After travelling for about five hours now, I was starting to feel pretty exhausted. Before I collapsed I managed to find a secluded pub in the outskirts of the next city I was headed towards, Hollow Lyche.

I thought it might be too convenient for something like this to be all the way out here, but the exhaustion managed to push me enough to have me venture inside the establishment. The outside seemed a little plain, but the glowing sign by the entrance made it stand out a lot. The sign read “The Beast Den”; it looks pretty new so I can’t really judge it by how it looks. I decided that I might as well go in for a drink.

I mean nothing could go wrong from getting a drink, right? Well I hope so anyways, if I see any knights or hunters I think it would be best to leave immediately, I’ll have to keep low profile if I don’t want to run into any trouble. More trouble that is, I don’t think I have the power or the patience to incapacitate every single knight on the way, all the way going to the Citadel. I walked into the building and already noticed that it was really chatty on the inside, bustling customers were having conversations, the bartender seemed pretty nonchalant and lacked a bit of expression but still looked pretty content with his work, the waiters were walking around and delivering orders in a fashionable manner, and the atmosphere was almost completely different from the outside.

That helped ease me the slightest bit. If other people can relax here I can too probably. It seems that there are a lot of people here right now, but it isn’t crowded. A lot of these customers seem to not be from this region, maybe abroad or travelling? That helps me because that means I won’t be too out of place.

I walked up to the front of the bar counter and took a seat. The bartender was already making other people drinks but he still managed to give me a glance and smiled a bit while serving other patrons.

“And what’ll you be having?” That question seemed awfully innocent, but I guess I just wasn’t that used to having positive responses recently.

“I think I’ll just have a whiskey please.” I didn’t plan on getting wasted just yet, not here at least, I just needed a little break from walking. I looked up at the guy who was wearing a small top hat and a bowtie that seemed to match his black vest and white undershirt. He gave a small nod and picked up a bottle behind him.

“Right away.” As he did that though something ticked me off a bit. It wasn’t like there were any knights in the area, nobody is trying to kill me, and everything seems fine. So why did I sense the slightest bit of magic just now, it was really subtle and it didn’t seem like anything happened, so that made me suspicious just the slightest bit.

I waited a bit trying to sense what the source of the magic was, and where it was coming from, but right as I did so suddenly it stopped. They must have noticed that I could feel the energy and stopped whatever they were doing.

This didn’t feel right so I had the feeling that I should leave now. I looked around again inconspicuously and made sure that nobody was watching. The chatter of the other patrons filled the room and I didn’t get much out of that.

“Here you go.” My attention was pulled back to the man wearing that fancy waiter outfit. He slid the drink down the counter in a very cool manner. I don’t think I should say that out loud.

“Thanks.” I picked up the glass and downed it, as I did I noticed it tasted different, not bad different, it was pretty good actually, almost fancy even. I think this was a really high class brand, it might cost a lot. I looked over to the bartender who was facing my direction, with a satisfied look while his eyes were closed. That made me feel a bit happier. I think I heard a content “Hmph” coming from him.

But then I remembered that I had to get out of here though, so I spoke up to pay for it. I stood from my seat and walked over to the front of the counter where directly behind it the server stood.

“Uh, thanks... um, how much did that cost?” I wasn’t really accustomed talking with people that I didn’t know. I looked away shyly because of my social awkwardness when it came to engaging in ordinary conversation with strangers. It is an absolute nightmare, I will say that now.

He spoke up after giving another soft sigh. “It’s on the house.”

What? I looked up a bit confused and saw that same soft smile he had, this guy’s calm disposition is starting to distract me a whole lot. I answered back again after trying to process what he just said to me.

“What? I can’t just not pay for it, I mean I can’t just-” He cut me off before I could finish.

“Don’t worry about it. This is your first time coming in here right? You can consider that as a welcoming gift for your first time inside the Den.” He said in a soft spoken tone, it was really calming listening to him.

Ah dammit, there I go again getting lost in the voices of people I just met. I realized that I spent a whole bunch of time talking to this guy, when I should in fact have left a couple of minutes ago.

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“Uh, um- t-thanks mister-” He spoke up as I said that.

“Please, call me Ryan.” He smiled at me.

“Oh, um thanks, Mister Ryan. I really appreciate the thought.” I said sheepishly. Oh my lord what the actual hell is wrong with me, I swear this is another reason why I can’t have any friends. Completing my social link must be a complete and utter nightmare.

“Just Ryan is fine. You should come back for another drink sometime. Here, you should take this.” He opened his palm and a small holograph of a card came up and he flicked it over to me.

The device on my wrist had sounded out and flashed an alert, notifying me of a message, I pulled it up and a small picture with a caption popped up. ‘The Beast Den’ ‘A place for all monsters.’ It also came with a contact number and a digi-map. I think I’ll consider going back here at sometime.

“Thank you, I’ll think about it.” As I started to go on my way back to the entrance, I felt someone grab my wrist and held on, hard. I panicked a bit, because for some reason, they managed to do so without me sensing them get close to me prior.

I turned back around preparing a stone to activate in case I needed to, and as I did I came face to face with a girl a little shorter than I was, she had pure white hair and her eyes were a deep pink, she was also dressed a little strangely wearing an all white outfit, with a familiar looking emblem on the front of her garments.

She looked curiously at me and the words the words that came from her didn’t match the way that she said them in such an innocent sounding tone. I couldn’t focus on what she said right away but I managed to understand exactly what she said.

“Are- are you a demon?” Her innocent look cut straight through me.

What the hell is going on? How did she know that I’m a demon? How did she manage to grab hold of me without noticing? What’s up with the outfit she’s wearing? And where did I see that symbol before? I could feel the heat rise up to my head as I could feel the panic rushing through me. Did the knights find me? I didn’t have time to find out as I broke free of her grasp and rushed through the other patrons inside to get to the entrance.

I bumped into a lot of people. I couldn’t even imagine what might happen to me of those holy idiots manage to get a hold of me. I shook the thought from my head and kept running.

“Hey! Wait up! I need to talk to you!” The girl was still following me and I had the feeling that I needed to lose her quick. I managed to get to the entrance and I pushed through the doors but as I did I could feel another presence waiting outside, a familiar one to be exact. As I got to the outside I really wish that I hadn’t. Outside standing in the snow waiting for me was a figure with brown hair, and he was wearing a dark cloak and denim-leather belt straps on his arm and legs, also on his waist. All of the belts loaded with hunting tools and various weapons.

“Well it looks like I’ve fin’lly found yah lad.” I immediately recognised that familiar smug-sounding pirate accent. I realized that it was the guy I wiped a few hours ago. But that’s impossible, I removed all evidence of my being there at the inn, there’s no way he could have found me.

He must have noticed the surprised and confused look on my face as he took something out of his pocket and tossed it over to me. I caught it and took a look at the thing I was holding. It looked like a medallion or amulet with a massive crack in the middle of it. I gave a bit of a shocked reaction as I realized what he just tossed over to me.

“You must be pretty strong to break one of them magic trinkets, and still manage to knock me out as well. I guess I really must have underestimated you, but no less, I will take you in, demon boy.” He said as he pulled out a curved dagger from his sheath on his leg. It was enchanted, it was pretty obvious.

I really didn’t want to do this right now, so I pulled out a clack diamond-shaped stone from my belt pouch and activated it, the runes started glowing on the shining stone and I received a massive energy boost which I focused into a projectile, and whether he’s still using another amulet or not, this should be able to take care of him. A massive energy pulsating magic circle started to form around my palm. Then right as I could feel the power peaking, I blasted it out aiming straight for the hunter. I could see that he didn’t have enough time to dodge, but he did say something loud enough for me to hear.

He screamed out the words “Aegis primum!” And a light magic barrier had appeared before him as he raised his arms in front of him in a defensive position.

Oh fuck. That’s really bad.

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