Avarus Invidia (II): A Demon’s Bread And Butter

--- Booker H. Freeman ---

“Hey, uh, Booker?” Lydia started, her eyes darting around at the various people walking the same way as them. “Is it me or are there a lot of people with, uh, weapons around here?”

“Well given my claws and your knife, I very much doubt they’re all that unique.” He chuckled, briefly picturing ripping out the throat of the nearest man and using it to fuel his hand’s regeneration.

(Gluttony: There’s an alley right there. Drag him in and no one will care if only you walk out. Especially if you’ve blood on your mouth…)

The way the man shivered in place before picking up the pace left him with an amused smile on his face.

“Yeah, but… are things really so bad that people have to be armed like this?” Lydia asked, her hands gripping at the straps of her backpack.

“Perhaps, but we do live in a dangerous world my dear.” The fact that he lived in this world was proof of that.

Lydia’s face became marred by the most wretched of frowns. “I-I thought things would be less… violent outside of Ira Invidia…”

Not standing for that frown for even a second he flicked the girl’s nose, causing her face to scrunch up as she glared at him.

“Don’t forget what I told you… There’s nothing to fear as long as I’m near~” He sung lightly, without breaking into a full blown musical number.

“Yeah, this is the start of my metamorphosis.” Lydia nodded, not singing her own verse.

“Quite right, my dear.” He smiled, before noticing something a little further ahead. “At the very least you don’t need to be concerned with people randomly arming themselves. After all, everyone here seems to be going to the same place.”

A little further down the street were a set of stairs leading up to a building with a temple like design, a massive spell circle spinning a violent violet above the entryway. Upon these stairs were a number of people coming and going with all sorts of weapons on display.

(Pride: Look at those firearms.)

(Wrath: Those blades are well worn…)

(Lust: Ooh, listen to all of those spell songs in the air!)

“Tell me, would it reassure you to know why all of these people are armed?” He asked his frightened little companion.

Lydia looked ahead at the building for a moment before eventually nodding. “Yeah… yeah, I think it would.”

“Then find out you shall!” He declared as he led the way to their destination, moving with a purpose his previous wandering had lacked.

“W-wait up!” Lydia called after him, caught off guard by his sudden acceleration.

(Envy: Wait, that spell circle…)

He slowed as he came to the stairs, his eyes drifting up to the circle on display for anyone to see. (See something interesting?)

(Envy: Something about [Discretion], [Neutrality], and [Binding]... It’s too dense to make out the rest without sitting down and hearing the song out.)

(Sloth: I could do with a sit down.)

(Pride: Oh, is your curiosity not piqued by this mystery?)

(Greed: Hmm, something about this place is… familiar…)

(Memory familiar?) He wondered, his interest piqued by that mystery.

(Greed: Gah, can’t remember… But my gut says there’s a profit to be made here.)

(Envy: There’s also a lot of magic being thrown around in there.)

“This place… kind of looks like a bank…” Lydia said as they looked around the room consisting of white marble floors and pillars with several lines filled with armed individuals waiting in line to get to a number of people lined up behind a glass window.

“Perhaps, but a bank that you bring your weapons to?” He asked in amusement, noticing how several people were going to mechanical boxes on the walls before heading down one of several halls lined with doors.

“You’re right there’s got to be it…” Lydia’s eyes narrowed as she took a closer look at things. “Have you been anywhere like this before?”

(Not as far as I can recall.) But he wasn’t planning on letting Lydia know he was amnesiac anytime soon.

(Sloth: Minion might start getting ideas…)

“You’d be surprised how many buildings look like this on the inside…” He instead answered. “We’ll have to actually get in line if you want to know for sure.”

Lydia glanced at the lines for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Well, I guess enough people are doing it without being shot at…”

“Ooh, that would make the bureaucracy more fun wouldn’t it!” He chuckled, before moving for a line that was nearly empty, and actually so by the time they made it to the window.

The clerk at the counter was an interesting sight, a red-skinned woman with horns sticking out of her black hairline and with glowing cat eyes visible behind her glasses even if she didn’t look their way.

(Pride: Interesting, is this a mid-point of our transformation?)

(Envy: No… This woman was never human to begin with.)

(Lust: But we’re still going to treat her like a lady, right?)

(Of course, we may be a murderous cannibal but we’re a gentleman of a murderous cannibal!)

After a moment the woman let out a sigh before asking. “Name?”

Seeing no reason not to give it, he answered with a smile, “Booker H. Freeman.”

The woman’s clawed fingers tapped away at a keyboard before a light from the screen of the mechanical box in front of her caused her eyes to slowly widen before darting him with contracted pupils as she began to shake in place.

“Is there a problem dear?” He asked with what he hoped was a reassuring grin.

Only instead of doing as intended the woman began to hyperventilate before suddenly standing and rushing off with a call of, “I’ll bring you my manager!”

His companion gave him a confused look. “Uh, what was that about?”

Uncaring for the numerous eyes on him after that little spectacle he reached through a hole in the window and tilted the screen his way, revealing a rather dashing picture of him with a fang filled grin for the camera.

(Oh, a clue to our identity!) He smiled widely before realizing-

(Pride: None of this is in a language we remember.)

(So close.)

“Uh, what’s it say?” Lydia frowned (grotesquely) apparently as illiterate here as he was.

“It appears I am in fact a repeat customer.” He told her, pushing the screen back and retrieving his hand. (I’ve only the one right now after all.)

“So you know what this place is then?” Lydia pressed.

(Pride: No idea beyond the Greek architecture.)

(Envy: All sorts of security magic. Too much for me to pick through, and too general to narrow it down.)

(Greed: I know this place falls under my domain, but… Why can’t I remember?)

(Envy: Because body boy isn’t resonating with you.)

(Pardon?) He felt that was directed at him.

(Envy: It was.)

(Pride: I see… We’re all aspects of the same person, but based on the animal and the layabout, we’re regaining our memories and powers whenever you behave in line with us.)

(Greed: And this idiot barely listens to me…) The orange thoughts growled.

(Well, if this truly is your domain then I suppose you better advise me well.) He thought, before giving Lydia a grin and telling the girl that, “I think I’m going to leave this a surprise.” as he raised a finger to his lips.

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“Of course you are…” His companion huffed, before like him waiting to see how all of this was going to play out.

Eventually a short man in a black suit rushed out, looking much like the clerk with his red skin, horns and glasses, but also different given his shorter stature and snow white hair. (Though he looks just as frazzled as the clerk from before…)

“M-Mr. Freeman!” The clerk smiled, though his eyes screamed of panic. “It is such an honor to have you visiting us here at this branch of our fine institution!”

(Greed: Alright, if you’re actually going to listen to me… We’ve an advantage right here. He’s clearly scared of us and desperate to keep us happy. Keep both of those in mind if you don’t want him to keep you from getting what’s yours. Whatever that is.)

“I’m sure it is.” He smiled back. “I happened to be in the area and decided to stop in and… check on things.”

“O-of course sir!” The manager bowed and groveled, before gesturing towards a door behind the counter. “Why, why don’t we take this to a private room worthy of a customer of your highest standing.”

(Pride: Does this man have no pride?)

(Gluttony: He does but the scent of fear masks it.)

(Sloth: Pride doesn’t mean much when your life is on the line.)

He glanced at Lydia watching them in a curious sort of concern. “And I’m sure my companion can accompany us.”

The manager glanced towards Lydia and while his eye twitched as he gave her a once over, he never stopped smiling as he answered, “Of course not sir.”

Once on the other side of the counter the manager moved to lead them, his short legs practically running to keep ahead of Booker’s long legged gait.

“Seriously, Booker, what’s going on?” Lydia whispered next to him.

Having no idea what was actually going on (Greed: Beyond us being in charge) he simply put his finger back to his lips.

After a number of twists and turns through winding halls and a short trip up an elevator, he and Lydia found a room full of lavished furniture of violet and gold with a small bar, and a glass table with a couch to either side of it. At the end of the couches were a pair of those machines from the lobby standing between the furniture and a spell circle carved into the very floor of the room.

“I apologize if this isn’t to your usual standards sir, but this is the best that our humble branch has to offer.” The manager assured him once more bowing.

(Greed: Apparently he’s small time compared to whatever we used to work, that advantage from before is a lot better than I was thinking.)

(Pride: Of course an individual of our caliber would have earned this kind of treatment.)

(Envy: Yeah, and who knows how many people we stepped on to do it…)

(Sloth: No one who didn’t deserve it.)

(Wrath: …)

“Mm, this will do.” He told the manager after giving the room a slow once over with his hands behind his back..

(Greed: We need to make a power play before we can get down to business, make sure he understands he’s on the back foot here.)

(Lust: Ooh, ooh, sit on the couch.) He did. (Now you’ve got to lounge. Lean back, arms spread over the back, and cross a leg over your knee. Yes, like that! Oh, and don’t forget the grin that says ‘I am in complete control here’. Good, good… Now we just need a script to put on a proper performance here. Give me the lines and I’ll direct!)

(Greed: Alright, here’s what you need to say…)

“Lydia, why don’t you find yourself a treat? After all, it’s free isn’t it Mr…?”

“Hemingway.” The manager filled in with a tense smile as he kept glancing at Lydia. “And… yes… anything you want will be… comped with all our business today.”

(Gluttony: Ha! That sounded so delightfully painful~)

(Greed: That’s right, get a taste of the goodlife boys this is how we’ll be living with me in charge.)

(Envy: Don’t get ahead of yourself. You haven’t actually earned any of this yet.)

(Sloth: And I could do a lot of this too… I just don’t feel like the work.)

(Greed: Tch… Then I’ll just show you what I can make us…)

At the voice’s prodding, he went ahead and spoke up, “Speaking of business, I’m sure you’ll have no problem telling me which… services this branch of yours has. I understand that it’s a little… smaller than what I’m used to but I’m sure you’ve something that we can work out.”

“Of course sir!” Hemingway nodded before rushing over to the machines and picking up a small glass pane from a slot on the front and causing it to be filled with text of all kinds.

(Pride: And -while this is a bad angle- I do believe we can read that script.)

“Now while we may be smaller, we’ve all the standard functions of our parent company and can, with your permission, easily access your standing accounts with us for inspection.” The manager assured him before handing over the tablet as it revealed a small spinning spell circle on it. “And of course for your privacy, your account is locked behind your preferred method of security.”

He was sure not to move an inch as he asked himself, (What is our preferred method of security?)

(Gluttony: Blood.)

(Envy: Magic.)

(Lust: Music.)

(Wrath: Feelings.)

(Pride: Secrets.)

(Sloth: Minions.)

(Greed: A key.)

None of that was helpful, because in the face of a spell circle all of those were valid answers. (Might as well try it all then!)

He bit his thumb until the skin broke, the taste of his blood distinctly off from what a normal person should taste like, enough so that it actually soured his ever present hunger.

At the same time he reached out with his magic while humming a tune, one from a sweet memory of childhood, seeing if the song unlocked some missing piece within the tablet.

(That leaves a secret, minions, and a key… Do we have any of those?)

(Sloth: Well, we’ve got Lydia as a Minion.)

(Pride: Meaning she probably can’t open it given how we just met her. And aside from our amnesia I can’t think of any secrets… Though given the nature of magic our stopwatch might be the key.)

He paused before reaching into the pocket of his vest and pulling out his stop watch from one Emilia Lafayette. His eyes fell upon the two rabbits on its silver cover -one with horns and one without- before he reflexively popped the cover and read the engraving within, filling his chest with… something he couldn’t put into words.

One of these acts did something right, as the glass pane in his hands beeped once before letting out a flash of light and putting a picture of his smiling face on the screen.

A moment later the screen cleared to show a list with each line divided into: Name, Contract Date, Summoning Date, and Anima Account Balance.

“Paranoid much?” Lydia’s voice scoffed from behind him, apparently having mistaken all of his actions as putting multiple locks on his things.

(Greed: Which is a good idea. Keeps people from taking what’s ours.)

(Lust: Oh, roll with it, roll with it! Don’t let them know you’re faking it!)

He gave his companion a smile. “You can never be too careful my dear.”

“Quite right sir.” Hemingway nodded as he adjusted his glasses. “Well now that you’re in sir, you can choose to access any of your numerous contracts and our spell circuit will teleport you there. At which point upon completion of your summoning terms we will gather the paid Anima from the Arcane Nexus and convert it into Sin for you to use at your own discretion. We also of course allow you to control the Dimensional Drift with utmost efficiency so that you can access any of your contracts on your time rather than theirs as part of our transaction fee.”

(Sloth: Meaning we go out whenever we please and fully rested.)

(Greed: While making ourselves a pretty profit.)

(Lust: And new friends!)

“Yes, that’s all well and good… Except there seems to be a problem.” He admitted, because while he had no idea how any of this worked he was aware of the fact that this list should not look like this.

“A, a problem?” Hemingway gasped, his smile tense and his eyes panicked. “Sir?”

“Yes…” He drawled before showing the manager his list, or rather the lack of one. “For some reason, there are no accounts listed here.”

“Oh no…” Hemingway whispered, briefly losing his smile before putting it back on as he took the tablet and began to fiddle with it. “It, um… It seems that… our small branch is having a bit of… trouble accessing your… main account… I apologize for the inconvenience… but I assure you we will have this problem sorted out before you leave here today.”

(Greed: Make him sweat, the more he does the more we’ll profit.)

He stared at the supposed manager of this establishment with narrowed eyes and a thin smile. As he slowly stood from the couch and made his way over, he could see the sweat beginning to visibly pour off of the little red man thing.

(Lust: Any more and you’ll break him~)

With a put upon sigh, he began to buffer out his nails on his coat. “I suppose for now I’m just going to have to make a new contract to try and keep my time from being wasted.” His eyes shot back to the manager’s. “Unless that will be a problem too?”

“N-n-no sir!” Hemingway stuttered out, before promptly pulling up something on the screen and letting out a relieved, “Oh thank Lucius…”

The manager showed him a screen with what appeared to be four overlapping boxes of text. “It seems that, using your usual preferences for our more… interesting cases, you have four viable contracts that we will of course be reserving for you so that no one else may take them in between your outings.”

“Hmm, let’s see how interesting these really are…” He told Hemingway as he began to figure out how to use the screen-

(Pride: Alright, I think I’ve got it. It’s all touch based, and sliding your fingers moves things, holding down opens options, and double clicking confirms.)

-before going over the files that were rather interesting. (Old us had good taste.)

The first file was apparently a short term contract summoning for a good old fashioned game of Murder, Death, Kill. In which a young summoner and their contracted partner would eliminate all of their competition in pursuit of a powerful magical artifact that the summoned would have a certain claim to.

(Greed: There’s fine print, while we’d have a claim to it they’ll probably only pay us in the Anima all the losers would’ve gotten. Still valuable as broke as we are but not as good as advertised.)

(Gluttony: But it’s a fight and a feast, what more could we ask for?)

(Wrath: Yes, an honorable competition would be a fine way to sharpen our lost skills.)

The next file, while not as fun as a murder game, still had potential. In fact based on this report his summoner actually had the potential of dozens of people, and all that was asked for was him to take on a mentoring role and help them access the dark magics unavailable without otherworldly assistance.

(Envy: Meaning we could learn new magics as well, and keep someone from making our mistakes…)

(Pride: Ooh, an exchange of thoughts and ideas. A collaboration for the advancement of all!)

(Sloth: All while getting us a minion on the mortal plane. Not sure what that’s good for but… it’s got to be worth something.)

(Greed: Not much, financially speaking.)

The third file was apparently flagged due to his old self having a taste for punishing arrogant summoners. Apparently the person who cast the ritual did so by sacrificing a good thirteen souls in a demonic ritual that would bring forth a Demon capable of offering great power.

(Greed: Payment’s good, and the terms are vague enough that as long as we don’t kill the guy we can do whatever we want to him.)

(Envy: Including taking a monster in the making off of the board before someone else can make use of them.)

(Wrath: Yes, if you kill you should be prepared to be killed.)

The final one however is one that made him pause, because according to these documents this one was reserved solely to him due to the fact that this summoner was a blood descendant of him. (We have a descendant?)

(Lust: Ooh, family! We have to help the family!)

(Greed: Even if they’re a cheapskate paying pennies on the dollar?)

(Wrath: Yes, we’ve too little family in this world. We must aid them however we can.)

(Envy: It’s only fair. Even with what little we remember, family is important.)

(Pride: As weak as we are it might be better to make use of that Dimensional Drift to be summoned at a later date. The last thing we need to do is embarrass ourselves in front of our mortal heir.)

(All valid points…) He admitted to himself as he looked up from the documents.

“Well, sir?” Hemingway inquired, a tense smile fixed in place beneath desperate eyes. “Does anything catch your eye?”