and some books about hunting and gathering.

"...You okay?" It was perhaps a rhetorical question, but I still wanted to initiate a conversation.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about the unsightly behaviour," she said, wiping her soft cheeks and drying her reddened eyes.

"No, no, it's nothing, I understand... However, about what I said earlier..."

"..." She was silent for a moment, meeting my inquisitive look. "I have lost my home..." she began, "I lost my family..." Her thus far hazy gaze turned steadier. "I have nowhere to go." Though sorrowful, her tone was also implicit.

"Then, travel with me, teach me about this world, and I will protect you. You'll have a new place to call home some day." My words were clear, strong and sincere. She resolved herself and replied,

"Yes."

Unfortunately, as appropriate it would have been, there wasn't any touching goodbyes, as we didn't depart immediately. My familiarizing with this world's workings and the location came first. Well, at least I looked for a more becoming place away from the burning houses and the stench of blood to take a break.

She talked about her village – what kind of place it was, how peaceful, how friendly and gentle the people were, what they usually did and how they lived their tranquil self-sufficient lives. But then, in the middle of the night, when everyone was sound asleep, the village was suddenly surrounded by howling on all sides. The guards on night shift had not noticed signs of any sort of creature. First, since it was howling, it was presumed to be wolves. However, what was disquieting was that it was coming from all around.

Hair-raising screams resounded from one of the gates. When the attention was drawn towards the other side, from behind after quick low thumping of steps the sentries were pounced on by an incredibly heavy, furry, ferocious creature. With the sounding of the second scream both the gates had fallen and the village was left unprotected.

The loud shrieks and turmoil that echoed throughout the village woke up the sleeping residents. Though a bit disoriented, people understood that the situation was dire. However, they had no idea what the danger was.

The state escalated into madness as a myriad of hostile creatures flowed in and indiscriminately started attacking everyone they came upon. When identified as werewolves, the situation didn't improve from the knowledge, rather it become woeful, as the people realized the futility of trying to fight them off. The werewolves were overwhelmingly powerful and spared no mercy.

So, thus the rather unfortunate, horrid situation came to to be, the result of which you can now see.

She talked a little about herself also.

At the time of the attack she was first at home, a house at one of the corners of the village. Though she didn't specify, she did mention that the people she was living with weren't her real parents, they weren't connected by blood, however, both held the other side very dear.

Her father, one of the village's guardsmen not on night duty that time, urged her and the mother to quickly run and gather at the village hall as the conflict outside was intensifying. The village hall was designated as the last point of defense in case the village was under attack and in a dire state.

Running through the village towards the hall she couldn't help but catch sight of the calamitous condition everything had fallen in. Houses on fire and broken apart, fellow villagers, her friends dead on the ground, shredded to pieces, and the cause for it – savage creatures dressed in bloodsoaked black fur voraciously slurping on the innards of their victims.

The village hall was in a forlorn state. From one perspective it had a slightly more positive atmosphere compared to outside, but only an insensitive soul would have such an opinion.

The large double doors were barricaded in hopes to hold back the werewolves and protect the ten families residing inside. However, as we already know from the final state of the hall, evidently it was in vain.

There wasn't much else to say about that. Since she hadn't actually recovered from the shock and grief, I understood the reason though I didn't empathize, her words became a bit incoherent with a few weeps and cracks in her voice. I apologized and said there wasn't any need to talk about that anymore.

Well, it was readily apparent – while they were barricaded inside, the doors were smashed open and entered by the werewolves who began their slaughter there. The few guards, her father included, couldn't compare against them with their meagre equipment against the werewolves' overpowering physical abilities. During the meaningless last stand she got shoved inside the closet by her mother to hide her, from where she could only watch through the cracks how everryone, men, women, children alike, fell to the claws and fangs of the monsters. However, as her father with his last bit of strength stood covering the cupboard, the werewolves' attention was abruptly drawn somewhere else and they ran outside. Then, a bit later I arrived.

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Silence ensued.

It was all good and nice... No, no, it was rather tedious listening to her reciting the events from her perspective. That's not what I was interested in at all, but... I guess allowing her to speak her mind served some purpose. I wasn't much for consoling, but at least she got someone to shed and share the burden from her heart.

"Thank you for saving me," she mumbled, breaking the silence.

Wouldn't it be more probable to burst out and yell, "Why didn't you come sooner!?"... Well, at any rate she, wasn't hysterical and was quite level-headed, and had the decency and manners to respectfully express her gratitude towards her saviour. ...Not that I cared about any of that.

Still, I responded, "Mhm, no problem."

"What are you planning to do?" she continued.

My plans? She probably asked because earlier I had declared she'd be under my protection were she to follow and aid me.

'Fuehhh... So I can finally get to the point of learning about this world! No, no, don't sigh, got to be nice... Wait, who am I supposed to be in this world? A demon! Act correspondingly!'

"I have a certain objective in mind, but that's still far off. However, everything begins with the small first step. So, tell me about this world – where are we, the proximal nations and territories -there are such things, right?-, what races there are -I'm a demon and you're an elf I presume, so there must be other different races as well-, on what kind of footing they are with each other. I want to know about the society, hierarchy, state of nations and their hostilities, everything."

'Was that perhaps too much? How would I explain my need to inquire about all that? ...Well, none of that matters. I want, therefore I will!'

"Umm, I can tell you about some things, but I don't know if it's sufficient enough. I've lived in this village my whole life so the things I know about the world only come from telltales and few story books. And I know little magic, I'm only capable in nature magic, so..." she hesitantly explained.

"Anything's good," I said. There was one thing on my mind though, "...There's something I'd like to know – though I did save your life, you seem to be excessively trustful of me. Why?"

She averted her eyes, then glanced at me, looked away again and pondered about something. A moment later she seemed to come to some sort of decision, as she resolutely met my stare and said, "...Well, I have this ability of sorts. I can see other people's auras, with first sight I can determine their true nature, what kind of person they really are."

"I see... And what about me then?" I asked, trying to maintain a straight face.

"Well..." She began, and I noticed from my intent observation her cheeks reddening slightly as she tenderly squirmed. 'Why is she shy?!' She continued, "Your aura is unique. I've never seen such an aura before... It's almost colorless, even transparent, and it's calm, without even the slightest of fluctuation that reveal the temperament and everyone should have. Yet, it's tranquil, gentle. Somehow it's very comforting."

"...Hah? Really?!" 'How ludicrous! I know myself the best.' "Are you sure there's nothing wrong with that ability and it's accurate?" I asked, suppressing myself from bursting out laughing. 'Also, I shouldn't have asked that, lest she doubted it and suspected my character.'

"Absolutely! Heeey-, even you reacted the same as my father," she remarked jovially. "Though you may doubt it, it has never lied to me. I've learned what the different auras mean, though yours is new to me, but I can judge a person's character very well, don't mock me," pouting.

'Well...' "Okay, okay, I believe you. You'll come to know my personality as we go along." Now that the issue of trust was elucidated, it was time to get to the matter at hand.

For hours, until the darkening of the skies she described the nearby surrounding lands and simplified her knowledge about the world in general. We'll delve into those when they matter and there's a need to clarify.

Her speech slowly became slightly slurred as she tired from continuosly articulating the important points I was more interested in. And, just as her expressive illustrations lessened, by her yawn my attention was drawn to the fact that it had already gotten dark. Well, it probably wasn't as dark for me as it was for her, since I was using what I named "Nightvision" magic, its effect self-evident from its name, allowing to see better in the dark, that is.

"It's gotten late," I said, "Are you tired?"

"It's- *grooooaaaaa--*" Just as she was about to respond her stomach growled and broke her line of thought. I couldn't help but smile at her adorable wriggling with a blushed face in an attempt to cover up that insignificantly disgraceful feedback from her belly.

"Hungry?"

"..." She cutely lowered her head. "Yes, just a bit."

"Then go search yourself, you know the place better than I."

"Ah, thank you... What about you?"

"I don't need anything," I replied, however, I didn't exactly disclose my absolute unnecessity for food and water at the moment. As well, unless required to reveal, the cursed "Drain Life" ability remained a secret. At least during combat I had gotten some relief for my strain from the brief contacts with the werewolves.

As she scurried off, I was left to contemplate on the acquired information and make my plans accordingly.

We were sitting opposite of each other, inbetween a small fire crackled. She had cooked herself a bowl of thick vegetable and meat soup and to the sides munched on a piece of bread.

By that time it was already night, the bright twin moons illuminating the small clearing in the garden that had become our resting spot.

Though unfortunately many houses had burned down, since it seemed to be summertime and the air was, in addition to the heat of the day, also warm throughout the night, sleeping outside was no trouble. With a few patches of hay a makeshift bed was complete. Well, that was merely made for her, as no fatigue ever overcame me.

"So you really don't need sleep? At all?" she inquisitively questioned.

"Hn, yeah. So far I've gone a week without a wink of sleep."

She looked at me curiously and mentioned that something like that was unheard of, but regretfully admitted that she wasn't very knowledgeable about the world either.

Giggling, she said, "You really are unique. Besides not requiring food nor rest, your character, your personality itself, too, is preposterous. Aah-, I mean in the good sense! You see, demons are known to be wicked and ruthless, only caring about themselves, but you..." Tilting her head, face blooming with a kind smile, "You're a nice person."

Well, though I disagreed and thought it to be too early to make such a judgement, but she had already revealed and explained her abillity, so I remained silent and responded with a perhaps slightly troubled smile.

Starting to doze off, it suddenly dawned to her, "Ah! We haven't actually introduced each other, right? My name is Lessa'El, a half-elf and... half-demon. From now on I'll be in your care and as well try to be of use to you."

"Aa, you can call me Hax, a full-fledged demon, and... the one to become the god of this world."

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Thank you for reading! With this the first chapter is finished. Before the chapter 2 there'll be an interlude chapter, after which the main story will continue (in a week or so).

Any feedback is appreciated, and please rate the fiction too.

Best wishes to all!