“So, for starters, we already know where the guardian is,” Eric said as he shifted in the small stool, “That alone will save you plenty of time.”

“And where is it?” Pig-faced asked.

“What do you want me to do, give you directions? Or show it on a map?” There was a hint of arrogance in Eric’s voice.

“You’re getting awfully cocky for a prisoner,” Pig-faced said with a frown.

“Maybe. But I’m tired of taking everyone’s shit. I’ve been through a lot these past few … whatever. I even lost track of time and how long I’ve been here. And there is always someone trying to push my buttons. And that’s on a good day, because usually something is trying to kill me.”

“So you decided to take it out on me?”

“I’m not …” Eric let out a sigh, “I’m not taking it out on you. I’m just tired of being treated like a second-class citizen, where everything I say has to be double, triple-checked. You don’t trust me, ok, fine. You don’t have to work with us then. We can just stalk you and wait for you guys to do your job anyway.”

“The guardian would bleed out, and most of the precious blood would be lost.”

“Even in that case, we would still gain a lot. Hell, maybe that would be the best-case scenario for us! Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you won’t win? Why is that not a possibility? Why is it not a possibility for the guardian to just kill you all? And once it’s tired, my devil could just swoop in and finish the job.”

“Then why don’t you do that?”

“Because I like accounting for all the possibilities!” Eric stared at him hard, “And maybe I don’t want you guys to get hurt. Maybe I’m not some twisted, sadistic bastard. Maybe I’m just a regular person.”

“With irregular devil.”

“Yes, with an irregular devil. A devil so irregular she would sacrifice what she needs the most to bring her friend back.”

Eric stood up from the stool, raising his hands in annoyance, “But here we are, arguing again! We’ve been doing nothing but arguing ever since I came here! We are going in circles once again!”

“I want you to understand the reasons that are making it hard for me to trust you.”

“And I want you to understand that I have no reason to trust you either! What guarantees do I have that you won’t kill me as soon as the guardian is dealt with? None of us has any guarantees, none of us has the upper hand here, yet you keep posturing as if I have to go out of my way to earn your trust! Dude, we’ve only met today! And if everything goes right, we will only know each other for a few days! What trust are you talking about?”

The wolf said something Eric couldn’t understand, to which Pig-faced responded with a shake of his head and a wave of his hand. Looking at the wolf, Eric saw him withdraw his hand from his sword.

“Your lack of temper is just yet another evidence that you are a demon,” Pig-faced continued.

“You choose to come to this dungeon, but I didn’t! Do you really expect me to be composed and patient when I’ve been taken away from my family and thrown in an underground cave filled with monsters? But hey, you think I’m a demon, right? Ok, then let me go! If you think I’m a demon and am trying to deceive you, let me go! Why are you wasting your time with me if I’m a liar?”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Oh, I would love to do that, trust me. I wouldn’t even let you enter our camp if it was up to me. Now, under different circumstances, I would love to have a conversation with you. I do find you to be very intriguing, and I want to know more about your people. But I don’t feel like putting my life in the hands of a demon who is either lying about his nature or, even worse, completely unaware of it.”

He lowered his head with a sigh before continuing: “But it’s not up to me. I’m not the leader of this party, nor do I partake in decision-making. I’m here to offer advice and provide protection against certain creatures, but our leaders have chosen to ignore my advice this time. So, I would love nothing more but to kick you out of this camp upside-down, but it’s not up to me. I want to make that absolutely clear.”

“Ok, fine, great! I appreciate the honesty. And I didn’t come here because I wanted to make friends with people who had shot me full of arrows. You don’t like me, fine! But I have much more reason to hate you. You didn’t suffer because of me …”

“We lost four of our comrades to you.”

“… I had no part in that.”

“But you’re asking us to team up with the one who did it.”

“I am. And in turn, I will team up with the people who have tried to kill me. I think my case is far more personal. But that’s not the point. Ok, I understand. You can’t trust me. I respect that, and I’m not asking you to trust everything I say. But now that we can talk face-to-face like this, can’t we at least work together towards defeating our mutual enemy? We killed your comrades in self-defense, and you shot me in self-defense, too. In the end, it all came down to who pulled the … who acted first. It’s not like either of us set out to kill the other out of pure malice.”

“That’s what you think.”

“We didn’t come after you again, didn’t we? Had we wanted to hunt you down, you wouldn’t see me walking down the corridor alone.”

“You acted as the bait.”

“Ah, yes, and then the devil used all that blood to bring me bait back to life. The blood she needs the most right now,” Eric glared at pig-faced mockingly, “Just so she could use me as bait once again, right? Pure efficiency at work right there. But look, I am tired of justifying myself to you. So how about we get down to business, or I leave on my own?”

Pig-faced eyed Eric briefly before pointing at the stool: “Take a seat first.”

Right after saying that, he reached for another stool that stood nearby and sat in front of Eric. Seeing that, Eric got back to his seat.

“So, you know where the guardian is.”

“Not me. The devil knows it. She used to be the guardian, so there is no way she wouldn’t know.”

“What kind of guardian is it?”

“We don’t know, but it has to be a natural enemy to devils. I have no idea what that would be.”

“There are many kinds of devils, so that doesn’t tell me much. What is your devil like?”

“In what way? I told you her looks are very similar to how the females of my species look. What else do you want to know?”

“How she fights?”

“She is a mage, but I’ve rarely seen her use magic. She is trying to conserve it because she needs it to summon the portal, so I can’t tell you much about her magic … besides the fact that she is using blood for it, of course. However, she also knows how to fight hand-to-hand. She wears no armor, she is completely naked at all times, but she makes up for it with excellent acrobatic skills. Her reflexes are incredibly fast. I saw her doge and parry arrows in flight.”

“That really is impressive. Did she use some strengthening magic to speed up her reflexes?”

“I don’t know. I’m completely ignorant about magic, so I wouldn’t know even if she did. But as I said, she is doing everything she can to preserve her magic, so she probably relies on her body as much as possible.”

“She is an acrobatic mage with quick reflexes, huh?” Pig-faced’s brow rose skeptically, “I don’t know if you are aware of it, but that is a huge contradiction.”

“I asked her about it. Intellectuals aren’t known for their physical fitness, so I found it strange and asked her a few questions.”

“And?”

“She claims it has something to do with her being a cubus demon. She claims she gained those acrobatic skills after a lot of dancing. And apparently, the dance of her people is a very demanding one.”

“That has to be the lamest explanation I’ve ever heard.”

“I agree. But she is not a warrior, I can tell you that much. I never saw her do any kind of training or work out.”

“Which makes me think her body is magically imbued. Which is not surprising for a devil.”

“I saw her control blood. Could that be an explanation?”

Both Pig-faced’s brows rose instantly this time: “You saw her control blood? How.”

“She made some movements with her hand, like this, and after a while the blood started moving as if it was alive.”

Pig-faced leaned in eagerly: “Do tell me everything about it.”