Zoe shared a glance with Lily and Andric. It seemed that nobody wanted to be the first one to move — all three were waiting for one of the others to take the initiative. Captain Hart looked on expectantly. Finally, Zoe broke the tension by aggressively pulling out a chair and plopping herself down.

The other two shared another glance and then followed much more warily. Zoe rolled her eyes. She was already feeling irritable — likely because of the captain’s close presence. She wondered if she should have taken a different seat — she was right next to him — but then, the other option was to sit directly across.

A true lose-lose situation.

In any case, the captain himself seemed completely oblivious to the tension still oozing over the table with regards to the seating arrangements. Taking a deep gulp of what looked to be some manner of fruit juice, he stuffed another whole egg in his mouth and swallowed. Zoe couldn’t help but arch her eyebrows. With the way he ate, she wondered how he had stayed slim.

“Here, have some toast.”

Picking up the lightly toasted loaf, he offered it to Zoe first. When she didn’t take it, he proffered it to Andric, who silently — but politely — declined. Finally, it was Lily’s turn, and the mage snatched the toast without hesitation.

She didn’t even inspect it before taking a large bite.

“Well at least someone else is hungry,” the captain muttered to himself loudly. “Anyway,” he coughed, “I thought that worldwalkers were always human.”

The sudden return to the opening of the conversation caught Zoe off guard, but she quickly recovered. What should she say? She probably should tell at least some kind of truth, given that the beast tamer could pick up on when she lied — but how much should she give him?

“I was before I arrived,” she said with a slight shrug.

“Oh?” The captain took another sip of juice. “What happened?”

“Cultists happened,” Zoe said flatly. She couldn’t help but be annoyed that he was continuing this line of inquiry. Fucking lie detecting ability. It was such bullshit, but she couldn’t exactly just remain silent, either. Unless…

“I became a demon to stop dying,” she supplied. “They weren’t happy about it — but I’d rather not talk about the rest.”

It was a gamble, but she hoped that the captain would respect her desire to keep it close to her chest. After all, while he had tried to violate her in pretty much the worst possible way right when they met, he was also showing a surprising amount of hospitality. Especially since they were prisoners.

“Fair enough.” The captain shrugged, and Zoe mentally relaxed in relief. Of course, she still kept her guard up — she had no idea how much of the man’s attitude was genuine versus a carefully crafted persona.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

She suspected that it was some mix of the two.

“I wonder if it was Basil’s cult,” he muttered.

Zoe had to force herself to not give any reaction. Basil — that was the name of the cultist chieftain. Captain Hart obviously knew him — or at the very least, knew of him. She made sure to remember this information — perhaps she could use it later to maybe piece something actually useful together. As it was, it didn’t actually tell her much — but she definitely wasn’t going to ask directly.

After all, he didn’t know that she was already familiar with the name.

The captain remained silent for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. Looking around, Zoe saw that, much like herself, Andric had refused to touch a single item. Lily, however, continued to scarf down more food — it looked like she was on her third biscuit already.

She must have been pretty hungry, Zoe thought. And then she suddenly realized that she still wasn’t. She glanced at Andric. While still stonefaced, it looked like part of his facade was starting to crack, and he was eyeing Lily’s half eaten biscuit with a tight lipped, pained expression.

He’s hungry too. But she still wasn’t. So it’s a demon thing. Well, she wasn’t technically sure, but this was good enough proof for her. Awakened still needed to eat, but demons didn’t. Guess I’m a being of pure energy now.

“I’m sorry.”

The captain’s words jerked her out of her thoughts all of a sudden, and she bumped her leg on the underside of the table. Not only had she not been expecting him to speak — she didn’t understand at all what he had just said.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were an ascendant and not a born demon.” He raked a hand through his long gray hair. “I wouldn’t have attempted to enslave you had I known.”

Zoe was too stunned to say anything. Not that she was shocked that he was actually apologizing or that he was actually a decent person or anything stupid like that — no, she was just shocked at the audacity to even try to apologize for something like that.

She absolutely did not forgive him.

After all, what did it matter that she had actually been human once? He tried to mentally enslave her regardless. And furthermore, she really didn’t think particularly highly of anyone who would do something like that to any person, human or not.

Of course, she didn’t voice any of this, and tried to keep her expression neutral. But what do I say back? I can’t lie and say apology accepted, and I really don’t want to thank him. Making up her mind, Zoe shrugged and turned back to her empty plate.

“Okay.”

After a moment, she glanced back. The beast tamer was still staring at her, once again with a thoughtful gaze. “You don’t have a path, though, do you?”

“No.”

“But did you ever have one?”

Fuck you, Zoe thought in irritation. “Yes, but I lost them.”

The captain’s forehead crinkled in confusion. “How in all the lands did you manage that?”

Zoe couldn’t resist rolling her eyes. “I died. To one of your men. I managed to get better, but I lost my paths.”

Nodding slowly, the captain stroked his neatly trimmed gray beard. “You must have some kind of soul wound, then.”

Zoe remained silent. She wasn’t going to say anything to that — even if it was obvious that he now knew. In all honesty, she didn’t want to think about it.

“And yet you demonstrated absolutely tremendous spirit resisting me,” he continued. Sitting back, he took another swig of juice. “But this might turn out to be an opportunity for you. After all, you’re not too far off from the possibility of acquiring yet another path.”

Zoe froze.

She had since resigned herself to making do with her abilities and traits. What the captain seemed to be suggesting was thus quite shocking.

“What?”

“You’re ten levels away from stage one of the awakened realm. You’ve only been in this world, what, four days?” Chuckling, the beast tamer shook his head in amazement. “Your rate of growth must be astounding. So if you manage to break through…” He spread his hands.

“There’s a high likelihood that you will acquire a new path.”