“Um, Mr. Crowley?”

The feeling of someone poking my left shoulder roused me from my anger-induced stupor. I turned to see Kenji touching my shoulder with the blunt end of his fork. I must’ve been glaring because the kid...squeaked, for lack of a better word, and turned back to his food. With a groan I push my head off my plate, ignoring the snickering from Keiji and Mako at a stray porkchop hanging onto my cheek. I pull the offending piece of pork off and place it back on my plate. Then I start rubbing my temple with one hand while asking Aria, “Ok, Aria, right? You mind explaining exactly what the Archangel told you about my stay here?”

Her eyebrow rose in confusion at my question, “You really don’t know? I thought Lord Ramiel or your city’s leader would’ve informed you?”

“Yeah, well, I guess they just don’t think telling me about this stuff is important,” I wave my hand flippantly through the air, “The leaders of the Cities. Can take time out of the day to order you around, but not tell you all the details.”

“Lord Ramiel isn’t like that!” Keiji, right on cue, yells at me while standing up in his seat, “He always tells us everything we need to know, no exceptions!”

“Careful there, brat. Your childishness is showing,” I lift my cane and hit him on the head with it. It’s light enough not to cause any damage, but I put enough force behind it to make him back off.

“You-,” he stands up, readying his fist to strike me.

“Keiji. Stop,” Aria’s stern tone makes him stop in his tracks. I see all the fight drain out of him the moment he turns his attention to her. Curious, I do the same and see her staring him down with one of those stares that mothers give their children when they do something bad. The kind that makes you immediately get tense and worried no matter what age you are. I should know, I was on the receiving end of that more than once from my own mother.

Keiji grits his teeth, but sits back down. Hmm, guess I know who wears the pants in this house.

“I apologize, Crowley. Please, allow me to explain,” Aria leans back in her seat as she starts to speak, “Lord Ramiel informed us of the situation two weeks ago. He told us that, upon your arrival, you would take on the responsibilities of a Caretaker for us. Also, he wanted us to learn what we could from you.”

Can’t believe a damn kid is telling me more about my job than my fucking Magos did, “Learn, what exactly? Where the people of Melphis hide their collection of skulls and crossbones?”

Aria shakes her head, “No, about Demons and how to combat them.”

“Shouldn’t you already know that?” I’d like to think they should considering it’s in their job description, “Don’t those Clerics or Angels teach you that shit?”

“N-not necessarily,” surprisingly, Amillia is the one who answers. She fidgets in her seat while trying to avoid my gaze, but continues to explain, “Our teachers...they only tell us that Demons are...bad and need to be stopped.”

“And how to do exactly that,” Keiji says, a proud smile on his face. But it soon turns into a frustrated frown, “But it’s only ever obvious stuff, you know? Go for the heads or hearts, destroy their bodies, use holy magic, blah blah. Nothing about how they’re summoned, what else they’re weak to, or anything like that.”

“That sounds fucking stupid.”

“Crowley, I’ve been trying to ignore it but, could you cut back on the vulgar language? It’s not nice,” Aria sends the same glare she sent Keiji my way.

Too bad for her, I’ve built a resistance to it.

“Sorry, girl. You may be the boss of them, but you’re not the boss of me,” I lean back in my seat with a defiant look in my eye, “Besides, I’m right. They’re sending you kids to fight Demons and don’t even tell you everything about how they work? If the Clerics won’t, then why not the Angels?”

The kids all share a look followed by synchronized nodding. Then Mako starts talking, “The Angels don’t know more than the Clerics do. They all say that learning about Demons will lead to bad stuff happening to you.”

“But Lord Ramiel sees it differently. He believes that we need to know our enemy inside and out if we’re to form an actual offensive against them. But even he can’t go against the majority of Clerics and Angels in Celestine.”

“And that’s where I come in. He’s taking advantage of the whole ‘exchange’ thing to get you all close to someone who can teach you all there is to know about Demons,” the teens all nod to confirm my guess. Well, well, well. Even the Archangel sees fit to be underhanded and sneaky sometimes.

I tap away at my plate with my fork as I mull the current situation over in my head. So, in addition to having to spend two years in the same house as these brats, I’m also expected to act as both their Caretaker and Teacher of all things involving Demons? On top of this, I’m expected to find clues and leads that will tell me where a bunch of extremists supposedly operating of Celestine are located. This job keeps getting more complicated and less appealing by the second. Probably why neither Moldo nor Ramiel gave me the full debrief. They knew I’d jump ship if they told me I’d be responsible for all this shit.

Then again, guess I’m the fucking idiot for choosing to do this in the first place. No point in complaining now.

“Alright,” I say with a shrug as everyone turns their eyes to me, “I get the picture. I won’t argue with the Archangel...not this time anyway.”

“So, you’ll teach us then?” Keiji actually sounds a bit excited at the prospect of me telling them what I know.

“Don’t really have a choice, kid. Bit of a warning, I’m not exactly the teaching type. Don’t be surprised if I don’t tell you everything. And to keep a bit of my word from earlier, you can all ask me two questions before I head off to sleep for the night,” might as well get this outta the way now so I don’t have to deal with it when I wake up.

I immediately regret saying that, however, when Keiji and Mako start trying to talk over each other for their questions. I manage to beat Aria to telling both of them to quiet down. Keiji drops back into his seat, while Mako slumps into hers with her...ears flat against her head. Not sure if I’ll ever get used to that sight.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

A sigh leaves my lips as I point to Aria with my cane, “Alright, you go first.”

“How do Summoners summon Demons?”

“We make Contracts with them.”

“How do you make a Contract?”

“Call their name, say what you want, shake on it or sign a paper depending on the Demon,” I point to Kenji at my left, “You’re up.”

“Ah! Um, ah, um...are there any nice Demons?” he asks while looking up at me from behind Virgil his..pet angel...yeah gonna need to ask about that at some point too.

“Nope,” I say without a single hint of doubt.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive,” at least not any I’ve met. They usually fall into one of two categories. Stab me from the front, or try to stab me in the back. No go-between. I point to Amillia, “You, next.”

“Um, what happened to your leg?” she points towards my left side for emphasis.

I look down at my bum leg, scowling at the offending appendage. Like Hell, I’m telling them where this came from. I look back at her and shrug, “Workplace-related accident. Not a big deal.”

“Oh...do you want Aria to heal it?”

Me and Aria share a glance at each other. She nods and gets out of her seat, “I could. It would be quick and easy. Let me just-“

“Thanks but no thanks, girl,” I wave my hand and shake my head no, “I’m cool with waiting for this thing to heal on its own.”

“But isn’t living with it a hassle?” she asks me with a confused look on her face.

“Sure, but I’ve learned to deal with it. Part of being an adult,” another shrug from me turns her expression from confusion into frustration. She sits back down and gestures for me to continue. I point to Keiji, “Your turn, brat.”

“Don’t call me a brat!”

I hit him on the head again, “While I’m your teacher, I’ll call you whatever I want. Got it, brat?”

He scowls while rubbing the top of his head with one hand. Then he mumbles a quiet, “Fine”, before asking his first question, “Do you need to sacrifice virgins for your Contracts with Demons?!”

“....Ok, who the fuck told you that dumb ass shit?”

“Doesn’t matter! Is it true or not?!” he stares me down with an angry.

...He’s...he’s serious about this?

I look at the other kids and see Aria, Amillia, and Kenji with their heads in their hands. Mako’s simply giggling at Keiji’s question. I turn back to the black-haired brat and say with as flat a voice as I can muster, “Yeah, brat. We always make sure to have the freshest of virgins for our Summoning Rituals that take place in underground caverns away from prying eyes.”

“I knew it! You-Ow! Stop that!” he rubs his head where I hit him again.

“Only if you stop being an idiot. Of course, we don’t sacrifice virgins! That’s fucking stupid! If you wanted to do that, you’d have to constantly search for one to keep summoning just one Demon at a time. It’s completely inefficient. Not to mention put a big dent in your population. What are you gonna do when you start running low on virgins cause no one’s left to have any kids?” I really wanna know where he got this idea from, so I can find out who told him and smack them in the face for being so stupid.

“Well, what do you have to do besides making a Contract?”

“We, uh, we sacrifice something. But usually something of our own. Preferably something easily replaceable, and that we have on hand,” I don’t go further than that. No need to explain all the nitty-gritty details. Thankfully, the answer seems to placate Keiji. So I turn my attention to the...dog girl. I point my cane at her and nod.

She lifts her head but keeps her eyes focused on the table. She shifts around a bit before speaking with a melancholy tone, “Did I...um...did I do something wrong?”

“Huh?” oh, god, what is this now?

“Um, when I went to wake you up today. Did I do something bad?” when she finally turns to look at me I can see droplets of water gathering at the edge of her eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“Wait...uh, Crowley, did you pet Mako after she woke you up?” Amillia asks me while leaning on the table, staring at me with uncharacteristically judging eyes.

“Pet? You mean, like, rub her head or something?” I’m suddenly reminded of when she tilted her head towards me after she helped me get my cane. Was that what she was doing? Asking for...pets? When Amillia nods her head yes, I shake my head no, “No. I didn’t.”

One moment the entire table was silent.

The next, everyone but Mako was yelling at me.

“You idiot!”

“How could you do that?!”

“What is wrong with you?!”

“That’s..that’s not good, Mr. Crowley!”

I’m forced to press my back against my seat at both the number and volume of admonishments the kids send my way. Even Kenji, normally quiet and silent, yells at me for my apparent transgression. I look between them and defensively ask, “What?! What the hell did I do wrong!?”

“You didn’t pet Mako, you heartless bastard!” Keiji responds.

“Keiji! Language!” Aria admonishes him, before turning back to me, “But he’s right, Crowley. You’re supposed to pet Mako when she does a good job.”

“What? Like a dog? But she’s not a dog! She’s a fucking human! That would be demeaning wouldn’t it?”

Amilia pipes up while hugging and comforting Mako in her arms, “She’s half-human, half-canine. And she likes it! It makes her happy.”

“And Alcohol makes me happy. That doesn’t mean it’s good for me!”

“Well, it is for her!”

“How’d she even get like that anyway? And please don’t tell me it has to do with her family tree.”

“No, it came from when she was Chosen by her Angel.”

“Chosen by her Angel?” is that why these kids are called ‘Chosen’? I thought that was supposed to be a play on ‘Chosen Ones’ like in storybooks and shit.

“When we reach ten years of age,” Aria begins, calming herself and sitting down, “We are taken to a room filled with Angels. There we wait until one of the Angels comes to us and agrees to Bond with us. That is what gives us our powers. However, sometimes the Bonding process can cause...changes to the person. Sometimes minor and sometimes major.”

“Mako got turned into a dog person,” Kenji starts to explain, his timid nature reasserting itself as he sat back down, “And..well..she likes things that...dogs like. Not the food or treats or anything like that. More like...petting and playing catch.”

“So, we all agreed that we would pet her whenever she did a good job. It makes her happy, and she’s fine with it. Understand?” Keiji says still staring me down.

I’m about to protest until I spot Mako looking at me out of the corner of my eye. You know those look puppies and sad dogs give you? The ones that tug on your heartstrings and make you want to take them home or give them a treat or something? Yeah, take that then put it on a human face and add the ability to cry on command. That’s how she was looking at me the entire time.

And while that did tug on my frayed heartstrings a little, it was the secondary realization I made after looking at how everyone reacted to the knowledge that I didn’t pet her when she asked. That if I didn’t pet her when she did a good job, I’d have to deal with this exact situation.

Everyday.

For. Two. Years.

....My stubbornness has its limits.

“F...fine,” I groan while waving my free hand through the air, “I’m sorry I didn’t...pet you. You didn’t do anything wrong. Thanks for...for getting me up and all that.”

With a gasp, Mako returned to her bubbly self. Her tail started wagging like crazy as she shot up from her chair with her hand pointed towards the sky, “Then, can I get my pets now? Please?”

“Um....sure?” she bolts from her chair to my left side. Almost makes me jump when she leans forward, the top of her head and ears pointed towards me. All the other kids encourage me to go ahead, while I just nervously stare at Mako. With little idea of what I’m doing, I reach out and place my left hand on the top of her head.

Her hair is...smooth? I guess? I don’t really know how to describe it. But I can say it was easy to move my hand through. It glided across her scalp with ease, her head following my palm as I went. I keep it up for what feels like a few minutes and kind of get into it. That is until I realize that I’m basically rubbing the head of a fully grown human girl and looks like a dog.

Then that uncomfortable feeling in my stomach comes back.

“Ok, that’s enough,” I pull my hand away and stand up, “Everyone’s asked their questions, so I’m gonna go hit the sack. See you all the morning.”

I turn before anyone can protest my absence. Though all the kids do yell goodnight to me as I leave. I don’t reply, head towards the stairs, and sigh as I get close to my room. The sun has long since set and I can feel the sluggishness from having a full stomach already taking effect.

Well, I guess that wasn’t so bad for my first dinner with these kids.

Now, let's get some rest.

I’ve got a busy day tomorrow.

Got people to meet, a city to see, but most importantly a room to booby trap.