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Tia trotted slowly the streets along. Her mind was racing. She was frustrated. She was made to sit in a small room together with Herold and Asoera while being forced to listen to the nonsense the caretaker was babbling about. She was not only galled but also incredibly bored. Herold's face showed also a vague detachment from the realm of the awake. But Asoera acted differently. She twitched constantly around. Her eyes trailed towards the door she seemed to burst into tears any moment. Though Tia didn’t understand why this could in any way be a frightening experience, even more though when she compared this behaver to her normal one, she gave her some points for standing her ground and standing with Tia even if she was scared. On the other hand, there was Birim. That worm abandoned his friend, Herold, so fast. Tia didn’t even notice he was gone. She breathed a heavy sigh. There was not enough time to waste on thinking about trash. She had already lost way too much time because of the other trash trio.

Even before the entrance to the park came into vision Tia could hear the loud voices of a boy and a girl arguing with each other. Tia sighed again. After a few more steps, she saw Herold and Asoera both standing face to face with angry expressions while they shouted at each other. She sighed another heavy breath.

Why am I hanging around them again?, she wondered. Asoera… because of the hideout. And Herold… because of that worded acceptance as her general. Another sigh. Tia was tired and would like nothing more than just turn on her heels and march home. But she had more important stuff to do, and dealing with the trouble her subordinates bring is also a job the demon lord had to handle.

She walked over to them and gave both a stern look. “Why do you two shout in the middle of the street?” She had heard what they were screaming about. Apparently, Asoera threw her usual insults at Herold and he complained that she was not needed and should just go home. This, in turn, caused Asoera to claim that he was not needed and she would never allow him into her hideout. And she had a very good point in that. But Tia couldn’t allow a divide between her subordinates. Only trouble will come when a unit is divided. They can dislike each other as much as they want but they need, at the very least, to be able to work together and tolerate each other. She scoffed in secret at Herold who she thought to be over such childish squabbles. His behavior in the last days was getting on her nerves. She couldn’t complain that much about Asoera. That girl presented herself with a high amount of egoism, but at the same time, she could see that she longed for friends. It was evident that Asoera had trouble in doing so and went at the first sign of mistreatment into defense mode. Nevertheless, her interaction with Tia the day before, showed that she trusted someone quite easily when given the opportunity. Though her superior complex was something Tia had to cut down. But that would be a comparatively easy task when looked at the real problems they had.

In other words, she had to reprimand Herold without going too far and protect Asoera while giving her obvious hints that she should reflect on her behavior. With that, Herold should pick up what Tia thought about and give in and Asoera would be satisfied while correcting her behavior. And if Herold wouldn’t get what Tia wanted…

Well, it would be hard evidence that Tia had misjudged him by a huge margin and he was not fit for as her general. Worded agreement there or not, didn’t make a difference in that. Easy as that.

Both opened their mouth at the same time to answer. “Shut up!", Tia yelled. “I don’t care. Herold just man up and treat her like I do, get it! Also, I don’t explode at Birim every waking moment or do I? Asoera, Stop insulting people who won’t do you real harm and are just a little stupid unless I do it of course! So now that this is done and over with let's go and do the important stuff.” A satisfied expression formed on Tia while she straightened her back. Problem discovered, problem analyzed and problem solved. And everything discreetly. She could not have been prouder of herself.

While Herold and Asoera were still stunned from Tia’s weird outburst, Tia gripped Asoeras hand and stroke towards the trees, leaving the stupefied Herold behind. Tia wanted to give him a little time to think about what she just had said. Though she hoped that he would get her subtle intentions, he could need a few moments to grasp them.

Herold looked at the back of Tia. Despite everything, a small smile raised the corners of his mouth. With a voice so small only he himself could hear he chuckled. “You really suck at defusing a situation.” But then he raised his brow in wonder. A shaken Asoera asked Tia in the distance. “Why can’t I insult someone who is mean to me? Are you stupid?” “Shut up. Don’t insult me no matter what, if you want to keep talking with me. I don’t care if you insult others as long as you won’t let it escalate, and I will keep taps on Herold, alright?” “I, I guess I could manage that.” Asoera's voice was uncharacteristic meek. A wide grin formed on Herold. “Why do you not want to be yellow, if everything you do is just like her? Guess she is perfect at calming people down after all.” He laughed out loud which brought Tia and Asoera to stare at him in confusion.

“Woah, this is a ruin!”, exclaimed Herold at seeing the shack. A cold stare escaped Asoera’s eyes. Birim, who was suddenly attached to Herolds back when he came through the trees, hid his head and vanished completely again.

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  “Yeah, we will have a lot of work if we want to make this into a real base.” Asoera opened her eyes wide in shock at Tia’s words. Her mouth opened but clothed right after. This repeated itself a few times.

  “You have to enter through the window here.” Tia jumped up and hit the wall under it. “Is that so?” Herold's lips curled slowly downward. “Wait, I go in first! This is my secret base after all.”, shouted Asoera. She gave Herold a defiant glare and climbed without a problem through the window. Envy rampaged in Tia’s heart. But at the same time, she waited with anticipated breath to see Herold struggle too. But despite her expectations, he simply said:  “Fine then.”, and climbed through the window in the same manner as Asoera. Which reminded her. Herold was around as big as Asoera was. She glanced towards Birim. Even he was bigger than Tia. A cold panic gripped her heart. “Birim, come on.”, called Herold from the window. “I, I do, don’t tink I ca, can do that.” Birim fearfully looked up the wall and shook his head vehemently. “Don’t worry, I help you.” He stretched his hand down towards Birim. He glanced at Herold who gave him a strong nod. After hesitating for a short moment Birim jumped to grasp Herold's hand with his. A loud clasp echoed out and Herold pulled Birim, who seemed to be walking on the wall, up without any problem. In a few seconds Birim was on the sill and after another short hesitation, vanished into the shack.

Tia stared at this spectacle with opened eyes and cold sweat appeared on her back. She felt that her legs grew weak and all the blood on her face drained which resulted in her looking like a corpse, while her ears were pressed hard against her head. “Tia, come on you’re next.” Again Herold's hand emerged from the window. Tia gulped audibly. She wrung her tail in her hand. Could she do the same what Birim just had done? She imagined herself slipping from the wall and Herold pulling her through the window like a sack. Birim would glance at her with a nose hold high while his eyes sneered at her. Tia could accept being weak. She could accept needing Herold's help. She could accept Asoera’s spot. But what she could absolutely not accept was to be inferior in anything to Birim. Also, she knew that she could make it through that window with her own power.

That is right.

She can do it alone.

“No need for your help. Asoera the Box, please.” She is the demon lord. It is just normal for her to get to walk on a red carpet. In this case, the box would be her carped but it worked anyway. It showed that she had special means that others had not at their disposal. “Idi… you, get out of the way!”, commanded Asoera. Herold let out a grunt and disappeared from the window. In his stead, the great Box arched through it and landed with a loud ‘thud’ on the ground. Tia’s grinned. But it turned into a grimace as she fought hard to push it into position. Out of breath, she sat on the box to rest for a moment. She leaned back against the wall of the shack and looked upward. Her eyes met with Herold’s. He had a wry grin on his face and both of his brows were raised high. “I think me pulling you up would have been easier.” “I don’t, huff huff, need the, huff huff, easy way.” After a few more wheezes she managed to get back at her feet again. She climbed on top of the box and reached her hands towards the sill. Midway through it, she remembered that she had needed Asoeras help the day before, even with the box. She gulped. Tia put strength into her arms and pulled herself upward.

Her feet lifted a few centimeters from the box. But her hands lost their grip and she fell back on it.

Wordless she took Herolds Hand. Her eyes locked onto Herold’s seemed to say: ‘Not one word!’ He grinned but helped her nonetheless and she finally managed to enter the shack.

The inside was as small and dusty just like the day before. But with now four people inside, the room seemed to have been shrunk. They all stood in close proximity to each other to avoid stepping on them, with dead bugs covered, ground as much as they could. Birim in peculiar stood on his toes and leaned with his whole body onto Herold. His mouth was pulled downward his eyebrows furrowed in disgust. Herold had his brows furrowed too but in doubt.

  “This is worse than I imagined. You really want this,”, he gestured wildly with his arms toward the room. “, to be our base?” Asoera put a superior grin on her face. “If you don’t like it you are more than welcome to get out and never come back, idiot!” Tia hit Herold's shoulder lightly and starred at Asoera with half closed eyes. “Yes, this will be our hideout. And we all,”, she put more emphasis on her last word, “, will be using it. We will clean it and it will be awesome. Understood?” A tired expression formed on her face. “But not today. Let’s just continue our talk from before.” “Fine by me.”, grumbled Herold. “But let's do it outside.” Birim nodded intensely by his words. “I, I, I, a, a, agri w, w,w, with that.” “Did you really use this as your base in this state?”, asked Herold with his eyebrows raised in wonder. Asoera looked straight at Herold. “Yeah, I did. It is my Base after all! But this is nothing you are allowed to put your nose into it, you stupid id…” “Okay, okay, I get it. Let's just get out already.” He raised his arms in surrender and gave Tia a glance while he rolled his eyes.

But Tia felt betrayed. She had finally managed to get inside again even though she humiliated herself and now they want to force her to do it again? “No, let's not talk about that outside. What if someone eavesdrops onto us? We have to stay inside!” Birim starred at her in shock and Herold gave her a doubtful grimace. Asoera alone stood by Tia’s side. “I have no problem with either.” Well, kinda. But Herold wouldn’t have any of that. “No, it is way too dusty in here. And…”, he trailed off and his eyes followed the dead bugs on the ground. “Anyway, Birim and I will go outside.” Tia could do nothing more than just stare in disbelief at her disobedient subordinate. He quickly pushed Birim up through the window and with movements that filled Tia’s heart with envy pulled himself out. “So, do we stay inside or should I throw you the Box inside?”, asked Asoera. Her expression had a faint trace of a grin. Defeated and exhausted Tia could only mutter one word. “Box.”