With no obvious food sources presenting themselves, our only option was to obtain food from one of the villages. Unfortunately the closest one would require a considerable detour and we were only about a day away from Biustarn. Neither of us were looking forward to skipping yet more meals but it was bearable, we still had water. The only problem was explaining that to the ogres without them trying to smash us to goo. “I’m guessing they won’t take it too well if we just tell them the truth.”

Elmidath frowned. “Probably not. But there’s no need to overthink it, I’ll just tell them it was all the fault of Lord Yueryurn.”

She explained to the ogres how we’d had every intention of feeding them, only to be foiled by the same villain. But, she assured them, they’d be able to eat their fill when they reached the domain of her ally.

Aog howled, barely holding back tears of outrage. “I knew there was evil in this land but who could have thought there was a blight of such magnitude? This man is truly the enemy of all that is good in the world.”

His companion’s reaction was more subdued, it made me worry that Gurk might be doubting Elmidath’s story. Which would hardly be surprising, it was a ridiculous lie. “It seems we must continue to bear these indignities a while longer. But take heart.” He slapped Aog’s naked back, the sound alone was enough to make me wince. Though Aog scarcely seemed to notice. “Before long there shall be a reckoning and this foul being will be repaid tenfold for all that he has wrought. That day shall be far more nourishing than the meals he has stolen from us.”

Aog’s anger faded to be replaced by confusion and he looked at the other ogre. “Vengeance is all well and good but it’s no replacement for food.”

After a moment’s thought, Gurk bowed his head. “You’re right, I’ve been a fool. In my righteous anger I lost sight of one life’s simple truths. This is surely a result of this terrible hunger I feel, it has already started to affect my mind.”

Terrible hunger? What right did these buffoons have to talk about hunger after they’d gorged themselves last night? Not that I was going to voice my justified complaints. As unfair as things were, I wasn’t in any hurry to start a fight with them.

“We must soldier on as best we can,” Aog said,” despite this hardship, we shall preserve through this crisis. I’m sure our condition will only worsen the longer we’re out here but the righteous are not so easily thwarted.”

Dealing with the ogres was already proving exhausting but at least they were on board. Their complaints only grew more dramatic and insufferable as the day passed. Fortunately they didn’t try to eat anyone, though it felt like only a matter of time. I could have sworn I saw Gurk eyeing me as if I were a tasty meal.

We reached Lord Biustarn’s estate without further incident. A spiralling tower of stone rose high above the surrounding area, glittering in the light of the twin suns like an enormous red jewel. I didn’t know much about Biustarn but he certainly had a nice house; much nicer than Elmidath’s. Not that I would tell her that. But regardless of how it looked, it didn’t mean there would be a lot of surplus food. Or that he’d be willing to share it. “He will feed the ogres, right?” She paused, filling me with apprehension. “…right?”

Elmidath’s features trembled and her laughter spilled forth like an erupting volcano. There was a manic edge to it that did little to reassure me. “I hadn’t even thought about him refusing but it’s entirely possible.” Apparently finding that hilarious, she continued laughing.

“What’s so funny?” It might be disastrous if that were the case and it warranted serious thought.

“It would just be so ridiculous. To get screwed over like that after all this? How am I not meant to laugh at that?”

The more she explained it, the less funny it seemed. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Well, whatever.” She waved her hand dismissively, still smiling. “There’s no point worrying about something we can’t change. And he probably will feed them something, if only to save himself the trouble.”

Elmidath was acting strange; it had to be her hunger getting to her. It was probably harder for her than it was for me. I wasn’t fat but my peaceful life on earth had left me with a healthy amount of padding. Whereas the Demon Lord by my side seemed to have little in the way of excess flesh. Was it physiology, food scarcity, exercise or something else entirely?

Now that I thought about it, none of the demons I’d seen had been carrying any fat. Noticing that I was staring at her, Elmidath gave me a bemused look. “You’re not thinking of turning to cannibalism now, are you? We’re almost there.”

“And what if I was?” Not wanting to make things awkward, I tried to play along.

Elmidath took a moment to think. “Hm, I don’t think I’d make for very good eating, you’d be better off just holding out. Also,” she winked at me, “I’m pretty sure I could kill you before you got anywhere, so don’t be getting any ideas.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Uh.” I frowned, not quite sure how to respond to that. “That got pretty morbid… Are you alright?” It seemed like there was more effecting her than just the hunger. Did demons have periods? That was another thing I was not likely to ask anytime soon, if ever.

“Things have been a bit… weird since the whole thing with my uncle. But I’ll be fine. Really.”

I wasn’t too sure about that but I also didn’t want to pry, she clearly didn’t want to talk about whatever she was going through. “Alright. If you ever want to talk about it, I’m all ears.” If she had a breakdown now, it was liable to screw us both over.

“I appreciate the thought but there’s just nothing worth talking about.”

Not wanting to linger on the subject, I decided to change it. “Have you ever been here before?” She didn’t seem to have met Biustarn before but this wasn’t all that far from where she’d grown up, it wouldn’t be surprising if she’d at least travelled this way before.

“Nope. My family didn’t have much contact with the eastern lords.”

“Oh? Why is that? Were you guys enemies or something?”

“Not exactly. It was more that we plenty of other things to worry about. I assume the same goes for them. There’s been a few skirmishes in the past, of course, but nothing recent.”

I scratched my head, things weren’t quite adding up for me. “Then why did Biustarn offer you an alliance?”

Elmidath shrugged. “Beats me, I wasn’t in much of a position to question it when I accepted. I assume he’s either looking to expand his influence west or he wants aid against his own rivals. It’s hard to say without knowing much about this region.”

How little Elmidath knew came as a bit of a shock. Did she really know so little of people who lived only a few days away? Was this just a consequence of their largely medieval technology level? The disconnect seemed too extreme even for that. Maybe I was misunderstanding the relationships of the different Demon Lords.

It might be more logical to consider them as all being enemies, some of which weren’t actively at war with each other right now. That seemed to fit better with what I’d seen so far and with what Elmidath had said about the demons not being unified. How had they ended up in such a state? It seemed worse than the dark ages or any historical period I was familiar with. “What happened, anyway? With the demons in general, I mean.”

“What happened with what?”

“How did they get so split up like this? You guys must’ve had been more unified at some point.” There was no way their culture and technology could be so uniform if that weren’t the case. Or that they could have developed to this extent, unless there was some other factor I was missing.

Elmidath sighed. “It’s a really long story. Let me think of how to explain…” Looking down as she continued walking, she tugged at her hair while she thought. Nearly a minute must have passed before she continued. “We used to have our own world, completely separate from the humans. After..” she cleared her throat, “something of a failed invasion of the human world, they tried to destroy our world in retribution. But instead of destroying it the two were merged, destroying most of both civilisations in the process and leaving us with the mess you see around us.”

“Oh.” I had no idea what I was supposed to say about that. “That’s… terrible.”

“Yeah, well; it is what it is. It all happened before I was born so this is the only world I’ve ever known.”

“How long ago was it?”

“I think it would be about… a hundred and twenty or so years now.”

I blinked. That was a lot more recent than I’d expected. Though I suppose still far removed from Elmidath’s time. I didn’t know all that much about what happened a hundred plus years before I was born and that was with access to far more information than she’d have. “Was your father alive for that?” I really had no idea how long demons lived but I assumed it was a long time.

“He was, though he wasn’t a lord yet at that point. I don’t really know too much else, he never liked to talk about it.”

I can’t say I blamed him, if anything was worth forgetting something that terrible had to be. Even just imagining such a cataclysmic even gave me chills. The loss of life must have been appalling. “I’m guessing there aren’t any books about what happened.”

“There might be but none that I’ve read. Understandably people have been a bit busy to write things down. I’ve heard a few stories though, from some of the older servants and soldiers.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“A lot of what they say is pretty incoherent, I imagine you had to be there to understand. But I remember something my nursemaid used to tell me.” Elmidath’s eyes grew distant as she delved into the past. “She’d talk about how cracks appeared in the sky and the whole thing broke apart like an eggshell. Blinding light erupted all around her and that’s the last thing she remembers of Ortyx, our old world.”

I felt like I’d heard that name somewhere before. That’s right, Korzan had mentioned something like that. “Isn’t that also the name of a god?” Wait if magic was real in this world, did that go for the gods as well then?

“Sort of. Some people believe the essence of our own world partially survived and now protects and guides us.”

“And what do you believe?”

“I believe what I can see and touch. I’m not saying Ortyx doesn’t exist as an entity but if they do, I haven’t seen any evidence of that.”

An agnostic demon, huh? I chuckled.

Elmidath shoved me, looking displeased. “What, is there a problem with that?”

“No, no problem. The idea of a demon not believing in supernatural things is just funny to me.” I raised my hand to forestall her demands for explanation. “Explaining would be more effort than it’s worth, just put it down to cultural differences I guess.”

I kind of wished one of those deeply religious types would get brought to this world. Not because I bore them any ill will, it would just be amusing to see what they’d make of it. I suppose no matter their religion, they’d find it to be a terrible place. That was the only sensible reaction.

And yet, despite knowing how bad it was… it felt surprisingly bearable. At least for the moment. Hopefully my optimism would last. With the ogres plodding along behind us, we approached Lord Biustarn’s tower. Now that our objective was in sight, they stopped dragging their feet and picked up the pace. It seemed the lethargic creatures were able to muster a little enthusiasm when food was on offer.