The familiar sound of fluttering wings welcomed Velvet, with the owl causing them landing on a chair’s recliner.

Balancing himself, Udulluay stared at Velvet with his round eyes. “You called.”

“Yes, someone put a… corpse inside my home.”

Velvet had come to the realization that Udulluay didn’t prevent accidents, and mostly dedicated himself to observing. There was also the fact that, as a devil, he didn’t really care for saving or protecting humans.

As long as his rules were followed, he barely complained. And the no-magic allowed rule only affected the market.

“Agorn Krischa, twenty minutes ago.”

One of the novice mages Kartal informed me about. Sloth Paradigm, which explains how he entered without a key or breaking a window. Hm, are they using Igern’s ‘take the support out first’ approach? And before the Arena even started…

Velvet grinned.

They must be sooo scared of Kartal’s choices. Oh, I’m getting fired up thinking about what mages he picked.

Udulluay interrupted her. “Do you want to file a complaint?”

“No, I’ll talk with Kartal first. I already know his identity, after all!” There was barely any damage done, so Velvet was sure she would barely be compensated.

Udulluay kept staring at her in silence, worrying Velvet.

“Something the matter?” She asked.

“You will be in danger.”

“... Wouldn’t the Director intervene if things get really bad?” She hoped so, at least.

“Yes.” Udulluay left the conversation at that, flying away.

Biting her lower lip softly, Velvet turned around. Aside from the hanged corpse, the intruder hadn’t touched anything.

Not that Velvet had left anything worth stealing. Aside from her clothes, she carried most of her stuff in her person.

A burning smell called her attention. The Fire Salamander had placed itself inside the chimney, trying to reignite the coal’s remains.

Fire salamanders were amphibious, still needing water to live. But, they had the instinct of eating burning coals.

In the wild, they burned fallen branches, before swallowing them in small pieces. The fire Salamander's stomach contained a secretion that slowed down the consumption, keeping the coals burning at the minimum.

That was because their principal prey was the toxic river crab, an animal recognized by its purple color and extreme poisonous shell.

Poison that, by putting the crab in boiling water, became harmless.

The Fire Salamander knew that, so it ate the raw toxic crab and boiled it inside its stomach with the burning coals.

Now, Velvet's fire salamander was raised in captivity, fed with All-purpose worms. It still needed to eat coal, since, apart from feeding, the act also included several health benefits. But, it was an amphibian.

Amphibians shouldn’t frolic on top of ashes.

Grabbing the slippery thing, who refused to release the coal piece in its mouth, Velvet took it to the bathroom, carefully cleaning it and removing the ash.

“Can’t you see I was busy? Huh, you’re pretty warm to the touch.” Getting a hand freed, Velvet played with her fingers, testing the salamander’s skin slime.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

It was a fire retardant. Not useful to her, since applying it to her figurines would stop them from exploding, but it could be useful in the future. It was also poisonous, like normal salamanders’ skin, producing irritation were she to rub her eyes or mouth.

The salamander lifted its big head to look at Velvet, and wiggled its tail. Its size was close to a one year old child, with six small legs, two of which were holding onto Velvet’s arm.

She couldn’t put the fire salamander with the bomber frog, or with the space-leaping toad, since they were natural enemies, and the feathered spider had a whole different habitat.

“Ngh, for tonight, it can sleep in the bathtub, tomorrow I’ll buy an empty container. It’s so bad it's so slippery and slimy, it would've been great as a plushie furnace.”

“Unless you want it with you.” She told Hyde. The demonic spider had been silent this whole time, working on a ‘project’ after seeing Tristan’s blueprints.

“No.” Was Hyde’s short answer. “Go to sleep, tomorrow you need to do brooms, and I will have this formation ready for placing.”

Leaving the salamander inside the bathtub, at least for now, she cleaned her hands from the poisonous slime, went back to the entrance, picked the bag, and made a simple dinner.

She deserved some respite, after working the whole day just to come home to a corpse.

After she was done, she gave the salamander some coals she picked from the chimney, and some All-purpose worms, before going to sleep.

Maybe it was because she had overworked her brain during the day, ending mentally exhausted, but nothing weird happened during her dream.

The next day, after getting everything ready, Hyde announced his project’s end.

“Remember when I asked you for the feathered spider formation?”

“To collect and store your own webs? Yes.”

“Now I've got enough spider silk. Together with Tristan’s blueprints, I made a spider web formation to cover the house and the surroundings. No one will get closer without us noticing from now on.”

“Oh, Hyde, that’s awesome! You’re the bestest demonestest in hellestest!” She praised, chuckling when Hyde scoffed.

“We need to set it up first. You can practice making brooms from branches, while I set the webs.”

Velvet nodded, getting to work. She still had half a day before Kartal finished with the Selection, which was more than enough time to set the formation and understand the basics of broom riding.

…

The long stick levitated in the air, tumbling every now and then. Velvet pressed down with both hands; she wasn’t seated on it, just weight testing, when it creaked.

Breaking right in the middle, the half stick fled off instantly, colliding with a tree and breaking down in a rain of splinters.

Velvet tsked, noting the mistakes, grabbing another stick.

“I’m done here, go north.” Hyde said.

Stopping the new formation, Velvet picked up her things, walking some distance away from the hut, in a circular path. Behind her, nothing could be seen with the naked eye, but, if someone employed special means, they would become able to see several golden threads, stuck to trees, stones, and crossing over the air.

“Here is fine.”

Velvet stopped, left Hyde to his devices, and started the new broom formation.

The previous was too rigid, and broke down once it couldn’t hold on. So she added more elasticity in the formation this time.

Two hand press… check.

Lifting me… check.

Lowering the flying broom, Velvet sat sideways. She wanted a position that allowed her to jump if something felt wrong.

Then, slowly, very, very slowly, her feet left the ground.

Humans were land creatures. One didn’t understand so by flying in an airship, but, flying on a broom made Velvet realize how much she loved when her feet were on the ground. Not over the ground, on the ground, touching it.

This will take a lot of practice just to get used to… and, not to say about actually flying in combat.

She moved left, right, up (no more than two meters height), at a leisurely pace. Since Hyde was working, she mostly made circles, not going far away.

“This place is done.”

“Good. I wanna try going faster.” She got down, picked her things and sat on the broom again. Except this time she was sitting with one leg on each side, like horse riding.

That position was more stable to make turns and sudden movements, but getting down was harder.

Flying at a human run speed, she passed the hut’s roof, going to the other side.

“Some tiles are broken, I’ll need to do repair- Ack!” Velvet coughed, almost hitting a tree. “I swallowed a bug!”

“Free protein.” Hyde mocked her. “Reason number one why you need to keep your mouth shut while flying.”

“What’s reason number two?”

“You stop paying attention to the ro- Velvet, tree!”

Barely dodging the tree, Velvet snickered. “Scared yourself there, hm?”

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Guess.”