“You alright?” I said after letting the nano-chatte fill in the last holes the chains left behind in the demoness. It couldn’t heal the demoness immediately, especially since the demoness’s body was ungodly strong, and because the walls of the wounds were entirely made of scar tissue.
“You’re talking to THE princess of pain. This is nothing.” Said the demoness as I threw the last chain into the pile. We had retreated into an alleyway while the rest of our party was out buying clothes and ways to disguise ourselves. “Finally! I thought you’d never be done.”
“Well excuse me for struggling to pull out chains from a demi-god.” I said while shifting my gaze towards the pile. Every chain’s colour was distinct. A couple were a dull cyan, a couple less were green, and even less were red. “What even are these metals?” I while the demoness moved closer towards the pile. She smiled as she pulled me up to a standing position.
“Does it matter? Look. All that matters is that they had silver, mythril, and demonic steel hooked up to my back, and now they’re not on my back.” I had missed out a couple silvery chains with my quick glance, but I immediately noticed them when looking closer. The demonic steel was clearly the red chains, and mythril was associated with blue in stories, so the blue chain must’ve been mythril. The green one was a mystery, but if mythril was real, then adamantine must’ve also been real, and everyone knew that adamtine was green.
“What’s demonic steel? Is it just a recolour of normal steel?” I said before the demoness put her arm around my shoulder and pushed her arm forward while having her fist open. It was as if the demoness was deliberately parodying typical salesmen.
“Imagine… Dwarven steel but made by demons.” That explained literally nothing other than how it’s made.
“Yea, but like, what does it do?” I said.
“What do you mean? It’s just steel but stronger, tougher, and most importantly, more demonic.” Said the demoness with a proud grin before releasing me. Her slightly red-tinted skin shone as she left the alleyway only to have a pile of clothes thrown at her.
“Sup.” Said Anna plainly as she, along with Christian and Sam, walked into the alleyway.
“How’d you know we were here?” I said.
“The demon has a very specific accent.” Said Anna as Christian tossed some clothes at me. They were all already wearing their new outfits. They looked surprisingly… spanish? I couldn’t exactly pinpoint it, but Anna was wearing an all white dress that was full of tiny little red patterns that were all connected. Christian also went all in on the traditional looking clothes by wearing a white shirt also decorated like Anna’s dress, but he was wearing black pants, and had a white rose in his shirt’s patch pocket. Sam probably opted out of the whole thing as he was just wearing a black hoodie over his cultist clothes.
“Why did you get me clothes? I can literally make my armour look however I want it to.” I said as the nano-chatte absorbed the clothes and put it on me before popping out of my body in its original tiny cuboid form. I was a little worried to see it be so uninterested in what’s happening that it basically went to sleep, but it deserved some rest. Its back probably hurt from all the carrying it was doing.
“Come on pal, stop being a buzzkill, we’ve already got a person who complained too much.” Said Christian as the demoness just put her clothes over her old ones. She had the same outfit as me and Christian, but Anna quickly put a red rose in the demoness’s patch pocket, and a black rose in mine.
“What? Can’t I wear what I want?” Said Sam defensively. Everyone except him looked like a tourist. There wasn’t any kind of event going on, so us wearing these clothes immediately gave it away. Anna quickly grabbed her long forgotten staff before opening a book written in Ukrainian and using a spell to change her hair’s colour to a strawberry blonde while Christian put on a top hat and took out a cane to look even fancier.
“You look a lot less conspicuous than any of us. People are still gonna recognise us.” I said to reassure Sam while still bringing up the fact that we were still very recognisable.
“That’s not the point pal. Like, aye, everyone’s gonna know it's us, but the outfits are gonna show we’re here with good intentions. If we were here to kill everybody, we wouldn’t be walking around like tourists.” Said Christian before he walked out of the alley. We followed him through the main street of the city. Pop up shops were everywhere, which actually made me feel hungry for the first time in a while. The nano-chatte usually just shut off my hunger, but it was sleeping right now, so it couldn’t do that.
“Smart thinking, human. I don’t know what the robot was smoking to think you could disguise me. I literally have horns.” I looked around while the demoness was talking and could definitely see new world people walking around, but I couldn’t see any slave shops. I thanked whatever god other than the Revifier and Coming Quiet were out there that I didn’t have to burn any place down. I was sure that the Scarlet Emporium would instantly infest the streets of the city with tacky shops and slaves as soon as we worked out a deal with Ukraine. They never stopped selling slaves, even after we destroyed their shop. We just impeded them temporarily, and only in that city specifically.
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“Well? Where are we going first? You find anything on that brochure of yours, Christian?” Asked Anna with an unusual amount of enthusiasm. The sun beating down on us made me already regret letting the nano-chatte go to sleep as the armour kept me nice and cold naturally. I was already sweating and noticing the many imperfections in my uncombed beard.
“Uhm… let me check it again.” Christian quickly shuffled through the brochure, skimming through the many paragraphs about each tourist destination. “The rebuilt Museum of Folk Life looks fine enough.” Anna immediately began walking confidently after Christian said that. Christian didn’t even need to tell her where to go. It was safe to assume she already knew where it was given the fact that she probably already visited this city before the invasion.
Christian walked beside Anna to help her clear the way. You’d have to be blind to not notice his shadow. Even then, he gently pushed the people who didn’t notice him out of the way. Anna had always been the one to handle money, so I’d have to ask her for some if I wanted to eat something. A Scarlet Emporium card got you nowhere if there were no Scarlet Emporium businesses around.
I didn’t ask her though. She felt like an unstoppable force that wouldn’t stop for anything or anyone, nonetheless an insignificant stop to get some food. She’d probably say that we could buy some at the next tavern we’d stay at and then leave it at that. I looked down to see and realise that the nano-chatte got rid of my dad bod. I was thin for the first time in ten years. I stopped inspecting myself the moment Anna stopped in front of a humongous building that was probably the museum.
“Is this the right place?” Said Anna before yanking the brochure from Christian. She looked bewildered as she looked down, then back up to the building, then back down to check the brochure again, then looked up for a final check of the actual building. “This is a lot bigger than I remembered it being.”
“Yea? It’s been rebuilt. No shit it’s gonna be bigger and more glamorous. They probably made the first one with donation money.” I said before we walked in. All the displays were in Ukrainian, so I couldn’t understand anything. The nano-chatte would’ve translated it for me if it weren’t sleeping right now. “What’s this museum even about?”
“The former Greeks who lived here a long time ago, and their transition into Ukrainians, along with their lifestyle.” Said Christian as if he was reading from a script. I looked back to see him doing exactly that as he grabbed the brochure back from Anna and was reading out loud.
“Thanks.” I said before following Sam. He had separated himself from the rest of the group by walking in a random direction, and I wasn’t about to let him explore this museum by himself. Our reputation couldn’t survive people thinking we’re arrogant on top of ruthless.
“You’re following me? Great. Fantastic.” I could tell he was being sarcastic, but I doubt anyone could think he wasn’t.
“Why the hostility? Can’t I just talk with you?” I said. Sam continued walking deeper into the museum while briefly looking at the display pieces.
“You’ve been pretty hostile to me too, and don’t act like I’m the only one that’s not buddying up with everyone. The demoness literally only likes you. She hates us.” I wasn’t sure if he was actually right or not. She could’ve been acting fine while I was awake, and reveal her true self when I was sleeping or away from the group. “Honestly, you’re sick for not calling her out.” Or it could’ve been his bias speaking. Every anxious person I knew interpreted every compliment they were given as fake, so it could be something like that. Sam could’ve been interpreting everything the demoness did as malicious or as fake kindness. I also doubted Anna or Christian would just not talk about it for some reason.
“Better to make a shitty situation better than not doing anything about it. What are you honestly here for if you don’t care about us? You clearly don’t like the party, so why are you still with us?” I said in a moment of genuine curiosity.
“I… This was MY party. I can’t just abandon something the Revifier gave to me.” It was always the Revifier wasn’t it? It was like he worshipped her… Oh wait.
“Look, the Revifier wouldn’t care. Put yourself in her shoes. You’re one of many. Sure, you might be high up, but that doesn’t mean she cares about you that much.” Sam grabbed a museum piece of fidget with it as my questions were starting to stress him out. I yanked it out of his hand and folded the cloth properly before putting it back on display. “You can’t run away from this Sam. I’m actually curious this time. You’ve been a great team asset, even with your constant arguing and our hourly disagreements. I just need to know this one thing.” I grabbed him by his shoulders and made him look at me.
“Well… uhm… you see… I kinda…”