-Month 2, Day 1-

(Cynwrig) "Rise and shine."

Cynwrig entered our room and pulled the curtains up from the window, causing the sun to shine directly into Saria's eyes. She was awake now, I was booted out of some surreal dream she had that I wasn't even able to remember. Something about breathing fire down on a town of helpless humans. Fantasies of being a mighty dragon tyrant or something. Well, those dreams definitely were destined to stay as dreams. She covered her eyes with her arm to protect against the sudden light in her eyes.

She was exhausted all of yesterday after that episode, so all day was spent just relaxing in the inn. Saria explained the fight we had in as much detail as possible to Mari who was amazed by every detail. For whatever reason, Mari had no reservations about talking or being close to a demon, the two actually looked like they could be good friends.

(Cynwrig) "Go get breakfast."

The guy really wasn't much of a talker after all. He woke us up and pretty much left immediately again, closing the door behind him. Saria yawned and, what the hell, went straight back into a sleeping position.

(Draven) «How are you still trying to sleep, you went to be at seven in the evening yesterday...»

(Saria) "Hnn, just give me five minutes..."

Sigh... While I couldn't physically bop her head, I went ahead and used Take over on her arm to smack her face, to her own surprise. She moaned that she was still tired but she probably realized I was a wall she couldn't beat here. She got on her socks, because apparently she sleeps with clothes on and all (but not socks, god forbid her feet get too hot), locked the door behind her and went downstairs to meet up with Mari who was busy in the kitchen.

Mari said she'd store Saria's fruit Cynwrig bought yesterday in their storage room. Saria walked into the kitchen with no reservations, even though she was a guest in the inn, but Mari didn't really care it would seem. Her dad was also there, preparing breakfast for everyone.

(Mari) "Good mornin' Sari!"

(Saria) "Hellooo."

(Mari) "Just a sec, I'll be bringing ya yar breakfast."

She went into the storage room, which radiated a cold breeze like an actual freezer room in a restaurant, and came out with a plate that had a variety of tropicot themed brunch. A few slices of the fruit, some bread and a tiny jar of tropicot jam, some nuts and what looked like a pancake. Mari handed it to her and waited for some sort of response, but Saria just stood frozen in place for some seconds before I could see a small hint of a drool coming from her mouth. Why was this demon so simple...

(Mari) "So?"

(Saria) "Is this really for me?!"

(Mari) "Of course, love. I never get to work with that expensive stuff ya bought normally, thought I might go all in, hehe."

Mari scratched her neck, probably realizing by now she made Saria happy for giving her special treatment. Bob on the other hand looked a bit worried after I caught a glimpse of him, still kneading the dough he worked on since we entered. Saria said he looked "too friendly", but I bet he was worried about his daughter associating too much with a demon.

She happily accepted Mari's offering and sat herself at Cynwrig's table. The guy bopped his head today again as a greeting while munching on his food. He had his focus on how extravagant his plate looked compared to Saria's, but knowing him at this point he probably just decided to not think about it too much.

(Cynwrig) "You made quite an uproar yesterday."

Saria paused just as she was about to take a bite herself, but then resumed shortly after.

(Cynwrig) "The entire city pretty much knows you exist here now, you know?"

It's as if he was waiting for some sort of reply from her, but she kept eating and just looked at him, not changing expression at all. He sighed shortly after.

(Cynwrig) "And I'm told I never talk... I have a faint idea of what Blackhill wants from you, but if he isn't in office today again, I'm dropping you off at that orchard where we found you, got it? I don't want to baby you anymore."

(Saria) "Fine by me."

He took another bite, watching her. I don't think he really knows what to do with her. This Blackhill guy who was supposingly the boss of Cynwrig and a big-shot of the country apparently wanted something from us. If he wanted us dead we wouldn't have needed to be escorted to the city. Cynwrig was obviously more than well-equipped to kill Saria if he wanted to, so I could only assume that this is going to become some sort of mutually beneficial reason why Cynwrig had to drag us to him.

Still, I couldn't rule out that he just wanted Saria as a pet or something. Demons obviously aren't seen as equals to humans, anyone could tell that when seeing humans react to her.

(Cynwrig) "I've never asked, but what do you want?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

(Saria) "Hm?"

(Cynwrig) "...Like what do you want in life? I'll regret it if I don't take the opportunity to ask you if a demon could aspire to something."

She pondered it for a bit. I suppose nobody ever asked her something like that before, not even I have. We extensively hung out with Jack and Erin after we met and she had a good time with that, but looking at the future, I really had no idea what she wanted.

(Saria) "I want to go to all the places that those bards sung about."

(Cynwrig) "The ones from sixthsday? Those are all fantasies from the hadal zones, you know?"

(Saria) "No way! It sounded too fun to be untrue."

(Draven) «Wait, what's a hadal zone? This is the first time I hear about it.»

(Saria) "Hm? I don't know."

(Cynwrig) "You don't know what?"

(Saria) "What a hadal zone is."

He looked a bit confused.

(Cynwrig) "What do you mean? Don't all demons live in them?"

(Saria) "...We do?"

(Cynwrig) "Seriously? It's area of the world that are too dense with juice that humans can't live in them. You know what juice cores are, right?"

(Saria) "Uhh..."

She totally didn't. This sounds like something important, why was the the first time I've ever heard about it?

(Cynwrig) "Alright, so you're as hopeless as I thought. Every monster who can use magic has a juice core. You have one too, it's an organ that allows you to manipulate juice of a specific element. Right?"

She nodded. So it's like a heart that pumps juice around in the body?

(Cynwrig) "The entire planet is filled with juice that radiates all different kinds of juice. Some places radiate water juice, some air juice, you get the idea. Elisande and all other human kingdoms are founded in places where the radiation is low, meaning we absorb almost no juice naturally. But some places, like hadal zones, radiate enough juice to eventually kill anything which can't convert that energy with their juice core."

So the entire planet here was essentially radioactive according to him. Wasn't the earth radioactive at all times too or something? I don't know, it sounds similar to what I know about radioactive stuff, you can survive some but too much and it destroys your body.

(Saria) "So what happens if you stay in one of these places?"

(Cynwrig) "If for example it was a place that radiates a lot of water juice, that energy would eventually convert itself into water inside your body, bloat you up and eventually kill you. But you can't die because you would convert it into light before it becomes water."

(Saria) "Oooh, okay."

(Cynwrig) "From what I heard demons like to live in fire hadals, so if I went there I would spontaneously combust after some time. But from what I've heard, these places are bizarre because they are so filled with juice."

Huh. Either way, Saria longed to see places. I wish I was conscious for that evening where she had an eye-opening revelation of what to do in life because of music. She'd hyped it up so much by now that I'd love to hear it myself. I like most music, so hopefully it's within my tastes as well.

Once they were done eating, they both collected their belongings from their rooms, returned the keys to their rooms to Bob and Mari in the main hall of the inn and started heading towards the embassy. We left behind some of the fruit Cynwrig bought at the inn, seeing how we told them that we'd stop by later in the day to pick it up.

Neither Saria nor Cynwrig tried to hide the fact that Saria was a demon. He did say that word spread quickly in town about yesterday, and people kept pointing at her while heading towards the embassy. Really, what was their deal even, it's rude as all hell to point like that in public. Luckily she didn't mind them at all though.

It was a pretty short trip there, and the embassy itself stood out among everything else in the area. Most houses here were a mix of wood and stone, whereas this one looked like it was made with marble. It had a flag hanging above the door, a green and red flag with a fancy rose in the middle.

We headed inside a once more massive room that looked like a museum at first glance. Paintings, ornaments, statues, armor and loads more was on open display. Almost like a medieval fare or something. Not that I really know what a medieval fare is.

At the reception table was a middle-aged woman who saw us enter.

(Lisa) "Early as ever."

Cynwrig gave her a short wave of his hand. There was nobody else here, now that I look. Even if there were papers stacked on her reception desk in masses. Saria and Cynwrig moved up to her.

(Cynwrig) "So, is he available?"

(Lisa) "Yep, give me a moment."

She stamped some paper before heading through a door behind the desk. The place here actually looked kind of modern to me. It's definitely because this association is stinking rich. After a few minutes she returned to us.

(Lisa) "I've got the go-ahead to let you in. You know which office is his, right?"

(Cynwrig) "I do."

(Lisa) "Good. Don't die in there."

Cynwrig let out a snicker as she smiled at him. He told Saria to follow him, and we went into the backstage of this place up another set of stairs. One thing I noticed was again how filthy rich this company or whatever it is must be. Red carpet that looked tailormade kept on going as we even moved up the stairs. Greek looking pillars here and there near the walls. Lavish as hell is what this must be.

On the first floor, Cynwrig navigated us towards a door with two distictively unique looking people apparently guarding it. One woman and one man, both wore green and red colored fabric and had a feel about their equipment that gave off the same vibe as Cynwrig. It just looked extravagant and expensive, swords adorned with gems and loads of things hanging out of their pockets and on their belts. It gave me shivers needing to imagine that this Blackhill guy probably employed the best of the best. Better not get on his bad side.

Cynwrig told them what he was there for, and the two nodded to let us in. They opened the door, but said only Saria was to enter. Cynwrig said he'd wait down next to the receptionist for when we were done. I kind of expected him to just go his way though.

She went in and they closed the door behind her. The office was lit up by sunlight coming in from the massive windows in front of us, and looking to her right, a man was sitting in his throne of a chair noticing us enter. So this must be this Blackhill guy. He had mutton chops as the most obvious facial feature, but looked rather old, as if in his seventies or something like that. He wore a red tuxedo with swirly patterns all over it, and not to mention his oversized glasses. He looked imperial, is what I thought.

He stared for a while before his eyes lit up.

(Blackhill) "So, the apostle of Dharma graces me with a visit. Please, take a seat."

The apostle of what? I'd heard this name before, but I had no idea who this Dharma was. Come to think of it, didn't those crazy people from yesterday call themselves Dharmqir? Regardless, Saria followed suit and sat down in a chair in front of his desk.

(Blackhill) "I assume you already know me well, nonetheless, my name is Martinias Blackhill. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

(Saria) "Hey. I'm Saria."

(Blackhill) "So, Saria, do you know why you are here today?"

She shook her head. I had no clue either, Cynwrig apparently did but didn't tell us.

(Blackhill) "Good. We'll be having a long talk today about how I am going to be investing a lot into you. But first, would you like a snack? I've got the most delicious bagels prepared for today."