It hasn´t even been an hour since the young woman walked the exact same path to the guild, but now she finds herself on her way home again. The streets are a little emptier in comparison to a few days ago, no wonder because of what happened just yesterday: Nobody would have expected a gathering of illegal trade to happen in this rural village first and foremost, but the accidental mishandling of fragile explosives was a whole other story. It even reached the ears of the capital which sent reinforcements on the spot.

Nevertheless, it´s still quite lively though. However, Madeleine doesn´t feel lively. No, she´s dead inside. Her gaze is glued to the ground while she leads the way. A little child walks by her side, she is the one responsible driving her to this state.

And yet, contrary to her unseeming outward appearance, the receptionist´s mind is filled with wildly whirling thoughts. Thoughts of guilt, thoughts of regret. But mostly with thoughts of dread.

What is going to happen to her when she gets home? Will she be killed? Tortured? What even is this girl? She has never heard of intelligent monsters around this area and even if there were, they wouldn´t bother to infiltrate this little village. Should she run? Cry for help?

As the receptionist feels lost, she already finds herself to stand in front of her home. Her home that is usually her private, secure, warm shelter.

´No, I don´t want to go inside. Someone help me, please, please help me…´

She firmly closes her somewhat wet eyes, but nobody will come to her rescue. Her hands quiver as she reaches for the door

She opens it

“Go inside” the girl says

They both step in as Madeleine hears her last hopes creak and close behind her. She feels the girl´s, the something´s, presence glaring at her back. Not daring to turn around she just shuts her eyes again, unknowing of how events will turn out from now.

But then, a second passes, five, ten. Nothing happens. Madeleine carefully opens one eye, slightly confused.

´Was it all a dream? Is it gone? Is nobody standing behind me anymore?´

She turns around only to see her delusions vanish into thin air. The receptionist slowly retreats until the wall stops her from going further. The Demon starts approaching, stepping toward the scared woman, but then just passes her and plumps on the bed that stands in the corner

“Haaaa, that was nerve wrecking. One wrong move and I would´ve been done for.” the girl releases an exhausted sigh.

“...?” Madeleine´s confusion grows. The girl lifts her head and turns to the weirdly behaving woman.

“What is it?” she asks.

“N-No, I mean. W-What is going to happen to me? W-Will you kill me?”.

“Hm? You did as I said earlier, so why should I?” the girl furrows her brows.

The receptionist´s face doesn´t know what expression it should make. “I-I mean, you´re a m-monster”

The girl sits herself into a cross-legged position and shows a hint of seriousness: “First of all, rude” she then says as she crosses her arms “And secondly, I´m not a monster.”

“Liar! There´s no way you´re Human!” Madeleine shouts before quickly covering her mouth with both hands.

The girl squints her eyes as Madeleine winces once again. “No need to shout, I can hear you just fine.” the Demon says and cleans her left ear with her pinky “Well, I suppose I´ll tell you a little since you helped me out. Neither did I lie to you because I´m not a monster, but nor are you wrong because I´m not a human.”

Madeleine watches carefully as the little girl points at herself; “I´m a Demon!” she says with a proud smile which shows her sharp fangs.

“A De-De-De–” the receptionist´s knees give out and she drops to the floor

But the girl only shakes her head. “Nonono, I´m no fat blue bird with a hammer. I´m a Demon. De~mo~n” she puts emphasis on her race “Do you know what Demons are?”

Madeleine, not able to produce any more sounds that would help with communication, somehow manages to nod her head

“So you do know? You Humans never get to the point, do you?” the girl rolls her eyes

The receptionist steadily regains her words “Why, are you here? D-Did you come to infiltrate the Human realm? Don't tell me is your... Is your race preparing for w-war?” her own words only add to her anxiousness

“What? No. What would make you think I came here for war or whatever. I don´t even want to fight you Humans, ok? Look, Ma and Pa actually told me quite some good things about your race, like how your |Artifacts| are outstanding and your persistence in battle. But I really can´t understand you and your strange behavior. I thought your race was intelligent, so why are all of you acting so weird all the time?” the girl releases a long sigh as she can't stop complaining

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Madeleine just keeps listening to the girl´s rambling in silence, her brain has kinda stopped working at this point. “I-I don´t believe you. Demons are an aggressive, ruthless folk, there´s no way they would want to get along with Humans”

“Well, here I am though” the Demon interjects

But Madeleine only continues: “And there´s no way any ordinary Demon is able to cross planes. You must have been sent by the Demon Lord to–”

Madeleine stops in her sentence as she sees the girl´s face twist in anger. Has she gone too far? Said something she shouldn´t have? Will she be killed now?

“As if I´d do anything for that bastard.” the girl says furiously

“Eh? Why are you hostile towards your ruler?”

“´Why,´ you ask? Ruler?”

Madeleine, realizing that her thoughts slipped out hastily shakes her head and arms. “No I´m sorry I didn´t mean to– I, I´m really sorry!” she gets on her knees in front of the Demon, begging for forgiveness

But the girl only chuckles at her behavior “Jeez it´s fine, you don´t have to overreact like that. You know, the Demon Lord is actually my father"

“Kjshpi” the receptionist chokes as she hears these words, but she doesn´t get any time for a breather

“He abandoned me after saying I´m ´useless´, but I´ll make this fucker regret his words. Especially since I'm a |Primordial Demon Valkyrie| now.”

The receptionist´s eyes bulge.

The Demon girl tells Madeleine her life-story; About her days in the other realm, about the Classification Ceremony, how her mother saved her from the raging Demon Lord. The receptionist just listens quietly. Well, she doesn't have any other choice but to do so. At one point she even faints due to the stress.

“And then I was found by Ma and Pa, they´re Goblins”

“G-G-Goblins??!” the receptionist yells “Y-You mean those G-Goblins, from legends?”

The Demon tilts her head to that “Legends?”

“Y-Yes! They are ridiculous monsters! Wait, don´t tell me, which color were they? Were they red? Red Goblins?”

“Nono, what are you saying?"

The receptionist releases a breath of relief. ´At least not red–´

“They were blue”

“B-B-Blue???!!” Madeleine shouts as she again loses consciousness, some fume coming out of her mouth...

--

“Ugh, what happened?” Madeleine's forehead throbs as she finds herself in her bed. Looking around the familiar room she jerks as she sees the Demon eating in the corner

“Aaah!” she holds her head and cries while her memories come back

“Ah, you´re awake” the girl says as she gets up and walks to the bed

“Stay away!” Madeleine shouts while covering herself with her sheets.

The Demon actually stops, she looks at the clump of sheets and just shrugs her shoulders “Fine, you don´t have to be so dramatic about everything all the time” she shrugs her shoulders and bites in some dried meat again.

Madeleine, bewildered that the Demon actually listened to her, opens a small hole in her fortress of defense and just stares at her in disbelief. After a while she gathers her courage to speak up: “U-Uhm” she stutters

The Demon turns her head. “What is it?” she asks with her mouth full

“Why did you k-kill those adventurers?”

This time it´s the Demon who´s confused “Well I mean, they started it"

“B-But didn´t you say you don´t mean any harm to humans?”

The girl stops eating and gives the woman her full attention. “I do think you humans are interesting and I do want to get along with you”

“Then I don´t understand, why did you kill them? Why couldn´t you just have talked to them?”

The little girl scoffs at these words “What is it with you and not killing? Listen, do you really think words would´ve done anything back there?" Madeleine opens her mouth to say something but the girl doesn´t let her speak “You saw how this Henrik guy acted. Be honest, do you really think he of all people would've listened to me?”

Madeleine bites her lower lip and casts her gaze down

“You know, I wouldn´t even have bothered with him in the first place if he didn´t get in my way. It´s the same for the rest. They attack, I attack back.”.

The young woman takes a moment to process

“What, is there something else?” the Demon asks, somewhat as if posing a challenge

Madeleine hesitates before deciding it´s not the right time to think about that. “Well, I can't say I agree entirely... but I do understand. But that matter aside, how in the world did you trick the |Appraisal Catalyst|? I´m sure it wasn´t defect"

The girl cocks her brow “Hm? Ah, you mean that. It's one of my |Skill´s|. It even allowed me to disguise my Status, neat right?.” the girl says as if it were the most natural thing in the world

“A |Skill|? What |Skill|? I-I mean, would it be alright if I asked?” she asks

“Well, you already kinda did. But sure, I believe it was |Absolute Appraisal|”

The Receptionist´s eyes almost fall out of their sockets, again… “Absolute?? You have a |Skill| of the Absolute tier??”

***

For the rest of the day the little girl continued to surprise the receptionist with every single word that came out of her mouth. Truthfully, the Demon had fun conversing with the woman, she took a liking not only to her reactions but to something more that Madeleine had.

Madeleine on the other hand was still wary of the Demon. Although she no longer was afraid of getting killed, her initial fear still strongly persisted. But that´s only natural for a Human after being present at the massacre in the guild. Nevertheless, she began to speak more freely and at times even found herself laughing at the Demon girl´s mature yet childish behavior.

Time flew by and hours passed

--

“Hey, Madeleine? I need your help with something.” the Demon eventually asks.

“Yes?”

The girl leans slightly forward and looks Madeleine deep in the eyes “I was wondering, but you humans all have something called a Class, right?”

Madeleine tilts her head to the girl's out-of-nowhere question

The next words of the Demon truly surprise her: “How do I get one?”